Archive for March, 2007

I have a lot condiments in my pantry, both for Eastern and Western dishes. Here are the spices and sauces I use whenever we go Asian for dinner at home. My Top Ten are:

1. Curry powder - a mixture of different spices such as coriander, cumin, pepper, turmeric and ginger. A number of different Asian Herb and Spice mixes can be found here. Store in an air tight container away from bread and biscuits, as they may absorb its strong aroma.
2. Miso - it is made of fermented soy bean paste. It has a lot of varieties, each of a different color. It comes in beige, yellow, brown or other colors depending on the additional ingredients - but not in green! If it has green patches, it means it has become moldy. So you need to store this in the fridge. More on miso here
3. Hoisin - fermented soybeans with garlic, vinegar and chili added. It is also known as Chinese barbecue sauce. Be sure to store this in the fridge. I am planning to use this on this recipe and on this one.
4. Fish Sauce - made from fermented fish and is widely used in Southeast Asian cooking. Recommended for seafood and vegetable recipes in place of salt for added flavor. It may be stored in kitchen cabinets. If you are interested in the origins of fish sauce look here.
5. Soy Sauce - fermented soybeans with added grain, water and salt. General dipping sauce. Store this in the fridge and be sure to check the ingredients listed on the label. Good quality soy sauce does not have caramel or any food coloring to give the sauce its dark color.
6. Sesame Seed Oil - fragrant oil from sesame seeds, used as flavor enhancer. I put a few drops of it in chopsuey, before removing from heat. Use sparingly because of its strong flavor. It may be stored in the kitchen cabinet.
7. Coconut oil (Refined) - mainly used for frying
8. Extra virgin coconut oil - I use this for sauteeing Asian style veggies, like chopsuey. It adds a nice flavor to the dish. Store in kitchen cabinets. Don’t worry if it turns cloudy in cold weather, it clears up when heated.
9. Honey - I prefer this sweetening ingredient over sugar in most recipes. Store at room temperature.
10. Ginger - I keep fresh ginger at hand since it goes well with most of the Asian spices and sauces. There are dried and powdered varieties in the grocery but nothing beats the fresh root. Choose roots with greenish skin that is easily peeled off by your fingers. Stay away from those that have dry wrinkly skin.

I tend to try out new recipes often, so I see my collection of condiments increasing as I discover and experiment with new dishes. This list gives you a nice sampling of the ones I like the most. I hope you find it useful.

Want some good old fashioned tasty burgers with a twist? If you think making your own burgers from scratch is hard, then this recipe will show you how simple it really is. They’ve been a big it every time I make these. They’re a little spicy, with a lot of different flavors mixed in. Hope you like them too.

The name of the recipe may sound confusing, so let me explain. First a disclaimer, I am not British. I am a Filipino. The British part comes from the fact that it is a version of a burger recipe that a British friend of mine gave me. I modified it to suit my Asian palette. In various places in the internet, I use the handle meat eater. Thus I claimed it as mine.

The ingredients (feel free to adjust according to your taste):

• 800 grams ground beef
• 4 tablespoons bread crumbs
• 3 1/2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce (hope I spelled that right)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1/2 large onion chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon of ground black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped chinese celery (optional)
• 5 strips of bacon sliced into small pieces
• cooking oil for frying
• 4 hamburger buns

1. Making the patties is very easy. Just combine the beef, bread crumbs, onions, bacon and the chinese celery in a bowl. Do this until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
2. Season the mixture with soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. You may add some salt if you like. Again, mix everything thoroughly.
3. Heat pan with oil for frying. Divide the burger mixture into 4 patties. You may make more patties if you want them smaller.
4. Fry the burgers, one side at a time until desired doneness. Drain oil from patties and put in the hamburger buns. You may put in anything you want with it, like your choice of vegetables and cheese.

I often serve these with potato fries cooked in the same fat as the burgers (the more to clog your arteries with). I also sometimes replace the cayenne with tabasco pepper sauce, they’re really good.

Enjoy!

I never thought donuts could be so addicting. Last week, I brought home a dozen of a variety of Krispy Kremes for me and my wife. She likes them a lot, so I thought it would be nice to bring her some. Little did I know that it was me who would be hooked.

I kept thinking about them. How nice they looked and how yummy they are. I ate 2 or 3 of them at a time. While that may not seem excessive for most people, it was for me. They should have named those things Krispy Krack.

My obsession did not end with eating them. I kept thinking about them as I worked on my computer. As a result I ended up visiting a lot of Krispy Kreme related sites. So in this post, I would like to share them with you.

First , I looked for good photos of the donuts on flickr and I found a lot. Some are here, here and here. I even posted some of them below for you to drool on.

I also ended up going to the official site, the wikipedia site and this article on how the donuts are made. All very interesting, but all filled with information that is of no use to both you and me. I even found a lot of copy cat recipes from various recipes sites (again recipes here, here and here).

I hope you enjoyed this useless and worthless rant about my donut addiction and obsession. I just wish that writing this would actually get the obsession out of my system and help it go away. I apologize for the incoherent style and the bad prose. It must be the donuts. For those who suffer the same affliction as I do, I suggest the google query “trans fat”.