I cooked: Baked Eggs and Sardines

We wanted to make something special for Father's Day beeakfast. K suggested fried eggs, or roast beef, which obviously will not make the cut. I decided on baked eggs because the girls can help me with some of the steps in making it. I've been seeing this recipe in several magazines for some time, and have been meaning to try it. We found the link to a basic recipe online, and we started preparing. I usually don't follow ingredients down to the last step... I like to improvise along the way. 

First, we put some sardines in a clay baking dish. I used a Spanish style baking dish (similar to a paellera) that we got from Terry's a long time ago. This is the kind of dish that Casa Armas would use to serve their appetizers on. Then I let the girls sprinkle on some herbs and spices - we used turmeric, sage and some pepper. I then put this dish inside the pre-heated oven for 5 minutes.

After five minutes, we mixed in 4 eggs into the mixture - and let it bake in the oven for another 7 more minutes. There's no need to "scramble" the eggs... Just crack 4 eggs into a bowl and pour the eggs on top of the sardines. I let K do this step. After 7 minutes, you can take out your dish from the oven and leave it to stand and cook a bit more on its own. 

Just before eating, we sprinkle some sea salt on it for seasoning... You can do this right after you pour in the eggs too. 

This was our inspiration. 

The man of the house is still asleep... Hope he likes it! Happy father's day to all of you who have been fathers or father figures!

Yummy-ly Yours

I love Summit Media's Yummy Magazine. I used to buy them from the newsstand, I would leaf through them, almost as if I were already tasting and enjoying the food itself. I started buying the small Yummy books where special recipes are collected. But i still did not part with my Yummy issues. I liked reading not only recipes, but also articles about restaurants, cooking tips and gadgets. Then... Last year, I discovered Zinio! I can read Yummy via an app that downloads the new issues every month. Now, I can breeze through all the magazines on my IPad. No more clutter! Hubby sure was thankful about that :)

Yummy is having another 50% off sale on it's annual subscription, including past issues. You can get it via the Appstore or via Zinio and Buqo. It costs less than $13 for 12 issues, and you don't need to drive to the newsstand to get it.

Go to this link to access the Summit website and get your own Yummy subscription. The sale is only until June 1 so hurry and subscribe now.

I cooked: Arugula Salad Mix and Match 

I came across this very intriguingly yummy recipe by RecipeGirl awhile back. I love mushrooms... I have loved them since I was about 8 years old. And then she talked about balsamic onions - another delicious combination (just reading it makes me drool). It was a shoo in for a must try recipe. I saved it in my favorites list and it ran through my mind for several weeks. But I was not too confident yet about making the sandwich because I didn't have the perfect cheese for it. So, I decided to tweak the recipe a little - and turned the pieces I loved into a salad. But, RecipeGirl, I will still make the sandwich soon, and when I do, I shall tell you about it.

Things fell into place for me quickly. I had bought fresh mushrooms from the market in Connecticut, and I had this nice crabmeat in a can that I could use as additional toppings (also from the sunday Connecticut market). Down to Earth had delivered a fresh batch of micro arugula the day before too.

So I followed RecipeGirl's instructions for balsamic, caramelized onions. Olive oil, sliced white onion, salt (I used sea salt), balsamic vinegar... and patience. It takes about 20-30 minutes for onions to get caramelized (even longer if you like them darker).

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And I stewed the mushrooms (I used black shiitake mushrooms, but you can use other types of meaty/fleshy mushrooms too). Olive oil, salt, white wine and mushrooms.... I still cannot figure out how to reduce the amount of water that seeps out of the mushrooms. For this particularly recipe though, I lived with it since I later used the mushroom liquid as dressing.

I used the liquid from the mushrooms, mixed it up with more balsamic vinegar and a pinch of coco sugar to make some additional dressing for the salad. It's good to mix this up on the stove to make sure it all gets mixed in together.

And finally, assemble your salad with arugula, caramelized onions, mushrooms and some crabmeat. I think this will work with roasted vegetables too. Without the toppings (of crabmeat) - it can be a perfect side salad for a steak.

For something I made up, this came out pretty good. I hope you try it, and enjoy it too. Drop me a note when you do! 

I cooked: General Tso's Chicken #yummyph

When I saw this recipe in the April issue of Yummy magazine, I knew I had to try it. I've tried General Tso's chicken at Recipes, as well as at Nama Nama (a small eatery in Eastwood, popular with lunch crowds). It was definitely a great chicken recipe - and the recipe looked simple enough to follow. 

Before the actual recipe though, did you ever wonder who General Tso was and why this dish was named after him? I did, and I googled "the story behind General Tso's chicken." This is what I found on Wikipedia. General Tso Tsung-Tang or Zuo Zongtang is a general from Hunan province during the Qing Dynasty (19th century). The sad part is, he probably never got to taste General Tso's chicken... the only thing they had in common is that they are both from Hunan. 

It was actually Chef Peng Chang-kuei, a popular Nationalist government chef, who introduced this dish to New York in the early seventies. And this is why I say General Tso probably never got a taste of his own dish... because when the dish came out in the New York Times in 1977 (first ever public appearance, you can say!), General Tso had been dead for 92 years. And so (on that very morbid note), without much further ado, here's the General Tso's chicken recipe from the April Issue of Yummy magazine (thanks to Zinio for the digital format!)

I hope I haven't lost you to your kitchen! Don't you want to see how I did my version? I have cooked this twice... the first time with a limited audience (read: just my husband), and the second time with a wider audience (my daughter and family members within the second degree of consaguinity). I am happy to say that, both times, the dish passed the tastebud test of my very discerning clients.

My two favorite parts in preparing this dish would be the part when the sauce is bubbling into a nice golden brown color (the smell of garlic, vinegar, sugar and rice wine will waft through the air) and the part when the chicken pieces are frying into crunchy golden brown nuggets. 

One thing great about this recipe is that you probably already have all the ingredients in your pantry. It's a wonderful dish that looks complicated but is actually quite simple to make. By the way, for chicken stock, I used the shortcut method and used this.

The best chicken stock for this would have been a homemade one, frozen into cubes. Maybe next time, I will try that. Hope your family enjoys this dish as much as mine did. Thank you Yummy for the recipe!

I cooked: Creamy Sweet Potato and Corn Soup

In Osaka, we discovered Soup Stock. They sell different types of soup, ready to drink and frozen too. It was quite a good find as they offered some very rich soup like hokkaido pumpkin soup, which was good enough to serve as a meal for my toddler S. We also got to try their Sweet Potato and Corn soup when they gave us a free taste at the Takashimaya foodhall. I personally love sweet corn, so it was big hit for me. K, my picky eater, also loved the soup. We went back to buy full servings, but that flavor had run out! I then resolved to try to make it when we get back to Manila.

So, here's my own version of Creamy Sweet Potato and Corn soup. As I'm more of an "invent your way into it" type of cook - I only have estimated measurements. I hope that you will be inspired to use this as a base for your own version! 

You will need, 1 medium sized sweet potato (we always get the ones that are orange inside),1 can of whole kernel corn (though creamed corn sounds like a good thing too, right?), 1 white onion, a few stalks of celery (we had this in the pantry, so I threw it in, but it really is optional!), 3/4 liters of chicken stock, and a cup of milk.

Chop the peeled sweet potato, onion and celery into small sized cubes.  To soften the sweet potato, I personally like to roast them by sealing them into a packet of foil and popping them into the oven toaster for about 15-20 minutes. It is my belief that doing this seals in all the nice nutrients of the sweet potato. You can opt to steam or boil if you like. 

Now here come's the one pot part. Saute white onion in oil until they are semi transparent (or you can smell them, then throw in the celery (1). After about 1 minute, pour in your chopped sweet potatoes (2). Keep stirring then pour in the can of corn (3).

You can pour in the soup stock anytime after that, then slowly trickle in the cup of milk while stirring continuously (4). Leave the pot to boil for 15-20 more minutes to further soften the vegetables. Once the vegetables are soft, let the soup cool to room temperature, then blend into a soft, creamy consistency (5).

I was pleasantly surprised by the result, the vegetables made the soup thick and frothy. Put it in a small shooter cup and it can be one of those "cappucino" style soups served in French restaurants (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but it WAS good.)  Tip: if you are making this for a baby, run it through a strainer after blending to remove the stringy bits from the celery and the corn.

Hope this makes it to your dinner table soon, and do let me know if you liked it as much as we did!