BrainiaxMD's Creamy Potato Soup

With time probably running out on my cooking days, I decided to take another risk and try my luck in making cream soup from scratch. :D It was a lot of hard work, and I was nervous that it wouldn't turn out well. Good thing it did though, and now I can proudly add another recipe to my repertoire. :P I used:

4 potatoes, finely chopped

2 whole onions, finely chopped

1 tsp cooking oil 

approx 1 liter of water

1 tbsp rock salt

1/2 tbsp ground black pepper

1 pc Knorr Beef cube (for the beef stock)

1 medium can Alaska Evaporated Milk

1 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 pack of bacon bits

After sautéing the onions until they turned transparent (or translucent at the very least :P), I placed these along with the potatoes in the water at low-medium heat. 30 minutes later, I put in the salt, pepper, and the beef cube. The whole thing was left to boil at low heat for about 2 hours to soften the potatoes. I know this may seem a little unconventional, but I was forced to mash the potatoes manually using a wooded spoon while in the pot since I didn't have a blender handy. I then put in the milk and flour during the last 30 minutes of cooking prior to dinner. The bacon bits were fried and were placed into the soup upon serving. Sarap! :D

BrainiaxMD's Fried Fish

You can't get any more generic than the title. :P

Fried Fish!

I'm forced to admit that this was the first time ever that I've tried doing fish for dinner. That being said, I wasn't really confident in handling the fish, although it pretty much came from the freezer. Up to now, I'm still unsure what type of fish it was (and mom isn't really sure either :P).

To get rid of the "fishy taste" (or lansa in tagalog), I put 4 slices of ginger into the fish. One each underneath the gill covers found on either side of the head. For the other two slices, I had to make incisions at about the midway point of the fish. This proved trickier than I thought, because even though the scales have already been removed, the skin was still tough and unyielding and thus exposed my inexperience. After some effort, I was finally able to put the slices in. Afterwards, I rubbed salt and pepper onto the fish and put it away for the meanwhile whilst I cooked another dish (Bicol express, if you must know :P).

Even though it was my first time dealing with fish, it wasn't my first time frying. I unceremoniously dumped the fish in the hot oil and let it fry, flipping it over after around 5-8 minutes. It was during this time that the folks came home and mom decided to make a sauce to accompany the fish, consisting of soy sauce, flour, rice wine, ground black pepper, garlic powder, and a bit of sugar.She heated this in a saucepan til boiling then put it on the fish. She also added a bit of Taiwan Pechay for garnishing, with the end result seen above. :D

Not too shabby, I have to say, but still not my favorite type of ingredient to work with.

Blurbs (dahil wala akong maisip na mahabang maisusulat)

- It's UAAP Thursday today! Games later: 2pm DLSU vs FEU, 4pm UST vs NU

- Hmm.. it'd be interesting to see how La Salle fares today against FEU, the latter of which I consider the team to beat this season.

- I don't expect the UST game to be a slouch either, as the recently rejuvenated NU recruitment program is beggining to bear fruit.

- Boiling potatoes along with the meat for extended periods not only makes the meat tender, but makes the soup base deliciously thick as well. :D

- Normally I'm not the type that, as they say in the vernacular

, "magbubuhat ng sariling bangko", but here goes.. The Menudo I had for lunch (which I personally cooked) was EXCELLENT!! Urp! :D

- Kaya siguro ako tumataba these past few months.. although I guess I'm also doing this in part to regain all the weight I had lost during my stint as an MROD..

- Stumbled upon an interesting locallly-made Pinoy comic during one of my forays online. Will post an independent entry for it later on.

- Starcraft 2 came out already.. not that I'll be able to afford and play it anyways. :P

- .. it looks pretty cool though, but I don't need yet another computer game to occupy my time that's slowly running out.

- I'll be going back tomorrow to CSMC to pick up my recommendation letters. Thank you to my consultants who have graciously agreed to give me favorable reviews. I promise to do my best to make you proud. :D

- Yun na lang muna. ;)

Curry, anyone?

Tried my hand at Chicken Curry this time, and it was EXCELLENT! :D (Sorry ha, mababa standards ko eh. :P)

Now that I've gotten my cooking groove back, what's next on the menu? Hmm... :P

BrainiaxMD's Onion Soup

Tried something classier this time around. :P No picture though, 'coz I forgot to buy batteries for the camera.

Ever since I tasted French Onion Soup at some Italian (huh?) resto in Rob Galleria, it got me thinking that, "hey, I could do that!". I forgot this impulse after a while, but it came back to me recently and I looked up recipes online for my little experiement.

It tasted great, but lacked the mozerrella cheese and the croutons since I was on a budget and we didn't have the luxury of an oven. Still, I guess it was ok. Not bad for an amateur chef wannabe.  :P Here is the humble recipe which I have devised after drawing from the different ideas available on the web:

4 medium-sized onions, sliced thinly
approx 2 tbsp butter
4 cups water
2 pcs Knorr beef cubes (wala akong mahanap na beef stock eh :P)
1/2 cup white wine
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Let onions fry in butter for around 5 minutes until they become soft and translucent. In a separate pot, dissolve the broth cubes in water and put in the flour while the water is not yet hot so that the flour dissolves evenly. When the onions are done, transfer them to the pot and place all the other ingredients as well. Let boil for around 15 mins under low to medium heat and voila! Fancy-ass resto-quality soup! :D

BrainiaxMD's Bicol Express!

Tried working with gata (coconut milk) this time around, and I'd have to say that the experiment was a success!!... although I think I put too much pepper... :P

It all started when I tasted this really excellent kalabasa't sitaw sa gata (Pumpkin and String beans in coconut milk stew) prepared by a cousin's cook. I asked mom if we could get hold of some coconut milk for use at home. At the supermarket, I learned that it comes in powdered form in sachets, kinda like the kaldereta and menudo mixes we regularly use (mom dosen't really have that much time to cook lately, so instant mixes are a great lifesaver). I bought mu ingredients and today I prepared the ever popular Bicol Express.

What I used:

1 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 kg pork (menudo cut)
1 whole onion, diced
1 whole garlic, diced
6 pcs hot green peppers, chopped
1 40g sachet Del Monte Quick-and-Easy Gata Mix (naks!)
1 cup water
salt to taste

Basically, I sauteed  the onions and garlic together, followed by the pork. I left it for around 5 minutes while I dissolved the gata mix into the water, which I then poured on to the pork, along with the pepper. A dash of salt was added for more flavor, and I let the whole thing simmer for around 10-12 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken. Feeds a hungry family of 4. Voila! :D

El Matadero

I have a newfound respect for butchers and people in the slaughterhouse business. Let me explain..

Mom instructed me to prepare dinner tonight, which I immediately agreed to, since I could officially cook to save my life. :P However, an unforeseen circumstance made me regret my decision.. I was told to prepare 2 dishes using the meat she had removed from the freezer in the morning before she left for work.. When I looked it over, it was this big slab of pork, kinda like what we use to make crispy pata, but without the bone (anlabo no? :P). Anyway, I thought little of it, since I had experience cutting up meat before. Little did I know that cutting through pork SKIN was an entirely different deal..Man, that epithelium is TOUGH!! It also didn't help that the knife I was using was apparently not as sharp as I needed it to be. So there I was, sweating buckets while wrestling with an unyielding slab of meat which stubbornly resists my futile attempts at severing the skin. This went on for about an hour.. a full HOUR for just a 1/2 kilo slab of meat!!

Eventually, I was able to cut through, using whatever means necessary, and wound up preparing the 2 dishes I had initially planned. Good thing my bro came home a little later, so we had time to finish up before everyone sat down for dinner.

Sorry I don't have any food pics today, as I was totally drained when mom got home and took over the last part of the 2nd dish. I made 1) Calderetang Baboy, and 2) Minced pork with Kalabasa't Sitaw. Ang Sarap!! :D

It was a grueling job, but at least it was worth it in the end. :D

BrainiaxMD's Brain Spaghetti

In my neverending pursuit of improvement of my culinary skills, I decided to tackle one of the more demanding disciplines of the game.. How to make Pasta!

Featured here is my third attempt at cooking spaghetti. It was really challenging the first time around, with mom helping me with most of it. From then on, it was all me! I kinda screwed up the second one, but I'm pleased to say that third time's the charm..


This is what the noodles looked like after i had chucked it out of the strainer, hence, Brain Spaghetti.. haha... =P


And here is the final product after admixing the sauce. (yes, admixing is a real word. Look it up at Dictionary.com :D) Mmmmm, tasty..

It was all pretty simple and straightforward. No fancy-ass pasta chef trickery here. Boiled a pack of Del Monte spaghetti is water with about a tablespoonful of salt thrown in. When noodles are of the right consistency, remove from the water and strain. While being strained, pour cold water over the noodles to quickly cool them (I forgot the culinary term for this technique). As for the sauce, saute 1 whole diced onion til it starts to brown. (I would have added garlic as well, but there wasn't any at the time. Dang!).
I then added around 5 chopped hotdogs and about 1/4kg pork giniling. After around 10 minutes, I added a pack of spaghetti sauce, and admixed slices of quickmelt cheese and ground black pepper. Let simmer for around 10-15 minutes and add to the noodles. Feeds a ravenously hungry family of 4. =D

BrainiaxMD's Fried Shrimp Dumpling (?), and other gustatory delights

Tried my hand at frying again the other day, and the results were less than satisfactory...

Fried Shrimp Dumpling/Kikiam (?) a.k.a. Diok-Pit-He

Ok, so maybe it's not an exact translation. I don't really know what it's called in English. Anyway, frying these things were a little tricky, as they had the bad tendency of falling apart when you least expected it. I wound up with half of them looking like hash because the wrapper holding them together disintegrated while frying. my mom says the oil must be really hot before I put them in, so I guess I need to wait a bit longer the next time..


We also decided to try out something different from the supermarket. Me and my bro are big cookie fans, so I decided it was time we upped the ante and tried something a bit "classier"...

Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Mmmm... COOKIE... =)

Since this is a foodie post, I might as well mention that I'm raving over the pandesal they have there at PAN DE AMERICANO!!! Sarap!!! A bit pricey at P5.50 apiece, but really well worth it... :D

BrainiaxMD's Butter-Fried Tanigue

Since I'm at home most of the time, I decided to make lunch for myself today. I wouldn't say that I'm great at it, but at least I can safely say that I can cook without burning the kitchen down.

BUTTER-FRIED TANIGUE

Isn't it a beauty? I admit that the presentation could have been a little bit better, but the darn fish fell apart on me as I was lifting it out of the frying pan. As for taste, I guess it was pretty good. Nothing spectacular, but it would probably be up to my mom's standards.

The recipe's pretty simple. Take 1 piece of Tanigue (I'm not too sure about the weight. We bought this baby from Cold Storage), 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of black pepper, and about 1/6 of a stick of butter. Rub the salt and pepper into the fish, after which you apply the butter. Let it sit for about an hour to soak up the flavor, then fry in a pan. Toast one side till golden brown (around 5-6 minutes) then flip it over. Allow ample frying time for this side as well, then you're done! Its that simple! Makes around 3-4 servings. :)

I'll be sure to post about any other forays of the gastronomical kind. Heck, I might even start my own cookbook: "The Culinary Adventures of a Vacationing Physician"