Foodie Friday – Crispy Avocado Bites

My take on Tiffany’s recipe. I fried the avocado pieces, instead of baking them.  And made them into bites, instead of fries.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 avocado, seed removed, and cut into bite-size pieces
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon soya milk (or water)
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp mustard
2 tsps ketchup
1 tsp mayonnaise
oil for cooking

Procedure:
1. Add flour to container with a cover.  Add avocado pieces, cover, and shake to coat avocado pieces in flour.
2. Remove avocado pieces from container
3. In a bowl, whisk together egg, garlic powder, and soya milk (water).   In another bowl, whisk together bread crumbs, salt and pepper.
4.  Dip flour-coated avocado pieces into the egg mixture.  Then toss them into the breadcrumb mixture.
5.  Heat oil and cook avocado pieces until golden brown.
6.  Mix mustard, mayonnaise and ketchup to make a dipping sauce.
7.  Serve crispy avocado bites and enjoy!

Recipe lifted from https://www.lecremedelacrumb.com/baked-avocado-fries/  Thank you, Tiffany! ^_^

Foodie Friday – Carrot Fritters (Buffalo Style)

Ingredients:
3 carrots (grated)
1 medium-sized onion
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1/4 cup flour
4 tablespoons hot sauce
salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste
oil (for frying)

Procedure:
1. Cook onion in oil.
2. In a bowl, mix all ingredients well.  Add cooked onions.
3. Place one tablespoon carrot mixture in hot oil.  Cook in medium heat for 3-4 minutes per side or until golden.

 

Foodie Friday – Not-Buffalo Cauliflower

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Ingredients:
1 cup soy milk
1 cup flour
1 tsp minced garlic
pepper to taste
1 tbsp oil
1 head cauliflower
2/3 bread crumbs
1/3 cup tomato sauce mixed with 1/3 cup ketchup (set aside)

Procedure:
1. Cut cauliflower to bite-sized pieces (discard the core)
2. Combine milk, flour, garlic, pepper and oil in a large bowl. Place batter and cauliflower in container with lid and toss until cauliflower is coated .  Strain cauliflower and let excess batter drip off sprinkle breadcrumbs and gently toss.
3.  Bake in oven toaster for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and gently toss in tomato sauce and ketchup mixture, coated but not soaked.
4.  Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until cauliflower is tender crisp.

P.S. If you want this to be buffalo cauliflower, switch the tomato sauce and ketchup mixture with 2/3 cup buffalo sauce.  (Use excess batter and cook like pancakes for a burrito wrap.)

 

 

 

 

 

Foodie Friday – Bangus Afritada

It has been a while since my last Foodie Friday entry but here goes something that came as a revelation.  I am used to cooking chicken or pork afritada (afritada is a Filipino dish with tomato sauce and veggies – derived from the Spanish fritada (fried), referring to the first step in the preparation of the dish where the meat is pan-fried before letting it simmer in tomato sauce).  We had tomato sauce at home but did not have any meat. What we had was bangus (milkfish) and with a quick consultation with Mr. Google, I found out that you can make afritada with fish.  So, I did! Here is my take on the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 whole bangus (milkfish) cut into serving pieces – sprinkle with turmeric, pepper and basil before pan-frying (you may also add in salt but I try not to in any of my cooking)
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 pack 200 ml tomato sauce
200 ml water
2 potatoes chopped
1 small can chickpeas (drained)
1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
turmeric, pepper and basil to taste (you may add salt if you want to)
2 tablespoons butter (or oil for sauteing)

Procedure:
1. In hot butter/oil, saute onion until translucent, add in garlic. Add in pepper, turmeric, and basil.  Saute until garlic is cooked.
2.  Add in tomato sauce, water and cornstarch mixture.  Mix well.
3.  Add in potatoes then bring to a boil.
4.  Add in drained chickpeas and the pan-fried milkfish.
5.  Let simmer until the potatoes are soft enough to your liking.

Note:  You may also add in chopped carrots and put them in the same time you put the potatoes in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foodie Friday – sweet potato chickpea nuggets

One fine evening, I started experimenting in the kitchen.  I worked my magic and made these delicious bites.

Ingredients:

1 cup chickpeas (mashed)

1 cup boiled sweet potato (grated)

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1 egg (beaten)

1 medium onion (minced and sauteed until)

4 cloves garlic (minced and sauteed)

3 tablespoons ketchup

salt and pepper to taste

oil (for frying)

 

Procedure:

1.  Sautee onion then garlic in oil until cooked.
2. Mix all other ingredients in a bowl. Add in sauteed onion and garlic.
3. Form one tablespoon patties.
4. Fry until golden brown on both sides.
5. Drain excess oil with kitchen roll.

 

 

Foodie Friday – churros

Churros are quite tricky to make.  Making it takes practice.  Mind you, the first time I made churros, they weren’t as tasty as I wanted them to be.  But like any other skill that takes practice to perfect, I have somehow perfected the art of making churros.

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter (or margarine)

1 cup flour

3 eggs (beaten)

oil (for frying

1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 tsp cinnamon (for coating)

 

Procedure:

1. Heat water, add butter in medium heat.
2. When butter melts, set to low heat, add flour, mix well until cooked.  Remove mixture from fire.
3. Add eggs to flour mixture.  Whisk well.
4. Let cool to room temperature.
5. Place in icing/pastry bag.
6. Squeeze a 3-4 inch strip of dough into hot oil.  Fry the churros until golden brown (turning once).
7. Drain excess oil.  Coat with sugar-cinnamon when cool.

*Pair with chocolate milk:

2 cups milk

1 bsp cornstarch

4 ounces dark chocolate

1/4 cup sugar

Foodie Friday – candied saba bananas

Allow me to share one of my favourite snacks/desserts.  This is a very typical Filipino snack.  We just had our saba bananas harvested and what better way to enjoy them than by making candied bananas or as what we call in Filipino, “minatamis na saging na saba”.

Ingredients:

3 cups water

1 cup brown sugar

5 ripe saba bananas (plantains as alternative)

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla (optional)

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (optional)

 

Procedure:

1. Slice the plantains as desired or you can also cook them whole.
2. Boil the saba bananas in a pot of water.
3. Once boiled, add in the rest of the ingredients.
4. Cover the pot and let the plantains simmer in low heat for about 30 minutes, while occasionally stirring them.
5. Serve hot, warm or chilled but preferably chilled.  Enjoy!

Foodie Friday – hash browns

I got this recipe from the BBC Food website and I’d like to share my version of it with you all.

 

Ingredients:

3 medium potatoes (unpeeled, grated)

1 egg (beaten)

salt, pepper and cayenne pepper

oil (for frying)

 

Procedure:

1. Rinse shredded potatoes until the water is clear.  Drain and then squeeze dry.
2. In a bowl, mix shredded potatoes with a couple of pinches of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.
3. Add egg to potato mixture and mix all ingredients well.
4. Heat oil in a pan.
5. When oil is hot, add two tablespoon potato mixture shaped into rectangular patties, one inch in thickness.
6. Flip over and cook until golden brown on both sides.
7. Serve with your favorite side dish.

https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/hashbrowns_12454

Foodie Friday – spinach croquettes

I revisit Spain, my home of almost two years, by the recipes I learned to cook through all the months of my stay.  This recipe is a modified version of the typical Spanish croquettes dish filled with cheese and jamon.  Since I try to be more plant-based with my meals, I found, tried and tweaked a spinach croquettes recipe I found.  This recipe takes a bit of time to perfect but it’s kinda easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

2 cups spinach leaves

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup breadcrumbs (for coating)

salt and pepper (and cayenne pepper) to taste

oil (for frying)

 

Procedure:

1. Chop onion and cook in oil.  Add in chopped spinach leaves. (Remove from fire once spinach wilts.)
2. In a separate bowl, mix flour, breadcrumbs, eggs and cheese and add in spinach and onions.
3. Add in salt and pepper (and cayenne pepper).  Let spinach mixture cool to room temperature.
4. After cooling form the spinach dough into two-inch by half-inch croquettes shape.  Coat each croquette with breadcrumbs.  This recipe yields about 24 croquettes.
5. Heat oil and fry croquettes until golden brown.  Serve with ketchup or your favourite dip.
6. The croquettes can be cooked in advance, stored in containers in the freezer and reheated in a pan or in the oven.

 

 

 

Foodie Friday – alugbati (Malabar spinach) with sardines

One afternoon, I harvested alugbati from our backyard garden and instead of simply sauteeing it, I tried a different recipe.  With a quick search on Mr. Google, it brought me to this site https://www.melykitchen.com/2013/10/ginisang-alugbati-with-sardines.html I then went to the kitchen and worked a bit of my magic with the recipe.

 

 

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo Malabar spinach leaves
1 can sardines in tomato sauce
6 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
1/3 chicken broth cube
3/4 cup water (or less if you don’t want it to be too soupy)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Sautee onions (wait until transluscent).
2. Add in garlic, cayenne pepper and chicken broth cube, (wait until garlic is cooked but not burnt).
3. Add in canned sardines in tomato sauce, simmer for a minute or so.
4. Add in alugbati, water and salt and pepper.
5. Stir until cooked.