05 March 2012
Ginataang kalabasa (Squash in coconut milk)
There is something truly homey about food cooked in coconut milk. Its creamy sauce is just perfect with rice. Ginataang kalabasa usually comes with shrimp and sitaw (string beans), but the latter is not a common supermarket fare here so my wife cooked this without sitaw. However, we added a note in the procedure below in case you have some. We did have malunggay leaves (Moringa) though and she added that.
28 February 2012
Christmas season in a cup
I rediscovered the simple fun in making gelatin desserts. Nothing fancy really. The colourful gelatin is the star; any other ingredient plays a minor presence.
This concoction reminded me of the movie Wall-E, one of my favourites. In celebrating their anniversary in space, the captain of the ship announced their meal special:
This concoction reminded me of the movie Wall-E, one of my favourites. In celebrating their anniversary in space, the captain of the ship announced their meal special:
23 February 2012
The fish, the knife, and Stephen Yan
MasterChef New Zealand has started airing yesterday over on One. Exciting stuff. The only problem is, it's in the same time slot as Nigella's Kitchen and Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef! Guess who will win over airtime in our house.
Anyways... since it's MasterChef time once again, Brett McGregor (previous MasterChef winner) has started coming out in the Countdown commercials once more. Not that I pay much attention to the commercials, but he did advise to head on to YouTube, search for countdownnz, and learn how to properly cook fish. Sounds interesting enough, so here I am in front of the computer trying to find there that video is.
Tada! Video on top of this post.
I also found something equally nice. A short tutorial on knives, plus some techniques on how to chop a number of veggies.
20 February 2012
Gelatin + milk = :D
I got this idea from a family gathering we had one weekend. The kids were served gelatin on kid-friendly portions and they looked so happy being served this colourful dessert that I wished we also had some. Good thing they gave the grown-ups some too! And on grown-up portions! I rather like gelatin. Well, who doesn't?
I had downed a couple of spoonfuls when they asked if I wanted some milk to go with it. I guess the puzzled look on my face gave them the clue that they had to explain a bit further. "It tastes so much better with milk on it," they said. "Here, try it." And they poured some milk from a can on my gelatin.
They were right. It was so much better than having plain gelatin! And I guess it does make sense, because there are recipes where milk is mixed with gelatin to form a light and creamy base.
To make this really easy dessert, simply cook the gelatin as per instructions in the box, pouring this into containers which you intend to serve it with. Then, before serving, simply pour some evaporated milk on it. Voila. Fun dessert. Evaporated milk is better - as explained to me - because of the creamier taste than fresh milk.
To make it even more fun, use transparent containers. Then get gelatin of various colours and try to layer these colours. When one colour has set, cook another colour then let it cool a bit in the room (about 15 minutes should do it) before pouring it on top of the previous one. You need to cool it off before pouring, or it will melt the previous one and they will merge. Not fun. Greggs' is more adaptable to this than Alsa. Alsa tends to solidify more readily even while cooling down on your tabletop so it will be difficult to pour this on top of the other gelatin without botching it up.
Um, also, try doing it with contrasting colours. I tried layering with orange and yellow (lemon flavour) but the hues are too similar with each other that the difference can only be vaguely seen.
Thanks Jonjon and Jenny for this idea!
16 February 2012
Fine Dining - a film by Lance Katigbak
I think Somebody up there is trying to tell me something.
This morning I came across this quote from Sidney Snoeck's Facebook wall:
Again it made me stop and I felt a certain sadness overcome me. This scene felt very familiar.
This morning I came across this quote from Sidney Snoeck's Facebook wall:
The happiest people don't worry too much about whether life is fair or not, they just get on with it.This made me stop for a while and ponder on what it means for me. And then later in the afternoon I saw this video from Tito Rolly's feed.
- Andrew Matthews
Again it made me stop and I felt a certain sadness overcome me. This scene felt very familiar.
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