Day 92: Freshly Boiled

After many months of culinary hiatus, I found myself spending more time in the kitchen in just a span of 3 days. I realized that cooking is certainly just like riding a bike, once you learn how to do it, you have it for life.


I was like a kid let loose in a candy store when I discovered a nearby weekend market along an alley. Fresh produce - fruits and vegetables, live native chicken and eggs, and a whole lot of other good stuff were so enticing to see (watch out for my blog entry on this weekend market). 


I only had a few pesos stashed in my pocket, thinking that I was only planning to buy ingredients for a couple of vegetable dishes - Squash and String Beans in Coconut Milk (Guinataang Kalabasa at Sitaw) and Chop Suey.  Those farm fresh native eggs were so tempting that I couldn't help but want to buy a couple or so. However, my daughter spotted a vendor selling freshly harvested peanuts and dragged me to the stall and insisted I buy some. And so, the moolah I was supposedly saving to buy the eggs went to the peanuts...


My little girl was a happy camper on the way home...

Day 91: Weekend Market

The weekend market along the corner of Ramos Extension and Escario Streets.
It begins every Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon.

Barely on my second day after our move from BXU, I started to miss home terribly...the familiar places, the traffic-free roads, the corner stores and outlets where I buy our needs, and all the other stuff I'm used to there.  Well, my spirits got an uplift when I was told of this weekend market nearby (across the road from where we live actually) that's teeming with fresh produce - fruits, vegetables, live chicken, farm fresh eggs. 

After learning about it, I couldn't contain my excitement and actually rushed to the location with my two girls in tow. It was indeed a sight to behold! Just looking at the cornucopia of goodies made my fingers itch to once again experiment in the kitchen. 

The only downside to this neighborly trip is the price...I was taken aback at how expensive it is here. Well, if I got the stuff in the supermarket, surely it'll be more pricey so this was the best alternative. Gosh!!! I so miss the "bagsak-presyo" produce of Butuan!!! Imagine, here, the bananas are priced per piece and not per kilo. There goes my kids' favorite fruit...we'd probably consume dramatically less here than we did back home...

With my small eco bag filled with as much as my budget would allow, I set for home, quickly planning in my head the cooking trip I'll have this weekend...dum dee dum...

Day 256: Yummy Tater Treat

We love potatoes - in whatever shape, form or style. French fried, mashed, cubed or diced in a dish or simply made into crispy chips. Little CeeJae attacked this heaping plate of thin and crisp taters with gusto, savoring each crunchy and delicious bite. 

Day 231: Ang Langka (Jackfruit)

I wasn't too fond of jackfruit as a child. I thought it smelled funny. When Jollibee came out with their Banana Langka pie, I thought it tasted weird. And langka in my turon didn't thrill me either. 

Well, maybe there's something about promdi living that actually changed my taste buds. You see, langka is now one of my favorite fruits and I love to munch on it when it's sweet and ripe and I adore it as a vegetable dish - Guinataang Langka. Even with turon, I've come to prefer the ones with a sliver of jackfruit inside. 

Hubby and all three of my kids also love eating ripe jackfruit - we usually munch on the succulent yellow flesh as dessert. It's a good thing there's a regular langka vendor near my son's school so I don't really have to look around for some whenever we get the jackfruit craving. 

Day 229: Golden Kernels

As I was exiting the school gate with my son today, these golden orbs attracted my eye. A local vendor with his "kariton" was busy arranging his fare when my three kiddos cajoled me into buying some for their afternoon snack. Well, gullible me gave in to the temptation as well, not being able to resist the smell of freshly boiled corn on the cob.

Well, I wasn't able to capture a photo of the remnants of our corn snack but suffice to say, even 1-year old CeeJae had a hey day snacking on these golden kernels.

Day 88: Fresh

Cailie and I had to rush to the wet market today as my stock in the fridge is dwindling.  Since it's not the scheduled market day (it's supposed to be Wednesdays and Saturdays), I was a bit hesitant to go as the vegetables and fish there might not be as great as on market days.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that I still had bountiful fresh veggies and seafood to choose from so I couldn't help but take photos of them right away.  Because it's Holy Week already, I stocked up on fish and added more veggies than usual.

Day 68: Pechay Guisado (#2 in the "Lutong Tamad" Series)

My husband is a vegetable lover.  He probably loves veggies more than any other type food.  His favorite vegetable dish of all time is Pechay Guisado.  It is such an easy dish to prepare and cook so it's part of my "lutong tamad" line.  Some versions of this dish use ground meat as extender but I've managed to make this completely vegetarian and even my kids love it this way.

PECHAY GUISADO (Sauteed Bok-Choy)

7-8 big bunches of pechay/bok-choy, finely chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium onion, minced

1 boullion cube (chicken or beef) or 1.5 cups of chicken/beef stock

1 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp fish sauce (patis)

dash of pepper

In a deep skillet, heat oil until hot. Saute garlic and onions until translucent.  Stir in the pechay stalks and leaves.  Add in the boullion cube and water/stock and simmer for 10 minutes.  Season with patis and pepper.  Serve hot.

Day 34: Comfort Food (part 2)

Nothing beats the homey goodness of comfort food any time of the day or night.  For those who've watched the animated film "Ratatouille", savoring one's comfort food is so much like that image of Anton Ego going back to his childhood upon tasting the ratatouille served in Gustav's.  It takes you back to the good old days of Mom's or Lola's cooking of your favorite dishes.

Monggo Guisado would probably show up at the top of my list of all-time wonder comfort foods.  There's something about this steamy and starchy vegetable dish that reaches inside the soul.  It is but a simple fare of legumes, sauteed in garlic, onions and tomatoes, enriched with squash pieces and malunggay leaves and yet, it leaves the belly full and the soul so satisfied.  

Monggo Guisado

1 cup green monggo beans, washed and boiled until tender

1 liter of water

2 pcs pork cubes

2 tbsp canola oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 medium onion, sliced

3 medium tomatoes, sliced,

1 red bell pepper, julienned

1.5 cups squash, cut into cubes

1/2 cup malunggay leaves

1 pc dried galunggong

water (optional) 

In a stock pot, boil the washed monggo beans in 1 liter water and 2 pork cubes until tender or "mashed" in consistency. Set aside. In the same pot, heat up some oil and saute the garlic, onions and tomatoes until wilted.  Add in the pepper and squash.  When squash is half cooked, put the monggo mash back in and add some water if desired.  Bring to a boil then add the dried fish.  Season with pepper and a little patis.  Add in the malunggay leaves then turn off fire.  Best served with hot rice and fried fish. Enjoy!!!

Day 32: A Rosy Start

Oh my! How time flies so fast!  Today is the first day of the love month, February.  It officially marks the end of being in sick bay.  Slowly, the kids are getting back into full gear and their appetites are going back to normal (thank God!!!).  While we were all down with intestinal flu, you'd really notice the relative silence at home and today, it was obvious that it's back to business since the noise and buzz of the kids at home are indeed too loud to not notice.  Well, if there's anything I learned while being sick it's that I'd rather have all the noise and stinky smells of normalcy than being worried over some illness hovering at home.  If the usual cure would be an apple a day...for us, it was a tomato a day, kept the doctor away.  It helped that my "suki" vendor at the market had a lot of ripe and luscious tomatoes at hand when I did my marketing last week.  Even little Cailie was game at posing with these lovely tomatoes to show that she too, is back in form.

Day 15: Comfort Food and Leftovers

It has been raining here six days in a row and I'm pretty sure this kind of weather will drag on until early next week.  Weather like this always prompts me to prepare food that's warming to the belly.  

Ampalaya Guisado is always a winner for me and hubby, especially on a gloomy day like this one.  Served on piping hot rice, nothing beats the taste of bitter, salty and downright yummy all at the same time!

To reduce the bitterness of the ampalaya (bitter gourd), I usually soak the sliced ampalaya pieces in salt water for at least 2 hours.  To prepare the dish, I just saute onions, garlic and tomatoes in a little oil. Once translucent, I add some julienned red peppers and the drained ampalaya pieces.  I like my ampalaya to retain its rich green color and crispness so I just let it cook for about 7 minutes on high heat before adding 1-2 beaten eggs.  Once the eggs are almost cooked, I put off the heat and let the steam finish the cooking process.  Voila! Comfort food at its best!

I haven't been successful yet in having the kids love eating ampalaya so they feasted on the leftover "Fish-tek" from dinner the night before.  It's a simple dish of having "bariles" pieces marinated in some soy sauce, calamansi juice and a dash of pepper for about 30 minutes before pan frying them in hot oil.  Once brown, just add lots of red onion rings and the marinade.  It was even more delicious as a leftover since the sauce had already penetrated the fish pieces well.

Suffice to say, we were "belly-ful" today.