Peeling Pineapples (Piña)

In my first few months here in UK (back in the mid-90s), I missed Asian food so much that I was always scouring the aisles of our local supermarket for anything mildly Oriental or Southeast Asian. You could just imagine my delight when I saw a stack of fresh pineapples (pinya or piña in Tagalog/Spanish) in our local supermarket. What's more, it's got a sign saying that they will peel it for free. I thought that would save me a lot of effort and time so off I went and bought one. The lady on the counter got my pineapple, chopped off the top and bottom, sat it on a metal contraption with a big lever. Then she got hold of the lever pulled it down in one big motion - whoosh! Out came my pineapple in a perfect cylindrical shape with a hole in the middle looking exactly like what you get from cans. Well, at least it was done in no time at all but I have to lament the large amount of wasted pineapple! I'm one person who hates waste and I was just flabbergasted with how much was taken off it.

As an alternative I'll show you how pineapple is peeled in the Philippines wherein you can get the most out of your 'multi-eyed' fruit. See the series of pictures below on how you can peel your pineapple. It may take a bit more time but the satisfaction of having a more aesthetically pleasing and less wasteful way of doing things will surely encourage you to try this.

[Click on the pictures for a bigger view]

First off you start with your pineapple. Have a chopping board and a sharp knife ready.

Chop off both ends. If you're using this as a centre-piece in a buffet table, don't take off the leafy end to make it more interesting and exotic looking plus making sure that the bottom is level.

Now slice off the skin from top to bottom taking off just enough to expose the flesh.

Once you have peeled off all of the skin you will be left with just the 'eyes' or 'dots' that go deep into the flesh. We're now ready to connect the 'dots'. The idea is to remove the eyes without cutting out too much of the flesh. If you have a melon baller you can scoop out the eyes one by one thereby making it even less wasteful. But if you only have knife read on ...

If you notice the eyes are arranged by nature so that they have natural diagonal alignments. The lines they form are either slanted left to right or right to left. Choose one of the lines to follow (I usually take the less slanted one). Now, connect the eyes along the line that you chose by making a V-shaped canal with your sharp knife (usually you connect two eyes at a time).

Do this for all the eyes until you get a nicely patterned fruit as shown above.

To serve, slice vertically along the core of the pinapple into wedges. Best served chilled with a little salt on the side. Yum!

Screenshot

An easier tag I have from Stel had me quickly tapping on the printscreen key. Here is my/our current desktop screen ... well actually the picture changes every 4 hours. See we got this neat Magentic software that provides these great background pictures and screensavers. We highly recommend it and the best bit of all is it's free!

 

The icons I usually click above are Mozilla and iTunes. How's that - music while surfing. :)

I like colourful and calming or funny pictures as my wallpaper on screen hence this Zen-like peaceful image.

Gee, I'm supposed to tag five other people but I don't have any energy left to bloghop around. So if any of you bloggers reading this want to show your current screens, consider yourself tagged.


My Desktop Free View Instruction:

A. Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun. :glasses-slip:

You can do a screen capture by:
[1] Going to your desktop and pressing the Print Scrn key (located on the right side of the F12 key).
[2] Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste (CTRL + V).
[3] If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it.

B. Post the picture in your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop just below it if you want. You can explain why you preferred such look or why is it full of icons. Things like that.

C. Tag five of your friends and ask them to give you a Free View of their desktop as well.

D. Add your name to this list of Free Viewers with a link pointing directly to your Desktop Free View post to promote it to succeeding participants.



English Patis
Babyrambutan
Thesserie
iRonnie
Dom Lawrence
Rebecca
Blue Panjeet
Revolution Motion
Kauderwelsch
A Dialogue With K
Tales Of A Melodramatic Moron

Organic Food Festival 2007

 

Heavy traffic in the M5 motorway nor the generally overcast weather did not deter me and my family to visit the 2007 Organic Food Festival in Bristol last weekend. It was held at the harbour side of the city. A perfect backdrop to some ethically and pesticide-free food and products available in the numerous stalls. Although I have noticed that, excepting the big-name companies, most of the stallholders are from the Southwest England. Hmmm ... I thought this would be a food festival that would encompass all organic producers from the whole of England. Oh well, it doesn't matter much to me as long as I have my fill of high-quality organic produce from whatever farm it came from.

Here are some pictures from that family outing (click on the picture for a larger view):

After paying our reasonably priced entrance fees, we each got tagged with a red wrist band. J3 said she felt like a pigeon (maybe a homing one at that).

 

The Soil Association is the organiser of this whole extravaganza.

 

Here's a view of the harbour and foot bridge at the back of the festival ground.

 

The one stall I forgot to take picture of is an umbrella-shaded wheeled cart with a young lady giving free Yeo Valley strawberry yoghurt. My daughters loved it so much that we kept coming back to get more from the patient lady. Between us we might have consumed more than a dozen sachet tubes! Other big organic companies were in attendance as well:

 

There are of course more of smaller producers represented in the different stalls:

 

One of the most favourite stall (it certainly was mine) is Green & Black's chocolates. They were giving out whole chocolate mini bars in big volumes! They were not even breaking them up in little pieces. You should see how they disappeared once the staff laid down one plateful of these gorgeous chocs.

 

My husband and youngest (J3) love cheese so it's just natural that they gravitate to the cheese stalls. One such interesting stall is Villanova Food where J3 particularly requested for a chunk of Grana Padano to buy.

 

I took the opportunity to buy some organic sirloin steaks at a discount (they were doing a buy 2 get 1 free promotion). And Brown Cow's steaks did not disappoint at all. We cooked them on a stove top grill right after we arrived home. It was one of the best I've tasted ever, very tender and flavourful. My only regret was I only bought three thinking my kids won't finish theirs like they normally do. But as it turned out everyone enjoyed it very much that all had clean plates. :)

 

There was also a kitchen demonstration tent where the likes of Sophie Grigson and Darina Allen did some cooking demos.

 

Besides food stalls, there are also other non-food organic stalls that were promoting or selling things like plants and herbs, toiletries, clothes, cleaning products, etc.

 

It's good that they provided entertainment as a minor distraction from all the wonderful food around. Here is the band The Courgettes dishing out funny food-related adapted songs like 'Beat It' which turned out into 'Eat It'. I must say they were good.

 

A different type of music were performed by the Bollywood Brass Band at the main Millenium Square stage.

 

We had a good day out that Saturday despite the overcast skies. I just wish the delicious organic food and produce were all more affordable. Well, just goes to show you can't have the best of both worlds.

 

Cannelloni

 

Early this year my good blogger friend from Boston gave me Mario Batali's Molto Italiano a real gem of a cookbook. Stella must have known that we're a big fan of Italian cooking and what a great gift it is. Full of authentic Italian recipes, you know, the kind that Italian women traditionally cook at home for their families.

My son was nagging me to make this and since I have a batch of lasagna pasta to use up I decided to give it a go. Just a few modifications and alterations later I could say we've successfully adapted Mario's recipe. Actually my favourite of the whole lot is the basic tomato sauce which I like so much I froze the leftovers for use another day.

First you make the basic tomato sauce and beschamel sauce:

 

Basic Tomato Sauce

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion - diced
4 cloves garlic - sliced
1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
3 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme or 1 Tbsp dried thyme
2 x 400 g  cans of plum tomatoes or chopped tomatoes

1. In a big saucepan, heat the olive oil on medium heat.
2. Saute onion and garlic until soft and translucent - about 6-7 minutes.
3. Add carrot and thyme; cook for another 5 minutes or until carrot is soft.
4. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil.
5. Lower heat and simmer until thick - about 20 minutes. Season with sea salt.
6. This can be stored in the fridge up to 1 week or frozen up to 6 months.

Bechamel Sauce

1/4 cup plain flour
5 Tbsp unsalted butter
3 cups whole milk
1 tsp ground sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1. Heat a saucepan over medium heat then add butter to melt.
2. Add the flour and stir until smooth. Continue cooking until light brown while stirring. This will take about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the milk 1 cup at a time. Bring to a boil while whisking constantly until smooth.
4. Cook for about 10 minutes or until thick while still whisking constantly.
5. Remove from heat and season with the salt and nutmeg.
6. Let cool completely. You may transfer to another container, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

 

Cannelloni
(Cannelloni al Forno)

1 Tbsp butter
250 g  minced pork
250 g  minced veal or beef
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup whole milk
1 Tbsp flour
1 large egg - beaten
1/2 tsp ground sea salt
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
black pepper
lasagne pasta sheets
1 1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 cup bechamel sauce
stock

1. Cook lasagne pasta sheets according to instructions. Drain and lay flat on kitchen towels.
2. In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter on high heat.
3. Add the meats, cook stirring to break up any lumps until browned.
4. Add salt and a little stock. Bring to boil then simmer for 20 minutes, stirring from time to time. At the end of 20 minutes there should be very little juice left in the pan.
5. Stir in the milk, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, and flour. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and cover to simmer for another 15 minutes, stirring frequently.
6. Remove from heat and cool completely.
7. Add the egg, season with nutmeg and black pepper. Set aside.
8. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C/fan 160°C.
9. Put about 3 Tablespoonful of meat filling along the long side of a cooked lasagne sheet. Roll up the pasta around the filling to form a log or cylinder. Repeat with the rest of the pasta and fillings.
10. Spread about 1/3 of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a wide baking dish. Arrange the cannelloni 'logs' seam side down in the single layer in the baking dish.
11. Top with the remaining tomato sauce and then with the bechamel sauce. Finally sprinkle the remaining parmesan cheese on top.
12. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until the sauces are bubbly and the pasta edges are crisp and brown. Serve hot.

 

Garlic-Black Beans Pork

I was wondering to do different with a slab of pork belly. I could always impose an adobo on it but where's the fun in that? So a quick scan among my posse of oriental cookbooks yielded this very easy stew. The ingredients are easy to source, too. Nothing exotic nothing out of the ordinary but resulted in a very good and tasty pork stew great with steamed rice. This is adapted from the Australian Women's Weekly's Chinese Cooking Class Cookbook.


Garlic-Black Beans Pork

750 g  pork belly - chopped in serving-size pieces
1 Tbsp fermented black beans - roughly chopped
1/2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 1/2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp grated ginger
2 Tbsp oil
2 tsp cornflour
2 tsp cooking wine
2 Tbsp water

1. (Optional) Heat the oil in a pot or wok and brown the pork pieces for a few minutes.
2. Combine pork, black beans, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce in a pot.
3. Pour enough water to cover the pork.
4. Bring to boil then lower heat and simmer for about 1 hour 10 minutes or until meat is tender.
5. Add a little hot water from time to time if it is drying up too much. But at the end of the cooking there should be only a little sauce left.
6. Combine cornflour, wine and water. Stir into the pot and simmer until sauce thickens - about 1 minute. Remove from heat and serve.

Lasang Pinoy 20: Lumpiang Sariwa

The current theme of the 20th edition of Lasang Pinoy blogging event is called binalot or 'wrapped-up'. Mita of The Unofficial Cook, who is hosting it this time, announced this blogfest a few weeks ago.

I already knew what I was going to make and dutifully called my mother and aunt at the weekend to get the recipe right. This is my very first time to make Lumpiang Sariwa so please give me some slack if you think it looks a bit far off from the traditional.

Lumpiang Sariwa literally means 'fresh springroll'. Well it's not exactly all fresh because the filling is fully cooked although that lone leaf of raw lettuce would probably qualify it for freshness. I guess it's called 'fresh' as opposed to the usual fried lumpia. The traditional wrapper for this is the same one that you use for the fried lumpias. But in the recent years it became more crepe-like in size, taste and texture.

The recipe is a medley of my family's and my sister-in-law, Ate Eva, in Toronto. And I just remembered (it's been years since I ate one of these) as I was taking a bite that I really don't like camotes or potatoes in it. I much prefer it with just veggies and whatever meat is included. I also found the wrapper quite rich so next time I'm gonna reduce the eggs and probably add a little salt to make it more savoury. The sauce or paalat reminded me that fresh minced garlic is preferred over crispy fried ones. Well, like most first time attempt of mine these are just a few from a litany of changes I plan to make next time I make it besides the fact that I should really make the size of the lumpia smaller.

Lumpiang Sariwa
(Fresh Springrolls)

*Filling:
100 g  pork belly - thinly sliced
200 g  shirmps or prawns - roughly chopped
2 cups julienned sweet potatoes
3 cups shredded cabbage
2 cups shredded green beans (bitchuelas)
1 cup shredded water chestnut (apulid)
1 cup julienned carrots
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup stock
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 medium onion - sliced
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp oil

1. Put sliced pork in a pot and add salt and just enough water to cover it.
2. Bring to a boil then simmer until all the water evaporates. As soon as it starts sizzling add the oil and fry the pork until golden brown. Set aside.
3. Saute garlic and onion until the onion is translucent.
4. Stir in the shrimps and cook for 2 minutes.
5. Pour in the stock. Add the oyster sauce. Bring to boil.
6. Add the sweet potatoes; cover and cook for 2 minutes on medium heat.
7. Add the carrots, beans and water chestnuts. Cook under cover for another 2 minutes.
8. Add the bean sprouts and cabbage. Cover and cook for another 2 minutes.
9. Remove from heat. Cool and drain in a colander for several hours. Reserve drained liquid.

*Wrapper:
3 eggs - beaten
1 1/2 cups water
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 1/4 cups flour

1. Mix eggs, water, and butter.
2. Add flour and beat until smooth and lump-free.
3. Gently heat a 10-inch wide non-stick pan (a crepe pan would be best). Brush it with a little butter.
4. Once hot enough pour in 1/3 cup of the batter. Swirl quickly to cover the bottom of the pan completely.
5. Cook on low heat until the edges start to peel off the pan. Turn over and cook for a few seconds more. Dish up and repeat.

Note: I usually put butter for the first wrapper only.


*Sauce (Paalat)
stock
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3 Tbsp water

1. Dissolve the cornstarch in the water. Set aside.
2. Take the liquid drained from the filling and add enough stock to make up 2 cups.
3. Put this in a saucepan and add brown sugar, soy sauce, and salt. Bring to boil.
4. Add the cornstarch mixture and bring to boil again. Remove from heat.

*To serve:
2 Tbsp minced garlic
roughly ground roasted peanuts
fresh lettuce leaves

 

Lay the wrapper on a plate. Put a lettuce on top then put about 2 Tablespoonfuls of the filling. Sprinkle some ground peanuts on top.

 

Fold the wrapper to enclose the fillings.
Serve with the minced garlic, ground peanuts and the paalat sauce.

Leather Lane Market

I was on a 1-week training course in the Holborn area of London the week before. Whenever I think of Holborn, the image conjured was a vast expanse of tall office buildings virtually desert-like in terms of foodie shops. How wrong I was!

The training house I went to was in the Rosebery Avenue-Clerkenwell Road area. While doing a walk-about after our usual sandwich lunch, I discovered a small market in Leather Lane which is parallel to the jewellery centre of London - Hatton Gardens. See the pictures below, to see more closely click on the pictures for an enlarged version.

 

Leather Lane has the usual low-priced stalls for you name it - books, clothes, bags, shoes, jewelries, flowers, etc.

 

But what made my eyes widen with delight are cafes, delis, food stalls, and restaurants that offer interesting food that are not of your usual fastfood chains.

First, let me show you some of the cafes:

 

This one serves not only burgers and chips but also kebabs, doners, and other Middle Eastern delights.

 

As the name suggests, they do nice bagels plus curries, couscous ... more Middle Eastern fares.

 

Oasis is of healthy-organic food genre. You should see their offerings - they looked so delicious.

Here is one of a few juice bars in the market. They looked pretty busy on the day.

  

Now we come to the curry kiosks. The one on the left is the Indian variety and on the left is the Thai variety. Goodness, just smelling the waft of spices from these stalls made my mouth water even though I've just eaten my lunch at the time!

This is probably the kiosk with the longest queue, one that offers authentic-looking Mexican food.

 

There must be quite a number of Mediterranean residents here as gleaned from the number of cafes and restaurants offering the cuisine like this one ...

 

... and this one.

 

There are also authentic Italian delis in the area like Terroni & Sons in Clerkenwell Road.

This one is on Theobald Road which is about 2 minutes walk from Leather Lane.

Above is just one of the authentic-looking Italian restaurants in the area which together with the delis and an Italian Catholic church nearby suggests a high concentration of Italian immigrants in the place.


Leather Lane Market
Leather Lane
London     EC1

Opening times: Monday-Friday 10:00AM - 3:00PM
Nearest tube station: Farringdon or Chancery Lane

Kangkong Blachan

I've always wanted to cook this dish ever since I saw this posted years ago by my good blogging friend Stel and Hawaiian food blogger Reid. So when I finally got hold of fresh kangkong in a local (well, not so local since it's about 20 miles away!) Chinese grocer I decided there and then to cook this. Kangkong is also called ung choi or tung choi or water spinach in other lands. Funny how vegetables so common back home that didn't merit so much as a second glance suddenly becomes like a goldmine find when you see it on a shop shelf.

How did the dish go? It should have been great but either the 1 tablespoon blachan is too much or the brand I bought is especially salty. It resulted in me and the husband fishing out the strands of kangkong from the salty sauce then smothering it with lots of steamed rice. And the whole house smelling like a shrimp stink bomb exploded. That's why in the recipe below I drastically reduced the blachan to just 1 teaspoon then I'll just go from there. But it's so nice to have a veg quite different from the usual ones especially when paired with hot grilled fish. Yum!


Kangkong Blachan

350 g  kangkong (ung choi, tung choi)
1 tsp blachan (belachan, shrimp paste)
2 Tbsp hibe (dried shrimps)
2 red chillies - chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 cup water

1. Cut the kangkong into 3-inch lengths. Rinse well in water then drain.
2. Soak the hibe in hot water for 20 minutes. Drain.
3. Grind or pound the blachan, hibe, red chillies, and garlic until fine.
4. Heat oil in wok and stir fry the blachan mixture for about 3 minutes.
5. Turn up heat and add in the kangkong. Stir fry for about 2 minutes.
6. Add the water and cook for 1 more minute.
7. Serve immediately.

Spaghetti Carbonara

 

This is probably the 5th and last experiment we had with Spaghetti Carbonara. For the last year my family were in search for that ultimate (in our taste) non-cloying rich carbonara recipe. A lot that went through our plates and stomachs before was much too rich that often ended up in the rubbish bin. Just look at the picture below, admittedly I handled the camera better that time but notice the difference with it having a lot of creamy sauce. It was fine in the first forkful but after that oh my it was nakaka-uta (too rich).

It wasn't until I stumbled upon Angela Nielsen's recipe in the BBC GoodFood magazine that I found a carbonara without any cream! It proved to be just the right taste that we wanted aided by that technique of adding a few tablespoons of pasta water to keep it moist and glossy. You have to keep in mind that timing is essential here. It is important to keep the pan off the heat while stirring the pasta with the egg mixture otherwise the sauce will curdle. Also keep your serving bowls warm to prevent the loss of heat in the pasta while eating. Cold carbonara is not too enticing believe you me.


Spaghetti Carbonara

125 g  pancetta or streaky bacon - chopped
40 g  Parmesan cheese - finely grated
40 g  Pecorino cheese - finely grated
3 large eggs - beaten
2 garlic cloves - peeled and left whole
60 g  (1/4 cup) butter
300 g  spaghetti
salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix the 2 cheeses together then add about 3/4 of it to the eggs, mixing it well. Set aside the rest of the cheese mixture for garnishing.
2. Slightly squash the garlic by pressing under the blade of a knife. Set aside.
3. Bring a big pot of water with salt to boil then drop in the spaghetti. Cook according to package instructions (usually bring to boil then start timing for 11 minutes).
4. While the spaghetti is cooking, heat a large wide pan and melt the butter.
5. When the butter has melted drop in the garlic and pancetta.
6. Fry on medium heat until pancetta is crisp and golden.
   Remove the garlic cloves. Keep the pan on low heat.
7. When the spaghetti is ready, drain but make sure to reserve some of the pasta water.
8. Put the spaghetti in the pan and mix well with the pancetta.
9. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the egg-cheese mixture.
10. Stir to mix well adding about 2-3 tablespoons of the reserved pasta water to keep it moist and glossy.
11. Serve immediately on warmed bowls sprinkled with the reserved grated cheese and freshly ground black pepper.

Posh Lugaw

Okay okay, so my risotto needs some more sauce. Well actually lots of sauce. But I was mighty pleased with my first try in cooking this much celebrated (hyped?) dish. The rice grains came out perfectly cooked with an al dente centre and not mushy at all. All I need is more stock in it!!

I've always been intrigued by risotto and as more cookbooks and magazine articles I read lauding its virtues I was actually intimidated. I had to get a very precise recipe to guide risotto newbies like me. Luckily, I just got Angela Nielsen's The Ultimate Recipe Book from where I adapted this recipe.

Lesson learned: use a heavy, wide pan. Mine was heavy but it was a pot not a wide pan. Therein lay my main problems, I found it hard to stir towards the end. Actually I used a cast iron pot so when I finished and turned off the heat it still had lots of residual heat that dried out my risotto. So probably next time I'll just settle for a thick bottomed wide pan.

My primary objective here besides having a go at cooking risotto is to use seasonal ingredients. Asparagus season here in UK is quite short. It starts from late April up to June-early July only. Many regard British asparagus as one of the best in the world. They even have an asparagus festival at the Vale of Evesham late this month which I hope I can attend just to satisfy my curiosity. Peas, one of my fav vegs, are also in season so that gets my nod in here. But not broad beans, I've not been fond of them types, so I omitted that in my risotto.

Well, what do I think of it? I love it! Especially when eaten with the crunchy asparagus and wholesome peas. It's already a complete meal so you can perfectly eat it on its own though I'm thinking of what meats I can serve it with if ever. That said I don't think I can eat more than a big bowlful of it because I find it quite rich. Maybe I should reduce the cheese or mix the stock with some water?

I can't help comparing this with lugaw, that rice comfort food loved by Filipino. It's not far off to be honest I'd like to think risotto is the posh, more upscale sister of lugaw. :) For me, the main difference is in the cooked grains. The risotto's grains retains its shape thereby avoiding it being mushy while lugaw is meant to be mushy and more porridge like. I wonder if I can cook the malagkit rice variety like a risotto and retain its shape. Abangan ang susnod na kabanata! Wait for the next installment.


Risotto Primavera

1 Tbsp olive oil
65 g  [1/4 cup] butter
1 garlic clove - minced
3 spring onions - finely chopped
4 shallots - finely chopped
350 g  risotto rice (Carnaroli, Arborio, Vialone)
1/2 cup white wine
200 g  shelled fresh peas (or frozen ones - thawed)
250 g  asparagus
100 g  parmesan cheese - finely grated
5 1/2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

1. Snap the woody bases from the asparagus and slice each into 4 diagonal pieces.
2. Put the stock in a pot and bring to a simmer. Keep this simmering while cooking the risotto.
3. In a thick bottomed wide pan (beside or close to the simmering stock), heat olive oil and 2 Tbsp of the butter until bubbly.
   Saute the onions and garlic on medium heat for about 3 minutes until soft.
4. Stir in the rice and cook while stirring often for about 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the wine and keep stirring until almost all the wine has evaporated.
6. Put the timer on for 20 minutes.
7. Add 1 big ladleful of stock to the rice and bring to simmer (do not boil; you may have to lower the heat) while stirring constantly until all the liquid has been absorbed.
8. Repeat adding ladleful of stock and stirring when the previous amount has been absorbed.
9. After 14 minutes (meaning 6 minutes left in your timer), add the peas to the rice.
10. At the same time drop the asparagus in the stock. Let the asparagus simmer for 4 minutes while you're stirring and adding stock to the rice. After 4 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon add it to the rice mixture.
11. At this point you should taste the rice, it should be soft but still with a bite in the centre. Also add seasonings if you think it needs some.
12. The timer should have gone off by now and you should have the desired texture. If not, continue adding stock and stirring until done.
13. Take the pan off the heat then add half the parmesan and the rest of the butter plus a little of the stock to keep it moist.
14. Cover the pan and let it rest for about 3 minutes.
15. Serve with a sprinkling of parmesan on top.

Chocolate Cake

Once upon a time when I was still in my early 20s, I decided to start teaching myself to bake. After all, I thought to myself, we've got an oven I've got all my baking utensils and most of all I've got my handy Betty Crocker cookbook so what could be harder than bake some cakes? Like most people I tackled my first baking project with a brownie which was a resounding success. So feeling very brave I decided to bake another chocolate concoction - a 2-layer chocolate cake complete with buttery icing.

I went about buying all the ingredients and baking pans including a brand new hand mixer. I followed the recipe religiously (or so I thought) and in it went in the oven. When it came out I noticed it was looking particularly dark but I just shrugged thinking maybe that's what it was supposed to be. I proceeded to lovingly put icing on and in between the whole structure. Then I took a slice and eagerly tasted it. Ackk! I spat it out as quickly as I put it in my mouth. It was the most bitter cake I've tasted in my life! Which means I forgot to put in sugar!! Oh the agony and disappointment after all the trouble I went through. But most of all I dreaded getting teased by relatives for the rest of my life! Mwahahaha!

The cake was ready to be consigned to the rubbish bin but my father came to the rescue. He ate it despite the extremely bitter cake. He just slathered more of the icing. For 1 whole week he diligently ate 1 slice a day until he finished it - all by himself as you would have guessed since not even our dogs nor cat wanted it. I'd like to think he did it just for me but probably he just hated to have all the ingredients and my efforts go to waste. ;)

Ever since then I never attempted baking a chocolate cake until a few years ago when I came upon Angela Nielsen's recipe she dubbed The Ultimate Chocolate Cake in the BBC Good Food magazine. Well, I liked the idea of a recipe tested so many times to perfection and I tell you she did not lie. It was indeed a moist and very chocolately with just the right balance of sweetness. I had to alter the chocolate ganache since my kids are not fond of dark chocolate so I had to put in half dark and half milk chocs. I didn't bother to decorate it with chocolate curls since it would get readily devoured anyway. As proof just look below how I found my newly baked cake when I left it to cool ... hmmm ... there must be lots of chocolate monsters around my house stealthily scarfing down slices of it.

Next time, I will experiment with buttercream and whipped cream icings to see which ones can better complement it.

Have some?

Chocolate Cake

200 g  butter - cut in pieces
200 g  dark chocolate (about 70% cocoa solids)
85 g  [1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp] self-raising flour
85 g  [1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp] plain flour
1/2 cup hot water
1 Tbsp instant coffee granules
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
200 g  [1 cup + 1 Tbsp] golden caster sugar
200 g  [1 cup + 2 Tbsp firmly packed] light muscovado sugar
13 g  [2 Tbsp] cocoa powder (optional)
3 medium eggs
5 Tbsp buttermilk
grated chocolate or curls for decoration (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325°F/160°C/fan 140°C/gas mark 3. Butter a 20cm (8-inch) round baking pan and line the base.
2. Dissolve the instant coffee in the hot water, set aside.
3. Put a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and melt the dark chocolate and butter in it.
4. Once melted remove from heat and add in the coffee. Stir just enough to combine.
5. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and stir in the buttermilk, set aside.
6. In another large bowl, combine the flours, sugars, cocoa (if using), and bicarbonate of soda.
7. Stir in the melted chocolate mixture and the egg mixture. Mix everything until well blended and have a smooth consistency.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 1 hour 25 minutes or until a skewer poked in to centre comes out clean.
9. Cool slightly in the baking pan then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack.
10. When completely cool, slice horizontally in half.
11. Spread a little of the ganache in the bottom layer and sandwich it with the top layer.
12. Spread the rest of the ganache on top and sides of the cake smoothing with a spatula or palette knife.

*For the Chocolate Ganache:

100 g  dark chocolate (like above)
100 g  milk chocolate
1 cup double cream (heavy cream)
2 Tbsp golden caster sugar

1. Break the dark and milk chocolates into pieces in a heatproof bowl.
2. Meanwhile, put the double cream and sugar in a saucepan and heat until it is about to boil.
3. Pour immediately onto the chocolates. Stir until all the chocolates have melted. Cool for a few minutes then whisk until smooth and thickened.
4. Set aside to cool for 1-2 hours (may put in the fridge) or until it is thick enough to spread on the cake.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Finally, a sweet and sour dish without the tell-tale red tinge of ketchup. This is quite a departure from the usual Chinese standard though not entirely alien to the Filipino cuisine since we have ketchup anaemic 'agridulce' sauces used as a dip or (obviously) as sauce.

Warning: don't overcook the meatballs because they will turn dry and tough once it's been sitting on your dinner table for a few minutes. That's what happened to me first time I attempted this. The red hot chilli peppers (not the band) is entirely optional while the vegetables can be varied according to your taste. Just think of the colour, texture, and taste combination when you decide on some other veggies to put in the mix. My beloved Chinese Cuisine by Huang Su-huei provided the recipe that I adapted. This is actually on the cover of the cookbook!


Sweet and Sour Meatballs

500 g  minced pork or beef
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cooking wine
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1 cup mangetout/snow peas (sitcharo) - topped and tailed
1 cup button mushrooms - [the smaller the better]
1 cup sliced carrots - precooked
1 red chilli pepper - sliced
1/2 Tbsp minced garlic

*Sauce:
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp vinegar
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
dash of sesame oil

1. Mix all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Dissolve the salt and cornstarch in water and cooking wine. Mix well with the meat and form into about 1-inch balls.
3. Deep fry meatballs for about 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
4. In a wok, heat up 2 Tbsp oil. Stir fry the chilli pepper and garlic until aromatic.
5. Add the snow peas and button mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute.
6. Stir in the carrots and meatballs. Cook for a few seconds.
7. Add the sauce and bring to boil. Simmer for 2 minutes. Dish up and serve.