Comfort food: home-cooked pansit molo

My recent homecoming trip to Cabatuan, Iloilo was a most welcome change of pace. I remembered that I used to come home to recharge my batteries regularly including the time when I was studying in Japan. That was almost every year until the streak basically stopped after I came home, got married, and got busier at work. Last month, I finally was able to return to our home in Cabatuan where I have a lot of happy memories that to this day I cherish and remember with fondness.

Among the memories was the good food I ate there. This was usually cooked by my aunts with Nanay Paring and Nanay Nene usually rotating in cooking our favorite dishes. Of course, it won't be Iloilo if we didn't have the popular Ilonggo dishes. As if she read my mind, one of my closest cousins, Manang Dora, cooked molo. This was quite the perfect comfort food for me and the taste brought back a lot of my childhood memories.

Molo just the way I like it

It happened to be quite rainy when I was in Iloilo and so the hot soup and dumplings were just right for us to keep warm during the cool weather. Now I do look forward to the next trip back to Cabatuan. Perhaps that should be soon and with our daughter Ally coming, too, to meet her relatives from Tatay's side of the family.

-

Baked rosemary chicken

Another first time treat during the Christmas and New Year holidays was the Clairvoyant's first crack at making rosemary chicken. While we have enjoyed the roasted version in a couple of restaurants before and wondered if we could make a similarly tasty meal. The Clairvoyant instead did some research on the internet (a very useful resource for cooking and baking these days) to get a recipe that involved baking.

We got our chicken from the nearby supermarket. Most parts were chicken breast with the bones. The other major ingredient was of course rosemary, which we happened to have a lot of because of the different pots of herbs we got when we had our new home landscaped. We now get most of our herbs (sweet basil, Thai basil, rosemary, lemongrass, tarragon) from our garden. I won't delve into the details of the recipe and how the dish was made. Instead, I'm just posting a couple of photos of the baked rosemary chicken that we enjoyed on one late December lunch.

This version of rosemary chicken was baked using a Pyrex tray

A closer look at our savory lunch

There were only 4 of us at home so we were not able to finish the entire tray over lunch. We ended up having the same during dinner and some leftovers were still good for meals the following day together with other viands.

-

Home-made pan seared tuna

I'm closing out the year with a food feature. The Clairvoyant was experimenting on cooking some of the dishes we have enjoyed at restaurants before. I found a couple of photos of the pan seared tuna she made one October evening. It is something we had at a Japanese restaurant that we thought could be replicated at home with the right ingredients. And so we got sashimi-grade tuna, peppercorn, and lemons, and with a little help from our new kitchen instruments - voila - home made pan-seared tuna!

We wish everyone a wonderful 2015. May this New Year be a prosperous and productive one for everyone. May the year be filled with love, peace and healing!

-

Home made lasagna

After the baking "experiments" in the recent weeks, the Clairvoyant decided to try making lasagna for lunch. This was actually the second time but the first one without guidance or help from our friend who taught her to make apple pie. This time she decided to make lasagna for lunch after ruling out spaghetti and baked macaroni. The latter was her "specialty" and she did make good baked mac for Christmas or New Year's eve dinners. That she did at her parents' home where they have an oven. She hadn't made baked mac for quite some time now so I thought she cook up some for our guests last weekend.

Unfortunately, I was not able to take photos of the process and the final product after it came out of the oven. I only have two photos to show what's left of the lasagna after we had enjoyed a bit of it. It was a hit so I guess the photos would at least give an idea of what we "feasted" on over lunch last weekend with our cousin and her family who were visiting from Hong Kong.

What's left of the lasagna after we had a few servings...

A close-up of the scrumptious layers of sauce and pasta doesn't really give justice to the taste; but the wife got the best ingredients for the sauce and the cheese so I already knew it would be good even before the lasagna was finished.

I wasn't able to get the lasagna noodles that had ridges. We only had the flat ones available from the nearby supermarket so it was a bit tricky to make the layers for the pasta dish. Nevertheless, this didn't affect the final product as it still tasted great (though I may certainly be biased in this case). I am looking forward to the baked macaroni the next time we're using the oven for some pasta.

-

DIY cold soba

I saw a friend's posts on FaceBook about eating healthy and one post was about zaru soba. Cold buckwheat noodles are popular fare in Japan during the summer as it is both healthy and refreshing. It is among my favorites and I usually bought a set for lunches at the lab or dinner at home from the Family Mart or Yamazaki convenience stores near the university and my home. Until only recently, we only ate zaru soba at Japanese restaurants here and usually as a set with tempura (ten zaru soba). And so I decided to prepare zaru soba myself and bought the ingredients during one trip at the supermarket near our home. It's really quite easy...just follow the steps below:

Buckwheat noodles and individually packed dried seaweed from the supermarket.

Descriptions and some instructions at the back have been translated and appears on a sticker posted on the packaging.

Cook the buckwheat noodles (about 6 minutes).

Place the soba on a strainer.

Wash the soba with running water.

Gently wash it with your hands [Make sure hands are clean before you do this. ] to make sure excess starch is washed from the noodles. This is a process that's also recommended for your typical instant noodles.

Transfer to a plate or bowl (if you don't have zaru or the small bamboo mat over a shallow bowl). You have a choice to place the soba on top of ice cubes if you use zaru. Otherwise, you'll end up with soupy soba. If you really want to have cold soba just wash it with cold water.

Add seaweed and other toppings (Bonito flakes are highly recommended for the authentic Japanese taste.).

Zaru soba dashi (dipping sauce) from the supermarket.

An English translation is also found on a sticker at the back of the bottle.

Pour yourself ready made dashi (dipping sauce) in a bowl. You can also mix in some wasabi for that extra kick in the dip.

Voila! Cold soba for lunch or dinner!

Japanese restaurants in the Philippines usually serve zaru soba with quail's egg. I find this quite unusual as the egg is not usually part of the meals I've eaten in restaurants while in Japan (Of course, there are no eggs with the set you can buy at convenience stores there.). Perhaps this is just a variation of the dish so I don't really question its authenticity. Nevertheless, I prefer mine without th quail's egg and so my zaru soba is practically vegetarian fare. Itadakimasu!

-