Spicy Chicken Spaghetti

Spicy-sweet chicken on pasta, the kind of spicy that hits you right between your eyes. When I make my spicy chicken pasta I like using dried chili which I make by roasting fresh chilis in the oven for 20 minutes until they shrivel up and dry to a dark-reddish hue. The spiciness is tempered by the sweetness so this makes a good contrast.

Spicy Chicken Spaghetti

Chicken Breast Fillet 1/2 kilo

Corntarch 1/4 cup

Canola Oil 1/4 cup

Garlic, minced 1 Tablespoon

Dried Chilis, chopped 1 teaspoon

Ginger Powder 1/2 teaspoon

Spring Onions 1 Tablespoon

Soy Sauce 1/4 cup

Sugar 2 Tablespoons

Vinegar 2 Tablespoons

Dry roasted Peanuts 1/4 cup

Cooked Pasta

In a bowl, coat chicken filllet pieces in cornstarch. Set aside. Preheat pan with canola oil. Pan-fry chicken until no longer pink. Set aside. In same pan, saute garlic, ginger, spring onions and dried chilis. Pour in vinegar, soysauce and sugar. Cook until mixture thickens add back chicken and cook further. Top over pasta and garnish with roasted peanuts.

Chicken in Red Wine

Whole Wheat Spinach Pasta to top with Coq au Vin

Here's another recipe for my friend. He was wondering what a good recipe for chicken is and I suggested he cook it in red wine. This is a distinctly French recipe but I tweak it a bit to suit the taste of my family, still staying true to the essence of the recipe. I adapted this recipe from Culinaria (European Specialties).

COQ AU VIN (Chicken In Red Wine)

Chicken 1 whole (cut into pieces)

Carrots 2 pieces

Celery 2 Stalks

Onion 2 pieces

Garlic 3 cloves

Bay Leaf 2 pieces

Thyme 1/4 teaspoon, dried

Black Peppercorns 6 pieces

Red Wine 1 bottle

Butter 1/4 cup

Flour 2 tablespoons

Mushrooms 1 can

Bacon 4 strips

Marinate chicken pieces, carrots, celery, onions, bay leaves, thyme and garlic in red wine overnight in the refrigerator. On the day you are planning to cook it, bring out chicken, drain and reserve liquid. Fry chicken pieces in oil until golden brown but not crispy. Set aside. In a deep pan, saute carrots, celery, onions. Dust with flour. Add bacon and continue cooking about 2 minutes. Add back chicken and marinating liquid (red wine) and mushrooms. Cook covered for 1 hour until liquid has simmered down and thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

Coq au vin is yummy when served over pasta :-)

Making an Omelet

Making a proper omelet was one of the things I really wanted to learn. And through the years of going to culinary school having my apprenticeships in major hotes, I can proudly say I know how to make a proper omelet. A friend of mine asked how I made my omelets--so instead of just writing down the instructions and trying to visualize it, I decided to post it. I always make omelets with 3 eggs and 2 tablespoons of milk, and whatever filling I feel like putting (or whatever is in my kitchen). For today, I will put onions, tomatoes, red bellpeppers, greenbellpeppers and diced ham, I ran out of mushrooms--so sad.

I whisk 3 medium eggs with 2 tablespoons fresh milk (or skim milk if you want) Cook this over a low fire on a teflon pan with a little bit of canola oil. When it's already cooked, but not dry, I sprinkle cheese and set it aside while I cook the filling.

In another non-stick pan (I like using non-stick pans because it minimizes putting oil) I saute onions, tomatoes, red and green bellpeppers and ham until the vegetables are slightly wilted and the ham is cooked.

And lastly, I add the cooked vegetable on top of the cooked egg (with the now-melted cheese) and fold it neatly and slide it onto a plate--and there you have it, a fat omelet! Yummy with toast and a cup of coffee for breakfast or for anytime of the day :)

Brunch

Spicy Beef Caldereta Lasagna

Beef Caldereta is a spicy beef stew (sometimes goat is used) that is a well-known party food in the Philippines. The beef is cut into cubes and the meat is braised to make it tender. I experimented with ground beef and made my version into lasagna. But instead of using pasta, I used thinly-sliced potatoes, topped it with bechamel and baked it for 30 minutes.

Spicy Beef Caldereta Lasagna
Canola Oil 2 Tablespoons
Ground Beef 500 grams
Onion, minced 1 piece
Garlic, minced 2 cloves
Bay Leaf, dry 2 pieces
Salt and Pepper to taste
Dried Chili Flakes 1/4 teaspoon
Liver Spread 4 Tablespoons
Tomato Sauce 4 Tablespoons
Carrots, small dice 2 pieces
Green Pitted Olives 100 grams
Potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly 500 grams

Preheat pot with oil, add onion, garlic and bayleaf. Cook until fragrant. Add in ground beef, and cook until beef is no longer pink. Add tomato sauce and liver spread. Pour in carrots and olives. Cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Take out bay leaf.

Peel and slice potatoes thinly layer potato slices in pyrex dish, top with a layer of beef mixture, make another layer of potatoes and top with the rest of beef mixture. Spread evenly. Top with bechamel and bake in oven for 30 minutes.

BECHAMEL
All-purpose flour 2 tablespoons
Butter 2 tablespoons
Milk 1 cup
Cheddar cheese, grated 1/2 cup

Cook butter and all purpose flour until paste is thick and comes together, be careful not to burn. Set aside in chiller. Heat milk until bubbles appear on the side. Add cooked butter and flour mixture, stirring until mixture is well combined. Cook until thick. Add in grated cheese. Pour this over meat and potatoes.

The October 2008 Challenge - Bake Your Pizzas Like A Real Pizzaiolo

The October Daring Bakers' Challenge is here again!! As always, I am very excited about it. And I'm especially happy about this month's challenge because it was pizza!! My dad always said the secret of a good pizza is in the dough, and I was very certain this dough will be excellent! But there was a slight catch in the challenge--even before I thought of the toppings, I was thinking about the "tossing" picture. I wasn't sure if I could toss it without the pizza sticking to the ceiling or worse, on the floor. Thankfully, none of those happened! Here is the evidence:

I made the pizza dough the day before and left them happily fermenting in the chiller while I went to work. I dropped by the supermarket and bought the topping ingredients that my family requested. I checked on the dough when I arrived home and they were looking very nice. The next day I woke up early and brought out the dough 2 hours before the intended baking time. When the 2 hours was up I excitedly tried my "tossing" technique and it worked!! Yey!!! I didn't have a pizza stone so I used the back of my jelly roll pan. The first pizza was my brother's: Tomato sauce, pepperoni, beef, anchovies, artichoke hearts, mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese:

The second pizza was mine (I didn't eat it all) I brushed the crust with olive oil, and then topped it with shrimps, anchovies, crushed garlic, feta cheese, mozzarella cheese, olives and capers.


The third one my baby sister topped with tomato sauce, pepperoni, anchovies, shrimps, feta, mozzarella, parmesan, olives and capers.

And the fourth and last one (whew!) I mashed salted eggs, spread it thinly on the crust, topped it with artichoke hearts, anchovies, mushrooms, crumbled feta, mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

I had so much fun doing this challenge, thank you Rosa (www.rosas-yummy-yums.blogspot.com)! She included the recipe for gluten free dough but I didn't write it down anymore: Be sure to check out all the daring baker's pizzas www.daringbakersblogroll.blogspot.com

~ BASIC PIZZA DOUGH ~

Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice”

by Peter Reinhart.

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients:

4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled

1 3/4 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Instant yeast

1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)

1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)

1 Tb sugar

Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE Method:

1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.

NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil(a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time.During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping. In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.

NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving
NOTE ON SAUCE: Your sauce (any) should not be too thick as it will thicken in the hot oven. Less is more but make the less truly more by using quality ingredients.SUCE IDEAS: Pestos, white or brown sauce, tomato sauce, sour cream, thick cream, Bolognese sauce, etc…

Guilty Pleasure

I have completely fallen in love--it took me by surprise. Fallen in love with food, that is... I was walking at the Podium last Sunday and my sister and I decided to check out the Bakers' Fair at the Fourth Floor. We got sidetracked by Sebastian's Ice cream, a friend has been raving about it for months, but this is the first time I tried it, it was rich and sweet--just like how I was imagining it. After having our heaven in a scoop, we walked around looking at the confections. Everything was familiar, except the booth where they were just selling baklava (my sister whispered "Turkish delight") I did a double take because the smell was just enticing. And I couldn't for the life of me walk away without buying. I ended up buying a box, but since we've had our sugar fix for the day--care of Sebastian's we put it in the chiller when we got home. But before I went to bed, I saw my sister eating a piece and she said it was really good. I made a mental note to taste it the next day. Before I went to work the next day I ate a piece, it was sooooo good!!! I ate another one and another one!! I have eaten baklava before and in fact, tried making it too but this was different. Now, I always get a piece, my supply is running out. Im planning to order again...The sweet nutty centers are encased in thin crispy sheets of phyllo pastry, they're not so crispy anymore but the taste more than makes up for it...