Pickling at Home

Pickled vegetables are an ideal food partner of meat dishes, especially fatty meat dishes.  The acidity of the vinegar cuts right through all that fat and indulgence.  It makes you feel less guilty, and even a little healthy for adding more vegetables to the the meal - healthy, despite that addition of a little salt.

Our last few batches of pickled vegetables have been using David Chang's recipe from his Momofuku cookbook.  He uses a delicate addition of salt and sugar, along with vinegar and water, that does not overpower the taste of the vegetable at all.  It really lets the actual vegetable shine.

When pickling, bittermelon is a staple for our fridge.  It's also fun to experiment with different vegetable and even fruits, like green mangos and green papayas.  Pickling is a great way to preserve vegetables and it lasts for a couple weeks in your fridge, so you'll always have a side dish ready to serve.

If you can't see the slide show here, check out my Flickr album: Pickling at Home

Cooking at Home

Between trips, I tend to become a homebody and really enjoying staying in and eating at home.  That allows me to occasionally try out recipes and flavor combinations that spontaneously pop in my head.  I don't really cook line by line with recipes.  I read cooking books, food articles, and blogs for ideas.  And then, I use them as a base and inspiration for my own recipe.  I get this idea in my head and flavors on the tip of my palate, and I use whatever we have in the fridge, freezer, and pantry to execute the vision.  It's like I've made myself my own cooking challenge/game.

Here are some dishes that my family and I have whipped up in the past few weeks.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinners; and mostly Asian-inspired.
Place your cursor above "Notes" below to read the captions for each photo.

If you can't see the slide show here, check out my Flickr album: At Home

Home Cooked Chinese Food

Spending the afternoon at my best friend's new place in Tung Chung naturally led to dinner at his place.  After years of friendship, it was time for him to whip up a home cooked Chinese dinner.

After walking across town between 2 grocery stores and 1 Chinese medicinal shop (for red dates) for ingredients, dinner prep was underway.  Four dishes for 3.  We all chopped, cooked, and cleaned for the meal.  It was like a family dinner.

The meal started with pork bone soup with apples and carrots which naturally sweetened the broth.  After our stomachs were warmed, we dug into the main event.  Steamed chicken with red dates, mushrooms, ginger, and so on.  Steamed ground pork with tofu and salted egg.  And seasonal greens sauteed in garlic and olive oil.  I love that the main dishes steamed.  I never knew Chinese food could be this healthy.  It's a great feeling at the end of a meal when you're full, satisfied, and guilt-free from all that you ate.  

Place your cursor above "Notes" below to read the captions for each photo.

If you can't see the slide show, check out my Flickr album: HK Home Cooking

Pastas at Home

I love eating pastas and I love cooking pastas. It's a fun challenge trying to recreate, and even better, pasta dishes I've enjoyed in restaurants all over the world.

A couple of my favorites are vodka sauce and carbonara.

I love that sweet, salty, and slight creaminess from vodka sauce. I really wanted to make it at home on a couple occasions even though we ran out of vodka. I decided to use white rum as opposed to gin because it has less of a distinct flavor, which is why vodka is traditionally used.

With carbonara, I love the garlicky flavor mixed with pancetta and fresh raw eggs in the end. Our batch was whipped together with pappardelle straight from Italy (thanks to my world traveling best friend.)

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Pastas at Home

Filipino Surf & Turf at Home

After a series of long trips, it's so nice to come home to your family's home cooking. To celebrate home life and home food, how about some Filipino surf & turf!

The Surf - Bangus Bistek Tagalog
Steak slices of bangus (milkfish) pan-fried with onions and topped with a soy sauce and calamansi mixture.

The Turf - Kare Kare
Oxtail peanut stew with long green beans and eggplants. This is my favorite home cooked meal. My mom makes it with love with all the tedious steps that really make the difference for extra deliciousness.

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: At Home

Top 10s of 2011: Home Cooked Meals

It's December already! Where did the year go?... As we reflect on 2011 and begin to get ready for 2012, I'll be gathering Top 10 lists during the weekends of December to reflect on my favorites from this past year.

To kick start the series of weekend lists...

My Top 10 Favorite Home Cooked Meals from 2011:
10. Home Cooked Asian Meals
9. Home Made Sake Steamed Chicken
8. Paella at Home
7. Steak Dinner
6. Spontaneous Dinner at Home
5. Home Made Porcini Risotto
4. Dinner at Home After a Long Trip
3. Lobster at Home
2. A Five-Star Steakhouse Meal at Home
1. Katsu of All Katsus


Eating at home is always as good or even better than eating out!

Next Top 10 of 2011: Home Baked!

Katsu of all Katsus

One of the best parts about traveling around the world and coming home to Manila is that you can pretty much buy a grocery list of local ingredients and take them home for a global home cooked dinner.

Cities around Asia have some of the finest gourmet groceries with local and European ingredients. And in every trip, groceries and markets are my museums.

During a recent trip to Hong Kong, City Super in IFC had some irresistible Spanish and Japanese meats. Spanish Iberico pork and Japanese A5 Wagyu cuts. Thanks to their packing, we were able to take home Spanish Iberico pork chops.

Spanish Iberico pork chops come from the spine of the pig and usually contain a bone. They are juicy and rich in taste. Combined with my dad's awesome katsu recipe and frying... Every bite was euphoric.

To balance the pork katsu, we also fried sweet potatoes, mushrooms, onions, eggplants, broccoli, and bell peppers. One of the best home cooked dinners of the year. After this meal, we hurried back to Hong Kong and took home more Iberico pork chops. I can't wait for the next katsu dinner!

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Katsu at Home

Home Made Sake Steamed Chicken

It's dinner time again! This time, I used a recipe that I've been wanting to cook for awhile now.

Sake Steamed Chicken
(FYI, it's a NY Times recipe if you're keeping count of your 20 articles per month)

I was so curious about this tender, tender chicken that the author wrote about. I've only steamed a fish before, which is a delicious way to eat fish. I've eaten boiled chicken, and so I was curious how steamed chicken could be even better.

This is a great recipe. The chicken came out very tender and very moist. The rest period after the steaming is really important. It brings the juices together and stays in the chicken.

The original recipe had only a sliight sake taste. Non-existent if you didn't know about the sake. My adjustment that I want to try next time is to marinate the chicken for a bit in the sake, and then steam it in water. I can't wait to try this again!

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Steamed Chicken

Home Made Porcini Risotto

Dinner time! When it comes to cooking dinner at home for my family, I have a few recipes saved for when I'm in the mood to cook. But most of the time, dinner is created after I peak through the pantry, fridge, and freezer. I love cooking with whatever is left. It's a fun challenge and I try to figure out the possible tastes in my head and how everything can come together.

So after a stroll through the kitchen, I found we had arborio rice in the freezer and dried porcinis in the pantry. It's mushroom risotto for dinner!

After stirring in the last cup of broth, I finished the risotto with a little slab of butter to bring it all together. (A little tip I learned from watching Mario Batali on TV.)

And to intensify the mushroom taste, after pouring and stirring in one cup of white wine, I tend poured in the mushroom juice which I used to hydrate the dried mushrooms. Wow, it had an excellent bold porcini taste!

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Risotto

Dinner at home after a long trip

After a long trip, it's kind of nice to spend a couple days laying low. There's lots to do around the house, too. Laundry and catching up with work, all the while trying to beat the jetlag.

This down time also calls for some good meals at home. On my Facebook page, I occasionally post up pictures during my dinners at home, entitling them, "Daily Dinner." They are just ordinary days and ordinary dinners. But, because of the table setting and the food prepared, a daily dinner becomes a feast.

Here are some pictures from one Daily Dinner just after our arrival back home.
- Fresh local lapu lapu, roasted on a bed of tomatoes and onions.
- Paella topped with green beans, lima beans, whole shrimps, and squid. With aioli.
- Paired with a Rioja

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Dinner at Home

Briefly Back in Manila

Back home in Manila between trips. That means a little eating out and a little home cooking. It also means enjoying the sights and tastes of home.

One of my favorite things about Manila is the sunsets. It's a different scene every night.

On one weekend, my best friend came in town from Hong Kong for some feel good Filipino food. And, of course, that includes the desserts! Here are a few pictures of some of the desserts we enjoyed. We visited Chef's Table for the Buko Pie Martini (where you have to order one person - it's that good). And we also enjoyed my mom's desserts at home. From one batch of plantain bananas, we enjoyed 2 different desserts. So yum.

Place your cursor above "Notes" to read a little more about the food photos.

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album.

A Spontaneous Dinner at Home

Even though we go to the grocery at least once a week for proteins and produce, we don't plan out what we'll have for dinner every night of the week. Dinner is made depending on cravings, whether it's for seafood, meats, etc. And whether it's the mood to stay in or go out.

For this particularly night, we opened the refrigerator and had a choice between fish soup or rack of lamb. It's been too long since I've had a good cut of lamb. With risotto in the pantry, we had our dinner set!

Roasted rack of lamb, saffron risotto with lima beans, and sauteed mustard greens. Pretty great for a spontaneous menu for dinner at home.

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album.

Steak Dinner

What can follow up a lobster dinner? And what's a great meal to cook at home before another long flight back to Manila?

Steak!

Place your cursor on "Notes" as a couple of the pictures have captions.

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album.

Lobster at Home

My recent visit to the east coast was to celebrate the new addition to our family. Since my nephew (who's uber cute) couldn't go out for his first month in the world, we had many meals at my brother's place.

One meal took advantage of being in the east coast.. and the start of lobster season! And what can you pair with lobster? Garlic noodles!

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see the slide show, check out my Flickr album.

(Pictures taken by my brother)

Easter Brunch at Home

Easter! One of my favorite holidays of the year. It's the best religious day of the year, it's my mark for the start of the sunny yet cool spring time, and it's family day.

Family meals at home range from simple and casual to "party foods." In all cases, they are home cooked meals that feel like we're eating out at a restaurant with the comfort of eating at home.

Our Easter meal was simple, yet it still had the celebration feel to it. All in all, another great meal with the family.

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album.

Home Cooked Asian Meals

After traveling so much, it's so comforting to eat home cooked food at home. Even though I've been traveling around Asia, I still always find myself craving for Asian food. Here are a couple meals that I made and my mom also made during our down time at home.

Place your cursor above "Notes" to read more about the pictures.

Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slide show here.

Paella at Home

My mom's signature dishes, even if she describes them as "party food", are my all time favorite comfort foods.

After coming from a trip and eating out a lot, it's really enjoyable to stay in and enjoy a high quality meal at home. One of my mom's signature dishes is her paella. I totally believe I'm not saying this because she's my mom, but I think she's got one of the best paella's out there. We've tried so many across Spain and the U.S., and they don't come close. Not even Jose Andres's paella is as good as my mom's. It's a bold statement, but I stand by it. Perhaps Chef Andres should accept my BFF invitation (and BFF invitation, part 2) and try out my mom's paella!

Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slide show here.

A Five-Star Steakhouse Meal at Home

Our local butcher in Las Vegas, The Butcher Block, is our go-to place for some of the best quality steaks. For one of our last meals at home in Vegas, my dad usually grills some steaks. At $50 per pound of New York Steak, we hesitated for a moment and considered going to a five star steak house on The Strip. But, we realized that the way we eat at home (the cooking, the wine, the table setting) is just as five star as in a restaurant out on The Strip. Plus, these steaks, if you know how to cook them, are so worth the price.

One of the greatest joys in life is savoring each bite of a melt-in-your-mouth quality steak. Pair it with a good sauce and a well-aged wine - happiness.

Place your cursor above "Notes" to read more about each picture.

Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slide show here.

Chicken Kara-age... At Home!

I loove chicken kara-age (Japanese style fried chicken)! So when my brother said he'll make it at home for dinner, I was excited! Meals at home keep getting better and better!

He made a complete meal with lots of vegetables. Ever since I traveled to Thailand in February, I'm always looking for more vegetables with my meal. His chicken kara-age was soo good! And I'm not saying that because he's my brother.... Actually, we all love joking each other so I normally wouldn't say that, haha... But really, such a fantastic dinner at home!

Check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelasibal/sets/72157625570726004/ if you can't see the slideshow here.

Linguine alle Vongole at Home

I love when a night's dinner menu is created spontaneously in a grocery because of the freshness of the day's ingredients. Walking through Whole Foods can be so inspiring. At the seafood counter, we saw there were some great looking fresh Manila clams. We had to get it. It was so fresh (as in, if you hit the shell a little, the muscle would move inside) that we had to eat it for dinner that night. So what to make with fresh clams? Linguine alle Vongole!

With a tomato, some garlic, parsley, and delicious white wine, the clams were tossed in and steamed to open. Then we mixed in the cooked linguine. The result: A flavorful pasta with dimensions of flavor from the clam juice and the white wine.

To cap the meal, we enjoyed a cheese course, thanks to the great cheese selection at Whole Foods. And, of course, it was paired with some port which is a fantastic way to balance and heighten the experience of a cheese plate.

Place your cursor above "Notes" to read a little more about each picture.

Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slideshow here.