Finally! After a few months of just thinking about it, I have baked another lemon pound cake – successfully! Haha. And I added some poppy seeds, too. So I am calling this recipe a Popping Lemon Poundcake. It doesn’t matter what it means in context; I find it catchy 😛
This is inspired by the Lemon Poppyseed Poundcake from my favorite site by Ella at the Home Cooking Adventure. You can find the recipe here. I love going to her page because she made it so easy, plus the videos had good music in them. It sets me in the mood of creating something on my own.
Ever since I moved out of the Philippines and started living abroad, I had difficulties getting the exact ingredients for the Filipino dishes that I want to cook every time I feel homesick. The taste is different when I don’t use Reno liver spread for my calderata. The adobo will taste different, as well, if it’s not the local brands for the soy sauce and vinegar.
And when it comes to the sinigang, it is different when it’s not kangkong or water spinach.
Sinigang is a soup characterized by its sour taste due to the tamarind mixed into it, or any other sour fruits (such as kamias, guava, unripe mango, etc.) or leaves as a souring agent. When I was in Thailand, they asked me to describe it, and I cannot think of any other easy way but say that it’s similar to tom yum, but without the red-chili spiciness or coconut milk in it.
Sinigang is typically cooked with pork. But the variety is endless, as there’s an option to use seafood like fish or shrimp or chicken, as well.
And since I’m away from home, I just used the sinigang powder mix I can buy in the Asian stores. Sometimes, there’s kangkong in the fridge, but it’s too expensive. My friend suggested using spinach instead, since it’s the one she uses anyway, and it’s cheaper.
Hmmm! Sarap!
This turned out so good. I bought the fish from the Pinoy store, where a pack of 8 cut pieces is priced at 4.99Eur. I only used 4 of them for this recipe, and I enjoyed it because the fish is fatty, and it adds flavor to the dish. The long Japanese eggplant is bought at the Indian store. I am fortunate to have a variety of stores in this part of France! 🙂 I only miss this recipe using long chili, which adds flavor, spice, and more aroma to this dish.
Ingredients: 1 pc eggplant (any will do), cut into medium-sized pieces 1 kl spinach 2 medium-sized tomatoes, cut into quarters 1/2 kl long beans, cut into medium sizes 1 pc white radish, sliced 1 white onion, sliced 4 pcs fish, sliced in a serving portion (or pork or shrimp, amount is whatever you desired) 1 pack sinigang mix pinch of salt 3-5 pcs long chili (if available)
Boil 5 cups of water in a pot. When it starts to simmer, add in the pork if you are using pork. Cook it first until it becomes so tender.
Once cooked and tender, add the onion, tomatoes and radish.If using fish as the meat, when the water starts to boil, add the fish along with the onion, tomatoes and radish.
Put the sinigang mix, too. Stir gently to mix it in the soup.
If you have long chili, add it in the pot after 5 minutes since you put the sinigang mix.
Once the radish is cooked, put the long beans, and cook for about 10 minutes.
Put in the spinach (or kangkong, if you have). This is the last and the easiest to cook, so turn off the heat. Season with salt or a teaspoon of fish sauce, and mix it gently. Cover the pot. The heat will help to cook it.
After a few minutes, this is now ready to serve!
I usually don’t put salt or fish sauce; I tend to forget about it. I love my sinigang sour, and it works for me most of the time. I leave it to you if you want to season it with salt or fish sauce to add a bit of salty flavor. How about you? Do you have a different way of cooking sinigang? Let me know, and maybe I can try that one, too! 🙂
I just heard about this in early March because I don’t have a TikTok. A friend who loves cooking and trying out something new as much as I do share it with me. When the word easy and lazy days came out of her mouth about this recipe, I decided to try it myself. Haha. I tried to look for where it came from since several people posted about this already, hence being viral, and I found this video from the blogger grilledcheesesocial.
It’s as simple as this: get a block of feta cheese, tomatoes, pasta, and herb and spices that you want to mix it with. The idea of it is basic, and I could not wait to try it. Off I went to the grocery for some feta cheese and cherry tomatoes. I only got tomatoes, as it seems like the trend has already reached the French shores, and the shelf was already empty of feta cheese. Still wanting to try it, I took a block of cheese from the Boursin brand instead.
It’s been a long time since I blogged something that is not ‘the Sunday Currently‘, and as I was browsing through my site, I am trying to come up with topics to put in here. It’s not easy right now, since the inspiration flew out of the window. But perhaps, what I can post is about all the food I cooked in the past months, some have been newly-discovered. I remember my excitement as I pore over the recipes I found online, listing down the ingredients I needed and making a trip to the grocery to get it. My Instagram had some of those photos, as well as the places where I tried to buy something to eat during lunchtime or over the weekend. I love eating, and that’s why I love baking and cooking. Once I organized my photos and content, I will post the recipes and my experiences in making them. 😉
This is derived from the recipe in cooking Hainanese chicken, but I personally decided that I will not be able to make this dish perfect enough to be rightfully called as Hainanese chicken. I have tasted the said delicious Singaporean pride and it’s one of my favorites, one that I always should have every time I set foot in Singapore.
Now, with respect to this dish that I love so much, I made my own in the comforts of my French home because I miss it so dearly.
When the lockdown started in France last mid-March, I was thinking of so many ways to do inside my apartment. It was the period of uncertainty. I had enough books, Netflix, a box of 1000-piece puzzle, drawing pads and watercolors. And in my kitchen, I was able to stock up on 2kg of flour and eggs, just the right amount that did not equate to hoarding, okay? 🙂
It was on Day 27th of this lockdown period in France that I decided to bake my banana bread recipe since my bananas might spoil already. It is not easy nowadays to buy flour at the grocery. If the other countries are running out of toilet paper, in my French town, the stores are trying to control the number of certain products that you may buy – particularly pasta, flour, eggs, rice, among others. Advisories are all over the store to remind everyone on how much we can only buy these certain grocery items.
I ran out of food on the 25th day of the lockdown (I tried to maximize whatever I had in the pantry because I really don’t want to go out. I want to be an honest person who applauds the frontliners every night at 8PM here in France) so I went to the grocery with a strategic list on hand. It wasn’t a lot but I believe that it will probably last for the next 3 weeks if we are still in this situation. So with that in mind, and with the bananas that I accidentally left inside my fridge and have gone super ripe, I decided to do something out of it (and also, to try to make my store-bought bread lasts longer than a week). In this banana bread recipe, I want my bread a bit moist and with nuts for that extra crunch.
To start with, Chicken Afritada is a Filipino chicken stew cooked in tomato sauce, with carrots, potatoes and bell pepper.
In my version, I cooked it as a “slightly” adobo first. Meaning, after sauteing garlic, onions and chicken (I prefer the thighs and wings because it adds more flavor), I put in a bit of soy sauce and vinegar, and simmer for a while to cook. This is to tenderize the chicken, add more flavor and extend the life span of my afritada because of the vinegar. When the food is tomato-based, it has the tendency to get spoiled in a span of a week. Also, in my version, I added some chili powder that was always supplied to me by my Thai friends from Bangkok to add some kick. Hi-yah! Since I love vegetables and I still have some of it in my fridge, I added string beans in it, too.
