Food articles posted in Jul 2008

Firm tofu

Local tokwa is cheaper but since I first tried Masoya Japanese firm tofu, it has been the only firm tofu for me. Discovering it was quite by accident. I was looking for silken tofu to make miso soup and there was only Masoya silken tofu. My eyes went past the Masoya firm tofu, I was not really interested thinking that firm tofu is firm tofu so why pay a high price for something I can get so cheap? There must be six kinds of local tokwa, in different sizes, on the same supermarket shelf. It wasn’t until a few weeks later when the same supermarket ran out of local tokwa that I was obliged to buy Masoya Japanese firm tofu.

Reheating fried spring rolls

The most common mistake when reheating fried spring rolls is to use oil. I tell you, there is enough oil in the spring roll wrappers and you don’t need more.

The second most common mistake is to reheat the spring rolls using high heat. High heat is essential when cooking the spring rolls because the wrappers are uncooked at that point. But after they have been fried, subjecting them to high heat again is a sure way to burn them.

So, the trick? First, it is best to use a non-stick pan which has been lightly heated. Arrange the cold spring rolls in a single layer and reheat. Low heat only…

1 kilo of fish equals soup and spring rolls

Two kilos of the same kind of fish can be overwhelming — and boring — if you cook them all as one dish. Divide them into portions and cook them as different dishes. Yesterday for lunch, I cooked half a kilo of tanigue (mackerel) into sinigang sa kamias. For more about kamias, see the related [...]

Kamias (Averrhoa bilimbi)

Despite the similarity of the scientific name of the kamias to balimbing, they are two different fruits. Balimbing is Averrhoa carambola and the popular English name is star fruit. Sliced cross-wise, the cut pieces look like five-pointed stars.

Kamias is smoother but acidic as well. It is boiled and strained, or cut into small pieces, to flavor the classic sinigang and to cook paksiw na isda.

Crispy chicken strips with sweet and sour sauce

This isn’t a new recipe. You’ll find the details in an archived entry called sweet and sour chicken fillets. What’s new is that instead of deboning a chicken breast, I used chicken thigh fillets with the skins on. Amazing how the skins affect the crispness of the chicken. Even after the sauce was poured over the chicken strips, they retained their wonderful texture. I know. The skins add a lot of fat to the cooked dish. But for those who don’t mind the extra fat, it might be useful to point out how not removing the skins will affect the overall texture of the dish.

Kitchenware sale and the breakfast blog

First, The Breakfast Daily is up. I mentioned it a couple of entries ago and I was hoping to launch it much earlier. But we just moved houses and getting broadband installed took longer than I expected so the blog didn’t actually go live until last night.

What’s in The Breakfast Daily? Breakfast ideas, some with recipes. Why didn’t I just integrate the content in this blog? Lots of reasons, the most significant of which is that I want to write about food and health issues which I don’t think properly belong in a recipes blog. Food and health can be very political issues so I needed a separate space for that.

Chicken and cabbage stir fry with chili garlic sauce

There are two things about this dish that make it memorable. First, it is a lesson that chicken fillets are not essential for delicious stir fried dishes. Even chicken pieces with bones are good so long as they are chopped into small pieces. How small? By Asian standards, that means small enough to be picked up with chopsticks.

The second lesson is that chili garlic sauce, the kind you find on the table in most Chinese restaurants, is not only good for dipping. It is an excellent seasoning as well.

Chicken, squash and zucchini saute

…the launching of the breakfast blog will commence in a few hours. The templates need a few more tweaks then the links from this blog will be installed.

Now, the recipe for the chicken and vegetable dish that you see in the photo above. That’s what went into the kids’ school lunch boxes yesterday. What was left became our lunch. What’s in it? Strips of chicken thigh fillets, cubed squash and zucchini. With spices and herbs too, naturally.

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House On A Hill

Asian cooking

• Aromatic (and tastier!) spring roll wrappers
• Pinsec frito
• Pho Hoa wins over Pho Bac
• Shawarma
• Squid lo mein
• Sweet and sour chicken fillets
• Roast duckling
• Chicken fillets with hoisin sauce
• Ma Po tofu
• Vegetable noodles, chicken and quail eggs

Asian Pantry

• Chili sauce
• What’s for breakfast?
• Oregano
• Preserved seedless plums
• Bulaklak ng saging (banana blossoms)
• Fresh pineapples
• Ginger
• Lemongrass (tanglad)
• Kangkong (water or swamp spinach)
• Vinegar