Maja Mais

Maja Mais
Originally uploaded by ichigo747

Something very Filipino this time and quite easy to make, too...

In a heavy saucepan, I combined three cups milk, two cups coconut cream, one large can cream-style corn and one can condensed. I brought this mixture to a boil then added one and a half cups of cornstarch dissolved in one cup milk. I also added some gelatin powder (about 4 tbsp) dissolved in a small amount of water. I stirred this with a whisk for around 10-15 minutes until very thick. For that extra richness, I whisked in 1/2 cup of butter then poured the mixture on to my greased/ buttered mould. (This will set while still warm!) I served it the following day after chilling.

Traditionally, this is garnished with "latik" on top. Not the coconut jam latik, but coconut cream and sugar that has been rendered into some brown crispy bits.

Spaghetti

(Pinoy spaghetti sauce on whole wheat pasta.)

If there was one thing I looked forward to during my birthdays while growing up, it was my grandmother’s spaghetti. (Okay, I also had balloons and gifts and other party items to look forward to until I was around seven. Then the Gestapo in our house banned parties when I started school.) The culinary critic in me would go as far as saying that my grandmother’s spaghetti was no fantastic dish. Anyone born in the Mediterranean would not recognize the thing. In fact, its only resemblance to the authentic dish is its slightly reddish sauce and the ground beef, or should I say, lack thereof. It had a glaring red sauce that was both sweet and sour, with no hint of tomato whatsoever. There was the occasional bit of beef, outnumbered by slices of red hotdog. And who could forget the slivers of hard-boiled egg, and the copious amounts of grated American cheddar on top? Yes, it was one of the many incarnations of the Jolly Spaghetti that have invaded Filipino households.

My grandmother was the only cook in the family (or perhaps no one dared to share her kitchen). My mom never cooked. But the same Gestapo that banned my parties banned me from playing outside with other children. Hence, the TV became my playmate. Optimus Prime became my role model; Sesame Street became a devotion (dare I say religion?); and Nora Daza became my source of wisdom. Well, okay not entirely. But yes, I learned to cook at an early age.

Eventually, I concocted my own version of spaghetti. It had more meat. It made use of tomatoes from cans, and had nothing to do with banana catsup (and who knows what they’re really made of?). My pasta was al dente, and not soggy. Best of all, it had mushrooms! My dish was initially a hit. My folks loved it. I loved it. But nothing drew me as close to the fire as that plateful of soggy noodles bathed in glaring red catsup sauce that my grandmother makes.

Perhaps because it brings back so many memories of my childhood. Perhaps, it reminded me of the other things that my grandmother made for me and my parties. That spaghetti was her. It was her own creation, and a statement of her culinary skills. It was a product of her years of experimentation. Further, that spaghetti was my party. It always brought back memories of other children running around our house, and the times I would open the gifts they brought for me!

In medical school, I had a classmate who worshipped his mom. While that is usually an adorable attribute of any straight guy, he took it to levels that would disturb any sane person. He once brought a large tub of baked macaroni that his ‘legendary’ doctor-mom made. It was enough for maybe three hungry wrestlers; and athlete he wasn’t! He apparently wanted to “share” his treasure. A close friend of mine, imbued with much wisdom, declined a taste. But my culinary ego could not resist and he gladly offered to share some of it. I barely made it beyond the second bit of pasta. The macaroni was pasty, to say the least. The sauce was bland and anemic. Even that shaving of cheese seemed out of place. There was nothing else to say. It was like eating air. He abslutely loved it though. Well, he worshipped his mom. That was what I kept repeating in my head, and it kept me sane until I finished the spoonful.

I don’t worship my grandmother, or any other member of my family for that matter. But I have utter respect for her and the years she spent learning and toiling in front of the stove to keep our stomachs satisfied. For most of us, there is always that dish, no matter how bland or spicy or weird which will always bring back memories of our childhood, or evoke memories of our special moments. Sometimes, and especially for gastronomes and gourmands, our tongues may object to the combinations of flavors, or lack thereof, in whatever we are eating. But we have to “eat with our brains,” too. We have to treasure all those memories, respect our elders, and relive those special moments.

Over the years, I have learned to make different types of pasta sauces – Bolognese, a la puttanesca, marinara and even my own version of Pinoy spaghetti. I would like to think they are better that anyone else’s. But nothing, as I’ve said, would be as significant as the one I grew up with. And sometimes, I wonder, if somewhere down the road, someone else will grow up eating my cooking, no matter how “off” the seasonings may be.


Pinoy Spaghetti

Half a pound of chopped bacon (I know, but you won’t feel it, trust me)
One or two Spanish chorizos, chopped
Two or three sliced sausages/ hotdogs (use whatever sausage you like if hotdog gives you nightmares; even longganisa and/ or salami is okay, just don’t tell me about it)
One pound lean ground beef (I prefer lean, to lessen the guilt of the bacon)
One to two bay leaves
Four cloves chopped garlic
Two chopped onions
Chop together: one small carrot, one large stalk celery, one small red bell pepper, one small green bell pepper
Two to three large tomatoes, chopped
Two cups tomato sauce
One bottle banana catsup (if you do know, don’t tell me what they’re really made of)
Two to three cups beef broth (water and instant bouillon works, too. Go ask your conscience)
One teaspoon each of dried oregano and dried basil.
Salt, pepper, sugar to taste

In a large saucepan set on medium heat, render the fat off the bacon. Saute until lightly browned before adding the Spanish Chorizos and sausages. Add in the ground lean beef and cook until browned. Add one or two bay leaves as the beef is sautéing.

When the beef has browned, add in the garlic and onions together. When softened, add in the rest of the chopped vegetables. Deglaze pan with beef broth and tomato sauce. Add the rest of the ingredients and the dried herbs. Simmer until the sauce has thickened and the meat has become tender. Adjust seasonings.

Filipino tradition is to top the spaghetti with sliced hard-boiled eggs and grated American cheddar.

(Traditional Filipino-style spaghetti)

Black and White

On one of Bobby Chinn's treks to Asia (Penang, I think), he bought a drink from a food hawker named "Michael Jackson." It was plain and simple mix of grass jelly on soy milk. The combination works, at least for me. Obviously it won't if you're not a fan of black jelly.

I think the light herby-bitterness of the grass jelly cuts through the richness of the soy milk. As far as I know all grass jelly products (usually sold in cans) taste the same. But soy milk may vary in flavor depending on manufacturer, and whether it has been sweetened or flavored. Use whatever you like.

I just thought I'd post this so there will be something to wash down the spicy Thai Chicken Basil Stir-fry.

Thai Stir-Fried Chicken in Basil

I saw this recipe from Maeve O'Maera's Food Safari. I just love that program! Anyway, I thought this dish was very Thai in its selection of ingredients, yet quite easy to do - without compromising flavor of course!

I think this dish is one of the easiest and most versatile in Thai cooking. You can substitute any meat, even some seafood. And stir-frying ensures the veggies remain crisp!

You can find the orginal recipe here on the Food Safari page. I modifed it by adding two slices ginger. Instead of just soy sauce, I used a combination of soy sauce and oyster sauce. Also, I mixed the sauce ingredients beforehand on a bowl and tasted it before adding it to the stir-fry. this way, I did not have to make adjustments while cooking.

Also, I served it with regular fried egg, instead of the very oily puffed fried egg.

I'm Back!!!

Sorry for my absence! I have quite a number of stuff to post here and in my other blogs...

Free Rice

This has been my latest addiction: http://www.freerice.com/ . It is actually a vocabulary game that donates 20 grains of rice for every correct answer you give. It is very addictive! Read more about their program here.

Please visit and "donate" at least a few thousand grains to the needy.

Foodie Blogroll

Yay! Her Majesty, The Queen has just included my blog into the foodieblogroll (links and logo to the right)! It is the first and the biggest compendium of food blogs and a forum where members can discuss foodie stuff!

Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies

Peanut butter cookies are a classic! They can be soft and chewy or crisp, but definitely rich and peanut-y! They are one of my favorites!

For some people however, peanut butter isn't enough and would need to be augmented with other things peanut - whole peanuts, peanut butter chips, etc. Throw in some oats and it makes for a healthy cookie!

I got this recipe from the marthastewart web site and the original recipe called for chocolate chips to be added to the dough. I thought of using peanut butter chips instead. But it seems local groceries have stopped selling these! So I just upped the quantities of peanuts and oats to compensate for the lack of peanut butter chips. (I really did not want to use chocolate chips as I wanted a really very peanut-y cookie.)





On another visit to the grocery, I chanced upon some Reese's peanut butter bits (sort of like M&Ms). They were perfect for the cookies!

These cookies are now one of my favorites!

WHITE!

After going green, I'm going white! Whatever that means!

Anyway, I realized I've done many different types of chocolate cakes, many before the age of blogging but I have never done any cake in white!

I initially thought this was a tricky cake, since white chocolate is plain fat and milk protein without the chocolate solids. I mean a few tablespoons of cocoa powder into a cake batter will turn it into chocolate cake, but figuring out how much butter and/ or liquid white chocolate will replace is far more tricky.

Luckily, I found a recipe on the internet. I gave it a try and the results were okay. I used sour cream, by the way instead of buttermilk.


The cake came out okay. It was dense and rich and buttery. It wasn't as dense as an olive oil cake but still a bit dense for me. Perhaps I wasn't too careful in folding the batter because on slicing, it revealed some dense 'unpuffed' areas. The taste was okay, too. The milky vanilla flavor dominated. Well, white chocolate doesn't have its own flavor anyway.




For the frosting I made a simple buttercream with one cup butter, 4 oz melted white chocolate and 1/4 cup cream. I added one cup of confectioner's sugar. The icing came out lumpy as I think it needed more sugar. But I would rather have it this way than add make it sweeter.

Let's Go GREEN

I just LOVE green tea! I think it is refreshing and sweet, unlike regular black or oolong teas which may often taste bitter. And the fruit infusions taste like car fresheners (not that i've tried some). Green tea, just like any natural drink or food is rich in vitamins and minerals and antioxidants. People in Japan believe drinking it everyday helps keep colon cancer away. Of course, studies have shown that you need to drink industrial quantities daily for it to have this effect. Then again, drinking it is way more nutritious than plain water and definitely healthier than other bottled or canned drinks (yes, teas come prepared in soda bottles and cans in other countries!).

You either like it or you hate it. I have a lot of friends who always order all things green tea in restaurants. On the other hand, my aunt who spent two years of her life as a missionary in Japan swears that green tea tastes and feels like warm horse saliva. I do not want to imagine how she came up with that comparison.

With the green tea theme in mind, I am posting two recipes I made previously with green tea. I used green tea powder I bought some time ago in Hong Kong. I know a lot of the local Japanese stores have it. This green tea is the one used in the ceremonies and is called 'matcha.' I am not quite sure if regular dired green tea leaves pulverized in a spice blender would work quite as well.


I got this recipe for Green Tea Layer Cake online. I did not have yogurt at that time so I used sour cream. The cake came out quite dense, but still soft and very flavorful. The combination of vanilla and green tea gave a flavor reminiscent of Green Tea Frappucino!

For the frosting, I reduced the amount of sugar by half, as I do not like my desserts too sweet. I divided the frosting into two. One part I mixed with some mashed azuki (boiled mashed red mung beans) and used it for filling. The other half I used to frost the cake.



With some matcha leftover, I then made some green tea butter cookies (sable). I think my oven temperature wasn't right as the edges have already browned and the centers were still a bit puffy. (My oven isn't calibrated.) But they tasted good! The cookies were buttery, as are all sables, and had the perfuminess of green tea.

Chicken Inasal

I am not the type of doctor who will ever admit to eating grilled stuff, at least in public. I used to love them when I was a kid, so much so that our convoy to Baguio every summer would always stop two or three times during the journey just so we could buy barbecue. And yes, there was even that time when people thought grilling is *the healthiest way of cooking.* You do avoid adding oil (and burn whatever is contained in the meat), but the burnt bits are exactly what will give you cancer.

Well, I've been BBQ-free for almost two years now, so I thought one small meal washed down with copious amounts of freshly brewed tea won't hurt. Excuses, excuses, excuses...

I was inspired to make "inasal" because my parents bought some last Saturday from the Salcedo market. I had known for a long time that it is relatively easy to make, owing to the short list of ingredients. Also, I found inasal interesting in its use of achuete (anatto seeds) and vinegar. I thought it was similar to what the Mexicans call as 'adobo seasoning' which is a paste made of ground anatto seeds and vinegar. However, the Mexicans use it as a spice, and we only care for its color. Perhaps, chicken inasal is a product of the Mexican galleon trade that boomed during the Spanish colonial period.



To make the marinade, I started with a rounded tablespoon of anatto seeds. I wish I had a spice grinder so I could have turned them into powder but I only had a mortar and pestle. Anyway, I tried to grind the seeds as finely as I could.





Then, over low to medium-low flame, I steeped 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil with the ground anatto for 5 minutes.

I really think a more finely-ground anatto whould have given a stronger flavor.



There seems to be a consensus on the marinade for chicken inasal: search the web and you will find several recipes that are eerily alike in the proportion of ingredients! I found what seemed like a good recipe here.

However, I wanted to add my own touch. Besides, I did not have native vinegar and lemon grass. The inasal my parents bought tasted a bit vinegary - but closer to the taste of blasamic vinegar.

So I combined the colored oil with the following ingredients: one head of crushed garlic, one thumb-size piece of crushed ginger, one grated onion, half a teaspoon each of salt and pepper, one tablespoon brown sugar, 1/2 cup rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, and two tablespoons lemon juice. I substituted two Kaffir lime leaves from my mom's garden for the lemon grass.

I know all those recipes say that marination takes a maximum of one hour, but I wanted all the flavor to penetrate the deepest tissues of the chicken. Hence, I let the one kilo of chicken pieces marinate overnight in the refrigerator. (Besides, long marination in acid kills the meat tissue parasites)

The following day, I lay the chicken pieces on a rack and set it on a tray. I baked them for 25 minutes in a 325-degree oven, just until the thickest portions yield clear juice. Then I asked our housecook to grill them lightly for color. Baking avoids grilling them for too long that inevitably leads to burnt spots. Just compare the pics of my inasal with those from the net - they have much less black spots, which in my case are confined only to the skin.

My inasal came out perfect. Although for most of you, I think another half teaspoon of salt would need to be added.



Our housecook added some sliced pork belly to the marinade as well, and it tasted really good, too!

Chocolate Cake with Cherry Filling

Sometimes it is the simplest things that are the most elegant. - Ina Garten


Your are free to accuse me of not being creative in coming up with a name for this recipe. It is no "decadent blah blah," or "rich and moist blah blah." I hate pretentious cakes. This is what it is - a simple chocolate cake with a cherry filling. And yes, this is another product of the leftovers and nearly-expired stuff I collected from my freezer and pantry. The Peotraco cocoa powder survived Christmas, New Year and Easter in my pantry, but did not last longer than three days after being made into this cake. (Three days is long for glucophobic people like us.) And you may have guessed also that the cherry pie filling was also plucked out of the bowels of my freezer.


I wanted a 'light' chocolate cake (as if such exists) for this project so I decided on using a Devil's food cake recipe (aka old-fashioned chocolate cupcakes). I removed that extra half-cup of sugar, of course. The cake ended up 'light' (read, not dense) and fluffy, but still moist - perhaps because of the two(!) cups of refined sugar added.

I tweaked the cherry pie filling a bit by heating it with one tablespoon each of lemon juice and brandy. You may want to add some sugar if you find the cherries too sour, but do not omit the lemon juice. Believe me, it will mask the 'canned-taste' (or 'freezer-taste,' in my case).


After cutting the cake in half, I then doused it with more brandy before pouring the filling.

I used a chocolate buttercream to ice the cake. You can search then net for a chocolate buttercream recipe, but i simply used equal amounts of creamed butter and the chocolate condensed milk icing my family typically uses for traditional chocolate cakes. (Scroll down this previous post and the recipe is somewhere there.)

More Vietnamese Food from Le Phi

We were craving for some Vietnamese and Singaporean food, so we decided to drop by last Saturday's Salcedo Market Food Fair. To our disappointemnt, the Singaporean chicken stall was not there, so my parents and I ended up buying some chicken inasal and some Vietnamese goodies.

The Vietnamese lady not only had the usual fresh spring rolls and rice cake, but some salads as well. The shrimp salad on the left is really very tasty. The shrimp were stir-fried in garlic and lemon grass, then laid on a bed of chewy rice noodles, crisp lettuce and lots of fragrant Asian basil. It was an explosion of flavors and textures. Of course, the nuoc cham dressing, made of sugar, garlic, fish sauce and chillies rounded the whole thing up!



It seems as if business is really booming for this lady - she used to sit on her chair rolling up spring rolls herself, but this time she had two slaves (pictured here) doing that for her. Also, she is now selling dried rice noodles and salads (previously, these had to be ordered in advance). [I took this picture by the way with the intention of getting the face of the lady whose elbow could be seen on the right. Quite an annoying Chinese lady - she elbowed me and my mom out of the front without even excusing herself! Hmp!]


Of course, we had to buy several boxes of the fresh Vietnamese spring rolls and the green Vietnamese 'rice cake' (a green and yellow kutsinta/ sapin-sapin made out of rice and yellow mung beans).

Crabs, crabs and more crabs!

A whole box of mud crabs was sent to my dad by one of his friends and we couldn't be happier having them the whole day! Pinoys usually just steam them, with a dipping sauce of vinegar with crushed garlic. I really would not eat it this way as I hate raw vinegar and I really think this does not do justice to the sweetness of the crab.

I really think the Pinoy way of steaming crabs is nothing but "lutong tamad" (lazy cooking). Fresh live crabs are put straight into a steamer or a pot with some boiling salted water. No cleaning. No seasonings. If they crabs then taste fishy, you deserve it! You didn't even bother to scrub off the grit and mud from the shells, at the very least!

And so I normally just pass up the opportunity to eat crabs if they are plain steamed the local way. And I certainly would turn down requests to stir-fry crabs that have been previously cooked. For sure the meat has taken on whatever flavor the mud and dirt had!

I know the thought of scrubbing and shelling live crabs sound bloody, but there is a way around it. Throw in the crabs in a deep pot of ice water and weigh down for about an hour or so. The crabs will go to 'sleep' and will be immobile (and dead) by the time you are ready to scrub them. This will not only appease whoever will be cleaning the crabs but the tree-huggers and animal lovers as well.

Scrub all the mud off the shell of the crabs, especially those in the joints. Lift the flap on the belly of the crab, then insert a knife into the cavity at the base to remove the top shell. Reserve all the fat/ tamales that falls off. Remove the gills/ dead man's fingers, and scrub at the part as it is likely to have plenty of mud and dirt. remove the mouth area as well. Cut the crab in half, then each into three segments. You can find a step-by-step instruction on how to clean and prepare crabs here, which is more or less similar to what I had enumerated.


Sprinkle the crab pieces with some salt and pepper (and some chicken powder, if you like), then with about a tablespoon or two of cornstarch (preferrably sweet potato flour) for every whole crab. Fry in oil until lightly browned. The crabs will continue cooking in the sauce later on.






The crabs we got were a bit fatty, so i scooped out all the tamales, dredged them in cornstarch and fried them lightly as well. This will become the thickener for the sauce.





The crab pictured above is the Vietnamese Tamarind Crabs (Cua Rang Voi Sot Me). Think sweet and sour sauce, only that tamarind was used to sour the sauce.

It is important to mix and taste the sauce ahead of the stri fry. For two pieces of medium crabs, mix together one tablespoon of tamarind paste, three tablespoons fish sauce, 1/4 cup rice wine and about one teaspoon each of brown sugar and crushed white pepper. Adjust the proportions according to your taste. You may need to add more sugar, depending on how sour the tamarind is. Again, this should taste sweet and sour, with the fruity acidity of the tamarind being a bit more predominant. Set aside the mixture.

In a hot wok with about three tablespoons of oil, saute three spring onions cut into segments, four cloves crushed garlic and one thumb-size piece of sliced ginger. You may add in about four lemon grass roots as well, as I did. Add in the crabs as the mixture becomes fragrant. Pour in the sauce and the fried crab fat pieces. You may need to add an additional 1/4 cup water and increase the heat to high to boil off the excess liquid as the crabs stew.

Serve with rice.


I had a few more prepared fried crabs left and decided to do a Malaysian-style dish. I saw it prepared on Discover Travel and Living. I did not have any ginger torch, so I used plain ginger root. I did not have sambal as well, so I made use of the regular chili garlic sauce.

This Ketam Sri Wangi is much more flavorful than the tamarind crabs, but less fruity. I still prefer the Vietnamese version, but I like this one as well.

Roast Tenderloin of Pork

I've been making roast porkloin for quite some time now and I really could not get the seasonings and cooking time right. The "pork roast" or "pork loin" available at local supermarkets are always end up rubbery and bland after coming out of my oven. Things have improved, but I'm not there yet.

Just the other day, I decided to try the more expensive cut of meat - pork tenderloin. With just a few hours of marination, my roast came out juicy, tender and really flavorful. I don't think I want to do roast pork with other cuts of meat ever again!

First, I marinated the two pieces of tenderloin in a mixture of chopped garlic (four cloves), a bunch of fresh thyme, half a teaspoon of salt, black pepper and extra virgin olive oil. I left it for about three hours in the ref, then I wrapped them with bacon and tied it with kitchen string to even out the shape. I know, bacon and pork! It actually sounds worse than it actually is. Tenderloin is very lean and will undoubtedly become rubbery and dry when cooked. Bacon helps keep it moist. Further, I only use thick cuts of lean bacon. I set the roast on a pan with about two chopped onions, two garlic cloves and one chopped Granny Smith apple. I tucked in a few bay leaves as well.


I baked the pork in a 400 degree preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes (well done). Fifteen minutes cooking time would have yielded a medium-rare to medium well pork. I let this rest a good 30 minutes before cutting.

For the sauce, I poured in a half a cup of orange juice, half a cup of fresh mango puree and one tablespoon balsamic vinegar and reduced it on the stove. Then I pureed and strained it.

Bacon and Seafood Pasta

I wouldn't really credit the Italians for this one. (My previous pasta blog isn't Italian anyway.) As far as I know, bacon and seafood isn't a classic combination, at least by European standards. (And the 'bacon' Italians use - pancetta - is not smoked!) Yes, the Italians are quirky about their seafood - 'cheese and seafood do NOT go together,' 'only white wine can be used,' 'smokiness of the bacon masks the flavor,' etc. I quite agree, and this is probably the first time I am making a pasta with both bacon and seafood combined. Well, blame my freezer. I was only trying to dispose of the bits I found while cleaning it.

On a hot pan, add in about a handful of chopped bacon, around 200g (nowadays you can just buy bacon bits, so no need for chopping). Render the fat until the bacon bits have become crispy. Push them to one side of the pan then add in one chopped onion and about three to four cloves of chopped garlic, more if you like.

Then toss in about 200g each (about a handful) of shelled and deveined shrimp, and scallops. Make sure the seafood are really fresh, and should not smell fishy at all. Also, the meat should be firm. If they're spongy, then they've probably been in and out of the freezer too many times, and you'll notice them shrink to the size of raisins as they get sauteed. Toss the seafood around the pan just until most of the shrimp are pink. Quickly, scoop all of the shrimps and scallops with a slotted spoon and set aside. We only want them to be slightly cooked at this point.

Then, deglaze the pan with a cup of white wine and reduce by at least half. Make sure to scrape the bits sticking at the bottom. Add in about one teaspoon of fresh thyme. After the reduction, pour in two cups of cream (or two cups half and half). Add in the seafood, then adjust the seasonings. As the sauce comes to a simmer, dump in the pasta (I prefer linguine) and toss until all strands are coated. Finally, sprinkle with a handful of chopped Italian parsley. Serve with garlic bread. NO cheese!

Quick Chorizo Pasta

This one is really quick and simple. On a hot pan set on medium heat, dump in around 200g of chopped chorizo. I prefer the fresh ones that you buy from delis, not the ones that come canned. The fresh ones tend to crisp up during cooking, and tastes better.

The pan has to be set on medium heat in order to render the golden fat out fo the chopped sausages slowly. A pan that is too hot would have just burned the outside of the chorizo bits while the inside is still rubbery. This takes around five minutes - just until the sizzle has died down a bit.

Next throw in one chopped onion, and cook until tender. Then dump in two cloves of chopped garlic and two large (or four small) chopped fresh tomatoes. Cook until tender, which takes absolutely no time at all (about a minute). If the pan gets a little too dry, pour in half a cup of white wine or water.

Dump in the pasta and cook one minute. Dish up.

Nigella's Crab Pasta

I just love everything Nigella! I love the simplicity of all her recipes. And they are quite flavorful, too!

A friend of my dad's recently sent us a shipment of mud crabs from his farm. I made several batches of stir-fried crabs - one a Vietnamese-style tamarind crab then the Malaysian Ketam Sri Wangi. (will post the recipes when I have the time).

The small crabs left after we sorted out the large ones for the stir-fry were steamed for later use. I was pondering what to do with them as I almost never cook with already-steamed crabs. I decided to make some pasta with the meat.

I just followed Nigella's recipe, but left out the watercress which is rather hard to find locally, and I am a bit squeamish of raw greens grown on freshwater plots (but I do eat a LOT of veggies).

I used up two medium-sized crabs, although I think I should have used more. There were only two crabs left, so I used crab sticks as extenders. However, I do caution against using too much of it as it has a different flavor versus the real crab meat. This "sauce" tastes better if you leave it to marinade about a day in the refrigerator before tossing it with the freshly-cooked pasta.

Hot Cross Buns

I was browsing for a Good Friday bread recipe when I came across this one. The moment that blog mentioned Good Friday, then I knew I just had to make this bread.

I did not have a spice mix, so I just used 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg with 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, and the zest of one lemon and one orange. They made for a very fruity aroma combined with the cinnamon.

This bread is much more dense than previous breads I've made, at least during the kneading process.

I know the recipe calls for a paste to be piped out into crosses on top of the buns. I couldn't care less for tasteless paste, so I omitted that step.

And instead of adding a sweet sugar glaze, I just topped the buns with a mixture of powdered sugar and melted butter that people can peel off if they find it too sweet.

Yes, this bread is as good as that blog claims it to be and I will definitely make this again!

Tuna Macaroni

In the good old 80s, and thanks to the absence of cable tv, Pinoys had absolutely no knowledge how the Italians had their pasta - simple, often meatless, and prepared just before the meal with only a handful of quality ingredients. Or at least that was my impression. After all, with the mention of spaghetti, only one thing came to mind in those days - spaghetti noodles with a sweet Bolognese sauce (ground beef in tomato sauce). Baked macaroni likewise was Bolognese-based, had elbow-shaped pasta and was baked with tons of cheese, and apart from these three things was basically the same as spaghetti.

Pinoys were largely oblivious of pasta puttanesca as well as the seafood-based sauces. Hence, recipes like this tuna macaroni were largely a novelty, especially during Lent. I think it was a good way for manufacturers to advertise products, like tomato sauce and cream that can be used on Lenten seafood dishes apart from the usual caldereta and fruit salad, respectively. Why the mention of advertising? Because recipes like these usually come out as features on broadsheets the week before Lent. In fact, this one was from a newspaper clipping that my aunt pasted on her cooking diary. She used to make it for Lent. Everyone, even myself I suppose, loved it. Keep in mind, this was the time that tomato-based dishes, for them to be special had to have a touch of cream; and the cream-based pasta dishes had to have a hint of tomato. During the pre-Asian Food Channel/ Food Network, this was a really good. This is your typical back-of-the-carton Magnolia Cream or back-of-the-label Del Monte tomato sauce recipe.


My aunt, who by the way is a pious old maid, gave me a copy of this recipe in the hope that it would one day inspire me to be more religious as I would be eating fish instead of meat during Lent. So I took the recipe and inserted it on an old notebook and forgot about it for years. Fastforward 2008, this recipe fell off that old notebook as I was clearing away some of my things. I thought of making it, for old times' sakes, and because I thought that it required ingredients that needed to be disposed from the pantry. I updated the recipe, of course with other stuff from the pantry.

Tuna Macaroni
On a large saute pan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Saute one chopped large onion and one medium carrot until tender. Add in three cloves of chopped garlic and saute until you can smell the garlic.

Add in one can of drained sliced mushrooms, one cup sliced olives (green or balck, whichever you prefer) and two cups of canned (or leftover) tuna (salmon works well, too).

Pour in 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce, one cup cream of mushroom soup and one cup milk. Simmer. Season with salt, pepper and one teaspoon fresh thyme, and a bunch of chopped basil. Turn off the heat and add in one cup of cream. Adjust seasonings.

Toss in one package of cooked macaroni (I used fusili). Arrange in ove-proof dishes and bake until top is browned.

The original recipe calls for two cups to cheese to be incorporated into the sauce, plus another cup for topping. I try not to blaspheme the Italians, so I did not bother adding cheese to my seafood. No one missed it.