Good food, great writing, decent photos. Yes, that's about right.
The avocado was supposed to go into sushi but I cooked all the Japanese rice we had to make oyakudon. Sam looked at the lonely avocado ruefully, suggested that we make a salad with it then she commandeered my computer to search for recipes. But I didn’t need any recipe. I knew exactly how I would make the salad.
My idea was to make something like a very chunky guacamole but without the heat and the cilantro that Sam dislikes so much. Fast, easy, delicious. [Read more...]
Sam likes buying those frozen seafood balls in the grocery — fish balls, squid balls, shrimp balls, prawn balls, crab balls, lobster balls… I always ask her to choose fish balls over the others because I am allergic to crustaceans. Last time, she wanted lobster balls and she couldn’t be persuaded to choose something else. I sighed — resigned to the fact that I won’t get a bite.
Earlier today, I was preparing lunch and I realized that the freezer was almost empty. But the bag of lobster balls was still unopened. I decided I’d make something with it for the girls and I could just have the leftover almondigas from last night.
I was cutting the bag open when my eyes lingered on the labels. What do you know? The darn lobster balls were made with fish. Good for me.
Inspired that I could eat more than leftovers, I did something really good with the lobster balls. I stir fried them with sitaw, very Chinese style.
Then, I made avocado salad at Sam’s insistence. The avocado salad recipe, later; the recipe for the lobster calls and long beans stir fry, right now. [Read more...]
It has a graham cracker crust and it is baked but at a lower temperature and without the baine marie. It has all the traditional ingredients for a cheesecake — cream cheese, cream, sugar and eggs. Yet, it is not a cheesecake. It’s a pie that is not as dense as a cheesecake yet it is richer and more substantial than a custard. And it has bits of fresh mangoes in it.
Wherever did the idea come from? Panic and desperation. Sam had been hankering for a cheesecake; Alex wanted a mango cheesecake. But I had only one 250-gram block of cream cheese and I usually use twice as much when making cheesecake. So, I decided to take a gamble. Halve the cheesecake recipe somewhat, add chopped fresh mangoes and hope that the natural juices of the mango wouldn’t ruin the result. The gamble paid off very handsomely. The mango cheese pie was good. [Read more...]
Commenting on the deteriorating interest in home cooking, the program mix on The Food Network and the Cooking Channel, and the general dumbing down of the public, Seattle Times nutrition columnist Carrie Dennett says:
More than half of these shows are “food-related entertainment,” not “instructional cooking programs”…
One visible fallout from this loss of basic cooking skills is a “dumbing down” of recipes in cookbooks and food magazines…
This post’s title is from the quoted article.
Considering how these networks are raking in the big bucks, we can safely conclude that the formula works. At least, from a business point of view. Which is really the only view that network producers see. They aren’t in the food show business to embark on a mission to educate, after all. They’re there to make money. That’s what the shows are about. [Read more...]
If you Google “melon cocktail”, you’ll find that there are two categories. The first is an alcoholic drink; the second is a dessert. This falls under the second category. But while most melon cocktail desserts simply used balled melon and a sprinkle of mint leaves, this is something more. Yep, the grape syrup which I have to tell you about.
Last week we were at the grocery, Sam wanted seedless grapes so I picked a pack. The grapes weren’t too sweet — in fact, there were quite sour — and they sat in the fridge for a couple of days. Unwanted. Uneaten.
Speedy does not like food going to waste. Yesterday, he chopped the grapes, put them in a pot, added water and sugar and let everything simmer until thickened. Then, he strained the liquid and discarded the pulp. Voila! Grape syrup.
After lunch yesterday, I noticed that the melon on the kitchen island was already very ripe. I asked Speedy what he intended to make with it.
And he made this melon cocktail for dessert. He scooped the melon flesh using a small ice cream scoop (you can use an ordinary baller), dropped the melon rounds into dessert glasses, poured grape syrup over them then he topped his creation with maraschino cherry.
This fruit dessert is very easy to make and it’s so refreshingly good. The syrup adds a stickiness and richness that really transform the melon. If you don’t have grape syrup, you can use other fruit-based syrup that would go well with melon. [Read more...]
According to Tastefully Done, age means deep fried and dashi, of course, is the stock made with bonito flakes and kelp. Hence, agedashi tofu. For me, it’s the queen of tofu dishes. Squares of fried delicate soft tofu served with a light salty-sweet sauce.
Two characteristics make this dish stand out. First, the contrasting textures of the fried tofu — soft inside but crisp outside because of the coating. Second, the sauce in which the tofu is served. Most restaurants serve the sauce on the side as a dipping sauce. I think it’s better to let the tofu sit in the sauce. By itself, the fried tofu is bland but give it a chance to absorb the sauce and it becomes perfectly seasoned.
The obvious question is whether the crisp coating won’t turn soggy if allowed to sit in the sauce. Two things. You have to press out the excess liquid from the tofu. And — this is really important — use starch rather than flour. Tapioca starch, if you can find it, or cornstarch as a substitute. Don’t use flour because a flour coating turns soggy within a few minutes even before the tofu touches the sauce.
Is agedashi tofu an easy recipe or is it for seasoned cooks only? Let’s just say that it doesn’t take a miracle to successfully fry soft tofu. The key is in finding the right kind of tofu and learning how to handle it. For me, the ideal tofu for this dish is kinugoshi or “cotton” tofu which is firmer than silken tofu but softer than firm tofu. I buy mine from Shopwise. [Read more...]
When Sam’s in the mood, she makes magic in the kitchen. She browsed the web for instructions on how to make mochi, I gave her a bag of glutinous rice flour and she made pink mochi with a bowl, a fork, the microwave oven and red food color. The first time she gave me a sample, the mochi was round and had chocolate ice cream filling. I was in awe of her. The next day, I told her to giver her father a taste of her mochi, the creative mood had passed and she just dumped ice cream and pieces of mochi into dessert bowls. Still delicious but not as pretty as what she gave me the night before.
Saturday night, we went out to see The Avengers. Alex had seen it with her school friends on opening day because, well… she had to be among the first. It’s a Robert Downey, Jr. thing. She’s smitten. Speedy and I, on the other hand, hate seeing any movie on opening day. We don’t like jostling with the crowd. So, we waited. When we finally went, we all went. Speedy, me, Sam and Alex. Yes, Alex. Told you. It’s a Robert Downey Jr. thing.
So, anyway, we finally saw the movie that everybody had been raving about. Nice visual effects. Nice action. Scarlett Johansson is gorgeous. So is Chris Hemsworth. I won’t rave about the movie though. It was okay. It had its high moments, it had some really funny moments… But much as I appreciate technology and the wonders of computer-generated visual effects, in the end, a film is still about a good story and how it is executed. And the movie could have used more in terms of story.
But this isn’t really about The Avengers. This is about what we ate after the movie. We had sandwiches before we left the house, we had coffee at Starbucks while waiting for the screening time (Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf was full), the movie was over two hours long and we were hungry by the time we were on our way home. For some reason, Speedy suggested Burger Machine. Why he did, I had no idea. Or maybe I do.
The girls often talk about Burger Machine. Apparently, it’s a popular thing in their school. CHEAP, available in almost every city block, open 24/7 and CHEAP. Personally, I haven’t been to a Burger Machine outlet since the girls were toddlers. We were in Mandaluyong, it was almost midnight, we were hungry and Burger Machine along Shaw Boulevard was open. If you’re familiar with the place, Burger Machine in Shaw isn’t a mere stall — it is a restaurant. We ordered rice, tapsilog or something, we asked for spoons and forks, we were given disposable plastics and told that they would cost extra. Excuse me? Charging customers extra for spoons and forks? And just how were we supposed to eat the rice, eggs and meat — with our hands? To make a long story short, we paid extra and we have never patronized any Burger Machine anything since. Until last night. [Read more...]
Okra has a bad reputation in our house. So bad a reputation that I’m the only one that eats it. Speedy’s and the girls’ complaint? Okra is slimy. Okra makes them think of snot and that’s not edible. But okra is so good and I’ve been trying to convince them to try it. To no avail. Until a few days ago.
We visited Speedy’s mom on her birthday. Speedy’s younger brother, Buddy, was there and Speedy noticed at once how much weight Buddy has lost. To his credit, Buddy has always been an exercise freak. He used to lift weights, he played badminton and, these days, it’s biking. But he doesn’t always have time for exercise because he’s primarily in charge of caring for their mother who is now 85. Plus, he likes his beer so very, very much. So, there are periods when he’d put on weight. And, last time we saw him, he had a lot of extra pounds in him especially around the middle.
So, Speedy commented on Buddy’s apparent weight loss and asked what he had done. Buddy’s answer? Okra.
Okay, don’t take that to mean that eating okra is a miracle weight loss diet. That point is that Buddy, a very carnivorous person, was never really into vegetables. But while he, like Speedy, hated okra when he was younger, he has now learned to appreciate it. Unless he was joking. At any rate, it was a good occasion to nag Speedy about okra. A few days later, I picked up a bag of okra at the grocery, I showed it to him questioningly, he didn’t object and I cooked the okra the best way I could to minimize the sliminess — breaded and fried. [Read more...]
Teaching Speedy how to love okra. I might start with one of these three beautiful okra dishes: okra fries (microwave recipe), breaded fried okra and okra sabzi.
It's tempting to simply ask that you Google "Connie Veneracion" or "Sassy Lawyer" or "Pinoy Cook" and have this page done with. But that might give you the wrong idea about me. A third of what's been written about me is true, a third is half-true and the rest consists of drug-induced hallucinations. I suppose I'd better let me, rather than them, tell you about me... »»
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Casa is Spanish for house. CASA is also an acronym for Connie, Antonio, Sam and Alex. We are all surnamed Veneracion. We all love to take photos -- of anything that catches our fancy. It's a family obsession.
This is a journal of how we live, eat, learn, play and have fun. Work? Work is part of playing and having fun. Seriously.
In 2003, a time when I hadn't heard of the term "blog", I started a recipe website at cooking.houseonahill.net using a now defunct content management system that ran on ASP. Ok, never mind the geek talk, I'm sure you're not interested in that. The contents easily multiplied and, in 2004, I moved the food site to pinoycook.net. Always unhappy with the fact that the dot com versions of houseonahill and pinoycook weren't … (click here to read all »)
Okra has a bad reputation in our house. So bad a reputation that I'm the … (more...)
When I first came across this spinach recipe in The New York Times health … (more...)
This is an updated version of a recipe originally published on September … (more...)
In the Philippines, melon usually refers to the cantaloupe or rockmelon. … (more...)
A one-pot dish that's a breeze to prepare. The sausage meat makes the broth … (more...)
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