Cherries

Finally, cherries that are big and plump.

Spicy Baby Octopus Stew

I got this idea from http://www.marketmanila.com/. Baby octopus was something I have never cooked and have tasted only a couple of times before. I have food allergies, shellfish in particular, which is why my romance with seafood is not as sweet as I would want it to be.

Ingredients
1 kilo baby octopus cleaned
3 cloves garlic
1 medium sized onion
2 pieces chopped bird's eye chillies
2 pieces chopped fresh tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
2 pieces bayleaves
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup of frozen peas
salt and pepper to taste

What to do:
1. Saute garlic, onion and fresh tomatoes until soft.
2. Add baby octopus
4. Add the red wine and allow the alcohol to evaporate.
5. Pour in the canned tomatoes and add the chillies and bay leaves.
6. Leave to simmer until baby octopus is tender.

The verdict : Rommel and Max liked it. Liked, not loved.
The baby octopus turned out to be very tender and the  sauce was flavorful. There was a weird guava aftertaste - I don't know where it came from. The wine maybe.

I did not enjoy it as much possibly due to  my Filipino palate which was looking for something more - uhm - Filipino.
Otherwise, in an international buffet, this would be a great add.

Crispy Dinuguan

When we came home for a visit last year, I had a taste of Crispy Dinuguan at Kanin Club at the Technohub.

The taste was nothing spectacular. It was really plain dinuguan with the pork served lechon kawali-style. Admittedly, plain old dinuguan is a temptation in itself - but the crunch of the blistered pork skin was heaven. I knew I was going to replicate this dish when the need (or greed) arises.

So here -  my version of Crispy Dinuguan.

Ingredients:
1 Kilo of Pork Belly, boiled until tender and then refrigerated - preferably overnight.
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, minced
2-3 cups of pork blood jelly,  run through a sieve or use a blender
1/2 cup of vinegar ( I used cider)
1 1/2 cups water or pork stock
green banana chillies
1 pork cube
fish sauce
3 pieces dry bay leaves
black pepper

1. Deep fry the pork belly in hot oil. I cut mine into 2x3 inch pieces just to make deep-frying more manageable. Watch out for oil splatters. Set aside.

Notice the Fried Chicken pieces - I had to utilize all those oil to the max :P

2. Saute garlic and onion gently. Add the vinegar, bay leaves and water (or pork stock)  and let it simmer to eliminate the raw vinegar taste. About 5 minutes.
3. Add the blood jelly  until it thickens.( Add more water is sauce is too thick)
4. Adjust taste with fish sauce and pepper.

To serve: Slice crispy pork lechon-kawali style and serve with dinuguan sauce.

This dish was very successful. Rya ate four servings of it throughout the day.

I think the secret would be in getting that perfect melding of sour, salty and savory flavors in the dinuguan sauce. I had to add the pork bullion the last minute because the meat flavor was just not there. Remember in cooking the traditional dinuguan, you actually saute and simmer the pork thereby getting that robust pork flavor. My take: If your best still results to something bland, don't be afraid to use bullions or even Maggi Magicsarap - sparingly.


I told Rya this dish would have to be enjoyed bi-annually because deep frying the pork was just too much trouble. I know you can always blot out as much moisture as you can before frying but - It's pork. It splats. That's what its meant to do.

And besides, these very rich dishes are meant to tease and elicit memories of home.  Special occasions if you ask me.

Needless to say, the tender meat with the perfectly crisped blistered skin was enough for me  to want to do it all over again.

It would be great served with puto. But the earthier Pinoy wouldn't have it any other way - on top of hot (or cold) white rice.

Enjoy! (the pictures. I know. Torture)

Chicken with Green Peas and Quail Eggs in Cream Sauce

Three years in Australia and it's the first time I have seen turnips (singkamas). It was apparently in the chiller section together with the carrots, mushrooms and herbs. Only around 15 pieces. Weird.
That figures why I did not find them in large cartons all piled up.
The turnips in Marikina are abundant and inexpensive. Aside from being used in vegetable dishes, we also see them being peddled in streets, sliced and served with the unbelievably yummy sweet-ish bagoong alamang together with his brother Hilaw na Mangga.(Not recommended for the acetic).
To find them all perked up clean and pretty was like Mystika in Hollywood.

Anyway, I got two of these little beauties and decided to make Chicken with Green Peas and Quail Eggs in Cream Sauce.

We have a modest catering business in the Philippines and most of the time,  this was the vegetable dish of choice. Surprisingly, I have never cooked it myself. It was one of the very common dishes which was always readily available that I was never really interested in cooking it until we moved to Sydney. The pleasant turnip find gave me an excuse to try.


Ingredients:
1/2 Kilo Chicken Breast, boiled and cut into cubes. Reserve stock
3 cloves Garlic, crushed and minced
1 medium Onion, minced
2 rather small-ish Turnips, cubed
2 medium sized Carrots, cubed
1 large red Capsicum
1 1/2 cups of Frozen Green Peas
1 cup Cashew Nuts
Boiled Quail's Eggs
1/2 Can Carnation Evaporated Milk
2 Tbsp. Flour or Cornstarch dissolved in water, to thicken
A Dollop of Fresh Cream


What to Do:
1. Gently sauted garlic and onion in oil. Add cubed chicken breast. Season with Fish Sauce or Salt.
2. Add the turnips and carrots making sure not to overcook them. Put around half a cup of the chicken stock.
3. Add in the red capsicums and the peas followed by the  cashew nuts.
4. Let it simmer gently to cook. About 5 minutes.
5. Pour in the milk and then the dissolved flour/cornstarch to thicken the sauce.
6. Adjust the taste of the sauce, adding a little salt or fishsauce according to your taste.
7. Finish off by adding the quail eggs and a dollop of fresh cream.

First off, I usually just do with whatever is in the pantry. I don't like stressing myself out for ingredients that are not there. Second, I cook almost always by instinct. So feel free to tweak the recipe as you would like. Just don't do anything ridiculously different - everything will be fine.

I was very happy with the results of this dish. I am one of those who find it hard to cook vegetables having grown up in a kitchen where meat was the main ingredient. But this dish was definitely a star of its own.

I tasted the raw turnips and they are a little different from the local (Philippine) variety. It had a more pungent aftertaste similar to the white radish (labanos). I wondered if this will make the final product taste different - it did not.

The cupful of cashews ( I got salted and roasted because that was the only available kind) was enough to make sure that every serve had a few pieces in it. It was definitely worth the trouble of getting some as the crunch provided that needed contrast from the vegetables' and chicken's soft textures.

I would have had omitted the cream if it were not available. But since it was - I got a little lavish and used both the evaporated milk and the cream.

Now, I have to find another recipe which would need what was left of both. Waste makes - more Waste.

So there. Pastries. Maybe.

THE FIRST POST

I have recently discovered blogging - and I've got two blogs running already!

But  making a food blog was just a matter of time. After all, if I were to be honest, this should have come first.

I am a Foodie. A Filipino Foodie.

By the blog's title, you know what I love to cook. But for the record, this is not going to be limited to Filipino dishes.

It's going to be a food blog by a Filipino.

Having said that -

Welcome.