I love butter. I want my butter all fat and all full of flavor. Give me real creamy butter or deprive me of it. I won’t hold high anything in between.

For a person who loves butter this much, you’d think I’d try to make it sooner. But neither did I know I could, nor how. As with a lot of things, it’s more special when it happens at the right time. (Haha…I crack myself up.) This butter would not be here if we did not have leftover heavy cream that we did not want to consume in one sitting of strawberry with crepes. I don’t know, I just didn’t want it to go to the dairy purgatory and find out later we have a bad cream. And it was such a nice “experiment” with excellent results.

I remembered reading about people putting heavy cream in a gallon bottle and shake it until the butter forms. We don’t have that kind of bottle and I wasn’t about to labor for it that long. I also read that you can use your hand mixer and I can deal with that. So the cream transformed from this:

To this:

To something that resembles butter, which I thought would never come:

Then into butter AND liquid (I read in some places that this is buttermilk):

Oh, hello!!!

And it went right into my toast.

I will add that I only got a bite of this because before I knew it, Dan finished it.

And what did I do with the remaining liquid (buttermilk?)? I used it to soak chicken tenders. Nothing’s wasted.

If you’re up for it, here’s you need to make (unsalted) butter:

• Heavy cream
• Hand mixer or stand mixer
• Deep bowl (the liquid will start to splatter once the butter starts forming)

And all you need to do is beat the cream until butter forms. For about 10 minutes, I think. I lost track of time. You’ll see the yellow butter form. Don’t stop the first time you see it. Mix it further for about 5 minutes until the solids separate in clumps from the liquid. After that, you just need to squeeze out the liquid (I used clean hands) and transfer it to a container or measure it out in tablespoons or cups as you wish.

You can also put the butter in a separate mixing bowl and add salt and whatever spices and herbs you like, then roll it in parchment paper. I think homemade butter would be perfect for making butter with herbs.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TASTE of homemade butter? SO GOOD. I might have to make butter for our toasts from now on. It’s worth the effort, definitely.

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Fresh Homemade Butter

The thing is, I felt for artichoke like how I would feel if you put a newborn baby on my lap. I’d think it’s incredibly cute but what the heck do I do now?!” Panic! And I’m serious (and just to abate those who know me personally: I am not pregnant, ok?) when I say that.

Make no mistake, they’re undeniably amusing to look at and photograph, but I had no clue what to do with them. Never bought them so I never made anything with them. We’ve had the canned ones to make dips but never the fresh one.

When our friends in Hawaii (our awesome hosts) served us a steamed artichoke as part of dinner, I took the opportunity to taste it and learn how to eat it. The latter is definitely important or I would have tried to cook it until the whole thing is soft!

I think I cut it too much by the stem. What do you think?

When our friends prepared the artichoke, they boiled it with garlic between the leaves. But they weren’t garlic-insertion-happy as I was:

Can you say ARTICHOKE CONCENTRATION CAMP? But it’s pretty!

I added the juice of half a lemon in the water, plus salt, peppercorns and ground pepper.

I’m not sure what the heck I was thinking! Is that enough water?

Oh well. I get distracted by its beauty.

I don’t know if it’s cooked either.

Perhaps overdone?

It didn’t taste half as good as what we were served in Hawaii, and don’t tell me it’s because it was in Hawaii! Haha. This was a jumbo artichoke that we got from sprouts. It wasn’t as fleshy as I thought it would be. Any ideas why? Is it because it’s big?

I’d love to cook more artichokes but I still sit here helpless as to what else we can do with it. Do you have any suggestions? Should I get the smaller ones? Do I just boil them? With what? For how long? Point me to your recipes! I would love that. I see all sorts of recipes on the internet but most of them are for the canned artichokes.

We’ve only had the artichoke with mayo. Someone suggested a thousand island dressing. I’m open to more choices. :-) Thanks!!!

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Got Choke?

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!

Chicken Tinola

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp thinly sliced ginger
• 2 tsp crushed chunks of garlic
• 6 chicken tenders
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce (recommended: fish sauce)
• 1 chayote, sliced in 1″-chunks
• 1 1/2 cup water
• salt
• fresh ground pepper

Preparation:

1. Heat olive oil in pan in medium heat. Saute ginger and garlic for 30 seconds, or until the garlic corners turn golden brown.

2. Lay chicken tenders in the pan. Cook for 3-5 minutes each side, depending on the thickness of the meat. Sprinkle some salt and ground pepper.

3. Add soy sauce and water. Allow to boil. Then add chayote. Cover for 7-10 minutes, or until chayote is cooked and tender. Use a fork to test for chayote doneness. It will feel like your sticking the fork into a slice of ripe canteloupe. Turn off the heat.

4. Add salt, soy sauce or fish sauce to taste

5. Serve with rice.

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Chicken Tinola (Filipino Chicken Stew)

Prior to leaving for the park, we were watching the news with the stock market going down 400 points and money is disappearing like water quickly seeping through the cracks by the second. The craters and calderas looked like a visual representation of the stock market: a volcano that collapsed. And all that’s left are steamy vents. 401k’s started looking just like it disappeared into steam. The craziness of the economy seems as messy as the Halema’uma’u’s seismograph:

Ok, enough geekiness! :-)

I’ll move on to one of the post-volcano trip highlights: Big Island Candies!

Once you enter their building, you’ll be greeted by a tiny cup of samples of their cookie and chocolate, and an offer for a cup of complimentary Kona coffee. We had the original shortbread cookie and rocky road chocolate — they were awesome!!! Right after we got in, we were hooked. Their coffee wasn’t too shabby either.

If we had the money, I think we would have bought everything in the store. My brain refused to pick a few things to buy. Gah. Everything looked good. The see-through windows to their ‘operation’ was drool-worthy:

Yummy!

The cookies, chocolate, and other treats are more expensive than your average sweet tooth fix. Then again, this isn’t your average treat. It’s definitely worth the dent in your wallet and the caloric amnesia! Yup…what? What diet? There is NO diet. Haha.

Ok, we’re off to another adventure!

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Of Craters and Candies

And you know the drill when travel is in the air: If you’d like to get a postcard, email your name and mailing info to gourmeted [AT] gmail [DOT] com. No strings attached. No Hawaiian food delivered to your doorstep either — sorry, we’ll just have to eat and eat and eat for you. Hehe. [Our friends have been spoiling us too much with good food!]

Not having to do anything or THINK of anything is SO nice! We’ll be back soon. With more pictures next time.

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Aloha from the Big Island of Hawaii

I didn’t have a party for him like last year’s because I just came back from Canada, Dan’s been busy with work (he worked yesterday, and till 7pm today), I’m sick on and off (the weather change isn’t helping), and we’re leaving for a vacation in Hawaii in a few days. Too many things going on.

Tonight was just a low-key celebration. I made him a surf and turf dinner of filet mignon and shrimps, with spinach salad, and cupcake cake. This is what happens once you get past 30: you’re too tired to make a big fuss over getting older. Hehe. Just kidding. ;-)

After the two occasions he’s baked a cake for me, it’s my turn to bake him one and get over my fear of flour and baking once again. My original “vision” was to make a red velvet cake. That was short-lived because I realized that we didn’t have buttermilk (which I could make a substitute for with milk and vinegar) and eggs. Well, there’s no hen in our backyard to coerce into producing eggs for my baking needs, so I sat there…thinking, thinking. My baby needs a cake for his birthday!

Behold, the Internet saves the day! I found a recipe for Eggless Chocolate Cake from Indian Food Kitchen Blog. Of course, I always have to put my own twist: I poured the delicious yet light batter into cupcake pans, and crossed my fingers that this thing would hold! And they did! I cheated on the buttercream frosting and hats off to Betty Crocker for that. I added mini peanut butter cups (Dan’s favorite) as the topping.

Tadah!

The chocolate cupcakes were great on their own. They have enough chocolate without overdosing you, and just enough sweetness that you don’t feel like dying from all the sugar. I’d say this cupcake is perfect for frosting. You can eat both the cupcake and frosting without having to use your 911 on speed dial. You won’t notice the missing eggs either. It’s not too packed and heavy, but moist enough to keep you interested till the last bite. When you bite into it, you’ll notice that it’s almost like red velvet cake in color, and it could be the result of the vinegar in the recipe. One cupcake is enough for a dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth without being to guilty. Plus this is perfect for those with allergies to dairy (if eaten without the buttercream).

I highly recommend this recipe even if you’re not out of eggs and milk. I’m not sure if it can withstand being stacked into a layered cake (my personal opinion — it won’t because it’s delicate). Go give it a try:

Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes
[Adapted from Indian Food Kitchen.]
Makes 15 regular-sized cupcakes

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 cup flour
* 1/3 cup cocoa powder
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1 cup cold water
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 tsp vinegar

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray cupcake pans with vegetable oil spray.
2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix all the wet ingredients (except for the vinegar) in a separate bowl.
3. Stir in the wet ingredient mixture with the dry ingredients until well combined.
4. Mix in the vinegar rapidly and immediately fill the cupcake pans 2/3 full.
5. Bake for 15 minutes.
6. Allow to completely cool in the pan.
7. Enjoy on their on or frost with your favorite frosting. :-)

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Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting and Mini Peanut Butter Cups

A couple of weeks ago I was asked if I would be interested in blogging about a food photographer’s cards, and in exchanged I would receive the cards. I jumped at the offer because what’s not to like? There goes my love for paper AND food. It’s perfect!

The package arrived while I was in Vancouver, so Dan just told me about it. At first he said “You got a package from the photographer.” And I thought — uh, from a…photographer? A wedding photographer? How baffling. Haha. When I got back, it turns out it *is* from Chef Susan, who’s also a food photographer.

And these are the beautiful cards:

Coming from a paper addict, let me just say that these beautiful photos (she’s also a food stylist) have just the right amount of food and impeccable style that is nicely printed on high quality 100 lb. cardstock. In a few words: They are fantastic!

They would be hard to “let go” and mail because they’re just too pretty to use. Decisions, decisions. I want to start writing, but I don’t know which ones to pick!

They are beautifully packaged, too.

Visit Chef Susan’s Etsy store and get your cards now:
Blue Egg Photography

And just a random fact: they smell like good paper. If you know the magazine “The Believer“, the cards smell like that. I’m one of the weird ones who love the scent of new books and paper.

P.S. I’m super thankful that there are no photos of cookies or cakes. Why? that will make me hungry at midnight. Like right now.

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What’s the Safest Way to Send Food?

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!

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Boiled Corn and Chicken Soup

Good for two peaches, I just combined 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. I rolled the quartered peach slices into this mixture and placed them one cheek against a greased pie pan.

Notice that it’s missing one quarter because I ate it. I mean, it looks like it would be cramped in there so somebody had to eat it! Hah.

I had them roast at 400ºF for 20 minutes. When I took the pan out, I turned the peaches on their other cheek so both sides of a quarter slice will get the syrup at the bottom. And I let them cool for a bit.

Enjoy the peaches warm. It’s a little soft and very…VERY delicious. You can also top it with vanilla bean ice cream, or serve it iced on a bowl if you like it cold. Or add it to frozen yogurt.

What fruits have you roasted (or cooked) and how? I’d love to know! I still have a bunch of fresh blueberries, figs, strawberries, peaches and pears here and I don’t know what to do with them.

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Keeping It Simple: Roasted Peaches

Patience is not the strongest suit in my cards, that’s for sure. When I see something I want, I get it. If I want to accomplish something, I get it done. Then I just sit back and admire my handiwork with all that extra time. When faced with a must-cook recipe, I don’t waste time either. I just make it!

This life ‘formula’ doesn’t always work out perfectly. Like when I made these, I accidentally ate the 3rd banana that was to complete this recipe’s 1 cup of mashed bananas. Ooops! But I had to have banana bread right that instant so I improvised. I thought of something equally thick and mushy to add: almond butter. I don’t usually have almond butter in my cooking arsenal, but my recent diet changes due to my not-so-stellar health has brought a jar of it in the kitchen. It’s not sweet at all and it definitely covers the thickness/richness factor. I was also too excited to notice that instead of using sugar as the original recipe called for, I used golden yellow one. Oops, again. At that point, I just had to go with the flow and see how it goes. I was just hoping it was edible.

It wasn’t just edible. It was wonderful!

It was good fresh. After I let it sit overnight on the counter, it was perfect. The bread became a little moist (but not too much so it’s perfect for those who dislike super moist banana bread), a little packed…and oh my god the crumble topping is meant to be saved for last.

It was gone in a couple of days. I gave some to friends and my parents had the privilege of devouring them, and taking some on their road trip. The ‘mistakes’ were a success!!! Awesome. You better try it. It could actually be healthy, too…but don’t quote me on that.

Here’s the recipe:

Almond Butter Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping
adapted from September 2008 Bon Appetit
» download the PDF recipe

Ingredients [makes 1 loaf]

•    1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
•    1 cup plus golden yellow sugar (packed)
•    2 tablespoons golden brown sugar (the loose, grainy variety)
•    2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
•    1 teaspoon baking soda
•    1/2 teaspoon salt
•    3/4 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 medium)
•    1/4 cup almond butter
•    2 large eggs
•    1/2 cup vegetable oil
•    1/4 cup honey
•    1/4 cup water
•    2 1/2 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar

Preparation

1.    Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 9×5x3-inch metal baking pan. Whisk 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 cup golden yellow sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.

2.    Whisk mashed banana, almond butter, eggs, vegetable oil, honey and water in large bowl until smooth. Add dry ingredients; stir to blend.

3.    Transfer batter to pan. Mix 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and brown sugar; sprinkle over batter.

4.    Bake bread until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool bread in pan 30 minutes. Turn pan on its side; slide out bread, being careful not to dislodge topping. Turn bread right side up and cool completely.

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Almond Butter Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping