Author: Yelly

Taking each day one smile at a time!
Yelly Eats

Arroz con Chorizo

Yelly

Rice meals have always been comforting and very filling for me.  I love the paellas, congees and all sorts of rice-based meals.  My Tita Mila, one of my dad’s younger sisters, has been an inspiration for me to learn so many dishes.  I have fond memories of coming to their house for parties.  Her cooking was phenomenal!  I think it was at one of her parties that I first tasted paella.  And ever since then, I’ve tried to practice my way into duplicating what she did.  I’m not quite there yet as I’m not quite brave enough to cook with actual pieces of seafood (YET!), but I’m getting there.

About a decade ago, maybe even more, I joined the Del Monte Kitchenomics Club.  It was a recipe club established by Del Monte in the Philippines.  I think it was a good marketing coup since the recipes mostly contained Del Monte ingredients.  But I have them to thank for because it was through a recipe that I got in the post that I learned my shortcut paella recipe.  It was a chicken skillet paella recipe.  Over the years, I’ve improved on how short the shortcuts were and I’ve been working on improving the recipes.

I can’t quite call my rice dish a paella but I guess you could call it that because it has chorizo, chicken and seafood.  But I won’t call it a paella until I can cook with actual seafood pieces.  It’s really a rice with chorizo dish with seafood, so it’s really an Arroz Con Chorizo recipe.   But for anyone wanting to try the shortcut recipe, here it is:

300 grams chicken thighs cubed
125 grams chorizo sliced into rounds
250 grams arborio rice (you can always use ordinary rice, the shorter the grain the better)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large white onion chopped
1 large green bellpepper chopped
200 grams frozen peas
1 tsp garlic granules (or 2 fresh large garlic cloves minced)
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp tomato paste
800ml chicken stock (1 L water with 2 stock cubes boiled until it’s reduced to 800ml)
225 grams frozen seafood mix (optional)

Directions:

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or shallow sauce pan.  When the oil is hot, add the onions and sautee until the onions are slightly transluscent.  Add the chorizo and sautee until the chorizo releases its oils.  The onion-chorizo mixture should turn slighlty orange (*NOTE: add the garlic at this point if you’re using fresh garlic, but only if you’re using fresh garlic).
  2. Add the chicken pieces and sautee until the chicken slices lose its pinkness.  Add all the spices: garlic, paprika, turmeric, pepper, cumin and cayenne pepper.  Mix until the spices are well-incorporated.  Lower the heat to medium and allow chicken to cook under a lid for 5 minutes.  Add the tomato paste and replace the lid and cook for another 3 minutes.
  3. Add the arborio rice (I usually wash the rice once before I cook it, if I’m NOT using arborio).  Mix well until all the rice grains are covered with the juices.  Add half of the chicken stock and cover the lid.  Allow mixture to reach a slow boil, stirring occassionally.
  4. When most of the stock has been absorbed, add the remaining stock.  Add the frozen peas, green bellpepper and seafood pieces (the seafood pieces are optional).  Cook on low heat for a further 20 minutes stirring occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.  You may have to add a little more water if the rice requires more cooking (depends on how hot your stove gets).
  5. This will serve 4-6, depending on how generous your portions will be.
Yelly Eats

Christmas Bread and Butter Pudding

Yelly

For anyone with surplus mince pie filling, this would be a great option.

3 eggs
280 ml cream
55 ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50 grams granulated sugar
100 grams mince pie filling
50 g butter (preferably unsalted)
1 loaf brioche bread (or any sweet bread)

  • Preheat oven to 180C.
  • Beat eggs well with a ballon wire whisk.  Add sugar and beat well until sugar is well incorporated (tip: the lighter the colour of the egg-sugar mixture, the better).  Add the cream and vanilla and whisk well.  Set aside.
  • Slice brioche loaf into 16 slices.  This should form 8 pairs.  For each pair of brioche bread, spread one side with butter and the other slice with the mince pie filling (NOTE: the more generous you are with the mince pie filling, the sweeter the pudding will be).  Arrange sandwiches in a well-buttered baking pan.
  • Pour the milk and egg mixture over the bread slices.  Allow the milk and egg mixture to be absorbed (if you leave the bread for about 5 mins, this will give it time to absorb the milk and egg mixture).
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes.
Yelly Writes

Catching up

Yelly

I haven’t been writing anything recently.  The ideas are in my head but I need to write them down!

The past several weeks have been crazy busy!  The day job has been eating into the time I’ve put away to work on the dream job and I’m getting really frustrated!  I really need to make time to write.  I need to make sure I make the time because I really want to work on my recipes and my writing.  Dear God please give me time…or at least one of those Harry Potter time turner thingmebobs that Hermione used!  That would be incredibly handy!

Fingers crossed I am able to write this weekend!  If I do get to do that, I will write up a storm!

Yelly Eats

Slow-cooked Pork

Yelly

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup paprika
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon chili powder (optional)

Mix together well, using a wire whisk to make sure everything is incorporated well.

To cook the meat, rub as much as you can onto the pork and marinade for at least 4 hours (the longer the better). Cook under foil for 6 hours at 110ºC and for the last 2 hours, remove the foil and turn up the oven to 180ºC.

This is enough dry rub for 6lbs of meat.  if you want to store it, after mixing, store in a tightly sealed jar in a cool, dark place.  The rub can be stored for 3-4 weeks.

Yelly Eats

Easy-peasy sweet cornbread

Yelly

I love sweet sticky spare ribs and slow-cooked brisket.  And cornbread seems to be one of he best side dishes to this.  After much searching and tweaking, I’m finally able to swear by a recipe.  I love my cornbread sweet as I have a sweet tooth (a very bad thing for a diabetic to have!).  So I eat this in reasonable quantities.  But it is oh-so-yummy!  It’s a recipe I’m proud to share with you.

Sweet cornbreadIngredients:

  • 160g polenta (fine ground)
  • 125g all-purpose flour
  • 100g sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 240ml milk
  • 80ml vegetable oil
  • 1 large egg

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 200C.
  2. Prepare 12 x 7.5 pan by lining with baking paper and greasing with butter and set aside.
  3. Mix polenta, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl with a balloon whisk until well-combined.  Set aside.
  4. Beat egg, milk and vegetable oil together until well-combined.  Add to polenta mixture in 3 parts.  Once liquid mixture and dry mixture has been mixed together completely, allow to sit for 30 minutes so that polenta can absorb the liquid.
  5. Place in oven and cook for 20-22 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
  6. This recipe makes 20-24 squares.
Yelly Eats

Apple Pie

Yelly

Right.   I’m braving the lions, so to speak, and posting this recipe.  It needs improvement and I haven’t actually gotten around to improving it yet.  So the warning is, “caveat emptor” if you do try the recipe.  This attempt at creating a “pretty” pie was inspired by a Rick Stein episode.  He was in France and he visited this lady who makes these gorgeous apple pies.  Needless to say I had to try to make it and well, my attempt needed a LOT of fine-tuning.

For the crust (as Jamie Oliver recommended):
Store-bought puff pastry, a 450g package (or thereabouts)

For the topping:
Store-bought filo pastry, a 270g package (or thereabouts)

For the filling:
4 Jonagold apples (you could use Granny Smith but you’ll have to use more sugar
1/2 c caster sugar
1/2 c light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c cornstarch
3 tbsp lemon (fresh if you can get it, but bottled is fine too!)
1 egg, beaten
3 tbsp sugar

Directons:

  • Press the puff pastry into a spring form pan (a 9-inch one will do).
  • In a mixing bowl, mix sliced apples, lemon juice, sugars, cinnamon and cornstarch (as Nigella said, your hands are the best mixing implements).
  • Arrange the apple mixture in the puff pastry shell (be as creative or as O.C. as you want to be!)
  • Cut each filo pastry sheet into 4. Fold into a triangle and “crumple” on top of the apple mixture. Do this until the pie is completely covered.
  • Beat the egg and sugar. Beat until egg mixture is fluffy. Brush over the topping.
  • Bake in an oven preheated to 180C for 45 mins to 1 hr, when you see the syrup bubbling through the topping, turn down the oven to 150C and bake for 10 more minutes.
Yelly Eats

Perfect rice!

Yelly

Rice is a staple in the Filipino diet.  I think the first thing a Filipino does when they move to another country is to find out the nearest place they can get rice from.  Most of our dishes are best served with rice.  It’s no wonder that quite possibly, the first thing one learns to cook is rice.

I’ve been cooking rice since I was 11 years old and I’ve had my fair share of burnt, overcooked and undercooked rice episodes.  But for the past 10 or so years, I’ve managed to figure out how to NOT burn rice–without using a rice cooker.  This is cooking rice over a hob WITHOUT HAVING TO LIFT THE LID 🙂 and you should be able to produce bowl after bowl of fluffy, white, perfectly steamed rice!

  1. Measure your rice and place it in the pot.  Wash the rice twice, each time draining as much water as you can from the pot.
  2. Using the cup that you measured your rice with, use this rice to water ratio:  for every 1 measured cup of rice, use 1 1/2 cup of water minus 1/2 cup of water.  Confusing?  Let me try to make it clearer, for 2 cups of rice use 2 1/2 cups of water (1 1/2 cups water x 2 = 3, then subtract 1/2 a cup = 2 1/2; for 1 1/2 cups of rice use 1 3/4 cups of water, etc.).
  3. Place the pot over a hob on medium high heat until it reaches a rolling boil (the stage when it starts to bubble, at the lid starts making a rattling noise and you start to see steam coming out from under the lid.  this is usually 4-5 mins after placing the pot over the hob).  Remove from heat for 5 mins.
  4. Turn down the hob to a medium low setting and return the pot to cook for a further 5 mins.  Then remove the pot from the heat and allow to rest for 5 mins.
  5. The next step, really, is to enjoy your fluffy, steamed rice 🙂

Note to self:  take a picture of the rice when you cook it again.

Yelly Eats

Food for the gods

Yelly

I’ve always loved these chewy bars.  When I was younger, you could only get food for the gods at Christmas time.  It was a favourite Christmas giveaway.  Or at least that’s how I remembered it.  I think they’re now more available in shopes and one doesn’t have to wait for Christmas to enjoy these date and walnut filled bars (although in hindsight, I think in the Philippines they used raisins or prunes and instead of walnuts they used pili)!

I thought I’d try my hand at making them myself (like I always say, necessity is the mother of invention!).  I looked for the simplest recipe and hit the jackpot with the one I’m sharing.  It’s not as moist as I thought it would be (but that might be because I forgot to add the 1 tablespoon of honey that’s required or it might be that the oven was a tiny bit too hot!  Practice makes perfect and I have enough dates for a few more attempts.  I will revise the recipe when I’ve found MY perfect medium) but it certainly tasted the way I remembered it.

If you try the recipe, let me know how you get on, please!  I definitely welcome sharing trade secrets! 🙂

Adapted from: http://gourmeted.com/2007/12/12/food-for-the-gods/

Ingredients:

Makes 16 – 20 bars

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup pitted dates, chopped
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup caster sugar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F or 180C.  Line a brownie pan with parchment paper (wax paper will do just fine).  You can use a 13.5″ x 8″ pan.
  2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.  Add chopped dates and chopped walnuts and mix until dates and walnuts are coated with flour and evenly distributed in the flour mixture.  Set aside.
  3. Beat eggs and sugars until well-incorporated.  Add vanilla extract (Ina Garten aka the Barefoot Contessa, says to use the best that you can because the better ingredients you have because the product turns out better) and the honey.  Add the melted butter until well-incorporated.
  4. Fold in the flour-date-walnut mixture until batter is uniform and everything is mixed well.
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.  Bake for 30-40 minutes (depending on the oven).  Test with a toothpick.  It should be done if the toothpick comes out clean.
  6. Cool completely before slicing into bars or squares.