Let the Games Begin

American football season has begun at my boys' high school. Gruff-voiced coaches bark out unending commands at practice, guaranteeing that my sons come home exhausted, beaten and scarred. (This is obviously a Mom's point of view. If you ask the boys, they'd probably say "Bring It On!"). I watch them come down from the late bus drenched in sweat and mud, dragging helmets, pads and sports bags with whatever strength they have left, showing off the bruises and gashes they've collected for the day.

Unlike his older brother, Son #3 is as tall and skinny as a string bean. He would certainly be a good fit for basketball, but football has been his sport of choice, brushing off the incident a few years ago where a hefty teammate fell on his arm in a touchdown attempt. With a broken arm in a cast for the rest of the season, he was silently hailed by coach and team as a hero. I wonder if that's why he keeps signing up.

So his diet strategy this season is to "buff up" with copious servings of protein and carbs, and I sneak in salads and veggies to complete the meal. This is a delicious dish that even ravenous, meat-eating teenagers would scarf down.

Dry Fried Long Beans

adapted from The Best of Chinese Cooking by Willie Mark

450g long beans

75g shrimps, peeled, deveined and diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 inch piece fresh ginger, minced

75g pickled chinese vegetable, diced

(or you can use japanese pickled daikon)

75g minced pork

oil for deep frying

3 tablespoons chicken stock

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoon chinese black vinegar

(or rice vinegar)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

red chili for garnish

Slice off the top and tail of the long beans and cut into 2 inch lengths. Heat oil in a wok until smoky and deep fry the beans for about 3 minutes until they wrinkle.

Remove and drain on colander lined with kitchen paper. Pour oil from the wok and set aside. Return wok to heat, add the drained beans and stir fry until they start to brown. Set aside.

Pour 2 tablespoons of oil into the wok, reheat to high and add the shrimp, garlic, ginger, pickles and pork.

Stir fry for a few minutes then add the stock, soy sauce, sugar and pepper. Bring to a boil. Add the beans and mix thoroughly over high heat until liquid has just evaporated.

Stir in vinegar and sesame oil. Garnish with slices of red chili (or red bell pepper) and serve.

Around the World

As the joke goes, a wife asks her husband about vacation plans, and he declares, "Honey, I'm taking you to a place you've never ever been to!" The wife gets all excited and pleads, "Tell me, tell me, where!" To which the husband replies, "I'm taking you to the kitchen!"

My mom doesn't cook. In fact, she probably couldn't boil an egg. But she had a wonderful collection of cookbooks. The books were pristine, and still had that new-book smell, because they were kept in a special cabinet in her air-conditioned bedroom. No oil stains on the bookmarked pages, no scribbles of measurement conversions, no flour dust on the book rib. These cookbooks were loved, but from a distance. Whenever she purchased a set from a door-to-door salesman, the books were carried upstairs like a new baby, unwrapped and carefully tucked into the mahogany cabinet. I don't remember whether she ever looked at them again, but they were there for me. I would sit on her bedroom floor leafing through the pages of her Foods of the World cookbook collection and be transported to France, Italy, Germany. I imagined the creaminess of a Zabaione, or what the heck was so good about Oeufs en Gelee.

Many years later, each time I would travel home to visit family, I'd take back with me whatever remained of the cookbooks. I still leaf through the books in awe of the wide world of food, but now the yellowed pages are stained and scribbled on and well loved. This is one of our favorites.

Polpette alla Casalinga
Italian Meatballs
adapted from The Cooking of Italy
Time-Life Books

2 slices bread, torn into small pieces
(I used 2 leftover croissants)
1/4 cup milk
500 grams minced beef
2 pieces raw Italian sausages, casings removed
6 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
grated lemon peel (from 1 lemon)
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
olive oil for frying

Soak the pieces of bread in milk for about 5 minutes. Mash softened pieces with your hands until most of the lumps are smoothened out. In a bowl, combine softened bread, egg, minced beef, sausage meat, parmesan cheese, parsley, 1 tablespoon olive oil, garlic, lemon peel, salt and pepper. Knead the mixture vigorously by hand or with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are well blended.

Shape the mixture into small meatballs. Lay on a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

Heat about 1/4 cup of olive oil in a heavy skillet. Fry the meatballs over moderately high heat, shaking the pan constantly to keep from sticking to pan. Cook for about 8-10 minutes. Serve with favorite tomato sauce over preferred pasta.

Lumpia@Kulinarya

While on a recent mini-break in Manila, I went on a Lumpia binge at the neighborhood farmer's market, in keeping with Kulinarya Club's theme for the month. Here's a sampling.....

Chinese-style Fresh Vegetable Lumpia

*****

Fried Lumpia with Beansprouts, Carrots and Green Beans

*****

Fresh Lumpia with Heart of Palm, Shrimp and Green Beans

*****

Caramelized Lumpia with Plantains and Brown Sugar

*****

While most of the Lumpias consisted of the standard sauteed vegetables and shrimp (or pork) rolled in a fresh or fried wrapper, the Chinese-style Lumpia had all that, plus some interesting toppings of seaweed flakes, a ground peanut-sugar crumble, and crisp vermicelli noodles. According to the Vendor, she prepares the vegetable filling by sauteeing diced shrimp and pork belly in plenty of shallots and garlic. She then adds sliced green beans, cabbage, carrots, firm tofu, and seasons it with salt and pepper. She makes a brown sauce by boiling water, brown sugar, soy sauce and minced garlic, thickened with a cornstarch slurry. I watch her assemble the Lumpia as she lays a romaine lettuce leaf on the fresh wrapper (see top photo), then proceeds to layer the drained vegetable filling, topped with the crisp vermicelli noodles, seaweed flakes, ground peanut-sugar crumble, fresh cilantro leaves and some minced boiled egg. Brown sauce is drizzled on and the lumpia is done. It's a wrap!

Summer Breeze

The summer exodus is making its about-face, with families trickling back from their long holidays in time for school opening. Over a decidedly light lunch (our waistlines!), we share our vacation stories of visits to medieval villages, mountain biking through ancient temples, white sand beaches and dog sled rides. Most of our holidays these days involve enough research, planning and logistics to rival a seasoned travel agent.

I remember the time when summer vacation simply meant taking the long drive down to see the grandparents. Mine lived by a river bank, in the days where the water was cool and clean, shallow enough to play in. When the afternoon sun got too hot, we'd come back to the breezy verandah and just lie in the hammocks, waiting for the local ice-cream man to come by with his cart, sampling weird but good flavors like cheese, yam, or corn. There were no schedules to follow, no must-see sights, no must-do excursions. Our only obligation was to come to my grandmother's dinner table on time. She was a wonderfully meticulous cook, and every meal was delicious. One of her most comforting dishes was Pote Gallego, or Galician Stew, which has its influence from Spain, and adapted to the Philippine palate. To accompany the pote, my grandmother would serve cow's brain fritters with a crispy edge and a creamy center, which I loved as a child but haven't had since. Our family's version of Pote Gallego has been passed down the generations, from Lola's table to my Dad's to ours, all without a written recipe. I hope my memory served me well.

Pote Gallego

8 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, diced

3 lage tomatoes, diced

olive oil

1 teaspoon spanish smoked paprika

2 chorizo bilbao, sliced diagonally

5 large veal or beef shanks, deboned and cubed

about 2 cups water

1 can garbanzo beans, drained

1 large sweet potato, cubed

1 large potato, cubed

1/2 head cabbage, cubed

1 beef bouillon cube

Preheat oven at 175 deg C.

In a large cast iron or ovenproof pot, saute garlic, onions and tomatoes in olive oil for about 20 minutes on low heat. Add chorizo and saute for another minute.

Add the shanks. (Note: I like to leave the bone on the shanks to enhance the flavor of the broth, specially if it has the marrow, then dice the meat and remove the bones after the cooking process. For easy cooking, you can use deboned shanks.) Mix well. Pour about 2 cups of water into the pot, enough to cover the meat.

Remove from stove and transfer to the oven to braise for about 2 hours.

When meat is tender, remove pot from oven and transfer meat with a slotted spoon to a bowl. (If you used shanks with the bone in, separate the meat from the bone, scoop out any marrow, and dice the meat. Discard the bones). Set aside.

Place a sieve onto another bowl and strain the broth through. Pour strained broth back into the pot and bring to a boil. Add the diced meat, garbanzos, potatoes, sweet potatoes and beef bouillon. Mix well. Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. In the last 5 minutes of cooking, add the cabbage on top of the stew, cover and cook until just done. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve with rice, couscous, or toasted sourdough bread.

Get Well Soon

Teenage son #2 had been in the hospital, weakened by a nasty virus. All the rooms were occupied, except for a bed in the children's ward. Knocked out by drugs, he was thankfully oblivious of the crying babies and whining toddlers and worried parents shuffling about. Still, the nurses were kinder and gentler, and looked into the patients more often than usual. Meals were even provided for the accompanying parent (ok, it's hospital food, but it was a considerate thought nevertheless).

We're back home now, and I've had to keep him on a soft diet. After days of nothing but Creamy Scrambled Eggs, I thought of making Macaroni and Cheese. This is an adapted recipe from Gourmet magazine's 2002 edition. It's so easy, and you could use any cheese you have in your fridge. I added a bit of dijon mustard to lift the flavors, and lots of freshly ground pepper. The bread crumb topping transforms this into a comforting gratin.

Easy Creamy Mac and Cheese

adapted from Gourmet Magazine

2 cups elbow macaroni

2 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup grated Gruyere

1/2 cup grated mozzarella

1/4 cup grated Cheddar

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (or Japanese bread crumbs)

1 large clove garlic, finely minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 170 deg C.

Cook macaroni in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring cream and butter to a boil, then turn heat to medium-low and simmer for about 5 minutes, uncovered. Reduce heat to low, then add cheeses, mustard, salt and pepper. Mix well until cheese melts.

Add cooked macaroni to cheese sauce and mix thoroughly. Transfer to ovenproof dish.

For the crumb topping, thoroughly mix bread crumbs, garlic and olive oil together. Sprinkle evenly on top of macaroni and cheese. Bake in oven for about 15 minutes or until crust is golden.

Chinese Takeout

I was watching a sitcom where six friends were hanging out, eating Chinese food directly from the takeout boxes, when I thought "I miss Chinese takeout!". (Which is absurd, considering I now live in Singapore, where delicious, authentic Chinese food is an obsession.) Our favorite takeout meals - Wonton Soup, Chow Mein, Egg Rolls, General Tso's Chicken - were Americanized versions of dishes whose authenticity didn't really matter. Was it the ease of ordering a complete dinner, on days where the rest of my afternoons were spent ferrying the boys from soccer to tennis to baseball practices? Was it the thrill of reading your fortune from a little cookie, no matter how ridiculous the prediction was? Or was it that the food came ready-to-eat, packaged in neat, little rectangular boxes - no dirty dishes or greasy pans to wash?

Whatever it was, here's a recipe of another takeout fave, Honey Walnut Prawns. The version I made for dinner omitted the walnuts (I didn't want to bother caramelizing them, actually), so I just sprinkled some toasted sesame seeds on the dish instead. Make sure to pat the prawns dry after peeling and deveining, so the batter stays crisp.

Honey Walnut Prawns

adapted from Shrimp.com website

500g medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup walnuts
5 cups water
1 cup sugar
2 cups oil
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup egg whites
2 Tbs honey
3 Tbs mayonnaise
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1/2 Tbs condensed milk
1/2 cup oil

Rinse walnuts, then boil in 5 cups water, continually changing water until clear.When clear, boil with sugar until sugar dissolves.Heat 2 cups oil until almost smoking, then deep fry walnuts until they're shiny and brown, no longer golden.Place walnuts on cookie sheet, let cool.

Mix cornstarch and egg whites together to form a thick, sticky texture and mix well with Shrimp. Set aside.

Mix honey, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and condensed milk in a medium bowl until smooth.

Heat oil until boiling, then deep fry the shrimp until golden brown.Drain, then fold in honey mayonnaise mixture. Mix well, sprinkle with walnuts, and arrange on platter.

Far Away Home

Our summers are usually spent in Denmark, in a little cottage by the north coast. While our other holidays are driven by a list of sights to see, adventures to pursue, or new places to eat in, we arrive in our home away from home with no daily schedules planned in advance.

Some days are spent cleaning up the overgrown garden. (Thankfully, the weed whacker and lawn mower replaces the boys' PS3 obsession!) Another day could mean painting the wooden deck and garden furniture. (A good exercise in perseverance!) There are other days where we just wing it, hopping into the car to check out the other seaside towns and beaches. When the boys were little, they used to crack up laughing at these Danish road signs:

(this actually means Speed Control)

(and this means Bath + Toilet available)

At the harbour, little kiosks sell the freshest fish and seafood for lunch. The ubiquitous burger and hot dog stands are there too, as well as a sashimi bar and a Thai food stand (huh?). Step into the blackened walls of the Smokehouse and you'll find rows of smoked salmon, mackerel, herring, and fish roe. The butcher secures his place amidst the fish and seafood mongers, and touts his frikadeller as the best in town.





Here's a very old and traditional recipe for frikadeller, from the Danish food bible Froeken Jensens Kogebog (Miss Jensen's Cookbook), first published in 1901! She explains that the meatballs can be made from veal, beef or pork, or a blend of either two. The binding agent is most often flour, but eggs, breadcrumbs or soaked bread slices can also be used. Milk, cream, broth or water facilitates the binding. Salt and pepper provide flavor, but onions and different herbs can be added accordingly. A good meatball mix demands constant stirring of the ingredients, and the more you stir, the lighter and more moist the consistency becomes. Cook the mixture immediately though, as its shelf life in raw form is very short.

Frikadeller

(Danish Meatballs)

for 8 persons

500g minced pork

500g minced beef or veal

3 teaspoons salt

1 large onion, diced

1 cup flour

3/4 cup milk

2 eggs

freshly ground pepper

Mix all the ingredients together, stirring constantly until you have a smooth consistency.

If the consistency is too runny to hold a shape, add more flour to the mix.

Heat pan to medium, add 50g butter and a splash of olive oil to pan. Using a spoon, scoop mixture and drop into pan. Turn heat to low and fry meatballs for about 5 minutes on each side, or until nicely browned. The meatballs can be flipped over a few times so meatballs are cooked thoroughly and evenly browned.

Serve with boiled potatoes and pickled red cabbage or cucumber salad.

For the cucumber salad, peel, remove seeds and slice cucumber thinly. Place in a bowl or colander and sprinkle with salt. After 20 minutes, discard extracted liquid and give the cucumber slices a good squeeze before placing in serving bowl. Mix about 3-4 tablespoons white or cider vinegar, 4-6 tablespoons sugar and freshly ground pepper. Pour over cucumber and chill before serving.

(At home, I serve the frikadeller with gravy which I make from the pan drippings, but this is not traditionally Danish.)