Chicken ala Orange

So often than not, you see duck ala orange in the menu and not chicken ala orange. The reason I used chicken is that it is cheaper and I have never cooked duck before. Anyhow, this dish is a little troublesome because of the sauce but hey, the sauce tasted great! It was full of flavor without any use of MSG or any flavoring cubes *knorr* so I was quite happy with it.

Mise en place – Chicken Stock

Mise en place is a french culinary term meaning ‘putting in place’ or ‘everything in place’. Professional kitchen do their mise en place so that during service hours, cooking is faster and easier. Technically, your ‘miz’ is your prep work in your kitchen. This the time when you make and set aside all the things that can be done in advance like flavored oil, stocks, chiffonades of herbs, sauces etc.. Moreover, it is also about placing everything that must have already been prepared in advance on your work place like cuts of beef, kitchen tools etc..

Normally, the mise en place I do in my small kitchen is all about making stock since it will take you a pretty long while to finish making a stock. A good stock is the foundation of any french cooking, and in my humble opinion, to any cooking.

Stock making is also difficult. It is not just toss everything into the pot and done. There are certain criteria that one looks into their stock: flavor, aroma, body, color, *I think am missing one more*

So here is my prep table for that.

I cut the mirepoix (50% onion, 25% carrots, 25% celery) into large pieces.

Ultimate Sinless and Guiltless Ice Cream

My mom and I were in Healthy Option the other day and saw an unbelievable product: a 136 calorie pint ice cream.

It comes with strawberries and banana flavors only.

Mango Sticky Rice with Coconut Milk, Shredded Coconut and Red Beans

I was watching Bobby Chinn the other day at Discovery Travel and Living. His main cuisine is that of Vietnamese, however; during that episode, he was in Thailand and decided to create a Thai dessert: Mango sticky rice.

His version was simpler, he created the sticky rice with some coconut milk and place some diced mangoes beside it. As I watched him, his dessert reminded me much of our own Philippine sticky rice dish: the ‘Biko”.

With that in mind, I also created my own version of the mango sticky rice which is very similar with the biko.

First, get some sticky rice or ‘malagkit’ and cook it.

145 Farenheit – Steak Splurge

We were supposed to watch a movie the other day, unfortunately; my sister’s mother-in-law, Auntie Alice, needed a ride home from her shop so we went back to get her and missed the movie. Fortunately, Clark, my sister’s husband, told us that since we missed the movie, we’ll just have a nice steak for the evening. And lo and behold, it was the best steak of my life *as of the moment* 😀

Low Fat Egg Salad Canape

I want to lessen my calorie intake since am getting huge again and I was thinking of an alternative binder for fillings the other day. So often than not, we usually use mayo for our filling, however; there is just too much calories in it. A tablespoon will cost us 100 calories. Ugh…

Pesto :D

Got some nice basil leaves the other day and bought some of them. I was first thinking of making some tomato sauce for it, then again, I realized that there was just too much of it. There is only one solution for too much basil in the house: pesto.

Making pesto is pretty easy. You just need the following: a lot of basil, some garlic *around 3 cloves per 150 grams*, salt, olive oil, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and maybe some anchovies.

I omitted that pine nuts and anchovies since I didn’t have them at that time 😀

Just put everything into your food processor or you can just chopped it using your hands.

CIA, Yay!

The Culinary Institute of America, or CIA, if not the best, one of the best culinary institute in the whole world. It’s main branch is in Hyde Park, NY.

Three days ago, I received received their admission materials through mail. It was pretty exciting for me since I really wanted to get in to CIA since I was 3rd year highschool! 😀

Veal in Red Wine Reduction

Went to Santis the other day *again* and found some veal in their meat selection. I have never cooked nor tasted veal before so seeing that it was an opportunity to cook and to taste one, I bought a piece. Wow, it cost me 200 pesos for a small piece of veal, quite expensive. 😦

Tomato and Onion Omelet

As I woke up this morning, I went into the fridge to check for something to eat. I saw a huge tomato in the fridge and thought of doing something about it. Since it is still early in the morning, I thought of making an omelet with that tomato.

I used a peso coin for the comparison of its size.