Another summer time treat that I remember is this cantaloupe juice. I remember buying this from street vendors when I was growing up in the Philippines. I don't know why, but the steet bought juice was always so much better than the known to be hygenically prepared juice from home. Today, I make this when I have a cantaloupe that is slightly over ripe and too mushy for the girls to eat as is. The girls have taken a liking to this refreshing drink and so has my hubby who was a bit skeptical about watering down a cantaloupe.
Filipino Cookbooks
I suppose this could be considered a classic Filipino way of cooking; sauteed with the Pinoy version of the mirepoix, the holy trilogy in Filipino cuisine, garlic, onion and tomatoes. This method of cooking is ideal for me because it is also fast cooking and I get the meat and vegetables all in one dish. Sayote or chayote squash was such a common vegetable in Baguio where I grew up that we took it for granted. Often times, we can just go to the backyard and find it growing wild on the back fence. Now, whenever I get a taste for it, I've had to cough up as much as $1.50 each. Outrageous, but well worth it for my soul food.
Continue to the Pork & Sayote recipe.
If you are used to the all-meat Texas style chili or the TexMex chili with beans, then this chili is an acquired taste. I am still acquiring the taste for this; but here in NC when they say chili with your dog, this is the chili that they are talking about. It is ground beef in a sweet ketchup sauce. You food snobs out there can stop groaning and rolling your eyes now. It is actually pretty good, like most food is, if you keep an open mind and an open mouth. My little Southern Belle just happens to love this with her hot dog so I have learned to make it just the way her Grandma Dot made it. I have tried embelishing it with additional seasonings, but she likes this original recipe, so now I make it this way all the time. It's easier on me, actually. I usually make a very small pot as I know it is only the Clone and her dad who will be eating it.
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups of ketchup
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
freshly ground black pepper
Brown the ground beef and let it render it's own oil. The brand I buy is so lean that I sometimes add a tablespoon of oil just to get it nicely browned and have enough oil to sautee the onion. If you happen to use a fatty cut, drain the excess fat before adding the rest of the ingredients. Add the onion and let it cook until translucent then add the rest of the ingredients. Some cooks like to have a sweeter sauce but with the sweetness of the ketchup, all I could muster is another teaspoon of brown sugar just to give it that extra flavor. Molasses would work well too.
Southern Cooking
When all the hotdogs are gone or you just don't like hotdogs, here's another way to use up that southern style chili, in a sloppy joe sandwich!
Hello, everyone, the extremely talented Lasang Pinoy Team have designed this month's buttons and they are beautiful! Thank you to the tag team of Iska and Mike who are just supremely artistic. Feel free to download these for your own use. Have a great weekend, y'all!
Join us for this round of Lasang Pinoy! Just post something about summer foods that you enjoy now or as a child. Food does not have to be traditional Filipino food, just have to have a Pinoy twist. Email me your entries at jmomblogs-at-gmail.com or lasangpinoy-at-gmail.com before the end of the month, June 30. Let's get cookin!
Original announcement for this round is here.
This is my adaptation of something my dad used to accompany his fried fish with. He used to simply take raw 'mustasa' or mustard greens and dip them in bagoong (fish sauce). Well, my girls are not always big fans of fish sauce, and the turnip and mustard greens we have growing in our garden are not quite the same variety as the one my dad used, so this recipe is just done in the spirit of my dad's version. First off, I blanched the young turnip and mustard greens just for a minute or two in salted boiling water. Sliced some sweet vidalia onions over them, spritzed it with lemon juice and seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Very simple, but if you like the taste of freshly harvested greens, this is the way to go. This dish is a perfect accompaniment for anything that is fried. It cuts the guilt and grease down :-)
After reminiscing about childhood food memories, the last topic of Lasang Pinoy, I can't help but segue into more memories. With summer waning in the Philippines and summer just starting on this side of the hemisphere, summertime is fresh on all our minds. Summertime, with its lazy days, is the perfect time to let loose the Huck Finn in all of us. Not only does the weather make us want to get out of the hot house and loll under a tree, it also whets our appetites for anything cool and refreshing.
Read the rest...
We had an early start on the garden this year, thanks to my hubby who worked non-stop prepping it as soon as the last frost slipped back to winterland. With an early start, the garden has already started producing, and we have reaped it's bounty. This is one of its early risers, beets!
I just couldn't wait to have a sample so these roots were simply boiled unadorned served with some early collard and beet greens in gata (coconut milk). Below is a photo of the gardener's lunch, taken of course out in the garden. We love eating outside especially now that the weather is nice but not so hot yet. Hubby has to have some meat, so with his beets, he had some grilled italian sausage.
The various greens, which had an early start this year have also started coming in along with the beets, so I finally got a chance to try this recipe, akin to the Bicol Express which is taro leaves simmered in coconut milk and spiced with peppers. Since I don't have taro leaves available here, I remembered TingAling's suggestion sometime ago that the recipe would work well with collard greens too. I haven't had a chance to try it out until now. In addition to collard greens, I also tossed in the greens from the early harvest of beets; that's the reddish greens you see in the photo.
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 pound of pork, diced thin
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 14 oz. can of coconut milk
Collard Greens & Beet Greens
Salt & Pepper to taste
Chili Peppers (Serrano or cayenne) to taste
Heat about a tablespoon of oil and saute' the pork until it becomes opaque and edges turn slighly brown. Add the garlic and fry for about one minute until it becomes fragrant, then add the onions and sautee another minute. Add the coconut milk and let it come to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. Add the chopped greens and chili peppers. Stir briefly and cover. Let it simmer until the greens are tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. Adjust seasonings and serve.
Filipino Cookbooks
With every Lasang Pinoy event, it seems that many of us dust off our very own memories of our very own Philippine Kitchens. Now here is a book whose title seems to embody the sentiments of Lasang Pinoy. The authors, Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, are owners and chefs at the popular Filipino restaurant, Cendrillon, in New York. I hope I will get a chance to visit the restaurant one of these days; fellow food bloggers who have visited the restaurant have nothing but good things to say about it. For starters, because there is just no telling when we will ever get to go, I think I will be getting this book for my collection.
For More Filipino Cookbooks, Click here.
This is a very simple soup, similar to the packaged ramen noodles the clone likes, but is a lot healthier and has less sodium. You just have to start with a hearty homemade chicken stock, which is also a great way of sneaking in needed vitamins and minerals. If you don't have a vegetable infused stock, you can always add any vegetable you want to this dish. You will need:
6 cups Chicken Stock
1 Bundle of Somen Noodles
1 egg, scrambled
1 to 2 tablespoons of Miso
Bring the chicken stock to a boil and add the miso to flavor, then the noodles. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the noodles are cooked. Lower the heat and slowly add the beaten egg while gently stirring the soup. Remove from heat and serve.
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