Hot Buttered Rum

Tags

Drinks, Hot Butter Rum, Tanduay Rum

On our vacation in Palawan, we made some rum and coke that Chef was so impressed with the cheap Tanduay Rum that on both occasions that we went back to Philippines, we managed to bring 3 big bottles of Tanduay Rum Superior and a bottle of Tanduay 1854 with us (in which the first trip, 2 bottles of vinegar were confiscated before we even entered the Philippine airport’s departure; reason corrosive).

So anyway, last night we had dinner with a friend and Chef prepared a very nice warm hot buttered rum drink. It’s definitely better than rum coke and it’s another alternative to mulled wine. And it’s very easy to make.

Buttery good…

Ingredients:
Cinnamon – a few sticks
Apple juice
Cloves -2
Moscovado (or brown sugar)
Nutmeg
butter

Procedure:
1. In a saucepan, heat apple juice, cinnamon, grated nutmeg and cloves until it boils
2. In a cup, put one teaspoon moscovado, one teaspoon butter and put a stick of cinnamon
3. Pour the apple juice in the cup and stir until butter melts
4. Pour a shot of rum (50ml) and stir. Serve immediately and enjoy.

Careful it’s hot

Tanduay Rum Superior

Baked Potatoes

Tags

Bacon, Baked, Baked Potatoes, Butter, cheese, Potato

Happy 2012!

New Year’s was spent in the hometown (Dagupan) and Royal Chef cooked for the family. Menu was spaghetti meatballs, shrimp tempura, beef fajita with salsa and guacamole, baked potatoes, and chocolate mousse for desert.

Baked potatoes weren’t actually in the menu but my aunt asked Chef how it is done because whenever she makes it, it seems like it’s never right. They mentioned the Wendy’s baked potato style (to which I never heard and tried). And so, Chef made some baked potatoes!

Ingredients:

Potatoes – 5 pcs

Butter

Cheese – grated

Bacon – fried to crisps; crushed

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Thoroughly poke the potatoes with a fork.

2. Microwave the potatoes in high heat for 30 minutes. Be careful and check on the microwave from time to time as our microwave made weird grunting sounds 28 minutes in.

3. Remove the potatoes from microwave. Brush a thin layer of oil on the potatoes and sprinkle salt. Place them in a pre-heated oven for 30-45 minutes; high heat for the first 15-20 mins then lower the heat for the rest of the time.

4. Remove the potatoes and slice each in half. Be careful as it’s really hot. 

5. Scoop the potato out in a bowl while maintaining the potato shell intact.

6. Mash the potato and mix butter, some cheese, bits of crushed bacon and salt in.

7. Re-scoop the mashed potatoes in the shell, sprinkle cheese and crushed bacon on top. Re-heat in oven for a few minutes.

8. Serve hot and enjoy!

Sweaty potatoes in the microwave

Scooping the potato insides out… be careful it’s hot! 

Hot and cheesy! 

Arroz Caldo

As the Beijing temperature drops lower (it’s 0C at the moment), warm food becomes more and more appealing. What better way to warm up the stomach by serving arroz caldo, a Spanish-influenced Chinese congee popular in Philippines.

Arroz caldo is (accdg to Wikipedia) served to the ill and elderly. It’s also a nice comfort food during rainy season in the Philippines.

I remember this was the second dish (the first one being Beef Steak Filipino-style) I ever cooked for Royal Chef and he loved it!

Ingredients:
1 big ginger
1 onion – chopped
2 tbsp garlic – chopped
1 1/2 cups rice – uncooked
chicken – preferably bone-parts
5 cups water
4 pcs medium/hard boiled eggs
scallions – julienned
ground pepper
fish sauce
chicken cube
lemon/lime or kalamansi
2 tbsp oil

Procedure:
1. In a big pot, fry 1/3 of the garlic, onions and ginger in oil
2. Add the chicken in and fry until the chicken skin turns golden brown (or you may also cook the chicken separately to brown it faster), dash in some fish sauce and ground pepper
3. Add the rice in and cook for several minutes; add the chicken cube and dissolve properly

4. Pour in water and bring to boil
5. Let it simmer and stir occasionally until rice cooks (30-40 minutes)
6. While waiting for the arroz caldo to cook, fry the rest of the garlic until it turns golden brown
6. Serve with fried garlic, scallions and kalamansi (or lemon/lime) on top. Enjoy!

PS. As I like my congee to be really creamy, thick and sticky, I’d boil the rice for a long time. But some people prefer their congee to retain the shape of the rice, so boil less or until rice is just cooked. So it really depends on you if you like your rice to still be intact or disintegrated.

Bibimbap

Again, it’s been a while since I’ve posted.

Here’s a quick post about Bibimbap (石锅拌饭 shí guō bàn fàn), literally meaning "mixed meal". It’s a famous Korean meal, and it’s me and Royal Chef’s favorite.

It would work better if you have a stone pot at home (shi guo). If you’re in China, search up 石锅 on taobao, it’s just RMB 27.97!

So anyway, you can mix whatever stuff you want. For our recipe, we’ve used chicken, shredded carrots, sprouts, mushrooms, and spinach. You may add more stuff like cucumber, tofu, etc.

How to:
1. Prepare cooked white rice
2. Marinate the chicken in chili paste (gochujang), sesame oil, a pinch of salt and sugar
3. Fry the spinach in a little bit of water until soft, set aside
4. Fry the sliced mushrooms in oil until soft, set aside
5. Fry the chicken until cooked, set aside

6. Coat the inside of the stone pot with a little bit of oil
7. Put the rice in
8. Spread the vegetables and meat around for "visual appeal"
9. Put the stone pot on top of your stove and cook for about 5-10 minutes or depends if you want crispy rice to stick around the bowl
10. Fry an egg "sunny side up" and serve on top, ENJOY! (or you can put a raw egg in as it will slowly be cooked anyway once it’s mixed, although it might not be safe here in the Middle Kingdom)

Disclaimer: Royal Chef is so square that he says what we cooked is not the traditional Korean bibimbap; we were just using up whatever is left in the fridge. To know more about traditional Korean cooking, leave a comment on HIS website and he will attend to your nitty-gritty questions, thankyouverymuch.

PS. Not sure how this post would look like in this blog, I’m just using the post-to-email option because the internet.is.freaking.non-existent!!! AGHH!!!

Lemon Cheesecake

Tags

digestive biscuits, lemon, lemon cheesecake, mascarpone

After our scrumptious Chicken Fajitas with Guacamole and Salsa dip, we had Lemon Cheesecake for dessert.

I suggested to Royal Chef that we use graham crackers as the crust; surprise, he has never heard of what graham crackers are! What they usually use, he said, is digestive biscuit.

Originally, we wanted to make cookies or maybe cupcakes, but unfortunately we needed a proper mixer for the ingredients or else mixing by hand won’t be as smooth.

Chicken Fajitas with Guacamole and Salsa Dip

Tags

avocado, chicken, fajitas, grilled, guacamole, mexican, salsa

After browsing the interwebs for recipes, Royal Chef finally decided on Chicken Fajitas with Salsa and Guacamole and Lemon Cheesecake.

We prepared the cheesecake first, marinated the chicken, then prepared the dips. After the dips are done, then we started to grill the chicken, onions, and pepper. Last to go in the pan is the wrap.

Note: Text post is quite long as there’s so much stuff to do. Especially chopping and mincing the onions, tomatoes and avocado. But it was all well worth it. It took us about 2 hours to cook everything, and by that time, the cheesecake was ready, too.

Lamb Burger

Tags

burger, coriander seeds, cucumber, cumin, lamb, mint, relish

It’s been a long while since I’ve blogged. It’s National Day here in China and we get October 1-9 off. Hopefully, we’d be able to post more food in the following days. 

Last weekend, we were invited to a friend’s BBQ party (blog about previous BBQ here) just before it gets too cold here in Beijing, so me and Royal Chef contemplated on what to throw in the grill to make the most out of the BBQ.

Royal Chef said he wanted to grill lamb patties, so Lamb Burger it is.

After searching the internet for lamb burger recipes, Royal Chef has decided on Lamb Burger with Cucumber Relish.

Lamb meat can be a bit too fragrant, so cumin and mint makes it a little bit balanced as well as the cucumber makes it refreshingly crunchy and nice.

Pork Broccoli

Tags

pork broccoli

Here’s one recipe that I’m quite comfortable to cook. After many attempts to replicate my mom’s beef broccoli (and still attempting), I can honestly say that I can cook a broccoli dish and feed it to my anyone and be proud of it.

I haven’t quite perfected my mom’s beef broccoli, so there’s no blog post about that yet. In this post, it’s pork broccoli. I’m not sure if I’ve had pork in broccoli before or if it works, but there’s ground pork in the fridge and I can’t be bothered to cook a time-consuming dish, so pork broccoli it is!

 

Vietnamese Rolls (gỏi cuốn)

Tags

food, goi cuon, pork, recipe, spring rolls, vietnamese rolls

Another cool summer eat is Vietnamese spring roll – the fresh herbs, cooling cucumber, crunchy fillings and tasty meat (we used pork)… AND the sauce! The name says it all, gỏi cuốn – literally means summer roll.

It’s quite different from the Filipino or Chinese spring roll that I’m used to; it’s fried or rolled fresh with flour wraps. And the ingredients are all chopped up and mixed together with crushed peanuts and sugar, and the sauce is quite sour-ish.

Actually, my first taste of Vietnamese roll was just a few months ago, with Royal Chef at Susu. There was a bowl of water (for the rice paper wrap) on our table and I asked Royal Chef is that for washing our hands? Errr…

So anyway, here’s the recipe for Vietnamese rolls. Royal Chef rates it 8 to 8.5 out of 10 stars! He is very pleased, though he said the sauce should have been a little bit sweeter (there’s a reason for that, read on).

PS. I did the cooking!!

Cold Noodles (leng mian, 冷面)

Tags

beijing, china, cold noodles, food, leng mian, recipe, 冷面

Cold noodles or lěngmiàn (冷面) is me and Royal Chef’s favorite dish to eat especially during summer as it doesn’t make you hot and it’s quite “refreshing”. Although I have to admit, I still eat lengmian even during winter, it’s just so good!

There are a lot of variants to lengmian. Those sold in 7-11 are quite good, but Royal Chef said it’s loaded with MSG; while the ones sold in Carrefour are ok, but they aren’t quite as tasty. The noodles also differ in size, shape as well as what it’s made of.

So here’s Royal Chef’s version.