Kitchen Conjugations

Pichi-pichi with Cheese

2011-12-06T22:04:00.001+08:00

I found grated cassava at South Supermarket Alabang which cost only P20.00 per icebag (makes about 2 cups) and made Pichi-pichi. I didn't have grated coconut at home so I decided to make it with cheese.

Thanks and kudos to South Supermarket for stocking this item. Making pichi-pichi, cassava pudding, cassava suman is now possible minus the hassle of peeling and grating the cassava (which can be difficult considering the hard peel and the hefty flesh). From the 20.00-bag you can make 20-25 pieces of pichi-pichi. Such a cheap thrill!

PICHI-PICHI WITH CHEESE

What's in it?

1 bag frozen grated cassava from South Supermarket (about 2 cups)

1 1/4 cups water

3/4 cup washed sugar*

1 tsp pandan or vanilla essence (optional)

grated cheddar cheese or grated coconut

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a bowl combine all ingredients except cheese. Stir well. Mixture will be runny. Pour into an aluminum or microwaveable tray or dish. Set aside.

Boil about 5 cups water in a pot. When water gets to a running boil, place the dish inside the steamer. Steam mixture for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture gels.

Remove from heat and lift by spoonfuls onto your plate of grated cheddar cheese or coconut. Toss to coat each piece. Serve with tea or ginger brew. Enjoy!

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I prefer using washed sugar (slightly brown) because I find it more flavorful and it's being less refined than white sugar gets it more points in the health department. :)

Chili Crabs

2011-07-20T14:46:00.000+08:00

A friend from Bataan sent us an ice-box full of tiger prawns and crabs, so I decided to share the blessing at the office. For Monday I cooked Sinigang na Sugpo, and on Tuesday, I made this -- Chili Crabs.

What's In It?

3 kgs crabs, cleaned, steamed then halved
2/3 cup oyster sauce
4-5 stalks onion leeks, sliced diagonally; white slices set aside from the greens
2-3 knobs ginger, peeled and sliced into strips
1 large red onion, peeled and sliced
4-5 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed
4-5 finger chilis (labuyo or Taiwan), sliced into thirds
1/2 cup brown or washed sugar*
6 cups water
2 Tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup water
1 sachet Magic Sarap (optional)
3 tablespoons cooking oil

Kitchen Conjugations:

If you haven't yet, steam the crabs, let cool then halve into smaller pieces. Make small crack in the claws. Set aside.

In a large wok or deep pan, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onions, garlic and ginger strips. Add in finger chilis and the white parts of the onion leeks. Stir fry for a minute. Add in oyster sauce, sugar and water. Bring to a boil.

Add in crab pieces and let the mixture boil. Lower heat and allow the mixture to simmer for about 5 minutes, or just enough for the flavors to meld. Add in the green parts of the onion leeks, reserving a little for garnish. Check seasonings, add a little salt, sugar or more chili if desired.

Pour in the cornstarch mixture. Raise heat a little, and allow the cornstarch to cook while continuously stirring the mixture to avoid lumps. Simmer for another 2-3 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Remove from heat, serve in a deep dish and garnish with the remaining onion leeks. Enjoy with steamed rice!

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*I used washed/brown sugar because I find it more flavorful, although white sugar can always be substituted for this recipe. I think though that you would need to use less sugar if you're using the white variant as it is sweeter (and deadlier to your blood sugar...hehe).

Thai Fried Fish

2011-05-16T12:00:00.000+08:00

Living in-campus while in college, I learned to scour the place for great places to eat in. By great I mean not only do they serve clean, tasty and nutritious food, the prices should well be within my (meager) student allowance. Dining in the UP Diliman campus is a story by itself, and I can tell you about Rodics, the Beach House and the dozens of aristo-carts fronting the dormitories, but there's one eatery I hold close to my heart, and that's the one inside the International Center, the only turo-turo that served authentic, fiery Thai cuisine. Sure it's no fine dining experience -- afterall, I usually shared wobbly tables with complete strangers and sat on wooden stools while shooing away flies that wanted to share my lunch -- but nowhere else was I going to get good, authentic Thai meal for less than P50.00!

The turo-turo's daily offerings usually consist of four dishes, which usually includes Tom Yum and Squid with Holy Basil. But my favorite is the fried fish blanketed with chopped red and green chili, which tasted like our escabeche, only less sour and more spicy.

For years since graduation I tried to find the recipe but failed. To this day I do not know the Thai name for the dish. But I have managed to replicate the dish in my own kitchen, after several failed attempts at finding the herb that accompanied the chilis. Ironically, it was only after re-reading my post about Wansoy and Kinchay that I realized that the herb I've been missing and looking for all along is that -- Wansoy. Coupled with the lucky find of Thai organic chilis at South Supermarket, the dish is as good as done. Thai chilis, you see, are not as spicy as our labuyo, allowing them to be added liberally into dishes without setting tongues on fire.

So here it is, my Thai Fried Fish.

What's In It?

5-7 pieces crisp-fried fish
3-5 pieces Thai finger chilis, seeded and diced
1-2 pieces Taiwan chili (warning -- this variety is hot! use with caution), sliced
5 stalks wansoy (coriander), sliced into small bits
1 large onion, peeled and minced
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4 teaspoons brown sugar
3/4 cup water
2 tsp fish sauce
3 Tablespoons cooking oil

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat cooking oil in a wok or deep pan. Saute onions and garlic until onions become soft and translucent. Add in the chilis. Stir fry for 30 seconds then add in the brown sugar. Stir fry for about 30 seconds or until the sugar begins to caramelize. Pour in water and the fish sauce. Let boil then lower heat, allow the mixture to simmer for 3 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.

Meantime, arrange the crispy fried fish in a shallow dish.

Add in the chopped coriander into the pan, and let the mixture boil once, just enough to blanche the herbs. Remove at once from the fire and pour the sauce over the fried fish. Serve immediately with steamed rice.

Minatamis na Saba

2010-09-15T00:12:00.004+08:00

What is your comfort food?

In the 1990s, when I was still in college, my grandmother made sure she had my favorites waiting for me when I came home for the weekend. I would always squeal in delight finding the minatamis na saba in the refrigerator, especially earmarked for me. She always picked the Sabang Tagalog in the best level of ripeness, in vanilla-laced brown sugar syrup until they were makunat. The best part about it is that she did it especially for me, either as a reward for good grades, or as a salve for the wounds I sustained in my love, er academic life. :)

And that is probably why, Saba, any which way it is cooked, will always be, will forever be, my No. 1 Comfort Food.

The addition of sago in this recipe is a concession to my son, Jam, who is head over heels with sago.

MINATAMIS NA SABA

What's In It?

10 fingers Saba, peeled and sliced crosswise diagonally
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla (optional)
1 c sago (tapioca pearls) blanched with boiling water

Kitchen Conjugations:

Combine water and brown sugar in a pot and heat to boil over medium heat. Add in bananas and vanilla when mixture boils and turn heat down. Allow to simmer for 5-7 minutes or until the liquid is reduced and becomes syrupy. Add in sago and simmer for 2-3 minutes more.

Note: Do NOT boil over high heat as this will burn the sugar. As you probably know, anything burned becomes bitter and unpleasant. :) [And I mean that both literally and figuratively!]

Ginataang Langka

2010-08-25T00:57:00.002+08:00

My husband is predominantly a fish eater, and we have fish in the house everyday. Having fried fish means there should be an accompanying vegetable dish, either in soup, stir-fried, steamed, sauteed, or in this case, stewed in coconut milk.

Back when I was a little girl, cooking anything ginataan was a tedious process, primarily because all of the ingredients had to be processed first by hand: the langka needs to be peeled, cored, seeded and then sliced; the coconut peeled, grated and then squeezed for its milk.

Making Ginataang Langka now is a lot simpler and faster. Sliced/shredded langka is available from the public market and major supermarkets; coconut milk and cream are now available in cans or in powdered form.

The best part of it is when it's langka season,shredded langka costs only P30.00 per kilo, which would actually feed a family of six. That's a cheap P5.00 per person!

GINATAANG LANGKA

What's In It?

1 kilo shredded langka (unripe), washed and then preboiled until fork-tender
1 can coconut cream
2-3 cups tap water
1 onion, peeled and sliced
50-100 grams dilis (optional)
3-5 green chili fingers (optional)
1 pork broth cube (optional)
50-100 grams chicharon (crispy pork rind), pounded into small chunks
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
a knob of ginger, pounded
1-2 tablespoons cooking oil
half a head of garlic, peeled and pounded

Kitchen Conjugations

Heat wok or medium saucepan. Add in cooking oil, and saute ginger, onions and garlic until fragrant but not burned. Add in half of the coconut cream, stir from time to time until the mixture boils.

Add in the shredded langka, the dilis, pork broth cube and the chilis. Let boil then pour in water. Stir to combine and let boil for 3 minutes, then bring down heat to simmer.

Let the mixture simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring from time to time to avoid curdling, until the langka is fork tender. Add in salt and let simmer for another 5 minutes. Adjust seasonings if desired.

Sprinkle or stir in the chicharon granules before serving.

Notes:
1. I use JnEm coconut cream, which costs only P38.50 at South Supermarket (compared to Thai Heritage's P41.00.) The cream is thicker than that of Thai Heritage.

2. Shredded langka is best cooked the same day of purchase. It discolors and spoils in 2-3 days, even when refrigerated. I have not tried freezing it though.

Pinakurat

2010-02-23T23:24:00.001+08:00

I don't know if I translate it right, but Pinakurat (a Cebuano term) translates roughly to "made more interesting."

Pinakurat is fermented coco vinegar that is really spicy. Apart from the spice, what makes things interesting are the other flavors melded in the vinegar. It has actually a unique tang.

The label says that it's great with lechon, barbecue, etc. For me, the etcetera was Fuji apples. Yes, Fuji apples dipped in Pinakurat when I was infanticipating with Mika. :)

The Pinakurat bottles in the pictures are gifts from our good friends Rel and Jeng, all the way from Cagayan de Oro, but I later learned that Pinakurat is now also sold in major supermarkets.

Seafood Medley

2010-02-22T23:41:00.000+08:00

I've been asked many times about how I can find time to cook when I really have a lot on my hands. The truth is, I actually DO NOT have extra time for food blogging. But I MAKE TIME for it because writing for me is a release, and cooking is my unwinding. At the end of the day, if I don't spend some time in the kitchen, I'd probably go nuts. Although admittedly, there are days when I'm actually worked to the bone and already nuts and cooking is out of the question. On those days I rely on my friendly neighborhood food joints, running the gamut from barbecue, goto, porkchop, batchoy, chinese fried chicken, etc.

Anyhow, when I'm pressed for time but have to cook something out of the ordinary, I turn to stir fries.

With stir-fries, preparing eats a bigger chunk of time than the actual cooking. The chopping and the slicing takes more time than the actual stir-frying, which can be done in less than 10 minutes, especially if you're working with seafood. To work around the heavy preparation time I prepare things in advance (usually as I watch TV)-- sliced onions, pounded garlic, sliced veggies, sliced meats -- so that all I need to do during crunch time is whip up my wok, fire up the stove and stir fry away. :)

SEAFOOD MEDLEY

What's In It?

150g. squid slices

150g. fish fillets, sliced (here I used mahi-mahi fillets)

150g. prawns or shrimps, shelled and deveined

1 medium-sized green bell pepper, cored and sliced

3 stalks leeks, sliced into 1" strips

1 medium-sized red onion, sliced

half a head of garlic, peeled and pounded

1 thumb of ginger, peeled and julienned

4-5 tablespoons oyster sauce

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 medium carrot, peeled and sliced into wedges (or flowerettes)

4-5 tablespoons cooking oil

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat oil in wok or frying pan. Saute onions, garlic and ginger. Add in fish fillet slices, stir fry for about minute or until the fish is half cooked (no longer pinkish, already whitish but still juicy). Sprinkle black pepper. Add in prawns, stir fry for 30 seconds, then add in bell pepper, leeks and carrots. Let simmer for one minute. When the prawns turn orange, add in the squid slices, followed by the oyster sauce. Stir fry for one minute more, then serve with steamed rice.

1) You may add a little brown sugar (about 2 tbsps) or a teaspoon of hot sauce, or both, to make things more interesting. ;)

2) Instead of seafood, you may use beef, chicken, even pork. Be sure to choose the tender parts however, and add a 2 - 3 minutes to the stir frying time if you're using pork or beef strips.

3) Ginger strips work wonders in removing fishiness (lansa) from the dish.

Palitaw

2008-08-23T19:53:00.000+08:00

This was one of our (me teaching my boys and two nieces) cooking projects last summer. It's pretty, easy to do, yummy, inexpensive, and the choosing of colors for the galapong makes it more interesting for kids. (Although I had to hold off requests for blue and fuschia palitaw. Hehe.)

Besides, Filipino snacks are becoming a rare species, quickly being replaced by foreign, fastfood items like french fries, pizza and waffles. I felt sad when my two sons and two nieces asked "Ano yung Palitaw?" when as children my brother and I excitedly waited for the manlalako each afternoon, excited to see which among our favorites Palitaw, Buchi, Lumpia, Cuchinta, Banana Cue, Puto, Calamay were there for the taking in his magic bilao. We had enjoyable summers putting out stands in front of our house, selling Sago't Gulaman, Kalingking, Turon and Ginataan.

So it was a MUST that I taught the kids some Filipino snacks!

BTW, Palitaw is so named because of the way each piece floats and appears (litaw) from the bottom of the pan during cooking.

Nowadays you don't need to soak glutinous rice and then bring it for grinding at the local market just to make galapong. Coconut vendors at local markets usually also sell galapong in P20.00 packs (which makes about a dozen Palitaws). Mine I bought from the vegetables section of South Supermarket, priced by weight.

PALITAW

What's In It?

250g. Galapong

various food coloring (optional)

5 cups tap water

1 coconut, meat shredded

1/3 cup white sugar

5-6 teaspoons sesame seeds

Kitchen Conjugations:

Toast sesame seeds in a pan over medium heat for about 2 minutes or until brown. Mix with the sugar and set aside.

Boil water in a wok or deep pan.

Meantime, if you're coloring the galapong, divide it into as many colors as you want. To each ball of galapong, pour 2-3 drops of food color (depending on how dark you want the shade to be) and work in and distribute the food color by mashing and stretching the galapong until the color is distributed.

Then cut away a small portion of the galapong (about the size of a large marble), roll into a ball then flatten into a disc. (You could have it round or oval. ) Repeat for the rest of the galapong.
Drop the flattened discs into the boiling water. Wait a few minutes for the palitaw to float to the surface of the water, then remove from the pan using a slotted spoon, onto the shredded coconut meat.

Roll / turn over the palitaw to coat both sides with the shredded coco meat. Sprinkle/top with the sugar-sesame seed mixture and serve.

Banana Q

2008-08-19T04:39:00.001+08:00

Banana Q is my all-time favorite. It's very simple and easy to make that I found it incredible that my maid doesn't know how to cook it. **Aghast!**

When I was infanticipating, Banana Q was a staple craving, but goodness, I had to send off the driver to the nearest vendor/stall which was about 5 kilometers away! I couldn't fathom why, for the life of me, didn't the commercial building near us, which was a jeepney and bus stop, had a pedicab station and a host of other food vendors--Minute Burger, kakanin vendors and carinderias-- didn't have a Banana Q stall!

Kung kaya lang ng powers ko (timewise), pinapelan ko na! :P

And then, from where I live, the Banana Q stall is about a kilometer and a half away. And their Banana Q, being less sellable than their Turon, gets to me cold and tasting like it was cooked yesterday. So most of the time I buy saba bananas when I do my grocery shopping and cook my Banana Q myself. :P

BANANA Q (Fried Sugar-Coated Bananas)

What's In It?

6 fingers saba (plantain) bananas, peeled
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup cooking oil

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat cooking oil in a wok or deep frying pan over medium heat.

Meantime, roll bananas in brown sugar. Drop each carefully into the hot oil. Let fry for 2 minutes and turn over. (The exposed side should be golden brown. If it hasn't browned, turn back to let it brown some more.)

As the oil boils the sugar coating the bananas will melt and caramelize. Move the bananas and rub them against the caramelized sugar to 1) make the sugar coat the bananas and 2) prevent the caramelized sugar from hardening and sticking to your pan. (This is hard to remove and clean, believe me.) Cook 2-3 minutes more then remove bananas from the pan. Serve skewered in bamboo Banana Q sticks or flat on the plate, ready for your fork.

Enjoy! :P

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It is important to keep the fire at medium. Overheating not only burns your cooking oil (which produces carcinogens) but will also burn and blacken the sugar and make it bitter in taste.

Ginisang Sitaw

2008-08-11T23:07:00.001+08:00

I don't know why, but Mike's absence zaps all of my enthusiasm for cooking. Pag wala siya, automatic we eat out or buy something to eat. Or I cook the simplest thing that comes to mind.

Maybe it's because wala akong ganang kumain. Wala rin ganang magluto. (No appetite to eat, no zeal for cooking.)

And that's the story behind this very simple entree.

GINISING SITAW

What's in it?

1 bundle sitaw, washed, ends removed, cut into 1 1/2 " lengths
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
1 medium ripe tomato, washed, sliced into thin wedges
3-5 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed
200 g. ground pork or beef
3 T fish sauce (patis)
1 t ground black pepper
5 T cooking oil

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat cooking oil over medium heat in a wok or frying pan. Saute onions, garlic and tomatoes for 3 minutes or until tomatoes are soft and wilted. Add in ground meat, fish sauce and ground pepper. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes or until meat loses pinkish tint.

Add in sitaw, stir fry for 1-2 minutes more or until the sitaw sweats. Sitaw should keep bright green color. Remove from fire when it's a little tender but crisp.

I Heart Petite Palmiers!

2008-08-09T05:01:00.002+08:00

Can you imagine how flaky yet crisp this is? Me I like to carefully separate the layers and slowly nibble from end to end. :) Great with Nescafe Relax. :)

Bought from S&R Alabang for P499.00. Each cookie cost about P20.00. Not bad for some instant cookie gratification. :)

In case you wanna try making your own, here's a recipe.

Ginataang Halo-Halo

2008-08-08T02:21:00.000+08:00

How do you eat your Ginatan? Do you, like me, start with hurriedly eating the gabi/kamoteng kahoy, then poking at the kamote, before moving on to the langka, the sago, bilo-bilo, and then finally the saba?

Really? In that save-the-best-for-last-order too? :) Saba is my super-favorite. Promise. :)

As a little girl I used to help my lola make Ginatan, and my toka, being too young to handle knives for the slicing, was to round the galapong for bilo-bilo. Back then though the bilo-bilo we had was always white.

But not anymore, thanks to the availability and affordability of food coloring. :) Here I just divided my galapong into how many colors I wanted, poured about 3 drops of food coloring to each batch, mixed and mashed the galapong to spread the coloring and voila! Colored bilo-bilo! Nice, di ba?

GINATAANG HALO-HALO

What's In It?

6 fingers saba, peeled and sliced crosswise into rings about 1/3" thick

1 piece kamote (about 300g.), peeled and cubed

1 piece gabi or kamoteng kahoy (or both, each about 300g.), peeled and cubed

langka strips (fresh or sweetened)

200 g. galapong

1 can coconut milk + 1.5 cans of water

1/2 cup washed sugar

1 t pandan essence (optional)

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a wok or small pot heat coconut milk mixed with water over medium heat. Stir constantly with left to right motions to prevent curdling.

When milk boils, add kamoteng kahoy, gabi, kamote and saba. Simmer for 7-10 minutes or until fork-tender. Add in bilo-bilo and simmer for a minute or so, or until the bilo-bilo floats to the surface (which means it is cooked). Stir in pandan essence if using.

Tastes better at room temperature, but after all that work, I bet you'd be going for a spoonful. :)

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Glossary:

1. Gabi - taro root

2. Kamoteng kahoy - cassava

3. Kamote - sweet potato

4. Langka - jack fruit

5. Sago - tapioca balls

6. Bilo-bilo - glutinous rice balls

7. Saba - plantain bananas

Chopping an Onion

2008-07-29T22:09:00.003+08:00

Many people do not like cooking not because of the cooking part per se, but because of the rigors of preparations cooking entails. There's defrosting, washing, peeling, slicing, dicing, chopping, marinating, measuring, and so on. So it is important to have techniques that will simplify or quicken some of these steps.

One of the basic preparations needed for cooking is chopping an onion. Onion is part of all sautes, and is part of some marinades, sawsawans (dipping sauces), and even savory breads. Here's how to do chopping easy and fast, courtesy of RealAge:

Don't Eat This Fish!

2008-07-18T22:15:00.003+08:00

I was checking my stats at Statcounter, checked referring links and one thing led to another and I got to this page, warning against eating River Cobbler, which I featured in one of my posts (Cajun River Cobbler).

Apparently in France, Vietnamese River Cobbler has gained popularity and acceptance because of its texture, flavor and price.

However, the article warns against consuming Vietnamese River Cobbler or Pangas, claiming, among others:

1. That Pangas is grown in the Mekong River of Vietnam, one of the most polluted in Asia, teeming with industrial and other wastes.

2. That it is frozen in contaminated water, and

3. It is injected with hormones derived from urine.

I am wary about the article, not knowing who wrote it, if it is really true and if there aren't any hidden agendas for it. Yet I feel compelled to share it with you as I featured River Cobbler in one of my posts and might have unintentionally exposed you to the supposed dangers of eating this fish.

Looking back, my husband and a few family members including myself have eaten substantial quantities of this fish on several, separate occasions but (luckily) nothing untoward happened to us.

As I said in my post, I found and bought the fish at the South Supermarket in Alabang. I don't know if they know of the origins of this fish or if they know of the issues surrounding it. Personally I am not inclined to buy or eat it again after reading the article. Better safe than sorry!

Lumpiang Shanghai ni Sis. Puring

2008-07-17T22:02:00.001+08:00

My lola (Mama to me, Sis. Puring/Matandang Maganda/Mommy Pureza to everyone else) is largely responsible for igniting my passion for cooking. She is the family's original kitchenmaid -- she loves toiling in the kitchen and would cook for every possible reason or excuse. Even at a time when fastfood is the norm and catering is convenience, Mama would insist to cook everything for a family party. When she was younger, she even made desserts like Minatamis na Macapuno and Halayang Ube, on top of making 4-5 main courses!

One dish that's a staple in her party menu (and a frequent potluck party request to her) is this Lumpiang Shanghai. I used to sit and watch her mince the recados and then mix them all up. Then I'd wrap them for her on the eve of each party, enjoying our talks about anything under the sun. Now that she's based in NZ, I heard her Lumpiang Shanghai's been gracing many a Filipino family's dinner parties and is still the hit it was back here.

LUMPIANG SHANGHAI NI SIS. PURING

What's In It?

1/2 kg. pork pigue, ground finely
1 large onion, peeled and minced
1 small singkamas (turnip/jicama), peeled and minced
1 small carrot, peeled and minced
7-8 stalks kinchay (chinese parsley), washed and chopped finely
1 t salt
1 t ground black pepper
50 pcs. lumpia wrapper (small)
2 c cooking oil

Sealer: 2 t cornstarch dissolved in 1.5 t water

Kitchen Conjugations:

To make the filling: Combine all but the last two ingredients in a bowl. Set aside to let flavors meld.

Meantime, separate lumpia wrappers into individual pieces. Allow as little exposure to the air as possible to keep the wrappers from hardening and getting brittle. (Pile on a plate and cover with a slightly moist towel.)

To assemble lumpia: Lay one lumpia wrapper on a plate. Spoon one teaspoonful of the lumpia filing onto the center near the bottom edge of the wrapper. Fold this edge over the filling, then follow with both the right and left edges of the wrapper. Roll the lumpia and seal using the cornstarch mixture. Repeat until all the mixture has been wrapped and rolled.

Heat cooking oil in a deep pan or small wok over medium fire. (Oil should be hot but NOT smoking.) Deep fry the lumpia (about 6-7 pieces per batch) until golden brown and crisp.

Serve with sweet chili sauce or as is, Great with steamed rice, for cocktails or appetizer.

Bangus Steak / Bangus Bistek

2008-07-16T04:20:00.004+08:00

While pregnant with Mika bangus (milkfish) was one of the things I always craved. I had it inihaw, sinigang, prito and of course, Filipino bistek style.

Many people I know do not like eating bangus because it's so fussy to eat, having lots of bones to pick. But did you know that for a small charge (P20.00) you can have your suki fish vendor debone your bangus? And of course boneless bangus is available in supermarkets, some of them already marinated/seasoned, some of them in fillets (belly and back). For this recipe I used back fillets bought from the South Supermarket. People say I am strange for liking the flesh better than the (more flavorful) belly, but hey, to each his own! :P

BANGUS STEAK / BANGUS BISTEK

What's In It?

1 pack SeaKing Bangus Back Fillets, about 450g.

1/2 t salt

1 c cooking oil

1/3 c soy sauce

1/8 c calamansi juice (squeezed from 6-8 med.-sized calamansi)

1 1/2 c water

3-4 T sugar (I prefer brown/washed)

1 med. onion, peeled and sliced into rings

6 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed

1 t ground black peppercorns

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry bangus fillets until golden brown and a little crisp.

While waiting for bangus to fry, in another pan or wok, saute onions and garlic for 2 minutes or until onions become soft and translucent. Remove some of the onions from pan and set aside to use as garnish later.

Stir in sugar, peppercorns, soy sauce and water. Let boil and simmer for one minute. Pour in calamansi juice but DO NOT stir until after the mixture boils. Simmer for 3 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings. (You may want it to be on the sweeter or more sour side.) Remove from heat and set aside.

Arrange cooked bangus in a semi-deep dish and pour soy sauce-calamansi mixture. Garnish with the onion rings and serve with hot, steaming rice.

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Substitution notes:

1) You can always use bone-in bangus, bangus belly and other fish for this recipe. Tanigue, alumahan work just as well.

2) No fresh calamansi? Use 1/2 teaspoon Knorr Sinigang sa Calamansi mix. :)

Wine and Cheese

2008-07-15T04:47:00.001+08:00

What's better than eating?

Eating and drinking.

What's better than eating and drinking?

Eating and drinking and chatting with friends.

Our good friend Mama Norms came for a visit one Sunday bearing this tray of cold cuts and cheese. All Mike had to do was whip out the wine and there we had it -- eating and drinking and chatting. (Although I wasn't drinking wine, but green tea. ) This was waaay before I got pregnant.

Now with work, two school-age boys and a 3-month old breastfed baby, I wonder when I can have an afternoon as leisurely as this again?

Inside Kitchen Conjugations

2008-07-04T22:54:00.007+08:00

This afternoon while we were snacking at Cheesecake Etc., Food Magazine (or so I overheard) was doing a photoshoot of the --whatelse -- cheesecakes. As I pointed this out to my hubby, I said, "Yung ginagawa ko, ginagawa din nila," insinuating that staging and taking pictures of food is a normal thing. He said something like, "Dapat ganu'n din ang camera mo," insinuating how underhanded my Optio A10 was compared to the digital SLR the fotog was using, with a tripod to boot.

I said, "Di ko naman kayang bumili ng ganun," to which he replied, "Ibibili kita."
Sweet. :)

Anyway, the ongoing photo shoot got me thinking about how different food blogging is to food magazine writing.

Magazines are armed with editors, writers, researchers, photographers, the kitchen crew and the publication staff. Foodbloggers usually (I for one) do all the work -- the research, the shopping (for ingredients), the cooking/testing, food styling, taking of pictures, writing, editing and publishing.

Magazines have budgets for testing and re-testing and have assistants documenting and testing measurements and procedures. One-(wo)man foodblogging teams do it all in one-go (with little or nothing to spare for retesting), with measurements done by approximations (a sandok of this, a handful of that, a pinch of this, a dash or so of that). And so as I write the recipes for my posts I have to go over what I put in and what I did in my head and try to come up with the nearest approximations in terms of standard quantities. Thankfully so far no one has commented nor complained that their cooking from my recipes has come out salty or tasteless or inedible. :)

Magazines have the luxury of food styling and the ability to use even non-edible chemicals for the sake of making the food picture-pretty. My products need to be edible, palate-pleasing AND picture-pretty. Magazines have the luxury of long photo shoots; while I've held up countless lunches and dinners (at home and outside) taking shots of the food for my foodblog, I don't take longer than two minutes and sometimes settle for a not-so-pretty picture in the interest of feeding my already hungry family.

And because it's a one-woman team behind Kitchen Conjugations, life sometimes gets in the way and posts come far in between. (As is the case now.) And the biggest difference? You get the recipes (sometimes with a dash of humor and entertainment) virtually free. The cheapest food mag costs P50.00 I think.

So why do I keep at it? Gee, I don't know. Perhaps the need to share and connect? The need to glorify my creative spirit? Or just plain KSP? Hahaha.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

2008-06-08T22:47:00.003+08:00

Those of you who know me personally know that I am a chocolate addict. Even on a diet, I couldn't and wouldn't say no to chocolate.

Mika is now two months and a week old and I'm still stuck with excessive poundage. I know I need to lose weight, but breastfeeding is such hungry and thirsty work. A friend suggested I forego rice altogether and subsist on sabaw, but that's easier said than done, considering I carry and care for a 7 kg baby 24-7.

And so the challenge is to find healthier substitutes for the food I need/want to eat. Flourless Chocolate Cake is one, don't you think? It's flourless so there's less carbohydrate to worry about, and chocolate comes from a bean, which is a vegetable, so it's healthy, right? Hahaha.

That one up there was a birthday gift by my friend Beth back in 2005. But I still remember how gooey and heavenly it was. Maybe you need a chocolate fix too? CacaoWeb's a chocolate recipe haven. Maybe the toiling before the munching (nay, cheating) will burn some calories and take away some of the guilt. :)

Kitchen Boy

2008-06-07T22:52:00.003+08:00

Of my two boys, it is Gabriel who shares my interest in toiling in the kitchen. He's always volunteering to help, is always around watching what I do, and has since cooked Tinolang Manok (Gingered Chicken Soup) with only a little guidance and instruction from me.

The pic above was taken in my mother in law's kitchen in North Cotabato back in 2006. The stove is typical of houses in the provinces and is fed with firewood. (It is however quickly losing out to the more convenient, air-friendly gas stoves.) This stove had a pugon (wood-fired oven) which my husband said has seen better days.

On that vacation I tried baking a cake in a pugon at my sister-in-law's house and it was quite an adventure -- having no thermostat to rely on, having no see-through oven door, and having have to go back out every so often to feed wood to the fire was arduous. (And to think back then this was the only way to go..)

The difficulty was compounded by the fact that I didn't have tools (no measuring cups, no mixer) and was quadrupling the recipe to have cake good for 50 people.

I wasn't too happy with the results -- the banana cake was harder and less flavorful than I wanted it to be, but oddly enough, twas wiped out to the last morsel. Maybe the folks were plain hungry. :)

Ginataang Alimango (Crabs in Coconut Milk)

2008-03-15T04:07:00.009+08:00

Tong-tong-tong, pakitong-kitong, alimango, sa dagat, kaylaki at kay-sarap...

I was doing this song while cooking this dish and my son goes, "Mommy, ano 'yung alimango?"
I explained while digesting the fact that it's true there are always two sides to a coin. While using English as a medium of instruction has its advantages, there are downsides too. In the course of our tutorials my sons have asked for definitions of namumuno, sentenaryo, takwil and some more common words I forget at this time.

Anyway, back to the Alimango.

My husband, a Cebuano at heart who hails from the still-fertile lands of Mindanao is used to big things. Big bananas a foot long, bigger-variety fish (lapu-lapu, labahita, maya-maya, tanigue), lanzones that get to be 3 inches in diameter (I'll post a picture later) -- even atis that's the size of a child's head. And so, even for crabs he'd go for alimango instead of alimasag, and even then he'd go for the big alimango. (The plate that crab is sitting on is 12 inches wide, the crab about 9 inches wide.) When he saw these big, live crabs at South Supermarket he wasn't able to resist, bought them and presented me with the task of cooking them.

I decided to make ginataan and throw in malunggay leaves for good measure. :)

GINATAANG ALIMANGO (Crabs in Coconut Milk)

What's In It?

2 kgs. Crabs, cleaned
3-4 cups water + 1 tablespoon salt (for steaming crabs)
5-7 cups coconut milk (instant/canned/freshly squeezed)
half a head (about 5 cloves) garlic, peeled and mashed
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
3-4 cups malunggay leaves -- see notes
1 teaspoon iodized salt
3-4 siling labuyo (finger chilis), optional

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a large pot or wok pour saline water, line crabs, cover and steam for 5 to 7 minutes or until the crabs turn dark orange.

Meanwhile, in another wok or pot heat coconut milk over medium fire, stirring constantly until it boils. Add in garlic, onions, salt and siling labuyo. Continue stirring while simmering the mixture for 2 more minutes.

Add in cooked crabs and let the milk simmer until thick. Add in malunggay leaves. Let the mixture boil for a minute more or just about when the leaves turn a little dark green. (Malunggay turns bitter when overcooked.) Remove from fire and serve. Best with steamed rice.
Notes:

1. Substitutes for alimango: Alimasag, talangka, crab sticks, frozen crab claws, shrimps
2. Instead of malunggay, you can also use kalabasa (squash) and/or sitaw (string beans).
3. For instant gata, follow package directions for making thin coconut milk.
4. Did you know, malunggay is known as Sajina in the Indian subcontinent, and Moringa in English?

===

Sigh. If I had read the announcement any earlier, this would have been my entry to the February challenge/ 24th edition of Lasang Pinoy, titled Loco Over Coco. . :(

My previous posts that also involved Coconuts:
1. Buko Tarts
2. Laing
3. Ginataang Santol
4. Ginataang Kalabasa at Sitaw
5. Sinuglaw na Bariles

UPDATE: I did get in afterall! Yay! (Thanks, Kai!) Hop on over here to see the rest of entries to Lasang Pinoy 24, all about coconuts.

I Miss...

2008-03-14T15:02:00.000+08:00

... coffee. One of the last fancy cups I had was in Bellevue, last year. I turned tea-drinker then got pregnant after.

Soy Chicken

2008-03-11T03:27:00.005+08:00

[For yet another time I wake up and find I can no longer go back to sleep. (Well, not right away at least.) So here I am tweaking away at my posts.]

If the picture above loooks familiar, it'd be because you have really seen it before, in my post titled 'One Beginning, Three Endings,' where I present a recipe that starts with a simple saute and finishes into Mock Chicken Pastel, Chicken Afritada and this, Soy Chicken with Mushrooms.

I figured the post was rather long (having 3 mini-recipes) and wasn't indexed properly, so I am reposting the three recipes individually, with the original starter chicken saute scaled down.

SOY CHICKEN WITH MUSHROOMS

What's In It?

1/2 kgs chicken breast, chopped into small portions
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T fish sauce
1/2 t ground pepper
3 T c cooking oil
1/4 c soy sauce
1 c hot water
1 small can button mushrooms (pieces and stems)
3-4 stalks green onion, minced, for garnish

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat wok or frying pan, add in cooking oil, then saute garlic and onions for one minute or until onions are soft.

Add in chicken, fish sauce and ground black pepper. Stir fry for 1 minute or until chicken loses its pink tint, then cover and simmer for 2 minutes to allow the chicken to sweat out its juice.

Pour in the soy sauce and hot water, let boil then simmer for 3 minutes more. Stir in mushrooms and cook for another minute. Check seasonings and adjust if needed. Transfer onto a serving plate and garnish with spring onions.

============

Note: You can substitute young corn, broccoli, or shiitake mushrooms for the button mushrooms.

Inihaw na Porkchop

2008-03-08T05:07:00.003+08:00

With cool and windy days about us it's easy to forget that it's already March and that Summer is about to pop in with customary heat and swelter by the Holy Week.

For most Catholics the Holy Week is observed with fasting and abstinence from meat, so this post seems anti-thematic. But wait, I'm not really going to talk about what we have for Holy Week, but more of how we welcome summer.

We welcome summer with grills and barbecues, eat-outs and smokes, apart from trips to the beach and lakeside picnics. My nieces usually spend the summer with us, so I have a full house and it seems like a children's party every single day. (Yep, 4 kids can be a party. Ask any mom.)

These pictures were taken in 2005, in our old house. Mama (my grandmother) was home from NZ then and we had a blast having a kamayan, dahon ng saging lunchout at the garage. Do you notice Mike's head peering out of the margins of the picture? He was grill manager that day and rushed to make it from the grill to the frame just as I pressed the shutter button. :)

It'll be a li'l different this summer; for one Mama won't be home and would be in NZ recuperating from surgery (awww.... we miss you, Ma) and there'd be a new kid on the block, Mika. But I suppose the grilling stays. I will always be a BBQ girl at heart. :)

INIHAW NA PORKCHOP

What's In It?

1 kg. pork chops (about 8 thick cuts, bone-in)

1 cup soy sauce (Datu Puti is for me, the best)

juice of 7 calamansi*

1/2 cup brown/washed sugar*

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 bulb red onion, peeled and sliced

1 head of garlic, peeled and crushed

Kitchen Conjugations:

Thaw and wash porkchops, drain. In a medium plastic mixing bowl combine soy sauce, calamansi juice, sugar, garlic, onions and black pepper together. Add in pork chops, stir and turn so that all slices are covered by the marinade. Leave for 30 minutes to one hour.

Grill porkchops over medium high heat until done (the meat should lose pinkish tint but should still be tender and juicy). Serve with your favorite sawsawan (dipping sauce). Ours is soy sauce with onion and tomato slices and a squeeze of calamansi.

Have a great summer!

=========

Notes:

1. Pineapple juice may be substituted in the absence of calamansi. Some people put a little vinegar but I find that the acid 'cooks' and hardens the meat.

2. Washed sugar is colored light brown; brown sugar is darker. You can this if you are watching your sugar intake or do not like sweet ulam.

Cajun River Cobbler

2007-10-10T15:01:00.000+08:00

Another find we had at South Supermarket is the River Cobbler, in fillets. River Cobbler is the commercial name given to Tra, a variety of Vietnamese catfish (the other being Basa). In the US, River Cobbler is marketed as China Sole. (Info source: here and here.)

Anyway, River Cobbler, despite being catfish, tastes nothing like our local catfish hito. It has a delicate texture and nice, white flesh. Judging by the taste, size and appearance, I think it's the same fish used by Fish and Co. for their fish and chips. If you've had that, you know the flesh is juicy and tasty, the stuff fish-lover dreams are made of. :)

This River Cobbler though wasn't deep-fried but turbo-broiled wrapped in aluminum foil. The cajun seasoning gives the broil an interesting kick -- not really spicy but not actually tame, and the mix of herbs and spices (cayenne pepper, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, thyme, sweet basil and bay leaf) just adds dimensions of taste and aroma to the dish. I think this makes a nice Friday night dish, a great way to end the monotony of the usual dishes of the week.

There are many commercially available cajun seasonings, like McCormick Cajun Seasoning which I used here, but you can also make the seasoning from scratch (recipe here).

CAJUN RIVER COBBLER

What's In It?

1 pack River Cobbler Fillets (about 500g.), thawed
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pack McCormick Cajun Seasoning

Kitchen Conjugations:

Wash the fish fillets and drain over wire racks. Combine salt with cajun seasoning, then rub over both sides of the fillets. Wrap fillets in aluminum foil, leaving some air pockets between the top side of the fillets and the foil (to allow steam to circulate and prevent burning/drying).

Carefully place over wire racks in the turbo broiler and broil for 15 minutes at 180 to 200C.

Serve with blanched/buttered vegetables.

PS: If you're partial to frying, you can opt to cut the fillets lengthwise into halves, dip them in eggwash (1 beaten egg + 3 tablespoons water) then deep fry for 3 minutes or until golden. Drain excess oil from the fillets then coat with the cajun seasoning.

Sarciado

2007-10-01T05:22:00.000+08:00

Sarciado is a quintessential "pangat" dish -- pangat being short for pangatlo (third), a standing joke among Filipinos for our tendency to have and recycle leftovers, and serve them a second, even a third time. Of course we do get creative in the process of recycling, making the leftover look and taste different from the original. Fried chicken gets redone as sweet and sour chicken, or shredded for pancit or sopas, or diced for lumpia, meatballs, etc.

Sarciado is take two for fried fish. Other options would be escabeche (sweet and sour fish) and fish with tausi (black beans).

SARCIADO

What's In It?

1/2 kg. fleshy fish - 5 to 6 pcs. - fried/leftover Dalagang Bukid (Yellow Tail Fusilier)* or Bisugo (Threadfin Bream)*
5 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
3 ripe tomatoes, washed, seeded and sliced
3 tablespoons patis (fish sauce)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 cup oil for reheating/refrying fish (if using leftovers)
3 teaspoons cooking oil for sauteing
1 1/2 cups water

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a deep pan or wok, heat oil. If using leftover fish, reheat/refry the fish until crisp and firm. Remove from pan and set aside. In the same oil, saute onions, tomatoes and garlic until tomatoes wilt.

Pour in fish sauce, stir a few seconds, then add ground black pepper and water. Turn up heat to boil the mixture. Add in beaten egg, stir continuously to make the eggs set in strips/strands (instead of one whole blob). Add in fried fish, turn down heat and let simmer for 2 minutes more.

Serve hot with steamed rice.

----------------
*english names courtesy of Wyatt's Kitchen

Quail Egg Surprise

2007-09-30T05:20:00.000+08:00

Once back in highschool we were grouped into teams and were asked to come up with extraordinary recipes in Home Economics class. The other teams came up with pretty interesting dishes; the most remarkable, Banana Cake made from banana peels. That tasted okay, up until I imagined where the banana peels could have come from, and gagged.*

Anyways, our group's recipe wasn't extraordinary (supplied at the last minute by the mom of one of my mates who rescued us from impending non-submission). 'Twas called Meatball Surprise, just a meatball with a quail egg inside.

I made this to reconcile two different requests - Kwek-kwek for Gambel and Meatballs for Jam.
(I've made kwek-kwek/tokneneng before, here.) I was on the phone with Claire while rounding the balls and wasn't paying attention to how centered/uncentered the eggs were. Sowee. :)

QUAIL EGG SURPRISE

What's In It?

12 quail eggs, hardboiled and peeled
1/2 kilo ground pork
1 medium carrot, peeled and grated (or diced, if you like)
1 small red bell pepper, diced finely
1 medium onion, peeled and diced finely
1/2 teaspoon iodized salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup flour or bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup flour (for coating the eggs)
1 1/2 cups cooking oil (for frying)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat cooking oil in a deep fryer or wok over low fire. While waiting, work on the meatball mixture.

In a bowl combine ground pork, carrots, bell peppers and onions. Season with salt and black pepper. Mix thoroughly, then add in flour or bread crumbs. Mix a few more strokes, then pour in beaten egg. Mix to ensure the egg wets and combines with the mixture. (I use my hands to mix, for a better feel.)

Roll quail eggs in flour to coat. Then take a tablespoon of the mixture and line each flour-coated egg with it, shaping into balls as you go. Carefully drop the meatballs into the waiting oil. Deep fry for 3 minutes or until brown and golden.

Serve with sweet and sour sauce or sweet chili sauce.

--------------------

By the way, you can do this using chicken eggs, and end up making what is called Scotch Eggs.

*Of course I trust my classmates have been very careful, but I do have a very active imagination. :P

St. Dalfour Wild Blueberry Spread

2007-09-29T00:05:00.000+08:00

My mother is just sooo thoughtful. And sooo organized.

Miles away in the Gold Coast, she remembers to send her three bears here (us) a box of stuff she thought we'd want/enjoy. She sent three of everything, those in jars carefully, individually wrapped in newspaper and arranged and packed neatly in the box. I had wanted to take a picture so that I can show you how neat it was but excitement took over and I had to redistribute the stash...

My favorite of them all is the St. Dalfour spread which came all the way from France. The wild blueberries were fresh and whole, the syrup in just the right level of sweetness. C'est ciel dans une fiole! Heaven in a jar!

But heaven was gone too soon! 284 grams of goodness lasted only a few breakfasts, topping toasted and buttered wheat bread or pancakes, or sometimes licked right out of the teaspoon. I can't get enough of the goodness, and it seems like the rest of the household felt the same way. The spread barely lasted two days from the day it was opened..

And here's probably why:

St. Dalfour ‘Rhapsodie de Fruits’ are made in the heart of the French countryside to an old recipe from the Loire Valley. They are pure fruit. No sugar is added. Only the natural sweetness of concentrated grape juice is used. This natural sweetness produces a taste which is much fresher and more delicious than the heavy taste of sugar. -St. Dalfour website

Speaking of heaven, writing this post made me curious about St. Dalfour. Who was he and how did he live? Why was this piece of culinary heaven named after him? Was he a cook so good, his concoctions merited him a place in heaven? If that's the case then there's hope for me! Hahaha! Not to toot my horn and say I am a good cook, but to say I can work on making great dishes ala St. Dalfour and maybe have a place in heaven. :)

Sweet-Spicy Inihaw na Pusit

2007-09-25T23:31:00.000+08:00

What I love about South Supermarket is its wide assortment of fresh food that makes it easy to cook up a party. To me it's a one stop shop-- from ox tongue to New Zealand Mussels, to sago (tapioca), squid rings, even pre-skewered chicken for yakitori, I find my party stuff there.

One of our treasured finds are the frozen squid heads that come for P150.00 per 1-kilo pack. They're great battered and deep fried or skewered and grilled like I did here.

I wrapped and tied up the squid tentacles with tanglad (lemon grass). Apart from imparting a unique flavor and tantalizing aroma, the tanglad kept the tentacles from falling into the grill slats.
Be sure to tie them tightly as the squid will shrink as it cooks.

And a cheat: you don't have to make marinade from scratch. Here I used bottled marinades. :)

SWEET-SPICY INIHAW NA PUSIT

What's in it?

1 pack (1 kilo) squid (heads only or whole squid, cleaned)
1 bottle Mother's Best barbecue marinade
1/4 cup chili/tabasco sauce
10-12 stalks tanglad (optional)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Combine barbecue marinade and chili sauce in a deep bowl. Stir to mix well. Add in squid and marinate for 20 minutes to half an hour.

Skewer in pre-soaked barbecue sticks and tie with tanglad, if using. Make sure grill is hot and ready before putting squids. Grill over flaming hot charcoal for 3 minutes each side.

Sinuglaw na Bariles

2007-09-13T21:17:00.000+08:00

Among Cebuanos, tuna is referred to as bariles, the vernacular for water drum. Bariles because the body of one adult tuna is so huge, the diameter could be as round and large as a water drum. Could be as heavy, too. The average bariles weighs about 50 kilos!

And now, a short narration from my husband, who was born and bred in North Cotabato:

"Ang GenSan (Gen. Santos City, South Cotabato), highway ng tuna. Doon dumadaan ang tuna papuntang Pacific Ocean. Sa dami ng tuna na dumadaan, puedeng magtago ka na lang sa bato, pagdaan ng tuna, sapakin mo sa panga!"

Hahahahaha! Maybe that's where Manny Pacquiao trained early on. :)

Anyway, the tuna used in this recipe is from GenSan, one of his pasalubongs from his latest homecoming. Usually sinuglaw uses tilapia, but since we had frozen tuna belly we used that instead.

SINUGLAW NA BARILES

What's In It?

500g tuna belly, sliced diagonally into 4-5 large chunks
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 knob ginger, peeled and sliced
3 to 5 pieces siling labuyo
2 bunches pechay, washed and bottoms removed
1 cup tap water
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 tsp black pepper corns, ground coarsely
1 cup coconut cream (kakang-gata)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Line a deep pan or sauce pot with the onions, garlic, ginger slices and sili. Top with the tuna belly chunks. Pour in water, fish sauce and vinegar. Sprinkle with black pepper corns. Cook over moderate heat. DO NOT STIR until the mixture boils.

Add in coconut cream and stir a little to allow the ingredients to meld. Turn down heat and let the mixture simmer for 3 minutes or until the sauce gets reduced a little. Top the mixture with the pechay leaves, cover and let simmer for one minute, or until the leaves sweat. Remember to keep the leaves crisp and green.

Serve hot with steamed rice, and some fried tuna belly if desired:

Spicy New Zealand Mussels

2007-09-05T14:40:00.000+08:00

With the rains coming after a long dry spell we may be having a Red Tide soon. The red tide, as you probably know, is the "reddening" of sea water due to the emergence of planktons that feed on wastes washed away to the sea by rain. The red tide poisons marine life, and people have actually died from eating fish and seafood tainted by the red tide.

Mussels, being sedentary creatures are perennial victims of the red tide. When the rains come, even without a red tide alert, we usually avoid buying mussels at the market, to be on the safe side.

Fortunately, supermarkets now carry imported and local mussels, some of them totally removed from the shell, some of them in the half shell, ready for baking. We were so happy to find New Zealand mussels in the frozen seafood section of the South Supermarket in Alabang. A box of about 500g. cost P310.00 on the average, and considering they were amazingly large (2 1/2" long), fleshy and fresh (not to mention being from the much cleaner waters of NZ), I'd say it was a good buy.

The mussels came in the half-shell and parboiled, making them ideal for baking but we were hankering for something spicy and so came Spicy Mussels.

SPICY MUSSELS

What's In It?

500g. NZ mussels, thawed
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
5-6 tablespoons Lee Kum Kee chili garlic sauce*
5-6 tablespoons reduced-sodium oyster sauce*
2 stalks leeks, cut into 1/2" strips
5-6 stalks green onions, cut into 1/2" strips
3 tablespoons cooking oil

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat cooking oil in a wok. Add in chili garlic sauce, stir fry for 30 seconds then add in onions. Saute for another 30 minutes.

Add in mussels and oyster sauce, stir and toss to coat for one minute. (If you're using raw mussels, this part should take 2 to 2 1/2 minutes or until the shells open.) Stir in leeks and cook for another minute. Add in 1/4 cup water if a little sauce is desired. Top with green onion slices and serve.

Great with white wine. :)

Notes:
1. Lee Kum Kee Chili Garlic Sauce is available in most supermarkets, some in sachets good for one dish, costing P20.00 (or less). If unavailable, substitute with diced chili, a little sugar, salt and diced garlic.

2. I use reduced-sodium oyster sauce because we need to watch our sodium levels. (Doc's orders.) This results to a less-salty dish that might be bland to some. Of course you can always use regular/classic oyster sauce instead.

Ratatouille

2007-08-11T02:25:00.000+08:00

The four of us watched Ratatouille two Saturdays ago amidst a full audience at Festival Mall. The story was actually simple and predictable (as all GP-rated movies are), but the light-hearted moments and the stabs at comedy were enough to make us/me relax for about two hours and enjoy.

More than that, the movie made me realize three cooking philosophies I am passionate about:

1. ANYONE CAN COOK (said in the movie by the character Chef Auguste Gusteau).

I've always believed that cooking is no rocket science and that anyone who tries hard enough can whip up something tasty and edible. I've always believed that cooking is something than can be learned and honed. I believe that one's cooking talents improve in direct proportion to the interest and desire to learn, coupled with the commitment to try, practice and explore. Put another way, if you're uncomfortable with your cooking, or people are uncomfortable with what you cook, that only means you need to learn some more (from other people, from experiences, from mistakes) and practice some more. :)

2. There are no hard and fast rules about cooking, only possibilities. While there are basics that you need to know (er, like salt is salty and you don't want too much of it in your cooking), the rest is subject to interpretation and how you want your finished product to be. You want it aromatic? Ass-kicking spicy? On the sweet side? The dish is your canvass and the ingredients are the colors you would paint your canvass with. It's all up to you.

And because it's up to you, cooking is more an art than a science; more liberal than precise. In the movie, Remy shied away from recipes and had no precise measurements for the things he threw into his pot. I am that way too; when I cook, my measurements are usually by handfuls, pinches, swigs and dashes. (So a little confession -- it's always an effort for me to quantify the measurements I used when I write the recipes for this blog.) My sense of doneness and readiness isn't measured by time but by the smell and appearance of the food. I don't open cookbooks and execute the recipes. My cooking sessions are usually fueled by the desire to replicate something I ate and liked somewhere.

3. Get into the heart of it. Good cooking is from the heart. Just like good writing, good food is heartfelt. It is good because the one who made it cared enough to make it right and make it well and gave himself or herself to make it the best it could be.

And best doesn't have to mean expensive or complicated. In the movie, the peasant-dish Ratatouille, a simple, pan-fried-then-baked mixture of eggplants, onions, tomatoes and zucchinis rocked the critic Anton Ego to the core because it reminded him of his mother's cooking. As simple as the dish was, perhaps it tasted, looked and smelled of a mother's careful attention to detail, and the overwhelming desire to give her family the best. Heartfelt.

So go out there (into the kitchen), wow them, wow yourself.

Laing

2007-07-31T21:11:00.001+08:00

Presenting the ubiquitous Laing, which, like its equally famous sibling Bicol Express, has received several Tagalog versions. The Bicol Express as it is known hereabouts is just like Ginataang Baboy -- pork with a little sili. In Bicol, sili (siling pansigang or finger chili) is the main feature of Bicol Express and the pork bits are added just for flavoring.

The Tagalog version of Laing uses just the leaves of the gabi (taro), and is sometimes not even a bit spicy (example: Goldilocks Laing). The ingredients are minimal -- sometimes just the shredded taro leaves and coconut milk.

The authentic, Bicolano Laing uses the stalks as well and is made special by the addition of pork and fresh shrimp. The sili is "all you can" -- all you can put, all you can possibly take. :) The serving/presentation is just as special and detailed -- the laing mixture is wrapped in gabi leaves and topped with curdled coconut cream. Real laing is eaten not in spoonfuls but by the pinch -- because that's the only way you can stand the level of spice.

Don't worry though, for in this recipe I scaled down the spiciness to tolerable levels. But of course this won't be real Laing if it's not kick-ass maanghang.

Warning: If you're on a diet and need to avoid eating rice, READ NO FURTHER. :)

LAING

What's In It?

5 bunches gabi leaves and stalks -- drier, better
2 large cans coconut cream, or 6 cups coconut cream (from 2 coconuts)
1/2 kilo pork liempo, diced
100 g. small shrimps, (alamang) fresh, not salted
3 teaspoons brown sugar (optional)
1 large onion, peeled and sliced finely
1 large knob of ginger, peeled and diced finely
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
6 pcs. finger chilies, sliced diagonally into thin rings
5 pcs. ripe siling labuyo
1/8 cup cooking oil
1 shrimp broth cube
1 pork broth cube

Kitchen Conjugations:

PREPS-- Cut the gabi leaves off from the stalks. Check for the largest and best leaves (those with the least tears or holes) and set them aside (you will need about 8 to 10). Shred the rest using your fingers or kitchen scissors. Set aside.

Cut off the prickly part of the stalks and discard. Carefully peel skin from the gabi stalks and set aside (for use in tying the wraps later). Dice the peeled stalks into bits, set aside.

MAKING THE FILLING -- In a deep frying pan or wok heat oil then saute onions, ginger and garlic for one minute. Add in pork and sliced chilies, stir frying for 3 minutes or until pork loses pink tint and is half cooked. Add in alamang, brown sugar (if using) and diced stalks. Stir fry for 2 minutes.

Pour in 2/3 cup of the coconut cream. Stir to combine. Reduce heat and let the simmer for 3 minutes or until the stalks are tender. Add the shredded gabi leaves and cook for 3 minutes more. Remove pan from fire when the leaves have wilted.

WRAPPING UP -- Put the whole gabi leaves on a flat surface. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the cooked mixture over each leaf, avoiding any tears or holes. Fold the leaves into a square, making the edges overlap. Secure and tie each wrap with the gabi skin strips. Repeat until all the mixture has been wrapped.

COCO CREAM BATH -- In the same deep pan or wok, heat coconut cream, broth cubes and siling labuyo to a pre-boil. Squish siling labuyo to allow the spice to meld with the coconut cream. Simmer for half a minute then carefully add in laing wraps. Let boil and simmer until the coconut cream gets reduced to half of its original volume.

Serve with hot, steaming rice, fried galunggong or tilapia, and glasses of water. :)

This is my entry to the 20th edition of Lasang Pinoy, which features wraps as a way of Filipino cooking and food presentation. Read more about the theme here.

Hula-Hula Seafood and Barbecue House

2007-07-28T23:58:00.000+08:00

I suppose that even if they want to, most couples cannot enjoy lunchtime with their spouses because their significant others would usually be away at work at midday. I suppose I lucked out then, since as I work for/with my husband, we have daily lunch dates. :)

We usually eat at the office when we have baon I packed from home. Sometimes we buy from my suki point-point (a.k.a. turo-turo/carinderia). Often, when we have to head out for business meetings, we have little adventures trying out restaurants we've never been to before.

The photo above was taken on one of those lunch dates, at the Hula-Hula Seafood and Barbecue House at Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong. The restaurant serves fusion cuisine (Hawaiian-Filipino-Japanese-etc) and in the menu are items like Island Paella in Bamboo, Bangus Sisig, Spicy Seafood Udon... you get the drift. :)

That above is their Davao Gulf Luau Feast. It's actually a feast for 3-4 persons (don't worry, we didn't finish all of the food!), and is made up of Grilled Mussels, Tuna Belly, Squid and Liempo. It's accompanied by Fish Kinilaw, Mango Salad and Cucumber Salad, and two heaping (more like mountains) of two kinds of rice: Pineapple Fried Rice (the light yellow-colored mound) and Baby Shrimp Fried Rice. The feast is served on a giant bamboo tray (the size of a four-seater table) lined with banana leaves, so you can actually eat straight from the tray and feel like you're dining in some island and not in a busy mall. :)

And how much was that? P695.00 plus the cost of drinks (I had a guyabano shake for P95.00) and VAT. I suppose for a party of 3 or 4 the cost would be about P300 per person, same amount you'd shell out for a meal at Dencio's or Gerry's, or a plate of pasta at Italianni's.

And how was the food? Good. I think it's comparable to Dencio's and Gerry's, only the presentation is a novelty and the ambiance is far less noisy and far more conducive to an enjoyable lunch. (I don't know about dinnertime or Friday nights though.)

Hula-Hula has another branch at Westgate Alabang, which we've been to about 3 times already. Apart from being closer to us, we like this outlet better because it is bigger and more spacious, and the airconditioning is better than the one at Shangri-La Plaza. The last time we were there we also ordered the Crab Maritess (proclaimed as their bestseller, garlicky and cholesterolic). While dining we were treated to a modernized hawaiian dance number by the food attendants. :)

Sweet Basil Squid

2007-07-26T17:23:00.000+08:00

Mike and I, we love seafood. As you (would) probably notice, most of the recipes (and food reviews) here (will) feature prawns, squid and fish.

We also love spice. And herbs. Me, I am crazy about basil. Given a choice I will always have pesto (proof: here). I sprinkle dried basil on my pasta each time we eat at Sbarro, and I will always find an excuse to put it in stir-fries whenever possible.

I love that its smell and flavor are interestingly indescribable. There's no way to say in a few words how it specifically smells or tastes. This is because the aroma and flavor of basil is an interplay of the essential oils present in its leaves: cinnamate (same as in cinnamon), citronellol (geraniums, roses, and citronella), geraniol (as in geranium), linalool (a flowery scent also in coriander), methyl chavicol (which gives tarragon its scent), myrcene (bay, myrcia), pinene (which is, as the name implies, the chemical which gives pine oil its scent) and ocimene terpineol. (Wikipedia) There's simply no way a dish will be bland with basil in it!

There's also quite a number of basil varieties, but the most commonly known and available is sweet basil. (This is also the kind commonly used in Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese cooking.) I usually find Sweet Basil in the fresh produce section of Shopwise and SaveMore, with 100grams costing less than P20.00. (When they're in season, of course.) What an inexpensive way to put a little kick in your cuisine!

SWEET BASIL SQUID

What's In It?

1 kg. squid, cleaned, ink sacs and backbones removed, body cut into rings
1 large scallion/onion, peeled and sliced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
3 pieces red pepper (siling labuyo), sliced - optional
2 tablespoons cooking oil
5 tablespoons oyster sauce
a bunch of sweet basil, leaves removed from stalks and washed well
some leeks, sliced diagonally into rings, for garnish

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a wok over high heat, saute onions and garlic in oil for one minute. Add in squid heads and rings, siling labuyo (if using) and oyster sauce. Stir fry for a minute then add in sweet basil leaves. Stir fry a few seconds more, just to cook the leaves a little*. Adjust and correct seasonings by adding a pinch of salt or sugar.

Garnish with leeks. Serve while hot.

NOTES:

If you overcook the basil the leaves will turn black and leak all the essential oils into your food. The flavor will be very strong.
Squid becomes hard and rubbery when overcooked, so cook it over high heat quickly.

Substitutions: You can use Thai Basil for the sweet basil, other meats like pork, beef, shrimps and chicken (see at left) for the squid. Prolong stir-frying to about 3 minutes if using pork, beef or chicken, but only 1 minute for shrimps.

Ginataang Santol

2007-07-22T23:17:00.000+08:00

Every now and then -- no, make that most of the time -- I have difficulty producing good shots for this blog. You see, I usually cook for dinner and dinner happens, well, at night. The lighting isn't really the best, and I'm not (yet) very familiar with the flash settings of my cam. Add to that the fatigue from really long days... the picture above is an example of one of my wanting shots.

Ginataang Santol. Would you call it exotic? When I was 14 we had some visiting seminarians over for lunch and my lola served this dish. One of our guests asked what it was (he had trouble placing the taste) and I jokingly answered, "Ginataang Cactus." He looked so bewildered -- his tongue was saying it was good and okay, but his mind was telling him otherwise, so I told him right away it was santol before he could barf and ruin lunch for the rest of us. :)

Santol isn't exactly the stuff your usual ulam is made of. If you like some excitement and tang in your ulam I bet you'd like this, paired with crispy fried fish (tilapia, galunggong...) And I'm proud to say I'm the first ever (half) Bicolana to post it! Yay! Now would you be the first non-Bicolanos to cook it? :)

The recipe is how I recall it from weekends watching my lola's cooking.

GINATAANG SANTOL

What's In It?

3-4 pcs. Santol
4 cups coconut milk
1 scallion/onion, peeled and sliced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
3 teaspoons salt or 3 teaspoons raw bagoong alamang
3-5 pcs. siling labuyo

Kitchen Conjugations:

Peel santol. Cut in halves, remove the seeds and set aside. Dice pulp. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon salt over the diced santol, mix then pick up handfuls of the diced pulp and squeeze to remove some of the juice. (This is so the dish does not go sour beyond edibility. Hahaha.)

In a deep pan heat coconut milk, onions and garlic, stirring every now and then to avoid curdling. When the mixture boils, add in santol and salt (or alamang). Continue stirring slowly until the mixture boils. Add in siling labuyo and let the mix simmer until the coco milk is thick and reduced, about 15 minutes.

Serve with steamed rice and fried fish.

Lemon Grass Meatballs

2007-07-18T23:33:00.000+08:00

We usually joke that to the unknowing, we can be considered weird because we have pots of grasses in our garden. But hey, no, we're not actual potheads -- just people who love some lemon grass - or tanglad-- every now and then.

(Our lemon grass are potted because we just carried them over from when we were renting, and back then all our plants were potted for better portability.)

I made Lumpiang Shanghai and after a few dozen rolls, ran out of lumpia wrapper. What to do with the excess lumpia mix? Well, meatballs of course! I stuck in lemon grass stalks, courtesy of our potted-tanglad-garden, for interest. Okay, di ba?

Callos

2007-07-05T21:39:00.000+08:00

The theme of Lasang Pinoy's 19th edition -- Barrio Fiesta: Eat 'Til You Drop is the essence of the fiesta as I knew it, growing up. The feasting didn't just happen for a day -- the fiesta, the food and the merrymaking lasted for days, at least in our home.

How so?

The fiesta in our parish, The Holy Family, happens every last Sunday of the year. Before that, the following things happen: three birthdays -- my brother's, Dad's and mine (8,18 and 24) and Christmas Day. The parish fiesta usually falls somewhere from the 26th to the 29th. After that, the food-laden table on New Year's Eve and more eating on New Year's Day. (And a few days after that, my mom's birthday on the 4th.) Did you count? Eight days of eating.

And so you'd probably understand when I say it's pretty hard to remember whether there was exactly a dish we prepared especially for the fiesta. :)

Anyway, since the fiesta was practically sandwiched in between special holidays punctuated by non-stop cooking and eating, it has become a peculiar custom among us neighbors to make the fiesta a leftover potluck day. Long tables are laid out on the street and each household brings out something to share, usually leftover from Christmas day. The table gets lined with various versions of macaroni salad and/or spaghetti bolognese, laneras of leche flan and loads of ham. From time to time some lechon/lechon paksiw, morcon or festive-looking bread breaks the predictability and disappear fast from the long table.

My Callos was one such hit. :)

Thanks to the wonders of pressure-cooking, making Callos is no longer as tedious and time-consuming as it used to be. And because ox tripe and ox legs (cow's pata) are readily available from the meat section of major supermarkets, you need not wait for a fiesta to taste or serve it. :)

CALLOS

What's In It?

1 1/2 kilos beef tripe (tuwalya)
1 1/2 kilos ox leg (have the butcher chop it into 4 large chunks)
2 T garlic, minced
2 pcs. medium-sized onion, sliced
3 pcs. red bell pepper, sliced and seeded
1 kilo fresh tomatoes, blanched, peeled and sliced
1 cup grated quick-melt cheese
1/2 cup hot sauce
1 cup chick peas (garbanzos)
1 large potato, peeled and sliced into thick strips
3 pcs. Chorizo de Bilbao, sliced diagonally
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced into thick strips
4-6 bay leaves
5 teaspoons fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon pepper
pitted green olives (optional)

Wash ox leg and tripe. Boil in enough water for 30 minutes, then discard the stock*. Replace water (enough to cover the meats) and cook in a pressure cooker. The meats should be under pressure** for no more than 20 minutes. Remove from fire and let cool for 10 minutes. Check pressure by raising one of the vents. If no steam comes out it is safe to open the pressure cooker.

Remove meats from the pot. Chop tripe into rectangular strips. Remove the softened ligaments from the bones and chop into the same shape and size as the tripe. Reserve stock for later.

In a deep saucepot, saute garlic, onions and tomatoes in oil. Add bell peppers and tomatoes and saute for one more minute or until tomatoes have wilted. Add in tripe and ox ligaments. Season with fish sauce and ground pepper. Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Add stock, chili sauce, potatoes, carrots and bay leaves. Simmer for 5-7 minutes or until the potatoes and carrots are fork-tender. Stir in grated cheese, let simmer for two minutes more. Remove from fire and garnish with olives if desired.

--------
Notes:

*This is so that the stock does not get masebo and yucky smelling.

**The pressure is on if the pressure cooker begins hissing. With some pressure cookers the vents actually lift a little and dance on their bolts like polka dancers. :)

Luk Yuen

2007-07-04T00:12:00.000+08:00

My Luk Yuen staples: Deep Fried Tofu, Fish in Tausi, Beef with Kangkong and Bagoong, Bird's Nest soup and Tossed Rice Noodles. Worth the drive, worth the guilt, worth the little extra.

Bulanglang

2007-07-03T22:05:00.000+08:00

Two Saturdays ago, faced with a disciplining issue, my friend Jeng came up with a punishment that's right on the money -- having the kids eat okra. "Oh My Gulay!" They must have sighed collectively. The boys squirmed in their seats, waiting for the axe, er, slime to fall, and the power of the okra was enough to make them promise to never misbehave again.

I was raised in a carnivorous household and I can count by my fingers the number of times we were admonished to eat vegetables. And mind you, vegetables basically meant upo (bottle gourd), kangkong (swamp cabbage), repolyo (cabbage), kalabasa (squash) and sitao (string beans) -- the kid-friendly, better-tasting kind. Yet, even then, in the rare occasions when I did eat these veggies, the servings were in such small bits or mashed and taken with lots of rice, or covered with tocino, or followed up with gulps of water. Drama, suspense, action.

I hated vegetables.

And so it is a big surprise to my mother-- and moreso, to me-- that now, 30+ years after, I am now an avid fan of vegetables. I crave them. I make menus around them. I bring them to potluck parties. I skip restaurants that do not serve them. I make salads out of ampalaya, fill broths with saluyot, even go to Antipolo for bulaklak ng katuray for ensalada. Drama, suspense, action.

I woke up one day loving vegetables.

And so, for the 18th edition of Lasang Pinoy, I am writing about my first-ever attempt at Bulanglang. Bulanglang is an Ilokano dish that contains the stuff vegetable haters' nightmares are made of: saluyot, okra, talbos ng sitao, bulaklak ng kalabasa. Cooking-- and enjoying--this dish is a testament that I've really come full circle. :)

What's In It?

1 medium-sized bangus (milkfish), cut daing-style (butterfly)
2 bunches talbos ng sitao
2 bunches saluyot leaves
2 bunches okra (ladyfingers)
2 bunches squash blossoms
2 bunches string beans
5 to 6 cups water
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup bagoong balayan

Kitchen Conjugations:

Season bangus with 1 teaspoon salt then grill over charcoal until done. Remove from fire and set aside.

Wash vegetables carefully and thoroughly. Cut sitao into 3" segments, okra into halves, crosswise. Remove squash blossoms, sitao tops and saluyot leaves from their stalks. Set aside.

Boil water in a sauce pot over high heat. Add onions and bagoong balayan, let boil for a minute or so. Add in grilled bangus. Let boil for 2 to 3 minutes to allow the flavors of the fish to meld with the broth.

Carefully remove bangus from the pot and transfer to a serving bowl. Add in okra and sitao and let simmer for one and a half minutes or until the vegetables are crisp-tender.

Add in the rest of the ingredients. Let boil for another minute or until the greens are crisp tender. Remove from fire and serve topped with the grilled bangus.

Read about other veggie recipes posted by Pinoy Foobloggers in the Lasang Pinoy 18 roundup, here.

(Many, many thanks to my ageless, proudly-Ilokana friend Mama Norms who introduced this Bikolana/Tagalog to Bulanglang, and for sharing the recipe. Stay sexy. Mmmwah!)

Hong Tai Yang

2007-06-27T17:39:00.000+08:00

We discovered Hong Tai Yang as we drove home from Binondo one Sunday, when we took a detour that led us to Macapagal Boulevard. We were wondering where we were going to have lunch; Macapagal Boulevard is dotted with restaurants but we were in search of something new, and so Seaside, Gerry's Grill and classmates were out of the question.

Hong Tai Yang's billboard beckoned : "Over a 100 food choices." Clearly it was a marketing jab but what the heck, we drove in and followed the arrows to the back end of the Hobbies of Asia compound.

To our surprise, the restaurant was bustling with diners. And there, a stride from the door is the buffet counter filled with quite a variety of shabu-shabu (hotpot) and grill ingredients -- dimsum, hakaw, meats and poultry (fresh and processed, including tocino and bacon), innards and other laman loob bordering on the exotic, fish and seafood, lots of greens and other veggies....

We had a choice from among chicken, satay (which I took) and sinigang (Mike's choice) for the hotpot broth. Half an hour later we have tried half a dozen "courses," using the Teriyaki, BBQ and other condiments available, then helped ourselves to the all-you-want ice cream and halo-halo. Hay, patay na naman ang diet!

When we asked for the bill, the waiter was profuse with tips: "'Pag pumunta po kayo dito dapat yung gutom talaga kayo, tapos 'wag n'yong bibiglain. Yung iba kasi nabibigla, ayun, nagsasawa agad. Sayang din ho kasi 'yung bayad n'yo."

Oh, okay!

Anyway, we did come back four times more (and better prepared) after that, with the kids, with mom (on Mothers' Day -- boy, was the place packed!) and some friends. The kids liked the idea of being allowed to cook their own food -- and the seemingly endless supply of ice cream. :)

Hong Tai Yang opens from 11 am to 11pm daily. Lunch buffet costs P360 per head; dinner P395 (excluding rice and drinks). Kids pay only half (except on holidays). The place gets really full on weekends and special occasions, so the best time to come would be for weekday lunch, or call in for reservations.

Hong Tai Yang is at the back end of the Hobbies of Asia compound, along Macapagal Boulevard. (The entrance to the compound comes right after the Blue Lotus Spa.) HTY's frontage faces the Senate Building and is on the same row as Susan the Cooking Diva's kitchen.

Tokneneng / Kwek-Kwek

2007-06-26T06:52:00.001+08:00

This post is more than a month late for the 17th edition of Lasang Pinoy, thanks to my hiatus from blogging and bloghopping (I read the LP announcement just last night). I'm hoping the good people of LP will accept it anyway and include it in the (post) round-up.

Tokneneng is the baby version of Kwek-Kwek, boiled chicken eggs coated with orange-tinted batter commonly sold on the street. Tokneneng is made of boiled quail eggs. Both Kwek-kwek and Tokneneng are my boys' favorites, and today I decided to treat them to the hygienic version. (As most people know, Tokneneng and Kwek-kwek get additional flavor from the spraying of smoke, dust and other airborne elements from people and vehicles passing by as they sit on display on the karitons.)

TOKNENENG

What's In It?

24 pcs. quail eggs, hard-boiled and shells removed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp + 1 pinch iodized salt
a pinch or two of black pepper powder
a pinch of Maggi Magic Sarap (optional)
1/2 cup tap water
2-3 drops red food color
2-3 drops yellow food color
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (for dusting)
1 cup cooking oil (for frying)

Kitchen Conjugations:

1) In a shallow pan prepare and heat cooking oil over medium heat.

2) Meantime, stir in food color into water until you get the desired tint. (Tip: Go for a little darker because the shade will pale when combined with the starches.)

2) In a medium bowl combine 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, cornstarch, salt, pepper and Magic Sarap or MSG (if using). Gradually add-in colored water, pouring a little at a time as you beat the batter with slow strokes. Add in any remaining water until the batter is fluid but thick. (See picture above. PS - I ran out of red food color so the batter is yellow.)

3) Pour the extra 1/4 cup all-purpose flour into a plastic bag or container. Add in the shelled quail eggs, cover/seal and roll to coat. (This gives the batter something to cling on.)

4) Dunk the floured eggs into the batter. Pick up using two teaspoons (so that you can keep the eggs rolling and coating in the thick batter and keep them as round as possible) then pop into the hot oil.

5) Fry for a minute each side or until the batter sets. Remove with a slotted spoon and allow to cool and drain on a colander.

6) Serve with sweet-chili sauce or sweet and sour sauce (bottled versions available at supermarkets) or spiced vinegar (white vinegar with minced red onion and a sprinkling of ground black pepper and salt). Enjoy!

PS uli: Today's tokneneng, happening on a school day, figured in the boys' lunch box. To make sure the Toknenengs stay crisp and fresh, the sauce was stored separately, to be poured in just before eating. The extra sauce packs I take home and keep from our fastfood eat-outs came handy. :)

SOME TRIVIA:

1) A quail egg has 3 times more cholesterol than a chicken egg.

2) The chicken figurine in the picture above is a candlestick holder, part of a set I bought in 1997. Her partner, the rooster, fell into pieces after being thrown into the air by one of my nieces, who thought it was plastic and was a toy. They were samples for an export project, and I have not found a replacement for Mr. Rooster.

3) The Easter Eggs (at the background) I bought from the Custom Clay Shop factory in San Pedro, for P10.00 each (I think they sold for P120 each at the malls). Gambel accidentally broke one of the eggs yesterday when his kicking pad flew while practicing TKD.

Maki Mo 'To?

2007-06-16T05:41:00.000+08:00

After my Spaghetti House craze came my Teriyaki Boy fad. But I didn't go bananas over the teriyaki -- I went there almost everyday for the California Maki and Futo Maki.

Sorry to cross your hopes, but nope, I am not infanticipating. This craving is strictly weirdo.
Shown here are the makis I ordered at Teriyaki Boy in Megamall, right when we took a break from my ninang dress adventure. Sorry if the photo leaves much to be desired -- there's only so much that can be done under poor lighting and with a camphone.

The makis, however, performed according to expectations.

Easter Eggs

2007-04-11T00:09:00.000+08:00

So I'm back -- after 10 years. :) I've been back in the kitchen but haven't been as prolific as before, so I'm afraid my posts would still be not as frequent as they were. For now I'd like to share the "recipe" for easter egg dyes and how to paint easter eggs.

Of course it'd be a lot simpler to just buy chocolate eggs, or just fill up plastic eggs with goodies, but where's the fun in that? My kids and I spent 2 hours painting last Saturday-- 2 hours less of boredom and inactivity.

Easter Eggs

What's in it?

20 eggs - good for 4 kids/kids at heart (a child can paint 5 eggs and still be bitin!)
food colors: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, violet, pink... you get the drift. :)
tap water
white vinegar

Kitchen Conjugations:

For the eggs:
1. Put eggs in a saucepan and add water, to level that's just enough to cover all the eggs.
2. Bring water to a gentle boil (use medium heat)
3. When water boils, throw in 1/2 t salt (to prevent the eggshells from cracking)
4. Let the eggs boil for 4 minutes.
5. Remove eggs from saucepan and transfer to a deep dish with water. Let cool for half an hour.
6. Remove eggs from waterbath and air dry or wipe with cloth.

For the egg dyes:
Combine 2 teaspoons food color, half a cup of water and 2 teaspoons white vinegar in plastic cups.

To paint the eggs:

(Be sure to line the work area with old newspapers for easy clean-up afterwards.)

Plain, colored eggs - slowly drop the egg into the cup of egg dye. Remove after a minute at least. (Keep the egg longer in the dye if you want a darker shade of the color.) Remove with the use of 2 plastic spoons and lay on an egg tray to dry.

Color-Resist eggs - draw designs and shapes on the egg using crayons. Then slowly drop the egg into a food color cup of contrasting color and let it sit there for about a minute or longer for a darker shade. Remove with the use of 2 plastic spoons and lay on an egg tray to dry.

Double-shade eggs - follow directions for plain colored eggs. When the egg is dry, carefully lower half of the egg into a different-colored egg bath and hold it there for half a minute or more (depending on preferred shade).

Marbled eggs - follow directions for plain colored eggs, but apply new/different colors when the egg is almost dry, using sponges, brushes, etc.

Handpainted eggs -- follow directions for plain colored eggs, let dry then apply drawings (swirls, flowers, stripes, objects, etc.) using tools at hand.

Get adventurous, try mixing and matching . :)

A Bientot!

2007-03-13T00:02:00.000+08:00

Tossed Rice Noodles

2007-02-13T00:21:00.000+08:00

Call me weird, but I have "staple food" in the restaurants/food outlets I frequent. If it were a new restaurant I'd be adventurous and try new things, but if it were McDonald's I'd have nuggets and fries; Sbarro--Spinach and Mushroom Pizza and Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce; TOSH--Pesto with Grilled Chicken on Spaghetti; Teriyaki Boy--Agedashi Tofu, Yasai Itame and Futo Maki; and at Luk Yuen--Seafood Roll, Beef with Kangkong, Deepfried Tofu and Tossed Rice Noodles.

The first time I was served Tossed Rice Noodles (at Luk Yuen Magallanes), I was intrigued. It looked like a pale, Chinese version of our Pancit Malabon. I was skeptical, thinking it'd taste the way it looked.

I was wrong. The dish was an interesting interplay of flavors of char siu (chinese barbecue), chinese mushroom, sesame oil, shrimp and celery. I was hooked.

Since then I've tried to replicate the dish in my kitchen. The problem however, was finding char siu. So I substituted -- with smoked octopus (for the smoked, roast flavor) and bacon.

The result isn't an exact replica of the real thing, but close nonetheless and something worth the effort. :)

TOSSED RICE NOODLES

What's In It?

200g. Rice Noodles (Q Pancit Palabok)
1 egg
100g. honeycured bacon
50g. smoked octopus (optional)
100g. medium prawns, shelled and deveined
5-6 pcs. dried chinese mushroom, soaked, softened and cut into thin strips
1 small carrot, peeled and julienned
1 chayote fruit, peeled and julienned
1 small bell pepper, julienned
2 stalks celery, diced
1 large red onion, peeled and sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup cooking oil
a pinch each of salt and pepper
5 teaspoons fish sauce

Kitchen Conjugations:

1. Soak rice noodles in tap water for 15 minutes.
2. Meantime, make a thin omelette of the egg. Remove from fire and cut into strips. Set aside.
3. Fry bacon into crisps, then cut into 1/2" strips.
4. Cook rice noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.
5. Heat cooking oil in a wok or deep pan. Saute onions and garlic.
6. Stir in carrots, bell pepper, mushroom, chayote and celery. Season with a pinch each of salt and pepper. Stir fry for 30 seconds.
7. Add in cooked rice noodles. Season with fish sauce and stir fry for another 30 seconds.
8. Toss in egg strips, bacon and smoked octopus. Add a dash of sesame oil then stir fry for half a minute.
9. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and minced green onions if desired. Serve hot.

Happy Eating! :)

Guyabano (Soursop)

2007-01-29T15:53:00.000+08:00

Acquired tastes -- the hallmark of growing old. Once upon a time, I hated finding in my lunch box a jar of guyabano shake/juice which well-meaning mom made for me. Seven, eight years old, and your beverage world is all about Tang.

Thirty-three, and I find myself liking -- no, loving -- coffee. And green salads. And craving for vegetables. And yes, guyabano.

Guyabano, like its relative durian, is the caviar of fruits. You either love it or hate it. I'm on the love side now.

I shook with excitement when I saw it in the Carmona Public Market. I checked with the vendor if it could be eaten right away. When she said yes, I paid her P40.00 for my 750-gram treasure.

At home after snapping a few shots (just so I can tell you), I sliced the guyabano open, sprinkled one slice with a few grains of salt, then slipped away a few moments to salty-sweet-sour heaven.

Ginisang Munggo and Prinitong Bugyo

2007-01-25T05:15:00.000+08:00

"Ano ho'ng tawag, diyan?"
"Bugyo. Flying fish."
"Ano ho'ng luto diyan?"
"Paksiw. Saka prito."
"Sige, pabili nga ho ng kalahati. Pero wag n'yong putulin yung nguso, para makita ng mga anak ko."

I do not trust myself with buying fish. Checking for freshness, what's good for what isn't exactly my forte, and so it is my husband who buys fish. But it isn't always that I see this fish at the wet market in Pacita Complex, and I knew the find would be news to my husband:

"Wow! Saan ka nakakuha niyan?"
"Sa Pacita. Ano'ng tawag sa inyo nito?"
"Bangsi. Flying fish yan e."
"Sabi nga sa akin."

And so he fried up the bugyo/bangsi/flying fish while I cooked up the monggo.

I remember the story of one classmate who, according to lore, sauteed monggo beans straight up -- sans pre-broiling-- and invented the first ever chunky Monggo Guisado. I heard of one story too where another beginner made ginisang monggo with what seemed like a balde (pail) of sabaw. And so while I trust you are all adept *kitcheners,* (kusineras -- hehehe) I'd have to post the recipe for those who need a tip or two.

Tip #1: To save on gas and to shorten cooking time, wash then soak monggo beans in water for at least 30 minutes before boiling. You can do the soaking in the same pot where you intend to boil the beans. (Better if you can soak for 2 to 3 hours prior.)

Tip #2: Boil the monggo beans to soften them before sauteeing. If you've soaked the beans for at least 30 minutes, boiling time would be about 15-20 minutes. The beans are soft if the seed coat separates from the seed.

Tip #3. Do NOT boil monggo seeds in your pressure cooker.

Tip #4. They MULTIPLY exponentially. So do not cook a lot unless you intend to eat monggo for one whole week or feed a whole baranggay. One cup (about P10.00) feeds 6 to 8.

Tip #5. To pre-boil the beans, use 4 cups of water for every cup of monggo beans.

Tip #6. The green ones work best. Although some swear by the yellow ones. As for me, the red variety is strictly for hopia. ;)

GINISANG MUNGGO

What's In It?

3 T cooking oil
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 medium ripe tomato, washed and sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup (about 80 g.) green monggo, pre-boiled
50g. hibe (dried shrimps), optional
50g. pork pigue, diced*
2 to 3 pcs. tinapa (smoked fish), scaled and flaked
4 to 5 cups water
1 bunch ampalaya (bitter gourd) tops, washed, leaves separated from vines (optional)
patis (fish sauce) to taste

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat oil in a wok or deep pan. Saute onions, garlic and tomatoes for one minute. Add in pork and stir fry until lightly browned. Stir in hibe, tinapa, pre-boiled monggo beans and patis. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes over low fire.

Add in water and let simmer for another 5 minutes to allow the ingredients to meld. Top with ampalata tops and let simmer for half a minute or until the leaves change color. Serve with fried fish and steamed rice.

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*or use 1 pork broth cube or 50 g. chicharon

Sinigang na Sugpo (Prawns in Sour Soup)

2007-01-22T18:04:00.000+08:00

On our way back from Baguio on New Year's Eve we passed by a series of street vendors selling tiger prawns along the highway at Sison, Pangasinan. The prawns were really huge -- an outstretched piece measured 6 inches on the average. We stopped to ask and lo, a surprise -- we were told the prawns sell for only P450 a kilo! (Back in Manila Mike bought much smaller ones for P550 per kilo, so we actually exchanged surprised, incredulous glances when we heard the price!) My husband hastily bought two kilos, and I dreamed of making Prawns Thermidor for media noche.

When we got home many hours after we weighed the prawns in and found to our dismay that the pack was short of 500g or so. Talk about disappointment. Filipinos cheating fellows. Shame.
Mental note to self: Bring your own weighing scale the next time.

Anyhow, I was too tired and low bat (and much too much in a rush) that I didn't get to make Prawns Thermidor that night. I cooked half the bunch into Chili Butter Shrimp instead. Of course, if and when I get to make Prawns Thermidor, you'd see the recipe here.

The prawns you see up there were bought and cooked many months ago (on Easter Sunday in fact, the next one but a few months away). Ang layo ba ng segue? Hehehe. Sowee!

Sinigang na Sugpo (Prawns in Sour Soup)

What's In It?

500g. prawns or shrimp
6 to 8 cups rice washing or tap water
1 bunch sitao (string beans), cut into 2" lengths
1 to 2 pieces labanos (radish), peeled and sliced into half-inch wedges
2 bunches kangkong (swamp cabbage), leaves separated from stalks, washed
2 red onions, peeled and quartered
2 large ripe tomatoes, washed and quartered
1 knob ginger, peeled and sliced into rings
2 pcs green peppers (optional)
juice of 6 to 8 calamansi (Philippine lemon) or 1 sachet Knorr Sinigang sa Calamansi
1 1/2 t iodized salt or 1 T fish sauce

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a saucepan combine the ricewashing/water, onions, tomatoes, ginger and green pepper then heat to a rolling boil. Add in shrimps/prawns, radish and string bean slices and let boil for another two minutes or until the radish becomes translucent. Season with the salt/fish sauce, calamansi juice and simmer for 30 seconds, then add in kangkong leaves. Let simmer for 30 seconds or so, enough to blanch the leaves.

Serve while hot.

Pescado Grande with Tausi (Fish with Salted Black Beans)

2007-01-16T04:11:00.000+08:00

I'M ALIVE!

After 10 years (tee-hee-hee), I'm back in blogging form. Not to spoil the surprise, but let me say there'd be changes in this blog soon, and this post will be among the few of the 'old school'. Let's enjoy it while it lasts. :)

First off for this year is a fish dish, payback for all the crimes committed during the holiday season. :)

Here's the fish: a fairly large one. As I write this, my husband is in China and isn't around to identify it for me, so for the moment let's call it Pescado Grande. :) We bought it at the Arranque Market for P250 per kilo, and I think it weighed in close to 2 kilos. That's a broadsheet newspaper it's lying on, and it occupied 2/3 of the sheet. Pretty big, huh?

Anyway, after the descaling and slicing into more manageable slices, Mike fried Pescado Grande and I took it from there. Recipe below. I'm scaling it down to a more manageable size for you who are not too much into fish eating. :)

FISH WITH SALTED BLACK BEANS

What's In It?

500g. to 800g. fried fish*
3-5 T cooking oil
2 T tausi (salted black beans)
3 T ginger, peeled and sliced into thin strips
1 red onion, sliced
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c to 3/4 c water
3 -5 T brown sugar
3 t cornstarch dissolved in 5 t water

Kitchen Conjugations:

Lay fried fish/fish slices on a serving platter.

Heat cooking oil in a wok or frying pan. Saute ginger, onions and garlic until onions are translucent, about 2 minutes. Add tausi and stir fry for 30 seconds before adding water.
Let simmer for 3 minutes. Adjust seasonings by adding a pinch each of salt and pepper, then stir in cornstarch mixture. Let simmer for a minute or so or until the sauce thickens.

Pour over the fish slices and serve immediately. Garnish with chopped spring onions or wansoy if desired.

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*Fried tilapia, labahita, bangus, dalagang bukid, bisugo, maya-maya will work just as well.

Chicken Teriyaki - Pinoy version

2006-12-05T23:58:00.000+08:00

The word teriyaki is a combination of two Japanese words: teri, which means luster and yaki, which means grilled. Of all meats, chicken is the most commonly used for teriyaki, although the recipe works well with other meats like beef, pork and turkey, as well as fish and seafood.

My first taste of teriyaki was back in UP, from one of the outlets in CASAA. Back then though, owing perhaps to the constraints of affordability, time and effortlessness, CASAA teriyaki were not grilled but were stir-fried (quite like bulgogi) on flat, stove-top griddles. Instead of whole chicken thighs or breast cutlets we got strips. Back then too, a set of beef teriyaki with sauteed mongo sprouts and a cup of rice, takeout (that costs higher than dine-in because you pay for the styro pack) is a measly P24.00!

Ah, those were the days. All I had to think about was how to budget my baon and how to make it through my next Calculus exam!

But going back on track, here's my recipe for Teriyaki. A cross between the budget-conscious UP version I loved and the sosy version everybody loves.

What's In It?

2 chicken breasts, skinned, deboned and cut into bite-sized strips
1/3 c light soy sauce
1 T brown sugar
2 T corn oil
1 T vinegar
1/2 t ground ginger
1 clove garlic, minced

Kitchen Conjugations:

Combine the ingredients in a bowl and chill in the refrigerator overnight. Heat about 1 teaspoon of cooking oil in a wok then stir-fry the marinated meat for 2 minutes. Add a little of the marinade when the meat gets done and simmer for 2 minutes more.

Serve hot with sauteed mongo sprouts with steamed rice and a garnish of onion leek strips.

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How is this different from the authentic Japanese version? Well, that one uses mirin (sweet rice wine) and sake (rice wine). Here, those are substituted with vinegar balanced by the brown sugar. And since this is stir-fried, you can easily make it in the morning for school or office baon.

Ginataang Kalabasa at Sitaw (Squash and String Beans in Coconut Milk)

2006-12-05T16:14:00.001+08:00

Checking my site stats I was surprised to find out that many people have landed on my site in their search for a recipe of Ginataang Kalabasa and Sitaw. I thought nothing of it back in October, thinking that perhaps many Filipinos were simply looking for what to do with the flesh of carved pumpkins/squash used for halloween. But guess what, it's almost Christmas but "ginataang kalabasa" still figures prominently in my site's keyword activity! Strange, but true.

Anyways, I've been honored by a request from starlightjulian, who asked for an English version of the recipe I posted in August (I posted in Filipino, in commemoration of Filipino Language Month). Here it is, enjoy!

GINATAANG KALABASA AT SITAW (Squash and String Beans in Coco Milk)

What's In It?

2 squash segments , washed well and cut into cubes (leave unpeeled)
1 bunch string beans, cut into 2" portions
1 medium sized onion, peeled and quartered
1 knob ginger, peeled, sliced and pounded
1 head garlic, peeled and pounded
3-5 pieces chili (use less or none at all if spice is an issue!)
6 to 8 cups canned/instant coco milk, or freshly squeezed from 1 large coconut, or 2 medium ones
100 grams pork fat (optional)
dried anchovies or shrimp fry (optional)
salt, according to taste

Kitchen Conjugations:

Follow package directions to make instant coco milk. If using fresh coconut, pour one cup lukewarm water over coco meat and leave for 1 minute. Add about 4 cups of tap water to moisten all of the coco meat. Take a handful or two of the moist coco meat, squeeze it between your hands, catching the coco milk with a strainer over a deep bowl or the saucepan you will use for cooking.

Add in the onions, garlic and ginger and the pork fat (if using) and heat the mixture over medium fire, stirring continuously to prevent curdling. (Use left to right slow sweeping motions to introduce motion into the mixture without unnecessarily dissipating heat and allow the mixture to boil.)

When mixture boils, add in the squash and allow to boil, stirring from time to time until the squash is half-cooked. Add in string beans and chili (if using) and simmer until the beans sweat and changes color. Season with salt and sprinkle with smoke fish flakes, dried anchovies or shrimps if desired. (If you're brave enough go ahead and crush the chili on the sides of the pan and stir back into the mixture.)

Best served hot with steamed rice and crispy fried fish.

Pasta Negra

2006-12-05T00:53:00.000+08:00

Since sampling Pasta Negra at The Old Spaghetti House I've been wanting to make a go for my own version, but I haven't had luck finding squid ink pasta in Shopwise or SaveMore. Last Saturday, as I was cleaning some giant squids my husband brought home from the weekend market, one of the ink sacs burst and gave me a "try and see" opportunity. First, to see whether I can blacken regular spaghetti by adding some of the ink to cooked spaghetti and then to see whether I can make savory squid ink sauce without the lansa.

I failed the first test. The spaghetti didn't blacken. Maybe I should've added the ink to the water during cooking, before adding the pasta, to give the spaghetti enough chance to absorb the blackened water.

I passed the second challenge however. The sauce wasn't malansa. Yipee. The secret? Check out the recipe:

Pasta Negra (Squid Ink Spaghetti)

What's In It?

250 g. spaghetti, cooked according to package directions/until al dente

3 T olive oil

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, minced

250 g. squid, sacs removed and ink reserved, sliced into rings or bite sized pieces

2 packs 250g Clara Ole Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce

1/4 c cooking wine or white wine*

1.5 t iodized salt

1.5 t ground black pepper

1/2 t dried basil leaves (or rosemary)

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a saucepan heat oil then saute onions and garlic for one and a half minutes or until onions are soft. Turn up heat then add in squid, stir frying for 30 seconds, then stir in salt and pepper and (cooking) wine. Let simmer for 30 seconds then add in spaghetti sauce and squid ink, then leave to simmer for 2 minutes. Sprinkle dried herbs and let simmer for 30 seconds more, then adjust seasonings as necessary.

Stir in cooked pasta and toss to coat. Serve with garlic toast (and a glass of chilled Riesling, Chablis or Sauvignon Blanc. Hehehe).

Would have been great for Halloween, and what shrieks would have been if the tentacles suddenly moved on their own just as you were digging in! :)

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*You may also use Mirin, Sake with a little sugar, some beer, or whatever wine you have available AND enjoy drinking.

Sinigang na Bangus with Tanglad

2006-12-01T11:37:00.000+08:00

Rainy and windy (albeit stormy) weather is always good for one thing -- hot broths. Bulalo would have been nice, but my, the cholesterol! So we opted for Sinigang na Bangus.

As in all broths and stocks, the best flavor comes from the bony parts -- the bone marrow makes bulalo savory, the buto-buto or ribs makes Sinigang na Baboy flavorful. For fish sinigang, well, I believe the head and the tail are the best parts. (Reserve the belly for frying. Make it crisp and wow -- you've got the best combination!)

Anyhow, I discovered SeaKing's Bangus head and tails pack in Shopwise. The pack, which costs P30.00 max, is all head and tails, 500 grams. Throw in some veggies and you have soup for 8! Great, di ba? The tanglad was thrown in for flavor, but go ahead without it and you'd be okay. :)

SINIGANG NA BANGUS WITH TANGLAD

What's In It?

500 g. Bangus, head and tails

1 teaspoon salt

1 large red onion, peeled and quartered

1 large or 2 medium ripe tomatoes, quartered

1 knob ginger, peeled and sliced diagonally

juice of 8 calamansi or 1 pack Knorr Sinigang sa Calamansi mix

1 bunch tanglad (lemongrass), about 8 stalks

8 to 10 cups rice washing, or tap water

2 bunches kangkong, leaves separated from stalks

1 bundle okra, sliced diagonally into 2" pieces

2 teaspoons salt or fish sauce

Kitchen Conjugations:

Wash head and tails and season with 1 teaspoon salt. Set aside.

In a saucepan, boil water/rice washings with the onions, ginger, tomatoes and tanglad. Add in okra and fish when water comes to a rolling boil. Simmer for 2 minutes then season with calamansi and salt or fish sauce. Simmer for another 2 minutes, then add in kangkong. Leave to boil for another minute then remove from heat. Adjust seasonings if necessary, then serve.

Tanglad is usually removed before serving, but I always leave it in for drama. :)

Wansoy and Kinchay

2006-11-24T23:23:00.000+08:00

It's almost Christmas, yikes! And while I'm gaining headway in the gift-shopping and home decorating department, I realized I have quite a number of unpublished posts, dating as far back as Easter (For shame!). It's time to put them out before they become hopelessly outdated and/or worse, I forget what I did with them in the first place. (Memory gap. Ehem.)

Let me start clearing them out with this: a treatise on how to tell between Wansoy and Kinchay. Profound, no? Hahaha.

--------------

At first glance the bunches of greens above would look the same to you. They're so similar you'd mistake one for the other. Many people actually think they're one and the same. In fact, I've been hard-pressed to find references distinguishing the two. Many sites refer to them as originating from Coriandrum sativum, and as I am not a botanist, nay, not even a farmer, I will not try to refute that.

However, my taste buds say the two are different. And so here goes what probably is the first ever article on the difference between Kinchay and Wansoy. Aren't you honored to be reading it? Hehehe.

First off, a pop quiz: which of the two bunches above is Wansoy? Left, or right?

If you said Left, engk! Wrong answer.

A year ago someone in the SM Supermarket at Festival Mall mislabeled their Wansoy as Kinchay. As I didn't know any better back then I bought a bunch and used it in my pancit, to disastrous results. I wanted aroma and tang and I got both, but the different, weird kind. (Quite like using wasabe instead of siling labuyo to spice up your Ginataang Alimasag or Bicol Express. That weird.)

Wansoy (Coriander) is an herb commonly used in Thai cooking. If you've had Tom Yum or Thai Spring Rolls you've probably tasted its unique spicy-sweetish blend, and it's what gives Thai Curry a distinct flavor. Of the two, it is more pungent. (Some even dislike its smell, which they say resemble that of squished bedbugs. Shush.)

Kinchay (Cilantro/Chinese Parsley) on the other hand is a common feature in Chinese cooking, and is more citrusy in aroma. Break off a little piece of its stalk and you'd note that the smell resembles that of celery. If you've had Lumpiang Shanghai or Chopsuey you'd have probably tasted the spice that's uniquely Kinchay.

So, that's it. One way to tell is by smell. After the SM fiasco I stopped relying on labels and started holding the bunches to my nose to smell the roots. I no longer get funny tasting pancit, just funny looks from other shoppers. :)

Anyhow, if you prefer not to look weird when you shop, then take note of the differences in the shape, size and grooves of these leaves:

Kinchay has bigger but narrower leaves, and less grooves on its leaf blade. As you can see, Wansoy looks a little like grown versions of parsley, and a baby version of Celery. So if you're in the greens section and are unsure whether it's Kinchay or Wansoy you're looking at, try to find some parsley and/or celery and compare.

Put side by side they look something like a His and Hers watch. What do you think? :)

Adobong Kangkong

2006-11-17T19:16:00.000+08:00

This would have been my entry to the 15th Lasang Pinoy Food Blogging Event, entitled "Recycled, Reloaded," which was about doing something (meaningful) from leftovers. Apart from challenging the Filipino creative genius (which naturally extends to culinary skills), the theme also promotes cost-effectiveness. Magaling, mura, masarap.

I wasn't able to post this it in time for the deadline though. Sayang.
I was thinking of another dish -- wanted to make Pandesal Pizzas or Bread Pudding (expecting leftover bread) but didn't get around to doing it. Talagang ang trabaho, istorbo sa blogging! :)

Too late did I realize I actually had a post in draft mode which utilized leftovers. Sayang.

Anyway...

(Update: I get in afterall! Lasang Pinoy 15 host Mike Mina of Lafang was kind enough to include this late post in the round up. Yey! Thanks Mike!)

What do you do with the skin leftover from when you have your pork ground by your carnero at the market? Me I cut them into strips, pack them into 50-gram or so portions and freeze them for later use in sautes or as toppings for noodle dishes or vegetable stir-fries, as I usually do for Kangkong on Fire, and in the recipe below...

ADOBONG KANGKONG

What's In It?

2 - 3 bundles Kangkong (swamp cabbage), leaves separated from stalks
2 T cooking oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
100 g. pork, cut into strips
1/2 c water
1 T all-purpose flour
1 c water
2 T soy sauce
2 T vinegar
1/2 t ground black pepper

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a pan boil pork skin strips until water dries. Add a little cooking oil and fry skins over medium heat until brown and crisp. (Don't forget to cover the pan, especially if you're a putok ng mantika magnet like me.) Remove from pan and set aside.

In the same oil, saute onions and garlic for one minute. Add in flour and 1 c water, soy sauce, vinegar and pepper. Bring to a boil, then add kangkong, let boil for another minute or just until the kangkong sweats and changes color a bit.

Transfer onto a serving dish and top with the crisp pork skins.

lasangpinoy15

Buko Tarts

2006-11-16T23:01:00.000+08:00

Out in Malabon on official business sometime last month, we were served great tasting Buko Tarts (which, we found out later, came all the way from Tagaytay). I liked it because it was not too sweet, the crust was buttery and flaky and the filling was just in the right level of creaminess. It was so good I was tempted to eat a whole serving (I meant to share the calories with my husband), savoring and complementing (or is 'compounding' the better word?) the sinfulness by gulping ice-cold Coke. Gosh. I haven't done that for ages! (Bless me father for I have sinned...)

Well, you know what happens when I get impressed with food -- I try making it myself in my kitchen. I wasted no time sending out for fresh buko, and made crust. The 'experiment' lasted less than an hour, and produced 18 buko tarts. The verdict? Jam ate three right away, despite the filling being piping hot!

Here's the recipe:

BUKO TARTS

What's In It?

Tarts
2 cups all purpose flour
1 t. salt
1/2 c butter
3 to 4 T cold water

Filling
2 cups buko meat, cut into shreds
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c evaporated milk
1/2 c cornstarch dispersed in
1/2 c buko water
a few drops of Buko Pandan flavoring (optional)

Tools/Wares Needed:
Medium sized Aluminum Puto/Tart Molds (P56.75 per 6 pieces at ValuePoint)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Get the butter out of the ref to soften it a bit. Set aside and start making the filling: In a medium sized pot or deep pan, combine the filling ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat. Simmer and stir until the mixture thickens. (The best is a gluey consistency that you can still spoon. Be careful not to overcook or else the mixture will get into a paste consistency.) Remove from fire and set aside.

Work with the tarts: Combine the salt and flour in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into cubes with a knife, then cut it into the flour-salt mixture using a pastry cutter or the tines of a fork. (The flour will combine with the butter and you're supposed to end up with a crumbly mixture.) Moisten the dough with the cold water, mix and gather into a ball. Roll out and flatten the dough with a rolling pin (or a floured wine/water bottle) to about 1/8" thick.

Cut out round pieces of the dough using egg rings (if you have), jars or round plastic wares whose mouths are bigger than the size of your tart molds. Cut the remaining dough into even-sized strips (to be used as topping later).

Lightly dust the tart molds with flour, then line each with the round dough cut-outs. Press the dough to the bottom and sides of each mold. Fill each with Buko filling then top with the dough strips, making lattices.

Bake for 5-7 minutes or until the tops turn golden brown at 200C in a Turbo Broiler. (Note: baking time is longer in a conventional oven; shorter in an oven toaster.)

Let cool before taking out of the individual molds.

One Beginning, Three Endings

2006-11-14T21:17:00.000+08:00

Here's a tribute to working mothers, people who just have so much on their hands, or those with kitchen phobia: A dish that starts with a single, simple step, but which finishes into 3 dishes. Make this ahead and you have something quick for baon (so you can snatch longer Zzzsss), something to serve when you have unannounced company, or for times when you just don't feel like cooking. If you're a newbie cook, today you'd be learning 3 recipes in one!

Note that the each recipe shares an ingredient or two with one of the recipes, to save on prep time. I also used only one pan for the three recipes so there's less to wash up afterwards. :)

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The Beginning actually leads to infinite possible dishes but for this post it finishes into Mock Chicken Pastel, Chicken Afritada and Soy Chicken with Mushrooms:

One Beginning, Three Endings

What's In It?

The Beginning: Chicken Saute
1 1/2 kgs chicken breast, chopped into small portions
1 large onion or 2 medium ones, peeled and sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
5 T fish sauce
2 t ground pepper
1/4 c cooking oil

Mock Chicken Pastel
1/3 of the Chicken Saute
1 can vienna sausage, sliced diagonally or into rings
1 small red bell pepper, cubed
1 small potato, peeled, cubed and fried*
1 small carrot, peeled, cubed and fried*
1/4 c green peas
1/4 c button mushrooms (pieces and stems)
1/2 c evaporated milk
1 c hot water

Chicken Afritada
1/3 of the Chicken Saute
1 small sachet tomato sauce (or 5 T tomato paste + 1 c hot water)
3 bay (laurel) leaves
1 small red bell pepper, cubed
1 small potato, peeled, cubed and fried*
1 small carrot, peeled, cubed and fried*

Soy Chicken with Mushrooms
1/3 of the Chicken Saute
1/4 c soy sauce
1 c hot water
1 small can buttom mushrooms (pieces and stems)
3-4 stalks green onion, minced, for garnish

Kitchen Conjugations:

CHICKEN SAUTE. In a wok or deep pan heat oil over high heat. Fry the potatoes and carrots until half cooked. Remove and transfer into a dish. Set aside.

In the same oil, saute onions until soft and translucent, then add garlic, stir frying for about a minute. Add in chicken, stir fry for 30 seconds, then add fish sauce and ground pepper. Stir. Cover and let simmer for 2 minutes or until chicken loses its pinkish color.

Remove about 2/3 of the chicken from the pan and transfer onto a dish. Set aside.

You are now ready to make Mock Chicken Pastel.

MOCK CHICKEN PASTEL

Let the chicken saute simmer for three more minutes, then add in hot water, milk and half of the fried potatoes and carrots. Let simmer until the vegetables are fork-tender, stirring from time to time, about 3 minutes. Add in sliced sausages and green peas and mushrooms and let simmer for another minute.

Transfer the chicken pastel to a serving/heat proof dish. Set aside.

Bring the pan back to stove and you're now ready to cook Chicken Afritada.

CHICKEN AFRITADA

Pour in the chicken saute and let simmer for two minutes before adding tomato sauce/tomato paste and water. Throw in bay leaves, bell pepper and the fried potatoes and carrots, then let simmer for 3 minutes or until the vegetables are fork-tender. Adjust seasonings (salt and pepper) to taste. Add a little brown sugar (about 2 tablespoons) if you want the sauce to be on the sweet side. Let simmer for another minute then transfer the afritada onto a serving/heatproof plate and set aside.

Brick the pan back to the stove and work with the next dish.

SOY CHICKEN WITH MUSHROOMS

Add in the remaining chicken saute. Pour in the soy sauce and hot water, let boil then simmer for 3 minutes. Stir in mushrooms and cook for another minute. Check seasonings and adjust if needed. Transfer onto a serving plate and garnish with spring onions.

Notes: (Sorry, I can't resist!)

1) Substitute young corn for the mushroom in Soy Chicken and you've got a new dish.

2) For the chicken afritada, add in one or more of the ff: fried saba, baguio beans, cabbage.. and voila! It's Chicken Pochero!

3) Omit the sausage from the Mock Pastel, use coconut milk instead of evap and stir in 4 teaspoons curry powder and you have Chicken Curry!

4) Saute some ginger strips in a little hot oil before you add the chicken saute, then stir in some brown sugar and some rice wine (if available), sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and sliced leeks and what have you got? Chicken Teriyaki!

5) Of course, you can always use beef or pork for chicken.

Goodluck to your kitchen adventures.... tell me about it. :)

Chili Butter Shrimps

2006-11-08T09:52:00.000+08:00

Olive was kind enough to make patol to the question at the end of my "Unposted" post and requested this recipe. Thanks for the moral support, girl! (The rest of you who just lurked -- how could you! Tampo, tampo, tampo....joke!)

Anyhow, I cooked this soooooo long ago that I forgot what I ACTUALLY did with it. That's the problem with unscientific chefs like me who rely on approximations and gut feel... one dish is never like the other because the ingredients and the method are all spur of the moment! Nevertheless, here's what I think I did:

CHILI BUTTER SHRIMPS

What's In It?

1 kg. shrimps or prawns
4 tablespoons Star Margarine garlic flavor
1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons hot sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar*
1 teaspoon salt*
2 stalks leeks, white part separated from greens,
both cut diagonally into 1/4" strips

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add in margarine and stir until melted. Add in the white part of the leeks, stir fry for ten seconds, then add in shrimps. Stir fry for one minute, or until the shrimp/prawns turn orange. Add in oyster sauce and hot sauce and a little hot water if desired (to make more sauce). Stir fry the ingredients some more or until heated through. Check and adjust seasonings. Serve garnished with the rest of the sliced leeks.

Notes:

1) Add in the brown sugar if you want the dish to be on the sweet-side. Add the salt if you want the dish to be saltier, although personally I am alright with the saltiness imparted by the oyster sauce.

2) If you have time to spare, you can remove the head, the shells (but leave the tail intact) and devein the shrimp (remove the grayish-blackish strip along its back).

3) If Star Margarine garlic is unavailable, substitute with 3 tablespoons butter or regular margarine and 3 cloves of garlic, minced. Add in the garlic after the butter or the margarine melts and saute for 1 minute.

4) Seafood shrinks when heated, so keep cooking time to a minimum. If possible, choose bigger sizes to keep the food 'visible.' Hehehe.

Apple Crumble

2006-10-05T21:45:00.000+08:00

Malou cooked up a party for her husband, Lito and invited us over. I actually asked her what she wanted me to bring for dessert -- leche flan or refrigerator cake -- and she said, "Kahit ano, aprub!" But I got tied down at the office to the last minute and didn't have time to beat eggs for leche flan nor enough time to cool a ref cake so I opted for dessert that could be served warm. Incidentally, the something warm I thought of is something I've been dreaming about for months (since the time I last ate them at The Bellevue) -- Apple Crumble.

The preparation wasn't without glitches though. On the way home I was worried that I didn't have cinnamon left and was pondering substitutes -- will vanilla work as well? When I got home (45 minutes before we were due at Malou's) I ran to my pantry, found I have more than enough cinnamon, thanked God out loud, then went to work with the apples and the crumble.

Then during baking, my 10-year old Turbo Broiler conked out (the loose power plug had melted the insulation, blah-blah-blah...) and I was left with a half-baked crumble and no dessert to bring to the party. Waaahh!

Good thing the man I married is a handyman and he tweaked the wires and connected new lugs, and in ten minutes the turbo was broiling again. :) We were a little late for call time but made it to Malou's with a pan of Apple Crumble anyway, which, by the way, was wiped out at dessert time. :)

This is a good alternative to apple pie, can be made in half an hour, best served warm, with whipped cream or better yet, vanilla ice cream on top.

APPLE CRUMBLE

What's In It?

5 apples ( I use Fuji)
1 cup quick-cooking oats
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
6 tbsp. butter, room temp.
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. allspice
2 tbsp. apple juice or orange juice

Kitchen Conjugations:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly butter a 9-inch square baking pan or a casserole of the equivalent size, then dust it with flour. Peel, core and slice the apples, and arrange them in the pan.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, blend the oats, brown sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon, salt and allspice on low speed until it forms a coarse meal. Crumble the mixture evenly over the apple slices and sprinkle with the juice. Bake for 35 minutes (Turbo Broiler bakers: see note below).

Makes 6 servings.

I don't have a conventional oven and used a Turbo Broiler. Baking time is shorter, about 15 minutes, or until the crumble turns golden brown.

The Old Spaghetti House

2006-10-03T10:09:00.000+08:00

Have you tried the TOSH at Festival Mall? How was your dining experience? For me it was a Hit-Miss-Hit-Miss-Hit experience.

The HITS come from the fact that their house spaghettis are generally good and affordably priced. (Cheapest is Pesto at P90.) I like the variety of sauces too, compared to those of similarly priced Sbarro's, where you only get to choose between Meat Sauce, Tomato Sauce and Cream Sauce.

How do I like it? Let me put it this way: we've been at TOSH eight times in the last two months (yes, unbelievable-but-true). And in those eight times I've had Pesto with Grilled Chicken (top right) FOUR TIMES (yup, unbelievable-bordering-on-weird), and Pasta Negra (top left) twice. I had Puttanesca and Oriental Spaghetti the other two times.

Mike likes the Seafood Marinara (bottom left) so much he's had it FIVE times. [Yep, the man's LOYAL :)] The other times he's tried Pasta Negra, Arrabiata and Pesto, both of which earned his thumb's up. :)

My kids like the Four Cheese pizza, and the Nachos Supreme, which comes with salsa, cheese and aioli dips. We've also tried Cheese Logs (deep fried rolled pizza crust stuffed with cheese), Calamares. At one time, Gambel had their Grilled Pork Chops while my lola had the Pork Scallopine with Wild Mushroom Sauce. Both got good reviews.

The MISSES come from inordinate waiting time (to be seated; to be served) and inconsistent service quality. At one visit Mike's glass of red wine, and the pizza we ordered came when we had already finished our meal and had asked for bill out! On another visit one waiter simply slid my pesto from his tray to the edge of our table, turned his back and walked away, with the unspoken instruction of "Go get it yourself." (Gasp!) The tables are also so small, space is cramped for a party of four or more. You need to finish a dish or two and have them cleared out to make space for your other orders. They don't have condiments ready on the table and you'd need to ask for parmesan, pepper or chili flakes. And horrors! No knives! How do you cut your pizza?

The saving grace has been the taste of their food. Kundi lang yon, naku...

September Birthday Cakes

2006-10-03T09:54:00.000+08:00

Wow, is it October already? And I have unposted entries and recipes from as long ago as May? Whoa!

---------------

September is birthday-busy for us. Mike's and Gambel's birthdays have 10 days in between them, and in the interim too is my lola's birthday, on the 19th. So what dates are Mike's and Gambel's birthdays? You do the Math. :)

Gambel's 6!

Gambel's birthday this year actually falls on a Saturday, so I didn't make any plans for a party in school. (We had planned to eat out.) But Gambel my Boy Wonder beat me to the no-party plan and broadcast to the whole baranggay the news of his upcoming birthday, complete with details of his supposed party fare. Kahiya naman, so I threw a mini-party anyway in his school. I hosted some party games, and served home-cooked spaghetti, chicken lollipops, and his birthday cakes:

The Banana Cupcakes answer the need for nutrition (at least the cake's not all sugar-- it packs some Vitamin A and Potassium in there) and the need for individual portions (so as to save the effort of slicing the cake). I put in a candle each so every child will have a candle to blow and there wouldn't be a wrestle for a turn at blowing the birthday candle. :) On Gambel's cupcake I put a number candle 6 for distinction. :)

Mama turns 82!

I had wanted something a little grand for Mama (my lola) because this is her first time to celebrate her birthday with us after a while of being away in NZ. But her birthday fell on a busy Tuesday, and on account of my fatherin-law's condition at the time she insisted on scrapping party plans. So instead we treated her to simple, impromptu lunch at Max's Pacita.

I bought a Mango Cake roll from the restaurant's bakeshop and decorated it with some meringue, and a birthday candle:

My lola, the gracious lady that she is, appreciated the simple celebration, despite the fact that she deserved so much more. God bless my lola.

Mike's Birthday

We marked Mike's birthday without much fanfare in the family residence in Makilala, North Cotabato -- at 12:10 am we called him inside (he was out with friends and relatives who have come to condole with us) and sang him his birthday song.

Later in the day I made Banana Cake (again) -- this time, two unbelievably large trays. It was my first time to bloat the recipe to such large proportions, I was second-guessing myself and silently praying (that the recipe turn out okay) as I mixed. 'Twas my first time too, to bake in a wood-fired pugon.

The cake turned out okay, I guess, judging from the fact that the first tray (which made 100 slices) was wiped out within 5 minutes of placement on the dining table. :)

Maize Picadillo

2006-10-01T21:56:00.000+08:00

To me this is Maize Picadillo; to some, it's made with chicken and ampalaya (bittergourd) leaves and called Suam na Mais. This version uses malunggay, is made flavorful by fresh shrimps, and has a clear broth. I learned the recipe from watching my lola who used to cook it for Saturday lunch when it's corn season. Back then she used white young corn; my version uses the sweet corn I prefer.

My lola was home from New Zealand last month and this was among the dishes I lined up for her enjoyment (to match the fried tilapia I knew she missed so badly).

Maize Picadillo/Ginisang Mais

What's In It?

6 sweet corn cobs
100 g. pork, diced
50 g. small shrimps
1 med. onion, peeled and sliced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 medium-sized ripe tomato, sliced
1 c malunggay leaves
3 T cooking oil
3 to 4 T fish sauce
6 cups tap water or pork broth

Kitchen Conjugations:

Wash corn and remove hair. Using a serrated kitchen knife, scrape off the kernels from the cobs to make about 4 to 5 cups. Set aside.

Heat cooking oil in a wok or carajay over medium heat. Saute onions, tomato slices and garlic. Add in pork and stir fry for one minute or until pork loses its pinkish tint. Stir in shrimps and corn kernels then stir fry for half a minute. Stir in fish sauce, cover, turn down heat and let simmer for about a minute and 30 seconds, to allow ingredients to sweat.

Pour in water or pork broth and let boil for 10 minutes or until the kernels are tender. Adjust seasonings, then stir in malunggay leaves. Allow to boil for half a minute to blanch malunggay. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Best with crispy fried tilapia, daing na bangus, or fried galunggong. :)

Beef Stroganoff

2006-09-15T19:11:00.000+08:00

I've been finding more and more justifications for having pasta everyday. Variety. Less calories. Ease of use. And just because... I love pasta. Fact is, I've been dining at The Old Spaghetti House for almost everyday in the past two weeks. (More about that, later.)

Anyhow, about a month ago (yes, yes, I've been blog silent...shush!) I made Beef Stroganoff (still part of my pasta series), for reasons I no longer remember, but more probably because that's what I wanted at the moment. :) Lesson here: Food bloggers ought to blog right away so that they not only share a recipe, but a story, too. :)

BEEF STROGANOFF

What's In It?

1/2 kg. spaghetti, cooked al dente
1/2 kg. beef sirloin, cut into strips
1 small can (about 1/2 cup) button mushrooms, sliced into strips
50g. butter (about a 1" x 1" x 1" cube) or 3 T garlic margarine
5 cloves garlic, minced (unnecessary if you're using garlic margarine)
2 medium onions, chopped finely
1 beef bouillon cube dissolved in
1/2 c hot water
1 c sour cream (or all purpose cream + 2 t vinegar or calamansi juice)
1/2 t mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Kitchen Conjugations:

Melt half of the butter or margarine over medium heat, then saute garlic and half of the onions until onions are soft and translucent. Add mushrooms and stir fry for one minute. Remove from heat. Melt the rest of the butter or margarine, saute the rest of the onions. Add in the beef and stir fry until beef loses its pinkish tint. Add in beef broth, salt and pepper. Boil then simmer until beef is done.

Stir in the mushrooms and onions, simmer for 30 seconds then stir in sour cream and mustard. Serve over cooked pasta (spaghetti, fetuccine or tagliatelle) or steamed rice.

Chicken Embutido

2006-09-01T19:13:00.000+08:00

My eldest loves Embutido and has been hinting to have it once more as lunchtime baon (I haven't made Embutido for a while). I chanced upon ground chicken at SaveMore and decided to try it for my recipe, and see whether it would be as flavorful as pork.

Well... it wasn't. (To me, at least.) I guess white meat is white meat and red meat is red meat. To compare them would be like comparing apples and oranges. But if you have pork restrictions or are looking for other ways of serving chicken, then this is worth a try. :) Super-easy and something you can make ahead for times when you need appetizers, lunch or dinner in a snap (like when you have unexpected company). Great with rice or as a filling for hot pandesal.

CHICKEN EMBUTIDO

What's In It?

500 g. ground chicken meat
2 boiled eggs, sliced into strips
1 medium carrot, diced
1/4 cup green peas
1 medium red bell pepper, minced
1 medium red onion, minced
1/4 cup pickle relish
1 can Purefoods vienna sausage, diced
or 4 pieces PF TJ hotdog, diced
1/4 bar Cheddar cheese, diced
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup flour or bread crumbs
3 t iodized salt
1 1/2 t
black pepper powder

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a steamer, boil a liter and a half of water. Meantime, combine all ingredients (except egg slices) in a bowl. Mix well to distribute chunky ingredients. Prepare 8" x 10" sheets of aluminum foil, and scoop about two cups of the mixture. Flatten with a spoon and spread out, leaving about 2" margins from the edges of the sheets. Lay 3 to 4 slices of the egg on the meat mixture then roll into tubes. Seal the edges by twisting or by folding. Repeat this step until all the mixture is used up.

Line the embutido rolls in the steamer pans and steam for 30-45 minutes over medium heat.
Allow to cool then slice and serve. (If desired, you can also pan-fry and brown the slices before serving.) Serve with catsup or Knorr seasoning.

--------------------
BTW, this would keep for 4 weeks in the freezer. :)

Ginataang Kalabasa at Sitaw

2006-08-27T22:31:00.001+08:00

It's Buwan ng Wika (celebration of Filipino Language Month) and what better way to join the celebration than to feature a truly Filipino recipe and post in Filipino. So here goes...

By the way, if you're not a Filipino speaker and would like an English version of this post/the recipe, leave a request at the Comments section. (",)

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Kapag umuulan, may sasarap pa ba sa mainit na kanin na kinakain ng pakamay? Yung umuusok pa at bahagyang nakakapaso, na lalo pang pinainit at pinalinamnam ng ginataang ulam na maanghang?

Tsa-raaannn! Ipinakikilala ang ulam namin dalawang (maulang) Sabado nang nakakaraan: Ginataang Sitao at Kalabasa.

Noong bata pa ako, dahil mga Bikolana ang lola at nanay ko, hindi nawawalan ng ginataang ulam sa bahay namin. Noong medyo malaki na ako at abot ko na ang kalan, naging assignment ko na ang paghahalo ng gata habang hinihintay ang pagkulo nito, para maiwasan ang pagkurta. Siempre dahil nandoon lang ako sa may kalan, nakita at namemorya ko ang mga ingredients at ang mga magic ng pagluluto ng mga ginataang ulam.

Kapag Sabado at may naabutang alimasag si Mommy, siguradong magluluto ng Ginataang Malunggay na may Alimasag. Minsan, tilapya ang ginagataan at pinapatungan ng mga dahon ng petsay o kaya'y mustasa. Kapag buwan ng Hunyo at panahon ng santol, nagluluto ang lola ko ng ginataang santol at pinapartneran ng galunggong na prinito hanggang malutong. Hay....sarap! (Nagulat ba kayong malaman na ginugulay pala ang santol? At nasabi ko na ba na maanghang pa 'yun?)

Kung hindi ginataan ang ulam, malamang na isisingit naman ang gata sa mga pang-himagas (dessert). Nakatikim na ba kayo ng Minatamis na Bayabas o kaya'y Minatamis na Munggo, Bikol version? Siempre, may gata ang mga 'yun.

Mga ilang linggo na ang nakakaraan, ayun nga at binalikan ko ang masayang bahagi na ito ng aking buhay at nagluto ako ng ginataan. Hala! Siempre nag-kanin din ako! Patay ang diyeta, tadtad ng kolesterol ang pinagkakakain ko. Heto na ang kauna-unahang resipi ng ginataang gulay na matutunghayan sa blog na ito. Pinatrneran namin ito ng pritong daing na bangus.

GINATAANG KALABASA AT SITAO

Ano'ng meron doon?

2 hiwa ng Kalabasa, hinugasan ng maiigi at hiniwa pakwadrado (iwanan ang balat)
1 bungkos ng sitao, piniraso sa mga tig-2" na hati
1 sibuyas, binalatan at pinag-apat
1 maliit na luya, binalatan, hiniwa at pinitpit
1 ulo ng bawang, binalatan at pinitpit
3-5 siling labuyo (bawasan kung hindi kaya ang anghang!)
gata ng 1 malaking niyog, o dalawang maliit
100 gramong taba ng baboy (opsyonal)
dilis, tuyong alamang (opsyonal)
asin (ayon sa panlasa)

Trabaho sa Kusina:

Pakuluin ang gata, sibuyas, bawang at luya (at taba ng baboy, kung nais) sa kawali sa ibabaw ng bahagyang apoy nang hindi tinitigilan ang paghalo (para hindi magkurta ang gata). Pagkulo, ihalo ang mga pinirasong kalabasa at hayaang kumulo, hinahalo paminsan-minsan. Kapag bahagya nang lumambot ang kalabasa, idagdag ang sitao at mga siling labuyo, at pakuluin hanggang sa magpawis at maging bahagyang luto ang sitao. Timplahan ng asin at budburan ng sili, tinapa o kaya'y halabos na hipon. Kung matapang-tapang sa anghang, basagin ang mga sili sa gilid ng kawali at ihalo sa gata.

Kailangan ng 6 hanggang 8 tasa ng gata para sa resipi na ito. Gumamit ng instant gata kung nais makatipid sa oras. Kung nais magpaka-bayani, bumili ng niyog, kudkurin sa kudkuran, lagyan ng 6 na tasang maligamgam na tubig at magpiga. Huwag kalimutang salain! :P Oo nga pala, kung may natira ka pang kadakilaan, maari mong gawing bukayo ang sapal ng niyog. :)

lasangpinoy

Baked Ziti

2006-08-22T21:32:00.000+08:00

"Mommy Anne, sa susunod, gan'on uli ha?" Robyn said as she kissed me goodbye.
"Okay!"
"Baliktad uli, ha?" She was on her way out the door.
I chuckled, then called out after her, "Okay!"

Robyn was referring to the "rearranged" meal sequence we had when they came to visit. Their father, my brother Ryan, hankered for lunch at 9 am, complaining he didn't have breakfast.

"'Kala ko ba nag-drive thru kayo? (I thought you had drive-thru breakfast?)" I asked him.
"Eh ako kaya ang nagda-drive! (But my hands were on the wheel!)"

So I made brunch. I wanted Baked Chicken Macaroni (I even poached and flaked chicken to boot), like the ones mom used to make at Christmas, but alas, I only had ziti in the house. Baked Ziti it was.

Then, at 11 am, Gambel, who didn't have any of the ziti, asked for pancakes and so I made some and served them at lunch time. So, as Robyn put it, baliktad. We had lunch at 9 am, and breakfast at lunchtime!

Then again, we enjoyed both eatings.

Baked Ziti

What's In It?

400 g. ziti, cooked al dente
5 T canola or olive oil
1 chicken breast, poached and flaked
5 salami slices, diced
1 large onion, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 small red bell pepper, minced
1 t salt
1 large pack (750 ml) spaghetti sauce
Mozzarella or quickmelt cheese

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat oil over medium heat. Saute onions until almost translucent, then add garlic. Stir fry for 30 seconds more.

Add chicken flakes, diced salami and bell pepper, then stir fry for one minute. Season with salt, then pour in spaghetti sauce. Let boil then simmer for another 30 seconds. Stir in cooked ziti and toss to coat.

Transfer into a baking dish and top with mozzarella or quickmelt cheese, then bake for 5 to 10 minutes at 250C or until cheese bubbles and/or has melted. Serve with garlic bread toast or biscocho. :)

Nasi Goreng

2006-08-19T19:11:00.000+08:00

To unwind from a stressful week we had the Ardetas and the Gomezes (where my friends Malou and Jeng, respectively, reign queens ) over for a potluck dinner-videoke party last night. Malou brought Donna Mae's Lechon Manok (roast chicken) while Jeng brought Pancit Molo soup, where the molo was especially flown in from Iloilo, with matching garlic bread toast. (Both were superstars by the way. The Donna Mae Lechon Manok was a revelation; I'd dare say it was better than Andok's.)

To round up the meal I made Asuhos Tempura, Mustasa Greens Salad and Nasi Goreng. Mike served up some chilled reds (Jacob's Creek Merlot and later, a Trivento Malbec). For the kids and everyone else, 'twas Red Iced Tea. :)

Note that cold rice, preferably cooked at least 5 hours before frying, is better for any fried rice dish. This is because cold rice is less sticky and will not get soggy from frying. So for the recipe below, be sure to pre-cook the rice hours or the day before.

NASI GORENG (Indonesian Fried Rice)

What's In It?

10 cups cold, cooked rice
3 T cooking oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
100 g. ground pork
100 g. shrimps, diced
6 shallots, peeled and sliced
1 Shrimp broth cube
2 T brown sugar, dissolved in
4 T light soy sauce
1 T tomato paste
2 T hot sauce or 2 chilis, seeded and sliced (optional)
5 stalks spring onion, chopped, for garnish

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat oil in a large wok. Pour in beaten egg and swirl to spread it thinly across the surface of the wok (like making a thin omelette). Remove omelette from wok. Shred into strips.

Saute the onions and garlic, then add the ground pork, stirring once in a while until the pork is cooked (after about three minutes). Add in the shrimp, stir fry for one minute, then add in the seasonings (shrimp cube, soy sauce with sugar and soy sauce). Allow to simmer for half a minute, then add in rice. Toss to allow the seasonings to coat the grains, stir-frying for about a minute.

Transfer onto a serving dish and garnish with the shredded omelette and spring onions.

Notes:

1) The original recipe calls for 1) Kecap Manis, or sweet soy sauce and 2) Trassi (dried shrimp paste). Since I don't have them I substituted with the light soy sauce and sugar mixture, and the shrimp broth cube. :)

2) For a more festive touch, you can add garnishings: tomato wedges, cucumber slices and kropeck (shrimp crackers).

3) You can substitute the ground pork with pork or chicken strips.

Unposted

2006-08-16T19:49:00.000+08:00

Musicians call unrecorded performances Unplugged. Me, I have unshared kitchen conjugations which I now call Unposted... all from times I was too busy to post, or just didn't feel like telling the story behind what was recently on our table. :)

Top to bottom, left to right: Squid with Basil, Bunch of Lunch, Cucumber-Pineapple Salsa, Thai Whole Fish with Garlic, Steamed Surgeonfish and Chapchae, and Chili Butter Shrimps.

So what's it gonna be? Which recipe do you want to see first? Which story do you wanna hear? Let me know at the Comments section. :)

Banana Pancakes

2006-08-13T14:57:00.000+08:00

I planned on making Banana Cake this weekend, having found Señoritas at the Carmona Public Market, but somebody ate the bananas and left me only three pieces! So I made what was left of the Señoritas into pancakes instead, to the delight of the kids in the house. :)

When I was a little girl I used to help my mom make pancakes for merienda every Saturday afternoon. Back then maple syrup was beyond our budget range and wasn't as available as it is now, so we used to top our pancakes with sugar and evaporated milk. I did the same for my pancakes today and boy, did I love it still! (Million times better than syrup!) My boys and my nieces tried their second helping of the pancakes with milk and sugar and became instant converts. :)

Here I made the batter from scratch (because I have ingredients for cake), but you can always use store-bought mixes and stir in mashed bananas. Of course, you can substitute the bananas with blueberry or strawberries, whatever have you. :) And you can always have it plain. :)

Banana Pancakes

What's in it?

1-1/4 cups sifted flour
2 T sugar
2 eggs
2 T melted shortening or oil
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 T vanilla essence
three fingers Señorita bananas, peeled and mashed to a pulp

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a medium-sized bowl, beat egg, and add in milk and oil. Stir in flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Beat until the dry ingredients have dissolves.

Stir in mashed bananas, oil and vanilla. Beat until the batter is free of lumps.

Heat a non-stick pan and pour about 1/4 cup of the batter. Flip-over when bubbles start appearing on the surface.

Top with butter, sprinkle with a little washed sugar and drizzle with evaporated milk. Top with banana slices if desired. Makes 8-10 medium pancakes.

Enjoy!

Beef with Gailan

2006-08-09T21:14:00.000+08:00

I guess it's pretty obvious by now, but let me say it nonetheless -- I love entertaining. If I ever win the lotto* one of the things I'd probably do is have people over for a dinner party every single day! :) That after buying all the tableware and cutlery I've swooned and pined for, a la Marketman. :)

Last Sunday I had another "gotta feed people" attack and invited my in-laws over. We had:

1) Beef with Gai-lan. We were in Arranque Market again that Sunday morning and among the items we picked up were Gai-Lan (Chinese broccoli leaves) and spinach. I don't know if 'twas the recent spate of typhoons that did it, but the price of gai-lan went up 150% (from P50.00 per kilo to P180!)

My first taste of the dish was at Mr. Peter Lee's Tea House and I've tried to replicate it since. I've come up with the next best thing (I think), complete with the accompanying Chili Garlic sauce (by Lee Kum Kee). The recipe's below.

2) Grilled Tanglad-Laced Bangus, which was a concession to my fish-manic husband. And because we have pots (emphasis on the plural**) of tanglad (lemon grass), he put a few bunches in before wrapping the fish with aluminum foil sheets. The mixture of aroma from the ginger, onions, tomatoes and the tanglad steaming out when we opened the wrappings was fantastic. You would have wanted to re-open the foil wrapping over and over for a whiff. :)

3) Mustard Greens with Italian Dressing. My husband has made a similar salad before, but with a different dressing (onions in vinegar). This time we tried bottled Italian dressing, drizzled on the thoroughly washed greens garnished with bell pepper and salad onion strips. I had anticipated a slightly bitter aftertaste as there was the first time I had mustard greens but surprise -- had none of that at all! The greens were yummy!

(O magugunaw na talaga ang mundo, former out and out carnivores like myself are repenting?)

Here's what I did with Beef with Gai-Lan:

What's In It?

1/2 kg. beef, cut across the grain into 1/2" wide strips
1/4 cup glutinous rice wine (you can substitute with chinese cooking wine, dry sherry or mirin)
1/2 cup light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1-2 dashes sesame oil
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 medium onion, sliced
5-6 cloves garlic, crushed
3-4 tablespoons olive or canola oil
1/4 kg. gailan (chinese broccoli leaves)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Marinate beef in rice wine, soy sauce, black pepper, sesame oil and 3 cloves garlic for at least five minutes.
While beef marinates, wash gailan and trim off hard parts (bottom end of stalks), separating the leaves into individual stalks. Wash in running water, or soak for 3 minutes then rinse.
Heat some water in a deep pan and blanch the gailan. The leaves must be kept green and crisp-tender. (Cook in boiling water for 20-30 seconds only.) Remove from heat and transfer to serving plate.
Heat oil in a wok. Add in onions and saute until translucent.
Add in garlic, saute for 30 seconds, then add in beef (without the marinade).
Stir-fry beef for 3 to 4 minutes over high heat.
Stir in cornstarch into the marinade, dissolving lumps.
Add in the marinade into the wok, continuing with the stir fry for 30 seconds or so, or until the sauce is thick.
Pour the mixture over the blanched gailan. Serve hot, with chili garlic sauce for a little kick. :)

=========

*That is if I ever decide to place a bet. :)

**Since we are renters, all our plants are potted; and that includes the lemon grass/tanglad. Lemon grass likes the sun and like other grasses grow fast requiring very little maintenance. What started as a single sprig has become three crowded pots of tanglad.

Shanghai Noodle Soup

2006-08-08T13:56:00.000+08:00

For 3 days and 4 nights in Shanghai Mike and I were deaf-mute adventurers. Deaf-mutes because we can't understand or speak Chinese beyond the Suh (Yes), Poh (No), Shishi (Thank you") and Po Yung Shi (You're Welcome) that I learned from the meeting with our supplier; adventurers because we shied away from the big and better known restaurants and went out to the side streets of Nanjing to try quaint noodlehouses.

(Un)fortunately there was a dearth of English speakers among the waiters and shop owners; and only one shop had an English menu. I had to stand by the counter and look out at the trays the servers carried, pointing to the dishes that looked good, gesturing that I wanted to order them. (Can you picture how funny that was?)

In the end, since they were mostly noodle houses, we ended up eating a different kind of noodle soup each day. One of them is the dish pictured above. :)

***

Noodle-mania rubbed on us, so we were still hung up on Shanghai cuisine and had noodle soup the night following our return.

For this I just put together pre-soaked rice noodles, some siomai, bok choy, chayote, strips of smoked squid, a swig of light soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil.

Turbo-Fried Boneless Asuhos and Vegetables

2006-07-19T19:05:00.000+08:00

Yet another stab at weight-loss: rice less meals, fiber from veggies and using less oil.

We found the boneless, headless asuhos at the frozen section of SaveMore supermarket in Alabang, at a reasonable P134 per kilo (considering it's been cleaned and deboned).

After thawing they were washed and rolled in a mixture of cornstarch, ground black pepper, a pinch of salt and a dash of garlic powder. I brushed them with olive oil and broiled them (using a turbo-broiler) at 250C for about 15 minutes.

The stir-fry is made up of bok choy (Baguio pechay), mongo sprouts and a few strips of red bell pepper, flavored with onions and garlic and a teeny-weeny pinch of salt. If you're not as sodium-conscious you can throw in a dash of oyster sauce. (For a little kick, throw in a dash of hot pepper sauce if you like.) By the way, I stir-fried these in extra virgin olive oil for about one and a half minutes.

----------

This is Asuhos, before getting caught, bought, cleaned and deboned. It also goes by the name Oriental Sillago.

Chow Mein and Pao

2006-07-09T13:59:00.000+08:00

Mike's out working and there seems to be no special reason to slave in the kitchen so I whipped out my tamad (lazy) pass and opted to cook pancit guisado, a.k.a. Chow Mein.

To compensate for the ordinariness of the dish I used a little-above-ordinary ingredients -- sea cucumber, smoked squid, lots of leeks and a heaping of mushroom oyster sauce, and a mixture of noodles -- sotanghon (vermicelli), bihon (rice noodles) and canton (egg noodles) . For added interest I matched it with Ube Pao (Steamed Bun filled with sweet yam jam) by Ho-Tsa, bought as a try-out last Friday at the SaveMore Supermarket.

We had a great time.

The boys liked the Ube Pao and requested it for their baon this week. (That says a lot considering they're quite inclined towards sandwiches and pizza.) I liked it too, just-right sweetness and gooey-ness a perfect complement to the seafoodish-saltiness of the pancit.

Pattaya Chicken

2006-07-05T05:06:00.000+08:00

Contrary to common belief, not all Thai dishes are spicy or hot. This recipe is an example.

I got the recipe from the Lemon Grass Cookbook, and this was originally Pattaya Shrimp. At read through I found that it was actually but a stir-fry, so the shrimp can be substituted with any meat you have in your freezer, so I used chicken. Later when I crave for the aroma and tang of basil again I would do a repeat, perhaps with fish or beef. :)

[Update: I did do a repeat last night, 7/7/06, using Lapu-lapu fillets and Sea Cucumber. Equally fantastic!]

However, as I like doing my own thing, the recipe I'm about to give you is no longer the one from the cookbook, but the version which I whipped up in my kitchen. My own kitchen conjugation, that is.

This is so easy you can do it with your eyes closed. :)

What's in it?

3/4 kg. chicken breast fillets, sliced into strips
1 T fish sauce
2 T oyster sauce
1 T sugar
1 T curry powder
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium red onion, sliced
100 g. (about 1 styro tray) sweet basil leaves, washed
100 g. (about 1 styro tray) fresh straw mushrooms, washed
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and julienned
3 T cooking oil (if you have peanut oil, better)

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a wok or deep frying pan, heat oil, then saute onions and garlic. Add chicken, stir fry for a minute, or until chicken loses its pinkish tint. Add the fish sauce, stir a little, then add the oyster sauce, curry powder and sugar. Stir to combine, and let chicken simmer for 5 minutes over medium heat.

Stir in mushrooms and bell pepper, stir fry for a minute. Add in basil leaves and stir fry for another 30 seconds. You will love the aroma!

Serve with hot Jasmine rice or rice noodles.

Pan de Sal Pandemonium

2006-06-27T22:51:00.000+08:00

She adores the smell of freshly baked bread. He likes biting into the warm dough, savoring the crusty softness of each bun.

It's been their daily indulgence for weeks now, starting their mornings with Pan de Manila pan de sal and a cup of freshly-made coffee which they share between the two of them.

Sometimes she spreads butter; sometimes he chooses cheese. Sometimes he plops spanish sardines on open sandwiches. Some days it's liver spread for her; some days it's peanut butter when she craves for something sweet. Most days though they tear the pan de sal with their fingers, and take turns dunking the halves in their shared cup of coffee.

Days aren't the same when they start without this ritual, like when he failed to buy their daily ration on his way home one night, and they awoke to a pandesal-less morning. Gingerly they sipped their coffee, trying to compensate with almost every item in their bread basket. Ube Piaya, Red Ribbon Banana Crunch, mongo ensaimada and corner-bakery-pandesal bites later, they found themselves still longing for the aroma and the texture that's uniquely in their favorite Pan de Manila.

And so it has been that, when their supply is spent, they hie off to the nearest Pan de Manila outlet and replenish to ensure they have a ready stash for breakfast the next day. Oh, they laugh about this craziness between themselves, but he drives and she comes with him anyway, whether it's after dinner or the early hours of the morning (sometimes, still in their pajamas!), to the Pan de Manila outlet they fancy. The staff at the Zapote Road, South Expressway and Guadalupe must know them by now, this Bonnie and Clyde of pan de sal.

Tom Yum Thalay (Thai Hot and Sour Seafood Soup)

2006-06-26T20:59:00.000+08:00

We had originally wanted soup because it's a rainy evening, but since we haven't gone Thai for quite a while and I have a handful of coriander leaves (wansoy) in the ref the idea of Tom Yum hit. It would have been simply Tom Yum Goong (prawn soup) but my husband wanted his tanigue chunks in, so I decided to go the whole nine yards and do the seafood version. As the picture shows I put in some squid too. Oh yes, we have the whole ocean in our freezer. The story of that, later, in another post. Kung hindi ako tatamarin. :P

And of course it helped that I have three thriving pots of lemon grass in my garden. I can't say it enough -- the unknowing would have found it weird and funny that this house grows GRASS in pots. Hehehe. The maid waters them everyday too! :P

TOM YUM THALAY

What's in it?

8 medium sized prawns, shells peeled but tails left intact, and deveined
2 large squid, ink sacs removed, body cut into rings
150 grams fish nuggets
4-6 cups rice washings or tap water
5 stalks fresh lemongrass, lightly pounded, cut into 1" pieces
4 T fish sauce
3 knobs ginger, peeled and pounded
1 large red onion, quartered
1/2 cup straw mushroom
4 tablespoons lime juice
6 crushed chili peppers
wansoy leaves for garnish

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a pot combine rice washing, lemongrass, ginger, red onion and bring to a boil. Add mushrooms, fish sauce and lime juice, let boil for two minutes.

Add in prawns, fish, squid and chile peppers. Let boil for a minute then remove from heat. Adjust seasonings, and garnish with the coriander/wansoy leaves. Serve hot.

Some notes:

1) The real recipe for Tom Yum called for:

Galangal, a better, more aromatic relative of ginger.
Kaffir lime leaves, used with regularity in a wide array of favorite Thai dishes for its unique luscious perfume and striking flavor
Prik Pao, chili paste with soya bean oil. It's made up of sugar, shallots, soyabean oil, garlic, dried chili, fish sauce, dried shrimp and tamarind paste. This gives the soup its characteristic red color.

I didn't have these three so I improvised, substituting with ginger for galangal; adding a little calamansi for the lime; and doing without the color from the Prik Pao.

2) Alternatively, if you are in a hurry or simply want to simplify things, you may want to try the various mixes and pastes available in supermarkets. Some brands I have tried (with satisfactory results) is the Lobo brand (with Thai markings), about P36.00; and Kim's (I forgot how much, but less).

Pork Steak

2006-04-26T00:56:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday was one of those times when my husband and I craved for dissimilar food. For lunch, he wanted fish while I craved for meat. Para walang away, we had both. I made Pork Steak (the Pinoy Bistek using pork) while he grilled a Betilla (a relative of lapu-lapu, maya-maya and bisugo). I also made him some cucumber-pineapple salad to go with the fish.

It was also fantastically warm inside the house, and so we were one in saying it was time na kumain kami sa labas (eat out)-- literally. We had lunch in our breakfast nook, a table straight out of a fastfood court, near our pocket garden. :)

PORK STEAK

What's In It?

1 k pork kasim or pigue, sliced into 1" strips
juice of 4 to 5 calamansi*
3/4 c soy sauce
5 T brown sugar
1 t coarsely ground black pepper
1 small onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, cut into rings for garnish
5 T cooking oil

Kitchen Conjugations:

Marinate pork in calamansi, soy sauce, pepper and brown sugar for at least 20 minutes. Heat oil and saute garlic and sliced onions until onions are soft and translucent.

Add in pork slices (without the marinade) and stir fry for one minute. Cover and simmer until pork is half-cooked (or after about 10 minutes). Add in marinade and simmer for another 10 minutes or till meat becomes fork-tender.

Stir-in onion rings and let simmer for 30 seconds or so. Check seasonings, correct any over-saltiness by adding a teaspoon of vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar and simmering for another minute.

---------
I've already set my mind on Pork Steak when I realized that I've ran out of calamansi. So instead I used half a teaspoon of Knorr Sinigang sa Calamansi mix for the marinade.

This is a large-batch recipe; this dish serves 16 people (half a kilo of meat is good for 8). The leftovers will keep for half a month in the ref, or for at least two days in room temp. For food safety be sure to reheat before serving.

Tuna Egg Ramekins

2006-04-23T17:48:00.000+08:00

Something that's fancy enough but quick and easy to do, to serve with coffee for when you have unannounced company, or if you, like me, have kids who clamor for something to do in the kitchen. :)

The recipe has two parts: making the Tuna-Egg Salad, and assembling the "crust." The tuna-egg salad doubles as spread for other sandwiches, or as in this recipe, can be served ramekin way.

TUNA-EGG RAMEKINS

What's In It?

3 medium eggs, boiled and diced
1 stalk celery, washed and diced (optional, but a quick way to sneak in some veggies!)
2 cans tuna flakes in vegetable oil, drained (I use Hot and Spicy for a little kick)
1 small onion, diced
1.5 cups sandwich spread
1/2 teaspoon salt
half a loaf of bread (day old is better)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Combine all ingredients (except bread) in a bowl until smooth. Set aside.

Trim sides of bread slices. Reserve the sides for later.

Flatten bread slices with your fingers or using a rolling pin. Press into ramekins/muffin cups. (One slice goes nicely into one ramekin.)

You may opt to toast the bread at this point, or leave the bread un-toasted then spoon-in the tuna-egg salad.

Top with the bread sides in a criss-cross fashion, then bake in an oven toaster for 5 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

Burned

2006-04-20T17:54:00.000+08:00

I'm now banned from frying anything for the rest of my life. So has my husband ordered.

Not because I burned anything I was frying... I am banned because I am now a certified putok ng mantika magnet. Each time I fry (or even saute) hot oil flies and explodes... at me. I come a few inches by a fry in progress and the oil starts sputtering like crazy. Weird.

The injuries from this freak magnetism have escalated in both frequency and magnitude in the past three months. I have just recovered from a burn on my right index finger from a month ago and then last night, managed to attract enough boiling oil to the area below my right collarbone. Hiss! The crazy oil bomb left a little crater,* now covered with Betamethasone Clioquinol cream and Band-Aid, which I hope would heal nicely enough not to leave a scar.

[Do you really want a visual? Email me.]

For now, Mike takes over close encounters with the frying kind.

----------------
*On hindsight that wouldn't have happened had last night been one of those nights I was wearing an apron.

Food for a Pinoy Luau

2006-04-19T09:03:00.000+08:00

Ewan ko ba, but I really like cooking and I love feeding people. Given the chance, I would probably be having a party everyday. :)

So I volunteered to be chef for my friend Jeng's birthday party. We decided on an island theme and planned a luau.

A luau, in the strict sense, would normally feature poi (fermented taro root paste), kalua pig (pork prepared in an imu, or earth oven), poke (a recipe I found describes something like a Japanese kinilaw), and lomi salmon, among others.

But we didn't dare go into strange territory just yet, afterall, we were all Pinoys at the party and we wanted people to eat (and not be turned-off by the alien-sounding food)! So here's the menu I cooked up for Jeng:

'Arte ng names, 'no? Kasing-arte ng chef. :)

Fanciness aside, all the dishes were very simple and easy to prepare. The Flame-Baked Cheese-Garlic Mussels are just tahong I baked in a baking pan over charcoal; Red Snapper Tropicale is just maya-maya with sweet-sour sauce with pineapple bits, and breaded tanigue cubes paired with tartar sauce is what became known at the party as Golden Nuggets with Sauce Tartare. :) The Chicken Kebabs were the first to be wiped-out. (Jeng and I stopped the threading at about 50 sticks, but after she sampled a stick of the first batch she resumed threading, saying "Masarap eh, baka maubos agad.") The Beef Bulgogi found popularity among the kids, no one looked for Chickenjoy. :) Of course, Papa's Spaghetti Mafia was again topic of conversation, setting first-tasters asking for the recipe.

To keep the island party theme, I made crepe paper lanterns with white hibiscus cut-outs, and hung paper flower garlands. We used Jeng's tie-dyed sarongs as table cloth, then put the dessert Summer Fruit Medley (which are just slices of summer fruits -- bananas, watermelons and mangoes) on a banana leaf on the middle of the buffet table as centerpiece. (I put in some silk orchids I got for a song at ValuePoint as garnish.) The other desserts sat with the drink of the day, Jamaican Island Cooler (orange juice with fresh fruit slices) on the side table.

We were counting on some helpers Jeng hired to do the peeling, chopping, etc. but they were a non-appearance so Jeng and I became mega-multi-taskers. :) Luckily, we wrapped-up photo finish, and I made a quick dash home to shower and change. When I got back there was only time for a few shots using Jeng's cam-phone (in my hurry I forgot to snag my camera), so no pictures of the feast table here just yet.

The party was a great success though (if I may say so myself) and we had a great time eating, singing, talking and drinking (Bailey's for them, Island Cooler for me...tee hee hee) to the late hours of the night.

Party tayo ulit, Jeng? :)

--------------

Of course I wouldn't have been able to indulge in this passion without the help of my labidabs, Mike, who was also my handyman, driver, taga-sabit ng garlands, videoke controller, etc. etc. on the day.

The tahong was sinadya in Silang, Cavite by Jeng's husband, Rel, who bought ALL the tahong from the stand-- an astonishing 8 large cans! (I ordered only 2.)

Spaghetti Mafia

2006-04-18T03:22:00.000+08:00

This recipe is courtesy of my friend Jeng's dad, Papa Mario Anlap, who first had it at Bravo! Ristorante, liked it and decided to replicate it in his kitchen. (Thanks, Jeng, Papa!)

The recipe originally calls for a can of anchovy fillets, but since I didn't have any in my pantry I decided to use what's on hand, a bunch of dried dilis. The result? Same taste, albeit a little more work (as I had to break the dilis into pieces then soak them in olive oil for a few minutes), but nonetheless a simple, quick, flavorful, semi-vegetarian dish for a fraction of what you'd shell out at Bravo. :) Great for a quick meal for when you have surprise guests, or as a refreshing change from tomato-sauce spaghetti.

SPAGHETTI MAFIA

1/2 kg. Spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
1/4 cup black olives, sliced into rings
1 small red bell pepper, julienned
3 shallots or onions, peeled and quartered
1 can anchovy fillets,* diced or flaked, oil reserved
1/4 kilo ripe tomatoes, sliced and seeded
1 can button mushrooms, sliced
1 whole head garlic, peeled and sliced into strips
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil*
salt and pepper to taste
3 to 5 pieces siling labuyo, sliced lengthwise and seeded, or 1 to 1.5 teaspoons red pepper flakes (optional)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat olive oil in a pan and saute garlic, scallions, tomatoes, anchovies, bell peppers, olives and mushrooms. Add in cooked spaghetti and toss for one minute. Season with salt and pepper and toss for another 30 seconds or so.

Serve warm with garlic bread and sprinkle with parmesan cheese if desired. Serves 4 to 6.

----------------

* You can also use 50 grams dried dilis, cut into smaller pieces crosswise and soaked in 1/4 cup olive oil. If you opt to do this, use the olive oil where you soaked the dilis for sauteing.

A can of Taby anchovy fillets costs P86.50 at Shopwise; if you use dried dilis, P20.00 worth is good for two cook-ups.

Instead of spaghetti, you can opt for other pasta sciutta like linguine, fettucine or even papardelle. You might want to pound the dried anchovies to granules, and mince the garlic, if you have picky eaters.

Papa serves this dish the hot and spicy way, which I actually prefer because it kicks, but I chose to forego the chilis in deference to Mike's acid reflux.

If you're wondering why there is a toy train engine in the picture above, it's because Gambel was playing on the table where I was taking the shots, and he insisted on putting his toy in, to good measure. :)

Banana Cake

2006-04-16T13:36:00.000+08:00

I haven't baked for a long while. Apart from the prohibitive costs of electricity (I use a Turbo Broiler for baking), my MBA orientation nags me to take advantage of economies of scale and just buy instead of baking my own.

Last Thursday, though, with time on our hands and a bunch of bananas rapidly ripening due to the summer heat, with the boys becoming pasaway out of having nothing better to do, I decided it was time to take out the baking arm. We had a messy time in the kitchen, with my boys elbowing each other for a turn at the mixing. Even my husband volunteered to mash the bananas. :)

This is the same recipe I've been using since I was 9, when I was initiated into baking (by good ol' mom). This too is the same recipe I've baked countless times back in highschool, the cake I've sliced and sold many mornings in junior year. :)

This cake is great with a cup of coffee, or a tall glass of icy orange juice.

BANANA CAKE

What's In It?

1/2 c butter, room temp.*
1 1/2 c sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups flour
3 ripe bananas**, mashed to a pulp
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda

Kitchen Conjugations:

Pre-heat oven to 175 deg C. Meanwhile, stir in baking soda into buttermilk. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs and vanilla. Beat for about 1 minute, then add flour and mashed bananas alternatingly. Beat with a hand mixer for 2 minutes, then stir in buttermilk-baking soda mixture.

Pour into baking pan and top with ground nuts (cashew, peanuts or almond) if desired, and bake for 20 minutes or so, or until cake starts to leave side of pan. Cake is ready if a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

----

*Simply take out the butter from the ref at least 30 minutes before you start the batter to melt it to room temperature.

**I use lakatan, but when I first made this cake the practice at home was the use of senyorita (round and stubby, even smaller than latundan) and when available, bungulan (the variety that's green-peeled even when ripe). Using Senyorita made for more aromatic cakes, while the bunguran made the cake more flavorful and showy (more banana 'fibers' showing). Sadly, both varieties are not easily available now (to me, at least).

PS: The coffee mug above is at least 16 years old, something I inherited from my mom who used it every morning back when she was still in the country . It's an Arcoroc she bought during a trip to France.

Packed Lunch

2006-04-12T23:15:00.000+08:00

See how the Daing na Bangus is packed? I used the top of a Dexter's Pizza box. Kept the fish crisp, and absorbed excess oil. :) That veggie dish up there is Soy Sauce Pakbet.

I was supposed to bring this stash to the office for Mike and I to share, but since he got stalled by bank-related errands I had to eat at home, by myself. :( Hmp. Nagpaka-pagod pa daw ako.

I bought the bangus from our suki for P100.00 per kilo, and paid extra P20.00 to have them deboned. Then I marinated them in a mixture of vinegar, crushed garlic, a little salt and crushed peppercorns for 1 day in the refrigerator. (Some cooks opt to add soy sauce in the marinade, but that will prevent the bangus from getting crispy during frying.)

Soy Sauce pinakbet is an attempt to find a substitute for bagoong, because I need to reduce our sodium intake for health (and vanity) reasons. :) In about 2 teaspoons of olive oil I sauteed garlic, onions and tomatoes, added sliced squash, okra, sting beans, eggplant and ampalaya, and stir fried for 3 minutes. I added two tablespoons of soy sauce when the vegetables were crisp-tender.

I would have topped it with crushed chicharon like I used to, but bawal na eh. :)

Chicken Inasal

2006-04-04T20:42:00.000+08:00

OK, so you got me. I'm a huge fan of barbecues.

So much so that, for a time, I've decreed Friday as our family Inihaw Nite, and on those nights we take out the grill, get things smoking, and have dinner kain sa labas style. Literally, as in out in the garage. Part of the fun having Inihaw Nites, apart from the smoky flavor I really love, is the cowboy-no-frills-dinner we share: we use newspaper as placemats (to absorb any spills, and for easy clean up), eat with our hands, and enjoy the curious glances we get from passers-by. :P

We haven't had an Inihaw Nite for a while; hectic schedules got in the way. But I do try to have barbecue when I can. The most recent was last Sunday, when I made Chicken Inasal for dinner.

Offhand I'd like to apologize to Bacolodnons, as this dish might not be true to the real recipe. Pasensya na po, my recipe's always oido, and I just approximated based on what I recall to be the taste of Bacolod Chicken Inasal we had in Festival Mall. :)

CHICKEN INASAL

What's in it?

1 kg chicken, cut-up

1 1/2 teaspoons iodized salt

1 teaspoon black pepper powder

3-4 stalks tanglad (lemon grass), cut into 2" pieces

5 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 c cooking oil

1 teaspoon atchuete (annato seeds)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Wash chicken pieces, then rub with salt, pepper and lemon grass slices. Set aside and allow to marinate for at least half an hour.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan. Add in minced garlic and atchuete. Stir fry for a minute or until the oil turns deep orange.

Start the grill. Skewer chicken pieces in barbecue sticks, then grill, brushing with the oil-garlic-atchuete mixture from time to time.

Serve with atchara and garlic rice. :)

--------------------

Tip : to prevent sticks from getting burned, soak in a basin of water (level of water should be just enough to cover the sticks) while the chicken marinates.

Argellanas

2006-04-03T16:47:00.000+08:00

Happy to share another discovery.... Pastelera Mallorca's Argellanas... Spanish pastry that's flaky like otap, but not as hard.

And it's glazed! The perfect cure for my brown-sugar cravings. :) Perfect for coffee, too! :)

What's more, Argellanas are not as elusive as Ginger Snaps*. They are sold in plastic jars, at the bread section of Shopwise. (I found them at the bottom shelf of the rack nearest Gardenia and the Shopwise bakery.)

I planned on having them served with coffee to guests, but I liked them so much I got greedy and kept them to myself. :P

If the Argellanas are any indication, there's lots more sinful goodies to be found in the Pastelera Mallorca (in Scout Fuentebella, Quezon City). Punta tayo? :P

---------------
PS
One of my friends actually went on a hunt for Ginger Snaps after reading my post. She scoured three supermarkets -- Shopwise, South and SaveMore, but found none. She said, "Kainis, I was looking forward to make kit-kit like a mouse while having tea!" Di bale, Jeng, try the Argellanas muna. :)

Sinigang na Ulo

2006-04-01T12:42:00.000+08:00

It miraculously rained on Thursday; like God was saying, "Fret not, I'm still in charge here," as a reply to my incessant "Ang lamiiig naman dito sa Pilipinas!"

Anyhow, to celebrate that little rain and the unexpected reprieve from the summer heat, I decided to make broth that night. Nothing's heartier than soup when it's a rainy night.

Also, since the soup is hearty, we have a reason to skip rice. (Yehey!) Also, since Mike and I made a quick stopover at his suki at the palengke in Pacita and he bought a truckload of fish again, including the whole head of a maya-maya, I made Sinigang na Ulo.

I really don't think you need the recipe, but if you do, here it is. :)

Sinigang na Ulo
(Fish Head Sour Soup)

What's In It?
1 big head of Maya-maya (Snapper), about 1kg, cleaned and chopped
1 large onion, peeled and quartered
2 large native tomatoes, quartered
2 bundles kangkong (swamp cabbage), washed, leaves separated from stalks
1 large radish, peeled and sliced
juice from 5-7 pieces calamansi (Philippine lemon)
3-5 tablespoons patis (fish sauce); or to taste
1 liter water or rice washing

Kitchen Conjugations
In a large pot, boil the water/rice washing with the quartered onions and tomatoes. When the water gets to a rolling boil, add in the fish head and the radish and allow to boil until the radish is half-cooked (semi-translucent). Pour in patis and calamansi juice and boil until the radish is cooked. Check seasonings. Add in kangkong, allow to boil for 30 seconds (or to crisp-tenderness) then remove pot from heat.

PS
1. Use the water from the second time of washing rice grains if you opt to use rice washing. The soup gets more flavorful (malinamnam).

2. You can use tamarind instead of calamansi, but for fish soups I always use calamansi to remove the fishy-ness (lansa).

3. You can also use Knorr Sinigang sa Calamansi. If you opt to, make sure to pour in the mix long before you add the fish and other ingredients, to make sure that you cook the artificial ingredients in the mix long enough without overcooking the fish and/or veggies.

Ginger Snaps

2006-03-26T21:17:00.000+08:00

Fibisco Ginger Snaps. My all-time favorite. The day we first met in the UP Coop, Ginger Snaps cost me P18.00. From thence it has become a staple feature of my study table (well, next to the study lamp, of course) and has seen action in many dorm night studying and chattering. :)

After that love affair in college, Ginger Snaps and I went our separate ways. We did see each other in the snack aisle from time to time, but my kids wanted Oreo and Chips Ahoy and so I passed up many occasions to reconnect.

Then I noticed Ginger Snaps went 'missing' from supermarkets for a long while, and found myself actually wishing we could see each other again. So then imagine my delight when, on a chance drop-in in a hospital cafeteria (to buy a bottle of water) there it was, sitting on the shelf and gloriously calling my name. I lost no time and shelled out P40.00, almost ripped the wrapper open and took one golden brown cookie. :)

Why do I like it?

This, according to the package:

Dip it, dunk it or simply bite into it. Fibisco Ginger Snaps will surely make tea time, milk time or coffee breaks something to look forward to. Discover many ways of enjoying this classic biscuit made from an interesting blend of flavorful ingredients -- enriched wheat flour, syrup, oil of lemon, refined cane sugar and of course, ground ginger! For the gourmet in you -- Fibisco Ginger Snaps.

Plus this, according to me:

It's not as sweet (and I presume, not as fattening) as chocolate chip cookies; not as predictable as butter cookies; and definitely not as soft and crumbly as oatmeal raisin. In other words, it's in a class all its own. :)

One weekend I excitedly brought it home to share with mom as we watched TV. She took one cookie and attempted to take a bite, but the cookie 'fought back,' and she said, "Kaya pala Ginger Snaps ang tawag diyan...magsa-snap ang ipin mo sa tigas!"

Hehehe. It really would help if you soften the cookie first by dunking it in coffee, tea or juice. Back then I enjoyed it always with a glass of Tang.

Or you can nibble on the edges and let the delightful interplay of flavors from the cookie play with the tip of your tongue as the cookie slowly softens and deliciously yields to your bite. :)

Yasai Itame

2006-03-25T14:44:00.000+08:00

Forgive my predilection for using octopus in my recipes. That's but a reaction to my husband's predilection for buying them. :) In my freezer are trays of baby octopus (like the ones used here), boiled octopus, smoked octopus, and even large octopus balls, which he buys from the Cold Storage section of Shopwise.

Well, if you're wondering, the taste and texture of octopi is just like that of the more commonly accepted squid. And since it's lower-priced (P95.00 per kilo compared to P120.00 per kilo for squid), the octopus may have well been substituting for squid in the squid balls that you eat. And if you've eaten Takoyaki balls, then you have eaten octopus. Tako is the japanese term for octopus.

Now here's a recipe making use of my frozen stash of octopi, a dish I never fail to have when we eat at Ramen Tei or Teriyaki Boy. The Yasai Itame in both restaurants use squid by the way. :)
The real recipe calls for cabbage, but since I have Kailan I decided to use it (in the process made the dish more colorful and photogenic). The recipe also commonly uses pork, but in deference to my Lower Mike's Cholesterol project, I've done away with that. :)

Yasai Itame with Baby Octopus

What's in it?

100g baby octopus (cleaned, heads sliced open, tentacles separated from head)
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. Sake (rice wine)
1 big carrot (thinly sliced)
1 big onion (thinly sliced)
10 stalks/leaves Kailan or ½ small cabbage (sliced)
250g bean sprouts
1-2 green peppers (sliced)
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
3 tbsp. fresh ginger (grated)
1/2 tsp. salt
pepper to taste

Kitchen Conjugations:

Marinate the octopus in 1 tbsp. soy sauce and Sake. Heat oil in a pan and stir-fry ginger for 3 minutes on high heat. Add marinated octopus, stir fry for 30 seconds, then add vegetables according to how long they take to cook: first the carrots, onion, cabbage, bean sprouts, peppers last. When the vegetables are half-cooked (crisp tender; sweating a little), add in the marinade, and season with pepper and salt.

"Hurray It's Summer!" Kebabs

2006-03-18T13:25:00.000+08:00

It's summer! Woo-hoo!!

Pretty soon, when school's off, it's time for road trips, hikes, beaches and....barbecues! Yey!!
(And oh yes...time for my garage sale, too!)

To officially herald the start of summer I decided to have a barbecue for lunch. For a more festive touch I made Kebabs, using the chicken breasts I marinated originally for Turbo Chicken. On a whim I threw in some Chorizo de Cebu that's been lingering in my freezer. :)

Here's to a great summer. Hope you get things smoking one weekend! :)

CHICKEN KEBABS

What's in It?

1 kg. chicken breast fillets, cut into bite-size cubes
1 pack McCormick Zesty Garlic chicken marinade*
1 med. cucumber, cubed
2 med. bell peppers, cubed
1 large onion, cubed
1 med. can pineapple tidbits
1 small can cut young corn
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon Knorr seasoning (or soy sauce if unavailable)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Marinate chicken in the zesty garlic marinade for at least 20 minutes, following package instructions. (For best results, marinate overnight in the refrigerator.)

Thread chicken cuts onto the skewer alternately with the vegetables and pineapple. (While doing this, have someone start the grill already.) Make sure to save about 1/2 cup of the pineapple juice/syrup.

Combine pineapple juice/syrup, cooking oil and Knorr seasoning.

Grill kebabs on hot grill, turning frequently to avoid scorching (grill about one minute each side), brushing lightly with the pineapple juice-oil mixture. Since chicken cooks quickly and it's best to leave it juicy, keep cooking to about 5 minutes only.

Serve with hot steaming rice. Masarap ya-an! :)

PS:

Kebab is a Turkish term which means "grilled meat," but non-Turkish cooks (like myself) have since turned kebab into a "grilled anything" dish, which means that apart from chicken, you can use firm-bodied fish (like tanigue, tuna, labahita) pork, shrimps or tender beef slices. And as I did, you can also kebab-ize whatever's in your freezer. The Chorizo de Cebu didn't need any marinating by the way. :)

If you want a marinade from scratch, combine pineapple juice (from the tidbits), 2 T sugar, a pinch of black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, 3 cloves garlic crushed and minced, and use this instead of the McCormick marinade. (As I said, I've pre-marinated the chicken, for something else.) Then, after you've skewered the meat, combine this marinade with the cooking oil and use it for brushing.

Sneaky Mom's Nuggets

2006-03-16T20:46:00.000+08:00

I'm a sneaky mom.

Whenever I can, I sneak health into my kids' meals. I add chopped carrots into spaghetti meat sauce; I put minced banana blossoms into burger patties (oh yes!) and there are disguised chopped greens when I make meatballs. I do many other things besides that, in the pursuit of healthy eating.

This recipe is another sneaky tactic.

Gambel doesn't like fish; he likes chicken. And horrors, he doesn't eat the flesh, preferring the crispylicious skin. (He won't eat chicken cooked any other way than fried. If I serve tinola, he'd just have the broth.)

One time at McDonald's though, he got curious about the Chicken Nuggets I was eating and snagged one bite. To my surprise, he liked it and ate the rest of my meal. Aha...so he would eat chicken meat that way pala. Ting! (Idea bulb flash!)

So for dinner one time I decided to make nuggets, and decided to push my luck further by using Tanigue (Spanish Mackerel) slices (which I later deboned and cut into nuggets). To aid the disguise, I served gravy on the side.

I know the guise worked when both my boys ran down the stairs excitedly saying, "I smell chicken!" and ate with gusto. The guise was perfect until JAM discovered a fragment of fishbone in one of his nuggets and declared, "Ay, mommy alam ko na ito..." I had to flash him a meaningful glare so as not to reveal my sneaky secret to Gambel...

Anyhow, we've had Sneaky Nuggets for three or so times more since then, with Gambel still having no clue of this fishy deal.

SNEAKY NUGGETS

What's in it:

1 kg fish fillets (Tanigue, Blue Marlin or Lapu-Lapu), cut into nuggets
2 eggs, beaten with 2 tablespoons water
2 packs McCormick Fish Nuggets breading mix
cooking oil for deep frying (about 2 cups)

Kitchen Conjugations:

1. Heat cooking oil in a deep pan.
2. Dip the fish nuggets in the beaten egg mixture, then coat evenly with the breading mix.
3. Fry in hot oil for 3 minutes, or until the coating turns golden brown. (Do not overcook, as the fish will lose all juice and harden.)
4. Serve with Mang Tomas gravy, tomato catsup or sweet chili sauce.

Arranque Adventure a.k.a. Something Fishy

2006-03-14T22:30:00.000+08:00

I like going to Arranque Market (in Sta. Cruz, Manila), and we go there every Sunday when we can. I enjoy each trip because, as Bryant puts it, "It's like being in a Hong Kong Wet Market--only that you understand what people are saying!" :P

It's like being in a Hong Kong market because Arranque is a treasure trove of chinese vegetables, fresh fruits, herbs and spices and the fish varieties one doesn't find in town markets. Finding so many food items gets me excited with the kitchen possibilities. :P

Last Sunday, as usual, I bought a week's menu -- I bought Polonchay, watercress, spinach and Kai-Lan or Gai-Lan (Chinese Broccoli) and Wan Soy (Coriander). I also bought some tofu, tokwa, tausi and ngo-hiong (Five Spice) and chinese Fish Balls for Tom Yum or Fish Ball Soup, whichever I later fancy.

And as usual, we bought some 3 kilos of sweet, juicy, creamy caimito (star apple), my summer favorite.

Something Fishy

From the fish section we bought Espada, Dapa, some giant squid and a kilo of Halaan (Clams). As we waited while the fish was cleaned and sliced, I asked aloud "Ano sa English 'yung Espada? Swordfish?"

Mike answered, "Hindi. 'Yung Swordfish, matulis at mahaba ang nguso." (I was a fish ignoramus before I met Mike, familiar only with Bangus, Tilapia, Hasa-hasa, Salay-salay, Dalagang Bukid and the lowly galunggong. It was Mike who acquainted me with the bigger varieties-- Lapu-Lapu, Labahita, Talakitok, Tanigue... so on. So I had to take his word for the Swordfish thing.)

Yet his fish familiarity aside, we were at a loss for a translation for Espada and Dapa. Writing this blog I was tempted to say "we bought Quasi-Swordfish and some Get-Down." Tee-hee-hee. :P

Uncomfortable as I am with ignorance, I researched and found that Dapa is actually the local term for all fishes that are flat, but that there are 7 families of flatfishes, with over 540 separate species. (More info: Market Manila.) I learned later that what we bought is known in English as Indian Halibut.

Then as it turns out, Mike is right about the difference between Swordfish and Espada. Espada in English is Cutlass Fish (the silvery variety) and Black Scabbard (the black variety, predominant in Madeira islands, wherever that is... ) For our education I'm posting both pics -- the Swordfish at left, and the Cutlass, at right. :)

Anyhow, I made Halaan Soup for lunch (shellfish is best cooked fresh), and we had the Dapa/Halibut for dinner. Recipes follow. :)

Steamed Halibut with Tausi, Tofu and Kai-Lan

2006-03-14T21:04:00.000+08:00

First, the tips and notes.

This dish is composed of 3 steps -- steaming the fish, making the sauce, and blanching the Kai-Lan leaves. To simplify, you could opt to cook this dish while you cook rice, as I did. I piled up the Kai-Lan in the rice pot as the rice was on its final stage of steaming. That way, the vitamins from the Kai-Lan steeped onto the cooking rice, I cut one step and saved on LPG. :)

You could also opt to deep fry the fish instead of steaming it, but steaming is the healthier option. :) Also, as I did in this recipe, you can use some of the water in the steamer pot (which has the fish drippings collected from steaming) for the sauce. This way, you still get the important Omega 3 and fish oil in, and not waste water! :)

Steaming will take about 10-15 minutes. You can use that time for slicing and preparing the sauce ingredients.

I used olive oil for sauteing, but that's because I am watching our cholesterol levels. If palm oil is what you have in the house, by all means use it!

And now, the recipe.

What's in it?

1 Indian Halibut (Dapa), about 1.5 kgs., cleaned and sliced
4 cups tap water
3 tablespoons olive oil, or canola oil
1 thumb ginger, sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, sliced
1 small red bell pepper, sliced into small cubes
1 small green bell pepper, sliced into small cubes
3 to 4 tablespoons tausi (salted black beans)
2 to 3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 block tofu, sliced into cubes
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 2 teaspoons water
spring onions cut into 1/2" lengths for garnish
half a bundle of Kai-Lan, washed and separated into individual stalks

Kitchen Conjugations:

Boil water in a steamer pot (or a wok). Brush fish slices with a little oil then arrange them on the steaming plates (or grill, if using a wok). Cover and steam for 10 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, blanch kai-lan leaves (by arranging them in a bowl and pouring boiling water on them; or follow my suggestion above). Do not overcook; they should still be a little crunchy and green. Remove from heat and arrange on serving platter. Set aside.

Prep-up sauce ingredients. [If you're done with that, go watch TV or something. :)]

If fish is cooked, remove steaming pot from heat, and carefully transfer the fish slices from the steamer plates onto the bed of Kai-Lan leaves.

Heat olive oil in a pan and saute ginger, onions and garlic for one minute. Add tausi, sugar and the bell pepper cubes and stir fry for 30-45 seconds. Add in tofu, stir fry for half a minute, then add 2 to 3 cups of fish stock (from the steam pot) or water. Simmer for about a minute, then check seasonings. (If mixture has become too salty, add a teaspoon of vinegar and let simmer for 20 seconds more.) Add in cornstarch mixture and continue simmering and stirring until sauce thickens.

Pour sauce over fish slices and garnish with spring onions. Enjoy with steamed rice or batard (if you've given up eating rice) or wheat bread. And some White. Hehehe. :P

Caldereta

2006-03-08T22:24:00.000+08:00

CALDERETA is Mike's favorite dish. And it's become even more so after he's tasted my version, he said. :)

Anyway, wanting to free up space in the freezer (the block of beef ribs measured about 8" x 12" x 6") and since we haven't been eating meat for a while (Mike has been very supportive of my diet), I decided to make Caldereta. (This was about a month ago.)

The secret to great-tasting, tender beef, which cannot be substituted, sorry -- is slow cooking. So as we planned to go attend an auction for a few hours I let the beef ribs stew in a pot, told the maid to watch it and replenish the stock from time to time, and to turn the stove off when the beef becomes tender. (Siempre may explanation pa ng what I think and what she should think as tender.) Then we left for the auction.

When we got home at 6 pm that's when I peeled and quartered potatoes and carrots and prepared the rest of the ingredients (bell peppers, scallions, liver spread, ground peanuts, siling labuyo, tomato paste, green peas, grated cheese and my special secret orasyon...hehehe).
Dinner's at 7, and while there was a huge grin of excitement and anticipation on Mike's face, the kids were saying, "Mommy, puede cheesedog sa 'kin? (JAM)" and "Mommy, gusto ko sabaw. (Gambel)"

Mike broke in, "No, kumain naman kayo ng iba. Try n'yo itong Caldereta ni Mommy. Promise makakalimutan n'yo'ng pangalan n'yo pag natikman n'yo 'to."

Gambel said, "Daddy, ayaw kong makalimutan ang pangalan ko." And Jam said, "Spicy 'ata, daddy." To which Mike simply said, "Sige na, kumain na lang kayo."

So, tentatively at first, the boys doused their rice with some sauce from the Caldereta.

Later though, I was seeing repeated thumbs-up signs from Jam. And from Gambel, between mouthfuls: "Congratulations, Mommy," and "Nice taste, mommy. You're the best mommy ever, ever in the world." and "I love you, Mommy!"

To which Mike said, "O, ano, bayad ka na?"

Ah, I love cooking. But better than that, I love cooking for my family. :)

Here's the recipe for when you wanna try it out:

CALDERETA

1 1/2 kilo beef short ribs, chopped to individual slices
2 T garlic, minced
1 large shallot, sliced
1 foil pack Del Monte tomato paste
5 T ground peanuts or 5 T chunky peanut butter
1/2 c grated cheddar cheese
2 cans Purefoods liver spread
1 red and 1 green small-sized bell peppers, sliced and seeded
2 medium-size potatoes, peeled and quartered (or cubed)
1 medium-size carrot, cubed
2 T soy sauce
3 pcs chili pepper (siling labuyo)
1/2 c sweet pickle chips
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c cooking oil

Wash beef ribs and season with about 1 teaspoon of salt, set aside. Heat cooking oil in a frying pan, then stir-fry potatoes and carrots for a minute or until they are half-cooked. Remove vegetables, then saute garlic, scallions and bell peppers for about a minute. Add-in the ribs and fry each side for about one minute, or until both sides are brown.

Remove beef ribs and garlic-onion from the pan and transfer onto a stock pot or pressure cooker. Add water to cover, about 5 to 6 cups. Boil over high heat for 5 minutes, then simmer for 30 to 45 mins or until the beef is almost tender. (Cooking time is less in a pressure cooker; count about 10 mins from the time the hissing starts. Be sure that all the pressure has been vented before opening the lid.)

When beef is ready, add in the tomato paste, liver spread and pickle chips. Simmer for another 5 minutes, then add in chili pepper, potatoes, carrots and grated cheese. Continue simmering until the potatoes and carrot cubes are fork-tender.

Garnish with olives (if available) and red bell pepper slices.

Kangkong On Fire

2006-03-08T22:18:00.000+08:00

AMONG THE MANY THINGS I do, I love COOKING the most. Some say it's the Nepomuceno, kapampangan blood in me. My lola on the other hand says mana ako sa kanya.

Cooking, actually, is my therapy, a kind of 'me, alone, on creative, production mode' time. I can spend hours in the kitchen, or cook to feed an army. Corollary to that, I love replicating dishes I tried or tasted while eating out. I like the thrill of experimentation and getting the taste right (meaning nahulaan ko, just by tasting, what the ingredients were). I am thrilled to find a better, faster or cheaper way of doing the dish. 'Babaw ko ba?! O kina-career lahat ng bagay? :P

I've actually worked-out a lighter on the pocket version of Carbonara (sorry, can't share the recipe, secret... hehehe) and I'm close to perfecting my version of the Starbucks Banana Bread (the color's still a bit off...Starbucks' is dark brown, mine's still light... but I've perfected the taste and the texture).

Anyway, one dish I liked on an eat-out night, and which I replicated at home, is Kangkong On Fire, from Siam Taste in Festival Mall. It's basically a spiced up version of Kangkong with Oyster Sauce. It's very simple, I'm sharing the recipe here in case you want a change from your usual vegetable fare and wanna try it out.

And may I add, the dish costs P95.00++ at the restaurant. You're spending only half of that with my version. :)

KANGKONG ON FIRE

3 bundles Kangkong [in English: Swamp Cabbage]
3 tablespoons Oyster Sauce [see note below for substitutes]
3 to 4 pieces siling labuyo, chopped [for us Bicolanos, the more, the merrier!]
1 small shallot (red onion), sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups tap water
Optional: 1 pork broth cube
Leftover lechon kawali, Crispy Pata or store-bought chicharon - if available
In a medium sized wok, boil the 5 cups of water. Meanwhile, wash kangkong. Cut leaves and the stalks into 3" pieces, discarding the hard, lower portion of the stem. Soak in a bowl of water to keep them green and fresh.

Slice onions, chop garlic and chili. Set aside.

Blanch cut up kangkong in the wok. (That's dip and boil for 30 seconds to a minute.) Remove the wok from the fire, take the kangkong out and lay out on serving plate. Set aside. Pour about 2 cups of the green (chlorophyll-rich), boiled water from the wok and discard the rest.

Put wok back on stove. Pour cooking oil. Saute scallions first* then garlic for about 30 seconds each. Add chopped siling labuyo. Stir-fry for another 30 seconds.

While waiting, dissolve the oyster sauce (or soy sauce-sugar-cornstarch mixture) and pork cube (if using) in the bowl of green, hot water. Add mixture to the saute. Let simmer for a minute (stirring if you used the substitutes), until the mixture thickens.

Remove from fire. Pour sauce over the kangkong. Top with Lechon Kawali or crushed chicharon if desired. Serve hot (literally and figuratively). :)

Cost: Kangkong - P15.00; Oyster Sauce - P14.00 (or Soy Sauce,Sugar, etc - P10.00); Pork Cube - P4.00; Cooking Oil, Water, Sili - P5.00; Chicharon (with plenty left over to use for Ginisang Munggo or to munch when you've got nothing to do and want to hike up your bad cholesterol levels) - P5.00

*Shallots cook longer than garlic, and garlic leaves a bitter taste in the oil if burned/left frying for too long. So saute the scallions first and add garlic when the scallions turn soft!:) BTW, onions will do, but not as well. Pero puede na din. I just like the exotic taste of shallots better. :)

Oyster sauce may be substituted with : 2 tablespoons soy sauce + 1 tablespoon brown/washed sugar + a pinch of ground pepper + 1 tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in a tablespoon of water.

85/15

2006-02-26T14:04:00.000+08:00

We spent Friday night (Feb. 24) to celebrate our 10th anniversary at The Farm at San Benito, the Hippocrates Health Resort of Asia. Being a health resort The Farm serves only raw and organic vegetarian food at their restaurant, the 85/15*.

Meat-eaters and junkies that we are, we braced ourselves for bland, inexciting food. (We even brought along a just-in-case-we-go-hungry stash of a loaf of wheat bread and a jar of portoguese sardines.) We were pleasantly suprised then when we were served good-looking gourmet food. Dinner was a 5-course meal: Garden Salad with Caesar Dressing or Italian Tomato Dressing; Cauliflower Samosas with Assorted Chutney; Indian Spinach Soup with Sesame; Baked Tofu Mardas with Sauteed Vegetables on Mango Chutney and (Brown) Rice Pilaf and.... surprise! Piña Colada Cake...which even had a itty-bitty scoop of choco-sorbet on top, made of nut milk.

So entertained was I by the food presentation and so overwhelmed was I of the chef's skills and creativity--imagine having to vary your menu daily and living with the constraints of using only organic ingredients (meaning, no enriched flour, no msg, etc) -- that I forgot to take pictures of what we ate! Which is a shame, because the Piña Colada cake was really pretty. :(

(And guess what, we didn't get hungry and didn't touch our just-in-case stash!)

I had a chance for snapshots the following morning when we had breakfast. Fresh fruits, home-made bread, home-made muesli and granola, and a second-showing of Cauliflower Samosas lined the buffet.

The photo above shows my breakfast plate -- fresh fruits and muesli, a piece of the cauliflower samosa, and two kinds of homemade bread (the pinwheel cookie look-alike is actually dessicated coconut and something resembling ground nuts), which I all enjoyed. (Mike had fresh fruits, granola with nut milk and a samosa.)

We both got up for another plate, sampling the other breads and the jams -- banana lime, prune jam, choco nutella among others. I even had a Cappuccino, which was once again a toast to the skills of the chef who found a substitute for coffee beans. The overall dining experience was made even more enjoyable and extraordinary by the ambience provided by the jungle and nature surrounding us. Dining out in the open air we were serenaded by the chirping of birds and refreshed by mountain air.

(Off-topic: I just have to say, the restaurant's rustic-nature theme was executed tastefully and with extraordinary understated elegance, consistent with the overall image and presentation of the whole park.)

How did we know the ingredients were organic? First off, The Farm is in the super-outskirts of Lipa City and is on a mountain in Bgy. Tipakan; going out for supplies is so tedious (and costly), the farm owners and staff would probably opt to grow the ingredients themselves. Second, we did see and inspect the vegetable garden, as you can see here :)

At noontime we checked out to go back to reality, but before heading home we stopped by Robinson's Place in Lipa City to meet up with my friend Haidz who I haven't seen for ages. We had lunch at Tokyo Tokyo, where I found myself struggling to make a choice for which item to order. (All seemed oily, salty and unhealthy. :P) Anyhow, I settled for Tempura while Mike had Beef Misono a.k.a Beef Swimming in Saturated Fat. :P Is it possible, The Farm has made converts of us overnight?

The answer came when we got home, when I weighed in and found to my ultra-happy surprise, that I lost 2.5lbs from that overnight conversion. :P (Imagine how much I could have lost if we stayed for 3 days or so!) And eureka! This could be a way to lower Mike's cholesterol!

Well, gotta go peel apples for breakfast!

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*Why the name 85/15?

We have named our restaurant 85/15 in order to represent the ratio of raw-to-cooked foods that we provide at every meal. The reason we serve 85% of our food in its raw, unadulterated state is because raw foods contain enzymes that cooked foods do not. Enzymes are crucial catalysts for every bodily function and are present in a perfect balance in all raw foods provided by Nature. Enzymes are destroyed by heating foods above 42 degrees Celsius so we use specially designed dehydrators that give raw foods the appearance of being cooked without overheating and destroying the enzymes. Your soup will be served warm rather than hot in order to preserve these valuable nutritional rejuvenators. (From www.thefarm.com.ph)

Gulaman Candles

2006-01-29T01:28:00.000+08:00

Ok, so this isn't really a Kitchen Conjugation in the sense that it is not a recipe nor a restaurant review, nevertheless, it's still something I cooked up in my kitchen as well an idea you might like or find useful. This post appeared originally in my other blog, http://www.annethology.i.ph, in October 2005.
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I made Gulaman Candles for Mike's birthday party last month. Candles, because I wanted something 1) functional (we had the party at our equipment yard; I could use additional lighting) and 2) 'neutral' (it's a guy's party, there'd be drinking and singing, flower centerpieces are out of the question! ;)

I wanted unique and colorful candle centerpieces, and I initially thought of immersing votives in colored water. A stroke of inspiration came from the want to have as many colors in my jars and the need for something to make the candles spill-proof, easy to make and cheap.

Gulaman (Agar) was the answer! Six jars of gulaman candles cost me about P60.00 (P26.75 for 6 votives, P20.00 for 2 packs of Mr. Gulaman, the rest for water and gas)! The jars are technically cost-less, mostly from the growing stash of reusables in my kitchen, and some given by friends and neighbors who were curious to see how my latest project would turn out. :)

The candles turned out well, as you can see (at left and above), and I managed to make 15 jars for the party.

Mongolian Barbecue

2006-01-24T07:48:00.000+08:00

My cooking style is eclectic. But basically, it's that I want the most flavor, in the shortest possible time, after the easiest of steps, and of the least possible cost. That's not to say, however, that I settle for less. (You get creative and innovative when there's plenty of constraints... and I like challenges. :P )

Here's a recipe for one of my favorite stir-fries. It's a favorite because it's flavorful, has a lot of vegetables (a great way to sneak in some health!), the ingredients you can prepare ahead
and the dish you can whip up at the last minute.

MONGOLIAN BARBECUE

Ingredients:

250g. beef sirloin, stroganoff or sukiyaki cut, sliced further into 1'' strips
250g. takoyaki cut octopus*
250g. carrots, peeled and julienned
250gg. baguio beans, julienned
4 stalks leeks, sliced diagonally into 1/2" strips
1 med. red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 med. jalapeno pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 med. cabbage, washed and sliced into strips
250g. mongo sprouts, washed and cleaned
5-6 pcs. dried mushrooms (chinese or woodear), soaked in hot water and sliced into strips -- optional
1 scallion (red onion), sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 thumb ginger, sliced thinly (optional)
3 T Oyster Sauce
1 T Hoisin Sauce
2-3 T brown sugar (optional)
a dash or two of sesame oil

In a pan or wok, pour 3 tablespoons of cooking oil over high heat. Saute garlic, onions and ginger (if using) for a minute, then add meats. Stir fry for three minutes.

Add the seafood, stir frying for one minute. Add in all the vegetables, starting with the hard ones (carrots and beans), followed by the leafy ones. Stir fry for one and a half-minutes more. Pour in the seasonings/sauces, and stir fry to coat for 30 seconds to a minute.

That's it! You're done. Serve hot and merry. :)

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PS1: You may add rice, sotanghon or chapchae after adding the vegetables, as extenders. For more spice, add in a dash of hot sauce.

PS2: By all means substitute chicken, fish or squid for the meats, if you like. :)

PS uli: I'm proud of the shot of the finished product (that's up there, in the red bowl), which I took using my Sony Ericsson S700i, a humble 1.3 megapixel cam. (Nice, di ba?) At that time while I've already acquired a higher-resolution cam, I have not found the time to master the features, so I stuck to what's familiar.

Holiday Heft

2006-01-01T16:09:00.000+08:00

Here's what NOT to do if you're trying to lose weight:

#1 : Cousin-Bonding over Merienda y Cena

On the 30th, my cousins drove from Quezon City, Makati and Merville and declared a post-Christmas assault (",). My ever-reliable-when-it-comes-to-time cousin, Michelle, said they'd come after lunch, so I made merienda. But they arrived at 6 pm, so merienda became dinner.

We had Penne with Mexican-Bolognese sauce (that's just my fancy term for meat sauce laced with taco flavoring, hehehe), Mike's Turbo Chicken, and Grilled Eggplant Sandwiches. (Check out the recipe under my post of the same title.)

For dessert (and later, coffee) we had Banana Nut Bread and Vanilla Cream Cake, both from PriceSmart. [Yup, I do let up once in a while. ;)] Both are very good, I swear. :) And so reasonably priced, too! (In fact, we bought 15 more of the Vanilla Cream cake and gave them out as a New Year's Eve gift to our staff.)

To burn off calories we had a videoke showdown after dinner. I had to open the floor a la J. Lo, singing Let's Get Loud, with the kids as back-up dancers. Later I graduated from AIM (Ayaw Ipasa ang Mic), and passed on the singing to Michelle, who sang The Corrs' Runaway; Ate Leslie, who after much prodding, finally sang "Don't Give Up On Us." The gents had their turn too. Mike sang two Engelberts, Robinson sang a Tears for Fears ditty, while Jeff did a Santana number, Smooth.

The certified Videoke Queen of the night was my cousin, Iris, (a.k.a. Ice) lead vocalist for the band Advent Call, for her rendition of "Through The Fire," and "Tell Me Where It Hurts."

#2: Welcome the New Year with a Full Plate

Observing family tradition, the dining table had to be full and laden with food. Mom says it's for abundance. I should have guessed I was setting myself up for failure. (Whoever dieted during the holidays and actually succeeded?)

Anyway, the table had our New Year's Eve staples : Pork Barbecue and pancit, which I varied this year to Seafood Pancit (with Smoked Octopus, yum!). To compensate for the cholesterol intake of the night before, I made some Tacos. (As if!) Then for the kids who wouldn't sit and eat, Cheese Sticks and Lumpiang Shanghai. We also had some Lechon (home-cooked and given to us, all 3kgs., by one of our mechanics, Tata Raul), and of course, another showing of Banana Bread and Vanilla Cream Cake. :)

#3: Go Fishing on New Year's Day

Waking late for staying up late the night before, we spent New Year's Day just lounging around (and cleaning up, and recycling the L'Os of the night before) and getting more sleep.

In the afternoon, we decided to get a change of scenery and drove off to Roxas Boulevard. Fishing rods in tow, my boys went down to the breakwater, while I enjoyed and took pictures of the sunset. Fishing rods in tow half an hour later (and no fish, they must have gone on a holiday too), we hauled our hungry stomachs back to the car and planned on going to Dencio's for dinner. But the traffic jam by Star City foiled our plans.

We ended up at the area at the back of HK Sun Plaza, where we discovered a seafood market and paluto restaurants. (And hurray! There's plenty of parking space!)
We were glad to find a branch of our Dampa suki Julie's, yet the other restaurants (Trinity, Josefina's, Balanghay, Lola Ina's) looked inviting as well. (Mike and I decided to try them out later.)

At Julie's we hauled our pinamalengke and waited as they were cooked. As usual, we took pictures of ourselves while we waited. :)

When the food--Halaan Soup, Lato (Seaweed) Salad, Chili Butter Prawns and Spicy Oyster Crabs arrived, I barely mustered the zeal to take pictures. Gutom na e. Galit-galit na! :)

Grilled Eggplant Sandwich

2006-01-01T13:02:00.000+08:00

Before I married Mike I hardly treaded on vegetable territory. Wala lang, my mom just never forced us to eat vegetables.

Midway through this 10-year marriage though I found myself wanting vegetables. The first time I cooked Mike some Beef with Ampalaya, Mike exclaimed, "Himala! Uso pa pala ang himala!" His surprise is mainly due to the fact that it was I who bought the vegetables; and that I cooked them and ate them without being told. Since then I've been initiated into this acquired taste. :)

One time on a date with my 'sis' Claire, we ate at Figaro, and looking for a sandwich to balance the meaty Carbonara we were having, I saw Grilled Eggplant sandwich on the menu, and decided to give it a try. It has been my favorite since.

As you know I always try to replicate my favorite eat-out items. I served Grilled Eggplant sandwich (to complement the Penne with Mexican-Bolognese sauce) when my cousins came to visit two days ago. Here's my recipe. :)

GRILLED EGGPLANT SANDWICHES

1 large or 2 medium eggplants, washed and sliced thinly, into 3" lengths
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 t iodized salt
1/2 t finely ground black pepper
1 med. red bell pepper
1 med. lettuce, shredded (salad style)
2 salad tomatoes, sliced into rings
1 med. cucumber, sliced into rings
1 med. onion, sliced into rings
cheddar cheese, sliced
1 loaf oat malt paton (or foccacia, or whichever bread you prefer)
mayonnaise
mustard

Marinate eggplant slices in olive oil, salt and pepper for at least 30 minutes. While waiting, slice bread lengthwise and then into individual slices, crosswise. Set aside. (Better to cover with cling wrap to prevent hardening.)

Grill eggplant slices and bell pepper on stovetop or charcoal grill for about 15 secs. each side.
While waiting for the rest of the eggplant slices to cook, slice the red bell pepper into thin strips.

Afterwards, assemble sandwiches: spread some mayonnaise on the bottom half of the bread, put about two or three shreds of lettuce, top with a slice of cucumber, tomato and onion and about 2 strips of bell pepper. Top with 2-3 slices of grilled eggplant (depending on the width of your bread) and a slice of cheddar cheese. Squirt a little mustard, another slice of lettuce (if desired.. you can't have too much greens!) then the other half of the bread. Pierce with cocktail toothpick to keep them together.

Makes about 15 mini (2" x 3") sandwiches. Enjoy! :)