Monday, June 27, 2011

I Miss Hubby :-(

Hubby's in New York for a business trip. I miss him so much.



This photo was from our NYC trip last 2010.

Come home safely, Hubby!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Fast Food Sunday

Our weekend was quite uneventful. Hubby was preparing for his trip to New York City and we travelled to Market Market to buy some pasalubong for family. We had a quick lunch at mann Hann.







After our errand at Market Market, it was still quite early. We went to mass and after that, we drove to Festival Mall to watch Green Lantern.



The movie wasn't that bad. The villain just got defeated way too easy. Of course, Ryan Reynolds was pure eye candy, ha ha ha.

We had dinner at Sbarro.







The dough of the chocolate Calzone was a bit raw. Not ordering that again.

We were home by 9:00 p.m. Old farts. Ha ha ha.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Pho Spices

These are the spices that I use for my Pho beef base: white onions, ginger, cloves, star anise and cinnamon bark.



I had pretty good results during my first try. Photo, someday, he he he.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Siomai

I just finished making Siomai for Hubby's midnight snack. This is a simplified recipe with no accurate measurements, just rough estimates, which is usual when I'm doing savory dishes.

Siomai

Ingredients
1 and 1/2 cups lean ground pork
1 small carrot, finely chopped
2 eggs
1 to 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil (or less)
Japanese bread crumbs
Green peas, boiled
Chopped prawns
Salt
Pepper
Siomai wrappers
Oil for brushing

1. Mix the first 10 ingredients in a glass bowl until well combined. Mixture will be wet and feels a little soggy, but that's a good thing :-)



2. Wrap in siomai wrappers.

3. Place aluminum foil in the steamer basket, lightly brush the foil and the siomai with oil, to prevent the siomai from sticking together. This photo was taken in the utility kitchen, so ugly. Ha ha ha.



4. Steam until the pork is cooked, maybe thrity minutes or so.

Apparently, my housekeeper did not follow my instructions to brush the siomai with oil that's why they stuck together like this. Haay.



Make a dipping sauce by mixing calamansi and soy sauce together. Enjoy!

Filipino food... for the win!

Hilarious and so true!!!!! Bwa ha ha ha!


Sunday, June 12, 2011

Date with my ex- boyfriend

After running a few errands in Tagaytay, my ex- boyfriend and I had early dinner at Uncle Cheffy's. Food was good.





My ex- boyfriendwas very attentive and even served me salad :-)

Hangover 2

Movie date! It's been months since Hubbby and I went inside a movie theater. Old farts. We watched hangover 2 last weekend.

Insanely hilarious but the story is very similar to the first one, just a different setting. There is nudity in the movie and it's the unexpected kind :-) He he he.

Also, most of the funny bits were already in the trailer.


(photo courtesy of collider.com)

Crabs with Sotanghon

I've been meaning to cook crabs with sotanghon for as long as I can remember. I just put it off because hubby doesn't like crabs with anything on it. But last Saturday, I couldn't resist the fresh crabs from the market and bought two of really meaty male crabs. Male crabs has less of the aligue (fat) than their bakla (gay) or female counterparts.

Anyway, I'm posting this recipe as a future reference for me when I am cooking. Ha ha ha. I often refer to my blog when sourcing for recipes that I have made previously or a recipe that I may want to improve or tweak. So, this blog is really my personal recipe vault. I just add some stories to make it interesting, ha ha ha.



Crabs with Sotanghon (Vermicelli noodles)
Estimated measurements only, sorry.

2 large crabs, chopped in half
Olive oil
2 -3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 white onion, finely chopped
4 thin slivers of ginger
2-3 cups of home made chicken or beef broth, (boiling)
2-3 tablespoons Kikkoman soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons oyster sauce (I suggest to use Lee Kum Kee)
1-3 tablespoons sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Vermicelli noodles, softened in hot water, drained and rinsed in cold water, to prevent sticking
Cilantro leaves for garnish

1. In medium heat, saute onions and ginger in olive oil. When onions are soft, add the chopped garlic. Saute just until fragrant, do not brown.
2. Add the crabs to the pan (at this point, my crabs were so fresh, they were still moving even if they were already chopped in half!)
3. Add the boiling soup stock. This is to prevent the pan from losing its heat.
4. Add Kikkoman, oyster sauce, sugar, salt and pepper.
5. Simmer until crabs are almost cooked. Adjust seasoning at this point.
6. Add the vermicelli noodles and cook for a few more minutes.
7. When cooked and most of the broth has been absorbed by the noodles, remove from heat.
8. Serve on a platter and garnish with cilantro leaves.

I would probably add some chopped onion leaves to the broth next time. Recipe in progress.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Cops & Robbers

Do you remember the time when you played cops and robbers as a kid? I do. I remember my brother, myself and a few playmates would run around, hide behind bushes and trees while toting a toy gun, or a small twig, or whatever was at hand. At that time, there were only a few houses in our village and we would run around the vacant lots and neighboring streets to play.

The little punks were playing in our living room and decided on an impromptu cops and robbers game.

The premise of the game was the same. I heard dialogue like:
"You're under arrest!"
"Stop! Don't move!"
"Take cover!"
"Surrender!"
"I shot her!"
"I got her!"
"Hide!"

But instead of guns, the punks switched to a different gear. Go watch and see for yourself.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Family Lunch

If you stumble upon this blog a few times, you would probably notice that our family tends to gravitate to our house every Sunday. It's been quite frequent lately, most of our gatherings though were not blogged here because I was too lazy to take pictures.

Our family tends to make our meals very simple and "down home" during these get togethers lately. Hubby seems to get the blunt of my recipe experimentations. Fortunately, most turn out edible. Ha ha ha. I meant to blog about these forays in the kitchen but I usually do them around midnight, to keep it fresh for Hubby when he arrives from work. I've done pretty good with some Vietnamese and Japanese recipe experimentations.

Anyway, back to my Sunday story. We had some simple dishes last Sunday. We had some Fried Chicken with Cropeck. The chicken is a bit more brown than usual because I used palm oil. Rice bran oil is the best for frying but a bit pricey and it was out of stock when we went to the grocery store. Here's my Southern-Tagalog Style Fried Chicken recipe:



Chicken pieces
1 can evaporated milk
Salt and pepper
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup fried chicken breading mix
1/2 cup cornstarch
Oil for frying

1. Wash chicken well. Pat dry. In a glass bowl, marinate chicken with milk, salt and pepper. Cover with cling wrap and leave in the fridge for at least two hours, overnight is best.
2. Mix together all purpose flour, chicken breading mix and cornstarch.
3. Dredge chicken in the flour mixture or place flour mixture in a large Ziploc bag, add the chicken pieces and shake well to coat.
4. Shake off excess flour from the chicken. Fry until half-cooked. You may have to fry in batches. Drain in a wire colander while you cook the rest of the chicken pieces.
5. Fry a second time until golden brown. Drain on paper towels or a wire colander to remove excess oil.
6. For a Chinese-style presentation, add store-bought cropeck around the chicken.

If you don't have a breading mix on hand, you can omit the breading mix and just use 50/50 flour and cornstarch. Add a bit more salt and pepper also to the the flour/cornstarch mixture.

Aside from the chicken, we also made fried liempo on a bed of kang-kong with a bagoong and vinegar dressing.



My mom bought some Lumpiang Ubod from Conti's and my house keeper arranged them like a flower :-)



My in-laws brought a huge bowl of dinuguan. Dinuguan is blood stew, it sounds worse than what it really is. It's quite good actually, a little salty and a little sour. If you haven't tried it, give it a go. Dinuguan is one of the hardest food to style. I mean, it tastes good and all but it's all black, no interesting angles anywhere you look, not photogenic at all. So, we'll skip the picture this time :-)

We had no dessert. :-( I know, right? My house with no baked goods or any type dessert on a Sunday. Such blasphemy, ha ha ha! I have an excuse.... my old age and aching bones. Ha ha ha. Fortunately we had some really good local coffee and some chocolates on hand.

For our mid-afternoon snack. My housekeeper made some pancit canton and my nephew Jay-jay's favorite, turon.



How was your Sunday? :-)

Savory Chicken

Savory used to be my grandmother's favorite restaurant back in the 80's. I remember that she could finish a whole chicken all by herself. Aside from being a great cook, she had a great appetite to boot! :-) My lola used to pronounce it SABOREE. For years I thought it was pronounced that way. Yikes! Ha ha ha.

For some reason Savory closed its doors for over a decade. Now, Savory is slowly coming back and making its presence in malls around the metropolis. There's a Savory restaurant in SM close to where we live and we decided to give it a go after we did our weekly groceries.



Prior to eating at Savory, I told Hubby that it was my Lola's favorite chicken place but I can's seem to remember how it tasted like. As soon as I bit into the chicken that we ordered, I immediately remembered the taste. The fried chicken had a hint of soy and anise. Funny, how such a simple taste can evoke such memories.

Lola, eating Savory Chicken reminded me of you. I miss you.