Here’s a tasty, homemade twist to the canned kind. My picky 1-year old liked it and so will you!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup glutinous rice
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
1 can whole kernel corn or 2 cobs of fresh corn, scraped
2 cans coconut milk

Directions:

1. Combine glutinous rice, water and sugar in a deep sauce pan and keep to a boil.
2. After 5 minutes of boiling, add the coconut milk and corn stir well. If rice is tender and soup becomes thick, put off stove. Add a little water if it becomes too thick. Serve hot.

Ahh.. nothing beats a taste of home. Definitely brought back memories of my childhood days, aww.. =) My sincerest thanks go out to my Mom for this lip-smacking recipe! Keep those delicious food ideas coming!

Happy cooking!

Post from: Blisstree

Ginataang Mais (Coconut Cream Style Corn)

Welcome to Sig-Sats*! The first of many signature dishes I am featuring every Saturday is my mom’s version of the Ilocano favorite, Pinakbet. This is undeniably a popular Filipino dish, with veggies as its main ingredient. And just a word of caution, take it easy on the fish sauce or shrimp paste if you don’t want it to taste too salty.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp cooking oil
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 small onion, peeled and diced
1 tomato, finely chopped
2 tbsp ground pork or pork strips cut into thin slices
3 tbsp fish sauce or shrimp paste
1 cup water
1 small squash or pumpkin, peeled and cubed
few pieces of green beans, cut into 2 inches long
1 small eggplant, sliced into 2 inches long

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in saucepan. Saute the garlic, onion and tomato. Add the pork. Stir well. Add the fish sauce and water. Simmer for 10 minutes until the pork becomes tender.
2. Add the squash. Once cooked, add the green beans and eggplant. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve immediately with steamed rice.

Vegetarian? Simply do away with the pork and rest assured this dish will still taste just as good!

Happy cooking!

*Signature Saturdays

Post from: Blisstree

Pinakbet recipe

Ginataang Kalabasa at Sitaw (Squash and Green Beans in Coconut Milk):

Since the usual kalabasa (native green pumpkin) and sitaw (string beans) which are so plentiful in Manila are quite hard to find here, I had to substitute them with butternut squash and canned green beans. I was quite happy with the result nonetheless since the natural sweetness of the squash tasted so well with the creaminess of the coconut milk.

Here’s a quick “how to”: Saute the cubed squash in garlic and onions. Add enough water to cover the squash until it becomes tender and quite mushy. Add 1 cup coconut milk, canned green beans, salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Simmer until mixture bubbles. Serve and enjoy.

Happy cooking!

Post from: Blisstree

Tired of your usual roast veggies or stir-fry?

Here’s another divine recipe I tried that I’m sure you’ll like: (especially all you vegans out there!)

Ingredients:

250g bean sprouts
10 dried mushrooms
4 green shallots
2 tbsps oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsps light soy sauce
2 tsps dry sherry
2 tsps cornflour
1/4 cup water

Procedure:

Soak mushrooms in boiling water for 20 minutes; drain. Remove and discard stems, chop caps finely. Wash and drain bean sprouts, slice shallots diagonally. Heat oil in wok, add garlic, mushrooms and shallots, stir-fry 1 minute. Add bean sprouts, toss through, add sauces, sherry and blended cornflour and water. Stir-fry until mixture boils and thickens.

Happy cooking!

Post from: Blisstree

Stir-fried bean sprouts and mushrooms recipe

Imo Mochi is potato sticky rice cakes.  How the two work together I’m not sure.  There is definitely both together all covered in a sweet sticky sauce and a little patch of nori.  I guess from what it looked like it was a slice of potato with mochi all around it.  But it was pretty hard to tell since it was all white stickiness whether potato or mochi.  Although they look fairly tame just one or two are enough to stop any mortal man.  They are all stick and stodge and any more would probably be deadly.

Post from: Blisstree

Imo Mochi

I think I’ve found a new favourite.  This tofu was bought at a supermarket in Hakodate and is just the creamiest most delicious that I have ever tasted.  It came in a cool little basket with a sachet of some kind of green stuff.  Apart from that I can’t really tell you much.  Maybe you can help me out.  What do you know about tofu?

Post from: Blisstree

My new favourite tofu

This is a very simple dish but one that is still worth trying.

Just take as many small potatoes (or chopped bigger ones), clean and dry them.

Mix up approximately equal quantities of olive oil and miso paste.  (shake them in a jar until the miso is dispersed – it won’t dissolve, but will hang in suspension if you are quick to use it).

Toss the potatoes around in the oil mix and then bake them for around 18-20 minutes on low heat.

The miso darkens and looks almost burnt, but the flavour is something else.

Post from: Blisstree

Miso New Potatoes

The best thing about Somen noodles are that they seem to go with anything, especially summer.  When it is hot and you can’t manage to get hot food to seem appetizing, try this for a quick, easy and healthy meal.

Cook up a bundle of somen noodles for each person, using the directions on the pack (usually boil them in plenty of water for about 3-4 minutes then rinse them in cold water until they are cool).

On top of this pile of noodles arrange your favourite salad including “cold” vegetables like tomatoes and cucumber.  Add some grilled tofu lumps on the side and you are ready to go.  Choose some dressing – as you can see I couldn’t decide between Kewpie mayonnaise and yuzu dressing.  But whatever you like, it will be easy, delicious and on the table in about 15 minutes.

Post from: Blisstree

Quick and Easy Summer Somen

This recipe really isn’t Japanese and it doesn’t include noodles or rice but if you are in the middle of a hot summer you will still appreciate it.

It is very simple and rocket fast to prepare.

Dry a cake of tofu (either lightly press it between 2 chopping boards or stand it on the bench for a quarter hour and then dry it with paper towel)

Cut it into 2 and lightly fry or grill the tofu on both big sides.

Set it aside while you prepare the rest.

Cut up a handful of cherry tomatoes a little bit of red Spanish onion and some fresh herbs like basil or mint.  Toss them in a bowl with a good slurp of balsamic vinegar and about the same amount of olive oil.  Then add salt and pepper and a splash of soy sauce.

Mix it all up and drop it on the tofu.

It is cool refreshing food with a beautiful full flavour from the vinegar and soy.  Perfect for dinner outside on a really hot night.

I hope you like it

Post from: Blisstree

Grilled tofu salad

2 10-oz bags frozen sweet corn, or use fresh corn kernels, scraped from the cob
2 umeboshi plums, de-seeded if necessary and mashed into a paste
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and chopped finely
1/3 cup miso, or to taste
8 cups water
1 small onion, finely chopped

Combine everything in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower heat to a simmer and cook until fennel is tender, about 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Post from: Blisstree

Corn, Fennel and Miso Soup