for more steamy action

the naughty steamer to the dumpling: come here and i'll make you hot!

just 4 hours ago, i was planning on making the very 1st siomai/dumpling that would be steamed right in the comfort of our kitchen, and a new steamer. yep my mom just purchased a steamer and i was like 'yes naman! sa wakas makakapag-steam na!'

steamer at only 500 pesos!

well my mom actually bought a steamer because she is a fan of steamed broccoli and veggies, so i planned on steaming broccoli...

the green friends enjoying the sauna. haha

and i wouldn't let the chance pass without making my favorite steamed delight: siomai! yum yum... so there... actually i was to buy those ready made, ready to steam siomai but there was none so i decided to make my own.

usually you would buy pork giniling and yung iba pang kelangan, but since i'm kind of in a hurry (because i was getting hungry haha) i went on purchasing the ready made siomai mix at the chicken station of magnolia.. surprisingly their ready made siomai filling is good! and also time saving and convenient...

anyway so there... i bought those small molo wrappers, and as carnivorous as i am i made sure that it was full of the stuffing... and these were the results:

yes, these were the survivors of what i made...

siomai party!

steamed broccoli.. yum!

oh one more thing... the steamer that my mom purchased somehow stopped working after the timer finished. i mean after it finished, i can't get it to boil again. i don't know if that was a safety feature or what, but hindi pa luto yung broccoli and siomai and mga 3 or 4 minutes pa ang kelangan. yah it was like a food emergency. i mean if i just let it stand there the siomai wrappers would get soggy and i don't want my dumplings to be like that. so i tried making an improvised steamer (that 'wire basket' for our deep fryer, the one where the li'l siomais are sitting? i put it inside a casserole with some boiling water, and with a lid) since the wire basket was just with one handle, i used a chop stick to support it so that it won't hit the water... i should have taken a pic of it pero hindi ko na naisip dahil sa mga pinag-gagagawa ko. and napaso nga pala ako sa steam. shet!

even though i have burnt fingers, i still grabbed my chopsticks.

tara! kain! (let's eat!)

just pics down here:

with the chopsticks and burnt fingers. still it was worth it ^_^

'devirginized' tofu

okay, up next is stuffed bean curd, a.k.a. tokwang may laman. haha
well these were taken last week of june (was written 8th august and nakalimutan na hehe), and i felt like including it here in my blog since it's about food, and i really liked what happened to my experiment.

EXPERIMENT? yes. because i've never cooked stuffed been curd before.i had a taste of it that same week when i and parents got the chance to eat at this chinese resto in SM Annex North Edsa. i forgot the name of the resto but it has the word 'president' in it. (president's palace? garden? whatever i forgot about it) it's actually steamed tofu with meat in it (i assume it's pork) and it has this brown sauce, and it really tastes good. it was around 100+ pesos i think and it really was great. so after days of wanting to eat those again, i decided to TRY making it. but since i don't have a steamer available at home, i decided to make it FRIED.

well it would look somewhat like this...

the ones i tried were triangular in shape, with slits cut on the longer side and stuffed with meat. so then i proceeded with it, trying to replicate how it was without using a recipe. and as experimental as i am, i tried doing different styles also... like the sandwich and box type. haha i liked the sandwiched one better.

there's the 'sandwiched' type on the right. haha ^_^

i used chinese tofu. it's softer than the regular ones on the market, but it tastes good... when you fry them it becomes crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. actually what's recommended for this is the firmer ones, the firmer tofus, because if not then it would be somewhat harder to prepare and mas madali mapunit.

for the meat filling, it's usually a mix of pork, shrimps and fish, but for this one i just used chicken meat. some groceries have ground chicken available. i used it since my parents prefer healthier options on their food. so for the meat i just added garlic, salt, pepper, some soy sauce, oregano, basil. it's not the usual recipe for meat fillings of stuffed bean curds (as i looked it up online) but the result was still good.

so just fry it in oil with the meat side down for like around 2 minutes and then turn it to the other sides.

experimenting with tofu: yeah that's the box type on the right. haha looks funny though...

it goes nicely with fried eggplant with soy sauce...

... and i forgot to do the sauce for the tofu!

yeah one more thing: i forgot to do the sauce for the fried tofu. was supposed to make the sauce for the tofu. it's a bit of oyster sauce, soy sauce, some soup stock (pork would do) and some cornstarch and water... oh well..

still... if the sauce was there? then it would have been better... but surprisingly ground chicken meat works well with tofu... and dimsum (which is another story...)

burger and... greens??

sorry i was too eager to eat after cooking...

hmmmm the house smells of yummy burgers as i'm typing away on my laptop. ^_^ *like like!

for lunch i decided to make burgers for me and my dad. i did have frozen beef in the fridge which i got from drunk shopping yesterday after drinking with friends (yeah 'drunk shopping' it's what i call kapag natipuhan kong mamalengke pagkatapos uminom haha) and this 'seasoned salt' that an aunt sent us, so i wanted to try making burgers using that seasoned salt.

put it to the test: seasoned salt

seasoned salt is really nice and convenient. it's salt with some spices like black pepper, chili pepper, paprika, onions and garlic. it's similar to the 'magic sarap' and 'real sarap' that we have but it has no herbs in it and it's red in color. so then i proceeded with making the burger patties... 1/4 kilo of ground beef with 1 egg, the seasoned salt, basil, garlic granules (yep i keep those in my kitchen because i love garlic) and parmesan cheese. (yeah i love experimenting) so mix here, mix there, add a bit more seasoning... and voila! burgers! all meat with no extenders! yum yum... and seasoned salt is also great for making burgers. it turned out well. and yeah it only serves 2-3 people, it's only half a pound of beef f.y.i...

the beef...

this was the first batch, i made them smaller for my own "tests". haha ^_^

the burgers... all that's needed is ketchup, mustard, tomatoes, lettuce and cheese ^_^

yeah i also bought ready to cook fries from the supermarket (which is cheep but great nonetheless) but i decided to just keep it for some other time, so instead of fries i got out the mix of greens i got from the drunk shopping spree i had. just to be a little healthier.

greens! yum i love them...

got them from SM supermarket in Cubao. they're actually cheap and convenient. around 80 pesos is more than twice of what you see in the picture. it is purchased by weight. it's all sliced up already and washed (but of course to be safe just wash 'em again), and you put those that you want in their bags and you let them weigh it. there's 3 different kinds of lettuce, and there's even red cabbage ^_^ and there's sliced up green bell peppers, carrots and cucumber, and croutons. it's really convenient. just wash 'em up, mix with dressing (i prefer caesar dressing), add some parmesan cheese.

look! it's furrresh!

i love eating salads...

even though it's cheap it's actually fresh. mind you, this was taken a day after i bought it from the grocery. i'm happy that i discovered this. it was my 1st time so i'm really hoping that they do sell it fresh everyday or baka natyempuhan ko lang na fresh sila. well i will find out the next time i go there for these...

sorry guys, no final picture of everything. got hungry and forgot to take pics. haha ^_^

burgers + caesar salad = yum yum ^_^

the start of a new blog... why with cheese on top?

puto on its own with cheese on top!

"kung isa kang puto, which would you rather be? with dinuguan, with kutsinta, or on your own with cheese on top?"

this was one of the lines that i got from my best friend. i really can't remember where or when it was joked by him, but up until now it never fails to make me smile, or make the others that i share this with laugh and ponder on the question. yes, mala-beauty pageant ang dapat isagot kaya naman tuwang tuwa mga tinatanungan ko nito.

"...i would rather be on my own with cheese on top because i believe that we should all learn how to be independent, and to be complete even on our own. like a puto with cheese on top..." and i would go on and on with explaining.

most people would answer puto on its own with cheese on it, but there was one particular answer that got me. "ako, puto with dinuguan, kasi mas masarap ako pag may kasamang iba..." thinking about this friend's answer made me think that yeah, we can be independent, but it would also feel good to always have someone there with you. na kapag kasama mo e pakiramdam mo mas masaya, mas okay ang lahat. like dinuguan, it can be eaten on it's own, puto without cheese can be eaten also though not as good as those with cheese, but puto and dinuguan together is like heaven...

so my final answer? "i want to be a puto on it's own with cheese on top, but has the option to be with dinuguan." pak!
so from this line that will always be with me, and since this blog would have the occasional food pics, maybe some recepies here and there, and stuff... i decided to name this blog: with cheese on top. (and some dinuguan!) haha

anyway, just this weekend we went to an italian restaurant in trinoma (with my dad, uncle and 2 cousins) as a treat to them since i wasn't able to give them any food during my birthday. and one of the dishes we tried there is pasta (i LOVE pasta!) and we got their shrimp and mushroom linguine, and we all loved it. and because i kept on craving for pasta with shrimp, i tried to imitate it. about 2 days ago after a shift, pumunta na ako sa malapit na grocery mula sa office, and looked for shrimps. since i'm on a limited budget and the bigger ones are mas mahal kesa sa mga maliliit na hipon, i opted to buy the small ones. it's just at a little bit more than 100 pesos pero madami na kaya yun na. and when i arrived home i cooked it with some mushrooms, loads of garlic, diced tomatoes and oil.

i wasn't able to take a picture dahil tinamad ako so sorry about that. somewhat pomodoro (tomatoes and garlic fried in oil) with shrimps and mushrooms on it... the dish is easy to make and yet it tastes so good! it's convenient. it's like when you get home tired from work (tired, not dead tired) and you want pasta, just cook your noodles, then for the sauce you can just fry all of it in olive oil. just don't forget to stock up on canned diced tomatoes, and make sure your canned mushrooms is all sliced up already if you're feeling lazy to slice it on your own. also, i find peeled garlic to be convenient too. (you know those in sm supermarket stores, those that are peeled and then wrapped with cling wrap?) so if you have peeled garlic already, most of your efforts would just go to mincing it (aside from cooking the noodles, that is...)

i have this friend whose mom keeps a container full of chopped garlic in the fridge. maybe i'll do that sometime so i wouldn't have to chop anymore... but nothing beats the smell of garlic in your fingers from chopping all those garlic. (but not in you mouth though. haha)

my dad enjoyed the shrimps. and since there were some left over spaghetti noodles in the fridge, and half of the shrimps i decided to make another but this time with alfredo sauce (basically just cream and parmesan cheese) and this is what happened:

shrimp and garlic alfredo (cream and parmesan) in spaghetti, one of the dishes i tried with the frozen shrimps i had in the freezer

not as yummy as the one with tomatoes and garlic, but it still was good

i loved the shrimps in pomodoro more than shrimps with cream but it was still nice... i guess our family prefers tomato-based sauces over the cream-based ones...

tomatoes + cheese + garlic = yum! ^_^