Bitch With a Whisk

I love sour things! If there was one type of fruit I could have the rest of my life it would be citrus. Oh, the lemon and limes especially. The citrusy tang, the bright smell, the acidity that it adds to a dressing, a mexican salsa, or the refreshment of a slice in your iced tea on a hot summer day. It is so versatile and can be used for so many things. Not just cooking. You can make candied lemon peel with its rind or even rub a cut piece of lemon on your elbows or other rough spot on your body for exfoliation. You see it in cleaning products. And let’s not forget yummy lemon pound cakes or a lemon based cheesecake. Yes this is the fruit I want to be stranded on a desert island with. Chok full of vitamin C you are guaranteed not to get rickets if you drink its juice. But I digress. Since I am a citrus lover, I could not resist trying the Filipino sour soup called Sinigang. Except this soup uses tamarind as the souring agent. The recipe I used also contains kalamansi juice but use sparingly! The tamarind makes the soup very tangy already. And also what I love about this soup, as well as other Filipino soups, the ingredient list is very simple:  Shrimp, tomatoes, onions, a little tamarind powder, Thai chilis, bok choi, fish sauce, and just a touch of kalamansi juice.

 Most of these items are readily available at my local grocery store. The only thing I had to visit the Filipino soup store was for the tamarind powder.

 Now, you can use other types of protein for Sinigang as well. Pork is very popular, as well as pieces of fish. I have three recipes for the soup and I decided to go with shrimp. You can find all three recipes here.  First, I took the shells off of the shrimp and simmered them with 10 cups of water for 30 minutes.

 I made sure to skim off the scum that rises to the top of the pan as well as any foam.

No Scum Allowed Around Here!

 You don’t want this in your water. You want to keep your water nice and clarified. After  taking out the shrimp shells, I added the fish sauce, onions, tomatoes, tamarind powder, and the thai chilis. I simmered that for 20 minutes.

 I still was doing a little skimming. Finally I added my chopped bok choi and shrimp and a little kalamansi juice and let simmer for about 5 minutes.

Beautiful Baby Bok Choi

 When the shrimp turned pink it was ready! I served it with a ittle bit of rice, which is very common traditionally. But of course that is your choice. It is still delicious with or without rice but the rice makes it heartier. And that folks, is all! The soup was delicious. I have never been disappointed in the Filipino soups, not just in their flavor but in the simplicity. Note that the word sinigang contains the letters that spell “sing”. And no doubt my friends, it will make you want to do that!

I have writers block today. I am trying to write about this new dessert I tried this past weekend. How do you present the main ingredient and be interesting when after all, it is just a root. Yes, a root, and its name is Yucca, otherwise known as Cassava. It is a shrub of the spurge family, native to South America. Most of the use is the root of the plant but the leaves can also be used as well. Tapioca balls are also made from cassava, which I did not know. Just like other root vegetables, this one is starchy and is related to potatoes and yams.  I was making Bibingka Cassava which is a Filipino dessert. There are different versions of the recipe. One version uses rice flour. The version I made came from a cookbook called Memories of a Philippine Kitchens which I currently am waiting for in the mail. I ordered it based on the great reviews that others have given it and after browsing the recipes. The Bibingka Cassava in this book contains gouda cheese, eggs, coconut milk, grated coconut, and sugar and also contains a topping which has vanilla bean, brown sugar and coconut milk. The dish is also baked surrounded by banana leaves. I had the leaves already frozen. I took them out and allowed them to thaw so that they would be pliable. I also cleaned off the leaves and dried them. I lined my baking dish with the leaves allowing the leaves to hang over the side of the dish. They were big leaves and I needed to lay down two layers in the dish.

 I got all of the ingredients together and the cheese shredded and the cassava wrung dry. The cassava was frozen and needed to be thawed and dried. It took me three dishtowels and several paper towels to get it just damp, but most of the water was squeezed out. I mixed my eggs and sugar and added the coconut milk, coconut, cassava, and butter.

Grated cassava

 Then I poured everything into the 9 by 13 inch dish with the banana leaves. The grated cheese was sprinkled over top of it. The instructions had stated to cook the bibingka for 25 minutes or until firm. It required 45 minutes. It was a good thing I had some yummy chicken satay on the grill to eat while I was passing the time! 

 Also while waiting I had prepared the topping. After the bibingka was firm, I poured the brown sugar, vanilla, coconut milk mixture over top of it.

So far so good. Everything was looking great and I was excited about the next part which was broiling the topping until it was bubbly and crisp and the sugar had carmelized. I put the dish under the broiler. In less than a minute I look into the stove and I see the banana leaves on fire and ashes blowing all over! In a panic I pulled it out of the oven and tried to fix the damage. Luckily, the bibingka itself was fine, but most of the leaves which had hung over were burnt and flaking off, some of it into the cake, and thankfully only on the edges. I took a spoon and picked out of stray burnt leaf pieces that were stuck in the topping. Carefully I put it back into the oven, but this time a little farther from the broiler. I let it go another minute or so, and then took it out, this time for good. My kitchen had a slightly smoky odor from the burnt banana leaves but the bibingka looked beautiful, so I was happy. Thinking back on when I had been laying the leaves, I realized I should have cut the leaves off at the edge of the pan and not allowed any to stick out. But hindsight is 20/20. Later my hubby and I tried it and it was delicious. Also, actually after reading online to see if anyone else had this embarrasing incident, I found out that some find the faint slighty smoky odor of the banana leaves to incorporate a special flavor into the bibingka. Again, that probably depends on the region you grew up in, or how your Filipino relative prepared the recipe. A word to the wise:  if you are ever cooking with any plant material, make sure it is slightly damp and keep it far away from any heating elements. Or make sure that your insurance covers fire by banana leaves.

Bibingka nice and carmelized, even in spite of the charred banana leaves

Look at me! I am beautiful and tasty!

Last night I had a hair cut appointment over in the neighboring town. Hubby and I had planned on having pizza when I got back. After a hard week, I wanted to have some downtime and just have something simple. I got to the appointment early and had time to kill. When I am early, I always stop in the Asian store to look around. They have a lot of  interesting ingredients and fresh whole fish as well. I needed some banana leaves, so I went in to get those. I found the frozen banana leaves easily, when off to the right my eye caught a big bin of something. And those somethings were moving! I could not believe my eyes when I saw a tank of the live blue crab. Above the crabs lay tongs and paper bags. I know I had a plan for dinner, but I could not hardly contain my excitement. Plus these were small little devils. I was surprised not to see them in water and immediately found an emplyee of the store to ask if this was normal. Also asked him how long it was alright for them to sit before being eaten because I had to leave them in my car during my hour long appointment. I texted my husband and told him I had found some live blue crabs and there was a slight change in plans. “Prepare the big pot” I told him. I also asked him to read online just to prepare ourselves on how to cook them. We usually just throw lobsters and crab legs into boiling water. I picked up the tongs and picked up three crabs and put them in the bag. I was surprised by their fiestyness. They grabbed the tongs and grabbed each other. I finally wrestled them into the bag. This was a good sign because energetic crabs mean a healthy crab. Plus I had smelled the tank and there was no funky odor to be had. I checked out and ran to my hair appointment. While in my appointment I did have visions of the crabs crawling out of the bag and into my car. But it didn’t happen. The crabs were relaxed, although I could hear stirrings and movement inside the bag once in a while while I was driving. That all changed when I got them home. My husband had already prepared a big pot for steaming them. We used the big pot we can our pickles in and inside that pot he put a little but of water and cider vinegar. He had read online this was the best way to cook them. Some people also put lemons and crab boil in there as well to add flavor. I was a little skeptical of the vinegar, but I went with the flow. Sometimes you have to try and see. While we were waiting for the water in the bottom of the pot to come to a boil, I carefully took the crabs out of the bag, trying to avoid getting pinched by the flailing claws, and put them onto the counter. Two of them started fighting with each other while another one looked on.

You're going in the pot first.....no you're going in first!

 I didn’t want them to go too crazy. They can drop their limbs if they get too stressed or threatened. I almost felt bad for the little guys. They did not know what lie ahead. I admit, I really love eating crab and lobster, but there is always a twinge of guilt I feel about the preparation process. It is a necessary evil. I have always heard you can put them into the refrigerator before boiling/steaming them or plunge them in ice water and it helps them to relax and go to sleep. That does not make it any better for me. But once I put a tasty morsel in my mouth, I always forget the preparation. After I had rinsed them off, and once the water came to a boil, we put the crabs into the strainer in the pot and quickly closed the lid. We steamed them for 20 minutes.

 We took tongs and got the crabs out. One of them had leaked “mustard” which is actually the hepatopancreas, a main part of the crab’s digestive system. This is not a very appetizing sight. My husband washed it off of the one crab and the others still had their “mustard” inside them.  The very bottom crab had lost all of his legs (do you blame him?). The rest of them were intact. Our next challenge was to eat the crabs. At first we had trouble finding the meat. We had taken off the top part of the shell and inside found the “mustard” and the gills. We had to pry the body in half to find the meat near the legs. Also we found meat in the claws, but it was a small amount. The mustard was all over everything and I went often to the sink to rinse it off. After a lot of digging and prying and rinsing, I decided I had enough of these crabs. They were a lot of work for little reward. I was glad we had the pizza on the side, although it made for a funny kind of dinner. Pizza and crab anyone?

Although the meat I did have was tasty, if you decide to cook these, make sure you are prepared for the shelling and digging to find the meat. You will need a lot of blue crab to have a substantial dinner. Maybe there is another way. I am not ready to give up yet on these crabs. I am going to do more research to see if there is an easier way to get to the meat. The preparation was no problem at all. In the meantime, I think I will stick to the snow/king crab and the dungeness crab. I have attached some pictures of the beautiful blue crab.

I am cornholio! Are you threatening me?

Just a short break to bring you pictures of our local farmer’s market I go to almost very Saturday

The "beautiful corn" man

This past Saturday, with my 33rd birthday looming ahead, I started to reminisce on the past year, my accomplishments, new experiences I had, and my cooking. I attempted to do this while sitting in the spa waiting to be called for a beautification procedure. Unfortunately, I was only able to do it for a few minutes when in walked this woman, who apparently wasn’t feeling as reflective. She sneezed and then every two minutes “honked” into her Kleenex. Now I use the word “honk” because I have never heard this sound (or thought it was possible) come from a woman. I could not wait to be called into my appointment. The last thing I was thinking about before her honking tirade began was a movie had seen the night before: Julie & Julia. It was about a young married woman named Julie who sets out to cook all of the recipes in Julia Child’s cookbook: Mastering The Art of French Cooking and write a blog about it. Also in the meantime, you see bits and pieces from the life of Julia Child. I enjoyed the movie immensely. It was based upon two true stories actually. At the end (this is kind of a spoiler, so skip this part if you don’t want to know), a reporter calls Julie and tells her that Julia Child was not thrilled with her blog and asks her if she wanted to comment. The young woman is greatly upset by this. We can only guess at why Julia was not flattered or at the least curious about the blog based upon her cooking. Maybe it was the way that Julie set about cooking Julia’s recipes. Julia describes herself in the movie as being “conventional”. Today we have all kind of gadgest and implements designed to cut our cooking time in half and make things easier for us. It is possible Julia Child frowned on that. Or maybe she just did not subscribe to the train of thought that imitation is a sincere form of flattery. We just don’t know. The young woman had this fantasy and idea in her heart about who she thought Julia was and how she thought that she would respond to her cooking and blogging about her. She had imagined Julia Child finding out about her project, reading her blogs, and cooking for her upon a visit. I thought about the times that I had cooked something, only to find out that someone did not care for it too much, not because it was cooked bad, but just because it wasn’t “their thing”. Cooking, or should I say eating what someone has cooked is subjective, just like art is. You may not like the art work because it is not your taste, but that doesn’t mean it is bad art. For example, you may walk into a house that just undergone a major improvement. The people who lived there chose the colors and scheme to their own taste. Now, you may not like the colors they have chosen, but you appreciate what they have done with it and how everything fits together. So it is that way with cooking as well. People cook and eat according to their tastes. That is the beauty of cooking. If you do not like a particular ingredient in a recipe, substitute something that is to your taste. If you don’t like carrots, well use another vegetable. If you don’t like wine in your recipes, then use chicken stock. I am the kind of cook that likes to do everything by the book. I most comfortable following the recipes to a T.  This made me think about the Filipino recipes I have been trying recently. Since I do tend to follow recipes, I was overwhelmed and frustrated by trying to find the “right” Adobo recipe. There are so many different kinds and in my fear of doing something wrong, hesitated to do it at all. So my goal for this new upcoming year is to cook “outside the box”, and try to be creative in my cooking and in doing so, find the artist within myself.

This week I set out on yet another international adventure. I took a night off from my normal evening responsibilities and set to work making a Filipino comfort soup: Tinolang Manuk or Chicken Tinola.

 This version is the Ilocano version using Chili leaves and green papaya. Of course depending on the area you are from, the ingredients may vary. I used a version of a recipe from burnt lumpia and modified it, but not really a lot. I pretty much stuck to the recipe as written. I went around gathering my ingredients. The green papaya was easy. Got that and a piece of lemongrass at Michael’s Fresh market. Had to go to the local Filipino store to find the chili leaves. They were frozen. It is very difficult to find these fresh leaves in this area if at all. But frozen will do in a pinch if you do not have access to fresh. Also malunggay leaves can be used in the place of the Chili leaves. I got my ginger and chicken at Whole Foods and the fish sauce at the regular grocery store in the ethnic aisle. This dish is really easy to make and simple as well which is why I like it. The preparation can be time consuming. You have to chop everything up and the green papaya requires a little work as well. This was my first time working on this fruit so I read about it before prepping it. You must remove the skin and also take out the seeds. There is a rubbery white center inside and I cut that out as well. Then I chopped the papaya up into big pieces. The chicken was a whole chicken cut up into sections, around 4 pounds. I browned that in a big soup pot in oil,  removed the pieces and set aside. In the drippings I softened the onions, ginger, garlic and lemongrass. I then put the chicken back in as well as some fish sauce, added water and let everything simmer for 20 minutes. Let me say one thing, I am not crazy about fish sauce. In fact, I can’t really stand the smell. But sometimes for the sake of the recipe, you must try things you normally would not. I am not crazy about balsalmic vinegar by itself, but roasted with chicken and mustard it makes a heavenly, sticky, mildly sweet, carmelized coating. My kitchen stunk for about a half hour after I added the fish sauce. Finally after simmering, I was ready to add the papaya. I allowed it to simmer another 30 minutes and lastly added the chili leaves. I sampled what I had made and was amazed at the flavor. There was a lot of depth of flavor even though the recipe did not have many complicated ingredients. It was also very comforting. I prefer it even over Westernized chicken noodle soups. The next day was the real test. I gave a sample to my Filipino friends. I received a phone call and beamed when they told me it was good. Who better else to judge my recipe, than the professionals who would know what it should taste like. I was told that I should cut the chicken into smaller pieces. Besides the wings and legs, most of the other pieces were rather large. But still, success! My next adventure as far as Filipino cooking goes will be Caldereta. I want to try it with goat, but want to get a good supplier of this kind of meat before I use it. Caldereta is chunks of stewing beef (traditionally goat) sauteed in olive oil with chopped garlic, onions and tomatoes, and then slow cooked in water. The sauce is usually thickened with pureed, cooked chicken liver. Then veggies are added like red pepper or carrots.

I loved this experience, mostly because I was able to work with two new foods, papaya and lemongrass. Also I had no idea how this dish was going to turn out. We all love our “old trusty” recipes and like to stay within our comfort zone so we don’t mess up or even embarass ourselves if we are cooking for others, right? But I am finding as I step out of my little box and into the world of exotic, unusual ingredients, I did not realize what I was missing. I hope you also will do the same!

Green Papaya

Tonight was just one of those nights that was going too good. I guess I should have known…everything was going so well. I got home from work, picked up a few groceries,  and prepped my dinner which happened to be a corned beef recipe from Epicurious.com and also got great reviews. I felt good knowing I had most of my ingredients in the house already: fresh onions and red potatoes I had gotten from the farmers market and red peppers I had grown so painstakingly in my own garden. Also had the eggs which I was going to add to the hash. The only thing I had to buy was the corned beef, which was in a can. I was ready! So I chopped my onions and peppers and parboiled the potatoes. I chopped up the beef that was in the can. Mind you this is not the corned beef hash that looks like dog food when you open it. No, I was going to go above and beyond and make it from scratch. So with all that I headed off to my taekwondo class. That  was a blast. I was having touble with my red belt form, and was finally getting close to mastering it. I was feeling pretty good. Also happy that tomorrow is Friday. What could go wrong? I started off making the dish in my favorite heavy duty Le Creuset pan. The recipe called for a nonstick pan but I thought a little browning couldn’t hurt a hash that was supposed to be crispy. Everything was going smashing at this point. Put butter and olive oil into the pan and started to saute the onions and red peppers. Then in went the potatoes and they started browning. That is where the trouble began! The pan started to brown at the bottom, not burn by any means, but it was still too early. This actually is a good feature of the pan and why I like it so much, allthough not for this recipe. When you have  recipe that calls for a deglaze, these brown bits are like flavor bombs when deglazed with something acidic like wine. In this case though, I did not want that. So I ended up switching to one of my nonstick cheaper pans. I put everything in and cranked up the heat. At that point I turned my back to double task and unloaded the dishwasher. By the time I fnished, the bottom of the veggies were blackening. Discouraged I threw in the corned beef to try to remedy the situation. Maybe the blackness will add some flavor…so I thought. I put garlic, I put pepper, I put salt, but no matter what I could not make that dish taste good. In fact, not only did it really not taste good, it really did not taste like anything! Finally after 10 minutes of stirring I gave up. My hubby came over, smelled it and made a face. I knew the verdict had been reached. I threw in the towel. This was nonedible. I couldn’t even feed this to my dog! Thankfully we had a pizza in the freezer in the case of emergency situations. Husband prepared it while I put my head in my hands stewing over my failure and wondering what went wrong. Joe got me glass of wine to help as well as console me as I thought about it. It was the meat in the can! Of course peppers, potatoes, and onions with garlic are a heavenly combination. The flavorless meat was the culprit. Next time I will use  real brisket of corned beef for this recipe and see if that changes things. In the meantime I am going to be wary of any kind of meat in a can for a recipe. My advice is, if you have the time, do not substitute. Always use the real thing. I have posted my cooking disaster below and as always welcome your comments.

Your dinner on canned meat.....any questions?

I was feeling sentimental and this past weekend Joe (The hubby) and I hit the local farmer’s market and bought 38 ears of corn.

I was planning on carrying a tradition that has been in our family for years: parboiling corn, cutting it off the cob, and then freezing it to be enjoyed during the winter months. We got our huge bags and headed down to the Naperville Farmer’s Market where the famous “Beautiful Corn” man was yelling about how beautiful and sweet his corn was even though the kernels were little this week. He promised they would be good. The corn was bicolor.

Bags O' Corn

 Our family had always used the light yellow sweet corn my grandfather grew in his gardens. I remember waking up on the summer mornings as a child to the sound of the my grandmother, aunties, and mother talking and also the sound of the water boiling. I would wake up to the smell of hot, sweet corn that had been boiled and cut, and the corn milk laying all over the countertops. So we got the corn home, and went to the Lake Geneva wine festival. When we got back that afternoon, we took all the husk off and the hair which is the first step. 

 As you can see from the pictures, the dog had fun with the corn as well too.

Then we got a huge pot of water boiling which we had from the canning of the pickles and boiled the ears for 5 minutes. After putting them into an icebath we carefully cut the kernels off the cob and ran our knives up and down the empty cob to get some of the milk out.

 Once that was finished, we bagged them and stuck them in the freezer.

Yellow Goodness!

We have our own special way of vacuum sealing the bags. Take a straw and cut it into half. Close up your freezer bag except for  little opening (and my aunt says you must use the press and seal, yellow and blue make green bags). Suck the air out of the bag being careful not to accidentally blow back into the bag. Once you have sucked in as much air as you can, draw out the straw with your teeth and quickly close up the little opening at the same time. Put in freezer, and then be prepared for a little taste of summer in the long winter months!

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and had happy stomachs as well! I know I did. I went to two parties this weekend ( thankfully both very food centered) and made two loaves of pumpkin bread for the hosts. As I was mixing the ingredients together according to the cooking instructions, I noticed that the instructions called for me to “fold” in the nuts and raisins. The definition of “to fold” according to epicurious.com is: a technique used to gently combine a light, airy mixture (such as beaten egg whites) with a heavier mixture (such as whipped cream or custard). The lighter mixture is placed on top of the heavier one in a large bowl. Starting at the back of the bowl, a rubber spatula is used to cut down vertically through the two mixtures, across the bottom of the bowl and up the nearest side. The bowl is rotated a quarter turn with each series of strokes. This down-across-up-and-over motion gently turns the mixtures over on top of each other, combining them in the process. So why bother folding? Isn’t the point just to use all your strength to whip those ingredients together in the fastest, easiest way possible? A lot of recipes do call for you to incorporate ingredients into a batter by folding them. One example is berries. Berries are soft and easily crushed, so it makes sense to fold them in. Folding is gentler than mixing. Also, folding prevents the loss of air in ingredients as in the egg white example given above. After working so hard to get egg whites light and airy, you do not want to deflate the air bubbles that were creating by beating them. Therefore you should always fold egg whites into whatever you are incorporating them into. One last reason to fold is to prevent over mixing so that your batters stay light, airy, and fluffy. Muffins, for example, can become too dense if you mix them too much. I encourage you to try this technique next time you make a cake or waffles and see if it makes a difference in the consistency of your batter. Your arm will thank you for it too!

With winter fast approaching, thoughts turn to harvesting what is left in the garden and finding some way to enjoy that goodness throughout the long winter months. I never really gave a thought to storing food before. I have had a garden every year, even while living in an apartment. I just grew my peppers and tomatoes in containers on my patio and then when winter arrived, left what was on the vine to birds or to decompose once it was too cold to go outside anymore. These days, with everything getting so expensive in the grocery store, I thought about how good it would be to have these items available right in my house right at a moment’s notice, even with a blizzard blowing outside. Since we live in a house now, we have an even greater amount of vegetables such as cabbage and squash which we planted and have in surplus. I think what planted the seed for freezing, canning and storing items was my husband’s love for pickles. I have never seen anyone eat pickles like this guy. Even a pregnant woman in the midst of a craving could not compete with his zest for pickles. He did not know what he was missing though until at the mall one day, I saw a little stand advertising “That Pickle Guy”. I tried one of his pickles and was amazed at the crunch and freshness of it. It was full of flavor and was not limp or mushy like some of the pickles you find at the grocery store which are full of preservatives. I brought Joe to the mall with me and after trying them, he was hooked as well. We bought two of the different flavors of pickles he sold as well as Giardiniera and an Olive Muffalata. After that, we did not give pickles much thought and bought the Pickle Guy’s pickles from time to time. Then this year we bought two little pickling cucumber plants. My husband decided that he was going to try to make his own pickles. I have to be honest. Although I supported him in his endeavor, I did not think it was going to work out well. But we ended up with a whole lot of cucumbers and we found this recipe online and started canning away. We canned with fresh dill, hot peppers from our own garden, and also organic garlic, making different flavors. The only thing we did different from the recipe was to use cider vinegar as it keeps the water in the jars more clarified instead of cloudy.  We did cold canning at first, putting the boiling brine in the jars, letting the jars seal, and then immediately refrigerating. Joe was becoming his own pickle guy! I was skeptical at first but two weeks later we opened a jar and oh my goodness, they were amazing. The flavor was to our liking because we put as much garlic and heat as we wanted. Also it was nice to be able to control the amount of salt in them as well. Then an obsession was born! I started researching more about storage of vegetables. We had some large zucchini and I shredded those one night until late and froze them. Just this past weekend, I made two wonderful loaves of zucchini bread. Then I also froze hot peppers from our garden. Once our cucumber plants started failing and the cucumber harvest was not as plentiful, we turned to the local farmers market, buying about 4 more pounds. That evening we canned until 1 in the morning. We have made about 20 jars total and 5 of those hot canned. We have given some away as presents. One person even described them “addictive as crack”.

Putting the cucumbers in an icebath

Getting ready to load up the jars

Canned Pickles!

I encourage you to start your own “operation”, whatever it may be. You can can!