Food articles posted in Dec 2007

Cornmeal, finally!

It’s something I’ve been searching for for the longest time. I knew it was essential for baking real corn muffins but imported food items, especially those that are not all that popular in the Philippines, are not always easy to find. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I was able to buy yellow cornmeal at The Landmark in TriNoma. I just baked a dozen corn muffins a la Kenny Rogers but I’m reserving that for the noche buena blog (take a peak) which goes live on December 12th. Now, I look forward to making my own corn tortillas so I can cook some chicken enchiladas.

What exactly is cornmeal? The cornmeal box says “harina de maiz” which literally translates to corn flour. But if you look closely at the cornmeal in the photo, it doesn’t resemble flour at all. Recipezaar’s kitchen dictionary says it is dried ground corn. Wikipedia says there is steel ground cornmeal and stone ground cornmeal.

Update on the noche buena blog

Just a quick note on the progress of the noche buena blog which is scheduled to go live on December 12th. It’s already viewable but there’s only a static page that you can see for now. All the recipe entries are “future posts”, the timestamps edited to reflect the intended schedule. But just so you know that I haven’t been sleeping on the job, so to speak, let me show you the thumbnails of the photos of some of the recipes in the noche buena blog.

Cooking for Christmas and the New Year

UPDATE on December 16, 2007 @ 2.35 p.m.

At around 3.00 p.m. yesterday, I received a text message from the Production Assistant of Jessica Soho’s show to inform me that some editing problems occurred and they weren’t sure if the episode could be aired last night. By 7.30 p.m., the “not sure” situation had not changed. I was assured, however, that the episode would be aired at a later date.

I have a lot to say about the unprofessionalism of those people but I’ll reserve that elsewhere. Suffice to say that I was caught in that position where I could not make any definite announcement even as late as 8.00 p.m. last night.

At any rate, the recipes for the dishes I cooked for that episode will be posted within the next 48 hours. In fact, the tropical fresh fruits salad recipe is already live in the Noche Buena Blog. I am not screwing up my posting schedule for them anymore.

Mackerel frittata

Fourth day without tap water and I’m losing my inspiration to cook. How can I get inspired when the primary concern is to use the least number of kitchen utensils so that minimal water is needed for the clean-up afterwards? That’s what happens when you try to survive with stored water and you have no idea when the next supply will come. So, last Saturday, while mainstream media and the internet were still buzzing with the latest political fiasco in the Philippines, I tried to cook the tastiest lunch that I could manage under the circumstances.

I cooked this mackerel frittata using a chopping board, a knife, a vegetable peeler, a can opener, a frying pan, a bowl and a spatula. Even I was amazed at how well it turned out — firm but still soft and very tasty. The secret? I beat the eggs WITH the liquid from the canned mackerel. That made all the difference.

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House On A Hill

Asian cooking

• Chicken, chicharo and quail eggs stir fry
• Tofu and baby corn stir fry
• Speedy’s winter melon soup
• Tokwa’t isda sa gata (fish and tofu in coconut milk)
• Sweet and sour fish: don’t forget the ginger
• Chicken & vegetables stir-fry
• Maskara
• Pearl Balls
• Sweet and sour boneless tilapia fillets
• Char sui (Chinese barbecue sauce)

Asian Pantry

• Togue (mung bean sprouts)
• Patis (fish sauce)
• Upo (bottle gourd)
• Pili nuts
• Hoisin sauce
• Hot chili soy paste
• Sichuan peppercorns
• Blended herbs
• Enoki mushrooms
• Oregano