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 ordinary soup! Even the meat lovers in my family enjoy this vegetable recipe. The saffron and pistou make this meal something special.

Chicken Riesling Stew
The Riesling combines well with the cream to make this one a hint. Serve with a baguette to dip into stew.

Potato Skins
If you’re looking for an appetizer to keep your family fed during halftime, this is the recipe to do it. I like making these at home as opposed to paying a high price at a restaurant.

French Onion Dip
You’re heard of French onion soup, right? This is a take on that, made into a dip. Very tasty with tortilla chips.

Image: sxc.hu

Post from: Blisstree

Best Recipes for Football Season

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 chopped pepper and potatoes. Let it boil then simmer for 10 more minutes until the potatoes are cooked.
5. Taste to check if it is salty enough. Otherwise, add in a spoonful or so of fish sauce. Mix well. Serve hot.

Happy cooking!

Post from: Blisstree

Chicken Tuesdays: Chicken Afritada

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. Reduce the heat to a simmer, add the chicken, and continue cooking for another 30 minutes or until the rice is done.
3. While waiting for the rice to cook, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet and fry the remaining 2 tablespoons of garlic until golden brown. Set aside.
4. When the rice is finally cooked, add the fish sauce and continue cooking over low heat for another 3 to 5 minutes. Serve in a soup tureen or soup bowls. Sprinkle the fried garlic, chopped spring onions and pepper on top. Serves 4.

Happy cooking!

Source: The Food of the Philippines
by Periplus World Cookbooks

Post from: Blisstree

Chicken Tuesdays: Arroz Caldo

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 bamboo shoot, thinly sliced
3 tbsps fish sauce, or to taste
1/4 cup fresh lime juice, or to taste
1 fresh red chili, sliced into rounds
1/4 cup fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves

Directions:

1. Peel and devein the shrimp, reserving the shells. Rinse the shrimp and set aside.
2. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, add the shrimp shells and fry them, stirring, until they turn bright orange, about 1 minute. Toss in the lemongrass, galangal, green chilis, chicken stock, and 4 of the lime leaves. Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes to develop the flavors. Remove from the heat and pour the stock through a sieve placed over a clean saucepan. Discard the contents of the sieve.
3. Add the chili paste, straw mushrooms, and sliced bamboo shoot to the saucepan, stir well, and bring to a boil over medium heat. When it is boiling, add the shrimp and the remaining 4 lime leaves and cook until the shrimp turn bright orange pink, 1-2 minutes. Season with the fish sauce and lime juice, then taste and adjust the seasoning.
4. Ladle the soup into warmed bowls and garnish with the red chili slices and coriander leaves.

Happy cooking!

Source: Savouring Southeast Asia by Joyce Jue

Post from: Blisstree

Tom Yum Goong recipe

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 making it myself but nothing compares to my mom’s cooking!

Below is her recipe: (Try it!)

Ingredients:

1/2 kg  beef round or sirloin, cut into chunks
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
1 small can of tomato sauce
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup water, optional

Procedure:

1. Marinate the cleaned meat in soy sauce and lemon juice for 20 minutes.
2. Saute the garlic in cooking oil until golden brown. Add the onion and allow to become translucent in color. Add and mash the tomatoes.
3. Add the beef along with the marinade and mix well.  Add in the tomato sauce. Let this simmer for 20 minutes until meat is tender, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the potatoes and bell pepper. Add water depending on how thick you want the sauce to be. Let this simmer until the potatoes are cooked.

Serve hot with steamed white rice. You may wish to add carrots along with the potatoes. Another variation is to add grated cheese once the Mechado is cooked (I got this yummy idea from my mother-in-law!).

Happy cooking!

Post from: Blisstree

Mmmm.. Missing my mom’s Mechado

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 minced lime and lemon zest
6 1/4-inch slices of peeled fresh gingerroot
3 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
1/2 cup lime and/or lemon juice (or to taste)
2 Thai chilies, sliced thinly (or to taste)
1 whole skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into 1 1/2 inch long by 1/4 inch thick shreds
1 13.5-oz can coconut milk
1/2 cup chopped cilantro/coriander
Additional fish sauce, chopped chilies and lemon/lime juice if needed

In a large saucepan, combine chicken broth, citrus zests, gingerroot slices, fish sauce, citrus juices and chilies (hold back a few if you want to control the heat — you can always add more later). Bring mixture to a simmer, then add chicken slices and coconut milk, stirring well. Continue cooking until chicken pieces are just cooked through (do not overcook!), about 5 minutes. Stir in coriander. Adjust seasoning with additional fish sauce, chilies and/or lemon/lime juice, or serve in a soup tureen or large bowl and let diners adjust seasonings at the table. Serve hot.

* 1 tablespoon chopped kaffir lime leaves, 2 tablespoons chopped lemongrass and 6 slices galangal can be used for this recipe in place of the lime and lemon zests.

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Post from: Blisstree

N&R Classic Archives: Thai-Style Chicken and Coconut Soup

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 the day.  As it was, I was forced to return to reality and deal with the world again with only the memory of a quick, delicious and cheap meal to keep me happy. 

What is your favourite food on a bad day?  Is there something that is guaranteed to make a bad day turn good for you?  Share your secret.  You may well be providing a valuable community service.

Post from: Blisstree

Pork ramen

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 3 minutes.  Served it into bowls and added the pork, mushrooms, onions and egg.

 This is nothing exotic but I hope that it will inspire you to try throwing together whatever is in your kitchen rather than heading out for takeaway junk food again.

Post from: Blisstree

Pork Udon soup

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.

Post from: Blisstree

Quick Oden

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

Post from: Blisstree

5 minute miso soup