Designing the 'American Adobo' Menu
For my 'American Adobo' Filipino Dinner, I will be serving the meal in courses, with a couple of appetizers first, followed by a soup and a salad, with two different entrees, plus rice and vegetables. I want to keep the dessert easy and simple, just fresh fruit and sorbet, because with all the recipes I plan to experiment with, we probably won't make it to dessert anyway.
09:20 AM PST Permalink |

Getting Acquainted with Filipino Cuisine
In my research of Filipino cuisine, I have discovered that it is influenced by many cultures, most notably Spanish, Indonesian, Malaysian, Chinese, and Muslim. So traditional dishes include such ethnically diverse ingredients as Southeast Asian patis (fish sauce), Spanish chorizo and linguica sausage, spicy chili peppers, and water buffalo cheese. Seafood is abundant, as are tropical fruits such as coconut, mango and banana. Cooking techniques are fresh and simple, with the most common being stir frying, stewing, and grilling. The most common Filipino dishes include Adobo, a savory vinegar sauce for chicken or pork commonly regarded as the national dish of the Philippines; Empanadas, pastries filled with meat and potatoes; Escabeche, whole fish in sweet and sour sauce, Lumpia, delicate pancakes filled with meats, seafoods and vegetables; Kinilaw, marinated raw fish; and Pancit, a popular noodle dish. Here is a link to an excellent overview of the history and flavors of Philippine food.

12:00 AM PST Permalink |

My Cookbooks
Much to my delight, I have discovered that three of my cookbooks contain dozens of recipes for traditional Filipino dishes. Last month, I bought a copy of 'Martin Yan's Asia', which features a whole chapter on the Philippines. My old stand-by, Corinne Trang's 'Essentials of Asian Cuisine' has a nice selection of Filipino basics, and even 'The Joy of Cooking' has quite a few, although they are not specifically listed as Filipino, so you have to look them up by the name of each individual dish rather than finding a heading for Filipino cuisine in the index.

Martin Yan's Asia contains recipes for such classic dishes as Adobo, Empanadas, Escabeche, Lumpia, Kinilaw, and Pancit. 'Essential's of Asian Cuisine' also features different versions of many of the same recipes. And just for variety, I can look most of them up in Joy of Cooking and find yet another interpretation of the same dishes.

So, with all those wonderful, classic Philippine recipes at my fingertips, looks like I'm good to go with my 'American Adobo' Philippine Dinner.
01:36 PM PST Permalink |

Looking for Filipino Recipes
In anticipation of my 'American Adobo' Filipino Dinner & a Movie, I have already begun perusing my cookbooks in search of recipes and have found that I have quite an abundance of recipes right here in on my own bookshelf. Last month, I added a lovely Asian cookbook by Martin Yan to my collection, which features quite a few tempting recipes from the Philippines. So unless I get curious about a particular dish and feel the need for further research, it seems I need look no further than my own kitchen for all the Filipino recipes I could possibly want.
12:19 AM PST Permalink |

My Filipino Cooking Experience
When it comes to Filipino food, I must admit that I am a neophyte. In fact, my experience with Filipino cuisine, culture and people is limited to a time years ago as a bartender at the Silverado Country Club in Napa, where many of the staff were of Filipino heritage. I found them to be friendly, gorgeous and very hard-working. Alas, the job was temporary, so I wasn't there long enough to get to know any of my Filipino co-workers beyond a first name basis, much less gain any insight into their food and culture. But it certainly looks like I'm finally going to get a crash course on Filipino culture and cuisine over the next few weeks.
12:05 AM PST Permalink |

December's Dinner & a Movie
Welcome to Dinner & a Movie for the month of December. To round out the year, I have chosen 'American Adobo', a Filipino-American film, with a menu of classic dishes from the Philippines to accompany it. Both are going to be quite a gamble, as I've never seen the movie, I've never been to the Philippines, and have never cooked, nor even tasted Filipino food. So this time, I am an absolute beginner. But given the tasty success of all the exotic meals I have prepared in the past seven months, I am confident that I will be able to put an authentic Filipino meal on the table. And American Adobo comes highly recommended.
10:10 AM PST Permalink |

A Day at the Races
After what seems like a never-ending cycle of shopping, chopping and mopping, I finally gave myself a day off from the kitchen. It was a gorgeous autumn day, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The kitchen was clean, the fridge was packed with a bounty of tasty leftovers, my son Will and Rene's nephew Jovan, who were with us for the weekend, had finished all their homework, and Rene had a rare day off too, so...we decided to go to the horse races. After more than 20 years of driving past Golden Gate Fields on Highway 80 near Berkeley, I recently learned that its racing season begins in November, not in April as I'd always assumed. No wonder it was always closed when I tried to plan a summer afternoon at the races.

Of all the sports on God's green earth, horseracing is my very favorite, although I don't know what about it excites me so. Perhaps I was a racehorse or a jockey in another lifetime. Or maybe it's my fond memories of watching the televised Triple Crown races every year with my Dad when I was a child, a tradition that I have carried on with my son. Or maybe it's the visceral thrill of all that equine muscle and sinew thundering pell-mell toward the finish line. Whatever it is, there's no other feeling quite like it.

And I've never been much of a gambler. I can walk through a Las Vegas casino, past banks of jingling slot machines, whirring roulette wheels, high-stakes black jack tables, and smokin' hot craps games completely unfazed. But when it comes to the horse races, they're not nearly as much fun without a small wager riding on the horse with the most spirited gait or the most intriguing name. And I usually have a good eye for picking a winner. But yesterday, although I scored on a quinella in the second race, and picked a winner in the ninth, my hunches were way off the mark. I even let Will talk me into betting on all the possible combinations for a quinella in a 5-horse race in the eighth, but the pair that came in first and second were the two favorites and paid only $9.20 on my $20 wager. So... at the end of the day, I'd left 40 of my hard earned dollars at the track: A small price to pay for the thrill of watching eight adrenaline-pumping races, a really tasty hot dog and a couple of nice cold beers, and the pleasure of spending a sunny Sunday afternoon with my favorite fellas.

And now, time to get started on next month's Dinner & a Movie. This time, I'm headed for the Philippines (vicariously, of course).
12:00 AM PST Permalink |

Children of Heaven Film Review

Children of Heaven is one of my favorite films. And upon seeing it for the third time, its charm and relevance have not diminished. Here is a link to my Children of Heaven Film Review.

09:46 AM PST Permalink |

'Children of Heaven' Iranian Dinner Recipes and Photos
My 'Children of Heaven' Dinner & a Movie was a delicious and exotic adventure in Iranian food and film. For dinner, I served Kufteh Sabzi (Meatballs Simmered in Tomato Sauce), Pita Bread, Maast-o-Khiar (Cucumber, Tomato & Yogurt Salad), Grilled Lamb Kebabs, Albaloo Polow (Basmati Rice with Chicken, Onions and Cherries), Borani Esfanaaj (Spinach with Onions and Yogurt), and Baagh-lava (Honey-Almond Pastry) for dessert. Here is a link to the Recipes and Photos.
12:01 AM PST Permalink |

A Tally of the Cost of Dinner (in U.S.$)
The cost of the ingredients for my 'Children of Heaven' Iranian dinner are listed below. Keep in mind that the prices are based on buying everything new rather than using ingredients that I already had in my pantry. Of course there were lots of things left over for future meals, so the actual cost of the dinner based on the quantities of the ingredients used to make the dishes will be much lower than the grand total of stocking a pantry from scratch for preparing Iranian cuisine.

Specialty Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 2.49
Cinnamon - .99
Dill - 3.35

Fresh Ingredients:

Lamb - 5.99
Ground Beef - 2.49
Chicken Breasts - 4.29
Spinach - 1.29
Yogurt - 2.49
Garlic - .44
Parsley - .69
Scallions - .59
Cucumber - .79
Tomato - .99
Lemons - .50
Tomato Sauce - .59
Onions - .83
Green Pepper - 1.29
Lentils - 1.29
Frozen Cherries - 2.50

Basics:

Cooking Oil - 2.49
Eggs - 1.89
Butter - 2.50

Wine - 3.34

Total in $US - 44.10

01:05 PM PST Permalink |

Thanksgiving Redux
In the two days before Thanksgiving, we feasted on the leftovers from my 'Children of Heaven' Iranian dinner. Everything reheated splendidly and gave me a much welcome respite from the kitchen. As anticipated, the Borani Esfanaaj (Spinach with Onions and Yogurt) was much tastier warm than cold. The Kufteh Sabzi (Meatballs Simmered in Tomato Sauce) was still the best dish on the plate, and the Baklava was a sweet reward at day's end.

I began my Thanksgiving preparations the Wednesday evening before, doing much of the washing, trimming and chopping of ingredients for all the various dishes. Rene has an extra fridge in the garage that provided much needed storage space for the two twelve-pound turkeys and all the pots and pans full of stock and stuffing.

We enjoyed a nice long night's sleep before waking on Thursday noon to begin cooking. I spent most of the early afternoon assembling the appetizers: Baked Salmon with Cream Cheese, Dill and Capers on French Croutons, Stuffed Mushroom Caps with Smoked Gouda, and Crudites with Spinach Dip. The Stuffed Mushrooms were the best of the bunch, filled with savory breaded stuffing and a tiny wedge of smoky Gouda tucked into the center of each. And the cream cheese with dill was a perfect accompaniment to the flakes of baked salmon garnised with piquant capers.

The Turkey took exactly five hours to roast, and turned out perfectly golden after only a couple of bastings with the drippings from the bottom of the roasting pan. I raised a velvety brown gravy from the same drippings, and served up Side Dishes of breaded stuffing seasoned with onions, green peppers, celery, marjoram and parsley, along with perfectly poached haricots vert, steamed yams au natural, mashed potatoes, and cranberry-orange-walnut relish. We enjoyed a bottle of 1998 Hess Collection Cabernet Sauvignon with Dinner, and although there was still plenty of bakalava left from Monday night's dinner, by the time we'd sated ourselves, neither of us had any room left for dessert. Despite my best efforts otherwise, I succumbed to sleep on the sofa around midnight, while Rene, bless his heart, put away all the leftovers.

Today I'm roasting the second turkey in anticipation of my son Will and Rene's nephew Jovan arriving tomorrow afternoon for a 3-day stay here with us. With two ravenous teenaged boys, and Rene's lusty appetite, I am confident that all those leftovers won't go to waste.
12:15 AM PST Permalink |

Thanksgiving Day
I am blessed with so many things to be thankful for that I hardly know where to begin. First and foremost are my loved ones: My sweet and steadfast partner Rene; Will, my son and treasure; my five fantastic siblings, Michael, Steve, Julia, Mark, and Nolan; and their mates, Angie, Jane, Mike, Julie and Tina, a dozen darling nieces and nephews; my precious mother Joy and her devoted husband Sully; my dear friends Michael, Herb, Ralph, Mark, Betty and Marcia; my publisher Albert; and Camie, Yvonne, Michael, and Suzanne, the best group of clients any freelancer could ask for.

I am thankful that I wake up every day and can't wait to get to work on all the interesting and challenging projects that await. And although I am deeply troubled by the strife that lately plagues and defines our daily existence, I am ever grateful for the peace and prosperity that I enjoy in my little corner of the world.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

07:59 AM PST Permalink |

Holiday Plans
This year, Rene's family is spending the holiday away from Napa, and my son Will is going to Los Angeles to visit his grandfather, so Rene and I are going to be left to our own devices. In honor of the occasion, I'm going to cook Thanksgiving dinner for two. Since I usually just contribute a couple of appetizers and the cranberry relish to Rene's family dinner, it's been six or seven years since I've prepared a full Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings. But having spent so many happy Thanksgivings in my Mom's kitchen, watching and helping her prepare the annual family banquet, like riding a bicycle, it's something I never forget how to do.

After my 'Children of Heaven' Dinner & a Movie on Monday evening, and with the Thanksgiving holiday upon us, it seems I'm going to be spending the whole week in the kitchen. Of course, making a Thanksgiving dinner will be much easier than learning to cook Iranian food, so I'm looking forward to a pleasant and relaxing day, enjoying my favorite pastime: Cooking!. I will be making several appetizers to sustain us throughout the day, including salmon and cream cheese with capers on sourdough croutons, stuffed mushroom caps, and crudites of fresh vegetables with spinach dip. For dinner, I will make mashed potatoes and gravy, steamed yams, green beans, cranberry-orange-walnut relish, and not one, but two stuffed turkeys. My son Will and Rene's nephew Jovan will be spending the weekend with us, so I want to be sure there are plenty of leftovers to feed two hungry teenaged boys.
01:35 PM PST Permalink |

My 'Children of Heaven' Iranian Dinner: How Everything Turned Out
My 'Children of Heaven' Iranian dinner exceeded all expectations. However, I had to field a few curve balls in the process. First, I decided to prepare and serve the meal at Rene's house instead of my own, so I had the double challenge of preparing a new cuisine in an unfamiliar kitchen. Just when I had gotten my bearings and begun to make some progess with the prep, Rene's nephew Jovan arrived from school, followed soon thereafter by Rene's sister Alicia to pick up her son. She was keen to know all about my Iranian cooking extravaganza, so we spent half an hour or so chatting about the recipes and ingredients. In the interim, the phone rang. It was my son Will...He'd missed the bus. So, since the high school is only two blocks away, I suggested he walk over and stay the night with us instead of catching the late bus to his dad's. Although I was peeved at him for missing the bus, I was secretly glad, because that meant he would get to enjoy my 'Children of Heaven' dinner and I'd get to spend an extra evening with him before he headed to Los Angeles for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Not all the recipes I tried turned out as I'd hoped. But the ones that did were a resounding success. The Kufteh Sabzi, savory meatballs simmered in tomato sauce, which I had originally intended to serve as appetizers, were actually more suitable for the main course. Nevertheless, they were by far the tastiest dish on the table, and one that I will definitely make again. The kotlet dumplings were a disappointment. These little beef and potato croquettes fell apart during the cooking process, and by the time they were done all the way through, the bread crumb coating was too brown. I even tried sauteeing the second batch in butter instead of deep frying, but that was no improvement. So I'm going to omit that recipe from my collection.

The Aash-e Reshteh was another less than perfect dish. It's a hearty herbed noodle and mixed bean soup, but it was much too heavy to serve with a multi-course meal. Moreover, the flavor was not especially distinctive, probably due in part to the fact that I couldn't bring myself to top it with the kashk. That ingredient is a thick whey paste with a tart flavor, and in the throes of trying out so many new recipes, I couldn't devote the kind of time and attention to ensure that I was using it properly. I was also told that the kashk is optional. I'm sure the soup just as it is will make for hearty and delicious leftovers. I'd like to try it in a restaurant sometime, just to see how it's supposed to turn out, but I probably won't be making that recipe again.

The Lamb Kebabs were a tasty success, but one that turned out differently than I originally intended. At the last minute, I decided not to use the sumac spice on them. I dipped a finger into it to get a feel for its flavor and intensity and decided that it was too overpowering for the rest of the dishes on the menu. So instead, I brushed them with olive oil and drizzled them with lemon juice before grilling. I'm going save the sumac for another meal when I can devote my undivided attention to one dish seasoned with it.

The Polow Albaloo was also delicious. The chicken, carmelized onions and cherries were a unique combination of sweet and savory. But unfortunately, mine turned out a little ragged. The cooking process calls for the rice to brown at the bottom, which forms the crispy top layer when the dish is turned out of the pan for serving. Unfortunately, mine didn't brown evenly, so it was perfect on one edge, and a little overdone on the other. And I didn't have a container big enough to hold water for cooling the pan to make the rice easy to remove, so it came apart in places and had to be reconstructed for presentation. I think the trick to this dish is to really know both your cookware and your stove, because there's no peeking midway through the cooking process to see how brown it is. And since I was working in an unfamiliar kitchen with someone else's cookware on an electric stove, I was a little out of my element. Nonetheless, it was absolutely delicious, and the carmelized onion sauce that I made by deglazing the chicken saute pan was an unexpected bonus that wasn't in the original recipe. But it will certainly be added to my version of it.

The Maast va Khiar, cucumber-tomato-yogurt salad was a remarkably simple yet perfect accompaniment to the other dishes on the table. And the Borani Esfanaaj was delicious too. It's a simple vegetable side dish made with spinach, onions, and yogurt, served at room temperature, but I think I would have preferred it served warm. So I'm going to heat it up when I serve the leftovers.

I had also originally intended to make homemade pita bread, but when the moment of truth came, I wisely decided to send Rene to the store for a package of ready-made pita instead.

The wine I chose was also an unexpected treat. Safeway had a sale on a Napa Valley label called Sea Ridge, three bottles for ten dollars. An unheard-of bargain, but at that price I was game to gamble. I chose a pinot noir, and not only was it a delightful bottle of wine, but also the perfect accompaniment to the flavors of the meal. I should definitely pick up a couple more bottles of it while the sale is still going on, since it will no doubt be wonderful with my Thanksgiving dinner as well.

As expected, the Baklava that Mike Alimusa taught me how to make at Small World on Saturday afternoon was the star of the show. He sent me home with a huge tray of it, and I must admit that we cheated and sampled some of it the day before my 'Children of Heaven' dinner. It was honey-golden, sticky-delicioius and absolutely the perfect end to a fantastic meal. Clean-up was a breeze with a dishwasher to lighten the chore, and once I was done, I settled down on the sofa to enjoy a piece of it while we watched the movie.

I can't wait to enjoy an encore presentation of last night's meal.
04:26 PM PST Permalink |

Shopping for Fresh Ingredients
Today I shopped for the fresh ingredients for my 'Children of Heaven' Iranian dinner. Since I didn't need anything exotic, I figured I could just do my shopping at Safeway. There's a brand new branch on the north end of town, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to see what they'd done with the place. But the parking lot was so jam packed that I could only imagine what a mob there must be inside, so I opted to save the sightseeing for later and shop at the old one near my house instead. Being the last weekend before Thanksgiving, I expected it to be thronged with shoppers gathering all the ingredients for their Thanksgiving dinners, but the store was nearly empty when we arrived. I guess everyone was shopping at the shiny new one uptown.

I quickly and easily found everything I needed for my Iranian dinner, and while I was there, I did all my Thanksgiving shopping as well. So, as far as the ingredients are concerned, it looks like I'm all set for spending the whole week in the kitchen making not one, but two elaborate feasts.
01:34 PM PST Permalink |