Recipe: Muscovado Lemongrass Iced Tea

This recipe is an improvement of my first recipe for lemongrass iced tea.

1 cup chopped lemongrass, cleaned, discarding tough outer leaves; use white and light green parts only (discard tough green part or you may use it to stuff a roast chicken)
1/2 cup muscovado sugar
8 cups water

Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool. Strain into a pitcher and discard solids. Cover pitcher and refrigerate. Serve with or without ice.

A Niche Market

I am passionate about organic food because I believe in health and I want to save the environment (baby steps). I'm hoping more people become aware of the dangers of conventional agriculture to their personal health, to the environment and to society as a whole. Failing to reach others intellectually or emotionally, there's always the flavor of conventionally grown produce compared to ones organically-grown. Organic food taste a LOT better. It's a world of difference. I was first and foremost a lover of good food and eventually I became concerned about the state of the environment. In my studies I learned of the connection between the environment and the food we eat which led me to start an organic garden last year. So far there have been few ups and many downs.

Yesterday I joined the Organic Market for the 3rd time. I had vine-ripened red cherry tomatoes, Italian arugula, chrysanthemum leaves, mustard greens, flat-leaf parsley, lemongrass and scallions. Well, I made enough to pay for the stall I rented and buy some groceries for myself but I'm beginning to have doubts about this venture. It doesn't seem to me like there are enough people out there who want to eat organic food. Also, the market is only open on Sundays which is a rest day in this country. I asked Mara, our organizer, and she said the "powers that be" won't allow the market to open on Saturdays because there is already a Saturday market going on. Completely ridiculous and a decision based on that premise should be illegal! But frankly I don't know what to do about it. So I told myself that we just have to make do with what we've got. Which is Sunday 7am to 2pm. Luckily, I don't give up easily and I've come up with some ideas to attract people over on Sundays. I will write about it if all goes well, or doesn't, but right now it's still forming in my head.

The other problem I'm having at the moment is that I am not producing enough to tap a wider market. The problem isn't a lack of land area but the people I'm dealing with. Mistakes made in agriculture has big and time consuming repercussions. So its a slow process when things don't go right. One of my farmers misunderstood me and cut off all the branches and most of the leaves off my fruiting cherry tomato plants. Needless to say, the plants are now dying. Bloody idiot. After having to calm down for a couple of days, I thought of a way for this to never happen again. All instructions I give will be written down on the whiteboard before I leave the farm. I also gave each farmer something that he alone is responsible for. Hopefully I've organized things so the farm will run more smoothly.

On the up side, I've been cooking more than usual with all the vegetables I have on hand. Eating something I've grown and knowing how fresh and toxin-free my fruits and vegetables are gives me a sense of well-being. And the flavors are truly astonishing after eating bland tomatoes and not-so-fresh produce for a year. This morning I made some lemongrass iced tea using fresh lemongrass from my farm and organic muscovado sugar instead of regular granulated sugar. Yum!

Sugar High Friday - Liquors

I love cooking with liquors! And I'll be doing just that for Sugar High Fridays. Yes, I'm joining another food blogging event. The theme this month is "Liquors", hosted by Chandra of Lick The Spoon. Sugar High Fridays was started by Jennifer of Domestic Goddess who chooses the host for this monthly event. Joining these events gives me the chance to try out recipes from my embarrassingly large library of cookbooks. Embarrassing because I haven't used most of the books. I read them like novels and off they go to the bookshelf never to be opened again. So here I give them new life.

I'll be baking a Guinness Stout Ginger Cake from the book The Last Course by Claudia Fleming and Melissa Clark. I used San Miguel Cerveza Negra instead of Guinness Stout because I couldn't find any at the grocery. So this should actually be called Cerveza Negra Ginger Cake. Cerveza Negra is Spanish for dark beer.

I used virgin coconut oil for this recipe because I thought the flavor of coconut would go well with the spices and ginger. The cake turned out really well and the smells emanating from the kitchen while it was baking... well, you know what I'm talking about.

One thing I would change when I make this cake again is to use a nonstick baking pan and forgo buttering and dusting the loaf pan with flour. The cake had streaks and patches of flour when I turned it over a serving plate. Although, it did not affect the flavor of the cake it didn't look appetizing.



Cerveza Negra Ginger Cake

1 cup Cerveza Negra
1 cup molasses
1/2 tbsp baking soda
3 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup muscovado sugar or brown sugar
3/4 cup virgin coconut oil or grapeseed oil or vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp grated, peeled fresh gingerroot

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a loaf pan or bundt pan.

Pour beer and molasses in a large saucepan. Make sure its large because the mixture will foam up and spill over. Bring it to a boil. Remove from heat and add the baking soda. This mixture will foam up again after adding the baking soda so I can't stress enough using a large pan to do this in.

Whisk flour, ground ginger, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom together in a bowl.

Whisk the eggs and sugars together in another bowl. Add oil and whisk until well combined.

Pour the egg mixture into the beer mixture and whisk well.

Pour half of the liquid mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and whisk thoroughly. It will get stiff, continue whisking until its well combined. Pour in the rest of the liquid mixture and slowly whisk to combine.

Pour batter into prepared loaf or bundt pan and bake in preheated oven for 1 hour.

I served slices of this cake with dulce de leche ice cream.

Recipe: Egg Sandwich

This sandwich is a variation of one my sister often makes. It is soooo good.

You boil an egg. Peel and slice it. Quarter a bunch of cherry tomatoes and toss it with a finely chopped scallion, use the white and green parts. Spread some Japanese mayonaisse on two pieces of bread. On one piece place the sliced egg, top the egg with a sheet of nori (seaweed used to wrap sushi), then top the nori with the cherry tomato salad and top this with the remaining piece of bread. Enjoy!

A Poem

I came across this poem this morning and liked it a lot.

Time to plant trees is when you're young,

So you will have them to walk among -

So, aging, you can walk in shade

That you and time together made.

X.J. Kennedy

Hot Weather

The weather nowadays is wilting my poor plants. It is so hot, I've had to put nets all over the farm to shield the plants form the intense heat. Despite the stifling weather my tomatoes are fruiting nicely. The herbs, mustard greens and arugula are also doing well, even without the nets. The problem is the soil dries much faster so we have to water more often and the leaves of the fruiting plants droop and some turn brown. The netting should shield the plants from to much sun. One thing that's thriving in this heat are the African Marigolds. I had more of the marigolds seeded and will plant them in borders. These marigolds are also edible so I'm eager to try them on salads and use them to decorate sweets. What I'm having a hard time with are the peppers and eggplant and the problem has nothing to do with the heat. These plants bear one fruit at a time and take a long time for even that one fruit to come about. I figured it is from the way the pants are being watered. The pepper and eggplant plants do bear numerous flowers but then come to bear single fruits. I think the farmers probably water the flowers off, so I gave instructions to water only the ground around the plants and not the tops. Hope that works. Being in the farming business certainly teaches one a lot of patience.

Recipe: Italian Vegetable Soup

I made vegetable soup for Easter lunch together with a Roast Leg of Lamb, Mashed Potatoes and Cheesecake with Passionfruit Sauce. Of course I took a picture of everything, including the bouquet of flowers, and forgot to take one of the soup. Anyway, here's the recipe.

Italian Vegetable Soup

4 stalks celery (the small kind) or 1 stalk of the large celery, sliced thin
1 carrot, quartered lengthwise then sliced thin
1 zucchini, diced
1/2 radish, diced
10 cups vegetable broth
1 cup dried cheese ravioli
8 Italian plum tomatoes in can, crushed

Grated Parmesan cheese

Bring broth to a boil. Add celery and carrot, simmer for 1 minute. Add zucchini, radish and tomato, simmer for 10 minutes. Add cheese ravioli and continue to simmer until pasta is done. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Good Friday in Town

A friend and I went walking around the village last night after drinking tea and munching on oatmeal raisin cookies all afternoon. I took pictures of a once-a-year phenomenon in the city of Makati. Empty streets and sidewalks.



This is Greg walking infront of me.



A full moon.



I didn't realize how lovely the city is. The absence of loud noise, traffic and swarms of people shows the city in a new light.

Recipe: Century Egg Salad

I have always liked century eggs. Even as a child when most children were squimish about eating the black and grey egg that was a hundred years old. I actually believed it took a hundred years for the egg to turn that way, hence the name century egg. Of course it doesn't, if it did it would be in a museum and not on the dinner plate!

You will need some Chinese cabbage, also called Napa cabbage, 1 century egg per person and Miso Dressing. Very simple recipe, quick to prepare and satisfying. The crunchy cabbage and miso dressing goes well with the bite size pieces of century egg.

Cook the century egg the way you would for a hard boiled chicken egg, leaving the outer layer of hardened brown clay on. Then peel the way you would an ordinary boiled egg.

Sliced the cabbage crosswise into thin strips. Then slice the egg in half and quarter each half.

Fill a bowl with half of the cabbage, drizzle with miso dressing (not too much, it could get too salty), top with the rest of the cabbage and century egg. Drizzle with more dressing.

The Spice Is Right: Ancient Spices: Star Anise

I’m participating in a food blog event for the first time. This event, called “The Spice is Right” is hosted by Barbara Fisher of Tigers & Strawberries and its theme for this month is Ancient Spices. This event will occur monthly.

I chose the spice star anise as my entry and will be cooking and posting a recipe from Food & Wine magazine for Star Anise Pork. I’ve had a package of star anise in my cupboard for awhile now and have been meaning to use it but never came around to it. When I came across this event I thought now is my chance to experiment with star anise in terms of flavor as I’ve never had a dish using this particular spice. Although this is a common spice in the Philippines and can be found in any grocery, it is not commonly used in native Philippine dishes. It is more commonly used in Chinese dishes. Although the Chinese are a minority, 1% of the population, they are an important segment of Phil. society and so it is quite common to find Chinese ingredients in grocery stores and markets. Globally, star anise is used in Asian, European, English and Middle Eastern cuisines.

Star anise has the flavor of licorice or anise and can be used for sweet or savory dishes. I found so many dishes on the net using star anise, it was hard to decide! In my enthusiasm I thought of doing an entire 4-course dinner based on star anise but the rules of this event specifically stated entering only one entry. There’s always next month…

I substituted vegetable stock for chicken stock, rice wine for the sherry and muscovado sugar for brown sugar.

Star Anise Pork
serves 6

ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable stock from boullion cubes (I used mushroom broth granules)
1/4 cup rice wine
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp tightly packed muscovado sugar
3 whole star anise pods
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
One 3-pound boneless pork shoulder, tied
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro



Mix together the rice wine, soy sauce, muscovado sugar, star anise, garlic and five-spice powder.

Season the pork with salt and pepper. Browned all over on medium high heat for about 15 minutes. Add the sauce mixture and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the casserole. Cover tightly and cook over low heat for about 3 hours, turning the roast every 30 minutes, until very tender. Add water if the sauce begins to dry up.



Remove the pork and boil the sauce until it is reduced to 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Discard the strings. Pull the pork into long shreds and return to the casserole.



Garnish with the cilantro and serve with either mashed potatoes, polenta, congee, in a burrito or in a sandwich with mayonaisse.