It’s time for football! I don’t have to tell you that this is my favorite time of year. One of the traditions my family has is coming up with weekly recipes to serve while we watch the game. Here are a few of my favorites:

BBQ Beef Sandwiches
This is an old recipe of my family that takes beef and combines it with hamburger. The beef is cooked in the slow cooker in beef, the hamburger cooked with onion and garlic, and the two combined with BBQ sauce. Has a delicious, tangy taste.
Provencal Vegetable Soup
This is no …read more

Ingredients:
6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 large onion, chopped
3 large tomatoes, chopped
1/2 kg chicken, cut into serving pieces
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 lemon, squeezed
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 large red or green sweet bell pepper (or capsicum), chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
Directions:
1. Saute garlic in oil until golden brown. Add the onion and cook until soft. Add the tomatoes and mash. Stir well.
2. Add the chicken and mix well with the prior ingredients. Add soy sauce and lemon juice. Stir.
3. Add the tomato sauce and 1 cup water. Simmer for 20 minutes. Continue adding water until the chicken becomes tender.
4. Add the …read more

Ingredients:

5 tbsps vegetable or corn oil
4 tbsps minced garlic
1 2-inch piece ginger, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch thick slices
1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups uncooked rice
10 cups water
1 1/4 kg chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 1/2 tsps fish sauce
1/4 cup finely chopped spring onions
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Directions:
1. In a stockpot, heat 3 tablespoons of the oil and saute 2 tablespoons of the garlic, the ginger and the onion. The garlic is done when light brown and the onion translucent.
2. Add the rice and saute for 5 minutes then add water. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. …read more

Also known as Lemongrass Soup with Shrimp, is this week’s Seafood Sundays feature.
Lemongrass carries an aromatic citrusy scent that, along with the kaffir lime leaves, balances the heat of the roasted chili paste in this signature Thai dish.
Ingredients:
375 g large shrimp (prawns) in the shell
2 tbsps vegetable oil
4 lemongrass stalks, tender midsection only, smashed and cut into 2-inch lengths
6 slices fresh galangal or 3 slices dried galangal
6 green Thai chilis or 8 green serrano chilis, cut in half crosswise
6 cups chicken stock
8 kaffir lime leaves, spines removed
1-2 tbsps roasted chili paste, or to taste
1 cup drained canned straw mushrooms
4-inch piece …read more

My mom emailed last week to let us know how they spent All Souls’ Day over the weekend. Nov 02 is observed as a public holiday in the Philippines. It is a Roman Catholic celebration for remembering and praying for the departed. This is the second year that I’ll miss going to the cemetery with my family. The scene would always be like a big picnic reunion where we meet with our relatives to pray for our departed loved ones, eat lunch and catch up. Every year, my mom prepares her much-loved Mechado to the potluck lunch. I have tried …read more

This is a repost of a yummy soup recipe that appeared in the early days of Noodles and Rice.
This is a great easy-to-fix soup/stew, perfect for fall temperatures. It’s simple enough that you can throw it together on a busy night after work. Authentic Thai dishes usually call for kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, and galangal, but these may be difficult to find where you are, so lime and lemon zests make a fine substitute. If you have access to the above, however, by all means, use them! (see note below)

3 cups chicken broth 1 tablespoon finely …read more

Tsukuba University is renowned for its science and the size of its campus.  Apparently it is number one in Japan for science and number 2 for campus size. 
What I found out yesterday was that it is up there in the culinary rankings as well for pork ramen.   A couple of slabs of pork, some bamboo shoots a stack of noodles and some nori turned an otherwise difficult day into a pleasure for at least 5 minutes.  It is a shame that it is not possible to eat continually.  If it were, I probably would have stuck with this dish for the rest of …read more

Udon are one of my favourite noodles (up there with soba and somen).  This recipe was more like a “empty the cupboard improvisation but it turned out quite good.
First I boiled a pot of water and mixed in the end of a packet of consomme stock cubes.  This was only about half strength so I built it up with some dashi granules.  At the same time I grilled some thin sliced lean pork, some mushrooms and green onions and hard boiled an egg.  When the stock was boiling, I dropped in the fresh udon noodles and green vegetables for about …read more

Oden can take some time to prepare at home if you do it with integrity.  If you don’t mind cheating, there is a five minute solution.  A kit from the supermarket fridge includes all of the essentials, the soup (concentrated) and quick instructions.  Just add the soup and the required water to a pan.  Drop in the bits and pieces and within minutes you are done.

Dashy granules, water, miso paste a few frozen scallops and a cut up green shallot. 
In five minutes you can have your miso soup on the table, probably even less.  The only trick is getting the proportions right.  For 3 cups of water I drop in a small desert spoonful of miso and a bit less dashi granules.  But really it is up to you.  Add a bit and then add some more until you are happy.
I challenge you to make soup any faster without using an instant sachet