Refreshing Japanese salad

The Japanese restaurants that I frequent serve a refreshing cold salad called Kani. It's made of thinly sliced cucumber, mango, crab stick, fish roe, and Japanese mayo. If there's Kani in a buffet spread I take it as my appetizer and, if the mango is really sweet, as my dessert as well. It's so light and refreshing. It's really a good way to start and end a meal.

At home, I sometimes make my own version. I don't have access to fish roe (it's expensive and I don't know how to buy and serve it) so the quality is not the same, but it ain't bad either. Here's what I toss in a bowl:

INGREDIENTS:
- 1 medium cucumber
- 1 ripe Philippine mango
- 4 crab sticks
- 2 tbsps of mayonnaise
- salt and pepper

TO PREPARE
- Wash and roughly peel the cucumber. Remove the seed.
- Slice the cucumber thinly. Place the slices in a sieve and sprinkle some salt. Let it stand so the cucumber releases its water. The salt helps speed up this draining process.
- Slice the mango flesh as thinly as the cucumber
- Loosen the crab sticks until they are like thin noodles
- Put all three ingredients together in a bowl and add the mayonnaise
- Add a bit of pepper
- Put in fridge to cool before serving. Enjoy!

I'm a soup person

I'm a soup lover. I have a few acceptable recipes under my sleeves that I am not shy to serve to others who could appreciate or use a hearty soup to warm the soul. But the peeling, mixing, pureeing, blending and, of course, cooking, could be quite tiring that I sometimes find it simpler to open the cupboard and look for instant canned or boxed soups. Usually I buy Campbell soups and it's a brand that saw me through many rainy nights when a hot soup makes me cozy inside. But Campbell now has serious competition in my cupboard space. A trip to Healthy Options made me discover Pacific Natural Foods selection of all natural and organic soup.

Now I don't always have to do so much work to have a creamy tomato or squash soup when I want it. The company Pacific Foods of Oregon, Inc. does all the work that give me a happy tummy. My favorite is the Creamy Tomato Soup. It can serve two to three people for less than P130, I think. The company says their milk comes from a local dairy, their tomatoes ripen on the vine and there's a real coconut in the Cashew Carrot Ginger.

 

 Here are five of the Pacific Food creamy soups I've bought. Of course, nothing equals the pride a cook feels when a pot of soup she cooked gets praises, but taking the instant route with this brand is not bad at all because it's really satisfying, healthy and could even be more affordable.

Vegitating

I'm a meat-lover, but I can eat my share of greens as well. Just recently, I happily noted the abundance of vegetables in my refrigerator. Here in the Philippines, we have a nursery rhyme about a little house with all kinds of vegetables in its garden. I felt I'm living in one when I saw the variety of vegetables I have. I temporarily took them out from the ref for a short photo opp. How lovely they look, I think, not to mention the vitamins and nutrients they have. My vegetable spread includes the following:
1. Spinach ( the leafy one at the leftmost side of the photo)
2. Baguio beans (still in its plastic bag)
3. Zucchini (partly hidden under the spinach)
4. Carrots
5. Eggplants
6. Cauliflower (with a barcode still on)
7. Leeks
8. Pechay Baguio (to the right of the cauliflower)
9. Sweet potato or camote
10. Singkamas (turnips or jicama)
11. Squash
12. Cucumbers
13. Yellow onion
14. Red onion
15. Tomato
16. Green bell pepper
17. Green lime
18. Long green chilis
19. Garlic
20. Celery
21. Potatoes
22. Black olives

Part of the stack is a bag of peanuts, but I'm not sure if it counts as vegetable. These items either played the lead or supporting role in the dishes I cooked later in the week. Because vegetables don't keep long, I feel pressured to cook them right away. I think keeping them in their plastic wrappers and moistening the tips of some help them stay fresh longer. Any effective tip on how to preserve vegetables in the ref longer?

Garlic Prawns

I love prawns cooked the simple way. My mother would just boil prawns in small amount of water with some salt and, presto, we have finger-licking lunch or dinner. Finger-licking because it's really not that enjoyable to not eat prawns with your hands, especially if it's as delicious as this garlic prawn dish I made recently.

INGREDIENTS:
- A kilo of tiger prawns, heads removed
- 2 tbsps of garlic powder
- half a box of butter
- salt and pepper

TO COOK:
- Slowly boil the prawns with salt and pepper in a deep pan
- Before the water completely evaporates, add the garlic powder and mix well to coat every prawn.
- Add in the butter and stir fry fast in medium heat.
- Serve immediately. Enjoy!

* Hopefully, you are not allergic to prawns because that would be a shame. I am allergic to certain types of shrimp though, like many other people.

Philippines' Farmers Market

I don't like going to wet markets. If I must, I have to be mentally prepared and suitably dressed for it because it's no small effort to step on slimy floors, to get bumped by "kargador" (porter, stevedore), to get nasal assault on every turn, to haggle for good price, to guard against pickpockets, to pay for goods in bills and coins, count your change, and to carry your own shopping bags. In fact, things get even more challenging if the one shopping is a blogger who must take photographs to chronicle an adventure. :) It also doesn't help that I have to have my mobile phone with me at all times and my parking ticket, too! I could probably think of a hundred reason why I'll avoid going to a wet market on most days, except when I need fresh seafood.

(Photos: public weighing scale, the seafood and meat sections, fruit vendors)



And seafood were exactly what I need one Sunday morning when I got dressed in simple shirt and jeans and drove to Farmers' Market. Here in the Philippines, this wet market is an institution. Located in Cubao, Quezon City, Farmers' Market has a good selection of seafood, meat, fruits and vegetables, and flowers, too. I go here mostly for the seafood. It's not the cheapest market to shop, but I think many come here for the quality and wide selection of seafood.

So, without further ado, here are the pictures I took during my recent trip at Farmers' Market. I took close-up pictures only from stores or vendors I patronized because I was afraid others would mind if I took photos without buying. I love the one of the mussels because there's a tabby cat at the foreground looking jaded towards all that the seas and ponds in the country came up with that morning.



(Above, fresh fish: Lapu-lapu are the rosy ones, and Pampano, I think, are the flat, silver ones.)



(Above, basins of prawns and shrimps in different sizes, next to a basket of live crabs tied up so they don't escape.)



(Above, baskets of kuhol or escargot. I don't eat snails, ty. The next stand sells mussels guarded by a shy young tabby.)



(Above, scallops that sell for P350 a kilo or about $8. Next photo shows clams for P60 or $1.50 and oysters and seaweeds.)

Waffle Dogs

A quick snack that brings back childhood memories for me is wafffle dog. Every so often I feel like having one. Today is one of those days, so out came my yellow Kyowa waffle dog maker and after 15 minutes I have enough waffle dogs to last me till dinner time.

INGREDIENTS:
- a small box of waffle or hotcake mix
- an egg
- a teaspoon of cooking oil
- a cup of water
- 9 regular hotdogs (each cut in half)


TO COOK:
- follow the procedure on how to prepare the hotcake mix (read back of carton label)
- warm up the waffledog maker and one by one fill the molds with boiled hotdog and batter.
- close waffle dog maker lid and open only when it says it's ready (my Kyowa turns a green light on if the waffles are cooked)
- cook longer by half a minute if you want a darker brown waffle dog.
- serve with a cold drink. Enjoy!

Mussels in butter and garlic broth

Mussels, yum! I had my first chance to cook this shellfish recently. With some trepidation I tried to do it the way an Italian restaurant serves it. I must say my version came close because the mussels really tasted good as they swim in shallow butter and lemon sauce. I lovett!

INGREDIENTS:
- A kilo of mussels, cleaned and washed
- 3 cups of water
- 5 cloves of garlic sliced thinly
- a stalk of spring onion cut into small pieces
- 1 lemon
- 1/3 of a butter block
- salt and pepper
- half a cup of white wine
- half a teaspoon of sugar (optional if the wine is sweet)

TO COOK:
Boil the mussels with the garlic. When the shells start to open, add the wine, salt and pepper, sugar, and squeeze in the lemon. Drop the butter and spring onion last. Simmer for 5 minutes. Enjoy!