The Sassy Lawyer & Pinoy Cook on food, family and home.
Cooking isn't just about a list of ingredients and following procedures. Cooking is about getting acquainted with ingredients, sourcing them and getting a feel of how they blend with each other. It is about learning to make adjustments to suit personal tastes. And cooking is also about avoiding impending disasters or fixing ones that have already struck. Here are some things we've learned.
Eggplants. Inexpensive. Filling. Easy to prepare. Versatile. Cooks in a jiffy. Eggplants are moist and succulent and, if you’re lucky to have Asian eggplants, sweet. What’s not to like? The trouble with eggplants is that cooking them can be tricky. Undercook them by one minute and they would be too tough. Overcook them by a ... (more)
First, you have got to read about why the definition of good food and cooking is largely psychological and a by-product of our childhood. I believe it — there really is no good or bad food (only inedible ones like badly burnt food) because food appreciation is a personal thing. If one grew up with ... (more)
“Tie-dye” is a process of dyeing fabric so that unique patterns are formed usually in bright colors. Sam was the one who brought the idea into our house. She tie-dyed some shirts and I even managed to photograph her at work. The idea of using the tie-dyeing technique on food is nothing new. If you ... (more)
Don’t think that just because you can cook, you’re immune from kitchen disasters. I’ve been cooking since the fourth grade and I still make mistakes. Sometimes, the mistake isn’t even exactly my fault. For instance? We use a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) powered Elba oven. On the average, a tank of LPG lasts five weeks ... (more)
Some five days ago, craving for something sweet past midnight, Speedy started spooning dulce de leche from its container. He was in the kitchen and a few inches away was the jar of Nutella. I don’t know provoked him. He scooped some dulce de leche with his teaspoon then scooped Nutella. He ate the two ... (more)
What do soy sauce, soy milk and tofu have in common? They are all made from soy beans. Soy sauce is produced by fermenting soy beans with salt and water. Soy milk is the result of grinding dried soy beans that had been soaked in water. Tofu is coagulated soy milk. Edamame is the Japanese ... (more)
So, my mother has gone back to her house in the city. Meanwhile, I have a few more recipes and kitchen tips for the dishes that I cooked during the days that she stayed with us. Low-fat, low-sodium, easily digestible food for a 74-year-old. Let’s start with eggplant omelet, one of the easiest dishes to ... (more)
Alfalfa is a flowering plant that belongs to the pea family. In the West, it has long been grown for cattle feed. In Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, alfalfa has been used for centuries to treat many health disorders. From Herbal Supplement Resource: Alfalfa has a long history of use in China as an appetite stimulant, ... (more)
Long before we came across the term dulce de leche, Speedy and I had been boiling sweetened condensed milk in its unopened can to transform the milk into a thick caramel. We’d spoon the caramel and just eat it like that. So indulgent. So delicious. This was around the time that Sam was a little ... (more)
I’ve seen a lot of chefs on TV cutting off a thick chunk of the pineapple’s skin to remove the “eyes.” So wasteful. Those eyes are at least a quarter of an inch deep, there’s a lot of edible flesh between the eyes and, ergo, so much of the luscious flesh gets discarded with the ... (more)
To say that the English translation for suman is rice cake is a bit … »»
It's such a challenge photographing a dish that doesn't look colorful. With … »»
Don't confuse Filipino-style picadillo with the Mexican and Cuban picadillo … »»
Note: This is an updated version of a previously published recipe. Adobo … »»
After a quick trip to the market, Speedy checked his Facebook account, … »»
Still experimenting with alternative methods of cooking, after using the … »»
If you're looking for the easiest cocktail drink recipe ever, you just … »»
A simple, easy and very tasty pasta dish that you can cook in one pan. … »»
I can't resist a good recipe when I come across one. I was browsing food … »»
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 »)
It has a graham cracker crust and it is baked but at a lower temperature … (more...)
If you Google "melon cocktail", you'll find that there are two categories. … (more...)
According to Tastefully Done, age means deep fried and dashi, of course, is … (more...)
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...)
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