Category: Appetizers

You Don’t Know Jack

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Well, at least we didn’t, until this week. I’m talking about this interesting little fruit we learned about while exploring Filipino recipes, the jackfruit – but more on that in a minute. We wanted something sweet to go along with our baked tahong and after Kay over at Pure Complex posted her Friday recipes last week, we knew a meal of appetizers was going to fit the bill. That’s when we came across the recipe for Turon Saba, a sweet banana (plantain) and jackfruit (or langka) spring roll, often served as a street snack in the Philippines.

The recipe seemed easy enough. We just needed plantains, jackfruit, brown sugar and spring roll wrappers. Miss A and I were really excited when we found the jackfruit at the grocery store. We had no idea that this even existed before this week, and yet here it was right on our grocery store’s shelves. And what was even better, the spring roll wrappers were right next to the jackfruit. So with all of our ingredients on hand, we started by peeling and slicing the plantains and laying out the jackfruit. 

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Mussel Mania

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After our delicious foray into all things seasonal and pumpkin-y, we’re back to wrap up our cooking adventure in the Philippines. As our starting point we again turned to Raymund’s site, Ang Sarap, for reference and that’s where we came upon his recipe for Baked Tahong, or baked mussels.  Given how much all four of us love mussels, our recipe selection was a no-brainer.

Before we dove in, we did a bit of further exploring on other Filipino recipe sites and then put together our own take on the dish. However, we knew to make the mussels as authentically as possible, one thing was certain, we needed to find green mussels. Fortunately we found a box of frozen New Zealand green mussels on the half shell after only one other grocery stop – given that sometimes we go to five different stores to find the more exotic ingredients, this was a big win. Continue reading →

Rockin’ the Pumpkin

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We’ve got one more pumpkin recipe for you before we head back to sampling recipes from the Philippines. This particular dish makes use of the leftover roasted pumpkin we had from our risotto and makes for a great lunch or side salad. If you don’t have any leftover pumpkin on hand, it’s simple to roast up a fresh batch, just allow for an extra hour of cooking time.

So what is this easy, tasty and refreshing pumpkin recipe? The Pumpkin and Couscous Rocket Salad. Yep, it’s healthy and offers some much-needed freshness after all the Halloween sweets and treats. We started by preparing our couscous. We used a whole wheat couscous, chicken stock, dry white wine, fresh sage, lemon zest and lemon juice. 

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Pear-ific

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Since we’re enjoying our pears around here, we thought we’d share this one before we head off to Mr. N’s new international destination. It doesn’t really fit with any particular region or state; although we did use our Canadian Ice Syrup again. Not to worry if you don’t have any, maple syrup will do the trick. We’re calling these Grilled Pears with Iced Mascarpone.

Start with some Bosc pears, slice them in half, scoop out the core and remove the stem. 

Next it’s time to poach the pears. We used a combination of water, white wine, vanilla, lemon juice and sugar for our pears. We first dissolved the sugar before adding the pears to the liquid. Continue reading →

Make It Pop

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Our brief exploration into Ecuador has taught us quite a bit. For instance, it is one of only two countries in South America that does not border Brazil and it also includes the Galapagos Islands. Mr. N was even able to point out Ecuador in his social studies class this past week! We’ve also learned that Ecuador is known for its variety of seafood ceviches and particularly for its shrimp ceviche, or Ceviche de Camaron.

This recipe couldn’t be any easier, making it great for a weeknight meal or a dinner party appetizer. We started by thinly slicing a few tomatoes and a red onion. 

We tossed them into a bowl and Miss A added our juices – key lime juice (but regular lime would work just as well) and bitter orange juice. Continue reading →

Ecuador!

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This post’s title is dedicated to Charles at Five Euro Food who posted a link to this video in his comments on our Ecuadorian beans. Since then, I cannot say the word “Ecuador” without yelling it in my head (or out loud) just like in the song. Fortunately it makes me laugh every time too, so I’m not annoyed…yet. But I’ll give you fair warning, if you listen to the song you will never hear the word Ecuador the same way again. Ever.

In addition to our bean stew on Sunday, we also made a wonderful fruit dish. This recipe is again adapted from Laylita’s Recipes and would be wonderful on a hot summer day. We also thought it would be a great complement to our hearty and spicy beans. (Translation – just in case I hated the beans, I needed something to fall back on!)

The dish is called Come y Bebe, or Eat and Drink. It’s a brilliant concept for a fruit salad. It’s basically an Ecuadorian drinkable fruit salad with a name that the kids loved to say! Especially Miss A who loves all things “baby,” never mind it didn’t mean that kind of baby. Continue reading →