Pichi-pichi with Cheese

I found grated cassava at South Supermarket Alabang which cost only P20.00 per icebag (makes about 2 cups) and made Pichi-pichi.  I didn't have grated coconut at home so I decided to make it with cheese.

Thanks and kudos to South Supermarket for stocking this item. Making pichi-pichi, cassava pudding, cassava suman is now possible minus the hassle of peeling and grating the cassava (which can be difficult considering the hard peel and the hefty flesh).  From the 20.00-bag you can make 20-25 pieces of pichi-pichi. Such a cheap thrill!

PICHI-PICHI WITH CHEESE

What's in it?

1 bag frozen grated cassava from South Supermarket (about 2 cups)

1 1/4 cups water

3/4 cup washed sugar*

1 tsp pandan or vanilla essence (optional)

grated cheddar cheese or grated coconut

Kitchen Conjugations:

In a bowl combine all ingredients except cheese. Stir well. Mixture will be runny. Pour into an aluminum or microwaveable tray or dish. Set aside.

Boil about 5 cups water in a pot.  When water gets to a running boil, place the dish inside the steamer.  Steam mixture for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture gels.

Remove from heat and lift by spoonfuls onto your plate of grated cheddar cheese or coconut.  Toss to coat each piece.  Serve with tea or ginger brew.  Enjoy!

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I prefer using washed sugar (slightly brown) because I find it more flavorful and it's being less refined than white sugar gets it more points in the health department. :)

Chili Crabs

A friend from Bataan sent us an ice-box full of tiger prawns and crabs, so I decided to share the blessing at the office.  For Monday I cooked Sinigang na Sugpo, and on Tuesday, I made this -- Chili Crabs.

What's In It?

3 kgs crabs, cleaned, steamed then halved
2/3 cup oyster sauce
4-5 stalks onion leeks, sliced diagonally; white slices set aside from the greens
2-3 knobs ginger, peeled and sliced into strips
1 large red onion, peeled and sliced
4-5 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed
4-5 finger chilis (labuyo or Taiwan), sliced into thirds
1/2 cup brown or washed sugar*
6 cups water
2 Tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup water
1 sachet Magic Sarap (optional)
3 tablespoons cooking oil

Kitchen Conjugations:

If you haven't yet, steam the crabs, let cool then halve into smaller pieces.  Make small crack in the claws. Set aside.

In a large wok or deep pan, heat oil over medium heat.  Saute onions, garlic and ginger strips.  Add in finger chilis and the white parts of the onion leeks. Stir fry for a minute.  Add in oyster sauce, sugar and water.  Bring to a boil.

Add in crab pieces and let the mixture boil.  Lower heat and allow the mixture to simmer for about 5 minutes, or just enough for the flavors to meld.  Add in the green parts of the onion leeks, reserving a little for garnish.  Check seasonings, add a little salt, sugar or more chili if desired. 

Pour in the cornstarch mixture.  Raise heat a little, and allow the cornstarch to cook while continuously stirring the mixture to avoid lumps.  Simmer for another 2-3 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.  Remove from heat, serve in a deep dish and garnish with the remaining onion leeks.  Enjoy with steamed rice!

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*I used washed/brown sugar because I find it more flavorful, although white sugar can always be substituted for this recipe. I think though that you would need to use less sugar if you're using the white variant as it is sweeter (and deadlier to your blood sugar...hehe).

Thai Fried Fish

Living in-campus while in college, I learned to scour the place for great places to eat in. By great I mean not only do they serve clean, tasty and nutritious food, the prices should well be within my (meager) student allowance. Dining in the UP Diliman campus is a story by itself, and I can tell you about Rodics, the Beach House and the dozens of aristo-carts fronting the dormitories, but there's one eatery I hold close to my heart, and that's the one inside the International Center, the only turo-turo that served authentic, fiery Thai cuisine. Sure it's no fine dining experience -- afterall, I usually shared wobbly tables with complete strangers and sat on wooden stools while shooing away flies that wanted to share my lunch -- but nowhere else was I going to get good, authentic Thai meal for less than P50.00!

The turo-turo's daily offerings usually consist of four dishes, which usually includes Tom Yum and Squid with Holy Basil.  But my favorite is the fried fish blanketed with chopped red and green chili, which tasted like our escabeche, only less sour and more spicy. 

For years since graduation I tried to find the recipe but failed.  To this day I do not know the Thai name for the dish.  But I have managed to replicate the dish in my own kitchen, after several failed attempts at finding the herb that accompanied the chilis.  Ironically, it was only after re-reading my post about Wansoy and Kinchay that I realized that the herb I've been missing and looking for all along is that -- Wansoy. Coupled with the lucky find of Thai organic chilis at South Supermarket, the dish is as good as done. Thai chilis, you see, are not as spicy as our labuyo, allowing them to be added liberally into dishes without setting tongues on fire.

So here it is, my Thai Fried Fish.

What's In It?

5-7 pieces crisp-fried fish
3-5 pieces Thai finger chilis, seeded and diced
1-2 pieces Taiwan chili (warning -- this variety is hot! use with caution), sliced
5 stalks wansoy (coriander), sliced into small bits
1 large onion, peeled and minced
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4 teaspoons brown sugar
3/4 cup water
2 tsp fish sauce
3 Tablespoons cooking oil

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat cooking oil in a wok or deep pan. Saute onions and garlic until onions become soft and translucent. Add in the chilis. Stir fry for 30 seconds then add in the brown sugar. Stir fry for about 30 seconds or until the sugar begins to caramelize.  Pour in water and the fish sauce.  Let boil then lower heat, allow the mixture to simmer for 3 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.

Meantime, arrange the crispy fried fish in a shallow dish.

Add in the chopped coriander into the pan, and let the mixture boil once, just enough to blanche the herbs. Remove at once from the fire and pour the sauce over the fried fish.  Serve immediately with steamed rice.

Minatamis na Saba

What is your comfort food?


In the 1990s, when I was still in college, my grandmother made sure she had my favorites waiting for me when I came home for the weekend.  I would always squeal in delight finding the minatamis na saba in the refrigerator, especially earmarked for me.    She always picked the Sabang Tagalog in the best level of ripeness, in vanilla-laced brown sugar syrup until they were makunat.  The best part about it is that she did it especially for me, either as a reward for good grades, or as a salve for the wounds I sustained in my love, er academic life. :)  


And that is probably why, Saba, any which way it is cooked, will always be, will forever be, my No. 1 Comfort Food.


The addition of sago in this recipe is a concession to my son, Jam, who is head over heels with sago.


MINATAMIS NA SABA


What's In It?


10 fingers Saba, peeled and sliced crosswise diagonally
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water 
1 tsp. vanilla (optional)
1 c sago (tapioca pearls) blanched with boiling water


Kitchen Conjugations:


Combine water and brown sugar in a pot and heat to boil over medium heat.  Add in bananas and vanilla when mixture boils and turn heat down.  Allow to simmer for 5-7 minutes or until the liquid is reduced and becomes syrupy.   Add in sago and simmer for 2-3 minutes more.


Note: Do NOT boil over high heat as this will burn the sugar.  As you probably know, anything burned becomes bitter and unpleasant. :) [And I mean that both literally and figuratively!]

Ginataang Langka

My husband is predominantly a fish eater, and we have fish in the house everyday.  Having fried fish means there should be an accompanying vegetable dish, either in soup, stir-fried, steamed, sauteed, or in this case, stewed in coconut milk.

Back when I was a little girl, cooking anything ginataan was a tedious process, primarily because all of the ingredients had to be processed first by hand: the langka needs to be peeled, cored, seeded and then sliced; the coconut peeled, grated and then squeezed for its milk.

Making Ginataang Langka now is  a lot simpler and faster.  Sliced/shredded langka is available from the public market and major supermarkets; coconut milk and cream are now available in cans or in powdered form. 

The best part of it is when it's langka season,shredded langka costs only P30.00 per kilo, which would actually feed a family of six. That's a cheap P5.00 per person!

GINATAANG LANGKA

What's In It?

1 kilo shredded langka (unripe), washed and then preboiled until fork-tender
1 can coconut cream
2-3 cups tap water
1 onion, peeled and sliced
50-100 grams dilis (optional)
3-5 green chili fingers (optional)
1 pork broth cube (optional)
50-100 grams chicharon (crispy pork rind), pounded into small chunks
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
a knob of ginger, pounded
1-2 tablespoons cooking oil
half a head of garlic, peeled and pounded

Kitchen Conjugations

Heat wok or medium saucepan.  Add in cooking oil, and saute ginger, onions and garlic until fragrant but not burned.  Add in half of the coconut cream, stir from time to time until the mixture boils.

Add in the shredded langka, the dilis, pork broth cube and the chilis.  Let boil then pour in water.  Stir to combine and let boil for 3 minutes, then bring down heat to simmer.

Let the mixture simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring from time to time to avoid curdling, until the langka is fork tender.  Add in salt and let simmer for another 5 minutes.  Adjust seasonings if desired.

Sprinkle or stir in the chicharon granules before serving.

Notes:
1.  I use JnEm coconut cream, which costs only P38.50 at South Supermarket (compared to Thai Heritage's P41.00.)  The cream is thicker than that of Thai Heritage.

2.  Shredded langka is best cooked the same day of purchase.  It discolors and spoils in 2-3 days, even when refrigerated.  I have not tried freezing it though. 

Pinakurat

I don't know if I translate it right, but Pinakurat (a Cebuano term) translates roughly to "made more interesting."

Pinakurat is fermented coco vinegar that is really spicy. Apart from the spice, what makes things interesting are the other flavors melded in the vinegar.  It has actually a unique tang.

The label says that it's great with lechon, barbecue, etc.  For me, the etcetera was Fuji apples. Yes, Fuji apples dipped in Pinakurat when I was infanticipating with Mika. :)

The Pinakurat bottles in the pictures are gifts from our good friends Rel and Jeng, all the way from Cagayan de Oro, but I later learned that Pinakurat is now also sold in major supermarkets. 

Seafood Medley

I've been asked many times about how I can find time to cook when I really have a lot on my hands. The truth is, I actually DO NOT have extra time for food blogging.  But I MAKE TIME for it because writing for me is a release, and cooking is my unwinding.  At the end of the day, if I don't spend some time in the kitchen, I'd probably go nuts.  Although admittedly, there are days when I'm actually worked to the bone and already nuts and cooking is out of the question.  On those days I rely on my friendly neighborhood food joints, running the gamut from barbecue, goto, porkchop, batchoy, chinese fried chicken, etc. 

 

Anyhow, when I'm pressed for time but have to cook something out of the ordinary, I turn to stir fries.

 

With stir-fries, preparing eats a bigger chunk of time than the actual cooking.  The chopping and the slicing takes more time than the actual stir-frying, which can be done in less than 10 minutes, especially if you're working with seafood.  To work around the heavy preparation time I prepare things in advance  (usually as I watch TV)-- sliced onions, pounded garlic, sliced veggies, sliced meats -- so that all I need to do during crunch time is whip up my wok, fire up the stove and stir fry away. :)

 

SEAFOOD MEDLEY

 

What's In It?

 

150g. squid slices

150g. fish fillets, sliced (here I used mahi-mahi fillets)

150g. prawns or shrimps, shelled and deveined

1 medium-sized green bell pepper, cored and sliced

3 stalks leeks, sliced into 1" strips

1 medium-sized red onion, sliced

half a head of garlic, peeled and pounded

1 thumb of ginger, peeled and julienned

4-5 tablespoons oyster sauce

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 medium carrot, peeled and sliced into wedges (or flowerettes)

4-5 tablespoons cooking oil

 

 

Kitchen Conjugations:

 

Heat oil in wok or frying pan.  Saute onions, garlic and ginger.  Add in fish fillet slices, stir fry for about minute or until the fish is half cooked (no longer pinkish, already whitish but still juicy).  Sprinkle black pepper. Add in prawns, stir fry for 30 seconds, then add in bell pepper, leeks and carrots. Let simmer for one minute.  When the prawns turn orange, add in the squid slices, followed by the oyster sauce.  Stir fry for one minute more, then serve with steamed rice.

 

PS

1) You may add a little brown sugar (about 2 tbsps) or a teaspoon of hot sauce, or both, to make things more interesting. ;)

 

2)  Instead of seafood, you may use beef, chicken, even pork.  Be sure to choose the tender parts however, and add a 2 - 3 minutes to the stir frying time if you're using pork or beef strips.

 

3) Ginger strips work wonders in removing fishiness (lansa) from the dish.

 

 

Palitaw

This was one of our (me teaching my boys and two nieces) cooking projects last summer. It's pretty, easy to do, yummy, inexpensive, and the choosing of colors for the galapong makes it more interesting for kids. (Although I had to hold off requests for blue and fuschia palitaw. Hehe.)

Besides, Filipino snacks are becoming a rare species, quickly being replaced by foreign, fastfood items like french fries, pizza and waffles. I felt sad when my two sons and two nieces asked "Ano yung Palitaw?" when as children my brother and I excitedly waited for the manlalako each afternoon, excited to see which among our favorites Palitaw, Buchi, Lumpia, Cuchinta, Banana Cue, Puto, Calamay were there for the taking in his magic bilao. We had enjoyable summers putting out stands in front of our house, selling Sago't Gulaman, Kalingking, Turon and Ginataan.

So it was a MUST that I taught the kids some Filipino snacks!

BTW, Palitaw is so named because of the way each piece floats and appears (litaw) from the bottom of the pan during cooking.

Nowadays you don't need to soak glutinous rice and then bring it for grinding at the local market just to make galapong. Coconut vendors at local markets usually also sell galapong in P20.00 packs (which makes about a dozen Palitaws). Mine I bought from the vegetables section of South Supermarket, priced by weight.

PALITAW

What's In It?

250g. Galapong

various food coloring (optional)

5 cups tap water

1 coconut, meat shredded

1/3 cup white sugar

5-6 teaspoons sesame seeds

Kitchen Conjugations:

Toast sesame seeds in a pan over medium heat for about 2 minutes or until brown. Mix with the sugar and set aside.

Boil water in a wok or deep pan.

Meantime, if you're coloring the galapong, divide it into as many colors as you want. To each ball of galapong, pour 2-3 drops of food color (depending on how dark you want the shade to be) and work in and distribute the food color by mashing and stretching the galapong until the color is distributed.

Then cut away a small portion of the galapong (about the size of a large marble), roll into a ball then flatten into a disc. (You could have it round or oval. ) Repeat for the rest of the galapong.
Drop the flattened discs into the boiling water. Wait a few minutes for the palitaw to float to the surface of the water, then remove from the pan using a slotted spoon, onto the shredded coconut meat.

Roll / turn over the palitaw to coat both sides with the shredded coco meat. Sprinkle/top with the sugar-sesame seed mixture and serve.

Banana Q

Banana Q is my all-time favorite. It's very simple and easy to make that I found it incredible that my maid doesn't know how to cook it. **Aghast!**

When I was infanticipating, Banana Q was a staple craving, but goodness, I had to send off the driver to the nearest vendor/stall which was about 5 kilometers away! I couldn't fathom why, for the life of me, didn't the commercial building near us, which was a jeepney and bus stop, had a pedicab station and a host of other food vendors--Minute Burger, kakanin vendors and carinderias-- didn't have a Banana Q stall!

Kung kaya lang ng powers ko (timewise), pinapelan ko na! :P

And then, from where I live, the Banana Q stall is about a kilometer and a half away. And their Banana Q, being less sellable than their Turon, gets to me cold and tasting like it was cooked yesterday. So most of the time I buy saba bananas when I do my grocery shopping and cook my Banana Q myself. :P

BANANA Q (Fried Sugar-Coated Bananas)

What's In It?

6 fingers saba (plantain) bananas, peeled
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup cooking oil

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat cooking oil in a wok or deep frying pan over medium heat.

Meantime, roll bananas in brown sugar. Drop each carefully into the hot oil. Let fry for 2 minutes and turn over. (The exposed side should be golden brown. If it hasn't browned, turn back to let it brown some more.)

As the oil boils the sugar coating the bananas will melt and caramelize. Move the bananas and rub them against the caramelized sugar to 1) make the sugar coat the bananas and 2) prevent the caramelized sugar from hardening and sticking to your pan. (This is hard to remove and clean, believe me.) Cook 2-3 minutes more then remove bananas from the pan. Serve skewered in bamboo Banana Q sticks or flat on the plate, ready for your fork.

Enjoy! :P

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It is important to keep the fire at medium. Overheating not only burns your cooking oil (which produces carcinogens) but will also burn and blacken the sugar and make it bitter in taste.

Ginisang Sitaw

I don't know why, but Mike's absence zaps all of my enthusiasm for cooking. Pag wala siya, automatic we eat out or buy something to eat. Or I cook the simplest thing that comes to mind.

Maybe it's because wala akong ganang kumain. Wala rin ganang magluto. (No appetite to eat, no zeal for cooking.)

And that's the story behind this very simple entree.

GINISING SITAW

What's in it?

1 bundle sitaw, washed, ends removed, cut into 1 1/2 " lengths
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
1 medium ripe tomato, washed, sliced into thin wedges
3-5 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed
200 g. ground pork or beef
3 T fish sauce (patis)
1 t ground black pepper
5 T cooking oil


Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat cooking oil over medium heat in a wok or frying pan. Saute onions, garlic and tomatoes for 3 minutes or until tomatoes are soft and wilted. Add in ground meat, fish sauce and ground pepper. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes or until meat loses pinkish tint.

Add in sitaw, stir fry for 1-2 minutes more or until the sitaw sweats. Sitaw should keep bright green color. Remove from fire when it's a little tender but crisp.

I Heart Petite Palmiers!

Can you imagine how flaky yet crisp this is? Me I like to carefully separate the layers and slowly nibble from end to end. :) Great with Nescafe Relax. :)

Bought from S&R Alabang for P499.00. Each cookie cost about P20.00. Not bad for some instant cookie gratification. :)

In case you wanna try making your own, here's a recipe.

Ginataang Halo-Halo

How do you eat your Ginatan? Do you, like me, start with hurriedly eating the gabi/kamoteng kahoy, then poking at the kamote, before moving on to the langka, the sago, bilo-bilo, and then finally the saba?

Really? In that save-the-best-for-last-order too? :) Saba is my super-favorite. Promise. :)


As a little girl I used to help my lola make Ginatan, and my toka, being too young to handle knives for the slicing, was to round the galapong for bilo-bilo. Back then though the bilo-bilo we had was always white.

But not anymore, thanks to the availability and affordability of food coloring. :) Here I just divided my galapong into how many colors I wanted, poured about 3 drops of food coloring to each batch, mixed and mashed the galapong to spread the coloring and voila! Colored bilo-bilo! Nice, di ba?

GINATAANG HALO-HALO

What's In It?

6 fingers saba, peeled and sliced crosswise into rings about 1/3" thick

1 piece kamote (about 300g.), peeled and cubed

1 piece gabi or kamoteng kahoy (or both, each about 300g.), peeled and cubed

langka strips (fresh or sweetened)

200 g. galapong

1 can coconut milk + 1.5 cans of water

1/2 cup washed sugar

1 t pandan essence (optional)



Kitchen Conjugations:

In a wok or small pot heat coconut milk mixed with water over medium heat. Stir constantly with left to right motions to prevent curdling.

When milk boils, add kamoteng kahoy, gabi, kamote and saba. Simmer for 7-10 minutes or until fork-tender. Add in bilo-bilo and simmer for a minute or so, or until the bilo-bilo floats to the surface (which means it is cooked). Stir in pandan essence if using.

Tastes better at room temperature, but after all that work, I bet you'd be going for a spoonful. :)

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Glossary:

1. Gabi - taro root

2. Kamoteng kahoy - cassava

3. Kamote - sweet potato

4. Langka - jack fruit

5. Sago - tapioca balls

6. Bilo-bilo - glutinous rice balls

7. Saba - plantain bananas

Chopping an Onion

Many people do not like cooking not because of the cooking part per se, but because of the rigors of preparations cooking entails. There's defrosting, washing, peeling, slicing, dicing, chopping, marinating, measuring, and so on. So it is important to have techniques that will simplify or quicken some of these steps.

One of the basic preparations needed for cooking is chopping an onion. Onion is part of all sautes, and is part of some marinades, sawsawans (dipping sauces), and even savory breads. Here's how to do chopping easy and fast, courtesy of RealAge:

Don't Eat This Fish!

I was checking my stats at Statcounter, checked referring links and one thing led to another and I got to this page, warning against eating River Cobbler, which I featured in one of my posts (Cajun River Cobbler).

Apparently in France, Vietnamese River Cobbler has gained popularity and acceptance because of its texture, flavor and price.

However, the article warns against consuming Vietnamese River Cobbler or Pangas, claiming, among others:

1. That Pangas is grown in the Mekong River of Vietnam, one of the most polluted in Asia, teeming with industrial and other wastes.

2. That it is frozen in contaminated water, and

3. It is injected with hormones derived from urine.

I am wary about the article, not knowing who wrote it, if it is really true and if there aren't any hidden agendas for it. Yet I feel compelled to share it with you as I featured River Cobbler in one of my posts and might have unintentionally exposed you to the supposed dangers of eating this fish.

Looking back, my husband and a few family members including myself have eaten substantial quantities of this fish on several, separate occasions but (luckily) nothing untoward happened to us.

As I said in my post, I found and bought the fish at the South Supermarket in Alabang. I don't know if they know of the origins of this fish or if they know of the issues surrounding it. Personally I am not inclined to buy or eat it again after reading the article. Better safe than sorry!

Lumpiang Shanghai ni Sis. Puring

My lola (Mama to me, Sis. Puring/Matandang Maganda/Mommy Pureza to everyone else) is largely responsible for igniting my passion for cooking. She is the family's original kitchenmaid -- she loves toiling in the kitchen and would cook for every possible reason or excuse. Even at a time when fastfood is the norm and catering is convenience, Mama would insist to cook everything for a family party. When she was younger, she even made desserts like Minatamis na Macapuno and Halayang Ube, on top of making 4-5 main courses!


One dish that's a staple in her party menu (and a frequent potluck party request to her) is this Lumpiang Shanghai. I used to sit and watch her mince the recados and then mix them all up. Then I'd wrap them for her on the eve of each party, enjoying our talks about anything under the sun. Now that she's based in NZ, I heard her Lumpiang Shanghai's been gracing many a Filipino family's dinner parties and is still the hit it was back here.



LUMPIANG SHANGHAI NI SIS. PURING


What's In It?


1/2 kg. pork pigue, ground finely
1 large onion, peeled and minced
1 small singkamas (turnip/jicama), peeled and minced
1 small carrot, peeled and minced
7-8 stalks kinchay (chinese parsley), washed and chopped finely
1 t salt
1 t ground black pepper
50 pcs. lumpia wrapper (small)
2 c cooking oil


Sealer: 2 t cornstarch dissolved in 1.5 t water


Kitchen Conjugations:

To make the filling: Combine all but the last two ingredients in a bowl. Set aside to let flavors meld.

Meantime, separate lumpia wrappers into individual pieces. Allow as little exposure to the air as possible to keep the wrappers from hardening and getting brittle. (Pile on a plate and cover with a slightly moist towel.)

To assemble lumpia: Lay one lumpia wrapper on a plate. Spoon one teaspoonful of the lumpia filing onto the center near the bottom edge of the wrapper. Fold this edge over the filling, then follow with both the right and left edges of the wrapper. Roll the lumpia and seal using the cornstarch mixture. Repeat until all the mixture has been wrapped and rolled.

Heat cooking oil in a deep pan or small wok over medium fire. (Oil should be hot but NOT smoking.) Deep fry the lumpia (about 6-7 pieces per batch) until golden brown and crisp.

Serve with sweet chili sauce or as is, Great with steamed rice, for cocktails or appetizer.

Bangus Steak / Bangus Bistek

While pregnant with Mika bangus (milkfish) was one of the things I always craved. I had it inihaw, sinigang, prito and of course, Filipino bistek style.

Many people I know do not like eating bangus because it's so fussy to eat, having lots of bones to pick. But did you know that for a small charge (P20.00) you can have your suki fish vendor debone your bangus? And of course boneless bangus is available in supermarkets, some of them already marinated/seasoned, some of them in fillets (belly and back). For this recipe I used back fillets bought from the South Supermarket. People say I am strange for liking the flesh better than the (more flavorful) belly, but hey, to each his own! :P

BANGUS STEAK / BANGUS BISTEK

What's In It?

1 pack SeaKing Bangus Back Fillets, about 450g.

1/2 t salt

1 c cooking oil

1/3 c soy sauce

1/8 c calamansi juice (squeezed from 6-8 med.-sized calamansi)

1 1/2 c water

3-4 T sugar (I prefer brown/washed)

1 med. onion, peeled and sliced into rings

6 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed

1 t ground black peppercorns

Kitchen Conjugations:

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry bangus fillets until golden brown and a little crisp.

While waiting for bangus to fry, in another pan or wok, saute onions and garlic for 2 minutes or until onions become soft and translucent. Remove some of the onions from pan and set aside to use as garnish later.

Stir in sugar, peppercorns, soy sauce and water. Let boil and simmer for one minute. Pour in calamansi juice but DO NOT stir until after the mixture boils. Simmer for 3 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings. (You may want it to be on the sweeter or more sour side.) Remove from heat and set aside.

Arrange cooked bangus in a semi-deep dish and pour soy sauce-calamansi mixture. Garnish with the onion rings and serve with hot, steaming rice.

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Substitution notes:

1) You can always use bone-in bangus, bangus belly and other fish for this recipe. Tanigue, alumahan work just as well.

2) No fresh calamansi? Use 1/2 teaspoon Knorr Sinigang sa Calamansi mix. :)

Wine and Cheese

What's better than eating?

Eating and drinking.

What's better than eating and drinking?

Eating and drinking and chatting with friends.

Our good friend Mama Norms came for a visit one Sunday bearing this tray of cold cuts and cheese. All Mike had to do was whip out the wine and there we had it -- eating and drinking and chatting. (Although I wasn't drinking wine, but green tea. ) This was waaay before I got pregnant.

Now with work, two school-age boys and a 3-month old breastfed baby, I wonder when I can have an afternoon as leisurely as this again?

Inside Kitchen Conjugations

This afternoon while we were snacking at Cheesecake Etc., Food Magazine (or so I overheard) was doing a photoshoot of the --whatelse -- cheesecakes. As I pointed this out to my hubby, I said, "Yung ginagawa ko, ginagawa din nila," insinuating that staging and taking pictures of food is a normal thing. He said something like, "Dapat ganu'n din ang camera mo," insinuating how underhanded my Optio A10 was compared to the digital SLR the fotog was using, with a tripod to boot.

I said, "Di ko naman kayang bumili ng ganun," to which he replied, "Ibibili kita."
Sweet. :)

Anyway, the ongoing photo shoot got me thinking about how different food blogging is to food magazine writing.

Magazines are armed with editors, writers, researchers, photographers, the kitchen crew and the publication staff. Foodbloggers usually (I for one) do all the work -- the research, the shopping (for ingredients), the cooking/testing, food styling, taking of pictures, writing, editing and publishing.

Magazines have budgets for testing and re-testing and have assistants documenting and testing measurements and procedures. One-(wo)man foodblogging teams do it all in one-go (with little or nothing to spare for retesting), with measurements done by approximations (a sandok of this, a handful of that, a pinch of this, a dash or so of that). And so as I write the recipes for my posts I have to go over what I put in and what I did in my head and try to come up with the nearest approximations in terms of standard quantities. Thankfully so far no one has commented nor complained that their cooking from my recipes has come out salty or tasteless or inedible. :)

Magazines have the luxury of food styling and the ability to use even non-edible chemicals for the sake of making the food picture-pretty. My products need to be edible, palate-pleasing AND picture-pretty. Magazines have the luxury of long photo shoots; while I've held up countless lunches and dinners (at home and outside) taking shots of the food for my foodblog, I don't take longer than two minutes and sometimes settle for a not-so-pretty picture in the interest of feeding my already hungry family.

And because it's a one-woman team behind Kitchen Conjugations, life sometimes gets in the way and posts come far in between. (As is the case now.) And the biggest difference? You get the recipes (sometimes with a dash of humor and entertainment) virtually free. The cheapest food mag costs P50.00 I think.

So why do I keep at it? Gee, I don't know. Perhaps the need to share and connect? The need to glorify my creative spirit? Or just plain KSP? Hahaha.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Those of you who know me personally know that I am a chocolate addict. Even on a diet, I couldn't and wouldn't say no to chocolate.

Mika is now two months and a week old and I'm still stuck with excessive poundage. I know I need to lose weight, but breastfeeding is such hungry and thirsty work. A friend suggested I forego rice altogether and subsist on sabaw, but that's easier said than done, considering I carry and care for a 7 kg baby 24-7.

And so the challenge is to find healthier substitutes for the food I need/want to eat. Flourless Chocolate Cake is one, don't you think? It's flourless so there's less carbohydrate to worry about, and chocolate comes from a bean, which is a vegetable, so it's healthy, right? Hahaha.

That one up there was a birthday gift by my friend Beth back in 2005. But I still remember how gooey and heavenly it was. Maybe you need a chocolate fix too? CacaoWeb's a chocolate recipe haven. Maybe the toiling before the munching (nay, cheating) will burn some calories and take away some of the guilt. :)

Kitchen Boy

Of my two boys, it is Gabriel who shares my interest in toiling in the kitchen. He's always volunteering to help, is always around watching what I do, and has since cooked Tinolang Manok (Gingered Chicken Soup) with only a little guidance and instruction from me.

The pic above was taken in my mother in law's kitchen in North Cotabato back in 2006. The stove is typical of houses in the provinces and is fed with firewood. (It is however quickly losing out to the more convenient, air-friendly gas stoves.) This stove had a pugon (wood-fired oven) which my husband said has seen better days.

On that vacation I tried baking a cake in a pugon at my sister-in-law's house and it was quite an adventure -- having no thermostat to rely on, having no see-through oven door, and having have to go back out every so often to feed wood to the fire was arduous. (And to think back then this was the only way to go..)

The difficulty was compounded by the fact that I didn't have tools (no measuring cups, no mixer) and was quadrupling the recipe to have cake good for 50 people.

I wasn't too happy with the results -- the banana cake was harder and less flavorful than I wanted it to be, but oddly enough, twas wiped out to the last morsel. Maybe the folks were plain hungry. :)