Steak Dinner at Home

Hubby loves steak. To indulge him, I decided to cook some last night. Now, the steaks themselves are quite easy to make. The laborious part of making steaks are the sidings that accompany it. I paired our steaks with mashed potatoes with gravy, grilled shitake mushrooms and Caesar's salad.



Simple Steak
2 Tenderloin steaks
4 cloves of garlic, minced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Worcestershire sauce

1. Rub steaks with garlic. Let stand for 30 minutes to infuse the garlic flavor in the meat.
2. Heat a stove top grill or charcoal grill. Just before grilling, add olive oil, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce to the steaks and rub very well.
3. Grill to desired doneness.
4. Let meat rest for a few minutes before cutting to seal in the juices. Otherwise, blood will ooze out on your plate. Ew!

Hubby likes his medium well. Cooked on the outside but still a bit red in the middle.



As expected, the steaks were an absolute hit with hubby. He finished his share and half of mine :-)

The homemade Caesar's salad dressing needs a bit of work though. Hubby's favorite dressing was the one that I made with raw egg yolks. I didn't want to use raw egg (I'm quite paranoid about salmonella poisoning) so I used cream instead. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

For dessert, I found some Paho Mangoes from the market. These are mini mangoes that are very sweet and succulent. It's so tiny, it barely fits hubby's palm!

Easy Crab Cakes

I made crab cakes the other night. Fresh crab meat is hard to come by. I buy mine at South Supermarket and I taste it before buying it to make sure it's fresh.

It's a delicious and easy meal to make. I didn't measure anything, since I just threw things together. This is one of those miskipaps (miskipapano, however which way) dishes.

Simple Crab Cakes


Japanese bread crumbs
About 250 grams of cooked, fresh crab meat
1 egg, lightly beaten
Mayonnaise
Calamansi or lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Worcestershire sauce
Hot sauce
Vegetable oil for frying

1. Combine all the ingredients except for the vegetable oil.
2. Using an ice cream scoop, measure out the crab meat batter. Shape into thin patties. Patties will be wet and not dense.
3. Heat oil. Using a wide and flat spatula, carefully slide down the patties into the hot oil and fry until desired doneness. The patties are already partially cooked, you just need to make sure you're not eating raw egg. About 3-5 minutes on each side.
4. Drain in paper towels.
5. Serve with catsup, chili sauce or tartar sauce.

Make sure that you buy your crab meat from a reputable market. Taste and smell it before purchasing to make sure it's fresh.

This recipe can also be used with dulong (those almost microscopic fish), just use less salt since dulong tends to be very salty by nature.

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

I've finally started baking from my new cupcake book. My first choice is apple and cinnamon muffins. It looks easy enough to make, idiot proof even. I've made some adjustments on the recipe (my changes are in italics). Here's the recipe as published in the 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly:

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins




2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups superfine sugar (1 cup regular sugar, very briefly processed in a blender)
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup sweet butter (1/4 cup salted butter), melted
2 eggs lightly beaten (room temperature)
3/4 cup buttermilk (1 teaspoon of vinegar plus enough regular milk to make 1 cup, let stand for 5 minutes before use)
2 small apples (granny smith), peeled, cored and finely diced

Preheat oven to 350degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan. (I lined 18 medium sized muffin tins with parchment cupcake cups).

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the oil, butter, eggs and buttermilk with an electric mixer until well combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until nearly combined. Stir in the apples. Do not over mix. Spoon (I used an ice cream scoop for even batter distribution) the mixture into the prepared pan.

Bake for 20 minutes. (Mine baked for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean). Remove pan from the oven and cool 5 minutes. Then remove the muffins and cool on a rack.

Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days or freeze up to 3 months.




The result:
My version is lighter and less sweet because I used more buttermilk and less sugar. I prefer a less dense muffin.

A dollop of whipped cream or a smear of butter would be nice with this muffin. Great with a cup of coffee too.

Bake Masters

Hubby and I were driving along Sucat Road one time and a blue sign caught my attention. We decided to check it out on our way home.



The store is Bake Masters. As its name suggests, it's a supplier for bakery , confectionery, snack and also meat processing ingredients. I was very excited to check it out and buy some goodies.

The store is not swanky like Cooks Exchange but their supplies are much cheaper and they provide more variety. Walnuts sell for almost half the price. They also have macademia nuts, pistachio nuts that have been shelled, pecans, almonds and cashews that are way cheaper than what you would buy in Antipolo or HK. The nuts are refrigerated which is great because they maintain their freshness that way. I'm gonna buy nuts from them from now on.



I was extremely excited to see that they sell premium flour for P30/kilo. That's about P20 cheaper than what I buy in the supermarket! Rice crispies go for P30 for a big pack. Chocolate chips (local) go for as low as P90/kilo. Marshmallows go for P30 for a huge pack, enough to make 10 dozen s'more cupcakes!

I've also seen some products that I've never used before. Goes to show how amateur I am with baking :-) The sales clerk wasn't very helpful and looked very bored manning the store. Yeah, she's gonna be selling a lot of items with her long face.






The store also offers cake boxes and assorted packaging materials for your baked goodies. Clingwrap sell for P50 for a 30meter box. Good buy.

Bake Masters offer short courses in baking such as yeast breads, quick breads, pies, tarts, pastries cakes, cake decoration, desserts, sugar work and meat processing. The classes vary from month to month. I was told by the sales person that classes only commence when they have signed up at least 8 students per class.

This month of June, they offer classic European baking, quick and easy cooking and basic cake decorating and assembly. The latter costs P2,000. Barring the unhelpful sales clerk, I've signed up for it but I guess no one else has :-( With the sales clerk's attitude, I'm not surprised why no one even bothered to sign up. Duh.

For inquiries on their upcoming short courses, you may call 828-51-23 or 829-69-49. Bake Masters is located at Unit ABC, No 8415 Dr. A. Santos Ave. (aka Sucat Road), Paranaque City.

Hubby/Decorator(?)

Hubby was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last week on business. I had asked him to bring home a souvenir that's distinctly Malaysian. I specifically asked for some wood carvings that we could add to our collection. Since I got married, I try to buy some items from our travels that would look lovely displayed in our home or at least buy something something that's practical and useful.

Hubby was on the hunt. And this is what he came up with:



A miniature gong and beer mug. It's neither made of wood nor is it practical and useful. Hmmm. Note to self: don't ask hubby to purchase home accessories.

But then again, he redeemed himself by bringing home this cupcake book:



I've been itching to bake since I got it.

Cyma Estiatorio.......OPA!

Hubby and I love Greek food. Our favorite by far is a quaint little hole in the wall restaurant in Boracay called Cyma. We had dined there last year and we fell in love with the food.

I found out that they have a new branch that opened in Greenbelt. We were so excited to dine there last weekend because it brings back memories of our Boracay trip.

For appetizers or "Mezedes", which in Greek means "something soft and delicate", we ordered the Pikilia Mezedes, a sampling of four delicious dips, served with sixteen wedges of warm whole wheat pita bread:



Melitsanosolata, freshly roasted eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, wit lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.
Tsatsiki, a classic cucumber, garlic and Greek yogurt dip.
Htipiti, creamed feta with a hint of spicy peppers and extra virgin olive oil. I was surprised that hubby liked this one, normally, he doesn't like feta nor anything spicy.
Hummous, chickpea, tahini and garlic. Among the dips, this one is the biggest winner in terms of taste.

Since the Pikilia was quite filling, hubby and I shared a single main course. We agreed on Swordfish Souvlaki (skewer) and for extra P75 you get a side of Family Style Greek Salad of mixed greens, red cabbage, tomatoes, capers, cucumbers, feta cheese, pine nuts and black olives in traditional Greek vinaigrette. Yummy and healthy.



The Swordfish Souvlaki is by far one of the the best fish dish that I've ever tasted. The fish was very fresh and succulent and not malansa at all and there's no fishy after taste (which is great when you're having a date). The skewered vegetables are perfect foil for the fish. I has asked the waiter what was the marinade used for the fish. It was salt, pepper olive oil and some tomato sauce. The souvlaki comes with a yogurt dipping sauce. Frankly, the fish was great even without the dipping sauce.

For dessert, hubby ordered the home made chocomint ice cream served with honey and walnuts. I personally don't like the combination of chocolate and mint but hubby loves it. So, this one's a winner too.



If you order the crepes, they will flambe it in front of you and all the waiters will shout OPA! (A Greek term for "love of life")

Cyma, a must try.

Sarap Mag Shopping

When I shop, I try to purchase organic salad greens as much as possible. They cost the same as the pesticide ridden variety anyway. One drawback of that is that they don't come pre-washed like most of their their salad-in-a-bag counterparts. I wanted to buy a small, cheap salad spinner so that I don't have to dry the salad greens in paper towels. The ones that I see from Gourdo's, Ace hardware, Cooks Exchange and Rustan's are far too expensive, mostly ranging from P1,200 to P2,000+. Haller, I'm not looking for a designer type salad spinner na may entertainment value no! I just need the utilitarian variety.

Last week, I went on a shopping trip to Makati, after all, it is the center of all shopping centers here in Manila. I'm bound to find a cheaper alternative there. Wearing my most comfy shoes, I brace myself for a day of bargain hunting. I hitched a ride with hubby on his way to work so that I don't have to drive nor park. I started my hunt at SM Makati. Within five minutes, I found exactly what I was looking for. A small, plastic, salad spinner worth P229. Sweet. But what I am to do the rest of the day?

I started browsing around and came upon a baker's corner inside SM. I almost squealed out of sheer excitement. In that nifty little corner sat rows and rows of fondant icing itching to be rolled out and shaped, instant multi-colored icing with their own piping tips, cake stands, sprinkles in every size, shape and color imaginable, revolving cake stands, tilting cake stands, cake carriers, cookie molds, chocolate molds, cake decorating kits, piping tips of every size and shape, themed decorative cake candles, high end vanilla extract, cake pans, cake racks, cupcake trees, cupcake stands and a cornucopia or gadgets for propping up a multi-layer cake to rolling out dough to punching out fondant to figurines for your cake. OMG, my head was spinning. I wanted to buy every single item there. Whew!



Gadget wise, It's better than Cook's Exchange. And the service was excellent. All the sales people were very helpful and courteous.

I figured since I saved so much money on the salad spinner, I could indulge in one little item. I ended up buying three. I decided to purchase a Wilton revolving cake stand for P650 and I saw some generic muffin tins that would fit my oven (P100 each, what a steal). (Picture courtesy of wilton.com)

If you're in the area and if you love to bake, check out SM Makati, houseware section. You'll probably squeal with delight too.