Apple's Pandemic Food Creations

Because of pandemic and community quarantine, we miss eating out in our favorite restaurants especially on Sundays. Moreover, our grocery runs has  become very  limited.  Food delivery is one option to address our cravings for our favorite dishes - Japanese (ramen, yakisoba, tempura, hotpot), Korean (kimchi, ramyeon, bulgogi), Singapore/Malaysia (laksa, curry, roti, kaya) and of course Pinoy dishes and delicacies. 

THE SECRET INGREDIENTS AND SAUCES

To create your own dishes, you only need to browse and search Google. And that's what superwoman Apple did to sustain our love for food. The secret for creating these recipes is on the sauce, the spices and ingredients which can be bought in Korean and Japanese groceries - Sauces for Yakiniku, Bulgogi, Takoyaki, Yakisoba, Goma salad sauces, Salad, Kewpie mayo and more umami spices.

Here are some photos of Apple's pandemic food creations. Geof is the food critic and he enjoys eating almost all. Julia and I just love eating. Although sometimes we also have our favorites among Mommy's food discoveries. 

TAMAGOYAKI.
 Fried rolled egg was perfected by Apple after buying a
rectangular frying pan from Lazada.  You can put any kind of fillings inside.  

CROQUETTES
This is really just fried mashed potatoes.  You can flavor the potato anyway you like.  I put cheese and ham inside and fry it.  Geof likes it flavored with cumin and oriental spices, which he eats  with bread like burger patties, garnished with chutney.

PANDESAL AND KAYA SPREAD
Pandesal is the traditional Filipino bread that literally means bread with salt.  Kaya jam spread, on the other hand in the Malaysian/ Singaporean version of the Pinoy's cocojam.  The difference is that the Filipino cocojam is sugar and coconut milk and very sticky (similar to a semi-processed candy), while the Kaya spread has egg yolks - the egg yolks temper the sweetness and makes the jam more tasty and spreadable.  Kaya spread tastes better if you put butter on top of it.

It took me about 20 to 30 mins to make the Kaya spread.  As for the pandesal, they were good when freshly cooked, but became a bit hard the next day --- more practice is needed to make the pandesal better. 

KATSUDON
 We tried the quintessential Katsudon, the all time feel-good food.  We used pork cutlets  for the fried pork - cutlets are thinner in slice than the porkchop so the fried pork can really be made crispy - similar to the German Schnitzels.  For the egg and sauce, there's available Katsudon sauce from Japanese stores - just ask your friendly grocers.  (For Korean and Japanese items, we visit the specialty stores  ourselves; for ordinary grocery items, we shop online).   

BAKED SUSHI WITH NORI
 We did attempt to do a baked sushi, but since our ingredients are limited, the outcome misses the mark.  

PITA BREAD AND HUMMUS
  We are very pleased with this creation.  We love hummus and pita bread and miss eating them badly.  Fortunately, making hummus and pita bread are actually easy. Google and Lazada have become my best friends these days.  Google provides the recipes; Lazada gives me various options on the tools I can access to make my creations.  

This Hummus was made from scratch.  I don't have tahini, so I made one (roasted sesame seed, grounded and mixed with lemon and olive oil).  For the chick peas, I used the canned garbanzos  - remove the skin, boil, and pound/ grind it.  Mix the ground chick peas and tahini, season with salt and cumin powder, and voila - home made hummus. 

As for the pita bread, it's just flour, yeast and oil.  And patience (you have to wait for at least 30 mins to 1 hr for the yeast to do its magic on the flour.).  Fry in lightly oiled pan.    

MAKI in Japanese,  GIMBAP in Korean. 
This is rolled rice wrapped in nori.  They are similar in concept, but Japanese maki usually has a tinge of wasabe and is more simple with the filling (e.g. single filling of tuna, salmon, cucumber, crab), and eaten with soysauce;   while Korean Gimbap has a lot of going on in its fillings (combination of egg, cucumber, carrot, ham, cheese etc), and you eat it as it is.  The Japanese California maki is the closest to the Korean Gimbap.   

Our version of Maki brings together cucumber, carrots and artificial crab.  Since we don't have Japanese rice, we used the regular rice mixed with a dash of salt and mirin (if you don't have mirin, vinegar mixed with a little water and  sugar can be used as substitute).  Better to use also a ceramic knife in cutting the Maki - rice sticks in a stainless steel knife but not much on a (wet) ceramic knife. 

CRISPY KANGKONG 

The trick in crispy kangkong is to use rice flour.  Just mix the flour with a little water and salt, and bathe the Kangkong.  Fry each side for a few seconds.  Dip in either in garlic sauce or the traditional Pinoy sauce - toyo, vinegar, sugar, pepper, salt.  

YAKISOBA
 

This is also one of our favorite.  Yakisoba is just sauteed vegetable and noodles - you can use any vegetable that has neutral flavor (togue, carrots, cabbage, pechay baguio).  That's the basic.  You can add also whatever you wish - shrimp, chicken, fishball.  Here, we simply used cabbage, korean fish ball, and the Lucky me pancit noodles (minus its sauce).  The key ingredient is the yakisoba sauce. which you  can buy from Japanese groceries. 

Our "Cherry Blossom @ 17" Painting

February 27, 2016 - It's our 17th wedding anniversary! To celebrate this special day, Apple and I engaged in a painting bonding at Sip and Gogh, Ayala Estates, Capitol Hills, QC. The theme of our painting is cherry blossom. It's symbolic since the sakura flowers blooming from the tree represents our memorable experiences both happy and sad which strengthen our relationship. The tree continues to grow and bloom beautiful flowers every year. The cherry blossom also reminds us Japan - we had  trip together in Tokyo and nearby places when we were newly married, although Apple has not yet experience the season of cherry blossom viewing. Apple did most of the painting - she was good with the background , branches and flowers. I drew the big trunk and helped fill-up the canvass with the flowers and green leaves. After a one-and-a-half hour session, we produced our souvenir of our wedding anniversary - "Cherry Blossom @ 17." 

The Making of a Master Piece

Mommy's special pasta

"Kesong Puti Pasta" - my version :-)

I had a dinner date with friends at LA Cafe in Timog QC. Among the food we gorged, I mean ate, is the "kesong puti (cottage cheese) pasta" that, according to the waiter, is the late Doreen Fernadez's favorite. And indeed, it was really nice - it has a taste so finesse, you can savor each of the ingredients in your palate - fresh cherry tomatoes, kesong puti, and basil leaves. The simplicity of the flavor lingered in my palate-memory (if there's such a thing) that I've attempted to imitate it.

Instead of cherry tomatoes, I used the big, plump tomatoes (those as big as apples), and instead of just kesong puti, I added mozzarella (for the simple reason that the kesong puti you get from groceries are too madaya (cheats) - it looks big, but it's actually just the banana-leaves' wrapping that's bulky. The actual cheese you see once all the wrappings are removed are too small, you can perhaps fill 4 small pandesals (Pinoy buns) with it. (I later discovered that the Nestle cottage cheese taste almost the same, and with the same price you get more cheese, and its shelf-life lasts longer.)

Preparing (my imitation) is actually easy.

1. Heat olive oil, then add crushed garlic - the amount of garlic depends on how much garlic-ky you want your pasta.

2. Once the garlic's in (maybe after 20 seconds) - don't let it brown - add the sliced tomatoes. For 300g (spaghetti) pasta, I use about 1/2 kl of tomatoes (you can also use ordinary tomatoes). Add a dash of salt (adjust according to your taste)

3. When the tomatoes are cooked and saucy (the skin easily peels from the meat), add the cheese and basil. Allow it to boil for about 30 seconds (1 minute max) only, since the cottage cheese, when cooked, melts and sticks to the pan. You don't want that, you want the cottage cheese to retain its texture and taste. As I've mentioned, I've added mozzarella in my first attempt.

Voila - my kids loved it! (see picture above)

In succeeding attempts, I've been more adventurous. Once, I made it with 4 different cheese - cheddar, mozzarella, Colby's (Anchor/New Zealand), and cottage cheese; on another occasion, I added canned tuna (see picture below).

"Tuna Pasta"

Now, whenever my kids feel like eating pasta on any (special) occasion, they'd alway request for "Mommy's special pasta..." aaahhhh, music to my ears :-)

PS: Daddy likes Spanish sardines pasta (we tried it at Mary Grace Cafe) .. maybe I will try it soon ....

Blog written by Apple