You Can't Lose With This Avocado Mousse!

Alo and Boot's moms loves avocado with condensed milk.  This was a dessert made by their mom and have enjoyed since they were little.  From this came our inspiration for the Avocado Mousse.

We first made cashew dacquoise which served as the base cake for the mousse.  We then made the mousse with ripe avocados, creme anglaise, gelatin and whipped cream.  To compliment the flavor of the mousse we roasted strawberries and made two different sauces, roasted strawberry jus and strawberry coulis.  For garnish we dehydrated strawberry puree to make strawberry leather and added roasted, ground cashews.


-Alo and Boots
"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

Street Food that Makes You Feel Good

Kwek-kwek is a Filipino street food comparable to a tempura quail egg eaten with a spicy vinegar sauce.  Street food is very popular in the Philippines and is eaten by people from all walks of life.  Kwek-kwek became our inspiration for this appetizer dish.  It is made from soft boiled quail eggs battered and deep friend, served with pickled shallots and balsamic reduction.

We wanted to offer a variation of textures in this dish so we decided to soft boil the quail eggs.  When one bites into the crispy layer one is surprised  with the creamy yolk that provides a balance of textures.  We pickled the shallots to replace the vinegar sauce.  The acidity of the pickled shallots mimics the taste of the vinegar sauce.  The balsamic reduction was added for additional acidity and sweetness which completes the dish by providing the perfect balance between the saltiness, acidity, and sweetness of all the flavors.

-Alo and Boots
"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

Crema de Fruta

Crema de fruta is a Filipino dessert traditionally made with sponge cake, custard and fruit cocktail.  Our plated version of this dessert is made with lady fingers, pastry cream, and fruit cocktail topped with peach frozen yogurt.  The frozen yogurt gives this dessert a fresh fruit flavor.  We did not veer far from its traditional flavors because we wanted to be reminded of the pleasant memories brought by this dessert during our childhood. Crema de fruta is both simple and flavorful; a perfect way to finish a meal!

-Alo and Boots
"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

Princess Cake made for Royalty

This princess cake was specially made for a 7 year old named Delmi who was having a royal treatment for her birthday.  This is a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and fresh strawberry filling.  It is covered in fondant and decorated with sugar pearls, a piped royal icing tiara and pink pearl dust.  The best part is, everything was edible!

This was our first official cake order!  Feel free to leave us some comments and let us know your thoughts and insights!  If you want to order contact us on the contact info given on the right column of the blog underneath the about us section. =]

-Alo and Boots
"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

Thee Steak, Bistek!

Its finally here, made with beef tenderloin and cooked to perfection (medium-rare), we proudly present, Bistek.  Some may think the cow may still be alive and mooing with it being medium-rare, but trust us it was delicious.  The tenderloin was marinated over night in soy sauce, lemon juice, lemon zest, bay leaf, and lots of pepper and garlic.

24 hours later.....

The tenderloin was seared and was left to finish cooking in the oven.  The leftover marinate was reduced and thickened, serving as the Bistek's sauce.  We served the steak with crispy shallots, caramelized pearl onions, mixed greens and frites, giving birth to Alo and Boot's Filipino version of steak frites.  Hope you guys enjoy!

-Alo and Boots

"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

Our Take on Lemon Cake

In brainstorming desserts for Alo's future restaurant business, a lemon theme was chosen.  Ideas for lemon desserts were being tossed around the table for hours, until a creative take on the lemon cake was finally chosen.

This dessert highlights the complimentary combination of lemon and strawberry.  It is a lemon cake with strawberry almond filling served with vanilla ice cream, strawberry coulis and cilantro lemon curd.  For additional flavor and presentation it is garnished with fried cilantro, candied lemon zest, cilantro sugar, and slices of fresh strawberries.  Together these flavors create a tasty dessert that's mind-boggling.  

- Alo and Boots

"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

"Cup"cake

Cupcakes have been selling like hot cakes.  Here in Virginia, and even DC, we are plagued with numerous cupcake joints where the lines run all the way down the block rain or shine.  To not be left behind with the growing trend, we decided to make our very own dynamic duo "cup"cake and indeed it is the ultimate "cup"cake!  Made with chocolate cake and topped with coffee jello, whip cream and chocolate shavings, this ultimate "cup"cake can stand its ground among the elite.

-Alo and Boots

"He cooks, I eat. That's it!" 

Super Sinigang

Sinigang is one of Alo's favorite dishes.  Its pork belly cooked in tamarind broth and commonly mixed with lots of vegetables.  However, it is not limited to pork, one can also cook it with beef, shrimp, or fish.  In this rendition of Sinigang, our goal was to present it in a unique way but maintaining the integrity of the dish's original flavor.  In doing so, we chose to prepare it with both pork, shrimp and vegetables such as baby Italian eggplant, mustard greens, okra, string beans, radish, gabi (root vegetable), and for a little spice, chili.

In preparing the dish, we stewed the pork in the tamarind broth until fork tender.  We then stewed the rest of the ingredients in the broth as well.  Originally the dish would be served with the broth after everything had been stewed but we decided to change it's presentation.  We thickened the broth into a sauce by adding gabi puree.  We also made pork cracklings from the skin of the pork for additional texture and garnish.

After all was complete, it was ready to be served! ENJOY! ENJOY! Mister, mister. 

- Alo and Boots

"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

LEMON s'mores!?

Yes you got it right, we made lemon s'mores! This dessert is our take on the classic lemon meringue tart.  It has all the makings of a s'more but the only thing "s'more" about it, is the marshmallow.  We decided to keep this original s'more ingredient because roasting marshmallows on a stick, on our grill was simply too irresistible and fun to pass up.  However, the "graham cracker" is made off pate sucree while the chocolate was replaced with lemon curd.  To add even more flavor we created a basil syrup to go with it.  Basically, this is a lemon meringue tart disguising itself as a s'more!

- Alo and Boots

"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

Calla Lily for Lilibel

This cake was made for Boot's mom, so we had to make it extra special.  We knew that Mama Boots loves flowers and for this reason we decided to create a cake involving flowers.  This being our first flower themed cake, we had some difficulty coming up with ideas of what the cake will actually be. It took us a total of 5 days to plan and create the cake.  We faced a few obstacles along the way causing us to cut it close to Mama Boots' birthday, in that we didn't finish till 5:00 am of her special day.  By this time, exhausted and a bit delusional, we were actually quite surprised at how well the cake turned out.  It was worth all the work and looking back it was actually F-U-N, fun.  The best part, however, was that Mama Boots absolutely loved her cake.  She loved it so much that she didn't even wanna eat it!

Let us know what you think! =0)

-Alo and Boots

"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

Dynamic Duo's Chicken Adobo

As the Philippine's national dish, we had to create our own interpretation of the infamous Adobo.  Throughout the Philippines this dish is made in different ways with vinegar as it's staple ingredient, in which one's chosen meat is stewed in the vinegar.

We grew up in the part of the Philippines where they cook Adobo with soy sauce and vinegar.  In our attempt to  find a new way to present the same rich flavors, we prepared this dish with different techniques.  We seared the chicken, braised it, and glazed it in the oven.  Then, reduced the sauce.  The chicken was then served with caramelized onions, hash brown, and soft boiled egg which compliments the chicken very well.

- Alo and Boots

"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

  

Deconstructed Turon

For those who may not know what Turon is, it is a Filipino dessert made with crispy lumpia/turon wrapper, plantain, langka (jackfruit) and mascovado sugar.  The plantain and jackfruit is rolled in mascovado sugar, wrapped with lumpia wrapper and fried.  In other words, it is a banana egg roll.

This deconstructed turon has the same flavors but is presented in a new way.  It is a crispy flat lumpia/turon wrapper sprinkled with sugar in a raw with a bruleed banana, langka (jackfruit) and homemade cotton candy.  The deconstructed turon showcases the ingredients inside of the dessert opposed to the traditional turon which hides the beautiful ingredients inside.

-Alo and Boots

"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

 Traditional Turon

Deconstructed Turon

Rockin' the Red. Unleashing the Fury

Our cousin who has been asking for a personal custom made cake was surprised with her very own Cappy Birthday Cake ;0)  She is a huge Washington Capitals fan. After countless hours of brainstorming, we decided on a chocolate mayo cake with buttercream icing designed with the Washington Capitals' logo.   At the end of the day the Cappy Birthday cake was a success and everyone was fat with cake! =] Let's go Caps!

-Alo and Boots


"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"

The Beginning of the Future

Like we said, we are a dynamic duo from Springfield, Virginia who created this blog for the purpose of sharing our passion for food with others.  One of us has had professional training from Le Cordon Bleu and the other, nothing but the training of a college student on a budget but together we are a creative, unstoppable force.  We are a strong believer that cooking must be F-U-N, fun. We are excited to share with you our new ideas and projects.  Please feel free to comment, leave feedback, or ask a question.  Have a stupendous day, eat well and cook up a storm!

<3 Alo and Boots

"He cooks, I eat. That's it!"