My Basic Minestrone

The line cook at the L'Opera once told me his recipe for basic minestrone. 

A heartwarming vegetable soup made from the most simple ingredients can become a powerful carrier of flavor and this basic stock can be the foundation of you version of Minestrone. It can be prepared in large batches in advance and stored in serving size containers in the freezer. Heat them slowly over a low flame until it barely simmers. 

 This recipe is good for about a liter of soup but go large or go small using the relative proportions. 

> 3 cups of water (or chicken broth) 

> 1/2 cup of onions diced 

> 1/4 cup of carrots diced to pea size 

> 1/4 cup celery stalks sliced pea size 

> 1 cup of chopped tomato (get the red ripe plumpkind) 

> cooking oil (olive oil if you can) 

> 1 strip of bacon (guanciale is better but smokey bacon will do) cut into half inch strips 

> 1 Knorr broth cube or 1 sachet of Magic Sarap (Omit if using chicken broth) 

> Salt and Pepper to taste 

 Set a medium soup pot to a medium flame

- pour 1 tbsp of oil and as wisps of smoke appear saute the bacon - you don't want crispy bacon, just cooked enough for the edges to brown ever so slightly 

- Add your vegetables all at once and stir until the aroma starts drifting into the kitchen 

- At this point you pour the water (or broth) into the pot and scrape away the browned bits of bacon if any at the bottom - allowing it to boil 

- As it comes to a boil lower your flame to a gentle simmer and lightly cover 

It's done when your tomatoes start breaking down - about 10-15 minutes Taste and add and salt and pepper as you desire. 

This soup will accept pasta (shells or macaroni), potatoes cubed, peas and string beans - even canned red beans as you like. I DO NOT recommend any leafy vegetabes like cabbage - doesntlook nice. With buttered crusty bread, it's actually enough for lunch

Peanut pasta

There are things you want to do that you constant put off. You buy ingredients and then let it sit in the ref until you can't use them anymore. Here goes nothing . . No Here comes something. 

Its a simple noodle in peanut sauce.If you prep the ingredients beforehand, this can come together in 10 minutes. We'll do just the basic and you can add the condiments particularly the proteins if you want to. 

1 small stalk onion leeks sliced (not too fine) 1 clove garlic (crushed. . totally crushed) 1 tsp peanut butter 1 tsp soy sauce 1 tsp palm sugar or white sugar 1/2 tsp garlic chilis sauce - any kind. dig deep into the bottle soyou get the garlic and chili 1/2 cup chicken broth 1/2 cup salted peanuts ground with a mortar and pestle (or food processor) 1 small bunch noodles - about a cup- rice noodles, egg noodles, vermicelli, spaghetti - any noodle will do. Just 1 cup uncooked then cook it, wash it and cool it 

These are the optionals: 4 stalks asparagus (bent and snapped in the middle then cut into 1 inch lengths) 1 fairly large shiitake mushroom cut in half the sliced into 1 inch lengths Lets begin Timer starts now 

1. set your pan to the flame 2. 2 tbsp of oil (high smoke point like palm or peanut) \ 3. Add garlic mushroom and leeks and stir fry about 1 minute 2.5 add proteins and other optional condiments and stir fry 1 minute 4.add soy sauce and stir fry 30 seconds 5. add half the broth and stir 30 seconds or until simmering 6. add the peanut butter and stir until incorporated 30 seconds 7. add the sugar and stir until incorporated 30 seconds 8. add noodles and garlic chili sauce and toss into the sauce 9. add another dash of soy 10.transfer to a serving plate Sprinkle generously with your crushed peanuts and coriander leaves

That'sit Sorry no photos - i ate it before I could take it Try a cold beer

Cooking rice

We've had our share of exploratory adventures where we rough it up and cook with a wood fire and camped out in a tent. One of our more memorable ones was an Easter weekend in Munting Buhangin long before it became just another over built and over populated resort along Nasugbu beach. Time was there were only tents available and building a bonfire was still a herculean effort of gathering wood among the environs.

On this trip, one of our companions, a lovely, petite girl had offered to be on rice cooking duty. In as much as not all of us were at the time, aware of what and how this is done without a rice cooker we relented. Over the next few days, we had to rummage through burnt kernels and uncooked rice for all our meals. Turns out - this lady had dutifully followed someone's instruction to allow the water in the rice to get up to the first digit of the index finger. Being a petite girl, of course her hands were much much smaller than most, resulting in each rice cooking exercise lacking the requisite quantity of water to cook through.

Now we know better.

Rice is an interesting staple, as unlike wheat that needs to be milled in order to make any kind of reasonable libation, you simply separate the individual kernels from the chaff in the course of threshing and you have a simple white (or brown depending on the type of rice) ready for cooking.

There are different types of rice and generally long grain is favored for its ability to retain the starches within and prevent sticking resulting in a fluffly cooked rice with the individual grains clearly delineated. California, Basmati and most premium rice are this type. Another is the small grain rice such as Milagrosa, the Japanese Honishiki variety Konishiki and Musenmai (washed) which release much more starch during cooking and require quite a bit of soaking in water prior to cooking. Finally ,the medium grain variety, such as the Japonica and most other lower priced rice varieties. Is there any one single standard way to cook rice? I ask my students how they do it and it comes out consistently 1. Measure out the rice 2. Wash - rinse - drain - repeat until the wash water is barely clear enough - still milky but almost clear 3. Add water and this is where it gets touchy - 1.5 times the amount of water as rice OR stick your index finger until barely touching the top of the rice and add water until it reaches the first digit 4. Return to the rice cooker OR set to boil uncovered 5. ONce boiling wet flame to the lowest possible and cover the pot 6. wait at least 8 minutes and resist the urge to look 7. when time is up, check the rice - there should be no bubbles or residual water and there should be dimples and dots on the top 8. it may need another minute or two to get there and only then turn off the fire 9. DO NOT SERVE YET! wait 5 minutes with the flame off. This will give the starches released into the pot to retreat back into the rice grains 10. Now you can eat, fluff it if you want, scoop it into a bowl, or whichever way you like thats simple