Sibuyas Republic

Archive for February, 2012

On blog hiatus for a week. Or more. On my other site. Mind could not be “juiced” up to find type the right words.

I ended up spending much of my solitary time watching old romantic movies…and eating…

I soo loved this fried “lumpiyang gulay” in tandem with “sukang maanghang”…YUM, YUM…while crying my heart out watching “Dear John”

Sharing this post at Project 366 Blog Photo Challenge

Hubby’s kind of “fast” breakfast especially when he needs to go out very early.  Bread toasts, 1 piece triangular cheese and a poached egg.

To poach an egg:

simmer (no need to boil)  two cups of water

add 1 tsp. vinegar, stir

while the water is running a slow swirl, slowly drop the egg to the center of the pan

stir the outer side of the water so as to keep the egg at the center and not spread out.

 It took me a while before achieving a perfect poach egg. For the love of the hubby, who needs to get rid of oil from his diet, this is a better alternative to his sunny side up.

 My share for Foodie Friday and Food Trip Friday

I am a huge fan of outdoor cooking. If you are like me then you need to outfit your outdoor area for the entertainment of guests and for your own personal enjoyment. Here are my simple and complex ideas for making the backyard someplace you want to spend your whole day.
Grills are the best addition you can get for surprisingly small amounts of money. I would suggest starting with charcoal initially. Avoid self-starting charcoal because it will give the food a nasty flavor. Natural charcoal is the best option without any doubt. I love coconut shell charcoal because it lasts for a rally long time and burns very clean. They will not add any flavor to the food either.
A step up from the grills is the outdoor brick oven. These take a lot more time and money than grills but they are really worth the effort. You will be making real brick oven pizza and true brick oven breads in no time.
A step between grills and brick ovens is the chiminea. This is like a standalone chimney that you can burn wood in and give yourself a nice bit of ambiance as well as a good deal of heat in those winter months.
You can also consider getting a fire pit. You can use fire pits as a makeshift cooking surface if you buy the right kinds of grills for them but you can’t close them to get the convection effect that you need for really grilling. Fire pits are good for kebabs.
The last thing you should get is a good set of patio furniture. It is nice to stand in front of the grills as your food cooks but sometimes you want to sit down and wait. Especially if you use those grills as smokers or if you get an actual smoker.

This try-hard pasta recipe should have been posted EONS ago. Creating a recipe post is as much difficult as is uploading photos on blog (especially when connection is as erratic as ours). Those were my predicament

I should also note that when I cook, I suck at following procedures. I measure using not cups or spoons, but estimates only   And, and,  when ingredients are too pricey and hard to find at local shops, I do alteration and go on with the recipe that I wanted to cook.

I had made rolled lasagna before when the only oven available is the tiny broiler. Talked about ingenuity, especially when you would want to reinvent stuff. And, then, last December, the daughter asked me to include again baked lasagna in the holiday menu. She brought home  2 packs 500 grams each) of this pasta made of semolina from durum wheat. For this dish, I only get to used up 16 lasagne pieces.

Anyway, here’s the other ingredients I have with me:

diced onion, garlic, tomatoes

diced bell pepper

ground beef

canned mushroom (we like mushrooms around here:) )

heavy cream

quickmelt cheese (mozzarella’s too pricey for me)

Parmesa cheese

dried oregano

parsley

salt and ground black pepper  for seasoning

worcestershire sauce

butter, flour, evaporated milk for the bechamel sauce

The laborious cooking process started off with cooking the lasagne as per packaged direction.

While waiting for the lasagne, saute bell pepper, add onion, garlic, tomatoes,  then, the ground beef, mushroom pieces, drop off the herbs, too. And, season accordingly.

In a baking dish, spread out half of the meat filling, then,  lasagne pieces. Add cream + cheese + parmesan cheese.

Repeat the process depending on how many layers the lasagna would be. I am content with just two layers.

To finished off the topping, pour bechamel sauce:

In a pan, melt in half cup butter, add in two tablespoons of flour, stir well to avoid lumps. When the roux reached its thickness, pour in 1 can of evaporated milk. Continue stirring. Season with a little salt and pepper. Add parsley (optional). Simmer for two minutes and it’s done.

Pour the bechamel sauce on top of the lasagna.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover the dish with foil and baked for 30-40 minutes.  Then, take off the foil and baked for about 5 minutes. Just enough to achieve a golden color for the topping.

Ouchy! That happens when the try-hard chef is multitasking.

Good thing, the dish is still edible

Sharing this post to Foodie Friday and Food Trip Friday.