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.

Apricot Jam

Tags

apricot, apricot jam, bread and butter, food, fruit jam, jam, recipe

Apricots are abundant these days and it’s quite cheap. Royal Chef wanted to make jam and so I watched and took photos thinking… So that’s how much sugar is going in the jam. 

Royal Chef bought 1.4 kg ripe apricots worth RMB 11 or USD 1.10 and then 1 kilo sugar that cost RMB 15 or USD 2.33. Cheapo!

At first, he was quite disappointed with the results, saying it wasn’t the jam consistency that he wanted, so he rated it 6.5/10. But this morning, he happily informed me that the jam was delicious and he said he’s raising his ratings to 7!  :) I say it’s a 7.5 – 8!

It smells delicious! Though I was expecting it to smell like the St. Ives Apricot Scrub, but to my surprise, it doesn’t smell like facial scrub! By the way, I highly recommend St. Ives Apricot Scrub, it’s heavily loaded with beads (walnut shell powder) that exfoliates and invigorates your skin! And it also reminds me of my grandma, because she likes to use it <3.

Ok, moving on…

Bicol Express

Tags

bicol express, bicol express and bagoong, bicol express and shrimp paste, filipino cuisine, food, pork, recipe, shrimp paste

I am quite proud of this recipe. It’s my first time to cook it and it turned out alright. In fact, Royal Chef rated it 8 out 10 stars!! Wohoo! He said he would have given it 9 stars had it been spicier. Meh, I though bigger chilies are spicier than the small ones.

The dish Bicol Express is named after the train route from Manila to Bicol region, where it is known for its spicy cuisine.

For this recipe, I’ve used pork and chicken. The grocery had a limited selection of pork meat, so I bought pork fat instead (for the flavor) and chicken breast.

Oh, and I have to remind you, that cooking shrimp paste will stink up your house. So ventilate!

Chicken Spinach Curry

Tags

beer, chicken, chicken curry, chicken spinach curry, curry, food, recipe, rice

It is rated 9 out of 10 stars by Royal Chef. It is that good, considering he has a very high standard when it comes to food. After the meal, he immediately sent the photo to his best friend who also mentioned that this meal is one of his favorites.

I rated it 8.5 because it was missing potatoes and carrots. It’s quite different from what I am used to, but I like it, and the spinach didn’t taste iron-y so that was good, too.

Stuffed Ampalaya (Stuffed Bitter Gourd)

Tags

ampalaya, food, pork, recipe, stuffed ampalaya, stuffed bitter gourd, stuffed bitter melon

This is a post I’m not really proud of. It tastes good but it looks ugly. Didn’t I say I will blog of my cooking misadventures? So here is one proof that I’m not a good cook.

I actually wanted to impress Royal Chef with this fancy “stuffed bitter gourd” dish, but disappointingly failed.

Actually, the stuffing is not so bad, it’s the bitter gourd that is… well, bitter. Royal Chef, after taking a big bite, remarked “It does have a bitter aftertaste, no?”

I got the recipe from my trusty Pinoy recipe website, Panlasang Pinoy. It seemed easy enough, but no, the stuffing part is difficult, let me tell you. Stuffing meat  into that small hole is hard.

Uncooked stuffed bitter gourd. Looks nice. Read the rest of the page to see the cooked ugly stumps. 

Mais con yelo (Corn with ice)

Tags

corn, corn with ice, food, ice, mais con yelo, milk, recipe, sugar

I remember letting Royal Chef and his friend, Boris, try mais con yelo last year. After just trying out one spoonful, they were weirded out and said they don’t like it. It’s strange, they said, as corn in milk and sugar topped with ice is an unlikely combination.

But back in the Philippines, this is a popular snack especially in the peak summer months. It’s another variety of halo-halo, which I still have yet to scout the ingredients in Beijing and let Royal Chef try some.