The Sassy Lawyer & Pinoy Cook on food, family and home.
My 15-year-old daughter, Alex, recently discovered Shakey’s and fell in love with mojo potatoes. Of course, Shakey’s has been around for decades. We used to hang out at Shakey’s when we were in high school. But those were times when Shakey’s was a family place. By the time I had kids, Shakey’s had reinvented itself ... (more)
I was raised on an Asian diet. Speedy was raised on an American diet. He grew up in Manhattan. I mean Manhattan in Cubao, Quezon City. But his mother became an adult during the post-war years, assimilated the American culture very well and so raised her children on very American food. To this day, Speedy ... (more)
Potato. One of my favorite vegetables. I can eat it boiled, grilled, fried, steamed or baked. With or without the skin. It is so versatile that it can accompany meat or fish. It can even be a meal by itself. If you have large potatoes, one baked potato with all the trimmings can be a ... (more)
Much as I love Asian food, I have to admit that I’m a late bloomer when it comes to appreciating Middle Eastern cuisines. Growing up, I only knew about curried dishes and I wouldn’t cook my first lamb biryani until my daughters were in grade school. And not many people I know like Middle Eastern ... (more)
I like meat as much as the next carnivorous person but I really haven’t acquired the taste for partially cooked beef unless it’s sliced paper-thin, sukiyaki style. Oh, I eat my steak rare but it’s not something I crave for. And I like roast meat as well except that I find it inconvenient to have ... (more)
A frittata is an Italian omelet that is partially cooked on the stove top then broiled in the oven. Why? Because the frittata is served open-faced and you want it evenly cooked with both the topside and the underside uniformly browned as much as possible. If an omelet is served open-faced but was not even ... (more)
After three and a half centuries of Spanish colonization, it is not surprising that we find a lot of Mediterranean style stews in our cuisine. There are claims, however, that what we consider as Spanish-influenced dishes more closely resemble their counterparts in Mexican cuisine. Whether or not that is true is something I’ll leave to ... (more)
If you’re not a reader of my other blog, let me explain that my firstborn is now in college and she stays in a rented condo during weekdays. Until she becomes more familiar with eateries in the area, I pack five sets of dinner for her every week that she can reheat in the microwave oven.
We drove her to her condo last night and one of the dishes she brought was this chicken and potatoes with creamy cheese sauce…
When I cooked squash and potato soup in the past, I went by a 1:2 ratio, that is, one part squash for two parts of potatoes. Like, if I had a quarter of a kilo of squash that means half a kilo of potatoes should go with it. The rationale behind the 1:2 ratio was the potato starch. I like my squash soup to be thick so I used more potatoes. The drawback, of course, was that the soup was paler than I’d like and the flavor — and sweetness — of the squash was not that pronounced.
A few days ago, I decided on a different technique — equal amounts of squash and potatoes and less broth…
In England where it originated, the takeaway (takeout) fish and chips dish is considered a working class meal. Cheap, fast and widely available. Some versions simply require the fish strips to be dredged in flour while others say it should be dipped in batter before frying. I sort of combine the two techniques. I do not pat the fish dry, then I add flour and mix them together so that the effect is not lightly dusted fish but fillets covered in a pasty coating. It’s almost like dipping the fish in batter except that you do away with the risk of having parts of the batter separate from the fish during frying. The coating turns crispier that way and it is more substantial too. The drawback, of course, is that you get more oil in the fried fish as well.
Ditch the canned fruit cocktail with the rubbery content that is 90% chewy … »»
The title is not meant to sound patriotic. I don't believe that patriotism … »»
I was on Twitter last night and there was a post by I-forgot-who with a … »»
The term "buko pandan" can mean either of two things. The first is buko … »»
No, I've never been to P.F. Chang's although I read that the U.S. food … »»
The most serious reason I missed my pressure cooker was because I love, … »»
The last time I heard the word batotoy, I was buying longganisa (native … »»
After a quick trip to the market, Speedy checked his Facebook account, … »»
Still experimenting with alternative methods of cooking, after using the … »»
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 »)
The avocado was supposed to go into sushi but I cooked all the Japanese … (more...)
Sam likes buying those frozen seafood balls in the grocery -- fish balls, … (more...)
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...)
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