A Scientist in the Kitchen

My university, the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB), is one of the oldest agricultural colleges in the Philippines. The College of Agriculture recently celebrated its 99th Foundation Day early this month. UPLB leads in the production of hybrid vegetables and fruits. Twice a year, a garden show is held to showcase ornamental plants and the latest varietal release of vegetables and fruit trees. Over the years, herbs has been a fixture as well, something I’m going to get my fill of next month. I look forward to this show each year, getting ready to buy plants and seeds that I can plant at home. I got my kaffir from here. Always there is something new to discover and to plant, but there are also old favorites such as orchids and bromeliads I look forward to. I am looking forward to next month’s show (another show is held every October).

Last year, I was able to take a lot of pictures of the flowers in bloom.

Now, isn’t it refreshing to watch these flower blossom? At other times of the year, there are several shops for flower delivery.

For the recipe, I just can’t get enough of the taste of kaffir. Last February, I was in a food festival where Myanmar students cooked this noodle salad. Adding fresh kaffir leaves (sliced very thinly) makes this a very refreshing dish. You can go vegetarian with this dish.

Vermicelli salad (inspired from a Myanmar noodle salad)

250 grams vermicelli
Juice from two lemons
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 cup ground roasted peanuts

For toppings: Thinly sliced cabbage, chopped scallions, mungbean sprouts, thinly sliced kaffir leaves, egg omelets sliced thinly (optional), chili flakes or sliced fresh chili

Soak vermicelli in water for 30 minutes. Drain water and pour hot water. Drain hot water.Put in bowl. Mix lemon juice, honey, and fish sauce. Add the lemon mixture to the vermicelli and toss well. Add the peanuts and toss again. Transfer to a serving dish. On another plate, arrange the toppings. Each person takes some vermicelli to his plate and adds the toppings according to his taste.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Reading about Pile’s coleslaw salad made me crave for coleslaw salad the way my aunt made them. There are really a lot of variations to this salad, but here’s my aunt’s version which brings lots of memories of her in the kichen. This is really a simple version, but the addition of pineapples add a sweet dimension to the dish. This would be perfect for my first entry to the “Waiter, there is something in my…” series with this month’s theme: salads.

Nanay’s Coleslaw Salad

2 cups green cabbage, sliced thinly
1 cup purple cabbage, sliced thinly
1 large carrots, julliened
1 large turnips, julliened
1 can of pineapple tidbits, sliced thinly
1 cup mayonaise
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt

Mix all vegetables in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix mayoinase, pepper and salt. Add the mayonaise mixture to the vegetables, make sure to coat all of the vegetables. Cool before serving.

While I’ve been looking up on salads, I just realized that the slicer for vegetables for making that perfectly julliened carrots is called a mandoline? I’ve always a mandoline is a musical instrument So I’m taking out my credit cards and off to Amazon.com I go and get myself a nice mandolin slicer. I can’t wait!

I have come to enjoy Andrea’s Grow Your Own event and look forward to sharing my post each month. I have previously posted mostly free-range chickens we raise in the backyard, but for the last two months I’m going greens -leafy greens.

This is a dish I thought of myself. I got tired of using the traditional Filipino vinaigrette of vinegar, pepper and sugar. So I drew inspiration from my Thai friends and came up with this Leafy Asian Salad of malunggay, kamote tops, chili and lemon grass which grow profusely in our garden.

Leafy Asian Salad
a bunch of kamote tops
a cup of malunggay leaves
1 tomato chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped cross wise
1/2 cup cane vinegar
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 bird’s eye chili
Blanch kamote tops in boiling water for two minutes then wash with cold water. Blanch the malunggay leaves next, for one minute then wash with cold water. Drain well. Mix kamote tops, malunggay leaves, tomato and onion. In a separate container, mix the rest of the ingredients. Pour on the leafy greens and serve.

***

Ever wondered how a market looks like in other parts of the world? Check out “To market, to market”. Or you can share yours, too.

In the last few weeks of WHB, there were several posts on sweet potato dishes, mostly as main dishes. It sounds weird to me, as here in the Philippines, sweet potatoes are served as desserts much like avocados which we use to make avocado shakes than salads.

We have a patch of sweet potatoes at home, which we we call kamote. Here, kamote is usually planted in backyards but not for harvesting the roots. Usually, the leaves are used as vegetable for soups or salads. Only the shoots (we call them tops, hence kamote tops)are used for cooking, blanched first before making into a salad.

(more…)