Food Journal of Hershey Ang

New Blog!

2009-11-19T23:26:00.002+08:00

Hello readers and friends! I am moving into a new blog! Here is the address: http://foodjournalofhershey.wordpress.com/. Hope to hear from you soon!

Zenses - A taste of molecular gastronomy

2009-11-15T08:50:00.024+08:00

Anton started the idea of having a Wednesday foodie group. It is technically eating out with the other foodies here in Manila. It was pretty interesting and I signed up for last Wednesday's food adventure. The venue was held in Zenses and I didn't know that I was in for a big surprise.

From what I have read before, Zenses is famous for its usage of liquid nitrogen with their ice cream. This way, the freezing of the cream is so fast that it will stop the formation of ice crystals. During the meal though, there were more ways of using liquid nitrogen than just instantly freezing an ice cream. It was actually a good eye opener in the world of molecular gastronomy.

We started with a cocktail like food. It was popcorn that has been cooled with liquid nitrogen. It was actually cool eating a cold popcorn with the proper texture of the popcorn. The cold popcorn was actually appropriate to start an evening of knowing other foodies in Manila.

It was also served with gingered beer. I don't drink that much and I do not have an innate appreciation or affinity to alcohol so I cannot comment about it.

The real meal started with an asian like amuse-bouche . It was oyster tempura with ginger gelee, bear foam and ebiko. I think it is more of an appetizer than an amuse-bouche since it had two of those.

I liked the sweetness of the ginger gelee but I thought that the tempura was soggy. I think they could have made it crisper. I like the color and flavor profile but the texture was a little off because of the soggy tempura.

Next, we had curried lychee crab tempura with a choice of mango cream aioli or vinegar.

Again, their tempura was really soggy for my bite and with the lychee and crab meat inside, it was like eating a soft fishball but, then again, flavor profile was good.

Next, we had a dinosaur egg gazpacho. Gazpacho is technically a cold tomato soup. I was amazed with the presentation of it. He made the gazpacho looked like a real tomato.

Nice sense of humor eh? He technically placed the soup inside a balloon bag and dipped the balloon bag in liquid nitrogen thus freezing it and taking its shape. Then, you can crack it and start eating it.

Flavor had too much garlic that time. I liked the toasted japanese breadcrumbs though. It gave a good texture to the dish. But the texture of the outer layer of soup itself wasn't properly executed for my palate. It was like eating some sort of a tomato sorbet when you take a bite to it. If possible, I think the protective outer layer of the soup be thin though I think that is hard to execute.

They then served us an inverted wine glass. The glass had some smoked vanilla in it so when we turned it up, there was a strong vanilla smell that crawled throughout the room. It smelled really great! Good execution of the idea.

I just didn't appreciate it that much since I don't know how to appreciate wine. Oh well, maybe I can drink it again next time. Men... and it was a French wine :(

Now, one of the most interesting dish has arrived! It's shrimp cotton candy! The flavor reminded those of shrimp crackers only sweeter and in the form of cotton candy! Interesting eh?

The chef explained this dish. He said that he used real shrimp and added isomalt with it and let it cure. It will pulverized it self through time and thus crystalizing itself like sugar!

Now, onto the main course! It was pork ribs in coriander strawberry sauce. Good combination. I liked the flavor of coriander here. It made me feel I was eating at Pho Hoa. Nice colors too!

We had fish next. It's pan-roasted grouper with blue cheese and grilled pineapple. I liked the way they cooked the the fish. It wasn't overdone. It was actually a good dish especially with the addition of the sweetness of the pineapple. The other guys were just unfortunate to have bones in their fish.

We now go to dessert! By this time, we were all full already but no worries, it was still interesting. The first that came was a blue cheese chocolate cake. It was really nothing special to me. The only thing I liked about this dish was that the flavor wasn't too rich or too strong.

This is the most interesting part, ice cream on the spot! Table side presentation of making ice cream with liquid nitrogen!

They first put liquid nitrogen in the blow. You will see that the liquid nitrogen evaporated fast giving a lot of 'smoke' when it was poured.

They added the ice cream mixture next.

Whisk it and add some more liquid nitrogen until everything is smooth and frozen!

They scooped out the ice cream on the martini glasses and added more liquid nitrogen to it. They also added some rice crispies for added texture. Talk about generosity! It made me feel that liquid nitrogen wasn't that expensive lolz!

There were two flavors of ice cream that were presented. First was gorgonzola ice cream. It was delicously! I liked the strong creamy cheese taste of the ice cream! The other one was bacon and egg! It was both astounding and delicious! The taste was really clean which I wasn't expecting. It had a strong bacon flavor in there but there were no bacon bits present nor bacon color present. Everything was clean. This is fine food, strong flavors but clean to the palate. Lastly, I liked the creamy texture they had in their. The mouth feel was pretty different than that of normal ice cream.

Lastly, we had coffee, not just any coffee, it was a coffee meringue! He froze the espresso with some liquid nitrogen again and placed it into small cups.

The way to eat this was to crack it and eat it. Texture was really that of a meringue. It was a pretty interesting way to have coffee here.

All in all, the experience here was great. Thanks to Chef Johann Santos, I get to have a glimpse of molecular gastronomy. My bad comment about the place is that some flavor profiles were a little off and the serving of plates were not in unison, meaning, some of us were already done with a particular course, some were not even served yet.

Zenses needs better execution and better ambience and am pretty sure it will be part of Miele Guide. It just needs better execution. It needs polishing in its internal operation and am pretty sure, it was be a big hit in Manila.

Maru - Korean Restaurant

2009-11-12T12:21:00.011+08:00

After attending the Philippine Fashion Week a few weeks back, my sister and I thought of eating out afterwards. We also invited her friend to join us with our meal. My sister’s friend, Sebie, suggested we try this Korean restaurant near SM Mall of Asia. Since she was persuasive, we went there and had our dinner there.

This is actually a new experience for me and my sister since we don’t do a lot of Korean food and are not familiar with Korean dining experience.

Before ordering though, Sebie asked the waiter to bring in the appetizers. Wow, free appetizers! Am now really liking the place lolz.

The appetizers consisted flavors of spicy and sour. They also had good texture in them. For something free, it was really good. I liked their pickled aubergine and their spicy clam. The appetizers were cold which I think paired really well with the spicy flavor profile.

First, Sebie ordered samgyupsal.

It is technically grilled pork belly. It also had some grilled potatoes and onions. It wasn’t anything special at first when I ate, then, Sebie taught me how to eat it. You get some lettuce, then dip the pork with some sesame oil with salt and pepper, and add some yellow bean paste. I also added some potatoes with it.

Fold and eat!

It was astounding! I liked the saltiness of the bean paste with the sesame oil! Also, the lettuce gave a great bite to it.
My sister ordered two things. One is grilled mackerel and the other one is dumpling soup. The mackerel came first.

It’s mackerel. You cannot go wrong with it as long as the quality is good. The flavor was great and the texture was great. I liked the flakiness of the fish. The whole fish was also light, yum!

My order then came next, it’s galbi. It is technically beef short ribs. It is pretty similar with the Japanese’s yakiniku which I also blogged about it here.

It was great. Strong beef flavor with some sweet soy. You cannot also go wrong with grilled beef short ribs.

Lastly, which I thought was weird as being last, was the dumpling soup.

It was HUGE! The size was like half of my fist lolz! Anyhow, there was nothing special really with the dumpling. It actually tasted liked gyoza because of the strong garlic taste.

Anyhow, all in all, it was great. I liked the food, the service and the experience. I think am gonna go back again someday or at least try the other authentic Korean places too. I didn’t have some front shot of the place so I will just end it here.

Beef Stew in Tomato Sauce with Mashed Potatoes

2009-11-09T10:44:00.015+08:00

I did this dish when Ondoy hit the Philippines. It was actually the day after I made the braised pork belly dish. This is actually a Filipino recipe that is inspired from the colonization of the Spaniards back in the 18th century. I thought of making this dish because I got some gorgeous thyme at that time and thought of making a stew for it. This pretty similar with the pinoy food they call kaldereta I think. :D

Here are the ingredients.

Look at the thyme, this is the first time I have seen something a thyme this vibrant and this size.

First, heat the pan and throw in some bacon.

When it's a little crisp now with all the fat rendered, sear in the beef! I used brisket in this case. Season it.

When everything is seared, add in carrots, bell peppers and some onions. Sweat those vegetables with the fat. The place should smell good by this time.

Add in some tomato paste.

Mix it and make sure the tomato paste caramelizes.

Add in mushrooms, I used canned in this case.

Add in some white wine.

Add some stock, in my case, I added some frozen stock.

Lastly, add in some thyme and let just simmer until tender, probably 3 hours :D

Now, let's go with the mashed potatoes. I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures with this because I just went automatic :D So I was just able to get a picture of it at the end. Technically, boil some potatoes, then throw them in a food processor, season it and add butter and cream. Pulse pulse pulse!

Serve everything

Opinion

Flavors were really flat. It was as if the flavors didn't merge at all. The whole dish fell apart. It was so bad that it was already the fourth day and it wasn't still finished! However, I have only tasted this dish once during that time when I made this, then, after the fourth day, I tasted it again, and you know what, it was actually better which made me realized that braised food is better to eat it 2-3 days after it was done. It is like marinating it :D anyhow, I will try doing something like this again in the future and will let it sit again for 2-3 days and taste it :D

As for the mashed potatoe, I think its more of a potato puree than a mashed potato. Flavor wise, it's good. It was rich and creamy. Texture, it was gummy.

Serrano Cigar with Mangoes in Red Wine and Cherry Reduction: Amuse-bouche

2009-11-06T11:28:00.016+08:00

I very good friend gave me some serrano ham a few weeks back when during my birthday and so often than not, I just eat it as is. Then, I realize that the value of that ham could have been better if I were to do something about it hence, I made a serrano cigar!

This is actually an amuse-bouche. It is something that is served, upon the selection of a chef, in a restaurant as a starter but not an appetizer. It should be small and presentable and it must be bite size. Amuse-bouche are eaten in a single bite, just one bite!

Anyhow, here is the line-up photo.

First, get a saucepan, pour in red wine and some canned cherries with their syrup.

Taste first, if it lacks sweetness, add some sugar, which happened in my case.

Bring to a boil to reduce it.

For the cigar part, cut some celery

Blanch it by putting it in boiling water *picture doesn't look like it is boiling though*

Then give it an ice shock

Lastly, mangoes brunoise. Brunoise is technically super small dices. Which can be seen here.

Then serve it nicely if possible. Mine looked like a phallic symbol lolz. Or, in a different perspective, a tank!

Opinion

First of all, I will never use celeries from China if it was meant to be chopped! It sucked texture wise. Other parts were chewy. It think it had too much cell wall :)). Flavor wise, the celery was good, but it wasn't good for something eaten this way. I bought it cause it was cheap, well, it's china! Next time, I think am just gonna use China celeries for stock making lolz.

I think, it could have been better if the mango and the reduction was placed on top because when I ate it, I wasn't able to get everything. Moreso, I think it was better eaten with a spork *the utensil that is like a spoon and a fork combine?* Serrano ham is serrano ham and that's it. I think this was a bad amuse-bouche :(

The only thing that was good here was the red wine and cherry reduction. I think am gonna use it again for some sort of a glaze. Lastly, I need to practice my brunoise, it was poorly done :(

Eating at the Garden of Sonya

2009-11-04T11:14:00.024+08:00

Remember my dilemma about not being able to smoke my tenderloin since we placed the outdoor griller in the cemetery in preparation for the all saint's day? well, we also went to Tagaytay that time. If you were to visit here in the Philippines, I suggest taking at least a day trip to Tagaytay. You will truly feel nature and the glory that is the greeneries of the mountain.

Also, It is a good idea if you try visiting this restaurant which we also visited: Sonya's Garden!

Sonya's Garden is a small restaurant in Tagaytay which is really hard to find. It is located deep inside a small road. It is a restaurant that is famous for being some sort of vegetarian since it wanted to show case it's own produce fresh from their garden. We arrived at 5pm and the weather was really fantastic.

Just follow the road

There's the destination place!

Oh no! looks like we are the only ones here! Maybe the food has gotten worse?

Just kidding :D

The style of their service is eat all you can self-service ala carte style. What do I mean about this? they just serve you on your table and you can always ask for a refill. First was their salad entree.

The salad entree had a bowl of fresh greens. A side selection of mangoes, melons, eggs, nuts and a honey mustard dressing. I made this!

Boy, the quality of their salad was really fantastic. Texture was great, greens were crisped and flavors were clean. Fruits were also sweet. It was actually a refreshing first course.

They also served dalandan juice. It was also drink all you can. It was really good even though it was powdered juice.

I drank so much I needed to go to the bathroom lolz

Next course was like a bread course. They sent some loaves of bread, eat all you can ofcourse, and some sides with it. They had pesto, tomatoes, shrimp paste, white cheese and some bean paste, it was some sort of hummus that you usually get from mediterranean cuisine.

I created different combinations from it and the best was a pesto and tomato base,white cheese on top and sprinkled some nuts for added texture from the salad course.

I ate like 2 loaves of this! lolz, I was really full at that time. The next was their main course. Pasta time!

It only had one type of pasta but had 2 different sauces. One was a cream base and the other was a tomato base. I like the tomato base better because it gave a strong tomato flavor. I think it was some sort of a tomato confit. It was accompanied with some fried salmon belly, capers, olives, ratatouillie and some aubergine. I liked their ratatouillie. It was pretty savory and flavors were also clean.

This was the pasta I made. It was technically a tomato confit, capers, olive and some salmon belly. Everything was great except the salmon belly,it was a bit overcooked.

Lastly, we had dessert, loved the chocolate cake, it was really light!

We also had some banana fritters and some yam cooked in condensed milk. The yam gave me a new perspective on the sweetness of the condensed milk, it was sharper when it is cooked and I really liked it

At the end of the day, it was a good meal. What I didn't like was it was carbo load! it made me feel uncomfortable at the end of the meal. Oh, we also had some tarragon tea, didn't get a shot though.

And it was night time. It was really pitched black. There's my mom and her mom looking a bit lost because of the darkness.

We shall be back, maybe for another 7 years lolz.

Banana Fritters with Mango Cream Sauce Turon

2009-11-03T11:40:00.024+08:00

What I really liked about Filipino food is that I can be more creative about it since am here in the Philippines. I can easily look for Filipino ingredients and give them a twist like my champorado recipe. Because of that, I came up with a new pinoy recipe which is the humble turon or banana fritters. So often than not, banana fritters are fried with a crepe like wrapper with the addition of sugar during the frying part. It gives you this dense sweetness and crunchy texture. In my case, it would be more different. Here is the setup of ingredients.

As you can see, I'll be using a lot of bottled Philippine products as the main sweetener for my banana fritters.

First, cut some bananas.

Next, lay down some wrappers.

Put a slice of banana there.

Then, open a bottle of ube or a purple yam and spread a tablespoon beside the banana.

Then, open a bottle of macapuno or coconut sport strings *I think that's the english translation.* next to the purple yam.

Lastly, fold it. That's technically the main dish prior to cooking it.

Now, let's try making some sauce. The good thing about being in a tropical country, fruits are not only abundant but also of good quality. Furthermore, Philippine mangoes are like the sweetest mangoes in the world! Anyhow, so for the sauce, slice some mangoes.

Get a saucepan and melt some butter.

Add the mangoes in the saucepan. Give it a quick saute.

Then add some rum to add a different kind of sweetness in the dish.

Flambe! Yes, burn it!

Then puree it in a blender.

After which, you transfer it back to the saucepan.

Add some cream in it and give it a quick stir.

That's the sauce. Now, fry some of the wrapped bananas.

Cut them in half and serve it with the sauce.

Opinion

I like this texture much much better than the usual turon. You see, the sugar of the usual turon tend to harden so much that so often than not, there is difficulty in eating it. In this case, it is different because there is a crisp texture on the outside and a very soft and chewy feeling on the inside. This was especially achieved because of the macapuno and the ube.

The sauce was also good. It gave a good contrast of texture with the whole dish. The flavors are better than expected. It was sweet and earthy. Colors were duller than expected. I think it had too much purple ube. Next time, adding more macapuno and lessening the ube would give it a much much better presentation. :D

Chorizo Rice

2009-10-30T19:59:00.023+08:00

I was checking our pantry the other day and found some old canned goods. I saw a Pure Foods' Chorizo de Bilbao which was like a year old already. It says that it will expire by November 2009 and thinking that it will expire sooner than later. I decided to do something about it. So often than not, I use this chorizo for making paella, however; I didn't have my oven that time and my paella pan was nowhere to be found. So, I thought of just making this simple chorizo rice dish.

Here are the ingredients.

First, make the tomato sauce. Oh yes friends, we are gonna make a tomato sauce from scratch here. It's flavor is more robust and vibrant. Moreover, it taste's more tomato than the sharp sour taste of commercial packed tomatoes. Anyhow, first, melt some butter.

Then, add some olive oil to give more flavor into it.

Mince some garlic and onions and give them a quick saute here, just sweat them.

Then, deglaze it with some white wine.

Then add some canned tomatoes. I use canned tomatoes because the local tomatoes have different taste. It is actually more refreshing that's why we usually eat it with something salty. The canned ones are different since it came from a tomato producing country and the good thing about their product is that they canned their tomatoes during its peak season and when they are fully riped.

Add some chicken stock into the mixture *mine was a frozen block of chicken stock*. I also added some bay leaf and some thyme. Let it simmer for around 10-20mins to cook out the acidity of the wine and tomatoes plus, to intensify the flavor.

When that is done, put it in a blender and puree it.

Use a chinois and strain the sauce to have a smoother consistency.

Then put it into a saucepan and let it simmer for some more, this time season it.

If you haven't used the Chorizo de Bilbao of Pure Foods, here is a sneak peak.

Yes friends, it is packed in lard! It would be a sin to not use those high cholesterol flavoring into your dish :D That said, get some of its lard and throw it in the pan. When that has heated, put in some chopped chorizo and some chopped bacon.

When they are almost done, remove it from the pan and put in the chicken. Saute and season.

Then, add some cold rice. I use 'dinorado' rice. It is stickier than normal white rice but not that likes of 'malagkit'.

Add in the bacon and chorizo.

Add in the tomato sauce.

Serve

Opinion

Strong bold flavors. This dish will really make you feel Spanishy. What I didn't like about this dish was that I overseasoned it. I think you just have to season the sauce and that would be enough. Moreover, I think the bacon should have been cooked to almost crisped to give it a better texture. Lastly, presentation could have been better. Adding some parsley and lemon wedge as a side could have nailed this dish.

Broiled Pork Tenderloin in Barbecue Sauce with Pan Roasted Potatoes

2009-10-27T10:46:00.033+08:00

I have always wanted to try real barbecue. Smoking whole cuts of meat at low and slow was something I really wanted to do; however, it was not possible for me at a time since I need some wood chips that will go along the cooking process. It took me around 4 months before I was able to get my hands on some hickory wood chips! For starters, I need small cuts of meat and thought that tenderloin would be a good start. Then, an obstacle happened. Our outdoor griller has already been in the cemetery since last week! I have clearly forgotten about that! So, instead of smoking the tenderloin, I came up with this: Broild Pork Tenderloin in Barbecue Sauce with Pan Roasted Potatoes.

There's the preparation *sugar and worcestershire were not included in the photo, forgot about them in the line-up*

First, quarter the potatoes. I used the small potatoes because the large potatoes were like overpriced at this moment due to the typhoons. Then, throw them in a pot with salt in it and boil them. Why add salt? Well, Heston Blumenthal said that adding salt when boiling potatoes will give your potatoes better texture when roasted. And if Heston Blumenthal said it, it must be done.

While the potatoes cook, mince some garlic.

And also mince some onions.

By this time, drain the potatoes from the boiling pot and set it aside. Make sure they have been cooked halfway.

Now, let's start making the sauce. Get a sauce pan and put some olive oil. Give the garlic and onions some quick saute.

Then, add some red wine vinegar. Let it cook until the acidity goes out.

Add some whole peppercorn and a bay leaf.

Then add some water.

Add a little bit of worcestershire.

Then bring in the ketchup. I prefer Heinz cause for me, it is the best :D It the best mouth feel among the rest of the ketchup I have tried.

Lastly, add some sugar. Brown sugar for color.

Give the whole sauce a quick stir and let it simmer so that flavors infused.

Now, let's start with the pork. Grab your whole tenderloin and put it on your cutting board. But the ends of the tenderloin so that the volume of tenderloin looks even for even cooking. You don't want to have some part overcooked and some part undercooked.

Melt some butter on your pan.

Sear the tenderloin.

Sear them on both sides. Season them as this happens ofcourse.

When all sides are seared, put them on your cutting board again.

Slather it with some mustard and pierce a meat thermometer through the thickest part of the meat. Then throw it in a broiler.

Lastly, let's finish the potatoes. Melt some butter on the pan again.

Put some minced garlic and onions and give it a quick saute.

Then add the drained potatoes.

If possible, throw in some fresh herbs. I used tarragon in my case.

Potatoes are done. Remember our sauce? Drain them.

You need to drain them so that you can get a clean color of the sauce.

Serve

Opinion

Pan roasted potatoes doesn't work! You really have to roast them in the oven to get the crisp texture that I was looking for, but, the texture of the potatoes were better than expected. It was pretty soft. It was starchy or crumbly.

The tenderloin was cooked really well. Mustard paired with the barbecue sauce it gave a great flavor profile. The sauce had a good mouth feel and I liked the taste of olive oil in the barbecue sauce, however; I think I should have thinned it a little more.

Points for improvements are flavor and color. I think adding more green and something vibrant could make this dish presentable. Furthermore, I think adding some paprika or roasted bell peppers would have helped a lot with the flavor profile. :D

Saturday Night at My Sister's Place

2009-10-23T20:00:00.026+08:00

Another saturday night has made my sister summoned me to create some nice dishes at their house. Normally, I would bring all my stuff because I don't trust their pantry and their kitchen tools except cooking oil, stove and oven. I even brought my own pepper. Anyhow, I have this small cooler that has become my 'pantry on the go' carrier.

Anyhow, so let's start the fun! I told her that I was to make five dishes. Here are the list: French Fries, Steak, Salad, French Onion Soup, and Baked Chicken.

I could actually make individual post for those mentioned dishes but then again, it ruined the idea of reality for me *but hey, you are in the internet, there is its own reality right?* Anyhow, let's start with the fries.

The preparation for the fries is easy and you can do this a day in advance. Julienne them into uniform sizes and place them in a container and cover them with water. You need them to be uniform so that it cooks evenly when you deep fry them and you cover them in water so that it removes the excess starces that the potatoes have. If possible soak them overnight, which I did, or at least an hour.

I then cooked the french onion soup first since it can be heated easily later when service time comes. Slice some onions and butter a casserole. Place the onions there.

Caramelized the onions there. When it started caramelizing, add some leeks, and some balsamic vinegar. Don't forget to season them too.

Then, add some chicken stock and and bring it to a boil. Then simmer it. Covered. Then let it just stay there and turn it on again later when service time comes.

As the soup cooks, cut the vegetables for your salad, my vegetables consisted some iceberg lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes. Tomatoes were diced. I also candied some walnuts during that time. You just roast them with some sugar. When you are done with these, I made my dressing. I reduced some balsamic with a little bit of brown sugar. Lastly, I used a vegetable peeler to slice some parmesan. When those are done, put the sauce aside and place the vegetables inside the fridge. Use them later when service time arrives.

While reducing the dressing, I made the steak sauce. It is technically a red wine reduction with demi-glace *cheat, I used some Knorr professional demi-glace, when you have a time constraint, you need to cheat*. At this point, I was using 3 stoves right now, one is for the soup, and two were for the sauce an dressing. During this time, I only have 2hours to go before service time so I started making the main courses.

I started blanching the fries in oil. The key to making good fries is to cook them first at around 320F. Then, when you are about to serve them, deep fry at 375F. Restaurants do this all the time. They blanch in advance then refrigerate or set it aside then give it a final cooking.

Drain them then set aside. *didn't have paper towels at that time boo!*

First, I seared the chicken drumsticks with butter and olive oil. Then, halfway during the searing of the meat, I placed some rosemary and whole cloves of garlic. I let them baked for 45 mins in the oven with some chicken stock.

While the chicken was cooking in the oven, I started pan roasting some steaks because it was 45 mins before service time. Sear, baste. *nice sear >:)*

It took me around 15-20 mins to do that. So I have 30 minutes to go, prepared the french onion soup and started heating up a pan for the fries at 375F.

I used L'artizan's baguette and some gruyere. Finished those in the oven.

This was a pretty intense cooking for me. While four stoves were running and the oven heating, I was still cutting more vegetables because I was told that there will be two additional guests arriving *relatives/neighbors*. Lolz, pretty pressured that time but I was also able to pull it off.

Then service time came. Everything was good and the execution of food were expected. I was actually 30mins late in terms of serving them, not yet trained in terms of time execution of cooking, oh well, I learned.

Bad presentation for the salad and dressing was overly reduced. Loved the walnuts though.

Loved the cooking of the steak. The only problem was, poor quality steaks, there were USDA choice grade rib eyes, the catch? they were already frozen for a year! lolz, but still, it was pretty well cooked I think. Sauce was great *thanks cheat demi*.

People liked the fries. Texture was good and seasoning was just right. Although I think it absorbed too much oil for my taste. Anyhow, as long as they are happy, that is good.

Chicken was pretty moist and it had a lot of flavor. Simple clean elegant dish.

Lastly, the soup was so-so. I think my stock that time was weak. It could have been better. Luckily, one of the extra people liked it *actually, he likes onions* so he finished all of the soup lolz!

The presentation was not really pleasant since I was really press for time :(

Whew! that was like a level-up for cooking execution for me. I felt like having a professional cooking simulation, pressure and heat. It was fun actually and I like the feeling to be able to pull off something like that.

We were happy eating :D

Toki: A Japanese Experience?

2009-10-23T09:24:00.013+08:00

I used to be in the Japanese food industry in the Philippines and eating at authentic Japanese restaurants was a past time of mine before. I even went to Japan alone just to taste and savor their authentic cuisine. Japanese cuisine is technically very simple. The only important aspect of the cuisine is the quality of ingredients which separates real Japanese restaurants to the Filipinized Japanese restaurants.

I often go to Aubergine if I get the chance, so often than not, I am always curious about the Japanese restaurant beside it. The exterior made the restaurant looked authentic and the feel that it gave was like that of Seryna in Little Tokyo. Anyhow, so one day, I called my neighbor *my neighbor loves Japanese food so asking her to try it gives a better value with the meal* and told her to eat here.

As we entered the restaurant, a breeze of Japanese ambience came in. I was happy especially that they had something like this in their hallway.

Moreover, the manager was a Japanese and there were Japanese customers so the place made me really comfortable already for an authentic Japanese restaurant.
We then started ordering. The key of knowing if a Japanese restaurant is really authentic here in Manila if they have the toro. And yes, they do have toro in the menu. However, I was then really disappointed when I asked the server if they ohtoro. The server then asked the chef or the cooks if they have one available, sadly, there was none. Then, I saw a toro steak in the menu. I then asked the server about it. The server said they have it. Then, I asked how come he said that there was no ohtoro awhile ago. I then asked it that was chutoro or ohtoro. Then he asked the chef or cooks again and returned saying that they are just the same! Oh Lord! Chutoro and ohtoro is never the same! Chutoro is the mid section of the belly and the ohtoro is the upper section of the belly. There is a clear distinction between their marbling and price! Because of that experience, I told to my neighbor that I think we are in a wrong restaurant now.  So, in the end, we just ordered a five kind sashimi and ordered some normal hot entries.

The sashimi was just ok. Other authentic Japanese restaurants have better deals like Seryna. It has better sashimi and presentation for the same price. Tsukiji, ofcourse, is still the best, but its price is also the highest.

Then, our pork sukiyaki came. It was just ok too. Nothing special. It was actually a little sweet. Moreover, if they were really an authentic restaurant, they would place a small burner on the table and let the pot cook on the burner in front of us.

Tempura came next. This is the least disappointing dish. The shrimp was of good quality and it was light and crunchy but hey, that is what you expect in an authentic Japanese restaurant. It better have good quality shrimp that has a clean taste and a good bite.

Lastly, Chicken teriyaki came. As expected, it was just ok. Skin should have been crispier. I like the vegetables though.

At the end of the day, I won't be going back again. I'd rather go eat somewhere else. Moreover, it has low value for money in my opinion.

Fried Chicken with Bacon and Mushroom Gravy

2009-10-19T12:15:00.019+08:00

My mom bought a box of chicken *33 lbs* from a supplier the other day and we were defrosting it so that we can easily fit it in the freezer. As the whole box was thawing, I took two leg quarters for this dish. Moreover, I still have lots of bacon that I need to discard and I don't just wanna fry them up, that'll be boring, so it gave me this idea of making a bacon gravy.

So here is the line up *forgot to include some worcestershire in the picture*

First, make a seasoned flour. Get some flour and mix in the paprika, salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Dry your chicken with some paper towels then coat it with the seasoned flour.

Now, heat some oil. Make sure you have a thermometer in hand to heat it so that you fry the chicken at the right temperature, too hot will burn the skin and not cook the chicken, too cold and the chicken will absorb some water.

Deep-fry the chicken at 350F.

Remove them when they golden browned or when the sizzling of chicken is lower

Now, let's make the gravy, saute some bacon. We will use its fat for the roux.

Lots of fat there.

Then, add in some mushroom and give it a quick saute.

Then, add some flour and some chicken stock into it.

Add some worcestershire at the end of cooking and some salt.

Serve

Opinion

Some of the skin of the chicken was a little burnt. I can feel that burnt taste that is both bitter and annoying of some chicken. The gravy though was great. It had a strong robust flavor. The bacon and mushroom gave a strong savory flavor for the gravy.

The only problem of this dish for me was that the mushroom have been cut smaller. It should have been minced so that it can easily be eaten with the chicken. Since the mushroom were sliced, it was hard for me to eat the chicken with the mushroom. Moreover, butter could have helped a lot!

Moon Cake

2009-10-16T11:15:00.008+08:00

Few weeks ago was the moon cake festival. We used to have this 'dice game' that is apparently invented here by the Chinese in Manila *according to my professor back in college*. You won't see any kind of dice game in mainland China during their moon cake festival.

I forgot about the lore of the moon cake, it was during my elementary days that my chinese teachers taught me about that. You can just google it and learn about it.

One of my mom's employees in China sent us a huge box of moon cakes instead of just a normal box of 4 for the moon cake festival. Tada!

Let's see what's inside!

Look at that, so many moon cakes! and there is a giant one right in the middle :))

Just so you know the size of the moon cakes, I took a picture of the box with my cellphone so that you get to see the comparison.

Huge right?

Opinion

To be honest, at first, I was a little hesitant eating this gift. I mean, sorry to say this, it came from China! There are many bad stories about their merchandises, more so if it is food! I don't want to have any kind of food poisoning and I rather avoid it than take my chances.

However, the grace of God came along with the sign of the packaging that says ISO! Oh yes, if it's ISO certified, it can never be wrong! So I took one out and ate it.

Taste was good, nothing special actually. It tasted normal. Texture was a little crumbly though. For me, a moon cake must have that stiff sticky texture. This one lacks that distinct texture that I was looking for. After opening a new one, we realized that it has different flavors. The second moon cake was better, at least for me, than the former one. Oh well, it has different flavors, so it is really hard to give my opinion for the whole package. :D

Chocolate Rice Pudding with Sabayon and Bacon Champorado

2009-10-14T16:22:00.014+08:00

It took me awhile to make a new post because the internet at home was dead for some time. Anyhow, at least my net is up again and time to write about what I have made during this cold weather.

I wanted to make something appropriate with the cold weather for my snack in the afternoon. Then, I found some left over cocoa tablets in our pantry so I thought of making a chocolate rice pudding out of it – champorado

Making chocolate pudding was easy. First, get some sticky rice. *I also had some leftovers from making the mango sticky rice before* and cook it with some chocolate. Make sure it has more water because you want your chocolate rice pudding to be more watery than dry. Then add some sugar to it to balance the earthiness of the cocoa tablet.

Normally, this dish is served with some evaporated milk and some salted fish. My version is a bit different. I added some sabayon and some condensed milk with the evaporated milk. So, while the rice cooks with the cocoa tablets. Make the sabayon. Get some egg yolks and mix some condensed milk.

Cook it in a double boiler.

Cook until it has thickened and has a creamy consistency. Careful not the overcook the eggs unless you want some sort of ‘yema’ out of it.

After that, mix some condensed milk and evaporated milk.

Lastly, cook some bacon. Cook it until crisp.

Then serve, putting the rice first, then add some of the evaporated/condensed milk mixture at the side. Top it with some sabayon and a slice of bacon.

Opinion
There was a lot of going on with this dish. It was sweet, salty, savory and bitter. However, surprisingly, it went well. The earthiness of the cocoa tablet balanced well with the sweetness of the dish. In addition to that, the creaminess of the sabayon gave a richer flavor to it. The bacon gave a good saltiness to the dish and the texture was heavenly. As you bite the bacon with the chocolate rice pudding, there is a burst of crisp fat that will ooze out from the bacon. I must say, anything with bacon tastes really good.

One of the problems with this dish is the presentation. It lacked structure and color. Colors were dull, I thought the sabayon would give a good color but it didn’t. I think I should have placed something orange or green to make it look brighter or
something.

Lastly, I think the evaporated mix could have been better. Maybe adding some cream could have elevated this dish or I should have reduced it further to give it a thicker consistency.

Braised Pork Belly

2009-10-09T11:18:00.015+08:00

When the weather is cold, people would normally make a heart-warming comforting soup to satisfy their day. I, on the other hand, would make something that is braised for that matter.

A few weeks ago, we all know the typhoon came and the weather was really cold. Because of that, I made a braised pork belly dish. It is easy, so often than not, you just throw everything into the pot and let it cook low and slow.

Here are the prepared ingredients.

First of all, pat dry the pork bellies then add some olive oil inside the pot. Season them. Sear them well. You would want to make a good crust out of that sear and good flavor.

Remove the pork bellies from the pot then add in the vegetables. These are carrots, potatoes, and shallots. Sweat them. Sweating is like sauteing. You want to likely cook the vegetables to release some of their flavors.

After sweating the vegetables, deglaze the pan with some red wine.

Return the pork bellies and vegetables. First place the pork bellies at the bottom of the pot, then put the vegetables on top of it. When that is done, add some herbs *in my case, thyme* some stock and some red wine vinegar.

Bring the whole pot to a boil, then cover it and simmer it. Simmer until cook. Braised dishes are better the next day so that the flavors get to infuse with the pork.

Opinion

It has a sharp taste. I have probably added too much red wine vinegar. However, it had a good balance of flavors with the vegetables. The only thing I didn't like about the dish was that the potatoes sucked. Texture was too starchy. I think I should have roasted it instead of adding it to the braise or I shouldn't had sweat it and should have seared it instead. But all in all, it was a good cold weather dish for me.

Yakiniku

2009-10-05T15:49:00.013+08:00

Normally, when I take a photo of my cooking process and food in my house, the background is either our wolf stove or a black marble background. If the background is other wise, it means I am cooking in my sister's house which usually happens.

A few weeks ago, I was cleaning my chest freezer and found some left over short ribs inside the freezer. I wanted those to be devoured immediately so that my freezer will have more space in it. With that in mind, I called my sister and told her if we can have some yakiniku in her place; and she gladly said yes.

Yakiniku is a japanese dish meaning grilled meat. 'Yaki' - grilled, 'Niku' - meat. If you were to go to a yakiniku restaurant, they will offer a wide range variety of meat for you to grill and just dip it in their sauce and eat it with their rice. So often than not, the beef cut that many like is 'Karubi' or beef short ribs.

Beef short ribs is all about flavor. It is one of the most, if not the most, marbled part of the beef. You usually braise it but in our case, we cut it thinly then grill it. Grilling beef short ribs as is gives you this strong beef flavor even if the beef is very thin.

Anyhow, let's proceed. First, cook some rice. It better be japanese since we are making a japanese dish.

As the rice cooks, start making the sauce. First, you need to crush some garlic.

Then add mirin and japanese soy sauce *two parts mirin, 1 part japanese soy sauce* Lastly, add some gochujang. Gochujang is a spicy korean miso. You can easily buy this from korean stores. The packaging of this is usually made from a red plastic container.

When the rice is already donecooks, prepare the beef.

See the marbling of that meat? Yum! Oh, also, it is better if you buy at least a USDA choice grade meat for that so you can be assured of good marbling of the meat. USDA choice great meat are always available at Santis. In my case, since I am in the food industry, I bought a whole slab of short ribs from my supplier and trimmed it on my own. :D

When everything is prepared, time to grill some meat!

Eating yakiniku is all about eating it with other people. It is a ceremony where people get together and have a nice meal together. It is about catching up and tightening the bonds of people; camaraderie.

Lastly, eat yakiniku with some alcohol.

Weird thing about the alcohol we had is that it's korean. Well, to be honest, yakiniku has its roots from the korean. 'karubi' is the japanese translation of 'galbi', the korean counter part, and they usually it the 'galbi' with lettuce. :d

Pantry Setup: Organization

2009-10-01T19:42:00.006+08:00

It has been a month since I have been maintaining this blog and I realized that I really need to organize my pantry to be more efficient in cooking and storing my ingredients.

I am the type of guy who is a little messy when it comes to storing things and keeping them organized. Since getting organized is more efficient and effective, I started organizing my cooking stuffs.

It's a disaster, I know. Normally, I scour for available pantry goods there like soy sauce, red wine, wine vinegar, oils etc.. before I cook so that I know what things I can cook. Seeing this mess inside the house, my mom bought me a nice shelf to organize my pantry goods and that was pretty nice of her.

Tada! My super organized pantry, far from the disaster one lolz. Finally, now I can plan ahead of time the food I want to cook :D

Chicken ala Orange

2009-09-28T09:50:00.028+08:00

So often than not, you see duck ala orange in the menu and not chicken ala orange. The reason I used chicken is that it is cheaper and I have never cooked duck before. Anyhow, this dish is a little troublesome because of the sauce but hey, the sauce tasted great! It was full of flavor without any use of MSG or any flavoring cubes *knorr* so I was quite happy with it.

First, get some of the frozen chicken stock.

And defrost it.

Now, its time to really make the troublesome sauce. Get a small saucepan and add some white wine vinegar.

With the white wine vinegar inside the saucepan, add some peppercorns, a bay leaf and some minced shallots.

Reduce that until it is dry, while it is reducing. Get some oranges and squeeze the juice out. Taste it. Add some sugar if necessary, mine needed a lot it.

When the white wine vinegar mixture is au sec *almost dry* add in the orange juice into the sauce pan and reduce 1/4 of its total mixture.

Strain the mixture.

You get this strong sweet, tangy, savory sauce.

Now, the sauce needs more body, return the orange sauce to the saucepan, add the chicken stock and reduce! French cooking is always about reduction to enhance the flavor.

As you can see, the left part of the saucepan has some stains. Scrape those off and mix it with the sauce. The fond *stain* is full of flavor so we do not want to waste that.

Set this aside, we will be doing something about this later again.

Now, lets prepare the chicken and all its ingredients. We just need to pan roast it and it is easy.

It's a simple roast, just need some chicken, salt and pepper, rosemary, garlic, thyme, butter and olive oil. Pat the chicken with a paper towel, we would want them to be really dry so it browns nicely thus giving it a better flavor.

Season and brown the chicken on both sides.

When it is 70% done, add the garlic, rosemary, thyme and butter into the pan.

Then baste the chicken. Basting is technically pouring the oil in the cooking over the meat. Use a spoon, scoop out some oil, then pour over the chicken.

When the chicken is done, remove it from the pan and let it rest. Then we make a roux *a thickening agent for the sauce*. Making a roux is easy, it's equal parts fat and starch. In our case, the fat that we are going to use is the one we have just used for the chicken.

Add some starch, mine is an all-purpose flour. Then cook it for just a little while to remove the starchy taste.

Then add the orange sauce that we have set aside awhile ago. Pour over a little at a time so that you can control the consistency. Try scraping the pan with a spoon too since there will be good flavored fonds there.

Lastly, mount in some butter to give that extra rich and creamy flavor. In french cooking they call this monte au beurre. Normally, you can make the sauce in advance, then when you want to serve your dish, reheat the sauce, then mount some butter.

Lastly, plate the chicken, cut some chicken then place the sauce around it. Simple plating. :D

Opinion

Presentation is a little dull. It lacks color. I was first thinking of making a pure orange sauce out from to give it a nice orange color, however; the extra rich flavor that is in the cooking pan will be put to waste if I don't use it, so I did what I did.

Flavor was great. The sauce was spectacular. The only problem was that there were bites that overpowered the chicken. Duck meat could have paired better with this sauce since duck has that robust flavor that will complement really well with my sauce. Still, flavors were great.

Lastly, the chicken breast were cooked nicely. It wasn't dry and it was pretty moist. Moreover, the thin layer of skin on the breast was great with the moist breast meat. Yum :D

Mise en place - Chicken Stock

2009-09-26T10:12:00.013+08:00

Mise en place is a french culinary term meaning 'putting in place' or 'everything in place'. Professional kitchen do their mise en place so that during service hours, cooking is faster and easier. Technically, your 'miz' is your prep work in your kitchen. This the time when you make and set aside all the things that can be done in advance like flavored oil, stocks, chiffonades of herbs, sauces etc.. Moreover, it is also about placing everything that must have already been prepared in advance on your work place like cuts of beef, kitchen tools etc..

Normally, the mise en place I do in my small kitchen is all about making stock since it will take you a pretty long while to finish making a stock. A good stock is the foundation of any french cooking, and in my humble opinion, to any cooking.

Stock making is also difficult. It is not just toss everything into the pot and done. There are certain criteria that one looks into their stock: flavor, aroma, body, color, *I think am missing one more*

So here is my prep table for that.

I cut the mirepoix (50% onion, 25% carrots, 25% celery) into large pieces. You want to cut these into large pieces because they will be cooking for at least 4 hours. For the mirepoix, you can change your percentage depending on your taste. I prefer more celery in my mirepoix. :D

After doing that, roast or sear some chicken bones/backs to bring out some of its flavors. I used 1kg of chicken backs for my stock.

Pour in some water to cover your kitchen and bring it to a boil then simmer for around 1 hour to let the flavors of the chicken infuse with the liquid. While doing that, prepare some fresh thyme, parsley, bay leaf, some peppercorns, and 2 whole cloves, tie them all together. After letting the chicken simmer, add the 'sachet' *the herb mix*

Then add the mirepoix and you will have something like this.

Then bring it to a boil again then simmer it again for another 3 hours. Skim if there are any scums. Then strain everything using a strainer, better if using a chinois. :D

The good thing about a stock, it freezes really well. What you should do, since you have liters of stock, get some containers and a couple cups of stock into those containers. So when you need them in the future, just get a container and throw it into the pan. :D

Ultimate Sinless and Guiltless Ice Cream

2009-09-24T09:33:00.004+08:00

My mom and I were in Healthy Option the other day and saw an unbelievable product: a 136 calorie pint ice cream.

It comes with strawberries and banana flavors only. The strange part of this product is the packaging. It is packed in a way that you eat the whole thing once only since the cover is nor resealable! Well, for a 136 calories, you can really eat it in one shot, I mean, a serving of wheat bread has more calories to it! Lolz. Anyhow, this is actually a good substitute for those who have sweet cravings during their diets just don't expect that it will taste like the normal ones.

Opinion

The company did very well for an ice cream that is 136 calories a pint. The texture was better than I expected. It had a good mouth feel for something that has no cream at all. You will feel that it melts it your mouth like real ice cream for only 1 second then everything seems like ice melting in your mouth. The taste was pretty subtle. It took me awhile to get the taste of the banana. The only thing that makes it taste like strawberry is because it is a little sour.

At the end of the day, it is a good alternative if you are on a diet, but I think it is not a good substitute for a real ice cream :D

Mango Sticky Rice with Coconut Milk, Shredded Coconut and Red Beans

2009-09-21T14:41:00.015+08:00

I was watching Bobby Chinn the other day at Discovery Travel and Living. His main cuisine is that of Vietnamese, however; during that episode, he was in Thailand and decided to create a Thai dessert: Mango sticky rice.

His version was simpler, he created the sticky rice with some coconut milk and place some diced mangoes beside it. As I watched him, his dessert reminded me much of our own Philippine sticky rice dish: the 'Biko".

With that in mind, I also created my own version of the mango sticky rice which is very similar with the biko.

First, get some sticky rice or 'malagkit' and cook it. You can easily find this in the grocery or in your local market. Then, as you cook the rice, get some mango and puree it.

Put that slice of mango in your blender and it must look like this.

Next, get a saucepan and heat the coconut milk with some sugar. Melt the sugar in it.

When the coconut mixture is ready, combine some of the mango puree and coconut mixture together. Set aside some coconut milk mixture. This will be your mixture for the mango sticky rice.

Mix the mango-coconut milk mixture with your sticky rice.

After mixing, just assemble it! It is pretty easy, the base is the mango sticky rice, then add some shredded coconut on top of it. To top everything, add some canned red beans. Pour some of the extra coconut milk beside the whole dish and there you go!

Opinion

First of all, what I like about this dish is that it's a local dish. All ingredients came from the Philippines, meaning, you can expect the quality of the ingredients be very good.

Second, the texture was better than I expected. It seems I undermined the texture of the sticky rice because I thought that it would be mushy, then again, it wasn't. A bite will give you a burst of texture of the sticky rice, shredded coconut and red beans. I felt the every bit of grain of rice there was and the texture of the three elements were quite unique and meld harmoniously with one another.

Lastly, the sharp sourness of the mango paired really well with the richness of the coconut milk. Moreover, the earthy bitter taste of the red beans gave a good balance with the overall sweetness of the dish. This gave a good balance to the dish.

All in all, I was surprised with the dish, it was better than I expected. I feel this dish was well executed and I was happy about it. :D

145 Farenheit - Steak Splurge

2009-09-19T12:53:00.009+08:00

We were supposed to watch a movie the other day, unfortunately; my sister's mother-in-law, Auntie Alice, needed a ride home from her shop so we went back to get her and missed the movie. Fortunately, Clark, my sister's husband, told us that since we missed the movie, we'll just have a nice steak for the evening. And lo and behold, it was the best steak of my life *as of the moment* :D

145F is located in Il Terrace, near ABS-CBN. It is a high-end steak house with a cozy ambiance and great cutleries. They have a nice interior with comfortable chairs. It has a good 'high ceiling' and has a good selection of wines.

This is the place were they expediate the food. Orders go there and orders are sent. Nice kitchen eh? :D

That's their wine rack. Nice selection and well chilled at the right temperature. :)

So that's a small peek of what 145F looks like. :D *sorry for the blurry shot, left is my sister, right is Clark*

The first thing I liked about this place is their bread. They have freshly baked bread served to us. What I like about it is that their rolls have a contrast of texture. It has a very nice thin crust on the outside and has a very light and soft texture on the inside. The rolls were really made perfectly. Moreover, adding rosemary to the rolls gave it a nice woodsy aroma that compliments really well with the 'steakhouse ambiance'.

Great dinner rolls *it made me want to learn baking rolls*

Their butter is infused with some pickled relish instead of herbs. The sweetness of the butter relish paired really well with their rosemary rolls.

There you go, a real match :D

We also ordered their house wine. A Beringer 2006 to pair it with our meal :D

Our first order arrived. Yay! It's a sirloin roast with mushroom pepper sauce and beef jus. It came in with our side dishes of creamed corn and mash potatoes. They said that it can feed four people :D

The flavors were strong. It has this good dense beef flavor that I was looking for. As I bit it, juices of the beef came out. Yummy! This shows that the meat was well rested before it was served to us *around 10 mins of resting*. Furthermore, the color of the meat shows that it was rested because if it wasn't, drips of blood will ooze out and making it redder.

The creamed corn flavor of the creamed corn was fantastic. Its sweetness wasn't that of a heavy one and I love eating it after every bite of the steak. It cleans your palate after eating so the dense beef flavor is wiped away and covered by the smooth texture of the cream.

The mashed potatoes was ok. It didn't fascinate me that much. I think it lacked some rich flavor that I was looking for. I think adding more butter and cream will improve this side dish a lot more. The texture, however; was that of what I was looking for in a mashed potatoes. Smooth texture without and gritty feeling of it in my mouth.

The next order arrived after 2 mins. It was fillet mignon. And I must say, after having this first bite.

It was like heaven!! Very light and soft texture! It was like eating a marshmallow only it has a beef flavor. This was the best piece of meat that I have eaten in my whole life *at that time* It puts any other steaks to shame. Really. It was also seared nicely giving it a nutty crusty texture and flavor too! This was actually the order of Auntie Alice. Nice one :D

The risotto arrived with the fillet mignon. It was ok. Nothing special really. I think because it was too salty for me but the flavor was good in a way that the mushrooms gave the dish a strong earthy flavor, but that's about it. :D

So we just chatted and enjoyed the meal at 145F. All in all, it was one of the best meal I had. Food was great, service was great. The waiters were trained to 'dance and disappear'. Moreover, I never have to ask for the waiter to fill my glass of water. And the best part of all, bread was unlimited :D

Note: If you were to cook your steaks at home, make sure the temperature of the core of the meat is 145F :D

Low Fat Egg Salad Canape

2009-09-17T10:50:00.014+08:00

I want to lessen my calorie intake since am getting huge again and I was thinking of an alternative binder for fillings the other day. So often than not, we usually use mayo for our filling, however; there is just too much calories in it. A tablespoon will cost us 100 calories. Ugh...

While getting some basil for my pesto the other day in Santis, something clicked! The solution for my binder alternative: Cottage Cheese.

It is even low fat! Lucky me! A tablespoon is like 20-30 calories only :D

Am not sure if you can see it, but it has a creamy consistency with little lumps of the cheese. It is perfect for my alternative binder. With that in my hand, I made an egg salad canape! Yum!

It was really easy to make. Just make a simple egg salad, combine hardboiled egg and cottage cheese, season it with salt and pepper, something like this.

Then assemble it! Toast on the bottom, greens on top of it. Canapes are supposed to be small appetizers. They must be eaten easily and it must look appetizing with good flavor and texture.

Opinion

I like the flavor profile. The cottage cheese paired really well with the egg. It also binded the egg salad really well. For me, it just lacked color. I added some pepper flakes for the color but it seems that it wasn't enough. Oh well, it was still good :D

Pesto :D

2009-09-15T09:30:00.010+08:00

Got some nice basil leaves the other day and bought some of them. I was first thinking of making some tomato sauce for it, then again, I realized that there was just too much of it. There is only one solution for too much basil in the house: pesto.

Making pesto is pretty easy. You just need the following: a lot of basil, some garlic *around 3 cloves per 150 grams*, salt, olive oil, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and maybe some anchovies.

I omitted that pine nuts and anchovies since I didn't have them at that time :D

Just put everything into your food processor or you can just chopped it using your hands.

Add the olive oil as the food processor cuts your ingredients. Here is my well trusted Dito Sama :D

After everything is cut, put it in a container. You can refrigerate it or freeze it, pesto freezes very well. In my picture here, my pesto looks dry, that's because I only added few tablespoon of olive oil *afraid of the calories*. So often than not, the basil mixture is wallowing in olive oil :D

You can use your pesto in chickens, potatoes, pastas, sandwiches, etc.. :D

CIA, Yay!

2009-09-13T11:03:00.008+08:00

The Culinary Institute of America, or CIA, if not the best, one of the best culinary institute in the whole world. It's main branch is in Hyde Park, NY.

Three days ago, I received received their admission materials through mail. It was pretty exciting for me since I really wanted to get in to CIA since I was 3rd year highschool! :D

Here is a closer perspective ;)

Last year, I was just planning to take my culinary education here in the Philippines, however; I realized that I have the opportunity to go to CIA, so why not settle for the best? Because of this realization, I asked some of my friends who got their culinary education abroad and unfortunately, there were a lot of horror stories with regards to their culinary training. The kitchen culture is really different. It is like fighting in the army they say.

The horror stories didn't stop me from wanting to go abroad and learn though, but, a friend of mine told me that I should first study here and gain some experience before going to CIA since most of the people there had already have some kitchen experience prior to their CIA education. My friend told me that I need to be competitive in terms of skills and knowledge before entering CIA and his advice enlighten me after reading this.

Ruhlman, the author, gave me a glimpse of what it is and what it takes to enter and learn under CIA. He showed me that decisions like going to the culinary path is no joke and it is both physically and mentally stressful. He really showed me that I really have to train myself first here in the Philippines before going to NY and get into CIA.

Oh well, seems like I'll will still be taking my culinary education here first. Then, after 2 years, I'll try to enter CIA then :D that's the plan boo ya! :D

Veal in Red Wine Reduction

2009-09-10T16:31:00.007+08:00

Went to Santis the other day *again* and found some veal in their meat selection. I have never cooked nor tasted veal before so seeing that it was an opportunity to cook and to taste one, I bought a piece. Wow, it cost me 200 pesos for a small piece of veal, quite expensive. :(

Unwrapped it then *tanan*

Transferred it into a nice plate :D

Veal is like a young cow, milk fed and only 3-5 months old I think. As you can see, the meat is very light and in theory, the meat will be tender since its a baby cow. :D

What I did is simple: Heat the pan with olive oil, then pan roast the veal loin. *don't forget to season the loin* When you are done 3/4 of the cooking, throw in a clove of garlic, some butter and some rosemary.

For the sauce, it was easy, I reduced some red wine with some sugar. Yay!

Opinion

The meat was really tender. It has like the texture of the pork only a little bit different. I didn't like the taste of the veal itself, it was flat. The aroma of the rosemary, however, paired well with the flat taste of the veal. Using fresh herb is really for the win. Lastly, I like the sauce, it was simple, but, it 'candied' when I added some more from the sauce pan. Next time, after reducing some sauce with sugar, put it fast in an ice bath to cool it down to stop the cooking process immediately. :D

Tomato and Onion Omelet

2009-09-07T11:52:00.003+08:00

As I woke up this morning, I went into the fridge to check for something to eat. I saw a huge tomato in the fridge and thought of doing something about it. Since it is still early in the morning, I thought of making an omelet with that tomato.

I used a peso coin for the comparison of its size.

I cut the tomato on my favorite anti-bacterial chopping board.

After cutting the tomato, I made some cubed onions and chopped some dill *since dill is the only fresh herb available at the moment*

When making an omelet, you would want to have that light texture of the egg, a little airy perhaps. You can only achieve this by cooking it right and giving it some air when preparing the egg. You whisk the egg until air foams form. Like this one.

You can see that air has already incorporated with the egg. This will give you a better texture with your omelet, not the stiff and rubbery type *although you can get this by overcooking your eggs too*.

Use butter instead of normal oil for a richer flavor. Also, when cooking, try to cook on low heat so that you don't overcook your eggs. Eggs overcook easily.

Anyhow, so this is the end product.

Opinion

Bad presentation *obviously*. Texture was great, fluffy omelet just the way I like it. Moreover, the onions gave a good bite to eat and surprisingly, the flavor of the onion wasn't that overpowering. The eggs probably balanced its taste. Lastly, the tomato was really gorgeous, it had a great texture and it was sweet. It also gave me a refreshing feel while eating it.

Fruit Platter Presentation

2009-09-03T10:52:00.003+08:00

One can transform something boring into something exciting just by the looks of it especially when we are talking about food. Food will always feed the eye first so presentation is pretty much important. It can easily increase the value of the food being served.

Here in the Philippines, like all tropical countries, fruit is abundant both in quantity and quality. Normally, we just eat the fruit as is. We just peel the banana and eat it or slice the mango and eat it. However, one can transcend these fruits into something else just by cutting and plating it in a different manner. Guess what, I transcended some of them yesterday bwahaha!

Here is the bird'e eye view

Here is the side view

If it looks good, it will make the food taste a better :D

Here are the following ingredients I used for that platter

Mangoes

I diced the mangoes, sauteed it with butter and flambeyed *is it the right spelling?* with some dark rum

Bananas

Just Sliced it. I used the breed Latundan for it since we like the flavor that it insinuates.

Apples

Just Sliced it. I used fuji for the texture.

Lastly, I topped it with some creme fraiche. I forgot the term of the technique I used for that, is it canel? or chanel? :D

Opinion

Presentation was gorgeous. The only thing that is great about its flavor here are the diced mangoes. The rum gave it a strong flavor and the butter gave it a richer flavor. The creme fraiche also balanced the strong flavor of the rum on the mangoes so it was actually ok. The only thing that I would improve here might be adding more color, maybe some strawberries or kiwis? :D

Sea Bass in Lemon Parsley

2009-09-01T15:54:00.005+08:00

Being the carnivore that I am, I used to dislike seafood when I was young. It was always meat meat meat! It all changed, however, when I first tasted a succulent lean fillet of sea bass when I was around 14.

The other day, I went to Santis and found some good sea bass steak. I bought a piece and I filleted it at home.

The cooking was simple. Just sear the fish and finish it in the oven, careful not to overcook the fish. You don't want to ruin an expensive fillet of fish.

First, marinate the sea bass with some dill and lemon juice for around 30 minutes. Season it with salt and pepper. Sear the fillet both sides then put it in the oven to finish cooking.

For the sauce, put some parsley, lemon juice, and olive oil in the blender and blend everything.

For the carbs, I made some simple mashed potatoes and voila, dinner!

Opinion

The texture and flavor of the whole dish was good. Flavors were clean and simple and blended well with each other. The problem here was my mashed potato. I should have put more cream and butter so that I have a better consistency and a richer product. Moreover, it will also give a better presentation with the end product.

Scallops Halfway

2009-08-31T22:10:00.005+08:00

I was driving along Banawe one time and I saw a cold storage store. So, being curious about what's inside, I parked my car and went in. I found these gigantic sea scallops and I wasn't really sure if I want it since it has been already frozen *anything frozen that came from the sea is not that good anymore after being thawed* but still, I bought it.

When I came home, I didn't know what to do with these sea scallops. Then, an idea poped-up, I'll make it two ways, one is a simple asian scallop dish and one will have a hollandaise sauce *finally, got an excuse to make a hollandaise*.

The Japanese scallops were easy. I just seared the scallops, then steamed it with the asian sauce.

Scallops

Season the scallops with salt and pepper then sear them on the pan, make sure they aren't wet so it sears nicely. After searing, steam it with the sauce and ginger *sauce is a combination of japanese soy sauce and some mirin, maybe with a ratio of 1:1* then garnish it with some scallions.

While it was steaming, I was making my hollandaise sauce. After making the sauce, I went to my room to get the camera, and when I came back, the emulsion broke! Arghh! No more scallops with hollandaise. Huhuhu! Luckily, the Japanese scallops were quite successful so there was at least something to eat!

Opinion

Texture was really good. The scallops gave me a good mouth feel when I took a bite. The sauce went well with the scallop *it was like the typical soy based sauce for seafood in most chinese restaurants here in Manila*. My problem here was that, since the scallops were frozen, it lost some of its juices and moisture. The scallop alone didn't have the strong ocean taste that I was looking for. It was actually a little bland. Eating the scallop without the sauce was like eating a 'fishball' on the street because most of its flavor got separated already. The only flavor of the scallop that I tasted was in the sauce since I placed some of its defrosted juice there.

Salmon Inarisushi

2009-08-28T20:27:00.003+08:00

There is this thing they call inarizushi in Japanese restaurants. So often but not, you only get to see them on the menu when you to the authentic ones here in Manila, particularly in Makati like Kikufuji, Seryna, etc.. These tiny golden pouches of tofu are deep fried and sweet. They are normally stuffed with sushi rice inside and some shitake mushroom.

Inarizushi are quite expensive when you them buy from the authentic Japanese restaurants. A single order would normally cost you 120 pesos for two pieces of these. Luckily, I found some of these in a Japanese Mini-mart called New Hatchin, somewhere in Makati. Ofcourse, knowing myself, I won't hesitate to buy them so I bought them.

When I got home, I looked in the fridge and found some salmon, so what I did was, I made some inarisushi with some salmon topping. It was good.

Salmon Topping

Get a Salmon - poach it *make sure don't overcook it unless you want to ruin the fish*

After poaching the salmon mix it with these - Japanese mayo *don't use the normal mayo cause they don't have the creaminess of the Japanese mayo which is suitable for this dish*, Chili Sesame Oil and season it with some salt.

Sushi Rice

Am pretty sure you can get a lot of this recipe on the internet but main components are Japanese rice vinegar *brand is mizkan*, sugar and salt.

Rice must be Japanese rice *expensive yes?* or something that is sticky. If you want something cheap that can be a substitute for an authentic Japanese rice, use Jasponica of Dona Maria.

Inarisushi

You usually get these frozen, so here's what you have to do: thaw it *duh* then rinse it through running water and squeeze like a sponge *the sweet juices of the wrapper will go out, you don't need them* and tada! that's it

Assembling is easy - Get wrapper, put rice in, put salmon topping on top, normally, you garnish it with a chiffonade of parsley *chopped parsley, using the term chiffonade seems cooler* or just place the parsley aside. That's it!

Opinion

The flavor profile was there. The salmon and sesame oil went really well together especially with the creaminess of the Japanese mayo. The sweetness of the tofu wasn't as sharp as I was expecting which is good. Color looks nice, it looked very appetizing and it is a good starter for any meal.

Points of improvement will be for adding more texture. I think adding some tempura flakes or some cucumber might give a better texture or using a higher quality of Japanese rice so that one will be able to feel every grain of the sushi rice. I suppose the Kushihikari breed of Japanese rice will be able to achieve the texture that I am talking about. Adding some green might also help for the color. Sprinkling some chiffonade of parsley will help in the presentation and am sure that it won't ruin the flavor of the dish.

First Post

2009-08-27T18:35:00.003+08:00

Welcome to my food blog.

This food blog serves to archive my journey to my own culinary arts training at least here in the Philippines. The journey consists of eating, cooking, and learning all about food. Recipes of food are mostly original or at least inspired from somewhere or someone.

So far, am pretty familiar with Japanese ingredients, American ingredients and French techniques. This is probably due to the books I read since most of them are foreign books. Sadly, am not that particularly adept in Filipino cooking or Pinoy food; however, I'll also create recipes on pinoy food as well since I live in the Philippines, and local ingredients are based on Filipino food.

The food blog started because I cook a lot and food is pretty expensive. I thought that blogging is a good way to increase not only the value of the food I cooked but also the food that I have eaten. Moreso, it serves as a medium for me to look back and remember that things that I have created.

So I hope you enjoy my journey in the culinary arts, and if fortunate, we both learn a thing or two from my food blog.