Butternut Squash with Coconut Milk

 

When I was a kid, I thought that “adding more color to your diet” meant buying a bag of skittles or m&m’s. Now I know that this is what it really means:

 

Ginataang kalabasa is a Filipino dish that has always been a favorite since childhood. There are different variations — my mom made it with yardlong beans and shrimp. For this recipe, I’m using 96% extra lean ground beef. Hubby is not a fan of lean ground beef because he said it lacked flavor. He likes the regular everyday 80% lean. Personally, the fat content scares me and I’m tired of draining the beef while cooking. With extra lean, I don’t have to drain it.

Since this dish is very flavorful, I don’t think my husband would be complaining about blandness.

There is one must-have ingredient in this dish: the glorious bagoong alamang. My mom’s province, Pangasinan, is famous for having some of the best tasting alamang on earth. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to that goodness so I resorted to second best: jarred bagoong. There are no close Asian stores with this so I bought it online from Amazon. The jarred version isn’t as pungent either, which is a good thing since I live with an American husband who was completely traumatized with the smell of danggit.

(Ugh, super dry skin. That’s what happens when I wash my hands every single step while cooking.)

Filipinos also love coconut milk aka gata in Tagalog. We have tons of food that start with “ginataang,” which means that whatever it is has been stewed in coconut milk. Like our lovely Jersey butternut squash.

Luckily for me, my husband likes Filipino food so I don’t have to argue about having variety in our daily menu.

I served this with white rice and sautéed spinach and garlic. See recipe after the jump.

Veggie Pita Bread Pizza

This was inspired by Subway’s flatizza. Besides, someone has to use the pita bread that we have sitting in the fridge after I got over my fish taco phase.

My husband loves this dish. He asks me to make it often and I’m happy to oblige because it’s (1) easy, (2) quick, and (3) quite healthy even with the cheese. I do try to cut down on the cheese by putting much less on “my half” of the pizza. This has almost all of my favorite vegetables, which makes me very happy. 🙂

You can modify this recipe according to your preference — change the vegetables or add some meats like ham, pepperoni or crispy bacon bits.

I do need to mention the pizza stone. I bought this for baking bread but I also noticed that this pita pizza is a lot crispier and better if I use the stone over a regular pan. But the stone is not a must have, a regular pan is fine.

Jersey-fresh Chunky Pasta Sauce

It’s fruit and vegetable season here in South Jersey. Juicy blueberries, succulent strawberries and ripe, red tomatoes are everywhere. Last weekend, I went to a local farmer’s market with my friends Tracy, Robin and Wayne. I stocked up on veggies that I didn’t grow in my garden.

There was so much good stuff everywhere and I was tempted to buy a little bit of everything. But, alas! There are only two people in my household and we can only eat so much. Although I did buy a dozen corn, which I shared with my in-laws.

One of the must-buys on my list were Jersey tomatoes. My husband grew up in an Italian household with a traditional Noni that made sauce from scratch. Every summer, she would buy large baskets of tomatoes, peel them, and cook gallons of spaghetti sauce. From dawn to dusk almost everyday, the sauce would be simmering on the stove. I can only imagine how good their house smelled like.

Unfortunately, Noni is no longer alive and Chris is not in possession of the family recipe because it was only passed to the girls. Therefore, I had to be creative and make my sauce recipes myself. Some of them are based on others’ recipes while some are made up by yours truly — like the one below.

This particular sauce is fresh, chunky, and light. It only takes around 4 hours to cook this. After all, I work all day and go to school so I don’t have the time Noni had.

Basil Pesto

 

You know, I feel sad whenever I think about this blog. My poor, neglected cooking blog. Especially when I make something new. I’m always busy and on the go so cooking has not been a relaxing activity for the past couple of years. There was no time to take pictures, no time to appreciate the little details. It’s more like an omfg-I-only-have-half-an-hour-to-cook-and-eat-gadammit task.

But my husband will still swear to the Bible, Torah, Quran and his Noni Angelina’s grave (God bless her disgruntled soul) that 99%of what I make is yummy. He could be biased but Chris is fussy about food so he might be telling the truth. 😉

I made this dish because I needed to try out a recipe before our Wellness group at work distributes it to the masses. I personally love it especially on simple toasted bread. It’s also a great substitute for mayonnaise in sandwiches. Check out this pesto recipe after the jump.

Garlic Scapes Pesto

Chris planted some garlic and got excited when he learned that garlic scapes were edible. So I did the practical thing: made pesto.

 

Kalderetang Baka

Kaldereta-style beef stew. This is a native Filipino dish that is usually served on special occasions. Or on a nice day when Mom is feeling generous enough to cook a dish that takes hours to make.

My husband, C, joined a Filipino Food group on Facebook. He would look at pics and recipes and try to read the names. (He sounds so cute and funny but I love it because he’s determined to learn. Or at least learn the names of foods.) I am not well-versed when it comes to cooking my native country’s dishes. I know, it’s a disgrace and there is  no excuse for it. 😛 It’s just that my Mom, Dad and all my friends cook Filipino food so well. My (now ex) roommate, Jaja, is the world champion on kaldereta. So I decided to concentrate on Italian food. Now I regret not being as keen on learning to cook pagkaing Pinoy (Filipino food).

It took me more than two stressful hours to make it.

Kaldereta should be rich, hearty, and comforting. The sauce should be creamy, the beef must be tender. And, most of all, kaldereta should be flavorful.  Perfect for a cold, January night.

Lentil and Sausage Soup

More comfort food!

My favorite Italian restaurant is Ciconte’s and they have this heavenly lentil and sausage soup. It isn’t served often and is in their soups-of the day list. I figured I may as well try making a version of this soup so I can have it any time I want. Of course, I don’t expect it to be as wondermous as Ciconte’s so I’m simply aiming for edible for my first attempt.

I used canned lentils in this recipe. I should have bought two cans instead of one since it doesn’t seem to have enough lentils. I also want to try using fresh lentils next time. They were out in Shop Rite and we didn’t feel like going anywhere else today.

I didn’t bother with a play-by-play since I’m sure you don’t need instructional photos for chopping vegetables. Although I do wish I took a snapshot of my husband shaping the sausages into tiny balls. He rarely helps out when I cook yet he had the gall to complain that I gave him the “dirty job.” Grr. Next time, he gets onion duty. Five large ones should be just right for him.

What’s the deal with the stuffed bear? I adopted a polar bear when I donated to WWF last month. I haven’t figured out what to do with it yet. Should I keep it and let it languish in a corner, gathering dust until it disappears into obscurity after a few years? Or should I give it to the pups and let Basti shred it and have the time of his life?

Choices.

Comfort Food: Baked Eggs with Summer Vegetables

I felt like eating brunch for dinner. Yesterday was a m-f-ing cold fall day and I needed warm comfort food bad, plus I had to use the last of our garden’s produce. The yellow squash is a particular favorite of mine.

C and I don’t really care for capers so I modified the recipe a bit and substituted it with sliced mushrooms. As much as I love vegetables, I thought that adding little bits of turkey bacon would add to the flavor. When I eat eggs, I don’t think of basil so I took that out and used parsley instead. I also don’t have ramekins — I should have bought that set in Ross, grrr — so I used a single medium-sized glass baking dish to bake it in.

I tried as much as I could to have the eggs placed perfectly on each quarter of the dish. So imagine my annoyance when one of the yolks rolled to the side and would not budge no matter how hard I tried to coax it back to the center. Unfortunately, it broke under my less-than-gentle ministrations. 😦

I would say that this serves four if eaten as a snack or breakfast. But this was just enough for C and I. Besides, if there were four of us here at home, I don’t think the fourth person would appreciate having a broken yolk.

Eggplant Rollatini

Decisions.

Should I make eggplant rollatini without bacon? I don’t have ham. And I don’t have prosciutto because I forgot to pick some up from Botto’s the last time I was there. It can be served without any meat, right? But what is life without bacon? Well, bacon it is.

Most cook eggplant rollatini with the bacon/ham/prosciutto rolled inside the eggplant along with ricotta cheese. I did the opposite and wrapped it over the rolled eggplant to keep it secure. By the time I was done, it looked like a swankier version of pigs-in-a-blanket.

This can be served alone or with a side of pasta. If you’re doing the latter, don’t skimp on the tomato sauce. Pile it on, baby! Trust me, you’ll need it.

Recipe after the jump.

Eggplant Parmigiana Stacks

I have never made eggplant parmigiana before. But I suppose you already know that because *points up* of the name of this blog. My husband grew up with a grumpy Nonna that cooked consistently perfect Italian food.

So I am more than a little anxious.

Thank God there’s Mario Batali, Food Network, and a surplus of cherry tomatoes from the garden. And, last but not the least, Francesco Rinaldi Three Cheese pasta sauce because it is okay to take shortcuts if you’re dying of hunger and have less than an hour to cook. (*&^%#! I sound like a f*&%#@g ad.) For pre-made pasta sauce, FR is quite good but it will need some jazzing up. My recipe for red pasta sauce from scratch takes forever to simmer just to get the flavor right.

This is not exactly a super-traditional eggplant parmigiana. I may have based it on a famous chef’s recipe but I can’t resist butchering things up and adding stuff according to what I like. For instance, I used wheat flour instead of breadcrumbs. And then I baked the eggplants instead of frying them. (Batali recommended baking as well but the more common method is frying.) Plus I added a touch of ground beef. The latter is not required but I needed a little protein to put some meat in my husband’s bones and it did enhance the flavor of the sauce.  If you want a vegetarian dish, just skip the meat entirely.

Here are my stacks before baking.

… and after.

I have a bad habit of forgetting to taste my cooking before serving so I handed Chris his plate before I filled mine. The first thing I heard was “Yum!”  I suppose it is safe to say that I passed.

Personally, I do not think the photos of my stacks look as appetizing as they do in real life. But with regards to taste… it was ever so slightly crispy on the outside, very soft inside, and heartwarmingly savory as a whole. This is definitely comfort food and is best served with a side of spaghetti or linguine.