Ok, I’d like to see a show of hands:

How many of you have procrastinated on something this week? Spill! :)

If you can only see me now, my hands and arms couldn’t be any higher! In August, my brain slows down, my discipline goes on vacation and I am stuck with a mid-summer love affair with someone called Procrastination or Cunctation. I call him CunkyPunky. (See? This is beginning to sound more fun than it really is.) I just have to accept that August is CunkyPunky time and I should just breathe and relax. Aside from procrastinating with CP, I’m also trying to balance bank accounts and to keep sane in the midst of paying even more taxes. I don’t even want to think about it, because aside from my already-planned trip to Blogher Food, there’s another event that I would love to attend: Foodbuzz in November. (I call it an injustice that they are both held in San Francisco! Woe is me, who lives across the north border.) Just when I need to “kick ass” in the making-money department, all CP wants to do is drag me to graze in the grass like spoiled cows living in a luscious Hawaiian ranch–that kind of downtime. I have to remind him that traveling involves money, which involves doing something.

Ayayay.

This super simple breakfast post was supposed to be up last week, but CP and I had a week-long rendezvous. I’m sorry. But I hope you’ll forgive me. It is very easy to do anyway:

Just cook berries in simple syrup of 1 sugar :1 water proportion, wait for it to thicken, then set it aside to cool down. Serve generously on top of your favorite yogurt.

In my case, it’s the Fage 2% greek yogurt. That’s it. No theatrics, just plain and simple food. I eat this for breakfast, as a dessert or as a snack. It’s a great way to save berries that might otherwise go bad this summer, especially if you happen to haul big boxes of them from the farmer’s market.

I’m still rallying to have Fage here in Vancouver. I have never seen it here. Hello– Fage?!?!?!

In case you were wondering– No, Fage isn’t a sponsor of this blog. I just happen to love it so much that I milk my parents, who cross the border several times a month, to bring me Fage. It’s that good.

Is it really February? Last Monday I thought it was Friday. Time is warped; I could be talking to you from 2010 and I’ll be conscious of the correct year in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… But you do understand what I mean, right? Time zoomed forward.

A couple of weeks ago my ol’ friend visited Vancouver. We go back as far as our Geology freshmen days in 1995. It’s been a good 8 or 9 years since we last saw each other when we were fresh graduates and newly-licensed professionals. Now, we are old(er), relocated in North America, and cook and share recipes. I gave him the recipe for Food For The Gods, and he taught me how to make this Filipino dish called “Igado” (pronounced as ee-ga-DOH, as if you’re saying fa-la-LAH).

Igado is a regional Filipino delicacy with fatty pork loin meat and pork liver cooked with red bell pepper and peas, in a salty-sour sauce. I love this dish but never had the gumption to make it until my friend indulged me with their family’s Ilocano recipe. The Ilocanos are people from the northern part of the Philippines. In my home country, different regions have different traditional dishes with distinct tastes, but there’s one common characteristic about Filipino dishes — they try to make as much use of what’s available from the ingredients. Call it the Third-World Factor™, not Fodder For Fear Factor™. Take igado, for example, instead of throwing out the skin with fat, it is cubed and fried until crispy; and except for the excess oil, the whole pork loin is used.

Check out the crispy browned fat with skin:

I know it sounds absolutely horrible and will send nutritionists and dietitians screaming out the door, but these are SO good to eat even on their own [disclaimer: Enjoy at your own risk. Don't even think about eating the fried fat if you have heart, high blood, cholesterol or other health-related problems]. It’s used to flavor a lot of dishes, including boiled green mung beans. Eat in moderation, I always say.

Igado is an excellent make-head viand, just like Adobo. It tastes even better the day after, just make sure to keep it cold in the fridge and re-heat before serving. If you’re not into offal, you can skip the liver, but it wouldn’t taste the same. Perhaps you’ve been on the fence about finally trying liver and you’re just waiting for the recipe, consider making this.

The following recipe is not according to my friend’s specifications because he just estimated the amounts in his head when he made it. I took it upon myself, in the spirit of accuracy (whatever excuse I can make to cook this!), to re-create the dish while measuring everything for you and for our future reference. Enjoy! Continue Reading

I’m up so late because I have too much excess energy today, plus I can’t wait for Obama’s inauguration. I’m not American [Dan is, so we have a healthy dose of jokes between us about our countries], but I still share the excitement, hope, and pride in this moment — as I’m sure a lot of my fellow Canadians do. Today marks a day that inspires the rest of the world, as we all witness and celebrate a momentous occasion.

Back to the food…”Bistek” is a Filipino bastardized word of a concoction for “Beef Steak”. I’m not kidding, even though it sounds so silly. It’s made from thin and flat beef strips that’s cooked in soy sauce, calamansi (or lemon) and onions. It is another favorite of mine. It conjures up such good memories.

I still remember the first time I cooked this after watching and bugging our household help on how to cook it. I’m serious, it was memorable. It was a magical moment because I know this oh so well, I can taste it right now.

As with all simple dishes from childhood, it holds a special place in my heart. *sniff, sniff*

As an option, you can also add fried potato slices or chunks, or other veggies. I cooked mung bean sprouts in the same pan so you get the flavor without needing more salt or pepper.

Every little addition of healthy counts, right?
E
If you want to give this dish a try, here’s the recipe with step-by-step photos. Let us know how it goes. Enjoy!

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All the dishes and accouterments from Christmas have been cleaned and the kitchen is ready to face another round of cooking for the New Year (not by much as I would like to greet the new year in peace, literally)…we’re slowly getting back to posting.

Ah, New Year! It’s all about beginnings. Good beginnings, I hope.

And to end the year 2008 and start anew for 2009, I’ll introduce you to a beloved Filipino breakfast, called Champorado. I figured that a day that begins with champorado is good, and a year that starts with champorado would be even better. Haha! This comfort food tugs at heartstrings of Filipinos everywhere. Back in the Philippines, being a tropical country, we especially like eating this on rainy mornings. Here in Canada, winter is a darn good time to have it. Warm, filling and very comforting.

Champorado (Chocolate Rice Porridge/Pudding)

I’ve seen it being called Chocolate Rice Pudding and Chocolate Rice Porridge in English, but it’s always going to be Champorado for me. It’s basically glutinous/sticky/sweet rice cooked with a lot of water to make it soupy-gooey (think oatmeal and congee), with chocolate and sugar added, and enjoyed with evaporated milk, powdered milk, milk or cream. As a child I’ve always wanted it with evaporated milk or powdered milk. The chocolate used was a traditional locally-produced chocolate (and us being very regional, the way this is made is different depending on where you go and who makes it). We’re a mishmash of cultures like that.

The day after Christmas I had the yearning to make this for whatever reason. Perhaps because we woke up to 3 feet of snow and that the possibility of our next Christmas celebration with friends for that day was getting slim. I have to admit that we were snowed in for good that day. After a few phone calls between friends, we all decided that it’s better to stay home. And then, I made this for dinner. I needed some comfort food.  This is also Dan’s introduction to this very Filipino (“Pinoy“, as we refer to it) breakfast.

Champorado -- yummy!

So how do you make this super simple concoction?

Ingredients:

1 cup of white glutinous/sticky/sweet rice [What is this?]

3 to 4 cups water, depending on your thickness preference

1/2  cup cocoa powder [this will be very chocolate-y, you can decrease it up to 1/4 cup if you prefer]

1/2 cup sugar (I like to use brown)

Procedure:

Combine rice and water in a pot and wait for it to boil under medium-high heat. Stir regularly. Boil in medium for about 10 to 15 minutes minutes. When the mixture thickens and the rice starts to become translucent (meaning, it’s cooked), mix in the cocoa powder and sugar. Cook to your desired consistency. Serve hot with milk or cream mixed in the porridge.

Yeah, that’s it!

It’s super easy, relatively effortless and definitely delicious!!! And with that we wish you all an easy, relaxing and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We wish you the very best for 2009!

Aloha! We’re back from our vacation and we’re slowly easing into reality. The luggage bags are half-unpacked. That in itself, is a great feat. It’s hard to wake up again in hot Arizona, staring at the ceiling and doing rock-paper-scissors to see who needs to get up first (just kidding!!!). We were so spoiled with homemade meals from morning till evening by our friends in Hawaii. In fact, not only have we expanded our food selection (steamed artichokes with mayo, papaya with lemon juice, strawberries with agave nectar, etc.) but also our waistlines! Hahaha.

When I found my cooking mojo again, I made this chicken stew-ish dish that I grew up with in the Philippines. I would ask for “tinola” and stake my claim on the chicken legs with the skin. I was not concerned about extra weight then, obviously. These days we’re trying to be healthy. So instead of chicken with all the delicious skin, I cooked chicken tenders. I used soy sauce in place of fish sauce, but I would always recommend using the latter when you have it in your kitchen. All in all, it was close to the real thing and Dan liked our evening viand:

It’s a nice combination of the texture of chicken and that of chayote, and this is perfect with rice. Dan has never eaten chayote before this and I’m glad he liked it. :-)

Here’s the step-by-step cooking photos:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

It’s really a super simple dish to make so please, help yourself to the recipe!

Continue Reading

I could use a bowl of this right now:

It shifts from cold to hot here in Vancouver. “Would you like the cold for breakfast? Sweltering heat for lunch? No problem!” That kind of thing.

I made this a couple of months ago when Dan and I found some super sweet corn from Whole Foods. I think I even cooked this on a hot day in Arizona. Whether it’s a hot day, or cold day…this is good. I love corn soup! It’s basically just chopped onions sauteed with chicken, fresh crushed pepper and salt. Then fresh sweet corn and spinach leaves added right after you turn off the heat. Easy-peasy!

In Manila, our helpers used to cook this at my request. Instead of chicken chicken bits, they actually shred the chicken. They didn’t use spinach leaves, but some slightly bitter leaves (I think they were chili plant leaves). And it was a nice contrast to the sweet corn. It was delicious. I could eat it for days!

I have a bag of leeks and potatoes here waiting to be made into potato leek soup tonight. That’s another easy and tasty soup to make.

Now that it’s starting to cool up, I’m ready to make more soup! Do you have any (easy) soup recipes? Let me know!

Things are busy here as it’s tax season, and with mommy and daddy filing their taxes for personal and their respective businesses, posting is a wee bit slower than usual. They’ve also been going out to see friends, which is always a good thing. The cocoa brownies weren’t posted as anticipated– our sincere apologies for those who are waiting.

Last week’s fares here at Gourmeted are:

• Lengua Estofada (Braised Beef Tongue) - A Filipino delicacy of beef tongue cooked in tomato based sauce. A toast to offal lovers.
• Pancake Breakfast with the Help of The Scale – Teddy helps daddy test out the new kitchen scale to make delicious pancakes. It’s a great new addition to our kitchen!
• How We Take Food Photos Part I: Tools and Equipment – The first of many in the series on food photography. Come and join us in our quest to take better photos of food!
• Dorie’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies - Awesome chocolate chip cookies from a recipe that our friend, Patricia, posted about. Yumm!

Things we loved from neighboring food sites:

• Ben’s French Bread – Beautiful homemade bread that we wish we can make someday.
• Michelle’s Pretty Good for Now Buttermilk Biscuits – She’s still on the quest to find The One biscuit recipe, but this looks great to us! If you have a phenomenal biscuit recipe, come on over there and let her know…help a fellow foodie out.
• Elle’s Oven Baked Hooters Style Buffalo Wings – Need I say more? Can’t wait to try this with our Spicy Garlic Sauce

What’s up this week? Take a peek:

• Review of Sauce restaurant
• Part II of How We Take Food Photos: The Grey Card
• Ultimate Cinnamon Rolls

That’s it for now. Have a great week everyone. And happy eating!

I’ve loved Lengua Estofada since I was a child. My grandmother and mother make really good ones. In fact, I called my mom last week to ask her how she makes them. I just smiled and nodded while listening, asking myself — What have I gotten into?

Let me explain. When I bought half a tongue, if I hadn’t known how good Lengua Estofada was, I would’ve backed out. I’ve neither cooked it before nor watched how it’s prepared, and coming face to face with this offal made my stomach turn.

It looks harmless and yummy!

I’ve witnessed pig, chicken, and cows killed for food. I eat fish eyes, fish eggs in the fish, and balut (it was one of the food challenges on Fear Factor). I’ve seen my fair share of ‘gross’, for lack of a better word, that’s why I didn’t foresee a squeamish self at the sight of beef tongue…but there you go. Cleaning and cooking it was another story. I won’t get there for the sake of some of you. I did not take step-by-step photos either, for the same reason.

This isn’t for the faint of heart, dear readers, but if you’re feeling adventurous you’ll be rewarded with something so delicious! I sure hope I didn’t deter you from making this beloved Filipino delicacy:

The ingredients really came together. The tomato-based sauce added a boost of flavor to the meats. I cooked some beef meat with it, as you can see above, so that Dan will have something in case he didn’t like the tongue. He’s never had it before and I wasn’t about to force him to do so. [He did try a couple of slices and I'm so proud of him!] Traditionally, this dish has chunks of tomatoes and carrots, but for my version, I fried potato slices and took the carrots out altogether. Dan said the fried potato was perfect in this dish and was a nice contrast of texture with the tender meats.

Here’s the recipe: Continue Reading

Boiled Beef Soup, is locally known and called as Nilagang Baka [pronounced Ni-LAH-gang BAH-ka] in the Philippines. It’s another one of my favorite Filipino dishes that I used to request for dinner all the time.

When my grandmother cooks this dish, she uses a pressure cooker to soften the meat and make the stock out of beef soup bones. I used that as well to cut down on the cooking time to make the brisket really tender. Traditionally, the vegetables added are cabbages, potatoes, bok choy, and sometimes, plantains. I used cabbage and spinach and they still went well with the soup.

It’s pretty straightforward to cook Boiled Beef Soup. You basically boil the beef then add the vegetables. For a healthier option, you can make the stock and cook the meat a day ahead. Separate the meat and bones from the soup when you store it in the fridge. You can scoop out the fat from the top of the soup after it has cooled then heat with the meat and add the vegetables when ready to be served.

This week seems to be about Filipino food, eh? I swear it’s not intentional, although it can be explained by the fact that I need my comfort foods. I’m here in Vancouver and I’m not really liking the cold and rain and cold and rain.

Welcome to winter in Vancouver. It’s raining hard outside and the wind is howling as I type this. Brrr.

Adobo is a popular Philippine dish, and a lot of people (including me) consider it the national dish. It’s chicken and/or pork marinated and cooked in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and spices. There are many variants of the dish, depending on the region of the Philippines, much like every province there has its own dialect. Others like it sour, others like it dry, others like it with chicken liver — it’s all about preference. I have tried numerous recipes over the Internet, but none of them satisfied my picky tastebuds. They tasted OKAY, but it doesn’t bring me back “home”. It makes me think of Chicagoans [ahem, Dan :-)] who think/say that pizza and hotdogs in Chicago are much better than in any other place. In other words: Not the same as home.

Anyway, finally…tonight! Mark it! I’ve cooked an Adobo that I think will make my foremothers proud. Hehe. I actually measured the ingredients just for you folks. If you try it, do let me know what you think!

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