Simple Pasta Dish

Saute minced garlic in 1/2 cup olive oil, about 5 big cloves. Add thinly sliced green and red capsicum. Stir in 1 mushroom stock cube. Remove from heat and season lightly with salt and pepper. Add a handful of chopped basil leaves and mix well.

Pour the sauce into cooked spaghetti (400 grams uncooked), serve and enjoy.

Top with some basil leaves, crushed red pepper and your favorite cheese. Being "skinny and a little bit short of money" at this time, I used Eden processed cheese. It's cheap and I believe suits the Filipino tongue very well.

After my morning class in Makati yesterday, I decided to go to Marikina and get Indian spices from Assad Indian mini-mart. I got everything that I need so watch out for simple, nutritious and mouth-watering Indian dishes in the next few days.

I still have leftover brown rice in the fridge and I'm thinking of making rice milk for brunch.

Namaste.

Veg Macaroni Soup

Dinner last night. The green curry stayed in the fridge and will be my housemate's lunch or dinner today.

Saute 2 cloves garlic, minced, sliced onions, in 1 tbsp olive oil. Add chopped potatoes, carrots, peas, about 1 cup each. Add 6 cups water, 1.5 cups elbow macaroni, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Drop one mushroom stock cube, season with salt and pepper, and dried rosemary.

When the pasta and vegetables are cooked, slowly pour in about 1 cup milk (I used evaporated milk), and stir well. Allow to simmer for another minute and stir in a handful of finely chopped fresh basil leaves.

Went to the Assad Indian mini-mart in Marikina this morning after my class in Makati. It was an adventure figuring out where to go. Glad to have been able to buy all the spices and dhals that I need to make authentic Indian dishes.

It's hello kitcherie again in the next few days. Oh, and rice milk... yummy!

Still got one class later. Not really mine now but started the program 4-5 years ago and left it with Joji when I moved to Saudi. It would be good to see the group again.

Thai Green Curry

This was lunch today... and probably dinner as well.

Fry 1 tbsp of thai green curry paste on 1 tbsp olive oil (any vegetable cooking oil will do actually) until fragrant (should be over really low heat as the paste tends to burn easily).

Add 1/2 tsp minced galangal, 1/2 tsp minced lemon grass, 2 kaffir lime leaf, 1 tbsp coconut milk. Mix well.

Add 3 cups of squash/pumpkin cut into small cubes (I added carrots here as I still had some in the fridge. Thought the combination isn't that great though but was still good.)

Add 1/2 cup coconut milk and mix everything together. Allow to simmer then add 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tbsp brown sugar (I used an Indonesian sweet soy sauce so it made the sauce look a little bit dark. It actually looked like Brown curry, hehehe).

Thin the sauce with some water. Cover and allow the vegetables to cook and soften.

Add a tbsp of coconut milk to garnish and some basil leaves.

Pour over steamed rice and enjoy.

I used the organic brown rice that I received from Mam Ces last xmas. I added too much water so it was too soft. When I was in Saudi, most of the rice needed twice as much water compared to the ones we have here in the Philippines. At least I know now that it requires less water.

Got to take a nap now and prepare for this afternoon's class.

Namaste.

Pumpkin Hummus and Peanut Sauce

Ground equal parts of cashews and roasted sesame seeds. Add 1-2 tablespoon/s soy sauce, 1 tbsp calamansi juice (or lemon), some cooked pumpkin, chopped coriander, dash of sesame oil. Mix and mash... spread on toast or pita bread and yummy!!! My non-veg friends loved it!

For the peanut sauce, saute one chopped tomato in 1 tbsp oil until it begins to disintegrate. Add 1 tbsp green curry paste and fry until fragrant for 30 seconds. Make sure you keep the heat really low. Add 4-6 tbsp coconut milk, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 cup ground roasted peanuts. Mix well and set aside. It can be used as a dip or sauce for pad thai.

For a really quick and easy dish, use it for fresh spring roll. Arrange 1 large basil leaf, some carrots and singkamas (turnips) cut into thin strips, on to a fresh spring roll wrapper, spread about 1 tsp of the peanut sauce, wrap, roll and enjoy. This was also a hit except that they found it too spicy.

The pumpkin hummus can also be used as a sauce for the spring roll for variation.

Learned these recipes in Bangkok last November and only got to try it again this evening.

Cheers.

Trees for Mount Apo

A little inspiration to start the year.

Plant more trees.

Protect Mount Apo.

Make it cleaner...

Make it greener.

(I honestly don't have any clue what's the status with Mt. Apo,
I just thought those lines would compliment the photo well.)

Photos by Bob Mata.