My Spring Stir Fry

Spring is my favorite season, not only because its the most colorful season but because the produce is good too during this time. This is the time strawberries, asparagus and other vegetables are in season and they will be cheap.

And with all these wonderful produce I do take advantage of a good bargain. I like to make wonderful and easy stir fry with the veggies that's abundant in the market. These dishes are so good with meat dishes, I try to make veggie dishes as sides so I encourage healthy eating with DH & DS.

My Stir fry features a cool weather vegetable - Sugar Snap Peas. I just recently discovered that they are so good when eaten raw, but I do like to remove the rib part.

For my recipe ( good for 2-3 persons)
1 tbsp cooking oil
1/4 cup red onions
1/4 cup red bell peppers
2 tbps of leeks
1 cup of mung bean sprouts
1 cup of sugar snap peas
1/4 cup shredded carrots
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/4 water or just enough to cook veggies
Pepper to taste

Heat oil then saute onions, leeks and peppers. Once fragrant, add the rest of the veggies. Mix everything then after 2-3mins, add the oyster sauce and water. Cover and cook until peas are bright green. Add pepper to taste. Do not overcook. Serve hot, its good as a rice topping.

Dinner in 30 minutes!

I admit there are really times I want to fix meals quickly and use short cuts even if I like doing things from scratch. That is why I like Robin Miller and Sandra Lee shows on the Food Network Channel. Another thing that I like too is pasta meals. Aside from stir fry dishes, pasta meals always fall in the category of quick prep meals for me.

I would like to share an easy pasta recipe. This is a tuna based dish so this is really good for Lent Season.

Fetuccine Alfredo with Tuna & Sundried Tomatoes in Olive oil

What you need:
1 jar of Alfredo sauce like Ragu lite alfredo
1 box ( 1 pound ) of fetuccine pasta
2 cans of BUMBLE BEE® Prime Fillet® Solid Light Tuna - Sundried tomato in Olive oil ( 5 oz. each )
Parsley for garnish
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Cook pasta as directed ( I just use half or 3/4 of the box for this recipe ). Heat the sauce while the pasta is cooking. Drain pasta then add the sauce, leave 1/4 cup as topping if you like. Mix 1 can of tuna to the pasta and sauce mixture( you can choose to drain the oil if you want ). Transfer in serving dish, place the remaining sauce on top the your pasta then add the 1 can of tuna and pepper. Garnish with parsley.

This is really good with garlic bread, but we like our pasta with Texas Garlic toast with three cheeses.

I hope you guys enjoy.

Falling in love with Cilantro

I was never a fan of Cilantro, they say it has an acquired taste. It's either you like it or you don't. Mostly it is found in Mexican cuisine ,Vietnamese and Thai. Although I like to experiment with recipes whenever it calls for Cilantro, I get turned off sometimes. But in spite of this I still like to eat in Thai restaurants and sometimes I still eat Mexican & Vietnamese dishes as long as I know I am not eating a whole sprig of cilantro.

Just recently DH took us to Chipotle it just opened in our area and he said it was good. Being a Filipino most of our choices when eating out would mostly be Oriental Restaurants, that's no.1 on the list then anything seafood which is scarce in our area. But this time DH wanted to try something different so it was Mexican this time - meaning eating something that has a great chance of having with Cilantro in it.

Chipotle is similar to Taco Bell since its a chain only different because it's like Subway that you get to choose what you want for your fix-ins. Before we left I checked their site and decided in the Burrito Bowl.

This was my Burrito Bowl: (bottom - top)

Lime Rice

Grilled/Roasted Peppers & Onions

Grilled Chicken

Pinto Beans

Pica de Gallo

Cheese

Guacamole

see here for the specifics of their ingredients

It was bursting with flavor.I fell in love with the bowl so I decided to replicate it at home.

My Version:

Lime Rice

cooked jasmine rice ( steamed )

cilantro ( I used the ones in tubes )

lime juice

mix while the rice is hot

Grilled/Roasted Peppers & Onions

green peppers cut in strips or thick julienne

red onions in strips or thick julienne

olive oil to coat

S&P

spread in baking sheet

BROIL in 2-3mins ( time may vary in different ovens )

Grilled Chicken

marinate chicken breast (bone-in) or you may try this marinate too

or this for a spicier version

*best if marinated overnight

bake in oven or simply follow instructions in marinade packet

once cooked let it rest and chopped when ready to serve

reserve the drippings, its really good when you dizzle it over the chicken before serving

as the white meat tends to be a little dry

Pinto Beans

raw uncooked pinto beans is the best compared to canned versions

chopped bacon

cook beans until desired tenderness

Pico de Gallo

I used Emeril's version

Cheese

I like the Mexican 4 cheese blend of Kraft

Guacamole

I have not made it but chunks of avocados are great.

Arrange them in a platter or a bowl. And there you have my Burrito Bowl. DH was pretty pleased when I served this during Valentines day, he had seconds. I am happy that I had tried this at Chipotle because with this dish I can fall in love with cilantro.

Check out my Burrito Bowl Gallery:

Quest for the best RICE PUTO

One of the dishes when we had our Halloween party over the weekend was Dinuguan ( blood stew ). It reminded me how much I enjoyed back home having Puto & Dinuguan for snack or even as a meal. Before I thought it seemed weird since Dinuguan to me was a main dish for a meal but that all changed.

But even before the snack combo became my favorite I was always a fan of puto. It was easier to enjoy it back home since you can buy it almost anywhere, I can say its a popular dessert or snack to Filipinos.I like the rice puto better than the flour version. And since its a favorite I will always miss eating it now that I am here in the US.

Being here made me a DIY person, and in order for me to have a taste of home in my new kitchen I had to whip up old favorites now on my own. I did attempt to make rice puto before probably twice ( 2 different recipes ) but they all ended up in the trash bin. And I stopped at attempt number 2. Then my taste buds were nostalgic when I tasted Dinuguan again. So I decided the give it another go, this time using Manang's recipe - http://kusinanimanang.blogspot.com/2010/04/rice-puto.html

It was love at first bite. It was a best puto I ever, it definitely tasted like the ones I enjoy back home. The marriage of rice & coconut flavor was perfect, just the way I wanted. I made them in small silicone molds but I will be looking for bigger molds for bigger rice puto!

How to Plant Lemon Grass

Lemon grass is not really a staple in Filipino cooking but at home my mom would use it to stuff her chicken roast, stewed mung bean soup ( Monggo Soup ) & Filipino style Chicken Soup ( Chicken Tinola ). And when I cook these dishes now in my kitchen it would always seem that something is missing when I don't add lemon grass to it. I always buy some stalks but they would be expensive when I get it from my local grocery and getting it from my Asian grocer is not practical as well.

I would buy lemon grass in small amounts until a friend who is also a Filipina gave me some from her garden. I was curious how she got it. I was not able to ask her but my other friend said she buys hers from a nursery in the summer. It got me thinking that I should grow my own as well. I researched online and found out that you can grow the lemon grass from the stalks. Then last summer I decided to try it.

You will need the following to grow your lemongrass:

3 or more stalks of Lemon Grass

- this is mostly available in oriental groceries, choose a healthy fresh stalk

Glass with water

Place the stalks in in your glass of water and keep this in a sunny spot, I kept mine in my kitchen window. In about 2-3 weeks the roots will sprout and this will make it easier for you to replant it. Back home they would directly plant a fresh stalk and water the soil frequently to encourage sprouting but using the water-in-glass method is fool-proof for me so I use it each time. You can choose to separately plant each stalks when they're ready or plant them in in one spot.

This summer I have grown my lemon grass with less watering and still it was fine. I guess I only did once a week and even when there were times that temperature have gone up to the 90s. It's a great herb to grow considering it requires less maintenance.