I am discovering other ways to poach an egg. Try poaching your egg in dashi. Then, sprinkle it with salt and freshly ground Sichuan peppercorns. Dashi? Yes, the stuff used for making miso soup. Dashi is fish stock made from edible kelp and a salted fish called bonito. Dashi in granule form (more like coarse…
Suppose you have two whole fish, each weighing about 400 grams, and you need to feed six people. Do you cut each fish into three portions (they’ll be small pieces, I tell you), give everyone one portion each, and tell them that if their tummies are still growling after that, they’ll just have to drink…
Tortang talong or eggplant omelet (or frittata, if you prefer to cook it a bit differently), is one of those Filipino classics that is considered by many to be the ultimate comfort food. It’s easy to prepare, it’s inexpensive, and cooking it doesn’t require any special tools and equipment. The traditional tortang talong is either…
A frittata is an Italian omelet that is partially cooked on the stovetop and then broiled in the oven. Why? Because the frittata is served open-faced you want it evenly cooked with both the topside and the underside uniformly browned as much as possible. If an omelet is served open-faced but is not even the…
One night earlier this week, way after midnight, my brain cells still too hyped up after viewing some gorgeous architectural designs, I was scanning the channels for anything boring enough to dull my senses and extinguish my brain activities for the night. Instead, I landed on the Surreal Gourmet show, got glued, noted a very…
The great thing about omelets is that you can serve the bread on the side or you can split the bread, use the omelet as a filling and you have a meal on the go. This omelet has sliced brown Swiss mushrooms, chopped tomatoes onions, and minced garlic. And for a soft and creamy texture,…
What makes Vietnamese food special? Is it, as Vietnamese cooks claim, the perfect balance of flavors? Is it the use of copious amounts of fresh herbs? Is it the bright and fresh appearance of the cooked dishes? For Vietnamese food lovers, I’m sure we all have different reasons for being smitten. For me, it is…
What Speedy wanted was a dish that goes like this: A deboned and stuffed chicken is stuffed into a deboned duck and the duck is stuffed into a deboned turkey. Even granting that I can debone a turkey and a duck, something I’ve never done before, I don’t know how we can finish all that….
So the new school year begins. And it’s back to solo lunches for me. I was debating whether to have a chicken sandwich with the usual lettuce cucumber and tomato slices but I decided I could be more creative. If my little experiment was successful, I could even have the kids take something similar to…
I know that in the U.S. cooking turkey is both a ritual and a tradition. As a non-American, turkey elicits no feelings for me except as food. I wasn’t even a turkey eater, having a preference for duck over the years until I discovered that turkey can be just as great if prepared properly. By…
