LaPiS: Hearty

Part of what I signed up for as “domestic diva” is kitchen duty and part of kitchen duty is…

Preparing packed lunches for hubby and the kids on weekdays.

When the mood hits me, I like to do something special for them, to make lunch a bit more interesting. 

Why have the “plain rice and viand combo” when you can jazz it up a little like this…

Now, how’s that for a truly hearty meal?

A love-filled pre-Valentine Lasang Pinoy Sunday to all!

Comfort Food

There’s something about being away from home (and cold!)  that certainly brings on a craving for the familiar and simple fare our Pinoy palate has been accustomed to.

What better way to combat the dreaded homesickness than these…

Yes, “the Bee” has finally found his way to our part of the world – yipee!   And check out the buzz his arrival has created!

Now, we don’t need to go back to Manila to have our “langhap-sarap” fix!  Be it Chickenjoy, spaghetti or burger – name it, we can now have it in the comforts of our home.  “Bee-da” talaga sa sarap!

And when the wind blows a little bit colder and the temp goes from comfortably cool to chilly and nippy, I find that a bowl of this just does wonders…

Yummy recipe can be found here. Thanks, Marketman!

Truly grateful that we have food like these to comfort us and ease the sometimes gnawing  angst we feel in this cold expanse of a desert we temporarily call home – for they warm not only our tummies but our hearts as well. What can I say? They don’t call ‘em comfort food for nothing.

Happy Super-Blessed New Year!

After two (yes, you read it right – TWO ) fun New Year’s Eve parties with our friends – with the last one finding us crawling into bed at 3 am the following morning – I was too tired to wake up to prepare a “proper” New Year’s day meal for the family.  Next best thing?

Do a “proper” New Year’s dinner – yay!   After all, I wanted to treat hubby and the kids to something special to start 2010 right

Here’s what I came up with…

For starters:

Pardon the photo of the clam chowder – I actually took it the day after since we weren’t able to take a decent photo of it from the night before… this was all that was left!

Then on to the “main event”… we very rarely have beef dishes (mainly due to health reasons) but I decided that New Year’s would be an exception.

Since the main was already quite heavy on the tummy, our dessert was kept as simple as possible…

And in the true spirit of celebration, all these were washed down with some (non-alcoholic) bubbly – with a few strawberries thrown in, of course!

Cheers, everyone! And to quote my fave preacher Bo, here’s to a super-blessed year for all of us!

“I declare I’ll have a super-blessed year in 2010! I claim a year of amazing abundance for my life. This year, I shall receive more love and give more love. I shall experience more joy, greater generosity, dreams fulfilled, financial increase, open doors, new opportunities, divine connections, supernatural appointments, great miracles, answered prayers, and exponential growth—Amen!”

 

Chicken Potato Apple Salad

During this season of parties and even more parties, many times it becomes quite stressful just  thinking about what to bring to share…

Until I stumbled upon this recipe for potato salad… and things thankfully got a little bit more interesting

Served this recently as a side to baked wings and then again as an appetizer for a party we hosted for friends.  Happy to say that during both occasions, it was a success!

I tweaked the original recipe a bit to accomodate what ingredients were readily available to me.  Summary of minor adjustments as follows:

1. Replaced whole grain mustard with yellow mustard and disregarded the dijon mustard altogether
2. Replaced apple cider vinegar with 1 tsp rice vinegar
3. Added 4 stalks of chopped celery
4. Added 2 pieces pre-cooked and cubed chicken breasts
5. Added 2 pieces Gala apples (roughly cut into 2 inch wedges)
6. Added hard-boiled eggs for garnish

For salad lovers, this is highly recommended!   Happy eating!

Chicken Cakes with Teriyaki Sauce

Wanted to try something different for lunch today.

So after leafing through the Japanese cookbook (Classic Japanese by Masaki Ko) I recently snagged from the kids’ book fair in school, here’s what I came up with…

Though I didn’t have mirin on hand, the result was just as tasty! Will make sure to do a repeat of this soon.

Here’s the easy recipe:

WHAT YOU NEED: 400 grams minced chicken (I used 500 g), 1 egg, 4 tbsp grated onion (I finely chopped mine), 1 1/2 tsp sugar (upped it a bit at 2 tsp!), 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce, cornflour (for coating), 1 tbsp oil, 1/2 bunch finely shredded spring onions for garnish (optional)

FOR THE TERIYAKI SAUCE: 2 tbsp sake or dry white wine, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp mirin (I used 1 tbsp water instead), 2 tbsp soy sauce

HOW TO:

1. Mix the minced chicken with the egg, grated onion, sugar and soy sauce until the ingredients are thoroughly combined and well bound together.  This process takes about 3 minutes, until the mixture is quite sticky, which gives a good texture.
2. Shape the mixture into small, flat round cakes ( I was able to make 30 pcs of 1 tbsp each) and dust them lightly all over with cornflour.
3. Soak the spring onions in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes and drain well.  (I decided to omit this step.)
4. Heat the oil in a frying pan.  Place the chicken cakes in the pan in a single layer and cook them over moderate heat for 3 minutes.  Turn the cakes over and cook for another 3 minutes.
5. Mix the ingredients for the sauce and pour it into the frying pan.  Turn the chicken cakes occasionally until they are evenly glazed with the sauce.  Move or gently shake the pan constantly to prevent the sauce from burning.
6. Arrange the chicken cakes on a serving plate and top with the shredded spring onions. (I opted to do a rice topping version for mine where  I put the cakes atop a bowl of steamed white rice and drizzled some of the sauce before serving).  Serve and enjoy!

Steamed Hammour Fillet in Soy Sauce

Given the usually rich and decadent dishes served during the holiday season, it truly is a breather to eat something as simple yet delicious as this…

After all, we do need to give our tummies a break sometime, right?

This is a perfect match to steamed white jasmine rice.  And on a cold wintry kind of day, it definitely warms both the tummy and the spirit – yum!

Many thanks again to Jam of  The Happy Tummy Kitchen for sharing this recipe – which I tweaked a bit (used hammour – the Arabic version of grouper – instead of cream dory and Kikkoman regular soy sauce instead of the light variety) to accomodate what was available in my own kitchen.

‘Tis the “C”-son to be…

… not only jolly… but also heavy and (pardon the bluntness of the term) fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la… fat!   Largely because of goodies like these…

Still in a desperate attempt to beat the darn holiday blues (*insert “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” background music here for full “emo” effect*), I whipped these up – my Christmas cheat (double) chocolate cupcakes! (now you ”C” why my blog post is titled as such… )

Admit it, you must think the red&green M&Ms are too tacky, ahem, “reminders” of the season.  Never mind… they still were delicious additions anyhow…

Thanks again, Betty (Crocker)! You rock!

Dimsum Discovery

Just wanted to share with you our latest find from the frozen food section of our friendly neighborhood (Asian) grocery…

The only thing I understood – apart from the brand name – were the yummy-looking dumplings enticing us to give ‘em a try!

Though the price was a bit steep (SR25  – or USD6.67 – for 12 pieces), hubby and the boys became instant fans!  We were definitely not disappointed insofar as taste was concerned since it brought back fond memories of delicious dimsums past…

Our only wish: Super-size this siomai!  If this were so, guess we’d not be having second thoughts with shelling out our hard-earned riyals the next time

Easy-Peasy…Japanese-y!

Everytime we want to have something light and relatively healthy, we always go for Japanese food.

However, since Japanese restos are only beginning to be introduced to this kingdom (and with only a handful – the expensive ones – serving really good and authentic Jap dishes), we have to resort to home-cooked Japanese food most of the time.  And since I’m the designated cook at home, I make sure that I prepare mostly simple yet yummy dishes inspired by the Land of the Rising Sun.

Here’s what I came up with during our recent “Japanese Night”…

Maki Variants: Crabstick and cucumber with faux caviar and Spicy Tuna

BTW, I found this link especially helpful when prepping my sushi rice while this one made actually putting the makis together a tad easier.

And I also tried something new… well, not exactly… since I’ve had this years ago when my mom made this for us when they were still based in Nagoya…

Though the chicken dish was not a big hit with the tweens, I’m glad that both hubby and diva-lette liked it. And the maki? Well, they were  ”mercilessly devoured” – as usual – hahaha!

Here’s another shot of the chicken (with its Japanese name this time) up-close…

And finally, for those who may be interested, here’s the easy recipe for the chicken that my mom passed on to me (I think she got it from one of those “authentic” Nihongo cookbooks):

WHAT YOU NEED: 400 grams skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I used 450 g in mine with the same results), 2 tablespoons sake/Japanese rice wine, 1 tablespoon lemon juice

FOR THE SAUCE: 2 tablespoons sake, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon sesame oil

HOW TO: Prick chicken breasts with a fork and season with salt (I used approximately half a tablespoon to season mine).  Put chicken in small bowl and add sake and lemon juice.  Let marinate for 20 minutes (I did mine overnight). Place chicken and marinade in a steamer and steam for 20 minutes. Mix together ingredients for the sauce and boil until sauce thickens somewhat.  Cut chicken into bite-size pieces and serve with the sauce.

Easy-peasy, isn’t it?

Shrimp Scampi Pasta

I’ve been meaning to give this dish a go ever since my sister posted her own version of it  on her site a couple of weeks ago…

However, for one reason or another, I never seem to have all the ingredients on hand!  What to do?

After bloghopping like crazy, I finally found  a similar (and most worthy, if  I may add!) recipe  and combined the “best of both worlds” to make a shrimp scampi dish that is distinctly my own – yipee!

Curious?

Here’s how my long-overdue Shrimp Scampi Pasta looked like…

Paired off with the usual garlic bread – or, in my case, mini cheese mozarella pizzas made from leftover bran bread – it was simply scrumptious!

Many thanks to the Happy Tummy Kitchen for providing the inspiration for this delish dish.

This will definitely have an encore in my kitchen soon!