baby rambutan

one hot day in July, when i was feeling sluggishly sloth-y, and not feeling like doing any cooking, let alone moving at all…the urge to eat this moved me greatly.

i should have this memorized by now! from Delia Smith’s Summer Collection, i added extra of everything (garlic, chili, anchovies, basil, capers, tomatoes, olives), used thin spaghetti and added a can of solid white tuna in olive oil.
all strong, punchy flavors, over pasta: somehow it just worked on a hot summer day.

and then on to more summer eats! i have three kids at home, very hungry and constantly checking out the fridge and checking in on mom at the kitchen–so i tend to be preparing quick and easy dishes, such as this bbq chicken a la Bacolod Inasal, a style of grilling marinated chicken.
i had heard about it a lot, and finally got to try it at a chain restaurant in the Mall of Asia, by the seaside Roxas Boulevard, Manila.
i used a recipe mostly based on Chef Pauline Gorriceta-Banusing’s via the Inquirer.Net. i added lemongrass stalks (as suggested by several recipes i found in other sites) and marinated the minimum 30 minutes (more than that and the chicken meat will get “de-natured”).

the special technique is the butter-calamansi-atsuete (annatto seed, used as a vibrant colorant) basting sauce. (i could not bear to use margarine, which is the original recipe).
i was nervous about using all that vinegar, with no soy sauce to soften all that acidic kick.

but it was a hit, yet i’ve decided i will use chicken leg quarters instead of whole chickens–i used baby “young chickens”–because the breast meat dried out. NO MORE BREAST MEAT.

highly recommended with achara as side dish…

achara of green papaya plus:not-so-secret formula here.

recipe for Chef Pauline’s chicken inasal follows… (more…)

the craving just got too intense, too hot to handle.
i even ordered some from the one and only Pinoy restaurant in…my city? the state? the whole of New England?
it would have been good, except that they put a LOT of minced ginger in their otherwise delicious (and reasonably priced) sisig.
it took too long to pull out the finely minced pieces–don’t get me wrong! i like ginger, i love ginger!–just not in my sisig.
so of course, the only recourse, is to make some myself.
i first had mine, sizzling, at Trellis Restaurant–at the site which used to be my Uncle’s house.

there’s so much fun in the search for ingredients. (???) first you have to find a pork head. barring that, you find pork face/snout. the best sisig i had was in California, Ma-made, with fresh roasted lechon and the creamy pork brain mashed in.
impossible? then find some pork belly and ears to provide that unique crunchy chewy “makunat” texture.
i got lucky and found pork snouts. i just supplemented with a meaty pork belly, and the instant sisig packet,


and my fresh calamansi from California, and bottled labuyo juice,

and fresh chopped red onions. roast parboiled chicken livers stand in for the brains….

and the cravings have been satiated.
for now.
now where’s that sizzling platter?

i thought i’d make something light to accompany the kids’ special request for dinner of roast semi-boneless beef ribs…

i decided on angel food cake, flavored with lime zest and drizzled with calamansi juice glaze.
it was like a cloud! like eating lime-flavored clouds!


it is truly an easy cake to make, considering… (and! easily adaptable to any citrus fruit/s of your choice.)
(more…)

This post was entered into the “Grow Your Own” roundup, hosted this month by House of Annie.

i spent a week in California to hang out with my parents and siblings–our kuya (older brother) flew in from Manila with a suitcase full of goodies.

i’ve had this recipe printed out and magnetically attached to the fridge for quite a while now. i saw it on a PBS special about Mexico, hosted by Tyler Florence, who is just about the only food network hunk chef i watch nowadays. he made it with lime zest.

in my carry on bag though was a small basket of these, handpicked from a garden in Camarillo, Ca.
(there were also saba bananas, pickled green mangoes, polvoron, and Ricoa flat tops. i tried to look as innocent possible when a little leak of pickled mango juice was detected in the overhead bin. )

two quite rare ingredients blended together in an easy flan recipe…there was a bit of an overflow from leftover mix that i poured into a little ramekin and that i had–all by myself.

(more…)

from Vietnam, to Morocco, in my dreams.
(more…)

the dish arrives with a caveat:
if you do not have a passion for fish sauce, what i call, patis love, look away now, “X” it now, come back another day.
still here?
the reward is a dish worth a pot full of rice both because the sauce deserves to be licked clean and because the spicy punch will need the soothing mouthfuls of starch to cool your mouth down.

the first step is to make this caramel with fish sauce. you must be brave.

you must also add at least one red hot chili pepper.
based on recipes from three cookbooks (authors Nicole Routhier, Corinne Trang, and Mai Pham) and my desire to eat something spicy and saucy, since i had a stuffed up nose with matching dead tastebuds. i had to consult with my favorite testers to check if the flavors (lemongrass, garlic, chili, chili paste, caramel, fish sauce, shallots) were all right .

recipe coming soon follows… (more…)

sometimes the path from “A” to “B” takes some convoluted twists and turns. the craving was for lobsters…as in $2.99 per pound medium size lobsters–i kid you not! the price was too low as to be worrisome…we haven’t seen prices like these since we were teenagers, and we’re talking Maine, straight-from-the-dock prices! good-luck-to-the-lobstermen kind of prices…–
but to get to that, first i had to have chocolate cake.
of the three-layer-punch-in-the-face variety.
i take my job really seriously you know, the job of checking out chocolate cake or brownie recipes that tout themselves to be the best.
now, i’ve proclaimed that i won’t buy any more new cookbooks or food magazines at all. but i forgot that i did subscribe to two family oriented magazines last year, to support my kid’s public school.
when the first issue arrived, the first thing i noticed was the purported “best chocolate cake recipe ever!” which i dutifully decided had to be put to the test.


i was tempted to stop icing the cake right then, and eat the rest of the frosting straight up with a soup spoon….

but i had good self-control. for a change.

then i had to hie off to the newly opened fish mongers at the 4th edition of summer shack. it is a New England institution by now, Jasper White’s humble down home chain of restaurants that evoke hearty New England chowders and lobster bakes. we went to the original location in Cambridge years ago for a mothers’ day dinner–it is so memorable to me because it was the weekend before i’d have to find out if a lump on my leg was something to worry about or not (NOT, as it turned out)…so i was determined to have a great good time.
the food was divine, and i remember sharing a broiled lobster platter with my then 2-year old youngest child, and the fish lumpia (spring rolls) that were so terrific we had to order more.
this 4th franchise has a fish store, and our first peek last weekend the fish monger whispered that there’d be a sale on lobsters, this weekend.
there i was, buying, incredulously at $2.99 a pound…”give me FOUR!” wheee….i was almost in a diabetic shock state from hunger, having just swum 30 lengths at the pool, having just popped a cracker dipped in fish pate from the sample counter, having just walked out to try and get a nice takeaway lunch from the supermarket round the corner…when i literally walked into the towering gent, the what, 6 foot 4 inch tall– the one and only Jasper White himself, seeing some dining customers out the door.
“murrrmpphffaffff!”
i tried to swallow the mouthful of cracker.
“how nice to see you! i’m a fan!” i know, so lame….
he graciously, gallantly shook my hand, laughing,” happy new year!”


i swear, he was right there!

ask me about the chocolate cake recipe, which was fabulous! i’m still too stunned right now….

the day after, i feel like i am the ultimate kulelat of the Boston Marathon, all beat up and crawling to the finish line.
and i feel like giving all the Santa “facilitators”,a great big hug! you know who you are! give yourselves a standing ovation, for helping Santa deliver his presents to all the nice kids and/or not too naughty ones.
christmas morning i made buttery scones for breakfast, having stumbled upon a prettily,accessibly priced jar of clotted cream in one of my favorite salvage storeshaunts.


then i made this really easy yet delicious apple walnut spice cake–everyone overlooked the patchiness of it especially when i hand-whipped the calvados vanilla cream at the party venue (i didn’t want to make a fuss or noise at the hostess’ kitchen, ssshhh!).


it diminished in size so quickly, #1son made sure he scored two leftover slices to take home. i’ll make you some more, promise!
as usual, recipe will be posted upon request! please, bug me if i neglect to respond. my life’s like that!

i hope your Christmas was a joyous one.

someone else’s table, that is.

this year the Family had their Thanksgiving dinner at husband’s niece’s home, and she did a wonderful job with her first 20-lb. turkey, ever. so gracious indeed, we had a great time and my kids loved hanging out with their cousins, playing ping pong well into the night.

the dessert table, left to right: pumpkin tart, Rosie’s Bakery chocolate mousse cake and toll house pie, Russian grandmother’s apple pie cake, whipped cream, a bowl of grapes, and Brigham’s ice creams.

Russian grandmothers’ apple pie cake is another dessert from Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking,” luscious Golden Delicious apple slices and golden raisins enveloped in a double crust of an almost cookie-cake-like batter. it was a bit of a gamble, seeing that i’d never done this before, but i was confident because everything i’ve made from Dorie Greenspan’s been a whopping success anyway.

what’s left, reserved for #1son.

recipe, upon request!

may i suggest for your Thanksgiving table…

Dorie Greenspan’s sour cream pumpkin tart?

it’s quite simple and easy to put together: pâte sablée crust–pressed! not rolled (flour, confectioners’ sugar, butter, egg yolk)–partially baked, then filled with a mix of pumpkin puree, sour cream, heavy cream, eggs, dark rum, then baked some more.
the flavor is deep and mellow and just perfect with coffee–that is if you’ve left some room in your tummy for dessert after all that food.
(recipe? if you insist! )