Celery is an athlete’s secret weapon. According to the Top 100 health Tips book, celery is full of goodness, of nutrients that keep energy level high. It is also high in Vitamin C and rather diuretic too. It has a high sodium content, not to worry it is far from being in dangerous level, which help in maintaining mineral balance in your body if you drink a lot of water.
Apparently celery is 95 percent water and it contains 7 calories per 100 grams. It is said that you actually burn more calories chewing on a celery.
CELERY is eaten with the fingers.
Vegetable: Celery
Photo from the blog Confession of a kitchen witch
Here is a quick recipe for celery, although a stick of celery and a pinch of salt is good and ready for me and my pork pie!
Celery and Blue Cheese Salad
1 tbsp of lemon juice
1 tbsp of olive oil
1/2 tsp of salt
2 apples cored and chopped
2 sticks celery chopped
1 bulb fennel slice
2oz blue cheese (stilton) diced.
Mix the lemon juice, olive oil and salt.
Pour it into the apples, celery, fennel and cheese.
Serve immediately with a crusty bread.
Yummy
I am really getting hungry just by typing this.
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Celery Sauce.
Take a large bunch of celery, cut it fine, and boil it till soft, in a pint of water; thicken it with butter and flour, and season it with salt, pepper, and mace.
I have not had adobo flakes before but I have been hearing from friends how delicious it is. I think it is easy to do. You cook it from leftovers of your normal adobo (incidentally a delicious recipe has been posted in this site). Shred the leftover chicken or pork. Marinade it in the adobo sauce for at least 30 minutes. Then take it out and try to squeeze the liquid out from the shredded pork/chicken. Then drop the flakes in the boiling oil, stirring until crisp.
Take out with a slotted spoon and let it rest in a paper towel to absorb the oil. Lovely eaten still hot/warm, apparently.
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The original Crispy Adobo Flakes from Glenda Barretto herself
By: Vangie Baga-Reyes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11:12 pm | Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
Adobo Flakes
It was in 1975 that food icon Glenda Barretto introduced the Crispy Adobo Flakes. Since then this toasted adobo has been widely copied in many restaurants and catering businesses.
It’s been a smash because the meat is surprisingly crunched up, ultra crispy and extra flaky. It instantly crumbles and almost melts in the mouth with each bite. The tasty and dark bits tickle the palate with a play of subtle sour-salty and garlicky flavors. The brittle, finger-lickin’ goodness always whets one’s appetite.
“We, Filipinos, love everything that’s malutong (crispy),” said Barretto, the doyenne of Philippine cuisine.
“I started serving these adobo flakes in my catering way back in the ’70s, and I’m still serving them in my restaurant (Via Mare’s chain of restaurants).”
Initially, Barretto would make the crispy flakes from leftover adobo at home. Her dad, Pedro Rosales, had always wanted his food crispy and crunchy. So, Barretto would gather the leftover adobo, shred and flake by hand the cooked meat and fry it till crisp and crumbly.
On the dining table, she would pair the flakes with slices of tomatoes, onions, salted egg and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.
For her food business, of course, Barretto would make fresh batches of adobo before preparing them into flakes.
Tedious but worth it
Barretto whips up crispy adobo flakes using pork, chicken, fish and beef.
“Basically, they all have the same cooking procedure,” she said. “But the beef takes longer to prepare and cook. It requires a lot of time to soften the meat and make it tender.” The beef flakes are darker compared to pork and chicken. The fish flakes look more spongy.
Barretto cooks crispy beef adobo flakes only by special request when she caters.
There are different ways in making adobo flakes. Other people cook it by mashing or pressing the meat on the pan to loosen it up a bit. The slightly shredded meat is then stored in the freezer overnight and fried frozen next day. The meat is fried until crispy and sticky, while constantly scraping the bottom of the pan to break up the sticking browned bits and pieces.
Barretto’s style is quite interesting and more manageable, but still takes some patience to work on the flakes.
After slow-cooking the adobo (with the usual vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaf and peppercorn), she puts small quantities of meat in a plastic bag and gently presses it to loosen the meat. From there, Barretto said, it’s easy to debone and flake the flesh by hand.
With a bit of oil, she fries the meat in low-fire till browned and toasted.
“The secret to a more flavorful adobo taste is that after flaking the meat, you soak it in the sauce so that it absorbs all the seasonings and that garlicky flavor,” she said, “then strain before frying.”
“It would be nice if you flake it uniformly to look presentable and palatable,” she added.
Apart from being a main course, the adobo flakes may also be used as toppings for salads and congee, and as sidings for Kare-Kare, Seafood Sinigang, etc.
Barretto considers adobo and sinigang as the national dishes.
“But, if I were to choose one, I’d pick adobo as our national dish,” she said.
Crispy Chicken Adobo Flakes
Ingredients
1.2 k fresh chicken
125 ml vinegar
50 ml soy sauce
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 tbsp sea salt
2 pcs bay leaves
1 tsp crushed peppercorns
250 ml water
Oil for frying
To make adobo, cut the chicken into serving-size pieces and place in a casserole. Add remaining ingredients, apart from the oil, together with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40-50 minutes, then remove chicken and strain the stock.
In a frying pan, brown the chicken pieces in hot oil until crispy on all sides, then drain on absorbent paper and transfer to a platter. Reheat the stock and reduce to a thick, flowing consistency, then pour over the chicken and serve immediately.
To make Crispy Adobo Flakes, place adobo meat in a plastic bag and gently press the meat by hand. Then debone the chicken and flake its flesh. Drizzle with adobo sauce. Transfer to a baking tray and spread evenly, then let stand for at least one hour. Drain. Fry in a wok with very little oil over low heat, stirring continuously for 30-45 minutes or until chicken meat is dry, brown and crisp.
It is getting colder, we need to top up our vitamin C.
What better than having a nutritious, natural thirst quenching grapefruit, melon and raspberry drink. It has been found that grapefruit is particularly rich
Grapefruit, Melon & Raspberry Smoothie
Recipe
Ingredients:
1 grapefruit – peeled and divided into segments
1 melon, peeled deseeded and cut in chunks
a big handful of raspberries
Method of preparation:
Add the fruits in alternate pieces into the juicer and press.
Drink immediately.
Alternatively, ice-cubes can be added to the smoothie to quench thirst on a hot summer’s day.
Pinakbet or Pakbet is an Ilocano recipe but because it is really delicious the whole Philippines have adopted it as its own.
Pakbet is easy to cook but what makes it really special depends on the bagoong or buggoong (ilocano) – Salted fish that you use.
When we used to live in Marag people from Pagudpod or Ilocos Norte would come to Marag to sell salt and the Buggoong. They usually come with two or three types of Bagoong but the one called Padas was always the winner. It was so delicious that it was a treat to eat it with ripe tomatoes as our main dish with the ubiquitous boiled rice. I can almost taste it now!
If you are to go to Manila, please do try the Pinakbet! It is truly gourmet dining.
Pakbet or Pinakbet Recipe
http://www.filipinofoodrecipes.net/pakbet.htm
Estimated cooking time: 35 minutes
http://blauearth.com/tag/banga/
Pakbet Ingredients:
1/4 kilo pork with fat, cut into small pieces
2 Amapalya (bitter melons) sliced to bite size pieces
2 eggplants, sliced to bite size pieces
5 pieces of okra, cut in two
1 head garlic, minced
2 onions, diced
5 tomatoes, sliced
1 tablespoon of ginger, crushed and sliced
4 tablespoons bagoong isda or bagoong alamang
3 tablespoons of oil
1 1/2 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste
Pakbet Cooking Instructions:
In a cooking pan, heat oil and fry the pork until brown, remove the pork from the pan and set aside.
On the same pan, saute garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes.
In a casserole, boil water and add bagoong.
Add the pork in the casserole and mix in the sautéed garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add in all the vegetables and cook until the vegetables are done, careful not to overcook.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve hot with plain rice.
I am really loving this Channel 4 show. Kirstie Allsops is charming and makes everything seems easy to do. Well done. The eclair looks delicious.
from Kirstie’s Handmade Britain, Channel 4
Pastry expert Loretta Liu of On Café (opens in a new window) shows Kirstie Allsopp how to make eclairs filled with fruity kumquat Chantilly cream on Kirstie’s Handmade Britain
Makes 6-8
INGREDIENTS
90g butter
60ml milk
65ml water
150g plain flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
4 medium eggs
For the kumquat confit
1kg fresh kumquats
500g sugar or honey
5 slices ginger
For the éclairs, place the butter, milk and water into a pan and bring up to the boil. Mix the flour, salt and sugar together in a bowl. Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat and tip in the dry flour mixture. Beat well with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan. Beat in the eggs one at a time until completely incorporated. You must be careful not to over beat – this will introduce to much air to the mixture and will cause the pastry to collapse during cooking.
Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and allow to cool for a few minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Pipe about 6-8 lengths of pastry onto a baking sheet covered with baking parchment. The parchment will help the pastry to hold its shape, but alternatively you can butter and then flour a baking sheet. The pastry will at least double in size as it cooks, so give the éclairs plenty of space to expand on the baking sheet.
Transfer to the oven and bake the éclairs for about 30-40 minutes, or until golden-brown and firm. Getting the oven right is crucial. There is no rising agent in choux pastry – the pastry rises because of the high water content, the water turns to steam and pushes the pastry out. If the oven is too cool the pastry will not dry out. If the oven is too hot it will rise before the outside of the pastry structure is strong enough and they will collapse. When the éclairs are done, cool completely on a wire rack.
Meanwhile blanch the kumquats in boiling water for 10 minutes to soften them, then remove the pips by squeezing gently. Place in a pan with 1 litre water, the sugar or honey and ginger and simmer gently for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool then strain the mixture through a sieve and chop the kumquats.
Whip the cream until light and fluffy then mix in the icing sugar and kumquat flesh. Slice the éclairs in half lengthways and fill with cream. Decorate with sliced kumquats and serve.
Tip: The best way to keep the éclairs fresh is to freeze them, either before or after cooking. Loretta says that the frozen éclairs can be used within ten minutes of removing from freezer. If desired they can be put n an oven at 160°C/gas mark 2½ for five minutes in order to crisp them up.
Recipe by Loretta Liu of On Café Patisserie and Cookery School
