Pasta And Peas

Still on with our interesting series on “leftover makeover” inspired by some dishes we lifted from the pages of FOODIE magazine. This second dish I cooked for Studio 23’s “US Girls” was such a big hit that it was gone instantly before I could finish saying “bon appetit” to everybody!

Simple, tasty to the core and very elegant, this dish should work its way on your menu soon.

The leftover food was the pasta. In this case, we used salad macaroni. Have you ever had the experience of over estimating your pasta, cooking more than you need  and ended up just stacking them away in the ref to grow those icky molds?  Ha!

Alright, let’s have some great-tasting solution to this leftover dilemma.

The dish I made called for about 5 cups of cooked salad macaroni (cooked according to package directions), 2 tbsps olive oil, 2 tbsps butter, 1 medium-sized chopped white onion, 3/4 cup chopped bacon or pancetta, 3/4 cup frozen sweet peas (thawed), 2 tbsps dry white wine, salt and pepper to taste and grated parmesan cheese.

I Sauted onion and bacon. Added wine and let alcohol evaporate before I mixed in peas which I had to saute a bit longer til I got it tender while still very bright green in color. Tossed them gently onto my pasta and sprinkled parmesan cheese on top.

Sole Fillet In Quick Tomato-Mushroom Medley Sauce

In one of our trips to our favorite Belinni’s Italian Restaurant at Cubao X, we decided to look away from our staple-usual faves of pasta and risotto to try another Italian dish that we haven’t tried. SOLE FISH— the menu emphasized how bestseller their sole fillet was via the marking that meant it was a must-try.

With great expectations, we looked forward to having the first bite of the dish. When the plate of sole arrived, what greeted us was a payatot (thin) piece of fish, bone in and all. The sauce didn’t even help at all. Ugh, what a letdown.

So this explains why I made my own. My style, my way and you can’t say otherwise because this is MY blog! Hahaha! In Filipino, walang kokontra!!! (Nobody can’t oppose!)

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Sole Fillet In Tomato-Mushroom Medley Sauce

5 whole sole fillets, seasoned with salt and pepper

5 large tomatoes, diced

2 medium-sized red onions, sliced

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup flour

1 can button mushrooms, thickly sliced

2 tsps dried basil

1/2 cup white wine

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

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Lightly dredge sole fillets on flour. Pan- fry until slightly brown on both sides. Set aside.

In a skillet, saute onion, garlic and tomatoes. Continue stirring until tomatoes have been completelycrushed and mashed turning into a chunky tomato sauce. Add basil, mushrooms and white wine. Let it simmer for another 3 minutes.

Top on sole fillets while hot. Serve immediately.

Lumpiang Gulay Na Hubad

No, I did not forget to buy the lumpia wrapper for this dish. What I forget now is the number of times we’ve had this in our meals without going for seconds.

Jake’s favorite, this dish is so delish that we can gobble it up even minus the rice. Yes, appetizer style. Strikingly similar  with how Koreans serve their togue (bean sprouts) before the main course in a Korean meal.

I enjoy biting on the togue, baguio beans and tokwa (tofu) and savoring its symphony of flavors. And well, yeah, enclosing this dish in a lumpia wrapper should be a good option, too.

Lumpiang Gulay Na Hubad

4 squares tokwa (tofu)

2 cups of togue (bean sprouts)

10 pcs baguio beans, sliced thinly

1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 red onion, sliced

1 chicken cube

salt and pepper to taste

oil

Fry tokwa until golden brown. Once cooked, pat dry with paper towel to remove excess oil. Cut each square into 9 small cubes. Set aside.

In a skillet, saute onion, garlic, baguio beans, togue and red bell pepper. Add chicken cube and season with salt and pepper. Continue mixing until all ingredients are cooked. Throw in tokwa. Serve hot.

C Italian Dining– A Must Eat And C Place!

Finally, there’s one great reason to drive to Pampanga. And, the reason starts and ends with the letter C!

Voted not once but twice as Restaurant of the year by The Philippine Tatler, wouldn’t you scratch the itch to hie off to Pampanga to check what C Italian restaurant is all about?

Foodies talk about this restaurant ALL THE TIME!

Nestled right smack in the bustling area of Angeles (very near the Clark airbase), I was just too happy driving over to C to finally sample the very famous Italian dishes they serve. And yeah, nevermind if I missed the television coverage of PNoy’s presidential inauguration, tsk…

The out-of-towners!

Okay, the ‘front act’ of the lunch was an awesome basket of Italian bread– dipped in pesto sauce. I was raving non-stop about the crusty-chewy-oomph loaded characteristics of the bread. It was love at first bite! And to think, we were just starting to warm up!

Italian bread in pesto dipping sauce

 The next to arrive was the jando Italian salami panizza– a certified C bestseller. The novelty of this panizza is in the way you eat it. Oh, my eyes rolled in delight even before I rolled the panizza!

C super classic panizza–jando Italian salami, Php 655.

 You eat the panizza this way: Take a strip of panizza, top with arugula leaves and alfalfa sprouts then roll or fold the strip to make a bite size piece. Arugula+cheese+perfect crust spelled YUMMY font 99!

The first pasta we ordered, Spaghetti con frutti di mare, was loaded with the bounty of the sea. Fresh salmon, mahi-mahi, grouper, prawns and imported green lip mussels sauteed with light extra virgin olive oil in pomodoro sauce, it really got us digging in for more of this yummy pasta fare.

Spaghetti con frutti di mare, Php 580.

 The second pasta was penne calebrese. Ahh, it was super. Made of chunks of US Angus oxtail meat that was tender-braised with red wine, tomatoes, green peppers and capers.

Penne calebrese, Php 580.

 We also ordered a second kind of panizza– Don Carmelo. It had spicy chorizos, anchovies, thyme and pecorino cheese. I’ve always been a fan of pizzas with anchovies and that one, I so enjoyed!

C Italian Dining

1210 Don Juico Avenue

Clarkfield, Pampanga  045.892.4059

The Gustavian Restaurant

  

Gravlax Salmon Carpaccio

My new friend, Chef Marijo Camarista, ushered me in to the new branch of The Gustavian restaurant at the new Eastwood mall. The original branch is in Cebu. The soft, casual but avante garde feel of the place made my lunch with Chef Marijo worthwhile.

The Gustavian restaurant serves great European food. Very reminiscent of the grandeur in the lifestyles, specifically in the kind of food the Kings ate  in the old world.  

And what feast we had! “Bring out the wine!”, we so excitedly said! Haha! Ah, at 12 noon, Chef Marijo and I were consuming a coupla glasses of wine already! The heck with the sun! Haha!

Okay, what meals did we gobble up? For starters we had the gravlax Salmon Carpaccio in dill sauce  that went with some crunchy french roll. Good start–I thought. I knew I was in for an uber gastronomic fantasy:)

The next food we sampled was the Nicoise Grilled Tuna Belly with Haricot
beans, Tomato, New Potato, Devilled Egg and Olives.

Nicoise Grilled Tuna Belly with Haricot, tomato, baby potatoes and olives

Salads always gear me up for better things to come (to my plate! Ha!). The salad was splendid. Light, perfect mix of acids and greens.

Okay, the next two dishes were:

Wild Mushroom Soup and Pesto Toast

 and…

 Two varieties of soups, yeah! I just had a feast!

Okay, at this point, I had to start pacing. My stomach was beginning to get cramped and I was not about to stop– yet! Haha! So, in between sips, Chef Marijo, told me The Gustavian’s beginnings in Cebu and how it dramatically attracted  a lot of patrons there. And, finally, it’s now in Manila.

Okay, next plate please!

Lengua Spanyol

 The lengua was my favorite. Creamy, tender and unoffensively rich, it just made me say the word, “yummy”, twenty times during my first six bites! At this point, I kinda started to grasp the European concept of country cooking from the old world of this place.

Pesto Crema

The ‘hangover’ from the lengua kinda dampened my excitement for the succeeding dishes but this plate of pasta was promising. The pine nuts subtly did the magic along with the olive olive oil and the freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Chicken Cacciatore

As if I wasn’t about to explode from the previous ‘gluttonious’ dining,  this plate just fell from Heaven. Being a fan of sour-y dishes that mostly use tomatoes to seal the deal of the sour power, I had a heyday tasting this! The chicken cacciatore was a great finale.

The Gustavian Restaurant should work its way to your must-go-to list soon. Oh, just make sure you got LOTS of tummy space should you decide to swing by:)

The Gustavian

Eastwood mall

Libis, Quezon City

Mobile # 0917-9853429
Telephone: +632 470-2971, 470-2984

Adobong Pusit

Was happy hearing from a High School friend, Cathee. Thanks my friend for this recipe!

ADOBONG PUSIT: A Promdilayf Special

Dear Caren,

Hi! How are you?  I guess we all got busy jumpstarting our careers and later became preoccupied with starting our own families.  I’m just so glad and thankful for the wonders of modern technology.  I’ve happily reconnected with most of our batchmates and schoolmates through Facebook and from time to time, get a chance to chat with them online.

Maybe I should keep you up to speed with what has happened to me over the last many years or so.  When we graduated from the university, I began my corporate life with what was Aboitiz Shipping then (now known as Aboitiz Transport System Corporation) and built a career in the Training and Development arena.  By 1998, I moved to Cebu to fill in a vacant Training position there.  It was so overwhelming for me as I’ve never been away from my family and comfort zone until then.  Slowly, I got used to independent living and later on, learned to love and appreciate the freedom I had.  It was in Cebu where I met my husband.  I met him in the middle of 1998 and we got married three years later. 

In late 2001, my hubby made a career shift that brought us to General Santos City.  By this time, I had left corporate life to concentrate on building my family life.  With so much time on my hands and my husband busy with out-of-town trips, I busied myself at home by getting reacquainted with cooking.  As a young girl, I’ve always loved to cook and learned so much about it from my Mom and Aunt.  Like them, I took the “ouido” style of cooking…I rarely measured my ingredients and would mostly go by look, feel and taste.  Being away from home, I had to learn old family favorites like Mechado, Adobong Batangas, Sinampalukang Manok and Adobong Pusit so that I wouldn’t miss them so much..Marrying a Cebuano, I was able to stretch my food repertoire to include Visayan fare like Utan Bisaya, Tinolang Isda and Inun-unan,  While the training room or conference room was my kingdom during my corporate days, the kitchen became my dominion beginning early 2002.  Suffice to say, I lord over it until now and have no plans to relinquish it anytime soon.  By the time we got reassigned to Butuan City in early 2007, our family has grown to include my firstborn son, Jarred Andrei, who is now 7 years old and Caitlin Alyssa, 3.5 years old.

When we moved to Butuan City, hubby gifted me with my very own range oven.  With my new cooking buddy, I started to reunite myself with an old love – baking.  Armed with loads of baking recipes from the web, I experimented with all sorts of cookies, pastries and cakes.  Over the Christmas holidays in 2008, I went full swing with baking and used my creations as gifts for family and friends.  I also learned several other recipes that make use of baking.  One of these is your famous Baked Macaroni.  It became the highlight of our Noche Buena feast that year.  Other goodies I’ve learned to prepare using the oven includes Meatloaf (which is my Mom’s specialty), Roast Chicken and Oven Fries.

Last year, we welcomed another addition to our growing family, another girl, Cathleen Janelle.  With hubby and three kids below 10, my hands are full with Mommy duties.  Cooking and baking have become great ways for me to express myself and at the same time please my hungry brood.  My two older kids love to see me in the kitchen all the time and they’re always excited to find out what surprise I’ve concocted for them every meal time.  And so from my promdi kitchen, I share with you a family favorite – ADOBONG PUSIT.  I hope you and your readers enjoy it.  I’m looking forward to more foodie discoveries on your food blog and maybe in the future we can have a cooking marathon webcast through Skype.  Wouldn’t that be something?

Anyway, here’s the recipe and I hope you’ll like it.

Take care and God bless.

Cathee
http://promdi2010.blogspot.com

ADOBONG PUSIT

1 kg pusit, washed and drained (be careful not to wash out the squid ink sac)
1 thumb-size ginger, sliced
1 head of garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, sliced
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp canola oil
3-4 medium tomatoes, sliced
1/4 cup vinegar
1 – 1.5 tsp coarse salt
1 cup water or 1 cup coconut milk (optional)
pepper to taste

In a casserole, place the ginger, bay leaves and half of the garlic at the bottom.  Put the squid over this layer, add in the salt and vinegar.  Cook over medium heat until it comes to a boil.  Add a little water if it gets a bit dry.  Remove squid and sauce from the casserole.  In the same casserole, heat some oil, then saute the onion, remaining garlic and tomatoes until wilted.  Add the squid pieces first and simmer for 5 minutes.  Put in the rest of the sauce and dash of pepper to taste.  If you want some flair, you may add in a cup of coconut milk (if you decide to go for the coconut milk, do not add any water at all during the entire cooking process) towards the end and simmer for a couple of minutes before turning off heat.

Serve hot with rice.

Shepherd’s Pie

It’s one bombastic dish when all ingredients make you go for seconds. In this case, my favorite sauted beef and creamy mashed potatoes– yes, the savory tandem called shepherd’s pie. The original dish calls for the use of lamb or mutton although the use of ground or roast beef has become  a  preference among foodies overtime.

I usually make this when there’s leftover mashed potatoes in the ref. Why, the overnight version of these tubers tend to be more firm and flexible that makes baking and slicing it afterwards easier.

Okay, here’s how to do it. You will need:

Mashed potato

3 large potatoes

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup heavy  cream

salt and pepper to taste

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Boil potatoes. Drain once tender.

Mash with potato masher leaving the skin on.

Throw in remaining ingredients. Mash until all ingredients blend in.

Meat filling

3/4 kilo ground beef

2 tomatoes, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, minced

1/2 cup tomato sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

oil

1 egg (egg white only)

In a skillet, saute beef in onion, garlic and tomatoes.

Season with salt and pepper. Add cayenne pepper and basil. Add a cup of water. Bring to a simmer until meat is tender and water has evaporated. Add tomato sauce. Simmer for five more minutes.

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In a pie dish, pour meat mixture and top with mashed potatoes. Brush top with egg white and sprinkle with dried basil leaves. Bake for ten minutes at 350 deg c.

Fondant Cakes, Etc.

Pastry expert Aileen Lara is in the thick of baking action again. Yeah, and I’m not complaining. She had me sample her fondant cake with carrot cake filling and was I impressed! The cake was downright perfect in form and in taste. She had me going for seconds!

I noticed, and I’m sure a lot of people will agree with me, that most fondant cakes just look ravishing on the outside and totally hideous in the inside. I mean, hey, sure we want this pretty and all but the tummy down here clamors for some good-tasting filling!

By saying “good” , we mean taste and the “after-feeling” we get. Was it so good that it made you giddy for the next five hours? Was it so crazy delicious that you looked forward to eating it five minutes after you’ve eaten the last morsel of your cake?

Check to all after every food tasting with Aileen’s goodies.

I’ve known Aileen for two decades now and the passion for food, particularly baking has been consistent.

Picture below shows Aileen strutting her culinary stuff in the kitchen.

You’ll know if the pastry was made from the heart by the oomph you get after your first bite… yeah, something like love at first bite or something like that.

When you do business, you put you’re heart in it, if you don’t, the sugar won’t taste as sweet and engaging.

What I like about her cakes is that they’re fun, whimsical and dynamic. Very reflective of her own persona.

I just love these. It totally revvs up parties and special ocassions with the splash of colors of her pastries.

The recent cake she made was for a baby shower. A fondant cake with her signature carrot cake filling. I thought the whole ensemble was totally cute!

Look!

Slicing it, you’d see the filling peeping hello to you:)

For orders, you may message her through 0906.212.9084. She delivers cakes and pastries within Metro Manila:)

Buttered Chicken Stew With Sitcharo

A pack of fresh sitcharo (snowpeas) peeped hello from a stack of veggies in the ref recently. Ahh, I knew it was time for some reunion with one of my most favorite ingredients. I usually use this for my stir-fried sirloin tips. There’s something about sitcharo that perks up the main meat.

And, to couple it with the powerhouse triumvirate  of chicken, tomatoes and butter, come on! As Julia Child once said, “You can’t have enough of the butter!”.

Okay to do this, you will need:

2 whole breast halves with wings

2 cups sitcharo, cleaned and trimmed

1/4 cup butter

6 medium-sized tomatoes, diced

1 medium-sized onion

4 cloves of garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

oil

1 tsp dried basil for garnishing

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In a skillet, saute onion, garlic and tomatoes. Add seasoned chicken. Simmer on slow-medium heat until chicken is tender and tomatoes almost liquid in consistency.

It may be necessary to add water when necessary until chicken is tender enough.

Once chicken is cooked and sauce is reduced to half, add butter and sitcharo. Simmer some more for another three minutes or until sitcharo is half-cooked.

Sprinkle with dried basil. Serve warm.

Makut Theng

‘Masarap makikain sa kapitbahay!’ or in this case, ‘Masarap kumain ng galing sa kapitbahay!’. My Chinese neighbor and good friend, Myze Ngo, gave me a warm bowl of this Makut Theng or the Chinese version of our nilagang buto-buto.

What I found immersed in the the very tasty pork broth was an interesting mix of  ingredients like some fall-off-the bones pork ribs, ginger, bola-bola, black mushrooms, gabi and lettuce.

I ate it with my sawsawan of hoisin sauce and a bit of hot chillies. Winner!

Myze tells me, these fares are usually found in authentic small Chinese canteens, as she refers to their medium-sized eateries, which usually thrive in places like Chinatown, Banawe, etc.

Can I just say, I am forever delighted sampling authentic Chinese food, it’s a pleasant temporary departure from the Chinese food adjusted to the Filipino palate we usually experience.

To Myze, chin toh sya!

Baked Chicken In Sinigang Rub

A friend and blog reader, Sandy Celi, gave me some of her organic chicken for sampling. I automatically scanned my mental files for a favorite recipe and thought of whipping up my favorite baked chicken in sinigang rub. I thought it was to be our local version of the lemon and pepper rub. Yes, only better.

I grabbed some sachet of my organic sampaloc sinigang mix from Herb’s Best (owned by my cousin-in-law, Fannie Guanzon) and I was set to fire away.

In a snap, I suddenly found myself strutting my stuff in the kitchen gearing up to make some baked chicken in sinigang sampaloc rub. It was to be a dream combo in an untypical sinigang dish. Two chemical and preservative-free major ingredients in one dish name– clap, clap!

When you check Sandy’s blog site  you will read that this chicken comes from a breed of “Grass Fed, Free Range, Naturally Grown, Pastured Colored Chickens: Raised with a lot of sunshine, fresh air, supplemented with probiotics and unmedicated feeds”.

No wonder it did not have the innate lansa or slimmyness chickens usually have. Oh and by the way, did I say that it  was distinctly tastier than the regular commercial chicken? Ahhh, sarap Lord! 

Now,  how cool was that?

Okay to do this you will need:

1 big chicken

1 small sachet sampaloc mix

salt and pepper to taste

1 bunch tanglad

1 cup fresh parsley

oil

Preheat oven to 300 deg c.

Season chicken with salt and pepper.

Meantime in a small mixing bowl, mix 2 tbsps oil and 1 small sachet of sampaloc sinigang mix.

Rub onto the chicken.

Insert lemongrass and parsley (with bottom part of the stalks pounded to release flavor) into the cavity.

Bake  for 2-3 hours or until chicken is done. Serve with gravy sauce (recipe below).

Gravy sauce:

Scrape the pan where you baked the chicken by adding 1 cup of boiling chicken stock. Drain to smoothen the mixture.  Transfer mixture in a sauce pan. Simmer on low heat. Add 3 tbsps butter and 2 tbsps flour. Stir until sauce is free of lumps.

Tuna And Chorizo Linguine

 

Tuna plus chorizos equals happiness. Yesterday saw me dishing out some tuna and chorizo pasta for my pasta-loving mom and aunt when they swung by my crib for some hearty meryenda.

If I had my way, I’d name this pasta, “Oh my, Mama!” pasta. Lol. Yeah,  in honor of my mom who is a die hard pasta lover. Mom must’ve been an Italiana in her past life who made cheeses and everything yummy and Italian in her lifetime!

Well, save for the chorizos (which is Spanish in origin), the dish was one helluvahn Italian treat. Easy to make, packed with big flavors, fancy-looking, this recipe should make its way to your kitchen soon!

Smothered with chunky tomatoes, chorizos, tuna  and all the Italian flavors, my house guests definitely went for seconds!

Okay, to do this you will need:

1/2 kilo linguine pasta noodles

1 can chunky tuna in solid water

1 can diced tomatoes

1 cup regular tomato sauce

1 stick chorizo, sliced and halved

4 cloves of garlic, minced

10 pitted whole black olives

1 red bell pepper, finely diced

1 green bell pepper, finely diced

1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1 tbsp fresh sweet basil, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

olive oil

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Meantime, in a skillet, saute garlic, bell peppers, olives, chorizos, rosemary, basil and tuna. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for two minutes. Add diced tomatoes and regular tomato sauce. Lightly stir for the next four minutes.

Toss sauce in pasta. Serve warm with sprinkling of cheese on top.

Cheesy Lasagna

Marvelling at this Lasagna, a party guest once asked me what cheese I used to make it. Without hesitation I gave away the secret– EDEN cheese and a box of another local quick-melting cheese. To which, the other eavesdropping party people cracked up thinking it was a big foodie joke. Well, that joke happened to be the yummiest amusement to date.  

This recipe is an instant party crowd pleaser, no fail. The 1-2-3 punch comes from the perfect play of the meat sauce and the bechamel. The harmonious and rythmic combo of  spicy, a bit sweet (from the sweet onion and red bell peppers), sour and salty components in this dish give it the oomph that’s to die for (or yeah, live for!).

No, this is not a sponsored blog (how I wish!) neither is it a testimonial dish. I just underscored the fact that you DON’T need expensive cheese to make a killer lasagna. Before some lasagna purists crucify me for publishing this recipe using Eden cheese, let me challenge them first to try this. Then, hand me down the verdict!

Okay, today saw me baking this lasagna for friends Faye and Kristine for a belated New Year catching up.

Kristine, moi and Faye

The lunch also included in the menu some parmesan-crusted calamari with tartar sauce, a plate of greens with some fruit-infused vinegrette dressing and lots of laughter, catching up  and updates from all the stories that went with it. Nothing beats great chats with comfort food at the backdrop.

Lasagna:

1 box  curly lasagna noodles

1 box quickmelt cheese, grated

Meat Sauce:

1/2 kilo ground beef

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 medium-sized white onion, minced

1 tomato, chopped

1 large bell pepper, minced

salt and pepper to taste

750 grams tomato sauce, Italian blend

1 can chorizos, cut lengthwise and sliced horizontally (optional)

Bechamel Sauce:

1 box all purpose cream

1 cup milk

1 box Eden cheese

 cheese, grated

1/4 cup  butter

salt and pepper to taste

4 tbsps flour

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1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. In a separate pan, saute garlic, bell pepper, onion and tomato. Add beef. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer until cooked. Add tomato sauce and chorizos. Continue stirring for the next ten minutes.  Set aside.

3. In a skillet, heat  butter then add all-purpose  creamand milk. Mix well. Add Eden cheese. Slowly add flour to thicken the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

4. In a baking dish, assemble the pasta. The bottom part gets a scoop of meat sauce as base. Smother with a generous amount of bechamel sauce on top of the beef mixture. Lay lasagna noodles. Repeat the layering thrice.

5. Top the dish with the quickmelting cheese.

6. Preheat the oven to 350c and bake for 15 minutes or  until cheeses are turned into golden brown. Once cooked, let stand for 15 minutes. Serve with you favorite toast.

The Perfect Corned Beef!

Two nicely-packaged cans of corned beef greeted me as I arrived home the other day. A friend, Nina Daza-Puyat, had them sent over to my place for tasting. And, what tasting I had!

Now, what to do…

This morning saw me opening a can of Delimondo corned beef by Chef Ed Quimson  to go with some nicely-browned diced potatoes.

Initially, I was tempted to do my classic favorite — a mega combo of corned beef and pork and beans that my lola always cooked for us when we were kids. However, my curiousity killed my impulse and decided to whip up something that wouldn’t mask the original taste of this corned beef that Nina likes so much.

Upon opening the can, I giddily scooped up some corned beef. Haay, I swear, it would’ve gone straight into my tummy before it hit the pan had I not forced myself to STOP! It had the right play of saltiness and linamnam.

Thought, too, that  this corned beef had the perfect color of corned beef. Not too red and definitely not too pale.

The bomb was actually the bits of chunky litid/fat that it had in it. Sarap!!!! Very reminiscent of those homemade corned beef that had some good cuts of beef brisket. It just melted in my mouth with my eyes closed.

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To do this dish, you will need:

1 big can of corned beef

3 medium-sized potatoes, diced

4 cloves of galic, minced

1 onion, minced

1 tsp dahon ng sibuyas, chopped

oil

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In a frying pan, deep fry potatoes until golden brown. Drain and set aside.

Meantime, using a skillet, saute onion and garlic. Add corned beef. Cook for three minutes. Add potatoes. Serve warm.

Cocktails In A Hurry

In a trip to Paris, France about two years ago, I was amused at how regular I saw this olive-cheddar cheese combo in most clubs that we checked out. Quite similarly, its counterpart here would be our usual ‘adobong mani’ that we nibble on along with the booze.

Quite a staple on the club tables, it instantly greets you once you’re seated. Usually free and replenishable, I enjoyed having it there to match with the red wine I took.

Fast forward to now, I make these when I invite family and friends over at our place. That’s cubed sharp cheddar cheese and pitted black olives skewered on a toothpick. Looks elegant, easy to make and perfect to go with wine. Cheers!