Category Archives: cooking

Chicken with Nasi Goreng Paste

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My cooking is greatly influenced by Filipino cuisine, in which meats are stewed for hours and vegetables are frequently overcooked to a soft mush. A lot of it is done the previous night and reheated, finished or broiled the following day, a practice that requires a lot of planning and makes spontaneous meal options impossible, and cooking small batches a waste of my time.
 
For quick meals we have relied on the quickness of fish and salads, tacos and wraps, protein sources that need only a little cooking and some assembly for a tasty meal.

Chicken with Nasi Goreng Paste, Sauteed bokchoy on the side.

So I’m very happy to be recently leaning towards a happy medium in my cooking, one that is not too slow or too fast (i.e., often cold), which focuses on simple flavors and limited ingredients, with a preparation time of thirty minutes or so.

I wanted to make something similar to my simple chicken curry, but didn’t want to bend over backwards buying ingredients I didn’t already have. Then I remembered that I had a jar of Nasi Goreng Paste lying around. It is a mix of peppers, tomatoes and spices used to flavor fried rice in Indonesian cooking. I’ve had it for a while but never found the time to learn how to make Nasi Goreng. So I decided to experiment and see how the paste would fare as a flavor base for another quick chicken stew.

 I began by smothering four chicken pieces in two tablespoons of nasi goreng paste.

I seared them on both sides in a hot pan.

Then I added a whole sliced onion.

Poured in a quarter cup of water, juice from one lemon, and and simmered it covered for 30 minutes. 
The sauce becomes rich and thick as the chicken cooks.
I mixed in a handful of cilantro leaves.
And served it with some sautéed bokchoy.

I enjoyed the heat and boldness of this dish, which complemented the crunch and simplicity of the bokchoy. The trick to cooking meats without marinating often lies in serving it with a flavorful sauce. The chicken turned out soft, moist and flavorful. The onions were a good texture companion to the dish.
Chicken with Nasi Goreng Paste
4 chicken pieces
2 tablespoons Nasi Goreng paste (available at Asian food stores)
juice of one lemon
1 whole onion, sliced into rings
1 handful washed cilantro leaves
Smother chicken in paste then sear in a hot pan with oil. Add onions, 1/4 cup water and lemon juice and cover, simmering for 30 minutes on low heat. Add cilantro leaves and mix well. Serve with a vegetable side and rice. 

Fried Shishito Peppers

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It was in Barcelona that I first had fried peppers. The smoky bar called Bar Rodrigo served them sizzling on a plate, and we chewed on their crunchy salty bodies chased with gulps of wine. I fell in love.
 
I’ve always enjoyed fried peppers in tapas bars because they are sweet and have the right kind of heat along with crisp skins and the bite of rock salt. Pimentos de Padrons are commonly used in Spanish cuisine, but in Asian restaurants (and recently in modern bars), shishito peppers are the pepper of choice. They aren’t normally available in supermarkets yet but Farmer’s Markets seem to be picking them up. In New York, Union Square Market  reportedly carries them, as do Asian supermarkets like Han Ah Rheum and Sunrise Mart.
Fried shishito peppers, better made by a Japanese friend in Woodside.

I picked up some shishito peppers (in the middle) from Sunrise Mart in the East Village.
We fried them in a hot pan with some olive oil and tossed in some rock salt.
Voila! Simple, sweet, spicy, salty and full of surprises. This is great as an appetizer with wine and cocktails. Watch out for the hot ones! This one is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Chili With Batangas Tablea Chocolate

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For Superbowl Sunday, our tradition is to invite a few friends over for some homemade chili made with unsweetened chocolate tablets from the Philippines.

My mother often sends us packs of Batangas Tablea de Cacao to use for hot chocolate (tsokolate eh) or chocolate rice porridge (champorado). We often have a surplus of tablets so we use them to make our chili dark and rich. The chocolate adds a deep extra layer to the strong flavors of chili powder and tomatoes, as in some Mexican molé sauces.

Other than the chocolate, this chili cannot be far from traditional, calling out for the bold flavors of chili, paprika and cumin, as well as the meaty taste of ground beef.

We begin by sautéing our usual suspects, garlic and onion.
The spices are our friends, and we use them like there’s no tomorrow.
Mix in the spices, creating a deep, rich color and aroma.
Add the ground beef and saute until brown.
Browned ground beef is separated and tender.
Whole peeled tomatoes are manually crushed.
Pour in the tomatoes.
Simmer the stew.
Grate the chocolate tablets into the stew. 
Add the red beans.
Stir well.
Add the black beans.
Stir well.
Simmer for 2-3 hours on low heat.
Serve with cilantro leaves, cheese, onions and yogurt (in place of sour cream).
For Superbowl Sunday, we made a side of coleslaw.
We also served a tray of cornbread.
The evening’s offerings. Go Giants!

Chili with Batangas Tablea Chocolate


1 whole red onion, chopped
1 head garlic, chopped
3 large cans whole canned tomatoes
2 cans red kidney beans,  washed
1 can black beans, washed
1 beef boullion
2 pounds ground beef
1/3 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
2-3 tablets Batangas tablea, available in good Asian/Filipino markets
(if not available, substitute 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder. Do not use Spanish tablea with cinnamon!)
Chopped onions, cilantro leaves, and 0% plain Greek yogurt for topping.

In a large pot, saute garlic and onions. Brown the ground beef and add the spices. Crush the whole canned tomatoes with your hands and add to the mixture. Stir and add tomato paste, tablea or cocoa, and bouilllon. Let simmer covered on low heat for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Serve hot topped with cilantro, onions and Greek yogurt (in place of sour cream).

Ginger Flounder and Steamed Choy Sum

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Want a healthy, delicious meal in under thirty minutes? This puts the entree and the side in one oven for a great meal 20 minutes later.

We first encountered this fish dish when a friend named Fanny made it for us, but using a whole snapper. We’ve always enjoyed the flounder at Hop Kee so we decided to order a whole flounder from Fresh Direct (can’t say any more good things about their fish and seafood section). I like this dish because of its simple yet distinct flavors and relatively simple preparation. Along with choy sum (chinese brocolli), it’s a perfect combination of light protein and greens.

 Pre-heat the oven to 400C. Begin by cutting through the meat of the flounder twice with a knife. Don’t go all the way through! Salt the flounder on both sides and drizzling some olive oil on top. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes.
While the flounder is baking, cut and arrange choy sum (Chinese broccoli) in a baking dish
and drizzle with some olive oil.

Cover securely with aluminum foil. This will create the steam that will cook your choy sum.

Put the choy sum alongside the flounder and retrieve both when the flounder is done.

While both are baking, cut some ginger into very this strips.

Saute ginger in olive oil and drizzle with a little soy sauce and sesame oil. 
Ginger should turn into a crisp brown.

The flounder is done in 20 minutes or when the meat is opaque but still moist and slightly gelatinous.
Pour the ginger mixture on top of the flounder.

 Take the choy sum out.
Voila! If you think this looks pretty, wait till you smell it.

Serve with the choy sum for a fragrant, sumptuous and healthy meal!

Served here with a dollop of  bukkake okazu rayu or chili garlic oil for the choy sum. One may substitute oyster sauce or soy sauce for dipping, or simply eat the choy sum on its own.
The flounder goes really well with the sweetness of the choy sum when it’s steamed in its own juice.
 I love chili garlic oil, especially this one that our friends graciously shared with us from Tokyo.
It’s different from the Chinese version (I favor Lee Kum Kee’s chili oil) in that it is much more flavorful and has bits of fried garlic that miraculously stay crispy in the oil. A must-have if it’s available to you. Left to my own devices, I could drink this bottle straight up!

Wonton Soup (Filipino Pancit Molo)

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What could be better than a hearty soup on a winter night? Pancit Molo is a wonton soup popular in the Philippines, not to be confused with other types of pancit, a term meaning noodles in Filipino. It merges Chinese wontons with the Spanish love for garlic and the addition of milk at the end.  This was a soup often made in my home when I was growing up that I learned to make on my own when I moved away. Now I get to share it with you!
I enjoy making this soup with homemade pork wontons that I mix with vegetables and the perfect crunch provided by water chestnuts. I enjoy how the wonton wrapper soaks up the broth and almost falls apart like in this photo below.
For bit of history, Pancit Molo is a dumpling/wonton soup whose etymology is derived from the seaport in the town of Molo, Philippines. Chinese merchants introduced wonton soup to that area, and locals began calling it Pancit Molo, perhaps for a lack of a term for wontons or siomai (shumai), or their wrappers which only resembled noodles (pancit) at that time. That explains the popular misnomer.
And now for how to make Pancit Molo:
We begin with some key ingredients, namely ground pork, water chestnuts, scallions, celery, cabbage, garlic, and wonton wrapper. You may find water chestnuts and wonton wrappers in good grocery stores, if not Asian markets.
I chop all the other vegetables finely using a food processor, except for the water chestnuts, celery and half of the carrots.  Here the water chestnuts are chopped in quarter inch cubes.
As is the celery.
I cube two stalks of the carrots to include in the broth, but finely chop the rest to mix 
with the wonton filling.
Here they all are in the bowl. Half of the scallions, half of the carrots, celery, water chestnuts, 
garlic, onions and red cabbage. 
I enjoy using colorful vegetables for the flavor and appearance of the wontons.
Add a beaten egg into the mix.
Season and mix very, very well. I like to test the mixture by microwaving a dollop of it in a small bowl for thirty seconds so I am assured of its flavor before making the wontons. 
HOW TO WRAP WONTONS
Spoon a teaspoonful of the mixture onto a wonton wrapper. 
Place fingers on edges of the wrapper like so. 
Join the corners together. 
Press the edges together to form a seal. Depending on the wonton wrapper, water may be needed to seal them together. I have made this with several kinds of store-bought wrappers and have never had the need to seal the edges with water. They seem to just stick to the filling when cooked.
Arrange wontons in a plate and set aside.
In a hot pot, saute garlic until brown and add onions until clear. 
Saute celery and then add chicken broth, stock or bouillon and water.
Add carrot cubes and simmer for 10 minutes until boiling. 
Add wontons one by one, preferably spaced out so they don’t stick together.
Allow wontons to cook on low-medium heat for twenty minutes until they float to the surface.
When cooked, wontons will float to the top and wrapper will soak up the broth.
Add evaporated milk and 1 teaspoon sesame oil to the pot before serving, mixing gently.
A perfect soup for a perfect evening, topped with chopped scallions and fried garlic.
I love the crunch provided by the water chestnuts and the colors of the vegetables inside the wontons.
Enjoy!
Pancit Molo
1 package wonton wrapper
1 pound ground pork
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 head garlic, finely chopped
3 medium carrots, finely chopped
2 small carrots, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
4 stalks celery, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1/4 red cabbage, finely chopped
1 can water chestnuts, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1 egg, beaten
3 stalks scallion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 teaspoons sesame oil
6 cups chicken broth (or 6 cups water and one chicken bouillon)
1/4 cup evaporated millk
Filling: Mix together pork, onion (set aside 1 tablespoon for the broth), garlic (set aside 1 tablespoon for the broth), finely chopped carrots, 2/3 of the celery (set aside the rest for the broth), cabbage, scallions and egg. Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Test the mixture’s taste by microwaving a dollop of it for 30 seconds. 
When seasoned to taste, mix in 1 teaspoon sesame oil and wrap the wontons using the directions above. 
Broth: In hot pot, saute garlic, onions and celery. Add broth and carrots and simmer for 15 minutes. Add wontons one by one, evenly spaced so as to avoid sticking. Simmer on low-medium heat for another 20 minutes. Add 1/4 cup evaporated milk and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Mix gently before serving.  Serve topped with chopped scallions and fried garlic, when available. Mangia!
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