Spinach Alfredo Pizza

This is the latter half of a 2 part series of blogs that chronicle our first attempt at making our own pizza at home. The first part gives detailed instructions on pizza dough preparation and can be found by clicking on this link to my Pizza Dough post.

Starting off from where my previous post left off, our pizza dough has now been rolled out and placed on a roasting pan (again, no pizza pan or baking stone yet). Note that some pizza making instructions advise that you use a pizza peel and assemble your pie on that instead.

Us ? We didn't want to go gung-ho and buy a lot of equipment that we probably won't be able to use for other dishes anyway.

Now remember this when making your own pizza, this site advises us to make sure that the toppings go on a specific order.

1. Pizza Dough
2. Sauce - for flavor and to keep the dough moist.
3. cheese - to keep the dough moist
4. toppings
5. cheese again
6. garnish, if any

Ingredients:
Classico Four Cheese Alfredo Sauce
chopped bacon
shredded ham
shredded swedish meatballs
mozzarella cheese
1 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach

Step 1: Pour some sauce over your rolled dough and spread it around. Sprinkle a layer of mozzarella cheese over the sauce.

Step 2: Arrange your toppings across your pie. For our pizza, we drained & squeezed the water out of the package of chopped spinach before paying it out here. The topped it with meat.

I half-cooked the bacon in a pan before arranging them on my pie. I wanted to get rid of some of the fat and I also wasn't so sure about putting in raw ingredients since I didn't know how long I was going to bake the pizza before the crust gets cooked.

The Swedish meatballs were the packaged ones from Ikea, I wrapped them up in foil, thawed them in the toaster oven and pulled the balls apart so I could spread them across the pizza.

I also threw in some leftover ham for good measure.

Step 3: Before popping it into the oven, sprinkle another layer of mozzarella cheese over your pizza toppings.

Now, this is where the instructions vary. Some recipes ask that you bake your pizza in the oven at 400 to 450 F for 20 to 25 minutes. Some say to bake them at 475 F for 10 to 13 minutes.

I decided to set the oven at 425 F and it took 25 minutes for my pizza to get done. Make sure that you watch the sides of your dough, once it starts to brown, that's a sign that your pie is ready.



Verdict: yummy! Ang galing.

Pizza Dough

Hubby loves pizza. Unfortunately, since most pizza have sauces that are tomato-based, I don't care much for it at all. The only one that I've ever really loved is Papa John's Spinach Alfredo pizza. The thing is, we both love our toppings so our pizza gets pretty expensive.

Recently, one of my very best friends from high school told me about how she prepared pizza for her husband one night. Masarap raw and I got inspired to do the same. Sayang lang, I had already gotten the ingredients to make my pizza dough and she didn't tell me until later that Betty Crocker had an instant pizza dough mix.

Anyway, it was fun making my own pizza and with the step by step and visuals provided in this Easy Pizza Dough Recipe, it was very easy. I would definitely do this again.

Ingredients:
1 cup of warm water (105 F)
3.5 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp honey
1 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast

Step 1: Add 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp honey to the warm water. Add the yeast, mix, and let it stand in room temperature for 10 minutes. I watched this mixture the entire time and was happy to see bubbles forming, this is an indication that the yeast is still alive.

Do not use scalding or hot water as this would kill the yeast.

Step 2: After 10 minutes, gradually add the 3.5 cups of flour and 2 tbsp olive oil and mix with a wooden spoon. I couldn't find a wooden spoon and had to settle for the matching wooden fork instead. Surprisingly, I hadn't turned the wooden spoon (fork) more than 3 or 4 times around the bowl and my dough already looked like this.


Step 3: At this point, I sprinkled flour over my work surface and started kneading the dough. I had to log on to the internet again and google "kneading" because I didn't know what I needed to do.

Anyway, at this point knead the dough until it is elastic and smooth, as pictured on the left.

Step 4: Form the dough into a ball, coat it with olive oil. Place it into a bown and cover with plastic wrap. Let this stand for an hour in room temperature to let it rise, making sure that there are no drafts. After an hour, the dough will have risen to about double its size. Punch or press the dough down, this will release some air, and cover it again with the plastic wrap and let stand for another hour.

Step 5: You can now start rolling out your dough to the desired shape. I don't have a rolling pin in my kitchen so I improvised using a dowel rod that I got from a disassembled paper towel holder.

Using a rolling pin will ensure that your crust has a uniform thickness.

We had to cook our pizza in a roasting pan since we have not bought ourselves a pizza pan or a baking stone yet.

Skinless Longganisa

My sister in California buys the yummiest longganisa at her local asian market. Whenever I visit her, Mom would surely prepare some for breakfast one day and serve it with sunny side up eggs and garlic fried rice. I love my longganisa paired with vinegar infused with garlic & chili too.

The Asian food store that we go to sells longganisa by the bulk and since hubby isn't exactly a fan, I hesitate about buying a package.

A few days ago, I was browsing the web for recipes for ground pork and found a recipe for skinless pork longganisa.

Ingredients:

1 kilo ground pork, 10% fat

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp rock salt (or 1.5 tsp fine salt)

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Blend all ingredients together.

Roll a small amount of the mixture in a 4.5 in x 3 in piece of waxed paper

Store in the freezer for 3 hours or until ready to cook.

I have to admit that I did have some doubts as to whether the mixture would stick together while being cooked because there's no egg or cornstarch to serve as a binder for the sausage. But this works.

When ready to cook, heat oil in a wok or frying pan.

Unwrap the sausages and fry in batches until fully cooked.

Drain on paper towels.

These look good, no ? The sausages look so rich and yummy and they were.

Hot & Spicy Pork Chops

We may have converted Mommy and Achi, my older sister, to the wonders of Knorr's Hot & Spicy Bake Mix.

Aliw rin to think of the story of how we found this product. Hubby and I were in our neighborhood Asian grocery store when we remembered this one pork dish that we've been aching to try at home - Spicy Salt and Pepper Pork Chop. It's been a while since we were able to order this dish in Chinatown so we (okay, it was me) were craving for the taste.

Fortunately, hubby (thank goodness that he still remembers his Chinese), knows what spice it is that is used in my fave dish. We asked the cashier, she asked a store clerk, the store clerk asked the manager, and eventually, the manager asked the owner. And yes, we found it.

I sent a box over to Mom and Achi in California (each box has 4 packets and cost around $2.50) and sent some pictures of how we prepared our pork chops.

Basically, I get a huge piece of pork - usually, pork loin because it's tender and cut it up into smaller slices. Smaller slices mean that more of the spice gets into the meat and thus, tastier. Mix in 1 packet of the spice for every 2 lbs of meat, massage the spice into the meat and let it stand in the refrigerator for an hour.

Just before frying, I coat the pork pieces with camote powder (because I like the texture, but you can use cornstarch so that it becomes crispy) and deep fry the pork pieces.

The outcome is delish, I tell ya.

And yes, the pic on the left shows that I have no patience for cutting / chopping whatsoever and don't care about uniformity at all. But, however my pork chops look like, they do taste good and contrary to what the label on the spice package says, these aren't spicy at all.

Pork Menudo

For two weeks now, hubby and I have been having our Friday date night at a Filipino carinderia style restaurant in Jersey City. We actually love the food at another Filipino restaurant more - Mama Fina's - but they have been closed for a few months now and we have no idea where and when they will be in operation again.

So anyway, we've been to the Pinoy restaurant in Jersey City twice now and while we find the lechon kawali quite good, hubby (not a pinoy food fan to start with) has been disappointed with their Menudo and Bistek Tagalog. He claims that they didn't taste authentic - I'm not sure where he got his authentic pinoy food taste ideas from because they surely don't prepare that at home.

This menudo dish I prepared is an attempt to try and see what he expected Menudo to be, the original recipe is from Pinoy Menudo in Visual Recipes.

Ingredients:
1 kilo pork loin (orig recipe calls for pork liempo, I didn't want fatty meat)
1/2 kilo pork liver (we did not add liver)
3 medium sized potatoes, diced
3 medium sized carrots, diced
1 medium sized onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
1.5 cups of tomato sauce
1 cup water
2 dried bay leaves
2 tbsp sugar (orig recipe calls for 1 tsp only but we adjusted to suit our taste)

1. Saute garlic and onion in a pan.
2. Add the meat and saute until meat is no longer pink.
3. Add the bay leaves, tomato sauce and water. Mix it around and let simmer.
4. When pork is cooked (in took me 30 to 45 minutes to get to this stage), add the carrots and potatoes and let it cook.
5. Season with salt and pepper (to taste).

Verdict: Masarap :) Though hubby says that this is not the menudo taste that he knows - syempre, walang liver. And in retrospect, we just realized that the menudo from home also has green peas and garbanzos (?).

Lemon Chicken

Hubby loves lemon chicken. This is actually our 2nd try of this dish, the first one didn't turn out too good.

I've mentioned a few posts ago that we've been making an effort to curb our meat-eating habits and are trying to switch to healthier meats instead (i.e. chicken). Hubby has been talking about his mom's lemon chicken for months and how this would be their default baon for field trips.

We were in Chinatown last week and decided to drop by the neighborhood asian store where we like to do our shopping. We found a packet of Lee Kum Kee Lemon Chicken Sauce and decided to give this a try.

Ingredients:
Boneless chicken thighs
cornstarch (we will season the cornstarch w/ a little salt / pepper in our next try)
egg

1 packet of Lemon Chicken Sauce
3 Lemon slices

Steps:
1. Season chicken thighs with seasoned salt, let this sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
2. Beat the egg in a bowl.
3. Dip the chicken in the egg and then coat it with cornstarch
4. Deep fry the chicken until cooked and drain on paper towels.

Sauce: The instructions on the packet only calls for heating the sauce and adding the chicken in. Hubby added some lemon slices and water to adjust the taste.

1. Pour the sauce into a small saucepan to heat it.
2. Add 3 lemon slices and 2 tbsp water.
3. Stir.

To serve, slice the chicken pieces, garnish with a lemon slice and pour some sauce.

Note that we served the chicken and sauce separately because we wanted the chicken to retain its crispyness.

<-- Lemon chicken sauce, costs $1 in Chinatown (NY) Ansarap! We couldn't stop eating and making papak the leftovers.

Btw, we found this packet to be just enough for 4 pcs of chicken.

Chicken Barbeque - Aristocrat style

I find myself craving for Aristocrat's chicken-barbeque every now and then. I've been looking for and trying out different recipes for a few years now and this is the ultimate!

This is the 2nd time we've tried this recipe. The first time was a big of a flop because
(1) I was too impatient and didn't want to wait to 2 days before grilling the chicken. It turned out too bland.
(2) We didn't have peanut butter at home and wasn't able to make the Java sauce.

Today's try was perfect! special thanks to _TS who posted her Yaya's Philippine-style Chicken BBQ recipe on [Eating Club] Vancouver.

_TS's Yaya's Barbequed Pork

Marinade:
1 big head garlic, crushed
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
4 tbsp. soy sauce
4 tbsp. sugar
1 7-up or Sprite
10 pcs. calamansi (substituted lime juice)
3 to 4 pcs chicken leg quarters. or 1 kg. pork, sliced thin into 1-1/2" pcs. (shoulder butt)

Procedure:
Mix all ingredients together including the pork/chicken. Marinate pork overnight in the refrigerator, if using chicken, marinate for 2 days.

Basting Sauce:
To make the basting sauce, use some of the marinade, add catsup, worcestershire sauce, a touch of oil and adjust the sugar and soy sauce levels. Heat the sauce in a pan and cook until it is thickened. Baste the bbq on the grill.









Peanut sauce
Use some of the marinade and add the same things above (not so much ketchup, though) plus some peanut butter*. Heat this to cook the marinade and make the mixture smooth. Serve peanut sauce with your chicken barbeque.

* this was why I made my own peanut butter

Homemade Peanut Butter

I remember having peanut butter & pandesal for merienda when I was a kid and as an adult, after outgrowing my peanut butter & pandesal phase, I still enjoyed the occasional spoonful of peanut butter that I'd have for fun :P

But really, it's so easy and cheap to get peanut butter so who would've thought that I'd be making my own peanut butter at home ? I found myself needing peanut butter urgently because I had just found a new recipe for Aristocrat-style chicken barbeque and I desperately wanted to make java sauce. Absent-minded me forgot to include that in yesterday's shopping list so what was an aspiring cook like me to do ?

Yes, make my own. Madali lang pala, as I always say, "almost everything can be googled nowadays."

1. What you need are the following key ingredients: Roasted peanuts (unsalted) and oil (I used olive oil).
2. In a food processor, put around 1 cup of peanuts and 1 tsp oil in a food processor and process it for a few minutes until you reach your desired consistency. I like my peanut butter a little chunky so I ran this for 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Taste and season with sugar and salt as needed and pulse a few more times to make sure that the salt / sugar is mixed in well.
   
4. Keep your peanut butter in a glass jar and refrigerate. I used up 2/3 of the resulting peanut butter for my java sauce and this is what is left.

I don't know how long this is going to last but we plan on consuming this in the next few days anyway.

Now that I've done this and it turned out well, I don't think that we'll be getting any more of the store-bought stuff. This is way better and probably much healthier than the commercial ones.

Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage

I love all kinds of rice dishes - wild rice, jasmine rice, basmati, pilaf, risotto, congee, fried rice and even rice pudding.

Working from home, I don't always have the time to prepare my lunch. Leftovers from the previous night's dinner usually becomes hubby's baon and if there isn't enough left over for two meals, I let him bring all the leftovers and I am left to fend for my own lunch the next day :)

On days when I can't figure out or don't feel like cooking much, fried rice is always a convenient option for me. After all, there is last night's leftover rice anyway.

For this dish, the ingredients are:
- chopped garlic
- 1 stalk green scallions, chopped
- 1 pc chinese sausage (lap chiong in Cantonese)
- 1 egg
- chicken boullion powder
- garlic salt

Stir-Fried Chicken

We keep hearing that it's easy to prepare stir-fry dishes. You just keeping stirring the ingredients until they're cooked,... supposedly.

The thing is, what do we use to flavor the dishes ?

My mom sent me a Chinese cookbook - it's more of a pamphlet, really - and this gave us a starting point in terms of the sauce.

For this chicken-stir fry dish, we used the following:

Skinless & boneless chicken thighs, cut into strips
1 head of broccoli florets (did not know that the stem is edible so I threw it away, argh!)
1 carrot, sliced
quail eggs
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp grated ginger

sauce:
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp lite soy sauce
1 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tbsp water
1 tsp sugar

1. Blanch the vegetables - broccoli and carrots.
2. In a wok, saute the garlic and the ginger in hot oil.
3. Add the chicken and stir around until chicken in cooked.
4. Pour in the sauce and then add the vegetables and the quail eggs.
5. Let the sauce boil and thicken.
6. Serve

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Hubby and I, avid meat-eaters, have been making an effort to try to eat healthier. We are now trying to incorporate more chicken into our meals to replace beef and pork. We're still a long way off from being totally healthy and I won't even dare suggest that we become vegetarians, but this is a start.

So we've been buying chicken during our weekly grocery trips and we are fast running out of options for preparing chicken. So I turned to the net and my favorite cooking site, Pinoycook.net, and
I found a recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken Fillets.

We tried the recipe and the dish turned out good on our first try except that it was too sweet for our taste. We have since revised the recipe to suit our tastes and to make use of the ingredients that we have in our kitchen and this is the result.

1.5 lbs Boneless & skinless chicken thighs, cut into strips
seasoned salt
flour (for dredging the chicken)
cooking oil (for deep frying the chicken)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger (we grated this instead)
1 small bell pepper, sliced
1 small onion, sliced
1 small carrot, sliced
1 cup water
1/8 cup vinegar
1/4 cup - 2 tbsp sugar (subtracted 2 tbsp sugar from the original recipe)
salt & pepper to taste
2 tbsp tmato paste
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp sesame oil
pineapple chunks (new addition)
toasted sesame seeds (new addition)

1. Season chicken strips with seasoned salt and then dredge in flour.
2. Deep fry the chicken till golden brown, drain on paper towels and set aside.
3. Saute garlic & ginger. Add the vegetables and stir fry over high heat for around 45 seconds.
4. Stir together water, tomato paste, vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar and cornstarch.
5. Return chicken to the skillet or wok and pour in the sauce. Stir till sauce thickens and clears.
6. Add the pineapple chunks and stir around to coat the pineapple with sauce. (Note that by adding the pineapple chunks at this stage, it probably didn't lend a lot of flavor to the dish. We like it this way).
7. Turn off the heat and drizzle with sesame oil just before serving.
8. Top with toasted sesame seeds.

This is good for 4 to 5 servings.

Carrot Cake

I got this recipe from my Aunt in California when I visited last June. She was on a carrot cake cooking binge and would cook different batches (she'd be giving most of the cakes away) while she experimented and looked for the best recipe & combination.


Dad isn't too fond of eating sweets but he liked the frosting on this one.

When I got home, I decided to try this out and see if I got the recipe right. This turned out good but yielded a lot of cakes! I will halve the recipe next time I do this so we don't get stuck with carrot cake for several weeks.


I have to give a word of warning to first timers though, shredding carrots is a hard job! My arms were so sore afterwards.


CAKE:
3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup crushed pineapple
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup cooking oil


ICING:
1/3 cup cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
1/2 cup chopped cashews

1. Sift the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
2. Add eggs, cooking oil and beat for 5 minutes.
3. Grease 13x9 in pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Stick a toothpick and pull it out, if nothing sticks to the toothpick, your cake is done.

We Heart Grill

Hubby and I are loving our grill.

This grill is a George Foreman indoor-outdoor grill that I received as a birthday gift 4 years ago.

I know, I know. I didn't use it immediately because I didn't want to just leave it outside (balcony) permanently and be exposed to the elements. Yet, I felt too tamad to bring it in inside after every use (after airing it out to get rid of most of the food smells, of course).

Anyway, we decided to use this last July 4th and boy, oh, boy, we're great .. correction.. HUGE fans!

So far we've grilled baby back ribs, corn, chicken bbq, pork chops, asparagus, bacon, and now, our latest dish - Korean BBQ (marinated short ribs, recipe to follow).

We had doubts about the electric part at first because, after all, there's this notion that fire-grilled food is always better than those grilled through an electric grill. Well, there's not a whole lot of difference and you still get the dark (seared) lines across the meat anyway.

Chicken Ala Croissant

We bought a huge batch of croissants from Costco while the in-laws were visiting and when they left, a lot were still left over.

In an effort to try and finish up the leftover croissants, we wanted to prepare a dish that would go well with bread - Chicken ala King topped the list. This recipe is a variation from Diana's Kitchen.

1.5 tbsp butter
1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/8 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup half and half
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 pcs boneless skinless chicken thighs, cooked and diced

1. Melt butter in a saucepan.
2. Add mushrooms and bell pepper, cook for 5 minutes.
3. Blend in flour, salt and pepper. Continue stirring and cooking until smooth and bubbly.
4. Gradually add milk and chicken broth. Stir constantly.
5. Cook for 10 minutes. If you'd like a thicker sauce, blend 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of cold water and add to sauce a little at a time, untile desired consistency is reached.
6. Cook for a few more minutes, then add chicken.
7. Heat through.
8. Serve.

Verdict: yummy! although the lack of color did bother me a little, we think that there should be reds or oranges ?

Chicken Pepper Stir Fry

I've been making an extra effort to prepare more chicken dishes, rather than the usual pork & beef, in an effort to live a little bit healthier.

Hubby and I have taken to buying a few packs of boneless chicken thighs whenever we stop by the grocery store.

I've tried a few dishes and this was the best of the lot so far. Worth blogging :) This is a very very slight variation from this recipe from Recipe Trove.

Ingredients:
6 pcs boneless chicken thighs, sliced thinly. (around 1 lb)
1 medium red bell pepper, sliced thinly
1 medium green bell pepper, sliced thinly
6 stalks green onions, cut into 1 inch pieces

Marinade:
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp catsup
1 tsp grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced

1. Mix the soy sauce, catsup, ginger and garlic. Add chicken and let stand for 15 minutes or more.
2. Stir fry the peppers and green onions in 1 tbsp of hot oil, cook until crisp-tender. Set aside.
3. Stir fry the chicken in 2 tsbp of hot oil for 4 to 5 minutes, until no longer pink in the center.
4. Stir in the bell pepper and green onion mixture.
5. Serve.

Verdict: Sarap! I cooked enough for 2 meals (4 servings), at least I thought so. Ginanahan si hubby and we had to cook extra rice because kinain nya yung rice that we set aside for his baon the next day.

So this was really just 3 servings for us.

Chicken wrapped in bacon

This is one of the staple dishes in my kitchen. I like to prepare these beforehand and keep them frozen and when I need to cook them, I just pop them straight from the freezer to the turbo broiler

Ingredients:
Boneless chicken breasts / thighs, sliced thinly
Bacon slices
Egg
Bread crumbs

Filling: Butter, parmesan cheese, parsley, salt & pepper (or garlic salt, for more flavor).

I usually just mix the ingredients for the filling and make "tantya". Spread the filling over the chicken slices, place a slice of bacon, and roll it up and stick a toothpick to allow the roll to retain its shape.

[edit: These days, I don't roll in breadcrumbs anymore but instead, we wrap the outside of the chicken roll with yet another slice of bacon and sort of tuck the end in to hold the roll in shape. This is way better than breadcrumbs].

Dip the roll in egg and roll in breadcrumbs and then, I just wrap them up in foil and freeze.

To cook, bake in 375 degree oven (turbo broiler) . Cooking time varies.

Roast Pork in Soy Sauce

It's been a while since I last posted a new recipe. I've tried a few recipes but those didn't make it to this blog because frankly.. uh, they didn't turn out too well and I didn't really want to bother posting if it wasn't good enough to share.

We got a huge piece of pork loin on sale from the grocery store last week and figured that this was a good time to try out this recipe from my cookbook that I've been eyeing for a long time.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean pork fillets

Marinade:

• 6 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry
• 1 teaspoon five-spice powder
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 inch piece fresh ginger, finely chopped

Glaze:

• 4 tablespoons superfine sugar
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1. Mix together the ingredients for the marinade. Spoon over the pork, cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour.


2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Drain the pork, reserve the marinade.


3. Place the pork on a roasting rack over a roasting pan. Cook in the oven, occasionally basting with the marinade for 1 hour or until cooked through.


4. Place the superfine sugar and vinegar in a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes, until syrupy.


5. When the pork is cooked, remove from the oven and brush with the sugar syrup. Leave for about 5 minutes, then slice.

Verdict: This recipe turned out quite good - not exactly like how my Ama used to make it, but close enough. Next time, I would use a different kind of dark soy sauce. For this recipe, I used Mushroom flavored dark soy sauce and the roast pork turned out too dark. I would use Silver Swan soy sauce next time.

Japanese rice rolls

We always make sure that we have a few packs of Rice Seasoning (Furikake) at home.

If we find ourselves without anything for dinner, we could just cook a batch of sticky rice, and mix in a packet or two of Furikake. Optionally, you could drizzle a little sesame oil in the rice mixture too.

If you're concerned about the presentation, you can use a sushi form (or rice form?) to form the rice into sliced rolls like we did.

Note though that Furikake comes in many different flavors and is made from different ingredients. The most difficult part is choosing as we find ourselves unable to translate the ingredient list from the product label most of the time.

Fortunately, we were able to try this one out - a Korean brand - at a Korean supermarket. Surprise, surprise!

We've tried other brands and flavors but so far, this is the only one that we like.

Broiled Flounder Parmesan

My family has always abstained on Fridays during the Lenten season. Having my own household didn't change anything, I still abstain and make my husband do the same thing :)

I haven't prepared anything yet when hubby got home from work. I figured we could just wing it with some buttered pasta and salmon flakes (like what we sampled at Costco last time). Hubby had something else in mind - the flounder fillets.

The last time we had flounder, I baked it with crab meat, shrimp and mushrooms mixture. I wanted something different this time and found a recipe for Broiled Flounder Parmesan from Diana's Kitchen.

* 2 pounds flounder fillets
* 2 tablespoons lemon juice
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
* 3 green onions, chopped
* 1 or 2 dashes of hot sauce, to taste
* thinly sliced lemon and parsley for garnish, optional

Place fillets in a single layer on a greased baking dish or broiler pan; brush with lemon juice.

Combine Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, salt, butter, and green onions, and hot sauce in a small bowl; set aside.

Broil flounder fillets 4 to 6 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Remove from oven; spread with cheese mixture.

Broil about 30 seconds longer, or until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly.

Garnish with sliced lemon and parsley if desired.

Broiled flounder recipe serves 6 to 8.

Our verdict: YUMMY!

Steamed Spareribs

We currently have a whole freezer fully stocked with meat - thanks to the Shoprite coupons that we were able to use last week. One of the meat packages that we got was pork spare ribs. I was planning to make some "Salt and Pepper pork ribs" but I didn't want to do more frying because of the lingering smell that always permeates the kitchen and living area after deep frying anything.

I decided to prepare our ribs ala dimsum style - steamed - and after some searching, I found this recipe by Weldon Russell posted on Cooking.com that I liked. I found myself missing a few ingredients so I ended up doing some substitutions and eliminating some altogether (I've noted those changes down in the recipe below).

Btw, the ribs were yummy! I really should stage my dishes nicely before taking any photographs. The photo above doesn't do this dish any justice.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp peanut oil (substituted olive oil)

2 tbsp fermented black beans, rinsed under cold water, drained and roughly chopped

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp chicken broth

2 tsp rice wine or dry sherry (used cooking sherry)

1 lb pork spareribs, chopped through in sections between the ribs

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 fresh red chili peppers, chopped (did not use)

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbsp chopped cilantro (did not use)

1. Heat the oil in a hot wok. Add the black beans, salt and sugar, and saute gently for 10 seconds. Add the chicken broth, rice wine and light soy sauce. Simmer together for 30 seconds. Remove the sauce to a mixing bowl. Add the spareribs and set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Add the cornstarch and mix well to coat the spareribs. Place the ribs on a plate ready for steaming. Sprinkle on the red chili peppers, garlic and cilantro. Steam over boiling water for 45 minutes.

Cutting a Pineapple

Hubby and I got ourselves a pineapple as part of our lucky fruit plate for the recent lunar new year. Pineapple = ong lai (sounds like "prosperity comes" in Fookien)

When it came time to cut open the pineapple and eat it, we found ourselves in a quandary. How?

This post chronicles our first (and probably the only) attempt. We're thinking that this is too much effort to go through so we might just get canned pineapple next year. But in retrospect, given the laughs that we had while this was being photographed, it's all worth it.

Step 1: Prepare your pineapple, knife and chopping board. The chopping board in the picture is the one that we only use for fruits. (We have separate chopping boards for raw meat).

Step 2: Hold the pineapple by its crown and start slicing off the covering on the sides.

Step 3: If first knife is dull, replace with a sharper knife.

btw, this is a shoutout to my readers in the US, where do you have your knives sharpened ?

Step 4: Chop off the top & bottom. Cut the body in half.

Step 5: Slice off the "eyes" of the pineapple.

Step 6: Cut into serving-sized slices.
Rub w/ rock salt and rinse. (hubby did this, don't know why)

Thankfully, the pineapple that we got turned out to be very sweet. Sarap!