Birthday buko pie

Happy happy birthday to Michael, my awesome brother who turned vegan the same time I did and has been my animal-rights fighting buddy ever since. I can honestly say that vegan life would've been more difficult if not for him. He was the only vegan I knew for the longest time (until the vegans started coming out of hibernation when they heard about my bakery) and the person I'd rant to when I'd get angry about an AR-related issue. He also convinced me to adopt our cats when I was still hesitant about keeping pets.

Here he is with my mom, my 2 other brothers Gabriel and Antonio, and the birthday pie I made for him: buko pie. Ever since my triumph with my first vegan pie, I've been dying to make buko pie.

Buko pie is one of those Filipino desserts that is usually not vegan and something that I've missed eating. Usually the pie crust is made with butter or dairy margarine, or it's got eggwash brushed on top, or the filling's made with milk. Michael requested buko pie for his birthday instead of traditional cake, and so I went on a mission to make my first buko pie.

Quick lesson: buko is the young version of coconut. While the coconut looks like a hard ball of brown hair, buko is a hard green ball. The coconut's meat is used to make coconut milk while buko meat is softer and is used fresh in fruit salad or other Pinoy icy desserts. Also, it's from the buko that we get one of the best juices in the world: buko juice.

I immediately turned to my mom's favorite cookbook when it comes to all things Filipino: Let's cook with Nora, by Nora V. Daza, the Julia Child of the Philippines. As you can see in the photo it's been well used. A lot of the newsprint pages have been splattered with sauces and the book cover had to be wrapped in plastic because it was in a serious state of disintegration. My mom bought this in 1996 for a whopping P85. For the foreigners out there, according to this site the peso was around P26.25 to the US dollar in September '96, so the cookbook would've costed a whopping US$3.24! I believe this edition was the 1969 edition with retro drawings of the dishes.


The recipe was easily veganizable. Actually I'm surprised that buko pie isn't naturally vegan. The recipe for the pie filling called for buko meat, sugar, coconut water (aka buko juice), cornstarch, and evaporated milk. Why do people insist on using cow's milk when making a coconut dessert? What's wrong with coconut milk?

I made the 10" pie crust from The Joy of Vegan Baking (you can use VeganYumYum's pie crust recipe here). The buko pie filling recipe was for an 8" pie so I just added 1/4 more of the ingredients.

You can buy buko meat and buko juice from your local coconut purveyor, usually found in markets / palengke. I bought mine from the market in BF, Paranaque, along Palanca St. for P17 per buko. The coconut guys sell both adult coconuts and bukos -- fresh as they hack open the fruits right in front of you. For this recipe, just ask your coconut guy for the juice and meat of 3 bukos. Get the meat as a whole, don't get it slivered up. While waiting for them to prepare your order, enjoy a glass of buko juice.


Buko pie
adapted from Let's Cook with Nora by Nora V. Daza

1 prepared 10" pie crust (top and bottom)

2 1/4 c. buko meat, sliced into chunks
3/4 c. + 3 tbsp. raw sugar
1/2 c. + 2 tbsp. buko juice
1/2 c. + 2 tbsp. coconut milk
1/3 c. + 1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. cornstarch

Preheat your oven to 400 deg F.

Place the buko meat and sugar in a medium saucepan. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the cornstarch, buko juice, and coconut milk together. Add the cornstarch mixture to saucepan.

Heat the pan on medium heat and cook, stirring continuously until thick. The consistency of the mixture should be like thick gravy. Add the mixture into the prepared crust and top it with top crust. Crimp the edges with your fingers or with the tines of a fork. Make slits on the top (or use a fondant cutter to make cute holes like I did).

Bake the pie for 30-45 min or until golden brown. Cool the pie in room temperature for several hours, then place in the refrigerator to cool down further. The pie is best served cold.

Notes on making buko pie:

1. If you want a pie with more "bite", get your buko meat malakanin. This is thicker than the usual mala-uhog type, which is softer and better suited for buko salad.
2. Keep the buko meat and buko juice in the refrigerator at all times!
3. I used canned coconut milk -- in fact I think I used light coconut milk. If you want a richer pie, feel free to use regular coconut milk or even coconut cream. If you're feeling domestic, why not make your own coconut milk?
4. I used raw sugar to keep things white-sugar free, but feel free to use white sugar. This pie isn't super sweet so it's perfect for people who aren't into desserts. If you'd like a sweeter pie, you can increase the sugar to 1 to 1 1/4 c.
   
5. The proportions of the ingredients was 1 + 1/4 of the recipe in the cookbook. The pie could actually use more filling, so if you want a meatier pie, try these proportions: 2 1/2 c. buko slivers, 1 c. + 1 tbsp. raw sugar, 3/4 c. buko juice, 3/4 c. coconut milk, and 1/3 c. + 2 tbsp. + 2 tsp. cornstarch.

Happy pie making!

Meager veg finds at Rockwell's Baker's Dozen: Vegan MoFo #17

I'd like to interrupt this mofo with a public service announcement...

Kids, you don't have to drink cow's milk-based baby formula to be in danger of consuming melamine. Don't consume dairy, and you won't get poisoned, alright? Save the cow's milk for baby cows, and drink soy if you need a milk fix.

Don't you hate that the packaging of this crap has happy dancing cows on it? As if the cows happily gave their milk for us to make candy out of and pranced around the meadow after the milking. Well in this case it's supposedly the carabaos. Oh, let's (us being the dairy industry) trick the world into thinking that the cows freely gave, nay, gifted us, with their mammalian reproductive secretions because we need them to live. Let's (us being consumers) not forget that these mothers have to be raped before they get pregnant and have their babies removed from them (right after birth!) so we can drink their breast milk. Did I mention that these mothers are stuck in metal prisons the whole time? And that they cry, just like we would do, when their babies are ripped from their bossoms?


On to the veg finds. Baker's Dozen is a weekend baked goods market in the basement of Powerplant Mall, Rockwell. Indie baker-entrepreneurs peddle their goods Fridays to Sundays from now until December. It's a good avenue for entrepreneurs to showcase and sell their merchandise to the masses (without having to spend on renting permanent retail space), and for the masses to check out what's hot and new in the baking world. Last year I recall seeing a lot of cupcakes (one table sold cocktail-inspired cupcakes) and sugar-free desserts like carrot cake. This year... it's pretty much the same thing. Everyone wants to diet (hence sugar free) but still have cake.

I say there were meager veg finds here only because mainstream bakers use dairy and eggs in their products, and this applied to the Baker's Dozen bakers. What this market seriously lacks are: [1] traditional Filipino desserts that are usually naturally vegan and [2] vegan western desserts. I've been battling with myself on whether or not to rent a table and sell my goods (don't judge the site, it's a work in progress!), but the logistics and timing are too difficult. I have a day job and I bake all on my own. I can't cut work to bake enough to stock up for the weekend.

Anyway, there were two things that I found vegan at the Baker's Dozen market...

The Muesli-Granola Kitchen and Bakeshop sells granola bars. No honey! No egg whites (yeah, some low fat bars use egg whites to bind)! Only oats, fruit, and nutty goodness! No white sugar, just brown sugar and muscovado sugar. Contrary to popular belief (or what I've been told), according to MGKB's owner, brown sugar in this country isn't white sugar + molasses. It really is unrefined sugar. In the totem pole of refined sugar, on the bottom sits muscovado, followed by brown sugar, then washed sugar, then white on top. Probably on top should be sweet poison, aka artificial sweeteners... no nutritional value whatsoever. I have to confess I'm hooked on Splenda whenever I drink coffee, but I'm really trying to wean myself from this stuff...

MGKB's granola bars come in a lot of flavors, most of them vegan. I lost the flyer so I can't reiterate everything, sorry. I do know that there's a chocolate bar, which isn't vegan. But everything else seems to be vegan. There's a Krispy Kreme variant, which has almonds, the original which has walnuts and dried fruit, and Monkey bar which has bananas and peanut butter. I really like their Pinoy granola bar -- "Mangga't Kasuy", or Mango and Cashews. It's quite refreshing to find a local purveyor of granola bars in this country. At P35 or $0.73 per bar, it's not bad at all. And yes, they have sugar free too, at P45 or $0.94.

Next up is Xocolat, purveyor of all things chocolate. You'll find brownies (not vegan), ready to drink hot chocolate (not vegan), and canisters of pure cocoa powder (vegan! they have an organic line!). I believe they try their best to source their chocolate from local growers, which is refreshing as well. It's sad that our local cacao industry never took off in the past, and I hope that guys like Xocolat reclaim and market cacao as Filipino and world class. I'm a fan of tsokolate eh myself, and I've been known to cook my oatmeal with tablea ala champurrado (rice porridge with chocolate). Hmmm, I really should experiment with baking with local cacao... More on cacao here.

Xocolat was selling chocolate-themed tote bags too, at P150 or $3.13 per piece. Not bad eh? I'd've bought one if it was big enough to fit groceries in. It seemed to be big enough only for light shopping, or to carry things like clothes or books.

Anyway, I really like Xocolat's packaging. I love that they use metal canisters instead of cheap-o unrecyclable plastic. Their brand design's not so bad too, you'd never have thought it was Pinoy. It seems pretty wasteful though that they wrap each slice of brownie individually in tissue paper, with probably plastic inside to catch the oil from blotting the paper.

That's pretty much it. I wasn't too disappointed because I found the granola bars. If you go visit the MGKB table, you'll be able to try all their flavors.

Baker's Dozen

Basement level

Powerplant Mall, Rockwell

Fridays to Saturdays,

September to December 2008

More veg finds at the Salcedo Market Part 2: Vegan MoFo #14

Other vegan finds at the Salcedo Market include:

Mushroom siomai (P75 or $1.55 for 3 pieces), beans and tofu for lunch, and a fresh fruit shake stand.

Vegetarian cuapao sandwiches for only P30 ($0.62)!

Tommy's Freshly Roasted Coffee: pretty awesome locally grown, harvested, roasted, and brewed coffee that does not taste like car battery acid. The beans are sourced from mountains all over the country. Varieties include Metropolitan, Urban Tempo, Hacienda, Colombian (this one's imported), and Decaffeinated. The stall sells ground coffee as well as freshly brewed cups of coffee.









A stall of spices! This is definitely not McCormick. Spices 'n Flavours carry herbal and spiced teas such as liquorice tea, herbs such as Thai oregano, and spices such as Zaatar (a Middle Eastern spice blend). You'll find artisanal salts here too.













Kalinga Blended Mountain Rice from Kalinga province. Click on the second photo to read what is written on the package. There are 4 or 5 different colors in the blend!












Freshly boiled peanuts and (not freshly boiled) locally grown cashews.

Kakanin and other native rice based desserts for the taking. Not vegan: leche flan, kesong puti (white carabao cheese), cassave cake, and pastillas (milk candy).

Budbud Kabog (budbud, sounds like "good good") is a millet and coconut milk based kakanin. This stall sells a variety of flavors, including chocolate, ginger, langka / jackfruit and mango. I love the original and the ginger. P25-30 ($0.52-0.63) per piece. They give free samples too (check out LV bag #4).









UFO (Uncle Finn's sOya) soymilk and fresh firm tofu! I heart Uncle Finn's soy milk. His stuff are made with non-GMO soy beans. I didn't see any taho being sold, but his taho and soymilk are so much better than Mr. Bean's.

And last but not the least...













You can't have too many white plates and wooden kitchenware. The white plate stall sells square and rectangular plates as well as interesting bowls. The wooden kitchenware stall sells chopping boards, cheese boards, trays, bowls, and salad servers made from acacia or kamagong. I got myself a cheese board as a mini tray for my cupcakes.

So there you have it! Do yourself a favor and explore the market. Don't forget to bring a canvas or banig shopping bag when you do. Go on an empty stomach.

Veg finds at the Salcedo Market Part 1: Vegan MoFo #13

(Pop, Luisa, Martin, Michael, and Bea in front of the market's entrance;

this would've been a great picture if my dad wasn't kidding around with Luisa while posing)

The Salcedo Market is a great place to shop for organic produce, native delicacies, home-cooked meals and local kitchenware while supporting small and medium enterprises, budding entrepreneurs, and locally grown and manufactured products. It's a nice way to spend your Saturday mornings too -- you can stroll through the stalls, get free samples of food, do your grocery, and even have lunch or a snack before heading back home. Not to be mistaken with traditional Filipino markets, the Salcedo market is a clean and secure place where people from the upper crust can feel like they're at an honest to goodness market. Foreign tourists and expatriates need not worry about bag snatchers and icky slime on the floor, that's for sure. Oh and in case you were wondering, I think the ratio of Filipinos and foreigners was 60/40. And I think I saw at least 5 Louis Vuitton purses.

(a sad day for companion animals indeed)

Not like other retail places in the Philippines, it's actually accepted and "fashionable" to bring your own reusable shopping bag. If you think about it, back in the olden days our lolos and lolas (grandparents) went shopping with banig bags (bags made from woven native fibers) out of necessity. You can actually buy a banig bag at a stall for only P100 ($2). Great thing about banig bags too is that they're biodegradable! You can get other items made from woven fibers here too, such as Christmas decor, baskets, fans, and hats.

While buying produce at a grocery store feels like a chore, buying produce from this market feels therapeutic. Maybe it's because none of the items are refrigerated (and neither are you in an artificially ventilated [aka air conditioned] place), or that they are displayed in plastic crates, or that they aren't wrapped up in plastic. As a shopper, you can pick up your fruit / vegetable of choice, touch it, smell it, feel it, and select which ones you want. The grocer does not pre-select your food for you, you get to do it yourself. Nothing is pre-weighed too. There really is something charming about getting to choose your own veggies and fruits, having them weighed by a non-electronic weighing scale, and carrying them in shopping bags made from dried palm leaves with zero use of plastic.











Perhaps I'm biased, but shopping for fruits and vegetables is much more fun than shopping for animal flesh. With flesh all you'll see are brown, red, and more shades of brown. Literally every color of the rainbow is represented when you shop for produce. The selection of leafy greens just astounds me. If you want an exciting experience buying veggies, I highly recommend checking out the Salcedo market stalls. Fresh button mushrooms, large American sized eggplants, and peppers as big as your hand, oh my! Last year I remember getting worked up when I saw bunches (not a few stems, but bunches) of fresh dill displayed.











Other great finds include:

Fruit and vegetable cocktails meant to naturally cure ailments, the way God intended (remedies are free from animal testing, of course).

Freshly baked wholewheat bread, bagels, pan de sal, pita bread, foccacia, you name it, Salcedo Market has it. Ask the concessionaires about milk and egg products, of course.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought to find malunggay pesto! I didn't get to ask the concessionaire if it had cheese, I was just too excited to photograph it.

Chutneys and jams made from papaya, mango, tomato, and mangosteen, wine made from cashews, ketchup made from pineapple, pickled ampalaya, and organic sinamak (spiced Ilonggo vinegar).

As this has become an epic , I'll finish off my veg finds at Salcedo in a second post!

The Salcedo Market is open from 7am to 2pm on Saturdays. You can find the market in the parking lot of the Salcedo park, across the Three Salcedo apartment building in Makati.