Foot and Fire

              I am a fan of one casserole cooking. Easy and no-fail, casserole cooking involves beginner's technique and just a normal palate. Imagine putting all ingredients all at once and then let it cook and then tasting it  before removing from fire. No frills. No drills. And this rice topper is one of my favorites. You can use tofu, or beef tenderloin or chicken breast for this recipe. Labog is the leaves used here to give a subtle sourness but it can also be substituted with tamarind, batuan or lemon. But I love the leafy touch of labog and I eat it with relish.   Ingredients Slices of fish garlic onions turmeric ginger chili peppers salt and pepper labog or  roselle leaves salt and pepper to taste coconut milk (2nd press) coconut milk (1st press) How to: Extract cocomilk from the ground coconut flesh by adding 2 T of hot water. Reserve the milk. It is what we call the first press. Add 2 cups of water on the coconut f...

I love chicken gizzards because they have this chewy texture while I also love chicken livers because they have melt-in-your-mouth texture. Cooking both with masala kari or mixed spices sauce, one can bring out thw taste of these chicken parts. For this one, I didn't use coconut milk. Oil Garlic onions 500g Chicken gizzard 500g Chicken liver Potatoes, cubed Turmeric powder Paprika powder Bayleaves Cracked Peppercorns Chili powder Chili peppers Salt In a wok, Saute gizzards and livers in oil, garlic and onions. Add water and bayleaves. Cover for 5 minutes in high heat.  Add water and potatoes. In a bowl, place all spices and mix well and add hot water. Add dissolved spices to the wok. Add the chilipeppers and Cover. Let cook for 10 minutes. Adjust taste with salt. Mash two livers to thicken the sauce. Serve hot with rice. 

I saw Chef's Table featuring Chef Gaggan Anand who had a successful Indian menu tasting restaurant in Thailand. From that feature, I learned that "curry" is not Indian. Further reading led me to understand that the term curry is of British origin as it was coined to refer to Indian spices, and the term must come from the Tamil word, "kari" which means sauce. I cooked my fish last weekend using turmeric powder and fresh ginger and dashes of paprika. My mother asked me what's the difference between curry and turmeric. Thanks to my earlier education on this that I was able to explain that CURRY refers to a blend of spices, usually turmeric, coriander, chili, ginger, and black pepper while TURMERIC refers to a single spice. I also learned that "masala" is the correct Indian term for the "mixed spices." Actually, what I love about my curried fish is the coconut milk. I feel rich in savoring goodness in life through coconut milk. Pr...