French Tarragon And Chicken

French tarragon herb is hard to find in the stores. Once in a while stores sell the bland Russian or Mexican tarragon and they aren't as good as the French variety which has more slender leaves than the 2 mentioned. One time I found a true French tarragon and it was a bit of a head-scratcher because it came from Morocco or maybe Turkey.

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Malted Walnut Pie

Nut pies don't appear often in my house. I made pecan pie once and was not wowed. I love nuts as snack but not in a pie. Until today.

I was clearing the cabinets of old stuff and discovered a jar of barley malt syrup leftover from making bagels many years ago. I've never used it as sugar substitute for baked sweets or desserts. The thing is super thick and very verrry sticky. Taking it out of the jar for measuring takes extra effort.

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Pork Ribs With Fermented Soy Beans

I grew up eating fermented salted black soy beans. In the Philippines it is called tausi and sold at wet markets. They are also sold in cans and plastic pouches. My mom used to add it to sauteed bitter melon or fish. This type of fermented soy bean sauce with whole beans is no longer available here in the US although years ago I bought the canned variety from China or maybe Taiwan but couldn't find the same thing recently. Or maybe I don't know the label.

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Key Lime Pie

sweet and tart Key lime pie

For π Day I made sweet and tart Key lime pie. I don't use the bottled juice because I don't find it authentic enough. It's a pain to juice the tiny fruits but it's worth it. Besides, the zest is also great to infuse into sugar for later use or caramel custard or fizzy kefir water.

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Choc*Nut Ice Cream

I have a small bag of peanut powder and didn't know what to do it with. The suggested banana peanut smoothie sounds yucky to me and cookies aren't appealing either. Last week, I used a little of the peanut powder to make chocolate and peanut candy similar to King™ Choc*Nut, a Filipino peanut and chocolate candy that isn't too chocolaty nor overly sweet and has been a favorite of every Filipino I know. This idea of milk chocolate and peanut combination produced a delicious ice cream flavor.

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Puchero Filipino

One of our favorite soup/stew dishes is Puchero or Pochero which is the Filipino version of another favorite, Spanish Cocido. The difference is the added vegetables: Filipino cooking bananas called saba, sweet potatoes, and bokchoy. The Filipino puchero is served with tomato sauce and/or sauce made with mashed boiled or roasted Asian eggplant seasoned with vinegar, garlic, and salt.

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Homemade Chili Powder

Lately, I have been making my own powdered spices. It started with cumin. I can't eat any store-bought cumin powder in jars because it tastes raw as if I'm eating dirt or something. Cumin seeds IMHO should be toasted first before grinding to release their aroma and flavor. The store-bought spices, including the expensive ones, are also almost always stale and lacks flavor.

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Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin And Chicken Thighs

As usual, I'm late for the party. Sous vide cooking has been around cooking blogs for many many years already and although I have cooked homemade sausages sous vide style in very low temperatures, I didn't want to buy yet again a cooker that will occupy a large area of my kitchen counter. Also, they used to be pricey.

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Spanish Polvoron

with cinnamon

with powdered milk

I love Filipino Polvoron, homemade or store-bought. I haven't tasted its Spanish parent which is made with powdered almond. Spanish polvoron, unlike the Filipino cookie which is simply molded after mixing, is baked in a low heat oven for 30 to 45 minutes. They are not as crumbly and therefore easier and neater to eat.

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Salted Caramel Apple Butter

I made [reduced carbs] salted caramel sauce yesterday and added a little of it to pan-browned apples. The result, in my honest opinion, is an improvement on the usual spiced apple butter recipe which I made once before. It pairs very well with toasted challah. If you like apple caramel candy, then this is the apple butter recipe for you.

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Pumpkin Macarons

For Thanksgiving this year, I cooked a non-traditional meal. I baked a small chicken Filipino-style with a layer each of bacon, sliced onions, and sliced tomatoes in the bottom of a Dutch oven. The chicken is seasoned with soy sauce, lemon juice, and sea salt. Dessert was pumpkin flavored macarons instead of pie and because we are limiting our sweets intake, the small size of the macarons are just perfect.

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Yema and Kabocha Pastel

Filipinos have a wide variety of sweet breads. One of the most popular rolls I see on blogs and bake books is Pastel. It's a sweet bread typically filled with yema paste (egg yolk, sugar, and milk cooked to a paste). Pastel in the Philippines could be savory, as in meat or chicken pie, and also sweet empanada/pie and bread rolls.

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Coconut Milk And Sweet Corn Ice Cream

Guinatan mais, sweet corn stewed in coconut milk, is a favorite Filipino dessert or snack. It's usually served warm but this time I made it into ice cream. It's sooo yummy. Really yummy.

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Melon Pan

I've always wanted to make Japanese melon pan but the cookie topping doesn't really appeal to me. Melon pan actually doesn't have melon although recently I've seen recipes with different flavorings like strawberries and musk melon.

This bread is a variation of the Mexican concha rolls which I made once before, the topping was chocolate cinnamon cookie. There is a Malaysian coffee buns too with coffee cream filling and coffee flavored cookie topping. I wasn't wowed by both. Too sweet for me.

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Pork Belly Binagoongan

Pork binagoongan which means pork stewed in fermented micro shrimp paste called Bagoong, is one of my favorite dishes growing up but I've not made it often because I don't like the house smelling of fermented shrimps for days and days.

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Spaghetti With Mushrooms

I love mushrooms and the Asian grocery stores have lots of variety these days. I bought fresh shiitake, pearl oysters, something called bunapi, and white button. They are very good simply steamed in a banana leaf pocket and served with a sprinkle of sea salt and squirt of lemon, or sauteed in olive oil and served with steaks or baked chicken. I found a simple pasta recipe featuring mixed mushrooms. The only additional flavoring to the pasta dish is crispy fried prosciutto and chicken broth which I substituted with vegetable broth. I want the mushrooms to shine and I thought the chicken broth might overpower it. I love this simple yet packed with flavor pasta dish. 

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Sweet Pickled Eggs

I don't know why I never had pickled eggs before. I have an 18-piece package of quail eggs that were meant for making the Filipino deep fried bright orange battered egg snack called kwek kwek but changed my mind and pickled them instead. It's easy to prepare if you use sweet pickle liquid.

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Challah Bread Pudding

Last week I bought a loaf of challah at Trader's Joe although the crust is very pale unlike my homebaked. Although I already lowered my expectations, I was still disappointed for its lack of flavor. It also got moldy after 3 days. What a waste. I baked one loaf flavored with a little orange and lemon zests and vanilla extract. I cubed 4 thick slices and made bread pudding with golden raisins (sultanas). Drizzled with Hershey-style chocolate syrup or limoncello glaze, the pudding is delicious.

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