Adobong kabute sa gata (mushrooms adobo in coconut cream)
It’s not the same as cooking pork or chicken adobo. Mushrooms are fatless and you can’t make them render fat no matter how long you cook them. You’ll only make them shrink if you cook them for too long. You don’t add soy sauce either–the mushrooms brown in oil fast and adding soy sauce will make the cooked dish far too dark to look attractive. Does that mean that this is something more complicated that meat adobo? Actually, no. This is easier and simpler.
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Real cream of mushroom soup
I actually cooked this cream of mushroom soup a few months ago, the same week that I made the pili nut butterscotch brownies, smoked salmon and kesong puti salad, the egg-stuffed relyenong bangus and the green tea and rambutan dessert. I suppose I got a little inundated with my cooking that week and forgot about the humble but utterly satisfying cream of mushroom soup. 
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Steamed fish in sesame oil
A couple of years ago, I created a dish of steamed fish, garlic, ginger, parsley and olive oil. Earlier today, I decided to create something similar but with more oriental flavors. Instead of olive oil, I used sesame seed oil. In lieu of chopped parsley, I added onion leaves. The simplicity of the preparation, the freshness of the ingredients, the amazing aroma… this is down-to-earth cooking.
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Mashed potatoes and kalabasa (squash)
Almost two years ago, my then 12-year-old daughter thought that what we could do with potatoes, we could do with kalabasa (squash). And our side dish of mashed kalabasa was born. Wonderful as it tasted, it was much mushier than mashed potatoes. In fact, it was kind of watery. Then someone, I forget who, suggested combining kalabasa with potatoes. Well, after almost two years, I finally took up the suggestion. I even went a step farther–I added chopped onion and garlic sauteed in butter.
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Cock-a-leekie soup, Pinoy style
Cock-a-leekie soup is a traditional Scottish dish. There are many ways of preparing it but, traditionally, the chicken is simmered whole then the meat is carved from the carcass before serving. And, for a more flavorful broth, free-range chicken, the kind that takes hours to cook, is used. I love cock-a-leekie soup, being a real fan of leeks, but I haven’t the time to carve the meat from the carcass. I chopped the whole chicken before cooking it. And for that Pinoy flair, I seasoned the soup with patis in lieu of salt. For added color and texture, I also added wedges of kalabasa (squash).
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Pineapple chicken
This isn’t my recipe. I don’t even know where the recipe came from exactly. This was a school project of my daughter. The recipe was given to them in school and the project was to create meals and sell them in school as part of an entrepreneur skills training. According to my daughter, she was not required to buy the ingredients herself (her dad went to the supermarket) and neither was she expected to do the cooking (which I did). Her role was to sell the packed lunches. And she sold all.
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Baked creamy chicken and potatoes
In one of my inspired moments, I dreamed up this so-easy-to-cook cheese-topped baked chicken and potato dish. Since I had a pack of chicken thighs, there was no chopping to be done. The only “real” work here was peeling and cutting the potatoes, browning the chicken and potato wedges in butter, and grating the cheese. The rest was just a matter of waiting and checking the oven once in a while. Preparation time was about 10 minutes. Total cooking time was 45 minutes. Best of all, there were minimal bowls and utensils to wash.
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Fried labahita (surgeonfish) with chili-pineapple sauce
Love sweet and sour fish but bored with its usual appearance and the combination of ingredients? Try combining chopped chili peppers with crushed pineapple, add some honey instead of sugar and lemon juice in lieu of vinegar. The honey will give the sauce a golden hue and the lemon juice will impart a pleasant and tangy aroma. Best of all, the old boring sweet and sour fish will take on an entirely new apprearance and a whole new gastronomic dimension.
The combination of chili peppers and crushed pineapple in a sweet and sour sauce was something that had been playing in my mind for days. I knew that lemon juice in lieu of vinegar would create a wonderful aroma but I couldn’t quite figure out how to add a dash of color to the sauce without adding tomato paste…
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