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There must be some truth to the belief that even hot soup can refresh the body on summer days. I cooked and published the recipe for this pot of chicken tinola exactly five years ago on a day which, in the tradition of Philippine summers, must have been as terribly hot as it was today. [...]
Per Speedy’s request, dinner tonight was escabeche. I did as requested and cooked escabeche with a twist — I added slices of mango. Not soft and ripe mango but mango at that almost infinitesimal stage between unripe and ripe when it is still quite firm, subtly sweet and faintly tangy. The escabeche was so delicious, [...]
It’s breakfast. It’s snack. If it’s a large serving, it can be lunch or dinner. Lugaw (congee) may be Chinese in origin but when served with a side dish of tokwa’t baboy (diced pork and fried tofu) doused with soy-vinegar sauce, it is definitely Filipino. There are many ways to cook congee and different varieties [...]
I don’t think I need to enumerate here the reasons why we need protein in our diet. Suffice to say that protein builds tissues and is a source of energy. In the human diet, meat, eggs and seafood are complete sources of protein with milk and dairy products a close second. Fortunately, Sam has chosen [...]
When Sam declared she was going vegetarian and I agreed to support her, I started to do a lot of reading about meatless diets. To start with, a meatless diet is not necessarily healthier than a carnivorous one. A lot of people think that by giving up meat and limiting one’s intake to vegetables, ailments [...]
Puffy, light, cloudy. These are only some of the words I’ve heard used to describe the crisp crackers that one often finds on the side of fried or roast dishes in Chinese restaurants. We call them kropek in the Philippines. According to Wikipedia: … it is known as krupuk or kerupuk in Indonesia; keropok in [...]
It’s isn’t yellow because of the lemon fruit although this rice dish has both lemon juice and lemon zest. It derives its color from the turmeric added to it. But the flavors are definitely not limited to the turmeric and the lemon. There are many versions and variations of lemon rice, and each has a [...]
When Speedy’s younger brothers and their ladies came over for lunch recently, we had a vase of fresh cut flowers on the dining table. Pink gerbera. Not my doing though. I’m not really into cut flowers and my idea of setting a table revolves mainly on filling the table with food and drinks. But my [...]
I first heard about Himalayan pink salt in a cooking show. Some chef was raving about its gourmet qualities. I can’t remember which show and which chef but my interest was piqued. Two reasons. First, the color. I love pink. Second, the Himalayas. Ever since I read James Hilton’s Lost Horizon back in high school [...]
When I first came across these three-layered brownies, they were called slutty brownies. Apparently, the “slutty” part is descriptive of the messy state of the brownies, gooey chocolate and all, if they are cut and served warm. But I’m a little OC about kitchen mess. Naturally, I let the brownies cool just enough to make [...]
He’s been with us for a few months and I still don’t know what his name is. I’m not even sure if the turtle is male or female. Of all my daughters’ pets — and there have been many of varying kinds over the years — the turtle is the only one I have never [...]
Filipinos like to add pandan leaves to rice while cooking but with basmati, there is no need. Basmati is a long-grain rice with the natural aroma and flavor of pandan leaves. Has to do with something called 2-Acetyl-1-pyrroline which basmati has twelve times more of than other rice varieties. Apart from the aroma and the [...]
Paksiw is the generic name for stews made with vinegar. Lechon is a roasted whole pig sold either whole or by the kilo with an accompanying sweet-sour sauce made with pureed pork liver. To make paksiw na lechon, the meat is slow-cooked in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce, peppercorns, bay leaves, sugar, salt and [...]
The difference is… there is no difference. What is commercially sold as beef tongue or ox tongue come from the cow. But why does it say ox tongue in some recipes and beef tongue in others? The difference between ox and beef tongue First, let’s go into the distinction between an ox and a bull. [...]
I have the same attitude toward coconut that most people have for butter and bacon — add coconut to anything and it’s magic. Add coconut milk or cream to stews and soups, and they become richer and doubly delicious. Add coconut flakes to dessert and you enter another dimension of gustatory delight. I sprinkle toasted [...]
For two straight days, the wind howled. No, there’s no storm nor typhoon. There was a watchamacallit tropical depression last week, it rained for a few days and, after the rains had gone, the wind came. Stronger than a breeze, definitely, because it was strong enough to make the heavy glass pendant lamps above the [...]
There is a grilled cheese sandwich with sun-dried tomatoes recipe in the archive but this one is a bit different. Instead of basil, I used parsley. And, in lieu of garlic and lemon juice, I added black olives. Very Mediterranean flavors. Very simple to make. Very, very good to eat. Alex, who doesn’t even like [...]
Oyster sauce is my favorite thing for flavoring vegetable stir fries. But Sam the vegetarian does not want to include any animal products in her food. Oyster sauce being made from pureed oyster meat, I had to forego it. No worries though. There’s another way to make a vegetable stir fry tasty without oyster sauce [...]
Liam Neeson started it with Taken in 2008. Macho father with a strained relationship with a beautiful teenaged daughter, daughter is kidnapped and daddy comes to the rescue. The rescue is action-packed and fast-paced with a lot of testosterone pumping. When its sequel, Taken 2, came out in September last year, it was accompanied by [...]
When Sam asked me to bake something for dessert last night, I begged off. Alex chimed in, they really wanted something sweet, but I spent a long time preparing lunch (two sets — vegetarian and non-vegetarian), and I was exhausted physically and mentally. I told them that I only had enough reserve energy to prepare [...]
When a recipe calls for julienned vegetables, it simply means that the vegetables are cut into “matchsticks”. It’s simple enough if you think about it but there is a tedious way and an efficient way to do the job. The fastest, most efficient and most convenient way is to use a food processor. But if [...]
Before 2012 ended, there was a get-together with Speedy’s side of the family at my in-laws’ house. Over food and drinks, Speedy’s youngest brother, Richie, started bantering about when we would host another get-together in our house in the boondocks. We used to have the Veneracion family get-togethers here until my mother-in-law became too sickly [...]
I didn’t eat squash blossoms as a child. No one in my family cooked them. The first time I tried them, I was already married. Speedy’s father used to make a huge pot of white corn and vegetables soup to which he always added squash blossoms. What exactly are squash blossoms? Are they literally the [...]
Meatballs may sound boring and common but if soft warm cheese oozes out when you bite into one, I doubt very much if the meatball will qualify as boring or common. And if the meatballs are made with a good mix of herbs and spices, the better they will taste. A sure hit at children’s [...]
Think cole slaw but with chicken, nuts and fresh herbs. And with no mayo. Doesn’t sound like cole slaw anymore? That’s okay. This Vietnamese chicken salad is better than cole slaw. Bias of an Asian? Maybe. Maybe not. With the chicken, this salad is more filling and a large portion can be a complete meal. [...]
What differentiates a sticky bun from a cinnamon roll? In making cinnamon rolls, the dough is rolled thinly, spread with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar, rolled into a log, cut and baked. Yes, there is a cinnamon roll recipe in the archive. I’m of the no-glaze, no-icing school primarily because I like to savor the [...]
When I wrote about replacing my baking pans with silicone ones, I didn’t think the replacement process would go beyond baking pans. But for our wedding anniversary last year (or, maybe, it was for Christmas?), Alex and her friend Chesca surprised us with silicone kitchen tools so pretty that I am now tempted to go [...]
When I cooked the eggplant casserole with Béchamel sauce and sharp cheddar for Sam, her comment was that there was only one texture — the eggplants, Béchamel sauce and melted cheese were all soft. Ah, my merciless critic! But she’s also very right. Vegetarian dishes would definitely benefit from more contrasting textures. So, the next [...]
There was a comment posted once criticizing me for saying that the recipe was made “from scratch” when it contained ingredients like ketchup and mustard. I replied that, perhaps, the commenter wanted to object to the homemade tomato sauce in the recipe too because it was not made from tomatoes that I had personally planted, [...]
It’s meatless and delicious. I made this two days before the girls’ holiday break ended. The thought of adding meat to the pizza toppings didn’t even enter my mind. Although Sam is the only vegetarian in the family, Alex prefers her pizza with cheese and nothing but cheese. When she wants meaty pizza, she orders [...]
Whether you’re making a savory pie, a dessert pie or a pizza, you want to be able to transfer the rolled crust into the baking pan without breaking it. There are two ways to lift the crust dough to make sure that it stays in one piece. The first is to roll the dough between [...]
It’s sweet, it’s syrupy and we buy them in jars or bottles. Honey is made by honeybees from the nectar of flowers or from honeydew (no, not the fruit but the secretion of insects that feed on tree sap). The honeybees suck the nectar or the honeydew, digest it and then expel a complex substance [...]
When I first dabbled with vegetarian cooking, I thought I was going to do it for my mother. The plan was that she would come and live with us and since she had a history of hypertension, I was learning to cook low-fat, low-salt dishes with lots of vegetables and minimal meat. My mother passed [...]
Roast duck is as close as we’ll ever get to “traditional holiday food” — my family’s traditional holiday food, that is. Except last year when we opted for grilled chicken and pork, we’ve been having roast duck on New Year’s eve for the past decade. You’d think that, after ten years, roasting duck would be [...]
Most people make one bucket list. Sam does it differently. She has a bucket list for every year. Smart. I decided to follow her example. And, for 2012, two items on my bucket list were to make (1) homemade corned beef and (2) homemade ham. I managed the ham; the corned beef has been carried [...]
Up until two years, we an unobstructed view of the sky from our garden and the New Year’s Eve fireworks photos were just gorgeous. By last year, there were semi-constructed houses on the once empty lots and the view wasn’t so great anymore so I took other-than-fireworks photos instead. This year, it’s back to fireworks [...]
In cooking meatloaf, “under wraps” usually means the meatloaf is enclosed in mashed potatoes then baked until the top of the mashed potatoes is lightly browned. I’d have done something like that but we were bringing the meatloaf to a potluck party and it would be a headache transporting the thing. The container would have [...]
When they were younger, the girls loved Goldilocks mocha-vanilla chiffon cake. You know, the one sold by the slice? That and the chicken pie were the only Goldilocks items we bought. Well, until the crust of the chicken pie became bread-like rather than flaky and the filling became more potatoes than chicken. After that, the [...]
Life is full of surprises. Sometimes, no matter how pleasant the surprise, it can throw you into a panic. Like when people you’d love to spend time with suddenly call and announce that they will be arriving in a hour. For dinner. They’re bringing food but you know you have to prepare something too. That [...]
Basic guacamole is great but that doesn’t mean you can’t add a few twists here and there to add variety and, perhaps, even make it better. Doddie once told me how a little garlic could make guacamole flavors pop, I tried adding a little grated garlic to my guacamole and, yes, Doddie is so right. [...]
What exactly is pull-apart bread? At its most basic, it means a loaf of small pieces of bread that separate when pulled apart. The dough is rolled, spread with a filling (often, butter-based) then cut into strips. The strips are stacked on top of each other then cut into squares. The squares are stuffed into [...]
This was lunch on Christmas day. So festive-looking, so tasty and so homey because I decided to serve it in the cast iron pan in which it was cooked. Slices of pork belly seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic, then braised in a mixture of Worcestershire sauce, broth and crushed pineapples. When the pork was [...]
Holiday eating got too heavy? Have something for breakfast that doesn’t require chewing — a milk shake with everything in it including caffeine to wake you up, sugar to give you that needed morning boost and a touch of mint to refresh your senses. Based on a recipe from the Food Network. Recipe: Minty vanilla [...]
If you go through the archive, all the way through 2003, there has rarely been a Christmas Eve when we had more than one main dish. We’ve never been traditional and it has just never been practical to prepare too much food for a family of four. It’s no different this year. I was quite [...]
So, as I was saying in the previous post: If you’re entertaining and you want to impress, serve something no one knows for sure how to pronounce properly and they’ll think you’re the epitome of culinary sophistication. Case in point — affogato. It’s just ice cream drowned in coffee. Literally. You put scoops of ice [...]
Sometimes, the starter course comes after the dessert. Sam wanted sushi, except for the nori, we didn’t have the traditional ingredients for making Japanese rice rolls so she rummaged through the fridge to see what she could use — bulgogi ham, cream cheese and lettuce.
I don’t know why but, for many people I know, dishes with unpronounceable French and Italian names conjure images of sophistication and awesome sexiness. Like zabaione or soufflé. For some reason, the more tongue-twisting the name of the dish is, the more impressed people are. If you’re entertaining and you want to impress, serve something no one [...]
We don’t buy commercially made cakes anymore. We haven’t for years. Their prices simply don’t justify the use of cheap ingredients and, worse, extenders. Take Red Ribbon’s chocolate mousse cake, for instance. Years ago, you can’t leave the cake at room temperature for too long because the whipped cream topping will melt. Naturally. Last month, [...]
In Asia where rice is a staple, congee is a dish found in just about every cuisine. But how congee is cooked and served differ from culture to culture and region to region. Some people cook the rice in water until the mixture is almost a paste. Others prefer a thin soup. Even the kind [...]
