Simply Belle

An old friend of mine from college named Au recently introduced this wonderful and healthy dish during the recent get-together of our group in Manila. It is called Dinengdeng, Ilocos specialty ( I think). It is so easy to make and it’s main ingredients are vegetables. I am more of a veggie person so naturally I became interested in the dish and immediately emailed her to ask for the recipe. She responded right away and graciously shared the recipe with me.

This dish may look unappetizing for most of you but for me it is heavenly even though I overcooked the squash. I didn’t realize squash cooks faster but it somehow enhanced the sauce, making the dish taste even better. Believe it or not, I had it 4 days in a row

In my recipe of Dinendeng, I used spinach, opo, slices of ginger, tomatoes, yellow orange squash, and bitter melon (ampalaya). My friend Au doesn’t recommend adding ampalaya to the recipe but I thought I would try it anyway because I love it so much. To cut down the bitterness, I soaked the sliced ampalaya first in salty water for some time and it did the trick.

I ate this much four days in a row with only half a cup of rice. Who says half a cup of rice is not enough?

The dish below prepared by Au was the one I was trying to achieve. But for some reasons, mine came out quite a bit darker, probably due to the type of bagoong I used. Nevertheless, I am satisfied with its taste. I mainly gorged on the veggies.

Those who are interested, here is the recipe my friend sent me:

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Lately, I have been craving for this dish that my niece fixes for me whenever I go home to the province. I never asked for the recipe because I didn’t think that I would one day prepare it myself here. I was wrong.

Last Sunday, we (8 of us) went to Phoenix to do some oriental shopping. I was surprised to see good quality taro roots just like in the picture below. I immediately grabbed a plastic and picked about 6 medium roots and thought of making kalo-ko to satisfy my craving.

Here it is:

In between Kaloko is filled with the flesh that I pryed out of the taro roots (split lengthwise) using a small spoon. I made sure I carved it out carefully so as not to puncture the shell to put the filling in. I flavored the filling with 1/2 can of coconut cream, 2 cups of sugar (or more depending on your taste), and anise for flavoring. Pandan leaves work just as good for flavoring. My niece suggested that I add salt. No salt for me, thank you.

Then I filled in the shell with the filling, about 3/4 full. I poured 1/4 can of coconut milk into the bottom of the pan and placed each kaloko in. I poured the remaining 3/4 can of coconut cream over the kaloko and another cup of sugar or more depending on your taste. Cook slow for 45 minutes or until the juice becomes sticky. Cool and enjoy. (For this recipe, I opened 2 cans of coconut cream but only used 1 1/2.) I ended up throwing the other half. I know I am wasteful but I don’t foresee myself using the leftover milk in my cooking in a week or two.

It was sooooo good!

Below is the picture of the taro roots that I lifted from this site

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This concerns to the US residents only:

You might have been already notified in the mail regarding the NALC’s (National Association of Letter Carriers) Stamp Out Hunger annual food drive this Saturday, May 10, 2008. I would like to make an appeal to all of you to please go through your pantry and pick out the ones that you don’t need and donate them to help family in need in your community. We want to collect as much food as possible because this is the year that many families are struggling with the recession that our country is facing.

Please set the goods next to your mailbox and your carrier will pick them up when delivering mail. It has to be non-perishable items like canned goods, noodles, cereals, etc. Money is also appreciated but has to be handed out to the carrier personally or you can deliver it to the post office yourself. Someone will be there to assist you.

Your community needs you….please help this Saturday, May 10, 2008. I will be one of the carriers who will be picking up the food.

Oh, my contribution is already in the paper bag for my husband to set out on Saturday.

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We were invited over at our friends’ house for a last get-together for this year before they head back to WA. to spend the summer. These are retired people who own two homes – one in AZ where they spend the winter to get away from the dark-cold-wet days of Seattle, and one in WA, which offers beautiful weather and long nights during summer.

I usually take charge of the kitchen when I come over. I made eggrolls and pansit.

FYI: I was wearing shorts and a long shirt. Even my husband asked, “do you have anything underneath that shirt?”

Boy, I haven’t even finished deep frying the eggrolls, two of my friends couldn’t seem to get their hands off the cooked eggrolls. For the other gentleman, it was his first time to eat eggroll, and he loved it so much!

Don’t you just love watching them attack the food? It made me feel good as a cook.

And let me show you the weirdness out of this gentleman.

He added catsup to his pansit. Yuck!

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I took a week vacation from work to spend some time with my children. Unfortunately, Lexi’s spring break didn’t coincide with Steffi’s but Lexi still managed to find time to bond with the family. She drove home from Flagstaff at 10 PM Friday night after work and didn’t get home ’til past midnight. As usual, I couldn’t hold still on my bed until she was safe home while my husband slept like a log. Sometimes, I wish I could switch roles with my husband.

Steffi’s friend, Leia, also from Stanford U, flew from Baltimore to Arizona to spend a couple of days with us. She was kind enough to offer to ride with Steffi on the way back to Stanford U. Since this is a year when Steffi starts internship in college, we thought this is the best time for her to have a car. She has been without a car for almost three years and sometimes she would whine at us over the phone that it was too cold to bike to her class. We knew right then that we had to get her a car.

We tried our best to make Leia’s short visit in our place fun and exciting. Initially, she wanted to do some golfing in front of our house but my husband was able to talk her into visiting the Tonto Bridge which is only 20 minutes from our house. By the time we got home after doing few errands here and there, it was 2:30 PM – time for me to get started with my cooking as I invited a couple of Filipina friends over for dinner. Between 2:30 PM and 6 PM, I was able to fix six dishes including making eggrolls from scratch. My kids love eggrolls so much so I don’t mind going through the hassle once in a while. Leia and my husband love Kare-Kare so I cooked that too. I fixed Sinigang na bangus, and daing na bangus for my friends. All went well and everyone was happy.
Here are some pictures taken at Tonto Bridge:

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On the eve of December 24th, I invited my friends over for a Christmas get-together due to the prodding of my daughter, Lexi. I was a bit apprehensive of hosting a party earlier because I was extremely busy at work and wasn’t sure if I had the energy to do the cooking and the cleaning of the house. However, I felt it wasn’t much of a Christmas without food and friends over so I went for it, after all, Christmas only comes once a year.

I spent the whole Sunday getting ready for the party- from grocery, to cleaning, and fixing some dishes ahead of time. The girls did their share by cleaning the bathrooms, tidying the living room, and mopping the kitchen. The night before, I cooked Beef Afritada in a crock pot. I sprinkled some salt and pepper before I coated it with flour to thicken the sauce. I cut up some Idaho potatoes and drizzled it with evvo (extra virgin olive oil) and baked it in the oven until golden brown. I sauted some garlic and onions in the pan until translucent and I tossed in the meat and cooked it until slightly brown. Then I put all the ingredients in the crock pot, including a can of roasted red pepper, a can of tomato sauce, and small can of tomato paste. I flavored it with more salt, pepper, some vinegar, and some already made beef broth. I simmered it on low for 24 hours.

On the day of the party, however, I had totally forgotten about the dish. The delicious-mouth-watering-brown sugar-glazed ham that my daughter Tepsi cooked and the turkey prepared by my friend satisfied our monstrous appetite and made us oblivious of the other dish simmering to perfection in the crock pot. I only noticed it when everybody had their fill and had no more room to even give it a taste except for one person.

I thought this would definitely be a big hit the following day for our next meal with freshly-steamed jasmine rice or with hot pandesal, don’t you think?

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Courtesy of Elyani

Last Tuesday, my day off, I went on a cooking spree. I cooked four dishes namely Bikol Express, Ginataang Gabi (taro leaves cooked in coconut milk), Chow Mein, and Prawns in Spicy Chili Sauce.

Though I am only going to show one dish and that is Prawns in Spicy Chili Sauce. The only thing I did differently to the recipe was I dipped the shrimps in an egg wash and rolled them on the flour before deep frying.

To make an egg wash, I put 1/2 cup of milk in a bowl. To it, I cracked open one egg, and whisked it into the milk.

Red chilis and shallots before going into the blender.

As per Elyani’s instructions, I only deep fried the shrimps for about a minute on high heat.

And 45 minutes later, here’s what I came up with: Delicious Prawns in Spicy Chili Sauce.

Do you know that I haven’t cooked since last Tuesday because I am still eating leftovers. I even shared a big plate of chow mein, prawns, and brown rice to my friend, Patty so she didn’t have to cook dinner.

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After spending an hour in the backyard weeding, my husband came out to tell me that it was time for our afternoon walk. We walk three miles a day together while I go for a mile more. I usually run the last mile while he stays in the car waiting for me. When we finished walking, I suggested that we order food at a restaurant for dinner. We were craving for shrimp and veggie lo mien stir fry. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed. We were disappointed!

So, I quickly thought of plan B. I remember I gathered some fresh Zucchinis from the garden when I was weeding. I thought I would make a veggie stir fry composed of zucchini, button mushrooms, asparagus, onions, and sweet tomatoes. We swung by at the store and bought the veggies I needed and strips of pork meat. I try to use meat sparingly in my cooking.

As soon as I got home, I washed half of the meat, about quarter of a pound, and marinated it 1 T of soy sauce, 1 t of rice wine, 1 t of cornstarch, 1 t of olive oil, and a pinch of sugar. Next, I washed the veggies, and sliced them into bite size. I put the wok on the stove and cranked the heat at the highest setting while I crushed the garlic and sliced the ginger. And to the wok, I added a tablespoon of oil, then I tossed in the onions, garlic, and ginger. I added the meat next, stirring occasionally for the next 5 minutes. Then I poured in all the veggies. I added a heaping tablespoon of black bean and garlic sauce (or more depending on your taste) to the wok for flavoring. I cooked the veggies for another 4 minutes until the veggies were half way done. I like my veggies crunchy and al dente. For the final touch, I poured two ounces of water in a bowl, dissolved a heaping teaspoon of cornstarch and added it to the dish. Let it simmer for another minute, mixing it all up. Then I poured the dish into a serving plate and my husband and I ate it with steamed rice. Sarap!

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This morning, my husband got a call from our friend, Arne. He asked him if he wanted freshly caught crayfish. Without hesitation, my husband said, “yes, I am on my way, I will be there in 10 minutes.” Of course, he didn’t arrive until half an hour later because he waited for me and my daughter.

Crayfish are very popular in Sweden and in Southern US. Arne is originally from Sweden and he makes crayfish traps and sells it online. Around this time of year, he goes up on the lake in the Mogollon Rim to catch these little creatures. He usually stays overnight to get the most in as crayfish are nocturnal.

My whole family loves crayfish. We consider it a gourmet delight. We like to dip it on katsup. So, when our friend, Arne, was kind enough to offer his catch with us, we were so thrilled. The last time we ate crayfish was a year ago and we are so looking forward for the opportunity to feast on it again. He told my husband to get as many as he wanted. He took 120 of them. Quite a bit!

The moment we got home, we wasted no time boiling the water while the crayfish or crawdads were still alive. My husband added a fair amount of rock salt into the water. He waited until the water reached to a rolling boil and lowered down the strainer filled with crayfish. He waited again until it started boiling and timed it for seven minutes to cook completely. Then he let it sit in the cooking water for a while until it cooled off.

While it was cooling off, I took a piece, took another piece, and another piece. Pretty soon, I had a huge pile of crayfish shells on my plate. It tasted so good! I also gorged on the yellow butter inside the head. Yummy! What a treat!

You may visit Arne’s site here.

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We had a great time last night. Everyone had his/her fill. I took care of the meat, hot dogs, potato salad, dips, and fruits and my friends brought sinigang na bangus, pansit, bratwursts, steaks, and leche plan. My husband filled up the cooler with all kinds of soda and beer. Since I am not a soda or beer person, I cracked open three baby coconuts and poured the juice in the pitcher. I then shredded the meat and mixed it in with the juice. I was going to add some condensed milk for richer flavor but my husband totally opposed the idea. Nevertheless, it was a refreshing treat for the hottest day of the year, so far…104 degress F!

My daughter invited some of her friends, too, so I threw some hot dogs in the grill and I also made the Mexican Dip Ole, which was layers of refried bean, sour cream, avocado, olives, chopped tomatoes, green onions, and shredded cheese. It was the favorite dish among the kids and even finished it off in no time.

An hour later, we all gathered in the front porch to witness the fireworks. My husband positioned the tripod ready. I was so excited at taking photos when, suddenly, I noticed that my camera was completely out of battery. Darn it! I was so busy cleaning and fixing food earlier in the day that I forgot to check my camera. Oh well! I guess I will have to catch it next year.

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