A scientist in the kitchen

The food blogging world was surely busy Sunday celebrating one of the most special days of the year - Mothers’ Day. SO what was on the menu?

Prosciutto Arugula Salad

Berry Good Ice Cream Cake Roll

Blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs and fruit salad

Bahama Mama Banana Rum Cake

Omelet with sauteed spinach, feta cheese and avocado

Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes

A Very Special Mother’s Day Breakfast

Gourmet’s Spicy Crab Spaghetti with Preserved Lemons…

Durian Cream Cake

Eggs Benedict
And here’s for my Mom:

Mango and Cucumber Salad

1 medium cucumber

2 ripe mangoes

1 bell pepper

1 sprig of chives

1 large tomato

3 small green tomatoes

freshly crushed black pepper

1/4 cup vinegar

1 tbsp honey or sugar

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp salt
Slice all vegetables thinly. Combine in a bowl and top with freshly crush black pepper. Mix vinegar, honey or sugar, sesame oil and salt. Taste for your preference. Drizzle on top of salad and serve.

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I am host this week for Weekend Herb Blogging. Check out the rules for joining this event at Kalyn’s Kitchen. Send your entries to this address: mgccarrillo AT gmail DOT com.

And for my event To market, to market… you still have time to submit your entries till May 31.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I cooked paella on a whim last Sunday (May 4), and while I haven’t written the whole post yet, I can’t resist showing off these pictures. I had Iranian saffron languishing to be cooked plus I have been wanting to cook paella after a long time. The first time I cooked it was Fathers’ Day, many years back. For sure, I’m going to make it again.

Paella cooking with chicken, olives, tomatoes, cucumber and bell pepper. Whatever I found in then fridge.

I topped the paella with eggs and dill. The egg is supposed to be heart-shaped after molding it with my new egg molders it didn’t shape well.

Popularity: 2% [?]

It is Presto Pasta Night again. Here’s another type of noodle that we usually cook in the Philippines. Miki is yet another noodle variation in the Philippines. It is a type of fresh egg noodles, 2-3 mm thick that is cooked in the same way as Pancit Canton - sauteed with vegetables. Or you can cook it into a soup and it is called Pancit Mami. Home cooking usually makes pancit miki, while in the market stalls, pancit mami is sold. When making pancit miki, it is also common to use Chinese chorizos. In the market, we can buy a vegetable pack consisting of vegetables used in popular dishes. For example, there is the chop suey pack which has cabbage, sayote, carrots, green beans and bell pepper. Or the nilaga pack (boiled meats) which has potatoes, cabbages and green beans. Or the pinakbet pack which contains eggplant, squash, string beans and tomatoes. For the pancit miki, I bought the chop suey pack.

Pancit Miki

1 medium size carrot
1 cup cabbage, chopped roughly
1 sayote
1/2 cup green beans
1 Chinese chorizo, sliced crosswise, diagonally
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium size onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
250 grams pork belly
500 grams fresh noodles

Boil pork belly in 2-3 cups water. When tender, chop in 1/2 inch thich. Reserve broth. Wash noodles to remove excess salt. Chop carrot, sayote and green beans according to picture below.

Saute garlic and onion. When onion is limp, add the pork belly slice and sautee till pork belly is a bit browned. Add salt and pepper (I like to saute the pepper aside from adding it again later). Add the chorizo and the vegetables except cabbage. Saute for two minutes, add 1/2 cup broth and simmer for a minute. Add the cabbage and cook for one minute. Add 1/2 cup of broth, bring to a simmer. Taste for saltiness and pepper taste. Add the noodles and mix all ingredients. If it gets dry, add 1/4 cup of the broth. Simmer for a few minutes then serve.

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Celebrate farmers’ markets everywhere. Join To market, to market…

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What’s the answer to this Tagalog riddle?

Balat niya’y berde, buto niya’y itim,

laman niya’y pula, sino siya?

(It’s skin is green, it’s inside red.
It has black seeds.)

If you answered watermelon or pakwan (in Tagalog), you are correct. Some fast facts about watermelon:
- A cup will provide at least 48 calories
- it is abundant in vitamins C and A and the minerals potassium and magnesium
- pink ones also produce lycopene, an antioxidant
All parts of the fruit can be eaten - from rinds to pulp to seeds. Here’s one way to enjoy this refreshing fruit. Shake it baby!

To make this Misty Watermelon Shake, prepare two cups of watermelon (remove seeds) and place in a blender. Add a sprig or two of mint and blitz till watermelon is now a juice. Drink and enjoy! I recently bought a mint plant so I got some mint sprigs from this plant. I would have wanted to add more mint, but hey, the plant has to recover first as I just transplanted them.

Next week, I’ll be hosting Weekend Herb Blogging. For now, I’m submitting this post to Laurie of Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska, our host for this week’s WHB fun.

Popularity: 13% [?]