Food articles posted in Feb 2008

Katsuo dashi (?)

The English label says “Katsuo dashi” but the description in the same label says it is an all around sauce made with shouyo (Japanese soy sauce), dashi (a soup stock made with bonito flakes), mirin and salt. Since katsuo dashi is defined as a soup stock, the sauce cannot be katsuo dashi, technically speaking. Of [...]

Mirin

Japanese sweet cooking wine, one of the two used for making teriyaki marinade. There are two kinds of mirin — hon mirin and shin mirin. Shin mirin with less than 1% alcohol content is used for cooking.

Chicken and misua soup, version 2

It’s the same basic chicken and misua soup but without tomatoes. I have also added broccoli florets, the pared and sliced stem of the broccoli, and carrots. I used beef broth instead of chicken broth, having been simmering a pot of bones all afternoon.

What’s the idea? Nothing, really, except that I already had two cooked chicken breasts — I boiled the breasts that I cut off from the chickens that I grilled a few days ago — and there were a lot of vegetables in the fridge…

Breakfast cereals

My family’s love affair with breakfast cereals is a seasonal thing. Sometimes, we consume one box after another over a period of several weeks then we’d get tired of them. After several months, we’re craving for them again. For me, breakfast cereals are useful for mornings when I’m just too lazy to fix breakfast for [...]

Mango sauce

I bought it after my first attempt at making samosas and a reader said that the traditional dipping sauce was mango chutney. I haven’t attempted making samosas again — I will soon — and I will try this bottle of mango sauce with them.
Meanwhile, I used the mango sauce for the dressing of my salmon [...]

Savory oven-grilled chicken

Like I mentioned in my rainy day grilled chicken and pasta alfredo entry, it isn’t necessarily how many seasonings you add to your meat that makes it flavorful. Most times, you just have to season it early enough to allow the flavors to penetrate the meat. These grilled split chickens were seasoned with salt, freshly ground pepper, Carmencita’s Provence blend of spices and paprika.

Flavor extracts

There used to be just a bottle of vanilla. But since I started baking in earnest, these little bottles have multiplied. They don’t really add all that much flavor. You use a few drops to enhance the aroma. In baking, aroma is a big thing. Hence, the few drops of vanilla or lemon essence can [...]

Spanish rice and pesto rice

Rice is to Asia what pasta is to the Italians. It’s our staple and our everyday meals revolve around it. If you’ve run out of ideas about how to enjoy rice, if plain boiled rice, garlic fried rice and Chinese-style fried rice have become rather boring and ordinary, if that’s possible, here are two ideas to perk up your rice repertoire.

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Asian cooking

• Tofu and Vegetables Stir-fry
• Korean beef stew
• Ostrich chop suey
• Sandalwood in Vietnamese Pho
• Chicken and asparagus eggdrop soup
• Braised eggplants
• Cold soba noodles
• Mussel soup with coconut milk
• Hototay
• Aromatic (and tastier!) spring roll wrappers

Asian Pantry

• Rattan fruit
• Kamias (Averrhoa bilimbi)
• Vegetable cooking oil, olive oil and peanut oil
• Togue (mung bean sprouts)
• Assorted beans and peppercorn melange
• Canned whole peeled tomatoes
• Crushed galangal
• Dreaming of coconuts
• Patani
• Preserved seedless plums

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