Grilled Salmon with Vegies

All you need are:

Salmon fillet - grilled with salt, pepper and olive oil

Vegies - Broccoli, Carrot, Snow Peas, Celery and Onion

Sauce: Combine 1 cup of vegetable stock, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 2 tsp cornflour and pepper

How to do it:

1. Saute onion in the olive oil.

2. Add carrots and broccoli.

3. Pour sauce and let it simmer over low heat for 4-5 minutes.

4. Add snow peas and celery. Cook for another 2 minutes.

5. Serve with grilled salmon.

Enjoy your meal!

Carrot Cake

Aside from the birthday cake my helper bought in the Bakery shop for my daughter's 1st birthday, I baked a carrot cake as well. My visitors ate my carrot cake instead of the cake from the shop. They were even asking for more.

So, I decided to bake a 2-layers carrot cake for my daughter's 2nd birthday. The good thing about baking your own cake is that you can lessen the sugar, salt and you can substitute white flour to whole wheat flour. You can also use organic sugar if you like just like what I did.

Pagkaing Pinoy

These are just a few of the food I had during one of the get together party as well as my "Farewell gathering" with my friends in Singapore. The first photo is Banana cake baked by Lhita, Pancit Palabok cooked by Bernie's Mom, Chicken and Pork Kaldereta cooked by yours truly, Puto and Lumpiang Shanghai by Bernie's Mom again, Dinuguan by Bernie's Mom (she does food catering by the way) and Maja Blanca by Taluks friend. We have been asking for the recipe of Maja Blanca because it is delicious but we were told it is a secret. I ordered Pancit Palabok because it is very nice.

Bernie's Turon

This is called "Turon" which means a deep-fried banana rolls. My pretty friend Bernie arrived 4 hours late to our friend's gathering, she has an excuse though she just got out from work. She brought a bunch of bananas, shanghai wrapper, organic sugar and a cooking oil. With the help of Lhita and Sigrid they peeled the banana and sliced it into two. Wrapped the banana with a little bit of sugar in the shanghai wrapper. When it was all wrapped and ready they placed the wrapped banana into a hot cooking oil and deep fried it until golden brown and crispy. Simple yet delicious!

Chinese Beef Stir Fry

This is the first time we have tried the "MasterFoods Chinese Beef Stir Fry" sauce. It says to add 500g beef strips, 2tbsp soy sauce, 1 onion, 1 green capsicum and 1 carrot. I wanted more vegetables so I added our favorite vegetables like broccoli, celery and snow peas. I used red capsicum instead of green capsicum because we didn't have it.

I followed the instructions at the back of the packet it says:

1. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan. Add beef strips and onion, stir-fry for 5 minutes. (You don't have to follow the 5 minutes, cook it according to your liking.)

2. Add recipe base, capsicum, carrot and soy sauce. ( I added the rest of our favorite vegies as well. I only used 1 1/2 tbsp of Kikkoman soy sauce instead of 2 tbsp.)

3. Stir until all ingredients are coated, cover and simmer gently for 5 minutes or until beef is cooked. (I added 1/2 cup of hot water to adjust the sauce.)

Canadian Bacon

We normally have cereal for breakfast. But we went to Kemchiks supermarket to shop for meat and fish. We try to avoid chicken here in Jakarta because of the bird flu. Anyway, we were in the shop and saw varieties of bacon and ham. We asked the man in the counter if he has "canadian bacon". And he showed us the way to the mysterious bacon we were looking for when my husband tried South Beach Diet 5 years ago. This diet is protein diet which includes meat, egg, dairy, nuts and other protein foods. He did lose weight and looked great but needed carbohydrates as well. He doesn't do the diet anymore. Back to the story, we were delighted to see "canadian bacon" at last! The bacon wasn't fatty at all no wonder it was recommended by the south beach diet.
Well today we had a sunny-side up egg, toast and 2 slices of canadian bacon for breakfast!

Assorted Dessert

This is my first batch of dessert in Shangrila Hotel on my birthday. I had strawberries with chocolate, tiramisu cake, chocolate cake and 2 local delicacies. Yummmm.....

Beef Burger

We bought Pita bread at the Food Hall supermarket down the Sogo shop here in Senayan Plaza. My husband wanted to have a beef burger with it but he wants me to cook the burger and so I did.

Here's how to do it, mix minced beef, 1 egg, 1/4 cup of milk, onion powder, garlic powder and 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Shape into round burgers and place hamburger patties in a skillet; cook on both sides until cooked through. Remove patties from heat; keep warm. Heat the pita bread in the microwave for 1 minute. Cool it down for a while and place the lettuce, 2 or 3 slices of tomato, burger patty and cheese. Use some mayonnaise or ketchup if you wish.

Black Pepper Beef

There are times when I am too lazy to think what to cook. My husband and I bought a marinated black pepper beef at Kemchiks supermarket here in Jakarta last week. I thought I would cook that instead because it is tasty already. Cooked a bit of rice and I boiled a few pieces of broccoli and then that's it! I was too hungry to wait for the black pepper sauce though so I decided to take a photo of the food right away. After I had eaten my dinner, I looked at the photo and wasn't impressed on the presentation. I should have eaten an apple or a biscuit perhaps so I wasn't too hungry to grab my dinner right away.

Kabayan's Cassava cake

I didn't know what to bring for another gathering of my friends in Singapore. All my good kitchen utensils are in the shipment so it was difficult to cook. I was asking some of my friends who are attending the gathering for any suggestions and my good friend Taluks suggested "halayang ube" or "cassava cake" in Kabayan restaurant in Lucky Plaza. I called the restaurant to inquire about these sweets and told me the price was something like $22 sing dollars per order. I made the reservation. I told Taluks about the price and he thought it's too expensive, and that if we order pizza in Canadian Pizza it will be buy one and get one free for the same price. I was a bit confused for a while but I wanted a filipino sweets instead of pizza. I told him I can get pizza in Indonesia easily but not the halayang ube or cassava cake.
The following day I went to Kabayan restaurant to pick up either halayang ube or cassava cake. The man in the counter said halayang ube was $10 more expensive than cassava cake. I didn't want to spend more than what I have prepared so I bought cassava cake instead. I was thinking of taking MRT on my way to Izay's house, where the gathering will be celebrated. I waited for 5 minutes and here comes the man with a big plastic bag of my order. When he handed it to me it was sooooooooo heavy, it feels like 5 kilos. I decided to take a cab instead and arrived in Izay's house 30 minutes early.
After I had eaten my lunch I took a piece of cassava cake and it was very very tasty! The sweetness is just right and it was soft unlike other cassava cake I have tried. My friends liked the cake as well and I was happy I made the right decision to bring cassava cake instead of pizza.

Joe's Kaldereta

My Dad's signature dish is Kaldereta (kaldereta is a Tagalog word for stew). It has potato, carrots, raisin, green peas, bay leaf, onion, garlic, beef, tomato paste, water and olive oil. I can't remember how Dad cooked this dish although he told me how a few months ago. I requested him to cook it again during one of my visits in their home last April 2007. He cooked one big pot of his scrumptious Kaldereta and what is left is the photo above.

Pancit

We call fried noodles "Pancit" in Tagalog. I love love love fried noodles. I always ask my Aunty Carmen to cook some for me everytime I go back to Manila, and when I have the chance to visit her. She is one of those I admire when it comes to cooking.

I didn't know how to cook Pancit until one time, I asked my helper Maribel to cook it so I can bring it to my very first meeting with FilUnited Members (www.filunited.com) for the Get Together Party (GTG) at East Coast Park in Singapore. It tasted great and my picky eater husband ate it as well. That time lead to another Pancit and I was the one who cooked Pancit for the first time on my daugther's 1st birthday. And then another Pancit was done again when my parent's came to Singapore for the second time. "It taste like a Singaporean Pancit huh?" was their comment. I guess I am already mixed up with different versions of Fried Noodles. But I still love our Filipino style fried noodles though.