Food articles posted in Jan 2008

Vinegar

I know, so many kinds of vinegar and that’s not even all of the vinegar I have in the kitchen. Vinegar might be nothing but a souring agent for some people but there is a heck of difference between our local vinegar and rice vinegar when sasoning rice for sushi and maki or when making [...]

Udon

A wheat-based noodle from Japan, udon is traditionally served as a soup (see kakiage udon and gyoza udon) but may also be served as a stir-fried dish. In size, udon is similar to the egg noodles used in lomi but in color, taste and texture, udon is very different.
Bought the pack of udon at Shopwise [...]

Strawberry streusel cake

According to Wikipedia, the term streusel (a German word meaning “something scattered or sprinkled”, from the verb streuen, akin to the English verb ’strew’) refers to a crumb topping of butter, flour, and sugar (traditional German) that is baked on top of muffins, breads, and cakes. The original recipe used fresh blueberries; I substituted strawberries.

Food color

I use food color mainly for baking. I’ve been using McCormick food color for years then my daughter (she loves to bake) discovered Wilton icing color at Living Well (Podium branch). We haven’t used the Wilton product yet. Will update this entry when we have.
Recipes where I used food color:

Buko melon and buko pandan yema [...]

Baked eggplants with bacon and cheese

Vegetables don’t excite me, as a rule. This dish is an exception. Based on the classic Italian eggplant parmigiana, this baked dish consists of layers of eggplant slices, a home-cooked tomato sauce with bacon and cheese. Omit the bacon from the recipe, or substitute mushrooms, and you have a wonderful vegan dish.

Green curry paste: how hot do you want your food?

The popularity of chicken curry in the Philippines is such that you will find it listed as a Filipino dish in many cookbooks written by local authors. And 99% of these recipes call for a tablespoonful or so of curry powder. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in more than one entry — curry is not a spice per se; it is a mixture of as many as 20 spices…

Coriander paste

Cilantro or wansuy (coriander leaves) perks up the flavor of soups, stir fries and even stews. But unless you have a pot of cilantro growing in your garden or the market is within walking distance from your house, regular access to cilantro may be difficult. Storing cilantro is a pain, honestly, because it wilts fast. [...]

Bihon noodles

The label surprised me, really. Bihon is traditionally made with rice and, hence, called “rice sticks”. Why it is now made with cornstarch is beyond me. I’m thinking that we made be having a serious rice shortage (aren’t we importing rice from other Southeast Asian countries?) because agriculture for home consumption has taken a backseat [...]

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Asian cooking

• Beef Siomai Mami
• Budget cooking part 3 (twice-cooked chicken and tofu)
• Asian coleslaw
• Japaneses-style Vegetable Stir-fry
• (Vietnamese style) Honey ginger chicken
• Pearl Balls
• Bangus (milkfish) and broccoli stir fry
• Chicken satay
• My sweet and sour pork
• Tokwa’t isda sa gata (fish and tofu in coconut milk)

Asian Pantry

• Patis (fish sauce)
• Katsuo dashi (?)
• Laurel (bay) leaves
• Sichuan peppercorns
• What’s for breakfast?
• Upo (bottle gourd)
• “Fish tofu”
• Red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar
• Bay (laurel) leaf
• Togue (mung bean sprouts)

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