Kefir-Buttermilk Pancake

Kefir-Buttermilk Pancakes

Fluffy, full-bodied, can stand on their own, this pancake recipe is a keeper!  However, I don't think a lot of people have discovered the health benefits of kefir milk yet. With this post, I hope to start spreading the news at least to the Filipinos, especially if you have issues with your bowels.

Egg-In-A-Hole

Egg-In-A-Hole or Egg-In-A-Basket

I was watching "V" at home one night (for the second time) and I again saw this part where V was cooking egg-in-a-hole. The first time I saw that, I did not know how it was called. Then sometime later I read in a blog (I cannot remember now which one) about this style of cooking egg and toast. It is called several names, but I stuck to this name, easiest to remember and does not make it seem to mystical. Egg-in-a-hole apparently has its origins in the UK (and the movie "V" is set in England).

I tried it and loved it! Perfect for breakfast!

What you need are:

biscuit cutter. , skillet , cover
slices of bread
eggs
butter
salt and pepper
(optional) ground basil (or whatever spices you want)

How to:

Heat the skillet on medium. Melt some butter.
Make a hole in the bread slice using a biscuit cutter.
Place bread slice on the skillet. Add some more butter into the hole.
Crack an egg and carefully place into the hole. Sprinkle spices.
Cover to hasten cooking (time will depend on how done you want it).
Flip and briefly cook the other side. You might also want to brown the round bread piece sliced off the center.
Enjoy with a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

Chicken Sopas

 

Every Filipino child most likely has been exposed to chicken sopas. It is one of our favorite breakfast or merienda. I loved the way my Nanay made sopas. When I was an adult already, I would buy chicken sopas from carinderia and it would have mostly the pasta, very little of meat, veggies, and usually no milk.

Well, in an attempt to recreate my Nanay's sopas, here is my method:




Ingredients:
8 cups (or 2 quarts) chicken stock
1 lb pasta (either shell or elbow, medium size)
1-2 cups pre-cooked strips/cubes of chicken(leftover roast chicken, for example)
1/4 cabbage, cut into strips
1 medium carrot, peeled, then prepare "thin slices" using peeler
1/4 to 1/2 cup heavy cream or milk (depends on how creamy you want it)
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Boil chicken stock. Maintain on high heat.
Add pasta, stir frequently during first few minutes and let cook for about 8 minutes with occasional stirring.
Add pre-cooked meat and veggies. Adjust taste with salt and pepper.
Turn off heat (for conduction cooktop) or turn heat to lowest (for flame stovetop) and add the heavy cream or milk while still hot, continuously stirring. DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL. It should only be steamy but not boiling, or else milk will coagulate and soup won't be creamy. Stop when you have achieved your desired consistency, and completely removed from heat source.

EggNog French Toast

Hubby likes EggNog especially around this time of the year...makes him feel the spirit of the Holidays more...

From eggnog french toast

I, however, never did develop any liking to it, and neither have my kids...
Problem is, my husband can only drink about a cup or so, then he will not finish a whole jug (even if one as small as this). I thought of other ways to use it. I thought it would probably be good used for making french toast, since french toast is basically made from stale bread dipped in a mixture of egg, milk, nutmeg and cinnamon. I looked at the ingredients of eggnog once, and it was not too different.

Making french toast this way made me tolerate eggnog...even my kids like them.

Pandesal

Homemade Pandesal

This is a re-posting from my old kusina, featuring how to make pan de sal using bread machine/breadmaker for the dough (or use manual method using the same recipe). I have received emails about how their pandesal using this recipe/method has received rave reviews from fellow Pinoys. May I add that I have served this also to Americans and most of them loved this crusty-on -the-outside, soft-on-the-inside buns. There's a slide show of how to shape and cut the dough and then bake them in conventional oven, to make learning easier for those who are going to try this for the first time. Pardon the poem inspired by the smell of the yeast dough as it was rising...

Oatmeal - Not only for breakfast, but also for skin allergy

As I mentioned in my "diet" post, I sometimes eat oatmeal for breakfast. I like the fast effects of its fibers (won't elaborate further, hehe...).

My favorite is the Quaker Instant Oatmeal Maple & Brown Sugar flavor. I eat it plain or with slices of banana, or fresh berries (blue/black, strawberries), or even cantaloupe.

There is another oatmeal "preparation that I like so much especially during the summer season --- the Aveeno Colloidal Oatmeal bath.

I have had no prior history of allergies to medications nor to food. When I would have rashes, usually it would be to an unknown allergen.

Last year, I had my first ever attack of "urticaria," where rashes are welts, wheal, appearing like maps all over. It lasted three days, during which I just took Benadryl and Alavert. On the third day, which was Friday, I decided to see a doctor for a prescription in case I will need a drug that worked better than those I was already taking. He prescribed prednisone, and suggested Aveeno oatmeal bath.

That oatmeal bath was something new to me. I tried it, and as early as the first bath, my rashes resolved gradually over the day, and I woke up the next day without rashes. Whether it was that the attack was really at its conclusion or not, I was not sure whether oatmeal bath really had the desired effect.

This year, my attack was worse and different. It did not occur all day, appearing mostly at night and getting worst in the wee hours of the morning, usually waking me up with intense pruritus (itchiness) and burning sensation, despite having taken both Benadryl and 24-hr Claritin the night before, that I could not help but take another dose of Benadryl then continue my sleep. This pattern continued for more than two weeks, with the worst attack around the 10th day. The offending agent, I was sure, was not due to a food item. But there are foods that are to be avoided in such a condition, including strawberries, tomatoes, shrimps, eggplants, spinach, tuna, etc., as these have histamine-releasing actions (histamine causes the itch).

I was having daily oatmeal baths upon waking up, taking my Benadryl and Claritin at night, sometimes experimenting on skipping them to see what the effect would be. It appeared that no matter what I took or not took, the pattern was the same, only with varying severity, with the most severe attack at the middle of the whole duration, during which (2nd week), I was actually worried that it might turn out to be a chronic case (6 weeks minimum). I am glad that during the past several days, I woke up with less and less of them. Yesterday was the first day I woke up with NONE. Hooray!

Tortang Talong with Pepperoni

I did not use up all the pepperoni for the callos, and I was contemplating on making a home-made pizza, but then I saw the Italian eggplant which I meant to use for kare-kare, so what I did was to cook it a la tortang talong with pepperoni.



Ingredients:



1 Italian aggplant, broiled then peeled

3 eggs, slightly beaten

salt and pepper to taste

few slices of pepperoni (enough to cover the torta)



Instructions:



Heat the skillet on mod-high heat (#7). Using a fork and holding on to the stem, mash gently with a fork to flatten the eggplant. Pour the beaten egg and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Lower the heat to #3 and slide the eggplante-egg onto the skillet. Quickly distribute the pepperoni slices on top, cover and let cook for another5-7 minutes.



Children loved it, and so did I. I served it during lunch with plain rice when hubby was not here. I knew my hubby would not even try because when it comes to vegetables (except potatoes, tomatoes and carrots), he usually prefers them just boiled, or creamed, or as salads served with Wish-Bone Robusto Italian dressing. Nothing else.

Tuyo at Tocino

Hindi ko po kinain nang sabay yan...di bagay no?



Thanks to the internet and the gift of blogging by Blogger, I have found quite a few friends online. Though I have not met them in person yet, they are already treasures. Amongst them are my fellow Pinay foodbloggers. Some are quiet friends (they read/scan my blogs and email me about it). One of them is Joe from NY (not NJ!). Siguro naawa sya kasi malayo ako sa Pinoy/Asian store (gaya ni stel at ni Ting), he sent me some familiar items.



Sinigang mixes, tocino mixes, a bottle of patis (fermented fish sauce), pancit luglug (I have yet to find a recipe for that), tuyo in a jar, and mung beans.



I wasted no time, the night (gabi, ha! hindi umaga) after we went grocery shopping, my sons and I were so eager to eat the tuyo with tomatoes, and munggo guisado was also part of it (I had to remember to take a photo before they were wiped out by us!). Tsalap-tsalap!



Then, the next morning I sliced in half (butterfly style) the pork steak cuts that I bought and marinated them in the tocino mix. I was not sure if hubby would like them (I actually have served it once before and he did, but to make sure it was not just bola, I try serving it again without saying anything, then watching his reaction. He was out splitting wood when I called him to lunch, but he was not quite ready to quit his task, so me and my sons ate our share. When we were piling up the firewood, my husband finally had his lunchbreak, and to my surprise, he did eat what I left for him (tocino and rice). He even asked me if we had it before, because it was really good!



If my fussy husband likes it, so will most Americans. So for get-togethers, tocino will most probably be well-accepted by non-Filipinos.



JOE, SALAMAT!

Champorado

Another Filipino comfort food, champorado is among those which I enjoyed not only during cold days in the Philippines, but also during the warm days as snack.



Would you believe that it was my first time to cook this from scratch? In the PI, there were mixes ready to cook. Now, I am just too glad to have the resources I need on the net, not only from recipes already posted, but also from my fellow food bloggers who have proved to be jewels in the cyberspace.



Ingredients:



1 cup glutinous rice

5 cups water(up to 6, depending on the consistency you prefer)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp vanilla extract

some evaporated milk



Instructions:



Cook rice in a medium saucepan with water on low heat, stirring constantly to avoid scorching. When rice is transparent, add cocoa powder (may add some more depending on how chocolatey you want it to be), sugar and vanilla extract and cook for several minutes more, until rice is soft. Adjust sugar according to taste. Serve in bowls with swirls of evaporated milk on top.



I was excited to let my hubby try it, for he is one chocoholic. I was hoping it would be another Filipino food that he would like, but....I was disappointed with his reaction...



However, I found a kind of rice that is cooked somewhat like fried rice that my hubby likes. Actually, he was the one who pointed it to me when we were grocery shopping. He said I should try it. I did. Everyone, including my boys, liked it. I will post about it some time later...

Misua Soup

Not too long ago, Ting sent me misua, which was very timely, because now it is really getting too cold here. And what better way to enjoy misua than as a soup! One of the comfort foods I used to love when I was a kid. I still love it now, and so do my boys.





Ingredients (good for 2-3 servings):



4 cups chicken broth

a handful of shredded cooked chicken meat

a handful of misua

salt and pepper to taste

shredded veggies (I use the ones for tacos)



Instructions:



Boil the broth and the meat. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper. Add the misua and boil for about 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and serve in bowls topped with shredded veggies.



Simple and satisfying...