World Class Cuiscene: November 2004

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Ron is a constant silent visitor of my blog. He is a Caucasian who is contemplating on offering marriage to his Filipina girlfriend, Lilia who is from Luzon. He is trying to familiarize himself with the Filipino culture and our “infamous exotic food”. He said he’s been to Filipino parties but he is more interested to know what a typical Filipino family dinner is like.

Well Ron, this is the closest I could give you. Contrary to what you see in my blog (a little tickled with your description), there are also days that I get lazy and my family make do with what is in the fridge. The pictures show that we love leftovers and for some reason, find fried fish close to a “must”. In my opinion, we are used to frying fish for lack of ideas on how else to cook them. One thing I am sure though is, Filipinos love fish.

Yes, we also love eggs, fried eggs, salted eggs, boiled eggs, omelette and balut. I don’t think your future wife will impose on you to have balut though. She will only attempt to let you taste it for experience’ sake. Relax.

We do eat vegetables too. I am an explorer as all other Filipinos are. Just watch out for the dressing. I used bagoong here. We basically eat the same vegetables made out of green vegetables, tomatoes and onions. We only differ in the dressing. (Just kidding). I was more daring last night and thought of using bagoong. You see bagoong goes well with my fried fish. You did tell me that your girlfriend loves bagoong.

And oh, you mentioned that you feel disgusted everytime you see Lilia eat with her fingers. Mind you, it is not only in the Philippines where people eat with their fingers. They do too in Indonesia. I was at a Kentucky Restaurant in Jakarta and I ordered fried chicken with rice. I was a little bit shocked actually to be told I should eat my stash with my fingers. I was only shown where the sink was so I could wash my hands before I eat. At least at Kentucky Restaurants in the Philippines, they serve you with spoon and fork so there's really no reason for you to learn how to eat with your fingers for now.

You really made me laugh about your rice with spaghetti story or the pancit with rice. I know, they’re all carbohydrates. Actually, in the Philippines, we consider pancit and spaghetti as snacks..yes like a "three-o’clock-kinda-thing". But we also have them as “ulam” (you did well in mentioning it).

Anyway, don’t fret. Filipinas are resilient. You will notice that some of the Filipinas I “blog” with are married to men of different nationalities. Some are Britts, Americans, Canadians, Chinese and we play around with our recipes to make them appetizing to our palates. I am married to a Filipino (did I get you there?) but I spend at least 7.5 hours of my day, 5 days a week with Caucasians, thus the western influence in my blog.

I recommend these sites to you: Kitchen for Filipinas by Filipino women living in the Western Hemisphere and Radical Chef from the Philippines who is a lawyer but has the passion for cooking.

Generally, more than the concern about our food, consider offering marriage ASAP. Filipinas are loving and caring (wink, wink).

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Fried Aubergines

This turned out to be good. I used a non- stick pan and oil spray to avoid the eggplant from absorbing too much oil.

Ingredients:

1 aubergine, sliced about 1mm thick
¼ cup soy sauce

Heat non-stick pan. Spray with oil. Deep eggplant slices in soy sauce. Fry in non-stick pan for about 5 minutes on each side or until cooked.

Pomelo

This pomelo reminded my children of the pomelo we had from Davao City. A friend of mine sent us a crate of pomelos as soon as she learned we were home in the Philippines. My sister was kind enough to supply us with Iluko vinegar. This one was juicy and sweet. How I wished this was imported from the Philippines. They were on sale and I took the chance. These were made in China..haha.

Thursday, November 25, 2004

Beef Steak with Vegetables

This was an easy job actually and believe it or not, preparing the salad was the most taxing of them all. What do you expect with having canned corn and green peas to go with a steak? The trick here though is you have to serve everything fresh from the oven so everything has to be cooked all at once. Prepare everything you need first.

For the beef

Approx just over 1 lb of marinating
¼ cup of soy sauce,
1 tsp of finely chopped garlic
¼ tsp of ground pepper
2 tsp of lemon juice

Marinate beef for about 10 minutes with the above ingredients

Spinach with Almonds and Cranberries

For the Salad:

1 250 gms bag of baby spinach
¼ cup of slivered roasted almonds
¼ cup of dried cranberries
½ cup of Kraft Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

For the rest:

1 341 ml can of Green Giant Niblets Corn
2 cups of green peas

About ½ lb of new potatoes, boiled for 8 minutes. Toss with 1 tbsp of margarine and salt and bake for 8 minutes.

Once everything is ready, bake the beef at 400 in the oven for about 12 minutes or depending on how you like the steaks done. Put boiled potatoes beside the beef.

Just about 5 minutes before the beef is ready, warm the corn and green peas in the microwave. While having them warmed, toss the salad. I guarantee you that once the salad is ready, all the rest are ready and warm.

**don't ask me about the gravy. it's daughter's secret recipe-haha**

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Lasagna with Sour Cream and Cream Cheese

I know that this might not look appealing but I guarantee you it is so good! Oh except that this really is so rich. Not recommended for those watching their diets. Remember my Lasagna? Well, it’s basically the same except that you have to substitute spinach mixture with Sour Cream and Cream Cheese.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of olive oil
2 lbs of lean ground beef
1 onion, coarsely chopped
2 cans of 680 ml Tomato Sauce
about 2 tbsp of finely chopped garlic
salt to taste
250 ml of sour cream
1 ½ cups of cream cheese
8 pcs of lasagna noodles
about 2 cups of mozzarella cheese
about 1 tbsp fo garlic powder

Cook beef in a pan until brown. Add oil and add onion until onion becomes translucent. Add Tomato Sauce. Add garlic and season with salt. Simmer on slow heat for about 15 minutes. Set aside.

Mix sour cream and cream cheese in a bowl.

Cook Lasagna noodles according to packaging instructions.

In a baking pan, spread evenly about 1/2 of the cooked sauce. Spread 4 noodles. Spread the sour cream and cream cheese mixture. Lay the next 4 noodles and spread the remaining sauce. Spread the mozzarella cheese and top with garlic powder. Bake on 350 for about 45 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

As usual, you can always store it this way.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Pinoy Blog Community Christmas Party

I just went to Pinoyblog Community Plaza and I heard they're cooking something. Hmm.. I can smell good food and lots of fun already. If only I am in the Philippines, I would have offered to cook for everyone (weng..weng..weng). Well, the exact date will be on December 30 at Cabalen, Level 4, Megamall at 7:00pm to sawa. It's your chance to meet Doc Emer (the hospital will be closed); Tito Rolly(schools will be closed too); Sassy (construction with be done by then); Watson(with the star struck wife); BatJay and Jet (ang mangungulot..he will close shop too). I don't know about this but I heard AnP will make it too.

To those I haven't mentioned but are meaning to join, let me know..este Sassy pala so she can have a ball park...

Sige, I will just hide in my nook with my warm blankie and think about you guys. Have fun!!

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

I am starting my head count because our dear Batjay promised to make a special performance if there will be 100 or more bloggers attending this party. Here we go:

Batjay; Jet; Sassy; Doc; Watson; Watson's wife; Yuga; AnP; Toni; Eye; Ajay; Ederic; Apol; Lorimer; Red Door; Tito Rolly; BongK

Waiting for word from:

Mari??

Monday, November 22, 2004

Chicken Adobo

Lucky I had this thawed purposely for buffalo wings for our free night. I forgot to buy the seasoning and so I came up with this idea.

1lb of chicken wings or any other part of chicken
2 cloves crushed garlic
about 10 pcs of peppercorns
10 tbsp of soy sauce
3 small potatoes, quartered
10 tbsp of vinegar

Put chicken in a pan and cook without adding water. Once chicken is about to get dry, add garlic, peppercorns and soy sauce. Cover pan and simmer chicken for about 10minutes or until chicken is cooked in a slow heat. Add potatoes and simmer until potatoes are cooked. Add vinegar. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning according to taste. Serve hot.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Trout with Green Onions and Wasabi

The good thing with having a blog is your kids can no longer escape from the fact that they can't cook because they don't know how to. Anyway, my daughter decided to cook this herself because she was afraid I was going to make the sauce mingy-stingy again. This is really a simple one.

First, steam the trout and put in a plate ready for serving.

In a pan, heat oil and saute about 1 tcp of finely chopped ginger. Season with about 8 tbsp of light soy sauce, about 1tsp of wasabi and about 2 tbsp of knorr or maggi seasoning. Turn off stove and add green onions. Pour sauce on top of steamed fish and serve.

Friday, November 19, 2004

Adobado

I do not exactly know the name of this dish but it was my SIL from Ilo-ilo who introduced this to me. Of course when she cooked it, the outcome was not the way she wanted it to look like so she never cooked it again. I know she called it "Adobado" and said it was an Ilongo dish.

When I went to the Filipino restaurant a few blocks from our place, they had this tilapia which looked close to what my SIL cooked. Out of curiosity, I ordered it even though it was a little pricey.

I bought a tilapia last night and wanted to remind my kids about this recipe. While I had Inabraw, I thought they’d like this.

Ingredients:

Thumb sized ginger finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tilapia, gutted and scaled
10 tbsp of vinegar
salt to taste
dash of freshly cracked peppercorns
½ can of coconut milk
1 pcs of eggplant, sliced diagonally
about 4 pcs of jalapenos
½ cup of water
2 tsp of sugar

Lay the tilapia flat in a pan. Add the ginger, onion, vinegar, salt and pepper. Cover pan and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the coconut milk and the eggplant and simmer further for another 5 minutes. Add water if necessary and add the sugar and the jalapeno. Cover the pan and cook for another 1 minute. Let sit for about 5 minutes. Serve.

Inabraw

Believe me what was in this bowl was all I cooked for me tonight. I had a craving for this recipe when Manong Mannurat clearly described the pinakbet and inabraw in my blog and off to the Filipino store I went. I knew my kids were not going to like this so I just prepared a small amount of vegetables and was planning to cook the rest this weekend when my husband was around.

Inabraw is an Ilocano way of cooking vegetables where you boil just a bit of water, season it with monamon bagoong before adding the vegetables in. I prefer the sahog either in the form of fried fish, shrimp fry or broiled fish added last to prevent it from disintegrating. I do not claim expertise on this because I am not a pure Ilocano. I just prepared it the way I saw my maternal grandmother cook it whenever I visited her in the province.

Fortunately, the owner of our Filipino store here hails from Cagayan Valley and so he carries every item that is Ilocano in his store. When I went shopping last night and whined about how difficult it was for me to fry fish inside the house this fall, he gave me the dried shrimp fry as a substitute for free. ‘couldn’t be luckier. Heck he happens to have all the vegetables I needed.

Ingredients:

2/3 cups of water
2 tbsp of boneless monamon bagoong
¼ cup squash cut in bite sizes
¼ cup of kamote cut in bite sizes
¼ cup of lima beans (patani)
3 pcs of long string beans cut in 1 ½ inches long
¼ of an eggplant quartered
¼ cup of cleaned malunggay fruits (bought it ready cooked already)
¼ cup of malunggay leaves
¼ cup of dried shrimp fry

Boil water in a saucepan. Season with bagoong. Add lima beans, squash and kamote. Cover pan and cook until squash and kamote are tender. Add string beans, malunggay fruits and eggplant and cook for another 1 minute. Add the malunggay leaves and the shrimp fry and cover pan. Cook for 1 minute. Let it sit for about 2 minutes and serve hot.

Warning: Good for one serving only (although the kids liked it too and requested that I should cook more tomorrow)

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Shepherd Pie

It's actually shepherd's pie but blogger does not take apostophes.

Are you the kind who saves all those condiments from A & W, McDonalds, or Wendy’s? Well I am and my husband is the kind of a person who is ready to trash them except that I always stop him from doing so. Not that we go out very often. I take them home from the office actually when my officemates order in. Well, here’s an idea.

Ingredients:

3 large russet potatoes

1 lb of lean ground beef
1 carrot cubed
about ½ cup of green peas
about 2 stalks of celery
lots of condiment sachets (use about ¼ ketchup or any sauces in your fridge to substitute)
salt to taste
1 cup of grated cheese

In a pan, boil the potatoes and make them into mashed potatoes. Set aside.

In a separate pan, cook the beef until brown. Add the carrot, peas and celery and cook for about 2 minutes. Season with the condiments and salt.

In a square pan, pour the cooked ground beef. Spread the mashed potatoes evenly. Top with grated cheese.

Bake in oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. Let sit for about 5 minutes before serving.

Caution: Dig in before your family finishes everything.

Pinakbet

I posted a pinakbet here quite a while ago which was more like a tagalog version. Manong Mannurat gave me a description of the real Iloko Pinakbet which I am copying for everyone to know. Here it is in his own words.

“of course, pinakbet or pakbet originated from ilocos. the name itself clearly prove it. "pinakbet" is an iloko word. it's actually a contracted "pinakebbet" meaning shrinked or shrivelled.the original ilokano pinakbet use only the bugguong which is monamon or other fish. but not bagoong alamang or aramang. also, the original pinakbet has no squash in it. usually its most basic veggies are only ampalaya (the round native ones are preferred), talong, kamatis, ginger (okra and/or sili is optional as are the other veggies). and as its name denote, it is actually cooked almost dry, shrivelled, shrinked”

I can imagine Manong shaking his head and and saying “haan nga dayta ti usto nga pinakbet iloko” (that’s not the right Iloko Pinakbet) but allow me Manong to modify your most favorite Ilokano dish so that this will be appealing to my children. My mother’s origins are from Ilocos Norte but I grew up in Baguio City. Anyway, the kalabasa and the patani is something I inherited from my friend’s mother who is from Dingras. The mushroom was something I got from a friend from Isabela.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of olive oil
About ½ lb of lean pork
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 tomato coarsely chopped
about 10 tbsp of “bugguong” bagoong monamon sauce
2 eggplants, sliced in three and each slice cut further in quarters
½ amplaya
about 6 pcs of ocra
about 2 long sili
about 15 pcs of long green beans cut in about 1 ½ inches long
½ small kalabasa
about ¼ cup of patani
and about 100 gms of oyster myshrooms

In a separate pan, heat the oil, add the pork, sauté the onion and the tomatoes. Set aside.

Put all the vegetables in a deep saucepan. Add the sautéed meat, tomato and onion. Add the bagoong and about ½ cup of water. Cover pan and let boil. Simmer for about 8-10 minutes. Adjust seasoning accordinag to your taste. Serve hot.

There you go Manong. I will cook dinengdeng soon but I'm afraid there will be another modification.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Pork & Shrimp Wonton soup

This is going to be my last post about wonton soups. I just wanted to show you that you can also add pork tenderloin to it. The basics of course is found here

Monday, November 15, 2004

Baked Salmon

Drstel and I did not plan to cook the same thing tonight. I bought the fish because it was so cheap. It turns out, she bought it for the same reason too. Anyway, here goes my story.

I once worked for a company that built fish cages in the west coast, in Mexico and a part of South America. Our company also did some consulting job for a company in Australia and so there were varied ways of preparing salmon that I learned. Although there are issues about wild and farmed salmon, I prefer the Atlantic farmed ones. I learned this recipe from my boss and it’s really easy to cook. What was funny though was I taught my boss how to fillet. What with my experience of filleting bangus for daing, right?

Ingredients:

filleted salmon
¼ light soy sauce
2 tbsp of lemon juice extract
dash of ground pepper
1 tsp of finely chopped garlic
about 5 tbsp of barbecue sauce
dash of dill weed

Marinate the salmon with the first four ingredients for about 10 to 15 minutes. Put in a lined cookie sheet. Top with barbecue sauce and sprinkle dill weed on top. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Serve with rice or baked potatoes and steamed vegetables.

Tip: You will know that Salmonis cooked if a milk-like juice comes out of the flesh of the salmon. Ideally, salmon should be cooked only for 10 minutes. Over baking it would make the fish dry. Also, do not marinate fish longer than 15 minutes to avoid the fish from becoming salty.

Bulgogi

The Koreans will probably think I did not do justice to this favorite dish of theirs. I tried my best with my friend's instructions . Here we go.

Ingredients

About 1 lb of thinly sliced beef
¼ light soy sauce (preferably Japanese or Korean Sauce)
1 tbsp of sesame oil
2 tsp of sugar
dash of ground black pepper
about t bsp of mirin or Korean cooking wine
1 tsp of garlic
green onion chopped finely
your choice of Kiwi, pear or apple fruit
about 1/2 tsp of sesame seeds for garnishing

Mix meat with sugar and let sit for about 10-15 minutes.

In a bowl, prepare the marinade. Process fruit in a food processor or blender until fruit becomes liquid. Pour in a bowl. Add soy sauce, black pepper, sesame oil, cooking wine. This dish is a little sweeter compared to other barbecues so you might want to add some more mirin or sugar if you want. Add the garlic. Put in fridge for at least two hours or overnight.

The Koreans have this special fryer where all the juice and fat go into a pan or a catch underneath the grill-like fryer. Unfortunately, I don’t have that so I just cooked it in my pan, stir-fry like style. The Koreans serve this with steamed rice wrapped in lettuce with a dash of hot bean paste. You too can but I preferred it with other vegetables and rice.

Before serving, garnish with sesame seeds.

Mango Cheesecake

Straight off the plate. No this is not homemade. You're asking the wrong person. Baking is not my forte but I can bake a few. I learn more from my kids who take courses in Foods. Did I tell you my son has a dream of becoming a chef? He thought he also had some hidden talents by adding that slice of balimbing.

Sinigang na Baboy

With some left over pork from my inihaw na baboy, I decided to cook sinigang na baboy. It’s been a while since my family had this and quite frankly, if we ever had sinigang na baboy, it would have been with the fat and the rind off.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp of olive oil
about 1 lb of pork shoulder, sliced into bite sizes
1 coarsely chopped onion
1 coarsely chopped tomato
1 tbsp of finely chopped garlic
1 lb or more of baby bok choy
about 6 pcs of ocra
about 2 pcs of green chilies
sinigang broth and salt to taste

Heat oil in a deep sauce pan. Saute garlic, onion and tomato. Add pork and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add about 5 to 6 cups of water. Let boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes on medium heat or until pork is tender. Once pork is tender, add ocra and bok choy. Cook for another 2 minutes. Season with sinigang broth and salt. Add chilies. Serve hot.

Special Pancit Bijon

My cousins came to visit us one weekend. One of them loves my pancit bijon and so I thought of cooking it for her. Her daughter particularly likes squid balls in her pancit so instead of the usual shrimp and pork I usually put in my bijon, I made one with squid balls and chinese sausage.

Ingredients:

About 500 gms of pancit bijon
1 tbsp of olive oil
About 4 pcs of chinese sausage, sliced diagonally
About 250 gms of squid balls, cut in half
1 tbsp of finely chopped garlic
½ lb of cabbage
½ lb of green beans
2 pcs of carrots, julienned
green onions for garnishing
1 pouch of Mama Sita’s chopsuey/pancit canton mix

Boil pancit bijon according to packaging instructions. Set aside

In a pan, heat oil. Add the chinese sausage and cook for about 1 minute. Add the squid balls and sauté for about 2 minutes. Saute the garlic until fragrant. Add the carrots and cabbage. Cook for about 2 minutes. Add the green beans and cook for one minute. Season with mix. If you wish, set aside at least a cup of the cooked vegetables for topping or garnishing. Add ½ cup of boiling water and the cooked noodles. Mix the vegetables and the noodles. Garnish with green onions. Serve hot with calamansi or lemon.

Pork Bistek

I have meant to make this into morcon but an unexpected dinner invitation prevented me from making one. It sat in the fridge further because my kids craved for Japanese Food. Since I cannot put this back in the freezer, I decided to cook it instead and the easiest I could come up with is a pork bistek.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of olive oil
1 lb of pork tenderloin, sliced finely into bite sizes
¼ cup of soy sauce
2 tbsp of lemon juice
dash of ground pepper
1 tsp of finely chopped garlic
1 coarsely chopped medium onion
green onions for garnishing

Marinate tenderloin in soy sauce, lemon juice, ground pepper and garlic usually for at least 30 minutes. In my case for over a day.

Heat oil in a pan. Fry the marinated meat. Set aside. In the same pan, heat about 2 tbsp of olive oil. Saute onion until translucent. Add the meat and cook for about 2 minutes. Garnish with green onions and serve.

Friday, November 12, 2004

Green Mix with Cherry Tomatoes and Pomegranate

I need a fix. I am getting derailed with my health plan again. You can tell by the dishes that I have been posting lately. I tried to fix it last night with this salad. This one wasn't difficult to prepare. All you need is green mix with cherry tomatoes and pomegranate.

I want my dressing to be a little sweet so I mixed about 1 tsp of vinegar, 1 tsp of sugar, dash of salt and 1 tbsp of olive oil in a bottle.

I tossed the salad just before dinner to avoid the greens from getting limpy. It was good.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Fisherman Stew

This is actually called Fisherman's Stew but blogger won't accept titles with apostrophes.

Have you ever had a problem on what to do with bits and pieces of seafood in your freezer? Well, here’s an idea.

You will need:

About 200 gms of halibut
About 200 gms of salmon
About 200 gms of clam meat or mussels
About 200 gms of shrimps
About 200 gms of sliced calamari
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 onion, coarsely sliced
1 medium potato, cubed
1 medium carrot,, cubed
1 can of cream of Campbell’s Cream of Chicken
2 cups of skim milk
1 cup of water

Steam the seafood for about 5 minutes from the time the water boils. Set Aside

In a deep sauce pan, heat oil and sauté onions until translucent. Add sliced potato and cook for about 2 minutes. Add carrots and cook for an additional 1 minute. Add Cream of chicken, milk and water. Cover pan and let boil. Simmer for about 5 minutes or until potato is cooked, stirring occasionally to avoid the cream from sticking at the bottom of the pan. Add the steamed seafood and cook for another 1 minute. Serve hot.

Tip: Add some dry dill weed if you want. Or ground pepper is also good. Any seafood actually will do..don't fret.

Sardines Omelet

I was definitely feeling a little crappy and crabby last Monday. My boss did not approve my application for a day off on Friday given that Thursday was a holiday because of Remembrance/Veterans’ Day. Prior to that, my family had a lot of plans in mind including a pajama party on Friday night. It's been a first time for almost a decade now that he has rejected my request. That explains the crappy feeling. My family is flexible. The pajama party can always be moved.

Well, this dish tells it all. I grabbed a can of sardines from the cupboard, sliced some onions, scrambled 2 eggs, mixed 2 tbsp of flour and fried it omelet style. To make it appealing, I topped it with green onions. Who could tell it was not a planned dish, huh?

Surprise of all surprises, the two rug rats had a fair. I told them that it was what my mother used to serve us if we had nothing else to eat when we were young. Ah, the two got it.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Bangus in Olive Oil (Spanish Style)

This is not an economical dish if you are thinking that it is. There are no exact measurements in this recipe. I have been constantly experimenting on how to lessen the use of olive oil to no avail. Whether I like it or not, I have to let the bangus swim in olive oil to be succesful.

I used approximately:

12 baby bangus(es):-) , gutted and heads and tails off. The fish should be cut into half.

6 pcs of bay leaves

about 1/2 tsp of peppercorns

about 7 pcs of chilies

1 medium carrot and

about 10 pcs of sweet pickles

about 1 tbsp of salt (you might want to add more or lessen it depending on your taste)

The amount of olive oil to be used is a little tricky, but I will explain.

Lay the fish flat in a pressure cooker. Arrange them as close to each other as possible. Add all the ingredients in. The amount of oil will depend on how well you will arrange your fish in such a way that you will only use a small amount of oil. The oil should be about 1 cm over the arranged fish. I tried cheating by adding water but it wasn't as tasty as it should if cooked with pure oil. You can add tomato sauce if you want. It is also good. It's your call. Cook for 50 minutes on slow heat from the time the pressure cooker starts to whistle.

I love leaving it in the fridge soaked in its oil for another 3 days. I call it curing. I also love it spicy like the brand "TOME" so I crush about 1 or two of the chilies. It's nice to know how spicy your chilies are because they might be hotter than you think.

If it turns out to be a little bland, try having it with bagoong. It is really good.

Monday, November 08, 2004

Guinataang Alimasag

I must be being tested by fire. I have been trying to avoid cooking food in coconut milk for health reasons lately and a lot of the people close to me (that is my relatives and friends) seem to be missing my point.

Okay, I am trying to rationalize now. Since I tried to slow down on these kinds of food, they seldom have these anymore. For the past few days anyways, a friend requested laing and now my husband came home with a big crab. He said it was on sale that's why he bought it and requested me to cook it the way I used to, that is cooking it with coconut milk. The crab was already steamed so I cannot actually suggest that I’d steam it instead. “Okey, I will” was all I could say.

Ingredients:

1 crab, cut into four parts
1 can of coconut milk
1 medium onions coarsely chopped
about 5 pcs of red dried chilies
Alamang to taste

In a pan, render the 2/3 of the coconut milk into “near oil” like consistency. Someday I will remember to take a picture of what I mean by this. Saute the onions with this. Add chilies. Season with Alamang

Add the crab and the remaining coconut milk and cover the pan. Simmer on slow heat for about 10 minutes. Overcooking the crab would make the crab’s flesh shrink so you should aim to at least make the flesh absorb the coconut milk just a bit. I might have cooked this shorter than 10 minutes because I knew it was already steamed.

The taste of food cooked in coconut milk always tastes better if left in the fridge overnight. This was gone as soon as it got cooked though. My husband and daughter share the same passion of savoring seafood like hungry pigs (pardon my language) would. My son doesn’t have the skill to keep the flesh intact so more often than not, he’d be discarding all the best parts together with the shell.

The crab looked tattered. You see when cooking guinataan, you want the gata to permeate in every corner as much as possible. Chopping the whole crab is one thing but you cannot do this if the crab is uncooked otherwise there'd be no flesh left. The flesh you see is still liquid if the crab is uncooked. It only solidifies once it gets cooked. Because the crab came in steamed already, I had no worry chopping it into four.

Yor other option is to cook the crab in coconut milk first and then chop it after. Oh well, there are many ways to skin the cat.

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Lasagna

Contrary to what other people think, Lasagna is one of the easiest to prepare, I think. If you know how to make spaghetti sauce, then you're half way done.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of olive oil
2 lbs of lean ground beef
1 onion, coarsely chopped
2 cans of 680 ml Tomato Sauce
about 2 tbsp of finely chopped garlic
salt to taste
2 eggs
1 tub of 500 ml cottage cheese
about 2 lbs of cleaned spinach
8 pcs of lasagna noodles
about 2 cups of mozzarella cheese
about 1 tbsp fo garlic powder

Cook beef in a pan until brown. Add oil and add onion until onion becomes translucent. Add Tomato Sauce. Add garlic and season with salt. Simmer on slow heat for about 15 minutes. Set aside.

In a pan, quickly cook spinach for about 1 minute. Set aside. In a separate bowl mix eggs, cottage cheese and spinach.

Cook Lasagna noodles according to packaging instructions.

In a baking pan, spread evenly about 1/2 of the cooked sauce. Spread 4 noodles. Spread the spinach mixture evenly. Lay the next 4 noodles and spread the remaining sauce. Spread the mozzarella cheese and top with garlic powder. Bake on 350 for about 45 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Store the leftover as I described here.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Misua

One reader was asking for warm soup suggestions for winter. I had some in mind but she wanted something Filipino so here is what I came up with. MISUA.

¼ lb of ground pork
½ medium onion, coarsely chopped
½ medium tomato, coarsely chopped
1 patola or substitute with zucchini if patola is not available
4 cups of water
50 gms of misua
patis to taste

Saute ground pork. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add tomato and cook for about 2 minutes or until tomato is limp. Add Patola and sauté for another 3 minutes without adding water. Season with patis. Add water. Cover pan and let water boil. Add misua noodles and cook for another 2 minutes. Serves 4.

I hope I have made my reader happy.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Meat Loaf

This was one of my first photoblogs. When one of my officemates quit her job quite a while ago, we had a little goodbye party for her. I was assigned to cook or I think I offered to cook this. Even without the goodbye party , once a week, we have a get together (lunch) in the office. Each one is tasked to contribute something i.e. main course, salad, dessert, dishwashing etc.

We had this dish for tonight but never had the chance to take a picture of the loaf. Everyone was tired and hungry so I had to dig out from my archives for a picture.

You will need:

2 lbs of lean ground beef
2 eggs
1 can of sliced mushrooms
1 cup of green peas
1 medium carrot, shredded
¼ cup of ketchup
¼ cup of barbecue sauce, any kind
2 smokies sausages, grated
¼ cup of raisins
1 can of Campbell’s Chicken Stock
Dash of ground pepper
salt and soy sauce to taste
¼ cup of flour

Mix everything in a bowl. Form in a loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Top with barbecue sauce a couple of minutes before you take the loaf out of the oven. Let it sit out of the oven for about 5 minutes before serving. Serve with salad and buns or rice, whatever suits your style.