Banana Walnut Bread Version 1

Finally got the extra cash to buy a mixer at SM department store today!!sweet! :) so here's to the first version of my attempt to make banana walnut cake (inspired by all the extra bananas (extra ripe too))
The husband was very happy with the result and gave me an evil smile which meant "this has all the potential of being the house favorite and I want more slices please"

What you need:
3   pcs.   very very ripe bananas (approximately 1 cup)
2   pcs.   eggs at room temperature
1/2 tsp.   vanilla extract
1/2 cup   unsalted butter
1    cup   brown sugar (reduce to 3/4 cups if sugar conscious ^_^)
1.5 cups organic unbleached all purpose flour
1    tsp.   baking soda
1/2 tsp.   fine salt
1/2 cups toasted walnuts (bought walnuts at healthy options)
9" x 5" x 3" loaf pan

Steps:
1. Mash bananas with fork, set aside
2. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, set aside
3. Whisk eggs and vanilla extract with a fork in a bowl., set aside
4. Brush loaf pan with butter, set aside
5. Preheat oven to 350F
6. Cream butter and sugar via the electric mixer, until consistency is light and fluffy
7. Gradually pour the egg & vanilla mixture while mixing.. mix until well blended.
8. Add mashed bananas
9. Slowly mix the "flour, salt, baking soda" mixture. Mix this using a rubber spatula. mix until well incorporated.
10. Fold in walnuts (will probably add more nuts in the next version)
11. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan
12. Bake for 55 mins.
13. Let it cool in the oven rack for 10 mins. store it by wrapping it in a plastic cellophane.

Catz notes: For best results: eat it the next day :) along with some cottage cheese and coffee! :)

Fin :)

Multigrain Kiampong!

Been cooking this dish for quite a while now :) It's been a main stay in our menu for a while as well ^_^. Kiampong is a Filipino-Chinese dish very similar to Paella but in an Oriental setting. Usually, Kiampong is made from combination of sticky rice and long grain rice.. with this version, I used Greenmax's Chinese Yam with Multigrain rice (combination of oats, job's tears, brown rice, sorghum rice, barley, buckwheat, pearl rice, gordon euryale seeds, and wheat). Relatively easy to prepare but will take a bit of time to cook :)

Some snapshots of the ingredients used:

Ingredients: 

2 chinese sausages, cut into quarter inch thick slices

6 dried squid (1 dried squid is about 4 inches long, cut into strips) 

6 shitake mushroom (soaked in hot water, remove stem, cut into 4 pcs, set aside the water used in soaking the mushroom)

3 cups of multigrain rice

1 can 256grams of Gulong stewed sliced pork

3.5 cups of water

fried onions flakes

roasted or fried peanuts

green onions

Steps: 

1. wash multigrain rice once, then soak the multigrain rice for 30minutes in 3.5 cups water

2. Add squid strips, shitake mushroom, and braised pork in the multigrain rice. 

3. Stir fry sausages until fragrant, add into the multigrain rice as well.

4. Mix everything well together.

5. Set rice cooker to cook for 1 hour (My rice cooker has a setting where you can set what type of rice you are cooking, so in this case, I just indicated that I'm cooking brown rice,it takes my rice cooker 2 hours to cook brown rice, so cooking time might actually depend of the type of rice cooker, regular rice cooker would probably take 1 hour to cook)

6. Stir the rice every few minutes to make sure the toppings float on top :)

7. When rice is done, garnish it with peanuts, fried onions, and green onions on top. 

Fin :)

Niratama - stirfry chives with eggs

The husband took me on a date during the Halloween vacation to celebrate our many accomplishments for the month of October 2011.  We ate at our usual cozy Japanese resto, Isshin, of course! :) but this time, instead of our usual chicken terriyaki, ebi tempura, and gyoza, I decided to skip on the gyoza and instead tried something new - Niratama - good call haha. Niratama is Nira (chives) + Tamago (egg), chives looks a bit like green onions but doesn't taste one bit like green onion - it is way way way better. I learned about chives while browsing through some Korean recipes few months ago and realized that I've already crossed paths with Chives a lot of times, chives is also called Kuchay!! - fried siopao, kuchay pie and kuchay dumplings??am not a big fan of green onions or leeks, but chives I like, no, no, I love. So, inspired by Isshin's Niratama, I tried to come up with my own version of Niratama:

Ingredients: 

240 grams of chives

3-4 eggs

2 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 Tbsp. light soy sauce

1 Tbsp. mirin

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Steps: 

1. Wash chives, cut into 3cm pcs, discard the bottom 2cm end

2. Lightly beat eggs

3. Add sesame oil, light soy sauce, mirin, and black pepper into eggs. 

4. Heat up wok or frying pan, medium high heat and add 1 tsp oil. 

5. When oil is hot enough, add chives  and cook for about 30 - 45 seconds

6. Reduce heat to medium. Add eggs and scramble until done. 

Fin :)

Chinese Beef Stew with Shitake Mushroom and Radish

My camera ran out of battery, took this with my camera instead :P

I got lucky at the grocery last Sunday! :) I was able to get half kilo of kien-chi also called beef shin, woot! woot! :) usually, to get beef shin, you need to be really really early at the supermarket because they sell really fast! Originally, I was thinking of cooking beef soup with radish.. but then a better idea floated in my head when I was about to boil it for soup. so what I cooked was- Beef shin stew with shitake mushroom and radish: 

A bit tedious to prepare but soooo worth it, goes well with puto.

Ingredients:

500 grams of Beef shin, sliced into cubes (2 - 3 inch cubes)

1 pc. raddish. cut into pieces.

6 pcs shitake mushroom (soak in hot water to soften, remove stem and slice each of the mushroom into 4 pcs, you can set aside some of the water used to soften for added flavor)

5 tbsp.oil

2 tbsp. chopped garlic

5 cm. cube of ginger

1.5 star anise

2 large onions

10-12 whole black peppercorns

3 tbsp. dark soy sauce

3 tbsp. light soy sauce

2 tbsp. sugar (I use brown sugar, if you're like me, you want to increase the sugar to 4 tbsp. because I so love it sweet)

1 tsp. salt

2.5 cups of water

Steps:

1. Heat oil, medium heat

2. Add in Onion, garlic, and ginger, cook until onion is light brown

3. Add beef shin, stir fry for a few minutes, until beef is cooked and light brown.

4. Add 2.5 cups of water, shitake mushroom, star anise, peppercorns, soy sauce, sugar, and salt

5. Change to low heat when it boils and cook for 2 hours or more.

6. Add radish, cook for 15 more minutes.

Fin! :)

Oriental Braised Pork Ribs

The husband hates five spice and got me really worried if this dish will be a success.. and here's what happened after 10 minutes:

Spoils of war

Relatively simple to prepare :)Turns out, all the hate for five spice were immediately thrown out the window upon eating the ribs - a big relief! :)

Ingredients: 

2 Pounds of Pork Ribs, cut into individual ribs

1/2 Tbsp. Five Spice

1/2 Cup Hoisin Sauce

1/4 Cup Shao Xing Rice Wine

1/4 Cup Honey

1/4 Cup Agave Nectar (or Honey)

2 Tbsp. Light Soy Sauce

Steps: 

1. Rub five spice evenly into the ribs

2. In a zip lock bag, add hoisin sauce, shao xing wine, honey, agave nectar, and soy sauce. Mix well. 

3. Add in the pork ribs. Marinate overnight. 

4. Preheat broiler 225°C for 10 mins with the rack, make sure that you use a low rack (at least 4 inches away from the heat). Preheating the broiler can produce a crispier outside coating.

5. Remove excess marinade from pork ribs. Line them up in the broiler rack. Set aside excess marinade.

6. Cook for 20 minutes.

7. Brush marinade into the ribs and cook for another 5 minutes. 

Fin :)

Experimental Sweet & Spicy Grilled Pork Chops

Still a work in progress on the saltiness, but a keeper nonetheless.  ^_^ I was sort of able to rescue the blandness by adding sea salt with rosemary herbs when the pork chops were done.

Some snapshot of the ingredients used:

Ingredients:

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup Honey

1/4 Cup Sweet Soy Glaze or just your regular light soy sauce

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

2 Tsp. Chili Flakes

Lemon juice from 1 Lemon

4 Pork Chop Steaks 3/4 inch thick

Steps:

1. In a zip lock bag, combine brown sugar, honey, sweet soy glaze, olive oil, chili flakes, and lemon juice. Mix well.

2. Make sure the sugar has already dissolved, add the pork chop steaks. Marinate for 1 hour or more.

3. Remove the pork chops from the marinade, drain excess marinade.

4. Preheat the grill to hot.

5. Once grill is heated, lower the temp to medium low. 

6. Lightly oil the grill. 

7. Add Pork Chop steak, cook for 4 minutes on each side. 

8. When Pork chop is done, season it with some sea salt. 

Fin :)

Sewing Machine Wishlist

I'm now in search for the perfect sewing machine. Sadly, one of the sewing machine that I'm considering is not available here. :-(
1. Brother CS6000i Sew Advance - Computerized Free Arm Sewing Machine - will cost me around 169USD, 110V, very affordable :)

2. Brother BM2600  - Entry Level Mechanical Sewing Machine - this one's available here in Manila though :) but awaiting for the possibility that I might be able to get the one on top hehehe :-P