Lettuce Wraps

In my country, the last part of the chicken we eat are the chicken breasts.  When we have any grilled chicken, we always have a problem with what to do with those meaty parts.  While I had some in the fridge, my mind was lost of what to do with it: Chicken tortilla soup, chicken macaroni salad, chicken sandwiches....Anyway, this idea came up and it was a hit! Get ready to have your hands dirty!

Ingredients:

Big leaves from iceberg lettuce
Any cooked meat, I used grilled chicken
Sliced bellpepper
Sliced onions
Shredded carrots
Cooked rice vermicelli noodles
Hoisin sauce or plum sauce



Assembly:

In a flat big serving plate, arrange all the ingredients and in the middle, a small bowl for the sauce.
Start filling the lettuce leaves as you please. Roll and eat!

Taco Filling

Taco Filling

No, no I did not use a Taco Spice Mix. I googled and found out that the main ingredients of a Spice mix are Oregano (which is always around in our kitchen) and Cumin. In this recipe I used almost 4 tablespoons of oregano and perhaps some 3 tablespoons of cumin. But of course its all up to you.

Ingredients:

500g ground beef
3 cloves garlic
2 shallots or 1 onion
4 small chilies
pimenton picante 
cumin
oregano
salt
oil
150 ml broth

Direction:
1. Heat a bit oil in pan. Fry and break the beef until it runs dry or if you have not so much time, take the liquid away. Remove from the pan.
2. Blend the garlic, onion and chilies with a bit of oil. Then saute adding a bit more oil if needed. Place back the beef and saute until well incorporated.
3. Add the broth and all other spices.  Let simmer and keep adjusting the tast.

Pork in Garlic-Chili Sauce

The chili-garlic sauce I used here is from the bottle, Heinz to be exact. Afterwards, I blended my own with 70% small red chili, 30 % garlic, bit of vinegar, salt and sugar. It is sitting in the ref and have used it for the rice vermicelli and gave marvelous spicy taste.

Ingredients:

1 fillet of pork, sliced into longish bite size pieces

1 bell pepper, sliced lengthwise

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

half an onion

some minced garlic

brown sugar to taste

2 teaspoon chili garlic 

oil

Directions:

1. Saute pork in oil until soft.

2. Add garlic and onion. Then all other veggies.

3. Finish it off by adding sugar and the sauce.

4. Serve with jasmine rice.

Rice Vermicelli with Spring Onions and Carrots

 

I always marveled the vermicelli noodles done by Miggy Chang whenever we had a pot luck lunch.  And she has told me not only once how she cooks it.  However, I think only today did I master it the way I wanted it to taste.

Ingredients for 2:

3 cups cooked and drained vermicelli noodles (Marks and Spencer)

half a carrot, cut into julienne strips

3 stalks spring onions

bulb of ginger, cut into julienne strips

garlic, julienne strips

half teaspoon chili/garlic mix 

sesame oil

fish sauce

ground peanuts (optional)

Saute in oil the garlic and ginger. Add carrots until limp, then spring onion. Make a well in the veggies and place the homemade chili/garlic mix and add more sesame oil. Wait some seconds to fry that then mix. Add fish sauce. Then place the noodles and stir fry until done. Sprinkle with peanuts and/or serve with peanut sauce.

Pad Thai

Pad Thai

I got so lucky to get to know a Thai lady in Suva.  Her name is Noi. She had beautiful tall Thai basil in her garden.  It was her who taught me her own version of Pad Thai, in which I still use until now.  There are the basic ingredients of oil, garlic, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and some tamarind sauce or vinegar to give it a kick, flat noodles, egg, beansprouts, spring onions and ground peanuts.  With the pics above, I just used what I have at home. Left picture: zucchini, baby spinach, ground and whole peanuts and salted eggs and since I ran out of oyster sauce, I just did not add it.  Right picture:  ground beef, boiled potatoes, coriander

The important thing is to have a lot of sauce to coat everything and you can stretch that by using oil. 

oil

garlic

oyster sauce

fish sauce

sugar 

tamarind sauce or vinegar

egg

flat noodles

beansprouts

ground peanuts

chili (optional)

Soak the noodles in warm water until soft.  In a pan put on high heat and fry garlic in oil.  Then add all the sauces and chili.  Then the egg. Put the meat at this time if you are using some, then the veggies although the beansprouts should come last. Add noodles.  This is when it can get tricky because it must be cooked but since the fire is so high, it gets quickly dry therefore do a lot of sauce already at the beginning.  Add a bit water if noodles are not done.  If too much water, the noodles will be soggy.  Then put a cup of beansprouts.  Garnish with ground peanuts, spring onions or coriander and serve with nam pla (lemon juice, fish sauce, chili). Serve immediately!

I think serving Pad Thai should be from the kitchen to the table food but when I froze some leftover, I get a compliment from my husband that they are still very good.  Well, perhaps I am the one who is demanding!

Bärlauchsuppe

Bärlauchsuppe

Bärlauchsuppe

200g potatoes, cut in small pcs
Half onion
Butter
1 liter water
Bouillon
150g bärlauch

Melt butter. Add onions and cook til transparent. Add potatoes and fry for few minutes. Add water and bouillon and cook til potatoes are tender. Add bärlauch and cook till leaved are done. Puree. Serve soup with croutons.

Leche Flan

Leche Flan

It has always been my dream to make this.  I just do not know why I never did it.  Probably because I am not confident with my dessert making abilities.

This is the most famous Filipino dessert which comes to my mind.  Made of milk and eggyolks, it is our traditional creme caramel.

Bon appetit!


Ingredients:

10 eggyolks
1 can condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk 
lemon zest

1 cup sugar

Directions:
1. Beat the eggyolks with a fork.  Add all milk and zest and mix thoroughly with the fork. You do not want any air so do not use a beater. Set aside.

2. In a baking mold, melt the sugar until dissolved. Then swirl so the sides would get the caramel too.  Wait few minutes to cool down the sugar. Strain the egg mixture into mold. Cover mold with aluminum foil.

3. Steam.  I have done this in 180C in the oven. I placed the mold in a water bath inside the oven.  I waited until the knife comes out clean as you see the mark in the picture.  30-40 mins.

Apple Crumble

Apple Crumble

The last time I have made a good crumble was in Suva, Fiji Islands.  I always thought afterwards that it is so difficult to make one.  But now I know that as long as the crumble is thick and crumbly, one cannot go wrong!











Ingredients

Filling:
500 g apples, cored, peeled and sliced
50 g brown sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon
1 T flour


Crumble:
300 g flour (or 200 g oats + 100 g flour)
175 g brown sugar
200 g butter, room temp


1.  Preheat oven at 180C.
2.  Mix all the filling ingredients.  Pour into a buttered pyrex dish.
3.  Cut in the butter the crumble ingredients. Top apples with this mixture.
4.  Bake 40-45 mins.  If the crumble turns brown too fast, cover with a foil until time ends.

Pesto

Pesto

During our stay in El Salvador, I had a marvelous gardener. Together with him we transformed a small patch of the garden to a non-stoppable basil haven.  I had tons of basil leaves and started making pesto and also gave them to friends.

I do remember blending altogether:

Lots and lots of basil leaves
Anchovies
Parmesan Cheese
Pine nuts
Olive oil
Garlic


In this bottle, I do not have the pine nuts though. I have used the Thai fish sauce instead of anchovies.

Beef Salpicao

• Seeing from my Facebook friends' posting about going out and having Beef Salpicao often, at one point I needed to cook it myself.  So easy and tasty as ABC.
• 
  
• 
  
• Beef Salpicao
• 
  
• Ingredients
• 1 lb beef, tender and cut into 1/2 inch strips ( If you have time, I would macerate the meat first)
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 6 cloves garlic, minced 
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• oyster sauce
• Maggi seasoning
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine

Directions:

1. 1
   Combine oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika in a bowl. 
2. 2
   Marinate beef  in garlic-oil mixture for a couple of hours or more in the fridge.
3. 3
   Saute marinated beef (including marinade) in VERY hot oil.
4. 4
   Keep stirring until beef strips are browned evenly.
5. 5
   DO NOT lower heat.
6. 6
   Add oyster sauce and liquid seasoning in accordance to your taste.  It could turn very salty.
7. 7
   Cook a few seconds more; add butter last. I used my leftover home made garlic bread spread.
8. 8
   Remove from heat and serve immediately over hot steamed rice.

Chicken Teriyaki Sticks

As I was preparing the Teriyaki sauce, I realized how similar it is after all to our very own Chicken Adobo.  They are defined separately by ginger and bay leaf, respectively.  However, when the Chicken Teriyaki Sticks arrived at its party destination, they were called Philippine Chicken Barbeque.  Now I am really lost!




Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon flour or cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 12 skinless and boneless chicken thighs

Directions

1. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the cornstarch, cold water, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger and ground black pepper. Let simmer, stirring frequently, until sauce thickens and bubbles.
2. Preheat grill.
3. Cut chicken pieces and put them in sticks.  Lay them on a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Brush chicken with the sauce. Turn pieces over, and brush again.
4. Grill until brown. Turn pieces over, and brush with sauce. Grill further until brown.
5. I advise that the chicken be marinated overnight for better taste.

Pattaya Perch

I have a favorite Thai recipe book in which now I do not know where it is.  From all our moves, it can only be in Argentina. But since I have been using it in the early stages of my married life, the ingredients for making this got stuck with me. Originally it is called, Pattaya Shrimp. But I had no shrimps and had nice Perch fillets. So it is Pattaya Perch.  Sounds confusing but delectable. I just had it and it was mouthwatering.  Even my husband who is fish-unfriendly found it so.




Pattaya Perch


Ingredients:
any fish fillet cut into cubes
oil
oyster sauce
sugar
vinegar
garlic cloves, cut small
red onion, cut in slices
2 small chilies, cut
red bellpepper, cut in julienne
Thai basil leaves


Direction:
1.  In a flat pan, deep or not, place some oil and saute garlic and onion until wilted.
2.  Add oyster sauce (a lot depending on how much fish fillets), sugar and a bit of vinegar.  Add chilies and red bellpepper.
3.  Add fillets flat on the sauce taking care to turn them around after a short while.
4.  Add basil leaves and serve with rice.  I had no Thai basil leaves but the Italian ones were a good sub.

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.)