The Palacios Kitchen

Spinach soup, attempt number 1.

2011-02-19T19:42:00.004+08:00

Spinach soup! Yum yum! And such an easy way to eat all of the spinach in our fridge, in one sitting.

Inspired by this recipe, I took the spinach leaves off the stalks and put them in our food processor. Then I made three cups of chicken broth (using a chicken cube). While the chicken broth was boiling, I sauteed 2 cloves of garlic and some chopped leeks (I had some leftover from a previous dish) in a tablespoon of butter, and after a few minutes, added some chopped potatoes. I added the chicken broth and simmered until the potatoes were cooked. Then I threw in two-thirds of the spinach leaves, added a cup of fat-free milk, and simmered for 10 minutes.

I seasoned the soup with nutmeg and lemon pepper. When that was done, I put our handheld blender in the soup and blended the soup for a short while. When that was done, I poured the soup into bowls, and garnished with the remaining spinach.

The soup came out tasting quite yummy, but the consistency was too thin. I guess going totally fat-free has its drawbacks. The next time, I might add a tablespoon of cream just to thicken the soup a little.

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Eating well, doing good.

2011-02-19T19:40:00.000+08:00

I have a confession to make. Our family aren't the healthiest eaters. Well, we aren't the most unhealthy eaters either: we consume very little processed food (thank goodness my husband loves to cook), and we try to choose high-quality ingredients. But we're very carnivorous, and we definitely don't eat enough vegetables.

But as my son grows up, I've become more concerned about trying to make sure our family has healthier meals. So when some friends of mine told them about their organic vegetables venture, it didn't take a lot of convincing for me to sign on.

My friends put up Good Food Co. as a social enterprise apostolate for their small Catholic prayer group. While the number of organic vegetable suppliers are increasing in Metro Manila, what sets Good Foods Co. apart from most other vegetable suppliers is that it is inspired by the spirit of Community Supported Agriculture.

For the last five decades, Community Supported Agriculture has been an alternative model of food production/distribution in many parts of the world. Unlike normal market-driven models of food production/distribution, Community Supported Agriculture emphasizes ecological sustainabiity and fair trade. Customers (who comprise the community) commit to purchasing an entire season's worth of food, thereby assuring farmers of a market. In turn, the farmers produce high-quality food for the community, often using organic methods.

The risk and reward of the farmers' hard work is shared by the whole community. Every week, the consumers receive a box's worth of whatever produce is ripe, and everyone benefits from a good harvest. And should anything go wrong--if the harvest is lean or if a typhoon destroys some of the crops--everyone shares the risk too. This liberates the farmers to focus on growing quality produce and practising sustainable farming practices that are gentler to the soil/animals.

In the case of Good Food Co., I as a consumer "subscribe" to three months' worth of vegetables from their partner-farm. For P400 per week, each consumer receives 3 to 4 kilos of a nice variety of vegetables: lettuce, tomatoes, malunggay, green beans, spinach, saluyot, gabi, ginger, squash, etc.

The amount of veggies we're projected to receive is so much that in my family's case, we actually split our weekly box of veggies with a friend. We pay P200 and they pay the other P200, and the veggies are still enough to make sure that every meal we eat at home has a generous serving of veggies.

The amount might be a little more than what I would normally spend on veggies in a supermarket, but unlike supermarket vegetables, the vegetables I get are guaranteed fresh (having just been harvested: the roots are still on them!), they're organically grown, and best of all, I know that the money is going straight to the farmers who worked hard on them. With this in mind, I don't mind at all sharing the farmers' risk.

And taking the long view, P200 -- or even P400 -- is just the price of one meal at a restaurant these days. It's a small price to pay to support what I believe to be a very good enterprise.

Two weeks into this cycle of veggie subscription, my family is already eating much more healthily than we used to. We've gone beyond our old salad repertoire and now know how to make a greater variety of vegetable dishes. Just last night, I successfully made a spinach soup, and surprised myself at the amount of healthy green leaves that could be consumed in just one bowl of soup!

=====

Good Food Co. won the I Am a Changemaker competition sponsored by the British Council last year. Read more about Good Food Co. here.

Information on CSA is from here.

Photo by Joel R. Terrell

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The Ultimate Chopper

2009-01-07T11:17:00.000+08:00

Apologies for the looooong absence. I stopped cooking in the latter part of my pregnancy and left all the cooking to Mike. Mike on the other hand started cooking everyday, but since he never writes anything down and just makes things up as he goes along, it wasn't easy to record his recipes for posting here.

I'll start of the year, however, by raving about Mike's second favorite kitchen gadget (next to the 9-Minute Marinator), the Ultimate Chopper. (Yes, we have become TV shopping fans!) I ought to mention that the product was actually recalled in the US because when the locking mechanism ceases to work, the product is no longer safe. But we figured that as long as the locking mechanism is still working, there ought not to be any reason to worry.

Just like the infomercial suggests, we've used the Ultimate Chopper for various things. We tried making ice cream once, and it was cool to eat our own ice cream! But our regular uses for the Ultimate Chopper are: grinding coffee beans, chopping onions (no more tears!), and making cream cheese-based spreads. As the infomercial says, because the device is small enough to sit on your counter, you actually use it (unlike a complex food processor which you need to take out of its storage cabinet). Our only complaint is that the chopper bowl really is on the small side, so you can only put in a little bit of food at a time.

How often do we use the Ultimate Chopper? At least twice a week. I guess that's proof enough of how happy we are with this kitchen gadget.

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Teriyaki Chicken Rice

2008-08-19T22:59:00.000+08:00

Mike made a really yummy chicken dish yesterday. He never takes measurements, so I'll just describe what he did.

Ingredients:

teriyaki sauce
honey
1 onion
4 chicken breasts, deboned and deskinned
steamed rice (cooled)
1 egg, beaten
cooking oil

Methodology:

Marinde the chicken breasts in the teriyaki sauce and honey. In a wok, sautee the onions until translucent. Add the chicken and fry until cooked through. Add the rice and egg, mix well, and continue to fry.

Serves 2.
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Saving money in the kitchen.

2008-08-16T14:53:00.003+08:00

Saving money in the kitchen.

In this age of high prices, I'm always on the lookout for ways to save money in the kitchen.

One thing I'm thrilled about is the rise in the number of home-based businesses that either sell or manufacture dishwashing and detergent chemicals. The prices are often amazingly cheap.

I usually buy from Speedy Clean which sells dishwashing liquid a P50.50 per liter, fabric softener at P68 per liter or P149.50 per gallon, 2-ply bathroom tissue at P340 for 48 rolls, and detergent powder at P30 per kilo. All of this is less than half the price of what you would spend on Unilever or P&G products in the supermarket. They deliver to certain parts of the metropolis. (Tel. 6355719 to 23).

Sabon Express sells detergent powder at P21 to P50 per kilo, depending on the amount of lather (i.e., how bubbly it is: the more lather, the more expensive), whether you intend to use it for washing machine or handwash, and whether the detergent incldes bleach and antibacterial formula. They also sell fabric softener at P160/gallon, bleach at P80 per gallon, multipurpose liquid cleaner at P160/gallon, glass cleaner at P120/gallon, liquid handsoap at P160/gallon, and mild liquid laundry detergent at P160/gallon. They deliver too, and you can contact them at tel. 994-8853.

Soap on Whells sells detergent powder at P27/kilo, dishwashing liquid at P33.75/liter or P135/gallon, and fabric conditioner at P35/liter or P140/gallon. They deliver for a minimum order of P300. Telephone numbers: 4225308 and 9125645.

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Learning to cook

2008-08-16T01:32:00.004+08:00

An friend of mine sent me a flyer for something which I think is a really cool idea: home cooking lessons.

A group of Metro Manila-based chefs is now offering professional culinary lessons right in your home. They've taught cooking to individuals, couples, entire families, children, et cetera, et cetera.

For more details, email Chef Jonas Ng at jonasng[at]gmail[dot]com

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Meat thermometer madness.

2008-08-12T17:54:00.003+08:00

A couple of weeks ago, my husband bought a meat thermometer.

Not just any thermometer, but a deluxe kind, with a metal probe that you insert into the meat, attached by wire to a digital read-out that you can keep outside the oven.

With our brand new meat thermometer, we experimented on some steaks that we cooked on our electric grill. The meat came out perfectly done: perfectly medium rare for Mike, and well-done (the only meat--sniff! sniff!--I can eat until I give birth, sigh!).

The following day, we brought the meat thermometer to our friend's house and made a beef roast.

Again, perfect.

The center was an exquisite medium rare, and the ends just hit well-done.

Since then, we've become meat thermometer addicts.

Mike and I eat a lot of steak, and we used to always just rely on the second hand of our kitchen clock and guesswork. We had gotten good at estimating cooking time for medium rare (which, when I'm not pregnant, is the kind of meat I eat), but when we'd have friends over who would want their steaks medium or well-done, or when we cut the steaks slightly thicker or slightly thinner than usual, we'd often get it wrong, having to throw back the slab of beef onto the grill or into the pan to cook out more of the blood.

But having a thermometer takes all the guesswork out of making roasts and steak. Pop the meat in, check the chart for the correct temperature, and a few degrees before the thermometer reads that temperature, take the meat out and let it rest. (It continues to cook while resting, so you want to take it out slightly before it hits target temperature.)

Result? Perfectly cooked roasts/steak every single time.

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American Goulash, attempt #1

2008-07-07T20:38:00.005+08:00

The following is recipe based on one from FoodNetwork.com.

Sorry for the blurred photo. This is just 1 serving, by the way. The recipe is double this.

250 g lean ground beef
1 native onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup water
1 (15-ounce) can tomatoes, diced, together with the tomato juice
1/2 cup tomato sauce
dried basil
dried oregano
dried parsley
garlic powder
dried thyme
dried rosemary
garlic powder
salt
pepper
Tabasco
1 tsp soy sauce
1-1/2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked
parmesan cheese

In a deep pot, saute the ground beef over medium-high heat, breaking up the meat, until no pink remains. (We sauteed ours in olive oil because our ground beef was very very lean.) Add the onions and garlic to the pot and saute until they are tender (about 3 minutes). Add water, along with the tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato juice, soy sauce. Season with dried herbs, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Tabasco. Stir well. Place a lid on the pot and allow this to cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

Add the elbow macaroni, stir well, return the lid to the pot, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Top with parmesan cheese when serving.

Serves 2.

Not bad, but it needed more kick. Next time we'll try to put more spiciness--more Tabasco, or chilli flakes perhaps. And maybe more garlic. Before I poured in the elbow macaroni, the dish looked a little watery to me, and I made the mistake of leaving the lid slightly ajar. Twenty-five minutes later, the water was all gone and the macaroni almost burned, so I realize I should've followed the recipe and left the lid on, as instructed. The resulting dish was also a little "bitin" -- I think I'll add more macaroni next time.

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Korean chicken rice

2008-06-03T23:47:00.005+08:00

There's actually no such dish, but I didn't know what to call our latest concoction. We found some Korean bean paste in Shopwise but when we opened it, it wasn't the black bean paste we'd been expecting, but the red kind (ssamjang). It looks like the red chili paste kind you find in bibimbap, and apparently, the red chili paste is one of the main ingredients of ssamjang (I looked this all up on the Internet.

It's actually a dipping paste, but Mike and I decided to throw something a little different together and here's what we came up with.

Ingredients:

sesame oil
5 chicken thighs, deboned and deskinned
2 tbsp rice wine
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp pepper
1/2 onion, finely chopped
Korean red bean paste (ssamjang)
kim (Korean nori), cut into sheets measuring approximately 4" x 5"
steamed rice (one bowl per person)

Method:

Slice the chicken into strips. Marinate in rice wine, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, pepper and onion for about half an hour.

Stir-fry chicken in sesame oil until brown. Add 1 heaping tbsp of red bean paste (or to taste, depending on desired level of spiciness). When chicken is cooked through, add rice and 1 additional heaping tbsp of red bean paste. Fry, mixing well until flavors blend.

Transfer to serving bowl. Shred some kim on top. Serve with additional kim on the side.

Serves 2.

Verdict: Yummy, and super-easy.

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The joys of online shopping

2008-04-22T20:12:00.006+08:00

This isn't exactly a kitchen post, but it does have something to do with appliances, which in turn have something to do with the home, which is sufficiently related to the kitchen to merit a post on this blog.

I'm on leave this summer (one of the perks of my job is that we get summer leaves every three years), so I've been spending time doing all the home-related tasks and house-related errands I've been putting off all year. I had a plumber come a few weeks ago to fix our leaky kitchen faucets; I had a carpenter come to install some new bookshelves; and (as you know) my husband and I went and bought ourselves a new fridge .... And among the many home improvements I've been doing is making a list of new appliances we need.

And in the midst of all of that ... I've discovered the joys of online shopping.

See, I don't drive. Last week, in the 35-degree heat, I decided that our house needed 2 additional electric fans ... but I was dreading the thought of taking a cab to the mall in the middle of a hot day, buying 2 bulky stand fans, and lugging them all the way to the taxi stand. So I asked my husband if we could just go to the mall one day after he was done with work so we could buy the electric fans. His reply (so obvious to him, because he works in the web industry, but strangely, so un-obvious to me, even if I'm online the whole day), was, "Why don't you just buy it online?"

See, a part of my brain is still stuck in the 1990s, when you couldn't buy anything online in the Philippines. Since then, I actually have done quite a bit of online shopping, but only: (1) on Amazon, when I have relatives flying home from the US and I have padala shipped to them for them to bring here, and (2) to buy airplane tickets.

But, as I've found out these past few days, Philippine e-commerce has really improved in leaps and bounds these past few years, and while we aren't quite at Amazon.com level yet, there are a lot of things we Pinoys can buy online.

So these past several days alone, I've either bought or intend to buy:

a Mass card for a family friend who's father passed away (MyAyala.com [which I ought to mention, in the interest of journalistic ethics, is the sister company of my husband's company] -- and they delivered it to the recipient as well)

the 2 electric fans (both Abenson and SM Appliance Center have online stores; Abenson has much cheaper delivery within Metro Manila, but when I checked SM Appliance Center had more choices, at least when it came to electric fans [Abenson has more computer stuff, though, which SM doesn't have])

a paper shredder, something I've been meaning to buy for ages (National Bookstore -- I plan to make this purchase tonight and I'll probably throw in some school supplies and summer reading while I'm at it, to make the most of the delivery charge)

The thing is, I could go to a mall and buy all that, but the cab ride to and from the mall will cost just as much as the delivery charge (the cheapest delivery fee from the above sites is P150), so why bother? Especially since riding around in cabs in this heat would probably give me a migraine.

So there. Now I think I'm getting a bit addicted to the idea that I can buy things online so easily. I've been browsing the local e-commerce websites, wondering what else I can buy .... Hehehe! Ah, yes, online or in a brick-and-mortar mall, girls will always love shopping. :)

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Chicken with tarragon and mustard cream sauce

2008-04-21T21:05:00.005+08:00

After a long while, I decided to try something new (for the last few months we've just been cooking old favorites.

I went online for some ideas and finally adapted a recipe and came up with this:

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs, deboned and deskinned
salt
pepper
olive oil or unsalted butter
1 small native onion
1/2 chicken cube dissolved in 3/4 cup water
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp dried tarragon
1/4 cup cream

Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken thighs in olive oil, 2 min each side, over medium flame. Remove the chicken and set aside. Reduce flame to low. Saute onions until translucent. Add chicken broth, scraping off browned bits. Return chicken to the pan. Bring to a boil then cover, lower flame, and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove chicken. Add cream, mustard, and tarragon. Mix well and heat until sauce has thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce over chicken and serve.

Serves 2.

Verdict: Tasty; a little on the salty side, so next time I won't bother adding salt, or maybe I'll put less chicken cube. The broth almost dried out, so it might be good to double check when you're simmering and add water if necessary. Mike said he thought the sauce would go better on pasta instead of rice. The original recipe has brandy in it, and I'm sure the brandy would add a marvelous touch, but I had neither brandy nor white wine on hand, so I simply did without.

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Storing vegetables (and some fruits) properly

2008-04-18T10:00:00.004+08:00

With a new appliance, I'm fired up to learn to use it properly. So I did a little bit of research about how to store veggies in the vegetable drawer properly ... and found out, to my astonishment, that I've been making some big mistakes all these years! For example, I've always unthinkingly thrown tomatoes into the vegetable drawer ... but apparently, tomatoes ideally aren't supposed to be refrigerated (unless you really intend to keep them longer), because refrigeration changes the taste.

Unfortunately, all the websites I've found regarding vegetable storage were made in the West; I haven't found a website that talks specifically about fruits available in Southeast Asia, or that takes Southeast Asian tropical weather into consideration, but I compiled whatever I found helpful and here's my list. (I changed the name of the veggies to their Tagalog equivalents when appropriate.)

FOR STORING IN THE VEGETABLE DRAWER

Carrots - Remove greens, put in a Ziplock bag, keep in vegetable drawer. Lasts 2 to 4 weeks.

Lettuce - I got different advice for lettuce. Two websites said to make the lettuce a little damp (either by wrapping the lettuce in a damp paper towel or sprinkling a teeny bit of water on the leaves), put it in a Ziplock bag, and place it in the vegetable drawer. Another said that the lettuce should be as dry as possible before putting it in the Ziplock bag. Some said the bag should have breathing holes; others said the bag should be completely sealed. Lasts a week to a week and a half.

Cabbage - Wrap in Clingwrap, keep in vegetable drawer. Lasts 2 weeks.

Sayote - Keep in vegetable drawer. Lasts 1 to 2 weeks.

Chili peppers - Put in a Ziplock bag to prevent aroma from spreading to other vegetables, keep in vegetable drawer. Lasts a week.

Spring onions - Don't wash. Put in open plastic bag, keep in vegetable drawer. Lasts a week.

Ginger root - Wrap in paper bag or newspaper. Store in vegetable drawer.

Sitaw - Place in open plastic bag. Store in vegetable drawer.

FOR STORING ON THE REFRIGERATOR SHELF

Cauliflower and broccoli - Wrap the head in plastic wrapper. Store near the back of the refrigerator (where it's colder). Lasts a week.

Calamansi and lemons - Don't wrap. Store near the front of the refrigerator. Before using, allow to warm to room temperature. Lasts 1.5 to 3 weeks.

Squash (opened) - When opened, shop into pieces, wrap each piece well in Clingwrap and keep in the vegetable drawer. Lasts 5 days when opened and stored in the refrigerator.

Tomatoes (ripe) - Wrap loosely in paper bag or newspaper. Store on refrigerator shelf. Lasts from 2 days to a week.

Kangkong - Put in open plastic bag, keep on refrigerator shelf. Lasts 3 days.

Eggplant - Store unwrapped on refrigerator shelf. Lasts 7 to 10 days.

Grapes - Don't wash until you're about to eat it. Put in Ziplock bag. Store on refrigerator shelf, near the back. Lasts 2 - 3 weeks.

All fruits - As a general rule, don't keep fruits in the same drawer as vegetables. Many fruits need good air circulation and if they need to be refrigerated those fruits are better kept on the refrigerator shelf.

NOT TO BE REFRIGERATED

Squash (unopened) - When unopened, store outside of the refrigerator in a cool dry place. Lasts a month when unopened.

Tomatoes (not yet ripe) - Wrap loosely in paper bag or newspaper. Store in a cool dry place. Lasts from 2 days to a week.

The obvious ones: onions, garlic, potatoes.

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Our new refrigerator

2008-04-17T14:38:00.003+08:00

Last week, Mike and I went out and bought a new refrigerator. The old refrigerator in our house was a tiny 7 (maybe even 6) cubic-foot single-door fridge, which we would have to cram like crazy. It still worked, but it no longer cooled our food as well as refrigerators should, especially because it was always so stuffed.

So we took a trip to our friendly neighborhood SM appliance center with a budget of P20,000.

We ended up getting an 11-cubic-foot Whirlpool, a teeny bit over our budget, but pretty much exactly what we needed. We didn't need a big freezer because we have a separate stand-alone freezer, but we did need space for all our bottles (because of all the water one needs to drink in this hot and humid country), and the Whirlpool has nice big door racks for big 1.5-liter bottles, leaving the main chamber free for everything else.

Some happy plusses were a built-in deodorizer, built-in twist ice trays, and Canadian no-CFC technology (good for the environment).

The only disappointment was that the vegetable drawer wasn't much bigger than the vegetable drawer of our old refrigerator.

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What to do with leftover lamb

2008-04-17T14:24:00.002+08:00

Mike brought home some leftover leg of lamb after a big business-related dinner at Cyma. So the other day we had a tweaked version of our lamb stew.

leftover lamb, chopped into small pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
3 slices bacon, chopped
1 can whole tomato, including the tomato sauce
garlic salt
pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp basil
olive oil

We cooked the onion and bacon first, in a large pot, until the onion was transparent, then we threw everything else in, brought it to a boil, then let it simmer.

Yum, it was delicious ...!

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Grilled Tuna with Honey Pepper Sauce

2007-11-25T21:30:00.000+08:00

We had some tuna steak in the refrigerator that I wanted to cook already, and a recipe for honey grilled salmon by Sarina Fores in the Assumption Cookbook. I tweaked the recipe a little bit (we didn't have pineapple juice so I brought out a small can of tuna chunks instead), and this is what I came up with.

Ingredients:

1 slab tuna fillet (good for two)
vegetable oil
salt and pepper

Honey Pepper Sauce:
3/4 cup honey
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
a small can pineapple chunks
juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika (we actually didn't have any paprika on hand so I used a steak rub that had pepper and paprika in it)
1/4 tsp garlic powder

1. Rub the tuna fillet with vegetable oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill around 2 - 3 minutes on each side.

2. In a saucepan combine al ingredients for honey pepper sauce and cook over low-medium heat. Stir occasionally until sauce begins to boil. Turn down heat and simmer for 13 minutes or until slightly thick.

3. Pour some of the honey pepper sauce and the pineapple chunks over grilled tuna and serve with extra sauce on the side.

The sauce was yummy, although it would've been okay with less sugar (it was quite sweet!). We also had a lot of sauce left over, so the sauce is probably good enough for 3 or 4 people.

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Chinese Panfried Chicken Fillets

2007-11-14T19:27:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the uncreative title. This dish started out as a craving for Hainanese chicken. True Hainanese chicken, however, takes a couple of hours to prepare and cook, and we were already hungry, so that was out of the question. Meanwhile, Mike wanted to do something with the 9-Minute Marinator. And this is what we ended up making.

Ingredients:

2 pieces filleted chicken breast (total of 350 g)
pinch of salt
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine
.5 inch piece ginger, bruised
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/4 onion (we should've used spring onion, but we didn't have any)
sesame oil

We put the first seven ingredients plus 1 tsp sesame oil in the marinator and allowed it to marinate. After that, we pan-fried the chicken in a generous amount of sesame oil on a low-medium flame, five minutes uncovered on each side. Then we turned the fire to low and covered the pan, frying it for an additional 6 minutes, turning once.

After that we set the chicken aside, and we poured about 3 tbsp of water into the pan and scraped up all the chicken fat into it to make a sauce. We poured the sauce over the chicken fillets.

We served it with a dipping sauce of minced ginger, chili garlic paste, a drop of sesame oil and light soy sauce.

The dish was quite yummy and was gone in about 5 minutes. :) The thinner parts of the fillet were slightly dry, though, so the next time we'll take the chicken out of the pan a little earlier. Mike also suggested we try adding a teaspoon of Chinese black vinegar to the marinade.

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The 9-minute Marinator

2007-11-13T19:31:00.000+08:00

I have a confession to make. I really get a kick out of watching Infomercials, especially the ones about products that have to do with the home (kitchen gadgets, cleaning gadgets, and furniture-related items).

Mike doesn't share my enthusiasm for Infomercials (I suppose few people do) ... except for ... the Infomercial on the 9-minute Marinator!

So last weekend, I decided to bite the bullet and shell out the money for an early boyfriend-girlfriend anniversary gift for my husband. And I ordered it. It was the first time I'd ever ordered something from an Infomercial.

(While looking for the above picture, I got jealous when I found out that the Canadian company that sells it offers a chopper and two vacuum-seal food canisters along with the marinator! The only thing that comes after "And wait, there's more!" on the Philippine version of the Infomercial is a pair of bendable chopping boards. Grrr.)

It arrived at home yesterday.

So last night we made tuna steaks. We threw in some lemon juice, butter, salt, and pepper along with the tuna, in the Marinator for 5 minutes, and grilled the tuna on our electric grille.

Tonight we'll try real steaks.

Yummm ..... I can't wait to get home.

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Restaurant reviews: In-yo and Galileo

2007-11-04T16:59:00.000+08:00

It was my birthday last week, so in a span of a few days, we got to celebrate at two supremely delicious restaurants.

Restaurant number 1 was In-yo, a house converted into a restaurant along Esteban Abada, parallel to the part of Katipunan Avenue fronting Ateneo. I'd passed by there several times before and had heard good reviews about it, but given that it's priced out of our normal everyday-fare range, I'd never stopped to eat there. Until last week.

The place is very nicely decorated, classy and cosy, but it's the food--fusion--that you'll be writing home about. My husband was skeptical at first: "At these prices, the food had better be good," but he was definitely not disappointed, and the food in fact exceeded his expectations.

The prices are close to hotel prices: P1000 for the degustacion (a set meal where you get to taste several different courses), and around P400 for an entree, but to be quite frank, the food was better than I'd eaten at many hotels. The pumpkin soup was the best I'd ever eaten, the halibut pasta was divine, and the lamb shanks made our eyes grow big with delight at the first bite.

Needless to say, we were raving about In-yo for days after, and we'll definitely be back.

=====

Restaurant number 2 was Galileo, a little Italian deli and restaurant along Calbayog Street in Mandaluyong. The restaurant is decorated to make guests feel like they're walking into the wine cellar of a monastery, with ceiling-to-floor bottles of Italian wine, and simple wooden benches to sit on.

For what you get, the food is quite reasonable. The set meal is P450 (VAT included), for which you get a glass of house wine, antipasto (a platter of cheese and cold cuts), pasta (your choice among the day's specials), and a cup of coffee or tea. We each got a set meal and also shared a salad and an order of bruschetta and with all that, plus the bread basket we'd started with, we were absolutely stuffed. The a la carte entrees are less than P300.

The food is scrumptious!

In-yo Fusion Cuisine: Estaban Abada St., Loyola Heights, QC, 9286459, closed on Mondays. Galileo Enoteca: 80 Calbayog corner Malinao St., Mandaluyong, 5344633 or 5320482.

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Baked orange chicken

2007-08-18T20:32:00.000+08:00

I got a recipe from Epucurious.com and adapted it a little. Here it is:

1 pack chicken drumsticks (8 pieces)
salt and pepper
1 tsp dried thyme

Citrus Mix:
2 tbsp calamansi juice from concentrate (mixed)
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1-1/2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp ginger root, crushed
2 tbsp melted butter/margarine or olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the ingredients for the citrus mix and mix well. Baste chicken pieces generously with the citrus mix. Sprinkle chicken pieces with salt, pepper, and thyme.
3. Bake chicken uncovered in a baking dish for 30 minutes.
4. Remove from oven. Turn over chicken pieces and baste generously again, with the rest of the mix.
5. Return chicken to oven and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, or until done.

Serves 3.

(For a slightly healthier dish, remove the chicken pieces from the sauce when cooked, and just pour a little of the sauce over the chicken to serve.)

The dish was okay, except it was a little difficult to get the chicken cooked just right (I had to put it back in twice). Also, Mike said it was a little too gingery.

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Breakfast.

2007-08-13T01:28:00.000+08:00

Via was asking what Mike and I eat for breakfast .... I find it funny that I've written so little about breakfast, considering that Mike and I take our breakfasts quite seriously! When we go grocery-shopping, choosing our breakfast food is often a high point of the trip.

I like heavy breakfasts, since I need to have a lot of energy when I'm in the classroom, so a traditional Filipino breakfast--i.e., a rice breakfast--makes me very happy. The rice is usually either sinangag (last night's leftover rice, fried with lots of garlic) or freshly steamed. I grew up in a Batanguenyo household, where we poured tsokolate on our steamed rice in the morning (I learned from my friend Jan that Ilonggos do this too), so sometimes I do that as well. (Mike thinks it's strange, but then, he's not Batanguenyo.) Alternately, I sprinkle furikake (rice seasoning--one of the best Japanese inventions!) on my rice for some extra flavor. (You can sometimes find furikake in the Japanese aisle of big supermarkets.)

Our ulam for rice breakfast meals is usually something easy to cook, with zero preparation. Sometimes we have pre-marinated beef tapa (our favorite is the one from Lapid's--yes, they do tapa too!), sausages or cold cuts (we are fans of the very affordable but very yummy products from Earl's delicatessen), tuyo or daing out of a jar (we like Connie's Kitchen), chicken nuggets, beef franks, or something out of a can like corned beef or Spam Lite. Another favorite breakfast ulam of ours is Sarangani's tinapang bangus. It just needs to defrost a little after you pull it out of the freezer, then you just heat in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes.

And of course, it isn't a true Filipino breakfast without egg. I love scrambled eggs the way my mom taught me to make them: I beat them very well with a generous amount of milk, and I continue to beat them (or more like mix them) in the pan so they get as fluffy as possible.

Sometimes, instead of rice, we have bagels with ham and cream cheese. Yummy and quite heavy.

When we're in a rush and we don't have time for a heavy breakfast, we each have a bowl of cereal and milk. Shopwise has wonderful cheap cereals (P80 to P120 a box). Sometimes we each chop a banana into our cereal bowls so it isn't too light.

On weekend mornings when we have more time to cook, we make ourselves a generous, sinful omelette oozing with cheese and either bacon or ham. Other times, we'll have pancakes or French toast.

And finally, on really lazy weekend mornings, when we wake up late, I'll sometimes just make a banana smoothie for each of us, then we save our appetite for brunch. :)

I promise to give more details about our breakfast meals in future posts. :)

Thanks for the idea, Via!

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Beef Stroganoff, 2

2007-08-12T16:56:00.000+08:00

We made another beef stroganoff for lunch today, tihs time following a recipe from an excellent cookbook: Mike's parents' compilation of recipes. We made a few adjustments, and here it is:

250g beef stroganoff, seasoned with salt (or meat tenderizer) and pepper
1 tbsp butter
1/2 onion, chopped finally
1/2 cup beef broth thicketned with 1-1/2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp red wine
1 tsp Worcestorshire sauce
1/2 can mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup sour cream, yogurt, or cream
salt and pepper to taste

Sautree onions in butter. Add beef and sautee until brown. Add beef broth, mustard, wine, and Worcestorshire sauce. Simmer for 10-15 minutes (longer to tenderize beef). Five minutes before serving add mushrooms, sour cream, and salt & pepper to taste. Serve on spaghetti pasta or rice.

Serves 2.

Yum! This version was a lot thicker than my last attempt, because of the flour; I realize that when serving the stogranoff with pasta (which is what we did), it's important to have thick sauce, so that the sauce coats the pasta properly. With rice, the flour isn't necessary, methinks.

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Moussaka, with eggplant

2007-08-05T13:08:00.000+08:00

~~We tried to put together a moussaka again today, this time with the eggplant. Here's what we did.~~ Updated on August 27th. We tried it again, this time with a bechamel sauce. It's optional, though, and you can just do it with a regular cheese mix. I've listed both options below.

Ingredients:

250 g lean ground beef
garlic salt
pepper
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/8 cup red wine
2 tbsp English brown sauce (ketchup will also do)
2 tomatoes, diced
olive oil
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
dash of Tabasco
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 an eggplant (we don't like eggplants much, so we kept it to a minimum), sliced

Cheese Mix/Bechamel Sauce:

For an easy cheese mix: 1 egg, beaten and 1-1/2 cups quickmelt cheese, grated

For bechamel sauce, also add:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tbsp flour
1 additional egg, beaten

1. Chop eggplant into small pieces and put in a cup with salt water. Allow to sit.

2. Mix the tomato sauce, brown sauce, red wine, garlic salt (to taste) and pepper (to taste) into the beef.

3. Caramelize the onions in olive oil. Add the beef until brown. Simmer until dry.

4. While beef is simmering, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Celsius.

5. Rinse the eggplant pieces, then fry the eggplant in olive oil in a separate pan.

6. Prepare the easy cheese mix by beating the egg and mix in the grated cheese. To make the bechamel sauce instead, heat the milk and add the flour little by little, stirring constantly. Mix in the cheese and eggs, stirring until sauce has thickened. Remove from fire and allow to rest.

7. When beef is done, season with nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, and Tabasco. Mix in the tomatoes.

8. Place a layer of the eggplant on the bottom of a baking pan. Pour beef as the second layer. Top with the cheese mix/bechamel sauce.

9. Bake for 20 minutes.

~~Yummy! Tastier than our last attempt, and cheesier. We didn't simmer the beef enough, though, so next time we'll dry the beef better.~~ It took more work, but this is probably more authentic because it has a proper sauce. Nonetheless, it's also good with just the simple cheese mix.

Find other people blogging about: Greek+food

Composting.

2007-08-05T10:24:00.002+08:00

The village where we live has implemented a composting policy. The garbage men who come to our village will no longer collect our biodegradable garbage: residents are encouraged, instead, to compost all of our biodegradable trash.

For P600 each of us can buy a composting bin and 25-kilo sack of special composting soil. The composting bin is a plastic drum with the bottom cut out and holes drilled into the body, meant to be placed in the garden. However, any container can actually take its place; some people just use a circle of wiremesh (the wire improves air circulation) in their garden. The soil has some fertilizer and microorganisms in it already, to make the decomposition process happen more quickly, but again, regular soil can also be used. Some people don't use soil at all, but without soil, it might be slightly more difficult to find the right mix of organic trash to activate the decomposition process; moreover, one has to be a little more judicious about what kind of organic waste to compost (see below).

What can be composted? Technically, anything that's organic, although websites I consulted recommend that manure and urine from carnivorous animals (such as dogs and cats), diseased plants, and ash from charcoal not be home-composted, because the heat of home composting piles rarely reaches the intensity necessary to kill pathogens that can spread disease and illness to other plants or, if the waste seeps into water sources, to humans. When soil isn't used, it's also a good idea to avoid using meat, milk, dairy and fish products, as rodents and other animals may come and try to dig these out of the composting heap. Those planning to use the compost to fertilize vegetable patches might also want to avoid adding weeds to their compost pile, so the weeds don't spread to their vegetable patches. Wood scraps (from untreated wood), ash from untreated wood, food scraps, fruits and vegetables, garden trimmings, shredded black and white newspaper, shredded clean (unwaxed) paper, shredded toilet paper, manure from vegetarian animals, shredded cardboard rolls, shredded cardboard cereal boxes (if unwaxed), coffee grounds and filters, cotton or wool (i.e., natural) rags, lint from driers and vacuum cleaners, crushed eggshells, hair and fur, nut shells, tea bags, sawdust, and dead leaves all can be composted without problems.

The composting process is simple. First, organic trash needs to be cut into small pieces to hasten decomposition. It is best if the bottom of the composting heap is well-aerated, either by using a composting bin with holes in the bottom, or by putting an initial layer of wood materials and scraps that can allow air to pass through. After this, the bottom layer of the heap should be a two-inch layer of soil or nitrogen-rich garbage ("green stuff" such as fresh grass clippings, kitchen vegetable scraps, manure from vegetarian animals, or [brace yourself for this] a bit of human urine). The next layer (no thicker than two inches) can be any kind of organic garbage (this is the layer where carbon-rich waste is concentrated: "brown garbage" such as dead leaves, newspaper, and wood scraps), followed again by a two-inch layer of soil or nitrogen-rich garbage. As trash accumulates, this process of layering continues. It is helpful to keep the heap covered so it doesn't get too wet with rain, and so rodents or animals will not try to dig through the composting heap.

If your compost bin is made up of a lot of food, watering the compost heap isn't necessary, because kitchen scraps contain a lot of water. (I think the humidity of the Philippines also helps to keep the composting heap moist.) Compost bins composed of very dry materials, however, need to be watered a little until damp (not too much!) as each layer is added.

In ideal conditions, composting takes just three to six weeks. The compost heap will first warm up then will begin to cool. In ideal conditions, it should emit a sweet, earthy aroma. When conditions are less than ideal (e.g., heap is too dry, too wet, or has too little nitrogen-rich materials), decomposition may take a bit longer. You can correct this easily, depending on the problem. If the pile is not warming up, add more nitrogen-rich materials, sprinkle with water, and turn the pile a little with a rake or shovel. If the pile has a foul garbage-like odor, add more nitrogen-rich materials. If the pile is too wet and soggy, add more dry materials (such as dried leaves), and turn the pile.

After the compost heap is warmed up and then cooled, the compost heap is almost ready! Turn over the pile, to allow the bottom to dry. When done, the compost can be used as a thin layer of fertilizer for the garden and for house plants.

=======

Our homeowners' association in our village resells composting soil, but if you're interested you can contact Lacto Asia Pacific Corporation, the suppliers of Happy Soil at 7761511 or email address lactoasia[at]yahoo[dot]com.

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Deep-fried tofu with teriyaki sauce

2007-07-22T15:15:00.000+08:00

1 block firm tofu, chopped into 4 cubes
Japanese breadcrumbs
1 large egg, beaten
salt
chili powder
teriyaki sauce
vegetable oil

Mix 1/2 tsp chili powder and a pinch of salt with the breadcrumbs. Dip each cube of tofu into the egg, and then coat well with breadcrumbs. Heat the oil, and when sufficiently hot, deep fry the tofu cubes in the oil until well-browned. Allow to dry on a paper towel before moving to a service dish.

In a separate pan, heat some teriyaki sauce. Pour the teriyaki sauce over the tofu cubes. Serve.

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Moussaka, without the eggplant

2007-07-22T14:17:00.000+08:00

We tried to put together a moussaka yesterday, but we didn't have eggplant, so it became a moussaka without eggplant.

Here's what we did.

250 g lean ground beef
1 egg
1 cup quickmelt cheese, grated
salt and pepper
2 potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup red wine
1 tomato, diced
olive oil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 onion, finely chopped

1. Fry the potatoes slices in vegetable oil. When done, allow oil to drain on a paper towel.

2. In a separate pan, cook the beef and onions in olive oil, until beef is brown. Season with oregano, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

3. When beef is brown, add tomato sauce and red wine. Simmer until dry, mixing in the tomatoes towards the end. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

4. Beat the egg and mix in the grated cheese.

5. Place a layer of potato slices on the bottom of a baking pan. Pour beef as the second layer. Top with the cheese mix.

6. Bake for 20 minutes.

The dish was yummy, but next time we'll add more cheese (around half a cup more) and do something more with the sauce. We'll also probably add some Tabasco to spice it up a little. And next time, we'll do it with the eggplant. :)

Find other people blogging about: Greek+food

Spaghetti and meatballs

2007-05-19T21:56:00.001+08:00

Mike made a yummy spaghetti and meatballs dish for dinner.

Meatballs:

250 g lean ground beef
whites of 2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp ground allspice
pepper, to taste
garlic salt, to taste
1 native onion, finely chopped
3 cloves native garlic, ground
cooking oil

Sauce:

1 pack ready-made tomato spaghetti sauce (we used Del Monte)
1 slice of cooked double-back bacon, finely chopped (we used Earl's)
2 native onions, finely chopped
1/4 tsp dried basil
olive oil

In a mixing bowl, mix the breadcrumbs with the egg whites. Mix in the lean ground beef, allspice, pepper, garlic salt, and garlic. Mix well. Form meatballs. Sprinkle dried oregano and basil on the meatballs.

In a pan or wok, fry meatballs in oil until browned on all sides, about 5 to 6 minutes. Lay on a paper towel to drain oil.

Boil water for the pasta. While waiting for water to reach rolling boil, prepare the sauce separately. Heat olive oil in a separate saucepan. Add onions and allow them to caramelize. Add bacon until warm. Pour in spaghetti sauce. Allow to simmer for around 20 minutes, stirring from time to time to prevent bacon from scorching. Add dried basil. If sauce gets too thick, add a little water (not more than 1/4 cup at a time) and mix well. Add meatballs and allow to simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes to make sure that meatballs are cooked through.

Prepare pasta according to directions. Drain.

Serve spaghetti topped with sauce and meatballs. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese.

A yummy classic!

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A trip to Assad Mini Mart

2007-05-19T19:04:00.000+08:00

I looooove Asian cuisine--Filipino, Singaporean, the different regional cuisines of China, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Japanese, Korean ... you name it! (Well, with the exception of some North Indian and West Asian/Middle Eastern dishes: I'm not really into beans.)

And the secret to authentic Asian food, as most people know, is finding the right flavors and spices! Using, for example, Japanese soy sauce for a Chinese dish is simply wrong, and Malaysian food without lemongrass just isn't the same ....

Of course, it isn't always easy to find spices which aren't endemic to the Philippines. A few substitutions can be made, because a lot of ingredients in other Asian countries have parallels in the Philippines. (You can, for example, use Filipino patis instead of Thai patis, although it's harder to use Filipino shrimp bagoong in place of Malaysian belacan, because the taste just isn't the same.)

But oh, the difference it makes when you find authentic ingredients!

A few months ago, a friend told me about the Indian groceries along U.N. Avenue, although I never got the chance to go. Today, however, I had an errand to run in Manila. And while we were there, Mike had the brilliant idea of eating at a little Indian eatery he had seen across Unilever. It was--you guessed it--right beside the row of Indian groceries!

So after eating scrumptious mutton curry and shrimp masala at Assad Cafe, Mike and I trooped to Assad Mini Mart, just a few doors away. I wanted to buy some ghee, but it came in a giant box and had an August 2007 expiry date (I told Mike: "I don't think we'll be having that much Indian food between now and August). It was also a little expensive. So instead we settled for dry spices and different kinds of masala powder. I was also tempted to get some lentils and basmati rice, but we didn't bring a lot of money for this excursion, so I changed my mind at the last minute.

I remember how we learned in history class that one of the principle motivators for the Europeans to explore the world was the spice trade. People actually died for these spices! And now all a Pinoy needs to do to get a bag of spices is to take a trip to U.N. Avenue. Hmmm.

Find other people blogging about: Indian+spices

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

2007-05-11T00:10:00.000+08:00

I had a piece of pork tenderloin in the freezer and decided to try my hand at a stuffed loin. Here's the recipe:

1 250g piece pork tenderloin
2 tsp grain mustard
a few leaves of salad lettuce, cut into shreds
some bacon, cooked and chopped into bits
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried oregano
Tabasco
whites of 2 eggs
3 tbsp bread crumbs
2 tsp Mesquite powder
vegetable oil

1. In a pan, saute onions until caramelized.

2. Remove some of the excess fat (although leave a film so that the pork does not lose too much moisture when cooking). Butterfly the pork loin and open flat. Pound on meat to make it thinner. Place on top of a sheet of alumnium foil.

3. Spread mustard on the top surface of the pork loin. Mix the bread crumbs into the egg whites and spread half of it on top of the mustard. Sprinkle garlic powder, sage, oregano, a few drops of Tabasco, and the shredded lettuce. Spread onions and bacon bits on the loin, then top with the rest of the egg whites and bread crumbs.

4. With a knife score the entire pork loin down the middle, lengthwise. Fold one half of the loin over the other, so that the stuffing is inside.

5. Brush a little bit of oil over the surface of the pork loin. Rub the surface with Mesquite powder.

6. Wrap the entire pork loin in the aluminum foil and leave it in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.

7. Remove pork loin from the foil and place it in a baking dish. Roast, uncovered, in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Allow pork loin to rest for a few minutes before serving.

Serves 2.

Verdict: The pork loin came out quite tasty, although both Mike and I were looking for some sauce to dip it in. Next time, I'll probably prepare it with a light mustard sauce or barbeque sauce.

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Bulk Cooking

2007-05-09T12:21:00.000+08:00

Although I haven't done it in a systematic way, I've been interested in the concept of "bulk cooking" (also known as "freezer cooking").

Bulk cooking is the practice of cooking huge amounts of food that are suitable to freezing, as infrequently as once a month (hence, it's other name, "once a month cooking"). All that food is stocked in the freezer, and the family simply warms up food as they go along. The result is that the family (or whoever does the cooking in the family) is able to save time and energy by having to cook less frequently.

There are other variations of bulk cooking as well, such as preparing ingredients for freezing, but not doing the actual cooking until the meal itself. The most basic form of bulk cooking, and the kind I'm inclined to, is simply doubling or tripling dinner recipes that are suitable to freezing, so that there are at least enough leftovers for lunch and maybe one additional dinner. (More tips for a less radical form of bulk cooking.)

I'd like to do this simplified form of bulk cooking a little more systematically, so I did some research about the tools required. The most obvious, of course, is some extra freezer space, which our freezer has a lot of, since we have a separate freezer. Having an oven is also helpful, because then you can bake more than one meal at a time. A microwave makes defrosting and reheating a cinch (and minimizes the softening of reheated veggies, or the overthickening of reheated reheated sauces). Depending on the amounts you intend to cook, you might eventually feel the need for bigger mixing bowls. You'll need a storage system, such as Tupperware, freezer bags (though they are more environmentally-harmful), or aluminum pans. Finally, bulk cooking advocates recommend that you have a marking pen on hand so that you can label and write the date that you prepared each dish.

Another thing to learn is which recipes are suitable for freezing, and which aren't. This article lists food items that don't freeze well. There list includes:

fried food

cake icings made with egg whites

custard and cream fillings

soft cheese

mayonnaise

sour cream

potatoes, when cooked in soups and stews

I'd also add mashed potatoes to the list.

On the other hand, stews and casseroles generally keep for up to three months, and sauces, for even longer, so that's a good place to start. (Personally I find that most stews taste better when reheated.)

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Twenty Steps to a Healthier Kitchen

2007-05-08T02:27:00.000+08:00

Now that Mike and I are in our 30s (just barely), we're getting more health-conscious. In our 20s, being healthy for us meant doing (or trying to start doing!) some kind of physical activity to keep us fit. But now that we're in our 30s, being healthy isn't confined only to the activities that we do, but also, what we eat.

The great thing about cooking our own meals is that we have greater control over what goes into our body. I've become more conscious about this over the last few months and have kept health, instead of just price, as one of my main criteria when choosing food while supermarketing.

We're far from being poster-children for health, of course. But we're trying, little by little, to be healthier. Allow me to share with you a list of some of the steps we've been taking, or have been trying to take, in the Palacios kitchen:

Never buy carbonated softdrinks (sodas) in the grocery unless you're hosting a party. Replace softdrinks with healthier alternatives like fruit juice (our favorite of late is calamansi concentrate), or the best alternative of all: water.

Shell out the extra money to buy the leanest (or at least the leaner) meat at the butcher's. It may seem like it's hurting your pocket now, but remember that health is a more important form of wealth.

Always have fresh fruits in the house, and keep them within easy reach. When your stomach is craving for a midday snack, reach for a banana instead of a bag of potato chips.

Speaking of potato chips: when you're in the supermarket, skip the "junk food" aisle altogether. The only time you should buy potato chips is if you're going on an out-of-town trip.

If your family has a history of hypertension (which is true for both Mike's and my families), then you should be watching your salt intake. Use herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor your food. Stock up on a variety of dried herbs and learn which goes with which food so you can easily add them to the dishes you're cooking.

Speaking of salt: keep the salt shaker away from the dining table.

Filipino weight-watchers: go easy on the rice. Control your rice portions by serving rice in individual rice bowls at the dining table.

Milk isn't just for kids. Have a glass of milk (low-fat or skim, now that you're an adult) every evening, before going to bed. It's good for digestion, too.

Carrots are wonderful! Super-rich in vitamins, barely any calories, and fantastic for main courses, soup, snacks, salad, or even dessert. Plus they keep very well so you can store them in your refrigerator longer than you can greens. Buy carrots every time you go to the supermarket and look for different ways to slip them into your meals.

Buy salad greens every time you go to the supermarket, and always have some salad dressing (whether home-made or store-bought) handy at home, so that you'll be ready to eat a salad in no time. A note when buying lettuce: choose deep green (or red, as the case may be) lettuce like Romaine. Stay away from iceberg lettuce! Not only does iceberg have no nutritional value; it's actually bad for you! (Update: See comments section for more on this.)

Olive oil and butter have about the same calorie count, but olive oil is healthier. It's also a lot more expensive, however. When making a recipe that calls for a lot of butter, consider replacing a third or even half of the butter with olive oil.

And instead of using butter, use low-fat margarine instead.

Buy whole wheat instead of white bread.

Trim the excess fat of pork, beef, and lamb before cooking. And whenever you can, take the skin off the chicken. Chicken skin is almost pure fat.

Speaking of chicken, don't pour the drippings back onto chicken when serving it ... (although I can't resist when it's a roast, because a roast chicken without drippings just isn't the same)!

Consider using honey instead, when a recipe calls for sugar.

Cut down on pan-fried and deep-fried food. Instead, bake, poach, steam ... and when you need to fry, stir-fry (i.e., chop your food into small pieces and fry it in a wok using a very small amount of oil).

When you go to the butcher, have your meat bagged in exactly the amount you will need for cooking one dish. (For example, Mike and I always ask that our ground beef be bagged in bags of 200 to 250 grams each: one bag is thus exactly enough for one meal for the two of us.) That way, you never cook or eat more than you should.

Limit the treats. Mike and I only allow ourselves to buy one kind of dessert when we go to the supermarket: dark chocolate.

For the sake of your health and your wallet, always have a grocery list when you go to the supermarket, and follow it as much as possible. This way, you don't end up buying impulse purchases.

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Spices and Surprises

2007-05-08T00:41:00.000+08:00

Mike and I came from England a few weeks ago, where Mike had to attend a business conference. Afterwards I headed to Hong Kong and Macau, while Mike headed home to the Philippines.

While we were away I stocked up on yummy spices that aren't easy to find in the Philippines. Here's our loot:

Everything you need for Hainanese chicken, in one box (except the chicken)! How convenient is that!

Beef bulgogi sauce.

Brown sauce. A must-have for a true full English breakfast.

Garam masala.

Tandoori powder.

Cumin powder.

And I also got a bamboo steamer!

Find other people blogging about: kitchen+spices

Baked Honey-Mustard Chicken

2007-05-07T18:27:00.000+08:00

We have a relatively new oven that we haven't used much, so today I wanted to experiment with it. I also had a jar of sunflower honey from Baguio, that I hadn't opened, so I decided to try an old classic: honey-mustard chicken. Below is the recipe I came up with. I actually wanted to use tarragon instead of basil but we're all out.

7 chicken thighs, washed and patted dry
2 tbsp butter or margarine
2 tbsp mustard
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
juice and rind from one small lemon
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/4 tsp dried basil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

In a saucepan, combine over low heat the butter, mustard, honey, garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce and ground pepper until the butter melts. Mix well. Remove from heat then slowly mix in the lemon juice and rind.

Place the chicken thighs skin-side down in a greased oven-safe dish. Brush chicken with sauce. Bake covered for 30 minutes.

Remove chicken thighs from oven. Turn them over, skin-side up. Brush chicken with the remainder of the sauce. Sprinkle basil on the chicken. Return to oven and bake uncovered for another 30 minutes. For a healthier meal, pour out and throw away the drippings before serving.

Serves 3.
Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 1 hour
Calorie count: approx. 500 calories per serving

Verdict: It was yummy but we had to keep some extra sauce on the side to dip the chicken into as we went along. Next time I think I'll actually marinate the chicken instead of just brushing the sauce on it, for more flavor. Mike also suggested adding something to the sauce to give it an extra kick; I think I'll add some chili garlic next time for a little bit of spice.

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Lamb Stew

2007-05-06T13:38:00.000+08:00

Mike's parents have a lamb recipe that is so good, Mike has dubbed it "Lamb of God." Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the sheet of paper where I copied that recipe, so instead I did some experimenting in the kitchen today, and tried to make a lamb stew from scratch.

Here's the recipe I used.

500 g lamb for stewing (shoulder, shank, neck or leg), chopped into cubes and excess fat trimmed
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 garlic, finely chopped
2 medium native onions, finely chopped
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
1-1/2 cup water
1 tsp sugar
4 native tomatoes, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and thickly sliced

1. Sprinkle the lamb with salt and pepper.

2. Heat olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Brown the lamb in batches, about 4 to 5 minutes per batch. Return all the lamb into the pot.

3. Add garlic and stir until fragrant.

4. Add onions, dried rosemary and dried thyme. Saute for a few minutes until onions have begun to caramelize (about 5 minutes).

5. Stir the sugar into the water until the sugar has dissolved. Add the water to the pot. Bring to a boil, then add the tomatoes and carrot. Wait until the stew boils again.

6. Reduce heat to medium-low, then cover with lid slightly ajar. Allow to simmer until lamb is tender (about 45 minutes to 1 hour). If stew dries out, add more water, 1/4 cup at a time. Season with salt to taste.

7. Serve stew with steamed rice.

Serves 4.
Calorie count: approx. 420 calories per serving.

Verdict: I'm proud of this dish. It's very flavorful. Mike liked it too.

As an afterthought, I threw in a chopped up chorizo sausage in the last few minutes of simmering, to make the dish taste a little more Spanish, although I added it too late to alter the flavor of the stew much. Maybe next time I'll try putting in the chorizo from the beginning, or replacing the carrot with chorizo and bacon to see how that'll taste. I'll try it next time and I'll let you know.

Just a quick note about the teaspoon of sugar. When Mike and I went to England on honeymoon we found out that English tomatoes are very sweet, unlike Filipino tomatoes which are rather sour! Since then, whenever I've encountered a Western recipe calling for tomatoes, I've continued to use native tomatoes but have added a little sugar, to bring the overall taste of the dish close to what was originally intended.

Find other people blogging about: lamb+recipes

Beef a L'orange

2007-05-05T14:26:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long absence. M and I were away for work, then I was away on holiday. But we're back and raring to get back into the kitchen.

It's difficult to find real orange juice in small quantities in the supermarket; the brand I buy only comes in 1-liter bottles. Once you open a bottle, it has to be consumed in a week, and I don't really drink the stuff for breakfast, so I thought it would be a good idea to look for additional orange juice recipes to make it easier to finish a bottle.

I found this recipe online and adapted it a little, and here's the version we finally tried.

2 beef steaks (suggested: tenderloin), cut 1 inch thick
1/4 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
2 tsp. dark sesame oil, divided
1/8 c. Soy sauce
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/4 c. fresh orange juice
1/8 c. balsamic vinegar
1/8 tsp. chili garlic sauce

Pound beef steaks, flattening to 3/4-inch thickness. Sprinkle both sides of steaks with garlic salt, ginger and pepper; brush with 1 teaspoon of the oil. Mix soy sauce and cornstarch in small saucepan until smooth. Add orange juice, vinegar, and hot pepper sauce. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat; simmer just until sauce becomes thickened, stirring constantly. Cover; remove from heat and set aside.

Heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in large skillet over high heat. Add steaks; pan broil 3 minutes on each side (for medium rare). Add sauce to pan. Bring to a boil, turning steaks once or twice to glaze. Spoon half the sauce in equal amounts onto 4 individual plates. Place steaks on top of sauce; spoon remaining sauce in equal amounts over steaks.

Serves 2.
Total preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes.
Calorie count: approx. 264 calories per serving.

Verdict: It's all right but not fantastic. A "B" perhaps. The sauce is interesting; a little like teriyaki sauce, but less sweet, with a sour, tangy taste.

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Restaurant review: Banapple

2007-03-31T22:53:00.000+08:00

Mike and I discovered a new cafe/restaurant today. When I say "new" I mean this quite literally; today was its soft opening.

The place is called Banapple and it's along Katipunan Avenue, on the southbound side after the flyover, right across the street from Kopi Roti. (For those of you familiar with the area, it's where City Jam used to be.) The owners--a friendly 30-something couple--had run a home-based cake business for years, and when the orders became too much for their house to handle, they decided to rent space not just for a commissary but for their own restaurant!

The interior is painted cheery shades of yellow and orange. On a refrigerated shelf, some ten to twelve cakes and pies--all looking quite scrumptious--are on display. Mike and I split an herbed chicken roll with basil cream sauce for dinner, and an apple caramel crumble for dessert.

The entree was very good and very filling for its price (P145). The apple pie slice (P75) was huge. The owner very kindly offered to warm it up for us, and we were very happy with the taste.

While its cakes and pies seem to be Banapple's centerpiece items, it also serves pancakes, sandwiches, pasta, and other rice entrees. I definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for a good meal in the P100-P200 price range.

Find other people blogging about: restaurant+reviews

Baguio vegetables

2007-03-12T12:49:00.000+08:00

Mike and I spent the weekend in Baguio with our friends Anj and Jan and boy, what a food trip! Among the food highlights:

An accidental trip to the Strawberry Farms. From Tam-awan village, we decided to look for the vegetable trading post in La Trinidad. We couldn't find it; instead we chanced upon a sign directing us to the La Trinidad strawberry farms! We happily walked among the strawberries in the field, taking pictures. We sampled strawberry taho, strawberry wine, and strawberry ice cream, and ended our visit by buying seven kilos of strawberries among the four of us, and a few jars of strawberry jam. Yum!
Dessert at the Manor. We discovered that the Manor has excellent cakes and pastries! Sinfully delicious!
Chocolate baterol at John Hay. Mmmm!
Mongolian food at Oh May Kahn. Owned by the family of a batchmate of ours, Oh May Kahn has scrumptious Mongolian barbecue and a delicious a la carte menu as well.
Soy coffee at Ben-hur Villanueva's gallery, Arko ni Apo. Sculptor Ben-hur Villanueva was Mike and Jan's art teacher in grade school! We introduced ourselves and ended up spending about an hour with Ben-hur and his gracious family. They served us interesting soy coffee made even more interesting with the wonderful company.
Lunch at a Korean restaurant on Legarda road (I think). We enjoyed a scrumptious spicy chicken dish.

Fresh vegetables from the Baguio market. Baguio vegetables!!! Oh, if only Metro Manila had vegetables as fresh and as cheap as Baguio does, we'd all be a much healthier city. I found watercress--a rarity in Manila (and made myself some Vietnamese Shaking Beef salad today). Fresh parsley was P20 per kilo and for five pesos I now have enough fresh parsley to serve it on every single dish for the next two weeks.

Happy happy joy joy.

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Mesquite chicken

2007-03-03T20:42:00.000+08:00

Mike made a yummy fried chicken dish the other day. He rarely doesn't measure ingredients when he cooks, but here, in general, is what went in the dish.

Ingredients:

5 chicken thighs, bones and skin removed
tomato catsup
mustard
vinegar
mesquite powder

Mix catsup, mustard, vinegar, and mesquite powder together. Marinade chicken in the mixture.

Fry covered until chicken is cooked through.

Extremely delicious dish.

Find other people blogging about: chicken+recipes

Lamb Masala

2007-02-18T19:43:00.000+08:00

Mike and I did our grocery at the supermarket at Market Market for the first time this week, and we were thrilled to find an amazingly large Asian spices section, and a very good meat section as well.

One of our many finds was a meat masala mix from Pakistan.

We bought some lamb from the butcher section and today we tried a lamb masala.

The recipe was on the back of the box was easy enough to follow. We made only a few changes. The first was using minced garlic and minced ginger instead of garlic/ginger paste (I don't have a blender yet, that's why). Secondly, the original recipe called for 1 cup oil or ghee (ghee is clarified butter, made by evaporating the water from butter). You'll see the change I made in the recipe. Third, we used less masala powder, just to be sure that it wouldn't be too spicy for our tastebuds.

Ingredients

500 g lamb (or other kinds of meat), cubed and excess fat trimmed
3 medium onions, finely sliced
1 meduim tomato, finely diced
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 to 2 tbsp ginger, minced
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1-1/4 tbsp masala powder
water

1. In a frying pan, heat butter on high-medium heat until it bubbles. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook uncovered until butter turns golden and foam has risen to the top.
2. Add vegetable oil. Then add lamb, garlic, ginger and masala mix. Stir-fry for a few minutes.
3. Add onions and stir-fry for 5 minutes. Then add tomatoes and 2 glasses of water.
4. Cover and cook on low heat until the lamb is tender (at least 45 minutes).
5. Uncover, increase heat and stir until oil/ghee has separated from the masala. Keep frying for a few minutes. Add 1/2 cup water for desired thickness of the gravy.

Serves 4 (based on recommended portion size).
Calorie count: 795 per serving (assuming you pour all the sauce over your rice).

The verdict: The resulting lamb masala was super- yummy!!! We will definitely buy this mix again.

Some adjustments we will make in the future:
The recipe didn't need quite so much water. The final 1/2 cup at the end wasn't really necessary. (The original recipe had actually asked for 1 to 1-1/2 cups water.)

The sauce was fine as it was, but for health reasons, we could've reduced the butter and it would have still turned out all right. Next time I will try it with just 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 cup vegetable oil.

We served some yogurt on the side to see if the dish would taste better with or without yogurt. Next time we will try it with maybe 1/2 cup of yogurt.

Ah, delicious. I love South Asian food!

Find other people blogging about: lamb+masala

Lettuce-growing

2007-02-14T09:45:00.000+08:00

Believe it or not, I'm still ill! (It's been six weeks now, and I've been to the doctor thrice.) My taste buds are still affected so I still can't do any kitchen experiments and the only cooking I've done has been following recipes.

But in the meatime, the lettuce-growing project is underway. Last Saturday, I bought a small planter and had it filled with soil, but I hadn't read up on lettuce-growing yet. After doing some research I learned that the best way to grow lettuce is to plant seeds first (excuse my ignorance, the last time I did any gardening other than weeding was in 4th grade for, well, gardening class) and then transplant them. I also learned that the planter I chose might be a little too small and might only be able to hold two heads of lettuce at a time. So I used the planter I bought for the seeds and then this weekend I'll get a larger planter for the lettuce heads.

So far, so good. I kept the planter in our indoor garden to prevent the birds or cats from disturbing them. Today is Day 5 and some shoots are peeking out of the soil already. I looked at them with delight this morning and Mike himself had a moment of wonder when he said, "Cool! It's like you're participating in God's creative act."

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Some oily lessons from Alton Brown

2007-01-28T12:36:00.000+08:00

The smoking points of olive oil and butter are the lowest.

The smoking points of canola and corn oil are average.

The smoking point of safflower oil and peanut oil is among the highest.

Why is this important to know?

Because when oil reaches its smoking point, it begins to taste bad, so when you cook food that needs to be really hot, you don't want to use oil with low smoking point.

This means, then, that when searing steak, you want to use an oil with a lower smoking point. Not olive oil or butter, then.

I read elsewhere that vegetable oil also has a low smoking point.

Helpful advice, isn't it?

Find other people blogging about: cooking+tips

New cookbook

2007-01-21T22:14:00.000+08:00

After the success of today's Korean lunch, Mike very kindly bought me a Korean cookbook when we went to the supermarket today.

We also have two new Filipino cookbooks from Angie, who gave them to us for Christmas.

I'll let you know how the recipes turn out.

Find other people blogging about: cookbooks

Korean Chicken Barbecue with Kim

2007-01-21T14:13:00.004+08:00

It's Mike's birthday today, but he's ill (as am I) so we weren't in the mood to go out for lunch. So instead we stayed home and I finally tried my hand at Korean barbecue.

At Korean barbecue restaurants, we always have beef or pork (kalbi), but we haven't gone to the supermarket, and the only thing in our freezer was a packet of chicken thighs. We didn't have lettuce leaves either, but yesterday I had bought some kim (Korean nori) along with some Korean beanpaste at a Korean convenience store at Market Market, so for this recipe we used the kim instead.

A tub of chunjang (Korean black bean paste)

With all these ingredients on hand, I went online to look for ideas as to how to make a Korean barbecue out of the ingredients I had on hand and this is what I came up with. This recipe serves 2.

Ingredients:

5 chicken thighs, deboned and deskinned
kim (Korean nori), cut into sheets measuring approximately 4" x 5"
3 cloves garlic
2 green chili peppers, sliced into slivers
sesame oil
steamed rice (one bowl per person)

Seasoning:

2 tbsp rice wine
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp pepper
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/4 tsp chili powder

Dip:

sesame oil
salt
pepper
Korean black bean paste (chunjang/jajang)

Method:

Slice the chicken into strips. Marinate first in the rice wine and minced ginger for about 15 minutes. Then transfer to a separate bowl and mix well with the other marinade ingredients. Marinate for at least half an hour.

Put about a tsp of sesame oil on the electric grill. Grill the garlic and green peppers. When cooked, remove from grill and transfer to a plate. Grill the chicken on the same grill. When cooked, place the slices of grilled chicken on top of the garlic and green peppers.

Prepare bowls of dip for each person. In one small bowl put about two tbsp of sesame oil, a pinch of salt, and around 1/4 tsp of ground pepper. In another small bowl, put 1 tsp of Korean black bean paste.

When the chicken is done, dip a slice of chicken into the sesame oil dip, put it on a sheet of kim together with a small amount of rice, and roll the kim. Dip the whole roll in the bean paste and eat!

Serves 2.

Verdict: It all came out quite yummy, although I'm sure the rolling process would've been less messy if we had used lettuce leaves instead of the tiny sheets of kim. But we were both very pleased with our meal, nonetheless.

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Food for the ill.

2007-01-20T00:05:00.000+08:00

I'm terribly sorry.

I've been ill since the beginning of the year (cough, sore throat, cold), so my tastebuds are shot, and I don't want to try anything in the kitchen for fear that my tastebuds might deceive me.

To keep this page updated, however, I decided to come up with a list of food for the ill....

fresh fruits

chicken-flavored ramen

salabat

warm calamansi juice with honey (or a bit of sugar, if honey isn't available)

green tea

lugaw or am (for children) - for when your appetite is gone and you can't eat anything else

a cure-all that I haven't tried but which my friend once recommended to me: green juice -- I've heard there are different recipes, but the most basic one blends together celery, cucumber, 1 clove garlic, and tomato.

Twenty-one tips for a thriftier kitchen!

2007-01-09T22:04:00.000+08:00

Sorry, I'm still ill so my tastebuds are shot. As a result, I still can't recommend any recipes.

However, an email conversation with my friends and a post on a friend's blog have me thinking about ways to save money. Here are some kitchen-related tips for saving money:

(1) The simplest: cook instead of eating out! And I don't just mean lutong-bahay; instead of eating expensive meals in restaurants, Mike and I try to recreate our favorite restaurant meals right in our kitchen. Even if that means buying more expensive ingredients; it still comes out cheaper than eating in a restaurant. We encourage each other by reminding each other how much we save by eating in. ("This meal only cost us P150; if we had eaten this same meal in a restaurant, it would've cost us P300!")

(2) Bring lunch to work. We don't do this often, but every now and then Mike brings lunch to work.

(3) I don't do this myself, but at my in-laws' house, fish is fried in the backyard instead of in the kitchen. How does this save money? You don't need to switch on your hood or exhaust to get the smell of fish out.

(4) Drink water instead of sodas or instant drinks. I'm one to talk; I drink so much iced tea. Nonetheless, this is on my list of New Year's resolutions: water is cheaper, and it's healthier as well.

(5) Brew your own coffee. If you're one of those people who buy your daily coffee from Starbucks, then it's time to get a coffee-maker and make your own coffee at home. Knowing how much more one spends at a coffee shop over and above the material cost of a cup of coffee, Mike (the coffee-drinker of the two of us) has a good rule of thumb: he only goes to coffee shops to meet up with business associates or friends, and only if he intends to stay there for awhile. That way, he's paying for the use of the place, not for the coffee. (And the nationalist in him is biased towards local coffee shops like Figaro or Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.)

(6) Buy a water filter/purifier instead of buying bottled water. Or, to save even more money, just boil your water (two minutes at full boil) and let it stand overnight. It's better for the environment too: no plastic bottles.

(7) Use a gas stove rather than an electric stove. In the Philippines, LPG is much, much cheaper.

(8) Learn to use extenders in food: bread crumbs in ground beef, for example.

(9) When buying meat, have the butcher pack the meat into portion-sized bags already. When Mike and I buy ground beef, for example, we ask the butcher to put it in bags of 250g portions. That way, we don't cook more than we need. (And it regulates our food intake as well!)

(10) Learn to make your own bread, yogurt, pancake mix, syrup, sandwich spread and jam. I don't do this but my father-in-law does.

(11) Grow your own vegetables. Again, something I haven't tried, though my in-laws used to do this as well.

(12) Save your lamb and chicken bones. Keep them in a sealed bag or container in the freezer. When you have enough, make your own lamb or chicken stock.

(13) If you buy deli cold cuts, consider buying the ends rather than the middle cuts, depending on what you intend to use the cuts for. They're cheaper.

(14) Save your cooking oil! It can be reused twice or thrice. Make sure, though, that you separate the oil that you use for fish, the oil that you use for meat, and the oil from longaniza or bacon fat (I learned this from our housekeeper when I was young). (I suppose this is the Philippine version of the Western tradition of never washing cast-iron cookware [they just wipe it down].)

(15) Buy energy-saving freezers and refrigerators. They're on all the time, so make sure they don't cost more than they have to.

(16) If you have excess freezer space, make ice. Excess freezer space wastes electricity (unlike excess refrigerator space which actually saves electricity). We often have excess freezer space (because we have a separate freezer), so we make ice in bags and sell them to our neighbors. (In the summer our housekeeper makes ice candy for sale as well!)

(17) Buy in bulk.

(18) Don't buy branded products when you can avoid it. We recently started buying homemade (non-branded) detergent, laundry bar, fabric softener and dishwashing liquid. It's less than half the price of stuff at the supermarket! At the grocery, goods which don't have famous brands are also usually a lot cheaper than the P&G/Unilever goods; with P&G/Unilever, you're just paying for all the marketing.

(19) If you just intend to toast your bread, freeze the loaf to make it last.

(20) Eat more veggies and less meat! Cheaper and healthier!

(21) Use rags instead of paper towels. And make rags from old cotton clothes rather than buying new ones. To disinfect rags and sponges pop them in the microwave after washing (30 seconds when dry, a minute when wet).

(22) Cut worn bath towels into smaller pieces, and hem. Ta-dah, a new hand towel for the kitchen!

(23) If you eat a lot of bread, collect your own breadcrumbs.

(24) Before you do your supermarketing, check your pantry and refrigerator and make sure that you've used up or have plans to use up ingredients from your last trip. The most wasteful thing is allowing food to expire before you've touch it!

(25) If you have a garden or a big-enough balcony with potted plants, make your own compost from kitchen waste.

(26) Reuse water. The rinsing water for your dishes or laundry or from washing rice can be used to water the plants.

(27) Segregate your rubbish. It won't necessarily save you money, but it will help save the earth. :)

Find other people blogging about: frugal+tips

What to do with New Year's fruits

2007-01-03T22:37:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year!

I've been ill and haven't had time to putter around the kitchen, but if you want ideas as to how to finish eating all those round fruits you bought for your New Year's table spread, here are some suggestions from older posts:

what to do with apples

what to do with oranges

what to do with grapes

Cooking tips for Filipino and Asian food, 1

2006-12-30T00:30:00.000+08:00

I found a webpage offering cooking tips for Philippine cooking, very helpful for beginner cooks like me.

A sampling of what you'll find on the page:
Grate a quarter of a small onion and add it and a dash of sugar and salt to the water in which you boil frozen or canned vegetables to improve the flavor. Or add a dash of MSG, garlic powder, pepper and onion flakes or powder to the salted boiling water before adding the vegetables for a richer flavor.

When broiling steaks or chops, put one cup water in the bottom of the broiler pan to prevent grease burning on the pan, eliminate smoke, make pan easy to wash and catch the drippings for the gravy.

If a dish is too salty, slices of raw pared potato added to it while cooking will absorb excess saltiness. When cooking adobo and it turns out too sour, add sugar.

To eliminate fishy odor, rub fish inside and out with a slice of lemon.

To keep raw fish fillets fresh and odorless in the refrigerator, rinse in a solution of 1 tbsp. lemon juice and 1 cup water, dry thoroughly, wrap and refrigerate.

To avoid tears when cutting onions, leave them in the refrigerator for a few days before using them. (Or peel and cut them in half under cold running water. Keep under running water for about a minute or let soak in cold water for a time before slicing.)

Roll lemon with palm over a hard surface or heat lemons before squeezing to get more juice.

Read the other tips here. If you noticed, I numbered this post "part 1," because I do hope I can add some of my own cooking tips in the future.

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Kitchen must-haves

2006-12-28T01:13:00.000+08:00

Since getting married I've been scouring the blogosphere for kitchen "must-have" lists.

Then today, this post on Just Hungry inspired me to write my own must-have list for our kitchen!

First I need to describe our eating habits. We're Filipino and therefore all our eating habits are Filipino through and through. However, between Mike and me, we eat a lot of cuisine from around the world.

Here's our list, so far. I'll add items as i think of them.

A rice cooker. I am truly Pinoy: rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, and rice for dinner. As is the case in many Filipino kitchens, then, the rice cooker is the most-used appliance in ours. We actually have two rice cookers! We got two as wedding gifts but decided, under my elder brother's advice, not to return the extra one. Two reasons: (1) rice cookers don't last forever, and (2) a second rice cooker is always useful for parties.

Pots and pans: a few frying pans (both "stick" and non-stick), sauce pans, a stock pot, a big casserole (which I often use for pasta) ... I have too many pots and pans, actually. Our kitchen also has a pressure cooker (used most frequently for karekare), a fry basket (for deep-frying), and ...

A wok. I put this on our wedding registry (to replace my mom's old one) and was delighted when it arrived! Chinese food just isn't the same when it's fried in a pan rather than stir-fried. I've also used the wok for steaming.

Corning Ware. For serving and for baking entrees.

Tiny bowls for "sawsawan," dipping sauces.

Many serving spoons. For some reason, almost all Philippine dishes have a lot of sauce.

Knife and chopping board.

Pyrex measuring cup.

Mixing bowls. More than one!

Wooden spoons.

Mortar and pestle. For crushing garlic and nuts.

Find other people blogging about: kitchen+gadgets

Easy apple pancakes

2006-12-27T15:36:00.000+08:00

Our apple conundrum continues. For lunch I decided to have apple pancakes, or in German, Apfel Pfannekuchen (naks, I looked it up). I actually don't know how Germans make authentic Apfel Pfannekuchen, but I figured -- pancakes and apples, how difficult can it be? I just used store-bought ready-to-cook pancake mix for this. And Fuji apples.

Ingredients:

1 apple, peeled, cored and sliced thinly
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
pancake mix, enough to make 2 small pancakes
2 tbsp butter

Method:

Follow the instructions to make the pancake batter.

In a separate bowl, combine the apple, sugar and cinnamon. Heat 1 tbsp of butter in a large non-stick skillet over moderate heat. Put apple mix in skillet and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes, until apple has slightly softened. Remove apples and set aside.

Heat the remaining butter in the skillet. Pour 2/3 of the pancake batter into the skillet. When underside has begun to set, add apples onto the pancake. Cook for a minute then carefully pour the rest of the pancake batter onto the apples. Cook for a few minutes, allowing center to set then carefully flip the entire pancake over to cook the other side.

Serves 1.

Unlike regular pancakes, this does not need to be served with butter or syrup. The sugared apples are already sweet and tasty. Of course, no one's stopping you ....

Find other people blogging about: Christmas+recipes

Baked pork loin with apples

2006-12-26T16:53:00.000+08:00

Because of the Christmas season, our house has an overabundance of apples. My aunt gave me several apples to bring home from noche buena, and I already had two apples in the fridge. So today, I decided to baptize our new gas oven by attempting a dish that uses apples. I used Fuji apples for this dish.

Ingredients:

250g single piece of boneless pork loin
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 apple, cored and sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1/4 cup red wine
1-1/2 tbsp sugar

Rub:

1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

For the additional sauce (optional):

1/4 cup red wine
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp sugar

Combine rub ingredients in a bowl. Rub over roast. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 165 degrees C (325 degrees F).

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and brown pork loin in the oil for about 4 minutes, turning every minute so that all sides are browned.

Place pork loin in a roasting pan and bake uncovered in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

While pork loin is baking, arrange 3/4 of the slices of apple and all of the onion slices on the bottom of a separate baking dish. Sprinkle sugar and cinammon powder on top of slices. Set aside.

After pork loin has baked for 30 minutes, remove from oven. Discard fat. Transfer pork loin to the other baking dish, on top of the apples and onions. Pour 1/4 cup red wine over everything.

Allow pork loin to bake uncovered for another 30 to 45 minutes, until done. (The length of time will depend on how thick the cut of the pork loin is. Check to see that pork is cooked through. If you have a cooking thermometer--which I don't--the internal temperature of the pork should be 70 degrees C/160 degrees F.)

To make additional sauce, chop the remaining apple slices. Combine with 1/4 cup red wine, 1/4 cup water, and 1 tbsp sugar. (Adjust amount of sugar to taste.) Cook and stir uncovered over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Serve.

Serves 2.
Calorie count: 460 per serving (based on recommended portion size)

Do you have any tips for consuming your oversupply of Christmas food?

Find other people blogging about: Christmas+recipes

Korea!!!

2006-12-25T16:44:00.000+08:00

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Over the past few years, the Philippines has become home to the largest population of Korean emigrants in Southeast Asia. One of the many great benefits of this is the explosion of Korean cuisine in the Philippines. Mike's parents' area, for example, is home to one of the biggest Korean communities in Metro Manila, and there are dozens of cheap Korean restaurants and Korean supermarkets in the area run by and catering to Korean immigrants.

After today's excellent Korean barbecue lunch at a neighborhood restaurant, Mike and I decided to attempt Korean barbecue at home, on our indoor grill.

The elements seem simple enough:

a tabletop grill

lettuce leaves (and sesame leaves too, if available)

Korean beanpaste (available from Korean the supermarket)

sesame oil dip (sesame oil, salt and black pepper)

garlic

green chili peppers

beef

We will try this over the next few weeks and if it goes well, I'll write a recipe.

========

Meantime, on a completely unrelated topic, Mike just YM'ed me the link to this recipe, asking if we could try it. Ok. :)

Vietnamese Shaking Beef Salad (Bo Luc Lac)

2006-12-23T18:13:00.000+08:00

We still had some salad greens from yesterday's dinner party, so I made a Vietnamese beef salad for dinner this evening. I followed the original recipe by Wendy Hutton from Vietnamese Favorite of the Periplus series of cookbooks. However, the resulting beef salad didn't seem Vietnamese enough for our taste. I've made some minor adjustments in the recipe I'm typing below, adding more patis and adding a bit of lemon juice and chili garlic sauce as well. Note, though, that it hasn't been tested yet. I'll update this entry when I've tried this with the changes.

Ingredients:

400 g tenderloin beef steak, cubed
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tbsp vinegar
1 bunch watercress or other salad greens, coarse stems removed
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Marinade:

4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp rice wine
2 tbsp patis (fish sauce)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Dressing:

1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce
1-1/2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

1. Combine the Marinade ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Place beef in marinade and mix until beef is well coated. Allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Combine the sliced onion, rice wine, and vinegar in a bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes, then remove onions from the liquid.

3. Combine dressing ingredients and whisk well. Combine onions, greens, dressing and toss. Set aside.

4. Heat oil in a wok over high heat. Stir-fry marinated beef for 1 to 1-1/2 minutes until meat is seared on the outside but still pink inside. Remove from heat, then sprinkle 1/2 tbsp lemon juice on beef. Spread beef on top of salad. Serve immediately.

Serves 3 - 4 (based on recommended portion size).
Calorie count: 350 per serving.

Find other people blogging about: Vietnamese+food

Sun-dried Tomato and Ham Omelette

2006-12-23T12:15:00.000+08:00

Mike usually makes a breakfast or a brunch on weekends. Today, we woke up late and had omelettes for brunch. Here's what he prepared.

Ingredients:

6 slices cooked Canadian bacon or ham, chopped
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. butter
2 pcs. sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1/4 tsp. dried basil
2 tbsp. grated Quickmelt cheese
3 small eggs
pepper to taste

Method:

Combine ham and sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl. Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Heat butter and oil in a pan over medium heat. Pour eggs into pan, and let cook until underside begins to set. Sprinkle grated cheese onto one half of the egg. When underside of egg has set, put ham and sun-dried tomatoes on top of the cheese. Sprinkle with pepper to taste. When filling has warmed, fold the empty half of the egg over the filling. Cook until egg has reached desired consistency. Serve with rice or bread.

Serves 2.

We served this omelette with garlic fried rice sprinkled with garlic salt and dried parsley. A very tasty brunch!

My favorite cookbook

2006-12-23T01:34:00.000+08:00

I've only really been cooking for six months (save for a very short cooking obsession when I was in second year high school), so I'm no expert on cookbooks.

But of the seven or eight cookbooks in my collection, the most reliable, by far, in terms of the taste of its recipes and the ease of their execution, is the Assumption High School Class of '79 Cookbook.

I highly recommend this cookbook for beginner-cooks in the Philippines.

Since the recipes come from various sources, there is a good variety of them.

The ingredients of almost all the recipes are easy to find in the Philippines (unlike the recipes in a lot of foreign cookbooks, which have me turning to my laptop every few minutes to look for substitute ingredients).

Most of the recipes are easy enough for a beginner to attempt, and there are one or two more complex ones for savvier cooks.

And so far, the batting average has been very good: Mike and I have raved about almost all the recipes we've tried, save for one which wasn't too bad, just a bit bland for our taste. (I won't say which one it is.)

So if you need a last-minute Christmas gift for someone who is beginning to venture into the kitchen, trust me, this is a good one! (Hmm, I should get paid for this plug, haha!)

Find other people blogging about: cookbooks

Oriental Chicken Salad

2006-12-22T17:55:00.000+08:00

We'll be having friends over in awhile, so I'm attempting a new salad recipe. I'm doing it almost exactly as described by Sarina A. Fores in the Assumption Cookbook. I just substituted the honey with syrup and added sesame seeds to the dressing. I also used salad-in-a-bag for the variety of lettuce leaves rather than the iceberg lettuce recommended in the original recipe; bagged salad tastes better and is better for your health. A doctor-friend told me that iceberg lettuce does not only, as some people already know, have zero nutrients in its leaves; to make things worse, eating iceberg lettuce is actually more harmful to your health than not eating a vegetable at all. Anyway, here's the salad recipe.

Ingredients:

2 pieces chicken breast, boiled or grilled, then cubed
1 pack salad-in-a-bag (approx. 200g)
20 wonton skins, sliced 1/2" and fried crisp
1 medium red bell pepper, slivered
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Dressing:
6 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp honey or syrup
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp chili garlic sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted

Method:

1. Make dressing: combine all ingredients and mix with wire whisk. ~~Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.~~

2. Deep-fry wonton skins over medium to low fire until golden. Drain on paper towel

3. In a salad bowl, mix together chicken breast, lettuce and bell pepper. Toss with a little salad dressing. Add the wonton skins and peanuts and toss again with a little more dressing. Serve immediately.

Serves 4 - 6.

Update: Yummy salad!! I declare this recipe a success. I just crossed out the instruction to refrigerate the dressing, because when I did that, the dressing coagulated and I had to microwave it for 20 seconds to turn it back into a liquid dressing. I also cut down the number of sheets of wonton wrapper. Twenty would've been enough.

The dressing is very tasty, and you may want to keep the dressing recipe on hand for simple green salads as well.

We served this salad with Easy Stir-fried Beef in Oyster Sauce, Stemaed Fish and Chinese Sauce and steamed rice, for a Chinese-themed meal.

Our new gas range!

2006-12-22T17:46:00.000+08:00

This is the third major appliance that Mike and I have bought together (the first two were air-conditioners, heheh!):

It just arrived today. One item to cross off our kitchen wish-list.

Now we want a blender. :)

Longing for Lettuce

2006-12-22T17:27:00.000+08:00

Mike and I only go to the supermarket once a month. It's more convenient, and it's cheaper in the long-run (because we buy in bulk). Apart from that, our housekeeper does a wet market trip, also once a month.

Our food cycle, then, is a two-week cycle; every two weeks, we have a new batch of fresh food.

The problem, however, is that Mike and I don't get enough fresh, leafy vegetables. We rely a lot on canned veggies (we go through a number of cans of corn a month), and vegetables that keep better like carrots, sayote or cucumber.

But we both do love leaves. The problem is that when we do try to buy, say, lettuce, we only get to eat half of it before the rest of it wilts.

So today I had a brainwave. I'm going to try to grow our own lettuce. We have the space for it, and I know it can be done (Mike's mom used to grow lettuce in their backyard). It's also a perfect time to grow lettuce; the cooler weather has finally arrived, so we might just be able to see three months of fresh lettuce from our garden before the summer heat and humidity make it difficult for the lettuce to thrive.

So that's going on my list of New Year's resolutions. :)

Now, the thing is, my thumb is far from green; it's more like a pale grayish-yellow. When I took gardening for home economics in grade 5, all my sunflowers died. When I had to do gardening again in high school (we grew medicinal herbs for health class), I wisened up and bought a plant rather than a seed; all I had to do was to keep it alive for the whole quarter.

So if there's anyone out there who has attempted to grow lettuce, please do share your tips.

Carrot salad

2006-12-20T00:25:00.000+08:00

Here's an easy snack. So easy, in fact, that the story behind the recipe is going to be much longer than the recipe itself.

When I still working at Probe some years ago I did a story in Mt. Data, Benguet. I had two extremely memorable visits there: first, an ocular visit that lasted about three days, then another four- or five-day visit for the actual shoot. The residents (mostly belonging to the Kankana-ey indigenous group) were absolutely wonderful: cheery, friendly, and incredibly hospitable. Most of them made their livelihood growing vegetables, and I had the freshest vegetables I'd ever eaten while I was there. While visiting at one of the residents' homes, I was treated to this delicious snack.

Ingredients:

raisins
carrots, chopped into bite-sized thin strips
condensed milk

Combine ingredients. Chill in your refrigerator. Ta-dah! There's your carrot salad!

Culinary Resolutions for the New Year

2006-12-19T23:44:00.000+08:00

Here are some forthcoming projects....

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

I looove Southeast Asian food, and there are some flavors from my childhood that I painfully hanker for.

A few weeks ago, I attempted a curry fish head, a dish which brings back happy memories of Sundays in Singapore when our family would sometimes eat dinner at this yummy restaurant somewhere near Tanglin.

Over the next few months, I'd also like to try to make some more dishes:

crispy sotong - (my absolute favorite dish from Singaporean hawker centers!)

beef satay - (with peanut sauce of course)

Vietnamese fried spring rolls (cha gio) - (oooohhhh yummmmm!)

Singaporean chicken rice - (Mike's family has a very good Hainanese chicken recipe, but I'd also like to learn to make it the way I remember eating it a place called "Fatty's": with the chicken chopped into pieces and served in the rice)

Pajeon - more "East" than "South" but still Asian

Update, Dec. 25: Korean barbecue - It was Mike's suggestion that we try this at home, after enjoying a hearty lunch with his dad at a Korean restaurant in his neighborhood ... Yummmm, I suggested we buy some beanpaste at the Korean grocery this afternoon

Sigh, the memory of these flavors is making my eyes tear with longing. SIGH!!!!

========

I've also resolved to eat healthier next year, which of course means cooking healthier as well.

For Christmas, I asked Mike for ... half of a gas range (the other half to be paid for by me, dummy! :P )! I know; it's hilarious: who would've thunk that me of all people would someday aspire to domestic goddess-ness?!?!?! But lo ... pumuti nga ang uwak! Anyway, having a new gas range with a working oven means that I'll now be able to make baked food and more grilled food as well.

I'm not really a pastry person (I love to eat them when they're there, but I don't look for them when they're not), so instead of using the oven for pastries, I intend to use the oven for baked entrees instead. I've already whet Mike's appetite with the promise of mac and cheese (okay, maybe that's not very healthy but what the hey).

Sun-Dried Tomato Burgers

2006-12-19T23:34:00.000+08:00

Grocery-bought sun-dried tomatoes are so expensive but they're sooo tasty that they add a punch of flavor in the simplest burger recipe. Here's a recipe that Mike likes to cook, adapted from our Better Homes and Gardens Indoor Grilling cookbook (purchased really cheap at a Booksale branch).

Ingredients:

260 grams lean ground beef
1 tbsp finely chopped sundried tomatoes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 cup Italian salad dressing
1 tsp dried basil
1 egg
1 tbsp bread crumbs

Mix all ingredients and shape into burger patties. Grill until cooked. Done! :)

Serves 2.
Cooking and preparation time: 15 to 30 minutes (depending on thickness of the burger patties: for a 1/2-inch patty, grill about 3 minutes each side on a covered grill or 7 minutes each side on an uncovered grill)

Mesquite Burgers

2006-12-18T19:17:00.000+08:00

Mike ordered a bottle of mesquite powder from my mom in the US. The big bottle arrived a few days ago.

For dinner this evening Mike made this incredibly simple but incredibly flavorful dish.

Ingredients:

260 grams ground beef
1 tbsp mesquite powder
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1-1/2 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 small egg

Mix all ingredients together. Form into hamburger patties. Grill or pan-fry until cooked. Serve!

Serves 2.
Cooking and preparation time: 15 to 20 minutes

Vinegared thoughts

2006-11-25T17:47:00.000+08:00

After that Vietnamese experiment, I'm wondering what the best vinegar substitutions are when cooking different kinds of Asian cuisine.

In the Philippines (as far as I know) there are three kinds of local vinegar:

(1) Sukang puti - coconut palm vinegar, whitish in color but not to be confused with the Western "white vinegar"
(2) Sukang paombong - nipa sap vinegar, brownish in color (traditionally from Bulacan)
(3) Sukang iloko - sugar cane vinegar, reddish or brownish in color (traditionally from Ilocos)

Aside from that, vinegar from other countries (balsamic, apple cider, etc.) are also available in supermarkets at a much higher price.

Of course there's also homemade sinamak (traditionally from Iloilo and Ilocos) which is local vinegar infused with various spices.

For that last recipe I replaced the rice vinegar (usually used in Chinese and Japanese cooking) with a mix of sukang puti and rice wine. I wonder if sukang iloko would have been better since it's naturally sweet and milder than sukang puti. Hmm.

Beef soup with lemongrass

2006-11-25T14:48:00.000+08:00

Vietnam was in the news yesterday. ANC was doing a comparison of the growth of Vietnam's economy (incredible) with the Philippines' (lame). So from Singapore we now head to Vietnam with this recipe which I got from "Vietnamese Favorites" by Wendy Hutton, part of the Periplus Mini Cookbooks series available at National Bookstore. We adapted it a little.

Ingredients

200g sukiyaki beef (or beef sirloin sliced paper thin)
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp patis (fish sauce)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 spring onions, green and white parts separated, finely sliced
1 tsp oil
1 stalk lemongrass (thick bottom part only), outer layers discarded, inner part thinly sliced
2 thin slices ginger root
2 to 3 beef cubes dissolved in 6 cups hot water
2 tsp rice vinegar (can be substituted with 1 tsp rice wine and 1 tsp sukang puti)
1 tsp sugar
1 medium tomato, cut into wedges
coriander leaves to garnish (optional)

1. Marinate beef in 1 tsp garlic, 1-1/2 tsp patis and black pepper.
2. Heat the oil in a stockpot over medium heat and stir-fry the remaining garlic, spring onion white bulbs, lemongrass and ginger for about 2 minutes until soft. Add the remaining fish sauce, beef stock, rice vinegar, sugar and tomato and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for about 5 minutes.
3. Just before serving, bring the soup to a boil. Add the beef and simmer until just cooked, about 30 seconds. Remove and transfer to individual serving bowls. Garnish with spring onion greens and coriander leaves. Serve hot.

Serves 3 - 4.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 8 to 10 minutes

This is a yummy recipe and incredibly easy to make! It's like Filipino nilaga with a Vietnamese kick, and the soup is very Vietnamese-y. Mike suggested that I serve it with additional patis on the side as an option for the Filipino palate. We ate this meal with steamed rice, but we imagine it would also be great as a pho, with bihon (rice vermicelli) added. If you want to eat it as a pho, add the bihon before the last step, then wait around 2 minutes before adding the beef.

Curry fish head attempt

2006-11-23T20:11:00.000+08:00

Growing up in Singapore was an exciting culinary adventure. One of my favorite Singaporean dishes is curry fish head, and tonight I will attempt to make one, for our department's potluck tomorrow.

~~Below is what I am going to attempt. I will let you know if it works, and what changes I am going to make.~~ Updated 24 Nov 06: The original recipe I attempted was way too spicy for my lame Filipino taste buds. I made some alterations to neutralize the spice and got general good reviews from my colleagues (naubos!) though some of them also found it too spicy.

Nonetheless, here's a revised version. I'll let you know again when I try this version.

Ingredients:

1 whole fish head (maya-maya), cut into 2 (about 1 kilo)
2 tbsp oil
5 garlic cloves, crushed
1-1/2 native onions, finely chopped
1 tbsp crushed ginger
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1-1/2 cups gata (coconut milk)
1 green chili, seeds removed and cut in half lengthwise
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tamarind cube
1/2 cup hot water
1/3 cup curry powder
1 tsp chili powder
5 okra
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 stalk lemon grass, finely chopped (use the stalk, discard the leaves)
3 tomatoes, quartered

Steam the fish head until barely cooked. Set aside.

Mix 1/2 tamarind cube with 1/2 cup hot water. Add curry powder and chili powder, and mix to form a paste. Set aside.

In 2 tbsp oil, stir-fry the garlic, onions, ginger, turmeric powder until fragrant. Add curry-tamarind paste and stir-fry until cooked. Put in 1/2 the coconut milk and bring to a boil. Add the other half of the coconut milk, okra, chili, tomatoes, salt and sugar. Bring to a boil then add steamed fish head and simmer gently for about 5 minutes.

Recipe Exchange Chain Letter

2006-11-21T21:31:00.000+08:00

This is not a recipe but a message of thanks to my friend T who sent me a recipe exchange chain letter! The letter had two email addresses in it: the address of the person who had sent her the letter, and her email address. The instructions were simple: send a recipe to the person in number 1, then move the email address in number 2 up to the top spot, add your own email address to number 2, then forward to 10 friends. Sit back and hope the recipes come rolling in. :)

I forwarded the message this morning and have already received two recipes. :)

Beef Stroganoff

2006-11-07T20:15:00.000+08:00

Here's my experimental beef stroganoff. Updated on November 21. I'll keep trying to improve it.

Ingredients:

salt
200 g beef, sliced into strips
1 cup sour cream
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2 can champignon mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp butter
dried oregano
1/4 cup beef broth

Marinade:

2 tbsp red wine
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/8 onion
pepper

Rub the beef with salt, then marinate for at least 30 minutes. Over medium heat, sautee the onion and garlic in butter. Add beef and beef broth. Simmer until beef is tender and broth is almost gone (around 1 hour). Add mushrooms. Season with dried oregano. When mushrooms are cooked, lower heat and stir in the sour cream little by little. Simmer awhile to thicken.

Serve on rice or pasta.

Serves 2.

Preparation time: 30 minutes.
Cooking time: a little more than an hour.
Estimated calorie count per serving (including 1 cup rice): 750 calories

Spices and Flavors

2006-11-02T17:11:00.000+08:00

Most Filipino pantries have the requisite soy sauce, native vinegar, patis, calamansi, native onions, garlic, salt, and pepper. Aside from those, what other flavors and spices do you often add to your grocery list? Here's my list:

rice wine -- useful for Chinese dishes
sesame oil -- again, it adds that dash of Chinese-ness to Chinese dishes
oyster sauce -- one of the easiest things in the world to cook is beef in oyster sauce
ginger -- for fish, chicken, and many Chinese dishes
chili garlic -- again, for Chinese dishes
olive oil -- for cooking our steaks and most Mediterranean dishes
extra virgin olive oil -- for salads
Worcestershire sauce (by the way, the proper pronunciation is "WOOstersheer") -- for steak and other dishes
mustard -- for steak and other beef dishes
red wine -- we buy it for drinking rather than for cooking, but the left over wine always finds its way into some dish
mesquite powder -- hard to find, but Mike loves this; yummy for steaks
wasabi and kikkoman -- for the rare moments when we have sashimi
all-purpose cream -- all purpose!
dried oregano, dried basil, dried rosemary, and dried thyme (altogether sing: "Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme!")
meat tenderizer -- a secret I learned from Mike!
bay leaf -- for adobo; my grand-aunt used to add atsuete as well though I haven't tried it myself
spring onions or leeks or green onions
bell peppers
lemons
curry -- I love curry but mike doesn't like it as much. :( Still I always buy a bit in case I can squeeze in a curry meal when Mike's not looking.
tsokolate balls (tableas) -- I'm half-Batangueno, so every morning, I have to have my breakfast rice the traditional Batangueno way: with tsokolate poured on it!

Arugula salad with grapes and feta cheese

2006-11-01T21:20:00.000+08:00

salad lettuce
arugula
feta cheese, crumbled or cubed
seedless red grapes, halved

Dressing:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp red wine
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
salt and pepper

Arugula is good for you but it's bitter. In this recipe, the red grapes and feta cheese balance out the bitterness of the arugula. Toss well, so that every bite of the salad has a bit of everything.

I'm still trying to improve on the dressing, though (the basics of which I got from the Internet). It's okay, but not great.

Easy Stir-fried Beef in Oyster Sauce

2006-11-01T21:15:00.000+08:00

The original recipe is called "Gold Coin Easy Beef Stir-Fry by Elvira Mesina-Broekhuizen." We made some changes for the Palacios kitchen.

300g beef tenderloin cut into strips
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp rice wine, optional
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 tbsp oyster sauce

1. Marinate the beef in soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, rice wine and sesame oil for at least 1 hour.
2. Heat cooking oil in a wok. Fry tenderloin on medium to high heat until brown. Right before turning off heat, add oyster sauce to beef and stir quickly. Mix well and transfer to serving dish.

Serves 3.

Marinating time: 1 hour
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 - 15 minutes

Serve with steamed white rice and vegetables.

Easy Carbonara

2006-11-01T21:00:00.000+08:00

The original recipe is called "Quick and Easy Carbonara" by Ina A. Ledesma, from the Assumption Cookbook.

Updated Nov. 26: I'm not sure why but for some strange reason when Mike tried to replicate this recipe it came out a lot more watery! I think it's because he used a different brand of cream of mushroom soup--I suppose that's the difficulty that comes with relying on instant ingredients. Anyway, I've made some adjustments below.

250g bacon
1/2 cup olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 can cream of mushroom soup plus 1/4 to 1/2 can water
1/2 small tetra-brick of all-purpose dream
1 half can button mushroom, sliced
500 grams spaghetti noodles
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut the bacon into strips and fry. Set aside.
2. Begin boiling water for the pasta (about 4 liters of water for 500 grams of pasta). When water is at a rolling boll throw in salt and drop in pasta. Bring back to a rolling boil.
3. Saute onions in olive oil. Add the cream of mushroom soup and water. Add more or less water depending on how thick you want the sauce. Cook until blended. Add the cooked bacon and mushrooms. Simmer for around 2 minutes. Add cream little by little, stirring constantly. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer awhile to thicken.
4. When pasta is cooked al dente, drain, then add pasta to the sauce.

Serves 3.

Total cooking and preparation time: 30 minutes

Steamed Fish and Chinese Sauce

2006-11-01T20:59:00.000+08:00

The original recipe is called "Quick Steamed Fish" by Annie Lim-Kawpeng, from the Assumption Cookbook. We made some changes for the Palacios kitchen.

500 grams fish fillet: lapu-lapu, tilapia or trout OR 1 whole fish (500 grams)
slices of ginger
green onions or leeks

Sauce:
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp Chinese soy sauce
6 tbsp water
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp rice wine
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Topping:
shredded green onions or leeks
1 tbsp oil
roasted crushed garlic (optional)

1. Put a few slits in the fish. Lay fish on green onion leaves. Insert sliced ginger in the slits and under the fish. Cover with more green onion leaves.
2. Steam fish until done OR microwave on high (2-1/2 to 3 minutes for fillets; 4-1/2 to 5 minutes for whole fish) until fish is tender. Do not overcook. Discard green onions, ginger and fish stock.
3. Combine all sauce ingredients. Heat in a saucepan over fire OR microwave for 35 seconds.
4. Put cooked fish in a serving platter. Pour sauce over the fish. Top the fish with shredded green onions and garlic. Heat oil until smoky and pour very hot oil over the greens. Serve immediately.

Serves 3.

Total cooking and preparation time: 15 minutes if you use the microwave; 30 minutes if you use a steamer

Chicken al'Orange

2006-11-01T20:58:00.000+08:00

The original recipe is by Nina Lagdameo-Alba, from the Assumption Cookbook. Mike and I adapted it for ourselves.

8 chicken thighs, deskinned and deboned
salt
pepper
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1-1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp dried rosemary
1-1/2 cups fresh orange juice
1/2 cup cream

1. Pat chicken dry and season well on both sides with salt and pepper.
2. Heat 2 tbsp butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides. Brown half of chicken about 2 minutes on each side and transfer to a plate. Add 2 tbsp more butter in the pan and brown remaining chicken. Return all chicken pieces to the skillet and add onion, rosemary and orange juice. Cover pan and simmer until chicken is tender and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove chicken, transfer to a serving dish and keep warm.
3. Boil sauce uncovered until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add cream and simmer, stirring constantly until slightly thickened, about 6 minutes.
4. Pour sauce over chicken and serve immediately.

Serves 3.

Total preparation and cooking time: 45 minutes - 1 hour

We've tried this with a green salad and steamed rice -- yummy!

This recipe can also be used as a pasta sauce. If serving with pasta, chop chicken thighs (or chicken breast fillets) into small strips and adjust cooking times accordingly. Use an additional 1/4 cup orange juice and an additional 1/4 cup cream so there is more sauce.