French Chicken Casserole (Poulet Basquaise)

Chicken Basque

After my my bleeding post yesterday I feel a lot better now :-) And what I did not mentioned on my latest post was that I have been to France for a few weeks vacation. A sort of a moment to re-channel my energy , breath some fresh air and be ready to start a new.

I must admit that I felt really excited to be back for I have been away for a while. Seeing my families, friends and doing my usual "habitudes": buying french bread, baking cakes and eating a lot :-). Well just to share with you some photos of my recent trip in the picturesque region of Brittany in the northern part of France. Enjoy!

French Chicken Casserole
Ingredients:
Chicken cuts about a kilo
1 clove of garlic
1 small onion sliced
1 big tomato, peeled and seeded
3 bell peppers (1 yellow, 1 green, 1 red) cut in strips
thyme, salt and pepper
some olive oil
half a glass of white wine
1 tablespoon of flour
1 tablespoon of butter

Préparation:
On your casserole warm up the oil with some butter, put the chicken and fry until golden brown. Add the garlic, onion and tomates. Sauté over high temperature. Then add the bell peppers, put salt, pepper and thyme. Add the flour. Continue mixing. Deglace with white wine, cover and simmer over medium fire for about fifteen minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Cook for another ten minutes. Serve with steam rice.

Small port of Auray

Beach of Carnak

Forgotten Bike?

Mountain of Saint Michel

Sweet Banana Flambée to heal that broken dream

Banana Raisins Rhum Flambée

It's been a long while I haven't been here. You must have been wondering what happened to my kitchen. I do apologize for this long inadvertent hiatus in the blogging world. My life in the past few months has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions; The move from my "tranquil" abode in the sunny part of France to the bustling city of Manila in South Asia. The reality of my childhood dream, the opening of my restaurant. And the hurtful decision to close it after few months of operation. We all make mistakes but what matters in life is seeing to it that we always try to bounce back everytime we fall. I know things happen for a reason. And if not for those failures that I made I will never realized how passionately in love I am with cooking.


My pasta restaurateur stint is over. I'm passing on the torn to it's dynamic new owner :-) and I can't wait to start my new cooking project only this time I see to it that neither my family nor my personal life is sacrificed in return.

Enjoy this easy and yummy dessert to make use of your overriped bananas in the kitchen!




Banana Raisin Rhum Flambée



ingredients:

overripe bananas (count two per persons)
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of raisins
1 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
half a cup of Rhum
scoop of vanila ice-cream
preparation:

Heat your pan, add the butter, brown sugar and bananas. Cook them until it caramelizes. Pour the lemon juice. Add the Rhum and burn it on top. Serve with a scoop of ice-cream!

Asian Noodle Soup and Malaysian Postcards

Malaysia- It is not so long ago when I visited this beautiful part of Asia and wondered at the beauty of the mixture of it's culture: Malay, Chinese and Indian. And I tell you I still have the taste of this delicious noodle soup I had at that small village while waiting for our train. Those moments are priceless! After so long hiatus ( a rollercoaster ride of adventure) I'm glad to announce that my kitchen is back! See you all soon!

Asian Noodle Soup

for 4 persons

Ingredients:
1 pack of rice noodle soup
1 liter of chicken stock
200 g of ground pork
8 pieces of fish balls
2 teaspoons of Fish sauce
2 tablespoons of garlic oil
some Bok choy or young spinach leaves for garnishing

Preparation:
1. Cook the noodles as per direction.
2. In another casserole boil the chicken stock. Add the ground pork and the fish balls. Season with fish sauce to taste.
3. Put the noodles in their individual bowl. Scoop a soup, the ground, and some fish balls. Garnish with bok choy leaves and garlic oil on the top

The colorful kelantan market of Kota Baru

The beautiful muslim city of Kota baru

Cafeteria Malaysian style

Tea plantation Cameron Highlands

What's keeping me busy....

The interior decor of Pasta Box

Hello to all!

I know it's been a while and I'm so sorry for this long hiatus. If you have been following up my blog you know the reason of my absence is the restaurant that I was putting up. And now I cannot wait to share with you my baby project; the Pasta Box. I credit all these wonderful photos to Ms. Tricia de Ocampo and her wonderful blog who recently organized a birthday party at our pasta bar.

Our take-away boxes for pasta thus the name pasta box......


One of our best-seller Popeye's favorite; spinach, sundried tomato in a creamy basil pesto sauce

Some nachos to keep you busy while waiting for our pasta

Another favorite in our pasta bar, Seafood Pomodoro with mozzarella cheese


The celebrant who looks very happy.....

To know more about my pasta bar add us in your FB account :-)...more stories and cooking to come up!!!

http://www.facebook.com/thepastabox

HUGS,
Dhanggit

Weekend Herb Blogging # 222 Round-up

Yiiiiiiha!! I'm finally up here to do this sumptuous round-up for Weekend Herb Blogging! #222 Believe me I thought I will never make it! A big hug and thanks to Haalo for her support. And again to the Food Blogging community for all your undying patience and generosity. The thruth is my schedule the past weeks was really kinda tight: imagine the cross country move and very soon I'll be opening my very own restaurant..oops. I'll be spilling the beans on my next post but in the meantime enjoy this delicious concoctions of our talented bloggers:

Our first entry comes from Janet the Saveur of Taste Space she send us freshly baked Wild blueberries and Banana Oatmeal Muffin. These are healthy snacks that's loaded with wonderful flavors of fruits. And don't tell me I didn't warn you here photos are as yummy as her recipes!!

Next on the list comes from the talented Tigerfish of Teczcape he prepared to us this mouth-watering Blackfungus Chayote. If you want to know more about interesting vegetable combo recipes or just want to enjoy delicious blog reading Teczcape is the place to hang out!

Third on the list is one of my favorite appetizer recipe: Tapenade. This is a savory olive spread made from fresh olives, garlic, olive oil and anchovies. But hey Graziana concocted to us a very interesting twist of this recipe. So If you want to know more about this satisfying recipe go check Graziana from Erbe in Cucina.

And to beat the summer heat (well I mean here in the Philippines :-) ) try this refreshing salad recipe made to us by Rachel of Crispy Cook; Jicama Orange Salad. Jicama is one of my favorite vegetable snack. If you are curious to know more about this veggie I'm talking about head on to Crispy cook and learn more about this.

Next on our list, this vitamin packed dish prepared to us by Christine of Kits Chow. I know that there are some people that doesn't like very much onion. But after seeing this yummy salad I'm sure you'll be heading to the market to buy some to make this recipe.

I know you are all still hungry, so give some room for this sweet, light and healthy dessert of Longan Tropical Fruit Salad concocted by none other than Haalo of Cook Almost Anything. You better check out her post to know more about this refreshing fruit.

The talented Muneeba of An Edible Symphony whip us up this savory dish of Fenugreek chicken curry. If you are not familiar with this vegetable just like me, I suggest you check out her post to know more about. In meantime, enjoy this green curry over some rice! Yum!


And for home-made recipe lovers out there, enjoy this handy recipe made to us by charming Brii all the way from beautiful Italy; Crunchy Musli. Truly perfect for breakfast!


And the last, but definitely not the least is Winnie's entry Healthy Green Kitchen. She made us this salad recipe of Roasted Beet Salad with Mint and Feta bursting with lots of flavor. This is a very easy to make and yet gorgeous salad recipe to bookmark. Another yummy reason to love beets :-)


That's it I hope I didn't forget anyone. I hope you enjoy reading them and inspired you to cook something tonight! Thanks again and see you all for the next edition of WHB, this week's host is Susan of Well Seasoned Cook. Have a great day everyone!!

WHB #222 Hosting Announcement

Hi everyone :-) Mea culpa..I almost forgot that I am this week's WHB host (well unfortunately I had some minor explosion problem with my laptop :-) )

As usual it is always my honor and pride to host Weekend Herb Blogging ,this mouthwatering event that puts vegetables, herbs, plants and fruits into the limelight. WHB as we all know is the brainchild of Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. It is now under the caring wings of Haalo of Cook Almost Anything but it still brings us the same aroma and passion for anything green. The rules are simple, post about any herb, fruit, vegetable, flower or plant. The post can be informative, a spotlight of a particular ingredient and/or a recipe where your chosen produce is one of the primary ingredients in the recipe. The post should include about the event "Weekend Herb Blogging" with appropriate links and a link to this announcement. I will be posting the roundup next week :-)

In the meantime enjoy some shots of the Chinese New Year Celebration I took in Binondo Manila. We wanted so much to stay longer and enjoy the event but Mayumi got scared of the dragon :-)

From South to South

Hello to all! I know know , there is no excuse for my long hiatus and I apologize for that. Well you know cross country moving is not that easy imagine that it took me almost a month before being back on my foot again. And it feels so great.

I know you are all dying to hear some updates on me, my family and my kitchen so here it is. My daughter is still vibrant and jolly as ever, she's still having a difficult time though coping up with the very hot weather but is glad to have found so many friends to play with and it proved that language for children has never been a barrier. I know that you will ask me in the end, why the "hell" I accepted to change the simplicity and quietness of life in my beautiful Provencal city. I hear no more the singing cicadas but cars honking all the time. The scent of lavander is now replaced by the bustling city. And despite that I am "acrophobia" I am dwelling now on the place touches that sky. The blue Mediterranean sea is now a refreshing olympic size swimming pool. Well you know sometimes change is different. I''ll be bringing you soon my city-life cooking ;-)

I'm really glad to be back!