The last time I enjoyed a bowl of champorado was in January during our vacation back home.  It was made with Belgian chocolate and had a scoop of raspberry ice cream and then topped with a fresh strawberry. Yum-mee! I told myself I’ll never have champorado any other way again. That was until I received a box of Ghirardelli Intense Dark treats a week or two ago as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program. *wink*

Hubby and darling daughter have been wanting to get their hands on the chocolates but I just wouldn’t let them. I told them I’m saving those treats for something. Then I thought, it’s about time I made some champorado, raspberry ice cream or no raspberry ice cream!

Champorado is, more often than not, cooked with powdered cocoa.  For this venture, however, I chose to use the Twilight Delight variety of Ghirardelli chocolates, which is 72% cacao. I used an entire bar of chocolate plus a few more of the individually wrapped ones that came in a bag.  It took all of my willpower not to munch on the chocolates! It also seemed like it took forever for the champorado to cook! Everyone was impatiently pacing in the kitchen!

And then finally, after more than an hour or so of stirring, the chocolate-y rice goodness was done! Hubby likes to eat his champorado as is, no milk whatsoever. As for my daughter, my mom and I, we added a little bit of soy milk. When I was little, I had my champorado with lots of evaporated milk. ;)

Do you want to give sweet chocolate rice porridge a chance? Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sweet rice
1 bar (and more!) Ghirardelli  Twilight Delight chocolate
1/2 cup sugar (add more according to taste)
6 – 10 cups of water (add more for a less thick consistency)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Put the rice, sugar and water in a pot.  Cook over high heat until the water starts to boil.
2. When the water starts to boil, turn the heat down to low and stir constantly to prevent the rice from sticking.  Start adding the chocolate. Break the chocolate bar into smaller pieces and then drop in the pot of rice. Stir for 30 to 40 minutes until the rice is cooked.
3. Add more water, 1/2 cup at a time, if you want a less thick consistency. You may also add more chocolate and sugar if you wish.
4.  Serve hot or cold with your choice of milk (fresh, evaporated or soy).

It was late in the afternoon when I made this two days ago. I had a bowl of champorado for dinner and so did my mom. Hubby and my daughter had it as a pre-dinner snack. Hee hee. What can I say? Everyone loved it!  I just love taking gastronomic trips back home. :)

Cheers and mabuhay, y’all!

Last Thursday, I prepared a very simple yet sinfully hearty lunch for hubby and me…Spaghetti in Creamy Aligue (Crab Fat) Sauce.

Thanks to my crab fat stash, which is now down to 1 jar (hu! hu! hu!), lunch was ready in just 15 minutes.  It would have been ready sooner if it were angel hair pasta that was available in my pantry.

To make, I simply emptied the contents of an 8 oz. jar of crab fat (plus the remaining contents of an already opened jar sitting in the fridge – about a quarter of the jar) in a hot pan and added a cup of heavy cream, a tablespoon or two of cooking wine and a sprinkling of lemon juice and stirred and simmered everything for a few minutes.  I tossed the cooked spaghetti in the sauce and voila, lunch was ready.  Hard as hubby and I tried to limit our food intake, we just couldn’t help having seconds.  We could always buy 7 day slimming pill. Kidding! We did save some spaghetti  for our daughter, who herself had 2 helpings of the spaghetti in its creamy crab fat sauce.

Here’s a not so subtle hint for anybody planning to visit us from the Philippines anytime soon:  jars of crab fat would make us very happy and grateful hosts.  Hee hee. :D

Cheers and have a great week ahead y’all!  Mabuhay!

I used a Newman’s Own product in 3 out of the 9 recipes.  These are samples I received as part of the Family Bites program.  One of the easy yet yummy recipes I came up with is Baked Tuna Macaroni Alfredo Verde…

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat elbow macaroni
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 can albacore tuna, drained
1 jar Newman’s Own Alfredo Pasta sauce
1 ½ cups spinach, finely chopped
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, divided
salt and pepper
½ whole wheat bread crumbs (optional)

Instructions:

1.  Cook the pasta according to package instructions. While the pasta is cooking, preheat oven to 350F and start working on the sauce.
2.  In a sauté pan, add canola oil and sauté onions until translucent.  Add tuna.
3.  Add Newman’s Own Alfredo Pasta Sauce and simmer for a minute or two then add the spinach.  Continue to stir for another minute.
4.  Remove from heat then add ½ cup of the parmesan cheese and salt & pepper to taste.  Stir well.
5.  Add the cooked whole wheat pasta to the sauce.  Mix well.
6.  Transfer the macaroni and sauce mixture into a square baking dish.  Top with the rest of the parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.  Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.  Serve immediately.

My 5-year old daughter absolutely loves this dish.  It is a much healthier alternative to Mac and Cheese.  The sauce is all natural.  It has tuna and spinach.  And you can add mushrooms, too!  If you’re in too much of a hurry, you can even skip the baking part.

Thank you, FoodBuzz!  Thank you, Newman’s Own!

Cheers y’all and have a great week ahead! I know I will! :D

Back in the Philippines, we had the luxury of enjoying this dish in a number of Thai restaurants.  None of the Thai restaurants we’ve visited here in the US serve the dish.  So I just make my own. *wink*

The Shrimp Paste Rice I made several nights ago is slightly different from the ones I made before.  One, I used brown rice.  And two, I substituted shrimp for the pork cooked in shrimp paste.

It’s not very often that I make this dish because of the work needed to put it all together.  The mango is cut into strips.  The egg is cooked and cut into strips.  The shrimps are cooked in shrimp paste.  The (cooked) rice is sauteed in shrimp paste.  But it is worth all the time and effort.

My 5-year old loved this.  It helped, of course, that she loves mangoes. :)  One thing’s for sure though, this dish will not end up in her lunch bag.  Hee hee. :D I posted the procedure for making this dish in one of my entries more than a year ago, which you can find HERE.

Last Friday, hubby, my little girl and I were too lazy to get dressed and head out for lunch.  Besides, hubby was working from the hotel room.  Hubby suggested that we just raid BIL’s cupboard and freezer.  We found a box of spaghetti, a jar of 3-cheese pasta sauce and a pound of frozen large shrimps.  Well, well, well, that looked like a perfect  lunch…an uncooked one!  So room service it was for hubby and the little munchkin, with me as their personal in-room chef.

I didn’t mind the cooking.  Not one bit.  It took all of 3o minutes to put everything together, maybe less even!  I love that the kitchenette, tiny as it was, was fully equipped.  It had a regular-sized fridge and stainless steel pots and pans that were of very good quality, thick and heavy.  There were Pyrex bowls and a good-sized strainer, too.  Everything I needed to cook a decent meal was there.  I would have loved an oven for quick pizzas.  Then again, I might get a crazy idea to bake so it’s actually quite a blessing that there’s no oven.

My daughter enjoyed her Shrimp and Pasta Bowl, while Hubby and I enjoyed our Shrimp and Pasta Plate…

Just like my womens vitamins, I make sure my pantry/fridge is never out of (whole wheat) pasta, all natural pasta sauce and some protein to go with the pasta.  That way, whenever I am under a lazy spell, I can always whip up a quick yet healthy and filling meal. ;)

Going back to the cold soba, I think it took me the longest time to give it due attention because I thought it wasn’t too exciting.  Because really, it’s just cold noodles with nori strips paired with a dipping sauce, at it’s barest at least.  Then again, after that first time I got to taste it, I realized it wasn’t so bad after all.  Not at all!  I immediately liked it…a lot!   These days, when I’m too lazy to cook up a storm, we have cold soba for lunch or dinner.  We’re having it more often now that it’s Lent.  You can have it with a side of hard boiled eggs (quail or chicken) or more exciting proteins and veggies.

INGREDIENTS:

Japanese buckwheat noodles
soba tsuyu (noodle dipping sauce)
nori (roasted shredded seaweed)
wasabi ( I prefer the powdered wasabi)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Add noodles to a pot of boiling water and cook for about 4-5 minutes on high heat, or until the noodles reach the desired tenderness.
2.  Strain noodles into a colander and rinse under cold running water (iced water will be even better as you want your soba to be cold).  Drain well then transfer to a plate.
3.  Garnish with the nori and serve with dipping sauce.

So simple and easy to make, isn’t it?!  Any simpler and you might as well be buying food to-go.  I put a lot of wasabi in my dipping sauce, enough to clear my nasal passages (but not too much that I’ll be in danger of needing hemorrhoids cream. Kidding!).

Have a great weekend, y’all!  Cheers!

We were at Whole Foods Market two or three weeks ago purposely to buy organic brown rice.  Yes, we are slowly phasing white rice out of our diet and transitioning to healthier carbs. However, we still have a lot of white rice so it may be a while before it’s totally phased out of our daily meals, at least for hubby and my little girl. :D  During that trip to Whole Foods, I also threw in a pack of Organic Whole Wheat Penne in our shopping cart.  I made Shrimp and Herbed Cream Sauce, which is now a family favorite , to go with the penne.  It’s funny  how hubby’s and my Mom’s faces lit up like communication towers with a cell phone signal booster when I told them we were having this for lunch not too long ago.  Pasta love, I tell you!

This is a Giada de Laurentiis recipe that I immediately fell in love with when it was aired in her Food Network show, Giada at Home. I searched for the recipe at the Food Network website, which can be found HERE.  I made a few substitutions.  Instead of clam juice, I used shrimp juice. I simply put a few uncooked shrimp heads on a mortar, added a bit of water and pounded the shrimp heads with a pestle and strained the juice. ;) I also used fresh tomatoes instead of canned whole tomatoes.  Instead of medium shrimps, I used large ones!  Medium shrimps just don’t cut it for us. Haha! And the red pepper flakes we just add to our own individual servings.

Here’s my adapted recipe…

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound organic whole wheat penne pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon sea salt plus extra for seasoning
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning
3 pieces good-sized roma tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 cup white wine
1/3 cup shrimp juice
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the pasta and set aside.

2. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. Cook, stirring frequently until the shrimp turn pink and is cooked through, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the shrimp and set aside.

3. Add the tomatoes, 1/4 cup basil, 1/4 cup parsley, and the red pepper flakes (if using). Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the wine, shrimp juice, and heavy cream. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes until the sauce thickens. Add 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, the cooked shrimp, the cooked pasta, and the remaining herbs. Toss together until all ingredients are coated. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

4. Transfer the pasta to a large serving bowl. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and serve immediately.

We love love love this pasta dish.  Then again, I’ve always been partial to cream sauce for pasta…the richer, the creamier the better.  Hee hee.  But that can no longer be the case.  I now choose my food battles and I choose wisely. ;)

Have a great weekend, y’all!  Cheers!

The Arroz a la Valenciana turned out nicely…better even had I cut the chicken pieces a tad smaller as the size kinda intimidated my friends.  Hee hee!  The addition of Spanish chorizo would have made it perfect.  Too bad we got the wrong kind of chorizo, which I had the common sense not to add to the dish!  I love meals-in-one like this.  It is simple enough to be made on a regular basis. I used my 5-qt saute pan, by the way, as my paella pan has long made its way to the dumpster.  Poor quality. Hmp.

INGREDIENTS:

1 2 1/2 to 3-pound chicken, cut into serving pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
oil for frying
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup tomato sauce
6 potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 pieces Spanish chorizo, sliced thinly
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup red bell peppers with the seeds removed and julienned (i.e., sliced lengthwise into 1/4 to 1/2 inch-wide strips)
2 cups sweet peas
3 cups uncooked rice cooked in chicken broth (you can use water, but chicken broth makes for a better arroz ;) )
3 hard boiled eggs for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Season chicken with salt and pepper. Brown in hot oil in a 5-quart saute pan.  Set aside.
2.  In the same pan, saute garlic, onion and tomato sauce until the mixture has taken on a sauce-like consistency.
3.  Add potatoes, chorizo and 4 cups of chicken broth.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Then stir and reduce heat to low.
4.  Add bell pepper and sweet peas.  When the bell pepper and peas lose their cirsptness, remove 1 cup of stock from the pot and set aside.
5.  Add the cooked rice and cooked chicken to the pan.    Mix thoroughly until well blended.
6.  Add the reserved stock and cook uncovered over low heat until mixture becomes dry.  Serve on a large platter and garnish with sliced hard-boiled egg.

You might want to serve some lemon wedges on the side, too!  I love to squeeze a bit of lemon on my arroz before digging in.  In addition to the chicken, you can also use some pork loin pieces.  If you can’t find Spanish chorizo, you can use pepperoni instead.

Christmas is on Friday.  Keep safe and don’t drink and drive.  Nobody wants a trip to the hospital or deal with lawyers (motorcycle accident lawyers or any lawyer for that matter!) ever.

Have the greatest Christmas week ever!  Cheers!

The first time I cooked this dish, I paired it with steamed rice and it got good reviews from Hubby and my Mom. But after I had the chance to really taste it, it occurred to me that it is best paired with crispy/pan-fried noodles.  And that’s how I have been serving this dish ever since…over crispy noodles.

Well, the first time, the noodles weren’t at all crispy.  I used pancit canton but I made the mistake of soaking the noodles in lukewarm water.  I ended up with “lomein” that was overly soggy.  The second time I made this was on my birthday.  I heeded the advise of 4 people and just poured the stir-fried seafood over the noodles.  That worked really well…but the sauce got way too salty.  Tsk tsk.  That’s what I get for doubling the recipe.  :D

The third time proved to be a charm, that was some time early this month.

I made sure I didn’t go overboard seasoning the stir-fried seafood with salt.  In the first place, the noodles has a bit of a salty taste to it already. I always use sea salt, by the way, which I find to be less salty than iodized salt.  That said, I have a tendency to go wild with the salt shaking. :D

Here’s the recipe, good for 4-6 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 lb seafood (scallops, prawns or fish or a combination of the seafood of your choice)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 t grated fresh ginger root
1 t rice wine
1 T cornstarch
2 t soy sauce
2 T oil

2 cups assorted vegetables (pepper, carrots, mushrooms, eggplant, onions, pea pods, etc.)
2 T rice wine
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup soup stock
1 T cornstarch (dissolved in soup stock)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Prepare vegetables.
2.  Marinate seafood in garlic, ginger root, rice wine, cornstarch and soy sauce.
3.  Heat wok and add 2T oil; stir-fry seafood and remove from pan.
4.  Add vegetables to wok.  Add rice wine, salt and soup stock.  Bring to a full boil stirring constantly.
5.  Return seafood to wok and cook for another 1/2 minute or so.
6.  Service with rice or over pan-fried noodles.

This is a good way to get your family to eat veggies and seafood.  I love that this dish is healthy.  And if you’ve got veggies and seafood this good, you won’t event want appetite suppressants anywhere near you. Really!

If you plan on serving the stir-fried seafood with noodles, I would strongly suggest that you double the amount of the soup stock and adjust the seasoning according to your taste.  Whenever I make this dish, I always double the recipe and add more soup stock so I’ll have more sauce. ;)

Noodles for long life! :)

It was just my luck that on Labor Day, September 7th, I scored a Spanish paella pan at Sur La Table at 40% off.  It’s a 13.5″ paella pan, priced originally at $19.95.  I got it for only $11.96.  Woot! ;)

So last Friday, I treated my family and our guest to a little trip to Spain, albeit gastronomically, via Chicken and Shrimp Paella and for dessert, Canonigo (to be featured in an upcoming entry)…

Our little trip to Spain took longer than expected.  Lunch was not served until 3pm! :D  It was my very first attempt at cooking paella.  Hopefully, the 2nd time won’t take as long.  For this paella, I took my cue from a Mario Batali recipe on Oprah.com.  I had to make some substitutions and adjustments.  A good thing about paella is that it is a blank canvas, and one is pretty much free to use the ingredients he or she fancies: seafood, chicken, pork, etc.

Here’s the (adjusted!) recipe good for a 13.5″ to 14″ paella pan, which serves 6:

INGREDIENTS:

20-25 pieces boneless chicken thighs (approx. 2″ x 2″ each)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. medium shrimps
1 medium onion , cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 cup tomato puree
1 tsp. kosher salt , or to taste
1 tsp. saffron threads
1-2 Tbsp. paprika
2 quarts chicken stock
2 cups bomba or other short grain rice
3/4 cup green peas
10 spears pencil asparagus , stalks cut on the diagonal into 1/4-inch thick slices

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Season the chicken pieces with salt and cook on a stove top grill which has been coated with non-stick cooking spray.  Alternatively, you can bake the chicken (seasoned with salt)  in a 400F oven for 20-25 minutes.  Set aside.

2. Heat a 14- to 18-inch paella pan over medium-high heat. Add the oil and heat until smoking. Add the shrimp and cook until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

3. Add the onion to the pan and cook until soft, about 8 minutes. Push the onions into the center of the pan and sprinkle some salt (about 1/2 to 1 Tbsp around the edges of the pan.

4.  Add the tomato puree, stirring it into the onions, and cook for 3 minutes. Add some salt (to taste), the saffron, paprika and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.

5.  Add chicken stock, bring to a boil, and cook for 5 minutes.

6.  Add the rice and stir well to distribute it evenly. Add shrimps, drumsticks, arranging them nicely throughout the pan. Then add the peas and asparagus and bring the stock back to a boil, and cook, without stirring, for 10 minutes.

7.  Taste for salt and add it if needed, then cook, again without stirring, for 10 more minutes, or until the liquid is almost completely absorbed and the pan starts to make a crackling noise (don’t worry, this is what you want).

8.  Remove from the heat, cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

The original recipe calls for sweet pimenton, which I could not get my hands on, so I used regular paprika instead.    Also, I did not pour all of the chicken stock at once, as it would have overflowed.  I initially poured just enough that it wouldn’t spill out of the pan when it started to boil.  I added the rest of the chicken stock later on when the amount of stock in the pan has already reduced.

The beauty of having lunch at 3pm is that everyone’s already so hungry, so much so that we all had more than a single helping of the paella…and several helpings more of the canonigo. ;)  Paella lunch, as Rina would say, was “successful”. :D

Have a great week ahead, y’all!  Coming up next, my Canonigo entry. ;)