Recipe: Roast Chicken

I found an awesome-looking roast chicken dish in the October issue of O, and decided to try it out. I didn't have any kosher salt, white wine, scallions, artichokes, or parsely on hand, so I had to modify it a bit. And, as usual, I just eyeballed it, so no measurements provided.

Don't let the sad-looking beans fool ya (we left the chicken in the oven a while to keep it warm). This was yummers!

Roast Chicken with Green Beans
Serves 2

Ingredients

Half a chicken,chopped
Dried oregano
Salt
Ground black pepper
Chili pepper flakes (optional--I lurve a bit of spice!)
Half an onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Olive oil
Red wine (it was all we had)
Chicken broth
Half a chorizo Pamplona, sliced
Green beans
Half a lemon, sliced into rounds

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Rub oregano, salt, ground black pepper, and chili flakes on chicken. Place in a pan or baking dish, along with onion and garlic, and drizzle with olive oil. 
2. Pop into oven for about 30 minutes.
3. Remove from oven. Pour wine and chicken broth over chicken. Add chorizo, green beans, and lemon, making sure that they're partly submerged in the wine and broth.
4. Return to oven for another 10 minutes or until done. 

You can serve it with rice or mashed potatoes. So good! I wouldn't think twice about serving this at a dinner party.:)

A Quickie on V-Day

...A quickie meal, that is!

For an early Valentine celebration, I whipped up Good Housekeeping's "Fast Love" menu, published in the January-February 2012 issue. Our promise: "Rekindle the passion with these easy yet lovingly prepared dishes that don't require hours in the kitchen." I skipped making dessert since I still had red velvet cupcakes left over (and a bottle of wine and some cheese), but it took me just about an hour to make three courses: Chunky Tomato Sauce Dip with Kesong Puti, Mango Pasta with Tuna, and Pork Steak with Devil Sauce. (The original menu included Coco-Orange Dip--got to try it after the shoot, and it was really yummy!)

It's really easy to prepare so you can spend more hours on...other romantic pursuits.;) I'll just share one recipe--it's not too late to grab a copy of GH so you can get all the other recipes!

Pork Steak with Devil Sauce

Ingredients

2 pork steaks
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 beef bouillon cube, dissolved in 1 cup hot water
1 tablespoon diced tomato (I used an entire small tomato since my husband loves tomatoes)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

1. Season pork steaks with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
2. In a frying pan over medium heat, heat oil and pan fry pork steaks until cooked through. Leave in the oven in low heat to keep warm.
3. In the same pan, pour off any excess fat, leaving about 2 tablespoons. Sweat the onions. Sprinkle in flour and cook before pouring in beef stock. Stir to dissolve any lumps and cook until mixture thickens. Add diced tomato, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and cayenne pepper. Cook until heated through.
4. Remove from heat, pour over pork steaks. Serve immediately.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Recipe: Chicken Tikka Masala (Plus Two Side Dishes)

It had been a while since I last had dinner at my Indian family's house, so I was seriously craving for Indian cuisine. I thus declared last night Indian Night at our household! (Belated Happy Diwali!)

Found a recipe at allrecipes.com, but made do without cilantro--the supermarket was all out. Boo. I thought there was too much salt in the original recipe, so I cut it by about a third. Also, the chicken is supposed to be grilled, but since I still don't have my own grill (double boo), I just lightly fried it. This is quite spicy, so if you're not a fan of the burn, you might want to take it down a notch by cutting all spices in half.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Ingredients

1 cup yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1-2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1 tablespoon butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, 2 teaspoons cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, ginger, and 4 teaspoons salt. Stir in chicken, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Preheat a grill for high heat.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Thread chicken onto skewers, and discard marinade. Grill until juices run clear, about 5 minutes on each side. (Note: I lightly fried the chicken in a bit of oil instead.)
   
4. Melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic and jalapeno for 1 minute. Season with 2 teaspoons cumin, paprika, and 3 teaspoons salt. Stir in tomato sauce and cream. (Note: Make sure to scrape the spices from the bottom of the pan.) Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes. (Note: I only simmered it for about 10 minutes.) Add grilled chicken, and simmer for 10 minutes. (Note: I only simmered it for about 5 minutes.) Transfer to a serving platter, and garnish with fresh cilantro. Serves 3.
   

Because it's so spicy, you'll want a lot of starch to sop it up. Aside from rice, I prepared two side dishes (shown in the photo above): a simple potato dish which I got from my BFF Madhuri, and a super-refreshing cucumber dish that I got from some forum and modified.

You Say "Po-tah-to"

Ingredients

1 clove garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 small-ish potatoes, cubed
Juice of half a lemon
Salt
Curry powder

1. Saute garlic and pepper in a bit of oil until garlic is lightly browned.
2. Add potatoes, lemon juice, salt, and curry powder. Mix well.
3. Cook for five minutes. Done!

Cool as a Cucumber

Ingredients

1 cucumber, peeled and diced
2 tomatoes, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
Salt
Cumin

1. In a bowl, mix all ingredients together. You can add cilantro if you've got it.
   
2. Place in refrigerator until ready to serve. Nice and refreshing!
   

Recipe: Buffalo Wings

This recipe is from the July issue of Good Housekeeping. It's a three-step process, (make bleu cheese dressing, make seasoned flour, make hot sauce glaze), and each step has its own sub-steps. I think next time, I'll just use store-bought coating instead of making my own to cut down on prep time. Enjoy!

Buffalo Wings

Ingredients

10 chicken wings
Oil for deep frying

For bleu cheese dressing:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayo
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
50g bleu cheese

For seasoned flour:
1/3 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

For hot sauce glaze:
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2/3 cup hot chili sauce

1. Make bleu cheese dressing: In a large bowl, whisk all ingredients except cheese together. Crumble bleu cheese and whisk into dressing. Transfer to a container and let flavors develop overnight in the refrigerator. (I just left it in the fridge for about an hour and it was fine.)
2. Make seasoned flour: Mix all ingredients together. Coat chicken wings. Set aside 10 minutes. Toss in seasoned flour to coat wings again. (Husband took over as I was a little scared of the oil!) In a deep frying pan, heat oil. Deep fry chicken wings until juices run clear when pierced. Drain on paper towels. Set aside.
3. Make hot sauce glaze: In another frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add Worcestershire sauce and chili sauce, and stir to mix. Add chicken wings and toss to coat. Serve with bleu cheese dressing and celery sticks on the side. (Note: The chili sauce I bought wasn't so spicy. Next time, I'll probably add loads of hot sauce as well as chopped siling labuyo.)
   

Two Easy-Peasy Recipes

My go-to breakfast for when I'm in a hurry:

Banana-Strawberry Yogurt Smoothie

Photo from here

Ingredients:
1 Cavendish banana, sliced and frozen
1 container strawberry yogurt
1 glass low-fat milk
1 teaspoon honey

1. Dump everything in a blender.
2. Blend until no solid banana chunks are left.
3. Drink! Head out the door!

Serves one. I also do this with mangoes and mixed fruit--I freeze the fruit so I wouldn't have to use ice. I find that the consistency of the frozen fruit is enough to make a nice, thick smoothie.

And because I'm feeling generous, another recipe--the easiest pasta evurrr. Whipped this up using whatever was left in the pantry/fridge.

Garlicky Pasta in Olive Oil with Tuna and Thyme

Ingredients:
About 150 grams of pasta
Olive oil
About 5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 can light tuna
Capers (I used about half a small bottle)
Zest of half a lemon
Salt and pepper
Dried thyme
Juice of half a lemon

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Set aside.
2. Heat olive oil over medium heat.
3. Saute garlic. Add tuna, lemon zest, capers, and season with salt and pepper to taste, stirring continuously.
4. Add pasta, and stir to coat with oil. Sprinkle with thyme. Stir.
5. Add lemon juice just before removing from heat. Ta-dah!

Serves 2. My husband loved it!

DIY Spicy Chicken Burrito Day!

My husband and I had a pretty awesome lunch at home yesterday. For some reason, I wanted to make burritos. And I'm glad I did--they turned out yummers, if I do say so myself!

I got mini whole-wheat tortillas, instead of the usual big ones. We ended up polishing off 9 of them. Har.

Spicy Chicken Burritos

Ingredients

2 chicken breast fillets
Onion, chopped
Garlic, chopped
Cumin
Chili powder
6 small tomatoes, chopped
Onion, chopped
Garlic, chopped
Black beans, drained
Whole-wheat tortillas (the chicken's enough for about nine; you can probably make 4 or 5 big ones)
Rice, cooked (we're a brown rice household)
Cheese, grated
Sour cream

1. Cook the chicken: You can opt to grill it, but I boiled it for a bit, just til it was cooked enough to shred. Then after boiling--yup, you guessed it--remove from heat, drain, and shred.
2. In a pan, heat a bit of oil and saute garlic and onions. Add chicken, season with cumin and chili powder (adjust to taste--you can tell from the red chicken in the photo that we like it hot!). You can add a bit of salt and pepper. (Don't overdo it with the salt though--the black beans available in supermarkets pack a salty punch. I had to wash and drain 'em a few times.) Remove from heat.
   
3. Make salsa: Mix together chopped tomatoes, garlic, and onions. You can add cilantro leaves if you wish.
4. Assemble burrito: In the center of a tortilla, place cooked rice, chicken, beans, salsa, cheese, and sour cream. Fold on two sides (to seal) then roll. Enjoy!

Note: Should you decide to heat the tortillas, keep an eye on them. If heated too long, they become tortilla chips.:s

Recipe: Kofta Balls

Quickie post. I got the main meatball recipe from the May issue of Good Housekeeping. I just whipped up sauce, trying to replicate Uncle Moe's version.

Kofta Balls

Ingredients

Meatballs:
1/4 kilo ground beef
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Pinch of paprika
Half an onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
About 1/4 cup fine bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Egg (eyeball it), slightly beaten
1/2 a small block of quick-melt cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Sauce:
2 tsps onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 pack tomato sauce
Salt
Ground black pepper
Paprika
Chili powder
Coriander, crushed

1. Make meatballs: Combine all ingredients except cheese. Add more bread crumbs if mixture is too wet.
2. Wrap about a tablespoon of the meat around cheese to form a 1-inch ball.
3. Pan-fry until golden brown. (I removed it from heat when almost done and popped it in the oven for about 5-10 minutes.)
4. Make sauce: Saute onions and garlic. Add tomato sauce and all spices. Simmer.
5. Top meatballs with sauce. Serve with rice.
   

Makes about 10 meatballs. Enjoy!

Recipe: Tilapia for Dummies

My sister-in-law shared her secret to cooking the easiest tilapia dish ever: Nuke it!

Tilapia for the Time-Strapped Misis

Ingredients

2 pcs medium-size tilapia
Rock salt
3 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped

1. Clean fish. (I can't, for the life of me, clean fish, so I had the dude at the seafood section do it for me.)
2. Make slits along the body. Rub with rock salt.
3. Place in deep, microwave-proof dish. Top with chopped tomatoes and onions.
4. Cover and microwave on medium high for 15 minutes.
5. Squeeze lemon over fish before serving. Done!

P.S. It's a little jarring cooking something with eyes.:s

Recipe: Beef Bulgogi

It's been a week since my last post. Been busy, mostly with work and disc (I've got freckles on my nose and a sprained ankle--again!--to show for it) and being a wife--been cooking a lot lately. Tonight it was garlicky tanigue with two side dishes: ensaladang talong (eggplant with tomatoes, onions, and salted egg) and adobong kangkong (I looove kangkong). The other day, I cooked a Korean dish to go with my husband's store-bought kimchi:

OK, it was a hastily taken photo.

So, anyway:

Beef Bulgogi

Ingredients (and again, no measurements! Sorry, that's not how I roll!)

Beef tenderloin, sliced thinly (I used 1/4 kilo for the two of us)
Soy sauce
Garlic, minced
Ginger, minced
Sesame oil
Sesame seeds

1. Mix all ingredients except beef.
2. Marinate beef for about an hour (or overnight, if you really want it to soak up the stuff).
3. You're supposed to grill this thang but I opted to pan-fry. So heat a bit of oil in a pan, then fry until done.
4. If your range runs out of gas towards the end like ours did, nuke the beef! (Still turned out yummy!)
5. Serve with steamed rice and kimchi.
   

Will post again soon, I swear.

To Go or Not to Go...

To Cagayan de Oro? Friends have been bugging asking me to come along for a weekend of disc (and possibly rafting), but I think I have an event in Cebu that same weekend. And then there's Boracay Open coming up. Hmmm. I do hope this year shapes up like last in terms of travel (Bacolod, Boracay, Cebu, Dumaguete, Singapore, Bali, New York--twice--with Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong in between!). I've really been itching to get on a plane and go somewhere. A friend joked that the reason I got sick was because I haven't traveled in a while. I've never been to CDO so I'm really tempted to go.

But that Janet concert is just as tempting! And I've gotta think about proper allocation of funds. Sigh.

And just so this post is not a complete waste, a recipe--something I whipped up last night. I tried to replicate Conti's baked salmon, with moderate success. Needed a bit more garlic, but my bechamel sauce turned out OK for a first-timer! Measurements not entirely accurate because, as I mentioned before, I just kind of throw things into a pot.

Poseur Conti's Baked Salmon

Ingredients
Bechamel sauce:
2 tbsp butter
1/8 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
Salt
Ground nutmeg

4 cloves garlic, crushed
Salmon
Quick-melt cheese

1. Make bechamel sauce: Melt butter over low heat. Add flour, mix until well blended.
2. When roux is a light golden color, slowly add milk, stirring continuously. Simmer lightly until sauce thickens.
3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Remove from heat. Mix in garlic.
5. Place salmon in a baking dish. Spread bechamel on top, covering fish entirely.
6. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.
7. Bake in pre-heated 350F oven, 20 minutes.
8. Remove from oven. Serve with mixed vegetables.

Recipe: Hazelnut French Toast Sticks

Today, I got home from work at 4:30 am (yes, you read right--4:30 in the morning). I figured I deserved a hearty meal, so I proceeded to cook some bacon, eggs, and rice for me and my husband before I crawled into bed. When I woke up, I decided I wanted something sweet and sinful to go with my cholesterol. Which led to...

Hazelnut French Toast Sticks

Ingredients
1 egg, beaten
About 1/2 cup milk
About 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 slices wheat bread (you can also use white bread)
Hazelnut spread (like Nutella)
Butter

1. Make the batter: In a bowl, mix egg, milk, and cinnamon. Set aside.
2. Spread hazelnut spread over one side of one slice of bread. Layer with other slice of bread, hazelnut side in to make a sandwich.
3. Slice crosswise into four equal "sticks."
4. Put butter in a pan over low heat.
5. Dip each stick into batter, place in pan.
6. Fry until lightly browned. Turn over to brown other side.

I ate it with honey, but it was a tad too sweet. I imagine maple syrup might be too sweet as well, so you might want to try powdered sugar.

Recipe: Baked Chicken with Sour Cream Paprika

For lunch today, I whipped up something fairly simple: baked chicken breast with sour cream paprika, served with brown rice and a side of corn and carrots.

I posted this on my Facebook wall, and it seems that a few people were thrown off by the whole "baked" and "chicken breast" thing. They automatically assumed that this was a healthy dish. Let me warn you--it ain't going to win any nutrition awards, as far as I can tell. I've come to associate the color white in food (except for egg whites) with an alarming amount of calories--cream, sugar, bad carbs like white rice and white bread--and this is no exception! But you know what? It tastes pretty good, if I do say so myself. My husband, after having two servings, remarked, "I haven't eaten this much in a long time!"

Baked Chicken with Sour Cream and Paprika

Ingredients
1 can cream of mushroom soup (evil white food)
1 container sour cream (evil white food)
A dash of paprika
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper
4 chicken breasts (aha! Good white food!)

1. Preheat oven at 350F.
2. In a bowl, mix together cream of mushroom soup and sour cream. Add paprika, adjusting to taste. (Ours ended up quite spicy, which we both liked.)
3. Mix in lemon juice, then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Place chicken breasts in an 8" x 8" pan or baking dish. Pour enough of the cream mixture to cover the chicken.
5. Cover pan or baking dish with foil and pop into the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes.
6. Take out of oven, remove foil, and return to oven. Bake until chicken is cooked through.

Recipe: Crispy Bacon-wrapped Dory with Caramelized Onion-Asparagus Salad

One of the things I cooked over the long weekend. It seemed to get a lot of "Likes" when I posted it on Facebook, and a friend even asked for the recipe!

I was looking for something to do with some extra dory that I had, and based this dish on a recipe by Rachael Ray, Crispy Prosciutto-wrapped Sole.

Crispy Bacon-wrapped Dory with Caramelized Onion-Asparagus Salad

Ingredients
Olive oil (or extra virgin olive oil)
Half an onion, chopped
Asparagus spears
1 tomato, chopped
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Fresh thyme (I used the dried version though)
Pepper

2 to 4 strips of bacon
1/4 kilo cream dory fillets
Salt and pepper

Salad
1. Saute onions in olive oil until brown. Sprinkle with pepper. Remove from heat.
2. In a saucepan, boil about 1 inch of water. Place asparagus, sprinkle with salt. Cook until tender. Remove from heat, drain.
3. Mix onions with mustard and thyme.
4. Mix with asparagus. Set aside.

Dory
1. Lay bacon on a flat surface.
2. Pat dry dory before laying on the bacon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Wrap dory with bacon.
4. In a pan, heat olive oil until it ripples. Drop bacon-wrapped dory and fry about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Be careful not to overcook.
5. Transfer to plate and serve with salad and chopped tomatoes on the side.

Makes 2 servings.

Recipe: Poseur Jack-a-Lean Omelette

One of my favorite places to eat in Boracay is Real Coffee. Love their cookies, calamansi cupcakes, French toast, iced choco, and their Jack-a-Lean Omelette! The last, I've tried to replicate at home, although I realize now that I haven't been using onions. Hey, it still works!

Poseur Jack-a-Lean Omelette

Ingredients
3 large eggs
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 can tuna flakes in olive oil (the calamansi version gives it a bit of a kick)
2 heaping tsps pesto
Quick-melt cheese, grated

1. Saute the tomatoes over low heat.
2. Add tuna and pesto. Mix thoroughly. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. In a bowl, beat the eggs, adding a bit of salt.
4. Pour eggs into a non-stick skillet. (A poseur non-stick skillet goes with our poseur omelette though, so I normally have to use a bit of vegetable oil.)
   
5. Cook over low to medium heat until nearly done (mostly solid).
6. Spoon tuna mixture over half of the eggs.
7. Sprinkle cheese over tuna.
8. Fold other half of the eggs over to form a half moon. Remove from heat.

Serve with toast. Good enough for two! Hamil and I normally share this for breakfast. An easy, yummy way to start the day!