Bacon Obsession

As Chef Sharwin Tee of Lifestyle Network's Curiosity Got the Chef puts it, everything is better with bacon. I so agree!

Bacon is a regular pantry staple in our house and I buy at least a pack for 1 week. Ever since I tried the Lean and Mean variety of Purefoods, I was hooked. I never liked greasy bacon so the lean type is perfect for me. I'm not saying this because I'm trying to be health conscious but that's just me - I don't like greasy bacon.

So when I tried comparing the Lean and Mean variety with the regular kind of a different brand, I was shocked! Look at the price difference! Let's just say I'm not about to change my bacon preference anytime soon.

Purefoods Lean and Mean Bacon at P171.50
Regular bacon of another brand at P199.50 = price diff of P28.00
I'm sticking to this!

Nigella Lawson's Chicken with Lemon and Rosemary

Powerbooks was on sale last week. I went with my daughter to buy a new book for her. She decided on a Fancy Nancy book. While I decided on two - Nigella Lawson's Nigella Fresh and Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Family Style.

The books are great! I've been enjoying them since I got them. The recipes are very simple and the ingredients are available here. I've been dying to try one of Nigella's chicken recipes because they look so easy. Here's my first try:

Chicken with Lemon and Rosemary
Recipe by Nigella Lawson from Nigella's Fresh

• about 1 kilo of chicken
• 2 tbsp of dried rosemary
• salt and pepper
• 1 red onion
• juice of 1 lemon
• 6 tbsps of olive oil

Marinate your chicken with all of the ingredients.

Put everything inside a freezer bag. Give it a good shake. Place it in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 425F. Line your baking pan with aluminum foil. Place your chicken and all of the marinate on the baking pan, making sure you distribute them evenly. Cover with aluminum foil.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil cover and return to the oven. Bake for another 20 minutes.

Check for doneness and serve warm.


Pawis rating: 1 of 5 super easy!

Mini Spinach and Mushroom Quiche

Brunch heaven!

What to do with spinach? I have spinach that I need to use immediately! Then I have salami, also needs to be consumed asap. Then some mushrooms.

I had to think what food have I enjoyed that has spinach and mushrooms? Quiche of course!

Starbucks used to have spinach quiche that was just heavenly. Too bad, I think they discontinued this product. I don't see it in stores anymore :-(

Off I went to Food Network to get an easy recipe for quiche. I was imagining a dish of quiche then I saw this recipe for mini-quiches! So cute!!! Here is the link, Mini Spinach and Mushroom Quiche. Not all ingredients are readily available in our town or in Manila (Turkey Bacon? Fontina cheese?) so I had to substitute.

Here's my version:

Mini Spinach and Mushroom Quiche
Adapted from the Food Network

• olive oil
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 small can of mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup spinach
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup milk
• 6 whole eggs
• pinch of nutmeg
• 5 slices of salami, chopped into squares
• cheddar cheese, grated or sliced

Heat a nonstick pan with a spray of olive oil. Add the minced shallot and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper.

Turn off the heat and add the spinach. Stir just until the spinach is wilted.

In a bowl, beat the eggs. Add milk and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Spray or brush your muffin pan with olive oil.

Pour the egg mixture into the muffin pan, filling about halfway.

Distribute the mushroom-spinach mixture evenly.

Top with salami.

Then the cheese.

Pour the rest of the egg mixture.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the quiche has risen.

Serve hot or warm.



Pawis rating: 2 of 5 very easy!

Baked Macaroni

Make this your specialty :-)

Do you have a go-to recipe for events, gatherings or parties? My husband's Kapampangan clan has all sorts of specialties. Each would bring their own specialty in almost every family event.

Mine is this one. I am proud to say I can make a mean baked mac. It's very easy!!!

Again, this probably comes with age, I forgot where I got this recipe from. So if you recognize this, please let me know :-)

Baked Macaroni

• 225 g of macaroni (penne or ziti), cooked according to package directions undercooking by 5 minutes

Sauce:

• 3 tbsp of butter
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 1/4 kg of ground beef
• 1/4 kg of smoked ham/bacon/salami/pepperoni
• 1/4 kg of sliced button mushrooms
• 1/4 kg of tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 kg of onions, chopped
• 4-5 green or red bell pepper, cored and chopped
• 1 whole garlic, finely minced
• 1/4 cup of tomato paste
• 3-4 cups of good meat broth
• bunch of basil leaves or 1 tsp of dried basil
• salt
• pepper
• sugar

Topping:

• 1/3 cup butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 of 225g quickmelt cheese
• 1/2 of 225g cream cheese, softened then cut into small pieces
• salt
• pepper

Cook the pasta sauce:

1. Heat the butter and olive oil together over med-high heat
2. Add ground beef, breaking up the lumps
3. Add garlic and cook until meat starts to brown
4. Add ham/bacon. Stir and cook for few minutes
5. Add the vegetables and cook.
6. Add tomato paste and stir. Pour the meat broth. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.
7. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 20-30 mins.

Cook the topping:

1. While pasta sauce simmers, prepare cream cheese topping.
2. Melt the butter in saucepan.
3. When frothy, add the flour all at once, stirring. Let the flour cook for about 5 minutes. Usually the flour is cooked when the mixture starts to turn golden brown.
4. Pour in the water in a thin stream, stirring as you do. Mixture will be lumpy at this stage.
5. Pour in the milk slowly, again, stirring as you pour. By the time the milk has been incorporated in the mixture, it will appear to be a little thin. The cheeses will thicken them to required consistency.
6. Add the cheeses. Set the heat to low and let the cheeses melt, stirring occassionally. Turn off heat and season with salt and pepper.

Baking:

1. When the sauce is done, add the cooked pasta and toss well. Let the mixture cook over low heat and occassional stirring (5-6 minutes).
2. Pour the pasta and sauce into a baking dish. Make sure that the dish is large enough so that the mixture is an inch below the rim.
3. Pour the topping onto the pasta mixture, spreading to seal the edges. If you don't seal the edges, the exposed pasta will dry up during baking.
4. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 20-25 mins or until top is lightly browned.
5. Let the baked mac rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

I bought a pyrex 9X13 baking dish last week and was very excited to try this today. Lo and behold, the dish wouldn't fit my measly oven!!! Damn you cheap oven! I had to be resourceful and find an alternative.

This must be my unlucky day because I decided to use my 9X13 teflon pan to make classic crumb cake (which I have not posted yet, lazy me). So that is not an option. I used my 10" round teflon pan and 8X8 pyrex baking dish. A little tedious but this tactic actually worked.

Mixing the pasta and the sauce

Arrange the pasta in your baking dish
Pour the topping
Bake - I wish you can smell this


Eat :-D

Pawis rating: 4 of 5 - This is not at all difficult but it had so many steps and so many ingredients I needed to chop! My hands are tired :-(

Lasagna with Bechamel Sauce

Me: Marion, I will cook lasagna today.
Marion: Mommy, pagkain ng pusa yan (Mommy, that's cat food)
Me: Ano?! (What?!)
Marion: That's what Garfield eats!

Does this look like cat food? I'm sure cats would eat this cheesy, meaty goodness but this sure is safe for humans too.

I actually forgot where I got this recipe from (if you know, please message me and I'll acknowledge the chef/cook).

Edit: I found the chef!!! This recipe is from Pinoy Food Blog! Thank you Ms. Noemi Lardazabal-Dado for making this on Mother's Day! (And thank you to Facebook for the regular updates hihihi)

Lasagna with Bechamel Sauce

Bechamel Sauce

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cans evaporated milk (1 can is equivalent to 225 ml or 1 cup)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

1. Melt butter in a pan.
2. Blend in flour until bubbly.
3. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
4. Cook until bubbly and a bit thick. Make sure not to burn the milk by lowering the flame.
5. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
6. Set aside

Cooking the bechamel sauce. This should come out thick and bubbly.

Tomato Meat Sauce

• 3/4 kilo ground beef
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 tbsp white wine (optional) - I did not use this as I obviously skip every optional ingredient in every recipe (that's just me being lazy)
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/3 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp basil leaves, shredded - I used dried basil
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 cup beef broth
• 2 cans tomato paste (150 grams each)
• shredded mozzarella cheese to add in between layers and for topping - I did not use this, you can see my explanation below.

1. Heat olive oil and butter.
2. Brown the garlic, add the onions and cook until soft.
3. Put in the ground beef, wine and spices.
4. Allow to cook for a while then pour in the beef broth and tomato paste.
5. Simmer gently until thick. A little flour may be needed to thicken the sauce. - I didn't need the flour as the sauce was already thick.
6. Set aside.

Very tasty meat sauce

Lasagna cooked according to package directions

I was scared to cook lasagna pasta for fear of breaking the pasta. It's so easy pala! And you only need 4 minutes :-) Don't overcook or you'll have soggy pasta when you take the lasagna off the oven.

Assemble the lasagna

1. Grease a rectangular dish (around 10X17 inches) with butter.
2. Pour 1/3 of bechamel sauce.
3. Arrange a layer of pasta. Spoon in tomato meat sauce and sprinkle with cheese.
4. Repeat number 3. End with bechamel sauce on the top layer.
5. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake 350F until golden brown.
7. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes to set before serving.

To explain myself - I did not use mozzarella cheese because we don't have it available anywhere near my house. I would give a reward to anyone who can find mozzarella cheese near our town. So I used quickmelt cheese instead (I know, so cheap). Plus cream cheese (not so cheap). I still got the cheesy gooeyness I wanted.

Next time, I would use a bigger (or deeper dish) so I can use the entire box of lasagna pasta. And I will double the meat sauce recipe. I find the meat sauce not enough for a 4 layer lasagna. I had to be careful in proportioning the potful of meat sauce so I have enough to put on top.

Serve this during family reunions, parties or dinner with friends and you'll be instant bida! Guaranteed bestseller! Best served with crusty bread :-)

Pawis rating: 1 of 5 super easy, no need to use your brains :-)