'Asia & beyond' archive

Comfort food and home cooked meals

… home cooking is going to make a big comeback as people will eat out less often to save money. Fancy and gourmet ingredients and food items will take a back seat as the wise home cooks go back to the basics — less processed and more fresh meat and seafood, more vegetables and fruits, and hearty soups and desserts that can be made at home. Recycling leftovers is likely to be elevated to art form as home cooks rise up to the challenge of being less wasteful yet more creative and inventive. What can I say? The financial scares make some mope and gripe but for others it is an opportunity to reassess spending priorities and eating habits.

Cooking with leftover turkey

New Year’s Eve dinner was stuffed roast turkey, barbecued beef brisket, chicken satay (see also the Vietnamese version) and grilled tilapia. On the side were mashed potatoes, macaroni salad and fresh sweet corn on the cob. There was fresh fruit salad and several cakes for dessert.

In cooking the turkey, I followed a reader’s suggestion and inserted chilled butter and slices of onion between the turkey breast meat and skin. I used a small sharp knife to separate the skin from the meat and in went small cubes of chilled butter and super thin onion slices. Unbelievable what that little trick managed to achieve. They turkey breast meat was tender and super moist.

Roast pork belly with black pepper

Almost like lechon kawali (although I cook my lechon kawali in the oven) but this recipe does not require that the pork be parboiled prior to roasting. Inspired by a peasant dish featured in the Spice Trails episode of Planet Food (over Discovery & Living Channel), this roast pork is seasoned with salt and cracked black pepper hours before cooking. Yes, cracked — not ground — black pepper. I had to think about that hard because I didn’t think my kids would enjoy eating anything with pieces of black pepper that large. I decided on freshly ground pepper (a pepper mill is really handy in this case) instead.

Penne with portobello mushrooms

I had never eaten portobello mushrooms before (it used to be hard to find them in local supermarkets) so when I saw trays and trays of the stuff at Shopwise, I bought a 220-gram pack. Six pieces in all. I minced three and mixed them with ground chicken to make burgers for last night’s dinner and, as I was eating my burger, the distinct flavor of the portobellos suddenly reminded me of the pasta at La Maison. Ergo, for lunch today, I boiled some penne and went about my attempt to recreate that wonderful creamy sauce that I enjoyed so much.

Cheese-topped buttered vegetables

Over two years ago, I posted a recipe for a side vegetable dish that accompanied fried whole tilapia. Cauliflower florets, finger chili and garlic were lightly cooked in olive oil, sprinkled with cheese then baked just until the cheese melted. Last night, I did another version of the same side dish — more vegetables and butter instead of olive oil. And, yes, I served it with fried tilapia too.

But before I go on to the recipe, let me tell you about the oval baking dishes that you see in the photo. There are actually four of them and the price was P400.00. Not P400.00 per baking dish but P400.00 for all four of them. They’re glazed, ovenproof…

Clams and malunggay soup with coconut milk

The traditional soup made with halaan (clams) and malunggay leaves (Moringa oleifera) cooked Thai style. I loved the Thai mussel soup with coconut milk so much that I decided to make clam soup version. And that was after learning from the house helpers that back in their hometown in Zamboanga, malunggay leaves are often cooked with coconut milk. The result is a delicious soup, so good it was all I had for lunch. The only sad note is that I made the soup with store-bought malunggay leaves rather than home-grown ones. The sprouts in the malunggay tree in our garden just keeps withering and falling off. I wish I knew why.

Oven-steamed whole fish

Some people think it’s a bad idea to overpower fish with too much seasonings and spices. In fact, true blue fish lovers swear that fresh fish is best eaten right out of the sea with the taste of sea salt still in it. It’s a code I can subscribe to except that I don’t enjoy the strong fishy smell. I like the natural flavors of fish in all their undiluted glory but the smell can be too much. So, I add a lot of ginger to my fish. That set me wondering. See, when I cook steamed whole fish, I’ve often added the usual Asian seasonings and aromatics to it — light soy sauce, garlic… the works. If I just added ginger and some greens, and perhaps a small amount of sesame seed oil to heighten the flavor, will the steamed whole fish taste better if there aren’t too many seasonings and herbs drowning the natural flavors of the fish?

Creamed broccoli and potato soup

The “proper” way of making this soup is to boil the broccoli and potatoes then puree them with broth to create a thick soup. I debated whether to post this entry using the traditional recipe then decided I shouldn’t because that wasn’t how I cooked the soup. Rather, I used leftover mashed potatoes that already contained butter and sour cream. So, that’s how I am going to describe the cooking procedure to you. At the end of the entry, however, I will provide the alternative method just in case you want to make this soup and you don’t have leftover mashed potatoes.

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House On A Hill

Love tofu?

• Lechon con tokwa
• Tofu with three sauces… and cilantro
• Tofu and Vegetables Stir-fry
• Tofu in oyster sauce
• Tofu and eggplants with salted yellow beans
• Beef, mushrooms and tofu stir fry
• Ma Po tofu
• Tokwa’t isda sa gata (fish and tofu in coconut milk)
• Mapo tofu
• Another beef and tofu stirfry

Chicken recipes

• A different kind of chicken casserole
• Rainy day grilled chicken and pasta Alfredo
• Roast turkey with rice stuffing
• Chicken and sausages pasta
• Olympic chili coco chicken
• Chicken and mushrooms burger
• Cooking for Father’s Day? Here’s an idea.
• Fried chicken and vegetable salad
• Lumpiang pabo (turkey spring rolls)
• Chicken, squash and zucchini saute