Russell Hobbs and Chef JP Anglo Mood-Food Cookbook

It’s a fact: more and more Filipino young adults are moving out of their parents’ nest to start living independently. My sister, Mhel, has become one of those people, when she traded her home-based work for an office job in Makati. She rented a studio unit right across her office, sparing herself from the inevitable stress of daily commutes. The major drawback? She misses our Nanay’s delicious home-cooked meals, and after a hectic day at work, she doesn’t have much time for cooking, so she resorts to ordering fast-food and feasting on unhealthy fare. What she and mostÂ young, independent professionals need are efficient and reliable pieces of equipment that will help them prepare “lutong bahay” quality food in a short time, like Russell Hobbs‘ small kitchen appliances.

Russell Hobbs Small Kitchen Appliances

Russell Hobbs may not be a household name in the Philippines, but it’s considered the number 1 brand in the United Kingdom with its line of innovative and stylish small kitchen appliances. We owe it to its founders, Bill Russell and Peter Hobbs, for revolutionizing the way we enjoy coffee and tea with their invention of the electric kettle and the coffee pot with a keep-warm feature.

Mood-Food Cookbook

Our daily food choices are greatly affected by our mood. When we’re stressed at work or when we’re nursing a broken heart, we always turn to our favorite foods for comfort. With this in mind, Russell Hobbs has decided to collaborate with Chef JP Anglo, who owns the successful Sarsa Kitchen + Bar, in creating a coffee table book with a collection of positively mood-altering recipes that can easily be prepared using Russell Hobbs kitchen appliances. It’s the perfect book for budding cooks, professionals with tight schedules and a tighter kitchen space, or any person who enjoys food!

Note the visible signs of wear and tear on the kitchen appliances.

Russell Hobbs made an excellent choice in choosing Chef JP as their endorser and collaborator for the cookbook because he truly believes in the brand and he uses their kitchen appliances in his restaurant’sÂ every day operation.

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Homemade Beef Kare Kare Recipe (PLUS Seafood Version)

If there’s one dish our nanay prepares that I would want to eat for my last meal, it would definitely be her delicious Beef Kare-kare. Looking back to my childhood days, I realize that my fondness for this dish can be traced back to the days when our nanay would prepare kare-kare as one of her sweet ways in rewarding us for doing well, may it be in school or just for simply behaving at home.

Since I started working almost a decade ago, we’ve had kare-kare more often because whenever I’m craving for it, all we need to do is provide for the ingredients and our nanay will lovingly cook it for us. She’s even made her own seafood kare-kare (after our lunch at Emohruo in Pagudpud) which I also love (see the seafood option below this article).

This is actually one reason I don’t order kare-kare at restaurants because I have high standards when it comes to the flavors of this dish. It’s certainly one of the many things I missed when I lived for a year in Cebu that I begged her for the recipe and had to have someone cook it for me exactly the way nanay instructed. It was close to how she prepares it, but nothing beats the original ’cause it’s made with pure love. 🙂

Many can attest to the tastiness of our nanay’s kare-kare. And after the long delay of sharing the recipe, we finally had the time to prepare the dish for this blog. We hope you enjoy it and please let us know how it went when you tried it. If you tweaked a couple of things, we’d love to hear about that too. 🙂

Creamy Beef Kare-kare Recipe

Kare-kare is a Philippine beef stew, usually made with oxtail or tripe, vegetables and ground peanuts. But, this recipe was made with regular beef cuts.

SERVINGS:

Good for 8-10 people, but itâ€™ll really depend on their appetites. The 4 of us can finish this off for lunch and dinner. 😀

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Happy 100th Birthday, Julia Child!

Today, August 15, 2012, marks the 100th birthday of Julia Child, the iconic American chef who changed the world of gastronomy through her amazing talent and passion for cooking – oh, and not to mention her personality! How Americans eat and cook at home was never the same because of her as she brought the intimidating art of French cooking to the USA. She may have passed away years ago, but her legacy will continue to nourish future food lovers.

For us here in the Philippines, some may say that she hardly had any influence on how we Filipinos eat or cook. We have our own ways of cooking that can be traced back hundreds of years. We have always loved cooking and eating at home, and most of the influences in our culinary world are from the Spaniards (Europeans) and our neighbors here in Asia. However, with our ever-growing curiosity in tasting what the world has to offer, we, in many ways, have been touched by Julia Child.

I’m sure many of the chefs and culinary experts here in the country are very familiar with Julia Child. Her techniques, her recipes and her cooking tips will continue on for generations to come, I’m certain of that. When you slather on mayonnaise on your favorite bread or dish, or when you prepare and eat an omelette (or omelet), in a way, Julia has been a part of making all those possible to do in our very own homes.

How Julia Child Influenced Us

We may be thousands of miles away from France and America where Julia Child has been a household name, but through the internet and all the technology we enjoy now, she has touched our lives too.

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Breakfast Magazine : Uniquely Fresh, Satisfyingly Delicious

There is no doubt about it, my love for food can be traced back to my younger years when I first learned how to cook with my nanay‘s guidance. Since then, my thirst to learn more about food continued to grow and I enjoyed reading about everything related to food, may it be on a magazine, book, or a website. I lived vicariously through the writers’ stories of their latest food discoveries, how they travelled different parts of the country and the world to satisfy their curiosity (and tummy). And I share this passion for food with my brother Ken, one of the major reasons why we get along well. Little did we know that this year, 2012, after almost two years of writing for this blog, we’d be given an opportunity to write for a food magazine – Breakfast Magazine.

Breakfast Magazine is a bi-monthly publication. Their maiden issue was released last February 2012. I can describe the magazine as fresh and young, just like the team behind it led by Editor-in-Chief Alexis “Kim” Cuizon.

The first thing that comes to mind when you hear “Breakfast Magazine” is it’s going to be all about the most important meal of the day. But, they’re more than that. They aim to acquaint us with the people, where the ingredients come from and the stories behind the food, the restaurants, the products. Just like this blog, Breakfast Magazine is more personal. They take on a unique angle in their feature stories and theme in every issue. Heck, even the covers are so fabulous. 🙂

You’d probably expect a food magazine to have photos of delectable dishes on their cover, right? But, no. Breakfast Magazine’s first 3 issues feature people on the cover as they’re as interesting as the stories they have to tell. First was Judy Ann Santos-Agoncillo. Second is the lovely Iza Calzado. Followed by Pokwang – unlikely and unexpected, right? But, just look at how fab she looked at the front cover of the latest issue. I say the whole Breakfast Magazine team did an AWESOME job. I seriously can’t stop looking at that glamorous photo of Pokwang. 😉

And we’ve said it before, food triggers memories that we most likely have forgotten already. It can bring people together. It can heal us and comfort us on those very stressful days. What we eat, our relationship with food can somehow reveal something about us, what we’ve been through, our personality. And Breakfast Magazine puts focus on that. 🙂

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6th Manila Foods and Beverages Expo : Back to Basics (Win Tickets Here!)

On June 13 to 17, at the World Trade Center Metro Manila and WTCMM East Wing, the biggest and most anticipated food event of the year is set to satisfy every food enthusiast with yet another impressive line-up of activities in this 5-day expo – it’s the 6th Manila Foods and Beverages Expo or MAFBEX 2012.Â You’ll bear witness to the skils of culinary experts in the scheduled cook-offs, learn from the seminars led by the food and beverage industry experts, and sample a wide variety of international cuisines from renowned local and international chefs.

With the gaining popularity and enthusiasm of Filipinos towards discovering new dishes inspired by flavors from around the world, it’s no wonder businesses in the F&B industry continue to grow and we see more and more people delving into the world of food. And through MAFBEX, this potential is maximized. It’s exclusively dedicated to food suppliers, distributors, manufacturers and retailers that cater to food service and hospitality industries.

This year, the theme for MAFBEX is “Back to Basics“. Since the demand for organic food and healthier choices are increasing and becoming more popular all around the world, it’s important to showcase the organic and healthier food products that are out there and are available for us to consume.

MAFBEX is organized by the leading exhibition and trade show organizer Worldbex Services International (WSI), in cooperation with the De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) and for the benefit of ABS-CBN Foundation. This year, there’ll be over 500 booths that should keep all expo-goers busy. Last year’s turnout was at 50,000 visitors, and this year’s MAFBEX is bigger with the addition of the World Trade Center East Wing as an extension venue for the seminars and competitions.

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An Exciting New Beginning with Breakfast Magazine

Aside from our love for food, Ken and I also share a passion for writing. As far as I can remember, I’ve always kept a journal or a notebook where I write my deepest thoughts and a few random things. Ken also has a knack for writing and, in fact, he was the one who wanted to put up his own blog first, but I beat him to it. With all that said, it’s been a dream of ours to be published in a broadsheet or a magazine. And this year, we fulfilled it. We’re glad to be part of Breakfast Magazine.

Breakfast Magazine is the newest foodie publication in the Philippines today. You might be thinking that all we talk about in the mag is breakfast, what people generally consider the most important meal of the day. The magazine is all about food – may it be breakfast, lunch, dinner or the enjoyment of food Â in between.

The maiden issue of Breakfast Magazine was launched this month. It’s a bi-monthly publication and every issue, we follow a theme. For February and March, it was just expected that it’s all about love and food. 🙂

When we were approached to be part of Breakfast Magazine, we were excited about it, but wondered if we are ready. This food blog will only turn 2 this year (we have a giveaway coming up!), but we are indeed touched by the overwhelming support we’re getting from fellow certified foodies. We love blogging and writing, but we thought coming up with articles for a magazine is a completely different ballgame. But, we brushed those doubts aside and we agreed.

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The BEST Homemade Buffalo Wings Recipe Ever!

Buffalo Wings are considered American staple food, together with our favorite burgers and fries. Theyâ€™re the kind of food people donâ€™t ever mind getting down and dirty in eating because itâ€™s best savored using your bare hands, licking all the crevices of your fingers clean of the delicious buffalo sauce and blue cheese dip.

I had my first taste of the hot wings when some of my friends and I once dined at TGI Fridayâ€™s in Greenbelt. They ordered their usual nachos, burgers, and fries. One friend suggested we get the Buffalo wings, but another friend was quick to negate, saying that itâ€™s too spicy for her taste. But since I love my food hot and spicy, 10 minutes later, we had two servings of Buffalo wings on our table, and they all agreed that I ate 2/3 of it. 😀

Fridayâ€™s Buffalo Wings

After that dinner, the Buffalo wings flew straight up my all-time favorite food list, but itâ€™s not everyday that I have the luxury to buy wings at Fridayâ€™s. So I decided to make some myself at home, and itâ€™s a good thing that I have a very generous sister like Mhel, who shouldered the expenses for the ingredients.

My first attempt to make Buffalo Wings at home â€“ all gone in about 15 minutes! 😀

The Homestyle Buffalo Wings recipe Iâ€™m sharing with you are bits and pieces of different stuff I found on the internet. Not one recipe matched what I wanted to do because there is one requiring me to broil then bake the chicken wings, instead of simply frying them; another has a lousy breading mix recipe, but their instructions for doing the buffalo sauce was by far the simplest among all Iâ€™ve seen. And almost all sites had a recipe for blue cheese dip to accompany the chicken wings, but blue cheese is out of the question – too expensive for me. But, weâ€™ll try that, too, soon. 🙂

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My ELBA Kitchen Cookbook Launch – Pasta Recipes Galore!

On May 26th, I was invited to the launch of My Elba Kitchen Cookbook at The Grove Rockwell near Tiendesitas. I was looking forward to supporting this launch because we have an 8-year old ELBA gas range at home. We use it for cooking delicious homemade dishes and for baking, too. In fact, we recently used it in baking The Cookie Jarâ€™s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, as pictured below.

ELBA is a well-known kitchen appliance manufacturer from Italy. They have been in the Philippines for over 20 years and has been one of the most reliable brands out there. When it comes to the durability of their products, I can attest to the quality because of how long weâ€™ve been using our ELBA gas range.

The My Elba Kitchen Cookbook contains 60 pasta recipes that are easy to follow and prepare at home. Being a recipe follower with a little tantyameter (I recently learned this word :D) and some experimentation when it comes to flavor combinations when cooking pasta at home, I would love to prepare some of the dishes featured in this cookbook.

The cookbook is now available at all leading bookstores for only Php 399! So, make sure you grab one. If you want to know what recipes youâ€™d find inside, let me share with you some of the pasta dishes that were prepared right in front of us during the launch by two guest chefs.

First off was Chef Darin Epp from Maxim Cookworks. With him on the photo is the eventâ€™s host PJ.

Chef Darin hails from Canada, but expressed his fondness of the Philippines. Heâ€™s very entertaining and shared some tips while he prepared two dishes for us pictured below.

Sardine Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes

Salmon with Rosemary and Cream Sauce

Again, take note that these dishes were prepared in front of us. So, that means theyâ€™re easy and quick to make. Very effective when you need to whip up a dish at home for your kids or loved ones.

Between the two dishes Chef Darin prepared, I wanted to get a fork and taste the Salmon with Rosemary and Cream sauce. Why? Two words â€“ Salmon and Rosemary. 😀

Next up is Chef Richie Custodio from CCA, one of the top culinary schools in the Philippines today. He prepared five (5) dishes for us with the help of students from CCA.

Continue reading My ELBA Kitchen Cookbook Launch – Pasta Recipes Galore!