Tofu Inasal

My hometown is known for its "Chicken Inasal" or grilled chicken. In my opinion, Chicken House is the best place to enjoy a stick or two of chicken inasal with garlic rice drenched in anato oil. Hardcore chicken inasal lovers might venture to Aida's at "Manokan Country". This area houses multiple open air eateries that more delicate eaters might want to avoid.

The best way to eat chicken inasal is on a banana leaf, and eaten with your bare hands. I will admit that I am bad at eating with my fingers. Case in point, I once ate at Manokan country with friends and spent a few minutes staring helplessly at my food. Someone finally realized that I didn't know how to eat with my hands and asked for a spoon and fork (did I mention we don't use knives?). To this day I need at least a fork to peel the flesh away from the bones and get that oily mound of rice into my mouth.

Living in another continent means not having access to this delectable dish, thus the need to improvise and ways to recreate chicken inasal from memory.

I like to cook large quantities of food and eat them throughout the week. I tire of meat easily so cooking up a large batch of chicken inasal means hating my lunch after 1 meal. Fortunately for me, I remembered how firm tofu absorbs flavours and is an excellent substitute for meat, hence coming up with tofu inasal. Calling it inasal is a misnomer as I don't actually grill it (weather hasn't been warm enough) but instead cooked it on a stove top grill pan. I would like to try it over a charcoal grill once the weather warms up.

If you asked me for the recipe I would have to tell you that I actually don't have a fixed recipe. I can tell you the ingredients and general proportions but because I base everything off on taste, it's really up to your preference. As an overall rule, I think of recipes as suggestions and not strict rules (unless I'm dreading on unknown territory then I'll not deviate from the recipe).

Ingredients:
Calamansi or Limes (I really want to try using 7up)
Garlic
Ginger
Vinegar
Soy sauce (yes, I use soy sauce. Others don't but I marinate this overnight and find it too sour if I don't add soy sauce)
Brown sugar (For some reason any dish that involves a salty-sour combo requires a sprinkling of sugar (source: Grandmom)
Course ground pepper

Directions:
I use the juice of about 1-2 limes, half a bulb of garlic, 1 medium ginger root (think 3 finger lengths or enough to fill a liquid measuring cup up to the 1/4 line). I then fill this up to the 1/2 cup line (so 1/2 cup vinegar) then add 1/2 cup soy sauce. My general rule is it must be saltier than sour, and sugar is used to curb the acidity. If you have annato seed or powder you could add 1/4 teaspoon (I usually dump an unspecified amount) to this.

Pour everything over your sliced tofu (drain and pat dry) and marinate it for at least 1 hour.

I then "grill" this while "basting" it with a mix of warmed olive oil and annato seed or powder (keeps it from drying out while cooking).

Dinner Dash Recipe

I started grad school a month ago and have found less time to cook substantial meals. I'll often come home to a dinner of cereals or oatmeal or salad. But, with the cooler weather I've started craving soup again.

I'm going through my Mediterranean diet phase (I fixate on certain cuisines/dishes and throughout the summer went through a salad phase - mostly because it did not require actual cooking) and was pleased to find this recipe for Greek Lemon-Rice Soup.

Can't recall where I pulled this recipe from and will update when I find my source.

Note: I always modify recipes so I will tell you that I have tried this with both chicken broth and water and did not measure the amount of liquid I used. As long as the rice cooks, and you have enough liquid to provide a soupy base you'll be fine.

I prefer brown rice, and this takes about 30 mins to cook. The soup should be thick enough to coat a spoon (creamy soup vs watery).

GREEK LEMON-RICE SOUP

3 c. chicken broth
2 to 3 oz. uncooked regular rice
2 eggs
3 tbsp. lemon juice
Dash of salt
Dash of white pepper

Bring broth to a boil. Reduce heat, add rice, cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 20 minutes. In small bowl, beat eggs and lemon juice. Stirring constantly, add 1 cup of hot soup, a little at a time. Stir mixture into soup in pan and heat. Do not boil! Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately..

Breakfast

Multigrain oatmeal, flax seed and white peaches. And coffee.

My smiling breakfast - Cinnamon Raisin Wheat Bread (from Hawaii) and egg-white omelet with cilantro and a bunch of spices. Filipino Hot Choco.

I ate a smiley face for breakfast

Quinoa Soup

I had to use up some (not so fresh) spinach and egg beaters before they went bad. Got some quinoa, boiled it up, added chicken stock, spices, and all the spinach I could salvage. My cilantro was too far gone to be added into the mix.

It's actually decent.

Typical day

Breakfast:

Steelcut Multigrain Oatmeal
I mixed prepared multigrain oatmeal with steelcut oats. During weekdays, I usually cook it the night before, then reheat it in the morning adding soymilk so it won't be so dry. I add a sprinkle of walnuts and whatever fresh fruit I have. This week it's blueberries.

Lunch:

I love salad! I have prepacked Mediterranean mix, added in spinach, alfalfa sprouts, walnuts and cranberries, and topped it off with a dollop of hummus in place of dressing.
Hummus is so easy to make.
Can of garbanzo beans, 2-4 cloves of garlic, 1-2 tablespoons Tahini (sesame paste), 1 tablespoon Olive oil, and juice from 1 lemon. Throw it into your blender/food processor and blend well. I tried it with some basil, cumin, and italian seasoning and it is good. But of course, my taste is different from yours.

I might make eggwhite omelet for dinner. I usually put garlic, onions, tomatoes, cilantro and cottage cheese (whisked in with the eggwhite). And top it off with shredded cheese.

Oh, and yes, somewhere in between I savour a cup or two of ice cream. Right now, I'm into Breyer's 3 chocolate (white, dark, and milk) ice cream.

Paella a la Del

Hands down my favourite dish (second to Chocolate cake, or any dessert that involves Chocolate) in the world is Paella Marinara. I used to drag my ex down to Something Fishy in Eastwood so I could get my fill of their paella. I remember that it always took an extra 45 minutes, but it's better than having to call a day in advance prior to eating there (which is what most Philly restos serving paella require you to do).

I took a stab at cooking paella this evening after suffering another bout of serious paella cravings. I was able to find a place in Scarborough that served paella, but it tasted more like rice with oil and tomato sauce than actual paella. But I degress.

I'm told that the secret to paella is in sofrito. Made with a lot of onions, garlic, and tomatoes, it is sauted over low heat for about 2 hours.

4 medium onions with 1/2 cup of olive oil after 30 mins

Sauted onions for about 1 hour, then added 4 cloves garlic

Added 5 plum tomatoes and 1 can tomato sauce (I ran out of tomatoes) and cooked for another hour

For my meat, I used chicken, tofu marinated in teriyaki sauce, salmon (a last minute add) and shrimp. I cooked the chicken and tofu first, adding chicken broth and more olive oil as I didn't have oil and juice from chorizo and pork. Instead of arborio rice, I used brown rice. Bad idea. It took an extra hour to cook.

Long story short, it did work out with all the tweaking I had to make (place too much chicken broth as it looked more like soup, took out some of the liquid only to add it in when the rice wouldn't cook...) and yes, 4 hours of slaving over the stove was well worth it. Topped it off with diced bell peppers and sweet peas (which countered the saltiness - didn't account for the teriyaki marinated tofu being too salty and added more salt).


I'll probably add in more seafood (I saw a bag of mixed seafood at that Asian grocery on Washington st), use more plum tomatoes and onions for the sofrito, and be more patient when cooking the rice.

As is the case with everything I make, 75% of the dish better be veggies.

Burnt rice aka socorrat. Yes, good paella means burnt rice at the bottom of your pan.