Simple and no fuss

I sometimes find myself unable to decide what I want to eat.  I pace from ref to pantry, back and forth for the nth time and still have no idea what to cook.

Today, is one of those days, maybe because of the holidays, I got tired of eating beef, pork and chicken.

What do I do when I find myself in this situation?

I rely on my trusty default solution: 

Get some tuyo, bagoong alamang, chilli oil, basil and lots and lots of garlic and make pasta.

It's a simple, no fuss dish using only items found in the house but it gives me delight that no haughty-taughty expensive food could deliver.

Tuyo and sweet and spicy bagoong alamang is comfort food for me, and I guess to most pinoys as well.  Combine them with another comfort food, pasta, and you have there a slice of happy pie.

I'm happy happy happy :)

Ban-apple Experiment

My mom kept on bugging me to make something from bananas and apples the past few days.  She said that she has tasted this dessert that has bananas and apples in it and it was good.

I'm kinda iffy about combining bananas and apples in a single dessert since I haven't encountered this flavor profile before and I don't know how it would taste.

Today, I finally gave in and decided to make a "ban-apple" cake.

I used one part bananas and one part apples combined with my tried and tested cake recipe sprinkled with muscovado sugar on top and boy oh boy was I surprised with how it turned out.

It was really really really good!  Super moist and fluffy and also in pinoy jargon, hindi nakakaumay.

It is visually plain though, so I just have to think of a way to make it look more appealing, but the taste is another story.

I think I have a new favorite now :)

Shrimp and Pork Dumplings

My mom asked me to make some dumplings today.

She bought some ground pork (with lots of fat) and shrimps from the wet market, and some stock dumpling wrappers in the ref.

I just added some finely chopped onions, garlic, ginger and a variety of seasonings to the meat, and assembled the dumplings.

I did the dumplings two ways:

Steamed

and Fried

Enjoyed them with some soy sauce, calamansi, and some home-made chilli garlic.


And as a bonus, made from the leftover shrimps

Stir-fried shrimps with Soba :)

Yummy!

Banana Chocolate Fudge Cake

My inspiration for this:


hershey's chocolates

  
  




bananas

  











You can't go wrong with a choco-banana combination.   This is not a frou frou dessert with intricate and delicate components.  This one is really plain and simple comfort food.   A layer of rich, creamy, velvety chocolate on top of soft and moist banana bread.

What I did:

I  baked a relatively thin layer of banana bread because I will be adding a layer of chocolate to it. 

I adjusted the  flour to banana ratio, adding more flour to make it sturdier and then baked it 350'F for 20 minutes and then turned the oven off and let it set for another 10 minutes.

While waiting for the bread to cool down, I made some chocolate fudge.  It's not strictly chocolate fudge because my recipe calls for condensed milk and semi-sweet chocolate, but I decided to use half condensed milk and half cream to lessen it's sweet-umay factor.  I don't know if it's right to still call it chocolate fudge because it's like half-fudge and half ganache but I liked how it turned out.

I then poured the chocolate mixture on the cooled down banana bread and let it set in the ref overnight.


I really love the balance of the clean taste of the moist banana bread combined with the rich taste of the chocolate.

Sinfully delicious! 

Rating:  Bilbil enhancer  :)

This would definitely add a few inches to your waistline.

Hungry Reflection

I was all alone today at home and very much hungry, and as it usually is when I’m all by my lonesome, I also found myself on a pensieve mood. 

Hunger and reflection, quite an odd combination coming from opposite sides of man’s spectrum,  id est instinctive, which is a baser  function  and intellective, which is our highest faculty.  These made me realize some things about myself,  specifically regarding my aesthetics lately.

As of the late, I keep on finding myself being drawn to simple subjects that have something quirky about them.  Seemingly uncomplicated things that have an underlying oddity that only a somewhat “weirdo” (loosely used)  like me would see.  It’s like looking at the ordinary with extraordinary eyes.

 With this playing in my mind while raiding our ref, I decided to make myself something simple to eat, no fuss,  nothing too complicated, but something that  has an image of being special. 


A few slices here, a little searing there, some simple but nice plating,  and this is what I made:

Seared Tuna Sashimi with Wasabi and Soysauce, from leftover fresh frozen tuna last sunday

Grilled Unagi, from a long forgotten pack of frozen unagi at the back of our freezer from who knows when

And of course, a small bowl of rice, the stickier the better

In an ideal world, I would eat these everyday, well the unagi and the rice maybe but the tuna, I think alternating it with salmon would be much better.  :)

Oooh and I forgot....Uuni, add some uuni to the equation and that's heaven!

Apple Pistachio Buttercream Cupcake

I oftentimes get insipiration to cook or bake with ingredients I find just lying around our kitchen.  It's usually just a spur of the moment thing, no plans, no recipe, just experimenting with whatever ingredient there is on hand and whatever cooking technique I have retained in my head from my experiences.

What inspired me today was some granny smiths and some pistachios.  Since I have been on a baking spree the past few weeks, I decided to make some cupcakes.

I find it cute that my paring knife is color coordinated with the apples as well as the pistachios.


and the color of the day is apple green, literally



Pistachios roughly chopped

This is the jist of what I did:

I cooked the apples in unsalted butter, pureed the mixture in the food processor and let it cool down a few minutes.  I then creamed the sugar with the eggs and the vanilla extract, adding the apple mixture while mixing continuously then I added some cream and mixed some more.  I sifted some flour and some baking soda and slowly incorpated this dry mixture into the wet mixture until there were no more lumps.  I transfered the batter into cupcake pans and baked them in the oven at 350'F.  As for the baking time, I wasn't sure at first since this is an experiment, so what I did was checked it after 10 minutes and when I saw that only a small portion of the cupcakes' middle part was still wet, I turned the oven off and let it set in the oven 5 minutes more.  While waiting for the cupcakes to cool down, I made some simple vanilla butter cream and roughly chopped some pistachio nuts.  I then frosted the cooled down cupakes with the buttercream and sprinkled with the pistachio nuts on top.

And the finished product:

cute cuts

Mom and Dad got these from S&R today.  

One word:  Cute (it's funny using the word cute to describe sharp knives)

There's nothing like cutting a bloody piece of meat with a pink knife, and removing the guts of a fish using an apple green paring knife.   :)

Teehee!

mix and match

We had an interestingly weird dinner combination today.

I made some tuna sashimi, being still giddy from the cute set of knives bought by mom and dad from S&R earlier. 

dipped in some soysauce and wasabi

some take-out calzone from S&R

and finally, some kamto (beef ribs in a clear broth with raddish, onion and cilantro) left over from lunch

Japanese, Italian and Pinoy in one sitting.

Pretty odd combination but it worked for me.

I think I need to unbotton my pants now....burp....excuse me  :)

In the middle

It's been a while since I've eaten  middle eastern food, and I'm happy that I was able to finally re-acquaint my tastebuds with this tasty treat.

We ate at this small casual middle eastern inspired restuarant along Boni ave. in Pasig.  The place was simple with plain wooden tables and chairs and the opposing walls decorated with different sized and colored hookahs.

We started off with a couple orders of ox brain , notice how they used kalamansi instead of lemon wedges :)

My brother had Beef Biryani, I love the color of the rice and look at those beautiful long grains

I ordered for myslef some Beef Shawarma Rice, I just can't get over how beautiful their rice looked.

and of course this wouldn't be complete without some spicy chilli sauce and creamy garlic sauce



Yummy!



And to wash it all down, a glass of ice cold crisp rootbeer

Hits the right spot!

Nice nice nice!

맛있게 드세요 (mas-issge deuseyo)

I really enjoy Korean food.  I just love the balance of the spices that dance in your mouth and tickle your taste buds.

I first became interested with Korean food when I got hooked with the first and only  "Koreanovela" (korean soap opera dubbed in filipino) that I have ever watched.  It was Jewel in the Palace, which is loosely based on the historical figure Dae Jang Geum.  The show focuses on her life leading towards becoming the first female royal physician of  the Korean imperial court.  This TV program introduced me to traditional Korean royal court cuisine and traditional medicine.  I am just fascinated with the intricacy of their food preparation, about how much detail they put into it. 

I'm no expert in Korean cuisine and I've only eaten in a few Korean restaurants here in the Philippines, but with my limited knowledge and experience, all that I can say is I'm happy and satisfied with majority of the food items that I was able taste.

My current favorites are:

Their appetizers, which in most Korean restaurants are free :)


assorted apps



 lettuce




and some thin and crispy slices of pork

you can pile all of them up wrapped with the lettuce and take in one delicious bite

For the main course

Bin Dae Duk (Korean pancakes), and because I love this so much, I also make them at  home :)

Galbi Jim (Korean beef stew), I also cook this at home :)

and Jap Chae, I love the texture of this noodle dish

These are staples whenever we eat at any Korean restaurant.

Yummy!
(sigh.... I'm getting hungry while writing this and looking at the pictures)

맛있게 드세요 - mas-issge deuseyo - enjoy!

Silang Cavite

We went to our small lot in Silang Cavite where we have our resthouse of sorts.

Our quaint bahay kubo

some produce in season that we have there


coffee

 



Bird's Eye Chilli







 





Finger Chilli







Annatto



We also have some animals

like this quirky turkey, that we call "stroke"  because it recently recovered from a stroke and now, it's head is slightly bent on the right

Some chickens and roosters

Ducks


and some Geese that lay some very rich eggs (very good for custards, specially for leche flan)

Our day trip in Silang wouldn't be complete without a very sumptuous filipino meal.

We usually  sautee some vegetables

some roughly chopped veggies, very rustic

And grill some seafood and meat

some firewood for cooking



amplaya and liempo being grilled


A small feast of ginisang gulay, inihaw na tilapia, liempo, manok, okra, talong, ampalaya, steamed rice, ensaladang mangga and some toyo't calamansi

Nothing beats eating these on banana leaves by hand.

Super Enjoy!!!

A very scrumptuos meal on a beautiful day.