Anti-perspirant
packet of cocktail sausages
packet of paprika flavoured crisps
packet of tortilla chips
can of chickpeas
juice (carrot, ginger, apple)
two pottles of sour cream
cup of instant noodle soup (chicken)
Meaty Friday
I had a work lunch at Little Jimmy in Epsom with some office staff and our web dev guys. Though I was eyeing a fish starter and a veggie side, I ended up with their Wagyu Beef Short Rib fillet with celeriac puree and some bokchoy. It was the size of my fist- and I have a small fist.
Luckily, one of the guys offered to share his curly fries. It needed a side, just saying ( and I was really hungry that day). It was labelled as a large plate too which was not accurate. To compare, Sarah from work ordered a small plate of trevally ceviche, and the ‘small plate’ was actually a condiment bowl. I know that the restaurant industry is struggling but…
Dinner/ Blue Ox Babe BBQ
Continuing our fortnight eating-out runs, we put aside Korean for a change and tried out this Texas barbecue joint in Pukekohe with the strange name of Blue Ox Babe. If you’re not sure of how much meat you’re supposed to order you can ask them to make that decision for you. We ordered the brisket, pork belly, sausages and the ribs and skipped the chicken. With four adults (Matt was still at work), they recommended doubling the ribs to a full stack.
For sides, we had two curly fries (there’s a loaded one slathered with pulled pork), slaw and the pickled cucumber (the total bill was just under our magic number of $200).
They were spot on with the quantity though I would be happy with just the brisket and the ribs. The ribs were great- firm with a nice even layer of fat on top (I loathe ribs with the meat falling off) and unslathered with sickly sweet sauce which I also hate. I would’ve wanted rice for a side- or something plain, like maybe corn on the cob or even bread buns. The curly fries were a disappointment; they were under-seasoned and hard.
The hero side was the obviously home-made pickles - actually crinkle sliced Lebanese cucumbers with just the right combination of tang, crunch and acidity to freshen your palate for another forkful of meat (and no forks!).
We were in agreement that next time, we would do takeaway and eat it at home with rice.
Burnt Basque Cheesecake
I bought a block of Philadelphia cream cheese nearly a month ago intending to make peanut butter cheesecake and thought that now was the time to make one. However, I came across a cheesecake that I had always seen at cafes but assumed that it was known simply as a baked variant- I honestly have always preferred the non-baked kind- but this one had a proper name; burnt Basque cheesecake (Tarta de questo).
And in spite of a name that somehow implies it goes back a long way, it was actually invented by a Spanish chef, Santiago River of the La Viña restaurant in 1990 who wanted a custardy cheesecake.
And to achieve this texture, the oven has to be really hot (400 degrees) with a cooking time of exactly an hour. The top after this is that deep shade of brown that is 5 minutes away from being burnt, and the cake has that jiggle that is just a tad shy of being firm, but not too wobbly. Some recommend clocking it at 40 minutes for that soft, custardy consistency and I’m glad that I didn't, because I think, it would’ve tasted too eggy (this Bon Appetit recipe calls for 6 large eggs.) which I would hate; if I wanted eggy, I’d make an omelette.
It’s recommended that you let it cool completely (like 3 hours), but we ate it anyway just two hours in and it was still slightly warm. I drizzled maple syrup (Nigella Lawson has a recipe where she serves it with licorice sauce) on it and that was a good idea because it isn’t exactly too sweet.
I had another taste of it after it had been chilling in the fridge for about 2 hours and it tasted even better, like the marriage of a regular cheesecake and an egg flan, airier and less dense than a New York cheesecake which I’ve always found to be stodgy (that’s because a New York cheesecake is normally baked for an hour and a half, cooled inside the oven and doesn't use heavy cream).
Cooking pork belly #1,001,000 (this one works!)
If I could eat pork belly everyday I really would. I’ve cooked it so many times but I still could not find the one fool-proof, consistent way that would serve me meat that would have the following characteristics:
Intact, crispy skin
Nearly falling apart, flavourful flesh and fat
I’ve boiled, brined, dried and salt-crusted with varying degrees of success and what’s annoying is that the next time I boil, brine, dry and salt-crust, the results are different again.
But this one worked right off the bat:
But the meat could’ve been more tender. Maybe the ratio of fat to meat makes the difference. I got the pork from the supermarket and the fat was on the thin side.
Next time - #1,001,001 - I’ll try the butchers.
12
Yup. Another Korean restaurant. And we’re starting to see a menu pattern:
All serve fried chicken dishes
They all have a version of steamed or boiled pork belly (my favourite)
They all serve some version of beef
The price points are on the average, the same, but the quantities vary
This one is more on the pricey-ish side ($200 for five dishes)
Twelve is at 1 Courthouse Lane, Auckland CBD, Auckland.
Nights in Seoul
I’ll pass on the Korean dramas and Kpop and while I can see the effects of the Korean glass-skin routine, at the end of a long day at work, it still feels like I moisturised with beef drippings.
But Korean food - yes, give me the food.
This is our third in as many months, and there are three staple proteins you can rely on - fried chicken, boiled/steamed pork belly and beef. The fried chicken is common enough and at this point, I wouldn’t order it if I was eating by myself. I don’t like the sauces and glazes which always tend to be on the sweet side; a reminder of the 1st time I had fried chicken and waffles and thought of it as an abomination.
But fried chicken and fries - shoe-string and slightly sweetish - is your filler before tackling the pork and the beef. Their pork belly is served cold which I know turns some people off, but the fat is firm and gelatinous-like with a dab of seasoning on top. You eat it like you would with Peking duck, tucked inside a lettuce leaf, or a cabbage and even shiso.
But the main star was the beef - Galbi Jjim - beef short rib (with a bone so long, it could’ve been a forearm), two bones arranged on the plate with the meat cut in precise pieces. You sort of wonder how they’d prepared it, braised long enough that it’s fork tender, but still firm enough to be cut the way they did.
Seoul Night
Fort St, Auckland Central
Meat
I was late to the party, so now I’m currently catching up with the NBC show Hannibal which you can watch on ‘Netflix’. Never really bothered to watch it until now partly because just by looking at Mads Mikkelsen, I didn’t think the role suited him. But it actually does because if you put aside the Silence of the Lambs film and Anthony Hopkins, it’s a totally different uhm, monster. Haven’t read the book so I’m not sure what age Dr. Lecter is, but having him in a much younger body presents a different physicality, perspective and taste.
Whereas I’m sure Hopkin’s Hannibal would be satisfied with proper China, heirloom cutlery and conservative French cooking techniques, Mikkelsen’s is something you might have at a purposely hushed Michelin starred New York restaurant. It’s the theatrics that can sometimes be off-putting in this show which extends to murders so stylised that you begin to suspect, the show’s set stylist probably also does the food.
And the food! The parade of meat- prepped, cooked, styled and given as much airtime as the murders themselves (the victims after all, have a very close connection with the meat) - has given me a craving.
Don’t normally eat a lot of beef but when we ordered our meats when the 2nd lockdown started, I thought what the hell, let’s get 2 kilos of prime eye fillet (which is also known as beef tenderloin and filet mignon).
Two kilos is actually a whole lot of meat- was able to divide it into three generous portions/meals. I’ve been craving Bistek Tagalog & Beef Salpicao so I decided to do both.
Used two heads of garlic and nearly 40 grams of butter. Fried the beef in three batches- didn't even need to cook them that long. I added two large white onions and dried shiitake mushrooms which I didn't mix in with the beef. Cut up a large potato into medallions and deep fried them- this is what dad did when he made his Bistek Tagalog, though at the last minute, I changed my mind about adding lemon juice because the thing is, it’s never really the same as calamansi.
My only complaint and reminder? Use high-end butter, preferably French. You’d want to taste that creamy, buttery note that melds with the Kikkoman..oh well, there’s two more portions to go.
It's that kind of day
Obsessed with furikake
From a Google search:
What is furikake? Furikake, or furikake seasoning, refers to a range of dried, normally mixed seasonings made especially for sprinkling on top of rice. As a unique type of Japanese seasoning furikake comes in a wide range of flavours, including wasabi furikake (with dried wasabi as a main ingredient), nori komi furikake (containing tiny pieces of seasoned nori seaweed), shiso furikake (made from seasoned, dried, and crushed red perilla leaves), and salmon furikake (with dried salmon crumbs). Furikake may also contain dried omelette pieces, roasted sesame seeds, bonito fish flakes, and even matcha green tea on occasion.
I’m going to be sprinkling Furikake on everything now:
1. Furikake chicken wings
2. Furikake popcorn
3. Furikake crumbed salmon
4. Furikake dumplings (you stuff the dumplings with them along with prawn)
5. Furikake potato chips
Charred with a hint of soy
We had Saturday dinner at Daisy Chang in Howick. Small menu, the usual South-Asian suspects and from the photos it was hard to tell how big the portions were, because certainly, wasn’t $10 for four dumplings too much? At the night markets you could get 15 for $5.
But I like looking (discretely) around the moment I enter a restaurant, and I happened to see two baos being brought out of the kitchen and even at 15 feet I could see that they were huge. From that, we were able to make a determination that two items would be sufficient. We all ordered fried chicken (I wanted squid but they’d run out) and baos (I picked pork belly). For sides, we had the charred cauliflower stems and fries.
Charring is another big trend and there is something about it that lends vegetables, a perfect foil to their freshness especially when the only seasoning is salt and paper and a modest dressing of hoisin. I would happily be charring all my vegetables except that cauliflower stems or even broccolini are rarely available in the supermarkets. You either hunted them down at Farmer’s markets or grow your own.
I remembered that I still had the Chines broccoli that Berta gathered from the week back as well as half a kilo of pork belly leftover from the week’s previous dinner so I whipped up a dish that could happily be included in Daisy Chang’s menu. The Chinese broccoli were a bit limp now, but they still had crunch, and a bit of peppery bite reminiscent of arugula. To lighten the hint bitterness, a splosh of lemon juice before serving.
Since they were just a handful, I got savoy cabbage which I haven’t had a chance to cook until now, in about 50 grams of butter and sea salt and they’re now my favourite cabbage.
Food jag
See how stupid the English language is? If a crying jag means a period of uncontrolled crying or coughing, then you’d think that a food or eating jag would mean a period of uncontrolled eating right? Apparently not. A food jag means the practice of eating just one food over time. For instance, a child may only want to eat boiled potatoes for every meal. Okay.
Using it anyway for what I think it means.
Maybe its the relentless work load, or the exhaustion of waiting and catching for the bus, but everyone knows that sometimes, the easiest palliative is food. Eat whatever you want. Comfort yourself.
Thursday
It started with Spam, fried eggs and rice for Thursday dinner. Fried the Spam pieces the way my nephew Matt likes them- crispy , and it works, making the saltiness stand out.
Friday
We went to the Auckland Night Markets for the 1st time since the lockdown. I had my usual Korean two-meat dish with glass-noodles but it wasn’t on par with how they used to make it, perhaps because the cook sans her usual two helpers, was also fielding orders and serving them instead of focusing on the dishes. Then we stumbled onto an American couple selling traditional American desserts- pumpkin and pecan pie by the slice, giant, red-velvet whoopie pies and a chocolate cake aptly named blacked-out cake.
I got a slice of pecan pie and a whoopie pie to go.
Saturday
We were supposed to do roast chicken with plain rice and steamed broccoli for Saturday dinner but ended up at the bakery in Manurewa run by the most affable Vietnamese people you’ll ever meet who also happen to have a perchance of making fresh fries every time you order. The fried chicken- a Tasty Chicken franchise- was also just coming out of the fryer so we had that too and make it two thigh pieces please!
Sated at 3pm, we decided that having roast-chicken for dinner was too much so that was cancelled (the chicken was later cut-up and made into adobo).
But it’s always weird to skip dinner so at 9pm, we decided to pick up a large, $10 thin-crust New York style pizza from Pizza Hut and who was I NOT to order a side of 8 chicken wings?
Sunday
And on Sunday was our third year attendance of the fabled Nicoll’s Rib Dinner- eat all you can ribs and sides (I just stick to the meat of course), in a gorgeous early 20th century restored boarding-house and hosted by the most interesting person you’ll ever meet, B, who also asked me to make dessert for next year’s dinner.
Burp.
Weekend eats (wings and brownies)
Nothing is more satisfying in cooking than implementing a tweak and to see it work, and following a recipe to have it turn out exactly as the recipe intended it to be.
Pizza-Hut styled spicy chicken wings
Chicken wings are my go to every weekend and I’ve done them hundreds of ways in every flavour imaginable, but my standard (or preference) is still the way fast-food establishments- specifically Pizza Hut- does them, which is wings that obviously have a starchy coating, but cooked in a steamed environment that melds that coating with the chicken skin and meat. And to savour that melded sumptuousness, you need to clamp on the wing on one end with your teeth, and pull it out on the other- a clean stripping that leaves you with clean bones you can stack nicely on your plate.
I remembered that I had done this before- coating my wings with flour- but did not do the steaming part; so this time, after dredging the wings in a plain flour and cornstarch mixture, stacking them on an oven tray, I covered and sealed the whole thing in foil. Into the oven it went at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes. Took them out, removed the excess liquid some of which I mixed with the buffalo sauce (butter and sriracha), coated them in the sauce and put them back in.
Now, this would’ve been a near-perfect turn-out save for one tiny thing- I should’ve covered the wings wth the foil and steam-baked it about 20 minutes more (after which you can take off the foil and change the oven setting to grill).
But it was damn near perfect so not complaining.
Butterscotch brownies
I’m always shocked at the amount of sugar that goes into baking cakes, pastries and desserts. But when I cut the amount down, I’m disappointed at the taste; I can immediately tell it’s really not the same.
So this time, following this recipe by Melissa Clarke, I decided to be faithful to the ingredient amounts to achieve what Melissa describes as brownies as sweet as candy and almost (with) enough dark brown sugar to make your teeth ache. But not quite.
Brownies are probably one of the 1st things I’ve ever attempted cooking as a child and I can remember the results of those attempts which clearly showed that the outcome always depends on your ingredients- we never really had quality flour back then and as for the butter, it was such a luxury that we made ours last. To use 225 grams in one go back then would’ve meant a walloping from my mother.
But in this recipe, it’s all in-two sticks of butter, chocolate, organic pecans and 2 1/4 cups of brown sugar, packed in.
The result is exactly what Melissa described; chewy, candy-like with more of that molasses kind of sweetness, and decadently oily from all that butter.
(photos taken by the Lumix G9, with a Lumix G 25mm F1.7 lens)
Sunday eats
I like oatmeal cookies and I like raisins = oatmeal raisin cookies.
This recipe is from here; and I was wanting chewy which is why when I find myself on Queen Street in Auckland’s CBD, I always buy a couple of Mrs. Higgins Rum Raisin cookies which sadly, they don’t seem to make anymore (I also love Rum Raisin ice cream).
But portioning the dough is tricky as I don’t have enough cookie-making experience to know what constitutes a ‘tablespoon of dough’ which doesn’t make sense when dough is neither a liquid nor a powder. And portion is crucial to this recipe especially when you need to refrigerate the dough for a bit so that it doesn’t flatten out really quickly in the oven; and that it bakes for only 12-15 minutes at 170, leaving a centre that’s supposed to be the chewy part. But I had to do what I had to do and the dry stickiness of the dough actually made it easier to form uniform shaped balls.
The dough did bake within the prescribed 12-15 minute period but I extended it a bit to like 20. I also switched the two trays because even if the partition was exactly in the middle, the lower tray cooked faster.
Was it what I expected? Not really. I could taste what seemed like baking soda (even if I had used only a teaspoon). The centre was chewy yes, but not as gooey rich as I hoped.
I may do this again, but will find another recipe.
(photos taken by the Lumix G9, with a Lumix G 25mm F1.7 lens)
What's your beef?
I should have asked my aunt (Amelita) about this but asking someone where they got their beef is not a question that pops up in your head everyday, so….Anyhow, when I studied at the UP, I stayed at my aunt’s house in the weekends and the meals she made, same as my dad’s, were amazing- restaurant quality.
One day, she made what I remember to be beefsteak Tagalog- beef strips cooked in garlic and soy-sauce with a tangy tinge of sourness from kalamansi.
But this beef was different- it came from Australia, brought to the house by my aunt's former household help who married an Australian. It was tender, not from cooking, but from the quality of the beef itself. And it was buttery but not in a way that was cloyingly rich.
I don’t think we’ve ever had that beef dish ever again and to this day, I still keep looking for it. I’ve been to Australia of course and had steak from the usual best places in Sydney and Melbourne, but nope- not the same. New Zealand boasts some of the best beef in the world as well, but nope- haven’t found anything that came close and I’ve tried every cut and every specialist type from angus to wagyu (though not anything above a marble score of 5 of course).
I’ve suspected that maybe, the secret was the way that it was cooked- that I probably haven’t mastered the best way to cook beef, or worse, I’ve been cooking my beef wrong- it’s possible.
Anyhow, the beef cut above is a boneless rib roast or something and it’s just from the supermarket. It looks small-ish in the photo but it’s about 1.5kilos which is good enough for two meals. Like I said, having had more than my usual allotment of beef during the lockdown contributed to my higher cholesterol reading so I shouldn’t really be having it, but I’m lessening my portions.
It’s a tough cut so one portion would go into a usual beef stew and the other portion might be a slow-cooker pulled beef one for a tortilla night.
Monday
Back to oatmeal
Got my blood-test results and my cholesterol is a bit elevated- which I knew- but not as high as I thought it would be without medication, which I had stopped as a test.
And the culprit? Food of course- it always is. During the lockdown in an effort to have variety, we’ve had more red meat than we’ve ever had in a long time. And chips- like potato chips- a bagful nearly every week for over a month.
So it’s back to medication (statins) and perhaps, way less of the meat. Like everyone else, I had my oatmeal-in-the-morning run before it was put aside with ever shifting diets and preferences which currently, has me eating nothing until lunch.
The question is, does it work? The answer- I don’t really know. I exercise regularly; I take heaps of supplements and I still don’t know. This is why I rely on regular blood-tests and doctors; the blood-work is a more accurate and definitive picture of the state of your body.
On one hand, I get terribly hungry now before 10am and I don’t think I would’ve lasted until noon without eating something, so oatmeal it is instead of a biscuit.
Arroz Caldo
Rain this whole week is projected which started yesterday, but it looks like it won’t hardly make a difference to the drought situation; the ‘rain’ is a fine mist, like a watery veil that damply caresses your face. But rain always means some humidity and less of the biting fall coldness (winter doesn't officially start until the last week of June apparently) so it’s good.
Made arroz caldo from two large breast chicken pieces and a small cupful of the Jasmine rice we just bought. We don’t have patis- patis and kalamansi juice make an arroz caldo- so I chopped up anchovy fillets instead. What I got was a delicious creamy umaminess that’s more of a risotto if that makes sense. A dash of sesame oil and half of a lemon for a springy sourness made it perfect.
Max fail
How difficult is it to make fried chicken right? But trying this very popular recipe made me remember that I’ve never been really successful at making bone-in fried chicken. I’ve made tons of chicken karage, Korean inspired chicken-wings and chicken-wings/nibbles of every conceivable flavour, but have yet to achieve no-nonsense, really good bone-in fried chicken. I’ve followed the steps to the letter and it’s still pollo no bueno…
On one hand, maybe I don’t need to- I’m perfectly happy with KFC chicken and I’ll just stick to that.
One good thing though in making a side dish that should go with the chicken is discovering a fast and tasty way to cook kale. In everyday Philippine cooking, there seems to be just two ways to cook vegetables- boiling them (or adding them to stock) or ‘gisa’ (sautee) with tomatoes, garlic and onions and I picked the latter. Kale is tough and fast cooking actually translates to about 30 to 40 minutes of simmering the leaves in a broth until it softens to the texture of wilted spinach. I’ve done laing with silverbeet/chard twice now and I might do the next one with kale.
When you eat once a day...
..you obviously look forward to dinner.. and I do. I even plan 5 days ahead, having already absorbed what everyone’s like and dislikes are- no yolky dishes; chicken should be boneless (which I now prefer after nearly choking on a small bone); carbs are limited to potatoes and rice; fried stuff only once every fortnight; frozen vegetables cooked in butter.
There aren’t enough fresh vegetables though which I can count with two hands- carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, silverbeet, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce- and none of which are as interesting as splendidly bitter ampalaya or the weed-like papait; the perfect foil to beef and pork; fresh malunggay leaves to go with your free-range chicken; steamed okra for grilled bangus; camote and kangkong for pork-ribs sinigang; or spider beans cooked with tausi beans, tofu and asado pork-belly.
Ayyyyy…anyways, here’s what I plan to make in the next couple of days
Basic shortbread
It’s basic alright- didn't realise how basic it was until I looked up the recipe. In some British cookbook published in the early 20th century, classic shortbread contains just three ingredients, flour ("dried and sieved"), butter ("squeezed free of all water") and sugar ("fine caster").
I got the recipe from the NYTimes Food of course and this is the recipe by Melissa Clark:
240 grams all-purpose flour (2 cups)
36 grams rice flour (1/4 cup)
62 grams sugar (1/4 cup), more as needed
2 grams fine sea salt (1/2 teaspoon)
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 cup), melted and cooled
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.
In a bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar and salt. Stir in the butter. Press dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake until golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes. Sprinkle evenly with sugar while warm and slice; cool completely.
As most basic recipes, there are a million variations but I stuck to this one and It turned out to be what I expected it to be.
Baking notes:
1. Is there a way to ‘properly’ melt butter? I melted mine in the microwave but I felt that it ‘cooked’ it- does that affect the final product? It wasn’t as buttery as Melissa promised it was going to be.
2. Don’t over-bake it- stick to the allotted 30-40 minutes. I was looking for that golden surface, but look at the edges. If they’ve browned, alas, it has been over-cooked.
3. The right-sized pan makes the difference in how it cooks (obviously the cooking area). Could you believe I’ve only just now started to actually measure my pans??? I plan to go to the stores to buy pans and make sure I check the sizes first.
Today: Blah
You get those days when you just can’t be bothered. Thank God it’s a Friday- a short day- and I felt that I was on a hot seat, unable to be on it for more than 30 minutes at a time between more Zoom meetings, phone-calls, emails.
I tell myself, walking outside the deck to catch some sun, or going upstairs to bother Sam, contemplating on getting another espresso, or scooping some Indian Aloo Bhujia with my fingers out of the snack jar that 2pm was just within reach. Thank God I hadn’t opted out of my 37.5 for 40. There are some things that extra money can’t buy like a few hours of peace.
When 2pm came, I went straight to bed feeling I could use a nap, took off my Apple watch and thought of putting my phone on silent but then decided against it just in case my boss rang- fine, this one concession. He didn't but I couldn’t sleep anyway. Got out of bed at 4pm, made rice and wondered if ordering for KFC delivery two days in advance was stupid.
I kept checking my watch; in the past, I would get a text message 15 minutes before it was due to arrive with a tracking link for the delivery.
4:55; 4:59. I felt a twinge of irritation and worry. The delivery must have been fucked. Thank God I saved the order confirmation. Soup packets for dinner then?
And then a ping- the chicken was on its way.
YAY.
Essential adobo
While I was prepping pork-scotch for the barbecue (on Tuesday) and chicken for a chicken piccata (today), I had some leftovers from both. I sliced the pork and chicken in small slices; threw in garlic, diced white onions; whole peppercorns and bay-leaves. Normally as I’ve seen it done growing up, you only put in vinegar (no water) and would add the soy-sauce when the meat has braised and you can see it frying in its own fat.
And this is why the adobe is such a great dish because the way it’s cooked is not bound by a single set of rules. It’s totally up to you and how you want to make it. I’ve seen versions where the meat are seared first; or the meat taken out, sauce reduced and then broiled under a hot grill. People have used apple cider vinegar, white white vinegar, apple juice and citrus juice. You can do adobong puti (one of my favourites best eaten cold with cold rice or adobong dilaw- brightly yellow with turmeric and tempered with coconut milk (which I don’t like because it sort of tastes ‘malansa’). You can just use chicken, or just pork or both.
You can change your mind midway and make it into laing (which I’ve done with silverbeet which I’ll be doing again) or you can throw in several tablespoonfuls of fish paste to make into binagoongan for which I only use pork-belly. And it lasts forever- the small pot I made today is good for two servings which will be lunch tomorrow.
Once we finally find a goddamned freezer, I’m going to cook a big batch and freeze it.