Food decoration 1

A little decoration in your food will add attractiveness to the dish, so I will be sharing this simple flowers made from carrot and cucumber. I hope you will like this one. :)

By using a peeler, make a nice ruban slices from carrot and cucumber.

This is a ruban kind of slice

http://melyskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/10/different-cuts-of-meat-and-vegetables.html
To form it into a flower , we need to twist it one by one like this,

Then we need a toothpick to  arrange this together like this,

put a base for the toothpick to stand, then arrange four twisted ruban carrots to form a flower like this

the same process with the cucumber

That's all, have fun :)

My cooking utensils

These are the cooking utensils that I used in my cooking. Just an ordinary ones, I don't have golden ladles!:-) I will post more pictures soon:)

Tablespoon and Teaspoon

Pan

Chopping board

Rectangular Baking bowl

Pasta ladle

soup ladle

Common ladle

Frying ladle

Spatula

Tongs

Garlic crusher

Cheese Grater

Slicer & Shredder

Peeler

Knife

Cups

Cabbage Roll with Tomato Sauce

It’s been a long time that I wanted to cook this dish, but every time I put my cabbage leaves in the refrigerator, when my companions are cleaning the fridge, they always throw it because they’re thinking it’s a trash hahahahahahahahaha. This is called Sarma in Turkey, although they have different ways of cooking it, but the process of wrapping the meat with cabbage is the same. Most people think this is the same with another dish in Turkey which they called dolma,  because the process is almost the same but, we should not be confused because in dolmas, grapefruit leaves are used in wrappng the ground meat and sarma used cabbage.  I am glad that I was able to cooked this :D and I am excited to share it with all of you. This is a good treat for your loved ones. Since this is requested by my Filipino friends I made it Filipino style.

Ingredients:
some cabbage leaves
1/4 kilo ground beef or pork
2 tablespoons flour
1 beaten egg
1 med. size potato ( minced)
1 small carrot (minced)
1 onion ( half minced, half strips)
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon calamansi or lemon juice

Procedure
1. First we need to blanch ( banlian in Tagalog) the cabbage leaves and set it aside.
2. In a bowl mix the meat,  minced onion, calamansi, carrot, potato, egg,  flour, salt and pepper. Mix it well.
3. Wrap it using the blanched cabbage leaf, as shown in the picture.

4. After wrapping all the meat, put the onion strips and black pepper in a pan where you are going to cook the cabbage rolls.

5. Arrange the rolled cabbage properly, put the tomato sauce, and the water.

6. Cover and let it boil , when it is  boiling lower the heat to cook it slowly without drying the soup.
7. Serve it hot and garnish with ring onions.

Printable version

Eggplant salad

I posted this recipe because this one goes well with the fried rice that I posted earlier. Mmmmmm perfect combination.
I love this eggplant salad or ensaladang talong as Filipinos call it. Its easy to prepare and I am sure that the ingredients are available at the market all the time. Go have  a try now :)

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo eggplant
1 med. size red tomato (diced)
1 med. size green tomato( diced)
1 small onion ( minced)
3 tablespoons vinegar
salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Cook the eggplant first , by boiling or grilling then remove the skin.
2. Flatten and cut it to small pieces.
3. In a big bowl mix all the ingredients and serve it.

You can add the measurement of the vinegar if you want a sorer taste.

Printable version 

Glorious Fried Rice

If there is not much money for a meat and rice, i think this fried rice is economical but still special. I consider this as a complete meal, so if I cook this fried rice I don't want meat anymore to go with it, but just some vegetable salad. 

Ingredients:

2 cups leftover rice
4 pieces green beans
2 tablespoons corn
1/2 cup minced bacon or hotdog
3 cloves garlic
salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Saute garlic
2. add the bacon or hotdog, saute for few seconds.
3. Pour in rice, beans and corn. mix well.
4. Dash with salt and mixing constantly until it is done.
5. Serve with your favorite viand or eat it as a complete meal.....yummy:D

Chili, ham and cheese rolls

This recipe is really a bomb, oozing with hot chili  flavor in every bite that's why some people called this dynamite. Will you dare to try this?

Ingredients:

10 pieces chili ( Deseeded or Seeds removed)
Sliced ham
cheese
10 pieces spring roll wrappers

 Procedure:
1.Put the cheese inside the chili then wrap it with a bacon.
2. Then wrap it with a spring roll wrapper.
3. Deep fry it until golden brown
4. Serve it hot and with your favorite sauce.

Julienned vegetables and ham appetizer

Start your main dish with this julienned vegetables and ham appetizer it will surely tickle your appetite :)
Julienne is a kind of vegetable cut that is thicker and longer that strips cut. You can refer to my post.  
http://melyskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/10/different-cuts-of-meat-and-vegetables.html

Ingredients:

carrots (julienned)
Cucumber ( julienned)
spring onion ( julienned)
ham ( julienned)

For the Sauce:

Just combine
2 tablespoons mayonaise
1 teaspoon hot chilli sauce
3 drops olive oil
a dash of salt

Procedure:

1. In a platter arrange the julienned vegetables and serve it with your favorite sauce or the sauce that I put here.

Printable version

Puto- Steamed Cake

One of the famous dainties in Philippines is Puto or steamed cake. This can be eaten as dessert or snack, or anytime you want it. It is creamy and sweet. It can be made from rice flour or all purpose flour. The recipe that I am going to share now used all purpose flour, soon I will post different flavors of puto,  for the mean time,  here is how to do the simple one.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 beaten eggs

Procedure:

1. Sift together the flour, sugar and baking powder.
2. Mix the water, milk and beaten eggs, then the melted butter
3. Mix together 1 & 2 procedure.
4. Put in the molders and steam for 10 minutes or until cook

5. Serve it plain or with fresh grated coconut.

Different Cuts of meat and vegetables

There are different terms for the slices or cuts of meat and vegetable, here are some that I knew, I will update this post soon, to add more.

Half

Quarter

Wedge

                                                                 Cube

Julienne

Dice

Strip

Shred

Mince

French

Ground

Crush

Batonette

Chiffonade

Ruban