A scientist in the kitchen

Where do you shop for your food? Have you been to your local farmers’ market recently? Have you been to some farmers’ markets in your travels? Share them here at To market, to market…

And for those who are joining this event, here’s the catch: I’m giving away the recipe book: Home Chefs of the World (Rice and Rice-based Recipes) in a raffle. This is a compilation of rice and rice-based recipes as cooked in kitchens of the world’s leading rice scientists (I’m still far from being one of them, though…). This book contains over a hundred recipes from 27 countries with rice as the main ingredient or dishes that go well with rice. Get a chance to know the origin of rice, too, and find out why rice is one of the most food crops in the world.

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Get fit and on track… find out the buzz on those ellipticals.

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I got a lovely surprise on the mail this week. My own personalized business cards for A scientist in the kitchen, courtesy of Foodbuzz.

I know I made the right choice in joining the Foodbuzz community.

Want to be a featured publisher, too? Check out my post on why you should join Foodbuzz or go directly here to join us!

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Ampalaya or bitter melon or bitter gourd is one of the vegetables you can find in the market all year round in the Philippines. It is probably the most hated of vegetables by kids as it really is bitter. I didn’t learn to eat ampalaya dish till I was in my 20s, and when I did, I found that the bitter taste kinda grows on you. Now I can eat ampalaya anytime, anyway is it cooked. How did I learn how to eat it? I cooked and ate ampalaya for almost a week and had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner till finally my taste buds came to appreciate it. I had it stirfried with eggs, or with beef strips marinated in calamansi, or with black beans. I also like it cooked with coconut milk.

Ampalaya is also a medicinal plant, with the belief that it can lower blood sugar levels. The leaves are boiled and the decoction is cooled down. My dad, who is a diabetic, drinks a glass of this decoction once a day. It is bitter though so it takes some to appreaciate the juice. In Chinatown, you can buy dried ampalaya slices which can also be used to make teas.

My dad does not like the ampalaya juice but he does like sautéed ampalaya. So I’m sharing his recipe for Weekend Herb Blogging this week, hosted by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook. Oh, and by the way, I get the chance to host this lovely event in May!

Ampalaya with beef and black beans

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, choppped
100 grams beef strips, thinly sliced
2-3 tbsp salted black beans
1 piece ampalaya, sliced thinly
soy sauce
pepper to taste

Cut ampalaya lengthwise. Remove seeds and pulp then slice thinly crosswise. Saute garlic and onions in 1-2 tbsp oil. Add the 1 tbsp soy sauce then the beef strips, stirring until they are no longer pink. Add the ampalaya, then stir to mix all ingredients evenly. Add 1/4 cup of water and let it boil till almost reduced. Add black beans, a tbsp at a time and check for saltiness. Mix well. Add pepper to taste.

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To market, to market is a blogging event I am hosting to celebrate farmers’ markets everywhere. Hope to see you there, too. - Gay

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I’m currently checking out vacation deals these days, it’s still our summer vacation. Time to head out to the beach!

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Lemongrass is one of my favorite herbs and have been using it a lot on soups and roast chicken. I can’t believe I haven’t used it with pork barbecue until I read Katie’s Lemongrass Barbecued Pork recipe. Katie B., of Other People’s Food, is my partner for this month’s Taste and Create event - a brain child of Nichole from For the love of Food.

I used the same ingredients as the marinade but used pork belly instead of boneless pork loin. And instead of lime juice, I used kalamansi, the Philippine version of lime. The family is more partial to pork belly and we love to eat grilled pork belly every week. I love the aroma of lemongrass on the barbecue with each bite I took. I know I must do this again.

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Currently searching over a catalog of MP3 players… something I need for a new project coming up.

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For April’s Grow Your Own, I am sharing with you an age-old practice in my father’s hometown. It is basically a rice growing town, with farmers still practicing traditions handed down for generations. One of these traditions is patilaok or the sharing of rice harvests. It is the practice to share with friends and neighbors the first batch of milled rice from their rice harvest. So often we get a share, a kilo or two, from neighbors. We get to taste different rice varieties as they are really proud of their harvest. Since April is harvest season, we have enjoyed these gifts each week.

We eat rice three times a day. When cooking rice for dinner, we often cook extra rice so that the leftover rice can be cooked as fried rice for the next day’s breakfast. Sometimes, we cook fried for lunch or dinner if the dish calls for it, if there is extra rice and if I feel like cooking fried rice (which can be often).

Cilantro rice

2 tbsp vegetable oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups cold cooked rice, crumbled to separate grains
a bunch of cilantro, chopped
salt

Heat oil in wok. Add 1 tsp salt, stir to dissolve salt then add the garlic. Cook garlic in oil, make sure it does not get burnt. When garlic is light brown in color, add the rice. Stir quickly to prevent rice from sticking in the wok and to distribute heat evenly throughout the rice. I usually cook it like this for around 5 minutes. When rice is heated through, remove from fire then add the fresh cilantro. Stir again then serve.

I served cilantro rice with fried salted fish. The fish is called espada or swordfish, about 12-15 inches long flat fish with thin flesh. The fish is cut in the middle to open it up, cleaned then salted and dried. This was my first time to eat this kind of dried fish. The saltiness was just rice and it was very crunchy when fried.

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