Cook and Brew.

I’m currently watching the mine rescue in Chile on TV and I must say I’m really impressed how the Chilean and American rescuers have thoroughly organized all these.  From drawing the plans and implementing the actual rescue, to contingency plans, to the necessary medical equipment they have on standby like temperature and blood pressure monitoring tools – they’re fully prepared.  For sure, an audiometer is also just on standby to monitor their hearing because of the immense pressure change they have to go through while surfacing up.

One of the new learning I have from this rescue is about the high-calorie liquid diet that the miners were given 6 hours before their lifted to the surface.  I learned that its purpose is to combat nausea or to prevent them from vomiting as the capsule rotates10 to 12 times through curves in the 28-inch diameter escape hole.  Throughout the 69-day ordeal underneath, they were closely monitored and were given milkshakes as among their food which is also a high calorie liquid.

Here are some homemade High Calorie Drink Recipes that may be easily prepared by anyone with the use of a blender:

High-Protein Smoothie
1 cup pears or peaches
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup fortified milk

Fruity Yogurt Sipper
1 ripe large banana or 2 medium peaches, peeled and pitted
1 1/2 cups fortified milk
8 oz carton vanilla yogurt
1-2 tbsp powdered sugar
1/2 cup ice cubes

Fruit and Cream
1 cup whole milk
1 cup vanilla ice cream
1 cup canned fruit in heavy syrup (peaches, apricots, pears)
Almond or vanilla extract to taste

My boys prefer soupy dishes that’s why whenever I draft our weekly food menu, it’s a must that most of the dishes should be of that kind.  I’ve included Chopseuy as one of our dishes next week and a variation just like this (from overseaspinoycooking.blogspot.com) will have to be my guide:

Ingredients:

Ingredients:
1 cup pork, boiled, sliced thinly
1 cup medium size shrimp, shelled
12 pcs. cooked quail egg
150 grams oyster mushroom, trimmed
2 medium size patula, peeled, cut crosswise
2 medium size sayote, peeled, sliced
1 small size carrot, sliced
1 small size cabbage, cut into wedges
1 small red bell pepper, cut into wedges
1 small green bell pepper, cut into wedges
1 small bundle kinchay, chopped
1/2 head garlic, chopped
1 medium size onion, chopped
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper
cooking oil

Cooking procedure:
In a wok sauté garlic and onion, add pork and shrimp, quickly stir cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until shrimps are cooked. Add in salt to taste, pepper, sugar and 3 cups of broth or water, bring to a boil and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Add sayote, patula and carrots stir cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add in cabbage, bell pepper, kinchay, mushroom and quail eggs, stir cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until vegetables are cooked but firm. Add in sugar and season with salt and pepper, thicken sauce with cornstarch diluted in 1/4 cup of water cook for another minute or until sauce thickens. Serve immediately with steaming hot rice.

With the internet and iphone technologies nowadays, cookbooks and cooking reference materials can now be ditched.  Here’s one iphone app that is especially made for those who wish to learn and cook basic Filipino foods: the Filipino Recipes.

If you don’t have an iPhone, iPad or iTouch, you can also access the recipes on the web through this link.

My sister, who’s based in Qatar buzzed me over at YM yesterday and shared her recent web find.  It’s a recipe of Salisbury Steak which she has tried just recently and got from a Pinoy Food Blog .  She’s raving about it, of how easy it was to prepare and cook and of how it was so delectable.  She said that I should try this one of these days.  Well, actually, as I indeed found it easy to follow, this will be the dish I’ll cook for tomorrow.  I have already saved the recipe in my laptop computer but I’m publishing this in here as well for backup purposes.

Salisbury Steak (Recipe from http://www.overseaspinoycooking.blogspot.com)

500g 100% beef burger, about 4-6 pieces
1 can, 420g Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Condensed Soup
200g fresh button mushrooms, sliced
1 small size onion, chopped
2 gloves garlic, minced
2-3 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 cup full cream milk
2 tbsp. butter
salt and pepper

For the side dish:
mashed potatoes
mixed vegetables

Cooking procedure:
In a deep frying pan heat butter until it start to melt, pan fry the beef burgers in batches 2-3 minutes on each side, remove from pan and keep aside. Using the same pan, suttee onion and garlic until fragrant. Add in the soy sauce and stir cook for a minute. Add in mushrooms and stir cook for another 2-3 minutes. Now add in the Campbell’s mushroom soup and milk, simmer for 3-5 minutes at low heat while constantly stirring. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add in the fried beef burgers and simmer for another 2-3 minutes. Arrange beef burger with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables in a plate and pour over the sauce on top, serve immediately.

This is what we had last Friday.  Again, please bear with the crappy photo as I just used my camera phone (too lazy to bring out the DSLR).  I got this recipe from Del Monte’s 2010 Celebrate Planner, which I already forgot how I obtained that.  I think it was a freebie from a magazine I’m subscribed to.  First, let me share the recipe then my personal notes to follow: basically on how easy it is too cook and how the fda approved diet pills might be a requisite after meal.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo fresh whole labahita, filleted and cut into chunks
1 tbsp calamansi juice
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp sesame seesds
1 egg beaten
2 tbsp oil
150 g sayote, sliced
150 g carrot, sliced
1 (234 g) can pineapple chunks, drained (reserve syrup)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper
1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in pineapple syrup

Procedure:
1. Marinate fish in calamansi juice, salt, and pepper for 15 minutues.
2. Combine flour, garlic and sesame seeds. Dredge fish into the beaten egg then coat each piece of fish in flour mixture.
3. Fry until golden brown. Set aside.
4. Saute vegetables in oil.
5. Add 1/2 cup of water, toyo, brown sugar and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Add pineapple and cornstarch. Simmer until thick. Pour over fish.

Personal notes: I used tilapia fillet because that was the only available in fillet cut at the grocery that time. I should not have used the whole 1/2 kilo because it was too much for the proportion of sauce indicated above. Nevertheless, I love the sweet and sour combination of the sauce plus the sesame and garlicky taste of the fillet. The cooking process was simple and quick. The preparation takes more time though because of the various veggies that have to be peeled and sliced separately.