Pinoy Cook: Home cooking rocks!

Boiled beef with gravy and potatoes

Connie — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:10:13 +0000

This boiled beef with gravy and potatoes is very similar to the beef brisket swimming in gravy that I cooked a couple of years ago, an experiment probably borne out of laziness but which surprisingly turned out to be a hit among my friends. Needless to say, I have refined the recipe somewhat and I am convinced that this version is better than my older recipe.

Champorado, chocolate risotto and Thai black sticky rice

Connie — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:42:54 +0000

In Southeast Asia, particularly in Thailand, there are dark and sweet rice dishes too. Like champorado and risotto al cioccolato, they are made with glutinous rice but no chocolate is added. Rather, the dark color comes from the color of the rice. Despite being labeled as “black sticky rice”, the grains are a dark purple and the flavor is somewhat nutty. Filipinos, probably out of habit and association, mistake these Southeast Asian sweet rice dishes for champorado never discerning that complete lack of chocolate flavor. Here are my versions of two of these dishes.

Banana choco cupcakes

Connie — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:49:45 +0000

The plan to bake a dozen banana nut muffins went pffft! as my younger daughter, Alex, discarded the idea. She doesn't like nuts. Well, there's no one else to boss me around at home these days since her older sister stays near the university during weekdays and her father is out of town attending a conference. If I had insisted on baking muffins with nuts, I'd have to eat all of them by my lonesome self. So, the plan was amended -- I baked banana choco cupcakes instead. Timely too since I still had chocolate morsels nearing the expiration date.