Moroccan style rice with okra

I've lived in Cebu for about 3 months now and try as I might, it's really tough eating out alone. So i cook at home usually just for one. This particular rice is interesting because the okra is mucilaginous (Phew!) and releases a gooey slimey substance that lends itself to the rice and helps lock in the starches that rice tends to release while cooking so your grains dont stick together and you have a fluffy cooked rice where the grains dont stick but still retain that nice moist texture that makes rice the worlds most common staple. You can cook this in a frying pan, provided it has a tight fitting cover. If you dont have one, just use a small crock pot.

1 cup rice (unwashed but make sure you use clean rice, long grain preferred but any other will do except malagkit)
2 cups chicken stock
7 pcs okra (choose the smallest you can find)
1 tsp of raisins
1 tsp of uncooked, unsalted peanuts or almonds
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1 stalk of spring onion about a tablespoonful when chopped
olive oil for sauteeing
dash of turmeric (whats a dash? about half a teaspoonful)
half a dash of coriander
ground pepper to taste


start as always wtih your garlic and onions sauteed in olive oil until translucent. Lower the flame to medium and to this you add the okra and the rice. Sautee briefly to coat the rice and okra with the oil then to this add the turmeric and coriander. Most likely your coriander would be dry so you have to cook out the raw essence of coriander and allow the oils remaining to releaase themselves. It will start getting fragrant and at this point add the peanuts. As it starts to sizzle, add your stock gently but completely. You dont want the mixture to cool down too quickly. The mixture should start boiling within a minute from when you add the stock, you could also keep the stock hot if you like. As it boils, give the mixture a stir to distribute the okra evenly over the top. Lower the flame to its lowest possible and cover the pan.

Cooking rice is not an art but a science. For every measure of rice, 1.5 mesures of liquid. if you use broth use 1.75 measures. Once the rice and liquid mixture starts to boil, lower the flame to its lowest point and cover. In 15 minutes it will be done, so shut the flame and let the rice rest covered for another 5 minutes so that the starches in the rice will retreat back into the rice mixture and not stick to the sides of the cooking vessel.

After 5 minutes of rest, you must fluff or stir the rice. Now you can serve but otherwise, covered, it will stay warm for at least another 20 minutes.

Of course white!! More like a chardonnay or Albarino. Nothing too sweet.

Arugula

I have to thank Billy King for introducing me to Arugula. Theres nothing quite like its nutty and mildly spicy flavor that just marries so well with Lettuce. I was at the Metro Gaisano in Cebu and found a section filled with arugula, been here a month but its the first time i've seen any. Here's something that i'm about to do with it.

1 small head of iceberg lettuce
1 handful of fresh arugula leaves stems removed
1 tsp of raisins
1 slice of white bread toasted and cut like croutons
1 tsp of peanuts cracked and crushed (try and get unsalted ones)

for the dressing

1 tsp mustard (they say dijon but american is fine)
1 tsp honey
1 tsp vinegar (ok balsamic if you've got some but use less)
2-3 tbsp of olive oil (pomace will do)
a dash of pepper

Wash and drain the lettuce
just grasp the leaves of the arugula and pull it from the stems
crack your peanuts, use the bottom of a plate or hand chop with a knife

now build your dressing. honey first then mustard over it now drizzle the vinegar
over it. With a whisk, whip it with regular even strokes while pouring the oil slowly over it. It will produce something like a mayonnaise

just toss the lettuce into it, add the arugula, the raisins the peanuts and the croutons and voila!!

Thats my Estofado

We have just about had it with every imaginable way to cook kasim. Adobo, Sinigang, Curry, Afritada . .Please daddy change naman!! So in I go into one of my best companions in the kitchen Nora Daza. I like her book because it allows you to be a little creative. She doesn't tell you to simmer for 30 minutes at low heat, she's more like, when the meat is tender, slice and serve at once. . . and that I like.

Here's her estofado, with a twist of my own.

1/2 kg. piece of kasim, with skin on and not too fatty DO NOT SLICE NOR DICE
1/2 cup of vinegar
1/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
bay leaves
10 whole pepper granules
a generous helping of brandy, use spanish import (sorry i love my country but not the brandy)
Sweet potato, cut into wedges and very shallow fried.

First make sure your kasim is thawed completely
in a dutch oven set heat up your oil, as wisps of smoke start to appear, brown the pork on all sides. It will spatter so watch out. brown lightly on all sides then set it down fat side up
Pour in all the other ingredients EXCEPT the brandy.
When it starts to boil, set flame to lowest possible and cover
It will take about an hour so every 5 - 10 minutes, spoon the liquid over the meat
be patient just keep basting the meat diligently
20 mins later, turn the meat over fat side down and continue cooking still basting diligently
40 mins later, turn it over again and keep basting
this time pour the brandy in, I put about 1/4 cup
cover and continue cooking
After an hour you will have a rich smelling and yummy, syrupy sauce.

Test the meat, a big fork should go right through the skin, fat and meat easily, its ready

To serve, take your meat, and slice 1/4 inch thick slices
They say fried plantains and croutons would go well with these but pan fried kamote wedges are a winning combination.

Great with a pitcher of cold chilled Sangria, red wine, fresh orange and chopped apples

Kung Hei Fat Choy - Pata Tim

I have a bone to pick with my wife. She is convinced that I can't cook chinese. This has to be so atypically Chinese that she will have to notice. We had this tonight and well. . . even I was surprised. My son, it was certainly a step above pata cooked in pares sauce, like most pata tims. So here it is Braised Pork knuckle or Pata Tim!

I whole pata (about 1 kg.)
A strip of cinnamon bark about an inch long
2 whole star anise
1/2 tsp Ngo Yong or 5 spice powder
1/2 tsp of Salted Black Beans, the canned or bottled variety that was sitting in brine
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water (just to start, eventually you'll need one cup more)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp of ginger sliced into coins
1 jigger of rum or brandy (I used both)
2 large bay leaves
about 10 whole black peppercorns

This is a low stress dish that you dont have to shake around or pay too much attention to.

Wash the pata and pat dry. Let it sit in a dutch oven and pour the vinegar and half cup of water over the pata. add teh bay leaves and pepper corns, the star anise and cinnamon bark and sprinkle the Ngo Yong. Allow to boil

Once it starts to boil, set teh flame to low and cover. Now go get a beer!!

Every ten to fifteen minutes or so, turn the pata over

As the water level goes down to about 1/2 inch, add some water, never let it get dry.

Check if the pata is cooked after an hour of simmering, just stab the meatiest part with a fork, if blood runs out cook it some more, once the liquid runs clear, its ready for the rest of the ingredients.

Add the soy sauce, black beans, oyser sauce and sugar, and the liquor, make sure you pour or sprinkle all of this over the pata. Now cover and allow to simmer some more

Every 10 minutes or so, turn the pata, be gentle the skin starts to get soft as the fat breaks down.

I like to baste it every time i turn it over to keep it moist.

As the water goes down to a low level, add some more water gently so as not to cool the sauce too suddenly.

I took 2 1/2 hours to cook this from start to finish, It should take just as long for you. You want to make sure the vinegar smell is gone.

Take the pata out of the pot and strain the sauce over it.

With hot plain rice, or kua pao bread, its a winner.

Gong Xi Fa Tsai - Steamed Cream Dory Fillet

What better way to herald the Year of the Ox than by serving up some Chinese Food!! This simple steamed recipe was inspired by a tv show i saw once about New YOrk's master Chefs. From a restaurant called Auntie Yuan, the twist really is the use of bell peppers, unlike typical steamed fish which is just leeks and ginger.

2 pcs Cream Dory fillets
1 medium bell pepper sliced lengthwise
2 stalks Onion Leeks cut into 3-4 inch stalks
1/2 cup ginger finely sliced slivers
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
2 tbsp fine chopped garlic
Sesame Oil to flavor

Fry garlic in a small amount of oil. Hot oil cold garlic then turn the flame down to low. As the garlic slowly turns a deeper color, remove from the pan and transfer to a ceramic dish. The garlic will continue cooking and become a nice crisp light brown emulsion without the bitter garlic taste

Put water to boil for the steamer. I have a round steamer, not the commercial kind so prep the fish to fit in a plate. In my case, split it in half.

Let the fish lay flat on the plate and layer the vegetables.

First the peppers, then the ginger, then the leeks.

Drizzle with soy sauce then place into the steamer.

Turn up the heat in the steamer and let it cook for 12 mins. Try not to look at it, whenenever you open the steamer, it immediately brings the temperature down too low.

Check for done-ness, a butter knife should go right through the fish without resistance. Drizzle with a few drops of sesame oil and a scant tsp of your crispy garlic to give it an aroma and serve at once.

We had a nice and lively white from portugal with this one.