100 Revolving Restaurant: a room with a view

I looked out and admired the view. It’s not exactly breathtaking to appraise traffic like it was a long congested line of ants.  I tilted my head upwards just a little bit so the concrete jungle is obscured. There were birds and the sky was clear. Now that was a sight.

Then I had a feeling at the pit of my stomach. I could feel the movement of the platform at the fringes of the restaurant. So it does move. It’s not really jarring, but I was queasy to begin with so it took me a while to get used to the movement. At that time of my first visit, it took two hours to complete one revolution. The revolution at the time of my second visit was faster by thirty minutes.

That’s the first thing you notice at 100, the restaurant with iconic Chef Jessie Sincioco at the helm. She has a flair for grandiosity. The space is easy on the eyes as well. The menu is refined, but strangely enough it’s not as uptight as I thought it was going to be.

And they make good bread. Really good bread.

Between the kesong puti salad and the alugbati (which uses fresh, not blanched nightshade), the uncomplicated and familiar flavors of the former drew me in.


It was a good “caprese” salad, but when the ceasar came out, that was my favorite. It had prawn popcorn, bacon bits over hearts of romaine. It was a good start.

The dragon maki was hefty enough to be a meal in itself with its shrimp tempura on the inside, and then sprinkled with tempura bits and rich mayonnaise. I’m still learning to use chopsticks properly, and if you see me wield it you’ll notice my hand trembles. But for this maki I’ll brave the tremors.



The vegetable maki was a surprise! I did not expect that I would enjoy it as well. It’s a notch lower in taste compared to its prawn counterpart, but I still appreciated it.

This sea bass is incredibly delicious. For the price, is it worth the trouble? I’d say yes. It’s drenched in a savory and sweet miso base and gives way to perfectly cooked flesh that holds it shape but it’s still very tender. Yes and yes.

There’s also shrimp curry and beef roulade, but the seafood gambas is stellar. A medley of fruits of the sea drenched in punchy tomato sauce fits the bill of a good plate of ingredients cooked with respect.



But the others aren’t rubbish at all! I fact, almost everything that was served to us was great. I’d just like to single out a few things that really stood out.

And I could sing songs about Chef Jessie’s desserts.

But it’s in a moment of silence that my real appreciation creeps in. I close my eyes and just marvel at how I love a good dessert. In this case, I loved almost everything that was served.

It’s this souffle that made me smile the most. How can something be so light yet so rich? This is a soaring tribute to all things good in life. I am not exaggerating.


One of my guilty pleasures is peanut butter. But I don’t really enjoy cheesecakes that much anymore because it’s like I’m falling into a pit of heavy flavours that never really take off. With peanut butter however, I can make an exception.

The revolving tortas are little dense cakes filled with flavoured cream and topped with fruit. At this point I was already coming down from a souffle high but I still made room for this.

For some strange reason souffle isn’t on your mind, this works. There’s also a delicious chocolate caramel cake that works for lovers of chocolate, but competing for attention against the souffle and tortas is hard.

100 is a posh gem. I’d like to believe you pay not just for the elegant (but also uncomplicated) food but for the great view as well. Who wouldn’t feel good dining with Manila’s shifting skyline as the backdrop?

Right now there are two reasons that compel me to go back: a chance to dine at night, to appreciate pinpricks of light all over the horizon and of course, the souffles. I love their souffles.

100 Revolving Restaurant

33rd Floor, MDC 100 Building, C5 corner Eastwood Drive, Quezon City

+632 962-1016

 

Tinapa, Tomato and Truffle Linguine

I know, I know, sue me for fading into relative obscurity every now and then. It hasn’t been easy, you know, lounging and purging myself of all worldly pleasures before I dive into my internship. Yes, that was the plan – give myself a month to addle around, before all focus shifts to making sure that I survive this career. (Which reminds me! A year ago today, I wrote this, and it has made all the difference. I’m amazed)

But apparently the universe has its own time-table, and a string of events made my vacation drag on a longer than I intended it to be. Jad happened, among other things. You might be wondering how I’m holding up. It’s been more than a month now. It still hurts, my friends and I are still reeling from what happened. But we find ways to move along, which, I think, is vastly different from moving on. Life waits for no one.

So, I’m in a celebratory mood right now. For almost a year now I’ve been religiously going to the gym, and it has paid off. When I started I was at 21% body fat, a little over the normal for me. Then it went down to 17%, and just this morning after a session with my trainer I’m at 14%!

I’ve always struggled with my weight. I didn’t feel good and I didn’t like how I looked. Things got better in college, but it was still a battle of fluctuations.

It was only last year that I decided to hit the gym and keep the weight off. That was the initial goal, but it eventually evolved from a mission of pure vanity to simply self-improvement. It’s about feeling good by feeling strong, surpassing old goals and creating new ones and always challenging yourself. That mindset isn’t too farfetched, and is actually pretty helpful considering the industry I want to dive right into.

And I choose to celebrate this little victory by making really good pasta. Yes. Yes. Yes.


It has all the good stuff: linguine, shiitake and button mushrooms, olive oil, garlic and onions, dried tomatoes, a little bit of pesto, smoked tinapa/milkfish. For absolutely good measure, a nice little glug of truffle oil.

I had that for lunch and it was a tasty little thing. What you have before you is not much, and that’s because I ate most of it already. I was too eager to dig right in.

Tinapa, Tomato and Truffle Linguine

serves 2

• 80 – 90 grams linguine
• 1 piece smoked fish/tinapa, flaked
• 1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• ½ cup button mushrooms, sliced
• ¼ cup sundried tomatoes (sold in a jar with oil)
• 2 tablespoons of oil from the bottled sundried tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon pesto
• half a garlic bulb, peeled and minced
• 1 red onion, peeled and sliced
• olive oil, as needed

In a medium sized pot, boil pasta in salty water according to package instructions, reserve around 1/8 cup of the starchy water.

In the same pot, add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pot. Add the oil from the tomatoes. When it’s hot enough, add the garlic and onions and saute until fragrant. Add the tinapa, tomatoes and pesto. Season according to taste. Mix well and add the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are tender. Add the pasta water and the pasta. Mix everything together and transfer to a plate. Drizzle with parmesan cheese and truffle oil. Serve and enjoy!

Clam Curry

I’ve taken it upon me to download whatever torrent file I could get my grubby hands on when I was home a few days ago. Having lived for two months with a plug-it that’s mediocre at best made me more appreciative of the blazing fast internet I have at home. It’s good for the soul, coming home to country comfort.

My mom and I went to the wet market on Saturday to buy some ingredients we need for a little picnic the following day. Before I left, I wanted to have a picnic with my family but things got in the way and it didn’t happen. This time, we made sure that our schedules were wide open. Anyway, there were mounds and mounds of clams in different sizes, (around 5 – 8 per mound) for sale that morning. I didn’t pass up the chance to buy around two mounds because I was inspired by Kumar (of MasterChef AU fame) to cook clams with curry. I’m a big fan of MasterChef Australia, so much in fact, that this blog has thrived after feeding off the show’s happy juju. Thanks to incredible download speeds, I was up-to-date with this season’s offering. The latest season is an All-Stars edition, pitting 4 fan favorites each from season 1 – 3 against each other for charity. In one of the challenges, where it was season 1 vs 2 vs 3 in an all-Indian challenge, Kumar from season 3 cooked mussels (tahong) in coconut milk flavored with a homemade spice mix. We don’t get a lot of really good mussels but clams were in abundance.

Clams and mussels taste like the sea so much that the flavor is unmistakable. It does wonders to soups, rice and now, I can curry to the list. Like most of my kitchen experiments, it was the first time I cooked clams with curry so I just went with gut feel on taste and seasoning.

The garam masala was still in the pantry, albeit a little milder in flavor, and mom always keeps a supply of coconut cream in tetra packs for convenience. I was home…and it was game time. Another home run for the clams.

Clam Curry (serves 2 – 3)

• around 15 clams
• 400 ml coconut cream
• 3 tablespoons curry powder (what I used: 1 1/2 tablespoon garam masala + 1 1/2 tablespoon turmeric powder), or more to taste
• one 1-inch knob of ginger, minced
• 1 lemongrass stalk, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• half a bulb of garlic, minced
• 1 large white onion, roughly chopped
• 2 bell peppers (preferably 1 red and 1 green), sliced into thin strips
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 bunch pechay or bok choy, roughly chopped
• 1 finger chili, sliced, or red pepper flakes (optional)

1. In a medium-sized pan or sauce pan, preferably with a lid, add a splash or two of oil over medium heat.
2. Add the garlic and ginger. Allow to toast until fragrant then add the onions. Cook until onions start to go limp. Add the lemongrass and bell peppers and stir everything together.
3. Add the coconut cream and the spices (and if you’re using it, the chili). Mix everything together until well incorporated. Season with salt and pepper and allow to simmer.
4. Add the clams and cover the pan.  Allow to cook, making sure to discard the clams that do not open.
5. Add the pechay at the last minute, stir everything together , let it cook for a bit then remove from heat. Serve warm and enjoy!

 

Pancit Palabok

I did not grow up eating palabok. Pancit bihon or sotanghon would usually be part of our party staple, not palabok. In fact, I could consider palabok an incredibly unorthodox addition to a buffet spread.

It was in college that my appreciation for palabok really grew. Tucked away at the back of the university where I used to study at, there’s this little resto called Flavourite. It’s practically an institution here in Zamboanga, with branches around town. It’s known for its reasonably priced home cooked dishes, the burgers and of course, the palabok. I think it would be an understatement when I say that their palabok is delicious. In fact, if somebody would ask me what a great palabok is supposed to taste like, I would describe it along the lines of Flavourite’s version.

“Miki, pork”, is my usual order. Palabok noodles can either use miki, (round or flat egg noodles), or bihon (thin strands of rice noodles). I enjoy eating it with miki. And since I have no aversion to pork, I don’t see any reason it shouldn’t be pork.

The thick, gravy-like sauce is curiously orange. Before I read about the process of making it, I’ve always wondered what it’s made of. Of course, all of that curiosity vanishes with the first slurp. The taste is peculiar as well. It’s slightly salty, more than anything else. But it still lays the perfect stage to showcase the hotchpotch of toppings.

I understand that toppings are probably as diverse as the regions of the Philippines, from all-meat, to seafood, but like I said, Flavourite is my benchmark (So if you want to point me to a plate of palabok that rocked your world, drop me a line!) The palabok is topped with little tofu cubes, chicharon (pork crackling), mashed adobo and if I’m not mistaken, pork floss.

Flavourite is so old-school they don’t have a website, not even a facebook page. It makes sense; through the years it has sustained itself well without any gimmicks. So to understand my enthusiasm, if and when you’re in our little city of Zamboanga, please, check it out.

In the meantime, here’s my take on their palabok – with a few topping modifications. The real work is in making the sauce; the rest of the toppings can just be put together at the last-minute. But I’d like to think it was so good that after a few hours the big pot of sauce was polished clean, and the noodles long gone.

And I like it so much I don’t mind it with calamansi, my archenemy. Palabok does that to you.

Pancit Palabok (serves 6 – 8)

Some miki noodles have been pre-salted already, so exercise caution when seasoning the sauce, tasting as you go along.

2 500-gram packs miki (egg noodles; the ones that I used were bundled but already soft and ready to use, with a shelf-life of only 3 days)

Sauce:

• At least 8 – 10 medium-sized prawns, head and shell intact, but with barbs (the rostrum) and whiskers snipped
• 3 – 4 cups water to cook the prawns
• 1 30-gram pack annatto/atsuete seeds
• ¼ cup vegetable oil

Seasoning:

• 2 tablespoons patis/fish sauce, or more to taste
• Salt and pepper
• 2 pork broth cubes, or more to taste
• Cornstarch slurry: 6 – 8 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 cup warm water

Toppings:

• ¼ kilo pork belly, sliced into small cubes
• Pork chicharon, crumbled
• Spring onions, cleaned and sliced thinly
• Napa cabbage/Chinese pechay, cleaned and sliced into strips
• 5 – 8 hard-boiled eggs, sliced in half

1. Over medium heat, boil prawns in a pot with the water. When thoroughly orange all over, turn off the heat.
2. Using a slotted spoon, remove the prawns and place in a bowl. Allow to cool. Reserve the water for use later.
3. Meanwhile, in a pan, add the pork with enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. Cook over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. Allow the water to evaporate and the pork’s fat to render. Sauté the pork in its own fat until lightly toasted.
   
4. Peel the prawns and remove the heads. Place all the prawn heads in a mortar and using the pestle (the heavy bat shaped object), pound the prawn heads until juices have been released and the mixture looks “pulpy”.
   
   
5. Place everything in the pot of water that was used to boil the prawns and mix everything together.
6. In a small pot, make the atsuete oil by heating the vegetable oil over medium heat and adding the atsuete seeds. Toast until fragrant and the oil takes on a shade of dark orange.
   
7. Add the oil to the shrimp water, together with the seeds. Mix everything together and let the color bleed into the soup, leave for 3 – 5 minutes. You will want a slightly dark yellow-orange colored liquid.
   
8. Run the mixture through a sieve and into a slightly larger pot.  Heat the pot over medium heat. Add around 1 – 2 more cups water. Season with salt and pepper. Add the broth cubes and the fish sauce, starting with 2 cubes and 2 tablespoons, respectively. Add more if desired.
9. When it starts to simmer, add the cornstarch slurry. Allow to boil, stirring frequently. Adjust taste and consistency to your liking. I personally want a liquid that’s thick and gravy-like, which may need more of the slurry, or not – it’s your call.
   
10. Place the miki noodles in a bowl of hot water to wash and soften it. Drain.
11. Put everything together: In a plate, place a generous mound of noodles. Ladle an equally generous amount of sauce. Add the toppings (toasted pork belly, sliced spring onions and Napa cabbage, shrimps, hard-boiled egg) and sprinkle with the crumbled chicharon. Serve with calamansi on the side. Enjoy!

Spicy Prawn Curry with Roasted Tomatoes

For the past few weeks Fridays have come to mean more than just the American Idol results show and the day where torrent files of my favorite shows come out. I took it upon myself to observe the season of Lent and abstain from eating meat and eat only one full meal every Friday until Easter, among other “restraints”.

Have I been faithful? No, I have taken afternoon snacks so adhering to one full meal has been difficult. Right now typing this, my stomach’s grumbling. Aside from that one Friday where it slipped my mind, I have been trying to avoid pork, chicken and beef. Self-discipline isn’t really one of my strong suits. Probably one of my fatal flaws, but nonetheless I’m proud of myself. Restraining myself, exerting a little measure of discipline during this season, is something that I’ve been trying to do. My cross is heavy but I’m trying to hold on.

Lent is a season of reflection, of going beyond your usual call of duty and examine yourself in relation to how you treat yourself and others. At least that’s how I see Lent. I don’t claim to know everything about my faith – but I know it’s not perfect. Sometimes my roots are parched – the leaves wilt and fall, and what exactly I need to do about it, makes me wonder even more. But time and time again, my belief in a higher being will never die, no matter how misguided I can be.

What does the prawn/shrimp* curry have to do with everything? Well, this is just my way of exercising that “restraint” without purposely depriving myself to the point of punishment.

Have you ever tried to roast tomatoes? Try it, you won’t be disappointed. Have you ever tried to roast garlic? It was my first time to do that today, and I knew I had to put a few tender garlicky segments into the curry, just because I love garlic.

I still had a little container of garam masala in the pantry from my chicken korma escapade. I didn’t want it to go to waste. Making this wasn’t a stretch at all. As much as I appreciate a spicy curry, the people around here don’t. A few dashes of chili flakes gave it the heat that it needed. To offset it, aside from the coconut milk, I added a few spoonfuls of peanut butter to give it that subtle sweet creaminess.

A spoonful of this will give a gentle sweetness that  mingles with the bold curry taste, then there is that unmistakable heat that still lingers at the back of your mouth. The roasted tomatoes do their part by offering a sweet tang that gloriously blends with everything else. And there’s nothing wrong with mashing a few pieces of garlic directly into the sauce. Nothing wrong that at all.

Thank God it’s Friday.

Spicy Prawn Curry with Roasted Tomatoes  (serves 4 – 6)

*Prawns and shrimps are semantically different but can be used interchangeably, though prawns are larger than shrimps. I used prawns for this recipe, but like you, I’m used to saying ‘shrimps’, big or small. That’s OK. I guess. 

• 200 ml coconut milk
• half a garlic bulb, minced
• 1 large white onion, sliced
• 15 – 20 pieces medium-sized prawns, peeled and deveined.
• a few pieces of the prawn heads, the sharp pointy things (it’s called a rostrum) and whiskers snipped
• 1 – 2 tablespoons garam masala
• a few dashes red chili flakes
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1/2 tablespoon turmeric powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 – 5 pieces roasted garlic segments (optional)
• a few pieces roasted tomatoes 
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1. Prepare the roasted tomatoes. If you want to roast the garlic, roast it will the tomatoes. I slice around 1/4 inch off the top of the garlic bulb to expose the flesh, then drizzle it with olive oil, salt and pepper. 
2. In a pan, heat both oils over medium heat. When hot, add the onions, then the garlic. Saute until fragrant. 
3. Add the coconut milk, then the shrimps heads. Lower the heat to low. Add the garam masala, turmeric, chili flakes and peanut butter. Season with salt and pepper. Adjust taste, color and consistency to your liking. 
4. Add the roasted garlic and mash with your spoon to incorporate. 
5. Add the shrimps/prawns and crank up the heat to medium, and cook until both sides turn orange in color, around 3 – 5 minutes. Remove the shrimp heads. 
6. Add the roasted tomatoes at the last second and mix well. Remove from heat and serve. Enjoy! 

Sinigang na Hipon/Shrimp Sinigang

Really sour. That’s how I like my sinigang. Be it fish, shrimp or pork, as long as I’m slurping a bowl of rich tangy broth, I’m good. Sinigang, to all y’all clueless, is the Filipino ‘soup’, characterized by the meat/whole protein, vegetables, and a souring agent – usually sampalok (tamarind).

The only cop-out with this classic soup, that sits well with me,  is the use of powdered soup mix (called Sinigang sa Sampalok). Every corner store, wet market and grocery carries sachets of this in its many brands and forms. So to put it out there: I’ve never had sinigang that wasn’t prepared and soured using the powdered mix. But like I said, it works for me.

Shrimp sinigang/Sinigang na Hipon sits at the top of the list of my favorite soups. I like how it gives the soup a fresh, subtle, “from the sea” flavor, that broth cubes just can’t give. Compared to adding pork in your sinigang, shrimp isn’t  greasy at all, and you can hardly see any oil globules floating on the surface of the soup. It’s not that I don’t enjoy eating pork sinigang, on the contrary, I love it. But I love this one more. So much more.

I associate a hot sour soup like this one with memories of summer. Growing up it was really during the summer that I had uninterrupted moments in the kitchen with my Mama Eng. I got to enjoy family lunches and dinners more, and admittedly, I had more variety with what I was eating – probably more vegetables. I can’t really remember it all.

If you want to make this (and I hope you do), don’t settle for the ones that are literally shrimps. Go for the big prawns. They’re meatier and pack more flavor. And don’t forget: really sour.

Sinigang na Hipon/Shrimp Sinigang (serves 6 – 8)

• 6 – 8 cups water
• around 15 – 20 prawns, head and shell intact, but barbs and long whiskers snipped with scissors
• 2 red onions, sliced
• 4 – 5 small tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 half an inch piece of ginger, intact
• 1 eggplant, sliced
• around 2 cups kangkong leaves or chili tops/leaves, washed under running water
• 1 cup/a bunch of string beans, sliced into 2 -3 inch pieces
• 1 cup malunggay/moringa leaves
• 2 10-gram sachets Sinigang sa Sampalok mix, or more if desired
• 1 sachet seasoning granules (I used Maggi Magic Sarap) or salt, to taste

1. In a stockpot, allow water to boil over medium heat.
2. When it’s boiling, add the shrimps, onions, tomatoes, ginger, eggplant and string beans. Cover and allow to cook for around 5  minutes, or until eggplant is tender. Season with salt or seasoning granules, to taste.
3. Add the rest of the vegetables and the sinigang mix. Lower the heat to medium-low. Mix everything together and adjust taste to your preference. When it starts to boil again, remove from heat. Serve with rice and enjoy!

Paella

Spanish by origin, but definitely with a Filipino ‘soul’, Paella has always been part of my operational definition of a ‘celebration’. A New Year’s feast for me would always involve a plate of bright light orange sticky rice flavored with the broth of delicious seafood, filled with tasty tender meat.

I remember when I celebrated my birthday at my barangay’s (community) health center waiting for expectant mothers to pop, I brought paella along with a few other dishes to share with my dutymates and instructor, and paella was most definitely the runaway bestseller. Until now people have been raving about my Mama Eng’s paella. It’s that good. She’s that amazing as a cook.

I’ve always had this preconceived notion that making paella would be intimidating, in the same way I find my grandmother’s Arroz Valenciana complicated. Semantically speaking, Valenciana doesn’t involve coloring the sticky rice, and her version has meat and no seafood. On the other hand, it’s not paella without the orange color and the flavor of seafood. Wikipedia might give additional definitions and interpretations that may vary from what I understand, but this is how our family deals with sticky rice.

I pestered Mama Eng to teach me how to make paella for our New Year’s celebration. I didn’t want my judgement to be clouded by another recipe that might confuse me. Her version is simply ‘the one’.

If your family has your own version of paella, you might find that her methods might stray from the conventional method of using a paellera. (We only use the paellera that my mom bought from La Tienda, a delicatessen and specialty store here in Zamboanga, as the serving container, sorry. ). She cooks everything separately then combines everything together in a large wok. A really large wok.

It’s elaborate, yes, but it ensures that everything is cooked thoroughly. Nobody wants to bite into crunchy, raw rice after all.

It’s not really a weekday dish. It’s more like a “lazy weekend with the family plus with more hands to help, the better” sort of thing.  Sure, paella is a dish you have to devote time and patience on, but the result is worth it.

The end product is really a thing of beauty. Really.

Mixed Paella (serves 10 – 12)

• 3 cups uncooked malagkit/sticky rice
• 3 cups uncooked white rice (whatever kind of rice you eat on a daily basis)
• 8 – 10 cups water (use warm water if you’re using dried annatto seeds; fresh seeds can “bleed” in cold tap water)
• ¼ – ½ cup annatto seeds
• Seafood: crabs, shrimps and clams (it’s up to you how much of these you want to put in)
• Enough water to cook the seafood in
• ½ kg pork belly, cut into 2-inch cubes
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 whole garlic heads, divided, minced
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 1 medium carrot, sliced
• 2 medium-sized potatoes, diced
• 10 – 15 pieces green beans, cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
• Salt and pepper, to taste

There's nothing like freshly cooked clams

COOK THE SEAFOOD:

1. In large pot, add the crabs and shrimps. In a separate pot, add the clams.
2.  Add enough water to cover the bottom of both pans and halfway to 3/4ths up the pile of seafood.
3. Sprinkle a little bit of salt into the pot. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to allow the broth to simmer and cook the seafood until pink (for the crabs and shrimp) or until the clam shells open. Discard any unopened clam shells.
4. Do not allow to water to completely evaporate by adding in water from time to time. By the time you’re done you should be left with a concentrated broth.

COOK THE MEAT:

1. In a wok, combine the pork with the soy sauce, 1 minced garlic bulb and fish sauce.
2. Cook over medium to high heat until liquid evaporates and fat renders.
3.  Toast the pork in its rendered fat until crisp but not burnt.

Rambutan this isn't; it's the fresh atsuete/annatto fruit

COOK THE RICE:

1. Combine annatto seeds with the water.
2. Allow the annatto seeds to “bleed” in the water until a distinct dark orange color is achieved. Add more seeds if desired.
3. To remove the seeds, run the water through a fine mesh strainer and into a large pot/rice cooker pot.
4. Wash and clean the rice. Add the rice into the pot with the annatto water.
5.  If you’re using a rice cooker, turn it on and allow the rice to cook, covered. If not, cover the pot and cook the rice over medium heat. Visual here
6. Minimize frequently removing the lid from time to time to ensure that the rice is cooked thoroughly. End product visual here

We used our prehistoric (traditional) stove top but a normal stove top would do

COOK THE VEGETABLES: In a pan over medium heat, fry the carrot and potatoes until cooked thoroughly. Visual here

COMBINE EVERYTHING:

1. In a large wok (large enough to hold EVERYTHING), toast the remaining garlic and onions.
2. Add the pork and green beans. Toast for a minute until green beans are coated with oil.
3. Reserve a handful of clam shells.
4. Add the remaining seafood into the wok together with 1 – 2 cups of its broth. Add more if desired
5. Add the fried vegetables.
6.  Combine everything together and season with a dash or two of salt and pepper.
7. Taste the broth to ensure that it is seasoned well. If not, add more of the seafood broth.
8. Add the cooked rice and using two long spatulas, stir everything together and let everything cook one final time for 2 – 3 minutes.
9. Remove from heat and garnish with clam shells. Serve warm and enjoy!

It’s nice to start off my 2012 posting a slightly challenging recipe. I’d like to believe it’s an indicator of things to come for me: more challenges but sweeter, tastier success (fingers crossed).

Gambas/Shrimps in Garlic Butter

I like the word ‘rustic’. Usually food bloggers like myself hide behind this word when we plate something without the frills and post it on our blog. Somebody from the Food Network said rustic means it doesn’t have to look pretty. I have to agree. Relative to some bloggers out there who have been given plates made by God, let’s just say I’m still getting there.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, you must have surmised that I take my food seriously. And as much as I love eating, I also equally enjoy the process of making food look good in photos. Sometimes I might produce something……well not really ugly, but I doubt that what I’ve made would whet appetites. Have I come a long way? Hell yeah. But there’s still a long way to go. I’m learning and I’m drowning in inspiration.

As a newbie, I enjoy the magic moments when everything just falls into place perfectly. The moment where you don’t have to force anything out of the food to make it look artificially good. It just does.

Who can say anything bad about shrimps, garlic and butter together? That’s a magic moment right there. This dish goes by a lot of names. Here in the Philippines we call it gambas. You can call it garlic shrimps. We can call it delicious anytime. It’s rustic because it’s simple. It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. I never should be.

I also made this for my Mama Eng. She’s my aunt who’s been with the family since before I was born. She survived taking care of three incredibly demanding baby boys, one of which is now 20 years old. It was her birthday yesterday and we thank God for the day she came into our lives. Hypertension and diabetes prohibits her from indulging, but for gambas, I think she made an exception.

For good measure, I sliced a pan de sal, brushed it with the gambas oil and toasted it. Rice? You don’t need it. When you serve gambas with toasted bread and allow the bread to absorb some of the fragrant and equally toasty sweet oil, it’s heaven. Heaven.

It was also the perfect time to practice my Masterchef (haha) skills. Jennifer, season 2 winner, said that shrimp heads can really add flavor to a dish. 

Gambas/Shrimps in Garlic Butter

• 1 kg large shrimp
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/8 – ¼ cup salted butter (one block is 1 cup; half of it lengthwise is ½ cup – I used ¼ cup but adjust to your liking)
• 1 tbsp gin (optional)
• 1 head of garlic, minced
• 1 white onion, sliced
• 1 eight inch lemongrass stalk (optional)
• A dash of thyme, paprika, chili flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Reserved shrimp heads (around 4)
• 1 pan de sal (or your preferred bread)

1. Peel and devein the shrimp.
2. In large pan enough to hold the shrimps over medium heat, add the olive oil and butter. Heat until butter melts and is foamy.
3. Add the onions, garlic and lemongrass. Fry until fragrant.
4. Add the shrimp heads, gin, thyme, paprika and chilli flakes. Season with salt, pepper.
5. Add the shrimps and cook until it becomes pink. Remove from heat.
6. Slice a pan de sal in half. Brush it with the garlic oil and toast until slightly brown. Do not allow to burn.
7. Serve hot and enjoy!

I received an email a few days ago from Kristina, an editor from Be @ Home, part of Become.com‘s blogging network. She told me that they wanted to give my blog an “Editor’s Choice” award! I was floored! You can see the badge on the sidebar, below my other foodista recognition. 🙂