Satti de Zamboanga

SAMBAL: Soup

Ingredients
-Chilli Flakes ¼ cup (more if hotter)
-Ginger Powder 1 ½ tbsp
-Turmeric Powder 1 ½ tbsp
-Onion 1 medium size
-Oregano Leaves 1 ½ tbsp
-Oil 2 tbsp
-Shrimp paste (Bagon) ¼ -½ tsp
-Tomatoes 2 pcs (diced)
-Flour ¼ cup (or less)
-Corn Starch ½ cup (or less)
-Sugar 1 ½ - 2 cups
-Salt 1 tbsp
-Achuete Powder 15g
-Chicken Stock 3 liters
-Curry Powder ½ tsp

Step 1:
Boil 3 liters of chicken stock. Add curry powder when boiling, stir.

Step 2:
Blend the chilli flakes, ginger, turmeric, onion & oregano (add small amount of water just enough to start the blend).

Step 3:
Mix flour, corn starch, sugar, salt & annato powder. Add 1 cup (or more) of water, stir until free of lumps.


Step 4:
Sauté shrimp paste and tomatoes with oil, then add the mixed ingredients in step 2. Sauté until partly dried.

Step 5:
Pour the sauté into the boiling water, stir. Add the mix from step 3. Add water to reach desired thickness.

Keep in medium flame for 20 - 30 minutes (or more) with frequent stirring to avoid "stickings" on the pot. Add water to lessen the thickness of the soup (if preferred).
Serve hot with satti & rice.

SATTI
2 chicken breasts, cut into small pcs or Sirloin Beef (sliced into cubes).

Marinade in:
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. sugar
4 tbsp. soy sauce
2 shallots, minced
Juice of ½ lime
3 tbsp. oil

1. Marinade a few hours or overnight in fridge.
2. Skewer meat
3. BBQ for 3 minutes on each side (or until cooked), basting with marinade occasionally.

Coconut Oil Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Coconut-oil-roasted sweet potatoes; the oil enhances their caramelized flavor.

Related

• A Good Appetite: Once a Villain, Coconut Oil Charms the Health Food World (March 2, 2011)

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

1 1/2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
1 3/4 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 teaspoons light brown sugar, packed
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg.

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan over low heat.
2. In a large bowl, toss together potatoes, coconut oil, sugar, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
3. Spread the potatoes in an even layer on a large baking sheet. Roast, tossing occasionally, until soft and caramelized, about 1 hour.
Yield: 2 to 4 servings.

Cha Ca Fish with Fresh Dill, Hanoi Style

Another version . And another.

UP a flight of rickety stairs in Hanoi is a 100-year-old restaurant that is often a must-not-miss in guidebooks. It serves one iconic, delicious dish, called cha ca la Vong, which also happens to be the name of the restaurant. In the bright, noisy dining room, packed with communal tables set with little charcoal burners, a skillet of fish and other components arrives, and you submit to a brusque ceremony of tabletop cooking and do-it-yourself assembly.

The combination of ingredients — turmeric, dill, shrimp paste and fish sauce — delivers an intriguing muskiness bolstered with chiles, silky noodles and a thicket of other fresh herbs to season the chunks of moist fish. My memories are still vivid after 10 years.

(Judging from many blog posts, recent visitors have had a more negative experience: touristy and expensive.)

But the dish has made a strong impression on today’s cutting-edge chefs, who are intrigued by the surprising abundance of dill, an herb that is rarely associated with Southeast Asian cuisine. Those who have been to the restaurant (and some who have not) are now bringing it to American tables.

Michael Bao Huynh, who owns BaoBQ restaurants in downtown Manhattan and is from Saigon, noted that dill is uncommon in Vietnamese dishes and that when it is used, it is more in the north, especially in the cha ca dish and in a fish soup. The version he serves, called bun cha ca, is made with grilled catfish satays with herbs over rice vermicelli.

Andy Ricker, the Portland, Ore., chef who has won a national reputation for his take on Southeast Asian food, made a point of going to Hanoi in 2005 to taste cha ca la Vong. Though his restaurant, Pok Pok, features mostly Thai food, he has been serving the dish since the place opened in 2006, and has put it on the menu of his New York branch, Pok Pok NY, which opened in April on Columbia Street, near the waterfront in Brooklyn. His recipe, which he calls “a stab at the famous dish,” is made with a Vietnamese catfish called basa.

Angelo Sosa, who tucked his take on the dish into a baguette when he owned Xie Xie in Hell’s Kitchen, has started serving it again at Social Eatz, his year-old place in Midtown. He slathers seared turmeric-marinated tilapia with sriracha mayonnaise and sweet onion jam. He also offers a version with a whole broiled flounder and turmeric oil. He said his experience of the Hanoi restaurant and its signature dish “was one of the greatest food memories of my life, a reason to go to Vietnam.”

Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who has also been to Cha Ca La Vong, interprets the Vietnamese dish as a salad made with halibut at his Spice Market, which opened in 2003 in the meatpacking district. “We use dill and cucumbers,” he said. “It’s very fresh and still on the menu.”

At Talde, a new restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Dale Talde serves roasted branzino with cha ca seasonings, including turmeric and herbs, an idea he said he got from Mr. Sosa. And Lon Symensma, formerly the chef at Buddakan and now the chef and an owner of ChoLon in Denver, is serving cha ca la taco at lunch. “I was always intrigued with the amount of dill in the dish,” he said, “but it makes sense once you try it.”

Simpson Wong, whose new Asian fusion restaurant in Greenwich Village is called Wong, went to Cha Ca La Vong in 2009 with his mother. “She loved that dish, and that was a big influence for me,” he said. “I tried it at home, and it was a big hit with my friends, so I knew it had to go on the menu.” He could not resist the play on words, calling it cha ca la Wong.

Mr. Wong’s many-layered interpretation is something of a monster, calling for an encounter with a well-stocked Vietnamese or Thai store or Web site. His recipe omits the stinky shrimp paste, and he prefers fresh turmeric to the ground variety because it is less bitter. He uses only a little of the ground spice as a binder. The turmeric on the fish seasons the oil, though his recipe is not as oily as the original. And he warns a cook to wear gloves because turmeric stains.

Once the various components are assembled, the cooking is fast, and the payoff is worth the effort. It is less demanding than a trip to Vietnam, though these days you don’t need a plane ticket to taste the dish in a restaurant.

A version of this article appeared in print on May 30, 2012, on page D5 of the New York edition with the headline: A Dish Inspired By a Dive in Hanoi.

Cha Ca La Wong

Adapted from Wong restaurant; from New York Times

Ingredients

• 2 two-inch pieces fresh turmeric, peeled and chopped (see note)
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 inch fresh peeled ginger, chopped
• 2 inches fresh peeled galangal, chopped (or substitute ginger)
• 1 and 1/2 pounds skinless hake fillets, cut in 2-inch squares
• 1/4 cup Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc mam)
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons chile flakes
• 1/3 cup lime juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 4 ounces dried Vietnamese or Thai rice noodles (also called rice stick)
• 1 head Bibb lettuce, rinsed, trimmed, core removed, sliced thinly
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 medium-large onion, sliced thin vertically
• 1 and 1/2 bunches scallions, trimmed and chopped
• 1 bunch dill, stems discarded, fronds coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup each cilantro leaves, mint leaves and Thai basil
• 1/4 cup chopped roasted salted peanuts
• 1/4 cup crisp fried shallots (sold in jars in Southeast Asian stores), or canned fried onions.

Preparation

1.

Place the fresh turmeric, ground turmeric, ginger and galangal in a food processor or mini-chopper. Process until very fine, almost a paste. Transfer to a stainless-steel dish. Wash food processor immediately to prevent staining. Place the fish in a bowl. Rub mixture all over fish, remembering to wear gloves or plastic bags on your hands to avoid turmeric stains. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour.

2.

Combine fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of the garlic, half the chile flakes, the lime juice, sugar and 1/2 cup cold water in a small bowl. Stir well. Refrigerate. Place noodles in another bowl, cover with warm water and set aside 10 minutes until softened.

3.

Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil, drain noodles and add to boiling water. Cook 1 minute, then drain.

4.

Spread lettuce on a serving platter. Spread noodles over lettuce. Cover lightly with a sheet of foil or plastic wrap.

5.

Place oil in a large nonstick or well-seasoned cast-iron skillet and heat to a high temperature. Add fish pieces. When seared on one side, 1 minute or so, turn to sear other side, sprinkle with salt and remaining chile flakes and cook through, another minute or two. Remove to another platter. Add onions to pan and reduce heat to medium. When onions start to brown, add remaining garlic, stir, and add scallions. Stir again. Tuck fish pieces back into the pan and add the dill. Cook about 1 minute, just enough to warm fish. Remove pan from heat.

6.

Spread contents of the pan, including all the oil, on noodles. Scatter herbs on top, then toss on peanuts and fried shallots. Serve with sauce on the side.

YIELD

4 servings.

• NOTE

  Fresh turmeric and galangal are sold in Asian markets. They can also be ordered in 1-pound packages from www.marxfoods.com

Sofrito

makes 2-1/3 cups

Ingredients

8½ garlic cloves
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 and 1/3 cups onions
¾ teaspoon dried thyme
¾ teaspoon dried rosemary
½ bay leaf
1 cup canned tomato puree
½ teaspoon salt

Peel and purée garlic cloves. In a saucepan, heat the olive oil and fry the garlic until browned. Meanwhile, purée the onion and add to the pan with the garlic. Lower the heat, add herbs and fry, stirring frequently, until the onion has browned. Add four-fifths of the tomato and cook for 30 minutes. Add the remaining tomato, cook for 30 minutes more, and season with salt and pepper. When cool, divide into small amounts and freeze in separate plastic containers or baggies for future use.

Granola

I would like to try some of these granola recipes:

Cherry Chocolate Coconut Granola:

http://annies-eats.com/2012/01/09/cherry-chocolate-coconut-granola/

Daily Granola: http://orangette.blogspot.ca/2008/02/consider-it.html

Homemade Granola: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/homemade-granola-recipe/index.html

Olive Oil and Maple Granola:
http://food52.com/recipes/15831_nekisia_davis_olive_oil_and_maple_granola


Perfect Granola: 
http://sensesinthekitchen-karolina.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/perfect-granola-smells-like-apple-pie.html

Here's my basic recipe, but I generally do different additions in each batch. 2 cups oats and whatever nuts and other yummies that you like (sunflower seeds, flax seeds, almonds, coconut, etc.) Mix 2/3 c. honey with 1/2 cup olive oil and pour over everything else; mix well. Spread on a cookie sheet making sure to press down firmly to the edges. My recipe calls for baking at 325 for 30 minutes stirring every 10. However, watch it and go based off your oven--even slightly burnt granola is horrible. Once it's done, stir in any dried fruit you like.

It is addicting and I have friends/family request batches on a regular basis! I'll occasionally add some vanilla extract to the honey/oil mixture as well.


Another recipe:


Either way, with low sugar, prepare for less clumps even after it has dried it will be very crumbly.

My recipe would be this for low sugar, crunchy granola:
3 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking or instant)
1/2-1 cup slivered or sliced almonds
1/2-1 cup cashews
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/8 cup hemp or chia seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup or less dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, cherries, blueberries, etc.)
1/8 cup agave nectar
1/8 cup vegetable oil (not olive oil this helps it brown nicely)
3/4 teaspoon salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 300F
2. Toss everything except dried fruit together in a large bowl making sure it gets coated well in oil and agave nectar.
3. Transfer to a roasting pan (or other high walled baking dish) and place in oven.
4. Cook 30 mins, and then stir using a spoon
5. Cook another 15 mins and stir.
6. Cook another 15 mins and stir.
7. Keep baking and stirring each additional 15 mins until granola is golden brown.
8. Transfer to cookie sheet or wax paper to allow to cool.
9. When almost completely cool, add dried fruit and mix gently to incorporate.
10. Transfer to air tight storage container.

Breakfast Kababayan (Muffin)

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes
Yields: 10 to 11 pieces
2 eggs
¾ cup milk
½ cup canola oil
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1½ cups all purpose flour
¾ cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
Place oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine wet ingredients – eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Whisk until smooth.
Combine dry ingredients – flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in another mixing bowl.
Using a large spoon or spatula, add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Whisk until well combined and smooth.
Coat muffin pan with cooking spray.  Using a medium ice cream scooper, divide mixture into 10 to 11 muffins. Bake for 20 minutes or until browned.  Rest for about 10 minutes.  Remove from the muffin pan. Brush bread tops with melted butter and dip top in white sugar before serving.

Pork Adobo with Dried Cranberries and Mango

by Mike Demetria

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes
Yields: 8 servings

4 pounds pork shoulder cut into cubes
1 cup soy sauce
½ cup balsamic vinegar
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dried cranberries and mango.
2 tablespoons of Giardiniera olive oil
Pinch of black pepper

Add the pork in a sauce pan. Add on top of the pork the soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, minced garlic, olive oil , black pepper and the dried cranberries and mango. Cover the pan and bring to boil use high heat .
Mix and stir , then put to medium heat. Mix and stir occasionally. Cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until meat is tender.

Remove lid and start the reduction phase under high heat with constant stirring until sauce is reduced.

K.B.L. (Kadyos, Baboy, Langka) ILONGGO STYLE

by Bobby Mayor
2 pounds pork, chopped in chunks
2 cups kadyos (black peas)
1 large can langka (jackfruit), chopped in chunks
Oil for sautéing
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, sliced
Salt to taste
Batwan or ½ package Mama Sita’s sinigang na sampalok mix (dissolved in 2 tablespoons
water)
Kangkong leaves/ Kamote tops (optional)
Boil kadyos and pork until tender, add langka and simmer for 5 minutes.
Sauté garlic and onion in some oil. Add to the meat.
Add salt and sinigang na sampaloc to taste.
Lastly, add kamote tops, cover and simmer for 2 minutes.
Chef’s Notes:
The guests in this episode roughly followed recipes and most of the ingredients were estimated while cooking.

Honeyed Fish Paksiw

I have not eaten fish in ages and would love to try this recipe next time I buy fish.

makes 3-4 servings

12 pcs galunggong fish
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp patis/ fish sauce
3 tbsp honey
3/4 cup vinegar
2 tbsp ginger strips
12 cloves garlic
1 tsp whole peppercorns
2 pcs green finger chili

1. Clean fish well. Mix together olive oil, patis,  honey and vinegar.
2. In a pot, put 1/3 of the ginger and 4 pcs garlic. Arrange 6 pcs of fish on top.
3. Top with another 1/3 of ginger and 4 cloves garlic. Then layer the remaining fish.
4. Top with remaining ginger and garlic.
5. Sprinkle peppercorn, pour over patis mixture, and top with chili.
6. Cover and boil.
7. When mixture starts to boil, remove cover and boil for another 12-15 minutes.

Note: Feel free to use other varieties of fish like Besugo

Banana Ice Cream

I finally tried making banana ice cream tonight. It was so easy and yummy!

Candied Camote

To make candied camote...

You will need

1. one and one half kilo of the small orange variety, peeled and cut into bigger than your thumb. Do not make the pieces too small. Make the sizes even and uniform so that the cooking time will be all the same.

2. one third kilo of light brown sugar.

3. 2 tablespoons of any kind of syrup, maple, karo, any will do.

4. 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

5. 1 teaspoon of powdered cinnamon

6. one and a half cup of water

To make, Use a pot which will take the one and half kilos of peeled and sliced camote. Cover the camote to the top with water and bring to a fast boil. Boil for no longer than 2 minutes and quickly drain the camote Remove all the water. The camote should not be thoroughly cooked. I should be difficult to pierce with a fork.

Now in a pan 9 by 13, and pour about one and one half of water. Add the sugar, syrup and cinnamon. Lay the camote in this pan. Try to make the camote one only one layer. Cover the pan with aluminum foil, and bake in a 375 degree over. Alternatively, you may cook it on the top of a stove. Set the pan on the stove and bring the camote to a boil. Boil on low heat till the camote is pierceable with a fork about 30 minutes. Remove from the stove and take off the aluminum cover. Cool being serving as a dessert or merienda.

Another way to enjoy camote is to boil it! In a pot, place the cleaned-up camote and pour water to near-submersion point. Bring to a boil. In about 7 minutes, try pricking one with a fork. If you are able to pierce through with a bit of resistance, then it's done. You don't want a mushy camote. Drain the water, arrange on a plate, slice across, then insert butter. Serve with sugar on the side.

Black Bean, Sweet Potato and Quinoa Chili

I want to try this recipe from Kitchn.

Adapted from Bon Appétit

As with most soups, stews, and chilis, think of the water quantity as a rough guide. You may find towards the end you'll need to add more water as both the beans and quinoa start absorbing it.

Serves 4-6

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 14.5-ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes
1/2 pound dried black beans, rinsed well
1 chipotle chile from canned chipotle chiles in adobo, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons kosher salt + more to taste
1 1/2 cups sweet potatoes (2-3 small), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
sour cream, to top (optional)
green onions, chopped, to top (optional)
fresh cilantro, chopped, to top (optional)

Heat the oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and beginning to brown, 6-7 minutes. Add garlic, chili powder, and coriander and stir. Cook together for 1 minute.

Stir in the tomatoes with their juices, beans, chipotle pepper, and oregano. Add 5 cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover with lid slightly ajar and simmer until beans are flavorful and tender, anywhere from 2 - 4 hours (depending on the age of your beans).

After 1 1/2 hours of cooking, add the sweet potatoes, quinoa, and salt. Place the pot's lid back on slightly ajar and allow to simmer on low heat until the beans are soft and the sweet potatoes and quinoa are cooked through. Add more water if the chili becomes too thick. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with sour cream, cilantro, and green onion.

Can make two days ahead. Store in refrigerator. Freeze leftovers.

Pan-Roasted Asparagus, Poached Egg & Miso Butter

Here's a recipe from Momofoku. We love asparagus and miso so I'm sure this will be another family favourite. The leftover miso butter will be used with eggplant sometime this week.

Serves 4

I love miso ramen. I ate a lot of it in the Sapporo region, where it was invented, when I was living in Japan. In many places, they’d finish it with a huge knob of butter and some canned corn as a garnish—totally ghetto, totally delicious. Daydreaming about that miso ramen got me to thinking about making a miso compound butter, which I’d never seen anywhere else. Butter + miso worked like crazy on those bowls of soup, so I mixed up a batch, adding more and more miso as I went. The end result was nutty and creamy, and it just tasted good—so good I licked it off my fingers, like cake frosting.

Quino was messing around with the miso butter one day and found that when he mixed it with an egg it tasted like carbonara—the fermented, salty tang of miso standing in for the pig. One day, I was trying to make a beurre monté based on sherry vinegar and the miso butter instead of water and plain butter. I mixed it with an egg and realized it tasted like hollandaise sauce—not so literally, but in a similar appealing fat-on-fat sort of way. We saw it had potential, and we put this dish together, to look like an asparagus-and-fried-egg dish you’d see at any rustico Italian market-driven restaurant in New York, but with the idea that nothing really prepared you for the flavor combination you get from that not-quite-hollandaise.

1⁄2 cup shiro (white) miso

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more if needed

1⁄2 pound thin to medium asparagus

Kosher salt

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar

4 poached eggs

Freshly ground black pepper

1. Make the miso butter: Combine the miso with 5 tablespoons of the butter in a small bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until well mixed; the butter should be one color, not a streaky mess. Reserve until needed; you can refrigerate it, well wrapped, for up to a few weeks.

2. Snap off the woodier bottom inch or so of each asparagus stalk. Use a vegetable peeler to shave away the tougher outer layer from each stalk, but don’t get carried away: you probably won’t need to peel the stalks more than 2 or so inches up from the trimmed end.

3. Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons butter in a wide skillet over medium-high heat. Line a plate with paper towels for draining the asparagus. When the butter sends up the first wisp of smoke, put the asparagus in the pan. (Do not overcrowd the pan; cook in batches if necessary, draining each one, and refreshing the butter if the butter from the first batch smells scorched.) When the asparagus start to take on some color, 2 to 3 minutes, season them with a generous pinch of salt and turn the heat down to medium. Turn them with a spoon or spatula so they can color on the second side, another few minutes. When the asparagus are nicely browned and tender (but not exactly soft), transfer them to the paper towels to drain.

4. While the asparagus are cooking, heat the sherry vinegar in a small saucepan over medium heat. After half a minute, add the miso butter, turn the heat to low, and stir to warm it through. When the butter has loosened slightly—it should still have a certain viscosity to it and shouldn’t be melted—remove the pan from the burner and put it in a warm spot.

5. Season the cooked asparagus with another pinch of salt if needed. Smear a quarter of the warmed miso butter into a thickish puddle in the middle of each plate. Divide the asparagus among the plates and top each with an egg. Finish each dish with a few turns of black pepper, and serve at once.

Note: If you have reason to make a larger quantity of miso butter—and there are many, because miso butter has a weeks-long shelf life and makes just about anything more delicious—mix together larger quantities of butter and miso in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.