Pasta Salad ala Jerms

Its the holiday season, one is expected to prepare the traditional dishes which have been passed down from generations. Stuff like baked pies,Turkey, lechon - the succulent roast port dish Asians prefer to serve and to suffer through long lines to get your honey baked ham. Growing up in the Philippines - the Christmas season is steeped in tradition. Families members were expected or worse required to be present for Noche Buena, gather around the dinner table to partake of the feast lovingly prepared usually by Mom following recipes handed down to her. My family served arroz valencia, majestic ham and fruit salad on Christmas Eve. Of course we had castanas - chestnuts, grapes, apples or oranges. These could be had with what was then a short drive to San Andres Fruit Market or maybe from Quiapo Market.
In the United States, Filipino families still try to serve dishes as they did at home. The most prominent is Honey Baked Ham - similar in preparation to baked hams from the Philippines. One has observed long lines in the Honey Baked Ham stores most of whom are Filipinos.

To serve a new dish is the challenge each season for me. One Christmas in trying to keep some ingredients in tune with the holiday season but with a twist, I put together a pasta salad dish that now gets requested any time of the year. Its served cold after spending time in the fridge to marry all the ingredients. Forego the "blending" period, the dish will taste different. You have to give it a few hours to allow the spices and herbs to blend together. I use slices of honey baked ham but if you wish you can replace it with turkey ham which will also impart that smokey flavor to the pasta. A friend preferred turkey to pork so one time I used turkey and no one noticed the difference. I use fusilli pasta - that small, thick corkscrew shaped type. Fusilli means little spindles in Italian. Why this pasta you ask? Those spiral shaped pasta holds the sauce better than the smoother surfaced one like macaroni or shell pasta. Hey this is cooking, its not rigid, you do it as you like it. My preference is this pasta. Before I forget, when cooking the pasta add a chicken boullion cube in the boiling water to give it a flavor boost. In the final preparation before serving I have added salad shrimp to give it another twist. (small sized cooked shrimp)
Ingredients

1 package fusilli pasta
1 cup cubed ham
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup green peas
onion powder
garlic powder
Parmesan cheese
sea salt (again stay away from the iodized type)
fresh thyme leaves - about two to three sprigs - leaves only - approximately 1 tablespoon
if using dried thyme use only 1 tsp
1-2 tbsp sour cream - depending to taste

Boil pasta until al dente. Immediately wash with cold water to stop it from cooking. Allow to cool in refrigerator and fully drained of water. Add the ham, peas to the pasta. Slowly incorporate the mayonnaise into the pasta, add more so each pasta is coated with dressing. Then add about 1 tsp of onion powder and a dash of garlic powder and about a handful of parmesan cheese. Taste the combination to your liking. Add more onion powder to the pasta and mayonnaise as needed, ensuring that the pasta doesn't get overwhelmed with it. Add salt as needed, then add the thyme leaves. Leave in the fridge for at least an hour to allow all the ingredients to marry. Add the salad shrimp if using. I add the sour cream right before serving. To add zing to the pasta salad, I get a packet of dry ranch dressing and add about a tsp to the salad.

I think this dish will be served in a friend's house on the 28th of December.

Enjoy!!!

The best brine recipe

Folks have always wanted to know the best way to prepare meats like Turkey or Standing Rib Roast or Pork Chops or even the ever challenging Porkloin. Secret seasonings? they ask. What makes your dish stand out? Why is the turkey breast more moist than the others they've tried. What do you use for marinade? People have asked me these questions when I cook for them, after a class that I teach or immediately after a dinner I host for friends.

Brine versus marinade.

Brine can be a marinade but not necessarily is a marinade a brine. What's the diff? A brine is a saline solution - it permeates throughout the meat to impart flavor and its guaranteed to make whatever meat to be moist. On the other hand,a marinade is an acid based solution, its acidic solution can have a vinegar, citrus, oil solution. If you ask me, it tempers the meat, slightly cooks the fibers (breaks it down)because of the acid. The method I prefer most - BRINING, it almost always guarantees a successful dish.

One of the challenges a cook faces is presenting lean meats that are more difficult to flavor. Costco sells this elongated piece of porkloin at a reasonable price. It's packed in a solution that does little to the meat. But if the cook is not careful, could end up serving a tasteless,flavorless,dried piece of useless pork or worse. It could be a disaster! Dont be fooled by those meats that come marinated in plastic from your local grocery stores. Its that they're not good, its just because they use acid based marinade, the flavors stay on the surface and does not penetrate the meat. I also dont like the idea of marinating meat in plastic, I still dont know how safe marinating in plastic is. Remember, acid + meat+ plastic could be bad chemistry.You will notice that the external part of the meat is dry and the inside is flavorless.
What's the answer? Brine your meats! Simple, its a no brainer. Why? Over the brining period, the saline solution allows the flavor of the herbs and spices to penetrate the meat fibers.Brining will add moisture to the muscle fibers within the meat; the brine helps to dissolve the proteins in the fibers so they become liquid instead of solid mass. But a word of caution to the cook that wants to do it a second time after their initial attempt at brining. It will work the first time you try brining, but a word of caution. Some folks I know will try to prolong the brining period. It will have the opposite way, if the meat is brined too long - if the meat is allowed to soak in the solution. Remember - salt will extract moisture from the meat.
Here are the ingredients that I have used for years, which by the way San Francisco Chronicle rates as one of the best brine recipes for hard to flavor meats.
5 bays leaves
10-15 Juniper berries - crushed
5-6 garlic cloves - crushed
1 tsp Allspice berries - crushed
1 bunch of thyme leaves (if using dried thyme use about 1 tbsp or more)
juice of 1 lemon, plus the lemon fruit
1 cup sugar
1 cup kosher salt or sea salt (stay away from Iodized salt - it leaves a bitter after taste)

Place all ingredients in a stock pot with enough water to cover the meat. Store in the refrigerator overnight - no longer than 24 hours. I use this brine for roast chicken, my Thanksgiving turkey or those nice two inch thick pork chops. Sometimes I would use the lemon slices used for the brine in the cavity of the chicken while roasting, along with two sprigs of rosemary. But more often than not I never have to use other herbs when roasting the chicken or turkey, the brine takes care of it.

On a cold Saturday Night

It was cold Saturday evening but one anticipating the start of rain the next day, I decided to shoot the city before the weather got ugly. One of my favorite spots to shoot the SF skyline is across the bay in Treasure Island. It was cold - around 44 degrees F add to that the wind chill factor. It was really cold. So out in the elements, all I could do was shoot and run. Here's one that didnt have camera shake. The second photo is of the Ferry Building - one good place to enjoy the local food offerings from a diverse city. Across the Ferry Building is the Embarcadero Building#4

Japanese Foie Gras - Ankimo

One of the less known Japanese dishes is the Ankimo - the Monkfish or frogfish liver. Its an ugly looking fish but its meat packs a lot of flavor. The fish is a common ingredient in Japanese pot au feu - nabe. Meat from this fish is quite expensive, can be found in speciality gourmet grocery stores. Its one of my favorite appetizers when I go to a sushi bar. Dipped in ponzu sauce, this delicious delicacy has the same texture as duck liver pate - foie gras but the taste is not close. But the melt in your mouth ankimo which is pink - orange in color hardly has an oceanic taste as one would expect. The liver is steamed for about 30 minutes then chilled before it is served. Nobu the famous Japanese restaurant prepares it over a citric vinaigrette made from a base of miso, lemon juice, red wine vinegar. I like it with Ponzu sauce - the traditional Japanese style of serving ankimo. So next time you order sushi, try this alternate sushi appetizer, you will not be disappointed.

San Francisco on a Sunny Day

Green Tea Mojito

I was fascinated by this cocktail that was offered to me by a very friendly and knowledgeable bartender at Osha Thai at Embarcadero I in San Francisco. She was from Thailand, knew her cocktails and could spot someone who needed a drink to start the weekend. It was while I was awaiting my dinner partners at the bar that she inquired if I have tried a diversion from the original mojito concoction. You see, I ordered to try their mojito but she offered this alternative. Before I knew it, I had three of these. Its a very simple recipe with the addition of something that I learned about - Green Tea Liquor. The only one I found is the Zen Green Tea Liquor by Suntory – the famous Japanese Whiskey company. Beverages and More in the United States offers them at their stores. If you are from other places in the world a good alternative is to brew some strong green tea (sans the brown rice) and use about 1/2 cup of the liquid. If you use the green tea, add a bit more sugar to offset the bitter taste of the brew. There are powdered instant green tea drinks that are available in some Asian stores. The ones I buy can be found in Korean grocery stores - these are in sachets that are already sweetened. Just add enough water to make ¼ cup. This for me is the best alternative to the Zen Green Tea Liquor. But if you really want to have the full flavor (and buzz :)) use the liquor
Ingredients
juice of half a lime
6 large mint leaves
Suntory's Zen Green Tea Liquor– 2 oz
Bacardi white rum – 1.5 oz
Sugar (optional) 1 tsp
Club Soda
Instructions
Pour the lime juice into a highball glass. Add the mint and crush with a spoon. Fill a glass with ice and add the tea liquor and rum. Stir well and garnish with a mint leaf, if desired. I prefer using a bit of sugar to the cocktail, my preference is palm sugar. Add club soda to fill glass - Enjoy!

Osha Thai - Beef Wasabi Roll

Osha Thai - a Thai restaurant catching the wave of Asian fusion trend burning the culinary world of the San Francisco Bay area. Its menu runs the gamut from typical Thai cuisine to a blend of various asian cooking ingredients and techniques. While it serves typical thai dishes like Pad Thai unhyped, meaning in the traditional manner of preparation, Thai Osha also attempts to tickle the diner's palate with dishes served with its own flair. Take for example one of its signature appetizers - the Beef Wasabi rolls. Served on a rectangular plate with deep wells that hold the wasabi sauce.The bitesize grilled beef steak encases sticks of pickled carrots, fresh celery matchsticks with mint leaves.A toothpick holds the appetizer together over a well holding the wasabi sauce. Another dish worth mentioning is the Pad Cha Scallops - fresh sea scallops served in a spicy coconut sauce made with basil, young ginger or galanga, eggplant, kaffir lime leaf with slivers of apple and green pepper

Recipe for Beef Wasabi Rolls
carrot and celery - cut into two inch length sticks
mint leaves
watercress leaves
beef thinly sliced - 4 inch in length
Salt pepper

Procedure:
Grill the steak to your liking, set aside. Lightly season the carrot and celery sticks with salt. Leave for at least 5 minutes. Wrap the beef slices over the carrot, celery sticks, add a mint leaf and some watercress leaves. Use a toothpick to tie the whole roll together. Serve with wasabi sauce.

Wasabi Sauce:
Juice of 1 lime
Fish sauce
wasabi powder dissolved in water
palm sugar or light brown sugar

Put all the ingredients together and mix well. I leave the proportions according to your taste
Tomorrow - I will share one of my favorite cocktails from Osha Thai - Green tea mojito

www.oshathai.com/

Recipes for today

I frequent this French restaurant in Belden Lane in Downtown San Francisco where they serve this mussel dish. Its one of their specialties and folks I know love this. Here is my version of this dish - serve it with nice baguette

Mussels ala Plouf

Diced green onions – white and green parts
2-3 lemongrass stalks diced – tender (white) part only
3 cloves garlic – minced
Cilantro minced – handful
1 12 oz can coconut milk
1 cup good white wine
Fresh mussels
For this recipe, use a good quality white wine – something that you will enjoy sipping. Refrain from using cheap wine because it will be noticeable in the dish

Start by sautéing the aromatics in good olive oil – preferably a light olive oil- don’t use virgin olive oil. When they turn fragrant, place the mussels, which have been cleaned and debearded and white wine. Cover the pot for about 2 minutes just to allow the shellfish to open. Discard those that remain closed – these are not good. Then pour the coconut milk and cover the pot. When the broth begins to boil season with either sea salt or fish sauce. I prefer using the fish sauce, the Thai label Tiparos is excellent – not too salty. Before serving I usually finish it with a splash of good virgin olive oil.
Serve with fresh baguettes or any crusty bread.


Thai style ground chicken with Sweet Basil

3 pcs shallots – minced
4-6 cloves garlic
1 bunch Thai sweet basil
Fish sauce
Minced lemongrass stalks – white tender part only
Ground chicken or ground turkey

In about two tablespoons of peanut or vegetable oil, sauce all aromatics including the Thai basil. When they turn fragrant, add the ground meat.
Cook until all the liquid from the meat have evaporated. Season with fish sauce – Tiparos is my choice. Serve with hot steamed rice.