If you ask me what my favorite salad green is, I’d tell you it’s arugula. If you ask me what my second favorite salad green is, I’d say lettuce. If you ask me what kind of lettuce, I’d tell you any kind except iceberg lettuce. If you ask me what other vegetables I want in [...]
Home Cooking Rocks!
Family meals, cooking tips and food trips
Latest Food Blogs from Home Cooking Rocks!
Meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting
If you watch the Food Network, there are short segments shown between regular shows that feature the favorite foods of chefs and Food Network TV hosts. One of those featured was meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato “frosting.” The bakery that sells them has another interesting item in its menu — meatloaf cupcakes with spaghetti “frosting.” [...]
Sauteing: Which goes first ? garlic, onion or tomato?
A reader emailed me a couple of days ago asking why, in some recipes, the onions and tomatoes are sauteed ahead of the garlic. That?s very wrong, according to her, because the garlic always goes in first. In Filipino cooking, sauteing often means frying garlic, onion and tomatoes in a little oil over high heat. [...]
Sam?s picadillo
In 2003, I posted a recipe for picadillo that was such a far cry from the traditional. Instead of ground beef, I hand cut stewing beef into small cubes. And, instead of adding potatoes OR chayote to the beef, I added potatoes, carrots AND chayote. It’s been our standard picadillo recipe since. Until yesterday. We [...]
Pork and sausage chili
When one hears the word “chili”, the thing that comes to mind is the stew called chili con carne. It’s almost as though “chili” were the nickname of chili con carne, a spicy dish that usually include ground or minced beef, tomato sauce and kidney beans. On the other hand, when one hears “pork and [...]
Phoenix
Because of the popularity of the Harry Potter books and movies, a lot of products are being named after the characters and places in the story. I’m not exempt from the mindset — I did name my fried wontons Gringott’s money bags after the goblin-owned and operated bank. When Speedy found a recipe for a [...]
At Harbor View: cold beer, good food and great company
If you?re familiar with the restaurants and bars in the Roxas Boulevard-Rizal Park area, you might have heard of Harbor View. It?s been there for decades. I used to go there with friends long ago but, by that time, the place was beginning to show the telltale signs of wear and tear. I don?t remember [...]
Crispy panko-coated eggplant nuggets
Although eggplants by themselves are almost impossible to turn crisp without first dehydrating them, with a little magic using very ordinary ingredients, you can transform them into appetizers cum snacks with layers of texture and flavor. Thinly sliced eggplants are dredged in seasoned flour, dipped in beaten eggs, rolled in panko (Japanese bread crumbs) then [...]
I like to think that I don?t eat with my eyes, but?
I like to think that I don’t “eat with my eyes” but I wonder if that’s really true. I can’t eat peanut butter and bananas the way Speedy does — he peels a banana and, while holding it whole, he spoons peanut butter on one end, bite, spoons more peanut butter on the bitten end, [...]
10-minute spaghetti with pimiento pesto and pan-fried sausages
The traditional definition of pesto is a sauce made with crushed basil leaves, pine nuts and garlic mixed with olive oil and grated parmesan cheese. But pesto can include a whole lot of other ingredients — basil can be substituted with some other herb or herbs, for instance — and it would still be pesto [...]
A la Singapore Sling
This is a delicious drink — sweet and smooth and you won’t feel it kicking until you’ve almost finished a glass. It looks like Singapore Sling, it sneaks on you like a real Singapore Sling but although Speedy got the recipe from a website that says it is a Singapore Sling, it isn’t really a [...]
