Hallelujah! After months of living in our wee apartment, I finally figured out that our oven (which thankfully did not explode in my face because it was electric) works! I am just so excited to move one step forward with my beginner cook skills and try my hand at oven roasting and perhaps some baking.

BUT again, our wee kitchen is so bare that I do need to make some kitchen equipment purchases to help get me started. This week, roasting pans have been on my mind because I dream finally of cooking up some roast pork / beef / chicken / lamb / vegetables and perhaps throw in a batch of brownies or homemade granola too.

The dilemma is: What kind of roasting pan am I supposed to buy?

I maybe overanalyzing this, but I’d like to think of it as making the right decision to which roasting pan would address my needs best. Basically, I need a multi-purpose – for both roasting meats / veggies and baking – easy-to-clean and not to expensive roasting pan. Oh, one that is microwave, fridge and freezer safe too. Plus one I can cook on the flame stove top ala Jamie Oliver. Is that too much to ask?

Some say go for stainless steel as it is the cheapest. BUT those babies are quite a challenge to clean.

Some say go for pyrex or ceramic since those are easier to clean. BUT those can’t be use on stove tops as I’ve read on one too many roasting pan tags. Or can those be used on stove tops?

What do you think is the best option for me? I do plan to grab me roasting pan soon. Like later. Hahaha!

Daydreaming about roasting pans,

Didi

My life will be pretty much on the go from this day forth. It’s been busy as a meantime housewife in Dubai (house chores, writing, projects, quality time with the husband and all), but it will be busier. Because of some happy developments I’d love to shout it out to the world, but I’d prefer to keep it hush-hush. Just say a “I’m so happy for you!” and I will accept it with grateful arms. Hehehe!

I needed to put something filling quick with bits and pieces of leftovers and odd ends from the Arroz Caldo I cooked the other day and with whatever was accessible in the wee pantry. Since we had some of our favorite Koka Oriental Style Instant Noodles (their noodles do turn out al dente every single time, which I absolutely adore), I just thought I could jazz it up with toppings to include chopped spring onion bulbs (as suggested by some readers You know who you are!), garlic chips and fried tofu from the Arroz Caldo and some pork tapa. It just like putting on some accessories on to add some ooomph to a plain jane outfit. Hehehe!

Daydreaming delicious,

Didi

I was craving for one of my favorite Japanese rices bowls of all time, the Katsudon: tender yet crispy panko breaded pork cutlet drowning in a mixture of sweet dashi-soy-mirin sauce, runny barely scrambled egg, translucent onion slivers and green peas atop a cup of pristine rice. And having passed Umami a number of times, it was a sign from the heavens that I have submit to the Katsudon craving. I knew that Umami at Ibn Battuta mall’s food court had a lot of promise of being an authentic Japanese fast food stall with its brightly lit glass display of life-like plastic food bowls.

But as I was hungrily looking through each plastic food display, my eyes did a double take on one dish. The sign read “Chicken cutlet katsu don”, but the rice bowl wasn’t katsudon at all…

I knew it was Tonkatsu (breaded pork / chicken / beef cutlet) with rice, a bowl of miso soup and salad. Katsudon was not katsudon without the sauce, the egg and the onions and / or the peas. It just wasn’t. Am I just being too anal about the Katsudon misnomer?

It is supposed to look like this other dish on display:

Except that there should be a crispy pork / chicken / beef cutlet underneath the slimy, creamy, eggy mess.

But since I was there already, I didn’t want to waste the journey and still went ahead and ordered the damn thing *sheepish smile* My Katsudon craving was just partly satisfied because it didn’t have the sauce, the egg and the onions and / or the peas. What a craving tummy bummer. I think the Katsudon will be on my to-cook-in-the-future list or I will just head over to Bento-Ya for some.

Umami

Ibn Battuta Mall food court (beside Geant)

Dubai, UAE

Delirious about delicious,

Didi

The Arroz Caldo (chicken congee or porridge) is a bowl of comfort for millions of Filipinos out there. Perhaps the counter part of chicken noodle soup from the North Americas, it is a cure all for the sick. It is also a warm hug for the grieving, often present during memorial services, especially in the chilly evenings.

Unfortunately, the Arroz Caldo does not earn a coveted spot in my line-up of comfort foods. It not one of my favorite Filipino dishes. In fact, I don’t like it. There’s something about dishes with boiled chicken, especially those with the bumpy skin on, that have me heading for the hills. *insert Goofy yoddle here*

But then as The Husband and I were menu planning, he wanted arroz caldo to rid our wee pantry of the not-so yummy jasmine rice we bought. Then arroz caldo it is…Gulp!

This recipe is good for at least 10-Arroz caldo hungry people Good enough for an entire battalion!

Ingredients:

• 2-kilos chicken with bone and skin on, chopped into preferred cuts
• Salt
• Pepper
• 7-tablespoons lemon or calamansi juice
• 4-heads of garlic. minced
• 2-red onions, chopped
• 1-knob of ginger, chopped into strips
• A pinch of saffron
• 3-chicken bouillon cubes
• 4-tablespoons of patis (fish sauce)
• 3-cups jasmine rice, washed
• 5-cups water
• 1-teaspoon cooking oil
• Chopped (or cut) spring onions
• Optional: crispy fried tofu and boiled eggs, sliced in half

Step-by-step:

1. Rub chicken with salt, pepper and 2-tablespoons of lemon or calamansi juice. Let the chicken rest for 10-minutes. Then remove some of the skin…a handful
2. Heat up pot and then add chicken skin to squeeze out some oil.
3. When chicken skin is crispy, remove from pot and set aside…IF you can resist chomping on your homemade chicharon. Hehehe!
4. Add 2-heads of minced garlic (set aside the remaining 2-heads of minced garlic for later), chopped onions and ginger. Saute for 5-minutes until onions turn translucent.
5. Add the pinch of saffron.
6. Add chicken pieces then cover pot for 10-minutes.
7. Crush the chicken bouillon cubes and add to the mixture.
8. Add the washed rice and saute in the mixture for 5-minutes.
9. Add cups of water then simmer for 30-45 minutes until rice is cooked.
10. Add patis (fish sauce) and leftover lemon juice to taste.
11. In a separate pan, heat cooking oil and add the remaining minced garlic.
12. Saute until they turn into golden and crispy teeny garlic chips. Then remove and place over paper towels to absorb the oil. Set aside.
13. Chop (or cut like what I did) spring onions. Set Aside.
14. When served, sprinkled some of the garlic chips and spring onions. You can also add slices of boiled egg.While The Husband loves his crispy fried tofu on his Arroz Caldo, so you can copy his Arroz caldo ways and add a few cubes to your bowl.

I hope that even though I don’t like it, you’d give it a try. The Husband enjoys it, so do millions of other Filipinos Am I convincing or what? Hahaha!

Daydreaming delicious,

Didi

I used to hate the fact that I live in a bachelor’s pad (Yes, it still is pretty much that.). I used to envy other women, who get to enjoy all these kitchen gizmos, tools and what not. But because of some kitchen beginner epiphany, which came about after hours and hours of indulgent dream kitchen dreaming, I realized that it is such a blessing that I actually get to work inside a bare, very basic kitchen!

Can you guess why?

 Because I get to:

• Come up with ingenious alternative uses for the kitchen gear I have
• Consider the nitty gitty functional nuances I really need in the kitchen (aside from the fact that the kitchen gear has to be pretty *wink*). Like do I really, really for the love of God need a garlic press? Couldn’t I just chop it? Or will I buy a blender or a hand blender instead? You know those kinds of kitchen tool ponderings…

And I thought of this while I was about to prepare some chopped spring onions for the arroz caldo (Filipino style chicken porridge) I cooked last night. As I was very tired from a day filled with errands under the blazing desert sun, I just felt lazy again. I didn’t want to go through the motions of chopping them using a knife. There are just those lazy days, right?

Then I spotted our improvised kitchen scissors (I know. These aren’t proper kitchen shears.) and thought “Hey…why not just CUT the spring onions INSTEAD?”

Snip! Snip! Snippity! Snip! VOILA!

Way cool idea? Hell yeah! I finished cutting those spring onions in under five minutes *fist pump of kitchen victory*

Now all I have to worry about are those spring onion bulbs. I don’t want to chuck them into the trash bin. Any suggestions on how I could use these babies?

Daydreaming delicious,

Didi

P.S. Don’t you think I should feature more of the quirky alternative methods / tools I use in our week kitchen?

Today was a lazy cooking day.

I was supposed to whip up something, but The Husband and I decided to enjoy our boerewors (South African sausage) loot from our Dubai Mall trip last weekend. Since we still had some leftover beer beef stew (And since no food should ever get left behind to fester into inedibility), I thought that we could jazz up our plain sausage and egg brunch.

Inspired by the shakshouka I had at Baker & Spice a few months back, I decided to scoop up a chunky spoonful of the beef stew sauce and smothered it over my brown bread toast. I then cut up my sunny side up egg into one yellow and white mess and topped it over the beer beef stew sauce crimsoned slice of bread.

Equal parts sausage, egg, beer beef stew sauce and toasted bread was a perfect bite of savory with a hint of sweet, creamy, spicy and crunchy. So glad to have discovered another way to upcycle our leftovers Not bad for a lazy cooking day right?

Delirious about delicious,

Didi

I did not grow up eating in hoity-toity, fancy schamancy restaurants and hotels that required you don your Sunday’s best garb and behavior. Our family (perhaps because of the sheer number of hungry mouths to be fed) frequented places with more affordable yet still equally scrumdiddlyumptious food. It’s not that I do not appreciate the beauty of fine dining. I just grew up believing that good food was not directly proportional to the tag price. Even if I started to actually have the money to afford frequenting fine dining places, I still couldn’t find myself thoroughly enjoying fine dining…it just didn’t feel right.

And so ladies-who-brunch at BICE Mare, Italian seafood restaurant at Souk Al Bahar was still intimidating for me (even though I did win the brunch from Foodiva’s Italian lunch competition). Except that…

100% of the BICE Mare Friday brunch time staff were Filipino! This is certainly one of the perks that I enjoy about being Filipino in Dubai

The Husband and I were led to the window side table I requested (For better lighting for photos, of course). Then the staff immediately treated us to fresh juice and Italian spring water (not just normal mineral water) as we were waiting for our two friends to arrived. One even gracefully swished the freshly starched pristine table napkin on my lap.

As soon as our two friends arrived and settled into the table, they explained to us how the Ladies who brunch worked. I appreciate the rare waiter, who does enjoy going through the menu. We each ordered different dishes per course to make sure we got to taste all the dishes off the brunch menu.

They laid down an Italian bread platter, while we waited for our first course. A fine bread platter with bread sticks and a mound of crusty bread, which seemed stone cold on the outside, but buttery warm in the center. Though bread accompaniments were aplenty: roasted tomatoes, olive tapenade and pesto, we do love our butter and requested for some.

Boy, they did not skimp on the butter as they gave us two half-inch discs of the yellow gold for us to enjoy with our bread.

We were started catching up with the goings on in our lives, then we were interrupted most pleasantly with an offer for glasses of wine to go with our meal. As we were all conscious about our budgets, we politely declined. Alcohol at lunch was too much, we thought, but they insisted. It seemed that it was a rare occasion that fellow Filipinos graced the restaurant.

And so we graciously accepted the flutes of Rose Proseco (sparkling pink wine?) and glasses of sauvignon blanc. I’m no wine expert, but I really loved how the wines went well with the food (aside from the fact that it was free!). The wine made us feel extra welcome and special, gaving us an additional layer of happy buzz for the weekend. I suddenly feel so happy to be Filipino! LOL!

And the food?

I still dream of the BICE Mare spaghetti...

My favorites were the spaghetti: surprisingly very robust and naturally al dente…

Ohhh those vegetables! The fish seemed overcooked though...

and the baby Italian vegetables with my lemon sole, crunchy, fresh and sweet. Non-al dente noodles is a pet peeve, remember? So I was a happy noodle camper

Thank you so much to the BICE Mare staff for making the experience truly at home!

The Ladies who brunch menu is available daily from 1230-330PM at 120 AED per head. The meal is quite filling, so leave tummy space, ok?

BICE Mare

2nd level, Souk Al Bahar

Dubai, UAE

+9714-4230982

Delirious about delicious,

Didi

Cured pork for the two piggies!

This is a story of two little piggies: Sir Loin and Miss Piggy.

Two little (But oh…who in reality are not-so-little anymore) piggies, who are psycho porcine cannibals because they enjoy eating their own kind with much gusto. They would go the extra mile or maybe a few more to purchase a kilo or two for their monthly food supply from these hidden porky enclaves in the desert city.

Today was no exception…

These two little piggies decided to come out of their pigsty and let loose in one of their not so favorite Friday places: the Dubai Mall, for a seafood brunch at Bice Mare, Souk Al Bahar. Miss Piggy won a gift certificate from a blog giveaway from the nice lady at Foodiva for a seafood brunch and so she decided to share it with her true love, Sir Loin.

Of course, since the Dubai Mall visit was a once in a blue moon occasion, the two little piggies decided to take advantage of their day out in the sun and roam around the shops. To be honest, they actually needed to move around and burn the calories they’ve consumed from the seafood brunch. Their quite conscious about their girth, you know.

It may have been some twist of fate as these two piggies were led into two new porky enclaves inside the Dubai Mall: The Organic Foods & Cafe and Galeries La Fayette. They were moseying along, browsing through shelf after shelf of food products, then there magically appeared doors like this:

Secret doorway to pork heaven!

Sir Loin and Miss Piggy were hypnotized and floated through these magical doors / doorway (Apologies for the absence of photos of Organic Foods & Cafe) as if a whole new gravitational force was pulling them towards the porky enclaves. Was there?

Well, aside from the sweet smell of pork perfume infused with spices and ripe moulds, it also didn’t help that the butcher’s staff were in their weekend best, sweet talking Sir Loin and Miss Piggy about the quality of their meaty wares.

Ohhhh!

They closed the porky sale with free pork sausage samples with five flavors: bangers, chorizo, pork and leek, boerewors (South African sausage) and another flavor (which unfortunately slipped Sir Loin and Miss Piggy’s porcine memories), and free cured pork cuts.

WHOA! Expensive!

Miss Piggy thought the real clincher was a sample slice of 950 AED per kilo Jamon Iberico, when upon tasting, her knees buckled from buttery and salty melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness. Oh, how she still dreams of that ridiculously expensive (but equally, or maybe even more, yummy) slice of ham!

Could you resist such a pork gravitational pull? Sir Loin and Miss Piggy couldn’t. They gave in to their cannibal ways.

And so with bags bursting of more than 2-kilos of pork sausage and Spanish bacon, Sir Loin and Miss Piggy cried “Weeeeeeee! Weeeeeee! Weeeeeeeee!” with glee all the way home…

The End.

Organic Foods & Cafe

Lower ground floor, near Water Front restaurants (Texas Roadhouse in particular)

The Dubai Mall

Galeries La Fayette, Gourmet Food

2nd Level, Dubai Mall

Delirious about delicious,

Didi

P.S. Miss Piggy (a.k.a me!) hopes that someone would donate one of these on her birthday:

Still so much meat and bones for soup!

There is nothing like kicking back your feet and celebrating little housewife wins in the wee kitchen with a few bottle of beer. Yes, I celebrated my freedom from headache and fever with two bottles of Hoegaarden in a stew, a hearty macho one-pot wonder that any beginner cook (like me!) could easily replicate.

So if you have some extra beer to spare, this would be a nice home cooked way to share the love…

Ingredients:

• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 kilo beef cubes, preferably nicely marbled with fat and cut into small 1-inch pieces for faster cooking time
• 2 teaspoons cooking oil
• 3 red onions, chopped
• 2 heads of garlic, minced
• 2 bottles of beer
• 2 cans of tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon hot smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• A splash of lemon juice
• 6 potatoes, chopped into quarters
• 4 carrots, chopped
• 3 green bell peppers, chopped

It may not look pretty, but it is YUM!

Step-by-step:

1. Season beef cubes with salt and pepper then heat up the cooking oil in the stew pot.
2. Lightly brown the beef cubes and set aside. I’ve learned that half-cooked beef cubes turn out more tender.
3. Inside the same stew pot, saute the onions and garlic until aromatic and tender (onions are translucent and garlic is golden).
4. Add the two bottles of beer and simmer on low heat for five minutes.
5. Return the browned beef cubes into the stew pot.
6. Add the two cans of tomato sauce, paprika, sugar and lemon juice into the stew pot and simmer on low heat for a good 30-45 minutes.
7. Then add the potatoes and carrots into the stew pot and simmer for another 45 minutes to an hour.
8. Turn off the heat and top with chopped green bell peppers. The Husband likes his bell peppers nice and crunchy

Voila! I think this is best enjoyed with a slice of toasted crusty bread like a baguette topped with a sunny side up egg…Yummeh!

Delirious about delicious,

Didi

I can’t believe it’s just been 5 days since I last blogged. Man, it felt like weeks! And it is so good to be back?

I know I have broken my promise of 365 blogposts this year, but I had to heed the call of my body to rest and recuperate. I have been bogged down by massive headaches and fever for days. Note: If there are people, who have a love affair with headaches, I am seriously not that kind of person. So headaches are still a strange phenomena for me.

I wouldn’t say that these past days have been a great experience, but I’ve learned a LOT.

#1: The weather is a game changer. 

For those who’ve known me for quite some time, you would know of my pang-mayaman (elitist) allergy from weather changes. I find myself coughing like a dying old lady or in bed with random flu attacks during the in betweens of summer and the rainy season. Hence, now that we, in Dubai, are transitioning from pleasant cooler Winter months into the insanely hot and humid (contrary to the belief that the heat in the desert is exclusively dry) summer, my body is going ballistic.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been sick. I was sick with the same symptoms last month (and a few months before me thinks) and was “attacked” by the same symptoms again last week.

#2: The doctors here are such fans of medicines.

I have never ever taken so many medicines in my life! I’ve taken 3 different medicines at a time even when I was down with even worse health conditions such as chicken pox, dengue fever and pneumonia. Now, they’ve shoved down at least 5 medicines for me to take…

#3: I am a productivity nut!

It annoys me that I was unproductive for days! I clearly believe that time is the most important invaluable currency of all and it pains me to see time flew by with me in bed. But resting and recuperating is still being productive, right?

This leads me to the next point…

#4: Headaches (and perhaps toothaches) are immobilizing!

I’ve had many aches and pains that still allow me to be productive. These headaches are the worst of the lot! I felt my eyeballs being squeezed out of my skull with a painful rush up to my temples, which rendered me useless all day. Nothing helped temporarily alleviate the pain, except closing my eyes into a deep dreamless slumber…

So this explains blog-less days. Well, mostly offline days as I really could not stand doing anything visual.

#5: On a positive note, our oven works!

I’ve been grappling with this oven for over months with the fear that it might explode in my face. But guess what…it didn’t! Ha! All because it is ELECTRIC!

So off to buy a decent (relatively cheap) baking pan this weekend! I leave you guys with this fun song to dance with, inspired by our electric oven:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lx1NuGZHWQ

Hope you guys are doing much better health-wise and you didn’t miss me too much Back to daily blogging!

Delirious about delicious,

Didi