Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Humble Mungo Guisado


I've been craving this for a long while and finally whipped up a batch yesterday. There is something so comforting and wholly satisfying about sitting down to a humble steaming bowl of mungo guisado.

I usually call my mom, for cooking instructions, but since she's is in the Philippines right now, I had to suffice with following recipes I found online. You can easily make this a vegetarian dish and it will still fill your tummy with goodness.

This is what I gathered online: Pre-boil the mung beans for about 30 min. Stir occasionaly to make sure the bottom doesn't burn. Sautee slices of pork in onions, garlic and tomatoes and patis (fish sauce) to taste. Stir in the cooked mung beans, along with as much broth as you want. I prefer my mungo to have lots of liquid. (Add shrimp and spinach) I would prefer to add kangkong leaves, but can't find them here in the desert. I'll have to see if LeeLee's or Mekong Plaza sells anything like it. But, a good alternative is spinach. Serve over steamed rice or eat without rice. Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Gingerroot - 1st Impression

"Will go back for more." by CACTUSmango (1 review) February 17, 2009 - Likes it - I can say that I have stopped over for just a quick bite. I was running errands along Chandler Blvd. and my curiousity brought me to their hidden spot.

I loved loved loved their Kalamansi juice. It was spot on authentic, refreshing citrus drink that I enjoyed while living in the Philippines...It didn't taste watered down nor sugared up. This alone is cause for me to go out of my way to come back to Gingerroot.

I also ordered the Lumpia or Crispy Spring Roll appetizer to go and ate it while driving around doing my errands. They were piping hot, perfectly crispy on the outside, and the ground pork filling was tender with finely chopped chestnuts adding a nice delicate texture. Since, I was eating this in my car, I only occassionaly got to dip my Lumpia in their sauce, but, I must say...very nice, sweet 7 sour sauce. Also, the price of $7 for the Lumpia is well warranted, because they do not just give you three small rolls. There were roughly 8 pieces. I didn't get an exact count, because I ate them so quickly. Nor did I take any pictures, again, because I gobbled these up.

The gentleman serving me was friendly & informative. The food came out quickly. My hubby & I are planning on going there to try their dinner menu this Thursday. One thing I didn't tell my hubby, is that I saw they have a Magic Mic set up in one corner...If you know me, then you know how excited I was too see that.

And I'll be back to give an update with photos.

Gingerroot on Urbanspoon

Monday, December 15, 2008

Quick Bite Recipe: Bread Salad

I never had bread salad before, until I ate at Wildflower Bread Company on McClintock and Guadalupe. I really loved it. Wildflower's bread salad is called Tomato Bread Salad ($5.29) and has bread, tomato, garlic, basil, parsley, red wine vinegar, red peppers, marinated mushrooms and olive oil, served atop field greens with grated Parmesan and Balsamic Vinaigrette. They also put a scoop with the sandwiches. That's where I first sampled it.

I inquired about what particular Wildflower bread variety is used, bought their Nine Grain loaf and set out to make my own batch at home. I've made it several times now for myself, Wednesday Night Dinners and other gatherings. The first time I made it, I added fresh mozzarella balls and dumped a container of marinated artichoke hearts/mushrooms all from the olive bar inside Safeway, which was recently listed as #2 Healthiest Grocery Store in the nation. I'm lucky to have one within walking distance from our house. As I don't get to Wildflower that often, I switch up the bread with whatever's on sale at either Safeway or the Marketside (also just a hop skip away). Tonight, I made a batch (with mainly organic or natural ingredients) for hubby & I.

Tools

Washed Hands
Peeler
Kitchen Sheers
Med-Large Salad Bowl

Ingredients (Just toss whatever you like right into your salad!)

1 slice of Organic Provolone Cheese (hand torn into bite sized pieces)
2 slices of Oven Roasted Deli Turkey (I use Hormel Natural Choice.)
1 slice of Light Whole Wheat Bread (hand torn into bite sized pieces)
1 handful of True North Pistachio Chips (crumbled up)
1/4 peeled red apple (sliced into 1/4 in. sticks with kitchen sheers)
4 Organic Whole Dried Montmorency Cherries (cut up with kitchen sheers)
5 capfuls of Organic Balsamic Vinaigrette
3 handfuls of Organic Herb Pre-washed Salad

Steps

1. Hand tear cheese/bread/ham and crumble pistachio chips into bite sized pieces, directly into salad bowl.

2. Peel apple. Slice apples, tomatoes & cranberries into bite sizes. (It doesn't have to be precise. I use kitchen sheers so that I can slice the tomatoes, apples & cranberries right into the bowl. )

3. Drizzle 2-3 capfuls of balsamic vinaigrette into the bowl. Mix 'til bread is thoroughly coated & has absorbed the vinaigrette.
4. Toss in the greens and mix well with the remaining vinaigrette.
I know this seems like a recipe soley for the spring and summer...but, I love the nuttiness, sweet & tart fresh taste of all the ingredients, which definitely gives that warm happy feeling on this cold Decemeber day.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Cozy Spot. Good Eats.

We go to Yuma every holiday to visit our parents and this Thanksgiving weekend, I was so happy that we tried a local restaurant instead of a big chain. To me, River City Grill was a pleasant change in routine.

While our mom was quite hesitant to give this place a chance, because of it's location, brother-in-law & I were able to convice her. Parking is street side, just like many of the "houses turned restaurants" in Tempe and Phoenix. I liked the terra cotta painted exterior, the stained glass windows in the front, the tchotchke wall decor and large colorful mural inside. (Note: The front desk is situated within an arms reach from the front door. It's a tight squeeze. Perhaps if they had the doors left open and against the walls, this set up wouldn't be cramped.)

All the "Black Friday" bargain shoppers surely flocked to the new shopping center, so we had the place to ourselves. That was perfect, since we wanted to avoid a long wait & a crowd. We arrived a little after 1pm and they end their lunch hours at 2pm.

Everything on the Lunch and Dinner menu was open for us to order from. Mind you, the waitress explained they are planning on changing the menu soon...So, the food we ate today, might not be on the menu tomorrow.

We ordered for appetizers crab&salmon cakes with spicy Thai peanut sauce and Hummus with grilled pita triangles. The cakes were nicely cooked, not overcooked, lightly crispy on the outside. if you like things uber crispy, then you might not like these. Mom & I enjoyed the little side veggies & peanut sauce. if you come just by yourself. You could make the Crab & Salmon Cakes as a little meal. The texture & taste of the Hummus was just right and fresh and plenty to share with our family of 5.












We also were served slices of warm crusty bread with EVOO/balsamic, that the waitress refilled for us later too. Hubby had a tomato bisque arrive that went with his Bacon Bleu Cheese Kobe burger. The bisque had a nice balsamic drizzle for presentation & great texture and was not overly salted. Hubby liked dredging his bread in it as well.












Our food arrived shortly after we finished off the appetizers. Hubby sliced the burger in half & saved the other for take-home. (We were all starting to feel full before the entrees arrived.) He liked the meat - said it was good, but that he realized he's not a fan of the strong taste of Bleu Cheese. They do offer the Kobe burger with grilled onions instead.
Brother Ray loves pesto pasta, so he ordered the Chicken Dijon with penna pasta & cilantro pesto. He was disappointed with it, because he was invisioning more pesto. In hind sight, I suppose we could have asked for a side of pesto sauce.

BIL tasted a bite of my Indian Curried Chicken and instantly wished he'd ordered that instead. I love all kinds of curry dishes and am not snooty or picky about it. I rather enjoyed my dish, and loved alternating bites with the variety of sides offered with the plate. I read some people's reviews about the veggies being "mushy", but, I found that in this curry dish, I enjoyed the soft yellow squash, onions and zucini slices. I think if they were crunchy or more firm, that it'd be wierd in a curry dish. They did have one piece of brocolli for garnish that was appropriately firm.
Dad on the other hand was turned off by the idea of fruit with the curry, so he ordered the Coconut Curry Shrimp served in a coconut shell instead. This dish gets high points for presentation and for the size & quantity of shrimp. Dad counted 7 large shrimp. Dad tasted the Indian Curry and decided he liked coconut with his curry better.

Mom, the one who was the least excited to eat here, enjoyed her choice of Mustard Crusted Salmon (with the same pesto pasta). She didn't care for the vinegary & salty taste of the olive tepanad, but I happily ate it for her. Mom said the salmon preperation was nice/cooked just right. She's not a fan of heavy dishes, not really a big pasta eater, and would have loved veggies, so for those reasons she still likes the grilled salmon at Red Lobster. There are several other Salmon entrees to choose from here, including a Wild Grilled Salmon, which perhaps she would have been a closer comparison for mom to try.


Overall, our experience was above average for local small (non-chain) Yuma restaurants and give this place a thumbs up from each of us. I'm already eyeing the spicy cajun Seafood Gumbo, the Pistachio Crusted Salmon with goat cheese ravioli, black beans & chipotle sauce. On our next holiday in Yuma, we'd eat here again for sure!
---------------
River City Grill
600 W. 3rd St.
Yuma, Arizona
928.782.7988
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River City Grill on Urbanspoon

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Our family started off this morning watching CNN's coverage as we stood around the counter and ate humble pandesal sandwhiches.
For this simple meal, mom made over-easy eggs, sliced & toasted pandesal (from San Diego), and placed cold slices of Honey Baked Ham (that my BIL Ray brought from Mesa).
This Thanksgiving morning, I'm happy to be with family, but am feeling somber and in prayer for those who're being terrorized in Mumbai since yesterday. Please keep the families there in your hearts in the coming days and pray for peace.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

MarMars' Spam Musubi Recipe

For those that cringe at the thought of spam anything, then this post is not for you, so go away. :) But for those that know how addicting spam musubi can be, stay and drool with me. A few months back, my friends & I were in awe of these breaded spam musubi brought to Ryan & Blenda's baby shower. (I can't recall who made them, but I'll update that bit of info, when I find out.) So, Let's just say, the musubi tray was wiped out in the blink of an eye. I was lucky to literally lunge across the sink & grab the last piece. Oh yes, I had no shame. That spam musubi had my name on it. The spam slices were lightly breaded (probably with Panko) & fried; then wrapped neatly in blocks of white sticky rice and seaweed, then cut halfway on the diagonal; drizzled lightly with a teriyaki type sauce. The crunch texture was the perfect contrast to the soft rice and chewy seaweed. These hefty handfuls were so simple, so yummy, and so perfectly compact. And they left a warm fond memory on all our bellies.

Since then, our groups of friends have gobbled up two more variations of this spam musubi: recently Nelly & Ninette made a batch for Mia's birthday party, non-fried, but the spam was marinated in a soy based mixture...oooh yeah. And when it was my turn to cook for When's d Night Dinner. That time, Ron rigged up his own sushi mold by cutting off the bottom of Spam can, and using a slice of spam to compress the rice down. Worked out pretty good. But, wasn't so neat and even though we pinched down the edges of the can, it was still a bit dangerous sticking our hands into the can. Thankfully, all digits were left intact.
This Saturday, Ron had a hankering for Spamsilog: spam, rice with 2 over easy eggs for breakfast. So of course, I obliged and fed my man exactly that. But, I had other plans for my three slices of spam...I'm sure it's obvious what I had in mind.

And thanks to Ninette, my Spam Musubi turned out perfectly shaped with the brand new plexi-musibi maker. It's so pretty! It cost $11 and I think she picked it up at either Lee Lee's or Mekong Plaza. I love it!

My version is basically a combination of all varieties of Spam Musubi that we've enjoyed the last couple months: Marinated spam, breaded and fried spam, plus the extra touches of scrambled egg and pandesal bread crumbs! (Yes, pandesal bread crumbs, baby. I didn't finish the dozen Manila Bakery pandesal, so, rather than let it rot in the trash bin, I gave it a second life. It's final life ended in my backyard compost bin, courtesy of my buddy Myrna, whose passionate about many things, composting is not one of them, which turned out good for me.)

***Disclaimer, I don't tend to follow recipes, so I think it's funny that I'm posting a recipe here, since I didn't really follow any exact measurements. I just taste, things while I cook, adding more seasoning as I go. Hence, my recipe...it's really a guide...so these measurements are guestimations. Good luck!

MarMars' Spam Musubi
PREP TIME 4 MIN COOKING TIME 10 MIN SERVES 3-4

Spam Marinade
6T Soy Sauce
2T Mirin
2T Vinegar
2T Peanut Oil
2t Sesame Seeds

Whisk all these up.

Slice the spam to the desired thickness. I used the spam slicer (love this! thanks rod!) Marinade the spam for about 5 minutes. Pan fry the spam 'til nice & crispy. Dry on paper towels.

Breaded Spam
1 can of Spam
2-3 Hard Pandesal (crumbled up) - I bought mine from Manila Bakery, but didn't eat them fast enough. So, instead of trashing them, I figured I'd make it into bread crumbs...and whatever I didn't use went into my compost bin.
2 cups Panko breading (just depends, you may need to add more as you go)
2 egg whites (whisked)
2 cups flour

Mix the Pandesal crumbs with the Panko breading. Lightly cover each fried spam with flour. Quickly dredge in the whisked egg whites, then quickly coat in the Pandesal/Panko mixture. And fry until browned. Set aside on paper towel.

Scrambled Eggs
2 whole eggs
3 T Mirin

Whisk the eggs & mirin thoroughly. Pan fry on low heat. The finished scrambled egg should be very thin. Set aside.

Sticky Rice
1c White Rice (recommend Calrose)I had Jasmine on hand.
2T Sweet Saki (optional)
1T Sugar (optional)
1T Furikake (optional)

Mix the above ingredients together. Set aside.

And, of course you'll need a bag of Nori. I just eyeballed to make sure the Nori equaled the length of the musubi and made the Nori as long as I'd need to wrap around the musubi. So, it will vary, depending on how much rice you like, if you do a single layer or double layer of rice.

Time to Assemble the Musubi

You will need the musubi mold

Or if you want to go MacGyver style, carefully remove the bottom of the Spam can. Use a nose head plyer and pinch down any sharp edges. On our first attempt, we did this...but still got nicked. So, thank you Ninette for the $11 upgrade!

Here's a series of photos showing how I assembled the musubi:












To seal the nori, just dap lightly a wet fingertip along one edge of the nori, then fold. And gobble it up, like me, I ate as I finished wrapping.











Now, if you'd like to try out another Spam Musubi recipe, by all means go for it, there's a multitude of ways to personalize your own Spam Musubi experience. Here's just a few that you might like to try by: Cooking Cute, Rashad Maiden, What's Cooking America, Kathy YL Chan, and a YouTube vid by Single Guy Chef showing the macguiver style use of a can of spam as the mold. This last method is not recommended for the accident prone chef.










Monday, November 17, 2008

Oh Romeo...













Soup of the Day (sounded really yummy, but passed on it, since it too was creamy like my dish…fortunately, hubby did let me enjoy a spoonful . Yum! Light soupy cream, red bell peppers…a little touch of spice, not salty…was there meat in it? I can’t recall.)


$9.50 - Feta Dill Fritters: A blend of gyros meat, feta cheese, fresh dill, spinach and pine nuts. Served with yogurt sauce. The three of us, all had our eyes on this and it was also our waiters favorite appetizer. He wisely suggested that one appetizer would be good for us…These were lovely every bite: Crunchy on the outside, warm and savory on the inside. The yogurt sauce brightened up the slightly heavy appetizer and made you think you could eat more.

$9 regular price, but had it as a side to my entrée. Bleu Cesar Salad: Tomatoes, spring onions, red peppers and capers, tossed with bleu cheese, Italian dressing on romaine lettuce with homemade croutons. Anchovies. I don’t mine had Anchovies, but this little salad was clean and simply delicious every bite. But, by now, I was starting to get full and worried, I wouldn’t have room for my entrée and dessert!

$15 - Penne Carbonara: Ham and bacon sautéed with red and green bell peppers in creamy cheese sauce with penne pasta . This was the birthday boy’s selection and yet again, I was able to sample a yummy mouthful. I’m a believer in that if the dish has bacon in it, then it’s going to be good. In addition to the bacon, the sauce was my favorite. It was creamy, but not too heavy, which is contrary to the Carbonara I’ve had a few times before. Again, not a bad thing. This was so good the next day too. Plenty of left overs.

$18 - Tortellini Kalypso: Crab meat, asparagus, red peppers, garlic, onions with tricolor cheese tortellini in creamy white wine sauce. This was my dish and it’s a beauty. Colorful pasta and veggies and you wouldn’t know it by looking at it, but every bite, had a large chunk of real crab meat. That alone made this dish a winner for me. While the price tag looks steep, it’s worth it, because this dish was deep. I was thouroughly bursting, but was surprised to see I barely made a dent.

$ 17 - Garlic Pesto Chicken: Chicken breast sautéed with roasted garlic, pine nuts and olive oil in basil pesto cream. My brother-in-law Ray wanted to test out what his favorite dish would taste like here at Euro Café. He liked it a lot, but wasn’t feeling the extra creaminess of the sauce…he also preferred the lighter cream sauce of the Carbonara dish.

Euro Café doesn’t have a set Dessert Menu because the selection varies day to day, depending on how long it takes them to make. While my two companions, were too stuffed to stand, I gleefully mozied over to the dessert counter and ogled at all the goodies behind the glass. I finally decided upon two truffles and a slice of three-layered cheesecake labeled “Fantasy” as an ode to my hubby’s favorite online sports pastime. I let our waiter know that the three of would be sharing the desserts and walked back excitedly to our table. The desserts were served a few moments later, but the waiter teased, by placing a truffle in front of Ron & Ray and the huge cheesecake slice in front of me! LOL! We shared, honest! Ok, well, I finished up the cake…and the chocolate drizzles…As if that wasn’t enough, Ray, ordered a Baklava Cheesecake to-go! He told me later, that it was goooooood. Judging from what we ate that night, I believe him.

Pecan (Fantasy) Cheesecake (I think this was about $5 a slice)
Chocolate Powdered Truffle (This was about $1.50)
Chocolate Ganache Pecan Truffle (This was a little more than $1.50)
Baklava Cheesecake (Don’t know, Ray got this to take home.)
Refillable Drinks:
Wine? (Ray had a glass…I can’t remember what kind.)
Passion fruit tea $2.25 (just a regular flavored tea, good.)

Needless to say, we will go back to Romeo’s Euro Café several more times.

Heritage Court
207 North Gilbert Road

Romeo's Euro Cafe on Urbanspoon