Baked Marble Potatoes with Paprika, Basil and Cheese

Crispy and hot.

Wash and slice marble potatoes in half. Put in a large bowl, pour in some olive oil, mix well. Then add some paprika, a little turmeric, white pepper, lots of garlic powder, and salt. Mix well so each piece of potato gets coated. Transfer to a baking dish and bake at 180˚C for an hour or until the potatoes are cooked and browned and crisp on the outside. Sprinkle some chopped basil leaves and shredded cheese on top and bake again for around 10 minutes. Done.

June 19, 2010

Sautéed Pork and Mushroom and Vegetable Mix

Another simple prep. Just bought some ready vegetable mix in the grocery, a can of shiitake mushrooms, slice of pork, and a pouch of Pork&Mushroom soup mix. Sauté the pork in onions, garlic and lots of Chinese celery (kinchay), add the mushrooms, stir for a few seconds, add the vegetable mix, stir for a few seconds, and then add the soup mix (already mixed in a cup or two of water). Stir again until the starch thickens. Sprinkle with a bit of sesame oil. Done!
June 18, 2010

Crispy Pork on Tomatoes and Onions, Topped with Pickled Papaya

Lazy, but hey, it's really good. Boiled some pork cubes until very tender, added salt, then dried them a little and deep fried. Done! Just slice up some tomatoes and onions and have a bottle of pickled papaya (achara) ready and arrange like in the photo! Hehe.

June 6, 2010

Random Photos

Crisp bread, garlic basil meatball, purple plastic flowers, colored glasses, a dirty angel...

Chopsuey Snow Peas, Baby Corn & Asparagus with Quail Eggs

This is really simple sautéed vegetables in sesame oil. Not much new, except that I used mostly snow peas and asparagus, just to make it more special. I would have added some shiitake mushroom if had some then.

Sesame Rolls

Yup, I'm finally learning to make bread. I find it really hard to do, and I still rely on a recipe sheet. And sometimes, I still fail. But one day, I tried doing it by feel. I even twisted the basic bread recipe by using some sesame oil and adding sesame seeds into the dough mix. Turned out fine.

Hey!

Ok, got my new camera! And it's more than ok! I like its size, design, the price, the features, the picture quality, almost everything. But I especially like its size. I can easily carry it everywhere in the kitchen when I'm busy cooking. Sometimes I can even use just one hand to take pics! Been practicing with it and been taking pictures of some of the new recipes I've discovered and tweaked and twisted. I'm just trying to remember the steps and the fire intensity requirements I used, so bear with me. I'll post them soon. Meanwhile, here are random pictures...

Fiery Fish Tacos (or Nachos) with Two Salsas

Yup, TWO salsas. Combine them when eating, or use one at a time.

This takes a little bit of time to prepare, so be patient.

(BTW, this was what I was working on when my trusty rusty camera failed on me. Around January. Suddenly the pics overexposed on its own, there were white vertical lines on evry single one, and the image blurred. I just tried to fix them in Photoshop)

Ok, Salsa 1: Cruchy Corn and Jicama Salsa

Jicama is simply "singkamas". Get about 2 fist-sized ones and dice into tiny cubes. Mix in a cup of corn kernels. Get a small red onion, two (or more) green chilis, a small bell pepper (save about a fourth of this for the other salsa), and a bunch of cilantro. Finely dice everything and put in a large bowl with the jicama and corn. Take a lemon, or lime, scrape some zest into the mix and slice and squeeze the juice. Season with salt and a little pepper. You can choose to sprinkle a bit of cayenne pepper. Leave in the ref for an hour so the flavors meld.

Salsa 2: Basic Tomato Salsa

Just mix together finely diced tomatoes, a small red onion, green chilis (2 or more), bell pepper (just a little saved from Salsa 1), cilantro, lemon juice, a teaspoon of sugar, salt and pepper. Leave in the ref so the flavors come together.

Hot Fish rub (In order of amount, from more to less): Make sure to make enough to coat the fish fillet well.

Mix together garlic powder, ground white pepper, salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, ground black pepper, chili powder and turmeric. Sprinkle on fish fillet (dory or tilapia) and rub a little to even out. Fry in a little olive oil for about 3 minutes each side. Put in a small dish and flake.Done!

To eat, get some tacos, put some flaked fish, add the jicama and corn salsa, then the tomato salsa, then a little yogurt!Or get a small plate, put some fish, add the jicam and corn salsa, then the tomato salsa, then a little yogurt, and scoop with nachos.

Put some tabasco sauce if you want it even hotter. And some finely sliced cabage.

Hey!

My fault. I've been a little lazy writing down and documenting my experiments. BUT, I still cook and experiment. A lot. It's just that my camera's getting very old and the last time I used it, it conked out on me! And when I'm cooking, I forget to take pictures. So until I get a new small camera, (yes, I only want the pocket-sized camera so it's not too bulky to carry around) my posts will be less and far between. Unless I get a new one, NOW. Haha.

(The picture isn't my camera. I just photoshopped a photo of a broken camera that kinda looks like mine)

Sweet Sautéed Mung Bean Sprouts

Very simple side dish. Just stir-fry some sliced onions in a little sesame oil, throw in about a tablespoonful of roasted sesame seeds, add the cleaned-up bean sprouts (oops, I missed some root tips there), sprinkle a little bit of mirin and a pinch of sugar and salt. Keep stirring, letting the sprouts wilt just a little bit and the mirin's alcohol to evaporate. And it's done!