ARTS AND CRAFTS

Saturday, October 24, 2009

KIMCHI STEW




Pls. check Here for the Kimchi recipe.

I don't have any measurements for this dish. It's a matter of how much you want to make.

Ingredients:

Pork belly or pork butt (cut into cubes)
Green onions
Tamarind paste (I use sinigang mix (a Filipino tamarind mix)***
Water
S&P to taste
Kimchi
***Use vinegar in lieu of tamarind paste if not available.

Bring cubed pork to a boil. Add S&P let it boil until pork is cooked and tender. Add kimchi depending how hot you want your stew. Taste and if it's not sour enough for you, add tamarind paste. I usually add the whole sachet of the sinigang mix. Bring to a boil again until all ingredients are incorporated then lastly add the green onions.

I serve this w/ steamed white rice.

Friday, October 23, 2009

PAM'S CARAMEL APPLE

Pam went apple picking w/ her friends before she left for a "long long vacay" in Chicago. She made 2 apple dishes- Caramel Apple and Apple Pie.

There are still apples left so i'm making apple butter as i'm posting this blog. The house smells so good..Autumn is here!!!


Ingredients:

Six apples, 1 (14 oz) package individually wrapped caramels, 2 T milk.

Process:
Remove stem from each apple, Push a craft stick into the top. Place unwrapped caramels and milk in a microwave safe bowl and zap in the microwave for 2 minutes, stirring once. Let caramel cool briefly.










****To make them more authentically Autumnal, use sturdy sticks, and use these as the handles for these sweet treats.

APPLE CHIPS and APPLE ALMOND SALAD.


After all the apple butter, apple pies, apple muffins i have made. I have two other simple yet healthy ways to serve apples, apple chips and apple almond salad.

Chips, one of our favorite snack esp. autumn season.
Salads are always my go to lunch or dinner.

I don't have a food dehydrator so i make my chips using the oven at a low temp. No specific variety of apple is needed. No peeling is necessary, i like mine unpeeled for a rustic look and to achieve that curly effect and maintain the starlike shape in the middle.

All you need are the following:

Mandoline to slice your apples , but using your knife skills in slicing very thin and uniformed sliced apples is good as well=;)
Confectioners sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg (optional)


Mandoline is the best tool to make apple chips.



Preheat oven and set at 300 degrees F.
Lay and spread out sliced apples on a silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheets.
Take out seeds as you spread the slices.
Sprinkle w/ cinnamon, nutmeg then confectioners sugar and then flip and repeat process.
Bake for at least an hour, no more than that, it'll burn!
Flip apples half way through the baking.
I usually let the chips sit for few minutes to cool down and become crunchy.
Keep and store in airtight container.










APPLE ALMOND AND CHICKEN SALAD

SLICED APPLES, ROASTED ALMONDS, ROTISSERIE CHICKEN (STORE BOUGHT), BABY ARUGULA SALAD BLEND, OLIVE OIL AND WHITE BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE








ENJOY!!!!

APPLE CRUMB MUFFINS

This is a California Blue Ribbon Winner recipe by a friend of mine Marina who is also a food editor for Taste of Home Magazine. She's got more great accomplishments check HERE


For this recipe, she suggested to use gala, Fuji or Golden Delicous. I used gala and cortland variety.

Y: 12 muffins.


3 1/2 C Flour
3 C peeled and chopped apples (i chopped them small)
2 C sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 1/2 c walnuts, chopped
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c raisins
Sifted confectioner's sugar
dash of nutmeg ( my addition)
1/3 cup milk (pls. check ****, i didn't have buttermilk)

***Marina's footnote was to add 1/3 cup buttermilk if desired, or if mixture is too dry.

Preheat oven to 30 degrees F.
Greased and flour muffin tins (I used muffin liners)
Combine flour, apples, sugar, salt, soda and cinnamon in a large bowl.
Stir in oil, milk, walnuts, raisins and vanilla. Mix well.
Divide batter into prepared tins and bake 30 minutes. (I cooked mine for 40 minute coz i know my oven will not cook the muffins in 30 minutes)
If desired lightly sprinkle tops of muffins w/ sugar and bake as directed.
When completely cooled dust w/ sifted confectioners sugar (W/c i forgot to do so)




















ENJOY!!!!