Peanut Butter Sandwich with a Twist

I seriously do not like repeating tasks, let alone recipes. This is a big issue in my restaurant dream! Hopefully I will learn a psychological balance one day.

But since I am still that free spirit when it comes to cooking, let me share with you my peanut butter and jam sandwich with a twist!

This is made specially for mum!

Ingredients

White bread
- multi grain is better but since I made this in the Philippines, I do not have much choice

Crunchy peanut butter

Jam, any fruit jam would do

Banana

I sprinkled crushed choconut after I spread the  peanut butter and topped it with thinly sliced bananas. I think chocolate powder would work too :-)

I spread the jam on the other piece and made a sandwich of the two slices.

Then I used the regular oven toaster to heat up the sandwich. It takes three to five minutes.

Watch it closely to prevent burning.

Mum loved it! She didn't like the idea of a banana sandwich before but she finished the sandwich in ten minutes! Hehe =)

Avocado delight

Avocado is one of my exaulted fruits. Here are some of my ideas in using avocado as part of your diet:

1. Avocado dessert, half a fruit, expect to gain 200 calories of monosaturated fat! Yeah well I do not care! =) My heart smiles as I write. This is good fat and the only fat which you really need.

As dessert, I simply add a tablespoon of condensed milk. Heaven!

2. Avocado on toast and vegemite

3. Avocado as my mayonaise on my chicken sandwich

4. Avocado in my salad!

5. Avocado dips

Salmon Dish: Simplicity is the Key

I LOVE sashimi, grilled or baked salmon...but pan fried? Well not until I learned to make this salmon dish myself.

It took me four years to perfectly fry this succulent dish so do not be too hard on yourself if you don't get it right the first few times.

First, pick a fresh Norwegian or New Zealand salmon. Second, cut it right and pat it dry. Get a fillet cut if you are not very good with knives. Some people like me love to eat skin. Most do not. So this salmon I bought has the skin peeled off already. I bought this from South Supermarket in Lipa City. There is no other place you can buy this variety in Lipa, with this level of quality. The fillet is 225 pesos each.

Once the fillet is patted dry, cut in two. Salmon is rich and fatty so taste can be overpowering if served in too big a quantity.

Drizzle the fillet in good olive oil. Then season with salt and pepper liberally.

Heat pan, no need for extra oil in pan. Once it is hot, fry the salmon, 4 to 5 minutes on each side. That is it!

Place it on top of mashed potatoes!
This delectable dish is filling and it is healthy.

For my mashed potato recipe:
4 potatoes boiled
Two tbsp cream cheese
1 small tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
Chopped parsley
1 calamansi or lemon juice 1tsp

I am so happy that I had a chance to make this meal for my parents! They loved it!

Asian inspired minced beef

Andrew said this is flavorfulsome, interesting and healthy!

Ingredients
300g boiled minced pork
One carrot
Half red and half green big capsicum
Two onions, small
Some crushed garlic
1 tsbp minced ginger
Asian garlic
Green peas
Broccoli
Two small potatoes

For flavor
Three tbsp kikoman soy sauce
One tbsp sesame oil
Dash of Chili flakes
One tbsp mixed spice
Vinegar, 1 tbsp, rice vinegar if you have it
Black pepper and no salt!

Add all flavors in the end when veggies and pork are all cooked.

Happy Hearts, A different kind of Omelette

Happy Valentines Day dear Readers! :-)

Yes this is made from eggs!
So hard to think of a gift for Andrew so I thought, well I might as well just create a nice meal for him.

I used some curry, salt, capsicum, alfalfa and 5 eggs for this meal. I used Japanese/Korean style omelette cooking technique. They make really nice egg side dishes.

I made this using chopsticks!

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Baked Vegetables for a Healthy Dinner

My dear friend requested for my recipe for this meal.
So here it goes:
1. My favorite vegetables - broccoli, tiny potatoes, capsicum, oninon, garlic, carrots
*As you can see I added some bigger potatoes, as I ran out of my baby potatoes
You can also add other vegetables if you like - baby corn, big red tomatoes, aubergine

2. Slice them up in bit sized pieces, not too small so you can have a good crunchy bite

3. Place vegetables on a baking tray and sprinkle with olive oil, a bit of salt and pepper
* We love spicy food so I added a lot of pepper

4. I also added spices and because there is a lack of fresh herbs in Philippines, I had to be happy with the dried spice versions - rosemary leaves, basil, italian seasoning

5. Bake in oven for 30 to 35 minutes, medium heat

6. After 30 mins, check veggie by poking the potatoes and the carrots with a knife or fork to see if they are already cooked.

7. I added some more olive oil on top of the vegetables after 30 minutes

Serve and enjoy :-) Bon Appetit!

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My Own Oven, My Own Bread

Yes yeast does work wonders. It's my first time to use yeast in baking and I am getting the hang of it. The biggest issue having breakfast in the Philippines is not having good quality, multigrain bread. Most bread sold in grocery stores are sugary, white, floppy and airy bread. They are not healthy and lack texture.

My partner has challenged me to make healthy bread and here's the result!

I had placed oatmeal, almonds, sesame seeds and dried apricot. The outer section is crunchy when toasted and the inside is dense / heavy. It's a filling bread and works well with spreads like vegemite, butter or jams. Of course we use our all time Aussie favorite - Vegemite.


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Nothing Beats a Hearty Healthy Soup

This is an original recipe. I loved it! This makes 3 servings.

It's a very healthy alternative!
My ingredients are:
1. Tofu
2. Shrimps
3. Pumpkin
4. Corn
5. Green peas
6. Peas
7. Red capsicum
8. Onion

Seasoning
1. bit of curry powder
2. 2 tbsp chili paste
3. 2 tbsp fish sauce

Add a bit of water of course though I mostly used the juice from the vegetables plus the water that came along with the corn kernels (I used canned corn).

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Getting more authentic with Sushi

At $4.95 for a 750g sushi rice, this recipe isn't that cheap. The cooking sake I used is around $4 as well!

The entire recipe for the sushi:
1.  fresh New Zealand salmon, from $34/kg from Queenstown
2. Sushi rice
3. cooking sake (1 tbsp)
4. red ginger, pickled
5. thin carrots
6. roasted seaweed laver
7. mayonaisse
8. red capsicum

** add some wasabi and kikoman soy sauce

For the salad, I used a combination of vegetables:
1. Fresh cucumber
2. boiled carrots
3. boiled broccoli
4. some shallots (freshly cut into small pieces)
5. some sweet basil
6. mayonaisse
7. some small apple cubes (fresh) for a bit of sweetness

Some insights!
1. I definitely think sushi rice is much easier to work with than any other types of rice.
2. I added 1 tbsp of sake once the rice has been boiled and cooled a little bit
3. I could have added some more greens for my sushi to make it more colorful


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Comfort Food

This is a good meal for winter -- comfort food!
This is actually what Australians call - peasant food... Why?
Well it's because beef mince is only $5 for 2 people.
Ingredients for this meal are:
1. minced beef
2. carrots
3. green peas
4. onion
5. pepper, salt
6. oyster sauce
7. 4 tbsp of water and 2 tbsp of flour to make the sauce thicker

I matched it with some basmati rice.
My Aussie loved it :-)

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My First Attempt at Sushi

It's terribly hard to roll the Sushi the right away. I need a lot of practice. I loved the meal! Very healthy and filling. However, I have a sneaking feeling I will starve in Japan. I ate about 12 pieces and was still hungry.

Ingredients:
1. Fresh New Zealand Salmon
2. Cucumber
3.Spinash leaves and salad greens
4. Red ginger
5. Celery
6. Rice (I used wrong rice because I only had basmati variety today)
7. Red Capsicum
8. Mayonaise

Of course I have Japanese soy sauce and wasabi :-)


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Sarsiado Reinvented

Recently, I've been watching a youtube channel called "Panlasing Pinoy". It's very informative. It covers all the Filipino dishes that I truly want to eat once I visit the Philippines again. The photos on this blog article features my own version of Sarsiado, one of the most famous Filipino Dishes. It's a simple meal - Fish, vegetables, egg, fish sauce... 

The original sarsiado recipe involves just garlic, tomato, egg, onions and fish and fish sauce (plus salt and pepper).

I have altered this recipe by adding broccoli, capsicum, carrots. The fish I used here is called Lemon Fish, boneless fish fillet which I bought from New World, Queenstown today.

Also want to share that I have cooked the fish first... then sauteed the vegetables after. Once the vegetables seem softer and more cooked, I added the fish and a bit of water (half cup). After simmering for 5 minutes, I have added 1 egg, cracked it on top of the simmering dish. I have waited 5 more minutes to cook the egg.

I have served this dish with basmati rice mixed with green peas.

The fish cost $7.64 while the vegetables and rice probably was an extra $5. So for 2 people, $12 meal is well worth it :-)

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Asian Noodle

I got invited to a new year party in Queenstown, among Filipinos and I was told the theme would be "filipino" food. Well I haven't learned cooking any Filipino food all my life so this is my version of an Asian Noodle.

The ingredients:
1. Lots of vegetables - broccoli, carrot, onions, capsicum and even mushroom
2. Egg Noodle
3. Shrimps
4. Spices - cumin, curry, pepper
5. Sesame oil
6. Egg

I got good reviews from my Filipino friends!

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Warm Lovely Soup and Salmon

They said the best dishes are made with love.

So today to keep warm, I thought of cooking a simple vegetable soup with pan-fried salmon for Andrew.

This is a very simple meal on an ordinary night... but I made it for an extraordinary person. 

1. pan fried salmon, seasoned with salt and pepper
2. tomato sauce
3. lemon

Andrew loves to eat carrots so I used 2 big carrots and used less pasta.
For the soup:
1. half capsicum green, half capsicum yellow
2. 2 large carrots
3. a bit of broccoli
4. 1 whole big onion
5. a few cloves of garlic
6. some elbow pasta (half cup
7. egg
8. chowmien mix - or curry powder + pepper
9. 3 tbsp soy sauce


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Beef Dish

Andrew had 4 servings of this meal. It's a simple meal! My ingredients:
1. thinly sliced beef, marinated in soy sauce and pepper
2. lots of different vegetables - broccoli, carrot, green and yellow capsicum, garlic, onion , green peas, jalapeno (the secret ingredient to add a bit of zing)
3. tomato/pasta sauce
4. some curry powder

I served with warm basmati rice with garlic.


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Onion Rings

Fresh onions dipped in an improvised batter - 1 egg, 2 onions, 2 tsbp flour, some salt and pepper and sesame seeds!


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Bibimbap, my version

This is my first try to improvised a Korean-inspired meal.
It took me 45 minutes to make this... from chopping the vegetables the right way and frying them one set at a time so I create a proper plate design.

The ingredients:
1. boiled rice
2. Stir fried carrot sticks, onion, green and yellow capsicum, broccoli
3. Stir fried beef strips marinated in some soy sauce and pepper
4. fried egg
5. tomato sauce
6. some pepper
7. sesame seeds

I do not have spicy red sauce that make the dish Korean.  I added misu soup to make the meal a bit of Korean and get closer to my goal - bibimbap.

Is it nice? Well my partner said "It's not the same..." But he said it's nice :-)
I think it's because it's healthy!

How can I improve next time?
1. I will pre-cut the veggies so the rest of the ingredient wouldn't be too cold while waiting for the other ingredients to cook.
2. I will make sure I put enough oil on the pan when frying the egg.
3. I'll cook the meat longer to make it more tender.

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Pork and Apple

Pork and apple - classic dish, though I added a bit of zest.

My recipe?
1. Pork, thinly sized, boiled for 30 mins to make it tender
2. mix of broccoli, carrots, onion, red capsicum, garlic
3. apple and nectarine

Method:
1. Stir fry garlic and onion until golden (2 minutes)
2. Add carrots and broccoli (3 minutes)
3. Add the boiled pork (boiled 30 minutes)
4. Add capsicum
5. Add apple and nectarine (cook for 3 minutes)
6. Add pepper to season

Serve with plain basmati rice.

I ate a lot!


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