grassfed, organic, free range, cage free, natural, hormone free, no antibiotics, local, locavore, sustainable, HFCS, factory farm, industrial organic, etc.

When I decided to become a conscious eater (unknowingly as I started this blog) the list above is only the tip of the iceberg of terms that I’ve encountered. And this whole time I’ve been thoroughly confused. Documentaries like Food Inc and King Corn and books like The China Study and Omnivore’s Dilemma only makes an essential activity like eating very complicated when you want to do it the “right way”. When the proverbial veil was taken away from my eyes it has become so hard to eat because the non-sustainable, hormone laden, processed food is everywhere. Even buying a pack of nuts has all sorts of preservatives that seem harmless but who knows?

To be a conscious eater you almost need an opt out button. Does that exist? Do I have to start growing my own food? What’s the balance between practicality, environmentally friendly, ad healthy?

Beef tapa is a good old breakfast standby for tapsilog but also perfect drinking food!

tapsilog

Here’s how to make:
1. Mix garlic, sugar and salt in a bowl.
2. Coat the sliced beef and marinate in the fridge for 1 hour.
3. This is when the beef needs to be dried. Traditionally under the sun but as an alternative we can use the oven. Pre-heat oven to 400 F. Put slices of beef on a half sheet and dry for 10-15 minutes.
4. The beef is now ready for frying or store in the fridge/freezer

I’ve been wanting to make a Filipino style burger to make for this summer. So this is my first attempt in getting there. It came out pretty good. I used longanissa, ground beef, achara, and pan de sal for a bun.

Ingredients Makes 1 Burger
100g ground beef
1/2 longanissa link casing taken out
pinch of salt
achara (click here for recipe)
cheddar cheese
pan de sal

1. Mix ground beef and longanissa into a patty.
2. Grill, Broil or Pan cook the patty.
3. Pork needs to cook to 160 degrees F so the beef will be well done at that point. But the fat from the longanissa keeps the burger moist.
4. Add cheese, garnish with achara, and serve on a pan de sal bun.

Did a little grilling for Father’s Day. Made some pork barbecue Filipino style skewered and fast grilled. I’ve posted a bbq before click here for that version.

Have you been doing any grilling this summer?

In this episode, the video is raw and uncut where I cook adobong puti. In some text that I’ve read, soy sauce didn’t really come into play in the Filipino cuisine until the Chinese came so the “original” adobo wouldn’t have had soy sauce. But since that’s so long ago that the “standard” modern adobo is made with soy sauce. We’re taking it way back and making it without soy sauce. So I told my mom that I was making adobong puti. She asked what it is and I told her that it’s adobo without using soy sauce. She goes “Ohh it’s adobo americano” because it’s white. Oh mother.

Ingredients and procedures after the jump

Ingredients
5 chicken thighs (boneless skinless)
6 garlic cloves thinly sliced
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup vinegar (coco or palm) - apple cider if none available but I’m not a fan of apple cider I find it too harsh
black pepper
kosher salt
2 cups water
2 tsp canola oil

1. Mix garlic, bay leaves, vinegar and pepper in a bowl. Add chicken and marinate for at least 1 hour.
2. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the chicken. Discard rendered fat.
3. Add water, marinade and salt to taste. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boil lower the heat to medium and simmer uncovered.
4. Cook for 30-40 minutes until chicken is done.
5. Remove chicken from pot and reduce liquid.
6. Serve over chicken over rice with sauce.

Eat Filipino Food!

1. Soak mushrooms in warm water until it gets soft (about 30 minutes).

2. Pour vegetable stock and the water used to soak the mushrooms in a pot and simmer until needed.

3. Slice mushrooms. Melt a 1 tbsp of butter in a pan and add the mushrooms with the lemon juice. Fry mushrooms until they begin to brown. Add parsley and cook for 30 more seconds then transfer to a side dish.

4. Melt another third of butter with some olive oil in the same pan. Add onion and cook until soft and translucent. Stir in rice and mix well. Add all the mushrooms. Add wine and cook until evaporated.

5. Add one ladleful of hot stock and stir gently until absorbed. Do one ladleful at a time until all stock has been absorbed and the rice is tender. (This is the part that takes a while)

6. Remove risotto pan from heat stir in remaining butter and parmesan. Add salt and pepper to taste. Allow to rest for a couple of minutes before serving.

How do you make your risotto? Was I close to how you make it?

So far has this been a good exercise in self-regulation/self-policing? Yes, I’ve been able to keep myself in line. The more important point is that it has been more than an exercise in self-control though. I’ve really pushed myself and learned new things in this whole process. I made pizza from scratch for the first time and have made it multiple times since then. I made risotto for the first time (post coming soon). Tried different ingredients that I normally wouldn’t buy. It has not only been a process of self control but it has also been a process of knowledge, palette and skills expansion. One of the goals of this blog was for me to learn enough about Filipino food to share it with others. But these last few weeks have opened up a different avenue for me and I think it’ll only help in that pursuit.

Have you had any great food experiences lately? Please share.

I come home and I see T on the couch relaxing and she looks at me and says, ‘I made the dinner that we planned to have tonight. We’re having monk food.’

I was utterly confused at this statement, ‘Huh?!? I thought we were having split peas with spinach?’

‘Yes’, she said. ‘It’s like monk food.’

I was really intrigued went to the kitchen to get a quick taste and it tasted really good. Simply good. Good yet simple. And that’s the only way I can relate this to being “monk food”. It’s simple yet poignant. Zen food. There’s depth in flavor from the lemon that she juiced over it. Vibrant hues of green from the lighter green of the lentils, to the deep green of the spinach and the fresh green of the parsley. These were the kind of nights that I was hoping to have when we set to give up meat for lent. Moments when things just click and everything seems to fall into place. Moments when you ask yourself why didn’t I make/eat/try this sooner? Simple, healthy, yummy. Have you had any zen food moments lately?

Ingredients
1 cup green split peas
2lb baby spinach
1 onion, julienned
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground coriander
a couple of garlic cloves minced
1 1/4 cup of vegetable stock
3 tbsp vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste
lime, for garnish

1. Rinse peas. Place in a bowl cover in cold water and soak for 2 hours. Drain.
2. Wash the spinach. Cook in a pan with just the water that remains in the leaves until wilted. Set aside.
3. Heat the vegetable oil in a pan and saute the onions, garlic and ginger.
4. Add the peas, spinach and stock. Add in the coriander, cumin and chili powder. Cover and simmer until the peas are cooking and the liquid has been absorbed. Season to taste. Squeeze some lime juice when serving.

Yay mongos! T and I rejoice every time we have it. It’s our favorite. I’ve always liked mongos growing up. Unlike my love - hate - love cycle relationship with eggplant, mongos has always stayed true. What is mongos? Well it’s apparently something that originated in India -thanks wikipedia. These are small beans green in color that makes lovely soups! I do associate mongos with lent because it is what we ate when I was growing during the lent season when no meat is allowed on Fridays. It’s perfect over white rice (but what isn’t?). Trust me Filipinos eat everything with white rice. I think the texture really has a lot to do with the character of the dish. True to most Filipino dishes there’s a few variations. I highlighted some common variations.

1 pack of mung beans
onion
garlic
salt & pepper to taste
chicken breast diced or shrimps or pork or fish (practically anything - but I skipped because I wanted vegetarian)

optional items:
coconut milk
spinach (or kalamungay is more traditional)

1. Put the mung beans in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium and simmer until beans are soft.
2. Set the beans in a bowl. In the same pot saute the garlic and onion in oil. If using meat this would be a good time to include chicken and pork
3. Put back the beans when the onions and garlic are fragrant.
4. Add some water to the desired consistency (more soupy the better). If using coconut milk add at this point. Simmer to mix ingredients.
5. Add in the spinach mix in for about a minute then turn off heat.
6. Serve over rice. Enjoy!

Tonight I had an excellent dinner prepared by T. This is the first vegetarian paella I’ve had and it was fantastic! We bought a paella pan the other week and wanted to try it as soon as we could. This isn’t a traditional paella since there’s no meat but this was fantastic. Growing up I remember eating paella only on special occasions and it always had seafood. We’ll have to just to revisit paella in the future and cook the different versions.

This had fantastic flavor and texture. The contrast of the rice and crunchy cashews, the taste of the olives, bell peppers and the spice from the chili powder were great. Here’s how she made it…there’s an overwhelming amount of ingredients but don’t be afraid that’s why it tastes good.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 red onion
2/3 cup risotto rice
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
3 garlic cloves crushed
1 green bell pepper seeded and diced
1 red bell pepper seeded and diced
pitted black olives
1 large tomato seeded and diced
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup unsalted cashew nuts
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 tbsp chopped parsley
pinch of cayenne pepper
salt & pepper to taste

1. Heat the olive oil and melt butter over medium-high heat
2. Add the onion and saute until softened
3. Stir in rice, turmeric, cumin, chili powder, garlic, peppers, black olives, and tomato over medium-high heat
4. Pour in stock, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and let cook for 20 minutes. Don’t forget to stir constantly or the rice will stick
5. Add the cashews and peas and cook until the peas have defrosted and soft but not mush. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, parsley.
6. Transfer to plate, garnish, eat!

The paella had a nice kick in spice with it from the chili powder and paprika. So it was perfectly paired with the cucumber dill salad in sour cream to tame the fire. Very simple to make. Cut up cucumbers into thin slices, chop some dill, and sour cream (or creme fraiche).