PASTA VONGOLE

I've been meaning to cook a version of this, ever since I've tasted this pasta in an Italian restaurant in Tagaytay. Since I was able to buy fresh clams today at Centris Sunday Market, I had the perfect opportunity to prepare this one. 

A bit of background on this, "Vongole" is the Italian word for clams. This pasta dish is simply spaghetti and clams. You can prepare this dish in two ways: with tomatoes (in rosso) and without (in bianco). For my version, I like it without tomatoes. Others like to cook this too with cream or with white wine. Considering the low fat and high fiber 1400 calorie diet imposed on me by my Endocrinologist (due to hypothyroidism), I decided to forego the cream and white wine. 

It's yummy and light too! It's perfect for people who are in a diet. Following a diet does not necessarily mean that you'll eat bland food. It all boils down to choices, moderation and variety. This is one example of good food for health-conscious people. 

Also, if you're tied of eating tomato-based pasta, cream-based pasta or the olive oil-based pasta, try this recipe for a change. 

Buon Appetito!

Ingredients:

500 grams Spaghetti or Spaghettini
1 teaspoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil 
1 kilo fresh clams
150 milliliters or or about 2/3 cup chicken stock or water
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup arugula, finely chopped
3 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
Salt & Pepper


Procedure: 

1. Cook pasta according to package directions (making sure that it's cooked al dente). 
2. In a pan (using medium fire), saute the garlic in extra virgin olive oil for 2 minutes 
3. Add in the clams and cook until the shells open. 
4. Pour the chicken stock or water in the pan and let it simmer until the liquid is reduced to half. Season with a dash of salt & pepper. 
5. Add the Parmesan cheese.
6. Take the pan off the heat and add the parsley. 
7. Mix the clams with the pasta and top off with arugula. 
8. Top the pasta with extra Parmesan cheese if desired. 

Scrapped Ham Frittata

Food certainly brings back happy memories for many people, including me. My mom usually cooked this dish a day after Christmas when we had lots of leftovers. Since my sister gave me scrapped ham, I decided to cook the Scrapped Ham Frittata  so that my son would  get to taste and appreciate my mom's legacy. 

Scrapped ham is definitely tastier than the usual ham slices. It's great on its own, but more sumptuous with potatoes and eggs. 

And I was right! Joaqui loves this meal. I hope you'll enjoy this recipe too. 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Scrapped Ham, diced
2 small or 1 medium size potatoes, diced

2 small tomatoes, diced
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed & finely chopped
4 large size eggs
1 tablespoon Fresh Milk
1 tablespoon Mayonnaise
Salt & Pepper
3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil 

Procedure: 

1. Heat a non-stick pan under a medium fire. Once the pan is hot, pour 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Once heated, fry the diced potatoes. Cook until the potatoes are golden brown. Remove from fire and transfer the potatoes on a plate lined with paper towel to drain the excess oil. Set aside. 
2. Separate the egg whites from the yolk. In a medium size bowl, whip the egg whites until foamy (the bubbles are small). Whisk in the yolk, mayonnaise, milk, salt & pepper. Set aside.
3. Heat a non-stick pan under a medium fire. Once heated, add the remaining oil and swirl the pan a little to make sure that it is well coated. Saute garlic and onion. Season it with a little salt and pepper. Once the onions are translucent, add in the tomatoes to the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes. 
4. Add the scrapped ham and saute for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the potatoes. Spread out the ham & veggies to cover the surface of the pan. Using a very low heat, pour the whisked eggs over the ham & veggies. 
5. Cover the pan with a big plate or an aluminum foil to cook the top portion of the frittata. Cook for 5 minutes or until the tiny bubbles disappear. 
6. Slide the frittata into a serving platter, slice and serve. 

Enjoy!!1

Monte Cristo

Ever since my dad had his first stroke years ago, we always tried to have a lighter Noche Buena fare. For Noche Buena 2012, I prepared Monte Cristo to complement my sister's Minestrone Soup. Monte Cristo is simply a french toast with ham and melted cheese. It's a leveled up version of french toast, a savory french toast. I'd like to share my take on Monte Cristo. This could be served for breakfast or as snacks or baon. Anything that has cheese is always a comfort food for me. :) 

Try this one for a change. I'm pretty sure that kids and adults will love this dish. It's a nice to have this too with a creamy tomato soup or any tomato-based soup like minestrone. 

Happy Cooking! 

Ingredients:

2 Large Eggs
3/4 cup Fresh Milk
Salt & Pepper
8 slices of loaf bread
4 slices of ham
4 slices of edam or cheddar
4 slices of emmentaler or mozzarella
1 1/2 tablespoons Mustard

3 tablespoons Butter


Procedure: 

1. Prepare the batter - Whip the eggs and add the milk, a dash of salt and pepper. Mix well. Set aside. 
2. To make the sandwich - Spread a thin layer of mustard on 1 slice of the bread and spread a pat of butter on another slice of bread. Top the two slices of bread with edam and emmentaler cheeses and add a slice of ham in the middle. Enclose the sandwich. 
3. Heat a nonstick pan and add a little butter about half a tablespoon or use a no-stick cooking spray and swirl the pan. While waiting for the pan to heat up, dip the sandwich in the batter. Pan-fry the sandwich, wait for the cheese to melt a little before turning the it to the other side. When the sandwich is golden brown & the cheeses have melted, transfer it to a plate with paper towel to drain the excess oil. 
4. Slice the sandwiches into triangles and serve. 

Chicken ala King Cups

I've learned this recipe from my mom.  She used to cook this for us when we're tired of eating chicken adobo and fried chicken. I've updated her recipe a little bit. First, I'm going to share the recipe for the Chicken ala King, then how to make it into cups. It became a Chicken ala King Cups since puff pastry was not readily available before; and we just made use of slices of loaf bread and muffin tray. 

If you're avoiding rice and just limiting yourself to bread, this is the right viand for you. Kids will love this new way of serving food to them. You can even ask your kids to help you in preparing this one. It will be a lot of fun. 

Actually, my son, Joaqui, helped me in preparing the Chicken ala King Cups. He loved grating the cheese, brushing the bread with butter and sprinkling the cheese on top. 

Happy Cooking!

Chicken ala King

Ingredients: 

500 grams chicken breast fillet, cut into cubes

1 big carrot, cubed

2 medium size potatoes, cubed

1 onion, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup frozen green peas

1 soup pack of Cream of Chicken dissolved in 1 1/2 cups of water or 1 can of Cream of Chicken soup

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon canola/olive/vegetable oil 

Procedure:

1. Heat a medium size skillet over medium fire. Once the pan is hot, put the butter and oil. 
2. Saute the garlic and onion until translucent and fragrant. 
3. Add in the chicken breast fillet. Season with salt and pepper. 
4. Once the chicken has changed its color, put the carrots and potatoes in the pan. Saute it for a minute or two. 
5. Pour the dissolved soup in the pan. Mix well. 
6. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. 
7. Add in the frozen green peas and mix well. Turn off the fire. 
8. Set aside. 

Chicken ala King Cups

Ingredients:

1/4 cup melted butter

12 slices of loaf bread

2 cups of cooked Chicken ala King

3/4 cup grated quickmelt cheese

 Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (or you may use a toaster). Grease the muffin pan with melted butter (or you may use individual muffin cups if you don't have a muffin pan). 
2. Gently put a bread slice in each muffin hole/cup, making it look like a small pot/flower. 
3. Brush the bread with melted butter. 
4. Scoop the Chicken ala King (use a medium size ice cream scooper or about 2 tablespoons) into the bread slices. 
5. Brush the filling with melted butter. Top it with the grated cheese. 
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes. If you're using the toaster, bake for 5-7 minutes or until the cheese melts. 

Baking as a Therapy

It's not easy writing about this, opening up what my family and I went through two months ago. After suffering a miscarriage in my first trimester, deep sadness overwhelmed me. But life has to move on, for I have a six-year old boy and a husband who are counting on me. As I fight off depression, I turned to a lot of things (reading the bible & other comforting books, interacting with women who suffered miscarriages too, researching about my condition), another one is rediscovering my passion, my love for baking. Actually, I was testing myself if I still find joy in what I've been doing before. And I did!

For this, I decided to bake Sour Cream Breakfast Buns. I wanted to try something different from my new cookbook "The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook" by Allysa Torey and Jennifer Appel. 

Baking was my therapy. I've always tried to cook or bake whenever I was really stressed out.  Baking was a stress-reliever for me.  My mind and body were kept busy. I just had to concentrate on the tasks at hand. If my mind wandered off, I would have lost count of how many cups of flour I should put in the batter. If my hands were not steady, I would have added more sugar in the buns. For one whole hour, I did not think about what I've lost.  It kept me mind from negative thoughts. It was bliss. 

With less than a dozen of ingredients, I was able to create something wonderful for my son and relatives. The buns grew in size, the sugar & cinnamon caramelized on top and the pecans became more crisp. My house smelled wonderful. After the tinkering and spending so much energy in the kitchen, I would be happy with the result of my hard work - freshly baked and delicious buns! 

It was a great day! I had a lot of realizations after this "therapy session."

 After baking these delicious buns, I have rediscovered the simple joys of life, like enjoying the fruits of your labor (literally & figuratively),  and began to appreciate once again what our Creator has provided for us abundantly. Just like in cooking/baking, you just have to do with what you have and make the most out of it.

Ingredients:

Buns

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sour cream

Topping

1 1/3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease muffin pans. 
3. To make the buns: In a medium-size bowl, sift together the flour, the baking powder, and the baking soda. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, on the low speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Mix in the sour cream. Spoon the batter in the muffin cups.
5. To make the topping: In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, the pecans, and the cinnamon. Sprinkle the topping evenly and generously over the buns.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes (for large muffins)/18 minutes (for regular size muffins) or until a cake tester inserted into center of bun comes out clean.

It makes 18 buns.

Baking with Kids

My son Joaqui, as early as three years old, started to help me in the kitchen. We would make no-bake desserts and bake cookies and cupcakes. He likes to measure, sift and mix dry ingredients.

Baking is our bonding activity at home. It is also a tool used in preschools (usually progressive schools), as part of experiential learning, to teach kids about math - addition, fraction and measurement. It allows children to develop their fine motor skills and imagination. It is a form of art. It is one way of expressing their creativity. You can decorate your cookies and cupcakes in whatever fashion you want. With their imagination, the design of baked goods can be endless. 

To tap their energy and creativity, I let my son, niece and nephews bake. It is one way to introduce to them how to prepare food, so they will value and appreciate the hard work and time spent by people for them to have food on their table. 

Baking is a fun and bonding activity for the whole family. Plus, you get to feed them in the end. :) 

In this session, we baked Oatmeal Muffins which is a healthier choice that you can serve for breakfast or snack. I'm sharing the recipe to everyone. 

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups fresh milk

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Put cupcake liners in the 12-cup muffin pan.
3. In a medium-size bowl, mix the oats and the milk. Set aside for 10 minutes. 
4. In another bowl (large size), mix together the dry ingredients, making a well in the center. Stir in the liquid ingredients and the oatmeal mixture until just combined. Batter may be lumpy. 
5. Fill the muffin cups about three-quarters full. Bake for 16-18 minutes until lightly golden. 

It makes 16 muffins. 

P.S. The baking session with kids made me think about offering baking lessons to a small group of kids or people who want to learn about baking right at their own homes. Another business opportunity!!! Happy baking!!!

Penne Pasta with Special Meat Balls in Tomato Cream Sauce

Pasta is one of my favorite dishes. I'd love to prepare this for family weekends or when we have guests. It is quick and easy to prepare, but really yummy! I consider pasta as one of my comfort foods (I'm sure my girlfriends will agree to this). Kids will surely like this too. I've decided to raise the pasta dish up to notch by adding cream to the tomato sauce. This makes the sauce creamier and a little sweeter even without the sugar. The combination of meatballs, tomato cream sauce & cheese is a sure-fire hit. What makes this pasta special is the meatballs. 

The meatballs is actually a family recipe. I've slightly modified my mom's meatballs. My mom made the meatballs really moist and flavorful. Our meatballs is usually composed of ground round (beef) and ground pork. For a healthier version, you may use ground chicken or turkey. My mom adds 3 slices of bread, cubed and soaked in milk, to the mixture. My modification is that I use bread crumbs and milk altogether. Also, to add more oomph and surprise to the meatball, I put small cubes of cheddar (quickmelt) cheese. If you want to jazz it up some more, you may insert a cube of mozzarella cheese. So when you put the meatball in your mouth, it will really melt. 

Ingredients:

500 grams Penne Pasta

1 can (400 grams) Crushed Tomato

1 250 gram Spaghetti Sauce (Cheese flavor)

1 cup heavy cream or all-purpose cream

1/4 cup olive oil 

3 cloves garlic, crushed & finely chopped 

1  large sized white onion, finely chopped 

1 teaspoon dried basil

salt & pepper to taste

1/8 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup grated quickmelt cheese/mozzarella

Meatballs:

350 grams Ground Chicken (can be a combination of ground beef & ground pork)

1 large sized white onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed & finely chopped

1/3 cup cheese, cubed

1/4 cup bread crumbs

2 tablespoons fresh milk or evaporated milk

1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

Procedure:

1. For the meatballs: in a bowl, combine the the ground chicken, white onion, garlic, bread crumbs, pepper and salt. Add the liquid ingredients - worcestershire sauce, milk  and egg. Mix with your hands or spoon. Then, put the cheese and mix slightly (making sure that the cheese will not be crumbled). Form into balls. In a frying pan with olive oil, fry untli the balls are golden brown. Set aside. 
2. Cook the pasta according to the instructions in the package. 
3. In a sauce pan with medium fire, saute garlic in olive oil. When the aroma of the garlic fills the room, saute the onions until translucent. Season the garlic and onions with pepper and salt. 
4. Add in the crushed tomato and spaghetti sauce. Adjust the heat to low fire. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. 
5. Season the pasta sauce with basil, pepper and salt. Mix in the heavy cream. Simmer for 5 minutes. 
6. Add the cooked meatballs, mix. Set aside. 
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. 
8. In a baking dish, spread a layer of the pasta sauce. Put the penne pasta, add the sauce and meatballs. Mix well. Top the pasta with few meatballs and sauce. Sprinkle the grated parmesan & cheddar cheese on top. Bake the pasta for 12 minutes until the cheese melts.