Prelab:
When you look at the fridge and find that it's near empty when it comes to seasonings, you just toss in whatever and improvise with what you have. Ma mere's idea was puzzling, but I thought it was fun to try. I probably I got my good sense of improvisation from her. Mon pere is the exact opposite though, for he usually sticks with the long-and-tested method when it comes to cooking. I say "usually" because on some occasions, he tries other things too.
Date Performed: January 15, 2011
Ingredients:
~1/3 Chicken meat strips
1 Beef Cube (for beef stock)
120 g Local spinach leaves
400 g Tofu, cubed
1 tsp Soy sauce
pepper
*water (~2 cups)
Preparation:
Heat pot in medium flame. Pour a small amount of water just enough to cover the bottom of the pot. Add thinly sliced chicken strips. Cook sides for about 3 minutes until chicken meat turns white. Add water. Dissolve 1 beef cube and mix. Add soy sauce to taste. Put the tofu and cook for about 7 minutes. Add pepper to taste midway while cooking the tofu. Mix occasionally and cover.
When done, turn off the flame. Add the spinach leaves and mix gently. Serve.
* Add desired amount of water for soup.
Post-lab:
Unexpectedly tastes good! (Well, it's good for sick people who don't have chicken stock.) Ma mere wants to add sesame oil on her soup though. Mine's fine without.
The next morning, ma mere did a remake of the leftover soup by adding pechay leaves. I didn't like the remake because the new flavor from the leaves brings a sharp, bitter contrast to the previous taste.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Experiment 21: Chicken in Char Siu Sauce
Prelab:
When ma mere cooks or prepares the food for cooking, she doesn't weigh anything. She just looks at it, then tells me that we can taste and adjust. So I'll just approximate the amount. I was helping out in the kitchen when she decided to watch me instead and leave me to do it.
This dish is good for two people.
Date Performed: January 12, 2011
Ingredients:
Chicken (~500 g)
Broccoli (~300 g)
Char Siu Instant Sauce, 50 g
*Water (~240 mL, or 1 cup)
Garlic, 3 small cloves
Preparation:
Heat a minimal amount of oil in frying pan. Sautee garlic. Stir-fry chicken for about 5 minutes or until chicken color turns white. Lower heat and use medium flame. Pour chia siu sauce and water. Mix. Add in broccoli. Serve after about 2 minutes.
* Add enough water for the desired amount of soup.
Post-lab:
It was great. Guess the sauce did the trick.
When ma mere cooks or prepares the food for cooking, she doesn't weigh anything. She just looks at it, then tells me that we can taste and adjust. So I'll just approximate the amount. I was helping out in the kitchen when she decided to watch me instead and leave me to do it.
This dish is good for two people.
Date Performed: January 12, 2011
Ingredients:
Chicken (~500 g)
Broccoli (~300 g)
Char Siu Instant Sauce, 50 g
*Water (~240 mL, or 1 cup)
Garlic, 3 small cloves
Preparation:
Heat a minimal amount of oil in frying pan. Sautee garlic. Stir-fry chicken for about 5 minutes or until chicken color turns white. Lower heat and use medium flame. Pour chia siu sauce and water. Mix. Add in broccoli. Serve after about 2 minutes.
* Add enough water for the desired amount of soup.
Post-lab:
It was great. Guess the sauce did the trick.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Experiment 20: Scrambled Egg + Canned Tuna
Prelab:
When there's nothing to eat and you eat twice a day instead of the usual thrice...
...one of the quickest egg dish is a scrambled egg.
Nothing to it, except I tried a twist for the first time. I've heard ma mere do it before, but I haven't seen it. Anyway, it's theoretically possible to use the tuna oil from the can to fry eggs.
This dish serves is good for two people with small appetites.
Date Performed: January 6, 2011
Ingredients:
2 small eggs
1 small canned tuna flakes (hot and spicy) in oil
Preparation:
Open canned tuna. Pour oil on frying pan. Heat pan under moderate flame (for about 1 minute). Beat 2 eggs and put on frying pan. Cook and flip egg occasionally (for about 2 minutes). Add the tuna flakes. Mix for about 1 minutes. Serve.
Post-lab:
When it's done, it's done. I didn't add salt or any other spices, but the canned oil and tuna flakes speak for themselves. Tastes okay.
When there's nothing to eat and you eat twice a day instead of the usual thrice...
...one of the quickest egg dish is a scrambled egg.
Nothing to it, except I tried a twist for the first time. I've heard ma mere do it before, but I haven't seen it. Anyway, it's theoretically possible to use the tuna oil from the can to fry eggs.
This dish serves is good for two people with small appetites.
Date Performed: January 6, 2011
Ingredients:
2 small eggs
1 small canned tuna flakes (hot and spicy) in oil
Preparation:
Open canned tuna. Pour oil on frying pan. Heat pan under moderate flame (for about 1 minute). Beat 2 eggs and put on frying pan. Cook and flip egg occasionally (for about 2 minutes). Add the tuna flakes. Mix for about 1 minutes. Serve.
Post-lab:
When it's done, it's done. I didn't add salt or any other spices, but the canned oil and tuna flakes speak for themselves. Tastes okay.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Experiment 19: Semi Chicken Pastel
Prelab:
I was in the mood to cook something different, so I tried it out. But I only did half of the chicken pastel recipe because we don't use the oven. I still have zero experience on oven dishes. I used to help them (ma mere et ma soeur) when they bake cupcakes or grill the fish using the oven, but I've never done oven dishes on my own.
Date Performed: October 24, 2010
Ingredients:
600 g chicken (on the "half a kilo" range)
1/3 of a Spanish sausage (Chorizo de Bilbao), approx. 4 inches length)
5 small pieces of Vienna sausage
2 tbsps. of green peas
- (I didn't have time to measure the weight since ma tante poured it from the tablespoon)
1 dalandan
2 tbsps. soy sauce
3 hard-boiled eggs
120 g butter (approx 1/4 of a regular butter)
3 cups cold water
1 tsp cornstarch
Optional: carrots - I cut 1 small piece of carrot and added it at the same time I added the green peas.
Optional: onion - I added 1 small red onion when I fried the sliced chorizo and the vienna sausage.
Optional: salt and pepper - I didn't add this since my folks like it bland.
Preparation:
Boil the eggs in water* for 10 minutes. Peel off the eggshells. Slice the hard-boiled eggs. Set aside.
Traditional step 1: Dress and bone the chicken. (I didn't do this step)
Cut the chicken into small pieces and place these in a bowl. Using a juicer**, squeeze the dalandan and pour the juice onto the chicken. Add the soy sauce. Mix the chicken pieces together with the liquid gently with your hands for about a minute. Then, let it stand for 30 to 45 minutes.
Put in a frying pan that can handle 3 cups water. Add water (and salt and pepper). Simmer for 30-45 minutes, then remove about one and a half cup of water (or leave about one cup of the original amount of liquid). From the half cup of liquid removed, add some cornstarch and mix. Add the green peas into the liquid, then pour them together back into the pan. Simmer for another 30 minutes or until the meat is tender. (Most of the liquid should have evaporated by then. To know if the meat is tender, thrust a fork into the chicken. If the fork is easily removed, then it is probably tender.)
While waiting for the meat to be tender, fry the small and thinly sliced Vienna sausage and chorizo in a separate frying pan with melted butter. When the chicken meat is tender, pour in a little bit of the sauce (this depends as to whether you want it to have a lot of liquid or not) with the chicken and the peas into the pan where the sausage and chorizo were cooked. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Arrange the hard-boiled eggs on top of the dish and serve while hot.
In the traditional step (the last part which I didn't do), one is supposed to put them in a pastelera with the remaining sauce, arrange the eggs, peas and sausage on top and let cool. Then, cover the top with pie crust, press the edges, and bake in moderate heat (oven) until brown.
* water: Add a pinch of salt before boiling the eggs so that the eggshell can be easily removed.
**Juicer: Cut the dalandan in half. Squeeze the half by screwing downward.
Post-lab:
Everyone save ma soeur liked it. Ma soeur was complaining as usual with my dish.
There's a secret ingredient, the chorizo. We normally don't eat chorizo because it's pork. And ma mere don't buy cornstarch because of the "corn".
Ma mere never attempted to do this dish because she knows it's a difficult dish. She says it really felt special when I cooked this.
Next time, I should give mes tantes some of my dish right from the start. I totally forgot in the excitement. They're the ones who lent me the chorizo and the cornstarch.
I was in the mood to cook something different, so I tried it out. But I only did half of the chicken pastel recipe because we don't use the oven. I still have zero experience on oven dishes. I used to help them (ma mere et ma soeur) when they bake cupcakes or grill the fish using the oven, but I've never done oven dishes on my own.
Date Performed: October 24, 2010
Ingredients:
600 g chicken (on the "half a kilo" range)
1/3 of a Spanish sausage (Chorizo de Bilbao), approx. 4 inches length)
5 small pieces of Vienna sausage
2 tbsps. of green peas
- (I didn't have time to measure the weight since ma tante poured it from the tablespoon)
1 dalandan
2 tbsps. soy sauce
3 hard-boiled eggs
120 g butter (approx 1/4 of a regular butter)
3 cups cold water
1 tsp cornstarch
Optional: carrots - I cut 1 small piece of carrot and added it at the same time I added the green peas.
Optional: onion - I added 1 small red onion when I fried the sliced chorizo and the vienna sausage.
Optional: salt and pepper - I didn't add this since my folks like it bland.
Preparation:
Boil the eggs in water* for 10 minutes. Peel off the eggshells. Slice the hard-boiled eggs. Set aside.
Traditional step 1: Dress and bone the chicken. (I didn't do this step)
Cut the chicken into small pieces and place these in a bowl. Using a juicer**, squeeze the dalandan and pour the juice onto the chicken. Add the soy sauce. Mix the chicken pieces together with the liquid gently with your hands for about a minute. Then, let it stand for 30 to 45 minutes.
Put in a frying pan that can handle 3 cups water. Add water (and salt and pepper). Simmer for 30-45 minutes, then remove about one and a half cup of water (or leave about one cup of the original amount of liquid). From the half cup of liquid removed, add some cornstarch and mix. Add the green peas into the liquid, then pour them together back into the pan. Simmer for another 30 minutes or until the meat is tender. (Most of the liquid should have evaporated by then. To know if the meat is tender, thrust a fork into the chicken. If the fork is easily removed, then it is probably tender.)
While waiting for the meat to be tender, fry the small and thinly sliced Vienna sausage and chorizo in a separate frying pan with melted butter. When the chicken meat is tender, pour in a little bit of the sauce (this depends as to whether you want it to have a lot of liquid or not) with the chicken and the peas into the pan where the sausage and chorizo were cooked. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Arrange the hard-boiled eggs on top of the dish and serve while hot.
In the traditional step (the last part which I didn't do), one is supposed to put them in a pastelera with the remaining sauce, arrange the eggs, peas and sausage on top and let cool. Then, cover the top with pie crust, press the edges, and bake in moderate heat (oven) until brown.
* water: Add a pinch of salt before boiling the eggs so that the eggshell can be easily removed.
**Juicer: Cut the dalandan in half. Squeeze the half by screwing downward.
Post-lab:
Everyone save ma soeur liked it. Ma soeur was complaining as usual with my dish.
There's a secret ingredient, the chorizo. We normally don't eat chorizo because it's pork. And ma mere don't buy cornstarch because of the "corn".
Ma mere never attempted to do this dish because she knows it's a difficult dish. She says it really felt special when I cooked this.
Next time, I should give mes tantes some of my dish right from the start. I totally forgot in the excitement. They're the ones who lent me the chorizo and the cornstarch.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Experiment 18: Instant Chicken Noodle Soup
Prelab:
Ma mere's sick since Wednesday. Last night, after work, mon pere couldn't find where that Chicken Soup was, but I found it easily. Anyways, I cooked (or more like boiled) it for them. It's been a while since I did something in the kitchen. I've been busy working to support myself.
Since the label had straightforward instructions, it was fairly easy, like Chemistry.
Date Performed: October 8, 2010
Ingredients:
1 sachet of Knorr Instant Chicken Noodle Soup (serves 4)
1 L of distilled water
1 small Lettuce (.0333 kg)
2 small eggs
Preparation:
Boil 1 liter of water. Add the Instant Noodle Soup sachet and stir.
Lower the flame to medium-fire. Add the cut lettuce leaves. Add in one beaten egg (for texture). Then, add one egg on the side (do not stir). Lower the flame to low-fire.
Wait for 7 minutes to be done (from the time the sachet was added). Serve.
Post-lab:
LOL. Mon pere says that the soup tastes good. Well, of course it tastes good if you followed the label's instruction properly. Though there's no way I could perfect "5 tasas" (5 small cups), the label said 1 liter of water - which was easier. The label also says to cook it for 5 minutes, but I cooked it for 7 minutes because I had to count the cooking time for the egg. There was a 2-minute lapse between adding the sachet and adding the extra ingredients (lettuce, beaten egg, egg), that's why.
Mon pere cooked sinigang that night. I think the instant chicken noodle soup and the sinigang don't match, but then again, ours isn't a traditional family limited with dish traditions. We can eat lugaw (rice porridge) even at the afternoon or at night (even though it's considered a morning dish locally).
Ma mere's sick since Wednesday. Last night, after work, mon pere couldn't find where that Chicken Soup was, but I found it easily. Anyways, I cooked (or more like boiled) it for them. It's been a while since I did something in the kitchen. I've been busy working to support myself.
Since the label had straightforward instructions, it was fairly easy, like Chemistry.
Date Performed: October 8, 2010
Ingredients:
1 sachet of Knorr Instant Chicken Noodle Soup (serves 4)
1 L of distilled water
1 small Lettuce (.0333 kg)
2 small eggs
Preparation:
Boil 1 liter of water. Add the Instant Noodle Soup sachet and stir.
Lower the flame to medium-fire. Add the cut lettuce leaves. Add in one beaten egg (for texture). Then, add one egg on the side (do not stir). Lower the flame to low-fire.
Wait for 7 minutes to be done (from the time the sachet was added). Serve.
Post-lab:
LOL. Mon pere says that the soup tastes good. Well, of course it tastes good if you followed the label's instruction properly. Though there's no way I could perfect "5 tasas" (5 small cups), the label said 1 liter of water - which was easier. The label also says to cook it for 5 minutes, but I cooked it for 7 minutes because I had to count the cooking time for the egg. There was a 2-minute lapse between adding the sachet and adding the extra ingredients (lettuce, beaten egg, egg), that's why.
Mon pere cooked sinigang that night. I think the instant chicken noodle soup and the sinigang don't match, but then again, ours isn't a traditional family limited with dish traditions. We can eat lugaw (rice porridge) even at the afternoon or at night (even though it's considered a morning dish locally).
Friday, February 19, 2010
Revisiting Expt 11 - Traditional Chicken Stew
Prelab:
I cooked ma mere's traditional, local chicken stew today. It is said that chicken soup is good for sick people. Since mon pere is ill and ma mere has her hands full, I had to cook the requested dish.
Date Performed: Feb. 19, 2010
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (640 g)
6 small cloves of garlic, chopped
1 slice ginger (amounts as much as the garlic), chopped thinly
1 small white onion, chopped
2 tbsps fish sauce (a.k.a. patis)
4 cups water
1 whole green papaya, chopped
1 small bundle of green chilli (a.k.a. sili) leaves (50 g)
* If you don't have green papaya (that is, the unripe papaya), you may use jute (a.k.a. saluyot) instead.
Preparation:
Sautee ginger, garlic, and onion in that order. Add the chicken. Cover. Wait for the chicken to turn light brown (approx. 10 minutes). Add 2 tbsps of fish sauce. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Pour 4 cups of water (because the water should cover the meat). Then, add papaya. Cover and bring to a boil (approx. 10 minutes). When it boils, reduce the flame to low heat (and wait for 10 more minutes or until the papaya is cooked - that is, you can run through a fork into it easily). Add the chilli leaves. Mix quickly and turn off the flame. Serve hot.
Post-lab:
So far, the chicken soup tastes good.
I'm famished. I think I want to eat right now. They did give me permission to do so. They won't be back until much later. Oh well.
Ma mere says that the dish would taste better with chicken liver (not the crushed version, but rather, the normal version you find in the grocery).
I cooked ma mere's traditional, local chicken stew today. It is said that chicken soup is good for sick people. Since mon pere is ill and ma mere has her hands full, I had to cook the requested dish.
Date Performed: Feb. 19, 2010
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (640 g)
6 small cloves of garlic, chopped
1 slice ginger (amounts as much as the garlic), chopped thinly
1 small white onion, chopped
2 tbsps fish sauce (a.k.a. patis)
4 cups water
1 whole green papaya, chopped
1 small bundle of green chilli (a.k.a. sili) leaves (50 g)
* If you don't have green papaya (that is, the unripe papaya), you may use jute (a.k.a. saluyot) instead.
Preparation:
Sautee ginger, garlic, and onion in that order. Add the chicken. Cover. Wait for the chicken to turn light brown (approx. 10 minutes). Add 2 tbsps of fish sauce. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Pour 4 cups of water (because the water should cover the meat). Then, add papaya. Cover and bring to a boil (approx. 10 minutes). When it boils, reduce the flame to low heat (and wait for 10 more minutes or until the papaya is cooked - that is, you can run through a fork into it easily). Add the chilli leaves. Mix quickly and turn off the flame. Serve hot.
Post-lab:
So far, the chicken soup tastes good.
I'm famished. I think I want to eat right now. They did give me permission to do so. They won't be back until much later. Oh well.
Ma mere says that the dish would taste better with chicken liver (not the crushed version, but rather, the normal version you find in the grocery).
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Oily? Cooking Something Cooked, part 2
Prelab:
Another task ma mere left was to cook (or heat) the ham slices. At least this was easier.
Date Performed: December 24, 2009
Ingredients:
4 slices of sweet ham
oil
Preparation:
Heat a minimal amount of oil in pan.
Add slices of ham.
Turn occasionally.
When the pale-red meat becomes reddish brown, then it's done.
Post-lab:
This was easy. No big deal. Just let the oil from the ham juice out.
However, mon pere interfered somewhere in the middle and poured another 1 tbsp oil, so half of it tasted normal and the other half tasted sweet.
Another task ma mere left was to cook (or heat) the ham slices. At least this was easier.
Date Performed: December 24, 2009
Ingredients:
4 slices of sweet ham
oil
Preparation:
Heat a minimal amount of oil in pan.
Add slices of ham.
Turn occasionally.
When the pale-red meat becomes reddish brown, then it's done.
Post-lab:
This was easy. No big deal. Just let the oil from the ham juice out.
However, mon pere interfered somewhere in the middle and poured another 1 tbsp oil, so half of it tasted normal and the other half tasted sweet.
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