Eat Matters

Summer Coolers: Remembering Summer's Past

                   

    There is only one thing  that can really beat the heat. A bottle of ( okay. make that bottles of) Stella Artois while munching on a bowl of olives in the shade while reading a good book. In  summer's past it was San Mig in an amber bottle crusted with ice. But San Miguel the" for export version" doesn't taste as good as the one Nick Joaquin drinks when he was still breathing  prose. Who can forget  the National Artist for Lit's "May Day Eve" and its heated, throbbing erotic undercurrents of agonized passion. It is Maynila repressed in nocturnal craving with the viel of religion covering the the brown loins.

It is summer, indeed. A time for remembering

Spicy Carne Frita Wrap

                   

         This was breakfast this morning... or the other half of it.

         It's  leftover Carne Frita chopped and spread on top a grilled tortilla with a layer of omelet, garlic chili paste, chopped green onions and lots of grated oldcheddar. Then it's rolled. And it rocks.

Lasang Pinoy 11: Sunny Summer Breakfast

I missed LP Pinoy 10 due to a busy schedule. Before I miss the next one, I'd better post one now while there is time(I Love weekends!). I imposed on myself a "NO BLOGGING ON WEEKDAYS"(if i can help it) rule lest I get defocused while working toward my current goal.

A couple of days back. we had roasted pork loin for dinner. Because there were exactly three of us to feast on the big chunk of loin, there was a good amount of leftover fit for another meal. Not wanting to eat the same prep the next time, I decided to make the cooked loin into a hash.

Last night, I sliced the meat into about 1.5 inch squares, seasoned them with salt, some all- spice and sauteed them with onions, garlic, bay leaf and chopped celery. I added the leftover jus,enough corn broth just enough to cover the pork chunks and let the meat slowly simmer unitl the chunks flaked when poked with a fork. I added some freshly grated yellow sweet corn kernels into the pot sometime in the cooking process. Balsamic vinegar was added to create another layer of flavor.

Instead of using regular regular white vinegar(so the egg whites will coagulate) in "boiling" water to poach the eggs, I used about a teaspoon of Raspberry vinegar. This coated the egg with a mild sweet raspberry flavor on the eggs. I think, a nice way to temper the strong white vinegar flavor.

I plated the hash over rice, with the poached egg on top and garnished it with chopped green onions.

This can be a substitute for the usual canned carne norte mornings.

Baked Hawaii

A multi-awarded chef from Saskatoon traveled to Hawaii and loved the place. When he returned home, he created a dessert reminding him of that sunnny, surf- laden tropical isle. Baked Hawaii he called it. His creation was an off-shoot of an intriguing dessert served on the island. He liked it so much but was not able to get recipe.He created his own back home. He is so kind to share it to moi.

When entertaining and you want to depart from the usual Cheesecake dessert,Baked Hawaii can earn you raves from your guests. More, if they realize that one component is ice cream baked in an oven. What? Baked Ice cream?Yup.

Baked Hawaii is a big scoop of ice cream(cocconut is best)nestled on a molded pineapple upside down cake( any recipe of the cake will do) and kept frozen in the fridge until the ice cream hardens. When ready to be served, take the ice cream out of the freezer and drizzle the set -up with liquer of either Grand Marnier or Kahlua.Let it sit to soak up the liquer while you quickly make a merengue. When the merengue reaches its desired stage, wrap it on the ice cream/ cake by either using a rubber spatula or an icing bag. When done, shove the ice cream into a 250 degree oven until a brown caramelized color appears on the merenge. Take out of the heat put on a platter garnish with sliced pineapples. If you want to go all the way, prepare some liquer, brown sugar reduction and "paint" it on the serving platter before serving.

Eat until you can hear the sound of ukeleles.

A Mexican Breakfast Kuno

                   

T'is one of those days when I'm tired of feasting on the usual Filipino breakfast fare of chorizo fried eggs and garlic rice.

Today, I woke up wanting to eat something off  beat. So like a scavenger looking for useful bits and pieces in a dump(my fridge), I was able salvage enough ingredients to come up with my version of a Mexicano breakfast. There were some left over tortilla shells, half a can of refried beans, some  tomato salsa I made a few days ago, and a small bunch of cilantro leaves that are about to wilt.

What  I did for my breakfast creation was to layer the tortillas with a healthy dab of refried beans, the salsa, showered it with  thinly sliced white onions and dotted the developing landscape with sliced Vienna sausages. Not satisfied with my layers, I added  a topping of scrambled eggs still moist from the pan, garnished it with finely  chopped cilantro and covered  it with shredded Monterrey Jack cheese. I  then baked them in a 375 degree oven until the tortillas became crisp.

Know what? The tortilla pizza  drizzled with a dash of Tabasco  was perfect with a big  hot mug of  dark roasted coffee. Nice way to start a Saturday morning. Ooh la la.