Foot and Fire

Brought home cheeses from my revent vacation as they really tempted me to do cheese pasta. I got the parmigiano reggiano, gouda, catamount hills cheese and I combine them with my pantry standby parmesan). Here, you can easily make yours. Slice all solid cheeses into bits Garlic Celery Olive oil Fresh milk Pasta water Salt and pepper 1. Cook pasta according to package direction. Reserve water before draining. 2. Saute garlic in olive oil until golden brown. Add cheeses and milk. Stir to melt the cheese and Adjust fire to low.  3. Add chopped celery and the pasta water. Add the cooked pasta. Stir.  4. Add dashes of salt and pepper. Remove from fire and serve hot while the cheese is still melty. 

This is funny. I called it Russian salad because of the beets and also called it Waldorf because of the apples. I am naming it Russian-meets-Waldorf Salad, and why not? Here's how to make and enjoy this enjoyable tongue refresher. 1 kilo Potatoes, cubed 1 pc beet, cubed 1 pc carrot, cubed celery stalks, chopped (reserve chopped leaves for garnish) 3 medium apples, cubed  1 pack cream 200 g mayonnaise 2T condensed milk salt and pepper  Boil potatoes with peel, let cool and cube. In a boiling water, add the cubed beets, carrots and celery stalks for about 3 minutes, and let cool. Cube the apples and squeeze some lemon juice to avoid from getting dark. set aside. In a bowl, put the cream, mayonnaise, milk, salt and pepper. Mix using fork. In a serving dish, add the potatoes, beets, carrots and celery plus the apples. Mix in the cream dressing. Chill before serving. Garnish with celery leaves just before serving.

Olive oil Garlic cloves 200g ripe tomatoes, chopped 200g bellpepper, chopped 100g celery Salt and pepper Cheese (optional) Reserved water from boiled pasta Tuna in oil Boil angel hair pasta for 2.5 minutes. Set aside. Reserve water. Saute vegetables in olive oil.  Add reserved water and the oil from tuna. Simmer till vegetables are tender to your liking. Adjust taste with salt and pepper. Add tuna and olive oil. Remove from fire and serve hot over angel hair pasta.

Canola oil crushed and minced garlic minced onions 200 grams ground beef salt and pepper  Worcestershire sauce soy sauce 500 grams big bellpeppers (about 125gms each piece) sliced lengthwise little water chopped celery or onion leaves  Saute onion and garlic in oil. Add beef and simmer for at least three minutes. Add salt, pepper Worcestershire sauce and sauce according to taste. Place the bellpeppers and little water if needed. Let cook a bit. Top with celery before removing from fire.

By GERLIE M. UY The filling Pad Thai I made Pad Thai before. See my previous post  and another post . But this one, I entitled shortcut because I forgot to fry the tofu and chop them up. So I missed the essential ingredient of a real Pad  Thai. Anyway, this noodle dish I churned out in a hurry turned out yummy. For this recipe, I had fried scrambled eggs, stripped native chicken flesh, mongo sprout and the rice noodles. I used available herbs too like celery and coriander. As for the flavoring, don't forget the tamarind-based cubes, fish sauce, and soy sauce. Please see my previous post for the cooking procedure. rice noodles here are being soaked in a hot water the cooked noodles, from crystal noodle to white color The other ingredients go to the pan...

By GERLIE M. UY My first attempt to a Miso Soup is a success!  Our japanese soup server was initiated with this Veges and Miso Soup! Sans the flash, this is how it looks. Super Soupy soup... My soup today! It was a luck that Robinson's Bacolod has this stock of Korean Miso Paste! Here's another photo of the Korean Miso Paste I bought... 3 stalks celery, coarsely chopp 3 stalks Baguio leeks, coarsely chopped 1 medium potato, coarsely chopped 750 ml to 1L water rock salt ground pepper 2 T butter 100 gms Soy Bean Paste (Miso) In a soup pot, place water and add celery and leeks. Season with salt and pepper. In a high fire, bring to boil. Continuously boil for 5 minutes and remove from fire. Let cool a bit Separate the stock and the vegetables. Blender the vegetables. In a soup pot, place butter. Add the blended vegetables. Simmer for 2 minutes in medium fire. Add the stock. Dissolve the Miso paste with a little stock and add to the mixture. Bring to boil. Serve hot.

This is one of the dishes we cooked up at the Saigon Culinary Art Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Lotus stem is tasteless, aroma-less but super crunchy; perfect for salad. Since this recipe called for pork and shrimps, I omitted these two. In the following recipe, I shall include pork and shrimp for your perusal. Marinade 1 T lemon juice 2 T sugar 2 T white vinegar 2 T fish sauce (patis or nuoc mam cham) A pinch of salt and pepper 180g Lotus stem (cucumber, carrots, green papaya, cabbage or turnip may be used)  100 g pork tenderloin 100 g shrimp 10g celery 20 g carrots Garnishing 1 big chili 1 chili flower 5g knot weed (may use sweet basil) 5-7 g mint leaves 1/2 T fried peanuts 1/2 T fried shallots (may use onions) Preparation MARINADE: Mix all marinade ingredients except fish sauce, stirring until the sugar and salt dissolve completely. VEGETABLES: Cut in julienne the lotus stem, carrot and big chili. Cut celery in 1-2 cm length. PORK: Prepare pork by boiling it over medium h...