Cooking tips for Filipino and Asian food, 1

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

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.

1. 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.


2. 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 ...


3. 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.


4. Corning Ware. For serving and for baking entrees.


5. Tiny bowls for "sawsawan," dipping sauces.


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


7. Knife and chopping board.


8. Pyrex measuring cup.


9. Mixing bowls. More than one!


10. Wooden spoons.


11. Mortar and pestle. For crushing garlic and nuts.

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Easy apple pancakes

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 ....

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Baked pork loin with apples

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?

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Korea!!!

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)

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.

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Sun-dried Tomato and Ham Omelette

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!