A little Penne with some Zukes

All little zucchini didn't hurt any pasta. So they've become good friends. Simple, easy to make and delish for a last minute dinner idea.

This with a little homemade garlic bread. yum-o!


Penne Pasta with Zucchini

2 medium sized Zucchini (peeled and sliced into coins or half-moons)
3 roma tomatoes (diced)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1 Tbps dry Thyme
1 Tbsp dry parsley
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2/3 of a box of penne rigate
manchego cheese
salt and pepper to taste.

Making pasta: Bring a large pot filled with water to a boil on medium to high heat. When the water is nearly bubbling like crazy, sprinkle liberally with salt and add in pasta. It will cook in about 12 min then drain.

Heat a large sauce pan and coat the bottom with olive oil. When the oil is hot, saute the garlic for 30 sec then add the roma tomatoes, zucchini, thyme and parsley. Season with some salt and pepper. Cooking until the zucchini is tender. Stir occasionally. Drizzle in more olive oil and add in the pasta and combine well.

Put a nice helping in a plate and top with some freshly shredded manchego cheese.

Pinoy Style Fried Rice (aka Garlic Fried Rice)

Garlic fried rice is the Filipino version of the traditional fried rice found in Chinese cuisine. No carrots. No peas or chicken. Just garlic and little bit of margarine and an optional scrambled egg mixed in.

This dish holds a very special place in my heart because it's the very first thing I ever learned how to cook. I was probably in the 4th or 5th grade then. Can you imagine a ten-year-old alone in the kitchen? And I wasn't making toast. Never had a home economics class either. It was from watching my mom cook this over and over that I learned to make it myself. I remember I wanted to surprise my her with a nice meal when she got home. I pretended that I had my own restaurant. On the menu was garlic fried rice and slices of pan-fried spam. (Filipinos love that spam!!) I remember printing out little menus and drawing fancy borders on them then putting it in a pee chee folder. My restaurant then was called J & J Restaurant. The other "J" being my mom. It's a simple dish and the Filipino way of comfort food.

The rice. No Asian household is without a rice cooker. It's a must and very essential. To cook rice over the stove, click here. I'd tell you myself, but I've never cooked it over on stove pot. Except maybe for Arroz Caldo. (Chicken Rice Soup) That will be for a future post.

If you've got left over white rice from your Chinese take-out, use that too. For the margarine in this recipe, I use Star Margarine. It's a product of the Philippines that's been around since the 1930s. I believe it's now sold in the Asian aisle of some super markets here in the US. Not just in the local Asian markets. It's really good on toasted pan de sal or sliced bread with sugar sprinkled over it. But you can use any margarine of you choosing.

The memories are flooding back. Now 15 years later, I'm still cooking it.


Garlic Fried Rice

1 Large Garlic cloves (sliced or minced)
3 c Cooked Rice (rough estimate)
2-3 Tbs Margarine
1 Tbs Oil (vegetable, olive or canola)
Salt to season
1 egg (beaten - optional)

Heat the oil in a large pan, pot or wok. Cook the garlic until they start to turn brown, then add in the rice. Toss constantly for a couple of minutes, then season with a little salt and add the margarine. Again tossing constantly

When the margarine has dissolved into the rice you can add the optional egg. Again toss for another minute or so or until egg is cooked, then serve.


If you feel like adding more garlic or margarine, go right ahead. You can eat this for breakfast (most Asian cultures eat fried rice for breakfast), lunch or dinner. Either alone, with a fried egg or a side dish of your choice. I usually like to eat this with a freshly diced tomato or my personal favorite some banana ketchup. More on that later. Yum!

Sweet & Sour "See"-Food

Who doesn't love Chinese food? In my every attempt to somewhat healthify whatever I eat, I made some Sweet and Sour "See"-Food. Get it? "See"-food. (insert brief pause. *crickets*) Because you see before you eat. Anyway, it's actually catfish and tiger prawns, but what the heck. Clever, eh?

Traditionally, the "meat" is covered in a tempura-like batter and deep-fried. But I used my usual breading procedure and baked it in the oven instead. It tastes like from a restaurant. Looks like it can be from a restaurant. My kitchen is my restaurant. My dining table is, well, my dining table sans lazy susan.

If you do want to go the more traditional route, you can use cube-chopped pork, beef or chicken. Deep-dry it with an all-purpose flour and cornstarch coating. It just so happens that I saw some fresh looking seafood at the market and went for it.

This is my entry to LK's (Healthy Delicious) Meat-Free Friday Roundup/

Btw, that's me holding the chopsticks. Not fun trying to snap the photos left-handed while trying to hold a piece of fish between two sticks. There's not much room for a tripod. LOL.



Sweet & Sour "See"-Food

Baked Catfish & Prawns:

1 large catfish fillet (cut to 2" pieces)
1/2 lb jumbo prawns (your choice of species - deveined and shelled)
2 Eggs
1/2 c Milk
4 Tbsp All-Purpose Four
1 1/2 c panko crumbs
Salt & Pepper to season


Sweet & Sour Sauce:

Sweet & Sour Sauce (my recipe click here)
1 red bell pepper (chopped)
1 yellow bell pepper (chopped)
1/2 small onion (quartered)
1 8oz can pineapple chucks w/juice


Note: the juice in the pineapple chucks will substitute for the juice that's called for in the original recipe. No need to extra.

Preheat oven 325˚F

In three separate containers: 1-all purpose flour. 2-eggs and milk beaten together (seasoned with a little salt. 3-panko crumbs

Before breading, season the fish and prawns with salt and pepper. Then coat each piece with the flour, egg, then panko. In that order. Place on a baking sheet or pan.

Bake for 30 min. Flip the fish and prawns half way through to get an even browning.

Saute the bell peppers and onions in a saucepan until peppers are slightly tender and the onions are limp and transparent. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside in a dish.

Cook the sweet and sour sauce in a large saucepan minus the pineapple juice.

Bring it to a simmer on low heat then add in the bell peppers, onions and pineapple chunks plus juice. Stir to combine.

When the fish and shrimp are done baking let them cool for 5-10 minutes before adding them to the sweet and sour sauce. Then gently stir them in coating each piece and mixing it with the bell peppers and onions.

Serve with a bowl of steamed or fried-rice.

Mushroom Avocado Quesadillas

I had an extra avocado, so I needed to do something with it. First thing that popped into my mind was a cheese quesadilla. But I didn't want to make guacamole out of it. That would have been a given. Though, as much as I love the dip form, I love more the freshly opened and eat with the spoon way.

This makes 2 quesadillas.



Mushroom Avocado Quesadillas

Whole Wheat Tortillas (6" sized)
Shredded Mild Cheddar Cheese
2 Large Portobello Mushroom caps (rough chopped)
1 medium sized tomato (diced)
1 ripe avocado (sliced)
1 Tbps Butter or margarine
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper to season
Shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese (optional)
Chopped cilantro (optional)


On medium heat, heat the oil and melt the butter. Once the oil is heated toss in the portabello slices. Cook them until tender and darker in color. Season with some salt and pepper.

Sandwich the cheese between two tortillas and in another pan (medium to high) heat the tortillas until the cheese is melted.

It'll take roughly 3-5 minutes for the cheese to melt and the tortilla to get slightly crisp. Flip the quesadilla and heat the other side for another 3-5 min.

Remove from the skillet and open the quesadilla. Add in the some of the portabellos, tomato, avocado and some of the optional cilantro.

Serve with a side of sour cream.

Note: Toss the avocado with some lemon juice to keep it from instantly turning brown.

Eggplant Parmesan - Dinner for Two

I decided to make some eggplant parmesan for dinner. I baked the eggplant rather than fry it before hand as some recipes tend to call for. The pic below has a paprika bottle in it, which is actually supposed to be oregano. I didn't realize that I had put the wrong herb out until I already started cooking.



Ingredients:

2 medium sized eggplants

1 1/2 c Panko Crumbs
1/2 Grated Parmesan
1 egg

1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 small tomato diced and deseeded
1/4 sweet onion (chopped)
1 garlic clove (minced)
1 tsp dry basil
1 tsp dry parsley
1 tsp dry oregano
Salt and pepper

fresh mozzorella

Preheat oven to 375˚


For marinara sauce:
in a sauce pan, heat some extra virgin olive oil and sautee the garlic. Add onions and cook until semi-translucent. Then add in diced tomatoes and stir to mix flavors. Add in tomato sauce. Season with basil, parsley, oregano and a nice pinch of salt and pepper. Cook to simmer.

Baked Eggplant:
Grease baking sheet or ovenware with a little olive or canola oil. (I use pam)

Cut off both ends of each eggplant, slice down the center and divide each half into two. You should have 8 pieces. You may peel the skin, if you'd like.

In two separate dishes, place one with the panko crumbs and parmesan, the other with the egg - scrambled. Dip each piece of eggplant in the egg (coating well), then into the crumb mix (again coating well) and place onto baking pan.

Bake in oven for a good 20-30min.

To serve in casserole, ladle 1/3 of the tomato sauce coating the bottom. Arrange eggplant accordingly on top and pour over the rest of the sauce. Place pieces of the mozzarella on top and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the cheese look like melted blobs.




My wacked scoop, which doesn't do the inside justice. But it was delicious.