I made this easy Shrimp Gambas to go with my shrimp-less paella from yesterday.

For starters, I took some 200 grams of peeled shrimp and just heated some olive oil in a pan and stir-fried them with some crushed garlic, salt and white pepper.  Soon as I spied some browning in the shrimps, I turned the heat off.

Simple really…hope it was good….but I will never know!

Tapas, the Little Dishes of Spain

Adobo is the acknowledged Philippine national dish.

When Eldest Sister went on a diet years ago, you could ask her kids what her favorite dish was and they’d all say, “Adobo Kangkong.” Yup, you can cook vegetables, meats, seafood (mussels adobo is fantastic) and fish using this method.  You’ll probably find this dish anywhere you might  land on any of the 7,100 islands of the Philippines.

Chicken and Pork Adobo is the most common and favored.  I came up with my own version a couple of years back.  It’s nothing complicated, just a last minute splash of balsamic vinegar before turning off the heat.  Then a sprinkling of extra virgin olive oil before serving.  But my goodness…it does make a difference. The Ilocanos in northern Philippines must be familiar with the taste.  Balsamic vinegar tastes very similar to basi vinegar of the region.  This recipe is the regular adobo.

Start by marinating a pound and a half pork ribs cut in bite-size pieces, 3 skinless chicken thighs in 1/4 c. soy sauce, 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 6 crushed, big cloves of garlic , a bay leaf, a pinch oregano, salt and a few black peppercorns.  Cover and marinate in the refrigerator at least 4 hours.

Transfer to a heavy pan or kawali (Philippine-made wok) with half a cup of water and bring to a boil.  Cover and let simmer for an hour and a half or until pork is tender.  Stir occasionally and make sure you don’t run out of broth.  When the pork is tender, adjust flavors.  Some people like their adobo sour, some like it darker, as I do.  Some people even prefer their adobo without the soy sauce, and use fish sauce instead.  I’ve tried that and like it too.

Bring up the heat to medium to allow for reduction of the sauce.  The fats will be rendered at this point and you can stir-fry your meats in its own fats until it’s a color and consistency you prefer.  The kitchen will smell very garlicky by then.

My father would add more crushed garlic to brown with the meats at about this time.  Thats’ also very flavorful.  Some people will set aside some of the sauce to put on top of their rice.  You can also fry some cold rice in the same pan you cooked your adobo…this is what we call Adobo Rice and it’s a great way to pick up all the luscious bits left in your pan.

At my parent’s home, we always had adobo with the Ilocano staple, “dinengdeng” with fresh bamboo shoots and saluyot (Egyptian spinach) leaves.  This time, I’m serving my adobo with steamed jasmine rice and tomato slices.

Pacific Crossings: A Philippine Cookbook

When I needed hard-boiled eggs, I took my chances and guessed how long it needed boiling.  Always.  For years, this is what I did.

What a big surprise it was to find out your eggs don’t need to boil for 7, 10 or 11 minutes as I’ve read in magazines, cookbooks and who-knows-where-else I got my “boiling an egg” information.

Before I let you in on my secret, here are a few things a hard-boiled egg should NOT have/be:

1.  Have that green ring around the yolk.  This shows up and you know you’ve overboiled your egg. That’s an iron and sulfur compound that forms when you overboil an egg.

2. Have that unpleasant smell.  Yup, you overboiled it and yup, it’s the iron and the sulfur compound.

3. Hard to peel.

4. Crack during cooking.

And now….*drum roll*……here’s  The Unofficial Cook’s instructions on how to cook THE PERFECT BOILED EGG……*fading drum roll*…….

Place your eggs in a pot of salted, cold water with enough water to cover the eggs an inch.  

Eggshells are thin.  Like glass, they will crack with sudden temperature changes. Unless you started out with already cracked eggs, (or handled them like golf balls and cracked them yourself) a sudden rise in temperature will crack your eggshells during cooking.  For the same reason, do not drop an egg into a boiling pot of water.

Bring your water to a rolling boil and immediately turn off heat.  Keep it covered.  For hard-boiled eggs, you’ll need to leave the eggs in the water for 10 minutes (a couple minutes more at high altitude) and 5 minutes for soft-boiled eggs.  Take out of the pot and into some cold water to bring the temperature down.

Now because you added salt to the water, this will somehow help the eggs peel better.  As always, peel your eggs with a bowl of water, or under a running faucet and make sure you crack the shell all over before peeling to make it easier.

If you don’t get perfectly boiled eggs using these tips, there’s no such thing as a perfect boiled egg!

How To Break An Egg: 1,453 Kitchen Tips, Food Fixes, Emergency Substitutions and Handy Techniques

Can you tell the weather is getting better here?  It shows in my cooking and in this blog….finally moving away from the heavy stews and soups.

This is another recipe from The Sopranos Family Cookbook.  It was simple and easy to make. I love that it’s also light and healthy.  Served with a crusty roll, or a French baguette and you’ve got a complete meal.

You might also want to try the tuna mix as a topping for bruschetta in case you have leftovers.  It’s good, believe me.  I didn’t have enough leftovers but I’m sure the tuna will also make a great Grilled Tuna and Cheese Sandwich.

Ingredients:

1 can Tuna chunks in oil, undrained

2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced

4 red onion slices, quartered

2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

2 tbsps. lemon juice

pinch of oregano

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz. boiled green beans, cut in bite-size pieces

twist of lemon

Procedure:

Break down the tuna in a salad bowl.  Mix with the next six ingredients.  (I actually set aside the eggs for dressing up the dish.)  Arrange beans on a plate and top with the tuna/tomato mix.  Decorate with a twist of lemon. Serve warm.

Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking

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I made this last Sunday for breakfast.  The recipe started out as plain old banana bread from my old stand-by Betty Crocker Cookbook.  I did go a little over the top when I found some dried cranberries from Christmas in my pantry.  Then I decided to add a handful more walnuts and an extra egg just to make the bread cakey-er.

I’m still having problems baking in high altitude…no matter what I do (lessen the leavening, sugar or oil; increase oven temp; or, add water and flour to the batter) I’m always stuck with dry cakes and breads…unless I use prepackaged mixes of course, which I don’t like doing at all.  I did most of  the adjustments this time, plus I added the extra egg and the bread came out perfectly moist.

Start by putting about half a teaspoon vinegar in half a cup of milk to make buttermilk. Preheat your oven to 350F (375F at high altitude for the first 30 minutes).  

Rough chop 1.25 c. walnuts and mash about 1.5 c. bananas, 3-4 depending on their size.  Microwave a cup of butter on medium for 30 minutes to allow it to soften.  Mix in 1.25 c. granulated sugar using a wooden spoon.

Then add in 3 room-temperature eggs, one at a time, until well-blended. Throw in the buttermilk, bananas and a teaspoon of vanilla.  Mix until smooth. Then add 2.5 c. all purpose flour, a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon (half at high altitude) of baking soda.  Mix only until the dry ingredients barely get wet.  DO NOT overmix.  Throw in the walnuts and mix in with the batter.

Transfer to a big loaf pan with a greased bottom.  Don’t grease the sides to allow the batter to stick to the sides in the baking process and this will make your top nicely rounded.  Bake for an hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool 5-10 minutes before removing from the pan. Now be patient and cool the loaf completely before slicing, otherwise, your slices will crumble like this:

Scones, Muffins, and Tea Cakes: Breakfast Breads and Teatime Spreads, Vol. 1

My mother was a natural cook as her elder sister told me after she passed away. You can’t fake having a knack for cooking my tita said. You can learn and study for years and be good but not a natural. Mama was certainly a natural, at more than just cooking. She was a miracle worker even. She fed and raised seven healthy individuals on a very limited budget. All seven of us grew up loving our food and all learned to love to cook. It’s one thing to be able to cook and another to LOVE to cook.

I’ll always see her lovely hands cutting butter into flour for her pie crusts as I make my own pies. I’ll always make my pastel de pollo her way, with tomato sauce and not the more popular cream sauce. And I’ll forever remember her look of surprise and recognition as she tasted this same dish, my first attempt at making it for Christmas two years ago. I made an extra effort to make it exactly as she told me it was done. She gave me all her little tricks and secrets and I was not disappointed.

No matter that she was stingy in her praise, as her mother was before with her. I was toughened enough in a house full of critical siblings, to keep persisting. Ask them and I’m sure they’ll tell you I had more than my share of failures. Unlike my mother, I am not a natural cook.

I told myself I was beautiful because no one else told me I was. Then I found and married a man who tells me everyday I am….so I took the same approach with my cooking as I did with my looks and crossed my fingers!

It was an invaluable gift my aunt unknowingly gave me during that phone conversation in March. She told me of a time she and my mom were on one of their hour-long cross-continent phone conversations. Their topic turned to the inevitable, food. Paella came up and my mother told her sister, “Do you know who makes a good paella? Mita does.” That was enough to make me cry all over again.

I will treasure those words my mother told her sister and not me. She always said, even a dog needs a pat on the head every now and then. That was my pat on the head…not that I need one…I just want one.

I hope my mother knew how much we all loved her and looked up to her as our hero and role model. No matter how much of a conscious effort you take to make someone know you love them, after they are gone, it all seems so inadequate.

Perhaps I named this blog Unofficial Cook because no matter how many cooks there were around to spoil the brew, we only had one Official Cook in our kitchen – My Mama…and this blog is dedicated to her.

Here’s a healthy alternative for dessert: Vanilla Yoghurt with Strawberries and Blueberries.

Take fresh or frozen blueberries and strawberries and preparely them separately into a compote. This doesn’t need cooking. Just soak your fruits in some good white wine or cheap champagne, a little sugar (or Splenda), lemon juice and leave it in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours.

Alternately put in vanilla yoghurt, strawberry compote, yoghurt and the blueberry compote for an easy and visually appealing dessert.

American Heart Association Low-Fat and Luscious Desserts: Cakes, Cookies, Pies and Other Temptations

I’ve been cooking a lot of heavy dishes the past few days.  ‘Tis the season for all those rich recipes to come out and Osso Buco served over plain-boiled polenta sounds perfect for another cold, snowy day in Colorado….

Yesterday morning, Spouse and I went up to Denver and drove through the beautiful and cold fog in Monument and Larkspur.  I can say “beautiful” cause I wasn’t doing the driving.  It was another story when we got to the city.  Driving in this weather means freezing slush and mud on the road that all stick to the whole car, including your windshield…ugh!

We were supposed to stop for lunch at our favorite Italian restaurant in Denver, Cucina Colore but changed our mind at the last minute.  I still had Italian on my mind today and dug into my freezer…guess what I found…beef shanks!

Well, okay, it’s not veal shanks like what all Osso Buco recipes call for….but I like beef shanks better than veal shanks anyway.  It’s more robust in flavor and robust is perfect for the season.

Osso Buco

1.5 lbs. beef/veal shanks

1/4 c. flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp.  ground black pepper

olive oil/Olivio margarine

1 small carrot, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 bay leaf

1-14 oz. can diced tomatoes

1/2 c. water

1/4 to 1/2 c. white wine

2 garlic cloves, small bunch parsley, zest of 1 lemon – chopped together

Procedure:

Season the shanks with salt and pepper.  Heat oil and margarine in heavy skillet over medium-high heat.  Dredege shanks with flour and brown in the oil.  Add celery, onion, carrots, white wine and allow to boil for a couple of minutes.  Then throw in the tomatoes, bay leaf and water and simmer for an hour and a half over low heat.

Transfer shanks to a separate bowl.  This is the time to adjust seasonings and the thickness of the sauce (boil longer without the lid). Put in the chopped garlic, parsley and lemon zest and boil for another 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook about 1.5 cup polenta in 2 cups rapidly boiling, salted water.  I used instant polenta to save on time.  Lower the heat to medium and cook 5 minutes or until you get the consistency you prefer. Finish it off with a handfull of parmesan cheese and a dab of butter.

Ladle a few spoons of the polenta onto a plate, a beef shank on top, with some of the osso buco sauce and serve hot.

Rao’s Cookbook: Over 100 Years of Italian Home Cooking

Lovely weather we’re having in Colorado…light snow and single-digit cold since yesterday and into the middle of next week!  Perfect night for a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup.

My recipe is based on Jeff Smith’s Chicken and Noodles from “The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American” cookbook.  It’s a lovely, comforting soup with thyme and sage.  Like a lot of old-fashioned, good recipes, this one will take a lot of time to prepapre and cook.  If you have the energy, make a double batch of noodles and keep it in the freezer.  It will take almost as much time to make half a batch or double the batch.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Noodles:

2 c. all-purpose flour

3 eggs

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. water

Place the flour in a bowl and add salt and eggs.  Work the eggs into the flour with your fingers. Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to come together. Add the water and start kneading. This will be sticky but be patient and just keep your hands and board well-floured.  Knead until the dough is smooth.  Put back in your bowl, cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 2 equal balls.  Roll each out to about 12 inches.  These noodles become thick and robust when cooked so roll it as thin as you can.  Dust with flour all throughout the rolling process.  Don’t worry if the dough is still sticky at this point, just use some amount of flour for dusting.  Leave on the counter to dry for half an hour.  Turn it once to dry both sides.

Roll the dough like a jelly roll and cut to make strips of about a quarter inch in width.  Unroll strips and allow to dry for about an hour. Use half of the noodles for this recipe and the other half can be stored in a plastic bag in the freezer.

Stock

3 pcs. skinless chicken thighs (white meat is fine, but dark meat has more flavor)

1 small chopped onion

2 chopped celery stalks

2 small carrots, chopped

1/4 tsp. sage

1/4 tsp. thyme

1 bay leaf

3-5 peppercorns

1/2 tsp. salt

chopped parsley

Boil all ingredients in a stockpot with 2 quarts of water.  Bring down to a simmer.  After 30 minutes, remove chicken and shred meat.  Put back bones into stock.  Simmer for another 30 minutes.  Strain all vegetables from stock and add enough water to make about 2 quarts.  Bring this to a boil and add noodles.  Cook for about 12 minutes.  Adjust seasonings, add chopped parsley and bring to one last boil.

It does take some work to make chicken and noodles from scratch but sometimes it just makes a great treat for the family.

The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American

Food allergies are a terrible thing to live with, especially if it’s shrimp and crustaceans you cannot eat anymore!  Does one really have a choice when the last lobster meal I had sent me to the emergency room half dead?  Goodness, but hat meal was worth it….

Spouse loves shrimps.  He has a  nose like an English hound for the best deals on “Eat All You Can Shrimp” promos from here to Iowa.  For Valentine’s Day, I just had to make him a shrimp dish to make up for all the shrimp he cannot have all the rest of the year.

Cook about half a pound of spaghetti noodles according to package directions. Drain and reserve 1 c. of the pasta water.  Meantime, saute about 1.5 tsps. of minced garlic in hot olive oil over medium-high heat just before it turns brown.  

Add as much deveined, shelled shrimps as you want.  Throw in a few capers, about a tablespoonfull.  Keep stirring and throw in some pasta water to build on your sauce.  This should only take a couple of minutes.  Throw in some chopped parsley and Olivio margarine at the last minute.  Season with salt and pepper according to taste.  Squrt with fresh lemon juice before serving.

Some of you might want to add red pepper flakes to this dish, the heat blends nicely.  But please don’t add cheese.  The flavor will overpower the sweetness of the shrimp.

Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza and Calzone

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