Homemade Vanilla Syrup

A good thing about living in the suburb is that it forces you to be more resourceful and creative with what you have. Unlike in the city where the supermarket is just a stone throw away, we do not have the convenience of getting what we need in an instant. We either wait for the grocery day or improvise. One afternoon, I was craving for pancakes but we ran out of syrup so I improvised. I found this easy recipe of vanilla syrup from the Internet and found it very easy to replicate.

The Pinoy Pancit (Noodles)

It's been a while since that last post. A lot of things had happened already, a lot of stories awaits to be told. But we'll get to that as time goes on as I intend to be back for good. I'd like to start my coming back with my recipe of the Pinoy traditional snack "pancit" or noodles, a personal favorite. I'd like to share to you this Filipino tradition of cooking pancit.

Mussel soup from my kitchen

I told you I'd make my own mussel soup - like the unforgettable one I had in my trip in Lake Como, Italy. It's a local version with chili leaves and done the usual "Pinoy ginisa" way. So it's very easy. I had local mussels, tomatoes, chili leaves, garlic, oyster sauce, red sugar, some basil dried leaves, olive oil, onions, and I did put some balsamic vinegar coz I like it to be a bit sour. Add some salt or soy sauce to taste.

I merely sauteed the garlic, onions, and tomatoes in olive oil, put some oyster sauce to create a nice golden brown sauce. It should be just quick. Then I put the mussels and some soy sauce until the juice comes out and the shells opened up.

Quick Pasta Tuna

Working moms have very limited time to cook. So quick and easy recipes are such life-savers for us. Here,
I'm sharing my 15-minute pasta tuna. I did it to liven up that rainy weekend afternoon when my sons are bored staying just inside the house.

Living in the suburbs, we don't get as much chance to eat out or buy those delectable eats available in malls and restaurants so I always make sure I can create something out of what we have at home. Here is one of our favorite snacks - the tuna spaghetti.

Ingredients:
   Spaghetti pasta, cooked aldente
   Tomato sauce or any spaghetti sauce (Tomato and cheese is recommended)
   Tomatoes, sliced
   Garlic, sliced
   Century Tuna light
   Basil
   Cheese (I used quick melt, any will do, should be same amount as that of the tuna)
   Butter
   Salt

Pasta ala Nina, my version

I hope I did some justice to my BFF's pasta recipe- I call it pasta ala nina. I don't dare publish the ingredients here and the correct measurements - for I can't remember (sigh...). Anyway, here's my version - I just remember one more thing I forgot, it should have olives in it. Nonetheless, I rate it as a "okay", for now I'll just wait til Nina makes one for us again - hers is way tastier. What actually inspires me to make this pasta recipe is that the basil in my garden are getting taller, about to bear flower already, and yet I haven't really used it in the kitchen. If you remember the "Sonya's Garden" post, I bought the basil from there. I learned that once basil flowers bloom, the leaves will taste a bit bitter. So I found a way to make use of the basil leaves.

Homey pizza

'Enough about my China trip, I'm back home to my usual working mommy mode. I wanted to make up for the lost time, so I made the kids a home-made (sort of) pizza - Hawaiian, their favorite. One thing I've learned about preparing food for my kids, they need not be expensive and complicated. They wanted a simple pizza, I willingly obliged. Apart from the fact that that's the only one I can do for now for I'm still yet to read the cookbook I inherited from my dear Aunt, the ingredients are quite easy to find.
I used Village Gourmet's Gourmet Pizza Crust Personal size, thin, and I was lucky to find pizza sauce in the nearest supermarket. Added some pineapples, ham slices, and bell pepper, quick-melt cheese - and there in an instant - pizza, fresh from the pan, without a lot of waiting or queuing. The kids loved it - we even used Gardenia bread when we ran out of pizza crusts!

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Ensaladang Bagnet

This reminds me of one of my favorite appetizers in Via Mare, their ensaladang bagnet. One day I was really craving for  it at home so we improvised. Here's what we did.

The delectable experiment

I started the new year with an experiment......in the kitchen. As you know, we working moms can't always cook. Many simply cannot find time to cook. Others simply do not have the gift. Others are "to-go" types. Well some, let's just say, try hard. I belong to the last category. Lucky me, most of the time that I do experiment, it turns out just fine.

So to excite myself and of course to learn something new, I kicked off 2009 with a mouth-watering dish. This time, I myself even wowed it (wink!). Presenting to you a very simple version of garlic shrimps- with lots and lots of garlic, onions, and my favorite ingredient- red bellpepper. The good news is......I was able to duplicate what I did last new year's eve which is a good sign. :)

Photo below is my New Year's eve version. The last two are those of today's.
Itadakimasu!

Garlic Shrimps ala Au

1/2 kilo shrimps
red/green bell pepper
butter
garlic, chopped into fine squares
onions
Lee Kum Kee soy sauce
black pepper

Saute garlic in butter until golden brown. Put in the shrimps. When shrimps have turned red but not yet cooked, pour a few tablespoonfuls of Lee Kum Kee. Put in the onions when the soy sauce boils. Then put in the bell pepper strips and a pinch of black pepper. Add some salt to taste if necessary. You can make it a red hot version by adding a few slices of chili.

There you go, a fast and simple garlic shrimps. No bad for the experimenting cook.:)

Igado Recipe

Here is my sister-in-law's IGADO recipe, the Ilocano way. I've cooked it several times and I can say that it has become one of my friends' favorite dish among those that I serve during special occasions. Back in the countryside, in my place, we cook this dish during Fiesta, Weddings, Baptismal and even Funeral. The way it is cooked is much like that of the chicken adobo so it's very simple. What you need:

1/2 kilo pork strips
1/2 kilo pork liver strips
5 pcs. bell pepper (green and red)
raisins

green peas

For marinating, you need:
soy sauce
black pepper
dried laurel leaves
red vinegar (sugar cane vinegar), 1 to 2 tbsp.
Sprite (half cup)

Marinate the pork and pork liver for atleast an hour.
Put the marinade in a pan and cook it until the pork and liver are cooked.
Continue cooking in low fire until the igado has very little amount of sauce remaining.
Then add the bell pepper, green peas and raisins and you're done.
To add some excitement when you eat, dip it in vinegar with chilis, really appetizing!
SARAP!

Yummy Miki Noodles Soup

Here is one snack dish that I'm really proud of, it's the Ilocano miki noodles soup. We cooked this one this morning and it sure was so yummy. It's perfect for snack, it fact it is a part of the typical rural Ilocano party menu. But I say it's better if you have it in the morning as part of your breakfast. It's best when it's served hot and with a bit of chilis in it.

I'll show you how to cook it. Boil some chicken meat. When done, set aside the broth and tear the meat into elongated pieces. Set aside.

That red color in the miki noodles is caused by atsuete. What you need to do is: in a bowl, get some atsuete and pour some warm water into. Stir it until the water turns red. Remove the atsuete and set aside the mixture.

In a pan, saute garlic until it turns brown, then saute the chicken. When the chicken turns light brown pour in the atsuete mixture. Let it boil. Then pour the chicken broth. Add some salt to taste. Put in the miki noodles (flat noodles). Simmer until the miki is cooked. Add some ground black pepper and kutsay (garlic chives?) when it is already cooked. It's very simple. Enjoy your miki noodles the Ilocano way.Oh and by the way, aside from chicken, you can also add fried crablets or shrimps for a more delightful miki noodles.Yummyness!

My First Attempt at Siomai

Last weekend, I had a groundbreaking attempt at making pork siomai (dumpling) out of my hubby's recipe. This is really a brave attempt on my part because after all the many years he's shown me how to do it, it's only now that I finally got the inspiration to do it. Okay, I admit it, I missed the siomai and I missed the person. :)
Anyway, I've seen him do it many times when my friends and family have to come by. It's a recipe that he himself borrowed from a former housemate/caretaker way back in college. Back then, he used to help her out in making siomai and other snack dishes that she prepares for her shop. So through the years, he didn't forget how to make the most mouthwatering siomai I've ever tasted.
Okay, my turn and my show. Here's the photo of the mixture (I'm not a cook and I don't even know how to call that mixture of ground pork and other ingredients (ground lean pork, carrots, onion spring, egg, flour, ground pepper, salt and sesame oil). You know he'd really kill me coz I spoiled his secret recipe.

What is intriguing in his way of preparing this mixture is that he does not write down the appropriate amounts for each ingredient. He just makes "tantiya" (estimate) which is the very same reason why it took me so long before I can finally make one my own. He just know, just by the looks of tit, he'd know. He would ask me to pour some more flour or pepper. And I can't really tell how many  several times he'd ask me to pour some more sesame oil and bits of salt, get one more egg, stuff like that. By the time we finish I could no longer calculate how much of which we have poured into the mixture.But well, bahala na I said, so here is my version of his.

Well, by the way, the one I got perfectly well is how to wrap a siomai? Here's how. Pull the opposite sides of the wrapper together to make the pointed ends meet at the middle.Do this with the two remaining sides. Then fold the sides in the same direction to make whirls (I really am an amateur in explaining these, please bear with me).

Okay, now we're ready to steam.

Another thing that you should not forget is how to make the dip. The dip is just a mixture of soy sauce, calamansi/lemon extract and chili sauce. I wanna show you how I made  the chili sauce. First, chop the  garlic and chili into fine pieces. Saute the garlic in oil, when  it's brown, pour in the chili. Then when the chili are cooked, put soy sauce in it. Cook until the chili sauce turns a bit sticky and really dark. But mine is not sticky coz it lacks soy sauce, so I was told.

 (Sorry for this, I kept rotating it but it just wouldn't work).

Anyway, it wasn't bad I think for a start. Mine did not have the taste I was looking for, the taste of my hubby's siomai. It's quite the same in terms of physical appearance, at least I got that part quite well. It just lacked a bit of several ingredients I guess. But well, we ate it, my kids loved it nonetheless. I think next time, 'will be better.