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The salmon was steaming away merrily on the stove a couple of nights ago when we received a call from friends.

"Pupunta kami dyan! Dyan kami kakain!"
(We're coming over, and we're having dinner there!)
Oh sure!, I exclaimed. But we were having salmon, and it was cooking in the same way we served it to them some dinners ago. Is that fine?

"Ok lang! May dala kaming ulam! Dinengdeng!"
(It's ok! We're also bringing viand! Dinengdeng!)
Isn't it great to have friends over who bring their meals over? :-)

And half an hour later, they arrived, bringing with them a pot full of aromatic dinengdeng as well as a small plate of sisig!

"O ayan, para hindi mo makalimutan ang Pilipinas!"
(Here, so you won't forget the Philippines!)

I felt sentimental as I stared at the vegetable goodness, laden with crabs and grilled milkfish! I hope they didn't think I was so touched that I had to take a photo, though. I forgot to explain it's for the blog.


















And so we had a rather enjoyable dinner as we chatted about life in general while the kids made a general mess of the toys and laughed about.



















We were not able to touch the sisig, so the following morning it was transformed to fried rice sisig! Happy days.

Technorati tags: food trip
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Different aromas waft from the kitchen while cooking beef broccoli. First, there's the garlic and onion, then the beef, and finally the sweet broccoli. Truly enticing. Best of all, it's easy to cook. I also love my broccoli crunchy and half-cooked in this dish.

This version is rather different, in that we are using minced instead of sliced beef. This is so because minced beef is the only thing readily available :-). But it also worked rather nicely.


















Ingredients:


















Cooking oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 kilo minced beef
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1 small capsicum - seeds removed and chopped roughly (optional)
1 medium head of broccoli - separate the florets and cut into smaller, bite-sized pieces if needed. Remember, the stalk is also edible. Remove the tough outer skin and slice thinly and diagonally like so:


















Procedure:
1. Pour cooking oil on pan over medium heat.
2. Saute garlic, followed by the onion.
3. Add the minced beef. Mix it up and break up the meat to loosen the beef. A transformation will then happen to the meat. Its original reddish color with turn to brown. And then it will release its juice and cook in this water. Stir occasionally to make sure the beef on top gets cooked too. Then, it will release its own oil and will continue cooking on it.

After a couple of minutes in cooking on its own oil, add salt and pepper to taste, followed by the oyster sauce and the water. Mix it up, taste, and adjust if needed. Then add the broccoli. Add also the capsicum at this stage, if you have this. Give it a couple of minutes just so the flavours blend. Serve and enjoy. Good for four people. Best with hot rice.

















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I have seen this strange contraption in Starbucks shops back in the Philippines: transparent, glass containers with metal support and a sort of plunger attached to a metal rod. I did not know what it was, and kept to the mugs and tumblers instead.

However, the coffee press (also called a French Press) seems to be a standard device in the New Zealand kitchen as a vast majority loves to drink coffee. We still have instant coffee at home as a quick fix, but we have recently bought our very own coffee press and found it really easy to use. Plus, the resulting coffee is (predictably) superior than instant coffee! True, there can be a bit of gunk (ground coffee that managed to get through the filter) at the bottom of the cup - especially the last serving - but I do not mind it. You can, of course, refrain from doing a bottoms-up.



















A partner to the coffee press is a coffee grinder. Connoiseurs will highly recommend grinding your own coffee, but if you are reading this post, it is likely that you are just as new to the coffee press as I am and will want to keep it as simple as possible for starters. So for your coffee beans, you can have it ground by your favorite coffee shop and transfer it to an airtight container at home. Make sure the beans are coarse-ground. They usually ask what type of filter you use (for the coffeemaker); advise the barista that it's for the coffee press and they will grind it accordingly.

Another way to get your ground coffee is by purchasing from your favorite supermarket. There are lots of ground coffee available in different flavours. Make sure that the label says it's for "plunger", which refers to the coffee press.


















Now on to using the coffee press.

1. Boil your water. Again, coffee enthusiasts recommend filtered water over tap water as water also affects the taste of the coffee. Tap water will do, of course, in general circumstances. The temperature of the water should be around 195-205°F (90-96°C). A simple way to approximate the temperature is to remove the water from the fire when it boils and let it stay for a minute or so. This is to avoid scalding the coffee.

2. Remove the cover with the plunger mechanism off the coffee press. Place 1 tablespoon of coarsely ground coffee per 7-8 oz of water (which is roughly equivalent to a cup). You can play around with your coffee preference after comparing to this ratio.

3. Slowly pour the boiled water into the coffee press.

4. Give it a good stir. 5-7 stirs will do. If there are coffee bits floating around, the stirring action will sink these.

5. Cover with the plunger/filter pulled up. Let the coffee steep for 2-3 minutes for a small pot, or 4 minutes for a big pot.


















6. It's time to push the filter! Hold the cover with one hand, and with the other, slowly push down the metal rod vertically. Make sure it's always vertical, or some coffee grinds will escape and make the coffee mucky. The hot water might also overflow and scald you so push slowly.

7. It's done! Pour into cups while holding the cover (our coffee press has a screw-top lid so it's safer).

8. Remember, the coffee left in the pot will continue to brew so you will be left with a stronger coffee if there is some left over. So either prepare the exact number of cups, or store the leftover in a thermos.

I think it's also a very nice way to entertain guests because you go out of your way to prepare good coffee for them. So enjoy your coffee, and enjoy the company!

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I decided one morning that instead of having breakfast at the dining area which can be a bit cold in the mornings, why not have it while basking in the early morning sun? And so we had breakfast at the sun room. It was nice and quiet. Until Jo-Lo started watching his morning cartoons, that is :-).
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Our basil now has a companion - baby spring onions! I have recently bought a pot of baby spring onions from Countdown and planted it on a bigger container. It's quite a robust grower. After only a couple of days I have seen new growth. Spring onions is great for salads, sauces, and cooked dishes. Having it by the kitchen counter is really great because you can simply pick off a couple of stalks, chop it up, and add to your dish.


















The sleeve came with a description and some recipe ideas for spring onions. With it is a very simple butter sauce that can be used for pan-fried fish fillets. We were having breaded fish fillet for dinner so we thought we'd try it out!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup melted butter
4 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
chopped spring onions, about 2 stalks

Procedure:
Melt butter on a pan
When butter is sizzling, remove from heat.
Add the lemon juice and spring onions and stir


















Serve on a small bowl for dipping fish or any other seafood.


















This is a simple butter sauce. There are loads more varieties in the net, incorporating other ingredients. It's a great way to enhance the simple fried seafood, and serve with dips other than ketchup.

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I received a call from my colleague one afternoon inviting me to drop by their office for some hot cross buns. Oooh, free food! So I popped over to their desk and was promptly handed over a warm bun with a white cross on top. A hot cross bun... interesting. And yummy too!

Upon returning to my desk, I decided to Google this unique bread. I learned some very interesting facts about it.

The hot cross bun is a Good Friday tradition, and is available during Lent. The white cross on it is representative of the Crucifixion. The bun, however, predates Christianity. The Saxons once ate buns with a cross on them to honor the goddess Eostre (with the cross representing the four quarters of the moon).

The early Christian Church adapted the hot cross buns as part of their early missionary work. In the 16th century, Roman Catholicism was banned from England, and with it the attempt to ban the hot cross buns. But this baked goody was too popular, and so Elizabeth I decreed instead that it can be consumed only on Easter, Christmas, and funerals.

The hot cross bun has become a source of English superstition, with some stories alluding powers on the bun itself. For example, a piece given to someone ill is said to help in recovery. If taken on a trip by the sea, the buns protect from shipwreck. If hung in the kitchen, the bun protects from fire and ensures that bread baked there comes out perfectly.

Here's one I like: sharing a hot cross bun with another ensures enduring friendship for the year, especially if the following words are uttered: "Half for you and half for me, Between us two shall goodwill be."

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Actually, my wife did not know what to call this dish. But we were having friends over and so she prepared this for dinner. Our friend remarked, "how did you cook this steamed salmon?" Ummm... we steamed it? hahaha!

So steamed salmon it is. This dish is so easy to make and yet the end result is simply wonderful! Great with piping hot rice.



















You will need:
salmon (we had 2 medium slices)
soy sauce (half a cup will do)
half a lemon
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
salt and pepper
aluminum foil (enough to wrap around the tuna)

Procedure:
Place aluminum foil on plate, then place tuna on aluminum foil. The plate will help keep the other ingredients in place.
Pour soy sauce over the salmon.
Sprinkle salt and pepper.
Squeeze lemon juice over the salmon.


















Spread onions, garlic, and tomatoes over the fish.


















Next, encase the salmon and garnishings in the aluminum foil. Make sure it is closed tight so that no heat will escape.


















Lay salmon in a pan. A thick-bottomed pan with a cover will do nicely. Cover and place over medium heat. Cook for about half an hour.


















The fish will cook in its own juices, and the spices and flavourings will be absorbed into the salmon. The result is a soft, delectable dish! Our guests loved it, and are looking forward to try it in their home.

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Now here's something that's reeeeaaaalllly easy to do and yet it's so yummy it's sure to become a hit with whoever you serve it to. Make your very own garlic toast! Perfect companion to your pasta dish. And you can use any type of plain bread available in your house.

Ingredients:
garlic
butter
bread

The quantity of above ingredients depend on the number of garlic toasts you will make.


















Get the biggest clove of garlic in the bulb. Remove the skin, then cut it diagonally on one end. You need to get the most surface out of the cut area and at the same time you are still able to hold on to the garlic. Crush it ever so slightly just to make the juice ooze from the cut side.

Get more garlic cloves, remove skin, crush and chop finely. You may also grate if you want to, although I prefer chopping and coming up with different sizes of garlic bits.

Now, get your bread and wipe the cut side of the garlic onto it. In my case, all I have is loaf bread so that will do. Only one side is needed for the garlic treatment. Although the smaller, round bread varieties is ideal. In which case you need to slice the bread in two. Dab it, wipe it... transfer that garlicky taste onto the bread. You only need to do it on one side. When you're done, crush and chop this garlic clove to go with the rest.

Next, sprinkle or wipe chopped garlic pieces onto the bread. Remember, just do this on one side if you have loaf bread.

Melt the butter on a pan over medium heat. When the butter is melted through, place your bread on it, garlicky side down. Let it "cook" for a minute.



















Serve with your pasta dish. Or in my case, this is a breakfast item so I served it with fried rice and sunny side-up (which my wife loves).

Bon apetit!

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Early this week, my colleague who's Chinese gave me half a dozen of meat buns which were actually siopao! When I declared it's siopao, he heartily agreed that it is indeed siopao and that many Filipinos like having it too, so it was no surprise for him that I was delighted to bring home some.


















Having the siopao reminded me that I still had some photos from past eats in the Philippines sitting in my hard disk that I have not yet published here. I found a couple, and wanted to share some of the side dishes I like. It was featured in Fear Factor, with the contestants grossing out over this egg dish. It's the century egg, something that I truly loved the first time I had it, and love it still. In fact, my officemates would automatically order century eggs when we're in a Chinese restaurant.

Another side dish that they famously know I love is the jellyfish. Is it really jellyfish though? I wonder... The translucent strips are just plain crunchy!

And then there's the infamous chicken feet! I was not actually truly fond of this dim sum (which, according to my research, is actually called Phoenix talons!) but my good friend Harry would unfailingly get a couple of orders - 1 for him, 1 for me. Chicken feet is not exactly exotic fare to me either; we've had chicken feet at home cooked adobo style. But pretty soon I have been ordering this for myself too!

So make that three items on the menu that gets automatically ordered before the yang chow fried rice, the peking duck, the pork, the stir-fried veggies, and the hot tea.

Speaking of dim sum, I once saw the plight of sharks that are caught and then, while they are still alive, their fins get sawn off, and then they are thrown off the boat to die. Sharks are on the brink of extinction and a worrying increase of attacks on humans in Australia notwithstanding, sharks still play an important role in the ecosystem.

I wanted to be vocal about having shark's fin soup and shark's fin dim sum... but is it true that the shark's fin dim sum does not really have shark in it? Inspite of that, there's still the shark's fin soup to contend with, and I encourage you to keep off the items on the menu with "shark's fin" on it.

And speaking of soup...



















I'm not really fond of soups because... well, being 90% liquid, it can fill you up quickly, and I love to do a lot of munching when in Chinese restaurants. But this hot and sour soup is soooo irresistible. My colleague Pauline loved ordering this for herself. I ordered one time for myself to check it out (plus the name is intriguing too!) and I loved it. Spicy and sour and hot all at the same time, with yummy bits of mushroom in it! So when I do not have much choice for side dishes, I order the hot and sour soup. Great stuff.

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