Escabeche (Sweet and Sour Fish)

Escabeche is a typical Mediterranean cuisine which refers to both a dish of poached or fried fish, that is marinated in an acidic mixture before serving, and to the marinade itself. The dish is common in Spanish, Salvadoran, Panamanian, Peruvian, Philippine, Puerto Rican, Mexican and Guatemalan cuisine, and popular in Catalonia, Portugal and Provence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escabeche

We usually call this Escabeche than the common name "sweet and sour fish".

Ingredients:

1-2 Big Tilapiya fish (seasoned with salt and pepper, deep fried)

5 pcs. of Scallion or the spring onion

1 small red bell pepper

1 small green bell pepper

1 small can of pineapple crushed

1 small carrots (chopped thinly)

4 cloves of garlic (crushed and chopped)

5 pcs. small red onion (from the scallion)

2 inches ginger (peeled and chopped)

1 pack of tomato sauce

cooking oil

1/2 cup of water

sugar and salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a deep frying pan, heat it with high temperature. Then, add the cooking oil. Add the seasoned tilapiya fish if the cooking oil is already hot. Deep fried both sides. Remove the cooked fish and put it on the plate, Set aside.

2. Remove the excess oil just make sure that the oil left is about 2 Tablespoons. Saute garlic, onion, ginger, bell pepper, pineapple chunks and carrots. Do not burn or overcook.

3. Add the tomato sauce and the scallions. Put the 1/2 cup of water, sugar and salt to taste. Boil for 5 minutes.

4. After the seasoning is cooked, pour the sauce over the deep fried fish and ready to serve.


Eat it with rice.

Korean Food: Gim Bap (Sushi / Rice Roll)

Gimbap is a popular and traditional dish in Korea, it is made from steam white rice (bap in Korea) and various other ingredients, rolled in gim (sheets of dried lever sea weed) and served in bite-size slices.

Gimbap is usually prepare during picnics, camping, outdoor events or as light lunch, served with danmuji (pickled radish) or kimchi (pickled cabbage).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimbap

I have lived in South Korea years ago and still remember how it is done. Probably because I love Korean dish and their language :)

Oooppps! sorry for the blurred images here because I just used my mobile phone and they aren't any good but I enjoyed doing it anyhow :p


Ingredients:

10 sheets of dried laver seaweed or 1 pack (you can find this at the supermarket or grocery or if you can find a Korean supermarket.

medium sized fresh carrots, chopped into long strip

medium sized cucumber, chopped into long strip

2 fresh whole eggs (beaten/scrambled)

a pack of bulkogi sticks (korean beef steak sausage)or crab meat sticks

a pack of yellow pickled radish, chopped (in stick slices)

6-8 cups of white rice

1 1/2 Tablespoon of sesame oil

2 Tablespoons of Sesame Seeds

1 Tablespoon cane or apple vinegar

a dash of salt (if you're ingredients are not too much salty)

1 teaspoon of white sugar

a dash of black pepper powder

2-3 Tablespoon of Cooking oil

Procedure:

1. Cook rice with less water but make sure it is not hard to chew. A soft but firm rice is best. When you're buying rice, you should choose the ones which is newly harvest because it is better when making rice roll as they are a little sticky but not soggy and sloppy.

2. Put the cooked rice in a mixing bowl, seasoned it with white sugar, salt, sesame oil and vinegar while the rice is hot. Mix them well and gently to blend with the seasoning. Do not press or mush the rice. Then, set aside to cool down.

3. In a frying fan, slightly pan fry the carrots until they are slightly soften, seasoned with a pinch of salt, but do not overcook. Also, fry the bulkogi sausage meat sticks into the pan with less oil.

4. Beat the eggs in a bowl, add a dash of ground black pepper and salt. Heat the frying pan, add a little oil and pour the egg in a low heat.

5. Cut the cucumber into long strips and remove the seeds as the seeds portion is watery. but do not peel off the skin.

6. Some other ingredients are already prepared when you buy them at the supermarket. Or for less work, buy yellow pickled radish, crab meat, etc in sticks already.

They will all look like this above image.

We need a sushi roller to make gimbap. This looks like a little bamboo mat and you can buy this in any Korean or Japanese grocery/supermarket.

Rolling Instructions:

1. Using a bamboo sushi roller, lay the dried seaweed shiny side down.

2. Spread about ½ cup of rice onto 2/3 of the seaweed, leaving the top 1/3 bare (if you moisten your fingers or a spoon to pat down the rice, you'll get less of a sticky mess).

3. Lay the first ingredient down around 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the seaweed and the rest of the fillings down on top.

4. Roll from the bottom (as if you're rolling a sleeping bag), pressing down to make the fillings stay in.

5. As you continue to roll, pull the whole thing down towards the end of the bamboo mat.

6. Spread a tiny dab of water along the top seam to hold the roll together.

7. Set aside and continue with other seaweed sheets. Cut each roll into 7-8 pieces

Food Trip of the Day: Ginataang Halo Halo & Turon

Oh! I love these two. They are both Filipino food and I can proudly say that they are really delicious! I couldn't find it here in Thailand. So when I went home last January, I bought these yummy goodies :P

Although, I could make some of these, I wanted to enjoy the eating :D (smiley)

Ginataang Halo-halo (Coconut with variety of ingredients like banana, cassava, sweet potato and sticky rice. Halo halo means mixed up in Filipino and ginataang from the word "gata" means coconut milk.

Turon is one of my many favorite snacks in the Philippines. It is made up of the "lumpiya wrapper", the ones we used to make a spring roll. And instead of meat as filling we put banana and a little of langka fruit to make it more delicious and has good smell. It is deep fried and added with brown sugar to make it sweeter.

Chocolate Molding and Choco Mallows

Chocolate Molding is as easy as one, two, three! Just follow the steps below, and you will be able to have a yummy goody chocolate for the family or if you plan to put up a small business.

I bought my ingredients and utensils from Chocolate Lover Store please check the link so you will be able to know on how to get there: http://elektra-journey2haven.blogspot.com/2011/02/chocolate-lover.html

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo of Chocolate Bar (Premium)
1 small cup of Rice Crisp (crushed)
6-10 pcs. of Marshmallows


Materials:

Chocolate molders (shaped of shells or chocolate kisses)
a Teaspoon
Fridge
Knife
Chopping board
Ribbons and Plastic for packaging
Deep pan
Casserole


Procedure:

1. Chopped the 1/2 kilo chocolate bar on a chopping board, make sure they are cut a little so that it is easy to melt.

2. Put a water in a casserole, it should be half filled and let it boil in a high temperature for 10 minutes or so.

3. Then, put the deep pan on top of the casserole. Let the water below boil for 5-10 minutes and as soon as the chocolate melts on the deep pan. The chocolate pieces will melt due to steam process.

4. Mix and when the chocolate melts already, add the rice crisp and mix it well

The rice crisp must turn brown like this.


5. Remove the deep pan on top of the casserole and turn off the fire. Get the molders and put in the chocolate with rice crisp, make sure that the shape of the molders has filled in well carefully. Use a teaspoon.

6. Roll over the marshmallows on the chocolate crisp, do it quickly as the chocolate is still soft. Carefully, arrange them on a plate and keep a distance to prevent them sticking together when they are hard.

7. Then, keep them in the fridge for 8-10 minutes. I sometimes put them in the freezer so it will be easier to become solid.

It is up to you how to package them depending on how much are you going to sell them. In my case, I put 10-12 pieces of tiny chocolates in a plastic and seal it with beautiful ribbons. I sell them about 15.00 each small bag. Or if you wanna make it more cheap. Get a plastic jar and put them there, sell them at 1.50-2.00 pesos each. The chocomallows cost about 2.50-3.00 pesos each. So it is up to you!


Reminders:

1. When you remove the chocolate and mallows in the fridge or freezer, make sure they are hard enough, you can tell by the color of it. Of course, if it looks wet or glossy it means it is still not hard.

2. DO NOT PUT THE CHOCOLATE BAR IN FRIDGE after you bought them from the store because it will not melt easier or not at all when you steam them. Unless, you just want to eat them as it is.

3. Rice crisp is delicious and serve as extenders which means it can help on having many output. I use it to produce more income.

Tikoy or Chinese New Year's Cake (Nian_gao)

Tikoy is a food prepared from glutinous rice and consumed in Chinese cuisine. It is available in Asian supermarkets and from health food stores. While it can be eaten all year round, traditionally it is most popular during Chinese New Year. It is considered good luck to eat nian gao during this time, because "nian gao" is a homonym for "higher year." The Chinese word 粘 (nián), meaning "sticky", is identical in sound to 年, meaning "year", and the word 糕 (gāo), meaning "cake" is identical in sound to 高, meaning "high". As such, eating nian gao has the symbolism of raising oneself higher in each coming year (年年高升 niánnián gāoshēng).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nian_gao

Some people might be thinking on how to eat it. Should it be cooked or just eat the way it is? Are you wondering how to cook "tikoy"? Here's how!

Ingredients:

Part 1

2 white Eggs (scrambled)
Tikoy (chopped into thin bite size)
Cooking oil

Part 2
Tikoy (chopped into thin bite size)
1/2 cup of All Purpose Flour
Cooking Oil

Procedure:

There are two ways on how to cook tikoy: the one with egg or the other one with flour. If you want a little tasty but oily one try the Part 1 ingredients. But, if you want them crunchy and not oily... try the Part 2.

Part 1: Tikoy with scrambled eggs

*In a bowl, beat two eggs.

*Cut the whole tikoy in half. We just need the half of it unless you want more for parties. The half size of a regular tikoy is good for 3-4 persons already. It is a little heavy snack or breakfast.

Tikoy should be cut into small bite size and then put them in the scrambled egg and combine.

*Turn on the stove and fry the tikoy coated with egg in a medium heat using a deep fry pan. Others cook it like a omelet. But, that will be messy. We usually cook it separately. It is tikoy coated with egg and not tikoy omellete.

You will notice that tikoy with eggs absorbs more oil quickly. Try to experiment and compare these two procedures and you will know why.

*When the tikoy is already soft and the egg coating is turned into light brown, it is already cooked, remove from the heat.

*Get a plate and drain the excess oil using the kitchen tissue. CHOW TIME!


Part 2: Tikoy with All Purpose Flour

* It is just the same, the only thing is we used the all purpose flour to coat the tikoy small bite size and not the scrambled eggs.

* Roll over the tikoy slices on the all purpose flour in a plate, make sure it is coated with flour both sides.

* In a deep pan, medium heat, put the slices of tikoy coated with flour and turn them both sides until it is brown but do not burn.

* If it's brown, it is ready to eat! but let it cool down so your tongue won't burn (lmao)

I prefer to cook the part two than the part 1, though. So here below how it looks like :D

Food Trip For The Day: Tikoy & Lumpiyang Shanghai

Our neighbor gave us a little snacks for this afternoon. For those who aren't aware, Filipinos eat about three times a day (with rice) and two to three times a day snacks and we are talking about heavy snacks here (laughs). We usually eat breakfast at 6 or 7 am but at 10 am, we have a morning snack and after lunch at 12 noon we have an afternoon snack at 3 or 4pm. Finally, after dinner at 7 or 8pm, we also have a midnight snack just before we go to bed!

But because of severe poverty, not many Filipinos could be able to eat atleast three times a day. That's the ugly truth about that. And for those Filipinos who are figure conscious, they eat three to five times a day, but they only eat light meals.

It was strange though because I've been dealing people from other parts of the world and some of them eat like twice or once a day! I don't know how they could bear NOT TO EAT like people who does three times a day. Anyway, people aren't the same anywhere.

The featured snacks today are tikoy or the Chinese New Year's cake and lumpiyang shanghai or the spring rolls. They are both Chinese-Filipino dish.

Yum, yum, yum! :P

Food Trip: Sukishi, The Japanese Sushi Buffet Restaurant in Bangkok

This is one of my favorite restaurants here in Bangkok. Sukishi and Shabushi is owned by Oishi, a Japanese Restaurant. They are famous for sushi, sukiyaki or the shabu-shabu.

Shabu-shabu is a Japanese variant of hotpot, related to sukiyaki in style, in that both use thinly sliced meat and vegetables and are usually served with dipping sauces, but it is considered to be more savory and less sweet than sukiyaki. It is considered a winter dish but is eaten year-round.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu-shabu

The Kitchen where they prepare delicious food

The food/ingredients for shabu-shabu move around the customers' seats where they could reach them quickly or more accessibly.

This is my sushi plate with different variations, I got this from the sushi bar.

The sushi plate, shabu-shabu and the sauces. I just love Japanese food really.

Oh wait! I forgot.. This is also one of my favorite side dish. Kimchi or the pckled cabbage. I love both Japanese and Korean dishes.

Sushi and Sukiyaki Buffet, for only 288 baht each person (drinks and desserts included). Take note: They will give you an hour to eat so make sure you consume your favorite food. No left over and no sharing, for they will charge you.

Enjoy pigging out!!! :D