Family Food

In addition to reading all you parent bloggers, I also enjoy drooling over food blogs. My favorite is Oishii Eats in LA. I also love Pioneer Woman's food posts. One of my fantasy hobbies would be to become a food blogger. Slowly but surely, I am going to figure out how to use my new camera and photoshop to make the most succulent pictures of my food. For now, I'm going to use Superha's skills to bring you my first adventures into Filipino cooking.

Growing up I always ate Filipino food at home. When I moved out on my own, I began to learn American recipes and techniques. Also, I have become addicted to and hugely influenced by the Food Network and even made their studios one of our tourist stops on our recent trip to NYC. While I rarely actually cook nowadays because my husband is an excellent chef who gets home before I do, I can be found in the kitchen on my days off.

In an effort to get back in touch with my roots, my husband bought me two gorgeous and inspiring cookbooks. Also, I've tapped my dad who also does most of the cooking these days for his expertise on my favorite foods. This week I made two favorites. Here are the results: Pansit with canton and bihon noodles and pork
Dad's email instructions: "Now pancit....bite size pork tenders...first, brown it and get rid of excess lard/oil. when browning is done, remove and set aside. Stir fry veggie cabbage cut size bigger that coleslaw, carrots julienne,snow peas french cut...onion diced, garlic . Then add soy sauce & broth. Remove half of the veggies, set aside for garnish. Add pork and noodles (been soaked to rehydrate)...let boil until noodles are aldente (your choice of doneness).Remove from heat, transfer to serving dish and top with remaining veggies."

Chicken braised in coconut milk with acorn squash
Dad's email instructions: "Boil the chicken in coconut milk about 45 mins. Saute' ginger,garlic,onion and chicken boullion then add to the pot . Add all the veggie you want,(ie), cayote, green papaya, chili pepper leaves, squash flowerettes, etc...etc.Add broth if you need to. To be more authentic, add patis or bagoong instead of salt."

I hope you'll try these dishes too. Because family recipes are often passed down without exact recipes, I think you have no choice but to practice them and to develop your own style and flavor. That's how they become part of your family's experiences. As one of our recent commenters noted, "pansit is personal." Next time, I would add more veggies and less noodles to the pansit, and to the chicken ginata I'd probably add green beans and take the skin off of the chicken for less fat. Both dishes turned out yummy and we have lots of leftovers- yay! It warmed my heart to watch both my husband and toddler girl shovel Filipino food with rice into their mouths. I hope L will have fond memories of these homecooked meals and maybe even email me to ask for recipes when she's moved out on her own. *sniff*