Feta Cheese Salad With Olives

The problem between me and feta cheese salad is that I tend to eat most of the feta cheese before it’s added to the salad.

Having said this however, trying to locate feta cheese in the Philippines is not necessarily easy. Further, when you do find it, it’s mighty expensive. Both of these points give all the more reason why every single slice off the old feta block is to be most thoroughly savoured!

Feta cheese salad is very easy to make. Really, the only limitations are set within your own imagination.

My feta creation here is basic, quick, fairly Greek in style. After all, feta was originally from Greece.

Anyway, what with spring time just around the corner for many of us, a lovely, light, feta cheese salad is most appropriate, don’t you think so?

It’s my birthday today (well, okay, I was born 46 years ago, so perhaps a better description is “birth date”), so already I’ve stuffed my fatso face with a rather large pizza, which I had for, erm… breakfast. Nevertheless, I’ve still enough energy to conjure up a delightfully low-calorie feta cheese greek-styled salad (while drinking a few glasses of Merlot at the same time!).

4.0 from 1 reviews

Feta Cheese Salad

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

Author: Fatso In the Kitchen

Recipe type: Feta Salad/Greek Salad

Cuisine: Salad

Serves: 10 – 12

Ingredients

• 1½ lbs feta cheese
• 12 tomatoes, each cut into quarters
• 1 cup pitted olives (green or black – your preference)
• 2 cups (2 medium onions) red onion, diced
• 1 medium cucumber, sliced
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• ¼ cup white wine vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Chop the tomatoes into quarters and place in large bowl.
2. Add everything else except the feta and toss well.
3. Dice the feta in ½ to ¾-inch cubes – try not to crumble it.
4. Gently mix into the salad and serve.

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3.2.1753

Linguine With Mussels and Cherry Tomatoes

I felt like cooking some mussels today and why not compliment those mussels with a bit of pasta?

This dish is easy to prepare and takes all of about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Of course, there’s a whole lot more you can do with the dish, but I wanted to keep things simple, as generally I do.

The linguine… some folks may wish to add something like a marinara sauce, but personally I think a little Tabasco sauce and salt and pepper to taste is plenty enough.

Try cooking the mussels in a little white wine, some vegetable broth, and a bit of seasoning,  then the flavours are more than plentiful.

Plus a lovely bit of crusty fresh home-made loaf, and you’ve got yourself the perfect dish for all seasons!

Linguine with Mussels

 

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Prep time

12 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

32 mins

 

Author: Fatso In the Kitchen

Recipe type: Seafood

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients

• 12 mussels, or more if they are small
• 1 lb linguine pasta
• 8 cherry tomatoes, chopped
• Sauce:
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup white wine (Pinot Grigio is ideal)
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce
• salt and black pepper to taste
• chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Instructions

1. Pasta:
2. Boil a large saucepan of salted water. Add in pasta and cook until al dente – 10 mins.
3. Drain water and place in large bowl for serving.
4. Add in butter and Tabasco sauce and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Sauce:
6. In large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat..
7. Add tomatoes and garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
8. Next add wine and let simmer for about 2 mins, till it reduces to almost half original quantity.
9. Now add vegetable broth and mussels. Season with salt and pepper.
10. Cover pan with lid and let simmer for about 6 to 8 mins. Mussels should open (if not, be sure to discard).
11. Take mussels from saucepan and store for a couple of mins.
12. Pour leftover liquid from saucepan over pasta and toss. Add salt and pepper to taste.
13. Finally, plate-up the pasta and arrange mussels on top.
14. Garnish with parsley and serve.

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3.2.1753

I can’t say that kale really conjures up a sense of erm… bewilderment and extreme excitement.

I mean, it looks like a cabbagey type thing, and cabbage, as I knew it as a kid, was always served up as an over-cooked (over-boiled) mush which tasted like, well… mush! Tasteless goo.

Cabbage for me was always a prime candidate for heaping Daddy’s Brown Sauce all over, so I didn’t have to “deal” with the rubberyness. If it’s over-boiled, when you first pop it in your mouth, it’s a bit like soft rubber. Then, once you slop it around a bit in an effort to swallow it, if you can do without being sick, next it slides down your throat like it were a flaccid balloon.

Okay, I best stop with the descriptive text. This post is turning into a children’s story

Kale soup though.

We all know kale is very good for us, right?

High in vitamin C, vitamin K, beta karotene, and rich in calcium too. Further, it apparently contains something called sulforaphane, which is regarded as  a chemical with anti-cancerous properties.

But the main thing here is that kale does actually make for a very tasty soup, if it’s prepared in the “right” manner. And there’s no requirement for the addition of any Daddy’s Brown Sauce to hide the mushy texture

Onto the recipe and preparation:

Vegetarian Kale Soup Recipe

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Author: Fatso In the Kitchen

Recipe type: Soup

Cuisine: Vegetarian

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1 bunch kale, stems removed and leaves chopped
• 8 cups water
• 6 cubes vegetable bouillon (such as Knorr)
• 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 6 white potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 2 (15 ounce) cans cannellini beans (drained if desired)
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot; cook the onion and garlic until soft. Stir in the kale and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Stir in the water, vegetable bouillon, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, Italian seasoning, and parsley. Simmer soup on medium heat for 25 minutes, or until potatoes are cooked through. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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3.2.1753

Egg Fried Rice with Shrimp

Living in the Philippines, or to be more exact, living in Mactan, Cebu, has certain downsides (as well as some upsides too, of course). I’d often previously thought that Filipino-style cooking was really great. Tasty, fresh, affordable (very affordable!), creative, pretty…

However, my impression on that front is now somewhat different.

A blatant example for you…

Rice

Here in the Philippines, as is the case in many if not most South East Asian countries, rice is very much the staple food choice.

For me, being a westerner, rice was NEVER my favourite. Either potatoes or noodles would always take precedence.

40 years ago, noodles were not at all popular in the UK, other than spaghetti. So it was mainly down to ‘tatties’ as they call potatoes in Scotland. In the past couple of decades or so, Asian-style noodles have become incredibly popular, either as a snack, or as the basis for a delicious meal.

But where I’m living now, rice is by far the most affordable option, and potatoes are much more expensive than they are in the west. Noodles are not exactly cheap either.

Mind you, I used to live on a farm in Scotland where I could get six months supply of potatoes free of charge. Spoiled for choice! At the time I never realized that, but I surely do now!

Now, okay, let’s not get too carried away here.

Rice for dinner three times a week is perfectly fine.

But here’s the problem…

Rice is not merely served for dinner three times a week.

Rice is served for lunch and dinner seven days every week!

In fact, most days, rice is served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

I hear you say, “Well, okay then, you can do a lot with rice to make it into a very healthful and tasty meal.”

I agree.

However, where I’m located at the moment, imagination is not part of the deal when it comes to cooking.

Let me illustrate.

Let’s say we are having rice for… breakfast.

We go out, find a place that has rice on the menu (every eatery in the whole town, that is!).

The rice is either spooned onto a plate, or scooped into a plastic bag.

It’s often cold rice too – already cooked, yeah (as you would hope ), but cold all the same.

It’s boiled rice. Never fried. Never!

What’s more though, it’s not seasoned either. No salt. No pepper. No nothing.

Any vegetables?

Nope.

Any meat?

Na.

Anything other than boiled rice?

Not on your nelly! You may be very fortunate to get a small plastic bag of soy sauce with it, but that’s a rarity in my experience.

Now is it just me or is plain boiled rice the most boring meal in the world?

So what I do is to purchase my serving of rice. Grab an as-yet uncooked egg at a different shop (normally the eateries here where you buy the rice, also serve up cold, mushy fried eggs, which quite frankly are relatively unappealing).

I’m intent on getting some of my own bantam hens in order that I may have fresh eggs “on tap”, but that’s another story.

I head on back to my humble abode, get the frying pan on the gas cooker, and then, after just 10 minutes of prep time and 10 – 15 minutes of cooking time (if that), I’ve managed to conjure up something that is so much more tasty than the original boiled rice.

So, why can’t they do that in the little cafes and eateries here, is my question? Is it so difficult?

Hmmm… I’m still scratching my head about that. Talk about the most bland food in the world!

Here’s a very simple recipe and method as something of a panacea for the blandness of boiled rice with no seasoning or nothing else added to it.

Egg fried rice with shrimp

5.0 from 2 reviews

Easy Fried Rice Recipe

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Author: Fatso In the Kitchen

Recipe type: Rice

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 3 eggs (or use as many eggs as wish)
• 10 oz large (or medium) shrimps, peeled and de-veined
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped (add more if you wish)
• 2 green onions (spring onions), finely chopped
• 4 cups cooked white rice (already cooled)
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce (add to taste)
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 -3 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon cumin powder
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Instructions

1. Beat the eggs with water in a small bowl.
2. Melt the butter in large frying pan over medium heat.
3. Add the eggs and cook through (around 2 mins). Remove and slice to make strips.
4. Heat olive oil using same frying pan. Add in onion and saute until brown (about 3-4 minutes. Also add shrimps and garlic for final 2 minutes. Shrimps should be pink when ready.
5. Add rice, soy sauce, cumin, turmeric and black pepper. Stir fry for around 5 minutes . Add more soy sauce, black pepper, cumin, to taste.
6. Stir in egg strips and green onion, then serve.

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3.2.1753

Vegetarian Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

The nature of the book, you may be wondering?

How about this – gluten-free and vegetarian crock-pot recipes.

The link to the book on Amazon Kindle:  The Slow Cooker – 40 Vegetarian and Gluten-Free Recipes

$3.09 on Amazon Kindle – Click the Image to Purchase, thank you!

I’m not gluten-free but my father is and it took many months before an accurate diagnosis was made of his condition. So for a long while, he regularly became very ill indeed. Fortunately now however, now that he’s on a gluten-free diet, all’s well with his world.

If you do decide to invest the whopping $3.09 cents for the book, I’d be more than delighted if you could provide a “Like” or even a glowing review of my works  After all, that’s how Amazon Kindle rankings work – the number of sales as well as “Likes” and positive reviews all combine to push the book rankings upwards, which in turn generally means more sales.

Excuse me for one moment – I’m just conducting a little research on whether pregnant ladies can munch on shrimps without any undesired consequences. I fried up some fresh tiger shrimps just earlier on (in coconut oil) and hid them in the fridge for laters. But my partner’s found them out and is busily gorging on them… As it turns out, it is safe for pregnant women to eat shrimps, within reason. In other words, don’t go mad on them all in one go

Keeping it on-theme to my recent vegetarian and gluten-free -in-the-crock-pot book, today I thought I would share with you one of the recipes from the book.

Gluten-free Vegetarian Crock-Pot Spaghetti Sauce

I know that may sound a bit basic but you can use spaghetti sauce for all sorts of toppings – pizza, various pastas of course, in soups, etc. And if you don’t require the gluten-free aspect such as the tomato sauce and paste, it’s easy to add ingredients of your choice to “compensate”.

This one is really so, so tasty and rich. As I’ve noted in the book, if my mom had used a sauce like this to pour over my veggies when I was a young child, I’d probably have eaten the lot – even the Brussels sprouts   You see, I was never a fan of my mom’s mushy veggies – yook!

If you decide to try this one out, do let me know what you think, thanks indeed! Prep time is only around 10 to 15 minutes, then it’s a matter of adding the ingredients to the crock-pot and waalllaaaa! In about 9 hours you’ll have yourself a beautifully aromatic home in addition to an extraordinarily delicious sauce!

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Spaghetti Sauce Recipe (Gluten-Free)

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

9 hours

Total time

9 hours 15 mins

 

Author: Fatso In the Kitchen

Recipe type: Spaghetti

Cuisine: Vegetarian

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 medum carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 cups sliced Shiitake or Portabello mushrooms
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes (drained)
• 15 oz gluten-free tomato sauce
• 6 oz gluten-free tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
• ½ teaspoon sage powder
• ½ teaspoon oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

Instructions

1. Using non-stick skillet over medium heat, saute carrots and onions for 4 mins – until they are a little browned
2. Add peppers, garlic, and mushrooms and stir for further 3 mins.
3. Place vegetables into bottom of 4-5 quart crock-pot and add remaining ingredients. Cook for 7 – 8 hours.
4. After cooking, stir thoroughly. Leave cover off crock pot, turn heat to high, and cook for 1 hour to allow sauce to thicken.
5. Sauce can be used or refrigerated, or stored in freezer for up to 3 months.

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3.2.1753

Grilled Eggplant Roll Ups 

Today, I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a cooking e-book for Kindle. After all, I enjoy food, I enjoy writing, and thus the two blend well together in the format of said e-book.

What would, or rather, what SHOULD one do when garnering info on what to write about when it comes to Kindle? Does one just dive in head first and hope that what one generates becomes a best seller? Or does one do a bit of initial research in order to add some assurance that the e-book will in fact sell more than one or two copies?

Research of course.

And so I set about doing a little bitty graft on the research side and I came across this rather epic production (epic in terms of a
length because most cooking-type e-books stretch as far as perhaps only 50 pages or less – this one is a whopping 242 pages
long! Industrious or what, me says!).

The Italian Slow Cooker by Michele Scicolone

Kindle price: $19.73
Paperback price: $13.09

One point to note before I move forth. I was of the mindset that a Kindle e-book would always be priced below that of a hard-copy book, for obvious-ish reasons, right? I mean, it’s easy to produce a Kindle book and there’s no costs involved in it’s production other than outsourcing for illustrations and maybe for the content too if you are not a confident writer. Whereas that’s not the same for a hard-copy – there are other costs involved because it’s a material product.

Regardless, I love the core idea and I love the book’s cover image design, don’t you? The design in itself makes you want to reach for your credit card, but for me, I resisted because so often I purchase a cookery e-book only to find that it’s most thoroughly dominated by meat-based cuisine. Well of course it is, and for me to expect anything different would be and is in fact folly, unless of course the book has a vegetarian or vegan focus.

Today’s Recipe

Well, I don’t want to bore you with Amazon e-books or nothing of that sort. And soooo, my point being here that although I never made the investment in this book, I decided to invest some time researching my next “cooking event a la house of Fatso” with
something of an Italian bent.

I mean… I love Italian food – who doesn’t adore pizza? Who doesn’t adore ciabatta? Who doesn’t adore spaghetti? Who doesn’t adore
tiramisu? You get the idea…

Anyways, of recent weeks (no, not months, but weeks…) I’ve started to buy eggplant very regularly, which incidentally is a fruit, and not a veggie.

Also called aubergine, which is French, and that name is commonly used throughout the UK too, or called baklazhan by the Russians (my ex-wife was Russian and this is one of the few Russian words I now remember, oddly enough), or talong in Filipino (Tagalog, to be more correct), terung in Malay. Hey look at me – I’m becoming quite the foreign dictionary these days

Eggplant is called melanzana in Italian. Melanzana literally means “mad apples”. Apparently if you resided in Italy pre- 15th century (not that I’m suggesting you did ), chances are you’d have reasoned that eating eggplant would have made you crazy, hence the name – melanzana.

Moving onwards, as previously mentioned, throughout my years in Malaysia, I rarely cooked at home, but obviously I was missing out on the delightful home-cooked eggplant experience. They really do make a very fine dish indeed! I mean, even if you do a quick fry-up using something like olive oil or coconut oil (I’ve recently introduced coconut oil to my “hareem” of cooking oils since it’s said to be one of the healthiest) and add nothing but say… a little salt and pepper towards the end of your quick fry-up, aubergine is really lovely and tasty.

I wouldn’t fry in butter though because aubergine soaks up the flavour of whatever it’s cooked in. Best with either a flavour-free “carrier” oil or one that is pleasant to the palate like so many olive oils are. Oh, and for those who like it hot, add a dash of Tabasco here and there of course

So, what with the fact that eggplant offers a gratifying experience to the palate purely on it’s own, there’s no requirement for
anything in order to boost it in terms of enhancing the flavour (other than Tabasco, of course ).

Barbequeing egg plant over hot coals is said to be the best way to cook it, but no doubt that grilling it or seering it on a skillet or
simple frying pan (like the one I have) is also goodly.

What’s more, some prefer to peel the skin off, but unless it’s been charred and burned beyond belief, why do that? The skin offers additional flavour and can be aesthetically appealing even after cooking.

Healthful Benefits of the Eggplant

A very quick round-up of the goodies packed within the egg plant just for your information then it’s time for the recipe.

Very low in saturated fats and cholesterol. Good source for vitamins B6 and K, as well as the following minerals: folate, manganese,
potassium, thiamin.

High in sodium, so that’s not so good. High in fiber, so that is good. And one cup of cooked eggplant (I presume that means cooked in water) equates to a tiny 35 calories. Overall we’re well and truly onto a winner here health-wise!

The Simplicity of this Recipe

Really, today’s recipe is oh so simple because I wanted to retain the eggplant’s subtle flavouring to the utmost and actually encourage it out further with the additional “accoutrements” – the mozzarella, the tomatoes, the olive oil, a little lemon juice (or in my case calimansi juice which is similar to a lime), and some salt and freshly ground black pepper to finish it off rather nicely.

Eggplant Roll Ups

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Author: Fatso In the Kitchen

Cuisine: Vegetarian

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 medium eggplants
• ¼lb (115g) fresh mozzarella cheese
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 4 fresh basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Slice your eggplants lengthways into ¼ inch thick pieces and sprinkle with salt.
2. Pre-heat the grill, arrange the eggplant slices on the grill rack and brush one side of each slice with a little olive oil.
3. Grill for about 5 minutes. Turn over and repeat (the slices should be golden and softened). Set aside to cool slightly.
4. Chop the fresh mozzarella into small chunks and do the same with the tomatoes.
5. Add the mozzarella and tomatoes to the eggplant slices and top with some salt and pepper to taste in addition to a drizzle of olive oil.
6. Roll the eggplant slices and tie with the basil leaves.
7. Serve immediately.

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3.2.1753

I don’t mind admitting to the fact that I borrowed the basis of this recipe from some place yonder (Annie’s Salsa). For sure, I’ve changed it a rather a lot actually, in order to suit my own more specific requirements. Nevertheless, Annie’s Salsa is said to be among the very best.

Obviously, if you are intent on canning the stuff, you need to make a whole lot more than I’ve outlined below (2 – 3 cups). Easily done – just up the ante on the figures given below to suit your needs. Oh, and if you do decide to can, be sure to utilize canning salt and not table salt! Table salt is fine if you intend to consume the end-product within a few days.

I really adore a good salsa (like the dance too, regardless my two left feet ) and figured it was time to try to make one for myself. The other week, I was in town here in Lapu Lapu, Philippines to meet up with a Canadian friend. I had a tuna steak and salsa (salsa means “sauce” in English) dip. For sure, the salsa (also known as pico de gallo) was very fresh and nicely al dente, but I’m afraid that for me, a salsa dip should be viscous and clingy, so that when you stick your nachos in, they come out all dripping with deliciously luscious salsa.

I used to love a great big plateful of nachos along with a scintillatingly hot salsa dip, but these days, because I’m such a couched potato, over-doing it on the nachos is not such a wise idea because they surely help to pack on those pounds around the mid-riff section! I don’t believe it’s so much about the calories. There’s 334 calories in a large bag of nachos – 1oz or 28.3g. But, the problem lies more in the fact that there’s a high carb level. 31g carbohydrate; 21g fats; 6g protein. It’s those carbs that boost the blood’s sugar levels and in turn helps to store excess “energy” as fat.

Anyhow, this particular salsa is similar to Mexican salsa de molcajete. Erm, okay, so I don’t have a true molcajete. What’s a molcajete, you may be wondering? It’s a lava-rock mortar. Instead, I’m using Filipino lusong, which is quite the same thing – a mortar (and pestle to boot), except that it’s made from wood. It’s a really nice piece actually and I picked it up in a local shop for a mere few pesos (couple of bucks).

Apparently, it’s best to utilize round tomatoes for a table condiment. Why so? They provide for a looser texture. Suits me because I’m not able to get my hands on much in the way of a variety of tomatoes these days. Apparently Rio Grande is a good tomato for salsa, if you’re familiar with that variety. Less juice, more flesh. And the addition of some cherry tomatoes is a good call to make, such as Sun Gold, which adds to make a slightly sweeter flavour in a natural way.

Manitoba is good. Although not much flavour, it’s firm and the seeds are easy to remove

5.0 from 3 reviews

Fresh Tomato Salsa Recipe

 

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Author: Fatso In the Kitchen

Ingredients

• 3 cups (1.5lbs) tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained (remove seeds and inner juices)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 jalapenos, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp salt (use table salt if you are not going to store the salsa; use canning salt if you wish to store)
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro
• 1 tsp sugar
• ⅓ cup vinegar (can use ⅓ cup lime or lemon juice instead)
• 2oz (57g) tomato sauce
• 2oz (57g) tomato paste

Instructions

1. Seed your tomatoes by slicing through midpoint and then using the end of a butter knife to scrape the seeds out. Try not to disturb the flesh.
2. Chop tomatoes, jalapeno pepper, and onion into thin slices. You can mince the garlic, or use a press.
3. Add all the ingredients to mixing bowl and stir (use a food processor for ease if you prefer).
4. Tear the cilantro into small pieces (this bruises it thus causing it to release more flavour), add to bowl.
5. Add sugar, vinegar (or lemon/lime juice), cumin,pepper tomato sauce, tomato paste to bowl and mix thoroughly.
6. Taste and add more salt and/or pepper if necessary.
7. Cover and chill for an hour before serving.

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Chef’s notes:

I know that some of us may wonder about the addition of tomato sauce and tomato paste, right? Well, this provides for a certain consistency and flavour which many would argue is an improvement over using 100 % fresh tomatoes. Some prefer all fresh tomatoes – that’s entirely up to you.

Use a blender to create a puree if you prefer the sauce to be smoother.

The recipe I’ve listed above is fairly tame in terms of hot ‘n spicy. Add your chili of choice if you prefer more punch – I surely did!!

Please do leave a comment about anything – how to improve, what you do or would do differently, what you think about the combinations used in the recipe – anything at all thank you!

Crock Pot Vegetable Soup

Oh what a day! I’m suffering from a viral infection, which, as you can probably imagine, is making me feel like a throbbing, painful lump of uselessness. Even my gums are throbbing, which makes it seem like my teeth are all going to fall out. To make matters worse, me and my partner “experienced” a “dialogue”, which wasn’t particularly pleasant because I got the silent treatment for the rest of the day. Some days you just can’t win, can you?

To make matters better however, I decided to opt for a bit of comfort food, and what more appropriate than some thick, wholesome, virtuous, and immensely gratifying vegetable soup! I know, I know, the usual remedy would be a large chunk of chocolate to help soothe the woes away, topped off with a half dozen paracetamol to ease the physical discomforts. Oddly however, I’m now more of a savoury food fan, which is rather strange because I used to be a sweet tooth through and through.

At times I quaff when I read comments about only eating soup when it’s wintertime and particularly cold outside (and sometimes also inside). You see, here in South East Asia, it’s never wintertime. There’s only hot, hotter, and hotter still. But I’m cool with that (pardon me ). A hot bowl of veggie soup (filled with extra hot chili padi I may add!) is enough to send that viral infection straight to the slaughter house!

This time around I used my new acquisition – the crock pot.

It does take more patience than cooking “normally” but the fact is that it tastes (and smells) so much better.

My mother used to make a whole metric-ton of vegetable soup all-in-the-one-go (the veggie soup was about the only thing she ever got right, teeheehee!). Then she’d freeze a lot of it. I swear that frozen vegetable soup which is re-heated (of course ) is oh so much more flavourful than when eaten straight off the bat, so to speak.

What would you call that – marinaded? Permeated? Suffused? TBH (to be honest) I should have done the same with my vegetarian butternut squash soup. I mean, I should have marinaded it for a day, but it was just so heavenly that I scoffed the lot (five bowls-worth) within about 3 hours .

Onwards:

Crock Pot Vegetable Soup

 

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Prep time

25 mins

Cook time

8 hours

Total time

8 hours 25 mins

 

Author: Fatso In the Kitchen

Recipe type: Crock Pot

Cuisine: Vegetarian

Serves: 10

Ingredients

• Recipe Type: Soup
• Cuisine: Vegetarian
• 1 15 oz (426g) tin white beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 medium to large carrots, sliced
• 3 medium broccoli florets
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 red pepper, sliced (half cup)
• 4 medium Shitake mushrooms, sliced (1.5 cups) (use any common mushroom if Shitake not available)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or sliced thinly
• 1 corn cob, slice corn off the cob (can use 1lb bag of frozen corn instead)
• chili (erm, okay, so I like the hottie type – chili padi, but if you don’t like the heat, you best stay out of the kitchen – it’s entirely up to you if you wish to spice things up a bit)
• ¼ small squash, (1 cup), diced (kalabasa puti in Filipino Tagalog)
• 1 medium sweet potato, (1 cup) diced (also called kamoti cue here in the Philippines)
• ½ tspn basil
• ½ tspn oregano
• 1 or 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (I prefer this to salt)
• freshly ground black pepper to your taste
• 2 cans vegetable broth (14oz/ 4g) (I used a packet-based powder, similar to Knorr or Oxo)
• 6 cups water

Instructions

1. Using a 6-quart slow cooker, pop-in all the ingredients.
2. Cook on low setting for 6 to 8 hours.
3. On serving, remember to remove the bay leaf unless you have something of a penchant for such

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A School of Yellow Snapper – Commonly found in Tropical Waters Worldwide

I’m hardly an expert when it comes to Filipino fish. After all, I’ve been living in South East Asia for coming on four years, but only six months of which have been in Lapu-Lapu, Cebu, Philippines. Nevertheless, in that short time, I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy a variety of local fish, including:

• anduhaw (mackerel – or something very similar)

• bangus (milk fish)

• bodboron

• danggit (rabbit fish)

• lapu-lapu (grouper)

• maya-maya, also known as bambangin or paro (snapper)

• tilapia (the chicken of the seas)

• tulingan (mackerel tuna)

Plus, myself and my partner have barbequeued a few and fried a few others, so we’re not doing too badly, or so I like to think so  Although I may be slightly biased, my taste-buds tell me that when we cook at home, we do a better job than the various eateries in these parts, at preparing the fish.

The other night we barbequeued anduhaw (mackerel) outside our front door whilst the kids played around us in the street. I’m telling you, it’s the best fish I’ve tasted since I’ve been here! Simply by adding in some chopped onion, minced garlic, and coating the fish with a little coconut oil on each side. Then adding a little Tabasco (which I sneaked in because my girlfriend can’t handle the heat), some sage (ground and from a bottle), cumin (again ground and from the bottle), and a bit of freshly ground black pepper, we found that the flavouring of the fish was so much better than otherwise.

The problem now though is that every time we decide to eat fish when we’re out, we’ll be comparing with our own home-based “product”, and I doubt we’ll find anything that compares favourably.

 Incidentally, this is called a “mackerel sky”  ;-)

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Now, onto some more Filipino fish recipes. Not necessarily cooked in a Filipino style as such. I really merely wish to highlight the way in which these fish can be prepared to very good effect. Hope you enjoy, and comments are of course welcome, thank you.

The first two recipes are tiliapia-based and both of which are cooked using a slow cooker (crock pot). Fortunately for all those residing in the Philippines, slow cookers are common-place. You can buy them online if you prefer (although unfortunately Amazon, which is the best online store for this sort of product by far, will not ship to the Philippines), but most departmental stores no doubt will stock them. Slow cooking – or rather, using a slow cooker is a great way to prepare food!

This recipe takes only 15 mins prep time, with 2 hours cooking in a slow cooker. Really looks incredible! Lemon Pepper Tilapia with Asparagus (asparagus is commonly available from supermarkets here in the Philippines – a bit costly, but then, it is in every country).

Source: theredbirdlife.com via Joseph on Pinterest

Tilapia with tomatoes, basil, and garlic. This delicious offering has been brought to us by Hope, the Busy Crock Pot Mom. The parmesan risotto is obviously optional.

But of course, there’s more to come. This is merely, how would you say… the appetizer

Filipino Fish Recipes

 

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Author: Fatso In the Kitchen

Cuisine: Fish

Ingredients

• #ingredient#

Instructions

1. #instruction#

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 Chili Vodka – a nice way to “spice” up your drinks!

Oh golly gosh, I was going to delve more into the soups pantry today and invigorate myself dreaming about soup, soup, more and more soup! Vegetarian of course, since I’m a passionate vegetarian and have been for going on 25 years. I do (now) eat fish, since fish is in a plethora in the Philippines and it’s one of the few foods I tend to enjoy here, particularly when barbequeued over charcoals – it’s very pleasurable to watch (and do) and it’s even more pleasurable to taste the outcome, providing the added “accoutrements” are appropriately, erm… added – salt, pepper, onion, garlic, sage is nice too, and Tabasco sauce for those who like it a bit on the hot side. Oh and why not throw in a few chili (padi) for good measure!

So, what’s it to be – HOT ‘n SPICY SALAD oooorrrrrrr LITTLE FISHY on our DISHY…???

I feel all hot today so hot ‘n spicy it is. Our fishy will be for another day, coming very soon!

Delving deep into the deepest realms of Pinterest (Pinterest being a superb photo gallery for food lovers!), I’ll see what I can come up with for our spicy hot talk here on FatsoInTheKitchen.com!

Spicy Cucumber Salad

It’s fair to say that during the winter months in the western part of our world, salads are not generally high on the list of “to do to-day”. Where I am in the Philippines however, the temperatures and the humidity levels are not overly changeable. Salad is thusly on the menu on a regular basis – or it would be if I were able to get some half-decent lettuce. I’ve yet to find what can be described as a crunchy, fresh lettuce. Thus my salads are generally made from cucumber, tomato, chili (obligatory!), occasionally olives when I can afford them, freshly ground black pepper, mayonnaise (either home-made or Lady’s Choice with garlic and herbs added to give it a whole lot more KICK because I find Lady’s Choice mayonnaise to be fairly bland).

Nevertheless, spicy cucumber salad is appealing, let’s find out why by checking out Cate’s Girl Cook’s World cooking and travel blog. She crafts up an Indian spicy cucumber salad. Cate is currently traveling the world and sampling various exotic foods on her journey. Well worth following along via her website, I’d say!

 Spicy Potato Salad (with blackened corn)

I found one version of spicy potato salad to be particulaly appealing – it’s blackened corn spicy potato salad (ah, erm, the image represents Spicy Peanut Ginger Kale Salad, sorry ). Well okay, sounds like you need to burn the corn and that’s not so attractive, but not a bit of it! It’s a matter of adding corn and chili to a pan and then cooking for five mins whilst stirring. Check it out for yourself over at Rita’s CreativelyDomestic.com

Spicy Tuna Salad Recipe

I was of course going to reduce the size of the above image but no. The artistry warrants a larger image size. After all, food is very much to appeal to all senses, and sight is no less than any one of them. The addition of the flower, which looks like an orchid, definitely adds to the overall beauty of this particular spicy tuna salad!

I really like Daisy’s version of Spicy Tuna Salad (no mayo!). Sure, I’d probably add a bit of mayo at the side, but as mentioned above, probably a homemade mayo version, or a much-boosted shop-bought version. I’m happy to dump a goodly-sized dollop of homemade mayo on the side because I don’t add any sugar sweetner. Even “false” sugars such as Splenda or whatever (not Stevia – Stevia is fine, if you like the flavour of it) generally have the effect of boosting the blood’s insulin levels, which in turn “can” mean the storage of energy in our bodies in the form of fat (particularly if you live a sedentary life style like I do – a.k.a. couch potato). Hey but I am very comfortable with eggs. More eggs the better as far as I’m concerned!

Back to Daisy and her Spicy Tuna Salad with no mayonnaise. I like how she says, and I quote:

” I am not a green olive fan, even though I love dirty martinis – I know, I’m weird.”

Spicy Salads

 

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Author: Fatso In the Kitchen

Cuisine: Salads with a Kick

Ingredients

• #ingredient#

Instructions

1. #instruction#

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