A Light Dish You Can Toss up for Your Next Dinner Party

Have you and your friends made a pact to eat healthier this year and would actually do it for real this time, but have no idea where to begin? Well first, find something that’s easy to make and something that you would like to serve for lunch or dinner, like a trusty salad.

If you’re looking for a fresh, easy, and tasty dish that’s not doused in bottled Caesar salad dressing, here’s a recipe that you can snack on and share with your friends and family at dinner parties.





Sweet Potato Salad with Avocado, Feta, and Pickled Green Walnuts

Ingredients

455 g sweet potatoes
1 fennel bulb (thinly sliced)
2 to 3 avocados (1/4-inch slices)
2 cups arugula
1/4 cup mixed bean sprouts
6 pickled green walnuts
115 g feta cheese
Dill
Parsley
Salt and black pepper

Dressing
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp honey
1 garlic clove
2 tsp salt
Dill
Walnut oil

Preparation
 
1. Preheat oven to180-degrees Celsius, and place the sweet potatoes on a rack and bake for 45 minutes. Let them cool.

2. Peel and cut the potatoes into 1/4-inch rounds. Set aside.

3. For the dressing, combine all ingredients in a blender and puree them until smooth. Set aside two tablespoons for garnish.

4. In a medium-sized bowl, toss the fennel and arugula in the dressing.

5. Arrange a layer of sweet potatoes and top them with avocados and sprouts. Season with salt.

6. Place the dressed arugula and fennel on top of the first layer.

7. Garnish with walnuts, dill, parsley, pepper, and the remaining dressing, and crumble a generous amount of feta cheese. Serve dish immediately.



Source: Charlie Carbungco for Northern Living,“Age of Decadence,” December 2015.

Photo by Patrick Segovia

source: preen.inquirer.net

Alba’s Croquetas de Bacalao

He has lived in the Philippines longer than he has lived in Spain. For 60 years, Anastacio de Alba, originally from the medieval city of Avila, has been cooking Spanish food for Filipinos.

After arriving in the Philippines in 1952 upon the invitation of Don Antonio Roxas, he started out as a chef in the old Casino Español. A work stint at Luneta Hotel followed soon, before he opened his first restaurant in 1954, the aptly named El Español. The opening of Alba Cocina Española in the tourist belt followed soon, and from then on there was no stopping the man who has since been nicknamed Colas by his numerous friends.

In the ensuing years, Alba’s restaurants underwent various reincarnations. La Parilla, Las Cuevas, Patio Flamenco, Alba Supper Club, Patio de Alba in Doña Narcisa Building, and Jardin de Alba in Greenhills all became known for the sumptuous cuisine served by the self-taught chef. Sometimes the food would be authentically Spanish; at other times they would be his adaptations of dishes he grew up with and dishes he adapted to Filipino taste.

Today Alba’s culinary domain covers four restaurants and a catering service. Already getting on in years, he has designated his son Miguel Angel as successor.

No stranger to the kitchen, Miguel Angel has for years observed his father’s skills and passion for cooking. Though he initially considered being a doctor or an accountant, he’s gladly following in his father’s footsteps.

Last Saturday, Miguel demonstrated how to prepare some of his father’s beloved recipes before an enthusiastic crowd at the Maya Kitchen Culinary Center in Makati: jamon con mangga y arugula, fabada asturiana, paella de cordero, lapu-lapu con salsa verde, and tarta de limon con quezo.

A dish that’s just right for this Holy Week is the croquetas de bacalao, salted white cod rolled with mashed potatoes into appetizer-size balls. This dish is not only easy to prepare, it’s also versatile as it can be prepared with either salted or frozen cod, with lapu-lapu and even with canned tuna.

Alba’s Croquetas de Bacalao (Makes around 30 croquetas)

    200 g dried bacalao or frozen bacalao fillet (cod fish)
    ½  kg (500 g) potatoes, peeled and quartered

Water, for boiling the potatoes

    2  tsp chopped garlic
    2  tbsp chopped parsley
    2  tbsp almond flakes
    ¼  c butter, softened
    Ground white pepper, to taste
    ½-1 c Maya all-purpose flour
    2  eggs, beaten
    ½ -1 c bread crumbs
    2 c cooking oil

For the sauce:



    1 tbsp olive oil
    1 tsp chopped garlic
    ½ c canned red pimientos, chopped
    1 300-g can peeled and puréed tomatoes
    1 tsp chopped basil leaves (optional)
    Salt and pepper, to taste

If using dried bacalao, soak the bacalao in water for 24 hours, changing the water two to three times. This is to remove some of the saltiness from the bacalao. After 24 hours, drain the bacalao and remove the skin and bones.

If using frozen bacalao fillets, keep the bacalao in the refrigerator for several hours until it thaws, then clean well, making sure to remove the skin and bones.

Boil the potatoes in enough water to cover until tender.  Meanwhile, chop the bacalao.

When the potatoes are tender, mash them coarsely and mix them with the chopped bacalao, garlic, parsley, almonds and butter. Season to taste with white pepper and with salt if using frozen bacalao.

Form the mixture into balls then roll them in flour. Dip each ball into the beaten eggs, then dredge with bread crumbs.  Chill for one to two hours.

When ready to cook, heat the cooking oil in a deep-fryer and fry the croquetas in batches until golden brown. Serve with the sauce.

To make the sauce:

Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the garlic. Stir in pimientos and tomatoes and let simmer for six to eight minutes. If desired, add the basil leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For more tips, recipes and stories, visit author’s blog: www.normachikiamco.com and Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/normachikiamco.  Follow on Twitter @NormaChikiamco.

Cook’s tips



Since the dried bacalao is already salty, there’s no need to add salt to the mixture. (Add salt only if using frozen bacalao.)

For frying the croquetas, chef Miguel says you can use vegetable, canola, palm or corn oil. However, olive oil is not suitable for deep frying as it tends to burn fast.

You can prepare the mixture and shape them into balls ahead of time. Store them in the refrigerator for up to one day. If storing for longer than one day, keep them in a tightly covered container in the freezer. You can then deep-fry the croquetas just before serving.

Likewise, you can prepare the sauce ahead of time. Reheat before serving.

Possible substitutes for bacalao include: chopped chicken, chopped dried lapu-lapu or lapu-lapu fillets, canned tuna and salmon.

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Lugang Café beyond the 'xiao long bao'

I first heard about Lugang Café from my sister a couple of years ago, when she told me about this restaurant in Greenhills that always has a long queue of diners. Food lovers apparently go there for the xiao long bao (which some spell sialompao), that dumpling with soup inside.










Fast forward to sometime last month, when I found myself with a media group straining our necks to see just how the xiao long bao is made.

Three chefs with dough-covered hands demonstrated how it’s done: first, the dough was cut into small pieces and flattened almost paper-thin, then filled with either chicken or ground pork – somewhat like siomai – and jellified stock. The ends of the dumpling were twisted into 18 perfect pleats and gathered into a cone.

“Yes, there are 18 pleats because 18 is a lucky number. The pleats have to be perfectly aligned after steaming,” said Karen Tiu, who handles the operations at Lugang Café.

After steaming in bamboo baskets, the dumplings are served, with the jellified stock transformed into a tasty broth. How to eat it? “Bite and sip,” advised Reena Arnaldo, human resources manager of the café.

Xiao long bao has become the specialty of the house such that last month alone, 4,300 baskets (mostly pork, although they also have chicken and vegetarian dumplings) were served to the café customers. And with eight pieces per basket, that makes for a whole lot of xiao long bao.










But there is more to the Lugang Café than xiao long bao. During a press briefing early November at their Greenhills outlet, Katrina K. Chua, daughter of owners Peter and Annabelle Chua, and head of dining operations, introduced new dishes in time for the Chinese-Taiwanese restaurant’s second anniversary on Nov. 22.

One of the new dishes is the Black Pepper Premium Beef Ribs, a flavorful dish that should go well with the light Chicken Topped with Scallion and Ginger Oil. I prefer putting a generous serving of ginger oil on top of the cold chicken slices for a more pronounced taste.

The Dong-Bo Pork Belly with Steamed Buns is like pata tim on cuapao, with the meat so tender to the bite. The Steamed Scallops with Garlic Vermicelli (bihon) can be addictive, as you can pop these in your mouth in between bites of the other dishes. The Mayonnaise Prawns are like big-sized popcorn shrimps with a gentle hint of wasabi topped with some mayo, a sure hit among kids and kids at heart. And for veggies, there's the new Fookien dish Pumpkin Seafood Rice Souffle—this has fish fillet mixed in, and is a meal in itself.




These new dishes complement the xiao long bao and other best-selling dishes they have, such as the Steamed Fish Head with Pickled Red Peppers, Three Cup Chicken, Stir-Fried Beef with Chili Peppers, and Soft Tofu and Mushrooms in Abalone Sauce. They also go well with their trademark dessert—the humongous (12 inches) and definitely meant-to-be-shared Bellagio Breeze, a tall halo-halo with red and green mung beans, taro, tapioca balls, and candied pineapple over shaved ice and flavored with condensed milk.

Katrina said about 80 percent of the café's dishes are from Bellagio Café in Shanghai. Lugang Café, after all, is a franchise of Bellagio Café, and is the first store of Bellagio outside China. The Chuas just changed the name to “lugang,” which means small alley or town in Chinese, to give a more Chinese ring to it. They also added more dishes to the new menu to cater to the tastes of the Filipino palate.

Although there are numerous Chinese restaurants in the country, Katrina said their food sets them apart from the rest. “The food is different. The taste is modern with a hint of traditional,” she said. Sweet and spicy are the main flavors of the dishes, with a subtle hint of ginger. The ingredients are imported from China and Taiwan, and Chinese chefs lead the kitchen operations.

The same modern-and-traditional theme is carried over in the Greenhills outlet's interiors which incorporate metal (steel), fire (lighting), and earth (flowers) elements. Their Mall of Asia branch, opened in 2011, is more traditional, said Katrina. Opening this month is their new branch at SM City North EDSA's The Block, and next year, they're going to be in Fort Bonifacio as well, no doubt covering all areas to satisfy xiao long bao fans in the metro.

Whatever it is you order, though, make sure to get the Aloe Jelly in Honey Lemon Juice as your drink. Now that to me is a winner. – YA, GMA News


Lugang Café is at 115 Connecticut Street, Northeast Greenhills, San Juan City, with tel. no. (02) 775-7599.

source: gmanetwork.com