Tag: recipe

Yelly Eats

Ah-doh-boh!!!

Yelly

Adobo is Spanish for sauce or seasoning or marinade and is widely used in Latin American cuisine.  It is also defined as a sauce or paste made from a variety of ingredients that may include chillies, salt, vinegar, garlic, and herbs.  There are also dry adobos which are spice rubs for meat, fish or poultry.

Adobo is very definitely the Philippine’s national dish.  Everyone has a take  on how it’s made, every Filipino who knows how to cook it, has their own version, their own set of ingredients.  There are versions with vinegar, versions with coconut milk, versions with pineapple juice, versions with boiled egg, versions with bay leaf.  There are so many ways of adjusting (and readjusting) the ratio of soy sauce to vinegar, some people love it really garlicky, some people want only a smidgen of garlic in it.  Some like it really sour, some really salty, some really sweet and some…somewhere in the middle of all of this. Some people love pork adobo, while some people will say chicken adobo is always best.  When it’s a national dish, there are a million permutations.  Maybe as many as there are Filipino households in the world!

This is my take on adobo.  I’ve tried it with chicken and pork and it seems to work really well.  So I’m going to brave the big bad world wide web, and put forward my recipe!  If you’d like to try it, let me know how it works out for you please! 🙂  I’d really love for you to let me know what it was like!

Ingredients

  • 1 kilo of pork or chicken
  • 5 tablespoons of soy sauce + 1 tablespoon for cooking
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons of vinegar + 1 teaspoon for cooking
  • 3 large cloves of garlic crushed (or 3 teaspoons of garlic granules)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tablespoon of whole pepper corns (or 1 heaping teaspoon ground pepper)
  • 1 meat stock cube (chicken or pork, whichever meat you’re cooking)
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 400 ml water

Directions:

  1. In a ziplock bag, combine the soy sauce and the vinegar and the garlic.  Add the meat (use belly pork if cooking pork as the fat makes the meat pieces more succulent and less dry, and if you are using chicken, wings, thighs and legs are the best parts to use because these chicken parts have more flavour) and marinade.  I like using a ziplock bag because I like to be able to “massage” the marinade into the meat.  The longer you marinade the meat the better, but a minimum of two hours (with a maximum of massaging!) will do.
  2. Heat the oil in a stir-fry pan and add the meat pieces, making sure that you keep the marinating liquid.  Brown the meat on all sides.  Once the meat has been browned, add the marinating liquid.  Add the soy sauce, vinegar, pepper corns (or ground pepper), sugar, the stock cube and water.  Make sure that the stock cube and the sugar are dissolved well and make sure that all the meat are covered by the marinating liquid.  Tear the bay leaves and add to the pan.  Allow the liquid to reach a rolling boil, turning the meat pieces occasionally.  Cover with a lid.
  3. Allow the liquid to simmer for 30 minutes, at which time it would have thickened slightly (without you adding anything to thicken it!).  This is my little step: after the 30 minutes are over, keep the lid on and keep the pot over the hot plate (if you’re using an electric stove, or over the ring, if you’re using a gas range) for 5 minutes without lifting the lid.
  4. Serve over boiled rice, and voila!  You have my version of adobo! 🙂

Photo credits:

Adobo by ISKAndals.com

Yelly Eats

Macadamia and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yelly

This is one of my favourite Julie Powell quotes from the movie Julie & Julie (one of my favourite movies EVER!):

“Chocolate cream pie! You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That’s such a comfort.”

And Julie Powell was so right!  It is such a comforting certainty that if you have the ingredients, a relatively reliable set of scales, measuring spoons, an oven and elbow grease and a wonderful recipe book, you will, more or less, make something comforting to eat.

I haven’t been feeling well, so I thought maybe if I whipped something up, and it turned out more or less acceptable, I would feel a little better.  And looking at my chocolate chip cookies, I do feel better.  I can’t eat them yet.  But I do feel a sense of accomplishment that has made me feel better than a caplet of paracetamol ever has!

I added a twist to the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook recipe—macadamia nuts!  Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

Makes 24 – 40 cookies

  • 225 g unsalted butter, at room temp
  • 350 g soft light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 400 g plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 1/2 bicarbonate of soda
  • 225 g dark chocolate chips (or dark choccie chopped)
  • 150 g macadamia nuts roughly chopped (optional)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 170°C (325°F).
  2. Sift together flour, salt and bicarb of soda into a bowl and set aside.
  3. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, making sure everything is well combined before adding the next egg.  Add vanilla extract and mix until well incorporated.  Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure all ingredients are well-combined.
  4. Add the flour mixture in quarters and mix until a smooth dough is formed.  Add macadamia nuts and chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.
  5. Depending on your cookie sheet, arrange 6-8 amounts of cookie dough on baking tray covered with parchment.  Bake for 10 minutes.
Yelly Eats

Fast food: Tomato and Mozzarella Tart

Yelly

All throughout the day I was dreading going home and making supper.  I wasn’t really in the mindset to make anything.  But I was encouraged (quite gently but very effectively) to make something out of the puff pastry that was languishing in the fridge.  And so, the tomato and mozzarella tart was born.

I will be the first to admit that even though cheese isn’t my best friend, I would very gladly devour mozzarella di bufala and suffer the consequences later and I LOVE TOMATOES.  So a caprese salad would be my best friend.  But since I did have puff pastry (and inspired by the continuous sightings of the Jus-Rol Janet advert on telly), I thought a caprese salad in a tart would be a good thing!

It was quick, easy, and relatively painless!

250g puff pastry (the best you can buy)
2 medium salad onions cut into half moons
150g fresh mozzarella, cut into half moons
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon pesto
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic granules
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 200C
  2. Unwrap the pastry and roll it out.  You need only 250 grams of it, so you’ll have to cut out, roughly a 10″x10″ square.  On the pastry sheet, trace a 9″x9″ frame in it  with a knife or a spatula so that there is a border (for lack of a better way to describe it!)and in pierce the pastry with a fork.
  3. In a small bowl, mix the tomato paste, pest, salt, sugar, garlic, and pepper until well-combined.
  4. Spread the tomato mixture inside the 9″x9″ frame you traced as evenly as possible.  Then arrange the mozzarella and tomato slices as desired within the frame.  Sprinkle the dried oregano on the tomato and mozzarella slices.
  5. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the pastry has risen and is golden brown.
  6. This will serve 4 or a greedy 2.

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 Eats

Salted Duck Egg and Tomato Salad

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itlog na maalatItlog na maalat (Filipino for salty egg) or itlog na pula (Filipino for red egg) is not something that I can get from my local Morrisons, Tesco or Sainsbury’s.  And I missed it terribly.  I missed just being able to pop down to the market and buy a couple of eggs, one-fourth kilo of tomatoes and run back home and pick a few basil leaves from my dad’s garden.

It’s one of the simplest Filipino dishes ever.  You just cut the salted duck eggs (they’re hard-boiled) into cubes, cube the tomatoes, chop the basil leaves finely and mix them together.  It’s a great accompaniment to rice and fried fish or a roasted chicken or roasted pork (liempo to us Pinoys).  Sometimes, when I can’t think of what to cook to accompany my rice, this is the quickest viand to put together, no cooking required.  Since I’ve moved to the UK, I’ve made variations.  I’ve added an onion in the mix.  Another version of this salad is to add dill (fresh or dried) instead of basil.

I can’t go down to Chinatown in London all the time or head to the Filipino store in Colchester.  It’s not every day that I can get duck eggs but I daresay, it’s easier to get duck eggs from somewhere than it is to go down to London!  So I had to find out how to make my own salted eggs.  And this is the recipe.  It’s the one that works for me best.

As found in: http://www.lilligren.com/homestead/duckeggs.htm

Ingredients:
1 dozen duck eggs (any breed of duck will work)
1 to 1-1/2 cups of sea salt
5 cups water
1 gallon glass or plastic container

What you should do:
1. To make the brine solution, dissolve salt in warm water.
2. Wash eggs thoroughly and put them in the container.
3. Pour in the brine solution. Cover the container with a towel.
4. Let stand at room temperature for 30 days. Turn the eggs every 4 days.
5. After 30 days, remove the eggs from the brine solution. Wash with water.
6. Cook the eggs by boiling in water for 30 minutes.

BUT if you can’t wait for the 30 days, you can do this:

1. Boil the eggs in the brine solution.
2. Make a fresh batch of the brine solution. Peel cooked duck eggs. Place them in the fresh brine solution and soak for 24 hours.

**Note that it won’t turn out as good as the ones made to soak for 30 days, but sometimes, instant gratification is good too! 🙂 I also don’t use that many eggs (I did 2 for my tomato salad)! So the brine solution can be scaled down to about 3 tbsp of salt to 500ml of water is good 🙂

Yelly Eats

Recipe: Sautéed Aubergines

Yelly

True story:  I was looking for eggplants in the market because eggplants are one of my favourite vegetables.  I knew I could buy it anywhere so I thought I’d look.  Eggplants in the UK are like eggplants in the US.  They’re big and fat.  I think they’re called Japanese eggplants in Philippine supermarkets.  But, I digress.  I can’t remember if it was actually in the Ipswich market or if it was at the shops, but I remember asking someone where the eggplants were.  All I got was a blank stare.  Then I remembered.  They don’t call eggplants here eggplants.  They call them AUBERGINES!  To make things complicated, this is the phonetic spelling:  br-zhn, br-jn

The easiest eggplant recipe (apart from slice thinly and fry and dip into soy sauce with garlic) is to sauté the eggplant in garlic, onion and tomatoes.  I find comfort in cooking this because it reminds me of home.  I think this became a quick favourite at home (my mom likes it, my brother loves it, my sister hates it and my dad can’t eat eggplant—even stevens!) because it works well as a rice topping.  It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s a vegetable!  I remember eating it with shrimp paste and rice.  Yum! 🙂

I cooked this on Sunday because Sunday was Day 1 of The Challenge.  Since I moved to the UK, I usually cook this with pork mince.  But in true challenge-facing spirit, I cooked it the way I used to cook it in the Philippines, sautéed with oyster sauce!

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium-sized eggplant, diced
  • 2 medium-sized salad tomatoes, diced
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil (optional)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Heat the vegetable oil in a shallow pan.  Once the oil is relatively hot (not smoking hot though!), add onions.  Sauté until the onions are transluscent, then add the tomatoes.  The tomatoes should turn slightly mushy (if at this stage the tomatoes and onions look slightly dry, add a 2-3 tablespoons of water).  Add the garlic (my mom always taught me that you should add garlic first when sautéing, but so many chefs say that you add garlic last because garlic burns fairly quickly and adding garlic near the end of the sautéing allows you to control the intensity of the garlic taste in the dish).
  2. Once the garlic is slightly browned this is usually the stage where you add your meat (in my case, due to the challenge, I didn’t add any meat) and brown it.  Once the meat is browned, add your oyster sauce.  Simmer for 3 minutes.
  3. Add the aubergine and simmer, stirring occasionally for 7-10 minutes.  The dark purple of the aubergine skin should turn slightly brown and the flesh should take on the colour of the tomatoes.
  4. Add salt and pepper to taste (if the oyster sauce hasn’t made it salty enough for you).  To finish, add the sesame oil.

Serving suggestion:   Serve over a bowl of steamed rice.