A Wee Bit Personal

A bird, six carrots, and a soda bread.

Despite my swollen tonsils, my mother told me to cook dinner. Again. She left me this huge, frozen chicken which stayed cold in the inside for hours. That’s the only thing she left me with. But due to the creativity of the human mind, I opted to go further than that.

I ended up cooking a Carrot Soup, together with a Soda bread which is used for dipping. It seemed to be a very nice menu to me so I started cooking at 4:00 pm. Since it was Monti’s (from Masterchef season 3) recipe, I expected it to be tedious yet worth the time. I did so many things- sautee the onions and bacon, roast the carrots, puree the carrots with the other vegetables, and then strain it until the desired consistency was achieved. It basically took out all of my energy, but once I’ve tasted the soup, it was amazing.

The soup was rich, and was packed with flavor. Now with the soda bread, which was basically a bread that has baking soda instead of yeast as a leavening agent, the soup became phenomenal. Imagine dipping a crunchy, yet chewy bread into a pool of orange lusciousness. Delicious!

Now of course, the Chicken was still the star of the dinner. I used Martha Stewart’s recipe, and I instantly knew it would turn out great. The chicken was super moist, while the skin was perfectly golden and crisp. It is true that seasoning the cavity of the bird seasons the meat better than only seasoning the skin. It was truly a wonderful meal!

There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing your parents feel special when they eat your food. I may find myself extremely exhausted after all these cooking, but it was all worth it.

Kitchen Victory I

Seeing a lovely piece of meat such as Liempo is a beautiful sight for me. So after being told that I was to cook dinner with that meat, I was ecstatic to make a wonderful meal everyone would love. So I instantly typed Pork Belly recipes of Nigella Lawson, for I believe that my favorite cook, Nigella, would always give me a dish that would always make the home run.

But her recipe called for Tahini or a sesame seed paste that did not even exist in our pantry. So I went with Jamie Oliver’s slow roasted pork belly instead.

The recipe took 2 hours to cook, and due to my uneasy father, complaining about his hungry stomach, I panicked and was so stressed throughout the whole cooking time. I was pinned on my chair, looking anxiously at the pork bellies that were still pale in color. So I thought of a way to cook the liempo in such a way that these gloomy colored meats would look appetizing.

I poured our store-bought barbeque sauce all over the meat, cranked up the heat to high, and waited patiently despite my father’s irritating complaints. Good thing I was texting Mike, and this made me calm during those stressful times somehow.

When I was about to fish out the liempo out of the oven, my father asked me if it’s already cooked. Upon hearing that, my nerves started to get the best of me, and I almost broke down. I felt my heart pounding as I was cutting the meat, and fortunately, it was cooked all the way through.

The good news was, my family loved it! That has been the most stressful hour in the kitchen so far. I’d rather bake and cook desserts than roast savory shits.

Pizza Dough Mania.

I forgot to take a picture when it was still whole. It really ran out quickly, so this was the only piece left for me to take a picture of.

Imagine kneading a soft, sticky ball of dough for 15 minutes. My forehead was sweating like crazy and my hands were shaking while waiting for few minutes to pass. The hard work I have put in the dough was tremendous, and apparently, it paid of really well.

The best part of the pizza that I have made was the dough. It was chewy and cracker-like at the same time. The dough may be the last thing you might think of in a pizza, but this recipe was just so good that you will eat every single bit of it. That’s how good it was.

I also made the tomato sauce, which was roasted tomatoes, pureed until smooth. It complemented the delicious dough, together with the savory pepperoni, sharp cheddar cheese, and of course, the cloudy mozzarella cheese.

Three balls of dough were left in our fridge, and I will make a pizza again. Eating a whole pizza alone might be the most comforting thought I ever had. I will definitely try that.

Since I’m dwelling too much in cooking foreign dishes, I have decided to cook Tinola for our lunch. Tinola is basically a hearty chicken dish, and is very simple to make. I used to prefer ketchup as my dipping sauce when I was still young. But as I grew older, I realized its wonderful flavors, that I used fish sauce plus calamansi as my dipping sauce. Delicious!

Homemade Pancake Mix.

Pancakes have been on my favorite foods list for years. I have tried making variations with it- from mixing in soft drinks to the batter, to folding in whipped egg whites in it. Although sometimes I end up serving raw pancakes on the table, my love for making pancakes will never diminish. So due to my adventurous spirit, I tried making my own pancake mix. I used Nigella Lawson’s recipe this time. 

As a matter of fact, I already tried making my own pancake mix. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disaster. The pancakes were chewy, and it tasted like raw flour (eek). So since then, I never attempted to do it again. Well not until I was convinced to try making it again.

The first pancake that I ladled into our pan was really thin and it gave me a hard time flipping it over. It had an irregular shape as I put it onto the plate, making me think that this would not go well. Again. 

But after I ate that first pancake, I realized that I was wrong. The pancake was so soft, fluffy, and was glorious together with the butter and maple syrup. I only used 1/2 cup of the mix, and it yielded 5 pancakes. I did this for testing. 

There’s no harm in trying. We’ll never know what will happen unless we try. So I think, this time, trying once again led to great results. Thank you to Nigella Lawson for that wonderful recipe! I will definitely try making it again for breakfast.