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Pan de sal with ground beef stew

Pan de sal with ground beef stewTurn leftover stew into a hearty breakfast.

Split a pan de sal. Lay some lettuce on one half. Spoon some filling on top of the lettuce, top with the other half of the pan de sal and enjoy. The meat filling is the stew from the dish called Arroz A La Cubana. You can also top the beef stew with a fried egg or slices of hard-boiled egg before covering with the top half of the bread.

Bread… it’s been on the news so much lately because of the rising prices of wheat and grain. Not that the rising price and shrinking size of the pan de sal is something new. I’ve been hearing about that complaint since I was a child. What’s new are the suggested substitutes to flour for making pan de sal.

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Tilapia with shredded corn and coconut cream

Tilapia fillets with shredded corn and coconut milkOne of the dishes we really enjoy at President Restaurant in Chinatown is the fish fillets with corn sauce. I’ve done a chowder version of that dish in the past and I called it talakitok belly and corn chowder. It was good, no doubt, but I discovered that if the flour and butter based sauce is replaced with coconut cream, it’s even better. More than that, if you use shredded fresh corn instead of canned corn kernels, the sauce becomes even thicker and richer because of the starch. If the yellows and whites make the dish look too boring, add some greens and you not only make the dish more nutritious, it becomes more visually appealing as well.

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Panic in the kitchen

cutting corn

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Cream style corn in my pancakes

cream style corn in my pancakesLast Sunday was the first time I was going to make corn dogs using cornmeal instead of the usual pancake mix. I used a recipe from the Food Network, one by Alton Brown, and the result was not even mildly satisfactory. The inclusion of cream style corn in the batter was an unnecessary complication, as far as I was concerned.

Anyway, since I didn’t use the contents of an entire can of cream style corn, I kept the remaining half in the fridge. It went to good use yesterday morning — pancakes with cream style corn.

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Corn muffins a la Kenny Rogers

So, it’s the morning of Christmas Day and you haven’t totally digested the previous night’s noche buena feast. You want breakfast though but you want to keep it light. Boxed cereals, perhaps? Boring. Oatmeal? Eeeeww… do you have to feel like an invalid on Christmas Day? Pan de sal with kesong puti? Great if you ... (more)

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Maiz con hielo

maiz-con-yelo1

The spelling may differ — maiz con yelo, mais con yelo, maiz con hielo… But they all refer to the same thing — a cold and refreshing snack made with sweet corn, shaved ice, milk and sugar. Serve it plain or top it with crisp pinipig, crushed corn flakes or even with ice cream. If ... (more)

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A side dish: buttered corn and carrots

When my kids ask for fried chicken — and they do about once a month — I try to vary the side dish that I served with the chicken. The same rule applies with grilled or roast pork or even fried fish. Grilled or fried meat or seafood is always better when there is a ... (more)

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Corn muffins

UPDATE on December 11, 2007: Click here for a much, much, much better recipe for corn muffins. I have this still unopened pack of paper cups that was gathering dust at the back of one of the kitchen cabinets. I discovered it as I was reaching for a mixing bowl. On the backside of the ... (more)

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Butter – fried fish and corn

I have an older version of this recipe. The fish fillets are seasoned, dredged in flour and deep fried until golden. The sauce, thickened with a little starch, is cooked separately. Then, the sauce is poured over the crisp fish. It’s a dish that’s best served right after cooking. But for a packed school lunch, ... (more)

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Chicken, ham and leeks fried rice

I sliced the breast meat from a partially thawed whole chicken to make this fried rice for my daughters’ packed school lunch this morning. To add variety, I also added sliced smoked ham. I would have loved to use a medley of vegetables but the only veggies we had were the light green portion of ... (more)