If you’re like me who rarely uses mayo because it’s not her most favorite thing in the world, you’ll end up running out of it when a dish you’re craving for finally calls for it. I had one jar at the far end of the fridge and it’s 6 months past its expiration date. It knew it would happen someday that I would be “forced” to eventually cross out “homemade mayo” from my to-make list when craving trumps laziness and cunctation.

My earliest vivid memory of mayo was when I organized a picnic with my fellow 7-year-olds one summer. I said I’ll bring the bread with spread. What I did not know was that we ran out of jam, jelly, butter or peanut butter that day and all we had was mayo. Never one to give up, I had a not-so-brilliant idea to just put mayo on the slices of pan de sal (dinner rolls in the Philippines that are really mostly eaten during breakfast) we had. The result: 7-year-old playmates were not pleased. This is probably “The Pang” that I associate with mayo and have barred me from enjoying it for most of my life. Until I made it, that is.

Let me tell you…what a revelation! It was love after the last arm-numbing flick of the whisk!

It will be very hard to even think of eating store-bought mayonnaise ever. again. This is so good. I closed my eyes and savored my first taste, as if I was relishing fresh whipped cream, which I eat up like it is heaven by the spoonful (it is, aside from butter).

Want to give this a try? Roll up your sleeves and get whisking…

Homemade Mayonnaise
inspired by Orangette’s recipe from the April 2008 issue of Bon Appetit

Ingredients (makes about 7/8 cups of mayo)

• 1 egg yolk from a large egg
  
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/4 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp table salt
• 3/4 cup canola oil, divided (alternatively, you an use 1/2 cup olive and 1/4 cup coconut oil)
  

Preparation

1. Whisk** together egg yolk, vinegar, lemon juice and salt in a heavy medium bowl, that can sit sturdily on the counter, for about a minute.

2. Have a 1/2 cup of canola. Continue whisking with your good hand and hold the oil-filled measuring cup with your other hand above the bowl. The oil “spill” from the cup is enough to start you off with incorporating oil into the mixture. Continue to add oil little by little, by tipping the measuring cup slightly to “spill” some more oil as you continue to whisk. Use your 1/4 measuring cup to slowly add the rest of the canola oil, whisking thoroughly before adding more.

It will take a good 10 to 15 minutes of whisking until you get the desired thickness, but it will be worth it. Don’t despair if it doesn’t look like mayo or become light in color and creamy for what seems like a long time, it will. :-)

** You can also use your hand or stand mixer to make your life a lot easier.

Whew…last minute!

I had my Daring Bakers challenge in my to-do list last weekend but plans changed because the fiance came over for the weekend to surprise me. What can you do, eh? Haha.

So last night, after making a dinner of tuna beet salad with homemade mayo (because I ran out!) and already invested on a lot of elbow grease for that mayo, I stretched the dough for the strudel:

And let me tell you now that it was a lot of work and it tested my patience. After a while of gently coaxing the dough to stretch…stretch a little more…go on…I almost went into this Zen-like phase of going around the dough to stretch it. It was very meditative until I tear my first teeny hole.  Have I told you before that I’m a perfectionist? After that I got too cautious and I guess that made my dough not as thin as it should be, but I swear I can see the threads of my cotton fabric at the bottom very clearly.

These delicious Rainier cherries from the Granville Island market made it into the strudel:

And so did the raspberries I got there, too. I added a tiny bit of dried cranberries to soak up the extra juice from the raspberries. I’m not going to admit that I was eating while preparing them. Mmm.

I rolled it and slathered it with butter. Perhaps too much butter, I know. But one cannot have enough of it!

After about 37 minutes, I took out the strudel and waited for another half hour before slicing. It kept falling apart while I sliced it, but it did taste good!

It’s not the most photogenic (cooked) dish on earth and I wish I could give you a bite to make it better. Next time I think I’ll use white sugar instead of my trying-to-be-healthy choice of raw sugar to make it less dark. What do you think? Perhaps the raspberries were a bad idea because they become goo. I don’t know…but it sure was yummy.

I’ll post the recipe tomorrow!

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The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers. — Many thanks to Courtney and Linda for the challenge. It was indeed a challenge! :D

First things first:

We’re going to BlogHer Food in SF this September! It will be the first blogging event we’ll go to, so we’re very excited. See you there? :)

Last weekend, the sun shone and it was beginning to get too hot for comfort in the house that there’s really no other thing I’d rather make with Fage yogurt** than strawberry fro-yo. I may be the most boring and redundant frozen yogurt maker, because I’ve posted about the same (yawn) flavor twice last year and coincidentally, around the same time, too! Can you blame me? I really truly believe that with a 2-cup tub of Fage, strawberries, some sort of sweetener and an ice cream maker, it’s HARD to get it wrong.

After I made this, just to spite me, you know what the weather gods gave us? Gray skies, rain (downpour!), aaand sunshine with hail. Snow would have completed the whole package, but that’s enough, thanks. I know you–yes, you Weather Guy up there!–made your point that Vancouverites can’t rejoice over good weather that much, but we still love it!

For the ‘recipe’, I just relied on my own ratio of:

one container of Fage : (maximum of) one Fage container of other liquids

[Speaking of ratios, I'll be talking about Michael Ruhlman's book called Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking this weekend. In a gist: I highly recommend it so go grab a copy!]

First, I made a simple syrup by heating 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup water, then added about 1 1/3 cup of strawberry puree***, 2 tablespoons honey, and a teaspoon of lemon juice and cooked it until it looked like this:

I cooled it in the fridge for 30 minutes before blending all the cold ingredients with a hand mixer in a big bowl:  yogurt, sweetened strawberry puree, and 2 tablespoons of half and half light cream. Put it in your ice cream maker and churn it for 30-35 minutes, or until thick enough. Pour in a freezer-safe container.

One advantage of having a mother who shops for all sorts of things are finds like the thick metal fresh ice cream container that is so darn cute.

Freezing and letting the frozen yogurt ‘rest’ overnight is best for flavor and texture.

I couldn’t wait to eat it the next day. No suave scooping here; it was more like painful excavation of hard rock because I didn’t thaw it enough. I just took a few shots and devoured my sweet reward, despite of the soup it turned into.

Not a problem, I love ice cream soup!

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** After having used the different fat percentages of Fage, the 2% is still the best for fro-yo, in my opinion.

*** I didn’t strain the seeds out this time. I like the ‘character’ it adds to the ice cream. I don’t mind the seeds at all, but you can remove it if you like.

** You may also want to check out the Easy Fudge Brownie recipe **

Every now and then, an idea will spark for me from even the smallest triggers in life. This in particular was the result of a discussion about surprises. Mine was to be about dessert. The person that this surprise was for is someone special, so one cannot simply buy something from the store. I wanted to know what would make the best of the best. A kind of channeling of Tyler Florence, if you will.

I gave it a thought and I knew exactly what to do. Since my brother does not like cake, and my nieces and nephews tend to be picky, and my sister will eat generally anything with a sweet tooth, the only thing that made sense for me to prepare were brownies.

A quick google search led me here, The Ultimate Brownie Recipe. And I thought I had all the ingredients listed.

The result is this:

What was I missing? 3 unsweetened cocoa squares. Over 25% of the ingredient I needed was already used from what I thought was a full box of unsweetened cocoa.  What did I do? I dug up some semi-sweet chocolate chips and measured out on the scale 3 oz of the sweetened stuff.  I also reduced the amount of sugar by 1/4th cup to compensate for the sweetness coming from the chocolate chips.

Another thing I did differently was the choice of flour. I didn’t know the immediate impact on brownies but I used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. I am also not a fan of nuts in my brownies, so I omitted the walnuts.

The result is this adapted recipe:

Better Than Ultimate Brownies

Ingredients:

• 5 1-oz squares of unsweetened chocolate
• 3 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup butter
• 5 eggs
• 2 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp salt

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease 9 x 13 pan.

2. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate squares and chips, and butter; set aside.

3. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla at high speed for 10 minutes. [I definitely recommend a stand mixer for this.] Add melted chocolate mixture, salt and bread flour and mix until just blended. Let the batter sit on the counter for 20 minutes before pouring into the greased pan. Let air bubbles escape by tapping the pan.

4.Bake for 30 minutes and test with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, take the brownies out to cool before serving.

I believe my substitutions made these brownies above and beyond that of the original Ultimate Brownies! Each square is dense and chocolate-y, and has a nice chewiness to it. It’s better than store-bought or just-put-in-the-oven brownies. If you happen to be lucky enough to have some left over after a few days, you’ll be fighting over the the last few bites of super-moist and ultimately soft and chewy brownies. A little sacrifice of instant gratification truly pays off for these. ;-)

Give them a try in your kitchen and let us know how they turn out!

It’s been a busy week and I tried to keep everything simple for meals. I can’t say the same for the my late night baking marathons last week (I’ll post about them soon), but hey, something’s gotta give when you try to fit everything in 24 hours each day.

I just realized that I rarely post pork recipes here and it’s because I rarely buy it, so I’ll post one that I just cooked. It’s nothing complicated, but it’s not so humble in flavors either. The sauce is semi-sweet and spicy, thanks to the cayenne pepper. Yummy over all and always good on steamed rice.

It’s definitely one of my better experiments that made it to our site. Please enjoy!

Pork and Peppers with Wine Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo pork shank, cut in 1 1/2″ cubes
• 1 orange pepper, sliced into thin strips
• 1 yellow pepper, sliced into thin strips
• 4 roma tomatoes, seeds removed and chopped
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• dash of cayenne pepper
• salt
• pepper
• vegetable oil

Preparation

1. Coat the bottom of a large frying pan with oil and place in medium-high heat. Put the pork and sprinkle with salt and pepper, brown in 2 batches and transfer on a plate.

2. Lower the heat to medium and saute the orange and yellow peppers in the same pan for a few minutes until they start to pick up the brown bits. Don’t overcook the peppers. Put in a small plate for later use.

3. Pour white wine on the pan and let it simmer until it is reduced to half, and scrape off the brown bits while simmering. Add the chopped tomatoes and wait for them to soften. When the skin begins to peel off, press the tomato pieces against the pan to create a paste. Add 1/8 tsp salt and a dash of cayenne pepper.

4. Mix in the pork meat. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes and turn off the heat. Add the peppers and serve with steamed rice.

Variation: You can definitely replace pork with chicken tenders if you like.

Wishing all the mothers a Happy You’re-Special Day, especially to my mom.

My younger brother picked up this chestnut cake from the Chinese bakery. It was so, so yum!!!! :)

A random memory just popped into my head today about Mother’s Day. When I was probably 9 years old and my younger brother was about 5 or probably turning 6, I had this idea to write a song for my mom. We had a karaoke machine (perfectly normal for a Filipino household!) and a mic. It was the age of tapes, when CD’s were just beginning. I week before Mother’s Day I had this idea one afternoon and thought of a tune. You know what, I still remember a part of it, but the essence of it was that we love our mom for who she was in a very funny jingle. We were learning how to create jingles in school so that’s where that came from. I sang the main tune and my little brother was my backup singer pretty much scream-singing, “Cause she’s MY MOTHER!” Hahaha. I can still hear it.

Now that I’m thinking about the only line that I remember, I swear to god I was lucky my mom hasn’t disowned me at an early age. Are you ready for this?

“She’s kind of fat and kind of short, but I’m not bothered ’cause she’s my mother”

YEP. What a horrible, horrible child! I know I’ll pay for this somehow in the future! GAH. This song wasn’t Dad-approved — well, we didn’t pass by it by anyone. Us kids pretty much have a free reign over a lot of things, which I couldn’t be any more grateful now that I’m older and appreciate the amount of creative freedom that gave me. But…well, I guess it could be way too free. Look at what I said! The truth is, we’re small-framed Asians and when I said kind of fat, it wasn’t even anywhere near chubby. Nothing. Anyway, horrible daughter. I’m so sorry!

I haven’t told my mom about that memory, but I guess she’ll read it from here. LOL.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! Thanks…for putting up with us! :D

Even before the show, “Chopped“, was conceived in the offices of the Food Network, millions of us all over the world were already facing and battling own versions of the show–right in our own kitchens–you, me, and all the other home cooks in the world. Unless you’re a complete meal planner, making each homemade meal is like a Chopped episode. It’s all up to us to make the most of what’s available and rock it, right?

I had  fresh flank steak one evening that I didn’t want to freeze and ginger roots that begged to be saved before they go to waste, so it just makes sense to use them both. I was inspired to make a beef steak with the flavors of the beef and broccoli dish I love to order at Chinese restaurants. We always make steaks with wine and some herb as a combination, but I’ve never tried it with ginger …so why not?

Oh…and how my experiment delivered! The ginger-garlic flavor seeped into the meat in 30 minutes. It was so good! At first I wanted to make sauce from the drippings, but the flavors in the meat were already intense so I didn’t find the need to.

The photo above is left over from dinner. I didn’t want to take photos at night and waited the next day to get decent daylight photos. It still looked good the 2nd day, huh? :) It still tasted amazing, too.

I like using flank steaks. They’re easy to find and they’re cheap. And with dishes like the one I made, it’s easy to create something nice without breaking the bank. The other ingredients I used are wallet-friendly as well and what’s more, the whole recipe is just made of 6 ingredients. I like simple. I like tasty. I like dishes that look like they took a lot of effort and worth a lot more than they do. Recessionista extraordinaire dish right there.

Asian Ginger Garlic Steak

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1.5 tbsp ginger, chopped
• 1 tbsp garlic, chopped
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 400 g flank steak

Preparation

1. Mix the oil and sauces with the chopped ingredients. Soak meat in this mixture and marinate for 30 minutes in the fridge. You can marinate it in a small bowl covered with plastic wrap or in a ziploc bag. If in a bowl, turn meat after 15 minutes.
2. Preheat your oven to 350°F then take the meat from the fridge.
3. Roll the steak lengthwise, as if rolling like a log cake, with ends meeting at the bottom. Place on an oven-safe wire rack on a cookie sheet to catch the drippings. Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on your preferred doneness.
4. Take the meat out of the oven and tent it with aluminum foil for about 10 minutes. Slice and serve warm with rice and steamed broccoli.

Is it really May already? My, my where did the past 4 months go? I guess the important thing is that we enjoy the time that passes by. I’ve certainly been having a grand time with the sunshine here in the Pacific Northwest. It’s nice to DO things outside of the house, basque in the sun and cool breeze in sandals and just be. There’s nothing quite like it.

In other news, my Canadian kitchen has been a-buzz with cooking and baking that I’ve forgotten the other recipes that I still have to post about from months ago. I try to have some variation around here. So after all the sweet stuff and experiments, let’s go back to the good ol’ recipe proper today. But what does that mean? That means I actually follow the recipe to the dot, which takes a lot of effort for me to do. I blame it on my inner rebel and artist. Haha. On rare occasions I would challenge myself to stick with the program and just do as the instructions say. One brain-dead night, as it wont to be after working 12 hours, is enough to seal the deal. I’m glad I did (the cooking, not working that long).

It’s a bonus that I actually picked a good recipe. Taste-wise, this could be the fancier version of the Filipino Bistek I shared with you before.

This is a must-try recipe–very simple and packs a punch of flavor. It goes so well with rice, so rice-eaters will enjoy this treat. I imagine this would go well with roasted potatoes, too.

I find that I cook more from Gourmet magazine than Bon Appetit these days. Do you? Either way is good because we’re getting value from our subscriptions. I usually peruse them for inspiration on what to cook as well as for flavor profiles. I would crave certain foods from all the food porn and that translates to several trips to the store. Hah.

Anyway, here’s the recipe if you’d like to give it a spin in your kitchen.

Sautéed Beef with White Wine and Rosemary
Adapted from a January 2009 Gourmet magazine recipe

• 1/2 lb boneless sirloin steak (about 1 inch thick, top butt recommended)
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 4 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 tbsp chopped rosemary
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• kosher salt
• ground pepper

1. Clean the steak of excess fat and slice thinly. Mix the flour, 3/4 tsp kosher salt, and 1/2 tsp ground pepper. Toss the meat in the mixture.
2. Place 1 1/2 tbsp oil in a 12″ heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté steak until the slices are no longer pink on the outside, about 2 minutes per batch (takes 2-3 batches). Add 1 1/2 tbsp oil as needed. Transfer to a plate once cooked.
3. Using the remaining tablesppon of oil, sauté garlic and rosemary until golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes. Pour wine and sprinkle 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper. Scrape the brown bits from the pan as it boils. Cook until it reduces to half the amount of the original liquid. Return beef with juices to skillet to warm it up before serving.