Yaya's 5th Year Death Anniversary

So time indeed flows fast and it's been five years since my yaya passed away. I have yet to finish my thesis proposal and I know I need to work on it soon to finally make my yaya proud. It's not so much the degree, but the pride associated with having completed graduate studies. My yaya knew the importance of education and I feel sorry for her because although she obtained honors when she was a student, she never got to college and had to work. She taught me many things but the most important thing she instilled in me is to be independent and to be specific, to strive for financial independence so that I can do whatever I want to do with life without being a parasite to anyone.

When I was in Spain, I have learned to let go of many things. This lockdown I can very well imagine how she must have felt living with toxic people for many days on end for many many years. I know now because just the first week of the lockdown last March, I wanted so bad to go back to living on my own. I really hate stupid people meddling in other people's affairs when their own lives are so messed up. So I am happy for my yaya now that she is in a pace where there is no suffering nor toxic people. Today I cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast, I made vegetarian fried rice composed of beans, carrots, tomatoes, and turmeric. For lunch, it's fish stew with tomatoes and chili. There was some rice left from breakfast so I paired it up with the fish resulting in a very colorful meal. For dinner, I made chicken lumpia shanghai. I love healthy food so I put in only a small amount of chicken and threw in carrots and onions as main filling. The critical part is frying it which is a success. I now know how to fry things up in such a way that they stay crunchy later for dinner. My yaya will definitely be super proud of me.

Fish stew with tomatoes over vege fried rice: I always tell my mom I must be half-Mexican half-Indian in my previous life.

Crunchy spring rolls without much guilt because there's more vegetables inside than meat. And I used chicken instead of pork.

I wish Q and I became close when my yaya was still with us. She will be very happy to see me with a gentle man who is very talented and despite that, very humble.

Chicken Tiyula Itum

The day before Christmas, he finally fulfilled his promise to cook for me. (He had promised this many times, even on my birthday but that didn't materialize.) I wasn't in the know as to what he would prepare, but I had a strong feeling it would be chicken curry. We both love chicken and we both love spicy foods, including curry. (And somehow whenever I eat curry, I will always remember him...)

We went grocery-shopping together. We were supposed to buy the ingredients at the wet market but it was already noontime, too late. I chopped garlic and onions, sliced green bell peppers, and peeled and cut potatoes, while he marinated the chicken in charcoaled coconut and added spices like turmeric powder, pepper, Spanish paprika. Then he went out to but fresh coconut milk. I'm not too keen on using the one in can because I am too sensitive to tastes and canned coconut milk tastes like metal. So it was a good thing we were able to use the fresh one.

He first sauteed the garlic and onions in coconut oil and later on added olive oil which he found lying somewhere. LOL. It smelled really good. It's been a while since I last cooked at home because of my busy schedule and one of  my faves is the smell of sauteed onions and garlic. Yum!!! Enough to make me drool.

Once onions are caramelized, he put in the chicken and left it to simmer over medium heat.

Then, put in coconut milk. He told me that one has to keep on stirring when the coconut milk is poured in lest the milk coagulate.

He then added a knotted bunch of lemongrass. I instantly thought of tom yum. AT THIS POINT, I COULDN'T WAIT TO EAT!!! But then we had to wait until the meat is tender then we put in the potatoes and the sliced peppers. And wait some more. My stomach was already grumbling.

We had this simple meal of chicken tiyula itum and brown rice at around 2PM. YUM YUM YUM!!!

Notes:

1. Research where to buy burnt coconut meat. Then again, maybe I can do it on my own.

2. He says that when you cook, you must put in the right amount of salt. Because a bland cook is a bad spouse. (Which caused me to fantasize about being married to this guy who most times breaks my heart but then those few times he does things for me, I feel loved.)

3. To cook brown rice properly, rice to water ratio should be 1:1.5. That worked well because we got nicely cooked brown rice, not the extra dry one my sister makes because she wouldn't listen when I tell her she needs to put it more water. Hmp. @.@ (Okay, he really surprised me there. I thought he was just trying to impress when he told me before that he was a good cook. I, the [delusional] Cooking Master Girl, do not even know that [golden] ratio.)

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I wish we could do this more often instead of dining out which can really drain our wallets. This first time he cooked for me, just when I was feeling lonely because nobody fetched me at the airport when I came back from Thailand, I felt special for once, like I can be hopeful again that there's a future for the two of us. [But I dare not bring up the topic because he might just feel pressured again. So I will just write about my feelings. :( ]I was surprised to feel that way, because I have been travelling  by myself for years and I am used to going to the airport and coming home all by myself with no need of people to fetch me. But then, when you arrive in Manila on a December day, you will see other passengers being fetched by families. It's the holiday season, I forgot. I'm just not so into the season because I see it as just another marketing ploy towards consumerism. Mental note to self: never travel by plane in December.

Pesto Pasta

Because I chanced upon packed basil leaves in the grocery store last week, I made sure to make pesto sauce and leave it in the freezer for longer shelf life.

Earlier, I asked one officemate whose pesto pasta rivals those in restos for a simple recipe. I wasn't able to dutifully follow it though because as always, my being a drifter took over and one day upon arriving home from work, I had the urge to make pesto even without having nuts around.

What I did is just put the washed basil leaves, garlic, salt and pepper, few slices of pimiento cheese, and olive oil all into the blender and have everything pureed. Then I transferred the mixture to a plastic container and in it went straight to the freezer.

Today I cooked my fiber-rich corkscrew pasta and used pesto for my sauce. That, plus squid rings.

I'm sad to say I am lightyears away from achieving the perfect pesto pasta. Sigh! Will have to do it again tomorrow...

Aligue Pasta and Tuyo Pasta

Yesterday I successfully cooked tuyo pasta. I didn't make it spicy even though recently I just bought Lee Kum Kee chili oil and packs of various pasta types to last me at least five months since I will be embarking on a major project soon and I need to have tighter grip on my moolah.

The day before, I had aligue pasta. For both dishes I used angel hair pasta, which I have been wanting to do for a long time now. Angel hair pasta easily cooks and the sauce sticks easily because of its very small diameter. Thing is, I seldom see angel hair pasta in grocery stores.

Aligue Pasta:

Sautée garlic and add a spoon of aligue. I got mine bottled, taken home by my sister. Then add pasta. Mix a little and then you're good to go.

A piece of porkchop, leftover from dinner the night before, accompanied my pasta. It was from Tasty Dumplings because just last Sunday we had early dinner there after mass.

Tuyo Pasta:

Sautée garlic in extra virgin olive oil. Add the tuyo flakes and chopped tomatoes. (Good thing we have two leftover from Saturday breakfast.) Toss in cooked angel hair pasta. Add more olive oil as needed, to make sure that the noodles are well-oiled. Mix.

I topped this with a few pieces of pork tocino which we had for breakfast.

I have stopped eating breakfast again because I'd rather have longer sleeping time. It sucks not to have househelp. Sigh.

Whole Day Cooking 11292015

Yesterday was such a tiring day. I was supposed to coop up at home and finish submitting articles which I promised for a month-long project. But then on a Sunday with the boys at home, pity the girl brought up in a family that believes in gendered activities. (So I grow up thinking it sucks to have been born a girl. Tsk.)

With suddenly no househelp around, only the four of us females are doing household chores. I wonder why mom adamantly sticks to that distorted view that house chores are for girls only. Despite my repeated impromptu speeches on gender equality, she will only end up with a sigh and say that's the fate of a woman, to be a servant to men. No wonder the world is full of chauvinistic males! As if these males can be relied upon in difficult times. Bah!

So anyway, enough of the rants. I woke up early to cook potato soup with macaroni. What you'll need to make life a bit easier is to have a pack of Nestlé Professional mashed potatoes around, a carrot to be diced, onions to be chopped, garlic to be minced, a 100 g pack of macaroni to be boiled and you´re good to go. Plus, salt and pepper, and a few dashes of McCormick´s Italian Seasoning. Big bonus is if you have chicken stock stocked around (pun intended), which we did, for the extra flavor. No need for meat since the veggies and the chicken broth will do the trick.

Ingredients:

• 1 carrot in small cubes
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 2 onions, minced
• 100 g macaroni
• 1 cup Nestlé Professional mashed potatoes
• McCormick´s Italian Seasoning
• salt and pepper
• chicken broth

Boil around 5 liters of water. But just before water boils, you know, that moment when bubbles are just forming, add salt and pepper and garlic and onions. I don't know if it's just me but I do believe this way, flavor is enhanced. Then just add everything and bring everything to boil. You'll have a creamy macaroni soup. Yum! (I forgot the leeks... Sigh!)

Note: I heard my brother looking for leftover soup today. Okay, that says a lot. :)

Then off to writing. Come 11:59AM (and good thing I happened to glance at the clock), I ran down to the kitchen to fry the daing the bangus which mom had left on the table to defrost. It was my first time to fry daing and I cringed at the thought of destroying such beautiful fish which my sister did when she cooked bangus once. Anyway, suffering from oily projectiles even though armed with my trusty wok cover, I succeeded in producing wonderfully fried daing na bangus. I just hope I can do it again in the future. Probably just beginner's luck.

Off to writing again. Then it was past 1PM when my sisters arrived. So I took a quick bath and had quick lunch and dashed out of the house to go on a date (just a friendly date with a boy whom I first met in the mountains). 

Upon arriving home at 7PM, I immediately pulled out the things I need to cook spaghetti. When we're at our wits' end to think of what to prepare for dinner, I would always volunteer to cook pasta. This time, we have Dole Sweet Italian sauce which at first I was hesitant to use but there was no other alternative. Turns out to be one blessing with thick tomato sauce. YUM!!!

Ingredients for the spaghetti (which reminded me of the pomodoro I recently enjoyed somewhere):

• 2 minced onions
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• McCormick Italian Seasoning
• 1 kg spaghetti, cooked al dente (except with Royal I don't know how to achieve this...)
• half a cup of shitake mushrooms, sliced
• 3 pieces hotdogs, sliced (because we had no ground meat in the freezer... #drifterasalways)
• 2 tablespoons black olives, sliced (which fortunately I bought from a grocery store on my way home)
• 1 kg Dole Sweet Italian pasta sauce (I'm an instant fan)

Caramelize onions, then put in garlic and tomatoes. Add salt. For some reason, I believe that flavor is better when you add salt at this stage. Put in the hotdogs. Then pasta sauce. Did I mention to have hot water ready? Yes, pour hot water in. Add McCormick Italian Seasoning, just a few dashes will do. Then mushrooms. Serve separate from the pasta.

Nestle Docello Chocolate Mousse with Banana Puree

We got packs of Docello products, one chocolate mousse, one panna cotta, and one creme brulee. Those plus a bag of Maggi mashed potatoes. Just what I need after spening money on travels this year, leaving me with almost no savings so at the moment I am trying hard to save money by bringing packed lunch to work. This is the unglamorous side of having wanderlust, sure you get to go see places but at the expense of your savings. I still consider myself lucky to get free plane fares thrice this year because of volunteer-related travels. Awesome way to savor 2015.

Soya milk, bananas already in the blender, and choco mousse mix

Tonight I finally found the time to open the choco mousse bag and make dessert. A day ago I bought a liter of soya milk at the grocery store so I used that plus some almost overripe bananas that we have. Throw everything into the blender and you're good to go.

The finished product

Since I forgot to but small cups, the aluminum pan will do for now. Still have half a pack left so I can have a second shot to make a better choco mousse dessert in case this doesn't turn out good.

Food Inventions Part 1

So I finally decided to chronicle my food inventions from hereon. People are often curious as to what I cook so I might as well share some of these. Just so happens that both involve mangoes.

panna cotta topped with mango slices

 Mango panna cotta was made with Nestlé Docello panna cotta mix. Okay I cheat a bit! Since I´m not one to follow cooking instructions, ratios are just approximated by yours truly. I got a liter of fresh milk to mix with the powder and have it boil. Let cool then top with mango slices then refrigerate.

fish fillet in spicy mango sauce

Fish fillet in spicy mango sauce has a funny anecdote to it. One night I was about to go to sleep when I suddenly remembered I haven´t prepared anything for the following day. So I got up, thawed the fish and cut it up, searched the fridge for "anything" and saw mangoes. I was reminded of the spicy mango vinaigrette I created last year with the lettuce I bought in Baguio. This time, what hit me was to cook something with mangoes for a change.

It's simple actually. Just prepare mango cubes. Sautée minced garlic in cooking oil, add fish and sear for some time then add the mango cubes. Add chili sauce as desired. The sweet and spicy tastes will leave one asking for more. YUM!

Chicken Liver Adobo

Yesterday I accompanied my mom to the wet market, acting as her PA and also as adviser on what to buy. While buying chicken breast, I saw chicken liver and asked her to buy some and she did. So upon arriving home, when she asked me what we'll be having for dinner, I promptly replied, "Chicken liver adobo!"

Now to be honest, I never liked chicken liver in my younger days and it used to be included in my list of disgusting foods. That is, until one day I tried it out just for the sake of seeing if maybe I can give it a chance. And well, I liked the texture and the taste and the rest is history.

How to cook chicken liver adobo (or adobong atay ng manok)? Basically I sauteed a few thin ginger slices and one whole garlic bulb (pounded of course) in a cooking pan. When golden brown, I put in half a kilo of chicken liver. When the liver was slightly cooked, I added soy sauce, cane vinegar, some laurel leaves, and slightly pounded peppercorns for that wonderful aroma. Now I don't use any measuring tools, I am the kind of cook who uses her taste buds to adjust the amount of condiments.

Put in a little water, approximately 2 cups. Cover the pan. You have to check once in a while if the sauce is already at an acceptable level. I turned off the stove once I see that some liver melted into the sauce and personally, I like this a lot since it gives an extra flavor to the sauce.

Chicken liver is actually healthy. In fact, animal livers are healthy because they are rich in Iron and it's good for people who are anemic. Other nutritional benefits that one may get from chicken liver include Vitamins A, B2, B6, B9, B12, Niacin, and essential amino acids. The only downside is that chicken liver is high in cholesterol content and people at risk for heart diseases should control the amount of chicken liver they eat.

References:

10 Health Benefits of Chicken Liver

Nutrition of Chicken Liver

On Cooking and TOMATO SOUP

I started to cook at home last month. Before that, it's very rare that I cook meals for the simple reason that twice I was traumatized at seeing the flames rise from the pans while I am in charge of the kitchen. One was when I attempted to fry something. The other was when I tried to make buttered popcorn. I do admit that I am a disaster in the kitchen so I told myself, okay this could be the one thing I will never excel at.

Boy, was I wrong. The first day was like an initiation of some sorts and learned how to properly saute garlic, ginger, and onions. It wasn't that easy for me because I don't like using cooking oil. Tell me to cook rice or make a soup and I will willingly oblige, but NEVER EVER ask me to fry... PLEASE. Unfortunately, one can never escape fried foods... And I am one of those who like eating fatty greasy food (unhealthy I know and so I am controlling what I eat now). And sooner or later I will have to learn how to face those damn frighteningly popping oil which occasionally explodes. (No wonder I always have my shield, the trusted wok cover, to somehow protect me from the evil oily projectiles.)

So now they do trust me to cook vegetables. But really, soup is my specialty since I like mixing ingredients that I fancy and throwing them into a pot of boiling water and then I call it SOUP already. Yesterday while raiding the refrigerator, I happened to see several packs of tomatoes and one basket of really red tomatoes, the kind that makes you think of pasta and salsa... YUM! Seeing that some of the tomatoes are already rotten, I went on a rotten tomato hunt and collected all the still good ones. I told my mom about it and proposed to make TOMATO SOUP (what else?).

So I did a quick research on the Internet but since most of the recipes involve microwave oven to roast the tomatoes for that extra flavor (they said and I do believe them though as of the moment we still haven't found a place for the microwave oven and can therefore not use it yet.) So I relied on what we have--- that is, saute lots of garlic, onions, the add the halved tomatoes. Really nice smell though I could imagine in my mind the smell and flavor of roast tomatoes (DOUBLY YUM!!!)

After that, I shot everything into the blender and made a puree. Then off to the pot again to boil. For added texture (and to make MY tomato soup less boring) I added small carrot cubes and malunggay leaves. Of course, the usual salt and pepper which I have learned, are indispensable in cooking. It's a good thing that my mother reminded me to use herbs and I opted for oregano and basil, which made the soup taste a little like pasta sauce but which I LOVE, so there.

Today for breakfast I had leftover tomato soup with sotanghon. Really nice combination. I suddenly had this idea of putting sardine flakes the next time I get to cook tomato soup. Texture plus a fishy taste... can't wait!!!

(Leftover tomato soup needs to be kept in the freezer since tomatoes easily spoil.)

Now there are a few tomatoes left and they have this beautiful red color so I'm thinking of making salsa since people here were surprised last April when I made my first ever salsa as dip for nachos. They loved it and they couldn't believe I could create something like that. Well, I'm rather good at knowing what goes well with which. All I needed was to look at the ingredients of ready made salsa at the grocery store and the ratio's already up to my taste buds.