Category Archives: Recipes

Daikon & Carrot Pickles – Vietnamese Style

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Why make your own pickles? Because they are fresh, nutritious, and you know for sure what goes in the bottle.
Trivia: Did you know that traditional pickled cucumbers have zero calories? I bet you didn’t, but I would still advise against eating a jar of it because of its sodium content. 
Anyway we’ve been wanting to make pickled daikon and carrots for a while, especially because we love them in banh mis at Nicky’s or other Vietnamese restaurants. They have a sweet and tart finish to their subtle crunch, a perfect mate to salty or strongly flavored dishes.

Carrots and daikon are cut into 2-inch pieces, mixed with salt and sugar
 until they are soft enough to bend without breaking, and then rinsed.
Mix the pickling solution (mine is yellow because I used brown sugar).
Jars are filled and pickling solution is added.
Off to the fridge we go! So yummy!
Vietnamese Pickled Carrots and Daikon
(recipe adapted from the mama of NB of Kanannie)
4 medium carrots
4 medium daikon
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons plus one cup sugar
2.5 cups white vinegar
2 cups warm water
Cut carrots and daikon into 2-inch strips. Mix by hand 2 teaspoons salt and 4 teaspoons sugar until daikon and carrots get soft and you can bend a piece without breaking it, about 4-5 minutes. Rinse in cold water and strain.
Arrange in glass pickle jars.
Mix pickling solution in a bowl: 1 cup sugar, vinegar and water until sugar is dissolved. Fill pickle jars and cover. Pickles are good beginning the following day and last 4-6 weeks in the fridge. Don’t forget to date them so you don’t forget!
(Additional pickling solution may be made using this formula: 1 part sugar, 2 parts water, 2.5 parts vinegar)

See also: Siriracha Pickled Cucumbers

Pasta with Salsa Amaya – Herring, Sundried Tomato, Capers, Olives, Mushrooms and Garlic

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One of the things I request from friends or relatives visiting from Manila is Connie’s Kitchen Salsa Amaya. It is a bottled blend of herring, olives, mushrooms and herbs soaked in olive oil.

I saute some garlic to bring out some flavors and stir in the bottle’s contents to come up with a flavorful sauce.

I toss some cooked pasta in and serve it promptly, the aroma unmistakably Filipino but with an Italian twist.

This definitely cannot be found in any New York Restaurant menu. Somebody patent it, quick!

And if you are a friend who would like to be on my good side, please ship me some Connie’s Kitchen goodies. Other favorites include Kippers in Capers, Herring in Oil, Daing na Bangus, and Tinapate.

Drool.

Salad: Kale, Cara Cara Orange, Lemon Vinaigrette

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After being able to make a simple kale salad, we were introduced to raw kale and explored other ways of preparing it, especially the possibility of excluding cheese. We had dinner at Amorina the previous evening and had their wonderful salad of arugula, Cara Cara orange, and lemon vinaigrette, which inspired this creation below.
I love the deep green hues of kale contrasting with the dark pink of the cara cara. The lemon vinaigrette coats the kale nicely and gives it a nice softening flavor. The citrus is refreshing  and makes the salad a great companion to anything hearty or rich.

Here I served it with baked brussels sprouts (coated in olive oil and rock salt, 350C for 20 minutes),  and baked chicken pieces (marinated in lemon, salt and pepper, baked at 400C for 45 minutes).

Kale with Cara Cara Salad

Ingredients:
 1/2 bunch kale, cut into strips
1 cara cara orange, peeled and sliced

Dressing:
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Whisk dressing ingredients until blended. Toss kale until coated.
Arrange orange pieces on top. Mangia!

Ginger and Basil Oxtail

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There are two beef cuts where one cannot go wrong cooking, so as long as there is time to spare. Oxtail, like short ribs (here and here), are flavorful pieces of bone-in meat that only need to be slow cooked with minimal seasoning to produce a tender and tasty dish that but packs a flavor punch.
The bones add a rich and marrow-like flavor to the stew whose sauce is good enough to mop bread or rice with. It’s common to find oxtails used in peanut stews like kare-kare, or in Spanish dishes as stews and sauces for mofongos and the like.
Ginger and basil oxtail is one of those dishes with limited ingredients, but with an amazing and layered taste.

Oxtail, ginger, onion and oyster sauce are simmered in a pot.
Thirty minutes.
One hour.
Two hours.
Carrots and basil are added.
Simmer some more until carrots are cooked.
Served with snap peas.

Ginger and Basil Oxtail

Ingredients:

5-6 pieces 1-inch thick oxtail
1 whole onion, cut in quarters
2-inch piece of ginger, sliced
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 cup water
2 medium carrots, sliced into 1-inch rounds
1/2 bunch basil leaves, washed

In a pot, simmer first five ingredients covered over low heat until meat is tender, about two and a half hours. Stir occasionally, adding carrots in the last thirty minutes and the basil fifteen minutes before serving.

Serve with vegetables and rice. Serves 3-4.

Ginisang Itlog (Sautéed Eggs)

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We spent four days in Vermont cooking and eating with our dear friends who asked the same question (Mmmm…What’s in this?) and got the same answer (Fish sauce!) every time something was served to them.
It took a few days to convince them that fish sauce definitely is a major player in Filipino cuisine. Often used as a salt substitute, fish sauce adds a new dimension to the salty flavor, which by the time the dish is cooked is hardly detectable as an actual fish-based essence.
Ginisang itlong served with adobo fried rice and sausage.

Case in point would be the typical breakfast side of sautéed eggs. Ginisang itlog would simply be considered an omelet if not for the fish sauce, which is added during the process of sautéing the onions and tomatoes. By the way, the smell of onions, tomatoes and fish sauce is unmistakably Filipino. All I need to do is close my eyes and I am back in my nanny’s kitchen. I am ten years old, waiting for the day I would be handed the ladle.

We begin by chopping up some tomatoes and onions. Ripe, unrefrigerated tomatoes work best.

They are sauteed in oil and 1/2 teaspoon of Thai fish sauce
(less if using Filipino fish sauce) for every four eggs until soft.
The consistency of the tomatoes and onions is key here.
They must be mushy and liquefied before the eggs are added.

Beaten eggs are added and stirred into the mixture on medium heat.
Remove from heat while eggs are still runny. It will continue cooking as it rests.
Serve promptly with your Filipino farmer’s breakfast!
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