Tofu in Red Curry Sauce

My recipes for red and green curry sauce are similarly done whatever meat I use.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp red curry paste
1 Tbsp sugar
1 can coconut milk
1 Tbsp Fish sauce or more to taste
400 g Meat

Direction

1. Fry the red curry paste in a bit of coconut milk.
2. Once sizzling, add rest of coconut milk, some water if needed, fish sauce and sugar. Add meat and boil until cooked. Serve with rice.

P.S. If you find the sauce too soupy, remove the meat and let the sauce boil until desired consistency. Put back meat to slowly reheat.

Crepas con Dulce de Leche

Crepes are obviously French. Dulce de Leche not so obviously Argentinian. When we lived in Argentina, I get to love this popular home delicacy. Knowing the Argentinians, Dulce de Leche is life next to their Parilla, Pizza and Pasta. Funnily, I learned to make Dulce de Leche from a Slovak although I was told by an Argentinian long before how to make one. Perhaps, being so far away from Argentina it now registers in my forgettable mind how to make it. You would never find my home without it.

Crepes

Ingredients

1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp sugar


Direction

Mix together. Heat griddle and pour on pan, swirl and try to make a crepe. Flip crepe. It takes experience. I used before a wide pan but now after a visit from my friend Beth, she showed me how to do it with the smaller Ikea pan.


Dulce de Leche

Ingredients

can/s of sweetened condensed milk


Direction

Remove paper around the can. Place the cans of condensed milk in a pot. Fill with water covering the cans. Cover and boil for 3 hours, maintainingg the cans immersed in water.

Macaroni and Cheese

The recipe calls for Velveta Cheese but I did not have any and which is difficult to find here in Europe, nor did I have Emmenthal Cheese, nor Cheddar Cheese. So I had to use only a block of Gouda cheese. It did not have enough saltiness. So, add a lot of salt if using only Gouda. And I topped it still up with cheese.


Ingredients

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
120g Velveta Cheese
120g shredded Cheddar cheese
120g shredded Swiss cheese


Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Prepare the elbow macaroni according to package directions.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Stir in the flour until a cream colored paste forms. Then pour in the milk and stir constantly until this comes to a hard boil, then stir for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and set aside.
When the macaroni is cooked, spread 1/2 of it into the bottom of a lightly greased 9x13-inch baking dish. Then layer 1/2 of the salt and pepper and 1/2 of each of the cheeses. Repeat this one more time: macaroni, salt and pepper and cheeses, and then pour the reserved white sauce over all. Top off with small pats of butter to taste.
Cover and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes.

Swiss Green Bean Salad

In the summer of 2010 at the height of the Soccer World Cup party at our place, I had the priveledge to have Lia, a Swiss, show me how she makes her Green Bean Salad.









Ingredients

500g Green Beans, fresh or frozen
2 cloves garlic, cut
1 onion, sliced
2 Tbsp oil
1 bouillon

Dressing

Soy sauce
Vinegar
Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Chili pepper, sliced

Direction

1. Heat oil. Add garlic and onion until wilted. Add green beans. Saute for some minutes.
2. Add water almost covering the beans. Add bouillon and boil until cooked.
3. Meanwhile, mix dressing ingredients.
4. Drain the water from the beans. Add dressing to beans while hot.
5. Serve cold.

Guacamole

When we lived in El Salvador, I realized they treat avocado differently as we do in the Philippines. I was amazed when they ate avocado as an accompaniment to their main meal. As with us Filipinos, you'd find avocado shake, avocado ice cream and my favorite, frozen mashed avocado with condensed milk. I always smile at the awkward facial reactions of the latinos whenever I tell them about this. Over there, I learned to make Guacamole, with variations of putting boiled egg or minced garlic, which I refuse to make. Over here, it is unfortunate that it is not easy to find coriander which I think is the distinctive ingredient of Guacamole. And an interesting thing I was told is that if I leave the seed in the finished Guacamole, it will not turn black at all. Myth? Check it out yourself. And sorry I cannot tell you exactly how much you need...

Ingredients

Ripe avocado, pitted and mashed
Tomatoes, chopped
Red Onion, chopped
Lime or Lemon
Salt and Pepper
Chopped Coriander


Direction

Mix them all up, add olive oil if you wish. Enjoy with Taco chips.

Green Curry Chicken

I just finished cooking my green curry chicken and at least I still remember what I placed in it.

Ingredients

500 g deboned, skinned chicken breast or thigh, cut into cubes
250 ml coconut milk
2 T green curry paste
fish sauce
sugar

Direction

Saute the green curry paste in 2 tablespoons of coconut milk. Once done, add the chicken, coconut milk, 250 ml of water, fish sauce and sugar according to taste. Cook for some 10 mins. Serve with Jasmin Rice.

You can also add cut eggplants to this dish. I don't have some at the moment so it remains as it is.

Gorgonzola Sauce

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
1 pinch ground nutmeg
black pepper to taste


Directions

In medium saucepan, cook white wine over high heat until reduced by half. Add cream, reduce heat, and cook until reduced by one-third. Add parmesan, gorgonzola and nutmeg. Stir until cheeses melt and sauce is creamy.

Apple Caramel Cake

I rarely bake cakes as no one eats it at home. Three quarters of this cake ended up on the table of my friend Kati.


Ingredients

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups chopped, peeled apples
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans


TOPPING:
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup milk
1 cup packed brown sugar
Pinch salt

Directions

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until foamy; gradually add sugar. Blend in oil and vanilla. Combine flour, salt and baking soda; add to egg mixture. Stir in apples and pecans. Pour into a greased 10-in. tube pan; bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cake tests done. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cake to a serving platter.
For topping, combine all ingredients in a saucepan; boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Slowly pour over warm cake (some topping will run down onto the serving plate.)