Kimchi Stew - Perfect for Rainy Days

Kimchi Stew.  The words alone can warm me up and fire up my salivary glands to overdrive.

A Korean lady who owns a grocery taught me this recipe.  It's a good thing I did not quite understand her - I mixed up her versions of Kimchi Soup AND Miso Soup and came up with spectacular results.  When I was telling her what I did, she was shaking her head - apparently I committed some sort of Korean Culinary boo-boo.

I continued making this mistake of adding miso paste to kimchi stew, since I liked the taste. Eventually, I found recipes on the net that make use of this combination, along with other flavorings such as chili powder for added fire, soy sauce, onions, and sesame oil.

I keep mine simple, and you can glean the ingredients from the picture above.

Kimchi, plus some kimchi juice from the jar, chopped to bite size portions
Wakame (dried Japanese seaweed)
Miso paste (about a heaping teaspoon per serving)
Soba noodles
Tofu
Water

That's basically it.  I make it in a Korean cooking vessel which I bought very cheaply.  It needs to be placed on a trivet, since it's quite unstable over my gas range.

Basically boil everything and you're done!  I sometimes break an egg during the last few minutes of simmering the stew.  Another one of my not-much-cooking recipes.

It's amazing how cuisines go together at one point as our lives intersect with that of other cultures.  One thing I learned from an Italian chef is to add a dab of butter after reheating left over spaghetti with sauce - it adds an element of richness and makes everything taste fresh.

I found exactly the same tip in this soup, in this version!  I must try that.

And the post that started my craving for Kimchi Soup - thank you, Shinshine!



Sources:

Lodge Cast Iron Trivet, and other Lodge Cast Iron Pans
     - Living Well, Podium, Ortigas, Manila

Quick Pasta

There are times when I crave for something savory, something fast, and something that does not include a lot of prep work.  Well, this pasta dish is far from being the perfect solution - it calls for leftovers in the fridge.  I usually have a pot of pasta sauce, ready for tossing into noodles when the line-up for dinner is not in keeping with my food preferences.

Tuna cooked in tomato sauce is a favorite.  But after the third reincarnation, it does tend to get a tad bit old.

For this version, I freshened it up a bit with cherry tomatoes and lots of basil.

Heat up olive oil in a pan, drop the cherry tomatoes to soften them, and squash them to release the juice.  Better yet, cut them into two - pressing on them might release a shot of wayward hot tomato sauce.  Add leftover sauce, and a handful of chopped fresh basil.  In the absence of leftover sauce, a packet of Del Monte spaghetti sauce will do in a pinch - the flavors are already balanced and does not need much tweaking.  I also added a generous splash of white wine.

It helps if you have basil ready for harvesting in the garden.  The parent plant has self-sown already, and these are the second generation plants.  

Again, I always have a container of cooked spaghetti noodles - I make sure there are plenty of leftovers, separate from the sauce, so I can make the exact dish that I want for that day, be it plain pesto, Aglio y Olio, or red sauce.

Drop the noodles, cover to heat it all up and blend the flavors - and serve.  Definitely does not taste like leftovers.

*** Note:  No pasta?  no problem.   This is just as good served over hot rice.

Achuete

The seeds of Bixa orellana is commonly used as a food coloring in Asian cuisine.  It's more popularly known as Achuete (Atsuete) or Annato seeds.

Marketmanila, my favorite food blog, has entries on Atchuete in the following links:

... As an ingredient in Pancit Luglug

... and in Kare-kare (Oxtail Stew in Peanut Sauce) as well.

However, people were surprised to see it in some of the flower arrangements my mom brings to the shop.  And why not - the seedpods are a vibrant color of red. It adds an interesting texture and a splash of color.

It goes well with orchid blooms and variegated foliage.

... and as an added benefit, long after the orchids have dried up, you can still put the dried seeds of the Achuete to good use, in Annato Oil.  Apparently it's commonly used in Carribean cuisine.  Recipe here:

"Achiote Oil"

And where to use it?

Deeny blogs about an interesting recipe for Chicken and Yellow Rice.  The picture on her page is positively mouthwatering.

Fun Things to Do with Odds and Ends in the Refrigerator

I've written a previous entry on how easy it is to create a fresh-tasting Salad with miscellaneous items in the refrigerator over here.  

Sometimes, when I'm at the dining table already and something needs jazzing up - I turn to an array of flavor boosters.  Favorites, of course, are olives, capers... Filipino pickles (achara).  Spices and spicy food - small fiery chilies, kimchi.  I also make my own flavored vinegars, usually with my favorite herb - basil, of course.  

Recently, we've taken to dicing more raw mangoes that we can finish in a meal - so off it goes in a covered bowl, with a sprinkling of sugar and salt.  The mangoes eventually lends some of its juices to make a very flavorful pickling solution.

Here are the mangoes, added to various odds and ends in the ref.

With Broccoli and Dragon Fruit:

  

... and with tomatoes, basil, and fried dried anchovies.  

These are welcome additions to my pared-down diet - it adds a lot of volume and flavor to my meal - hence filling me up without adding a lot of calories.

Makes a most satisfying crunch, too!

Quick and Easy Dinner - Tuna, Tomato, and Basil Sandwich

I came home late last night, and I wanted something fast, easy, and, well, mildly nutritious.  Times like these call for Tuna Sandwich.  Since I make the spread myself, I control how much mayo I put in.  I also change up the flavors once in a while - it might contain a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, or, a particular favorite of mine - sun-dried tomato pesto.

For this sandwich, I piled it up high with slices of tomatoes, and a generous amount of chopped basil.  It would have been nice to sear this on a cast-iron pan - but I was too hungry, and it's just as good eaten over plain un-toasted white bread.

I didn't bother with other added flavors this time - this trio - tuna/tomato/basil - is perfect as it is.

Leftovers + Leftovers = Not Bad at All!

I was in a mood for a fast, quick snack after coming home, ravenous, from the farm.  I espied a container of diced fried tofu in one corner of the refrigerator.

Now, tofu is highly nutritious and is low fat - we all know that.  But it is also as boring as plain white bread.  What to do, what to do...

Then I saw a bowl of left over diced raw mangoes, which were tossed in a little bit of sugar and salt.  After  one day, the osmotic effect of the salt/sugar mixture drew out the juice of the raw mangoes. It was at that perfect stage - still crunchy, and oozing with that tart/sweet/salty juice.

I mixed the two together, and added some of the Tofu sauce (*).

The result:

The raw mangoes certainly added a bit of flair and flavor to the bland tofu - and the tofu sauce was able to offset its tartness nicely.  

Not bad, not bad at all.

(*) Tofu Sauce:

Mix soy sauce, chopped onions, garlic, a little rum, sugar, and scant black pepper in a saucepan.  Taste for balance of salt / sweet.  Put over low fire and simmer gently.  


Rescue the sauce with a splash of apple juice if it is too salty.  


Serve with fried tofu, cubed.

Recipes I Want to Try

I have compiled too much recipes already from the net - and inevitably, when I see something that strikes a chord, I save it and do the whole shtick - obsessively format it in MS Word, add columns to compress the recipe in one or two pages, attach helpful comments from those who tried it ... only to find out I've done the same thing on the exact recipe two months ago!

These recipes bear trying.  I really have got to start real-life cooking and stop recipe window shopping.  Right now, I'm perusing Dorie Greenspan's recipes.  She has a lot of loyal bakers-bloggers, who select one of her recipes and upload their thoughts on the recipe - all of them rave reviews.  Her rustic recipes call out to me, more than the multi-layered confections in my recipe files.

Dorie Greenspan's Corniest Corn Muffins


Dorie Greenspan's French Yoghurt Cake


Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Yogurt Loaf Cake


Dorie Greenspan's Banana Cake, Big and Small

And of course, what's life without cheesecake.
Lime-Vanilla Cheesecake from Delicious Days

I'll put up the results of my attempts - hopefully, soon.

Tomato - Basil Salad

Yesterday's post on basil inevitably leads to this one - Tomato Basil Salad.  It's one of my favorite fast easy recipes that's healthy AND tasty.

To make:

Slice tomatoes thinly, so more surface area is available to soak up the marinade.  Sprinkle with strips (well, ok, julienne) of basil.  Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and salt.  Drizzle with olive oil, and vinegar of choice.  I like balsamic for its depth of flavor, but apple cider is an acceptable substitute.  Take the obligatory photographs, and serve.

Yesterday, to make it more substantial, I sliced ripe mangoes and hard boiled egg, and added that to this tomato salad.  Croutons will turn this into a complete meal of carbs + protein + veggies.

Miso Soup

Miso Soup ranks high up in my list of comfort food.  It's easy to prepare, it's nourishing, and rich in flavorful umami.  What's not to like?

I used to be intimidated by it.  Most recipes call for making dashi - a soup stock made with bonito flakes and konbu.  Two more exotic ingredients, and just to make the soup stock!  That was until the proprietor of a Korean grocery taught me a simplified version.

Instead of bonito flakes, she taught me how to use dried fish from her store.  They seem like big fat dilis (dried anchovies) to me.  Simply pop off the heads and take out the stomach part containing the entrails.  Chop into fine pieces.

Drop in a pan (I use a Korean ceramic vessel), add some wakame (dried seaweed), and a tablespoon of miso per bowl of water.  That's it!  Optional ingredients are onion sprigs and tofu.

It's a bit less refined than the Japanese version - but good nonetheless.

I've taken to adding chopped kimchi to this mix, plus whatever left-over steamed vegetables I have in the refrigerator.  Some soba noodles oftentimes end up in the mix, too.  I add an egg when everything comes to a rolling boil, then turn down the heat.  The ingredients are now pantry staples - I have Miso paste in the freezer, and dried seaweed in the cupboard.  I've also discovered this powder in a Japanese grocery.  It's granular - much like fish food (...)  and it amps up the flavor in the broth.

My recipe is by no means authentic to either the Korean or the Japanese versions - but it's fast, cheap, easy, made with few ingredients, and I have dinner on the table in 10 minutes flat.  And quite a good one at that.