Coffee & Projects for 2018

There are so many things I want to get my hands into this year: focusing on building my food styling portfolio on this website; write more; plan for my son's first birthday and christening; and cook/bake more. But first, coffee!

I've been a coffee and coffee shop aficionado since I put up our (now closed) home-based cafe.  I really went to months of studying the art of coffee and which type of coffee should I be offering at the cafe.

Sadly, we had to close down our dream business to focus on our baby who is now 9 months old.  As a hands-on-stay-at-home-mom, I have lesser time on everything -- especially making my own good cup of joe!

Great thing Nescafe Dolce Gusto now has a Mini-Me Machine!  I found out about it while I was scouting for an alternative for my coffee.  This little coffee machine would be my partner in crime (aside from my hubby) just to give me a kick to start my day.  Very hassle-free since I just have to insert a capsule into the machine and let it do its thing.  And clean up is way easier than the espresso machine that I have, which takes a lot of time to do.

Thanks to Lazada, I can do easy coffee shopping at the comfort of my home with just a click on their website.  And it's COD!  Really hassle-free for moms like me.  We've been ordering a lot of items at Lazada for years now and we're pretty satisfied with their service.

Now I would love to try Nescafe Dolce Gusto's Vanilla Latte Macchiato and Cappuccino, which you can buy in bulk and at a discounted price at Lazada. Great deal!

Enough blabbing, I better get these deals now.

See ya!

Recipe | Filipino Laksa

Difficulty Level: Medium

Actually, this recipe is easy.  The only tedious part is 'deveining' your shrimp.

You can omit pork, but the taste would be different as pork fat gives a distinct taste on your sauteed veggies.  So, this is a surf and turf dish. :)

Since it's weekend and we're currently experiencing a gloomy and rainy weather, this recipe is perfect for you and your family!

For Taglish recipe, click here.

Yield: Good for 2

Ingredients:

1/8 pork cubes

1/4 shrimp, deveined

3 small red onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 small tomatoes, sliced

2-3 cups water

1 small pack of vermicelli (sotanghon)

2-3 cups hot water (para sa sotanghon)

1 small puso ng saging o banana blossom, chopped

Rock salt

1-2 tbsps soy sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

*optional: chopped onion leeks*


Procedure:

• Take off the shrimp's head and shell.  Keep the heads aside.

• Devein shrimp by slicing the middle top part of it, not too deep, and discard the black vein.

• Salt shrimp and rinse thoroughly.  Set aside.

• Evenly coat chopped banana blossom with rock salt.  Let it sit for 5-15 minutes before rinsing thoroughly.  Drain.

• Render pork in a pot.  Add salt.

• While rendering pork, place vermicelli in a bowl and pour hot water in it.  Let it soak until you need to stir it in on the laksa soup.

• Keep stirring your pork cubes until cooked.  Set aside.  You'll use it as a topping later.

• Saute shrimp heads.  Squeeze out its juice as it has more flavor by pressing down your ladle.

• Once cooked, you can discard the shrimp heads.

• Then saute your sliced onions, chopped garlic, and sliced tomatoes.

• Add in your chopped and rinsed banana blossom.

• Pour water until it covers the rest of the ingredients.  Cover and let it simmer.

• Once banana blossom is cooked (wilted), you can add water if necessary, and 1-2 tbsps of soy sauce.

• Don't forget to taste your soup.  Add salt and pepper if necessary.

• Optional: add in chopped onion leeks.

• Top your laksa with cooked pork and serve!

Recipe video:

Recipe | Cheesy Chicken Tomato Sandwich

Difficulty Level: EASY

I prefer bread over rice.  And whenever I don't feel like eating rice or when hubby's not home, I either make a homemade tortilla and fill it with whatever I have in my fridge, or just fix myself a good ol' sandwich.

Here's a quick recipe that we, yes, me and my hubby, had for dinner last time along with a bowl of sopas.

Feel free to change the type of meat you'd want for your sandwich ;)

#spreadlovenothate

For Taglish recipe, click here.

Ingredients:

4-6 tbsps Butter

Chicken strips

1 small tomato, sliced

Slices of cheese (I use Eden cheese because I just love it!)

2 slices of bread of your choice

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat pan under medium.  Melt 1 tbsp of butter.
2. Sear chicken strips.  Season with salt and pepper.  Flip it.  Set aside.
3. Melt another tablespoon of butter.  Saute tomato slices.  Season with salt & pepper.  Set aside.
4. Melt butter.  Grill both sides of the bread of your choice.
5. Then place slices of cheese on top of a grilled bread, then add the tomatoes, and the chicken strips.  Cover it with the other piece of bread.
6. You can cover the pan with lid to let it steam.
7. Flip the sandwich to reheat the other side of the sandwich.
8. Slice in half and serve. :)

For video recipe, you can watch it here:

Recipe | Tortang Talong (Eggplant Omelette)

I don't know why I only thought of making recipe videos just now.

Recently, I just had a craving on tortang talong or eggplant omelette.  So, here's my simple recipe.

Yield: Good for 2

Ingredients:

1 large talong / eggplant (if you use smaller ones, no problemo)
1/8 cup ground pork (or beef, or chicken, or mushroom..anything!)
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1 medium-sized red onion, chopped
1/2 of small green bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp patis Salinas (fish sauce)
salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 to 1/2 cup canola oil

As I always say on my recipes, you have the freedom to add or lessen the amount of ingredients according to your liking.  One of the perks in cooking!


Procedure:

- Poke eggplant with fork.

- Broil / grill eggplant on your burner.  Flip it when necessary.  Use tongs.

- Place broiled eggplant on a deep dish/soup plate and pour water to cool it down.  Set aside.

- Next, heat pan then add oil.  Sweat onions first, then add garlic.  Once you smell the garlic's aroma, add tomatoes.  Let it cook while stirring, then add green bell pepper.

- Then add ground meat of your choice.  For vegetarian option, you can opt for chopped mushrooms instead. ;)

- Once half cooked, add 1 tbsp fish sauce.  If you're using a regular fish sauce that is pale in color, you might want to add another tablespoon.  Then season with pepper.

- Let it simmer for 3-5 minutes under medium low heat.

- Peel skin of the eggplant.  If it's still warm, let it soak in water while peeling.  But if it has cooled down, drain water before peeling.

- Set aside cooked ground meat by leaving the oil in the pan.  We'll be using it on frying the omelette.

- By using a fork, comb the eggplant from to bottom, refraining from pulling too much.  You just want to flatten the eggplant.

- Beat two eggs.

- Reheat used pan with the excess oil.

- Fry flattened eggplant.  Place cooked meat on top of the eggplant.  Lower the heat.  Then pour in egg mixture.

- Flip the eggplant omelette by using a large plate, or if you can toss it yourself, or with two spatulas.

- Serve while hot.  Best eaten with ketchup and rice.

Here's the recipe video: