Quinoa with Artichokes

This is the first time I tried quinoa and I really like it. It's supposed to be very healthy too. I paired it with chicken pieces stewed in honey, a galic clove, a sprig of rosemary, a tablespoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Quinoa with Artichoke Hearts

1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed well and drained (use a very fine sieve)
2 cups chicken broth
½ cup chopped onion
½ pound frozen artichoke hearts
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil

• Saute onion in olive oil in a saucepan until soft, add broth and quinoa. Bring to a boil and simmer for 12 minutes. Add artichoke hearts and simmer for another 5 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Turn off heat and stir in cheese.

Caldereta (Beef Stew)

This is one Filipino dish I don't cook often, maybe once or twice a year at the most, I'm not sure why. Too meaty? too sour or too rich? Caldereta is of course Spanish in origin, from caldera which means cauldron. This recipe is adapted from my cookbook FAVORITE FILIPINO RECIPES by Pat Limjuco-Dayrit.

Caldereta
2 pounds beef stew meat
½ cup vinegar
6 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
¼ cup sherry
1 bay leaf
1 sprig parsley
1½ teaspoons whole peppercorns
6 cloves garlic
1 hot green pepper
¼ cup tomato sauce
½ cup chopped roasted red bell pepper
1 cup hot water
¼ cup grated edam or gouda cheese
½ teaspoon sugar
½ cup green olives

• Marinate meat overnight in refrigerator in mixture of vinegar, crushed garlic, pepper and salt.
• Next day drain the meat and brown in batches in 2 tablespoons hot olive oil. Transfer browned pieces into a saucepan, add onions and sherry. Bring to a boil, then add the remaining olive oil and bay leaf.
• In a small food processor or mortar and pestle, puree/crush parsley, peppercorns, 6 cloves garlic and hot green pepper. Add to the mixture in the pan and put in tomato sauce and the hot water. Simmer until beef is tender, about 1 - 1 ½ hours. Turn the heat off.
• Stir in roasted red pepper and grated cheese. Add the sugar and adjust seasoning. Add olives and serve hot with steamed rice or French baguette to soak up the rich sauce, and steamed green beans.

A Really Large Pizza

I got lazy today and bought ready to bake frozen square pizza and did not notice it was huge. Only when I loaded the box into the car trunk did I realize its BIG size! It's almost as deep as my oven. This is a meat lover's pizza with lots and lots of bacon which overwhelmed everything else. See, I love bacon but this is much too much. (I think I still smell of bacon). About 3 inches of the pizza is hanging out of the largest baking sheet I could find in my kitchen. Why oh why did I buy this?:D

Cream Scones

I baked a batch of cream scones from the cookbook BAKING: FROM MY HOME TO YOURS by Dorie Greenspan, just to find out what is so great about them (none). I never tried making them before because of the fat content and all the recipes I've read indicate they may be bland and I was right. These are just fatty, unhealthy baking powder bread with absolutely no taste at all. You have to eat them with something good like lemon curd or clotted and Devon cream. I ate one wedge with mascarpone cheese and lemon curd, still not as good as, say ensaimada, brioche and kouign amann. Scones are blah. The reason I finally made them is because my brother-in-law and his wife sent us a Christmas package of goodies and one of them is a ready to bake scones with cinnamon chips. The scones did not rise and they tasted of...nothing. I had to slather it with lots of lemon curd but still the bread is incredibly tasteless. I thought maybe the commercially sold ones are not as good as homemade but I was wrong. I think no matter what you add to scones, before and after baking, they will just taste of baked flour and nothing else, even the taste of butter is gone, I can't believe it! I think it has something to do with the batter having so little sugar and no flavoring at all. What a waste of butter and heavy cream...

Don't be fooled by the pictures. Scones are the blandest baked food I have ever eaten. Well, what do you expect from a biscuit that sounds like a wall decor thing where you put candles or something.:D

Now I have to bake me some kouign amann.