i.cook(food);

A few days ago, my aunt brought home some Bicol Express from, well, Bicol. It was gata-licious and very spicy! I was very much satisfied and loved it unlike the Bicol Express found in restaurants around Manila aren’t that spicy and as delicious.

I recently learned about “urabang” and that’s what’s possibly missing or different from non-Bicol versions of the dish. What is urabang? It’s “the Bicol version of bagoong alamang where the shrimps are a little bigger.”* Other differences may also be that: 1) the chili is “washed less,” retaining more of its spicy flavor. 2) more chili is actually used and 3) No oil is used. Instead, they are cooked in coconut oil.

Well, just my guess, but I think that’s pretty much it.

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(*From a comment by ‘camilo’ at PinoyCook.net)

Here’s a simple recipe that I got while watching one of my favorite celebrity chefs, Giada De Laurentiis (not sure if it was Everyday Italian or another show). The recipe I’m posting may not be exactly what was shown as I am writing this from memory with some improvisation (since didn’t watch the start). This interested me since it was easy to prepare and is almost impossible to screw up.

Anyway, I tried it and can’t help but share it. I believe you won’t regret trying it yourself :)

 Ingredients:

• Julianned Red & Yellow Capsicums
• Sliced Onions
• Sliced Zucchini
• Olive oil
• Parmesan Cheese
• and of course, Farfalle!

The dish

Pre-heat your oven to 150 °C. Lay the veggies in a baking tray & sprinkle with olive oil. Place the veggies in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper once done. Mix the farfalle & veggies into a serving bowl. Add some grated parmesan cheese and you’re done!

A few notes:

• Veggies shrink when cooked so prepare more veggies than you think you need.
• It’s best to serve mix the veggies & pasta when they’re both warm.
• The combination of veggies here gives this dish a sweet taste. You could experiment with other combinations - and share them! 
• Enjoy!

I just bumped into this mouth watering recipe for Broccoli-Ricotta Pizza at OpenSourceFood and noticed EVOO as one of the base ingredients.

WTF is EVOO?!?

Well, one quick search at DuckDuckGo returned “Olive Oil” = Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Doh!

To adjust the heat when cooking with chili, all you have to do is to keep or remove the seeds. Why?

The stem end of the pod has most of the glands that produce the capsaicin. The white flesh, that surrounds the seeds, contains the highest concentrations of capsaicin. Removing the seeds and inner membranes is thus effective at reducing the heat of a pod.

from the Wikipedia entry on Chili pepper

In simple terms, the heat in chili is from the oils. Turn down the heat by taking out the source: the seeds.

If you want your food fiery hot, keep the seeds and the whitish membrane inside. If you want your food to have that chili warmth without having people consuming all of the world’s water supplies, scrape them out.

You must be careful when scraping them out, though. Capsaicin can be very nasty, especially if it comes in contact with your eyes. Ouch, It burns!

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*sigh* I miss the Chili Con Carne from Julio’s in Bicol. Was it in Legazpi City, Albay or what? It was a relatively small restaurant but the food was really good! Well, it doesn’t really matter now though since they’re now closed. :(

How do you know how well your steak is cooked? Cut it?

Unless you’re eating it already, DO NOT cut that steak! You’ll be losing all the precious meat juice in that steak.

How does it feel?

Instead, use this simple method only requiring your hands:

Wait! It seemed perfect but still ended up overcooked! What happened?

Keep in mind that food still cooks for a while immediately after the flame is out. There still is some trapped heat in there so you should adjust accordingly.

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I found ChefTips on YouTube today searching for this tip I saw long ago on Rob Rainford’s License to Grill. Jason Hill /Chef Tips seems like a good user to subscribe to. He consistently uploads new videos and replies to comments and questions.