Food articles posted in Dec 2006

Mango cheese pie

First of all, I apologize for the disappearance of Pinoy Cook from 8.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. today, Manila time. I exceeded my bandwidth allocation and I did not find out until late in the afternoon.
I had to do the house chores before turning on my computer. Bad decision especially considering that I normally turn [...]

My first apple pie

Whenever I had a craving for apple pie in the past, I knew of only one place where I could have the real thing — Hizon’s in Manila. Of course, today, there are a lot of delis that sell apple pie but Hizon’s is still the pie place for me (not McDonald’s, for goodness’ sakes). [...]

Some stuff for the kitchen

An aborted trip to Hidalgo Street in Quiapo, Manila for some new camera lenses became a trip to the mall and shopping galore for kitchen stuff. My husband bought the bamboo steamers and a marinade injector for me and I bought a roasting pan so as not to experience a repeat of the Christmas Eve roast duckling disaster. I also bought a couple of loose-bottom pans for baking pies… told you I’m serious about learning how to bake, so, I’m investing on the right tools and gadgets. Next on the list is a set of springform pans and a stand mixer so that my trusty hand-held mixer can finally go on retirement. It’s actually older than my 14-year-old daughter. Imagine that! Anyway…

What’s the big deal about bamboo steamers, anyway? My father and my grandfather used bamboo steamers ONLY. I wasn’t very particular and I used metal steamers for years. Then someone told me that puto (rice cakes) and siopao (bread dumplings) won’t rise properly in a metal steamer because the condensation falls right back into the bread. Whereas, the bamboo cover absorbs the condensation. Makes sense so we went hunting for bamboo steamers.

Bamboo steamer, roasting pan and marinade injector

Read the first part of this entry.
The marinade injector. I included the teaspoon in the photo to give you an idea of the size of the needle which I hope is clearly visible through the packaging. I told my daughters it was for their booster shots. Of course, they didn’t believe me. But it [...]

A Christmas Eve story

My husband bought two ducklings late last week — one for Christmas Eve and the other for New Year’s Eve. I started thawing the first duckling in the fridge as early as December 23rd. On the morning of December 24th, I seasoned the bird inside out. By 4.00 p.m., I put in the oven so that it would be ready for dinner. Half an hour later, the kitchen was bathed in smoke — the kind that stings the eye. I didn’t understand what was going on. I was just roasting the duckling; I wasn’t smoking it.

Christmas greetings

Fish tempura

I bought a pack of butterflied and filleted asohos (Sillago) with the intention of making them into fish tempura. It’s a good thing that I postponed the cooking for a few days. I saw Kylie Kwong cook shrimp tempura on her TV show the other night and she had a technique that I thought looked better than mine. So, I did what she did and we had golden, crisp fish tempura for lunch yesterday.

You can buy asohos in most wet markets but I doubt if you can get the fish monger to fillet and butterfly them for you. Most fish mongers will fillet a big fish free of charge but small fish like asohos, I’m not very sure. I bought my asohos from S&R (Congressional Avenue) and they had been skinned, filleted and butterflied beautifully.

Herb-loaded rice

When I made my garlic, basil and onion leaves sinangag (fried rice) last year, I knew I was on to something good. But that gut feeling did not really take shape until I tried Vieux Chalet’s herbed rice. Of course, I did not ask for their recipe. That wouldn’t be polite. But I did some experiments and came up with something really extraordinarily good. I wish I could have captured the aroma and reproduce it here.

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Amateur baker

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