Sinigang na tanigue sa kamias and fried fish 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…
Continue reading 'Sinigang na tanigue sa kamias and fried fish spring rolls' »
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.
Continue reading 'Crispy chicken strips with sweet and sour sauce' »
Poached egg in dashi — with ground sichuan peppercorns!
Poached eggs are cooked in simmering (not boiling) water. The shells are cracked and the eggs are allowed to cook in the water until the whites are firm but the yolk still runny. I never poached eggs in water. I used to cook them in simmering meat broth. But because I am on a low-fat diet now, I am discovering other ways to poach an egg.
Try poaching your egg in dashi. Then, sprinkle it with salt and freshly ground sichuan peppercorns.
Continue reading 'Poached egg in dashi — with ground sichuan peppercorns!' »
Baking, Crisco and Splenda
This is not an ad for Crisco or Splenda. It hurts that I have to buy them. It hurts even more that I am writing about them. They are screaming Artificial!!! right at my face but it’s substituting Crisco for butter and Splenda for sugar or no baking cakes and cookies at all. Hard to argue with one’s blood sugar, you know. The heartening thing is that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. It’s a matter of getting used to, both in taste and in baking techniques, but I’m learning. And the learning process sometimes yield pleasant surprises.
Continue reading 'Baking, Crisco and Splenda' »
Don’t be a kitchen slave
Much as I love to cook and spend time experimenting with new dishes, when summer comes, I enter a stage of non-inspiration which is often combined with lethargy. It is simply too hot and with the stove on, the kitchen is the stuffiest and hottest part of the house. It doesn’t matter whether you install an industrial fan and open all the windows. Summer in the Philippines can be agony. Still, it isn’t an excuse for taking the easy way out by calling the pizza delivery service. The trick is to spend less time in the kitchen without subjecting my family to reheated leftovers.
Continue reading 'Don’t be a kitchen slave' »
Save the meat from the soup bones
I’m not sure if this is true everywhere and for everybody but whenever I buy soup bones, I actually get more than bones. There’s a lot of meat in them that if you’re diligent enough to pick the meat after simmering the bones, you’ll get enough to make a pretty good meat and vegetable soup. And every time I salvage the meat from soup bones, I wonder if I don’t have something of my late grandmother in me.
Continue reading 'Save the meat from the soup bones' »
Premature chicken eggs for arroz caldo
The chicken arroz caldo recipe in the archive was posted in May, 2003 when this blog was but a month old. I was using a pitiful 1.3 megapixel camera and I didn’t think it was important to photograph the premature chicken eggs that went into the arroz caldo. Well, that was almost five years ago and I have learned a lot of things since then…
Continue reading 'Premature chicken eggs for arroz caldo' »
Meals in a flash, part 2
Some dishes are tastier the day after. It’s true with adobo, it’s true with kaldereta… In fact, it’s true with most stews. After sitting in the fridge overnight, the meat has more time to absorb the flavors of the sauce and that adds depth to the dish.
But the same thing cannot be said about soup dishes like nilagang baka…
Continue reading 'Meals in a flash, part 2' »
