It's not embutido or a meatloaf

You didn't use pork-mince. There’s no eggs, raisins, carrots, Vienna sausage or a boiled egg in it. So it’s not embutido, not really. And the classic meatloaf uses ground beef and bread crumbs.

But it’s using the same principles of some ground protein and seasonings and is either cooked in a bain-marie or baked in the oven. It’s wrapped like an embutido too, and like meatloaf, there’s going to be a gravy sauce for it, probably a butter-based mustard sauce.

Because what do you do with 20 packs of chicken breasts in the deep freeze? We bought them in bulk at Gilmours and much as I want to make Korean fried-chicken every other day, I can’t. On one hand, prepared chicken mince at the supermarket for 500 grams is like $8. The Gilmours bulk buy turned out to be something like 800-1kg per pack at $6. So all you need is a food processor really.

For this- okay let’s call it chicken roll- I used a bunch of frozen spinach, a whole red capsicum, a large white onion and heaps of cheese which I guess acts like a binder.

Pictures of it cooked and served tomorrow.

Hungry? Korean fried chicken

Is it really Korean? Who knows, suddenly it’s everywhere, but it’s certainly not KFC. It doesn't have that off-the-assembly-line taste.

And it’s deceptively more than you think it is- this is how much we got today for dinner but hardly made a dent with it, which means, we’re having it again for dinner Sunday night.

Wednesday's spaghetti

Wednesdays are my second favourite days after Fridays.

It means if you’ve made it half-way, then you’re nearly there (to Fridays). On Wednesdays, you can also see what’s ahead of you, in the week ahead, a little bit more clearly. I usually take stock of our meals and because we just have one main meal a day, it’s important to know what those meals are.

1. Not the same proteins on consecutive days; should be chicken, something not chicken, possibly chicken.

2. Try to get vegetables every other day (ugh) if you can. In winter, this is next to impossible. Personally, I take fibre and other supplements to augment a lack of greens.

3. A dish can only be repeated once every fortnight (I have a wide repertoire)

4. Save the ‘bad’ dishes for the weekends (pork belly, baked chicken wings, baking etc.).

5. Try to lessen food-waste (I’ve been doing well on this front).

Personally, I don’t go for starchy, carbohydrate-rich meals (sure I do rice a couple of days a week, but I limit my intake to just over a cup) so I rarely do pasta (esp pasta bakes ugh), but I remember buying 500grams of Wagyu mince (it’s not that great really) and a pack of spaghetti (perhaps, the one pasta I never regret cooking) so spaghetti it is.

We had leftover cheese and jalapeño kransky sausages, so I had these along with the beef for a take on Filipino spaghetti, but not really, because there’s nothing I hate more than sweet spaghetti. I also didn’t use any pasta sauce, just used the last couple of tomatoes we had in the crisper ($14 for 6!), peeled and de-seeded.

That’s Wednesday done!

What's for dinner? Roast pork loin

I wish it was Doyet’s lechon pork belly but..

A roast is so Western and so ubiquitous that you can buy it like you would lechon manok at a roast shop with all the trimmings like roast potatoes the size of tennis balls and pork-crackling on the side, which is the only thing I buy from a roast-shop if I had the chance. A dollar for a long strip of crackling.

I find it dry most of the time which is why I rarely ever buy it or make it. But this was before I’ve overhauled my cooking habits so when I got a small (about 800grams) pork loin by mistake- the people at the supermarket substituted it for pork belly- I thought this was my chance to cook it correctly.

And I sure succeeded. Just two key things really- cooking time and resting time.

Season

Salt & pepper, lamb seasoning, grated lemon zest, heaps of garlic and olive oil

Roll it

It already actually came rolled. I simply undid the strings to season the meat and then rolled it back and used the same string.

Rest it

Rest it for at least 15 minutes

Is your tooth sweet?

In 2020 and putting aside the chaos and heartache of Covid aside, I watched with envy how Filipino foodies bloomed; a culinary feast amidst the blight of the pandemic, and all at a tap on your digital screens.

While in New Zealand, there was uhm KFC and your neighbourhood Indian takeaway (ground-breaking).

Not that I would end up binging and spending hundreds of dollars on non-essential, processed food- but it was sad that there wasn’t much choice in a country with so much abundance.

But now, good Lord- it must be the frustrations from last year, boredom, or simply inspiration, but we have a flood of sweet goodies- don’t have a sweet-tooth I must admit, but here’s a couple I’d shell out some good dollars for:

messykitchenbakes.com

Creme Brulee Sourdough doughnuts

Daldang

Two words: Korean macarons called fatcarons

Hello Smash Cake

Take out your frustrations on a smash cake that ships with a cute wooden mallet. Smash the cake and treats inside!

cookiecartel.co.nz

These are 220gram monster cookies and available for order only once a week

The Macaron Company

There are heaps of macaron sellers in Auckland but if you want something a little bit more custom like your own design, this company can make that happen

Soet.co.nz

They offer what you call a cruffin, a hybrid of a croissant and a muffin which they say are hand-made over a 3-day process. Their Caramel Popcorn Cruffin is dual-filled with a Popcorn infused Crème Pâtissière and Salted Caramel. Topped with Caramel Popcorn.

happyslice.co

I like the occasional slice, usually a ginger one which is a bakery staple. But Happy Slice offers something a bit above the ordinary with slices that have Mars and Oreos and even Liquorice All sorts.

What's for dinner? Meat pie

When I first arrived in New Zealand, I had a short-lived obsession for supermarket and dairy staple, Big Ben pies which the kids loved it as a school or after-school snack.

I’ve come to appreciate more sophisticated pies since then- a couple of award-winning ones in fact- but given a choice between a wagyu beef and chanterelle mushroom pie and a siopao, I’d honestly pick the siopao.

I don’t know really- sometimes like with steak and kidney (a favourite), there can be a bit of stodginess or heaviness to it. And sometimes I feel, the use of pastry which is so western throws me off a bit which I associate (and prefer) more with sweet like a good apple pie (I made individual apple pies in a muffin pan a couple of weeks back actually).

But having store-bought flaky pastry is good enough reason to try and make some, which at a glance on Youtube seemed so straightforward that I didn't use any particular recipe. You can basically flavour your beef whichever way you want it. I did the traditional route as if I was making normal beef stew; sear and brown the beef pieces first (I used a cheap blade steak cut) before putting them on a slow-cooker to soften. I used mushrooms but put them in a food processor with brown onions and garlic, and fried them in butter. Seasoning of course was Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, several tablespoons of chipotle sauce and heaps of black pepper.

We currently don’t have proper individual pie pans- thinking of getting some of those traditional enamel ones- so had to stuff them into a muffin pan. The portions were small that I couldn’t really seal the tops nicely and two, if you want your pies to be on the saucy side, there’s not enough room for the sauce either.

But they turned out perfect, like really; about 20 minutes in the oven at 180 and they were done. Served them with store-bought deli veggies.

What's for dinner? NOT KFC

I like chicken in general and KFC is probably one that is reliably always there, because it is- there’s three within an 8 kilometre radius of where I live and work (South Auckland). But if other favourites were in the vicinity, it would be down there in my list.

When Auckland changed to Covid Alert Level 3 which meant that food places would be open, you couldn’t even order KFC- the demand was so high that deliveries were suspended. It was amusing for like 5 seconds; to sit in your car in a two-hour queue for take-away food is RETARDED.

I think part of my attraction to it was that I always thought that frying chicken was hard; or that it’s dangerous (latest accident was last year when I was frying some in a shallow electric-frying pan).

So I had to discard all my old and wrong frying habits (like watching stupid non-professional food vloggers), learn from the boring pros and voila- perfect chicken. Not that it was really that hard, to begin with, but it’s simply being mindful of tried and tested scientific principles of cooking:

1. Proportion of batter ingredients

2. Heating and cooking times (baseline for in-bone chicken pieces like a big drumstick is 14 min)

3. Resting the meat before serving

Frankly, I never really followed any of the above! When I felt like making it, I just did what I always did and moaned afterwards that it wasn’t satisfying for all the effort that went into it.

What we call chicken nibbles here is my favourite- you finish like 20 pieces and that’s not really a lot considering how little the meat is. This one above has two flavours; plain with just a dusting of chicken salt (turned out to be the better one) and Korean which was just alright.

Not going to type out the recipe: got it from below, the same peeps where I learned a fool-proof way to amazing roast crispy pork belly:

What's for dinner? Chickpea stew

This is from a recipe that apparently broke the internet, by New York Time Food writer and chef Alison Roman (see her recipe here); as to why, who knows? It’s not particularly ground-breaking nor sublimely delicious I’m telling you now. But then anything or anyone can break the internet, it’s just a fact of life.

But if you feel like you need a break from meat (we had lamb for Sunday dinner), this should work. It’s a very capable dish that ticks the boxes; substantial, spicy, creamy and healthy. I get anxious whenever I sit down to just a vegetable dish, so as a concession, I chopped up a couple of strips of bacon, but you can totally take this out (or use bigger chunks like lardons!).

Here’s my recipe:

Ingredients:
Two cans of chickpeas
half a cup finely chopped white onion, garlic and ginger
A can of coconut milk
powdered turmeric
seasoning to taste (chill flakes, sea salt- I also used chicken powder)
silverbeet or any leafy greens (if I were in the Philippines I would use heaps of maluggay)
bacon (optional)

Method:
Saute the aromatics. Put in the chickpeas and add the turmeric. Add coconut milk. Season to suit. Add greens. Alison suggested serving with yoghurt (or a spritz of citrus like lime or lemon) and this brightens the taste up as it does when you do the same thing with curry. It was served with bread (why???), but try it with rice instead.

What's in your basket today?

1. Anti-perspirant

2. packet of cocktail sausages

3. packet of paprika flavoured crisps

4. packet of tortilla chips

5. can of chickpeas

6. juice (carrot, ginger, apple)

7. two pottles of sour cream

8. 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.

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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).

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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:

1. Intact, crispy skin

2. 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:

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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:

1. All serve fried chicken dishes

2. They all have a version of steamed or boiled pork belly (my favourite)

3. They all serve some version of beef

4. The price points are on the average, the same, but the quantities vary

5. This one is more on the pricey-ish side ($200 for five dishes)

Twelve is at 1 Courthouse Lane, Auckland CBD, Auckland.

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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.