A little DIY action by @mightyvanilla to frame our @farmerson57th plot. #gardenbites

The strawberry blossoms in our patio garden are shedding their petals and beginning to fruit. #gardenbites

Grilled BC spot prawns and patio salad

Grilled BC spot prawns and patio salad

Farmers on 57th: daikon sprout harvest

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A one-pot, two-dish Filipino recipe for under $10

2 Comments April 14, 2011

Ginisang bitsuelas and torta

Ginisang bitsuelas (sautéed green beans) Frying torta Ginisang bitsuelas and torta Stack of torta Torta and banana ketchup

My mother taught me another recipe from our family’s archives the last time we visited her in Everett. It was an instant hit in our household, not only for its economy but for its amazing versatility. I’ve been tweaking and perfecting these variations for my non-Filipino and vegetarian guinea pigs; they insist that it’s time to share the details with them (and the world).

Since this recipe can make two different dishes, I’ve separated the ingredient lists and steps below into the base sautée, the green bean variation, and the potato variation.

Our favourite way to take advantage of this? We make the base, use a third of it for the green bean stir-fry to serve immediately, and use the same pan to make the potato variation from the remaining base, which is reserved in the fridge and then finished for a hearty breakfast the following morning.

When you try it out, let me know how you vary the recipe to suit your household’s palate.

The base sautée

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 1 lb lean ground pork [vegetarian: omit or substitute diced extra firm tofu]
  • 2 tablespoons a) fish sauce, b) tamari soy sauce, or c) light soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 medium tomatoes, diced

Directions

  1. In a large wok or skillet, sweat garlic and onion in oil over low heat until onions are translucent. Don’t burn the garlic.
  2. Increase heat to med/high and add pork, fish sauce, and water. Stir to break the pork into tiny chunks. Cover and boil for 20 minutes until pork is cooked and liquid is completely absorbed.  [Vegetarian: skip step or use tofu and soy instead.]
  3. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in tomatoes and cook until soft and thoroughly incorporated.

Dish #1: Ginisang Bitsuelas (sautéed green beans)

Ginisang bitsuelas (saute?ed green beans)

Ingredients

  • 1/3 of the base sautée, above
  • 1/2 lb green beans, thinly sliced on the oblique
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • Freshly cracked ground pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Using a sharp knife or mandolin, thinly slice your stash of green beans at a steep 20 degree angle. (That’s about as steep as the slant of a sandwich board.) If you’re really handy with a razor blade or are as old-school as my mom is, take a razor like the one above and shave off the slices like you would peel a carrot. Just don’t catch your wrist in it…

Razor blade, by scottfeldstein on Flickr

Razor blade, by scottfeldstein on Flickr (Creative Commons)

  1. Stir the green beans into the base sautée. Cover and cook on low/med heat until green beans soften and intensify their verdant colour. Don’t overcook – you want ‘em al dente for best mouthfeel results.
  2. Add butter and pepper to taste. If it isn’t salty enough, reseason with fish or soy sauce. Serve on a mound of steamed rice.

Dish #2: Torta (Filipino frittata)

Torta and banana ketchup

Ingredients

  • 3/4 of the base sautée, above
  • 1 medium Russet potato, cut into 1cm cubes
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon cooking oil
  • Freshly cracked ground pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Add potato to base sautée. Cover and cook on low/med heat until potatoes are softened.
  2. Transfer to a large bowl and cool mixture in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. At this point, you can also call it a night and do the rest in the morning.
  3. Whisk eggs. Pour into cooled base and mix thoroughly.
  4. Heat oil on low heat in non-stick skillet or wok. Pour in a circle of the egg batter – about 3 heaping tablespoons’ worth. Season with pepper if desired. Cook, covered, until egg is firmly set.
  5. Flip over – using a plate if the torta is larger than your flipper – and cook reverse side for 1 minute or till lightly browned.
  6. Served with steamed rice and a side of (banana) ketchup or sweet and sour sauce.

Categories: Breakfast, Dinner, Filipino, Food, Recipes, Savoury

Tortang talong (eggplant omelette) in 5 easy steps

5 Comments February 23, 2009

Tortang talong

My husband doesn’t care much for eggplant.  Unfortunately, this meant that one of my favourite vegetables became unwelcome in our home.  In the eight years that we’ve been together, the only times I could use it in the kitchen was during tax season (when my husband disappears into the void for 3 months) or on nights where I’m left to cook for myself.  What a terrible dietary restriction.

Since our trip to the Philippines, Kurt has happily relaxed his scorn.  His new interest in eggplant is thanks to a simple dish that most Filipinos know and love: tortang talong.   Below is a visual recipe of the dish that is no longer blacklisted from our household.

Tortang Talong (Eggplant Omelette)

Step 1: Torch eggplant

Step 1 – Torch Eggplant

My favourite step. Using a gas stove, roast eggplant on all sides until skin is puffy and charred.  If you don’t have access to open flame (like our kitchen, sob) you can use your oven’s broiler, set on high. It’ll take a little longer to do.

Step 1b: Blister eggplant

Optional Step 1b – Steam Eggplant

If you are finding it difficult to peel the blackened skin off the eggplant, you can wrap said eggplant in foil and let steam a few minutes. The skin will peel off like panties at a Tom Jones concert.

Step 2: Peel eggplant

Step 2 – Peel Eggplant

Remove the skin from your roasted eggplant. It should look like this.  Having trouble? Try Step 1b above.

Step 4: Egg eggplant

Step 3 – Egg eggplant

Scramble an egg in a bowl and submerge your eggplant into it. Fan out the eggplant fully with a fork. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Step 4: Fry eggplant

Step 4 – Fry Eggplant

Heat a frying pan with a smidgeon of olive oil (low-med heat).  When the oil is ready, use the stem of your eggplant to lay it onto the pan. Make sure to fan the body of the eggplant out and use extra egg to fill in any gaps. Fry for 1-2 mins on each side or until each side is a toasty golden brown.

If you have extra egg left over, you can fry that up separately. It’ll taste like the eggplant omelette but without the veggie bits.

Step 5: Eat eggplant

Step 5 – Eat Eggplant

Blot excess oil off the omelette with paper towel if desired and you are done!

In my family, these omelettes are served over steamed rice and accompanied with some sort of pork. I usually eat it with pork chops but have been known to eat it with (gasp) Spam as well. If you want to be truly Filipino about it, create a dipping sauce of equal parts bagoong and white vinegar and spoon a little over each bite.

Tortang talong Step 1: Torch eggplant Step 1b: Steam eggplant Step 2: Peel eggplant Step 4: Egg eggplant Step 4: Fry eggplant Step 5: Eat eggplant

Categories: Asia, Breakfast, Dinner, Filipino, Food, Philippines, Recipes, Travel

Twitter contest time: 1000th tweet muffin giveaway, with recipe!

3 Comments February 7, 2009

Dear readers,

Did you know that the Tiny Bites sidebar displays micro blog posts using Twitter?

If you haven’t noticed it before, pay attention now, because I’m nearing my 1000th Twitter message (or “tweet”) and I’ve baked some goodies to mark the occasion.  They’ve *just* come out of the oven:

These muffins could be yours

Would you like a dozen of these muffins this weekend? Do you live / work / play in downtown Vancouver, or will you be in the vicinity in the next few days? If you’re nodding, drooling, or both, here’s what to do:

Tiny Bites’ 1000th Tweet Contest Details

  1. The publication of this blog post will auto-generate my 999th tweet. That’s when the fun begins.
  2. Send me a message through Twitter between now (8pm) and midnight. Tell me why you’d like muffins this weekend. Don’t forget to include @tinybites in your message or I won’t see it!
  3. Out of the responses I get between the contest period, I’ll randomly draw the winner of the muffin giveaway and announce it as my 1000th tweet.

Contest Conditions

  1. You’ll probably need a Twitter account. =)
  2. Your message must include @tinybites and have a timestamp between 8pm and 11:59pm on Saturday, February, 7, 2009 to be eligible for the draw.
  3. You need to be available between now and Monday evening to have your muffins delivered to you. No one likes stale muffins.
  4. Your meeting place to receive said muffins needs to be within Vancouver proper (downtown Vancouver, ideally).  Sorry suburbia, but my feet can only take me so far from my Yaletown abode.

Prize Details

The winner of the 1000th Tweet Muffin Giveaway will receive 6 blueberry and 6 Buddhaberry* muffins topped with streusel, baked by yours truly and stuffed to the brim with TLC.

Contest Update – midnight

7 Twitterers responded and the winner was announced.

Click to read each candidate’s qualifying entry:  @nolwennp, @carolbrowne, @eagranieyuh, @christinachoung, @jedmarc, @cecilialu, @fuzzydave.

The Base Muffin Recipe

For the streusel topping

  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons butter, firm

For the muffin batter

  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

For blueberry muffins

  • 1 cup fresh, canned (drained), or frozen blueberries

Blueberry muffins with streusel

For cranberry & citrus muffins

  • 1 tablespoon grated citrus peel
  • 1 cup cranberry halves or 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Buddhaberry muffins

Baking directions

  1. Grease bottoms only of 12 medium muffin cups or line your muffin tray with baking cups.
  2. Pulse all streusel topping ingredients in a food processor until crumbly.  No processor? Use a pastry blender or criss-cross with 2 knives until you achieve the same effect. Set streusel aside.
  3. Beat egg in a large bowl with a fork or wire whisk. Whisk in the milk and the oil. [If you're adding citrus peel, whisk it in here.]
  4. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Dump the mixture all at once into the bowl of wet ingredients and fold until the batter is just moistened. It’ll still be lumpy. That’s a good sign.
  5. Fold in your blueberries, cranberries, or preferred fruit into the batter.
  6. Heat your oven to 400F.
  7. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle each with about 1 tablespoon of streusel.
  8. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
  9. If baked in greased pan, let stand about 5 mins in pan, then transfer muffins to wire rack to cool.  If baked in baking cups, immediately remove from pan to wire rack.

Good luck, everyone!

*What the heck is Buddhaberry?

Buddha's Hand

It’s a term I made up to describe the ingredients I chose for this muffin variation.  Rather than do the typical cranberry and orange peel combo, I used the peel of a Buddha’s Hand, which is an unusual citrus I came across today at Choices and Urban Fare. I wanted to taste test it – if you win, you’ll get to as well!

Categories: Breakfast, Dessert, Food, Recipes

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