Tonight's Albacore Tuna!

     While in the middle of playing Gran Turismo, my husband and brother-in-law were talking about Matrix's availability for food tasting; He is such a big fish guy! So the other day my husband and I picked up some albacore tuna since we've been eating a lot of fish lately. I can't tell you how much fish we have been consuming over the last few months. Coming from an archipelago country where you are surrounded by water, 90 % of the meals we ate included seafood and fresh veggies. Writing this blog makes me really miss the Philippines especially the easy access to fresh seafood and the free harvest from the neighborhood's garden (LOL!). But thankfully we live in Puget Sound where you can find good seafood on a daily basis. My only concern now is finding this neighborhood with nice people who will let me harvest their crops. So in the meantime here is my Albacore tuna with mango salsa and creamy mashed potatoes for you to enjoy while I start hunting.

Mango Salsa!

Ingredients:

1 large mango (diced)

1 jalapeño chilli (minced)

1 medium red onion (minced)

1 red bell pepper (diced)

1 lime (juice extracted and reserved)

1 lemon (juice extracted and reserved)

1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro

Pinch of salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients! Set aside in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Creamy Mashed Potato with Bacon and Spinach!

Ingredients:

24 oz baby Yukon gold potatoes

1 pack frozen spinach

5 slices bacon (cooked and crumbled)

1 large shallots (minced)

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup butter

Pinch of salt and pepper

Procedure:

     In a large pot place potatoes, cover with cold water, and add a generous amount of salt. Bring the water to boil and simmer potatoes for 15 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender. Drain potatoes in a colander and set aside.

     Defrost spinach in the microwave about 8 minutes. Squeeze out juice of the spinach using cheesecloth. Set aside!

1. In a pan, crisped bacon over medium high heat, scooped out bacon and set aside.

2. Saute shallots using grease from bacon.

3. Add the reserved potatoes in a pan and mash with potato masher until you get your desired consistency.

4. Put in the spinach, mixing with the mashed potatoes.

5. Lower heat and pour in heavy cream and Parmesan cheese.

6. Add the butter and bacon. Salt and pepper to taste!

7. Enjoy!

Albacore Tuna!

3 pieces of Albacore Tuna

3/4 cup good olive oil

     Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and pepper on each side of the fish. Coat frying pan with olive oil about 3/4 cup over medium heat. When oil is hot enough seared tuna about 3 minutes each side. Avoid overcooking the fish if you don't want to eat dry tuna. You may want your fish to be medium-rare or rare in the inside.

     I would suggest you cook the fish last after your done with the creamy mashed potatoes. Mango salsa should also be done ahead of time, just make sure you store it in the refrigerator once its ready. You can serve this dish with mango salsa on top of the tuna or on the side like the picture shown above. Salsa is also good with any other grilled, pan fried or seared dishes, I tried this with grilled pork chop and it works really good. Great for chips also during game time!

-Love-

Lumpiang Shanghia!

     Lumpia or fried spring rolls is known to have been originated by Chinese immigrants from Fujian province of China when they migrated to Southeast Asia including Philippines. In the country where I came from, the Philippines, Filipino's are known to have made a lot of variations to the spring roll. The fillings can be made out of veggies, plantain, jack-fruit, turnip, heart of palm, flake of chicken or fish and a lot more. It's just mainly a matter of preference and creativity. The kind of lumpia I'll be sharing to you is called Lumpiang Shanghia which is ground pork and minced veggies as a filling. Lumpiang Shanghia is the kind of lumpia I always serve because everyone who tries it, loves it!

     I can just see CJ's smile from ear to ear. CJ is my husbands bestfreind, for a quick info, CJ's mom brought my husband's mom to the hospital the night she had him. They have lived in the same neighborhood ever since, so apparently they are just like brothers. Cj never had lumpia not until last summer and he feel in love with it. So this is a recipe of my lumpia requested by CJ.

     This recipe can make about 45-50 pieces of lumpia depending on the quantity you put in your filling. You can store the rest in you freezer for weeks and pull it out anytime you feel like eating Lumpia!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground pork

2 large carrots (minced)

1 medium jicama (minced)

1 medium onion (minced)

2 gloves garlic (minced)

1 egg (beaten)

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 Tbsp flour

1 pack lumpia wrapper (can be found at Asian store in frozen section)

4 cups good olive oil (for deep frying)

Procedure:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl except lumpia wrapper and oil.

2. Separate one lumpia wrapper from the batch and lay it out on your folding surface.

3. Scoop 1 tbsp of filling and place at the bottom center of the wrapper.

4. Fold lumpia as directed in the video.(Seal lumpia wrapper with water)

5. In a deep frying pan pour in olive oil over 350 degrees/ high heat.

6. Fry each lumpia for about 7 minutes (don't crowd the frying pan)

7. Serve with sweet chili sauce which you can buy at your local Asian Market.

8. Enjoy!

-Love-

Yummy Collard Greens!

Try this easy to make recipe for yummy collard greens. This is one of our favorite side dishes. The bitterness of the collard greens really compliments the saltiness of the bacon. As a person that grew up eating lots of rice, this is a great substitute especially with a big piece of good steak.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of collard greens (rinsed)
1 large shallots (sliced)
5 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
5 bacon (sliced)
1 cup broth (chicken, beef or vegetable)
Pinch of salt and pepper


Procedure:

1. Cut and discard the stems from the greens. Then cut across the leaves so they are 2-inch ribbons.
2. Cook bacon in a pan over medium high heat until crispy.
3. Scoop out bacon and saute shallots using bacon  grease until translucent.
4. Add garlic and saute for 2 more minutes.
5. Put in collard greens, mixing it with the shallots and garlic to incorporate flavors.
6. Pour in broth and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
7. Place in a platter ang garnish with crisped bacon.
8. Enjoy!

-Love-

Tomato Bruschetta!

Bruschetta is a famous Italian appetizer and one of the simplest in terms of preparation. You can either chop all the veggies or pulse them a few times in a food processor. This has become a house favorite since we started trying it recently.

Ingredients: 

1 Baguette or French bread (slice into half inch)

6 0z Cherub tomatoes (about 20 pieces, cube)

3 Tbsp virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 clove garlic (minced)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

pinch of pepper

1/4 cup coarsely chopped basil leaves (discard stem)

Procedure:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.

1. In a bowl mix tomatoes, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, minced garlic, kosher salt, pepper and basil leaves. Set aside.
2. Place slices of baguette on a baking sheet and toast for about 5 minutes.
3. Right after pulling the bread out of the oven, rub a piece of garlic on one side.
4. Pour a tablespoon of tomato mixture on each piece.
5. Drizzle a little of olive oil right before serving.
6. Enjoy!
   
   -Love-

Linguine with Mussels & Clams!

As a courtesy to our good friends G-Money and C-Clear for that wonderful chicken dinner, I decided to make a Italian dish for dinner. I really admire Italian cooks, because I think they are generally great cooks, and make great food. Italian cooks have a way of creating food with so much passion and love. They put so much of their souls into their food, that I oftentimes think like there is no way I can make great Italian food because I'm not Italian. Its not that I don't invest much time and love into my food, I just think Italian cooking is too classy for me.

So with much pushing and boosting my self-esteem from my wonderful husband J Bird, I finally did it. What a wonderful feeling, to have someone that believes in your ability, more than you do yourself. I've had never as uncomfortable in my own kitchen as I was cooking dinner. I can only think of two reasons, first, this was my first time cooking Italian food and second, G-Money is a big Italian baby. Growing up with a mom that prepares her pasta sauce for three days, that alone gave me a freakin' chill (Wow the Pressure!) Oh well as J Bird always says "if it doesn't work out then we'll do it again". Well I'm sure there will be many more tries, but to end up this Italian adventure, everyone loved it! Yahoo! That was a relief! Now here is my simple recipe for Linguine Pasta with mussels and clams!

Ingredients:

1 lb of linguine pasta

1.5 lbs of mussels (scrubbed and cleaned)
1.5 lbs of manila clams (scrubbed and cleaned)
1 large shallots (chopped)
5 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1/2 cup of white wine
3 Tbsp of olive oil
1/4 cup butter (room temperature)
1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup of parsley (coarsely chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. In big pot boil water and cook pasta until al dente.
2. In another pan, heat olive oil over medium high.
3. Sauté shallots until translucent about 3 minutes and add garlic for another 2 minutes.
4. Add clams, mussels and wine then simmer for about 15 minutes with lid on.
5. Combine noddles with clam and mussel mixture.
6. Add in butter, pepper flakes, and parsley.
7. Salt and pepper to taste.
8. Turn off heat.
9. Place in a platter and enjoy with friends and family!

-Love-

Celebrate!

Yesterday was a special day for me. After a few weeks of dealing with several mishaps, the car was sent to the dealership for some issue, the receiver died when power was out, the Blu-ray player went out, the dryer not working, the kitchen lights got busted just before I am about to start my first recipe for my blog and my husband lost his key ring which includes the car key, house key and access code to his office. Such a total train wreck! But that was about to change.

October 14th at 9 am I drove my self together with my husband to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicle)for my scheduled drive test. It was pretty intense! I have never been in a situation with the DMV personnel sitting next to me for 15 minutes judging without talking (that was HARD!) specially from a person that loves to talk and chit-chat. I think that was the longest 15 minutes in my entire life, probably longer than my conversation with my Papc Bert when I first introduce my husband J Bird to him 2 hrs before the plane lands (Ops! My bad Paps, I should have told you long before). But the good thing is Papc loves J Bird more than he loves me I guess (Just kidding! I am still the Daddy's girl). Anyhow, I don't know if it was the 53 degrees F weather or whatever but the entire time I was shaking. It was crazy that even simple English term was just so hard to comprehend, all I hear was Blah! Blah! Blah!But to make the story short, I made it! I finally broke the chain! I got my driver's license!

My first drive alone towards work was so surreal! It was unbelievable, I had total control of the freakin' car, no husband to say stop, slow down and eyes on the road. I hate to say it but I never love this freedom much(but I love you more Hun ;)). While driving, I was listening to Beyonce at full blast, I caught myself screaming "This is AWESOME!", I feel like I am going crazy. Oh yeah it was crazy, no single car on the road, all I see are black birds in the middle of the street (really Crows?!). It was weird! Then all I knew, was that I was at work, it felt kinda like highway hypnosis, or maybe it was just that fun, was that for real?!

Watch out Washington! This crazy little Filipino is going to rock the road! Heheheheh!

So I was thinking, I need to celebrate on this! And there is no other way than a Jerk and Mesquite Chicken from G-Money and C-Clear. I don't usually eat chicken because I do have allergies to it, but I always make an exception when it comes to their chicken. Who cares about rashes all over my body and itching?! It was so worth it! Thank you guys! Here are some picture of a Jerk and Mesquite Chicken to die for!

Sweet & Sour Snapper

      A couple of months ago, my husband found out that he needed to start taking better care of his health. That same day we decided to be more cautious about everything, his food intake, regular exercise, fruits and veggies. This also meant a lot less eating out and a lot more eating home-cooked food. As much as we can, we try to make sure to at least eat fish roughly 5 times a week, instead of take-out and fatty foods.

     So tonight we made one of our favorite fish recipe, Sweet & Sour Snapper!

Ingredients:

1 whole Red Snapper about 1.5 lbs
1 medium size onion ( Julienne )
1 large carrot ( Julienne )
1 large red bell pepper ( Julienne )
2 thumbs of ginger ( Julienne )
1 Roma tomato ( Julienne )
1 can 15 ounce tomato sauce
1 can 8 ounce of pineapple chunks, syrup reserve
1 cup good Olive oil (for frying)
3 tbsp Olive oil (for the sauce)
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar

Procedure:

Fish:
1. Clean fish by removing gills, fish scales and innards. True Red Snapper can usually be bought at your Asian market where they clean the fish for you.
2. Sprinkle generous amount of kosher salt and pepper on each side of the fish.
3. On medium high, heat frying pan and pour in good olive oil.
4. Fry fish until crispy brown about 8 minutes each side. Set aside!

Sauce:

1. On a clean pan heat about 3 tablespoon of oil  over medium high heat.
2. Saute onion and ginger for about 3 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, carrots, bell pepper, soy sauce and saute for 5 more minutes.
4. Pour in tomato sauce, pineapple chunks and the reserve juice with brown sugar.
5. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.

To serve:
 Place fried fish in a server and pour the sauce over it, and enjoy!

Serves 3-4 Adults!

-Love-

Pork Adobo!

I was battling over the idea last night as to what kind of dish I would post for my first recipe. Then I realized, I am a Filipino! And there would be no better way to show how proud I am of being one, then to share one of the Philippines best known dishes, Pork Adobo!

Adobo is a famous Filipino food using soy sauce and vinegar as a base. Most people use either chicken or pork as their meat. Where I am from, celebrations like birthdays, weddings, annual fiestas, and the etc. wouldn't be complete without Adobo. To a Filipino, a occasion without adobo, is like a meal without a rice, Oh yes! Me and my rice!

Anyhow the balance of the salty-sweet flavor from the soy sauce and the sourness from the vinegar makes this dish one that is truly to die for. I love the aroma that the bay leaves, peppercorn, garlic and onions make, its so good it will cause the neighbors to drool (lol). The technique of this dish varies from person to person. I usually marinade my meat overnight or if not 2 hours minimum in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of pork shoulder (cut in cubes)

½ cup of soy sauce

¼ cup of vinegar

1 red onion (cut in cubes)

1 head of garlic (crushed)

1 tsp of whole peppercorn

4 bay leaves

Oil (enough to coat the pan)

Procedure:

1. Marinade meat with soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and onion in bowl. Place the marinade meat in the refrigerator for overnight or if not 2 hrs minimum.
2. Heat frying pan over medium high and add oil. Once oil is hot enough put in pork and fry until golden brown on each side. Set aside.
3. Scoop out garlic and onion from the marinade and saute from the same pan until translucent approximately about 3 minutes.
4. Add the browned meat to the sauteed garlic and onion, stirring in to incorporate the flavors. Pour in the marinade together with the bay leaves and peppercorn and simmer the meat until tender approximately 25-30 minutes. Stirring occasionally making sure the meat is not sticking on the pan.
5. Serve over a bed of steamed rice.

PS. Thanks to my wonderful brother-in-law Matrix for providing the meat tonight!

-Love-

First Taste!

Mabuhay!

Welcome to my blog, Lovely's Cooking! The main purpose of this site is to share my story, my passion for cooking, and my wonderful journey in this “Dreamland” called AMERICA!

I am a full blooded Filipino. I was born and raised in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental which is considered the “City of Gentle People”. I am very proud to have been born on 1 of the 7,107 beautiful islands in the Philippines which is located in South-East Asia. But it wasn't until seven years ago that my journey really began, when I meet a wonderful man on the Internet. We eventually became friends, our friendship grew more and more, and after four years of talking, and numerous emails we meet in person. The year after, on one knee, he proposed to me. Then the next thing I know, I was on the plane bound for Washington, where my journey has continued on.

While the majority of my passion for cooking comes from my family and friends who have helped me over the years, it was the absence of the food I loved back home that got me motivated to keep cooking. The first year of being a wife was a struggle, I didn't know where to find specialty items, I couldn't easily get to stores, and I found myself frustrated. I was so shocked by how different everything was, it was so surreal to me. We often times ate out at fancy restaurants, dinners, and fast food chains when all I wanted was something from back home. It only took me a few days of being in the states to miss rice, and when I got the courage to ask my husband for some rice, he got me Minute Rice; rice in a box? are you kidding me! That was when it started to all sink in, I was in the USA, where there is a box or canned version of everything. For example, just a few days ago I even saw chicken in a can on a Food Network show; oh my!

The funny thing about all of this, is that after two years of my husband pushing me to have a blog, it only took one fine Saturday night for my wonderful Mother-in-law to convince to have one, oh well... as they all say “Mother Knows Best”! So here I am now launching my first blog, Lovely's Cooking!

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, and I hope you will continue to join me as I explore the art of cooking.

-Love-