Here is something to get us all into the mood of cooking with children or reminiscing about our own experiences of food, friendship and family… a short clip of my son Cean! It has been weeks since this event’s announcement that I kept trying to talk him into singing again that ‘cooking-eating’ song while I take a video to share online. Oh well thank God it’s not one of his ‘one-time concerts’. Continue reading Into The Mood for LP8!
We have been quite busy for the past several months and my cooking has been alternately quickies or leisurely-cooking while working. The quickies in the kitchen of course are my stir-fry veggies, quilos, fried meat/fish, halabos (shellfish cooked with salt and from its own juice and no water at all), easy soups and the likes. And when I say leisurely-cooking while working, this is slow-cooking for hours that I always make it a point to set my alarm clock every 30 minutes just so I won’t burn anything and trigger the smoke detector. Of course, leisurely styles of cooking like braising and stewing makes melt-in-the-mouth meals not possible with the quickies.
I still have few pictures of my mom’s cooking taken during my last vacation that I want to share. Here is one of her many variations of sinigang (sour broth). Sinigang maybe cooked with fish, meat (maybe lean meat, fatty or bony parts) or shellfish. Vegetables vary depending on availability and, of course, preference. The most common souring agents are fresh sampalok (tamarind), bayabas (guava), kamias (bilimbi) or simply a pouch of sinigang mix available at the store nearest you.
So typical of mom – seldom does she plans on anything before buying, and even before cooking. Buy the staples and decide the last minute based on what’s in the ref/pantry and the remaining time before the meal itself. An example is this sinigang na bangus sa kamias (milkfish in sour bilimbi broth). And how my son loves it!
The staple of the Filipino food is rice but for the sake of variety I sometimes prepare bread or noodle or corn for the much needed daily carbohydrate intake. Here, I pan-fried few processed fish fillets and served them with pasta tossed in olive oil, parsley, Italian herbs and parmesan cheese – another easy to prepare dish as well as a truly mouth-watering meal!
This isn’t a restaurant review. We just love to go to this not-so-expensive Thai restaurant near our son’s school. On certain occasions, we have a quick lunch there before picking him up. What’s interesting is every time we are there … Continue reading Thai Food & Daydreaming
Now that it’s going to be my turn to host Lasang Pinoy, I got so excited I couldn’t think of a theme! We finally came up with this wonderful topic about cooking with children. Kusinang bulilit, lutong paslit! (Children’s kitchen, cooking by children!) So what would this be all about? As I reflect on the subject and start to write about this announcement, I can hear my son here singing a line that goes like this…
Cooking, cooking, I like to cook!
Eating, eating, I like to eat!
It’s fun to cook and eat together!
He would even say he would like to bake a cake. “May I ask you how?” He said all he needs to do is… “take some milk, take some flour and 2 eggs.”
Continue reading “Lasang Pinoy 8: Kusinang Bulilit, Lutong Paslit!”
Before my son’s babysitter left I used to travel a lot to a project site in Shi Jia Zhuang, the capital of Hebei province, southwest of Beijing. 2 hours and 45 minutes by fast train, one way. A trip that long you need something to maintain sanity so we either watch a movie or read a book. Of course, before all that, read the morning news and mobile versions of our favorite websites on PDA. Here is where I found this Kapampangan recipe called quil?? (pronounced ki-loh).
Eventually this traditional meat recipe from Pampanga became one of my favorites as it is easy and fast to cook. (I didn’t time it but everything should be ready in about 20 minutes.) A working mom with a deadline and quil?? saves the day, be it minced pork or shredded chicken. You may find the original recipe here sizzling hot so good for LP6. Mine has no chili as Cean wouldn’t like it hot and spicy. An overview of quil?? is here.
When I read Sassy’s potato omelet entry for LP7, I promised myself I’m gonna try it the very next day. I wanna do it exactly how she did it but I have some leftover tuna chunks that I decided to include them in mine. Ingredients: 3 eggs, beaten leftover tuna chunks 1 large potato, cut into cubes salt & pepper Fry the potatoes until a little bit browned and crispy like French fries. Pour off the excess oil and add in the left-over tuna. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the eggs and cook slowly, stirring and scraping from … Continue reading Scrambled Eggs with Potato and Tuna
I’ve been dreaming of cooking chicken mami (noodle soup) since I had miki (flat noodles) soup back home that my sister prepared. Thanks to Karen for her recipe I didn’t have to ask my sis for hers.
I remember dad serving me chicken mami when I was a sick child and beef mami when I was working for overnight projects during my college days. Now it’s me cooking for myself.
Chicken soup is the answer to all these inconsistent weather patterns in Beijing making me wickedly sick with a bad cold.Anyways, here is how I prepared mine using Chinese-style dry noodles instead of fresh noodles.
For my kind of work, I read or browse tru mags and books or surf the net for inspiration before I start conceptualizing for new designs. It goes without saying that I also do this to plan ahead about what to cook. As I always check out fellow pinoy food blogs for recipes I haven’t tried or the ones that seems forgotten, I found one about stuffed pusit (squid) that teleported me back to my dad’s old office when I was a little girl. There was some kind of a celebration, must be the opening of the office itself or the company’s anniversary, and one of mom’s main dish was a huge stuffed squid.
How I did it here is slightly different from how she prepared hers as I watched the whole process. The squid she cooked was really gigantic it looked bloated w/ filling, the ends closed w/ stitches. She deep fried the squid w/ oil while I chose to roll mine on butter. But the rest of the procedure and ingredients are exactly the same. The result – wonderfully tender squid stuffed with minced pork, onions, garlic and tomatoes.
I’ve also read about the tentacles being chopped and included in the filling. In another recipe, raw egg is also to be blended with the meat mixture. All these I will surely try next time. In the meantime, here is how I did it.
I remember those days a long time ago every time we were in a Chinese restaurant I always wonder how they can cook the meat so tender in such a short time whilst the vegetable remain crisp and the sauce thick and bubbly. I observed firsthand a real northern Chinese cook their veggies (of course, ate Vi our enterpreter here), tried few stir-fry recipes I found online, discovered the technique myself and now I couldn’t stop experimenting w/ different vegetables.
Here’s another easy stir-fry recipe for those like me w/ a busy sched. You may replace the pork here with beef and the cooking time is still the same as long as the meat is thinly sliced.
Almusal means breakfast and it’s an essential part of every Filipino’s day. At least before life sneakily speeded up its pace to breakneck and McDonald’s had a drive-thru. It’s the fuel we need to start a day of hard work… whether it be tilling the fields or trudging through the corporate jungle. Lasang Pinoy 7: Gising na! ALMUSAL! – 80 Breakfasts When we were kids, with the exception of pandesal, champorado and oatmeal, almusal (breakfast) was always heavy and hearty with sinangag so as not to hear your stomach growl before lunchtime. Ulam (main dish) would either be tuyo (dried … Continue reading LP7: Tosilog for Almusal
I steamed quite a large piece of fish in soy sauce yesterday and still have some leftover that I decided to make fish balls. Here’s the recipe…
I came upon an article by the pilgrim on tinolang manok where she mentioned substitute ingredients especially for green papayas. Here is my version. Got it from a colleague of mine about a couple of years ago who cooked it with potatoes as there are neither green papayas nor chayote here in Beijing. (Hmmm, I remember buying chayote once…) The taste is definitely unlike nilaga but the yummy taste and texture of potatoes give it a distinct flavor. Also, like most tinola recipes I found online, he also saute the chicken instead of boiling it the way my mom does … Continue reading My Version of Tinolang Manok
Been really busy these past few days (or weeks?)Â so here’s a quick one. My mom’s tinola (chicken ginger stew) – photo taken during our vacation last xmas. I will post my version later on, as unripe papayas and chili … Continue reading Mom’s Tinolang Manok