This being exam week, I decided to motivate my kids to do well by making their ‘baon’ (brown bag meal) a little more special. And when I think of something more special than the usual pack of Oreos and peanut butter sandwich, all I can think about is a bento. It’s something I’ve wanted to do as a project anyway. In Japan, mothers pride themselves in making artistic bento meals for their kids. I like the fact that preparing a bento can be a good venue for creative expression as you plan the colors, textures and shapes that should go into the box. There is also room to include everything in the major food groups, rather than the junk food that our kids are bound to have. With the right presentation, kids can change their mind about eating healthy fruits and veggies after all.

I call this our Pinoy bento which the kids had as a meal in the house.

What went inside the box:

braised pork adobo with hard-boiled egg
lumpiang sariwa (fresh egg rolls made of ubod or palm tree trunk) with brown sauce
buttered mixed vegetables
cupcake with chocolate swirl (bought from our local bakery)
rice with fish ball decor

The Hello Kitty Bento which the kids brought to school:

Spaghetti
Chicken Nuggets Fun Shapes
Mixed veggies
Star- Shaped Mini-Pancakes with syrup

veer away from the usual round pancakes by shaping it with a cookie cutter!

I’ve added a new category in the blog for “bento.” I loved the challenge of doing this and will definitely be creating some more in the future.

Good that my foodie twins loved it. Bon appeTITE!

my pata bihon

For this month’s edition of Lasang Pinoy hosted by the fabulous Toni with a focus on vegetables, I would have wanted to feature those favorite dishes of mine cooked with coconut milk. Problem is, cooking with coconut milk remains my waterloo. Somehow, I can’t seem to perfect the recipe for guinataang langka or guinataang sitaw at kalabasa – all yummy with native fish, fried to a crunchy perfection. Between these and a gourmet meal, I’d take home-cooked/ carinderia mush anytime.

The dish I cooked won’t qualify as a veggie dish since its star ingredient is pork hocks (pata) , but this can be transformed into vegetarian all the way with a little use of the imagination. “Pata Bihon” is something you can order on some Chinese restaurants even if it’s not listed on the menu; that’s because this is very easy to make and is guaranteed to relieve your hunger pangs/noodle cravings.

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Pata Bihon gets its star flavoring from this yellow can of pork leg and mushrooms (available in Philippine groceries, if you care to look…it’s just that the inscriptions are in Chinese, but you’ll easily recognize it with the pork leg drawing )

Open the can and transfer contents (pata bits and gravy) to a bowl.

Chop up your garlic and onions. Saute you preferred vegetables which may include the following: cabbage, carrots, green beans, cauliflower/broccoli stems, bean sprouts, pechay – all sliced and/or chopped. Separate half of the amount for toppings.

Add pork leg sauce and some water. Season with pepper, salt, soy sauce and a dash of sugar.

Put in bihon (rice noodles, similar to vermicelli) and allow to absorb the sauce for a few minutes while mixing with the vegetables.

Add pork leg last and mix in again (canned pork leg is already cooked).

*** for vegetarian dish, omit pork leg, just add its sauce.

*** dish is good for two-three persons.

Salmonfest

Happy Mother’s Day I would like to thank all my friends for the greetings.Please share in this blog feast as I make this post on one of my all-time favorites – smoked salmon.

High school buddy Anna Lyn had sent me a few pounds all the way from Norway. I remember meeting her dear mom in faraway Las Pinas just to get this precious commodity. Opening the whole package at home, I took my first bite and it so excited my palate that I had to open my long-stocked bottle of white wine to complete the experience.

Even though the salmon looked raw from the outside, Anna Lyn told me that the label “Einerokt Laks” meant it was already smoked with Christmas tree branches so I don’t have to bother cooking it. What can I say… eating smoked salmon is pure indulgence, probably akin to eating caviar (which I don’t like, and can’t afford, hehe) While I managed to savor the salmon a la sashimi, I couldn’t resist whipping it up in different ways. These include:

- topping it on half-scrambled egg with bread (which is how the Norwegians do it, says A.L.)

- making smoked salmon quesadillas. Since quesadillas weren’t available in my kitchen, I did it with oh-so-cheap roti bread from Moud’s. The roti piece was heated in a pan (for lack of an oven toaster, hah), lavished with some cream cheese spread, added up with sauteed tomatoes seasoned with salt & pepper, then topped with slices of smoked salmon. Yum!

- Smoked salmon salsa verde was something I had to to try from Epicurious. My only mistake was pouring in sweet wine instead of dry white wine. Somehow, it didn’t taste as good as with the latter but pasta is something I can indulge in any time of day.

The smoked salmon is long gone now but the taste is something I can play in my mind over and over again, like a memorable romp with a lover

Weekend

Originally uploaded by annalyn.

Two things that made the past weekend fabulous for me: I was able to get off my lazy butt and cook some Chinese food (or perhaps, a poor imitation of it) and have a date with my son at the mall. Certainly a pleasant diversion from my work-write/blog-sleep routine.

As I seem to have an aversion to cooking these days, I already feel so monumental trying out the spiced chicken in wonton cups with orange vanilla sauce and the pork with black beans and tofu. The recipes are in my food blog and hopefully knowing that I have to update the site will motivate me more.

With the twins’ smelling the breeze at my cousin’s place in Batangas, it seemed perfect to spend quality time with my son who kept badgering me about a B-daman tournament at the mall last weekend. I was a bit clueless about B-daman, which every young boy is into these days. It’s these battle toys which takes forever to assemble and then dress up with accessories – from all indications, quite addicting.

After checking out the Bdaman scene and raiding Toy Kingdom, we hied off to Heaven n’ Eggs in Glorietta. I’ve eaten in the place once before and was excited to let my son try ‘em since he loves pancakes. Following is his impromptu review:

Him: “Mom, Ate Anna (the nanny) makes faster pancakes than this place.”

Translation: After waiting for 20 minutes for a single order of pancakes, service was definitely poor (and to think it wasn’t even peak hour).

Him: ” This is too much. Pancakes with marshmallows, peanuts, chocolate, maple syrup, orange syrup, soda. My stomach will explode.”

Translation: Servings are quite generous which makes the place a notch higher than Pancake House, in my opinion. I am going with the kids to Heaven n’ Eggs one last time, just to give their lousy service another chance.

(Btw, darling son is not smiling in the pics because he still has to go to the dentist, aww)

Sukiyaki

Daaaarn…with the 12% EVAT, dining out seems more of a pain than the joy it used to be. So if you tell me that there’s a new place in town that’s worth checking out, I am not gonna relate… unless you’re picking up the tab.The one good thing that came out of higher taxes is that we get more motivated to try out new dishes at home in order to spare our wallet the agony, hence the advent of my dish for today, good ol’ sukiyaki.

Sukiyaki is a staple soup in most Japanese restaurants and I call this the Pinoy version because you can use local ingredients such as Batangas tenderloin beef, pechay for the greens, togue (bean sprouts) and tokwa (tofu).

My verdict: Except for a few slicing, this is a no-fuss comfort recipe which you can prepare when you want to veer away from the usual soup (the endless, walang kamatayang sinigang is an example). Besides, you are bound to impress your crowd because what could be more exotic than sukiyaki? (heheh)

For the beef cut used in this dish, just ask for sukiyaki slices from your friendly meat shop or grocer. It simply means “verrry thin.”

The full recipe in my food blog ~ now running on WordPress care of my fairy godmother Thess. (aaargh, the post was acidentally deleted. Recipe coming in a jiffy!)

“The Day-Off Chef” is a new category am putting in this blog which will detail my hard-pressed attempts at domesticity in the most-cherished part of my week: my day-off. Hopefully, this will motivate me to spend more time in the kitchen -something I have been doing less and less of ever since I discovered that snoozing, shopping, gadget-reviewing, blogging and doingathousandotherthingsbesidescannotbe doneallatthesametime by someone pretending to be Superwoman. Thankfully, my kiddies are still eating decent meals but I thought it’s high time to flash the apron and try something new.

Banana Choco Cuppacakes

My first venture was the Banana Chocolate Chip muffins I saw on Epicurious. I have been meaning to bake cupcakes and was taken in by the recipe because the kids love both bananas and choco chips. It was a bonus that these muffins were easy to make even though they were not as robust as Mrs. Fields. Still, they tasted luscious coming straight from the oven and are best eaten when hot, just as the choco chips are melting away from all that heat. Hmmm.. For the do-it-yourself, click here.

Mom’s Picaddilly

The second dish I tried for this DO (day-off) is a comfort food and family favorite. My mom calls this picadillo although I doubt if that’s the correct name. It’s a tasty soup which basically falls for sauteing strips of lean beef in onion, garlic and lots tomatoes. Then, add water and cover the meat till it’s almost tender, season to taste with patis and put in the potatoes cut into cubes. Lastly, add the pechay leaves (also cut into strips) and turn off the heat. The pechay will cook by itself in the hot broth. Serve fresh from the casserole.

Hurrah! I’ve just updated my dormant food blog (heheh)