Foot and Fire

It's a friend's birthday and to celebrate, I made him a Spiced Chicken which I airfried. He is one of my few friends who uberloves chili so I used my dried and garden fresh mixed chilis, my garden fresh lemon for the lemon peel, lemongrass, ginger and turmeric. I used my store-bought and shelved peppercorns, mustard seeds and star anise too. More photos here.  However, spices for this recipe can be in powder forms, so feel free to substitute. Recipe Whole chicken Chili Lemon peel lemongrass stalks ginger turmeric Himalayan Salt Pepper Knotted Lemongrass leaves Clean and pat dry the chicken. Set aside.  In a food processor place all spices except the knotted lemongrass leaves. Pulse blend the spices until grainy. Transfer in a mortar and pound the spices to bring out its juices.  Rub the mixture inside and outside the chicken. Insert some in between the flesh and skin. Pound the knotted lemongrass leaves and insert in the body cavity of the chicken....

Bokchoy from my garden is a long-time dream that is coming true during this pandemic where we all have time to literally tend our gardens. Check my greenhouse greens here.  I wanted to roast my bokchoy but I made a soup for everyone. However, I spared some stalks to make an appetizer.  Recipe: 3 cloves garlic, chopped Bunch of bokchoy Pinch of salt and pepper In a pan, arrange the bokchoy and mix the garlic and salt and pepper. Oven-roast at 190F for 10 minutes of just wilted. Serve as is or with sauce.  Sauce: Soy sauce Vinegar Honey Sesame oil Add all ingredients in a bottle and shake. Drizzle over roasted bokchoy

Let's kick-off the Bokchoy series here. I am so happy to finally harvest the mature parts of my bokchoy which I grew in my greenhouse from seeds. I opted not to harvest the whole thing but only cut the leaves with mature stalks. I'll wait for the young stalks to grow more and I added more soil to nourish it more and support its stem and roots. Check my urban garden greens and a photo of my  bokchoy in instagram. My Corned Beef with Bokchoy is a first try since we always cook it with ground beef but it was a hit so I am posting this for you to try.  Recipe: Garlic Onions Corned beef Bokchoy stalks with leaves Brazilian Spinach pesto (optional) Salt and pepper Heat the pan, add the corned beef until heated and its oil comes out. Add garlic and onions and stirfry until translucent. Add water (I used my reserved pasta water) and let boil. Adjust taste with salt and pepper. Add the bokchoy and press down so it will be covered by water. Let it cook for 1 minute covered ...

LASWA, an Ilongo vegetable soup that is worth featuring for the nth time in this blog.  One secret to a good laswa is to use odd number of vegetables so it can have a perfect result. So in this one, I used squash, malungay or moringa, saluyot or locally called tugabang, balagay or winged beans and okra.  My nephew asked me what are the other names of okra as.my readers might not understand it. I said, it is mostly known as okra but Wiki suggested "English-speaking countries as  ladies' fingers  or  ochro." So be it, but lady's finger here in the Philippines refers to a small fragrant and tasty banana that looks like its name, a lady's finger. So back to laswa, I have 5 ingredients and they all went well together.  I used miso paste as my seasoning and it went well with the fish sauce. That is a must try inlieu of the usual dried anchovies or shrimps. 2 tomatoes 1 onion Saluyot, 1/3 chopped and reserve the rest Winged beans Squash Okr...

Yesterday, we harvested Upland Kangkong which we grew from seeds and we just had it for breakfast today. It's pretty special because it is the first of the green plants we grew after building a greenhouse in our backyard.  It is so named as upland Kangkong because it is not the usual wetland Kangkong which grows in marshy areas. However, this recipe can be replicated using the wetland kangkong. And while I am typing this blog, my nephew asked me while laughing that other people might not understand what a kangkong is. So, kangkong is also known as watercress, water spinach and wikipedia enumerates, " water spinach ,  river spinach ,  water morning glory ,  water convolvulus , or by the more ambiguous names  Chinese spinach ,  Chinese watercress ,  Chinese convolvulus  or  swamp cabbage , or  kangkong  in  Southeast Asia  and  ong choy  in Cantonese."  I blanched the Kangkong stems in boiling wate...

Today is Cinco de Noviembre in Negros Occidental wherein we observe this non-working holiday to commemorate a local Independence day for the Negrosanon.  How else can I make something as memorable as Cinco de Noviembre but to have a liberty to cook something out of our ordinary fare. So, I made Meatless Caldereta, Meatless Barbecue, and Spicy Stringbeans with minced cutlets out of dried vegemeat cutlets and these threesome turned out so well and yummy. Sadly, there's no photo of the Spicy stringbeans as we had it while my phone was charging upstairs.  Vegemeat Cutlet Preparation In every cup of vegemeat cutlet, put two cups of hot water or broth of choice or hot water and dashes of bonito/mushroom granules. Let soak for 20 minutes. I added katsoubushi or bonito flakes in mine to lend flavor. After 20 minutes, separate the cutlets from water, squeeze out the water from the expanding cutlets, and reserve the water. By weight or volume, the cutlets expande...

Love and other foreign words Erin McCahan Speak, 2014 This young adult novel came to my hands when I ordered online for the autobio of Jackie Chan. Of course, I love the title.  Anything about words capture me. And the author did not fail me in grabbing her book though the age-appropriateness (or mental or emotional appropriateness) of this book is just so far behind me.  I enjoyed the book though I got the ending early on because as I said, I am far ahead for this kind.  There are finest points in the book dissecting  "language of all sorts" that only a teenager like Josie can come up with which I wanted to quote here but I rather not because they are the icing to this piece.  Coming-of-age, over-thinking, experiencing love and lost friendships, STYX (No, I'm more of Bread person). This is a warm read for a day.