The Weekend Project is a chronicle of sorts of my kitchen adventures at home. How did this start? well, it started during the holy week. I put it upon myself to run the kitchen so the parentals can relax for a few days. I looked for recipes on the net (all my cookbooks were drowned by Ondoy) that I can cook at home and then went on a supermarket frenzy prior to the holy week break. I opted to try some Thai dishes and experimented on a homemade version of Charlie Chan Pasta. I realized it was fun :) I realized I kinda missed how fun it was to cook and just play around with the flavors without all the technical considerations I have grown accustomed to (since my job as a food technologist requires me to do so).
I got so inspired I told myself I need to do some cooking at home more often, thus The Weekend Project was born. At home, there are no constraints, no limitations on creativity, except of course when ingredients are absent :P, at home, time is not limited and there are no deadlines. Although the pressure is still there to make it taste good since both my parents know how to eat well and are quite critical when it comes to food. I was born in a family of food loving people. The Barnachea Clan (my mother's side) prides itself in either being a good cook or a good food taster (a connoisseur if you will :P), so food is in my blood (and literally in my bloodstream, since I eat a lot :P).
So, here are some of stuff I made the past 2 weekends and some comments from the panel of judges (daddy and mama).
Charlie Chan Pasta
I tried my hand in concocting a homemade version of Yellow Cab's Charlie Chan Pasta. I got a recipe from the net and did a few tweaking on the recipe and voila! However, I wasn't really successful on this one, the sweetness is kinda high and can be toned down a notch or two to bring out the spiciness of the dish. The parentals have the same thing in mind. Daddy said it was sweeeeeet.... but he ate like two platefuls of it, so I guess it wasn't all that bad :P. Will redo this recipe in the next week or two. I want to perfect this one since I really love Yellow Cab's version of it. At the same time my ego is screaming for redemption hahaha! :P We had this pasta with Raisin Bread from Shopwise. Their Raisin Bread is really good, it isn't sweet and all that raisin-y, except of course when you bite into one.
Thai Chicken Fried Rice (Kao Phad Gai)
This dish I soooo love! :D not because I cooked it but because I was able to remember my Bangkok days when I tasted this. The recipe was great and so easy to follow :). The secret? Thai Fish sauce and Cilantro! I love the combination of flavors plus I love the fact that I can eat this on its own. Will definitely cook this again. The seniors liked this dish. They even had the leftovers for breakfast the next day paired with fried eggs :).
Sweet and Spicy Fish and Tofu
I used Creamy Dory fillets and Tofu for this next dish. I got the recipe from www.casaveneracion.com. It tasted great! :) I was kinda scared of the spiciness level at first but when the sauce was poured over the fish, the strength of the chili was toned down considerably and the whole dish just came together. As a testament to how much my parents liked this dish, there were only 3 pieces of bite-sized fish fillets left and some pieces of tofu but my dad kept it in the chiller for him to eat the next day. Either he really liked it or he was just being a sweet dad. I think I prefer to believe that it was the former for my ego's sake hahaha!
Pork in Thai Holy Basil Sauce
I made this at the last minute. Since we had some pork lomo in the freezer, I decided to just whip something up like this. Plus the fact that I bought a Thai Holy Basil Sauce in the supermarket. After my re-entry into the wonders of home cooking, I have this sudden interest in the oriental section of the supermarket. Robinson's Metro East Supermarket has a good selection of Thai and Singaporean Sauces :). I sauteed the pork slices with some garlic and onion and added some of the sauce and kinda played with flavors a bit, adding a dash of this and a dash of that and then I added some string beans to have some greens as well. Voila! dinner was served :) However, I kinda got carried away with the spice level for this one. My dad literally needed to drink cold water to take the heat off his tongue. So, next time, I need to tone down the spice level and constantly remember that my tolerance for hot foods is higher than most people :P.
Fish Fillet in Lemon Butter Sauce
Last Sunday I did Fish Fillet in Lemon Butter Sauce. I got the recipe off the Cooking Diva (Chef Melissa Deleon) from the net. The recipe was easy to follow and the final product was good. The butter sauce was not too rich, the lemon juice provided the break it needed so as not to render the dish too oily. The garlic and green bell pepper gave the sauce the flavor oomph, marrying the sauce with the fish fillets nicely. I still need to do a few improvements on this dish on my end, but it was a good first try nonetheless (*pats self on the shoulder*)
Sauteed Spinach
This last dish was requested by my Dad. Not actually requested, but I was kinda expected to cook this dish since they bought spinach from the supermarket earlier that day. I just sauteed the spinach in garlic and added salt, a dash of sesame oil and a bit of soy sauce. All that's left after dinner was the plate ... so I guess they liked it :).
Well, that's it for now. I want to be able to keep this up and do some more dishes in the coming weekends. Will try to do another pasta dish this weekend if not will try to make another meat dish.
Cheers!
