Food Summer 2012, Part I

So far I've tried three new recipes; last night it was a chicken and eggplant casserole which I found on the internet.  It was pretty much either a chicken parm or an eggplant parm.  Depending on what side of the meal you were looking at. 

 

I didn't have mozzarella cheese to top it with so I sliced up some Fontina; I think the substitution worked out well. I served the dish with spaghetti but I didn't realize how much of the sauce the eggplant would absorb.  The unfortunate result was there was not quite enough sauce to coat the noodles as I would have liked.  The dish refrigerates well and the flavors were, understandably, even more melded this morning.  I'd say this one is a keeper.

Tonight I made two new recipes. The first is a creamy oriental salad dressing that I got from the culinary teacher at Farrington.  This one has all the elements I like in a dressing; it's creamy but the vinegar prevents it from being too rich.  There's a touch of shoyu and a touch of sesame.  Yum.  We ate it over a combination of mushrooms, romaine and green lettuce.

The one setback is the dressing is very thick--it's hard to trickle a small amount onto your individual serving; it works better if the whole thing is just tossed together.

The second recipe is from a magazine.  It was a first-place winner in some cooking contest and the winner claims it's a recipe her mother got from Hawaii.  Naturally it contains pineapple.  And coconut.  Basically, it's oven-roasted Cornish hens basted with butter then basted with a mixture of the pineapple juice and steak sauce. With all the basting I did, I would expect the Cornish hens to be spectacular.  It wasn't.  Good but not incredibly outstanding.  

The pineapple coconut stuffing, on the other hand, was very good--crushed pineapple mixed with shredded coconut, melted butter and chopped onions then tossed with bread crumbs and salt and pepper.  I used some of the mixture in the hens before I tied them shut.  The majority went into a baking dish and was heated after the hens came out of the oven.  The top got a bit crusty and the rest was moist and fruity.  I don't normally like sweet stuffings but I did like this one.

Three recipes down.  Many more to go!

Food Quest, Year 2

So summer vacation is here once again and in an attempt to pick up and improve on where we left off last summer, the boys and I are back on the Food Quest track. 

There are two major goals this summer:  the first is to make our way through the unbelievably large stack of recipes I have accumulated but never tried over the years.  C pulled four recipe cards that he personally wants to try and I have selected two.  The idea is that by the end of the summer, we will have cooked our way through most of them, discarding those we don't like and filing the ones we do.  Soon to be cooked:  pineapple cornish hen and ginger lime carrots.  Among many, many others.

The second goal is to check out restaurants we haven't tried before and sample their offerings.  Today we went to Max's of Manila--a restaurant tucked into the parking lot of Costco Iwilei.  The overflow parking at Costco is ideal for this endeavor; it's a short distance from the restaurant and parking there keeps the craziness associated with Costco to a bare minimum.  The boys and I parked and were seated within minutes of entering the zone of madness.

Max's features a smallish but separate party room and a dining room that is larger than it first appears.  A limited amount of patio seating is also available out back.  Fried chicken is their specialty and it can be ordered in several combination plates with pancit Canton or pancit bihon, steamed rice, jasmine rice, fries or garlic rice, lumpia in the Shanghai style.  The rest of the menu is family style. 

Since their menu was advertising "adobo festival" and C is a big fan, we asked the waitress what her favorite is.  I wish I can remember her name; not only did she recommend the pork adobo and made several other recommendations from the menu, she also made suggestions on what combination to order some of the dishes in. She was also attentive without being intrusive. She gets 5 stars in customer service!

We decided on half a fried chicken, a large serving of the garlic fried rice, pancit bihon, and of course, the pork adobo.  We also started with calamari--it was interesting to note that you could order either the "calamares" which is the fried calamari rings or "tentacles" which are, well, you guessed it, the tentacle portion of the calamari.  The calamari were large but very tender, the batter was light and golden and they were served with a garlic vinegar dip.  Yum. 

The famous fried chicken was done up in a similar fashion; a very light but crisp breading.  Very tasty but the white meat was a tad dry--nothing that a little banana sauce couldn't help though!  The pancit bihon was very flavorful and came with lemons on the side.  The pork adobo--definite hit.  The chunks of pork were tender, tender and the traditional vinegar flavoring was just enough--C, who is a big vinegar fiend, would have liked even more.  Diced tomatoes and onions were served alongside.  The garlic fried rice was also a hit with the boys--the garlic was clearly visible but was in no way overpowering.  It added a nice touch to the chicken and pork.

We had enough chicken, pancit and rice to bring home for either one very significant meal or two moderate meals--depending on which of us gets to the leftovers first.  Total bill:  $51.  Very good and very worth it--we highly recommend it.