Spicy sauge with broccoli rabe

This dish has been the family's favorite. I have tried it with all shapes of pasta. The first one included is the orecchiete (ear shaped) pasta. The bowtie or the farfalle and the tri-colored pasta are the most common pasta I used for this dish.

Quick tip, if you can't find the brocolli rabe in your corner grocery, check out the Indian store near you. In Jackson Heights, this place was suggested as a good source of this vegetables
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Sinigang na Salmon

This time for my sinigang na salmon, I used mustasa and radish with the long green peppers to make the broth spicy as it should be.

Every Pinoy home in the US enjoy sinigang more than adobo (which according to some is the favorite dish of all Filipinos). Eating sinigang in the US can be done with vegetables available in the neighborhood grocery. It is not unusual if we add brocolli and green beans, or watercress. When you do not have the advantage of going to your Oriental store for your weekend food shopping, enjoying sinigang for dinner in winter could mean beef, pork or any kind of fish or shrimps and any vegetables that could be used as substitute to sitaw and kangkong. That is the reason why we always have sinigang mix in the pantry. We can enjoy sinigang any time of the year.

Bicol express

I did not think we use this pepper other than for "sinigang". And I did not think that Bicol express is one of the dishes one can cook with so few ingredients.

Sliced pork with sliced green peppers in coconut milk. I add bagoong instead of just the "patis".

Baked Ziti

Everyone enjoyed the baked ziti I brought to work. I was asked for my recipe. I am not a selfish person to share any of my recipes. The thing is, some of my recipes are in my head. I can always direct you to a website and although, the recipe is almost the same as mine, I tend to tweak the original recipe I adopt for my taste.

And then, my sister mentioned that baked ziti is one of her favorites and she would really want to learn how to cook the dish. Here's the recipe I created for her:

Baked ziti

1 kilo( 1 and half lb) ground pork (this is my estimate for one box 1 lb of pasta)
1 big onion, minced
half a clove of garlic, minced
2-3 pcs dried bay leaves
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 small cans of tomato sauce
1 can of whole peeled tomatoes, diced or crushed with your hands (4 diced large fresh tomatoes can be used as substitute)
salt and pepper
dried basil and oregano (I used italian herbs mix used for pizza)
1-2 tsp sugar

1 lb pasta ( you can use ziti, penne or any tube shaped pasta)
ricotta cheese
parmesan cheese
mozarella cheese

Fry the garlic and onions in 3 tbsp of cooking oil. Then add the ground pork and cook for 10 min. until the meat is no longer pink. Add the tomato paste and then the diced tomatoes. Cook for few more minutes then add the tomato sauce. Add 2-3 pcs bay leaves and cover. Cook until the liquid has evaporated and oil is coming out on top of the sauce, around 10-15 in medium heat.

Cook pasta al dente and drain. Add the meatsauce and ricotta cheese and mix well until meatsauce is evenly distributed. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Flatten the top with the back of the spoon and add a layer of shredded mozarella cheese (I cut the mozarella into thin slices). Then bake for at least 20-30 minutes until you can see the sauce starts to bubble on the side.

Let it cool for few minutes before you start serving. This can be frozen and reheated before serving.

Chicken with figs

Time to get cooking.
It was the weekend after the tax busy season. At long last I can cook again. As I was watching Daisy Cooks on PBS, I saw this chicken dish and it really looks delicious.

Sriprahai Thai Restaurant

We heard about this place because of the good reviews it got. it was my son's birthday last February, and we wanted to go to a new place to try something new. Close to home (Woodside, Queens) is a Thai restaurant that offers interesting dishes at affordable prices.

The appetizer(first picture) was really good and spicy. We also ordered the famous pad thai, beef in green curry sauce, siomai and meatballs with tofu (we wanted something to balance the spicy dishes we ordered). For dessert we all shared one order of green tea ice cream with kaong because everyone was full.