Foot and Fire

Who is not curious of how the real strawberries taste? Everyone wants to try the real thing. This red heart-shaped fruit is pretty to the eyes and a favorite flavoring not only for our cake, ice cream, juices, and tarts but also for our childhood vitamins and medicines too.  So when I got hold of mine, I made a strawberry gelatin flan 1 cup strawberries, chopped 4 cups fresh milk or water 1 cup condensed milk 1 cup cream 1 pack gelatin In a pan, add all ingredients. Cook over low heat for about 15 minutes while stirring constantly. When the mixture is about to boil or starts to boil, remove from fire. Let cool in a glass pan and refrigerate to let it set in. Slice and serve chilled.  Here's a link to my youtube video on my berrylicious dessert  STRAWBERRY GELATIN FLAN.

When you're told to pay P10 apiece for the strawberries you will be picking, you will immediately snob the overripe, damaged, green or unripe, dry, small and all that you think are imperfect. You are being reasonable, afterall, it's a bit pricey for a fruit. I even bought Sayote for P10 per kilo and tomatoes for P20 per kilo. Imagine how far my P10 can go. Look at what we spotted among the growing and fruiting strawberries. We paid and enjoyed all ripe, red, and fresh strawberries. They are grown organically and the fruits are separated from the dirt by a garden plastic cover that we did not even wash the berries anymore before eating them. The important disvovery I made was that the greenish strawberry tastes superb that I wished half red and half green berries. Try them on your visit and I guarantee, you will love the green strawberries. Or is it yellow strawberry as used by Jose Garcia Villa in his poem? Mmmmm perhaps! They sel...

For this beef soup, use beef with bones which carry the marrow. This is a no-sweat beef soup. The trick is to quickly boil the beef and remove the froths and sediments forming above the water. Put more water and bring to boil until the meat is tender (This is the waiting part especially if there is no pressure cooker in the house). While boiling, put the Chinese Five Spice (Please see earlier post ). I have Cinnamon sticks and star anise in the house, so aside from the powder, I put some of it as I love the woody and earthy aroma of these two spices.  If the meat is tender, adjust taste with pepper and salt. When done with the taste, put the trimmed native pechay  and let vegetable cook covered for one to two minutes . Serve piping hot.   

This packet is a gift from a good friend who now works in Beijing, China. It says "Ginger Poweder" but from what I can understand from the photo, it is more like what we came to know as Chinese Five Spice. I wonder why they did not name it so. I googled and found these suggestion on how to make your DIY spice combination. This is perfect for beef stews and beef soups and stocks. Here are the varied stuff I found and brace yourself as I will post the ingredients which were posted at the back of this luckily in English: It is not five only. 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground cloves 1 teaspoon fennel seed, toasted and ground 1 teaspoon ground star anise 1 teaspoon szechuan peppercorns, toasted and ground *** 1 tsp. ground Szechwan pepper 1 tsp. ground star anise 1-1/4 tsp. ground fennel seeds 1/2 tsp. ground cloves 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. ground white pepper *** Anise, Cinnamon, Star Anise, Cloves, Ginger *** 2 tablespoons ground star anise 2 ta...

Strawberries. *** Grapes. *** Grapes, Banana, Guavas. *** Bananas, strawberries, Guavas. *** Banana *** Not a pomelo, I'm sure. *** Jackfruit crossbred with Marang. The peelings look like jackfruit but it peels like marang. The smooth texture in the mouth is marang while the smell is jackfruit. Awesome best of both world. ***  Papaya and Guavas *** Papayas. *** Must be sugarcane wrapped in some dry leaves? ***

The triple combo of avocado, cucumber and corn with strawberry dressing! Cubed cucumber! Cubed avocado and the sweet corn kernel! Triple Treat Salad The Strawberry dressing... My store-bought dressing...a Gourmet Dressing by Quan, a local bakeshop and restaurant. Manufactured by Pueblo Bakeshop, La Salle Avenue, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental. 034-434-1733 Fax 034-434-6481 The ingredient says it's made of vinegar, strawberries, corn oil, sugar and spices. avocado a.k.a alligator pear. It was green when not yet ripe and the peelings turned purple when they ripened. Choose a ripe avocado with firm flesh for this recipe. 3 medium-sized avocado, seed removed and cubed (flesh should be firm but ripe) 3 medium-sized cucumber, seeded and cubed  1 can corn kernel, drained strawberry dressing In a bowl, put the first three ingredients. Drizzle with half-cup strawberry dressing. The strawberry dressing I used is store-bought but a home version can be made from strawberry jam, vinegar, corn ...