Pancit Bihon

Pancit Bihon is a classic Filipino dish that originated from Chinese occupants in the Philippines a long time ago. This is a popular dish that is often served during birthday parties for long life, fiestas (town birthdays), New Year’s Eve, and other big gatherings. Filipinos are fond of getting together and pancit seems to be everyone’s favorite. Everyone has their own version of pancit and it is a no-fail dish because no matter who makes it, it is always delicious!

Pancit is what Filipinos call stir-fry noodle dishes. Different kinds of noodles may be used in a pancit: egg noodles, cellophane noodles, thick rice noodles, or rice sticks (which is what I used in this recipe). There are different kinds of vegetable and meat or seafood combinations that can be thrown in a pancit. The most common vegetables are cabbage, carrots, celery, string beans, bell peppers, and green onions. The meat or seafood are usually, chicken, pork, Chinese sausage, and shrimp. What is most common among all pancit is the use of soy sauce for seasoning. Usually, when there is meat or seafood in the pancit, some key limes are added to temper the oiliness or the fishy taste.

As soon as I got home from work on Wednesday night, I started preparing the ingredients for this recipe all the while talking to my mom on the phone. It was a very nostalgic moment and it seemed like it wasn’t that long ago when I was helping her chop the vegetables in our hot and cozy kitchen back home. Oh Mama, how I miss you! Thank you for spoiling me with all the good food when I was growing up. Watching and observing you taught me how to cook and you would be impressed with the things that I am able to make now. All because of you! 

This pancit recipe that I am sharing is vegetarian but just as good as any other pancit! I fed it to my all-American boyfriend and he absolutely loved it. Not just because I made it, but because it was really, really good. All the vegetables are nicely cooked and they retained their crunch and juiciness. The slightly spicy sauce wonderfully complemented the vegetables and the noodles are cooked just right. With its spicy/herby touch, cilantro is the perfect garnish for this dish. DFJ suggested that we add cashews and I was glad for that advice because the cashews added a very delicious, sweet and nutty crunch.       

If you want a healthy, delicious weeknight meal or something new to bring to parties, make some pancit! Cutting the vegetables might take time but once you get that part done, the cooking time is pretty quick. Feel free to use the other vegetables I mentioned above or add some meat. When adding meat, make sure you pre-season them with salt and pepper and cut them into bite size pieces.         

Pancit Bihon (Makes 4 servings)

2.5 oz rice stick noodles
water to soak noodles

1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon Sriracha

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large shallot, sliced thinly
6 shiitake mushrooms, roughly chopped
1/2 large bell pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
half a bunch of bok choy, chopped, stalks included

1/2 tsp salt
a few grinds of black pepper

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped, to garnish
1/2 cup toasted cashews, to garnish (recipe below)

Place the rice stick noodles in a large bowl. Add water to cover the noodles and soak for 20-30 minutes. Set aside. While the rice is soaking, prepare the vegetables. Everything should be set up in advance because each ingredient cooks for a short time and it is best not to overcook them.

In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and Sriracha. Set aside. 

Heat olive oil in a large, deep pan or a wok (if you have one). When the oil is hot but not smoking, cook the garlic until golden brown. Add the shallot slices and cook until translucent, about 2 minutes. Throw in the mushrooms and cook until shiny and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the bell pepper and cook for a minute. Stir in the celery and carrot and cook just until they start to glisten, about 2 minutes. Pour in the sauce mixture and stir for 30 seconds, making sure everything gets coated with the good stuff. Throw in the bok choy and cook until slightly softened, about 2 minutes.

Now it is time to add the noodles. Use clean hands to grab the noodles from the bowl. There is no need to shake out the excess water that the noodles will carry, allow it to drip into the pan. That little bit of water adds moisture and will aid in cooking the noodles. Use a fork to separate the rice noodles and evenly distribute them for 3 minutes. Cover the pan and let cook for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir for another minute. Turn off the stove and move the pan away from the heat. You want to make sure not to leave the pan on the hot stove top for a long time, the noodles get mushy pretty fast. Continue to stir so all ingredients are evenly dispersed.

Serve immediately with a garnish of toasted cashews and fresh cilantro.

   
Toasted Raw Cashews

½ cup raw cashews, roughly chopped

Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium heat. When the skillet is hot, toast the cashews for 5-8 minutes until they turn golden. Stir often and keep a close eye on them (they burn really fast!). When you think they are done, move to a small bowl and let cool.

Sesame Noodles with Spinach and Salmon

Hello friends! I hate starting out a blog post complaining about life. However, I really am in some sort of crisis right now and am quite non-functional even though I should really be working double time to meet my deadline! Agh!

Amidst all these crazy stress that I’m dealing with, cooking and eating well has been my savior. Sara, the woman behind Pidge’s Pantry, picked this week’s Food Matter’s Project… Sesame Noodles with Spinach and Salmon. Holy smokes, this dish is AMAZING! It was hard to go slow while eating. My full bowl was empty in a flash! I felt like I was dining at a nice Japanese restaurant.

  
All the flavors in this Sesame Noodles with Spinach and Salmon blended together perfectly… the tender and savory salmon flakes with some salty, crackly salmon skin; the slightly sweet greens with the garlicky, sesame crunchies; and the perfectly done noodles. There’s no butter, cream, or an incredible amount of oil in the dish. But the little bit of sauce that coated everything had a wonderful sweet and buttery taste. Oh, every bite was fantastic! Wish I could take full credit for the recipe and the cooking, but it’s Mark Bittman’s recipe and DFJ was the chef tonight, I was merely an assistant.

You would be pleasantly surprised to know that making this dish is not that hard nor complicated! It didn’t require too much preparation nor any fancy ingredients. One crucial element is to properly cook the salmon. The trick is to the have the oil really hot when you put the salmon in the pan. This way you get a crispy exterior and a tender and flaky interior. This also helps prevent the fish from sticking. DFJ followed Mark Bittman’s instructions exactly and cooked each side for 3 minutes.

We followed the original recipe closely, which you will find at Pidge’s Pantry. The recipe required 1 ½ lbs of spinach but we only had 8 oz, so we added two leaves of kale. It worked well because kale doesn’t wilt as much as spinach does. We didn’t have any soba noodles left in the pantry, so we used our Japanese green tea noodles and it was very tasty.

DFJ and I really loved this delicious and authentic Japanese dish and I’m sure we are not the only ones with happy bellies. Check out what the other FMP members cooked up at our website. If we were able to make this happen in our kitchens, so can you! Again, visit Pidge’s Pantry for the original Mark Bittman recipe.  

I am already looking forward to the leftovers! Happy Monday you guys!     

Winter Minestrone

Wouldn’t it be nice if problems, worries, responsibilities, and chores would magically disappear after waking from a deep sleep? I am so ready for that to happen… My work visa is expiring soon and the deadline for the extension is on early February, a mere 5 weeks away. Due to budget constraints, I have a feeling that my work place is not going to extend their sponsorship. So I have been job hunting since last week, hoping that within the next couple of weeks, someone will be interested in hiring me for next school year. It is difficult to know where to start… updating my resume, making myself sound super awesome in my cover letter, answering endless questions on online job application websites, and so on. I have a job to do and the stress of job hunting is too much to bear. Many times I find myself biting my lips, restraining my hands from pulling my hair, keeping myself from banging my head on the wall, and from breaking out into a sobbing mess. Securing another job before the deadline is the most viable option to stay in the US right now and I need to get my act together to make this happen. Heaven help me!

Early Sunday morning, I woke up and made a big pot of soup. I stood for two hours, chopping, stirring, tasting, and hovering over my pot. It was nice, meditative almost… Making soup that morning renewed my soul and allowed me to take my time and breathe. During that moment, I forgot about my worries and felt thankful instead. Thankful for the tranquility that I felt and needed amidst my time of crisis. Most of the time it is so easy to give in to the feeling of frustration and it distracts us from what we should be focusing on. Taking ourselves away from this negativity is the most helpful way to get ourselves back on track and pay attention to what needs to be done. My problems are far from gone, but throwing a fit is not going to do me any good. I need to take a deep breath, clear my mind, and put my efforts into what needs to be done. Making a big pot of soup is a very good thing to do when experiencing some trials. I can attest to that.      

In Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food, she has summer, fall, winter, and spring recipe variations for minestrone, the classic Italian soup. Using the fresh ingredients that I had, my minestrone is a combination of the fall and winter variations, with some other ingredient substitutions and omissions. Minestrone is a soup that can be made throughout the year and is best when made with seasonal ingredients. One can never go wrong with good ingredients. Plus, soups are very forgiving. Just remember to taste as you cook so you know what is missing or what you’ve added too much of. If it’s bland, add more salt. If it’s too salty, add more water and another cup of vegetables or so.

My minestrone is made with French green lentils instead of beans and I absolutely love the result! The lentils added a very pleasant nuttiness and heartiness to the soup without making it too heavy. The soffritto or flavorful stir-fried vegetable base is composed of common soup ingredients: onion, celery, carrot, parsnip, kale, bell peppers, garlic, thyme, a bay leaf, and salt. Other ingredients that were added into the pot later in the cooking process are potatoes, boiled cabbage, and fresh parsley. The combination of everything makes for a tasty, robust, and textured soup. Extraordinarily delicious in a simple and heart-warming way! Soul food, if you may call it.   

Winter Minestrone (Makes 8-10 servings)

Inspired from Alice Waters’ Minestrone, The Art of Simple Food

½ head of cabbage, chopped into thin, bite-size pieces (I used purple cabbage)

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup French green lentils
5 cups cabbage cooking water
tough first layer of onion skin
½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 parsnip, peeled and diced

4 large garlic cloves, minced
6 small bell peppers or 1 medium bell pepper, diced (I used small red and orange bell peppers)
4 stalks kale, coarsely chopped (stems included)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons salt

3 cups of water

½ lb yellow potatoes, chopped into bite-size pieces (two small potatoes)

½ cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped (stems included)

½ teaspoon salt (to taste)

Fill a medium size pot over half full of water. Bring the water to a boil and throw in the salt. Cook the cabbage in the salted, boiling water over medium heat, uncovered. The cabbage is done when it is tender, about 6-8 minutes. Set a colander over a large bowl before draining the cabbage to save the cabbage water for cooking the lentils. Leave the cabbage in the colander.

Pour 5 cups of the cabbage water back into the pot along with the lentils. Use the tough, first layer of the onion to add flavor to the liquid that the lentils will be cooked in. Don’t chop that tough onion layer so you can easily remove it later. Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil. When it is boiling, turn the heat down to medium low and let simmer, partially covered, until the lentils are done, 30-35 minutes. When the lentils are done, remove from heat and set aside. Discard the tough onion layer.   

Meanwhile, prepare and cook the ingredients for the soffritto. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, throw in the chopped onion, celery, carrot, and parsnip. Lower the heat down to medium low and let cook for 15 minutes, stirring every now and then.

While these vegetables are slow cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Add the minced garlic, chopped bell peppers, kale, dried thyme, bay leaf, and salt. Keep the heat on medium low and cook for 5 minutes, stirring every now and then.

Pour 3 cups of water and the chopped potatoes into the pot. Partially cover the pot and turn the heat back to medium. Cook for 15 minutes.

Add the cooked lentils along with all of its cooking liquid, the boiled cabbage, and fresh parsley and cook for 5 minutes, uncovered. Turn the heat down to medium low and let cook for 5 more minutes. Add ½ teaspoon of salt or a bit more to taste. Turn the heat off and serve warm.

This soup is lovely and satisfying by itself. However, if you’re feeling fancy and want some crunch along with it, then make some of these Parmesan Croutons by Ina Garten.

Parmesan Croutons (Makes 20-24 croutons)    

Adapted from Ina Garten’s Parmesan Croutons, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

1 baguette

olive oil
Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper    
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Place an oven rack in the middle slot then preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Lay parchment paper on top of a baking sheet.

Cut the baguette into ¼ inch thick slices. Using a pastry brush, brush olive oil onto both sides of the baguette slices. Place the slices on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle the slices liberally with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top of the slices.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until the edges of the baguette slices turn into a nice, golden brown color. Serve at room temperature. Warning: As soon as these babies come out of the oven, it is so tempting to grab a crouton and bite on it. Please don’t, it is crazy hot… so wait until it has cooled down before doing so, promise?  

These Parmesan croutons are great with soups and salads!

Enjoy this deliciously satisfying meal during these cold, winter nights.

Hippie Rice

Hello Food Matters Project friends and everyone! My first blog post for 2013 is another great FMP recipe. Here’s to another year of awesome recipes from Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters Cookbook! I am honored to be a part of The Food Matters Project, a great online community of food bloggers who share their passion for cooking and eating healthy food.   

This week’s recipe is Hippie Rice, chosen by Gracie of Food Fascination. Hop on over to her website for the original recipe. AND do check out the delicious variations that other FMP members came up with at our website.     

I love this recipe because:

#1. It is delicious! Different flavors and different textures playing together in every bite.
#2. It is so good for you.
#3. It is so easy to make. Very few ingredients and zero fuss!
#4. It brought back sweet memories from my mom’s kitchen. She steams vegetables on top of rice too!
#5. It is the perfect side dish to anything. Simple and light enough to not override the main dish yet special enough to be memorable.

When I made this Hippie Rice, I followed the directions to the tee... It sounded good as it is, with basic and familiar ingredients that I felt no need to add or change anything. My brain is neither fried nor incapable of creativity right now or anything like that.  What are you waiting for? Go ahead, make this!  

Again, here’s the link to the recipe and variations/creative spins/etc.!    

Have a great week friends!