Category Archives: Recipes

Butternut Squash Soup

A simple and tasty soup to make for when you’ve kept the butternut squash from the Food Coop for a while and it’s cold outside. I’ve tasted a lot of things in restaurant winter squash soups and have been toying around with adding some herbs like nutmeg or other vegetables like celery, but squashes are so sweet and tasty that it’s hard to go wrong relying on their own flavor.

Cut and remove seeds from one butternut squash.
Coat with olive oil and bake in a glass dish for an hour at 375C.
(You can make this ahead and store it covered in the refrigerator until you’re ready to make soup.)

Peel the squash pieces with a knife.

Cut cooked squash into squares.

Saute some garlic in oil until brown.

Add the squash and mix it up.

Add about 2 cups of water and crush the squash with a ladle.

Add one vegetable bouillon (or replace all water with vegetable broth).

Blend using a stick blender.
If you don’t have one, cool the mixture and use a regular blender, then return to pot.

Puree as needed and add two more cups of water depending on desired consistency.
Simmer covered for about 10 minutes, mixing occassionally.

Serve hot in a bowl. Top with chives or scallions before serving.
Mangia!
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Christmas Ham

I’ve made a Christmas ham since my teenage years in the Philippines and continued the tradition when I moved to New York, developing my recipe to use locally available ingredients. This ham is popular among Filipinos but is a general crowd pleaser as well. It’s always festive and very easy and inexpensive to make. Total cost for this is around $20.

Ingredients:

Whole smoked pork butt, sized according to one’s stockpot capacity
1 big can pineapple juice
1 small 1-pound box Domino’s dark brown sugar
1 big can pineapple slices
1 small can crushed pineapple
1/4 cup dried cloves
10 or so pieces Maraschino cherries
Green garnish leaves such as parsley, brocollini, etc.

Instructions:

Remove plastic packaging from ham and place in a stockpot. Set aside one cup of brown sugar. Into the pot add pineapple juice, the rest of the brown sugar, and cloves. Simmer on low heat for 1 hour. Cool and refrigerate pot with soaking ham for 1-2 days. On day of occasion, simmer pot for 1-2 hours on low heat and then set on glass baking dish. Create a mixture of crushed pineapple and brown sugar moistened with the soaking sauce and coat ham. Sprinkle more brown sugar and cloves on top and bake uncovered for 1 hour at 375F. Remove promptly and arrange in round decorative dish with pineapples, cherries, and garnish leaves (as in photo).

Sauce: Reduce soaking sauce in stock pot on medium heat until 1/2 original amount. Add sugar to taste or to thicken. Slice ham thinly and serve topped with warm sauce.

Mangia!

Holiday Brunch

I’ve developed a fail-safe quiche recipe through the years and experiment with fillings here and there.
Uncooked corned beef, spinach and sundried tomato tapenade quiche.
Uncooked pastrami and onion quiche.
An experiment in table napkin folding.
Flowers a day too late.
Potato gratin.
Cooked pastrami and onion quiche.
Cooked corned beef, spinach and sun-dried tomato tapenade quiche.
A plate with all, and a side of sausage.
My standard brunch recipes below. Mangia!

 

White Cheddar Potato Gratin
4 lbs russet potatoes, sliced thinly
2-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups grated white cheddar cheese
1/4 cup rosemary leaves
2 small shallots, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease a 13X19 rectangular glass or porcelain baking dish. Arrange potato pieces in layers on the dish. Once halfway full, sprinkle half the cheese, rosemary and shallots. Continue layering the potatoes, and sprinkle the rest of cheese, rosemary and shallots. Dissolve salt and pepper in the heavy cream and pour on potatoes. Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake covered for 1 hour. Bake uncovered for another 45 minutes until top is brown. Let stand 20-30 minutes before serving.

Standard Quiche Base 

2 frozen 9″ pie crusts
1 cup grated gruyere, gouda, or white cheddar cheese
1 cup heavy cream
3 eggs
2 cups filling of choice (see below*)
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 F. Bake pie crusts until brown, about 10 minutes. In a bowl, beat eggs, add milk, and a dash of salt and pepper. Arrange pastrami, onion and mushrooms, and cheese on the pie plates, pour in milk mixture until crust is filled. Bake for 45 minutes at 375, or until fork comes out clean from center. Let stand or 15 minutes before serving.

***Fillings may vary. Some combinations I’ve used are spinach (2 cups chopped spinach, frozen or fresh, blanched and drained/squeezed dry), spinach and bacon, pastrami/corned beef and onion, mushrooms and onions. Use two cups of filling (one cup for each pie). The possibilities are endless!

Aling Rosing’s Salt and Pepper Ribs

Ribs on a bed of baby brussels sprouts.

Salt a slab of pork ribs generously on both sides. Season with pepper as well.

Bake in a glass dish covered with foil,  concave side up at 400 C for 45 minutes. (Optional: roast a whole head of garlic with it)

Bake uncovered at 450, concave side down for 30 more minutes until brown. Slice to separate each rib. Serve with rice and spiced vinegar.

Vietnamese Summer Rolls

Ingredients:

Shrimp, shelled, deveined and cut in half lengthwise
or
Salmon fillet, cooked in a pan
Rice noodles/vermicelli
Cilantro
Red cabbage
Hoisin sauce
Sriracha Sauce
Summer roll wrapper

Soak wrapper in hot water for a few seconds and then lay out in a plate. Arrange solid ingredients and wrap neatly (see photo below). I updated this post to include a link to my step by step wrapping process. Dip in sriracha, hoisin, and lemon garlic sauce. *drool*

A perfectly executed crispy salmon summer roll.

Lemon Garlic Sauce

Mix together the following:
Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lime
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp water
1 clove garlic, grated
1 tsp grated carrot
red pepper flakes

Peanut Hoisin Sauce

4 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp peanut butter
1/2 clove garlic, grated

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