… and these Thy gifts …

1 16-oz package firm tofu, drained and cut into 1-inch cubes

For marinating:

1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
3 teaspoons thin soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced ginger

For the sauce:
1/3 cup chicken stock
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms (you can use a combination of your favorites, I used shiitake here)
2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallions
chopped hot red pepper (which I didn’t use because they didn’t want it spicy today)

Marinate tofu cubes in the sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper and ginger for half an hour, stirring every now and then to redistribute flavors.

Mix stock with soy sauce, cornstarch and sugar in a bowl.

Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic and stir-fry until just beginning to color. Add mushrooms, increase heat to high, and stir-fry 4-5 minutes or until mushrooms are just cooked through. Give the stock mixture another stir and add to the skillet, stirring. Decrease heat to medium and gently fold in tofu cubes until well-coated with the sauce. Adjust seasonings and serve hot, sprinkled with scallions and hot red pepper.

Note: vegetable or other stock may be substituted for the chicken stock

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For 4-6 servings

1 pound eggplants
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1 pound ground pork
1 pound shrimp, shelled, deveined and minced
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 green onions, sliced thin

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prick eggplants all over with a fork and place on a baking sheet in one layer. Bake 30 minutes or until cooked through. Remove skins and discard. Mash pulp in a bowl and set aside.

Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic and saute until just beginning to turn color, about 15 seconds. Add ground pork and shrimp, breaking up any clumps; stir-fry for 5 minutes. Add the fish sauce, sugar and freshly ground black pepper. Cook for 3 minutes more, then add the mashed eggplant and continue stir-frying until eggplant is evenly distributed, about 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in green onions.
Serve hot over rice.

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Marinating or curing beef and other meats is a practice that is found all over Asia; besides producing a highly flavorful dish, the process preserves the meat and increases its shelf life. The differences are usually in the type of seasonings used, but common elements are garlic, ginger, scallions or hot peppers; soy sauce or salt; vinegar or lemon juice; and sugar for a hint of sweetness. This is Cambodia’s version, the main component being ginger.

For 4-6 servings

3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons minced gingerroot
2 teaspoons salt
1 pound semi-lean beef (sirloin, round or rib-eye), cut across the grain into 1/8-inch thick slices (you can also use pre-sliced beef available at Asian stores)
vegetable oil (optional)

Combine sugar, ginger and salt in a bowl. Add beef slices and stir to coat evenly with mixture. At this point you can place the beef slices on a rack set on a plate. Cover with netting (to keep out insects) and set out in the sun for several hours to cure. You can also use the lowest setting of your oven, or a dehydrator for this purpose. Pan-fry using a bit of oil in a skillet, or grill, turning once, about 2 minutes per side. You could also broil this in a flame-proof baking dish, about 4 inches from the heat — watch carefully so it doesn’t burn.

Serve with hot steamed rice and some stir-fried vegetables or a nice crisp salad, preferably dressed using Asian flavors.

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GRILLED CORN (Poat Dot)

For 6 ears of grilled or steamed corn:

In a saucepan, mix together 2 tablespoons oil, 3 tablespoons minced green onions, a tablespoon each of water, sugar and fish sauce, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook over high heat until scallion starts to wilt. Brush or spoon sauce over hot corn and serve.

This is a simple dish, but truly delicious. In Cambodia this is sold by street vendors. A nice dairy-free alternative. You may use steamed corn, but I think the strong flavors of the sauce is better put to use as a counterpoint to the somewhat smoky sweetness of grilled corn. (I grilled mine indoors as the weather wasn’t cooperating today.) Putting fish sauce on corn may sound a bit unusual, but the combination works well. My family was pleased, and I bet yours will be too!

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Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup thin coconut milk
1 cup reserved lychee syrup from a can of lychees
4 egg yolks
1/2-3/4 cup sugar or to taste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped lychee (about 12 pieces)

Procedure:

Combine cream, coconut milk, reserved syrup, egg yolks and sugar in a 1 1/2 - 2-quart saucepan. Cook gently over low-medium heat, stirring, until thickened and mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. Stir in vanilla extract and remove from heat. Strain mixture into a metal bowl and chill, covered, for at least 4 hours or overnight. To freeze, follow ice cream machine’s manufacturer directions, adding chopped lychee when ice cream is almost frozen. Transfer to a container and freeze until serving time. [Alternatively, freeze ice cream in a bowl with a tight-fitting lid and stir well every hour until frozen. This will result in an ice cream that has somewhat of an irregular texture, but delicious nonetheless.]

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Now that I’m starting to feel a bit more normal, I thought I’d pick up a project I started way back that I never got to finish. Last night I finished adding the links to recipes I posted at Like to Cook when I used to write there. The recipe links can now be found at the Recipe Index. Those, I cannot re-post here because they paid for all the rights. So I can only link. Today while I’m on reprieve from nausea I’m taking time to re-post recipes that I posted at Noodles and Rice. Enjoy!!

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I wish I could be this funny even when the subject matter is so serious.

I’ve titled this #1 because there’s bound to be more as the days progress. I thought my ex-gymnast daughter was a great flip-flopper but Obama sure has got her beat.

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Mama asks what we want for lunch. (Mama is visiting from St. Louis and helping out in the cooking department because I still can’t cook much.) She asks Tops (my brother who’s also visiting from Philly for the weekend). Tops wants corned beef.

We look for the tomato. Mama is convinced we had one more. Turns out Aisa chopped both tomatoes that Daddy bought, so we had already used them up. I said no worries. I have tomatoes somewhere, I know. But I can’t find the canned tomatoes that I transferred to the Prego jar…. hey wait, what about the freezer? Jar not here, but oh, here you go, Mama, here’s some red stuff.

Mama proceeds with the cooking. I’m in the next room, the study, trying to find our long lost lessons in two months’ worth of MESS.

Mama: Ikaw ba ang nag-puree nito? (Did you puree this yourself?)
Me: Hindi ko na maalala. (I can’t remember.)
Mama: Iba. (It’s different.)
Me: thinking… what would be different about it? Siguro nga po. (Maybe.)

5 minutes later.

Mama: May kulay. (There’s color.)
Me: thinking… why would there be color? I only buy natural stuff. Po? (Polite way of saying “really???”)

5 minutes later.

Mama: May, sigurado kang kamatis ito? (Are you sure these are tomatoes?)
Me: Bakit po? (Why?, politely)
Mama: Matamis! (It’s sweet!)

Me, finally going into the kitchen: Po??? (What?)

Finally seeing the way-different redness of the “frozen tomatoes” — Oh no!!!

It’s raspberry!! More accurately, raspberry sauce, for chocolate cake!

Me: Inilagay n’yo na po? (Have you used it yet?)
Mama: Kanina pa! (A while back!)
Me, looking at the purply corned beef in the skillet. thinking YUCCCCHHHHH….. : Baka po puedeng i-drain tapos lagyan na lang ng patis. (Maybe we could just drain it and add fish sauce.)
Mama: Nilagyan ko na ng asin. (I already put salt.) ‘Wag na lang nating sabihin. (Let’s just not tell them.)

Too late. Paco heard us talking and announced to everyone before lunch: Raspberry corned beef!!!

Needless to say, we were all laughing and joking all throughout lunch. Numerous references to the Friends episode where Rachel puts beef and peas in the trifle (warning: some material not suitable for kids). Mama says something about not trusting first-trimester pregnant women in the kitchen.

Good thing I have my own personal Joey (Dad).

What’s not to like? Potatoes? Good. Raspberry? Good. Corned beef? Goooooood!!!

Okay, he didn’t really say that, but he and Tops ate a lot. I love men with strong stomachs. Tops predicts we’ll be talking about this 5 years from now.

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Especially appropriate since today is Independence Day. Real education, real learning is about the freedom to become the best person one can be. It’s about enabling children to respond to that call to brilliance.

7/22/08: ETA:

I had put the book on my “next” list, and it’s still there — but you may want to read MacBeth’s review.

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I’ve just been away for a few days from my reader, and now I’m back there is a ton of catch-up reading to do.

Thank you for your prayers, everyone. The ER trip yesterday was short and sweet (3 1/2 hours, including waiting time!) — thank goodness I was not confined; just given 2 bags of fluids and sugar to give me a boost, and 2 prescriptions that already have helped tremendously. I’m still experiencing nausea, but more tolerable than the past 5 days. At least I’m able to fight it off better. It also helps that my fabulous mom is here to help out.

So anyway, enough about me… I’m here to share some links:

For Aisa, who I believe is still reading Fabiola:
from Tea at Trianon

Why Men Don’t Court Women Anymore
Comment: Southern men (US, I mean) and properly-trained Filipinos — seem to be the last remaining bastion of chivalry. I am very thankful courtship was still very much alive when dh courted me, or at least in our generation it seemed that way. In our small group of friends which included 3 other Filipino men, ALL of them courted their would-be wives. Maybe one of these days I’ll write how it was to be courted Filipino-style in modern-day America.

I am so tempted to print out copies of this and leave them anonymously all over our Parish…. (on dressing modestly for Mass)

When do we get one of these here in Ohio? Methinks a looooong while, as it’s a bit too progressive here. My response to the complainers: What, don’t you have enough anti-life pharmacies to begrudge the pro-life folks their own??? It’s not like you couldn’t drive down a few blocks to the nearest one. From what I can tell online, Chantilly, VA isn’t exactly the boondocks.

So many great crafty ideas!!! I followed the link from Kim who originally got it from Amy. Now that I have hope of having more than a few minutes each day of feeling good enough to drive and go around, a trip to Michael’s to finally stock up on summer crafty things should be just the thing to combat the kids’ summer boredom. (Tho’ not Aisa’s, who’s hoping to finish all her requirements to graduate from high school in August!!)

LOL. I clicked because I thought it was a recipe — Domenico Bettinelli is a fellow foodie — and I’m looking for some salads to round up Aisa’s graduation party menu in a few months. I got a cute story instead :).

He also wonders if one can copyright a recipe. Since this is an issue several Filipino food bloggers have had to contend with including myself — too many that we even had to put up a one-time blogging event to call attention to the problem back in ‘05 — I put in my .02.

Oh, so, so true. (on clutter)

Why Communion on the Tongue?

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