baby rambutan

i found a tuna salad combination that was just perfect for the sweltering summer day. chickpeas, or garbanzos, tuna, tomatoes, red onions, basil and spinach, which i dressed with my favorite Delia Smith garlic lemon pepper dressing. (scroll way way down if you click this link, the transferred posts from my old babyrambutan.com are all below the fold, somehow.)

when it’s too hot, you don’t have to get out of the kitchen
you just don’t have to turn on the ovenstove !!!

for days now i’ve been planning to make croissant dough just so i can make these…but time is so so running short, i can barely keep up! (more…)

it’s labeled “sweet corn cake”, but it cooks up to a scoopable little pudding.

one of my favorite things to do after i drop off the kids at their schools is to roam around the grocery store, looking for something new to try.
and this one is the latest addition to our favorites list.
it’s at the Mexican portion of the international food aisle…
and we can’t get enough.

i first made it as an accompaniment to husband’s new chili con carne recipe. and then i thought it’s the perfect match for a roast chicken dinner, when i wanted to relive (re-eat?) the delicious dinner prepared by our new neighbors on a rainy Saturday night.

yeah it’s a cake mix sort of; you just add a can of cream-style corn, butter, and water to a corn meal and masa harina mix, i’m sort of over my cake mix snobbery , but … whatEVER!, it is belly-warming, it is filling, it is addictive.

under construction, etc., will be up and running again soon, hopefully.

blood oranges are in season:
somewhat pucker-up-tart, with a little hint of grapefruit and a hit of raspberry. usually juiced.

via Brussels…sprouts (instead of cabbage).

nostalgia strikes again!
the weather was cold and grey and rainy but somewhat mild…and it was somehow not gloomy. it reminded me of the summers we spent with my mom’s “cousins” in Baguio, the summer capital of the Philippines, in Benguet province where the crunchy vegetables i so shunned during childhood, were very hard to resist.

chop suey was something regularly served by our Auntie Thelma, and it was one of those unforgettable foodie moments where you can literally just summon that first sensation of taste on your tongue. for me it was the intensely sweet-hot green pepper.

whenever we went back home to Diliman our mom would quickly cook up the “bayong” or basket full of veggies she brought back. chop suey it was, always.

just a simple stir fry of garlic, onions, ginger, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, green peppers, and Brussels sprouts (my brilliant substitute for cabbage) in a sauce of rice wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, chicken broth and sesame oil, thickened with cornstarch solution, with chicken gizzards and livers as the exotic meat additions.

warm up with this spicy dishy pork Sichuan style. i can’t believe i have never posted this, one of my favorite winter entrees. i try to request anything yu shang when we go out to eat at Northern Chinese cuisine restaurants.-here’s a simple recipe i found from “Chinese Cuisine” by Huang Su Huei where it’s called “Shredded pork with Fish flavor” meaning pork cooked with a sauce meant for fish!
i’ve done the eggplant version but with the cold and snow descending upon us, nay! bearing down upon us…it calls for anything with “chili” to warm you up, inside and out.

ever heard of the medicinal benefits? “Chili Pepper. Helps dissolve blood clots, opens up sinuses and air passages, breaks up mucus in the lungs, acts as an expectorant or decongestant, helps prevent bronchitis, emphysema and stomach ulcers. Most of chili pepper’s pharmacological activity is credited to capsaicin (from the Latin “to bite”), the compound that makes the pepper taste hot. Also a potent painkiller, alleviating headaches when inhaled, and joint pain when injected. Hot paprika made from hot chili peppers is high in natural aspirin. Antibacterial, antioxidant activity. Putting hot chili sauce on food also speeds up metabolism, burning off calories. Chili peppers do not harm the stomach lining or promote ulcers.” found it on the curezone.

i love that last part about “burning off calories”…even with pork???

2/3 lb. pork tenderloin
1/2 tbsp. cooking wine or sherry
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp.corn starch
1 & 1/2 tbsp. water
1/2 cup oil for frying
1 tsp. hot chili paste
1 tbsp. chopped green onions
1 tbsp. chopped ginger
1 tbsp. chopped garlic
5 water chestnuts, chopped
1/2 cup bamboo shoots, sliced
4 tbsps. chopped wood ears (rehydrated from dried see photo in eggplant link above)

have ready in a small bowl, mixing well before adding:
1 & 1/2 tbsp. cooking wine or sherry
1/2 tbsp. white vinegar
1 & 1/2 tbsp. soy sauce
2 & 1/2 tbsp. water
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. sugar
dash of sesame oil

shred the pork, mix with cooking wine, soy sauce, cornstarch and water. add 2 tbsps. oil and stir before frying so that the shredded meat will separate easily during frying.

heat the wok then add oil. stir-fry the meat; remove. remove oil from wok.
heat the wok then add 2 tbsp. oil. stir fry chili paste, green onions, ginger and garlic. add water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and wood ears; stir to mix. return the meat to the wok and add the remaining ingredients. turn heat to high. quickly stir to mix. remove and serve.

so i’m in the basement a lot, digging out my kitchen equipment that we have to store down there for lack of kitchen cabinet space.
and i think i’m going to be using my pressure cooker more this winter, to save on gas fuel and time as well, and maybe lock in the flavors better???
first up:
ham hock bone, fresh pork hocks (browned first), rib roast bones, and Great Northern beans, with onions, tomatoes (will omit this next time!) and thyme and peppercorns and bay leaf, cooked in pressure cooker with broth and water. in 30 minutes instead of hours and hours.
it was really comforting.

“the consequence of a particularly ruinous event.” yeah, ruined my diet, fer sure!

we kept a lot of old recipes, and added a few new ones. the crowd favorite: husband’s New England codfish chowder.

i’ll supply recipes/links later or upon request. it feels like i just ran the Boston Marathon.

starring roast turkey with oyster stuffing, with a fine supporting cast…

brussels sprouts with chestnuts

Southern Pride sweet cornbread (special request of my 3littlekids)

cranberry-dried mango sauce

taro sweet rice pudding by MaMa (Grandma)

shrimp with celery and and dried fungus from sis-in-law

20 of us for dinner! it was a tight squeeze…

the remains of the desserts…(it got pretty hectic after dinner, which was so contrary to how i felt: sleepy-tired, almost slumping over at the counter. must be that good old tryptophan!

deep dish apple pie from Cook’s Illustrated

pumpkin cheesecake with streusel topping

pumpkin flan with toasted pumpkin seeds

kids had their own “dessert buffet” with the leftovers…this is #2son’s plate.

my favorite photo:

found at his usual spot, positioned right in front of his favorite shrimp cakes brought by a GooGoo (paternal auntie). later on during dinner, “i don’t know why i feel so full…”

we know why #2son !!!
my brunch the day after

and i am not above rewarding myself with a treat, what i call my “kiss-the-cook” trophy:

a new toy to play with! as if in a trance i’ve been trying to follow the instructions of a self appointed famous health guru to reap the benefits of raw fruits and vegetables. first experiment: apples and carrots, in a 4 to 1 ratio. verdict: deliciously sweet! mostly sweet…i better check if this is good for diabetics.

the clean-up’s a teeny bit of a chore but what a great way to drink your vegetables.

in our neck of the woods, when the weather hits 70 degrees F and above, and it’s October, and you know

you’re supposed to be cold and wet but instead it’s warm and sunny…

you have a cookout.

with #1son home for the long Columbus Day weekend, balmy breezes, and after discovering the source of plentiful hardwood charcoal (after a long and futile search all week long because the big box stores had packed them away for the season)…. it was time to skewer up some pork and marinate the chicken wings.

i made these dishes which were really easy and tasty sides for the grilled meats.

i made green papaya atchara, using a new vegetable peeler which i’d read about as great for peeling thin skinned fruit and vegetables (tomatoes! nectarines! peaches! no need to do the x-ing on the bottom, blanching in hot then plunging in cold ice water! method described here) and discovering that the swiveling serrated blades worked great for the thick hard green papaya skin as well. (and no this is not a sponsored post )

the sharp curved tip is useful for poking out eyes from potatoes and pineapples too. this one’s by zyliss.

the garbanzo bean salad is easy and quick to make! i adapted the recipe from the back of the can, substituting crushed garlic cloves and adding juice from half a lemon.

the garlicky tart garbanzos were especially good with nasi lemak (coconut-pandan rice) which i made with basmati rice.

recipes ….. (more…)