Paksiw na Lehon Manok

We had guests yesterday but we haven't done our groceries yet and so our ref leaves much to be desired ingredients-wise. And so I bought a roast chicken instead. But our guest brought along food to cook and we soon found ourselves with a feast consisting of nilagang baka, mussels in soup, and roast chicken.

Understandably the roast chicken was not "sold out" and I was left if a fair amount of leftover meat. What to do with it? Make paksiw na lechon manok!

Potato Frittata

The weather forecast last weekend's Sunday was a foggy, gloomy day so imagine my delight when I saw the sun shining so brightly! I am in charge of breakfast for weekends and I would usually just cook some eggs in the scrambled and sunny side-up variety and have fried rice with it. But it felt really good to have a sunny Sunday that I decided to jazz up our egg breakfast and make potato frittata.

The name might not be familiar, but Filipino households would have cooked this at one time or another. The main ingredients are potatoes and eggs. My Nanay actually adds chopped onion to her version but I find that biting into onion pieces somehow interrupts the subtle flavour of the potato and the egg.

This is so easy to make and so yummy! Understandably, you might want to add a few other veggies into it but it will be a new dish altogether. I suggest you try this simple version first before exploring the possibilities.

Hearty beef soup

Hot soup is a truly wonderful thing to have on a cold winter afternoon (or, in the case of the Philippines' rainy season, a stormy day!) It's a soothing respite from the weather, and soup made "from scratch" (short of making the noodles from flour) makes it all the more special.

This beef soup has the goodness of... um... beef, and ginger gives it that extra warmth. This takes more than an hour to make, however, so I reserve this special brew for weekends.

Melon-banana smoothie

My wife bought a melon inspite of it being a bit expensive (read: imported) because she missed the taste and asked me to prepare it for after-meal consumption. Without that clever gadget most Philippine kitchens have that turns coconut and melon meat into strings, I resort to the blender. I decided to add a banana because this fruit goes well with almost anything. It also adds a bit of texture into the smoothie. However, I recommend using only a small banana as its taste can overpower the melon.

Book Review: A Little Taste of Japan

I made the big mistake of reading this book while in the bus on the way to work. By the time I sat in my office, my stomach was already rumbling. I had to eat my afternoon snack just to make it through the morning.

A Little Taste of Japan is a clever book, because wedged between recipes are stories about how their food has evolved. Japanese cuisine is, for example, influenced by the seasons and food becomes thematic as the year goes through its paces. A bit of history on such delights as soba and sushi is also shared.  Interesting stuff.

I am a big fan of Japanese food, and this book has certainly been a good read. I also realized that for me to cook such dishes at home, I need to get the basic ingredients right.

Another important (and very doable) thing I learned is that sushi rice needs to be prepared a certain way. Plain rice from the cooker needs to be flavoured first before being used. That was an interesting bit, something that I would like to do over the weekend.

If you love Japanese food, have a go at this book. I think a more recent edition is now available as well.

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