Storing vegetables (and some fruits) properly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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