Beef, mushrooms and tofu stir fry
Oh, the things you can do with sukiyaki-cut beef! And bacon-cut pork, for that matter. Marinating takes a few minutes and cooking time is even shorter. They’re great with stir fries, with noodles and even with soup. They’re a big favorite these days. The mornings are cold and getting up to fix the kids’ packed school lunch can be such an effort when staying in bed under the blanket feels so much better. A good strategy is to place the frozen beef or pork in the fridge where the meat will thaw overnight. The next morning, it’s ready to go into the wok.
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Vietnamese spring rolls
We never go to a Vietnamese restaurant without ordering spring rolls. Between Pho Hoa and Pho Bac, I prefer the latter’s spring rolls. Apart from that though, my vote goes to Pho Hoa all the way. It’s always been my dream to make Vietnamese spring rolls at home but it wasn’t easy getting hold of rice spring roll wrappers. Quite recently, they started making an appearance in bigger supermarkets. I suppose that signals how popular Vietnamese cooking has become in the Philippines.
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Cabbage rolls soup
There are two cabbage rolls recipes in the archive. One has chicken filling, served with white sauce and topped with grated cheese. The other is the more traditional version, stuffed with ground pork and simmered in tomato sauce. Little did I know that stuffed cabbage, or cabbage rolls, are served as a soup in Vietnam.
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Lasang Pinoy 24: Coconut custard
My most memorable leche flan experience was at a fiesta. The custard was made with duck eggs and coconut milk, according to the father of my husband’s officemate. It was something I always dreamed of doing at home but the few times that we were able to buy fresh duck eggs, my coconut leche flan did not turn out too well. I probably wouldn’t have made the attempt again anytime soon had not Kai e-mailed me about Lasang Pinoy 24: Loco over coco.
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What’s for breakfast?
In our house, the meal that we fuss over is dinner. It’s the time when everyone’s home and, after a grueling day at work and in school, the husband and the kids deserve some pampering. But breakfast is quite another story. Since neither the kids nor their father eat breakfast, the house helper and I often eat what’s left from the kids’ packed school lunches or whatever leftovers there are from the previous night’s dinner.
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Japchae (jabchae, chapchae or chapchee), a Korean noodle dish
From the various recipes of japchae that I have read, spinach appears to be a traditional ingredient. But my first japchae experience not only included spinach but some yellow beans and string beans as well. Ergo, I figured it wouldn’t really hurt to play a little with the combination of vegetables. My version of japchae does not include spinach but mung beans and spring onions.
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Vietnamese chicken satay with nuoc cham
Chicken satay without peanuts. I couldn’t believe it myself having associated satay with peanut butter. But this recipe from Vietnamese Cooking Made Easy (recipes by Nongkran Daks, Alexandra Greeley and Wendy Hutton; published by Periplus) is peanut-free. It is light and succulent, delicate with just the right hints of complementing flavors. Served with nuoc cham, the Vietnamese sweet and sour dipping sauce, it satisfies the craving for barbecue without the grease and the fat.
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Nasi goreng (fried rice)
Back in college, there was a restaurant in the Diliman area called Rasa Singapura. That was where I had my first taste of nasi goreng. It is tempting to categorize this entry under “Singaporean recipes” but nasi goreng more properly belongs to Malaysian and Indonesian cuisines. It is fried rice cooked in much the same way as any Chinese-style fried rice except that the most popular versions of this dish include a little bit of shrimp paste — belacan (sometimes, belachan) to Malaysians; bagoong to us Filipinos.
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