6 January, 2010 at 5:10 am
The world of food styling plays an important role on our gastronomic pleasure. We eat with our eyes to which explain why food presentation is such an important detail, especially in professional event planning.
Food presentation is an integral part of any cooked dish. You can consider adding flair to the buffet table with a touch of creativity known as food carving!
The art of carving foods is an Eastern custom that has been adopted and followed by creative food preparers around the world.
Countries such as Thailand and Japan consider food carving as part of the presentation of the meal. Philippines is also featuring wonderful creations of food carved into swans, flowers, among other beautiful designs. The stunning designs can be created as to make food the center of attention. It is a sight to behold for guests that dramatically make the dining table visually appealing.
There are two secrets to food carving which is so not a secret anymore after you read this: product and practice. The sharpest paring knives and best-looking produce to start the task will result in the best carvings. Like any other craft, practice makes perfect. Experiments and try out a few carvings so you will only get better with each try. What’s more is you get to eat the scraps regardless if you successfully or failed to carve a food.
Gain inspiration on a carved watermelon found below:
This popular melon basket is perfect for any summer occasion.
Having a baby shower or christening party this summer? Here’s your centerpiece!
Kids love melon! Having a birthday party for your favorite little guy? Here’s a pirate ship!
This spouting whale can hold melon salad at your next pool party!
Need a punch bowl? You can cut away less rind for a deeper body. This pretty swan will require a bit more expertise. It would be a perfect centerpiece for the food table at a wedding shower or garden reception.
As you become more skilled on food carving, you’ll find that any special occasion is just right to show off your new-found carving skill and hobby. Create beautiful masterpieces be it in Survivor Party, family pool party or Hawaiian Luau party theme.
Technorati Tags: art of food carving, filipino food, food carving, food styling, how to carve food, presentation, watermelon food carving
2 December, 2009 at 7:31 am
Filipinos have come to love Creamy Macaroni Chicken Soup or popularly known as Sopas. This is a soup dish that we Filipinos have come to own.
Ingredients:
500g chicken breast
4 cloves garlic (minced)
2 white onion (minced)
1 large bell pepper (seeded and sliced into strips)
freshly ground black pepper
2 carrots (sliced into thin strips)
350 g macaroni noddles
2 cups evaporated milk
1 medium cabbage (roughly shredded)
2 tbsp margarine
fish sauce (patis)
rock salt
chopped spring onions
Directions:
1. Boil chicken breast in 4 cups of water. Save the broth to be used later.
2. Shred chicken meat with your fingers. Set aside.
3. Saute garlic and onion in oil over medium heat.
4. Add the bell pepper and cook until aromatic.
5. Stir in the shredded chicken.
6. Season lightly with ground black pepper.
7. Add minced carrots. Do a quick sauté. Then add the macaroni. Stir the mixture well.
8. Pour in the chicken broth and 5 cups water. Simmer.
9. Pour in the milk. Stir the mixture gently.
10. Add the cabbage. Boil until macaroni is tender.
11. Add the margarine.
12. Season with patis or salt.
Technorati Tags: filipino chicken macaroni soup recipe, filipino food, food, quick meals, soup recipe
25 November, 2009 at 10:49 am
Ingredients:
chicken
banana pith*
coconut milk
lemon grass
salt
vinegar
onion, sliced
garlic, a clove or two, pounded
black pepper
ginger, small piece, pounded
cooking oil
Directions:
1. Saute onion and garlic in cooking oil.
2. Add chicken pieces and saute until the meat is nearly-cooked.
3. Add coconut oil. Boil. Add lemon grass and banana pith slices.
4. Add ginger, salt and pepper. Add vinegar or the leaf or fruit of aeabihig (if you want this a little bit acidic) or not, depends on you. Simmer until the chicken is tender.
*Banana pith is the center-most layer of the banana trunk. Peel through each layer until you find the white parts. It is very tender and sweet. If this is not available, you can use canned or fresh hearts of palm or ubod in the Filipino language.
Technorati Tags: aklan native chicken recipe, filipino food, inubaran manok recipe, native chicken, philippines
11 November, 2009 at 9:30 am
Bopis is a spicy Filipino dish made of pork lungs and heart sautéed in tomatoes, chilies and onions.
The Filipino dish Bopis is traditionally prepared from assorted pig parts. These assorted parts are usually the heart, kidneys, lungs, and intestines. The liver and brain, along with the ears and the face is reserved for use in cooking sisig.
Ingredients
* 1 kilo pig’s heart (clean, boiled and minced)
* 1 kilo pig’s lungs (clean, boiled and minced)
* 1 head of garlic (minced)
* 1 onion (minced)
* 3 tablespoons oil
* ? teaspoon oregano
* 1 laurel leaf
* 3 pieces red bell pepper (diced)
* ?-cup vinegar
* 1-cup stock
* ? teaspoon hot chili pepper (minced)
* 2 tablespoons atsuete oil
* Pinch of salt & pepper
Directions:
1. In a saute pan, heat oil.
2. Saute garlic and onion.
3. Add in minced heart and lungs.
4. Season to taste with salt & pepper.
5. Add in oregano, laurel leaf, red bell pepper and vinegar.
6. Bring up heat and allow boiling without stirring.
7. Stir in stock and hot chili pepper.
8. Lower heat and allow simmering until stock evaporates a little.
9. Finish with atsuete oil.
10. Serve hot.
Technorati Tags: bopis, bopiz, filipino food, food, pulutan, spicy pork recipe
31 October, 2009 at 8:46 am
One of the delicacy that Quezon province of the Philippines boasts is Longganisang Lucban. It is a sausage native to the Quezon Province in the Philippines and as it is named probably originated in Lucban, Quezon. Expect to have a longer shelf life with this recipe.
Ingredients:
1 kg of cubed (as opposed to chopped or ground) pork with fat.
¼ cup of oregano extract (can be more or less depending on taste)
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of chopped garlic (acts as the preservative)
Sausage casing (pork intestines preferred)
Directions:
1. Get a pan place the sausages in it and add water till the sausages are half covered.
2. Boil the sausages and prick them so that the casings won’t explode.
3. Cook till the water is all evaporated and what remains is the oil from the sausage.
Technorati Tags: filipino food, food, longganisa lucban, sausage
10 October, 2009 at 10:05 am
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds fresh tahong (mussels), cleaned
1 medium or 1/2 large sweet onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 thumb sized ginger, finely sliced
3 Roma tomatoes, chopped into chunks
1 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-3 tablespoons patis (fish sauce), add more if you want in the end
6-7 cups water
3 big handfuls of fresh spinach/kangkong
Steamed jasmine rice
Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a medium, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger, and saute until the onion is translucent and they’re fragrant.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, and saute until the tomatoes begin to soften, about 2 minutes.
4. Add half the water and fish sauce and heat to a boil.
5. Add the mussels and the remaining water, just enough to barely cover!
6. Cook till the mussels open over medium high heat. Right when they’re done, toss in the spinach (as much as you want), stir and season with pepper and more fish sauce if you want.
7. Take of the heat and serve with a small bowl of steamed jasmine rice and pour the soup onto it and slurp the rice and soup together.
Technorati Tags: filipino food, filipino mussel soup, recipe, soup, tahong
29 September, 2009 at 8:01 am
Ingredients:
20 large prawns, shelled
2 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup flour
1 cup ice-cold water
salt and pepper for seasoning
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp curry powder
2 tsp chopped parsley
oil for deep frying
Directions:
1. In a bowl, make the batter by mixing together the eggs, flour and water. Season with salt and pepper. 2. For the sauce, mix together the mayonnaise, curry powder, and chopped parsley in a small bowl. Add more curry powder, if desired.
3. Heat oil in a deep fryer. Dip prawns in the batter, then deep fry for about 2-4 minutes, until golden brown and cooked. Drain.
4. Serve with steamed rice and the curry sauce.
Technorati Tags: easy quick meal, filipino food, food, fried prawns with curry sauce recipe, philippines
9 September, 2009 at 10:16 am
Ingredients:
300 g fresh clams
1 brown onion
2 shallots
20 mm knob fresh ginger
1 stalk lemon grass
2 cloves garlic
50g butter
500 ml light fish stock
2 fresh chili leaves
salt to taste
freshly ground white pepper
pinch monosodium glutamate
Directions:
1. Wash the clams thoroughly under cold running water.
2. Chop onion, shallots, and ginger. Crush the garlic.
3. Melt the butter in a large sauce pan and sauté all the vegetables for 3 to 4 minutes.
4. Add clams and pour in the fish stock together with a similar quantity of cold water. Bring to a boil.
5. Add chili leaves and cook over a high heat until clams open.
6. Lower the heat. Season with salt, freshly ground pepper and monosodium glutamate. Simmer over low heat for 2 minutes.
7. Remove the curry leaves before transferring to a soup bowl.
8. Serve hot.
Technorati Tags: filipino food, fresh clams, halaan recipe, philippine
1 September, 2009 at 10:03 am
Ingredients:
400 grams cooked chicken meat
2 onions
4 cloves garlic
1 medium size fresh ginger
100 grams blachan*
6 green chilies
6 red chilies
500 ml thick coconut milk
salt to taste
Directions:
1. Remove all skin from the chicken and cut into small pieces.
2. Slice the onions, crush the garlic and finely chop the ginger and blachan.
3. Remove seeds from the green and red chilies and chop into 15 mm lengths.
4. In an earthenware pot, bring the coconut milk to the boil, add the onion, garlic, ginger and blachan. Continue to boil until the mixture become oily.
5. Then lower heat, add the chilies and salt to taste. Simmer 4 to 5 minutes.
6. Best served hot.
Blachan is a pungent, dark brown dried shrimp paste. It is used in very small amounts in soups and curries. Available in Asian shops and markets.
Technorati Tags: bicol manok, chicken stew spicy, filipino food, recipe
21 August, 2009 at 10:59 am
Ingredients:
2 medium sized onion, cubed
6 pieces garlic
1 medium sized red bell pepper
1/4 cup celery, minced
6-10 quail eggs
6 pieces medium sized carrots
3 medium sized cabbage, strips
150 grams chicken, cubed or thinly sliced
200 to 400 grams bihon or vermicelli
1-2 cups of soy sauce to taste
2 tablespoon of “Ginisa” or falvoring powder mix
1/4 choppped onion leaves (toppings)
Directions:
1. Boil quail eggs and remove egg shells when cooked. Set aside.
2. Soak the vermicelli to soften. It will lessen cooking time compared to dry vermicelli.
3. In a deep pot, saute chicken cubes on heated oil Optional: Fry chicken skin to extract the oil.
2. Add the onions, garlic, and celery when chicken cubes turn brown.
3. Add enough soy sauce and ginisa mix. SLowly add the soy sauce until the taste is just about right. Add black pepper.
4. Add water to boil the vegetables. Add the sliced carrots, cabbage, celery. Cover to cook.
5. When the vegetables are tender, add the bihon or vermicelli.
6. Mix it well. Add water when it looks dry. Lower heat to prevent the sticking of food in the bottom of the pot or pan.
7. Top with chopped onion leaves.
Enjoy!
Technorati Tags: bihon sotanghon, filipino food, pancit bihon recipe, philippine dish pansit, vermicelli stir fried
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