Walnut and Raisins Green Salad

Taking inspiration from Cyma's famous Roka Salata I made this budget friendly alternative. Cultured palates may not give any notice to this, but the few regular folk that I've served this to a few times always gave it praise so I think this deserves to be shared.


INGREDIENTS:
Balsamic vinaigrette (balsamic vinegar, olive oil, black pepper, dried basil and dried oregano)
Romaine lettuce
Parmesan cheese (block, not ground)
Raisins
Walnuts
Brown sugar


1. Vinaigrette: Combine equal parts of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. About 1/4 cup each should be enough, otherwise you can just add more. Add about a teaspoon each of ground black pepper, basil and oregano. Set aside.


2. Place about a cup of walnuts on nonstick pan over medium heat and toast lightly. Sprinkle brown sugar and stir constantly until sugar melts and sticks to the walnuts (Warning: take care not to burn the sugar). Remove from heat and set aside.


3. Cut up cleaned/washed Romaine lettuce into bite sized pieces and place a large salad bowl. 


4. Add some of the raisins and candied walnuts into the lettuce and toss with prepared vinaigrette.


5. Sprinkle remaining raisins and walnuts on top of the salad.


6. Shave Parmesan cheese onto the salad using a vegetable peeler. 


All done!

Burrito Casserole

I wasn't always a fan of burritos, but this was really good. I'm now a fan of this burrito.


INGREDIENTS
Lean ground beef
1 packet taco seasoning
Refried beans
1 large can diced tomatoes
Sour cream
Campbell's cream of mushroom
Jalapenos
Shredded cheddar cheese
Burrito tortillas


STEPS
1. Sautee ground beef in cooking oil until meat is lightly cooked (raw areas are gone)
2. Add taco seasoning and continue cooking.
3. Add refried beans and  diced tomatoes and simmer for about a minute then take off from the heat.
4. In separate bowl, combine equal parts of sour cream and cream of mushroom. Mix well.
5. In baking dish, layer the meat sauce, cream of mushroom, shredded cheese and burrito tortillas -- just like the way you would with a lasagna.
6. Bake for 45 minutes at 350F.


Serve with more sour cream and some jalapenos on the side. 

Chicken a la King a la French Baker

The taste that I had in mind for this dish was that from the French Baker in SM City and I think mine came out pretty close, except that I didn't have the puff pastry to serve it with. It was still good anyway so it looks like I'll be making this again in the future.

INGREDIENTS and PREPARATION

Chicken breasts, cubed

Garlic, chopped

Onion, chopped

Carrots, peeled and cubed

Potatoes, peeled and cubed

Edemame seeds (could not find peas in my fridge)

Salt and Pepper

Bay leaf

Butter

All-purpose flour

Chicken broth cube dissolved in about 3 cups water

STEPS

1. Season chicken with S&P.

2. Sautee garlic in high heat with olive oil.

3. Add the chicken and bay leaf and continue sauteeing until surfaces of all chicken pieces are cooked.

4. Stir in the onions, carrot, potatoes and peas/edemame. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes at low heat.

5. In a separate pot, melt butter at low heat. Stir in the flour with a wire whisk and cook for about a minute (Proportion of flour should be about 75% butter to 1 whole flour). Pour in broth and stir to make a semi-translucent sauce.

6. Pour butter sauce into the chicken and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Pretty good! ;-)

Shrimp Cocktail

Another shrimp recipe. Just goes to show how much I love shrimp! This is an appetizer but I had it for an afternoon snack (teehee).


INGREDIENTS
Frozen peeled shrimp (pre-cooked, with tails on)
Ketchup
Lemon
Dill (fresh or frozen cubes will do nicely)
S&P


STEPS
1. Combine about a quarter cup of ketchup with two teaspoons chopped dill or 2 frozen cubes. 
2. Squeeze in about half a lemon and season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve with thawed shrimp.


Enjoy!

Basa Fillet in Butter and Garlic

This is what I made today, inspired by what I could only find in the fridge. Quick and simple yet very tasty. 

INGREDIENTS

Basa Fish Fillets

Butter

Olive oil

Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Lemon

STEPS

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Combine melted butter, olive oil and minced garlic in a bowl and season with S&P.

3. Grease a baking sheet lined with tin foil with some of this mixture.

4. Lay out fish fillets onto the greased and lined baking sheet.

5. Brush butter mixture generously over the fillets.

6. Place in oven and bake. 

7. After 10 minutes, place a few thin slices of lemon into each fillet and continue to bake for 10 more minutes.

Serve with steamed rice and some blanched green vegetables like broccoli.

Baked Rosemary Chicken

This one is very quick and easy. I had Italianni's Rosemary Chicken in mind when I made this.


INGREDIENTS


Chicken (breast or thigh, with skin)
Rosemary
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil
Herbs de Provence


STEPS
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Rub salt, pepper and rosemary on all chicken pieces thoroughly.
3. Lay out the meat in greased (with olive oil) baking sheet.
4. Brush olive oil on all pieces.
5. Sprinkle some herbs de provence on the chicken.
6. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes.


A trick that I use to make sure that chicken thighs are cooked through completely and not have any bloody sections is to cut through the meat along the bones to expose them. Always works for me.


Serve with some fragrant rice and grilled zucchini. 

Baked Hoisin Salmon

This is one of those dishes that I put together by taking only parts of some recipes that I like and adding it to some meat or fish that I prefer at the moment. Specifically, this is inspired by the dressing in California Pizza Kitchen's oriental chicken salad. It's very easy to prepare and something that you would not be shy about serving at a dinner party.


INGREDIENTS


Salmon fillet
Hoisin sauce
Soy sauce
Olive oil
Sesame oil
Chili sauce
Ginger
Cilantro
Basil


STEPS
1. Pre-heat oven to 400F.
2. Prepare about a cup of hoisin and add a splash of soy sauce, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of sesame oil and some chili sauce to taste. Add some grated ginger and mix together.
3. Pour the hoisin mixture onto salmon fillet laid out in a lightly oiled baking sheet.
4. Bake for about 30 minutes or test salmon for doneness.
5. Serve with chopped cilantro and basil on top.


The cilantro and basil complements the flavor of the hoisin and salmon tremendously. Adding these to the dish takes it out of the ordinary, so I really think this shouldn't be omitted.

Seafood Salad by Scrumpdillyicious

Scrumpdillyicious: Seafood Salad with Celeriac Remoulade: "A lovely light salad to make during the warm summer months is an easy poached seafood salad made with large shrimp, scallops, squid and ..."


Now this is what I call seafood salad and it's as good as it sounds. I tried out this recipe from Scrumpdillyicious but without the remoulade (couldn't find any celeriac and I thought the sourcream dressing didn't really need to be paired with more mayo) and just added some blanched broccoli -- for garnish and/or as token vegetable :-) It was indeed scrumptious and dillyicious. 

INGREDIENTS
Shrimp (large/medium)
Scallops
Squid
Salad shrimp (small)
Capers


Lemon dill sauce:Sour cream
Lemon
Frozen dill
salt & pepper


STEPS:


1. Blanch the shrimp, scallops and squid separately for about a minute and a half each in simmering water. Set aside in a paper towel to remove any liquid.
2. Prepare the lemon dill sauce by combining about half a tub of sour cream, half a lemon squeezed, about 8 cubes of frozen dill and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Toss the blanched seafood into the dill sauce.
4. Chill before serving

Chicken a la Buffalo

This is my attempt at satisfying a craving for Don Henrico's Buffalo Chicken Wings. It's a teeny bit close but not all there. There are a couple of spices that I can't identify from their recipe so this is the best that I could get. I think the key is making sure that each bit contains the right amount of the chicken, the barbecue sauce and then the dipping sauce. Modesty aside, it's almost as satisfying as the original.

(Note: photo was taken after everyone got a piece, pardon the presentation please :))
INGREDIENTS


Barbecue sauce:
Honey
Ketchup
Soy Sauce
Garlic powder
Nutmeg
I also put in a bit of onion powder and ginger powder but I think they could just be eliminated from the list.



Chicken + marinade:
Chicken pieces (wings, thigh or breast -- with skin!)
All-purpose flour
Olive oil
S&P
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Ginger powder

Dipping sauce:
Plain yogurt
Mayonnaise
Cream cheese
Garlic
S&P


DIRECTIONS:


1. Prepare sauces and set aside


Barbecue sauce: combine equal parts of honey and ketchup and add soy sauce just enough to achieve the color desired. Add lots of garlic powder and powdered nutmeg to taste. 


Dipping sauce: combine 2 parts yogurt with 1 part mayo and 1 part cream cheese and then add your garlic and S&P to taste.

2. Prepare the chicken by rinsing the pieces and patting them dry with a paper towel. 

3. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

4. Combine some garlic powder, onion powder and ginger powder (ratio is about 2:1:1).

5. Sprinkle about half of the powdered spices onto the chicken. Add some of your barbecue sauce to this marinade.

6. Combine the rest of the powdered spices with all-purpose flour to use for coating the chicken.

7. Dip each chicken piece into the flour mix and coat them well.

8. Place each chicken piece into a lightly oiled baking pan and set aside for about an hour.

9. Preheat oven to 400F.

10. When ready, brush each chicken piece with olive oil and place the chicken into the oven. 

11. Bake for 30 minutes, after which brush some barbecue sauce onto the chicken and then bake for another 20-25 minutes.

12. Brush more barbecue sauce onto the chicken after taking it out of the oven.

Serve with the dipping sauce. Doesn't even need rice to go with it.

Spaghettini with Shrimp in Crab Paste

I made this today. I used this recipe for Gambas Al Ajillo with Crab Paste and just tossed it into some pasta. It turned out pretty well. Mm-uhmmm!


INGREDIENTS
Garlic
Olive Oil
Chili Flakes
Semi-cooked Frozen Shrimp (thaw and season with S&P plus a squeeze of lemon)
Crab Paste

Spaghettini noodles (cook as directed in packet)

STEPS
1. Saute chopped garlic in olive oil in high heat.
2. Add chili flakes and cook for about a minute.
3. Stir in the crab paste and cook for about a minute.
4. Add the shrimp just enough that it doesn't shrink.
5. Turn off heat and quickly toss in cooked spaghettini.


I served this with a tomato, basil and cheese appetizer that I saw from scrumdillyicious. It was a good combo but I wouldn't say it was great. Since the pasta was very savory, I think a blander appetizer would have worked better with it. Perhaps a simple cucumber, tomato and egg salad? Maybe next time.

Humba Bisaya (dark, sweet and sticky pork stew)

Humba is one of my favorite foods. I can never grow tired of it. Luckily for me, my mom has several humba recipes and I think she makes one of the best that I've ever tried. This one is my favorite type of humba: dark, sweet and sticky. It does take me 2-3 hours to make it but it is very very easy.

A warning: this is not the healthiest food option.


INGREDIENTS
Garlic
Onion
Celery

Black Peppercorns

Star Anise

Bay Leaf
Pork (combination of Belly, Knuckles and/or Tail), cut into large cubes/pieces
Silver Swan Soy Sauce
Muscovado Sugar 
A can of Coca cola


STEPS
1. Place cleaned pork pieces in a large stewing pot.
2. In a cup, combine equal parts of the soy sauce and the sugar (about a quarter of a cup each for every pound of meat) then pour over meat in the pot. Mix to coat all pieces.
3. Add peeled and smashed garlic, peppercorns, star anise and bay leaf into the meat ans mix.
4. Place peeled and halved onion and celery stalk over the meat. Cover pot and place on low heat and let cook for about one hour stirring once or twice in between.
5. Add one can of coke to the stew and stir.
7. Continue cooking on low heat  heat until meat is tender and the liquid is reduced to a sticky sauce, about 1 and a half to 2 hours more, stirring every 15-20 minutes.

Best served with steamed white rice and balanced with some steamed green veggies.
Note: As leftover, this dish gets better each time you re-heat or put in the microwave so for best immediate results, allow the dish to sit for an hour or so after cooking and just warm it up again before serving.

Mediterranean Beef Stew

This is my take on Cafe Mediterranean's Lamb Stew. I haven't had it for a long time but I remember really loving it and have since  searched high and low, but in vain, for that recipe. The ingredients that I used below are based on what I can remember of the taste and smell of that dish, so I may have gone overboard (or maybe fallen short) with the marinade. Anyhow, I made this dish once on the fly and was extremely surprised (yes, surprised) by how good it was :) It was a huge hit with my family they demanded that I make it again with lamb which I did and it was an even bigger success. Enjoy!


INGREDIENTS


Marinade (combine all in equal amounts)
Cumin
Ground Coriander
Turmeric
Ground Cinnamon
Curry
Ground Pepper
Bay Leaves
Cloves


Stew
Beef ribs (can substitute with Lamb shoulder pieces)
Diced/Crushed Tomatoes (can substitute with tomato sauce)
Pepper Corns
Beef Broth (beef cubes + water)
Carrots
Potatoes
Garlic
Onions
Salt
Sugar
Chili Flakes


STEPS


1. Marinate Beef overnight.
2. To start cooking, saute garlic and onions together in olive oil for about 45 seconds to 1 minute in high heat. 
3. Add meat and brown it without cooking through.
4. Add peppercorns and continue sauteeing.
5. Add the diced tomatoes and stir to coat the meat. 
6. Add the beef broth and let simmer for about 25 minutes or until broth reduces halfway
7. Add some salt, sugar and chili flakes to fit your taste. 
7. Add the potatoes and carrots.
8. Test potatoes/carrots for doneness and remove from flame.