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chicken soup for the s...

SICK...I've been hit by the nasty flu since the other night...and this is what I made myself yesterday for lunch. A quick and easy chicken soup.



The classic white minestrone aka sopas in the Philippines, is simple and fresh, redolent with the flavors of sweet onions, carrots, potatoes and celery as well as the aromas of garlic and butter. Add the creaminess of the milk and it's heaven. A definite comfort food, I should say, and a kiddie fave too!

HOW-TO
cloves of garlic
onions, diced
celery, chopped
butter
carrots, diced
potatoes, diced
left-over chicken breast, diced
S/P
water
milk or cream
chives
home-made herbed croutons

IN a medium pot, heat the butter over a medium flame. Add the garlic and onions and saute until the onions are transluscent, about 5 minutes. Add the celery, carrots and 1/2 tsp. each of S/P. Saute until all the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the diced chicken breast last since it's been pre-cooked and saute for another 5 minutes. Pour 2-3 cups of water, cover and simmer. Season the soup with more S/P to taste. Finally, pour a cup of milk and simmer some more. Serve on a bowl topped with home-made herbed croutons and garnish with some chopped chives. Let the hot soup comfort you!

Note: I love to add more milk on my bowl before I dive into it!:)

LP7: Gising na! Almusal! [PUSITLOG]

The typical day of the Filipino starts with Almusal - a hearty breakfast of Sinangag [fried rice] with tapa [air dried beef], tocino [cured pork], longganisa [Filipino Sausage] or fried danggit fish complemented by a cup of steaming barako coffee or thick chocolate. It is the most important meal of the day - a delicious meal that provides sturdy nutrition for a day of honest work.

In the old northern town of Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Almusal can become an elaborate affair of seven viands and a choice of fresh succulent fruits: mangoes, papaya or pineapple - with chocolate and caraboa's milk on the side. The cook goes to town as early as five a.m. to buy the freshest ingredients. By the time the senora has arrived from church and the children have wakened, a veritable feast has been laid out to start the day. [source:http://www.dotpcvc.gov.ph]

This isn’t exactly how it was, as far as our ALMUSAL goes when I was growing up. Morning meals was always prepared by my mom herself. Breakfast is ready by the time I wake up together with my 2 siblings, yes…but it was my mom who laid her hands on it not the house help. For the non-Filipinos, you see, we are accustomed to having somebody as house help even if you are only considered as a middle class citizen. I remember, all we have to do is sit down and eat! As they say, I was sort of raised with a silver spoon…well, with this in consideration. Not that we are well-off, but we were taken cared of by my mom, hands-on, even if she was a working mother.

A doting mother of three, she took care of everything for us. Not until I got married and settled in Brunei that I religiously did my real chores! Even so, I had the luxury of having a great-cook-husband! So we made a compromise that he’ll handle the kitchen and everything else is mine. However, this blog came along. All of a sudden, the kitchen has become my command central!And this ultimate almusal never fails to brighten up everyone’s face. Single or married. I shall tag it, PUSITSILOG. The delectable egg/tomato omelet was one dish that I remember my mom always loves to prepare. So I have made a post about it before, since I had a craving for it that particular sunday morning. The Pusit [fried dried squid], was a pasalubong for my other cousin by his avid ex! lol! mailed from another state by her sister, along with other dried fish variety like danggit, espada and some I don't recognize anymore.

I prepared this meal a couple of weekends ago when my cousin, chefkc came over. It was indeed a hearty breakfast…with all the enchiladas, so to speak. PUSIT of course, is the star of the show. EGG and TOMATO OMELET, with an American twist since I added lots of cheese, heavy cream and a dash of dried basil. SINANGAG cooked with garlic, scallions and some left-over bacon strips. A couple or so of fresh TOMATO and not to forget, the vinegar/garlic dip on the side.

And finally, what is almusal without my everyday indulgence of brewed COFFEE glamorized with whipped cream and ground cinnamon?

And as a concluding gourmand-ic touch, a glass of ORANGE JUICE! No more space left for dessert…:) Right, KC?

ARRGGHH! *beaming* and it’s only breakfast!

A Lasang Pinoy 7: Gising na! Almusal! entry. Thanks to Joey, of 80 Breakfasts for aptly hosting.

tiramisu

It looks complicated, but all the steps are actually easy, and it will be such a hit. TIRAMISU means 'pick-me-up' and boy oh boy will it pick you up!

well, waddaya know? i've made my very first TIRAMISU CAKE! i've been doing my own little versions before like my tiramisu with a twist and strawberry tiramisu ice cream cake ...but this is close if not THE real thing! i'm so happy since it's always been a personal fave and it felt really great to finally make my own! if it wasnt for the broas [lady fingers]that turned slightly soggy, it could have been perfect...er...as well as the powdered chocolate that i sprinkled instead of sifting.:( was a lowdown in terms of aesthetics. but over all it's an 8 since taste is definitely a 10! the mascarpone cheese which i finally found in the gourmet cheese section from a farther grocery in the area is an instant must-have for me now, everytime i shop.

this recipe is based on in our kitchen's Saffron Tiramisu without the saffron and some everyday italian variations.

HOW-TO

2 egg yolks
3 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. hot milk
8 oz. [1 tub] mascarpone cheese
1 cup heavy cream
3-4 tbsp. powdered sugar
lady fingers [about 20-24 pcs.]
2 1/2 cups cold espresso
unsweeetened cocoa powder [for sifting!]

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggsand granulated sugar over simmering water until very hot.
Then beat using a mixer until thick and color has turned pale yellow. Fold in milk.
Add in mascarpone cheese gently until well blended.
On another bowl, whip together heavy cream and powdered sugar until soft peaks form when mixer is lifted.

Fold in this cream with the mascarpone mixture.
Dip and soak lightly half of the lady fingers in the cold espresso and form a single layer side by side over the bottom of a prepared pan or square dish.


Evenly spread half of the cream mixture atop the cookies.

Repeat this layering once or twice depending on how thick you want your cake.

Press lightly to compact the cake.

Refrigerate for 3-4 hours. Dust with sifted cocoa powder before serving.

It is better to make Tiramisu the day before so that the cookies have enough time to absorb all the flavors and the tiramisu has time to set

korean rib stew

A dish I adopted from my friend, Tracy. She served this in our small get-together at her place a couple of months ago. Such a simple stew yet the sauce has a very pungent Korean taste to it, all because of a special barbeque sauce. Finally I was able to find one in the infamous Hongkong Market in Woodside, NY. Though Tracy said I should specifically use Korean beef, I went on with beef ribs that's on hand.


HOW-TO

beef ribs
1/2 c beef barbeque sauce for marinade plus 1/2 cup for simmering
and 2 T more for added flavor
2 T vegetable oil
1 onion, quartered
S/P to taste
1 c water
6-8 Broccoli florettes

MARINATE ribs in barbeque sauce 30 minutes to an hour depending on how much time you have.:)

SAUTE onions in vegetable oil. Add marinated ribs. Season with S/P, then add the marinade and cook through for 2-3 minutes. Pour 1 cup water. Cover and simmer. Add the remaining 1/2 c sauce and continue simmering until the meat is tender. Be sure there is still enough water otherwise you'll have burnt barbeque instead of a stew!:)

ADD broccoli. I added 2 more Tbsps. of the sauce for more flavor. Cook through uncovered for 2-3 more minutes. Some S/P to taste. PLATE and SERVE!

..the kids liked it so much and the dish is a cross between the Filipino classic ADOBO and ASADO which are both natural kiddie faves!

daily indulgence

This is my daily dose of caffeine indulgence. Even an instant coffee will taste divine with a swirl of ready whipped cream and a dash of ground cinnamon!

Though I normally brew mine and add my fave french vanilla creamer before all these brouhaha! lol! It's even better than any starbucks or seattle's best coffee around! I'd rather invest on a can of cream weekly than waste my bucks on these cafes.

Just one cup keeps me going [ and posting!lol!] the whole day! ;) As Marco puts it...'the day is never complete without my morning brew!'

monggo [mung beans]

I wasn't really planning on posting this..but I liked this snapshot of my monggo [mung beans] before I even started cleaning them.
My cousin went to the Filipino store yesterday and bought a bottle of gourmet tuyo [dried fish], a couple bottles of Sarsi[which I missed a lot!] and a pack of chicharon [pork cracklings]. This led me to cooking up Munggo Guisado [mung beans soup?] for dinner.

I normally use bagoong [anchovy paste] to flavor this dish, but as I browsed through my pinoy cookbooks [read: pinoy food bloggers]...I saw Joey's [of 80 Breakfasts] version using fish sauce on it. So this is what I decided to use this time. I cooked a medium pot-full and it was completely gone by the end of the meal! With just 3 adults consuming it! The kids won't even taste it so I had to make something else for them...fried chicken.

HOW-TO

Clean beans with water and drain off. Soak for an hour or so then simmer in 4-6 cups water until beans have softened.

In vegetable oil, saute garlic, onion, tomatoes. Add chicharon and flavor with fish sauce. Add cooked monggo and a cup or so of water depending on how much soup you want. Since I only used pork cracklings, I decided to add 1 pork cube. Cover and simmer. Add malunggay leaves if you have. In my case, I don't so I finished with a dash of salt and pepper and then topped with more chicharon for the last touch. SERVE and ENJOY!

a flower.a chocolate.a card.

TULIPS are members of the lily family, lilicaea. There are around 100 species of this bulbous plants, with large, showy flowers with six petals. Mine is a yellow variety. Looking back 10 years past, I had a bouquet of tulips for my wedding! *mushy* The deep red/wine red variety though.

Widely available at modest prices today, tulips are still closely associated with the Netherlands. However, the tulip is not a native Dutch flower. Like many other products in western Europe, such as the potato and tobacco, tulips came to the Netherlands from another part of the world. The tulip was first seen by Europeans in Turkey. Scholars now believe that the Turks had been cultivating tulips as early as AD 1000. Most of these tulips probably originated in areas around the Black Sea, in the Crimea, and in the steppes to the north of the Caucasus.

[source:Tulips by Barbara Schulman]

For this occasion of the hearts, we actually had our pre-‘v’ dinner last Friday at Café Charbon, Manhattan [details worthy of another post!]. It’s been a tradition for us setting a date before the 14th… all together avoiding the usual crowd and deluding from the mushiness of this oh-so-commercialized day. Nonetheless, it’s celebrating together which counts the most, right? And mushy as it may seem, everyday is ‘v’ day for us!

I didn’t even expect these pretty bulbs when Marco came home from work Tuesday. He wouldn’t have thought I would bake a cake either! Probably a not-so-ordinary dish is more of what he would’ve anticipated. Guess what? I only cooked TINOLA! [ Gingered Chicken Soup] Well, I AM also a mom to my two kids, right? And they definitely eat a lot when there’s Tinola on the table. So I thought, ‘this day would be a day for US …Marco and myself AND the kids!’ Likewise, Marco loves it too!

The Chocolate Cake is simply a Betty Crocker ready mix that’s been sitting in my cupboard for quite a while now. Even the frosting was just a Duncan Hines! But! Knowing myself, I wouldn’t settle for just a store-bought mix alone! I put my teeny-weeny- DIY-touch into action again. I added a cup of lightly chopped walnuts in the batter, which really made it more of a moist Brownie inside. The crunch made it swell! I wasn’t so happy with the ready frosting, though. It’s way too sweet for my taste bud. So I decided to top it with another layer of home-made frosting with my left-over bitter-sweet chocolate bars, butter, heavy cream and light corn syrup mixture.

And! I made a couple of separate heart-shaped cakes, garnished with the Tulip petal on top…solely for Marco. *mushy* *mushy* lol! And another for my sweet Samia, who also gave me a stem of carnation from school and this card!

a piece of me I give to you..
this special heart because I love you..
the heart is you..
the hand is me..
it shows that we are a family..

I was reading it while walking back to the house and it almost made me cry…Samia is just the sweetest! Everything she does like doodles, cards, poems...almost always, they’re for mom.…
oh! and by the way...the stem of rose was from dad for his little princess!