The Foodie's Food Trip: February 2009

Ginisang Sayote

Ginisang Sayote or Sauteed Chayote is another Filipino dish that is easy to cook and requires a few ingredients only - chayote and shrimp/prawns. I've seen and tasted a lot of variations for this dish. Some would use ground pork, some would add tomato, and some would even add carrots.

Ginisang Sayote

Ingredients

2 tablespoons cooking oil
500g chayote, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup shrimps, shelled and deveined
1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped
1/4 cup diced onion
1/2 cup water
salt or fish sauce to taste

Directions

Heat oil and fry the garlic until brown.
Add the onion and stir fry until the onion is translucent.
Add the shrimps and saute a bit until half cooked.
Pour the water and add the chayote.
Season with salt/fish sauce, cover and simmer until the chayote is a tender.

I'm Out of Gas

The day we moved to our new apartment, first week of May 2008, was the day we got our first tank of LPG. We thought by the third month we'll be able to replace it already... but it's still not empty. Four months... five months... six months... We stopped counting the days. Until two days ago...

Two days ago, I was cooking some pork steak for dinner. If you know beef steak Tagalog, then just change the beef to pork, that's pork steak. :)

My ingredients are all ready for cooking. I've already marinated the pork in calamansi & soy sauce. So I started cooking the meat. I've semi-cooked one side of the meat already, so I'm just waiting for the other side to cook so I can put the sliced onion. A few minutes later when I checked my cooking, the sauce is not boiling... there was no heat! I checked the stove... no flame! Just when I was in the middle of my cooking! I called up the LPG supplier and they told me that they can't deliver that night and the earliest is the next morning. Waaa! How about my pork steak! :(

What did I do? I cooked our dinner in the microwave. Good thing we replaced our old and dilapidated microwave. Our new microwave has this Slow Cooking feature. So I just read the instructions on how to use the slow-cooking feature, placed my pork and the onion in a microwave-safe bowl, and slow-cooked it for 30 minutes (supposed to be more than an hour, but I changed it to 30 minutes since the meat's almost cooked anyway).

After 30 minutes... voila! Pork steak! hihihi :)

I Burned Something

Yeah, I burned something by accident...
And this was when I was cooking pancakes!

A few days ago, I cooked pancakes for breakfast. On my last batch of pancakes, I adjusted the stove's flame so that the pancakes will cook faster. After cooking the last batch, I served the pancakes then went to the bedroom for a while to call my husband for breakfast. When I got back to the kitchen, it smelled like burnt plastic... then I saw the frying pan smoking and my plastic turner on the side. Waaaa panic!

I turned off the stove and immediately removed the turner on the side of the pan. Then I realized what I did: after cooking the pancakes, I placed the turner face-down on the pan's side... without turning off the flame! The turner's not the only thing that's damaged, some of the plastic got stuck as well on the frying pan's side.

Here's the turner with the frying pan....
I threw it away. Good thing this is my old turner! I have another one, which was still in the sink that time... hihi :) The frying pan's alright now. I was able to remove the stuck plastic on the side - I let the pan heat up on the stove again and waited for the plastic to melt a bit, then wiped the plastic away.

I've learned my lesson: before serving the food, check if the stove's turned off.

I Enrolled in a Cooking Class!

I want to learn more about cooking and baking. I've been looking for a culinary/cooking/baking school that offers simple classes, and not those months/years of studying. So I enrolled for a 1-day class. And guess what class I enrolled to... Ultimate Chocolate Treats!!!

The class I enrolled to is in Shermay's Cooking School! :) While looking for culinary schools here in Singapore, I came across Shermay's Cooking School. Since then I've been interested to enroll in one of their classes.

Shermay's Cooking School is a dainty little cooking school here in Singapore. A lot of award-winning chefs, celebrity chefs and cookbook authors conduct cooking classes there. They also have a retail shop, selling various kinds of cooking and baking supplies that are most of the time not available in malls and groceries.

The demo class class will be taught by their guest chef Joycelyn Shu. Joycelyn also has a blog, KUIDAORE, which I also visit often. :)

From what I read about this class (as mentioned also in Joycelyn's blog), Ultimate Chocolate Treats I is just the first of a series of classes. I'd definitely enroll to the next one as well.... Chocolate overload!!! hihihi!

The class is still a month away, on 14 March. All I can say is... I am so excited! :)

My Fudgy Experience

I'm a chocoholic... I love anything chocolate. Plus, hubby loves chocolate desserts. Once I baked vanilla cupcakes, he didn't eat them... because they're not chocolate! :P

I've been looking for a new recipe to try... something no-bake (since I don't have an oven), something easy, and something with chocolate. So I decided to search for an easy fudge recipe.

I found this recipe from Kathy Maister's Start Cooking and decided to try it out.

Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients

1 pound chocolate chips (milk chocolate, semi-sweet or dark)
1/4 cup butter
1 can condensed milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

Prepare the double-boiler. Put some water in a pan and bring it to a simmer.
While waiting for the water to simmer, line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment or wax paper. If possible, line the sides as well (in my case, a round pan).
Put the chocolate, butter, condensed milk and vanilla in a metal bowl. When the water in the pan is simmering, place the bowl over the simmering water, stirring occasionally.
When everything is smooth, blended, and all melted, remove the bowl from heat. Add the chopped walnuts and stir until blended.
Pour it into the prepared pan, and let it sit for a few minutes until the pan's bottom has cooled a bit (around 10-15 minutes is enough).
Put in the refrigerator and let it chill for at least 4 hours.
When the fudge has set, run a knife around the pan and remove the fudge from pan.
Remove the parchment paper and cut into squares.

Notes:

Since I'm just trying it out, I only use half of the required ingredients.
And since I only used half, I also used a smaller pan, and the only small pan I have is a round one. :)
The original recipe used unsalted butter. I didn't have unsalted butter, so I used normal butter. If you'll use unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon salt.

There! The fudge turned out delicious.

Unfortunately it melts so easily... I don't know if fudge really is like that (melts easily) or I did something wrong... damn humidity! As much as I want Lloyd to bring them to work, it's not possible because it will surely melt.

Actually, I also find it too sweet... and I already used semi-sweet chocolate (and not milk chocolate as mentioned in the original recipe). Nevertheless, Lloyd still likes it. hihi!

I think I'll continue my search for another fudge recipe. But do try this out because it is yummy. Like Lloyd, you might like it better than I do. :)

Ginataang Sitaw at Kalabasa

Ginataang sitaw at kalabasa is a Filipino dish, consisting mainly of coconut milk (gata), long beans (sitaw) and squash (kalabasa). There are different variations for this dish. Some would only use the long beans with coconut milk, some only the squash with coconut milk. Some would prefer pork instead of shrimps, and some would make it all vegan.

I have a limited knowledge in cooking Filipino dishes, and I'm proud to say that this is one of the Filipino dishes that I can cook well. It's a healthy dish and has a simple & easy to follow recipe.

Ginataang Sitaw at Kalabasa

Ingredients

2 tablespoons oil
1 clove crushed garlic
1/4 cup diced onion
1 to 2 cups long beans, cut into 2 inch segments
1 to 2 cups squash
1 can coconut milk
1/2 cup shrimps, shelled and deveined
salt or fish sauce to taste

Directions

Heat oil and fry the garlic until brown.
Add the onion and stir fry until the onion is translucent.
Add the beans and squash. Season with salt/fish sauce.
When the beans and squash are half-cooked, add the coconut milk and shrimps.
Add water if necessary. Continue cooking until the beans are done and the sauce is thick.

Notes:

You can substitute the shrimps with pork, cut into small bite pieces. Or you can also make it all vegan, remove the shrimps/pork completely. Simply adjust the seasonings according to taste.
If you used pork, cook the pork before cooking the garlic. Add the garlic when the meat is done or brownish in color.

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About The Foodie's Food Trip

Hello and welcome to The Foodie's Food Trip!

foodie
food·ie \ˈfü-dē\
Noun
A person who has an ardent or refined interest in food; a gourmet: "in the culinary fast lane, where surprises are expected and foodies beg to be thrilled" Boston Globe
a person with a keen interest in food and cookery
a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food and drink)

I'm not a chef or a cook, and I didn't have any formal lessons in cooking nor baking. But I do love cooking and baking (that is when I'm in the mood). Not only do I love to cook/bake, I also love to eat (well, who doesn't?)... dine-in or take-out, it doesn't matter. :P Ergo the use of the word foodie.

This blog is all about food... my adventures and misadventures with cooking; my escapades with food, restaurants or eateries I've gone to. I will be sharing recipes I've tried, may they be a success or a failure. I will also be sharing tips, tricks and trivia regarding food and drinks.

I admit I'm not an expert on this subject, but I'll do my best. :)