Monday, September 8, 2008

Belize foods

I'm so slow when it comes to posting pictures for anything....here's a food tour of my honeymoon in Belize :)


Ceviche


Dragonfruit


Bread fruit


MMM..some sort of awesome blue hawaiian type drink


Stone crab claws with garlic butter...hubby's hand there for size reference

Chicken

I will gladly admit I'm not a huge fan of chicken, but I came up with this recipe that can be done either as a salad with rigatoni or as a pasta meal with some linguini. Either way I use whole wheat pasta which has this wonderful nutty taste. I first pan fry two chicken breasts that have been seasoned with the same seasonings as italian sausage. The chicken is tented to keep warm. All other ingredients are cooked in this same pan. These would include sun dried tomato, artichoke finely minced onion and garlic and all of it simmered in a sauce of white wine and chicken broth. Later it all comes together...spinach, basil, chicken, sauce and all. The picture could have come out better, but there's always next time!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

As of late...

Seems like I've been cooking up a storm. Most of these will have pictures to come.
Kebab Koobideh-Persian ground meatloaves
Shrimp Bruschetta-stuck with the usual bruschetta ingredients(fresh basil, tomato, parmigiano reggiano)
Chicken and Pork Adobo-Yes the tried and true filipino dish
Papaya and Mango salad-My take on the Thai dish Som Tum(or Som Tam)
Banana Chai muffins with Honey Cinnamon buttercream frosting-needed more chai spices, but still super yummy.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

2008 Beginnings

Obviously, the mission for my blog needs to be changed...I've got pics of my awesome labor intensive malaysian beef rendang....granted it looks a bit soupier, the picture was taken before I let it simmer for another hour or so.
But regardless it looks awesome with that lemongrass and cinnamon stick poking out. Yes I know I'm proud...but this is my first homemade curry paste. Next thing was not actually made by me. J made me a carrot cake from scratch for my birthday :)
It was an awesome cake...had chunks of pineapple and walnuts, and the icing was not too sweet like the stuff you buy at the store bakery. Definitely the best carrot cake I've ever had.
Alrighty and lastly comes Valentine's Day. This year we stayed in and made dinner together. Despite me being grumpy it went well overall. I made Duck a la'Orange. First time making duck...I think it came out quite well, skin could have crispier though....needed to leave it under the broiler for a bit longer. Instead of the original recipe, i did make a spice rub to put on the duck...so it wasn't just sauce flavoring it. I think it had great depth of flavor...the sauce was incredible. There was the zest from one orange and the actual julienned skin of another...triple sec....and duck broth. I served it with a daikon carrot salad(which J actually ate despite the pungency). For dessert he made me a creme brulee...this one I can post pictures of, not the most gorgeous but tasted damn good! Lots of vanilla bean in it, was a different recipe than most. Everything was cooked in a double boiler as opposed to the water bath. So, I will end this post with some mouthwatering creme brulee pics.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Ensaymada!!!

Yes you read it right...gotta use that stand mixer some time right? This is my second attempt at this filipino bread snack, the first ones came out more like biscuits than anything. For this batch I tried to follow the recipe found here. It's adapted for a bread machine but I pretty much just followed the muffin method for mixing. After the dough is done rising we got our fillings/toppings ready..ube, macapuno, mozzarella cheese....anyway mine did not come out as pretty as J's, I was impatient. The bread did not turn out as fluffy, eggy and buttery as the commercial version but overall tasted good...even brought some over to my parents and they liked them.


Thai restaurants

So lately we've been trying to move, but of course I want to know that I have some great thai food around...we ended up finding this american/thai nursery in New Braunfels that sells kaffir lime plants as well as lemongrass. The owner gave us this awesome tip on a thai restaurant in Schertz (right outside of San Antonio). Something about the name Thai Spice for restaurants not in Houston....this place is fabulous, we ate there two days in a row. Ordered deep fried red snapper covered in a ginger chili sauce, tod mun pla, tom yum goong, som tum, and beef panang...yum! I have never tried to make my own panang curry paste....but none of the pre-made pastes compare(of course)...and we live in a townhome which leaves us nowhere to deep fry whole fish without smelling it for a week, so the fish dish is a treat for us. This place as well as the restaurant by the same name in Corpus Christi blow the thai joints in Houston out of the water.

For anyone who likes malaysian beef rendang making it from scratch is definitely worth the time. It's very simple to make the paste, I used serrano peppers, onion, ginger, garlic, kaffir lime....then separately I ground some fennel, coriander, nutmeg, and toasted coconut. Do a search for a recipe and you will come up with many good ones, mine is sort of a combination of many. As always....pics to come.

What I bought with Poker winnings...


I think this pictures should speak for itself.

It's been a while...let's go back to Christmas

I mostly have a ton of pictures dating back from Christmas of cooking escapades. The first one shown was actually around Thanksgiving. My whole grain muffins with blueberries or blackberries. Healthy was the word for them, tasty but not in a satisfying sugary way. I used buttermilk, honey and egg whites in these. They did serve as a wonderful accompaniment for that morning cup of coffee.
Next is my awesome dessert for J's family and my family's Christmas....pumpkin cake with an orange glaze. First time around was less pretty, due to lack of nuts and powdered sugar for the glaze. It ended up being clear, but still very good. This picture is actually my second attempt.