I have been a long time fan of the Is My Blog Burning events originally conceived by Alberto, but have never participated since I am never organized enough to plan for the submission date. Today, at the prodding of Karen, I decided to make an entry. I just hope it makes it on time, as it is kind of late. So pleeease Cathy, accept my entry?

Anyway, for the longest time, I had wanted to try making a cassoulet type dish, but I also wanted to use my sand pot that has become more of a kitchen ornament than a utensil. I didn't have time to get all the ingredients for a proper cassoulet, so once again, I improvised. Here is my humble offering, which I'm happy to say came out quite delicious.



As I said, I wanted to put this kitchen decoration to use:


I started out by quick soaking a half pound of dried Great Northern Beans. To quick soak (slightly amended from the package direction): boil beans for 5 minutes, and let it soak for 1 hour.

In the meantime, prepare the following:
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 sprig of bay leaf (4 leaves)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 small carrot, chopped
1 rib of celery, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 3/4 cup water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 - 14.5 oz. can of peeled, diced tomatoes

Marinade 2 pork chops in: salt, pepper, garlic powder, balsamic vinegar, olive oil.

In a pot, heat the olive oil and sautee the onions and garlic until translucent; add the carrots and celery and cook for a couple more minutes. Add the can of tomatoes, basil, bay leaves, water and chicken bouillons and bring to a simmer. Drain the beans, and add to the pot. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

While the beans are simmering, in a skillet, brown the pork chops on both sides. When they were done browning, I added the remaining marinade and let it caramelize. Place the pork chops in the clay pot and pour the bean mixture on top. I had about a cup of the bean mixture left over since the clay pot was not big enough. Cover the pot, and put in a 350-degree oven to bake for 2 hours.

This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven:


I served this with turnip greens sauteed in garlic and olive oil. It was delicious! Will definitely add this one to our regulars list.

With the cold weather, it seems that a lot of food blogs (Baby Rambutan made Pho, Sassy made chicken soup, for example) have been cooking lots of soups. I actually was looking for ox tails like what chef Celia had, but couldn't find any. I did find fresh ham hocks, so I decided to make sour soup.



2 pounds Pork Hocks, fresh
about 10 cups water
1 onion, sliced
1/2 lb. green beans
1 lb. bok choy, sliced
Tamarind soup mix (sigang mix)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Place pork hocks in a large pan and add 10 cups or enough water to cover, and boil until tender. Skim off the scum from the top as it rises (or if you forget to check like I did, pour off the scummy water and start anew). When the pork is tender, add the onions and sigang mix and let it cook a few minutes. Adjust the seasoning. Add green beans and cook until almost tender; then add the bok choy, cook for one minute and turn off the heat so as not to overcook the vegetables.
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After Karen saw this post, she emailed me to enter this recipe for the IMBB event since it had green beans in it. This prompted me to come up with another recipe with beans since I was planning on cooking beans this weekend anyway. I came up with the Pork and Beans recipe above. Thanks for the prompt, Karen! :)

With the cold weather and holidays, we have been indulging in fairly heavy and (fat) rich meals, so we decided to have a light dinner last week and decided to have diced chicken wrapped in lettuce. The problem was, I was out of hoisin sauce. So, we improvised a bit this time, and made our own sauce. I still prefer the hoisin sauce though.

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, diced fine
4 dried shitake mushrooms - soak in warm water and dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
1 teaspoon ginger, minced
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons dry sherry
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoons water

Serve with:
1/2 cup green onions, finely sliced
lettuce leaves
hoisin sauce OR (since I didn't have any hoisin sauce)
Mixture of 1 tsp. oyster sauce, 2 tablespoons bottled barbeque sauce, 1/4 cup Catalina dressing, 1-2 tablespoons of ketchup, 2 teaspoons honey, and salt and pepper to taste.

Mix together the cornstarch, dry sherry, oyster sauce, and water in a small bowl. In a wok or large pan, heat oil and saute' the chicken until opaque and set aside. Heat up a bit more oil and saute' the ginger, garlic and onions until fragrant. Add the dried mushrooms, stir fry for a couple of minutes and add the chicken back in the pan. Season with the cornstarch mixture, and stir. Remove from heat.

To eat, spread a little sauce on a lettuce leaf, add a spoonful of the chicken, and sprinkle with green onions. Wrap up in the lettuce, and enjoy!

Here is how we recycle lefover baked salmon. My lola used to do this with either canned salmon or canned sardines, but it works well with leftover fish too. This is good for breakfast with fried rice, or as a light supper with salad.

2 cups flaked salmon
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
Oil
6 eggs, scrambled
salt & pepper to taste

Saute garlic and onions in hot oil until fragrant. Add tomatoes, and sautee until soft, then add salmon flakes. Stir together well. Add scrambled eggs, and stir slowly to allow the eggs to set. Some like to keep the whole mixture whole, fritata style, and I do that too sometimes, but this time I decided to just mix it all together. Season with salt and pepper.

I can tell Durham is catching up with the times when I start seeing mangoes at the grocery store regularly. This week, they were also on sale, 2 for a dollar, so I bought some for me and the girls. These mangoes are from Mexico or Chile usually. Not as good as the Philippine Mango, but when you haven't had Philippine mango in almost a decade, you'd be glad to get any kind. Luckily some of them were still hard and green, so I got a couple of those for me too. The girls ate their mangoes ripe and sweet and scooped out of the hull. For me, this was my chance to eat the green, crunchy ones with chili salt. The girls always look at me strangely when I eat fruits with salt or vinegar. I keep extolling the flavors of salted watermelon or pomegranate; crisp granny smith apples or jicama dipped in vinegar; of green mangoes dipped in shrimp paste, or in this case salt with chili paste; but they won't take my word for it nor would they hardly try it. So I am left my lonesome to enjoy the tastes of my childhood. I sure miss my mom, sisters and aunt who would gladly dip anything green and sour in vinegar and salt. My Aunt Lisa would actually drink the vinegar afterwards, she says it's good for lowering cholesterol and high blood pressure. I don't know how true that is though. My mouth waters as I think about this. I think I'll go back by the store and see if they have anymore :)

Sorry about the skimpy slices, we had almost eaten all of it, before I remembered to take a photo. By the way, I did get Jade to try a piece dipped in plain salt and she actually liked it! The Clone liked it too, but without the salt, just the crunchy mango. Asi was asleep (as usual) so she missed out.

Aside from Momma Dot's Sweet Potato Pie, another holiday must for us is her Coconut Cake. She used to make this every year, and then she taught it to me. After a while, she gave me the privilege of making this cake at every family gathering. She passed away this summer after a courageous battle with brain tumor, so she was sorely missed this holiday. This is our way of remembering and honoring her memory for she surely not only fed our stomachs well but also our souls.

Continue to the Coconut Cake Recipe.

To counteract the richness of the roast pork, we decided to have this salad with it. It's really quite simple. My lola used to make this all the time, she still does, but she uses calamansi & bagoong dressing which I prefer, but could not get my little Clone to eat, so I had to improvise.

1 pound of green beans, boiled until done and cooled in ice water
1/2 head of napa cabbage, boiled until done and cooled in ice water

Drain beans and cabbage on a collander and place in large bowl. Add:
1/2 red onion finely sliced
2 medium tomatoes, sliced

Drizzle the dressing over the vegetables:
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon salt

WooHoo! The computer hogs go back to school tomorrow, and are already in bed. I know they are not asleep yet though. Their schedule is all messed up. They have been staying awake until past midnight everynight during their holiday break. I don't envy them tomorrow when they have to get up at 6 to go to school. They have been sleeping in til almost noon. I sure felt tired when I went to work today....

Anyway, since it's just us for Christmas and we didn't really feel like having anymore turkey, we decided to try out Purple Girl's Roast Pork. It was delicious! The girls and I practically ate all the crispy skin. Yummy!

Christmas eve fell on a Friday this year, and even though we are not overtly religious, we (my husband and I) are both from families who are, and grew up eating fish on Fridays. We still do it for the most part, but mostly out of habit. I have been having the strangest craving for English style fish & chips, but the only place around here that makes them fairly decent is an Irish style pub, but unlike the UK English pubs, this one is not quite so kid friendly. So I decided to try making it myself using a beer batter recipe that I have been meaning to try for a while now. I just couldn't get myself to fry "chips" with it though, so we had a slaw like cabbage salad with it instead.



The fried fish came out delicious! Crunchy batter and very moist, not dried out fish inside.

5 tilapia fillets, cut into strips
1/2 cup cornstarch
BATTER:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 bottle of Heineken beer (or any cold beer you have on hand)

Mix all the batter ingredients together and refrigerate for 15 minutes - 1 hour. In the meantime, heat your oil to 350-degrees F and dredge the fish strips in cornstarch. When the oil is ready, dip the fish strips in the batter mixture and fry in the hot oil until golden brown.

Since we were having something that was just sinful like the fried tilapia, I didn't really want to fry potatoes to go with it, but I didn't think a plain ol' salad would pair well with it either. So Jade and I decided to try out this recipe from, believe it or not, the package of Ramen noodles that is a staple at our house. It was actually pretty good, it provided the crunch to go with the fish, but not too heavy or too sweet like regular coleslaw.

4 cups finely shredded cabbage
3 tablespoons toasted sunflower seeds
1 package chicken flavored Ramen Noodles (broken or crushed)
DRESSING:
3 tablespoons white vinegar
1 Ramen seasoning packet
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 teaspoon chopped cilantro

Combine cabbage, broken noodles, and sunflower seeds. Whisk dressing ingredients, adjust seasoning as necessary, and toss with cabbage mixture just before serving.