FRESH TOMATO AND CILANTRO SALSA (SALSA FRESCA)

There is nothing wrong with jarred salsa but wouldn't you love fresh salsa instead? It's easy, refreshing, healthier and fresh.

Salsa Fresca also called pico de gallo is what i call a versatile dish. It is served as a relish or mixed into dishes. It complements all kinds of foods, from shellfish or grilled, fried meat to tortillas, fajitas and enchiladas.

Y: 6 as an accompaniment

Ingredients:

WASH EVERYTHING FIRST BEFORE CHOPPING.

1 1/2 pounds tomatoes - finely chopped ( i prefer roma tomatoes)
1 medium sized jalapeno - finely chopped***
1 medium sized sweet onions - finely chopped (i prefer vidalla)
juice of 2 big limes
bunch of fresh cilantro- finely chopped
salt to taste

**Go easy with the jalapeno if you don't like hot/spicy salsa.

Mix all ingredients. Taste and adjust.

EGGS WITH CHORIZO (MEXICAN LETTUCE WRAP)

There are 2 types of Mexican chorizo (sausage). One is packed in sausage skins and air-dried similar to the Spanish chorizo. The other type is freshly made and sold loose. This recipe calls for the fresh chorizo which can be bought at grocery stores.

Recipe adapted from the "The Complete Mexican, South American and Carribean Cookbook"

Y: 4

Ingredients:
Fresh Chorizo: (I used store bought)
2 T lard or oil
1 1/4 pounds ground pork
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 t dried oregano
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t ground black pepper
2 T dry sherry
1 t sugar
1 t salt
Other ingredients:
6 eggs
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely diced
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 C milk or light cream
fresh oregano sprigs, to garnish
Serve with warm corn or flour tortillas or fresh lettuce heads.

SKIP STEPS 1 AND 2 IF YOU'LL BE USING STORE BOUGHT CHORIZO.

1. Melt the lard or oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the pork mince and cook until browned, stirring frequently. Stir in the garlic, dried oregano, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper. Cook for 3-4 more minutes.

2. Add the sherry, sugar, and salt to the pork, stir well and cook for 3-4 minutes, until the flavors are blended. Remove from heat.

COOK STORE BOUGHT CHORIZO UNTIL BROWNED STIRRING FREQUENTLY.

3. Put the eggs in a bowl. Beat lightly to mix, then sitr in the finely diced tomatoes and chopped onion.

4. Return the chorizo mixture to the heat. Heat it through and pour in the egg mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until the egg is almost firm.

5. Stir in the milk or cream and check the seasoning. Garnish with fresh oregano or cilantro and serve with warm corn or flour tortilla or fresh lettuce heads.

Add guacamole, salsa with the egg chorizo on a lettuce head and turn it into a Mexican Lettuce Wrap.

Add a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche' to your Mexican lettuce wrap.

MAKE YOUR OWN TORTILLA BOWL FOR YOUR SALAD

This is so easy to make at home. All you need is a bowl to serve as the mold for the tortilla bowl/shell.

Spray or brush oil to the bowl.

Spray your tortilla with oil on both sides then put on top of the oiled bowl.

Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F for few minutes or until the tortilla starts to turn golden brown. I would recommend to babysit them, the tortilla cooks fast.

Let the tortilla shells/bowl cool down.

Serve with your favorite Mexican salad or any kind of salad.

GUACAMOLE

Recipe from "THE COMPLETE MEXICAN, SOUTH AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN COOKBOOK"

Y: 8
Ingredients:
4 medium tomatoes (concasse')
4 ripe avocados,  preferably fuerte/Florida avocado (Green)
juice of 1 medium lime
1/2 small sweet onion
2 garlic cloves
small bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped
3 fres red chiles
salt
tortilla chips, to serve

1. How to make tomato concasse'-
  - Cut a cross in the base of each tomato. Place the tomatoes in a heatproof bowl and pour over boiling water to cover.
  -Leave the tomatoes in the water for 3 min. then lift them out using a slotted spoon and plunge them into a bowl of cold water. Drain. The skins will have begun to peel back from the crosses. Remove the skins completely. Cut the tomatoes in half, remove the seeds w/ a teaspoon, then chop the flesh rougly and set it aside.

2. Cut the avocados in half, then remove the pits. Scoop the flesh out of the shells and place it in a food processor or blender. Process until almost smooth, then scrape into a bowl and stir in the lime juice.

3. Chop the onion finely, then crush the garlic, Add both to the avocado and mix well. Stir in the cilantro.

4. Remove stalks from the chiles, slit them, and scrape out the seeds with a small sharp knife. Chop the ciles finely and add them to the avocado mixture with the chopped tomatoes. Mix well.

5. Check the seasoning and add salt to taste. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for an hour before serving as a dip with tortilla chips.

**If it is well covered, guacamole will keep in the ref for 2-3 days.

I love these new scoop shaped chips..perfect for this kind of dips!

No more double dipping!!! I serve it this way, the guest will have a choice of plain guacamole or a combination of the queso dip check recipe HERE

RENE'S FAMOUS QUESO DIP

Talk about potluck, tailgate party...this is the best! Easy and delicious, packed with flavor! Easy because you'll be cooking this in your slow cooker, packed w/ flavor ofcourse, it's my sister's recipe! Thank you Nang, this is always a score! ha!ha!ha!

**IF YOU DON'T HAVE A SLOW COOKER OR YOU WANT TO COOK THIS STOVE TOP JUST FOLLOW THE COOKING INSTRUCTIONS ON THE CAN LABEL

It's funny but true, i had no idea that Rotel is a brand. She calls this dip, Rotel, all the while i thought it's the name of the recipe until i found cans of Rotel by the salsa aisle at the grocery store and to top it all i saw the recipe at the back of the label. So, i tried and followed the recipe from the label, but it didn't taste like my sisters'. My sister's version is way better, she actually added some ingredients to kick the original recipe another notch, no wonder!

Aside from the basic ingredients which are a can of Rotel Diced Tomatoes, Velveeta Cheese, she adds a 1/2 lb. of  cooked/sauteed ground beef or more depending on how much you'll be making and a packet of taco seasoning. Her version made a whole lot of difference. A flavorful Queso dip!!! This sure is a TOUCHDOWN!!!

Stir and mix all the ingredients when the cheese starts to melt and this is ready.

Serve warm with corn chips

LECHE FLAN CAKE/ CUSTARD CAKE

To me Custard Cake=Goldilocks Bakeshop. Memories, memories. Goldilocks Bakeshop is a popular Filipino bakeshop, i dare say it's the Country's National Bakeshop, there i said it! If only they would open a branch here!!

Okay, back to the cake! To Filipinos this is called leche flan cake sometimes custard cake, to Mexicans they call this flan cake. Leche Flan, Custard cake, Flan cake, it doesn't matter, all i can say- DECADENT DESSERT! Hey it's okay to enjoy this kind of dessert once in a while!!! It's a 2 in one "type" of dessert..a leche flan on top of a cake, heaven!!!

You can make this cake by using any kind of cake pans, round, square, designed cake pans e.g. bundt cake pan , so it's all up to you. You can also make the cake from scratch but if you know me, i do make my cake from scratch..hhhmm... scratch the box of a cake mix ha!ha!ha! So here goes the recipe!

Ingredients:

Flan- this is my recipe for Leche flan sans the raisins
1 can condensed milk (14 oz)
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz)
1 T vanilla extract
8 large egg yolks (save the egg whites for other recipes, you can freeze them)

Caramel Syrup:
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1T corn syrup

Cake:
1 box cake mix of your choice (i've used redvelvet, yellow and chocolate cake, they are all delicious)
eggs
water
oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix cake mix according to instructions on the box. Set aside
Whisk and beat the flan ingredients well until smooth. Set aside
In a sauce pan, mix the caramel ingredients and bring to slow boil.
Quickly pour the caramel into the cake pan, tilting the pan to evenly spread the syrup.
Pour the flan into the cake pan, then the cake batter.
Place cake pan with the flan/cake batter in a larger pan filled w/ hot water to serve as the water bath.
Bake for an hour or stick a clean toothpick in the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean, the cake is done.
Cool for few minutes then carefully unmold and chill well before serving.

***It may not make sense pouring the flan and the cake batter one after the other, believe me the flan will sink to the bottom of the pan when cooked.

This is how it'll look like right before you put it in the oven. You don't have to spread the cake batter. It'll sink down the bottom and it'll spread by itself.

Few minutes it'll look like this. The cake batter will go down the bottom.

The flan will sink to the bottom when it's cooked. So when you unmold, the flan will be on top. Make sense? oohhh just wait and see!!

This was baked couple of years ago for thanksgiving.

A little secret! Baking isn't really my cup of tea, well to my friends it's not a secret ha!ha! So once again i got so impatient, didn't wait for the cooling stage..see what happened, he!he!he!

Baked last year..experimented on a different kind of caramel syrup. I say, stick to the original syrup=;)

Baked this couple of days ago!

Yummm!!!!!

My first Leche Flan Cake w/ red velvet cake! SCRUMPTIOUS!!

HOMEMADE YOGURT

I use to think making yogurt is a complicated process and it needed a hi-tech machine to make one until my middle eastern co-worker brought us homemade yogurt.

She taught us how to make our own yogurt by using only 2 main ingredients, milk and the yogurt she gave us as a starter. No machine needed, all you need is a thermometer, pot and sterilized jars.

Ingredients:

Fresh milk (depends on how much you want to make) I used 1/2 gallon of milk
1/4 cup yogurt starter (you can buy a plain yogurt as your starter)

1. Slowly heat the milk on a stove on medium heat until it reaches 180 degree F. This is the crucial part of the process, you have to make sure that the milk will not boil over.

2. Let the milk cool down to 108 degrees F, then  slowly add your starter.

3.  Put the yogurt into a clean covered jars.

4. From here , i've tried 2 different ways to do this step, the incubation process.
   A. During winter time -  Cover the jars w/ towel and place them by the heater vent for about 6 hours or until the yogurt starts to congeal.

   B. Place your jars in a big container. Pour warm water around the jar  until half of the jars are covered. Cover the entire container w/ towel and set them near your oven/stove or any place that's warm for at least 6-8 hours or unil the yogurt has congealed.

5. After 6-8 hours, transfer your yogurt into the refrigerator and it's ready.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE TART

Recipe from Perfect Desserts Cookbook

Ingredients:
Serves 6-8

flour for sprinkling
12/oz/350 g ready-made unsweetened pie dough
confectioners' sugar for dusting

Filling:
5 oz/ 140 g semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 oz/ 175 g butter, diced
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 C all purpose flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 eggs, beaten
2/3 C heavy whipping cream, whipped
ground cinnamon to decorate

1. Roll out the pie dough on a lightly floured counter and use to line an 8 inch/20 cm deep loose bottom tart pan. Prick the dough base lightly w/ a fork, then line w/ parchment paper and fill w/ dried beans. Bake in preheated oven, 400 degrees F, for 12-15 minutes, or until the dough no longer looks raw. Remove from the oven, take out the beans and paper, return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes more, or until the dough is firm. Let cook Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

2. To make the filling, place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and melt over a pan to gently simmering water. Stir until smooh, then remove from the heat and let cool. Place the sugar, flour , vanilla extract, and eggs in a separate bowl and whisk until well blended, Stir in the butter and chocolate mixture.

3. Pour the filling into the pastry shell and bake in the oven for 50 minutes, or until the filling is just set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving with whipped cream sprinkled light with cinnamon.

Bought this brand new tart pan at the thriftstore for $1. I buy old cookbooks at thriftstores and i happened to spot this tart pan.

BRAISED GAI LAN WITH HOISIN SAUCE (CHINESE BROCCOLI)

Gai Lan a.k.a. Chinese Broccoli or Chinese Kale. This is a dimsum veggie staple, with a drizzle of oyster sauce on top. This dish is simple, easy yet delicious and very healthy. I'm serving mine with hoisin sauce instead of oyster sauce. I like the sweet and tangy sauce with my gai lan.

TIP: Wash and soak any green leafy vegetables with a tsp of salt and water for few minutes. Salted water will help bring out little bugs that are in every nooks and crannies in the vegetables

Cut the end stems of the vegetable just like you would with asparagus, it'll snap up to the soft part of the stem. If the stems are big you blanch them in boiling water by dipping them first for few minutes until the stems are soft yet crisp. Next dip the leafy part and blanch for few minutes until the leaves are tender and crisp.  Normally with this process you are suppose to put them in an ice bath to stop the cooking and to maintain the bright green color but for gai lan it's not necessary since they will stay bright green w/o the ice bath.

In a pan, saute some chopped garlic and onions until cooked. Put in the blanched veggies and toss until the veggies are coated w/ the flavored oil. Arrange the braised gai lan on a platter. Using the same pan heat up some hoisin sauce then pour the sauce on top of the gai lan.

This dish will be perfect as a meal served w/ rice or a side dish just like what i did w/ my PORK SATAY .

Vegetarian Stir Fry With Soba Noodles

This is a morphed dish, a no recipe recipe.

Morphed dish because the veggie and the sauce i used for this dish are "left overs" from my PORK SATAY,PLS CHECK HERE FOR THE RECIPE . I didn't want to waste the extra peanut sauce from my pork satay, thanks to LisaMichele a co-Daring Cook, she gave me an  idea on how to make use  of  the extra sauce. So, both the gai lan (Chinese broccoli) and the sauce will become ingredients to a totally different dish.

No recipe, recipe because this is an eyeball thing or taste as you go style of cooking. You may add any vegetable you like.  Oh, except for the peanut sauce!

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

Peanut sauce  CHECK RECIPE HERE
Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) about 8 leaves including stems (leaves chiffonade, stems thinly sliced)
Soba Noodles -2 bunches
Firm tofu ( I used Japanese firm tofu but Chinese firm tofu is better)
Bell peppers - diced (tri color peppers would be great to add color to the dish)
Sesame oil - 1/2 tsp
Scallions - chopped (sweet onions could be used)
Garlic - 2 cloves chopped
Water - to thin out the peanut sauce
Ponzu - 1 T (Japanese citrus seasoned soy sauce) or use plain soy sauce
1 lemon - you'll need just the juice.
Sriracha sauce or Sambal Oelek - 2 tsp (optional)

1. Follow Soba noodles cooking instructions (they are cooked like spaghetti noodles)

2. While your noodles are boiling, cut tofu into cubes or dice. Shallow fry them. Set aside.

3. Using the same pan you used in frying the tofu, saute' garlic and onions until tender. Mix in the veggies cook until gai lai stems are cooked. Set aside.

4. In the pan, mix peanut sauce, sesame oil, ponzu, lemon juice, sriracha sauce and let simmer. Add little water if sauce is still thick. Taste and re-season if you want.

5. Add the the noodles, the veggies into the sauce and carefully toss everything together until they are incorporated.

6. Serve and place the tofu on top.

7. You can garnish this w/ chopped peanuts or toasted sesame seeds.

SOBA NOODLES

VEGETARIAN STIR FRY SOBA NOODLES

YOU CAN ADD SEAFOODS AS WELL.

PORK SATAY- DARING COOKS CHALLENGE FOR JANUARY 2010

Wow! I thought i couldn't make this months challenge due to weather, job schedule etc..etc.. who am i kidding, not a chance, i want to give my 2 cents on Cuppy's challenge. So this was a photofinish, we just had this for our lunch today, but my pork had been marinating overnight.

Forget the -0 degree weather and the snow, i decided to brave the weather and grilled my satay in lieu of the oven broil! I admit, it was a bit weird and funny grilling on a snowy winter day=;).

This months challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious . Satay! Thanks for this challenge Cuppy I love satay, sate, bbq however it's called. This kind of food is ubiqitous in Asian countries, you'll see satay/bbq booths in every street corner in majority or i'd say all Asian countries.

As i was skiming through the recipe i immediately noticed that it wasn't an authentic Thai Satay recipe, but as i perused Cuppys' message she mentioned that her recipe is a Thai inspired dish which then made sense. Authentic or not this recipe is worth the grilling on a snowy day. I followed the recipe closely with a little bit of tweaking on the acid ingredient. I used lime instead of lemon just because i know that lime is used more than lemon in Asia. I deliberately didn't add fish sauce/patis just so i can compare a satay recipe sans the fish sauce and my satay recipe w/c calls for fish sauce. Really, this is great as well! I'm definitely using this recipe again, this time w/ chicken.

I opted to use porkbelly. I took out the skin w/c i saved, to be made into chicharon later. I love the marbling of the porkbelly, it'll help keep the satay moist and more flavorful for sure.

Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce


Satay Marinade

1/2 small onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 T ginger root, chopped (optional) (2 cm cubed)- I only used the juice

2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)- 2  lime and zest

1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)

1 tsp ground coriander (5 mls)- I used cilantro roots

1 tsp ground cumin (5 mls)

1/2 tsp ground turmeric (2-2.5 mls)

2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (30 mls)

1 pound of pork (loin or shoulder cuts) (16 oz or 450g)

Feeling the need to make it more Thai? Try adding a dragon chili, an extra tablespoon of ginger root, and 1 tablespoon (0.5 oz or 15 mls) of fish sauce. (I keep some premature (still green) dragon chili peppers in the freezer for just such an occasion.)

Directions:

1a. Cheater alert: If you have a food processor or blender, dump in everything except the pork and blend until smooth. Lacking a food processor, I prefer to chop my onions, garlic and ginger really fine then mix it all together in a medium to large bowl.

2a. Cut pork into 1 inch strips.

3a. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.


Faster (cheaper!) marinade:

2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (1 oz or 30 mls)

2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)

1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)

1 tsp ginger powder (5 mls)

1 tsp garlic powder (5 mls)

1 tsp cayenne pepper (5 mls)

Directions:

1b. Mix well.

2b. Cut pork into 1 inch thick strips (2-2.5 cm thick), any length.

3b. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.

Cooking Directions (continued):

4. If using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak your skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes before preparing skewers.

5. Gently and slowly slide meat strips onto skewers. Discard leftover marinade.*

6. Broil or grill at 290°C/550° F (or pan fry on medium-high) for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to char. Flip and cook another 8-10 minutes.

* If you’re grilling or broiling, you could definitely brush once with extra marinade when you flip the skewers.

Peanut Sauce:

3/4 cup coconut milk (6 oz or 180 mls)

4 Tbsp peanut butter (2 oz or 60 mls)

1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)

1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)

1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)

1/2 tsp ground cumin (2.5 mls)

1/2 tsp ground coriander (2.5 mls)

1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)



1. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.

2. Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.

3. All you’re doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you’ve made everything else in your meal, or make ahead of time and reheat.

Pepper Dip (optional)

4 Tbsp soy sauce (2 oz or 60 mls)

1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)

1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)

1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)

1 finely chopped green onion (scallion)

Mix well. Serve chilled or room temperature.

Tamarind Dip (optional)

4 Tbsp tamarind paste (helpful link below) (2 oz or 60 mls)

1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 finely chopped green onion (scallion)

1 tsp brown or white sugar, or to taste (about 5 mls)

 

Braved the -0 degrees and snow just because i want my Pork Satay grilled=;)

Fresh grilled Pork Satay on a Snowy day!

Lovely!

I made 2 dips, the peanut sauce dip w/ Thai bird chili and ground peanuts for texture

and the pepper soy sauce dip

I prefer the peanut sauce for this dish.

Served the pork satay w/ white rice, w/ the 2 sauces, Shrimp chips and some braised Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli)

This is a great tool to extract ginger juice.

Braised Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) with Hoisin Sauce

Shrimp Chips - these are always served w/ your soup in every Thai Restaurant.

Again, Khob Khun Ka, Cuppy! Sawasdee!