Dear Diary.....

Dear Diary......

2018 has just started and I am very  happy because I have been spending it with friends, cooking and experimenting with new recipes.

2017 was a busy year for me.  I was busy traveling all year long!

January - Legazpi City
February - Boracay and Hongkong
March - Bangkok
April - Kuala Lumpur
May - Cebu
June - Tokyo and Seoul
July - Bangkok
August - Cebu
September - Hongkong
October - Seoul
November - I was sick
December - Boracay and Bangkok

Whenever I have an upcoming trip, my focus is always on my "eatinerary" and what clothes to bring and the quantity.  I rarely have enough time to spend with my friends.

Usually, I am with them in my travels but no more time to cook and hangout with them at home.

But this year.... I think is the year for just staying at home, cooking and inviting my friends over!

January 4

Ihaw Ihaw

Sherman is home from Japan!  Much to Jing's delight!

Hahahahaha so we asked him to grill liempo for us because he really does it so well.  Thank you, Sherman!

I cooked Sinigang na Shortribs.

I also asked Sherman to grill the pork bbq.

Adiel brought Embutido.   She made it herself.

Cecille brought Banana Cream Pie from Starbucks.

Mona and Corry also joined us for lunch.

January 6

Carrie's 18th Birthday

Carrie is my baking and cooking student.

She just celebrated her birthday last week at The Palms Country Club.

January 7

Farmers Market Day

So sad. My tapa vendor, Gil,  passed away last January 3.  He had flu like symptoms but the cause of death was Leptospirosis.

Tricia and I bought Shabu Shabu balls from Wei Wei Cold Storage.  I invited Babita to have dinner with me last Sunday.

January 8

I cooked French Beans with Ground Pork for lunch.

Nam Prik Ong for dinner with Tricia and Mia.

January 9

Shey and I were in the mood to cook.

My lunch was Mayette's Soyless Chicken and Pork Adobo

and Steamed Shrimps with Wansuy.

Dinner was at Shey's.  Mona could not make it so it was just Tricia, Cat, Shey and I.

Her specialty is Ikea Meatballs!

With Cream Gravy.

Cat brought Chocolate Cake from Polly's and I brought the Lingonberry jam I bought in Ikea.

Tricia brought buttered corn and red rice.

I also brought Mashed Potatoes.

I let them try my "al dente (10 minutes cooking time)" Spaghetti with Italian Meat Sauce.

Hahahaha  I found it too "asim" so I killed it with sugar! Lots and lots of sugar! It was not a hit with the Junkies.

Tricia asked for the recipe. She said she will cook it without sugar.  Ok! Fine! Hihihihi!

Italian Meat Sauce

500 gr. lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
150 gr. Del Monte Toato Paste
28 oz. Peeled tomatoes. San Marzano, if possible.  FGM gave it to me.

1/2 t. dried basil
1/2 t. dried oregano
2 t. salt
1 t. pepper
1/3 C. white sugar or put as much or as little as you like.

Saute ground beef in a pot until slightly brown in color.

Add the garlic and onion and cook until the onion is soft and translucent.

Add the tomato paste and the whole peeled tomatoes.

Season with salt, pepper, basil, oregano and sugar.

Simmer over low heat for 2 hours.  Stir every 20 minutes.

After dinner, Cat, Shey and I went to Cat's new bar, Wantusawa Oyster Bar, on Felipe St., Poblacion Makati.

It was a little late already so we just had Tofu and Crispy Tawilis with The Botanist.

January 10

I invited Jing, Mayette and Jon over to help me eat the spaghetti with Italian Meat Sauce.

I still had leftover pizza dough in the fridge.

I just bought Ragu Pizza Sauce and Mozzarella cheese so we can have pizza for lunch.

My mistake was I put the dough on a piece of baking paper.  It got stuck on the paper!

Good thing Jing brought a baguette and we used it to make pizza.

Mayette and Jon brought ham and pan de sal.

I had dinner with my Perlas ng Silangan group! FGM Cindy, Vinnie and Tita Mench!

We wanted to eat at Korean Garden but parking was full so we ended up eating dinner at Meylin.

Papa tim

Cuapao

Hot and Sour soup

Pancit Canton

Yangchow Fried Rice

Oyster Omelette

Seafood Noodle soup

Fresh Lumpia

January 11

Redemption!

I wanted to redeem myself from my failed pizza experiment the day before.

I bought an Italian flour in Market Place.

Mona asked me if we were going to make "jeje" picha.  I replied, NOOOO! We are going to use Farina Tripo "00"!

Experiment for the day:

Pizza Napoletana

Crust:

2 C. Farina Tripo 00 flour
1/2 t. salt
3/4 C. water
1 t. instant dried yeast
1/4 t. sugar

Follow the procedure from the Pizza From Scratch post.

Pizza Sauce

14 oz. can Whole peeled tomatoes
1 t.salt
1 t.sugar
Basil leaves, a few pieces.

Put all ingredients in a bowl.  Use a stick blender to crush the tomatoes.  Set aside.

Roll and flatten the dough out.

Put on top of a greased baking pan.  Prick all over with a fork.  Half- bake for a few minutes until the dough is a bit golden.

Spread pizza sauce on the crust, top with shredded mozzarella cheese and fresh basil leaves.

Put on top of a pizza stone in a pre-heated 450 degree oven.

Bake until the cheese is bubbly.

I think I have redeemed myself!

Wantusawa Oyster Bar

Shey, Cat and I went back to Wantusawa Oyster Bar with Mona!

The oysters are flown in everyday from Aklan.

Loved it! I had 6 raw oysters

Baked Oysters with Miso Sauce

Fried Oysters with a special sauce.

Shey tried the Grilled Prawns Laksa.

And Crispy Tawilis for everybody.

Beside Wantusawa is EBI 10.  It is a tempura place!  I ordered 2 small shrimp tempura and it was not small at all!

It had lacy batter coating so light it was like Okoy.

(I ate again at Ebi 10 today, January 13 and the batter was not light anymore.  I wonder what happened?)

We also tried the stuffed mushrooms.

January 12

Boracay's Choriburger

I bought the longanisa in Boracay last December. It was my pasalubong for the Junkies but only had time to cook it for them today.

Merienda

Thin crust pizza with ham.

Pizza with shrimps, anchovies, mushrooms and garlic.

Dinner

Menudillo

1/4 K. lean ground pork
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 pcs. tomatoes, chopped
2 T. Del Monte tomato paste
1 small red pepper, chopped
60 gr. riasins
1 C. water
1 Knorr beef cube
1/2 t. black pepper
1 t. Thai fish sauce
1/2 t. msg
1/2 t. salt
1 pc. potato, cubed
1 pc. carrot, cubed
peas, optional

Saute the pork in a pan until oil comes out.

Add the onion and garlic.  Cook until the onion is soft and translucent.

Add the tomatoes and red pepper.  Cook until the tomatoes are mushy.

Add the tomato paste.  Continue sauteing for a few minutes then add the water and the rest of the seasonings.

Then add the potato and carrot.  Cook until the potato is soft.

Adjust the taste to your own liking.

Mona and I loved it!

I had a full week entertaining friends, cooking and experimenting.

Hopefully, I will come up with more recipes I can share with all of you.

PS

Snowball was pampered by our guests and she was in heaven.

Lucky spoiled Snowy!

Thai Shrimp Cake

I experimented with Thai Shrimp Cakes today.

I was trying to replicate the Shrimp Cakes I ate in Bangkok.

The secret is in the dipping sauce, I suppose.  I just bought the bottled plum sauce.

I am updating this post because I have a simpler and better recipe.

Thai Shrimp Cakes

Shrimp Paste:

1/2 K. shrimps
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. white peppe
2 t. Thai soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 wansuy roots, cleaned and chopped
100 g. pork fat, chopped (optional)

1 C. panko breadcrumbs
oil for deep frying

Peel and chop the shrimps coarsely.

Flatten with the side of the knife.

I used the stick blender to process the shrimps but if you have a food processor, use it, otherwise chop with the knife.

Combine  the rest of the ingredients and process with the stick blender.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Scoop and form a ball, golf ball size, then flatten but not too flat.  Roll in panko crumbs then poke a hole in the center.

Heat the oil up to 170C and deep fry until golden brown.

Serve with plum sauce or sweet chili sauce.

"Picha" Night

We finally used Tricia's brick oven!

It is parked in my garage and we waited for several months until the weather is cool enough for pizza night!

We made our own crust.  I used the recipe from my Pizza From Scratch post.

Rico, our neighbor, said we should not use a rolling pin so the next crust we made was just stretched manually.

We used Barilla Napoletana Sauce.

It was a bring your own topping night. 

Tricia, Cat, Mona, Mabel, Babita and I bought the toppings we like.

Prosiutto, arugula, ham, pineapple, salami, shrimps, mushrooms, anchovies, tomatoes, green pepper and garlic.

Tricia was so adamant that the first pizza that we bake should NOT have any "pineapple" bits!!!

But Cat, Mona and I love PICHA pie with pineapples!

Whew! We were so afraid. Baka magkaubusan ng pinya!

Hahahahaha Tricia took pity on us and the first one out of the brick oven was.....

TADA! Ham and Pineapple Picha!!!

Then everybody had their turn putting the toppings that they want on their pizzas.

It was a fun night but I don't think I want to eat pizza in the next few weeks!

We baked a total of 10 pizzas!

Until the next "picha" night, ladies!

Korean Fried Chicken With Honey Garlic Glaze

My 1st recipe I am sharing for 2018 is Korean Fried Chicken With Honey Garlic Glaze.

I have a previous recipe in this blog but after my trip to Seoul, I improved my recipe a bit.  They sprinkled nuts on the fried chicken before serving it.

Korean Fried Chicken

1/2 K. Buffalo wings or any cut of chicken
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 t. ginger, grated
1/3 C. rice flour, potato or corn starch
2 C. cooking oil

Add salt, pepper and ginger to the chicken.

Put the flour or starch in a bowl and add the chicken. Make sure the chicken is coated with the flour or starch.  Strain the chicken pieces over a sieve shaking the excess coating then set aside.

Heat the oil.  I used my thermo gun until it reached 170 C.  Drop the chicken a few pieces at a time. Fry until almost cooked.  Drain and set aside.

After 30 minutes to an hour, heat the oil and fry the chicken a second time until crunchy  then put into the pan with  soy garlic glaze.

Soy Garlic Glaze

1. T. cooking oil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped

Sauce

2T. Sempio Korean soy sauce
3 T. honey
2 T. Gochujang (Korean chili paste)
1/2 T Cane vinegar
1 T. brown sugar
1 T. white sugar

1 T. sesame seeds toasted
2 T. peanuts, chopped

Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and set aside.

Heat oil in a non stick pan.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.  Add the sauce.  When  it is thick and bubbly, add the twice fried chicken.

Garnish with peanuts and sesame seeds.