Of New Year Challenges

I've decided to set a few culinary challenges for myself this new year. When I first moved to the US, I realized that I knew very little about Filipino cooking. I mostly had an idea about how a dish was made, but not the exact recipe. It's mostly my parent's fault. They've always cooked the classics so perfectly, that I've always been a little afraid to try, lest I destroy the dish. There have been many times when I've wanted to cook a dish, like pancit for example, and realized that I didn't even know what kind of noodles to get. Other times, I've found myself using short cuts. (Think tamarind mixes for sinigang or kare-kare mix from Mama Sita). So this year, I've decided that that I will try to cook at least two of these dishes on this list:

1. Kare-kare from scratch: I'm going to grind my own peanuts and my own rice, as well as make my own peanut butter for this classic Filipino dish. No Mama Sita for me! (I also realized that if I were in other countries, it'll probably be easier to find rice and peanuts than to find Mama Sita. Hence, why I need to learn it from scratch)

2. Bibingka: One of my absolute favorite Filipino rice cakes. I've already found a recipe and it looks easy. That alone shouts "make me!".

3. Daddy's Pancit: A few weeks ago, I witnessed a conversion. My boyfriend who hates almost any kind pancit wolfed down my dad's pancit. With lots of carrots, string beans, shrimp and chicken, and just the right amount of seasoning, my dad's pancit is definitely the best one out there...and I need to know how to make it.

Dad's pancit. I realized that he also added mussels, and chunks of chicken liver to it.

4. Pancit Lomi: I once tried making this, but it turned out to be quite a failure. This year, I'm going to try again and it's going to taste really goo.

5. Arroz Valenciana: Nothing says celebration like Arroz Valenciana. Enough said.

Dad's Arroz Valenciana

6. Finally, I want to decorate a cake like a pro. Well, maybe not on the scale of an elaborate wedding cake or even a boat cake or a bag cake.  But I'd like to be able to decorate a cake good enough to be sold in a cake shop. That means working with buttercream and other such frostings.

We'll see how many of these I'll actually be able to do this year. I am so looking forward for 2012!