What would it take for a noodle gaga like me? Simple, just dare to cook all those noodle varieties available. From pansit bihon to pansit palabok, Italian spaghetti to Korean jab chae. Heck, even from instant ramen to the unbeatable instant pancit canton, I tried it all and dig it :) Come to think of it, I survived my college days by eating instant noodles. Yes, the lazy way of just putting hot water, and viola, you have a hot serving of a hearty noodle. But since I got married, cooking the instant way has to change, or else my husband will disown me,LOL! I'd been eating noodles since time immemorial, in which the amount of noodles I'd eaten could encircle the globe to-and-fro beating Michael Palen, hahahaha! So, this time, I dare myself to cook the famous Pad Thai. I had never cooked Pad Thai, and I always wanted to learn how to do it. At first, I was really intimidated, but after reading some blogs and articles, I conditioned myself not to back out.
One of the best blogs that I find very helpful on how to cook Pad Thai for beginners, is Chez Pim's blog. In there, she thoroughly explained everything up to the last bits and pieces of ingredients, procedures, and even cooking tips. The article is a long read, but trust me, it's worth your time. When you're done reading it, I can assure you that you are now fully equipped on how to make your very first and own Pad Thai, just like me :) Good luck on your Pad Thai quest, and soon enough, you'll forget about take out!
Sio Pao (pronounced as "shopaw") is a popular snack in the Phillipines, and has always been an all time fave of mine. It's usually filled with a meaty filling flavors like asado or guisado, but the mung bean and ube filling sio pao will always be the best for me. I already did a previous post on how to make sio pao with ube filling (click here), only this time I'm posting about the veggie filling, but the dough recipe is the same.
Mix Veggie Filling
Ingredients:
1 cup grated carrots
2 cups minced cabbage
minced veggie meat (you can put any veggie meat you want)
minced red bell pepper
1 tsp white sugar
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp peanut oil
1/4 tsp sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste
Masala:
mix together 1/4 tsp hing and 1/4 tsp black pepper.
Procedure:
1. Heat the oil in the pan, once heated put the masala for about 2 sec, then add in the carrots.
2. When carrots are slightly cook, add the veggie meat and the bell pepper.
3. After 2 mins, add in the cabbage.
4. Add in the soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper.
5. Stir in the sesame oil when it's done.
The hubby was so fascinated with this exotic refreshment while we we're having one of our bon-a-petite dinner in one of Tampa's famous vegan resto. When we got home, he went straight to our pantry and checked if we have the ingredients. A few minutes later, he started boiling,blanching, and working out the blender. The next day, he continued with his gastric driven enchantment, and viola! His very first home made horchata is ready to satisfy his quench, and of course, I was enjoying it too :) Summer is coming, and I bet you'll gonna love this Mexican delight.
6 tablespoons rice
6 ounces (about 1 1/4 cups) blanched almonds
1 inch cinnamon stick (canella)
3 "2-inch" strips of lime zest (rind only, not the white pithy part) 3/4" long
1 cup white granulated sugar
Procedure:
Pulverize the rice using a metate y mano or your blender. Grind the mixture as smooth as possible. Combine the rice with the almonds, cinnamon and lime zest. Stir in 2 1/4 cups hot tap water then cover and let the mixture stand overnight (minimally 6 hours).
Place the mixture in the blender jar and blend for at least 3 - 5 minutes until the mixture is smooth and no long has a gritty texture. Add 2 cups of water and blend again for just a few seconds. Place a large sieve over a mixing bowl. Line the sieve with 3 layers of damp cheesecloth. Pour in the rice mixture, a little at a time and keep stirring to help the mixture go through the sieve. Once all the liquid has passed through to the bowl gather the cloth together at the top, give it a twist and squeeze out any additional liquid.
Now add 2 more cups of water and stir in as much sugar as you'd like, to taste. If the mixture is too thick, add some additional water.
Cover and refrigerate. The drink should keep several days, refrigerated.
Serve in a tall glass over ice.
I love spring rolls, and I don't mind at all how long it takes to make it, after all patience is a virtue . Back home we call spring rolls as "Lumpia", and it has variety of fillings. It can be a meaty porky filling, or some tutty fruity ones, usually made up of banana, jack fruit, or a sweet mongo bean paste. Come to think of it, I used to sale lumpia back in grade school, and I almost got suspended coz the teacher in-charge of the canteen reported my sorry a$$ to the principal. DUH! How can a 9 years old could be the downfall of a school canteen? Thanks to her, I learned the basics of capitalism. Sad,sad,sad tragic event for a third grader, but did it stop me from selling other food stuff? HELL NO! Yes, at 9, I was already a guerilla vendor,bwahahaha. Me like more my nickles and dimes than to be completely penniless and have nothing to support my needs, hmmm......buying Gundam stickers and different colors of rubber bands. Amen to that!
Here's a simple vegetarian recipe for a spring roll filling, and a tutorial on how to wrap a spring roll. For first timer rollers (sorry I couldn't find any appropriate terms on this, lol!), don't be intimated on how to start your spring rolls rolling. It doesn't need to be perfectly wrap. Just have some fun, and savor the fruit of your rolling labor .
Ingredients:
Spring Roll Wrapper
2 cups finely chopped cabbage
1 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots
1 cup fresh shredded coconut pulp Note: Frozen one will do, but if you can't avail either, replace the coconut with mung bean sprouts which you can easily avail at any grocery store.
1/4 cup roasted sesame seeds
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp minced ginger
1 regular size habanero pepper minced
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp cooking oil
black pepper
green onions
Procedure:
1. In a hot pan, add the cooking oil and saute the ginger, habanero pepper, and the onion (put the bulb part of the onion first)
2.Add the carrots and stir for a minute, then add the cabbage,salt,sugar,soy sauce and a dash of black pepper. Stir for 2 minutes.
3. Stir in the roasted coconut and sesame seeds for a minute, then mix in the green onion stalks.
4. Let it cool and set aside.
Wrapping Procedure:
1. Let the spring roll wrapper defrost to room temperature.
I use this brand:
2. Cover the spring roll wrapper as well as the finish spring roll with a damp paper towel to keep it moist.
3. Deep fry until golden brown.
4. Follow this tutorial video, and enjoy rolling.
Wrapping and frying tips:
1. Wrap the filling as tight as you can to avoid opening during frying, but don't wrap it too tight, or you'll end up tearing the wrapper.
2. Make sure that the oil is hot, or you'll end up with a soft and oily spring roll rather than crispy.
I was goggling online looking for that elusive recipe for a perfect fluffy vegetarian/vegan marshmallow. After a couple of clicks and stops from one site to another, I stumbled and ended up in youtube. As a vegetarian, I'd always been careful of what I eat especially in buying pre-package vegetarian goodies because god knows what's exactly in there and manufacturers just label it as "vegetarian".
I remember one time, a friend give me some packs of this “kosher-Gel” for making vegetarian gelatin. Out of courtesy, I accepted it and thank her for her generosity. When I got home, the usual, I just tossed every food stuff inside my pantry. No, I didn’t bother to check it, or even to try it due to my laziness, and I just completely forgot about it. Until one day, when I checked my pantry and noticed that there’s something missing. Then, I asked my husband (the usual culprit) if he touched anything in my pantry, it turns out, he did.
With a nonchalant and seemingly cold manner (as most guys are, acting cool,LOL), the hubby told me that he threw away that “kosher-gel” thing because he found out that it WASN’T VEGAN AT ALL. I was just dumbfounded and didn’t bother to start an argument because my guts was telling me that he seems to be right. Anyway, “EMES KOSHER-GEL” turns out to be a BIG FAKE!. So, calling all vegetarians and vegans out there, please don’t buy this product at all!
If you want to read more about how this fake vegan gel got busted, please click here.
And here’s what I found in Youtube.
Part 1
Part 2
Sweet and Sara is the only vegan marshmallow I’m buying because as you can see from the video, the maker is a vegan. Even though it’s kind of expensive, from time to time, my hubby and I can’t help but be tempted.
As for the recipe, I’m still on the look out and doing some trial and error. If you want to do some vegetarian gelatin, try using some agar-agar. This is what we generally use in the Philippines in making gulaman or gelatin, and you can find this in your nearby Asian stores.
dice tofu (about 5 -6 cups) drained and deep fry it.
2 cups of dice pineapple, red,orange and yellow bellpepper, and cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp butter/ghee
2 tbsp of finely grated parmesan cheese
basil leaves
masala or mixed spices ( I usually mixed asofatedia, ginger powder, cumin powder, curry and chili powder for a pinch or two of each)
dash of black pepper
1 tsp sugar
bamboo skewers
Procedure:
1. Cut the tofu into desired thickness and size then drained and deep fry.
2. While frying the tofu, start the sauce. Put first the butter and if it’s hot enough then put the masala ( be careful not to burn the masala), then dumped the tomato sauce.
3. Put the remaining ingredients one at a time; peanut butter, basil leaves, parmesan cheese, sugar and black pepper and let it simmer for 10- 15 mins in low fire.
4. Put the fried tofu into the sauce and let it marinate overnight.
5. The next day before skewing the tofu start first the barbecue fire. Skew the tofu, bell peppers, pineapple and tomato in any order.
6. Now don’t forget to make a barbecue dressing while barbecuing it’s just a one is to one proportion: 1 cup of the barbecue sauce + 1 cup of oil. Coat the skewed tofu and the grill w/ the barbecue dressing before barbecuing in this way it will prevent it from sticking into the grill.
7. Now your ready to cook it and be careful not to burn it:)
Note: slice it thick enough so that it wont break when you put it on the bamboo skewer, same as the tofu but the tomatoes no need, justt skew it as it is. For the skewers, soak it in water for 30 mins so that it wont burn easily.
Bento is a Japanese way of preparing lunch boxes. It is basically made up of rice, fish, meat, and egg. But now a days, bento has evolved, and it has lots of varieties. Japanese moms actually designed bento boxes for their kids in order to encourage them to eat a variety of foods. Also, it helps in tricking the kids to eat foods that they don’t like to eat at all, and one classic example is the greenly leafy healthy veggie. I used to religiously eat my bentos when I was at grade school, even if it includes the veggie that I totally despised before, the bitter gourd.
Lately, I’d been longing to make some bentos, but the only thing that stops me from moving my butt is my laziness. Then one day, my husband and I needs to go to Tampa for some business, and he told me to packed some lunch since it’s gonna be a long day (duh! he just hate to eat outside,LOL). While checking the cooler to see if what can I whip from our almost bare fridge, making bento lunch boxes pops in my head right away.
Making bento is actually easy. You don’t need to make it fancy and intricate as the Japanese folks does, but to have the basic things in making it is a big help. So, for the basics, you just need rice (sushi rice), nori (dried seaweeds/sushi wrapper), some veggies and fruits, small containers (like a small paper/cupcake cup). You also need some toothpicks to sometimes hold the food in place, and of course your bento box ( I just use the regular rectangular box). All of these are very easy to avail at your local Asian store. Once you have all of it, then you’re good to go.
When it comes on how to arrange your bento, there’s no pattern at all if which comes first. Whatever suits your needs, then go for it! All you need is your creativity and imagination, and just do things out of the box! You can make pakoras or samosas and have it arrange anyway you want. You can also put some accents for more colors, like cherry tomatoes, grapes, or even m n’ms will do.
If you’ve never tried making a bento box, now is that time to do it, hahaha! If you have problem with your kids on letting them eat some healthy foods, do it the bento way, and I’m pretty much sure it’ll work.
For more detailed steps and how tos in making a bento, I suggest to visit this site, http://lunchinabox.net/. If you have more questions about this, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’m just a click away, and I’ll be happy to be of service.
Some of the simple bentos that I made for my husband :) .
Hello!!!She's just a simple soul who loves to cook,bake, and eat!!!Most of the time she's harassing the kitchen, so the probability of you meeting her in the kitchen is infinite. A full-time wife who just wants to explore her endless possibilities, likes to think outside the box, and best of all is willing to exploit her strength to make things possible. One of her favorite quote is from the hot Bono of U2; ” The world is more malleable than you think, and it’s waiting for you to hammer it in shape.” She’s also a certified Asian drama addict, a vegetarian, loves mangas, can’t get enough of her daily dose of animes, but her best attribute is that she can seriously compete with a polar bear when it comes to hibernating.Oh, I almost forgot that she’s a procrastinator Numero UNO!
My blog is called The Sassy Tomato: Live,Laugh, and Love with Sassiness.I just usually blog whatever pops inside my unpredictable head, whatever makes my stomach growls, and my saliva drools.I decided to start blogging (again) since I got nothing much to do as a full time housewife,LOL! And that, it's not yet the end of world when things don't go as we plan.When the world gives us lemons, start making lemonade!Living life to the fullest is what I do,for we only live once, and there's no dress rehearsal at all!
