A change of name…

I don’t know why I never thought of “Beancounter” as the name for my blog. I am a bean counter, after all, by profession. And, I think, somehow, that name has some food connotation.

So, after over a hundred posts, 102 to be exact, I’ve decided to have a name change.

To those who are here for the first time, WELCOME!

To those who have been here before…WELCOME as well! :)

T-Bone Bistek (Beef with Onions Filipino Style)

I did not intend to use T-bone in making this dish. But we’ve got an oversupply of this cut of beef thanks to my father! You see, dad flew to Manila about a month ago. It’s his custom to request his butcher to freeze and vacuum pack T-bone steaks for him for to give to his friends in Manila. Fortunately for us (unfortunately for him) he was not able to check all of them in. He had to leave behind approximately 5 kilos of steak.



Apart from the normal steak and potatoes I’ve used T-bone for stir fries, stews and all sorts of beef dishes. But one that stands out is the Pinoy Bistek.



I’m not a fan of fusion cuisine (western ingredients cooked Asian/eastern style or the other way around) but bistek, in my opinion, is a good example of how it can probably work.



This dish also does not require a lot of ingredients and is quite simple to cook. And because of this the quality of the ingredients is even more pertinent.


Here’s how I prepare mine:

T-bone Bistek ala Kidapawan

2 fairly thick cuts of T-bone steak
Juice of one lime (I prefer calamansi but there were none available)
4-5 tablespoons of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of oil
3 large Spanish onions sliced into rings (if you like onions just add more)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Sirloin is more commonly used for this dish but since T-bone is what we have you need to de-bone the steaks then sliced into fairly thin pieces (the thinner the quicker to cook). Marinate the beef pieces in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and juice of half a lime. Leave for about half an hour.
2. Heat up a little bit of oil using a pan with a fairly thick base. Sear the marinated beef a few pieces at a time to avoid steaming the meat. You probably need only 30 seconds each side. Set aside the seared meat.
3. Cook half the onion rings in the same pan (if you don’t like the taste of raw onions add them all instead of just half). Add a bit more oil if necessary. Wait until the onions start to caramelise. 4. Add the seared meat back in the pan. Add the remaining soy sauce, lime juice and black pepper and cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Add the remaining onion rings just before serving.
6. Serve with jasmine rice or roast potatoes.

Australia – the Food Icons – Lamingtons

Unfortunately, AUSTRALIA the movie has not been faring well in the box office. Friends who have seen it absolutely loved it but the film has been bagged by critics contributing to its further demise.

But over a month ago I’ve started, supposedly, a series of Australian food icons to coincide with the release of the film. I was a little bit disheartened to continue because of the film’s fate but as promised here’s the second instalment. Please follow the link to read the first about Aussie Meat Pies.

Lamingtons came as the second most popular Aussie food icon in a 2007 poll (affectionately titled “Top Taste Lamington Aussie Poll”).

There are many reports as to the origin and the name of this cake but most of them are hearsay. The most plausible, in my opinion, was the story that says this concoction was brought about as a means to use up stale cake.

Lamingtons, to describe simply, are sponge cake squares dipped in chocolate then rolled in desiccated coconut. Variations to this include cutting the cake in half and filling it with either strawberry conserve or fresh whipped cream.

They have been and still are popular as fund raisers (commonly called “Lamington drives”) for clubs and charities.

The recipe below comes from my book Lamingtons to Lemongrass by Maeve O’Meara and Joanna Savill.

Lamingtons

Sponge

3 eggs

4 tablespoons castor sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

125g Fielders cornflour (wheaten cornflour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

125g butter

Coating

200 g icing sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa

1 teaspoon butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Boiling water

Desiccated coconut

For the sponge

1. Beat eggs until frothy - this recipe is much easier if you use an electric mixer. Add the sugar slowly, continuing to beat the mixture. Add vanilla essence.

2. Sift flour and baking powder three times. Add to egg mixture then add the butter which has been melted and just brought to the boil.

3. Pour the mixture into a greased, lined lamington tray (27 x 20 cm)

4. Bake in a moderate oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Turn out and cool on a wire rack.

For the icing

1. Combine icing sugar, cocoa and butter together in an enamel bowl, adding a little boiling water to make mixture runny. Stand over bowl of boiling water to keep icing mixture liquid.

2. Cut cake into 5 centimetre squares, skewer each with a fork and with a knife coat with icing mixture. Roll in coconut, coating evenly. Sit on waxed paper to dry.

3. Serve on large platters on paper doilies.

Note:Tip: a tea towel over the rack stops marking. Also put cooled cake into freezer for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting - it makes slicing so much easier).

Sleep deprived

What would be ideal is for my new daughter to sleep through the night. But at the moment that is a bit too much to ask. Eia is barely a month old and still settling in. But her sleeping pattern is impacting on us, her parents, negatively.

For the past few weeks my wife and I have been sleep deprived. We are getting a lot less than what’s considered “healthy”. Coincidentally, the results of the study linking the common cold and sleep deprivation came out today (Sleep the Key to Cold Prevention). According to the study 8-hour sleepers are less likely to get sick than those who slept less.

Yesterday, I did not get to bed till 5.30 in the morning. I had to reset my alarm clock to 7.30 to allow me at least two hours of sleep. I still did not get my two hours. And I was also late for work!

My wife is in no better position. Being the mother, she probably slept less (and worked more).

The last thing we want is to get sick! What are we to do?!

I’ve devised a plan that we are trying out for the first time in our career as parents. We’ll be taking shifts in looking after our little angel. The plan is for Cherry to go to bed by 9pm leaving me to look after Eia till about 2am. That’ll give her about 5 hours of rest time. She would then takeover from 2am onwards with the possibility of catching some Z’s during the day. I said possibly because having 3 other children to look after does not normally allow for this.

5 hours is nowhere near ideal but it is still better than 4, or 3, or 2, or 1, or no sleep at all.

To keep me company during these nights I’ve got a line up of DVDs to watch and a laptop for blogging. I am actually writing this while I’m on my first shift.

Tinola (Filipino Style Chicken Soup)

If you’ve read my previous post you’ll notice that there were two papayas in the one of the photos. One was already peeled (I used to make Som Tum/Som Tam) while the other was still completely whole which I especially set aside with tinola in mind.

It’s the height of summer in Australia. Some people might think it odd to want soup when temperatures are soaring. But tinola, the Filipino version of the chicken soup, is actually quite soothing and refreshing with its dominant ginger flavour. I add tanglad (lemongrass) to my tinola for added “freshness”.

I would normally use dahon ng sili (chilli leaves) to finish off this dish but over the weekend I was given a fresh bunch of malunggay leaves (Sajin in the Indian subcontinent) which I liberally added to my soup.

Although I said use half a chicken in my recipe what I actually did was save the best parts for a Max’s style friend chicken and whatever is left I used for the soup.

For a refreshing end to the meal I made rock melon drink. Recipe for this one in my next post!

Tinolang Manok (Filipino Style Chicken Soup)

2 tablespoons oil
2 cloves garlic minced
1 large onion chopped
6-8 slices fresh ginger
1 lemongrass sliced
Half a chicken cut into serving pieces
1 small green papaya cut into thick wedges
4 cups of water or chicken stock
1 cup malunggay or spinach leaves
Fish sauce to taste
Salt & black pepper to taste

1. Heat up the oil in a pot. Fry the ginger first. Add the garlic after a minute or so and fry until golden brown.
2. Add the lemongrass and cook for another minute.
3. Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent.
4. Add the chicken pieces and cook for about 3 minutes or until the chicken pieces have changed colour but not yet fully cooked.
5. Add the water or stock and bring to the boil.
6. Lower the heat and adjust the taste using salt, pepper and fish sauce. If you’ve used stock you obviously need less salt and fish sauce. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
7. For a clearer soup make sure you skim the soup.
8. Add the papaya and cook until the papaya is done to your liking.
9. Finally add the malunggay leaves. Turn off the heat after about 30 seconds.
10. You can serve this as a complete meal or as a soup to go with your main meal.

Som Tam/Som Tum (Thai Green Papaya Salad)

EatingAsia has inspired me to purge my collection of cookbooks/food magazines. You see, my idea of bedtime reading is either a cookbook or a food magazine. Over the years I have accumulated quite a collection as a consequence.

During this purging I stumbled upon a Thai cookery book (Lemongrass & Sweet Basil by Khamtane Signavong) that I bought about a year ago but never read/used. In it was a recipe for Som Tam/Som Tum (Thai Green Papaya Salad) that I’ve been meaning to try to prepare at home.



I was never fond of ripe papaya. I find its green papaya more appealing and full of potential. There's the traditional Filipino green papaya pickle called achara. It is also the preferred ingredient for tinola rather than sayote. And no adobo sa gata (San Pablo, Laguna version using duck or water buffalo meat) would be complete without this versatile ingredient.


Anyway, before I get sidetracked, the focus of this post is Som Tam/Som Tum which I made for the first time a few nights ago. Green papaya is quite difficult to source Down under but thankfully my parents have couple of trees bursting with fruit in their tiny garden. The other ingredients needed for this dish are readily available in the typical Pinoy pantry.

This salad is good as an entree or as a side dish. For dinner that night we had it with lechon kawali (roast pork).

Som Tam/Som Tum - Green Papaya Salad (Lemongrass & Sweet basil – Khamtane Signavong)

3 cloves garlic
3 bird’s eye chillies
30g roasted peanuts
30g dried shrimps
8 cherry tomatoes
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons palm sugar
4 ½ tablespoons fresh lime juice
250g sliced green papaya
4 snake beans

1. Using a pestle and mortar, pound the garlic, chillies, peanuts and dried shrimps to a fine paste.
2. Mix the paste with the cherry tomatoes, fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice.
3. Mix well then add the green beans and papaya. Stir to mix without breaking up the papaya.

4. Serve with some grilled or barbequed meat or fish.

7 days with HTC Touch Pro

It took me more than half a year to finally decide on what new phone to get. During that time a lot of new technology have been introduced including the new iPhone. If you've read a previous post you'll know I'm not a fan of Apple products. I was actually waiting for a new Nokia product but something better came up.

My Nokia N73 is still working fine. But with the amount of blogging that I do I need a phone that would be able to better support this new hobby of mine.

And so, after quite a long search, I finally decided on getting HTC's Touch Pro. It's got the TouchFLO 3D technology (that gives you touch control over the device) but the biggest attraction to me was the phone’s full QWERTY keyboard. As a matter of fact I am writing this post using my new phone! Even with this feature my N73 appears to be bulkier.

From time to time I would come up with an idea for a post when it is not convenient to turn on my laptop. It could be the beginning sentences of a post or a perfect ending to a post that would suddenly pop up in my head and disappear just as quickly. Writing down notes on paper is not one of my strengths. It was never an option. And because HTC Touch Pro is a Windows-Mobile device I could go straight into Word to jot down my thoughts for editing later. How cool is that? Well, I think it is!

It's only been seven days into our relationship and hopefully it would continue to work out between us (for the next 24 months at least!).

22 hour long test of endurance

As this was our fourth trip to the delivery room we were quietly confident we knew what to expect.

Personal history tells us that the length of labour was getting shorter and shorter. Our first child took 12 hours, the next one was 8 and the third one was only 6 hours. So naturally, we’ve set ourselves for a shorter labour. 4 hours perhaps. She could even come sooner. I know a friend who almost did not make it to the hospital as hers only lasted 45 minutes.

How wrong were we!

What actually happened was a 22 hour long test of endurance…not for me, but for my dearest wife. I was there the whole time and wished I could somehow take some of the load…but all I could do was just be there.

We never thought we’ll get to the other side but on 16 December 2008, at 6.12am we welcomed our new arrival, Eliyah Cate.

All praises go to God and of course to my lovely wife, who felt it all!

Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Proverbs 31:28