Second Part

Was so tired and sleepy the other night that I was only able to finish one post (First Entree). Actually, as I was doing that post I was cooking another dish for dinner (talk about multitasking!). It is supposed to be mixed vegetables only but I thought I'm making a lot and I couldn't finish it all so I ended up making "soba". I'm not a noodle lover. My stomach always grumble when I try to eat some. I don't know why but every time I eat it I ended up inside the toilet. I guess my stomach is not really for noodles. Though you can make me eat it as long as there's bread.

Anyways, what made me cook soba? A few weeks ago, the local community group (Honjo International Friendship Association) had a BBQ party and one of the food they served was soba. It was good, umm sorry, great! It is different from the soba that I knew, the one that they have in Tokyo Tokyo (a Japanese restaurant in Manila). Here the noodles are thin and tasted more like Lucky Me pancit canton (I'm not advertising. I guess they should pay me for this. hehehe). With vegies as key ingredients. But for the one that I prepared, I put in some chicken meat to add flavors (though I can't really eat without meat). Other ingredients are the same except that I couldn't find the seasoning that they used so I just bought the one in packs of three (3) (seasoning included).

Cooking it is quite simple. All we need are the following:

• 1/2 pc onion (sliced)
• 1 pc medium size carrot (sliced into thin strips)
  
• 150gms bean sprouts (toge)
• 200gms cabbage (sliced into thin strips
  
• 250gms chicken breast meat (diced)
• 3 packs soba noodles with seasoning
• pepper and salt to taste
• 2 tblspoon oil
  

How to do it:

1. In a big pan, heat oil and saute chicken breast until it change color.
2. Add the onions and carrots. Mix.
3. Put in the cabbage and bean sprouts. Mix again and add some pepper and salt to taste. Cover for about a minute.
4. After a minute, put in the soba noodles and add the seasoning. Mix well. Ensure that all the noodles are covered with the seasoning.
5. Soba is best with grilled meat (pork or sausages). If you don't have one, you could also try grilled fish just like I did.

Here is the finish product. Enjoy!

First Entree

For our first entree (pronounced with a French accent) we have here a "recycled" macaroni dish (Tattooed On My Mind - Maskipaps!) which I cooked yesterday for dinner. Recycled in a way that the main ingredient (which is the sauce) came from a leftover soup my friend gave me yesterday. Since I was already planning to make pasta for dinner and was really very hungry that time, I came up with this dish which I aptly called "Cheezy Sausage Macaroni" since the soup tasted a little bit cheezy maybe because of the sausage used. Anyways, here are the ingredients:

• 100 g Macaroni shells (or whatever is available)
• 1 pack (160mg) mushrooms
• 50 g Brocolli (this one is also a leftover from my previous cooking)
• 1/2 cup full cream milk (I substituted this one since I don't have all-purpose cream)
• parmesan cheese

the soup contains the following:

• sausages (sliced)
• smoked ham (diced)
• pineapple chunks
• onions

* notice that I didn't put in salt and pepper since the soup base already has flavours.

How to do it:

For the macaroni

1. Prepare the macaroni by heating up some water first. When it starts to boil, add a teaspoon of cooking oil and a dash of salt. Notice that I put in the oil and salt when the water starts to boil and not earlier. Puting the salt while starting to heat up the water will only slow down the heating process.
2. Pour in the macaroni, stiring once in a while to prevent from sticking at the bottom of the pot. Check for the consistency of the macaroni. If biting on it is like biting a gum, then it is ready and done. Remove water.

For the sauce

1. Since the soup has excess liquids, I simmer it up until I got the right amount of liquid for my sauce.
2. Once I got the consistency, I added the mushrooms and the milk, stirring lightly so the sauce do not stick on the pan. Simmer for about a minute.
3. Add the brocolli and let it simmer for another 2 minutes stirring occasionally. Do not overcook the brocolli.
4. Set the macaroni in a plate and pour over the sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

The taste would be somewhat creamy because of the sausage and the added milk. Also, brocolli gives out a creamy taste that will add flavour to the sauce. What I cooked is actually good for two but if you are like me, you could eat it all up. Some rye bread compliments this dish, if you don't have one, any unsweetened bread will do.

Maskipaps!

Earlier this week I was thinking of making a blog site about the dishes that comes out from my kitchen. I was inspired by the various blog sites I have visited and so I was wondering, why don't I do one. Just for fun. So I am here now seated writing this first entry about my various adventure with my kitchen.

So what would it be? What would be a good name for the site? Cafe Miguel? Kusina ni Miguel? Kusina ni Michael? Lutong Bahay? hmm...sounds more like a name for a cafeteria or your nearest "carinderia". How about "MASKIPAPS!"? Yup that's it! "Maskipaps!" is a very good name. Why? Well "Maskipaps!" is short for "MASKI PAPaano" (however/whatever --> have I made the right translations?). I used to remember my mom's cooking. Sometimes we ask her the name of the dish and she will just answer back "maskipaps". So we thought, at that time (I was too young to know), that it was the name of the dish. But then, everytime we ask her about the names of the other dishes she prepares, she replies with "maskipaps". Then we learned that it was just a term she use to describe a cooking of sorts (I am too glad that I survived!).

So here I am now, doing a blog site for my own style of cooking. Maskipaps I'll call it, though sometimes I use cook books or follow what's on TV. But most of the time, it is basically instinct, hoping that whatever I mix in the pan would come out nice and eatable. Hopefully, I will survive the little "experiments" I am doing in the kitchen and would be able to write all about it here. Also, I would be uploading pics of those "interesting" dishes for you to savore. Just don't sue me if ever you tried some and ended at the ER. Again, trying out some is at your own risk. Bon appetit!