A Slice of Life...Sour, Bitter, Salty, Sweet

Auditioning for the Mafia

2011-05-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

One weekend in April, I attended a Filipino Heritage Session. I don’t want to talk about the session really, but suffice it to say that I ended up pumped with patriotic juice (maybe I was homesick) that I got inspired to actually get involved and volunteer at the Filipino Community Centre in town. Naturally I wanted to find out what I’m getting myself into so I decided to invite the board members of the Filipino community for dinner. At lunch time the conversation naturally veered towards food. These after all, are the people who cook for the traditional Sunday lunches served at the Centre. They know their stuff. They have Filipino recipes imbedded in their genes. They cook without following a recipe or exact timing, they rely on experience, their memories and their senses. These people live and breathe Filipino food. I don’t know about you but they sound like a tough dinner crowd. I was doomed!

Somehow I have this fantasy that once they sampled my cooking, they will let me join the secret society of the Filipino Community Centre’s Sunday lunch cooks so I thought I better take their visit seriously. My husband jokingly referred to the Filipino Community as the mafia hence the title. It’s not because the community is involved in criminal activity but because it is like a tightly knit self-sustaining family that looks after the welfare of its members. He meant it as a compliment.

Being a cookbook collector (read: hoarder), I’ve trained myself to cook just about any cuisine and if I were to believe the people who had a chance to try my cooking, my food is either really good or just passably edible bordering on poisonous, however they are probably too polite to tell me. These damn Canadians! No, I haven’t killed anyone from food poisoning yet and some of them actually keep coming back for more. But then again it might just be the polite Canadian thing; you know, take a second helping and not turn down a dinner invitation.

Anyway, as Saturday, May 14th got closer and closer I was completely at a loss for ideas and I was getting really desperate. Chicken adobo? Pansit? Lumpia? Nah, I am pretty sure they eat those at least once a week. Balut? I wouldn’t touch the stuff with a ten-foot pole. Oh crap! I’m screwed!

In sheer desperation, I decided to take the shortcut and go with something deep-fried and roasted. I know taking the shortcut or pushing for something deep-fried specially pork, doesn’t really speak well of my character because Filipino home cooking is all about slow-cooking, lovingly spending hours and hours bent over the stove kindling the fire to coax every bit of flavour out of the ingredients. Yes, Filipino food is fundamentally simple but labour intensive. Because we don’t use a lot of herbs and spices, we tend to rely on the integrity of the ingredients, letting them shine and speak for themselves. Of course this can also be achieved by adding MSG. Enough said, I digress.

So I made lechon kawali that is pork crackling to the Anglophones, lechon manok or roast chicken and pinakbet, our version of the Provençal ratatouille only with shrimp paste and pork. I have never in my entire life made lechon kawali and lechon manok. I thought I was taking a shortcut, I mean seriously, how hard could it be to fry the life out of big hunks of pork until the skin is all golden and crispy and shove a freaking soy sauce soaked chicken in the oven? So I phoned my mom (5:00 a.m. in the Philippines) greeting her with, “I know you told me this already but how do you make lechon kawali and lechon manok again?” As she described the process on how to make the skin all crispy and golden brown (it’s what makes or breaks a lechon kawali), I was ready to start making the phone calls telling my guests I unexpectedly contracted Ebola virus. Anyway, I decided against it and went ahead with dinner as planned. Let me just say though that making lechon kawali was an ordeal I wouldn't want to go through again. Unless of course it's for a special occasion so if you want my mom’s lechon kawali recipe, you either have to get me drunk or bribe me; your choice. Oh by the way, lechon manok is not just chicken soaked in soy sauce, it’s so much more complex than that. Again, get me drunk or bribe me and I’ll tell you how to make it.

The thing is, I don’t really cook a lot of Filipino food at home. Besides the physical demand, admittedly I have unrealistic expectations about Filipino food. It’s the food that I grew up with; all of my fondest memories and recollections of my family and my country are steeped and simmered in its flavour. If I make it, I want it to taste just like my mom and dad made it for me. I know I’m making it sound like Filipino food is the food of the gods but I’m not delusional, of course it’s not, otherwise it will be on every street corner of the world. My relationship with Filipino food transcends the physical need for nourishment, it is beyond emotional, it is metaphysical.

Did I pass my initiation for the Filipino Community Centre's Sunday lunch cooking mafia? I don't know, I have to find out but all I know is it was lots of fun and I enjoyed meeting all of these wonderful people who have given so much for the sake of their community.

Confessions of a Lobster Killer

2010-08-28T18:27:00.000-07:00

I'm a killer. I am a murderer. I murdered a helpless innocent lobster today. God (who I highly doubt exists) knows it was never my intention to hurt much more kill a lobster. I was supposed to buy a crab, which by the way I was also planning to kill by plunging a knife right through its belly but for some reason lobsters were on sale at the Superstore today.

Like a true predator, I stalked my poor victim. I was looking for a crab but this frisky lobster fellow caught my eye, he clawed his way up the top of the tightly packed crab and lobster tank. He swam back and forth, flipping its tail now and then, asking me to pay close attention. He was quite a character, he has joie de vivre compared to his other buddies who seemed resigned to their gruesome fate and of course, I was just simply and utterly mesmerized. I checked out the price $9.99 a pound. Not bad at all. They don't sell them like that very often. It was fate. The poor little guy was bound to end up on my dinner plate.

I have never killed a lobster before. While we were driving home, I told Mr. Cat he had to kill it. Then like a true psychopath, I described to him in gruesome detail how the Iron Chefs of the Food Network plunge their knives into the poor innocent lobsters' heads then dunk them into the boiling court bouillon and happily watch them as they turn red. He said to me, "I decided to start being a Buddhist today". When we got home, he had a nap (meditation) and I was left on my own with my new buddy, the lobster. I honestly didn't know what to do with him.

So I made a court bouillon (I got the recipe from Ad Hoc I think) and brought it to a rolling boil. With shaking hands, I scrubbed the poor little fellow clean. Hey if today was my last day on Earth, I would also want to be clean. Now there's no escaping it, I had to do it. So I put him on my cutting board, grabbed my biggest and sharpest knife and aimed it right at the very centre of its head. I held the knife tightly with my two hands, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and plunged my murder weapon right into its cerebral cortex. I swear the lobster shrieked!!! Yay!!! I have no idea lobsters can actually shriek. It freaked the hell out of me. I snapped my eyes open. I grabbed it by the tail with my left hand and with my right hand still holding the knife which by the way was still stuck in the lobster's head, I plunged it into the violently boiling court bouillon. It struggled to its death, claws outstretched and with one last flip of its tail, it curled itself into a fetal position. Within minutes it turned into an angry fire red.

I could not bring myself to snap a photo of it. I think it deserves a little privacy.

To my friend the lobster, I hope you can forgive me and not make me sick.

Mexico

2010-08-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

I spent a month in Mexico and what can I say? I just simply can't get enough!!!

It is pristine,

yet so colourful,

so vibrant,

decadent,

lush,

and so full of life.

I really cannot even begin to describe it.

Words simply fail me.

I tend to say too much and it just ruins the moment.

So I will not say a word.

But l'll leave you with a song

and a sigh instead.

Mussels with Thai Red Curry

2010-08-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

I always get excited every time I find fresh mussels in the market. They are an acquired taste I must say so it's probably not for everyone (my husband included) but they are definitely my favourite. It's a nice break from our usual chicken dinners and they cook really quickly so if you're starving or you have a whole bunch of people coming over for drinks, they are just the perfect thing to serve. Yes, I use canned curry paste. There's nothing wrong with canned curry paste. Freshly made curry pastes are fantastic but duh! Seriously, who has the time? Plus there are a lot of really good canned ones in the market so I often just use them. And the results are often luscious!

Now, tell me if that does not look fabulous? I'll share the recipe later. Ciao for now :-)

Okay, I'm back so here's the recipe. It takes about 30 minutes or less to make.

3 lb. mussels, scrubbed and cleaned
fresh cilantro, chopped
lime wedges
green onion, chopped

Coconut Curry Sauce:
1 1/2 cup coconut milk (or 1 can)
grated ginger to taste
1 1/2 tbsp Thai red curry paste (I like Maesri)
1 clove of garlic
1/4 cup of white Vermouth (or you can use Sprite, white wine or you can skip it all together)
brown sugar to taste
1 tbsp butter
3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 stalk of lemongrass, smashed

Fish sauce to taste (this may not be necessary as mussels have their own salt)

First, melt the butter and about a quarter can of coconut milk in a pan on medium heat.

Sautee the curry paste, ginger, garlic and the lemongrass for a good 10-12 minutes or until it starts to smell really good and the coconut milk has turned into oil. Believe it or not, not cooking the curry pastes well makes the difference between a mediocre and a Thai restaurant-quality curry.

Add the thyme sprigs then Vermouth (or wine) and reduce to about half then pour in the rest of the coconut milk and season with sugar to taste. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly.

Add the mussels and cover. Shake the pan occasionally to distribute the sauce. Cook until they open and the meat is tender. Test for seasoning, you may want to adjust the sugar or add fish sauce.

Pour into a large serving bowl and garnish with cilantro, green onion and lime wedges. You know what goes with this really well? Chunky and chewy baguette to soak up all the briny coconut sauce!

Fresh Spring Rolls w/ Peanut Sauce

2010-05-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

Aw god! I'm so excited to be doing this believe me. Life is so insanely busy right now with super fun but crazy stuff in my daily 9 to 5 then there's the torrential downpour of essays and group work in my 6 to 9 (that's online night school by the way). Mind you, my 6 to 9 is having a hard time sticking to it's schedule, it seems hell bent in taking over my life or what little is left of it. Enough whining already, let's get to the good stuff.

I don't know but perhaps every country in Asia has their very own version of spring rolls and the Philippines is no exception. Just like all the others, Filipino spring rolls are made of the basic minced meat (we like pork), shrimp, carrots, cilantro, spring onion and garlic then you crack an egg on it to use as a binder so the rest of the filling will stick together. Then you season it with soy sauce or fish sauce, a pinch of sugar and lots of freshly cracked black pepper. After that you wrap this in a spring roll wrapper and now comes the good part, you deep fry it until the wrapper is nicely golden brown and, of course, the filling is perfectly cooked. And now the best part of all, you dip the spring roll in sweet and sour chili sauce and take a big scorching hot bite of that crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside porky goodness! I love that! Anyway, why am I writing this when somebody else has already done it for me? Check out Marvin of Burnt Lumpia's highly informative and drool worthy guest post in Rasa Malaysia.

Well, yes, I did make a spring roll but not quite the same sort of deep fried spring roll that I am really really truly wanting to sink my teeth into. I'm organizing (ergo attending) a black tie event for work on June 1st and I have to be in a dress so I'm trying my very best to behave myself and stick to healthy eating. Oh the horror! My version of the healthy spring roll is really not so bad.

Mine is a copy cat of its Vietnamese cousin using rice paper dipped and softened in warm water and filled with all of this good stuff and has all sorts of interesting textures and refreshing flavours.

Thinly sliced green mango (you can get this at the Chinese grocery in where else, Chinatown, love it!)
Shaved carrots
Thinly sliced gala apple or Asian pear
Thinly sliced red or yellow pepper
Mixed baby salad greens (I prefer pea shoots)
Halved yellow and red cherry tomatoes
Cilantro & Thai basil

If you have it and you like it (I don't), you can also add thinly sliced English cucumbers and I'm sure any other great tasting raw vegetable like thinly sliced yellow beets, blanched asparagus, snap peas or haricot vert would be really lovely. Dealing with the rice paper wrapper is a completely different story so let's just use this video to demonstrate how it's done, plus she's really adorable.

Now the peanut sauce. If you're allergic to peanuts, maybe whizzing a ripe mango with a weeny bit of water, lime juice, lime zest, cilantro, red chili, fish sauce or good old salt and maybe a bit of green onion would be a good substitute. I've never made this dressing before but it's probably pretty tasty. Wow! I just invented a salad dressing while writing this. I wish there's money in this kind of thing. Mind you I should probably have done that instead of the peanut sauce. Okay back to the peanut sauce.

1 teaspoon of garam masala, Thai red curry paste, turmeric & cumin powder (if you don't have these,a tablespoon of regular Indian curry will probably taste just fine)
1 can of coconut milk
1/2 cup of water
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/2 a cup of chunky and crunchy peanut butter
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper (and if you have it, chopped Thai chilies would probably be awesome)
juice of 1 lime to finish it

The sauce is fairly easy to make. I reduced about a quarter of the coconut milk until it's oily and then I cooked the garam masala, red curry paste, turmeric and cumin powder in it until it was very fragrant, for like 5 minutes on medium high heat. Then I added the peanut butter and stirred it so it looked more like a colourful paste and then I poured in the rest of the coconut milk & water and added the sugar, soy sauce and pepper and cooked it for about 10 minutes before I stirred in the lime juice. It tends to get oily but the good thing is the oil separates so you can scoop it out later. Let's be honest, peanut sauce is probably not the healthiest sauce on earth but hey, I'd been working really hard so I think I have to cut myself some slack.

I've babbled on for a long time but trust me, once you get the hang of the wrapping thing, the whole thing including the peanut sauce wouldn't take you an hour. Here's another photo before I shut up.

Sidney Fishing Adventure

2010-05-08T13:48:00.000-07:00

Ahoy matey!!! How'd you like to catch some lunch today?

Aye, aye captain!

And off to Sidney we go.

The captain surveyed the view.

We stationed ourselves by the pier.

And hope we'd bring home some of the ocean's gorgeous booty.

No seriously. We actually just stood there by the pier and ohhh'd and ahhhh'd then snapped some photos because it was just gorgeous out there.

We prefer to leave the actual fishing to the pros.

Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb

2010-05-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday last April. Please don't ask me how old I am, I've just been through the how old are you inquisition. Just like anyone celebrating their birthday I thought I deserved a little treat and so I decided to cook myself a nice rack of lamb. So off I went, dragging Mr. Cat along to The Village Butcher on Oak Bay avenue (not to be slaughtered, silly!). Alas! (that is so retro, I love saying that!) they didn't have the Salt Spring Island rack of lamb I was hoping to get. I wanted my birthday treat so badly I was determined to turn the entire Vancouver Island (just Victoria maybe) upside down just to get myself that rack of lamb. So I googled Slater's phone number and asked if they have it and of course they did, otherwise the smug "First Class Meats" tag line would need to be taken off. I reserved a four-rib rack of lamb and again dragged Mr. Cat off to Cadboro Bay to pick up my loot. Silly me, I forgot that lamb is relatively smaller than a cow but nevertheless I bought it. I was kind of disappointed but come to think of it, two pieces is probably just the right serving anyway.

I was probably possessed or something but I grabbed Gordon Ramsay's Sunday Lunch and started working on this herb crusted rack of lamb recipe. I seasoned the lamb with salt and pepper then seared it before shoving it into the oven until it was nicely and evenly browned just like Gordon said. I think my oven temperature was too high because that didn't take long at all. Then I whizzed a day old and lightly toasted bread in a food processor with olive oil, parsley, lemon zest, rosemary, garlic and Parmesan and a bit of salt and more pepper to make the herb crust. I took the lamb out of the oven, slathered it with good old Coleman's English mustard, then I spread the herb crust and shoved it back in the oven for 5 minutes. It smelled like heaven while it was cooking so what could possibly go wrong? I mean just look at that?

Of course, everything went wrong. Murphy's law, duh! I was too excited, I didn't let it rest. I plated my cous cous salad, eagerly sliced the lamb and put the slices right on top.

Somewhere at the back of my mind I knew that it was raw. After all it was still bleeding like fresh road kill. I called Mr. Cat to sit down and eat. He was very nice and very polite obviously not wanting to earn the wrath of the stressed out birthday girl but he just couldn't risk food poisoning so he told me in a very nice way "Sweety, I think the lamb needs to be cooked a little more, I like it pink but this is too pink." Actually it was more like Hannibal Lecter red not pink. So I turned the oven back on and snapped some photos while we were waiting for the oven to warm up again.

Thank goodness the wine was excellent!!

Proscuitto Wrapped Salmon

2010-04-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

I'm back!!! Please don't write me off just yet. I've just been insanely busy, enslaved by both school and work but I am taking a little break so here I am again. How I miss the blogosphere! It's been so long. My fingers are itching to type something and blab about everything happening in my teeny tiny kitchen. I've made some stuff which I wished I was able to post for safekeeping so I can make them again but most of the time, they are sad to say, best forgotten.

Without further a do, here it is. After all this is supposed to be about food so voila, my proscuitto wrapped salmon.

Here's the recipe but please be kind, feel free to omit or add anything if it's missing something.

2 slices of proscuitto
2 slices of salmon
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
chopped fresh dill
freshly cracked pepper
2 teaspoons of mustard (I used Coleman's English mustard), a teaspoon for each slice of fish

I have no idea whose lusty idea it was to wrap a juicy bit of naturally briny fish with a succulent and earthy salty sweet cured slices of an Italian piggy but hey, let's just say it definitely made our mid-week dinner a lot more exciting. My imagination and my hands tend to get ahead of themselves when I'm in the kitchen so they're not satisfied with just a touch of pork fat basting the fish for flavour so I ended up adding good old mustard and pepper and of course, what is salmon without dill so yeah, I sprinkled it with some chopped dill. To kick it up an extra notch, I also added some thyme sprigs. I baked it at 375 for 15 minutes and there you go.

The fat drippings from the roasting proscuitto basted the fish so it cooked evenly and remained moist and flaky. Just exactly the way fish should be. I've posted a third photo just because I consider this to be such an achievement because I normally cook the life out of any fish (or seafood or meat or anything that requires delicate handling). Yes, I'm congratulating myself. Is that bad?

Braided Brioche

2009-12-30T09:50:00.001-08:00

I don't really have a recipe to share today but I just wanted to share a milestone in my cooking experiments. I've managed to make a decent brioche, yes a brioche!!! Not only that, I was able to braid the dough (yikes!) so it looks like my favourite bread, the challah.

Here's how the dough looked like before going into the oven. They look good eh? The eggs and the butter gave them such a lovely rich yellow colour.

Then here's how they look straight out of the oven. Delicate golden crust on the outside, flaky melt in your mouth goodness on the inside. Ohhhh yum!!!

They were like giant croissants (the good kind, the flaky melt in your mouth kind that can stand alone, you know good all by itself, does not need butter and jam or any other thing). Here's one more photo, please indulge me.

Summer at the Okanagan

2009-12-01T18:30:00.000-08:00

I was going through the pictures in my iPhoto album and I found some that I've taken on my little vineyard tour of the Naramata Bench in the Okanagan last summer.

The sky was blue.

Cherries were in season.

The flowers were in bloom.

There was good wine everywhere.

Perfect...

It was just perfect...

Where did it go?

Chowhound's Chowder

2009-11-22T16:13:00.000-08:00

Hello world!!! Yes, I'm still alive. I know it's been eternity since any sort of activity happened in my little corner of the blogosphere. Nothing too exciting really. I'd been doing nothing but work, school, work and more school stuff. Snore... snore... snore... yeah, it's really boring but there are little pauses in between where I get to play a bit in the kitchen. Most of the things I came up with are barely edible but there are ones that are just pure bliss (or I think so anyway). Here's an example. This is a seafood chowder that I came up with one rainy and super windy weekend using items I fished out of my fridge and my cupboard as I was trying to tidy them up.

Chowhound's Chowder

1/2 lb shrimp, peeled
1 cup of roughly chopped smoked salmon
1 can of chopped clams, drained and rinsed (reserve and use juice)
4 slices of lean bacon, finely chopped
2 cups of Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed
5 cups of water or chicken stock
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen peas
1 small red pepper, chopped
2 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely diced
1/2 cup of finely chopped celery
1/2 cup of finely chopped green onions
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
1 cup heated half and half or whole milk
salt and pepper to taste
tabasco sauce to taste

Here's how to make it.

Render the fat from the bacon (even lean bacon has fat) and sautee the onion until caramelized. Add garlic, celery, carrots, red peppers, bay leaf and thyme and sauté for 5 minutes. Season with Old Bay seasoning,salt and pepper, then add water or chicken broth, clam juice and potatoes, cover and cook for 20 minutes. Add corn and peas and cook for 3 minutes. Add shrimp, clam, smoked salmon and half and half then cook for 5 minutes. Keep stirring to make sure the half and half blends well with the soup. Discard bay leaf and thyme. Readjust seasoning. Serve topped with green onions and a dash or two of tabasco and maybe a big slice of crusty bread.

Here's another picture just for the heck of it.

Hope you like it! Hello!!! are you still there?

Ma Po Tofu

2009-10-17T13:39:00.001-07:00

So it's been eternity since I wrote something in my blog. I'm feeling a little bit rusty but during my absence I was able to learn a thing or two which I'm just dying to share to anyone who can be bothered.

I don't know what most people feel about tofu but I'm kind of in between. When it's good, it's really good but when it's bad, it's really bad, like nasty. I'm not going to say that it's one of my most favourite things ever because it really isn't. Saying I like it is maybe the right way to put it. I grew up eating it. Tofu is widely used in Fillipino cuisine, but it's mostly deep-fried and dipped in a soy sauce and vinegar sort of dip or sauteed with veggies and meat. Nothing exciting really.

I love Chinese food not only because it tastes really good but also because it cooks really fast. It's convenient and yummy and when you're crazy busy, what more can you ask for right? One of our favourite things from the Chinese restaurant is ma po tofu. Ma po tofu's English translation does not really convey tasty images so I guess I'll skip that. It's a humble dish. It's basically just stewed tofu seasoned with black bean paste and loaded with chillies but it's real secret is the layering of heat. It gets different doses of heat from the chili oil cured black bean paste, chili powder, roasted chili paste and Szechuan pepper corn powder. With the amount of chillies your taste buds kind of goes into hyper taste overdrive, then comes the palate cleanser, the Szechuan pepper corn numbs your tongue so you get some sort of relief. Talk about S & M. I'll leave it at that.

Like most of the things I've tried making before, my first three attempts in making ma po tofu were total flops. The first one was a gloopy mess. The second one, I've used the ready made seasoning mix and it was beyond edible. The third, I ended up burning it so the chillies turned really nasty. I was super frustrated and pissed off beyond belief but I'm a real stubborn person so I have a hard time giving up. I scoured the internet and I found this instructional video from Epicurious.

I was slightly skeptical about this but hey, I've tried it my way three times already so I thought what the heck try it anyway. The result turned out fabulous!!! I swear, if you watched the video, I'm sure the amount of chillies will probably make you cringe but it actually turned out fabulous. If you're not used to super spicy food, you might want to experiment with quantities. Like everything else, I'm sure this recipe will leave you with enough flexibility so you can play around with it and find the most suitable level of heat. I'm sure this can also be turned into something completely vegetarian.

There's two parts to the video, I'll post it here so you won't have a hard time sorting through the stuff in youtube if you're ever interested in checking it out and cooking it yourself. I actually felt bad about canceling my subscription to Bon Appetit when I managed to get this to work for me.

Check it out.

Chicken Adventure Round 2

2009-09-14T21:56:00.001-07:00

My evening classes have officially started this week so now I'm forced to do a lot of meal planning and I'm also back to cooking our entire meal for the entire week during the weekends and stuffing them in the freezer for later use. I love to cook and I prefer to make our meals each night but when there's so much going on, I prefer something convenient which is not always the healthy choice so in order to avoid getting take-out or stopping at McDonald's I spend one afternoon cooking each weekend. I guess it also helps me save because then I don't have to buy my lunch. I guess cooking is my little me time. No, I don't have a life. I won't until the term is over anyway.

So this week, here's what I have in store. Again it's another chicken adventure.

For starters, we're off to Mexico with arroz con pollo. I didn't have a recipe, I was going by how I imagined arroz con pollo would have tasted like. I just sauteed some chicken pieces in crushed tinned tomatoes, garlic, onion, cumin, oregano, chili pepper flakes and seasoned it with a pocket of Sazon Goya. I then added a cup of long grain rice and 2 cups of chicken stock (I used home-made of course!). To make it look pretty and taste fresh, I also added some chopped cilantro. It takes about 30 minutes to make. We ended up eating this for dinner though because I was a little bit worried about freezing the rice.

Then after that, we're off to India. Nope, it's Vancouver actually. This is Vij's family chicken curry but as usual I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I don't feel like typing the recipe so I just made a link to Barbara Jo's Books to Cook's test kitchen blog which by the way is an excellent cookbook store if you're ever in Vancouver. It is a cookbook addict's paradise. Back to the recipe, I made short cuts here and there because I didn't have all of the ingredients listed in the cookbook but hey, the result wasn't too shabby.

Next, I tried to recreate Morocco. I've never been there but Mr. Cat has, the disappointing thing about it though is he does not remember what the food was like. I sauteed some chicken thighs in onion, garlic, harrissa, cumin, cinnamon, ginger powder, ras el hanout and a tablespoon of honey. I don't know what got into my head but I also added some fresh apricots. It sure smelled amazing. I'm sure looking forward to this.

This should have been a chicken adobo, so I sort of get to come home to the Philippines but I run out of vinegar so I ended up making Thai red curry instead. Thai red curry is one of those 30 minute things you can whip up when you're a little bit pressed for time, that is if you're using store bought paste.

If you want a step by step video on how to make the real thing, check out Hanuman's video. He is the Thai food master at Recipezaar.

Yes, we're eating a lot of chicken. Sometimes I wonder why we still don't have wings and feathers. If only the growth hormone will seep into my bones and make me grow taller.

Five-minute Bread

2009-09-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of five-minute bread? The mere idea of making bread not to mention fabulous looking artisanal bread in five minutes a day is just tempting beyond belief. Of course, I just have to try it so I decided to play and experiment with flour, water, salt and yeast just to see if I can make something decent in five minutes.

For my experiment, I used 18 ounces of whole wheat bread flour (that's about 3 3/4 cups) 12 1/2 liquid ounces of lukewarm water, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of active dry yeast. I foamed the yeast in 1/4 cup of the water and added a pinch of sugar then I put all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and just mixed everything together until it turned into some sort of a loose dough. I covered it with plastic wrap and left it in my kitchen counter for 20 hours. Yes, you got that right 20 hours. I used just a little bit of yeast so I figured the little buggers will need some time to do their job. As usual, Mr. Cat was a little bit freaked out about whatever kind of chemical reaction was happening in my dough so I snapped at him and told him he didn't have to eat it.

So the next day when I got out of bed the first thing I did was to check my dough and see what happened to it. I wasn't expecting much from it but it has more than doubled its size and it looked alive. Very exciting! I didn't punch it, somehow it just didn't feel right to take out my aggression into the poor innocent dough so I just gently pried it out of my mixing bowl and shaped it into a ball. I cut the ball in half and just shaped it into whatever form it wanted to take. One of them ended up looking like an amoeba. The other one looked like a ball. I cut some slits into the amoeba-shaped dough and baked it on a preheated pizza stone on the lower third of the oven at 450F. Just to make it a little bit more exciting, I put a baking pan filled with hot water underneath the pizza stone to give it some moisture.

Here's how it looked like.

The crust was nicely chewy. The crumb was surprisingly moist and light for a 100 % whole wheat bread.

The 20 hour rising/fermentation process allowed the flavour to fully mature and deepen. It has a mellow sour-dough like character to it which is heavenly with lightly salty butter and sweet Saskatoon berry jam. A generous dose of jam and butter always helps, of course.

For the ball-shaped dough, I baked it in a 450F oven in a covered and preheated cooking pot with no moisture for 20 minutes. It looked ghostly white and totally unappetizing so I removed the cover and baked it for another 30 minutes to give it some colour. Unfortunately, I probably over-cooked it because the crust ended up thick and crunchy.

The crumb wasn't bad though, don't you think?

It tasted just like the other one but the texture is so different. This is not so moist and more like white bread, it's fluffy and sadly, a little dry. Oh well, I guess I need to practice some more.

Fougasse

2009-09-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

I’m not really into S&M but for some reason I seem to enjoy torturing myself by daring to attempt playing with flour. I seem to get a real high from the rush of adrenaline that comes from my fear of making anything that is composed of flour, water, salt and yeast. I want to believe that I do have someone who bothers to check and actually read my blog once a week or once a month at least, so I’m going to assume that somebody actually noticed the absence of anything baked or made with flour. That is, if you won’t count the lonely foccaccia that I’ve made eons ago.

I was able to muster the courage to actually buy Richard Bertinet’s “Dough: Simple Contemporary Bread”, my first bread-baking book. Mr. Cat even threw in a new silver Kitchen Aid mixer which sadly is still in its pristine condition as you can see. Sorry Mr. Cat, I do love your present just so you know. Let’s just take one baby step at a time. We’ll get there.

Well, here I am right after one of my deviant feats. Richard Bertinet said that first time bakers should start with flat breads that way we will be spared from the disappointment and agony of seeing our very first loaf of bread collapse. I guess if that happened to me, I would never again attempt to bake anything. I’d just go to Fol Epi and buy bread there like I always do whenever I’m in the Dockside Green area.

In fact part of me is questioning my sanity for even bothering. With bakeries like Fol Epi, there has to be something wrong with you for wanting something more. Just look at that piece of sour dough. Don’t even talk about their baguettes. Well, maybe I’m slightly nuts so why the hell not. I’ve followed Richard Bertinet’s suggestion and started by making fouggase.

The foggase is basically the prettier and sexier cousin of foccacia. It’s a flat bread made with nothing but 18 ounces (3 ¾ cups) of all-purpose flour, 12 ½ ounces of water, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 ½ teaspoons of active dry yeast.

Basically you work the dough and let it rest for an hour then you cut it up into something pretty like this.

I’m a little bit freaked out about getting sued for infringement of copy right so if you want Richard Bertinet's step-by-step instructions of how to work the dough, just borrow his book from the library. The recipe for the dough is on page 33 and the instructions for making the fougasse are on pages 36 to 38. Here’s how my fougasse turned out.

It’s super pretty, don’t you think so? I don’t know if I did something wrong though but for some reason my fougasse seems a little bit lacking in flavour, it was kind of bland more like white bread. Hmn… I guess it is a white bread. Duh!!! The texture was great or I though so anyway. The crust looked pale but it made a crisp sharp satisfying crack when I took my first bite. And the structure of the crumb was like honeycomb, doughy (by that I mean substantial or doughy in a good way) but airy and light.

As for the blandness or whitebreadness (I don't know if that's even a word) slathering it generously with herb butter helped… I loved it!

Victory dance for Chowhound!!! Take that you silly bread!

Chicken Adventure from Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines

2009-09-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

How did this

become this

and finally ended up as this?

I went to the market to pick up some organic bison sausages but oh well, I came home with a 5-pound chicken instead. I guess instead of a bison sausage sandwich with caramelized onions and sautéed peppers like what I originally thought we'll have for dinner that night, my brain registered an image of a mouth watering Hainanese chicken.

Hainanese chicken is one of my most favourite Chinese chicken dishes in the whole wide world. I always ordered it in Chinese restaurants in Manila. The last time I had it was at Prima Taste on Robson Street in Vancouver and it was over a year ago. I remembered having unbearable cravings for it after that meal. I tried making it from a recipe from my cookbook called "Authentic Recipes from Singapore" but the recipe was too complicated for me I just read halfway through it and closed the book shut. I was really intimidated; I didn't even bother finishing it. If you've never had Hainanese chicken before, you have to try it. It's just poached chicken really but it is quite fascinating because the flavours are very subtle, it's barely there but it's definitely there sort of like a whiff of a very expensive perfume. The flavours are not invasive, abrasive or shockingly in your face but it's not flat that its plain boring. I prefer to call it elegant and refined. To be honest, it is kind of addictive.

So I went and picked up the book again from the forgotten section of my cookbook collection. I actually finished reading it but decided there's got to be a better and simpler way of doing things. Thank god for the internet and YouTube. I'm getting really lazy here so why don't you just check out Food Safari’s recipe and how to video right here or visit the Steamy Kitchen, one of my favourite Asian food blogs for a more stimulating read.

I wanted to follow the recipe so badly but Mr. Cat is a little bit freaked out about not having the actual heat turned on all the time so just to make sure he doesn't have a heart attack what I ended up doing is bring the broth to a real rolling boil then lower the heat to a slow simmer and keep repeating this every 10 to 15 minutes. I never turned the heat off. I even served it hot and not at room temperature like the way I always had them in restaurants and I don't know if that is an absolute no no but my chicken turned out to be really tender and juicy and the taste is just exactly as I remembered. And yes, I made the rice (it's a must have!!!) as well as the chili and ginger sauce too.

As you can imagine, 5 pounds of anything no matter how delicious can be a bit much so just to give us a little bit of variety, I decided to turn some of that tender and juicy chicken meat and the precious chicken broth into another one of our favourite street food; Pho Ga or Vietnamese Noodle Soup. If you want to make it from scratch, I suggest you go check out Wondering Chopstick and see how the real Vietnamese make their pho.

My broth already has most of the basic ingredients to make the pho ga so I just added some cloves, star anise, fish sauce and a piece of cinnamon stick and simmered the broth for 30 minutes before I fished them out and added my chicken pieces. It tasted really authentic (I've never been to Vietnam so what I'm really saying is it tasted just like most restaurants' pho) in fact, I think mine was even better because it didn't have MSG. See how gorgeous that is? I filled it up with scalding hot broth right after I took the two shots and slurped to my heart's content.

With my 5 pound chicken, I managed to have a bite of Singapore and a taste of Vietnam so I thought it's only right to finish my culinary adventure right back home. I've noticed I'd been making a lot of other Southeast Asian food but I very rarely make Filipino food. Sometimes I even feel embarrassed to call this a Filipino's food blog because there's hardly any Filipino recipes in here. So to even out the score, I thought I'd pay a little homage to one of my most favourite Filipino noodle dishes, chicken sotanghon guisado. While mine is a lazy version because of my ready made broth and the already cooked chicken plus I didn't have annatto seed oil, Connie Veneracion of Home Cooking Rocks' recipe is authentic so I thought if I'm going to post a recipe of it, it might as well be the real deal. Check out Connie's chicken sotanghon guisado.

Thai Noodle Salad

2009-08-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

A friend brought me some cucumbers and apples picked from her own organic garden. She did warn me that the apples were a little bit tart for eating. Well, that's good news to me. If you grew up in Southeast Asia, it is quite common for people to eat fruit like mango, jicama and watermelon sprinkled with salt or dipped in chili sauce or sauteed shrimp paste (bagoong). The result is a beautiful intermingling of the sweetness and tartness of the fruit and the savoury layers of the sauce or dip. Beautiful! Just beautiful. Some people may cringe, but my mouth is watering just with the thought of semi-ripe mango dipped in bagoong, sort of like Pavlov's dog. I cut up some of the apples and sprinkled them with Himalayan crystal salt. I was one happy camper. I should have really posted a picture of my salted apples in here but I was way too happy munching.

Then came the next day and it was lunch time. I was hungry and I guess when you're hungry you really do become a cook. Not necessarily a good one but at least you know, a cook. I opened the fridge and some of the apples greeted me. I could have just eaten them as they are but I was too hungry. I remembered how crisp they are from my salted apple binge the night before so I thought I'd better do something about them while they're very fresh. A salad would be able to take advantage of the apples' crisp texture and highlight their sweetness and sharp clean tartness. A salad is a texture thing, for me anyway. I had cucumbers too and some left over roasted chicken with pan juices from dinner. After a little scavenger hunt, I discovered that I didn't have lettuce but I had a cabbage in my fridge and a few other things from the pantry. I made a Thai-inspired warm chicken noodle salad. I don't know if this salad actually exists in Thailand, but you know they say imitation is the best form of flattery so if somebody from Thailand stumbles onto this, please forgive my poor attempt but I just adore your food. I did this to the Vietnamese too and their noodle salad. The flavour is quite similar but I made this out of Gordon Ramsay's rice noodle salad with prawns in Thai dressing that I made for myself before. I didn't get a chance to take a photo of it much less write about it because I devoured it right there and then. When you call yourself Chowhound, what more do you expect? Hey it's Gordon Ramsay's food, come on! It's not all my fault.

I've written down my recipe in case it comes handy again one of these days and in case a ravishingly hungry aspiring cook didn't know what to do and need a little bit of inspiration. These days you go to Google to look for answers in just about everything really so my ravishingly hungry aspiring cook might do just that trying to solve a very pressing situation, hunger.

Salad

250g of vermicelli noodles, boiled, rinsed in cold water and drained
2 tart apples like Granny Smith, thinly sliced (julienned)
1 small or 1/2 a large cucumber, thinly sliced (not super thinly sliced, it has to hold itself)
1 small bell pepper (any colour), thinly sliced (about the same size as the apples)
1 medium carrot, shaved
1/8 or 1/4 of a medium sized head of cabbage, very thinly sliced (use lettuce if you have it)
1 chicken breast (leftover roast would be great), shredded
1/4 cup of hot chicken stock
1 tbsp of toasted black sesame seeds
a handful of both Thai basil leaves and green onions for flavour and garnish (if you have cilantro, I'm sure it will be great with this too)
1 Thai chili, seeded and sliced for garnish (leave the seeds if you want it hot)

Dressing

2 tbsp of fish sauce
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
2 tbsp of brown sugar
juice of half a lime (more if you want)
1 tsp of lime zest (from half a lime)
2 small drops of dark sesame oil

First, I mixed the fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, lime juice, lime zest and sesame oil together in a bowl. Everything from here is really just tossing things together. I placed the vermicelli in a large mixing bowl then I tossed in all the veggies, apple slices and the herbs then added the shredded chicken and poured in the dressing. I tossed everything making sure every bit gets coated with the dressing and tasted it to make sure it had enough salt and peppery heat. Then I poured the hot chicken broth to warm it up and gave it one final toss before devouring it like the Tasmanian devil. Oh, no. I actually managed to take some photos this time before devouring it like Taz.

Cioppino

2009-08-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

I was watching Bobby Flay's Throw Down on Food Network last weekend and they featured cioppino challenging the owner of Phil's Fish Market in Monterrey, CA. I don't know about you but I have never had cioppino, not in the restaurant or somebody's home or much less my own home. Not until this anyway.

I've always wanted to make it, but I always seem to find an excuse not to do it partly because I am just plain grossed out by mushy fish. When I was a kid, the only ever way my Mom could make me eat fish is when it's fried or grilled. That fairly much stayed with me up to this very day. The other thing, well, it's pretty darn hard to find fresh fish in Vancouver Island. Yeah, a place surrounded by the ocean with several little cities in it claiming to be the salmon capital of the world. I have no idea why there is simply no good fish market in town. Anyway, I discovered that once I manage to overcome my fear of mushy fish, it was not very hard to make at all, thanks to Bobby Flay.

To begin with you'll need some good quality seafood. It's a soup made with the fishermen's catch of the day so I guess what's in it can vary depending on what's available. Here's how I made mine.

1 dungeness crab, boiled in salted water, (ideally I should remove the meat from the shell but I couldn't be bothered so I just cracked the claws and sliced it in half)
1/2 lb of wild sockeye salmon, sliced in bite-sized chunks
1/2 lb of prawns, peeled and deveined
1 can of peeled Roma tomatoes, crushed (keep the juice, you'll need it for the soup)
1 cup of clam juice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 small red or yellow pepper, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 small onion, finely diced
1 bouquet garni (2 sprigs of thyme, 1 small sprig of rosemary, a handful of basil, 1 sprig of Italian parsley and 1 bayleaf tied together with a kitchen string)
oil for sauteing
salt and pepper to taste
grated parmesan to taste (1 tbsp per serving)
1 tsp of chili pepper flakes
1 tsp of anchovy paste

First I made the tomatoey soup base. I sauteed the onion, pepper and garlic in oil for about 5 minutes then added the anchovy paste and the tomato paste and cooked it for another 3 or 4 minutes and deglazed the pan with about 1/4 cup of the wine. I added the crushed canned tomatoes with the juice and the clam juice then tossed in the bouquet garni. I seasoned it with salt, chili pepper flakes and freshly cracked pepper and cooked it for about 30 or so minutes until all the flavours are well blended and tasted just like a tasty tomato soup. Keep it hot.

Then just like Bobby Flay did, I pan fried the salmon until just opaque in a little bit of olive oil, added the crab to warm it up and the prawn and cooked it till light pink. Here I stopped copying Bobby Flay, so I deglazed the pan with the remaining 1/4 cup of white wine and reduced it scrapping the bottom for flavourful browned bits. Then I copied Bobby Flay again and poured in half of the soup and let it boil slightly. I stirred it a couple of times to make sure the fish won't fall apart. Just before serving, I topped the bowl with extra tomato soup and then topped it with grated parmesan. Bobby Flay didn't add grated parmesan, it was my idea.

Not bad, thank goodness the fish didn't turn mushy. Maybe it's just the added oil but pan frying gives it more flavour actually. The deglazing the pan fried browned bits was maybe a bad idea because the soup tasted a bit winey because the wine didn't cook enough. Next time I'll just put it on the tomato soup base. I'm sure this will come in handy during the winter months.

Pinakbet

2009-08-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was in Chinatown looking for a clay pot so I can make one of my absolute favourites, Cantonese claypot rice. I wasn't able to find a small one so I ended up without it. It just has to be the right size.

I love shopping in Chinatown. This is a piece of trivia, Victoria's Chinatown is said to be the oldest in Canada. Although it is relatively small and does not even compare to the size of most of the bigger Canadian cities' Chinatowns, it carries a variety of produce supplying Vancouver Island's many ethic restaurants with often hard to find authentic ingredients. It doesn't only carry ethic vegetables and other exotic ingredients, it also offers the sort of vegetables that are common to the Western kitchen and perhaps the best thing about it is the quality is sometimes better than many standard grocery stores.

So instead of a clay pot, I ended up with a couple of lap cheung (Chinese sausage), a kabocha squash, an Asian egg plant, a bag of gai lan, choi sum, baby bok choi, Thai basil and holy basil, kafir lime leaves, Thai chillies, and the more common and not so exotic french beans and snap peas. In most cases, I often get overly enthusiastic when I see all the lovely produce and the endless dishes I can make out of them. I make a list but I just ignore it. It's like being in a toy store or ok, cookbook store in my case since I'm a cookbook addict or something like that so then I buy them and when I get home, I don't know exactly what to do with them. All of my wonderful ideas just disappear, puff, gone and poor me is left trying to figure out what to do with all this damn vegetables.

As I was surveying my loot, I noticed I have most of the ingredients to make pinakbet.

Pinakbet is a very popular Filipino vegetable dish. I'm not sure exactly which region it is from but chances are you'll find it in most Filipino family's dinner repertoire. As I said, it is a regional dish so there are many variations. For example, up north in the Ilocano speaking region, pinakbet is made with a variety of local vegetables such as katuray flowers (sesbania grandiflora), fresh lima beans, young ginger and baby onions, a small and very bitter tasting bitter melon, round eggplant similar to the Thai variety and maybe kabocha squash and some slices of bagnet which is very yummy crisp pork belly. All of these veggies are then braised in bagoong monamon.

If you were curious enough to actually click the link, I'm sure by now you know what bagoong monamon is. Bagoong is the Filipino generic term for anything fermented. Yeah yeah, bagoong or fermented anything really is definitely an acquired taste, yes I get it so don't barf. The people in the Mediterranean uses anchovies, heck, the English and the Australians even spread marmite on their toasts. Yeah, marmite... as in fermented yeast extract. (Disclaimer: If somebody from the UK or Australia stumbles on this post, please forgive me. It was not my intention to bash your marmite.) To us Southeast Asian people, bagoong, terasi, teuk trei and all the that other stinky stuff adds a certain je na sais quoi to a lot of our dishes. It's one of the most common ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking.

Now going back to the pinakbet, our version is different. The Tagalog pinakbet contains a mixture of string beans, kabocha squash and flowers, the more common long Asian eggplant, bitter melon and okra. Then add fatty slices of pork. The fat is rendered from the pork for sauteing. Then the veggies are sauteed in chopped chillies, ginger, onion, garlic and tomatoes and braised in bagoong alamang and a little bit of water and finished with some crushed pork chicharron. I didn't have chicharron and I have no idea where I can get the fatty slices of pork used in making bacon so I used pork tenderloin slices instead.

Mr. Cat was very polite. I had to call him 5 times before I managed to peel him away from his sudden but very keen interest on whatever it was that he was watching on Youtube and get him to sit down and eat. Oh well, he was never fond of eggplant, he hates eggplant and as I said, bagoong is an acquired taste and he has not acquired the taste yet so I'll give him a little break. To me, it tasted just about close to what I remembered it to be.

Perhaps if I make him that clay pot rice then maybe I won't have to call him 5 times.

Move Over Chinese Take-out

2009-08-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a carbon steel wok. After more than 3 torturous hours of bonding in front of the stove trying my very best to season it as best I could using an electric stove, me and my wok are now true BFF's. After a few successful attempts at stir-frying and noticing how completely and effortlessly non-stick my wok has become without guzzling a lot of oil, I am absolutely smitten with it. It just gets better the more I use it. I am just completely head over heels in love with my wok.

Our very first creation, stir-fried mixed vegetables.

I used a mixture of gailan, shredded cabbage, carrots, zucchini, peppers, bean sprouts and beans. That's about 5 cups of vegetables which I stir-fried in high heat in about a tablespoon of canola oil. The sauce is very simple, it contains a mixture of:

a knob of ginger, peeled and grated
1 clove of garlic, peeled and grated
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp of fish sauce
1 drop of dark sesame oil
a pinch of sugar
2 tbsp of water
a pinch of cornstarch

I premixed all of the sauce's ingredients in a bowl and added it at the very end. I guess the thing about this is trying to be organized enough to remember to prep everything so you just throw everything together. Another thing is cutting the veggies at about the same size to ensure that they cook evenly. I always add the bean sprouts at the end because I like mine crunchy. Everything is cooked in high heat so it takes less than 5 minutes, 7 at most. And because my wok is small, I had to make it in two batches.

But look at it, isn't this a good introduction?

Then we made this.

If my wok can make this chow mein without turning into a yucky sticky mush. Chow mein is one of my favourite noodle dishes ever and sadly it is also one of my biggest flop in the kitchen. Way back, like wayyyy before I had my wok, every time I made chow mein, the noodles stuck to the bottom of the pan, they broke and the vegetables turned soggy and became completely unrecognizable. See how crisp looking those veggies are?

This is perhaps the simplest and easiest noodle dishes around. Mine is very basic.

1 bell pepper cut into strips
1 small bunch of green beans, cut in half
1 carrot cut into strips
1 zucchini cut into strips
1 clove of garlic, finely minced
1/2 an onion, sliced (the picture doesn't have onion because I hate onion so I picked mine off of my plate)
150 of boiled and drained chow mein noodles
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp of dark sesame oil
1/2 tbsp of oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp of soy sauce
3 tbsp of water
1 cup of prawns or some sort of protein
freshly cracked pepper to taste

I premixed the sauce so I mixed the water, soy sauce and oyster sauce in a small bowl. Then I blanched the vegetables in salted boiling water for 3 minutes and shocked it in cold running water and drained it well. I stir fried the onion and garlic in the canola oil. I added the prawn and cooked it until pink then I added the blanched veggies and half of the sauce then stir fried it for about 3 minutes in high heat then set it aside. I swirled the sesame oil in the wok then tossed the boiled and drained chow mein noodles for 5 minutes until lightly fried, seasoned it with pepper then added the remaining half of the sauce and tossed it until well coated and then I added the veggies and prawns. Voila, done.

Because I was feeling really bold, I thought I should try another noodle dish (had to use that left over noodles you know). This time I really went big and bold. I made Singapore noodles, or maybe I tried to make it at least.

My version wasn't as fabulous as J and J Wonton Noodle House's Singapore noodles but it wasn't bad either. It tasted home made... in a good way.

Again there's lots of veggies and protein of course. Mine had prawns, chicken (leftover I'm afraid) and tofu (I pressed it myself :-). Then I just made up the sauce. I used Madras curry powder, kecap manis, chilli powder, oyster sauce and fish sauce and there's the usual suspects, garlic and green onions. Not bad for a second rate copy cat I guess.

Well, looks like we won't be visiting J and J Wonton Noodle House or Sun Wah for a while. Hopefully we will be sorely missed. Maybe we'll stop by for the ma po tofu now and then.

Vancouver Adventure

2009-08-17T22:15:00.000-07:00

When we went to Vancouver, we finally managed to have dinner at Vij's. Yeah, that Indian restaurant that converts practically every person that ever visited the place into a total fanatic. I didn't get a chance to take a photo of the samosas, lamb popsicles and the grilled pork ribs we had that evening because I was a completely disorganized schmuck and I forgot to bring batteries for my camera but I must say the food was simply divine. It would be very hard for me to eat at any other Indian restaurant after Vij's. Yeah, short and sweet, just like that. I hope they give discounts or free dinners to suck ups like me, lol!

Just as exactly as we were told, the line up does get really long, like long but people do not seem to mind at all which is super unusual for most people, myself included. We got there at about 5:15. I know, who eats dinner at 5:15 right? But there was a long line up already for the 6:00 p.m. opening so we waited for 45 minutes. They don't take reservations by the way. Fortunately, there was just the two of us so we were able to get one of the table for twos.

We don't normally venture out of downtown Vancouver so I was absolutely clueless about the distances and the logistics of things outside the shopping district. We got there at around 11:00 a.m. so by time we were able to check in and freshen up, half the day was gone and so I was kind of frantic to get started on my true agenda. Obviously, I didn't just drag Mr. Cat there to see Vermeer and Rembrandt, of course not. I was there to shop till I drop, preferably of course but fortunately I was feeling sensible this time so I didn't do that. I must say I was able to successfully not as in NOT max out my credit card limit so the credit card companies don't own my soul... yet.

We started out on Granville Island Public Market. I don't have a photo of the market itself but I have a gazzillion photos of all sorts of stuff from there. It is one of my absolute favourite stops in Vancouver. It is I guess my only destination when I venture out of the downtown area.

Just look at all the amazing variety of fruit.

And these gorgeous flowers.

Then the variety of fish for all imaginable fish recipes.

And this gorgeous meat and charcuterie.

Then there's the bread and desserts.

This fabulous array of ready made soups, stocks, broths and marinades.

And of course, my most favourite shop of all time, the South China Seas Trading Company with all of their wide selection of exotic herbs, marinades, spices and cookbooks from all over the world.

From the Granville Island Public Market, we headed out to 1740 West 2nd Avenue to go to Barbara-Jo's Books to Cooks. To a cookbook addict like me, this is cookbook heaven! When I walked in, I didn't know which section to check out first. It was amazing!

From Barbara-Jo's Books to Cooks, we headed out to Ming Wo Cookware on 2170 4th Avenue West to pick up my carbon steel wok. I am Asian through and through and though I've lived without it for 3 years, there's no way in hell that I will be able to live without a proper wok. I just have to have one and I don't care if I have to walk miles to get it, I just have to have one. Or so I thought until I was actually seasoning it myself and had to stand in front of the stove for 3 hours, yeah, as in 3 freaking hours seasoning my bloody wok. Mind you, I haven't done any proper stir frying on it yet, so it might just actually be worth it.

Then from there, we walked all the way to Vij's on 1480 West 11th Avenue only to find out that about a block before Vij's right on Granville Street there is a Ming Wo Cookware shop. I was so pissed off! Like we walked about 20 minutes from the Ming Wo branch on 2170 4th Ave lugging these guys all the way plus a bloody wok, duh! Mind you I only bought 3 cookbooks at Barbara Jo's (Bouchon, Mayan Cuisine and The Filipino-American Kitchen) but still, they were super heavy.

Anyway, we made it to the line up for a table at Vij's. I was roasting and sweating like a little piggy, I bet I also smelled like one. Gross! After all of that, the dinner at Vij's accompanied by a couple glasses of Perrin et Fils Côtes du Rhône Villages was just the perfect ending for that lovely but super hectic day. And by the way, there was still a long line up by the time we left the restaurant.

A Little Dose of Culture for Chowhound the Barbarian

2009-08-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

We went to Vancouver to see the Vancouver Art Gallery's "Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art: Marsterpieces from the Rijks Museum" exhibit. Wow, that was a mouthful. I am not sure exactly how many pieces they had on exhibit but they had a fairly good selection of mostly oil on canvas paintings then they also have some silverware, glass and china from the 17th century. I guess the billing of Vermeer and Rembrandt together is a little bit misleading because they only had one of Vermeer's work and 5 of Rembrandt's. Mind you, there are only 31 pieces of Vermeer's paintings in the entire world. When you look at "The Love Letter" and see how completely captivating and perversely intriguing it is, I guess it is definitely worth it. Maybe perverse is too strong a word but the illusion of perception and depth in the painting created the feeling of watching and spying on the two characters. The Love Letter is a painting of some rich biatch receiving a seemingly elicit or okay highly anticipated letter. I prefer the word elicit though because of the hush hush super secret yet totally thrilled expression on the two women's faces especially on the rich woman's face. It's a small piece but the detail is amazingly well done because you can see the emotions on the character's teeny tiny faces.

Then of course there were the 5 Rembrandts, well, four actually because one of them is a just a pencil sketch. Not that a pencil sketch isn't interesting but come on! I want the real stuff! Rembrandt did a lot of portraits and his work has some sort of a dark, sombre and kind of eerie feeling almost. One of my favourites would be The Young Monk; it is said to his son Titus. I don't know what it is about that painting, it's not creepy or anything, but more like dark in a mystical way. Then there was "The Beheading of John the Baptist", argh!!!! super super super creepy. The title of course tells you exactly what it is but the expression on the ashen coloured face of the decapitated head of "John the Baptist" will totally give you goose bumps and so will the anguished face of the person holding the head. Huh! Super creepy! But I loved it.

Mr. Cat kind of dragged me away because I kept going back and forth, back and forth to some of the pieces that I found completely intriguing like the opportunistic cat in Nicolaes Maes "Old Woman Praying". I totally love that cat because as the old woman prays for god to make things happen, the cat is actually making things happen right that very instant, trying to have a go at the old woman's salmon. Anyway, we ended up in an Emily Carr/Jack Shadbolt exhibit on the second floor. The exhibit is like an Emily Carr/ Jack Shadbolt death match. I'm soooo soooo sorry for saying this but I think Emily Carr is completely overrated. What's up with the depressing green? I can understand that her favourite subject is the forest and well of course tree but come on, there's has to be other subjects in the entire universe other than trees and totem poles with their creepy faces. And the green thing? Seriously, there has to be a way to mix paint and make a happy kind of green. I don't get it why Jack Shadbolt was kind of an obsessed and possessed prisoner of Emily Carr's tradition. He seemed so violently insecure about her work. If you look at his stuff really closely, you might think that some of them are actually hers. Then as he gets, I don't know older or maybe his artistic sensibilities mature, his work progresses into a really nutty divorce from her tradition. You can just tell how he struggled so hard to exorcise himself of Emily Carr's influences. Jack Shadbolt tortured himself for nothing I guess, because Emily Carr's work is just plain dowdy, predictable and super boring while he has depth and versatility. Artists I guess can be really insecure and just be completely nuts.

Gyudon

2009-08-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

Damn right, you got it Yoshinoya. Watch your back because (victory dance!) I've just made gyudon and I think you're in serious trouble. No, I have not gone completely bonkers. I'm just over the top happy that after 3 years and I don't know exactly how many failed experiments, I have finally successfully managed to make a pretty darn good bowl of gyudon that is super close to Yoshinoya's gyudon bowl. Thanks to Francis, the adorable miniature poodle host of Youtube's Cooking with the Dog.

Back in Manila, Yoshinoya's gyudon bowl was our definition of soul satisfying food. My hubby and I frequently ate at Yoshinoya SM North that the crew have eventually gotten to know us. I don't know what was going on in their minds at that time. They probably thought that we were slightly nuts because we always ordered the same thing, the large gyudon bowl with a bowl of miso soup and sweet green tea. Sweet green tea, yuck! Yeah I know, it's not even tea, it's just sugared water with sliced limes and green, as in neon green food colouring, so yeah, yuck!. I haven't touched that stuff for 3 years now, so now I know better. But the gyudon bowl, oh!!! Sadly there is no Yoshinoya in Canada (not that I know of anyway).

Gyudon is a simple Japanese beef stew made from very thinly sliced beef perfectly cooked in a dashi based broth and seasoned with ginger, soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar. It does not have any vegetable other than onion. These are real simple ingredients that are very easy to find but the trickiest and perhaps the most frustrating thing about it is getting all of these simple elements to marry and create a perfectly balanced harmony of flavours. These perfect balance is what I could never ever seem to closely achieve...until now. Again thanks to Francis.

I followed most of Francis' recipe and cooking instruction except that I made my own dashi stock which is essentially the dried kelp (kombu) and bonito flakes boiled in water. I didn't serve my gyudon bowl with a soft boiled egg or the green onions though. Yoshinoya does not serve its gyudon with green onion and soft boiled egg. I wanted mine to be as close to Yoshinoya's as much as possible. Like I said, achieving that perfect balance was critical. It was kind of scary, in a way it was like I was doing a chemistry experiment. I didn't measure anything but I added my seasoning in small increments, bit by bit, tasting as I go along to make sure I couldn't mess it up at the same time making sure that if I did mess it up, it would be fixable.

Thank goodness I didn't mess it up. Well, not completely anyway. The beef was a little too lean, there's something to be said about a having a little fat. But it was really close as in really close to Yoshinoya's very own gyudon.

Salmon Kedgeree

2009-08-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

While I was looking at the Health and Lifestyle section of Yahoo! I recently discovered a vintage Anglo-Indian rice and fish curried recipe called kedgeree. The Scottish claim kedgeree to be one of their traditional recipe... hmn... curry powder in a Scottish recipe, seriously? The story goes that way back during the British Raj, it was a Scottish regiment serving in India that kind of played with the idea of smoked fish and curry powder together. Apparently it was a very popular breakfast item for the English in India. I'm not sure if it ever went out of fashion but I think it is back again. Even the great Gordon Ramsay himself has a very posh version of it in one of his cookbooks called Cooking for Friends. I've never made kedgeree before and hey, if Gordon Ramsay likes it enough to put in in his cookbook, I'm sure it must be pretty damn good. Here's the video if anyone is interested.

I did not completely follow Gordon Ramsay's recipe. Instead I just used whatever ingredients are available in my pantry. We had this for dinner, frankly I can eat it anytime of the day. I haven't said it yet, but we loved it, oh yeah, it was pretty damn good.

1 cup of basmati rice
3 cups of chicken stock
1 tsp of turmeric powder
2 tsp of mild curry powder
1 stalk of lemon grass, bruised
1 small bunch of thyme
a handful of chopped cilantro and dill
2 slices of wild salmon (about 250g)
2 eggs, hard boiled
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 small knob of unsalted butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced

First I simmered the stock and added the thyme, turmeric, lemon grass stalk, salt and pepper until really hot but not boiling then I poached the salmon in it for about 7 minutes until nicely cooked then I put them aside for a bit and reserved the stock.

Then I made the pilaf. First I sauteed the shallots and garlic in the olive oil, added the curry powder and the rice and poured the stock including the thyme and lemon grass. I cooked it for about 15 to 20 minutes until the rice is fully cooked. Then I fluffed the rice and added the knob of butter and adjusted the salt and pepper. Next I flaked the salmon into bite sized chunks, sprinkled it with the chopped cilantro and dill and lightly stirred it into the rice pilaf. To finish it off, I topped each serving with a peeled and sliced hard boiled egg.

It was super easy, I would definitely make this again. Maybe next time I'll try it with smoked salmon.

Tofino

2009-08-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

This is the sort of view that will greet you when you visit Tofino.

Tofino is like the more affluent yet older sister of Ucluelet. It is larger, more established, has more amenities, and has better (?) accommodations so it is a little bit more suitable for travelers who may want to hang on to some of their creature comforts. If Ucluelet is vibrantly young and ruggedly beautiful, Tofino's beauty is more of the polished and refined sort that comes with age.

A small colony of house boats right across the marina.

Talk about recycling... rather than scrapping this old fishing boat, it ended up into a charming little house on this little island.

The Marina.

An old character home transformed into an artisanal bakery and cafe.

And perhaps Tofino's most prized jewel... SoBo (short for Sophisticated Bohemian) a restaurant that makes the best key lime pie, corn bread and smoked salmon chowder on Earth!

A little slice of heaven... what I wouldn't give for a bite of that right now.

My picture does not do it justice but this is perhaps the best chowder on Earth.

Roughing it up in Ucluelet

2009-08-01T12:31:00.001-07:00

When people go to the Pacific Rim National Park, they either stay in Tofino or Ucluelet. These towns are located on both ends of the national park, a left turn will take you to Ucluelet and a right turn will take you to Tofino. Tofino is the more popular of the two, it is more developed in terms of facilities and infrastructure for tourism and it also has the most number of residents. Sorry if I sound like I'm painting Ucluelet as a second best but no I'm not, I promise I'll make it up later.

Ucluelet is more where the overflow tourists of Tofino sleep. Maybe it's a place for people like me with less cash to burn or ok, let's say where people that are more adventurous in their taste for accommodation stay. I guess when you go there, you're not really going to stay in your hotel and sleep most of the time anyway. That means younger, adventurous indie types. It's where the hardcore surfers stay because it's a stone's throw away to where the real serious surfing is. Both sides of it plunge straight into the Pacific Ocean so I'm sure there's great kayaking whichever side you choose to go. And because both sides head straight into the water, I'm sure it wouldn't disappoint either if you're after monster waves crashing during the winter storms. I've never done whale watching yet, but I'm sure being where it's at, it must be a whale watcher's paradise as well. Now that's more like it, hey? My photo is kind of lame but just imagine this during the winter months with gigantic waves crashing.

We used Ucluelet as our base and rented a cottage at Reef Point Cottages. I would say it's like luxury camping, if there is such a thing. Our cabin was nice, really clean, it has a little kitchen and grill (yey!), full of Ikea stuff, but hey, I love Ikea and who's complaining especially for such a great price, and let's not forget it's camping right? So basically it's like having your own cozy little spot in the woods.

We made most of our dinners, like this strawberry and basil crostini.

It's basically chopped strawberries lightly macerated in balsamic vinegar, a pinch of brown sugar, salt and pepper and some chopped basil.

.... and this Tuscan grilled pork tenderloin marinated in balsamic vinegar, honey, rosemary and pepper flakes served with buttered corn on the cob and grilled peaches that were like peach chutney.

..... of course I'm a Pinay so I have to have my rice.

Then what else do you do when you have a have a grill? But of course.

I seasoned the steaks with crushed rock salt and black pepper then grilled it with the rosemary on both sides for more flavour.

Then I grilled more corn and some veggies to go with the steaks and tossed the veggies in this herb and olive oil bath.

Surely you have to have some booze with red meat...

Naturally when you're in a place surrounded by the ocean, you have to have fish. Sadly though, we didn't find a single good chunk of fish both in either Tofino or Ucluelet. It was really disappointing because we were hoping for a big hunk of salmon or halibut or something but nothing, the stores only have frozen stuff that time so tough luck for us I guess. We came at the wrong time, both were off season already. Thankfully there are other alternatives. We found a 3 lb. crab at Fishful Thinking, a real cool fish shack in Ucluelet.

This feisty little monster... was cooked in a light green coconut curry, Thai mussels marinieres-style.

He turned into our yummy dinner on the last night of our trip up island... and yes, I always have to have rice wherever I go, okay, maybe a little bit of booze too. When you're on a holiday, a little drop of booze doesn't hurt as long as you're not the one driving. If anything, it makes the meals a little more special.

Pacific Rim National Park

2009-07-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

On the last week of June, Mr. Cat and I took a little trip to the Pacific Rim National Park. It is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island and opens right into the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean. It is famous for a lot of things but particularly for its rugged coastline, beautiful and wild hiking trails, wild life, wide sandy beaches, surfing, gigantic waves crashing during the stormy winter months and perhaps most of all, for the West Coast Trail.

The West Coast Trail is about 75 km or about a week of grueling hike into the wilderness of Vancouver Island. It opens in May and is accessible until pretty much the entire September.

According to my handy dandy tour guide, Mr. Cat, this trail was created to rescue the totally unfortunate shipwrecked sailors. Really totally unfortunate because if they were lucky to survive the freezing waters of the Canadian Pacific, I'm sure they wouldn't think that after they find out that they have to do a 75km hike to get help, not to mention that they are also very likely to run into a cougar or a bear or worse, both. It's not like this is an easy 75 km hike, the terrain varies so you can be hiking a nice cleared trail and the next you're wading into glacial water or something. In fact, if you look at the trail's website, they tell you upfront that this is not a practice or training hike and that you have to be in tip top shape to be able to do it plus you have to be prepared to take some risks so you better have some sort of insurance if you have some dependents. It's for pros and the real outdoor adrenaline junkies and I'm neither so I've already accepted the fact that I'm never going to be able to do that. I'm completely okay with that.

Anyway, the Pacific Rim National Park is really truly beautiful. I've taken oodles of photos but there's only so much of that beautiful stuff that the camera lens can capture. Here are some of the photos I've taken during our day trips and little hikes.

Emerald green forest.

A post card perfect charming little village.

A little burst of romantic expression.

And... oppss... a little blooper!

Vancouver Island Picnic Spots & Hide Aways

2009-07-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

I can't afford to go away for a holiday in a super exotic and fabulously sunny destination but fortunately we really don't have to go very far to find something just like that. All we have to do is take a little drive and build a picnic basket picking up stuff from the farmer's markets and delis along the way.

Cameron Lake, my favourite picnic spot.

The water is crystal clear, but can be as cold as hell, but hey, you don't have to go swimming. It's nice enough just to look at it.

I think this view of the old train tracks right beside the lake is worth a million bucks.

About 10 or perhaps 20 minutes or so away is Cathedral Grove or MacMillan Provincial Park, an old growth forest where you'll find gigantic trees that are at least 500 or so years old.

This is sad because it's the root base of a 700 year old tree, but this will give you an idea of how big this beastie was when it was still standing.

I swear I'm not a tree hugger but this is the story of how this poor tree died.

Englishman Falls... hmn... funny name but isn't this gorgeous? I've forgotten exactly where this is but this is one of my favourite places on the Island. It's a nice little hike too.

Come fall, Goldstream National Park is a great place to go for a walk. If you're not totally squeamish, the river gets clogged with spawning salmon around November. They look horrifically ugly and yet you'd be amazed at the salmon's determination to actually find exactly the same spot where they were born.

Sweet Summer

2009-07-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

I'd been absent for quite a while, in fact I feel like my blogging skills are a little rusty and I guess I will have to relearn how to tweak things, move it here, move it there and all that stuff to make my postings look better than they actually are. Like everybody in this part of the globe, I'm taking a sweet and well-deserved summer break. I've already taken a couple of little trips here and there and I'm taking another one next week. I can't afford to get out of the country so I'd been doing a little staycation, trying to pretend (in a good way) that I'm helping local tourism by being a tourist in our community.

The weather is just fabulous, sometimes it's too painful to be stuck indoors. Thankfully, the days are a little longer than in most parts of the year so a little trip here and there helps cut the boredom of routine work life. Here are some of the photos from some of my little walks around the neighbourhood.

Cherry Blossoms in the Spring (I know this post should be about summer, but whatever, these flowers are pretty).

Some lovely wildflowers on roadsides and trails. I love these little wild daises, really ordinary but if you pay more attention and really look at them closely, they are quite stunning. I'm not sure who said it but they kind of remind me of the saying "Simplicity is elegance".

I guess these tough little beauties can teach us a thing or two about perseverance.

I must have a thing about purple, I didn't even know that.

Seriously, people should get over their love-hate relationship against these cheerful dandelions. Ever seen a field full of dandelions? Does it not remind you of a scene from Anne of Green Gables?

The now abandoned Anne Hathaway Conference Centre tucked in an obscure yet charming corner of Esquimalt. I think they used it to shoot the movie Ella Enchanted. Anyway, I took the photo because of the rosemary in bloom. Think lamb chops, rosemary and feta foccaccia, grilled sword fish with rosemary and lemon vinaigrette... oh la la!

And these guys are flowers from an apple or plum tree somewhere right beside the trail to Witty's Lagoon in Metchosin. There are lots of these trees in that area, they must have been planted there by early settlers or perhaps by former residents before it became a park.

Pork Loin w/ Roasted Butternut Squash and Grapes

2009-06-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

I made roast pork tenderloin with roasted butternut squash and grapes for dinner last night. The flavours are quite simple. I didn't do anything special to any of them at all. I basically threw everything together in one roasting pan. The pork tenderloin was marinated in extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, crushed garlic and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. I browned it in a tablespoon of olive oil and a little bit of butter before roasting in 400F for 20 minutes. For the butternut squash, I sliced it in quarters then brushed the surfaces with some of the oil I used to brown the tenderloin then rubbed the slices with brown sugar, salt, cayenne pepper and cinnamon before roasting. Then the most surprising discovery of the evening, roasted grapes. I didn't do anything to them at all. I basically just washed them and threw them in the same roasting pan with the tenderloin and the butternut squash not knowing whether they would come out edible or turn into a sloppy mush.

I've never had roasted grapes in my life and they sure are tasty. I don't know where I got the weird idea of roasting my grapes but I'm glad I played with it because I discovered another side dish that is really quite interesting. Roasting intensifies the sweetness of the grapes, it mellows the sour taste and tempers the tannins I guess. They were not mushy at all, they retained their texture and I was quite happy about it.

I thought the pork tenderloin was going to be dry because there was no pan juices but they turned out really most and juicy. That was a bonus. I placed the pork slices on top of a few swirls of good olive oil and some nice balsamic vinegar. Not sure what was the logic in the wine pairing but we washed it down with a mild Spanish tempranillo. It was a great combo, the flavours didn't clash, hell, they probably even complimented each other. Not bad for a lazy evening Friday supper.

Pork Loin w/ Blueberry Sauce & Sauteed Fiddlehead

2009-05-31T22:10:00.000-07:00

We were at the market today and I was very pleased to get my hands into these rare Canadian delicacy. For Canadian foodies, fiddlehead ferns are perhaps one of the best treats in the Spring. I've seen several chefs on Food Network use them as their main ingredient or theme but I've never had them until today. I've heard they are quite finicky to deal with but they are apparently very tasty. The rumours are quite true, they are definitely tasty and yes, they definitely require quite a bit of work but they're definitely worth it.

First they need to be washed several times then boiled once or twice to remove the toxins they've absorbed until the boiling water is quite clear and they are tender. After that you can pretty much do whatever you want with them. I just sauteed mine in herb butter and some good olive oil and seasoned them with salt and pepper.

I paired them with pan seared pork loin in blueberry sauce and boiled baby potatoes. I just boiled the baby potatoes in salted water and added a handful of mint leaves for extra flavour. The pork loin and the sauce were easy to make. I just seasoned the pork with salt and pepper and browned it on both sides in a mixture of olive oil and butter then finished it in the oven for about 15 minutes on 425F. Then I made the blueberry sauce. It basically has about 6 main ingredients: port, currant jelly, frozen blueberries and chicken stock plus some salt and pepper, onion and garlic then a sprig of fresh thyme for seasoning. I sauteed the onion, thyme and garlic in a little bit of oil, then deglazed the pan with 1/2 a cup of port and reduced it in half, then I added 2 tbsp of currant jelly, added the blueberries and cooked them for 5 minutes before adding a cup of chicken stock. I just reduced the liquid to about half and strained it then seasoned it with salt and pepper to finish.

It was a great meal to end May.

Skate Wing in Coconut Curry Sauce

2009-05-24T13:29:00.000-07:00

I've heard of Vij's from a lot of people and they all have the same reaction, awe and food worship. Vij's is an Indian restaurant in Vancouver that specializes in what else, Indian food but here's the twist, they use seasonal local produce to make it accessible and at the same time familiar to its largely Caucasian clientele. I have never been, but I will make sure I actually do get the chance to eat there. They are notorious for the long line ups (like 2 hours or something) because the restaurant does not take reservations but it's apparently worth the wait and people don't seem to care, they just want to have the food. A couple of my friends attended a conference and they managed to get a seat and they rave and rave and rave about the food. They actually ended up coming home with the cookbook.

I've seen the book in a couple of local bookstores, I just never had the guts to buy it. I love Indian food but I'm normally intimidated by the myriad of spices that they use. Not Vij's. Vikram Vij is probably going to hate me for this, but I copied a couple of recipes from my friend's cookbook and tried the Pacific Halibut recipe. I didn't use halibut, I used skate wing. In fact, I didn't follow the exact recipe. I skipped the treatment for the fish and pan fried it in butter instead. What I did though was follow the curry sauce recipe to the letter (uhm... not exactly, you see I didn't have the fresh curry leaves so I used dried instead, hehehe). It was amazing. Yup, it was really good.

Fish:

4 portions of skate wing

salt, pepper & pepper flakes to taste

Coconut Curry Sauce:

1/4 cup of canola oil

20 curry leaves

3 tbsp chopped garlic

1 cup pureed onion

1 lb tomatoes, finely chopped

1 tbsp each of ground cumin and coriander

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

6 whole cloves

3 cups of water

1 cup coconut milk, stirred

Sautee curry leaves, garlic, and onion in the oil for about 10 minutes until lightly browned. Add tomatoes, cumin, coriander, salt, cayenne and cloves. Continue cooking for 8 minutes until the water from the tomatoes has evaporated and the oil glistens on top. Add water and coconut milk, Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Strain and portion the liquid to 4 heated serving bowls.

Season skate wing with pepper flakes, salt and pepper and pan fry in olive oil and butter until cooked. Place on the serving bowls with the curry sauce, spoon a little bit of the sauce on top and garnish with cilantro leaves. Serve with plain white rice and maybe some nice white wine. The cookbook suggests Muscat Ottonel, I just used good old chardonnay.

P. S. This was so good, I just had to eat it again, so I made it with shrimp. It was still fabulous.

Roast Chicken

2009-05-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything lately because my life has been pretty hectic. I'm not going to elaborate but let's just say I was caught between work, school and life as they were busy having a go at my priority scale. Anyhow, in between some quiet interludes I was able to do a little bit of something which I actually really love to do which is cook. I mean cook for the pleasure of it rather than out of desperate need to sustain our bodies. Like a lot of people, there are times when I often catch myself in this situation where I find cooking to be more of a boring chore rather than something which I look forward to and truly enjoy. Times when I feel that way really ruin it for me. Cooking is normally a relaxing and creative activity that helps me get away from all the day's events. To summarize, I've had a real stressful month and I'm trying to decompress here, lol!

Let's step back for a bit, shall we? Take look at this lovely thing. Golden, juicy and really delicious. I know some parts of my roast chicken is not completely golden as most people would probably like but I really don't care for the skin so that's ok too. I love roast chicken, it's one of my favourite items for Sunday dinner. When I make my roast chicken or turkey, I brine it in a sugar and salt solution of lukewarm water with a handful of sage, thyme, garlic and a pinch of pepper overnight. On the day of roasting, I drain the bird and bring it to room temperature, pat it dry (this will make sure you get that golden skin, which I guess I didn't do here properly obviously), then I put herb butter underneath the skin, massage it to distribute evenly and tuck in some slices of lemon in the breast and the cavity then I season it with salt and freshly ground pepper on the outside just before roasting. I do not have a standard recipe for the herb butter but it almost always includes shallots, garlic, and depending on what types of herbs are available, I normally use a combination of sage, thyme, rosemary and parsley. There can also be oregano and maybe some pepper flakes but I don't always add them. All this really adds lovely flavour to the bird and creates an amazing gravy.

The gravy is another must have for me if I'm doing roast chicken. I wouldn't be caught dead using store-bough gravy. No way! The pan drippings from this roast is very flavourful so it would be such a waste to not take advantage of it. Besides home-made gravy is really easy to make anyway. So, first, I take out the bird when it's cooked then tent it with foil and let it rest before carving. Then, I skim off all of the oil from the roasting pan. Well not all really. I leave about a tablespoon or so of oil and on the same roasting pan, I use it to sautee my aromatic base which is onion, garlic and coarsely chopped carrots and celery until they're soft and I add 3 cups or so of chicken stock (home-made is great if you have it, if not, use the store-bought low sodium stock instead). To thicken, I use a tablespoon of flour for every cup of stock and whisk it in. Then I strain the gravy and put it in a warmed gravy boat for serving. It's pretty much done from there. I adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if I have to, but I find that it's not always necessary because of the flavour of the chicken.

Add in some mashed (honestly, I find that boring but my dude loves it) or roasted fingerling potatoes and some veggies and that's a lovely meal.

Home-made Thin Crust Pizza

2009-05-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

This is my version of a thin crust pizza. I made it for lunch last weekend. Yeah, I made my own crust, and it's whole wheat. It was not as hard to make as I first thought it was. It was really easy actually because the crust is made from my left-over foccacia dough. I was really happy at how it turned out. Here's my recipe. It was really easy, I just tossed everything together and it turned out nicely.

1 portion of prepared dough, room temperature

5 cherry tomatoes quartered

3 tbsp prepared pesto

salt and pepper

4 whole tinned tomatoes

1 zucchini, sliced

1 small fennel, trimmed and sliced

1 red or any colour of sweet pepper, sliced

sprigs of rosemary and thyme

a pinch of dried oregano and pepper flakes

3 tbsp shaved parmesan cheese

First, I put the tinned tomatoes in a food processor and whirled it until it's liquid. Then, I added the dried oregano, pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Next, I rolled the dough really really thinly and didn't let it rise. I spread pesto evenly on top of the dough and topped it with the tomato sauce and spread it all over the top of the dough.

Next, I put all the veggies in a mixing pan and seasoned it with salt and pepper then added some olive oil so they won't burn. Then, I spread the veggies on top of the dough then sprinkled it with the shaved parmesan cheese. I scattered the rosemary and thyme sprigs and baked it at 450F for about 20 to 25 minutes.

It smelled really good and tasted even better. I wasn't able to take a picture of it when I pulled it out of the oven because we just smurfed it.

Cuban Black Beans

2009-04-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine whose originally from Cuba, Jose, who also happens to be our IT wizzard in the office made us a wonderful vegetarian Cuban lunch one day complete with Cuban music and a Cuban malt drink. For lunch, he made Cuban black beans, white rice and boiled yucca with mojo sauce. The food was simple, but oh so good! It was soul satisfying and comforting, I couldn't help myself so I asked him for the recipe for the black beans. Yesterday, I was talking to him again about food and cooking and it reminded me of his black bean recipe which I've never made up until now. So here is his recipe.

1 can of black beans, undrained and unrinsed

pinch of cumin

pinch of dried oregano

2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1/2 green pepper, seeded and finely minced

1 tbsp of fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups of water

salt and pepper to taste

In a pot, sautee onion and garlic until golden then add the green peppers and sautee until soft about 5 minutes, season with cumin, dried oregano, pepper and the chopped cilantro leaves. Pour the can of beans including the liquid and add 1 1/2 cups of water. Cover and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if necessary. Serve with rice. I served mine with some sliced radishes for extra crunch.

Unfortunately I didn't follow his instruction and decided to drain the liquid and rinse the beans. It was not as good as I remembered it to be. I will make this again, this time I will follow his directions. Hopefully it will be just as good.

Yet Another Quesadilla and Salsa

2009-04-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was really hot and it was calling for yet another lazy just throw everything together kind of cooking style so I ended up making yet another Mexican happy meal. I love making quesadillas, they're easy to make, really tasty, portable and sure healthier than the fast food version that has 50% cheese. The cheesy and greasy fast food type probably tastes better because of all that ooey goey melted cheese and the full-fat sour cream but whatever, home-made ones are much kinder to the waist and the heart. I'm trying to be virtuous here. By the way if you have a good idea on how I can avoid burning my tortilla, please post it. I seem to have a hard time not doing that.

Roasted Pepper and Black Bean Quesadilla for 21 yellow pepper, chargrilled or roasted, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup of frozen corn

1/2 cup canned black beans

1 tomato, seeded and chopped

half an onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup of Tex-Mex cheese

pinch of cayenne, cumin, ancho chili and dried oregano

chopped cilantro

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

2 pcs. store-bought tortilla

In a hot pan, sauté onion in olive oil until golden, add cayenne, cumin, ancho chili powder and dried oregano, sauté for 1 - 2 minutes until fragrant then throw in the beans and veggies except for the chopped tomatoes and add the cilantro. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 5 - 7 minutes then add the tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes. The tomatoes should just be warmed, it should retain its shape. Divide in 2.

Heat another frying pan on medium heat and coat it with oil. Put the one tortilla and scatter 1/4 cup of cheese, melt the cheese slightly then add half of the sautéed veggies on one end of the tortilla then fold. Cook for a minute or two on each side making sure the cheese is fully melted. Do this to the other tortilla using the remaining ingredients. Cut and serve with sour cream or plain yogurt dusted with cayenne pepper. If you like you can also serve it with guacamole or try my avocado and mango salsa instead.

Avocado and Mango Salsa

1 medium ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and diced

1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted and diced

chopped cilantro

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded, pith removed and finely diced

juice of 1 lime

pinch of cayenne, cumin, and ancho pepper powder

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp rice vinegar

Toss all of the ingredients together making sure the avocado and mango are well coated with all the other ingredients then refrigerate for at least 15 to 30 minutes to allow all the flavours to blend. Serve with the quesadilla.

This salsa is actually more like dessert. It was sweet, spicy, tangy and refreshing at the same time. It will probably be good with tacos and some chips too.

Home-made Gnocchi

2009-04-27T22:21:00.000-07:00

I did it!! Taadaaa! Presenting my home-made gnocchi! I felt so proud of myself, lol. I actually managed to finaly make something I really love and the bonus part is it tasted really good. It was pillowy soft, the potatoes managed to hold its flavour despite the addition of flour and parmesan cheese. I took the gnocchi recipe from my cookbook called "The Food of Italy: A Journey for Food Lovers". I altered the recipe a little bit by using 50% all purpose flour and 50% whole wheat bread flour. It didn't make any difference in terms of the texture, I think it even added flavour. I took the idea for the sauce from Jamie Oliver's "Cook with Jamie, My Guide to Making You a Better Cook".I only took the idea because I didn't have the specific cheese and the specific herb on the book. I also didn't have cream so I had to use whole milk instead. It still turned out really well and I was very happy. After having my very own home-made gnocchi, I don't think I'll be able to go back to the store-bought stuff.

Gnocchi:

2 lb floury potatoes, unpeeled and pricked with a fork all over

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp finely grated parmesan cheese

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

Bake the pricked potatoes for an hour in a 425F oven. Leave to cool for 15 minutes, then peel and mash or put through a ricer.

Mix in the egg yolks and parmesan cheese, then gradually stir in the flour. When the mixture gets too dry to use a spoon, work with your hands. Once a loose dough forms, transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead gently. Work in enough extra flour to give a soft, pliable dough that is damp to the touch but not sticky.

Divide the dough into six portions. Working with one portion at a time, roll out on a floured surface to make a rope about 1 1/2 cm thick. Cut the rope into 1 1/2 cm lengths. Repeat this step for the remaining dough.

Once everything has been rolled and cut, put the gnocchi in a floured baking tray and chill in the refrigerator to set for at least 30 minutes. This helps in retaining their shape. It also gives you time to prepare the ingredients for the cheese sauce.

Bring a large pot of salted water into a boil. Add the gnocchi in batches, about 20 at a time. Stir gently and return to the boil. Cook for 1 - 2 minutes, or until they rise to the surface. Remove them with a slotted spoon, drain, put into the pan of hot cheese sauce then toss. Serve with shaved parmesan and freshly grated black pepper.

Cheese Sauce:

3 tbsp grated gorgonzola

3 tbsp grated parmesan

3 tbsp grated ementhal or gruyere

1 tbsp of butter

1/2 cup of whole milk

2 tsp of flour dissolved in the milk

a small bunch of fresh marjoram

2 sprigs of thyme

parmesan for shaving

Put a pan on low heat, add the butter, milk and all the grated cheese and whisk to avoid curdling. Add the herbs and simmer for about 10 minutes, whisking or stirring constantly to avoid curdling. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Remove the stalks of herbs, they've done their job already.

Boun appetito!

Avocado and Orange Salad with Orange and Cumin Dressing

2009-04-26T22:50:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely having an avocado craze these days. It's crazy but I just had another avocado salad for the second time this weekend. I bought a bag of six for a ridiculously low price and they're ripening one by one so why waste them. I didn't feel like making anything for dinner this evening. It was a hot day and we spent the entire afternoon hiking and driving around. It was awesome, the sky was blue, there were flowers all over the place, there was hardly any cold breeze. Just the perfect day for a little hike. It was nice but it was exhausting. I just started walking last week trying to get back into shape and rebuilding my endurance for the up-coming Bike to Work Week on the week of May 11th. Everyday, during my lunch hour I would go and walk 4km of the 5km chip trail at UVic then take another little 4km stroll on the way home. It's not bad, it's a nice little walk, it usually takes me an hour and a half and I quite like it. It would be a great bonus if I drop some pounds. That would be just plain fantastic.

Anyhow, back to my avocado salad dinner. It was quite nice, the avocado was firm and has a nice texture to it. The radish added a nice crunch, same goes for the lettuce and the orange added a burst of freshness. I was about to throw in some cilantro leaves but I thought the flavour would be too strong so I skipped it.

1 avocado, pitted, peeled and sliced

1 orange, zested, peeled and sliced in segments, reserve the juice

lettuce leaves

5 radish, sliced

2 tbsp of olive oil

pinch of cumin

pinch of cayenne

2 tsp of honey

juice of half a lemon

salt and pepper to taste

I sliced the avocado. I zested the orange first then peeled and sliced it in segments. I sliced the radishes and placed everything in a bed of lettuce in a bowl. In another bowl, I added the orange zest into the orange juice, then added lemon juice, salt, pepper, the cumin (yeah, cumin works really well with orange) and cayenne then added the oil and honey and whisked everything together. I liked the dressing because it was quite light and not greasy. To finish, I poured the dressing into the salad and tossed everything before serving.

Tapsilog, Another Trip Down Memory Lane

2009-04-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

This morning, I took a little trip down memory lane and made tapsilog for breakfast. Tapsilog is a popular Filipino breakfast. It is basically pan-fried marinated beef slices in soy sauce, kalamansi juice, garlic and pepper served with garlic fried rice and topped with fried egg. To cleanse the palate, we also serve a simple tomato salsa seasoned with kalamansi juice, salt and pepper then there's the usual slice of kalamansi on the side. Pinoys are unusually fond of sour food, I don't know why. Of course, it's breakfast, so you have to have a cup of coffee to go along with it. To finish the meal, there's usually a banana or sliced mango for dessert.

I didn't make my own tapa, I just picked it up from the frozen section of the local Filipino grocery. I've had better ones before but this was nice. I guess the best tapsilog I've ever had next to my maternal grandfather's water buffalo tapa (tapang kalabaw) would be in a small hole in the wall cafeteria called Rodic's located at the University of the Philippines. When I was a student there, I would have breakfast at Rodic's every time I crave tapa. Rodic's serve it all day and I guess it's what kept them going throughout their nearly sixty years of existence. I don't know if they're still around but I would be very sad if they close down.

Avocado and Fennel Salad w/ Orange Marmalade Dressing

2009-04-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was out and about doing my favourite cardio exercise (shopping what else). I left home quite late and had a late breakfast, brunch really and then headed out. I found all sorts of stuff including 2 pairs of shoes which I probably don't need because I have a bunch of them but I bought them anyway because they're nice and they're super cheap too, like 15 bucks so what the heck. I came home at about 5:00 p.m. and I was just starving to death so I rummaged through the fridge to see what's edible. I found an avocado, a fennel bulb and a tomato. I thought I'd use the tomato but I realized orange actually goes well with fennel, surely it would be ok with avocado too. Sadly, I didn't have an orange in the fridge but I did find an orange marmalade. So sliced the avocado, shaved the fennel and then I made up a salad dressing. Here it is, it was actually quite nice.

juice of half a lemon

2 tbsp of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp of orange marmalade

I just put everything together in a bowl and whisked them until the marmalade is fully incorporated and the whole things looked like a salad dressing. I tossed all of the ingredients together and just tried to make it as nice as I possibly could. I garnished it with a fennel frond to make it look pretty. It was very nice and really refreshing. The dressing made the avocado really tasty and the orange marmalade was a good match for the shaved fennel. I'll definitely make this one again. Oh yeah, I was famished but I was able to take 4 shots anyway lol!

Spicy Coconut Chicken & Rice Noodles Soup

2009-04-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'm really loving Corinne Trang's Noodles Everyday. This is the second meal I've had out of this book and I am absolutely enthralled. My buddy even told me this is the best noodles he's ever had. I'm probably exaggerating a little bit but what he actually said is this is the best noodles I've ever made so far and he can eat it every day. To me that means a lot because he is not a noodle fan at all. He's had 3 noodle dinners this week and he's not complaining, he's really loving it so that's really something. If I can get him to like noodles, I would be in heaven.

I am once again adapting the recipe because as always, I don't have all the ingredients so I just improvise here and there by changing the veggies and skipping some of the steps so I can make my own. The recipe calls for bean sprouts and snow peas. I only have baby bok choy and beans sprouts. I also decided to throw in some shaved carrots. Instead of adding the lime juice to the sauce, I decided to serve the lime wedges on the side so we can customize the sour element to our taste. Instead of just soaking the noodles in water then just topping it with the sauce, I decided to soak the noodles for half the only 15 minutes and add it in the sauce so it can drink all the spicy goodness of the coconut curry. If I were to make this again, I will probably reserve half of the liquid before adding the noodles into the pot so it's soupy and not as thick.

Here's the recipe. It should be enough for 2 very hungry people to 4 people on a diet.

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 shallot, minced

1 fat lemongrass stalk, trimmed, pounded and tied in a neat bundle or cut in 4 pieces

1 1/2 tbsp red Thai curry paste (I like Maesri)

1 tbsp Madras curry powder or any Indian curry powder

2 tbsp palm sugar or good old plain brown sugar

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 can thick coconut milk (450 ml)

2 cups low sodium chicken stock (or water plus 1/2 chicken bouillon)

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 lime cut into wedges for serving

225g or 4 ounces of dried narrow flat rice noodles (similar to what you'll use for Pad Thai)

2 cups bean sprouts

6 small baby bok choy, washed and trimmed

2 small or 1 medium carrot, peeled and shaved into thin ribbon-like strands

1 boneless and skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced

6 sprigs of fresh cilantro

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat and stir-fry the garlic, shallot and lemongrass until fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Add the curry paste and powder and continue to stir-fry for 1 more minute. Add the palm sugar or brown sugar and fish sauce, and continue to stir-fry until caramelized about 2 minutes.

Add the coconut milk and chicken stock, stir to completely incorporate. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper to taste or more fish sauce. Bring to a boil for minutes and reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes to allow the flavours to meld. Bring to a gentle boil then add the chicken and cook for 10 minutes or until fully cooked.

Soak the noodles in hot water for 15 minutes, rinse with warm water and add into the pot and cook for 5 minutes then add the bok choy and cook for 2 minutes. The bok choy should be able to keep its vivrant green colour and the stem should keep a little bit of crunch.

Serve in warmed bowls topped with bean sprouts, shaved carrots, lime wedges and garnish with cilantro sprigs. I put my carrots and bean sprouts at the bottom of the bowl so when I ladle the noodle soup, they wilted a little bit but kept their crunch.

Pad Thai

2009-04-24T21:05:00.001-07:00

I always order pad Thai when we go out for Thai food. I've had different versions of this from different restaurants in Victoria and they range from saccharine sweet, too ketchupy to something that taste like it came straight out of a bottle that I was left wondering why I bothered paying $13 when I could have bought the sauce for $3. So far the best Pad Thai I've had is from the Baan Thai on Cadboro Bay Road and from a little hole in the wall take-out restaurant called The King and Thai at the International Village on Cook's Street Village. Pad Thai or not, the best Thai food in Victoria can be found at Baan Thai on Cadboro Bay Road hands down.

I guess I like to order it because I've never actually manage to make it successfully. The first time I made pad Thai, I invited people over for supper. It turned out mushy and the noodles ended up soggy so they fell apart in little pieces. I was so embarrassed I felt like taking my guests out to Baan Thai instead of serving it. Thankfully we had some pretty good wine to help wash it down.

This would be the second pad Thai I've ever made in my life.This time around, I seem to have managed to make something decent and I am very excited that I decided to actually post it. My husband said this can easily match any restaurant's pad Thai, I'll take that compliment anytime lol! I guess we'll be saying good bye to Baan Thai soon.

I adapted the recipe from Judy Bastyra and Becky Johnson's book called Thai Food and Cooking. Again, as usual I do not have most of the ingredients so I just stuck to the fundamentals (tamarind, fish sauce & palm sugar) and just trusted my taste buds as I go along. This can feed 4 to 6 hungry people.

16 prawns, peeled and deveined

1 chicken breast, thinly sliced

350g rice noodles

3 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp chopped garlic

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 small block of extra firm tofu, cut into strips and fried

1/2 tsp dried chili flakes

3 scallions, cut into diagonals

2 1/2 cups beansprouts

2 medium carrots, shaved into thin ribbon-like strands

1/2 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely ground

2 tbsp palm sugar

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

3 tbsp fish sauce

3 tbsp of tamarind juice, made by mixing tamarind paste w/ warm water

2 tbsp oyster sauce

Cilantro and slices of lime for garnish and more flavour

Combine palm sugar, fish sauce, tamarind juice, oyster sauce, soy sauce and 1/2 tbsp of oil and whisk until the palm sugar is dissolved.

Place the rice noodles in a large bowl, add warm tap water and soak for 20 minutes, then drain thoroughly and set aside.

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a wok. Stir-fry the garlic until golden. Stir in the chicken, lightly season with salt and pepper and cook until lightly browned about 5 minutes then add the prawns and cook until pink about 1 - 2 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Heat 1 tbsp of the remaining oil in the wok. Add the eggs and tilt the wok to make a think layer. Stir to scramble and break up. Remove from the wok and set aside with the prawns and chicken.

Heat the remaining 1 tbsp of oil in the same wok. Add the fried tofu slices and chili flakes. Add the noodles ant stir-fry for about 5 minutes, add more oil if the noodles stick. Add 3/4 of the shaved carrots, scallions, half the peanuts and half the bean sprouts toss and pour the palm sugar, tamarind and fish sauce mixture. Mix well, ensure that the noodles are well coated with the sauce and cook until the noodles are heated through. Return the prawns, chicken and egg mixture to the wok and mix with the noodles. Serve topped with the remaining carrots, bean sprouts, and peanuts, and garnish with cilantro and lime wedges.

Soba w/ Grilled Asparagus & Prawns in Sweet Miso Sauce

2009-04-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned in my previous post that my friends gave me Corinne Trang's cookbook called "Noodles Every Day" as a birthday present so I thought it is only appropriate that I actually make something from it. I thought that if I were to make something from it for the first time, it better be the recipe in the front cover so I decided to make the Soba with Grilled Asparagus and Sea Scallops in Sweet Miso Sauce on page 107. The problem is, on my way home, as I was walking to the grocery, I realized that I didn't have any of my credit cards with me nor do I have enough cash to pay for some scallops so I ended up with frozen prawns instead. Prawns are good enough substitute. Scallops can be really good when they are really fresh but they can be bland and tasteless too if they're not so what the heck at least prawns are consistent. The original recipe calls for wallnuts but when I got home, I also discovered that I also run out of them. I forgot that I am living with a guy who's probably part squirrel because he eats nuts like his furry cousin. The original recipe suggests serving this dish cold, but I don't like cold noodles so I served mine warm (more like hot actually). I already posted a picture of this in one of my earlier entries so I thought I'd post the recipe. The author is probably not going to be very happy with me about posting her recipe but mine is an adaptation. I've kept the proportion of ingredients as in the original recipe but except for a few things.

Soba w/ Grilled Asparagus & Prawns in Sweet Miso Sauce

Adapted from Corinne Trang's Noodles Every Day

Serves 6

3 tbsp sugar

1/4 cup sake

3 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1/3 cup white miso

1 tbsp finely grated ginger (freeze your ginger, it is easier to grate)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

36 medium asparagus spears, trimmed of woody stems

36 prawns, peeled and deveined

diagonally cut scallions for garnish

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a bowl, whisk together the sugar, sake, mirin and rice vinegar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the white miso, ginger and 1 tbsp of oil and whisk until well combined. Set the miso glaze aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and cook the noodles until tender yet firm, about 3 minutes. Drain, return to the pot and pour 3/4 of the miso glaze then toss making sure the noodles are well coated. Divide in 6 bowls, keep warm.

Heat a well-oiled grill pan over medium heat. Combine the remaining 1/4 part of the miso glaze with the remaining 3 tbsp of oil. Brush the asparagus and prawns with the miso glaze and oil mixture and season with salt and pepper. Grill the asparagus until just tender, 3 to 5 minutes total, rolling them about to cook them evenly. Divide and top each noodle serving with asparagus. Grill the prawns in the same pan until cooked through, about 2 minutes on each side. Divide the prawns among the servings of noodles. Serve garnished with scallions (or toasted walnuts if you want). We drank a little bit of warmed up sake with it. It was really good.

Noodles Every Day

2009-04-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was my birthday. I know my friends were doing something for me because one of them accidentally spilled the beans but I wasn't expecting how good a surprise it was going to be. I thought we were going out for a long lunch somewhere but as it turned out, they decided to bring the restaurant to me instead. They set-up one of the vacant offices and ordered a very tasty vegetarian Shanghai noodle dish, curried seafood with rice on the side, stir-fried chinese greens with black mushrooms, and stir-fried bamboo shoots with prawns. The meal was delicious but the tastiest surprise was the present they got for me. They gave me Corinne Trang's Noodles Everyday. If there's one thing in the world I can probably eat every single day (next to rice) and not grow tired of it, it will be noodles. I was planning on getting this cookbook myself but they probably read my mind. I am very happy with the present I received for my birthday. I've made two recipes from this cookbook two dinners in a row already so if you look at the pictures of the soba with grilled asparagus and the coconut chicken noodle soup I posted on top, and I'm sure their present will make me happy for a very long time.

To my friends Sandra and Jenn, if you ever stumble into my blog, thank you very much this means so much to me.

Holy Guacamole!

2009-04-22T19:57:00.001-07:00

In my country, we think of avocado as dessert. We normally turn it into an ice cream, fruit shake or we just slice it in cubes then add condensed milk or coconut milk and sugar then put it in the fridge to cool and it is served as dessert or snack. The first time I encountered real guacamole in a Mexican restaurant in Manila, I thought it was really weird. Mashed up avocado with onions and mayonnaise maybe, that was really bizarre, I didn't like it at all. Over time, I've tried different savoury treatments of avocado and I kind of appreciate now how good and versatile it really is. I even use it in soups, salads, sandwich and even as part of a main dish.

You'll be surprised how popular guacamole is over here. Even in people's homes, guacamole is a popular item served as an appetizer. You can even buy it at the local deli all made and ready to serve. I think you can also get it processed and packed, I've never had it that way though, I still think that's weird. I really don't like overly processed food.

Anyway, I had no idea what went into my head but decided I'd make my own guacamole. I've never made it before so I thought what the heck, it's just mashed up avocado, what could possibly go wrong. Of course you'll need perfectly ripe avocados, then a handful of fresh chopped cilantro leaves, chopped fresh scallions, lime juice, a little bit of rice vinegar, a pinch of salt and some freshly cracked pepper. Easy enough, so I added my own touch and added a few drops of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch or two of both cayenne and ancho chile powder. I've had it with jalapeño pepper before, it was nice, but I didn't have it so I skipped it.

I placed everything in a big enough bowl. It looked like salsa and it looked good enough enough to eat just like that but I wanted to make guacamole so I mashed it with a potato masher until it was nice and creamy. Then things started to go wrong. I was wrong, it was actually not easy to make as I thought it was. It was hard to get all the ingredients to blend in together and find that perfect balance of flavours. I kept stirring it and stirring it then tasting it over and over again, it was balanced enough, but something was missing until I've eaten probably about a quarter of it and decided to put in the fridge and do something else. That was what was missing, I discovered that it does need to rest for at least half an hour for the flavours to meld and blend nicely. Resting it in the fridge cuts the sharpness of the scallions and softens the cilantro somehow. I just wish I stopped eating it sooner.

Shine Cafe, Victoria

2009-04-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

I love hole in wall type of restaurants. They can be such a gem it's like hitting pay dirt or they can totally suck yet you don't really mind because you really don't have high expectations unlike when you go to fine dining places that put so much hooohaa but really they're just plain hoohaa. Fine dining places that suck leave you with a whole in your wallet and a hole in your gut so you're not only pissed off your also hungry still.

Shine Café is one of those gem of a hole in the wall breakfast restaurant located on Fort St. here in Victoria. They're quite popular and it's rare to not have to line up when you go there. They are quite famous for their Scottish potato scone which are really good specially when they're still hot and you slather on some butter and some strawberry jam. I'm sure they're not very good for you but who cares, a little bit of it now and then is so not going to kill you, lol! They're awesome. They actually remind of the Norwegian lefse. Hubby's family is originally from Norway and they love that stuff, it's very time consuming to make so they only eat it during the holiday season. Lefse is a totally different story. It's really nice, I'll make it one day and post it maybe.

Back to Shine Café, I really love their breakfast specials. They're kind of whimsical stuff with fun and funky names, they're normally quite decadent and oh so not very kind to the waist line but they're really good. I'm not too wild about the regular stuff, but they're ok, reliable and consistent. We don't go there all the time, maybe every two or three months but we like it. We're over there for our breakfast this Sunday and as usual I ordered the special which they called "Holandazed and Confused". It's another rendition of eggs benny with chive hollandaise, sweet potato puree, fresh spinach and Canadian back bacon on top of an English muffin. It was awesome, super rich and very decadent. I didn't bother thinking about how many calories it has, I just wolfed it down then went for a long walk afterwards. Yeah, you'll need an hour or two of moderate to vigorous exercise to burn some of their yummy calories.

Chicken Afritada

2009-04-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

Chicken afritada is a popular Filipino Sunday dinner dish eaten with rice and more rice. Perhaps it has been around for centuries now but it remains popular in Filipino dinner tables. It is Spanish in origin but we Pinoys have transformed it into something truly our own I'm sure the Spaniards will not be able to recognize it. Just like the adobo, I'm sure every family will have their own version and I happen to have my own too. Maybe mine is not completely unique but of course I have to have my own.

I marinate the chicken overnight in 7Up, light soy sauce, garlic, kalamansi or lime juice then throw in the kalamansi or lime peel (the peel will need to be removed the following day, it has already done its job which is to add aroma) and then I add some finely minced cloves of garlic, a generous pinch of pepper, a couple of bay leaves, and a pinch of dried oregano and paprika. I then brown my chicken in a mixture of olive oil and butter, throw in some chopped onion and deglaze the pan with sherry. I add the marinade and reduce it to about half before I add crushed tomatoes and then the usual potato, red bell pepper strips and peas except I use fava beans, I just like them better. Then, I just let it cook and take care of itself. I serve mine with the traditional rice, but I'm sure this would be good with some crusty bread and maybe some red wine.

Stuffed Peppers

2009-04-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

I used to have a recipe for a Croatian dish called dolma. I got it from a friend whom I have unfortunately lost touch with a long time ago. Dolma is basically sweet bell peppers stuffed with rice, raisins, ground beef and some herbs then the peppers are cooked in a tomato-based sauce. It's very easy to make and it's really good. For some reason, my recipe for dolma, just like this old friend of mine, seem to have disappeared.

One day, I had again, a little mound of leftover rice. I didn't want to throw it away because I think it's just not a good idea. I also had some turkey sausage and then some spinach which I originally thought of using to make spanakopita but for some reason I just didn't feel like doing it anymore. I chickened out a little bit on the thought of having to handle delicate filo pastry. Anyway, I thought I'd make dolma just from my memory but I didn't have a bunch of ingredients and didn't feel like going out to the grocery to get them. I ended up filling my peppers with rice, turkey sausage, spinach, raisins, carrots, chopped tomatoes and zucchini seasoned with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning mix. I just baked it and topped it with some Tex-Mex cheese mix. I served it with spinach sauteed in olive oil and garlic. It wasn't half bad, in fact it wasn't bad at all.

Olive, Sun-dried Tomato and Feta Cheese Focaccia

2009-04-13T21:34:00.001-07:00

I've never made bread from scratch until this Easter. It took me the whole Saturday afternoon trying to figure out how to do it and debating with myself why I should bother making it when the bakery is just a block away and I could just grab a nice fresh loaf then make sandwiches for my Sunday Easter lunch. I used the basic focaccia recipe from my cookbook called "The Food and Cooking of Italy: A Journey for Food Lovers".

The recipe is for regular white bread but just like everybody else, we're trying to eat a little healthier so I decided to go for whole wheat even if I've never ever made bread before and had no idea how whole wheat flour would behave. It was easier than I thought it would be. I substituted the flour but I used the same exact measurement for the basic dough recipe and this time I made sure I follow the instructions to a T. I wasn't particularly fond of the smell of yeast but it was satisfying to see it do its job and watch the dough rise. I made the dough in the afternoon then left in the fridge to rise. Thankfully I had to leave and go to a friend's house for cocktails, otherwise I would have been checking up on it every 10 minutes lol! The following day, I punched it, yeah, literally punched the dough back to its original size, cut it in two portions and then rolled it out and shaped both portions into foccacias, placed them in baking sheets and covered them with saran wrap to rise for an hour before baking like the book says.

I wasn't sure how the bread would taste like so I thought I'd try and make it more interesting. I didn't have a recipe but took the inspiration from an Italian anti-pasto plate. I bought some pitted kalamata olives, some sun-dried tomatoes and feta cheese then added some fresh rosemary and thyme. I mixed all of these together, drizzled the mixture with some olive oil and black pepper then spread it on top of both the foccacias and baked both of them for 25 minutes in 425 degrees Fahrenheit. I was afraid my bread would turn into an inedible goo or something but it turned out really tasty specially fresh out of the oven. It was a great learning experience and I would definitely try and make my own bread again. It was a very satisfying experience and I'm looking forward to doing it again. I probably posted way too many pictures but whatever, it's a milestone for me so I thought I should capture every minute of it and bask into the bread making glory lol! ;-).

Trip Down Memory Lane: Fried Milk Fish w/ Tomato Salsa

2009-04-13T21:04:00.001-07:00

Back in Manila, daing na bangus or butterflied milk fish marinated in soy sauce and/or vinegar, garlic, kalamansi, salt, a pinch of sugar and pepper then fried crisp and eaten with fried rice, sunny side up eggs and a simple tomato salsa used to be a staple weekend breakfast at Aunt Lyn's home. She used to make it herself and she would normally marinate it for an hour or overnight resulting in something really yummy. This is eaten for either breakfast or lunch and is served with coffee on the side on both meals. If she serves this for lunch, the sunny side up eggs is substituted with salted duck eggs and grilled eggplant or pinakbet, a mix of vegetables that normally includes eggplant, bitter melon, kabocha squash, snake beans, okra and tomatoes and braised in shrimp paste. It's a quintessential Filipino home cooking. I miss it really badly.

I was at the Filipino store last Thursday and found this butterflied unseasoned milk fish. It kind of made me a little nostalgic for Aunt Lyn's daing na bangus so I thought I would try and recreate it. I used the same ingredients as she would use in her recipe: soy sauce, kalamansi juice, a pinch of sugar, a bit of salt and some freshly cracked black pepper. I changed it a little bit and added chopped cilantro, olive oil and pepper flakes. Instead of frying it though, I baked in 425 F for 15 minutes. It didn't taste exactly the same but it was similar because it has the same fundamental ingredients. I served it with the tomato salsa seasoned with kalamansi juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, chopped cilantro and Thai basil leaves, white rice and soy sauce dip.

Tomato and Pesto Frittata

2009-04-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

Made this for my buddy's lunch the other day. I don't know exactly where the idea came from but it looked pretty. I didn't eat it because I added way too much onion in it. He liked it and ate all of it so it must have been edible ;-) lol! I'm just not a fan of onion but I thought I'd post it anyway in case I have to make it again.

2 eggs

2 ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp ready-made pesto

1 tbsp olive oil

1 clove of garlic

handful of chopped onions

shaved Parmesan cheese

pinch of red pepper flakes

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the broiler to high. Crack the eggs in a bowl and beat with a fork, add salt and pepper. In a non-stick skillet, heat the oil until hot, add garlic and onion then the pepper flakes and the tomatoes, saute for 5 minutes until cooked. Add the egg and scatter the shaved Parmesan cheese and dot with pesto, season with salt and pepper, cook till lightly set then transfer to the broiler until fluffy and cooked. If you don't want a frittata and want an omelette instead, flip the egg and cook.

Nasi Goreng

2009-04-12T22:22:00.000-07:00

I guess I'll continue with my yellow food festival here and post my Nasi Goreng experiment. Nasi Goreng is basically leftover rice fried with all the other tasty bits from the previous dinner and then you add in a couple tablespoon of kecap manis and there you have it, something tasty from leftover rice. I'm not sure if this is breakfast food or lunch or maybe dinner but we had it for dinner. It doesn't take that long to make, probably 15 to 20 minutes and the ingredients are just basically tossed together like and stir fried. Here's my recipe for it.

2 cups of leftover rice, fluffed and at room temperature (I used my leftover yellow rice (nasi kuning)

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 tbsp of oil or more if needed

2 tbsp of kecap manis

1 tsp curry powder (or garam masala)

light pinch of 5 spice powder

8 prawns

sliced cooked chicken meat

2 green onions, chopped for garnish

salt and pepper to taste

2 eggs, scrambled and fried

The trick to this is high heat. It's really quick so the ingredients should be cut up and ready to be thrown together in the wok. Heat the oil in a wok till smoking hot, add garlic, don't burn it, then add prawns and cook till lightly pink. Add chicken, season with kecap manis, salt and pepper to taste. Add rice and the remaining ingredients except for the fried eggs and green onions, stir-fry for 10 to 15 minutes then add the eggs, toss for a couple more minutes. Serve then top with green onions.

I've never done it before but I'm sure finely chopped carrots, celery, pepper and peas even corn would be a good addition. Maybe these veggies plus fried tofu can replace the meat, prawn and egg for a vegetarian version, I don't know, it sounds like a yummy idea though. I'll play with it sometime. Now I can't wait to get some leftover rice again.

Thai Green Prawn Curry

2009-04-11T16:50:00.000-07:00

Here is my lazy version of Thai green prawn curry. It took me less than 15 minutes to make and of course I'm biased because I made it myself but it sure taste just like the curries I've had in some Thai restaurants in town if not better (lol!).

I'm not sure how authentic it is but whatever, eh? I just used instant curry paste (I like the Maesri brand) and canned coconut milk (I prefer to use Aroy-D).

1 lb deveined and peeled medium-sized prawns

1 can of sliced bamboo shoots, drained & rinsed well with hot water

1 large red bell pepper, cut into strips

600 ml. coconut milk (1 1/2 cans)

3 tbsp. fish sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 fresh or dried kaffir lime leaves

chopped cilantro for garnish & added flavour

2 tbsp Maesri brand Thai green curry paste (or to taste)

1 tbsp oil

In a heavy bottomed pot, warm the oil and saute curry paste in medium high heat until fragrant. Pour the coconut milk, stir to evenly distribute the curry paste then add the fish sauce, oyster sauce, kaffir lime leaves and sugar, stir and bring to a boil. Add the bamboo shoots and cook for 5 minutes, add the red bell pepper, cook for 5 minutes and then add the prawns and cook for 5 - 7 minutes. Sprinkle lightly with chopped cilantro before serving. I've posted the recipe in a previous post called Thai Green Prawn Curry w/ Yellow Rice and Carrot Slaw.

Nasi Kuning (Indonesian Golden Rice)

2009-04-11T16:36:00.000-07:00

Nasi Kuning (Indonesian Golden Rice) is one of my favourite recipes of rice. It smells like heaven and it's unbelievably easy to make and it's very versatile. It goes with curries, grilled fish and meat, stir fried veggies, seafood and the left over can be used to make some wicked Nasi Goreng. I know that Thailand and Malaysia also has something similar to this and like the Indonesian counterpart, they also serve this to accompany a meal for their festivities. They all share more or less the same ingredients for this, jasmine rice, coconut milk, turmeric, pinch of salt, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and for the Indonesians, salam leaf or bay leaf. Instead of cooking it in the stove top though, I just cooked mine in the rice cooker, it's easier that way (I'm lazy).

2 cups of Thai Jasmine rice, rinsed & drained

3 cups of water or more if needed

1/2 can of Aroy-D coconut milk

1 stalk of lemongrass, lightly pounded and cut in 3 pieces

1 garlic clove, minced

1 medium onion, chopped

2 fresh or dried kaffir lime leaves

1 generous tsp of turmeric powder

pinch of salt

1 tsp of oil

In a pan, sautee onion, garlic, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves in oil until fragrant. Add jasmine rice, coconut milk, salt and turmeric powder, toss to coat. Transfer to rice cooker, add water and cook like you would make regular rice until cooked. Remove lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, they've already done their job. Fluff with a fork before serving.

Thai Inspired Carrot & Green Apple Slaw

2009-04-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post a picture of my carrot slaw from a previous post I wrote for a dinner I did with my friends. I like this carrot slaw because it has no oil in it and it's very refreshing. Yes it uses fish sauce for the dressing but it's strong pungent flavour disappears once the other flavours are added creating something savoury and complementing the dish. This salad is very easy to prepare, it's not expensive to make and it can be whipped up in no time at all.

The trick to this is finely julienning the carrots. If you have a mandoline that would really do the trick. If not you'll have to do it the hard way like I did. Use your vegetable peeler and shave the carrots then slice very very finely in long strands.

5 medium-sized carrots, peeled and julienned

1 granny smith apple, julienned

1/4 cup of toasted peanuts, pounded

3 tbsp raisins

Toss carrots, apples and raisins with some of the dressing (recipe is below) and top with ground peanuts before serving.

Dressing:

3 tbsp fish sauce

2 generous tbsp of brown sugar

1 thai bird's eye chili, minced (remove the seeds and white pith if you don't want it hot)

1 tbsp of water

juice and zest of 1 lime

1 tbsp of chopped cilantro

In a non-reactive bowl, pour in fish sauce, lime juice, water and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and add birds eye chili, lime zest and chopped cilantro. Adjust seasoning to taste. Use this as dressing to the carrot slaw.

Steamed Dorado w/ Asian Flavours

2009-04-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

I was out in Chinatown one day trying to get some frozen daing na bangus but I couldn't find one but I ended up finding this beautiful frozen Dorado. It looked really good and I thought I should get it and play with it a little bit.

I remembered having this beautiful fish on our trip to Bohol. We went to Balicasag to go snorkeling for a day and our boatman, Mang Felix was friends with some local families. He took us to one of the families who belonged to an environmental conservation program. They would keep and raise sea turtles then release them back into the ocean. They even let me play with their 2 year old turtle! It was awesome. I've forgotten their names now, it's been 5 years but I will never forget how nice, warm, welcoming and very hospitable they were. They are the quintessential Filipino family.

The man of the house is a fisherman and luckily he had some freshly caught dorado. We bought the biggest one he has and his wife grilled it for us. She made it in the simplest way. She seasoned it with salt and pepper and wrapped it in coconut leaves then grilled it in wood fire. It smelled amazing. She made a dip using soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, pepper, ginger, garlic and onion. I'm usually not fond of uncooked garlic and onion but I don't remember picking them out or anything. We ate it together and chatted like we've known each other forever. I swear it was the best meal we had during that trip. We had a great time. I swear if I ever get a chance to visit Bohol again, I will certainly look up this family in Balicasag.

Back to my frozen dorado. Yeah.. yeah, it has red eyes but that's because it's frozen and it thawed. I thawed it the fridge, soaked it in cold water and then cleaned it myself, yeah... like gutted it and all that gory bits, trimmed the fins everything. It was not the most pleasant experience but hey somebody's got to do it. My buddy wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole unless it's cooked and ready to eat. I thought I would try and recreate that grilled dorado we had in Balicasag but it would be impossible. Here's what I came up with. I really didn't measure anything and just eyeballed them so these are estimates.

3 tbsp sake

3 tbsp light soy sauce

3 tbsp kecap manis

2 tbsp chili oil, reserve half for drizzling later before serving

3 stalks of green onion (reserve some for garnish)

4 small sprigs of fresh thyme

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

5 Thai basil leaves, roughly chopped

2 tbsp chopped dill (reserve 1 tbsp for garnish)

1 tbsp chopped garlic

2 tbsp or thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 tbsp cilantro for garnish

1 lime sliced in 5 parts

freshly cracked black pepper to taste

salt if needed

Clean the fish, pat dry and lightly season with salt and pepper. Use a plate that is big enough to accommodate the fish and can be used for steaming. Put the plate in the steamer, then place 2 slices of lime, scatter some of the herbs, ginger and garlic but don't use all of it, reserve some for the belly and top of the fish (see the picture). Mix sake, soy sauce, half the chili oil and kecap manis. Spoon in a couple of tablespoons of this and drizzle over the arranged herbs in the platter.

Put a slice of lime and some of the herbs, ginger and garlic in the fish's belly, then put the fish on the plate inside the steamer then arrange the remaining herbs, ginger and garlic and 2 slices of lime on top. Drizzle with the remaining sake, soy sauce, chili oil and kecap manis mix. Cover and steam for 30 minutes or until cooked.

When the fish is cooked, remove the cooked lime and herbs on top of it and put in a heated serving platter. Strain the liquid on the steaming plate and pour it on top of the fish. Garnish with the reserved chopped dill, green onions and cilantro then drizzle with the remaining chili oil. I served it with plain steamed rice and steamed broccoli, I'm sure bok choy and other chinese greens like gailan would also work well with it.

Salt Spring Island

2009-04-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

We went to Salt Spring Island today. It's about 30 minutes or a short ferry ride away from Vancouver Island. It was quite an interesting place, very laid back, they don't even have a traffic light or speed limit. Most of its residents are either artists, artisans, craftsperson, an organic farmer, somebody who does sustainable fishing or somebody who is happily retired and grateful to have escaped the hustle and bustle of city life. It sure has a funky hippie feel to it. Somebody told me that during summer or fruit and veggie season, you can drive around and do your food shopping picking up stuff along the way from the so called honour stands. The farmer would put up a little shack with all the day's harvest and leave a little box for you to drop whatever you feel is the appropriate amount for the item you took. During the summer up to the fall months, they have a very popular open market where everything that is sold in it is either personally made, produced, caught or planted by the person selling it. It is apparently one of the best of this type of market in Canada.

It's not tourist season or fruit and veg season yet and the market is only open during the weekend so we just drove around town (Ganges), checked out everything and looked at some galleries and shops in town. Of course we had to eat so we went and grabbed a bite or two. I was ravenously hungry so we went to a very interesting, charming, funky and totally hippie shack called The Tree House. It's a cafe built around a big oak tree and you come in, grab a seat, help yourself to some real good coffee and if you feel like it, grab your own menu and chat with some regulars. Yes it's that laid back it's almost like walking into your own kitchen. You'll find out as you stay longer that the regulars are mostly vegan or vegetarian. The menu is sort of Tex-Mex vegetarian but they'll be happy to give you some chicken if you ask for it. It was only 11:00 a.m. and as I said I was ravenously hungry because we left without even having coffee let alone a bite to eat so I ordered some of their quesadilla with chicken for protein and their roasted pepper soup (see the picture). I really liked my order, the soup was very good and quite refreshing, you can tell it's vegan. My buddy on the other hand was not very lucky (see the picture, it actually doesn't look too appetizing). He said the potatoes were probably made the day before and were just reheated. The black beans though was very good he said and the jam was probably home-made and it was quite tasty too.

We wondered around a bit more around Ganges and eventually ended up at the Visitor's Centre to ask what we can do in town for the next 3 hours. The guy there was awesome, he really knows the place well and even told us where the best fish and chips place in the island is. Of course we wouldn't pass that up so we took the long route to work up some appetite. It was a nice drive, the roads are surprisingly as good as any Canadian highway. Great views, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom and the island is covered with trees. If you look up, you'll see eagles flying about. We even spotted at least 5 to probably 8 black tailed deer or maybe more, geez, there's just so many of them it's hard to keep track. There are a lot of signs warning drivers of deer crossing. Unlike here, they seem to love their deer (not as venison stew or something), the locals don't seem to mind sharing their lawns and farms with them. They look really adorable but they're voracious feeders too, they can easily decimate a well manicured lawn in no time at all so the very keen Vancouver Island gardeners are understandably not very fond of them.

Anyway, we kept driving until we reached that place where the best fish and chips in the island is. It was not disappointing let me tell you. The batter was fried to a perfect crispy golden brown. It was very light and not doughy like the other fish and chips I've had. The halibut was very fresh, firm, white and has that sweet fresh straight out of the ocean taste to it. It was probably one of the best fried fish I've had in a long time. I didn't order the standard fish and chips with coleslaw and tartar sauce, I had Caesar's salad instead. My buddy had the traditional fish and chips and he was happy about it. Yeah, we ate like little piggies today.

Nasi Ulam (Malaysian Herb Rice Salad)

2009-04-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

I'm an Asian and I can pretty much eat rice in just about every meal of the day including the little snacks in between each meal. I'm not very fond of leftover rice though and I get bored just throwing it in the microwave and reheating it for the next meal. If I can get tocino, tapa or longganisa I wouldn't have a problem with leftover rice because chances are it will end up as a tasty longsilog, tocilog or tapsilog. Back in the day, there was a craze about anything silog in the Philippines. Silog is basically sinangag or fried rice with log from itlog which is egg in Tagalog, fried sunny side up then paired with either tocino (cured pork), longganisa (sausage) or tapa (cured beef). Well, I can't get a hold of any of these yummy Filipino breakfast delicacies, can't seem to drag myself to the Filipino store because I always end up buying a bunch of stuff I really shouldn't eat, chicharon is a good example.

Anyway, there's leftover rice waiting for me in the fridge and I was feeling hungry. When I get hungry, I think about rice right away (must be the Asian in me). Can't eat it just like that so I thought I should do something with it. I pulled out a couple of my cookbooks trying to get some ideas but I didn't want to go through all that trouble. I found a real interesting recipe though from "Authentic Recipes from Malaysia" called Nasi Ulam which is an herbal rice salad. I would really love to make it one of these days but not today, I simply didn't have the patience for it. I did take the idea from it though and here's what I came up with.

2 - 3 cups of leftover rice, reheated

1 cup of chopped fresh herbs ( I used mint, dill, scallions, lemon grass and Thai basil)

1 deseeded jalapeno pepper (I just happen to have it, you can use something else I'm sure)

juice & zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp of olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

a pinch of red pepper flakes

a tiny pinch of dried oregano

First I placed the rice in a big enough plate, you can use a salad bowl if you want. I combined the olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper, lemon grass (just the soft fragrant core) in a small bowl and whisked them together to make the dressing. I poured the dressing into the plate of rice, added the chopped herbs and tossed everything together. I didn't serve it with anything else, but I'm sure this salad would be great with poached salmon or grilled prawns even grilled chicken.

Vietnamese Noodle Salad w/ Fresh Herbs & Prawns

2009-04-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

We're supposed to go for a lunch at my favourite Vietnamese restaurant but to the last minute, I decided to just head to Chinatown and buy my own stuff. Kind of see what's out there and what fresh exotic ingredient will lure me and inspire me to make something. This weekend, I found some fresh Thai basil, cilantro with roots still attached to them (great for making fresh curries). As we were supposed to go for Vietnamese food, I was craving it. Typically I would go for the spring rolls which are much lighter than the Filipino version and then I would normally order a bowl of pho noodle soup. It was a nice Spring day, the weather was quite nice and I didn't feel like eating something heavy like my usual favourite. It was a perfect day for something light and fresh so I thought I'd make the noodle salad instead. I went home with my stash, grabbed some cookbooks for some ideas and here's what I came up with.

This is very easy to put together, but it requires a little bit of organization and planning because it has to be done in batches. This is great both as warm or cold salad. I'm sure this can also be used as filling for spring rolls if you have the patience to wrap it in those delicate fresh spring roll wrappers that they use in Vietnamese restaurants.

Dressing (Nouc Cham)

3 tbsp fish sauce

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

3 Thai birds eye chillies, roughly chopped (remove seeds & white pith if you don't like it hot)

2 cloves of garlic roughly chopped

juice & zest of 1 lime

1 stalk lemon grass, soft centre only, roughly chopped

3 tbsp water

Start with the dressing as this is also the foundation for the marinade. In a food processor or using a mortar and pestle, add garlic, chilies and lemon grass, pound or pulse lightly to form a paste. Add fish sauce, sugar, lime juice and lime zest then water. Stir or pulse to blend all the ingredients and dissolve the sugar. Adjust seasoning according to taste (you might want more sugar or more lime juice, it's really up to you).

Prawns

16 prawns, peeled and deveined

3 tbsp of nouc cham (recipe on top)

salt and pepper to taste

pinch of five spice powder

1 tsp of chili oil

Mix all the marinade ingredients in a bowl then marinate the prawns for 10 minutes or so while you're preparing the vegetables and the noodles. I just pan-fried my prawns they take only a couple of minutes to cook on each side, you can brobably try broiling or grilling them and I'm sure they will be just as good. Set-aside.

Salad Ingredients

3 eggs, beaten, seasoned w/ salt and pepper, fried and sliced

225g dried rice vermicelli noodles

6 lettuce leaves, shredded

1 cup fresh bean sprouts

3 medium carrots, peeled and julienned

handful of Thai basil leaves, roughly chopped or left whole

handful of cilantro leaves, roughly chopped or left whole

Arrange the egg slices, fresh vegetables and herbs in a big platter or salad bowl. I didn't have them but if you can find them other great herbs to add would be mint and chives, just chop them or left them whole like the Thai basil and cilantro.

Cook the noodles by dropping it in boiling salted water. Drain, rinse to stop them from sticking together, drain it again and place in the middle of the vegetable and herb platter.

Toss everything and drizzle with nouc cham (dressing). Serve topped with prawns and season with freshly cracked pepper.

Serves 4 - 6

Thai Green Prawn Curry w/ Yellow Rice & Carrot Slaw

2009-04-02T22:13:00.000-07:00

I had a couple of friends over for supper yesterday. We've always been talking about doing a girl's night out and having dinner and drinks somewhere but we're all too busy we just can't seem to find the perfect time for it. So I decided I'll make the food myself and just throw in an open invitation and ask them to let me know when they'd like to come over. Well, last night, Wednesday (middle of the week yikes!!) they decided to take my offer. I was a little pressed for time so I had to figure out something really quick but really yummy so I thought I'd make my Thai prawn curry, some rice and toss a quick salad of some sort. It was really fast and easy to put together. It cooked in less than an hour so it gave me enough time to relax and enjoy the company. I had a real good time, I really enjoyed their visit.

Here's my recipe for the Thai green prawn curry. I'm not sure how authentic it is but it's good. Too bad I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it. Because I was pressed for time, I just used instant curry paste (I like the Maesri brand) and canned coconut milk (I prefer to use Aroy-D).

1 lb deveined and peeled medium-sized prawns

1 can of sliced bamboo shoots, drained & rinsed well with hot water

1 large red bell pepper, cut into strips

600 ml. coconut milk (1 1/2 cans)

3 tbsp. fish sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 fresh or dried kaffir lime leaves

chopped cilantro for garnish & added flavour

2 tbsp Maesri brand Thai green curry paste (or to taste)

1 tbsp oil

Yellow Rice - I love yellow rice. It looks very festive and it smells heavenly. This is popular in many Southeast Asian countries. They have different names for it and the recipe may vary from country to country but I love it just the same. I just make mine in the rice cooker.

2 cups of Thai Jasmine rice, rinsed & drained

3 cups of water or more if needed

1/2 can of Aroy-D coconut milk (I use the left over from my curry)

1 stalk of lemongrass, lightly pounded and cut in 3 pieces

1 garlic clove, minced

1 medium onion, chopped

2 fresh or dried kaffir lime leaves

1 generous tsp of turmeric powder

pinch of salt

1 tsp of oil

Carrot Slaw - The trick to this is finely julienning the carrots. If you have a mandoline that would really do the trick. If not you'll have to do it the hard way like I did. Use your vegetable peeler and shave the carrots then slice very very finely in long strands.

5 medium-sized carrots, peeled and julienned

1 granny smith apple, julienned

1/4 cup of toasted peanuts, pounded

3 tbsp raisins

Toss carrots, apples and raisins with some of the dressing (recipe is below) and top with ground peanuts before serving.

Dressing:

3 tbsp fish sauce

2 generous tbsp of brown sugar

1 thai bird's eye chili, minced (remove the seeds and white pith if you don't want it hot)

1 tbsp of water

juice and zest of 1 lime

1 tbsp of chopped cilantro

Marinated Chicken w/ Fresh Herb Olive Oil & Roasted Potatoes

2009-03-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

No time to make a whole roast chicken? Try this then. It serves two and it's perfect for a weekday dinner. It's fairly easy to make and doesn't even take an hour to do it. The marinade for this chicken also works for pork chops and lamb chops even steak. If you're using lamb, add a few mint leaves to the herb mixture and skip sage. If you're using beef, skip mint and sage and add a little bit of balsamic vinegar, basil leaves and lemon zest. You can vary the vegetables depending on what you feel like having with it. Thank goodness for Cuisine at Home's Cuisine for Two issue.

2 bone-in chicken breasts; seasoned with salt and pepper

6 grape or cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

1 tbsp chopped fresh sage

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450F. Saute chicken skin side down in 2 tbsp of oil in a large non-stick ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat until golden, 4 minutes. Turn chicken over, saute 2 more minutes, then transfer pan to the oven. Roast for 15 minutes, add tomatoes to the pan, cook until a thermometer inserted into the meat registers 165F, about 5 more minutes.

Combine oil, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper on a small serving platter. Transfer chicken and tomatoes to the platter and let rest for 10 minutes before serving, flipping the chicken every minutes to coat with oil and herbs.

Serve with veggies or roast potatoes.

Basic Roast Potatoes:

1 lb. Yukon gold potatoes, cut in large chunks

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

This takes about 40 minutes to prepare and cook.

Toss potatoes in a large bowl with oil, salt and pepper. Heat a large nonstick ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat, then add potatoes and residual oil. Saute until potatoes start to brown, 5 minutes then transfer skillet to the lowest rack of the preheated oven and roast for 20 minutes. Stir, then roast until browned and crisp, about 10 minutes longer.

Parmesan Polenta

2009-03-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

This goes perfectly with a lot of saucy Italian inspired meat dishes or ragu-type sauces. This serves two people and it pairs perfectly with the spicy chicken cacciatore or the Italian beef short ribs. It takes about 15 minutes to make. The trick to make this really creamy and avoid lumps is to do things "slowly". After bringing all the liquids to a boil, slowly add in the cornmeal then slowly simmer until it thickens. Just add water if it gets too thick to your liking.

1 cup skim milk

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1 tbsp olive oil

salt to taste

Bring milk and broth to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Slowly whisk in corn meal, reduce heat to low, and simmer until thick, 5 minutes, whisking constantly. Thin with water if you need to. Turn off the heat and finish it by whisking in the Parmesan cheese, salt and the olive oil, or butter if you want, why not eh?

Spicy Chicken Cacciatore w/ Red Pepper Tomato Sauce

2009-03-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favourite recipes to make for Friday night dinners. It's from a special issue of Cuisine at Home called Cuisine for Two. It's a snap to make (35 minutes) and yet it taste like you slaved in the kitchen the whole day. Why bother going out when you can make this for a quarter of what it would cost in the little Italian restaurant and it taste the same if not better with half the fat. This recipe is made specially for two people just like the rest of my upcoming posts. The polenta recipe will be posted shortly.

1 oz. proscuitto or bacon, diced

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes to taste

2 cups button mushrooms, quartered

1 cup onion, sliced

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp rep pepper flakes

1/4 cup of dry white wine

1 can whole tomatoes (14. 5 oz)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, save a couple of sprigs for garnish

Fry proscuitto or bacon in 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat until crisp, 2 minutes. Add chicken and sear on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken and proscuitto to a plate.

Saute mushrooms, onion and bell pepper in 2 tbsp of oil in the same pan over medium high heat until onion softens, 3-4 minutes. Stir in garlic, oregano, and pepper flakes; cook for 30 seconds.

Deglaze with wine, scraping bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer until wine is nearly evaporated. Add tomatoes, crushing slightly, and bring to a boil. Return chicken and proscuitto to the pan, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Stir in parsley.

Garnish with parsley sprig before serving.

Alimango sa Gata (Crab in Coconut Milk)

2009-03-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

I came up with this recipe when I was recreating my Mom’s wonderful crab in coconut milk recipe. Of course it will never be the same as hers but I think this is just as good in its own right. It has become one of my signature recipes and every time I tell people what the secret is (the crab's fat) the squeamish Caucasians who normally boil their crab and dip it in butter find it a little... well... I'll leave it to you to fill in the missing words. Those who has never tried taba ng alimango/aligue (crab fat) which is a Filipino delicacy would never know what they're missing. Anyway, this is great using fresh coconut milk, but if it is not available, canned coconut milk works well too. Make sure to purchase live crab.

1 large mud crab or dungeness crab (1 lb) cleaned but left whole
1 thumb-sized ginger, peeled and crushed
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 medium red onion
2 lemongrass, trimmed, pounded and neatly tied in bundles
1 tbsp madras curry powder
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 lady finger chili (siling pangsigang)
1 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp white vinegar
2 cups thick coconut milk

In a large pot over high heat, saute the ginger, lemongrass, onion and garlic until fragrant.

Add the cleaned crab, season with vinegar, salt and pepper. Add the lady finger chili, cover and cook until the liquid dries up and the crab is cooked about 10 minutes.

Remove crab from the pot then pour the coconut milk. Shake the pot or stir to make sure the coconut milk doesn’t curdle. Add the oyster sauce and curry powder. Do not cover. Stir occasionally to distribute the seasoning and to thicken the sauce.

Cut the crab in four equal parts, now the most important part, scrape the fat from the shell and incorporate in the sauce.

Discard the shell and add the crab into the sauce. Let it cook for about 15-20 minutes giving the pot an occasional shake or stir. Adjust salt to taste. Serve with rice or baguette.

Yields: 4 servings

Citrusy Couscous

2009-03-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

This couscous recipe is great with my winter vegetable tagine. I got this from Fine Cooking Magazine issue #75 on page 43. I've also served this as an accompaniment to grilled chicken or fish. I interchangeably use tomatoes and red peppers (the pictures use tomatoes in it, I run out of pepper lol). I modified it a little bit by using turmeric instead of saffron (it's expensive) and I skip the harissa if I serve it with my vegetable tagine. If you like your food extra spicy, by all means use harissa or tabasco.

Citrusy Couscous

2 cups vegetable broth, low-salt chicken broth, or water

1-1/2 tsp. sweet paprika

1 tsp. turmeric

Kosher salt and ground white pepper

1/4 cup plus 3 Tbs. extravirgin olive oil

1 small yellow onion, cut into small dice

1 small red bell pepper, seeded and cut into small dice

1 cup couscous

1/2 tsp. finely grated orange zest

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions

1/2 cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted

1/4 cup dried currants

1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

In a medium saucepan, bring the broth or water, paprika, turmeric (or saffron if using), 3/4 tsp of harissa or hot sauce if using, 1/2 tsp. salt, and a pinch of white pepper to a boil over medium heat. Cover and reduce the heat to low to keep the broth at a simmer. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Meanwhile, heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and red pepper and cook until the vegetables are soft but not browned, 8 to 10 min. Add the couscous and stir to coat the grains with oil. Remove the pan from heat. Add the simmering liquid to the couscous and stir to evenly distribute the liquid. Cover the pan and let it sit until all the liquid is absorbed and the couscous is tender, 5 to 7 min. Remove the lid and fluff the couscous with a fork. Set aside to cool for 15 min.

Whisk the remaining 3 Tbs. olive oil with the orange zest, orange juice, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Toss with the couscous. Let cool completely and then transfer to an airtight container or a bowl covered with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Put the scallions, almonds, dried currants, and parsley in a separate container and refrigerate.

Just before serving, stir the scallions, almonds, currants, and parsley into the couscous. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed.

Yields: 6 servings

Winter Vegetable Tagine

2009-03-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

I don't know exactly where I got the inspiration for this recipe but one day I was playing in my kitchen and noticed some of the weird spice mixes that I haven't used a lot. I'm one of those people who would normally try and make something exotic and in the spirit of authenticity, would try and source even the most obscure spice mixture or ingredient. Then, depending on how my first attempt turned out, I may or may not reuse that spice mix and it will be in my cupboard awaiting for its next discovery. Anyway, I found Ras el Hanout sitting in my cupboard. In Arabic, Ras el Hanout means "head of the shop" and it basically refers to a mixture of the best spices a spice seller has to offer. There's no definitive list of spices that makes up the Ras el Hanout, it can contain up to a dozen or more spices and I was told that it might even have a bit of cannabis thrown in it. Hmnn... if you feel slightly woozy and eating or laughing little more than you usually do when you make this recipe, then perhaps that would explain it. I also found harissa, it's a chili paste popular in North Africa. I think it's left of my last barbecue in August (the expiry date is not until August 2010 so it's ok).

Anyway, I came up with my Winter Vegetable Tagine recipe. A tagine is basically a stew cooked in a conical shaped pot popular in Morocco. I don't own a tagine so I make this in regular dutch oven or a large pot. This recipe is good for a weekday supper and is fantastic with with lemony couscous or perhaps some naan bread.

Winter Vegetable Tagine

1 tbsp. Ras el Hanout Spice Mix
2 tsp. harissa paste
2 tbs. tomato paste
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. honey
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 cup vegetable broth or water
1 cup cherry tomatoes,halved
2 cups of cubed butternut squash
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 medium sweet potato or yam, peeled and cubed
1 can of cooked garbanzo beans
salt to taste
a handful of mixed chopped fresh coriander and mint leaves for garnish
Balkan style yogurt for serving

Place a heavy bottomed pot in medium high heat. Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until lightly browned.

Add Ras el Hanout and sauté for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add tomato paste and harissa then sauté for a couple of minutes, do not burn.

Add vegetables and garbanzo beans then pour water or vegetable broth. Season with salt to taste then add honey. Cover and cook until vegetables are nicely done and tender, about 30 minutes.

Serve with couscous topped with mixed chopped fresh coriander and mint leaves and a dollop of Balkan style yogurt on the side.

Yields: 4 generous servings

Adobong Manok Sa Gata

2008-11-13T22:25:00.000-08:00

The best Filipino dishes are the ones that do not have written recipes. It's the type that is drawn from the memory of all those wonderful meals shared together by the family or from watching your mom or your grandmother make that particular dish. My Mom's chicken adobo in coconut milk is a great example of that dish. It is simple but soul satisfying. It nourishes the body and warms the heart. Back in the Philippines, when I was going to university, I would always ask my Mom to make this for me every time I come home for a visit during the semestral breaks or as a parting meal before I return to the city. This recipe brings back a lot of happy memories and has been a great source of comfort whenever I feel homesick now that I am in Canada.

The chicken is normally a free-range native hen or rooster caught a few hours before cooking and the other ingredients are picked right from the backyard. This recipe is as close to the original as possible and so the cooking time is suited to the tough meat of a mature free-range chicken. My mom slow-cooks this on charcoal fired stove for approximately 4 hours, I imagine it will work well on a slow cooker. Most modern Western groceries will be able to provide you with coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, papaya and lemon grass. Free range chicken can be ordered and bought from the local farmer’s market.

Main Ingredients

1½ lbs free-range chicken, cut in 8 portions
2 stalks of lemongrass, trimmed, pounded and tied in a neat bundle
thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and julienned
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 kalamansi or kaffir lime leaves
¼ cup of white vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
800 ml thick coconut milk (canned or fresh, see section)
2 lady finger chillies
1 lb green papaya, peeled, seeded, properly cleaned and sliced to bite-sized pieces (proper cleaning of unripe papaya requires lightly squeezing the slices in rock salt to remove the bitterness)

Pressing freshly grated coconut

Grate 2 big mature coconuts, discard the shells. Press the grated white meat first with ½ cup of hot water, strain the coconut milk and reserve. Do not throw the coconut meat yet. Press the white meat again this time with 3 cups of lukewarm water, strain and reserve the liquid and discard the pressed coconut.

In a large pot, saute ginger, garlic and lemongrass in oil.

Add the chicken pieces, season with salt, vinegar, kalamansi or kaffir lime leaves and a generous pinch of freshly cracked black pepper. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until all the liquid has evaporated and the chicken pieces are browned.

Add 500 ml of coconut milk. Stir constantly to avoid curdling. Cover and cook in low heat. Check occasionally to make sure there is enough liquid to soften the chicken. Let half of the liquid evaporate then add the green papaya and lady finger chillies.

When the papaya is half-cooked, add the remaining 300 ml of coconut milk, again stir in the first 10 minutes to avoid curdling. Simmer for another 20 minutes or until half of the liquid has evaporated and the chicken pieces are falling off the bones.

Serve with lots of steamed rice.

Bistek a la Pobre

2008-11-11T22:41:00.000-08:00

This is a popular weekday dinner back in the Philippines. The beauty of this recipe is that, like adobo, it is very flexible and you can make it any way you want. Aunt Lynn would sometimes make this with finely chopped carrots. The normal garnish is stir-fried fat onion rings but I prefer adding chopped scallions to the onion rings for garnish. It’s normally served with rice and a side of sauteed vegetables.

Ingredients

1 lb thinly sliced sirloin steaks
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp fish sauce
juice & zest of half a lemon
generous pinch of brown sugar
3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, reserve one for marinating
1 bunch of scallions, green and white part chopped

Cooking Directions

Pat the beef dry.

Marinate beef in soy sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, fish sauce, garlic, pepper and oil for 30 minutes or overnight.

Put a heavy bottomed frying pan on high heat, heat oil till smoking hot and flash-fry beef along with the marinade until cooked tender. This takes about 5-10 minutes.

Sprinkle with scallions and serve hot.

Yields: 4 servings

Roasted Ratatouille

2008-11-11T22:29:00.000-08:00

Ratatouille is one of my favourite vegetarian dishes. I love the vibrant and fresh flavours of it. It reminds me of bright sunny summer days when vegetables are at the peak of their goodness. This is my version of ratatouille, marinated over-night and roasted in high heat then sprinkled with fresh herbs.

Vegetables

1 large Italian eggplant, cubed
2 baby zucchinis, cut in circles
1 large red bell pepper, cut in strips
1 large yellow pepper, cut in strips
1 large sweet variety of onion, cubed
1 large fennel bulb, reserve the fronds, cut fennel in bite-sized pieces
handful of fresh basil leaves, torn in half
handful of fresh italian parsley, finely chopped
small bunch of thyme
few sprigs of rosemary

Marinade

3 tbsp good quality balsamic vinegar (or crema di balsamico)
3 garlic cloves, mashed
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 olive oil packed anchovies, finely chopped
small pinch of dried Greek oregano
2 tbsp tomato paste
freshly cracked black pepper to taste
pinch of italian dried pepper
pinch of fleur de sel
juice and finely grated zest of 1 orange
juice of ½ a lemon
juice of ½ a lime

Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a non reactive mixing bowl. Whisk to combine a paste. Adjust the consistency by adding more olive oil.

Combine all of the prepared and cut vegetables except for the fennel fronds, italian parsley and basil in a large non reactive container.

Pour the marinade on the vegetables, toss to coat well. Cover and refrigerate overnight or marinate for at least 2 hours.

When ready to cook, drain all the liquid. If the vegetables have been marinated overnight, the paste will stick to the vegetables so you won’t be throwing that precious marinade. If the vegetables are not marinated overnight, skip this step.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Spread the vegetables to a cookie sheet, you may have to use two of them. Roast for 30-45 minutes. Take out of the oven and generously sprinkle with the fresh herbs. Adjust salt and pepper if you want. Serve with bread, rice or couscous.

Yields: 4-6 servings

Canadian Adobo

2008-10-30T22:31:00.000-07:00

It's almost winter yet again and my body is telling me to eat up for the long winter months. I'm not sure what it is but one day, I was craving good old chicken adobo. Yeah, it's a good old reliable. It's probably one of the most popular Filipino recipe ever. It is really a very flexible recipe and you can pretty much do what ever you want with it. I'm sure most Filipinos will have his or her own version of it. Here is my Canadian version.

Canadian Chicken Adobo - Yeah yeah, it's my own version.

1 lb. boneless chicken breasts cubed

1 bayleaf

1/4 cup of low salt light soy sauce

1/8 cup of apple cider vinegar

1/8 cup of sugar free pineapple juice

1 tablespoon balsamic dressing (Crema di Balsamico)

generous pinch of freshly cracked black pepper

generous pinch of brown sugar

salt to taste

3 cloves of garlic, crashed

1 medium onion, finely diced
a bit of olive oil (or none)

Cooking instruction:

Throw everything in a heavy bottomed pot, give it a little stir to make sure the meat is covered with the sauce. Cover the pot and place on top of the stove over medium heat. Cook for 30-45 minutes until the meat is cooked through, give it an occasional stir. Turn up the heat to medium high until the sauce thickens to your desired consistency. Taste it and adjust seasoning if you want. Serve with white rice, lots of steaming hot white rice (not brown) lol!