Day 6: Tuna Spring Rolls... na hindi lumpia

M and I both have work tomorrow, and the best way to make sure that we have baon is to cook the night before. Last week was a toxic week, so the Tuna Theme continues until, well, I run out of tuna!

On the agenda was this recipe:

As I set out to prepare my ingredients, I noticed that the red bell peppers weren't looking too great. So I decided to call my mom for a quick consultation. Upon learning that I intended to fry the lumpia tonight, then we would just microwave it at work, she exclaimed with dismay, "Naku, lalambot 'yan! Huwag mo na lang i-lumpia!" After all, to turn it into lumpia, I would have to cool the tuna mixture first before putting it in the lumpia wrapper, roll each piece individually, then deep fry it. Seeing as it was already 10PM, I decided to take her suggestion.

So I followed the recipe up until the part where it required me to actually roll the lumpia. Here's everything I needed:

Already, I made my first booboo: burnt onions. I hereby blame the tuna that needed to be drained, and my lack of multitasking skills.

The recipe said to wait until they were translucent, so I'm pretty sure that them turning brown meant I had burnt them. I guess the pan was also too hot when I put them in? They are looking very sorry with the garlic.

Then I added the bell peppers and the carrots. The recipe said to cook them until they were soft, but I have no idea how to tell if they were soft enough. I tried spearing a piece of carrot to bite into it, and I guessed that as long as it didn't taste raw, it should be fine. Besides, the recipe also said around 1-2 minutes.

And so I added the tuna and the raisins, and proceeded to mix them well. In hindsight, I should've probably used a bigger pan since my mixing skills aren't great, but thankfully nothing spilled out of the pan.

The last step was to season the mixture with 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. But when I added the soy sauce, it already seemed salty enough, so I no longer added salt and pepper. I suppose that's my saving grace: a good palate (if I may say so myself).

And so the Tuna Spring Rolls turned into an Arroz Cubana-like dish made of tuna instead of meat, topped over white rice. When I was done cooking, M came out of the room to say it smelled good, so I guess we'll see tomorrow if it tastes just as good as it smelled!

Good night!

Day 5: Tuna Fried Rice, leveled up!

One day back at home, my mom went on a cleaning spree and decided to dispose of old magazines. It was one of those rare days that I had free time on my hands, so armed with unused clear books, I checked the old issues of YUMMY Magazine and took the recipes I felt I would be able to *attempt* to make on my own.

Over the weekend, I finally resolved to start using the clear book of recipes. To be smart with grocery shopping, I decided to focus on one key ingredient per week. This week, it's all about TUNA (my fave!). So I chose my recipes, listed down the ingredients, and grocery-shopped with a clear idea of what I wanted to make, but not really knowing when I would get around to doing it.

And then today, I was all set to just add a can of tuna to leftover rice when ding ding ding!!! Might as well try THIS recipe I'm fully prepared for:

All I needed were the following ingredients:

To make sure that I could easily glance at the recipe without taking up any counter space, I decided to test this Pinterest hack. It really does make life easier (even if it doesn't look very glamorous, haha!):

Then I set out to follow the instructions:

Sauteed the garlic first, then the whole can of tuna. Added the rice, then mixed it all together. After mixing it, I added the whole can of corn, the sliced onions, and the beaten eggs. I skipped adding bagoong because I'm not really a fan. I figured since the recipe said "flavor with anchovy sauce to taste" that meant it was optional?

I kinda panicked a little after I mixed everything because I dumped the whole can of corn into the pan --corn juice (water? broth?) and all-- so it looked like it was getting watery. These recipes really need to spell it out, if you need to drain stuff first before adding them into the pan! So I decided to just put the pan on high heat (in my head I was thinking, maybe the corn juice/water/broth thingy would evaporate...?) and mix mix mix everything. Plus, the egg was raw, and I was getting praning that it wasn't cooking, so I figured the high heat would cook it even if I couldn't really see it.

The consistency eventually improved, so WHEW!!!

I could hear the husband waking up, getting ready for work, so I decided to put some in his tupperware already. Even filling up the tupperware, there was still enough left over for breakfast (one cup of rice for each of us):

The verdict: Too much corn and not enough tuna. The recipe didn't really specify sizes in grams and just said "one can", so I picked up the available sizes I saw. Today I learned that when the recipe just provides number of cans as the measurement, I should try to imagine the ratios even at the grocery. I could have added one more can of tuna or used just half the can of corn. So this is why they say you shouldn't trust the recipe blindly. Next time I make this recipe again, I know what adjustments to make!

Good way to start the week!

Day 4: Using a little math for French Toast

Yes, it is only Day 4 on my blog. Because truthfully, the holidays were so hectic that I didn't have the time to really cook. I was operating on survival mode, mostly-- opening a can of corned beef and mixing it with rice is hardly cooking.

So I decided to start the new year right by making something new for breakfast. Before we left for our out-of-town holiday, I knew we still had bread in our fridge. Upon checking my archive of YUMMY Magazine's old issues (useful articles have been compiled into a clear book for easy reference), it said that bread kept in the fridge can last up to two weeks after its expiry date. Since the expiry was December 28, I figured it was still safe to use to finally try to make one of my favorites in hotel breakfast buffets: French Toast!

I searched for an easy recipe --meaning, not too many ingredients and something simple enough that I can make it whenever I'm craving for it-- and stumbled upon this article on WikiHow. It even gives you two options on how to make French Toast: using your stovetop and using the microwave!

I liked this particular article because unlike others that would have a set list of ingredients that are specific to a serving size then force me to do mental math myself (how do you turn "Serves 4" into "Serves 1"?!), this one gave me ratios instead (here comes the math part!): 1 egg for every two pieces of bread; 2 tablespoons of milk for every egg. And so I wrote on my whiteboard, "2 tbsp milk : 1 egg : 2 bread". My Math teachers would be so proud (haha!).

At first I set out to make two pieces only, hence my single egg:

Then I thought, what the heck, let's live dangerously and make four slices! *Nom nom nom*

I took out my pan and coated it with olive oil, then I set out to mix two eggs, four tablespoons of milk, and some cinnamon in a bowl (went with my gut on how much cinnamon to put, since the article said "to taste"):

A tip from the article said that it's best to use hard breads so that it doesn't turn soggy when you dip it in the mixture. If you're using plain sandwich bread, you can toast it a bit first before coating:

Then came the fun part: dunking it in the mixture!

The article says to toast it for 45 seconds per side, but I like mine really toasted. I burned one as a result, but that's okay. You're not a real chef until you've burned something (haha!).

And voila! French toast for breakfast!

Now that I've devoured my creation, I learned a few things:

- The burnt one actually tasted the best because of the crunch. The pale ones were still a little soggy and eggy. Next time I should probably really toast them in the pan for more than a minute, or take the article's advice and add some sugar on top for a caramelized texture (naks!). Oh, and it needed more cinnamon too!

- I should use a bigger pan so I can cook two slices at a time. By the time I finished cooking the last slice, the first few were already cold and not as yummy. Cooking two slices in one pan means that when I'm not being matakaw and two slices is enough, I can enjoy both immediately!

- I should cook something else to go with it, like hotdogs or something. But I was hungry already, so that's for next time!

Happy New Year!