food is the new love

posted by C.

i only know a handful of people who know what Puffy Cones are. no, it has nothing to do with rap music, nor has it ever gone out with jennifer lopez. for one thing, you'd probably have to be at least 30 to know what i'm talking about, because googling "puffy cones" now could give confusing results.

first, google will ask you;

and then, it will give you completely bizarre links, of which the most notable would be;


here's the deal. all i want is to relive 5 minutes of my innocent, carefree, credit-free, tax-free, grief-free childhood, peel off that gold and red foil wrapper, and once again bite into an ice cream cone, filled with marshmallow, and covered with chocolate. do i really need to know about your nipples?

well ok, the name is a little weird. i will give you that. but it was the 80s. people were wearing garden hoses on their necks, acid wash pants were everywhere, and bonnie tyler was the shit. weirder things were happening.

but alas, like acid wash and bonnie tyler, puffy cones went away with the 80s. it is now nowhere to be found in manila. and hardly anyone remembers them.

lately, overcome with nostalgia, i had this brilliant idea of making puffy cones at home. heck if we can bring back leggings and skinny jeans, then i can damn well bring back puffy cones into our lives. i mean, how hard could it be. marshmallow. cone. chocolate. besides, puffy cones weren't exactly bocuse d'or material (i obviously just watched Top Chef). i sooo can do this.

so i found the simplest marshmallow recipe i could find online. the one that did not require me to use a candy thermometer. nostalgia after all does not trump laziness. castor sugar, unflavored gelatin, and water. that's it.

i combined unflavored gelatin and hot water. then added a mixture of castor sugar and more hot water.

i let the kitchen aid run for a few minutes.





looks good right?

posted by C.

yes. it sounds like too much trouble. and for someone as ravenous as me, there's always the question of whether or not something i will devour in 5 minutes, would be worth 5, maybe 10 times that in prep and clean up.

but as long as i have certain things pre-cooked and stored properly in the pantry or fridge, i can usually whip something out really fast. and apologies for the cooking snobs out there, but the microwave oven can be your friend.

on weekends i boil a big batch of beans, drain them and store them in zip lock bags in the freezer. i also cook a big batch of brown rice and keep it in the fridge for the rest of the week (if it gets too dry, i just sprinkle a little water on the rice before nuking).

anyhoo, it's fun, really. trying to figure out what you can make in 10 minutes with what you only have in your fridge/pantry. kinda like being in an episode of Doorknock Dinners. i like to pretend i'm the guest chef every now and then.

today's nameless lunch is a mixture of beans, chicken, tomatoes and spices. like a middle eastern-inspired "kaning baboy" (food for the pigs). hehe. it was good though

(posted by C.)

so i had a mini (somewhat half-hearted, since technically i've been living in my apartment for about 5 months already) housewarming dinner recently. wasn't really in the mood to harass myself by cooking a complicated spread for 10 people all by myself. i wanted to make something that was easy to cook, with minimal prep, and more importantly, minimal clean-up after. it would be nice to be able to enjoy your own party after all.

so i decided to make Jambalaya. one pot wonder. relatively easy to make, save for the tricky task of cooking a large batch of rice evenly. which i have to admit, i wasn't able to do. i ended up with some parts overcooked and soggy, and some grains still 'al dente.' al dente, being my futile attempt to sugarcoat its undercooked-ness. heeh.

and that is why you only invite super close friends to these things. keep it small. lest word gets out that you can't cook rice at this day and age. you can also blame a friend who arrived early to help you. yes, it's Gi's fault.

ok it's not.

anyway, it still turned out good, texture withstanding. the flavors were there. so here's the recipe, which is a jazzed up version of something i got from allrecipes.com. i suggest you cook it in a wide and thick pot for even cooking.

1/4      cup      olive oil
4         tbsp     Cajun/Creole Seasoning (i made my own, recipe below, but storebought's fine)
1/2      kilo      Andouille sausage, sliced into discs
1         kilo      chicken thigh fillets
2         pcs.      onions, diced
4         stalks   celery, diced
2         pcs       green bell pepper, diced
1/2      bulb     garlic, minced
40       oz         crushed tomatoes
1.5      tsp        red pepper flakes
1.5      tsp        ground black pepper
2         tsp        salt
1.5      tsp        Tabasco, extra hot
2         tsp        worcestershire sauce
1         kilo       white rice
4-6     cups      chicken broth (ok, i cheated a little here and used a little chicken broth powder and water. yeah well. sue me.)

1. Mix Chicken and Cajun seasoning in a bowl and set aside.
2. Heat some olive oil in a large pot. Fry sausage until brown, remove from pan and set aside.
3. Add seasoned chicken to pot and saute until lightly browned. Remove from pan and set aside.
4. Add a little more olive oil in the pot. Saute onion, bell pepper and celery (which together, apparently, are known as the holy trinity of cajun cuisine). Add tomatoes, peppers, salt, sauce, worcestershire sauce.
5. Add the chicken and sausage back to the pan, and let simmer for 10 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
6. Stir in the rice and broth and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, cover, and let rice steam till tender and all the liquid is absorbed. (This is where it gets a little tricky. Make sure you use the right pot. Thick and not so deep. A dutch oven would be ideal.)

(Serves about 10 people)




2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried leaf thyme

Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight jar.

(posted by Ets)


Salt has gotten a lot of bad PR over the years. It makes you bloat. It increases your chances of getting hypertension. It is harmful to your kidneys, your bladder, your heart, etc. etc. etc. Doctors warn us now to kick it like a bad habit, like smoking, or alcohol, or drugs. Imagine that? someday salt will only be available in dark, dingy alleys peddled by smelly men who only have three teeth left. Our children will rebel under the mantra of SEX, SALT AND ROCK AND ROLL! and we will tell them of the good old days when salt was abundant and life tasted good.


And yet, despite the rap, God bless our stubborn hearts, we continue to use it liberally on anything and everything. A great testimony to the tenacity and gluttony of the human race.


To say that salt makes food salty is obvious and, honestly, insulting both to salt and to the person who says it. Because how could you, you who absent-mindedly toss a handful of it to season your simmering pot of kaldereta, you who profusely sweat over a pot full of nilaga deliberating ever so intently if it needs another pinch, how could you just use the most obvious word to describe salt? I mean really, adding another consonant, that’s the best you can do?


As simple as salt is, it does so much more than make food salty. It is responsible for bringing out the complexities of every flavor palette. That’s why we use it for baking and for cocktails even. It elevates the inherent flavor of food to a higher level. It maximizes the potential of food. It encourages them to be the best that they can be. It’s like Oprah. But white. And not as preachy.

Now, because of the culinary geniuses who have come before us, our choices have expanded immensely. What used to be “rock or refined salt?” is now “Iodized? kosher? Sea salt? Flavored sea salt? Or, of course, Fleur de sel?” Save for the rockstar of salt, Fleur de sel, I have tried cooking with all.


Truth be told, my palette is far from refined. I will not be able to guess what particularly kind of salt was used in a dish. But on its own, i have observed the following:
* Sea salt tastes a little more organic than your basic iodized salt - I don’t know if its psychological but it does bring in the flavor of the ocean a little.
* Flavored sea salt is better appreciated (at least by me) after a dish is cooked than during the process. So you can use ordinary salt while cooking and then later have the flavored sea salt ready on the table for sprinkling over your meal. For the record though, i have to say that I’m not a big fan of flavored sea salt because sometimes I don’t need to add that hint of oregano and thyme that come with the salt to my dish. I appreciate, however, that it comes in grinders like peppercorns but I really can live without it. The little I have had of kosher has impressed me. Unfortunately, I have not had enough of it to sing it praises just yet.
* Salt needs a little time to infiltrate a dish. I wait at least five minutes after i add the salt to taste before i decide whether it needs more. It usually takes around that time for the salt to mix in with the flavors of the dish.


Salt, of course, like other seasoning, is a matter of taste. How much or how little you want it in a dish is absolutely a matter of preference. The bottomline is though, you need salt. Yes, just as much as you need love.

starbucks columbia narino vs. boyd's midnight blend
(boyd's is bigger, but not better. heeh.)(posted by C.)
 
before anything else, coffee MUST be had.

yes. even before you groan and say, another fucking food blog.

i am no coffee snob. nor would i consider myself a caffeine addict. real coffee connoisseurs may frown upon this entry. but so what. i don't care. when it's comes to MY cup of coffee, i am, shall we say, set in my ways.

for one, it must be the Columbia Narino blend of Starbucks. when they were still handing out coffee passports there, i tried most of the blends available here in manila but i keep coming back to this one. killer flavor and aroma. plus, i would like to be a little pretentious and say it has hints of chocolate (and chocolate, even in miniscule hints, is always wonderful), but again, i'm really not a coffee connoisseur. heck i even had to look up how to spell connoisseur in the dictionary. and at less than 400 pesos for a 500 gram bag, it's one of the more reasonably priced coffee beans out there. i know that coffee bean and seattle's best would have good blends too but they're actually more expensive than this one. and the local commercially available blends i've tried so far are nowhere near it (but if you know of any, let me know, lest i get accused of not buying Filipino).

second. it MUST be freshly ground.


MUST. i cannot stress this enough. when they ask me at the counter if i want my beans ground, i always say no with a little sneer. how could you. how dare you.

how could I, in good conscience, let so much coffee awesomeness escape into thin air. it is not how i roll. as should you. take my word for it.

now, again the coffee connoisseurs (again with the dictionary. mental note: copy paste) might scoff at this point. father, forgive me for i do not have a proper coffee grinder. i just use one of those handheld krups thingies and it works well for me. maybe someday when i'm filthy rich i'll get a kick ass grinder. but until then, we pulse pulse pulse. until i get a coarse grind (maybe a little finer than the one pictured above, but well, it is hard to be accurate and consistent with one of those 'handheld krups thingies'.... ah such genius choice of words). anyhoo, a coarse grind because...

it must be brewed in a french press. i don't like coffee machines. the cheap ones make my coffee taste a little like plastic. the expensive ones, i cannot afford. and even if i could, i'd still probably choose the french press. i don't know if it's psychological but coffee seems to smell better from a french press. (not that all things french are known for smelling better, heeh).

final point. and EXTREMELY important. no sugar, no cream. i will say it again. NO SUGAR. NO CREAM.

none.

black is the new black.

a few years ago, during what was probably my 5000th effort to lose weight, i was told by a magazine (probably the 5000th weight loss related article i've read as well), to stop putting sugar and cream in my coffee. lots of calories, it said. years later, i haven't been that good with the calories, but i still refuse to put anything in my coffee. it took a little getting used to but once i did, i could never go back to the dark and dreary path of jazzed up coffee. and the cappuccinos, the au laits, the mochas, they are to me, coffee flavored drinks, not coffee. i will have them once in a while, when i'm feeling frou frou. but real coffee MUST be black. it's just better that way. and if you think otherwise, then let me just say this. you're wrong. you just are. promise.

-C.