Of Tinola

Tinola without the green leafy vegetables

When I was a teenager, I read one of the most famous novels in the Philippines: Noli Me Tangere by J.P. Rizal. Of all the scenes in the book, the one that would never leave my mind in that of a dinner party where they served, what I now call a very historical, tinola. Apparently this easy soup based dish used to be the ultimate party food of the 19th century. Like most kids born in the 20^th century and growing up in the 21^st, I asked why this simple dish was considered so special back then. It seems that back in the 19^th century, when there was no refrigeration, people in the Philippines would simply eat tons of fish and that chicken, pork and beef were reserved for special occasions and for the rich. This almost quite the opposite of what we’d see today, with the changes in food preservation and in the environment.

All you really need to make tinola is some good chicken pieces (thighs, legs, breasts, whatever you can get your hands on), some ginger, green papaya or chayote and onions. You can add green leafy vegetables too, if you want, like malunggay or spinach or even the leaves of pepper plant. A word of warning, sometimes a little baby pepper might find its way into the dish via the leaves and biting into that little baby pepper is not in the least bit pleasurable, especially when you’re not expecting it. That’s already happened to me once and it took quite a while before the heat left my tongue. It’s really better is you just add a big adult chili pepper instead. 

1 whole chicken cut into different parts (or its equivalent in thigh, wings or breasts)

Water or rice washings

1 knob ginger, crushed

1 small to medium sized red onion, quartered

1 small green papaya or chayote (whichever is on hand. My mom usually uses chayote), cut into wedges

1 medium sized carrot, cut into wedges

1 chili pepper

Some green leafy vegetable (like pepper leaves, malunggay or spinach)

Salt and pepper to taste

In a pot, place the chicken, ginger and onion. Add just enough water or rice washing to cover the chicken. Bring this to a boil and add the chayote/papaya and the carrot. Cook until the chicken is done and the vegetables are soft. Add the chili pepper whole. At the final minute of cooking, add the green leafy vegetable. Season the dish with salt and pepper.

The best way to serve tinola is with some warm rice. Some people also love to serve it with some fish sauce, although I generally stay away from that stuff. I have to say that this is way easier to make than standard chicken soup, which is wonderful when you have the sniffles. Tinola is also quite cheap.  I’ve also found that if you can’t find either green papayas or chayote in your grocery store, potatoes will do just fine.

Of Coffee Scones

Oh no! Another scone recipe! I hope you're not tired of them yet, because I certainly am not. Just goes to show how much I adore scones. My recipe this time around is an off-shoot of the Earl Grey scones I made earlier. This time around, I thought why not add coffee instead of tea. After looking for advice from the Googler, I settled for using instant coffee powder. I mean, why use expensive espresso blends when you’re going to cook it anyway, right? Using the recipe for cream scones as a base, I simply heated the ½ cup of milk and added a tablespoon of instant coffee to it. I had to increase the amount of sugar added since the coffee I used cancelled out any of the sweetness from the sugar. (Yes, it was that strong and bitter. It was good quality instant coffee.) The only other thing lacking from it is a drizzle of Nutella. (Have I told you how much I adore that stuff?)

 Coffee Scones

½ cup milk

1 tablespoon instant coffee

2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter, very cold and cut into small pieces

½ cup raisins or other dried fruit

1 large egg, cold

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg for the egg wash

In a saucepan, heat milk until it simmers. Add the tablespoon of instant coffee and stir until the granules are dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside until cooled. (You can refrigerate if you want) In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and either using your fingers or two knives or a pastry cutter, blend in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Set aside. In a smaller container (preferably with a spout), whisk together the egg, vanilla extract and the milk mixture. Pour this over the flour and butter mixture and stir until just combine. DO NOT OVER MIX. Once combined, transfer to a floured surface and knead into a ball and flatten the top. Using a knife dipped in flour or a cookie cutter, divide the mixture into 8 pieces and place on a greased cookie sheet. Brush a mixture of egg and water on each of scone. Bake in a 375F or 190C oven for 15-18 minutes. They’ll be nice and dark brown when cooked with the beautiful scent of coffee. The raisins will be great splash of sweetness in this bittersweet scone. 

The instant coffee that I used. It's a pretty good blend.

Of Cupcakes that are Better than Sex

Have you ever had cupcakes so good that you forget your name? Or even the definition of sex? As I packed for my trip home, my sister requested that I bring some baked goods with. Specifically, she wanted chocolate cake, which I knew would be hell to bring on the plane. To overcome this dilemma, I decided to bring cupcakes instead since they were small and easier to pack. I quickly googled a recipe for great chocolate cupcakes. That's when I chanced upon 52 Kitchen Adventures' recipe for "Better that Sex" Chocolate Cupcakes. I was intrigued immediately. I also immediately felt giddy about serving my mom and sister cupcakes that shouted they were better than sex.

To frost or not to frost. Sigh. That was my second dilemma. I really wanted to add the dark chocolate ganache frosting, but I was also afraid that that would cause a bigger mess. It took me a good 5 hours to settle on not frosting. After all, my mom does not really like frosting and my sister eats too much of it for her own good. I will definitely frost next time, though, since it does look so delightfully pretty with the frosting.  

I love how the cupcakes turned out! While baking they formed a little dome with collapsed as they cooled, and yet, I'm quite certain that that's what added to the delicious gooey center. The cupcakes were perfectly moist and not too sweet. My mom said they weren't better than sex as is (she's definitely biased, though), but I'm pretty sure they will be with that ganache frosting. Just imagine it. Soft, gooey, chocolaty and with a perfect frosting. It just makes my mouth water. Try it!

Here's the recipe for it:

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1 1/4 cup sugar (ok, I was compelled to decrease this to 1 cup, but it was still quite sweet)

2 large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup salt 

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The first step would be beating the butter until it is smooth and softened. Beat in the sugar to make it fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (i.e. flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder). In another container, preferably with a spout, combine the milk and vanilla extract. Once both wet and dry mixtures are prepared, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter, sugar and eggs mixture. Once combined, pour in 1/2 of the wet ingredients. Alternate with 1/3 of the dry ingredients again, then the remaining wet ingredients and finally the remaining dry ingredients. Remember to combine each addition well before adding the next addition. Once everything is combined, fill 15 prepared cupcake cups.  Bake in a 350F or 177C oven for 20-25 minutes. You'll know the cupcakes are done when an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

If you want to make the ganache topping, simply bring some heavy cream (1/3 cup) to a boil. Once boiling, pour it over some very good chopped chocolate (about 100g) and stir until chocolate is melted and the entire mixture is smooth and shiny. Allow it to cool first before spreading on top of the cupcakes. 

Be sure to use good quality chocolate, preferably semi-sweet, bittersweet or dark chocolate, or you'll really regret it. This is the general recipe for most ganaches (although quantities change). You can also add some liquor to give me more kick. Sigh. Now I really really which I had made ganache for these cupcakes.

It is very important that you don't overfill the cupcake cups. Only fill each until they are half full or at most 2/3 full, nothing more. I once made this mistake with another cupcake recipe, and what a mess that made in my oven! AND, my cupcakes looked like monsters from outer space. So, DO NOT OVERFILL!

Of Ham-less Eggs Benedict

It started with an experiment. That's right, it was just suppose to be an experiment on how to poach and egg. But when I got the eggs from the fridge, I realized that I also had enough eggs and butter to make hollandaise sauce. Not letting go of the spur of the moment, decided that I should go ahead and make ham-less eggs benedict. 

Was it hard? Well, not as hard as I thought it would be. Granted, my first try at the hollandaise sauce curdled, but my next one was perfect. I think the trick was continuously whisking the eggs and butter and removing it from the heat as soon as it reached the desired consistency. Oh, and don't forget to transfer it immediately to another container or at least give the bowl you cooked it in an ice bath. As for the poached eggs, it seemed like I watched people poach eggs so many times on TV that I nailed it on the first try. The vinegar really did help. 

I'm not sure if I put too much salt, but my hollandaise sauce reminded me of glorious melted cheese but with a creamier texture. It tasted so good with the poached eggs. I really do wish I had ham to finish off this dish, but I can't complain. My experiment is a success and I will definitely be making this again in the future.

Poached Eggs

barely simmering pot of water

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar 

eggs

Pour the vinegar into the water. The trick I found was to crack the egg in a different container first then carefully slide it into the water. Use a slotted spoon to move around the whites, so they don't spread so much, although the vinegar also helps keep them from spreading. Once the whites are cooked, use the slotted spoon again to lift the egg out of the water. Serve!

Hollandaise Sauce

2 egg yolks

75g melted butter

1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk the yolks and the vinegar together in a steel bowl and place the bowl over a simmering pot of water. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Keep whisking. Drizzle the butter slowly onto the egg mixture and keep whisking. (Yeah, your arm's going to hurt a bit, but it's worth it) Keep whisking until the the sauce has thickened. Quickly remove the sauce from the heat and transfer to another container. Enjoy with your poached egg.

Of the Secret of Chinese Orange Anything

Have you ever been to a Chinese restaurant, glanced at the menu and decided right there and then to just get Orange chicken...or pork...or shrimps..or fish? I've done just that many times...especially whenever I ate at Panda Express...which happened almost every day for a month one summer. I will be the first to say though, that Panda's orange sauce isn't the best. No, the best would go to another Chinese restaurant, whose name I cannot remember, in Florida. My point is orange anything is addictive and I have tried and tried to make it for myself. Somehow, it just eluded me.

And that's how I came about this article. The title itself was catchy. It wasn't just orange chicken or orange pork. No, it was orange ANYTHING. I knew I just hit upon the holy grail. It comes from the site: Food Republic. My challenge then became making this dish.

Finally, after waiting so long, I finally needed to make this dish. I had to change it a bit, though, because I didn't have oranges (what's new?) I did have lemons, and since I personally preferred lemon anything over orange anything, I figured lemons would also work with this recipe. Another change I did was add toasted sesame seeds instead of sesame oil. The result? Yummy lemon shrimps served perfectly with fried rice. Note, this is a one person recipe.

1/8 kg shrimps
enough cornstarch to coat the shrimps
3-4 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
juice of 2 lemons
1 tablespoon sugar
1-2 tablespoon lemon or orange marmalade
lemon zest
1 teaspoon soy sauce
dash of chili flakes
sliced scallions

Toss the shrimps in the cornstarch. Heat the oil in a pan and quickly sautee the shrimps in it. Add the lemon juice until deglazed. Add the sesame seeds, the lemon zest, sugar, marmalade and soy sauce. Also add the chili flakes. Toss until all is well combined. Serve on top of the rice and sprinkle the sliced scallions.

Love it!

Of Oatmeal Power Breakfasts

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day...or so they say. Breakfast should be filling, energizing and oh so delicious. Breakfast is also never complete without oatmeal, at least that's what my mom says. I totally disagree with her on this count, but I have to admit that I do love oatmeal breakfasts. Besides it's neutral taste (at least for me) that I can spruce up any way I want, oatmeal is also loaded with fibers and complex carbohydrates. This means that you stay full longer, which would be a plus if you're trying to lose weight. Oatmeal also has beta-glucans (a type of polysaccharide) which is may lower cholesterol. (I tried reading about it, but I'm still trying to understand the mechanism, so I'll be conservative and use the word "may" instead of the word "can". If anyone has a more detailed study about this, please let me know.)

Today's breakfast was inspired by this post from thekitchn.com. It was a breakfast of Baked Pumpkin Steel Cut Oatmeal. Now, I don't really keep pumpkin puree in the house. In fact, my family doesn't really eat pumpkin. We love squash though, but mostly the kind found in South East Asia. Anyway, the recipe made me think of other ways to spice up my usual oatmeal. When I was a kid, I would usually sprinkle it with sugar and Milo (the chocolate and malt drink made by Nestle), but since I'm older now, I wanted something more adult. That's how I came up with this recipe:

Banana Oatmeal Power Breakfast

1 cup Rolled oats

3 cups water (or milk)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoon brown or muscovado sugar

1 very ripe banana

Raisins or any dried fruit

Cook the rolled oats in water. Once cooked, added the cinnamon, the nutmeg and the banana. Mix until combined then take the mixture off the heat. Pour into bowls and top with the raisins.

The recipe above usually works for two to three people, and the other great thing about it is that you can actually use leftover oatmeal. That's actually what I did. Instead of having to cook the rolled oats, I simply poured the leftover oatmeal into a saucepan and added 1/2 cup milk and proceeded with the recipe as indicated. So, the next time you have leftover oatmeal, be sure to refrigerate it. You'll never know when you're going to spice it up.

Oh, if you ever wondered about the difference between rolled oats and instant oats and steel cut oats, here's another page on thekitchn.com that's very helpful:

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/noodles-pasta-and-grains/whats-the-difference-steelcut-rolled-and-oldfashioned-oats-138355

Of Shrimp Pesto Pasta

I love shrimps. Shrimps remind me of Forrest Gump's friend, Bubba, and how he listed all the things you can do to shrimps. Like Bubba says, "...boil it, broil it, bake it, sautee it..." The one dish he wasn't able to mention was shrimp with pesto and pasta. Although, I have a feeling that he probably did, it just didn't make it to the movie. 

 For this dish, I had to devein the shrimp, which is not something my family usually does to shrimp. When my family cooks shrimps, we usually cook them without removing the shell or the head or the digestive tract. I think most Filipino dishes call for the whole shrimp; unpeeled, not decapitated and not deveined. My dad says that this is to make sure the juices stay in the shrimp. One of my favorite things to do to a shrimp is to suck out the juices from the head, especially when it's cooked in sinigang (sour soup). 

For today, though, we look towards Italy for inspiration. In all honesty, I'll admit that I think the only thing that's Italian in this dish is the pasta and the pesto. I still feel like I cooked this dish like a Filipino. I also have to admit that I did not make the pesto. I used Jamie Oliver's jarred pesto. I'll tell you more about it later.

So, you want to have this for dinner? Here's what you need: (Be warned since I basically made this in my head first, there's practically no measurements involved. You'll need to rely on you instincts.)

Pasta, cooked according to directions on the box, amount depends on how much you'll eat

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic (I know the pesto already has some, but I like adding a bit more)

1 small onion

1/8 kg shrimp or 5-6 pieces (per person, I like being generous)

3 tablespoons basil pesto

2 tablespoons cream cheese

more olive oil if needed

In a pan, heat the olive oil and sautee the garlic until golden brown. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the shrimps. You'll know the shrimps are cooked when they turn orange. (Make sure they turn orange, but don't cook them too long or they'll become tough) Add in the pesto and the cream cheese. If the mixture is too dry, you can add a little more olive oil, but don't overdo it. Pour the whole mixture over a bed of pasta. Top with more cream cheese.

Now, let me tell you more about the pesto I used. I used Jamie Oliver's Italian Herb Pesto. I don't usually use this pesto. I usually use Classico's Traditional Basil Pesto. Between the two, I prefer Classico's. I found Jamie Oliver's a bit too dry. Classico had a little more olive oil, which was nice. Taste-wise, Classico still beats Jamie Oliver's, at least that's what I think. Has anyone else tried both? What do you think?