October 6, 2011

Miso Soup with Wakame and Silken Tofu

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Miso and Wakame Soup


For dinner tonight I made miso soup with wakame (dried sea weed) and silken tofu. To complete the meatless meal I had the soup with roasted kabocha sprinkled with sea salt flakes. Sooo delicious and healthy too.

Miso Soup with Wakame and Silken Tofu
¼ ounce dried wakame
4 ounces silken tofu
2 cups dashi stock
4 tablespoons miso paste
2 spring onions, chopped
  • Soak wakame in cold water for 15 minutes. Drain and cut into 1-inch pieces. Slice or cut the tofu into strips, squares, or rounds. Bring the dashi stock to a boil. Stir in the miso. Taste the soup and add more miso paste if needed. Add wakame and tofu and turn up the heat. Let it come to a boil, turn off the heat and add spring onions. Serve immediately.



September 29, 2011

Giant Marshmallow S'mores

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Giant Marshmallow S'mores
giant marshmallow S'more...
crusty gooey roasted giant marshmallow and soft milk chocolate 
between crispy honey Graham crackers...what's not to love?



Food stuff here in the US are getting bigger and bigger to lure consumers like magpies who are attracted to bright shiny new things. Being a magpie myself, I just couldn't resist getting a bag when I saw it at Walmart two weeks ago. These giant roasters are really really big. I roasted one,skewered in a barbecue stick, on the stove top fire and sandwiched it in one halved piece of Graham cracker together with 6 squares of Hershey's milk chocolate bar. That's a lot of marshmallow and chocolate. I was in sugar heaven but could only eat one at a time...it's filling and satisfying. And delicious!

Giant Marshmallows
they're huge


what you'll need for a sugar high moment: 
giant marshmallow, Graham crackers, barbecue stick, Hershey's milk chocolate 
*milk chocolate is best for S'mores because it softens faster 
and tastes better than dark chocolate


roast marshmallow over stove top fire, place on top of Graham cracker 
and chocolate, top with another Graham cracker, press lightly, 
let chocolate soften, then take a big bite

September 28, 2011

Portuguese Sweet Bread

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One of my top 10 favorites from The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge was Portuguese Sweet Bread. The bread has tight soft sweet crumb and fragrant with lemon, orange, and

September 24, 2011

Red White Yellow Blue Plate Special

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longaniza jamonado, tomatoes sunny side-up egg, fried rice blue tater tots
RED WHITE YELLOW BLUE PLATE SPECIAL
longaniza jamonado, tomatoes
sunny side-up egg, fried rice
blue tater tots

The Philippine flag is Kulinarya Cooking Club theme for the combined months of August and September 2011 co-hosted by yours truly, Ray, Boyet, and Day to celebrate Philippines National Heroes Day, plus Ninoy Aquino Day. 

Blue Plate Special means a low-priced meal with meat and three vegetables all in one plate offered by some restaurants here in the US; it doesn't have any blue food although sometimes served in a blue-colored plate. Well, my plate special is quad-colored and the food in it have the actual colors of red, white, yellow, and blue, all in one blue-rimmed plate; it's priceless! My plate is an ensemble of my favorite Filipino breakfast: longaniza, tomatoes, fried egg/s, fried rice, and fried potatoes.

The challenge was to prepare a dish with the four colors of the Philippine flag all in one plate or dish. They may be a garnish or the plate the dish is served in but we were not allowed to use store-bought chemical food dye to color the ingredients if dyeing is necessary. Finding naturally colored blue food was tough but the first thing that came to mind was the blue potato pancake I made a few years ago. These sweetish waxy potatoes have blue/purple color that deepens into almost navy blue when cooked and have completely cooled to room temperature. I added some salt and sauteed chopped onion into the partially cooked grated potatoes, formed the mixture into small lumps, and fried them in light olive oil and butter until dark brown and crusty.

Longaniza Jamonado
2½ pounds pork, cut into 1-inch cubes 
¼ pound pork fat, cut into ¼-inch cubes
¼ cup fine raw cane sugar
¼ cup white cane sugar
½ teaspoon pink salt
1½ tablespoons kosher or sea salt (not table salt)
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
hog casing, rinsed and soaked in warm water
  • Place the pork and pork fat separately in the freezer for 30 minutes or until icy. Coarsely grind the pork. In a small bowl, whisk together sugars, salt, pink salt, and cloves. In a large bowl, mix by hand the pork and fat until fat is evenly distributed. Mix in by hand the sugar mixture. Fill casing or form into longaniza shapes/patties. Refrigerate for 24 hours before cooking. 
 I also made a layered dessert since this is a 2-month challenge. The bottom layer is plain sweet red agar (sorry but the ready to cook red gulaman bar surely was artificially dyed) with a few drops of vanilla extract. The white and yellow layers are yogurt panna cotta, the white is flavored with vanilla extract and the yellow has calamansi juice and grated zest. For the calamansi layer, I soaked a few strands of Spanish saffron in hot cream. The yellow color is very pale because I didn't want to flavor the dessert too much with saffron. It has a definite calamansi flavor and I love the combined tartness of calamansi juice, yogurt, and blueberries cutting the sweetness of the dessert.

Yogurt Panna Cotta

Before we agreed on the flag colors, we initially chose yellow, as in Ninoy Aquino yellow. On the same day we all voted yes on the yellow color, part of the dinner I was preparing was vegetables, salted duck egg, and green mango salad and I noticed the components were mostly yellow including the calamansi dipping sauce. I plated them and took pictures. When we changed the color theme a few hours later to include the flag, I didn't think the salad will do but realized all the 4 colors were also present. The blue is the piece of slate that came with the dish and dipping bowls set. Anyway, this sunshine on a plate is definitely Ninoy Aquino's.
SUNSHINE ON A PLATE
SUNSHINE ON A PLATE
Filipino salad of semi-ripe mangoes, roasted eggplants, tomatoes,
steamed sweet potato tops, salted duck eggs
dipping sauce of sauteed fermented micro shrimps,
calamansi juice with fish sauce, sugar, and sliced hot red chile
calamansi juice and sea salt

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KCC

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture and its colourful cuisine.

Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes, we hope you find the same passion and love for the Filipino Food as we do.

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See more Red White Yellow Blue creations here.

 
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