We are enjoying the heat of summer here in NC and our garden is doing well despite the scarcity of rain. The garden is putting out enough that we’ve been eating off it for a while now. The husband requires meat with all his meals or it’s not a meal, but the girls and I enjoy meatless meals all the time. Even when there is some meat cooked, we sometimes forego that and just eat the vegetables.

Here are two vegetable dishes that has become one of our favorite meals. The combination of the two dishes along with some garlic fried rice makes it a perfect weekend brunch for us.

Tortang Talong – Eggplant Fritata

The garden has been doing well this year and the three Japanese eggplants have been very generous. Aside from the new recipes we’ve tried out using eggplants, this is an old standby that we always fall back on, especially for breakfast. We call this ‘tortang talong’ in the Philippines. It is basically a whole eggplant that is grilled over flame to burn off the skin, and peeled. Some people also simply boil it then peel it, … Read entire article »

Bean Sprouts and Mushrooms

This is another simple, fast and extremely satisfying vegetarian dish that is a favorite with my girls. We have been having lots of meatless meals lately and no one but the husband is complaining When this photo was taken, we had it for brunch along with eggplant omelette and garlic fried rice. It was perfect! Bean Sprouts and Mushrooms Print Recipe type: … Read entire article »

SHRIMP HEADS

With the recent news about imported frozen shrimps full of anti biotics and illegal drugs that have been long identified as carcinogenic and have been banned in the U.S., it is even more important to eat locally. Locally caught shrimps have none of those harmful carcinogens and what little chemical is found on them is marginal compared to the imported, farmed, frozen varieties where it is a common practice to introduce drugs into the population in order to increase harvest. The wild caught shrimps that we get locally also taste better.

Durham Farmer's Market viewed from the hill

I love seafood and I grew up eating really good and fresh seafood so I am a bit of a seafood snob anyway. I only buy fish and shell fish that are practically still jumping and here in Durham, there was a time when I couldn’t find any decent seafood aside from the filleted and frozen kinds. I also liked seeing all the parts to my seafood. Heads, tails, and all, which seemed to freak out a lot of people around these parts.

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There’s no recipe for this one, the ingredients are pretty self-explanatory, just take a look at what’s on the plate. I am simply invoking the gods of spring with this photograph, to bring it on already! I am ready for some warm weather, fresh fruits and vegetables. Aren’t you?

On the food blog end though, I am still playing catch up with posting old and new recipes.

I posted several soup recipes that you may enjoy: Read the rest of this entry »

We haven’t had a food blog update lately so to catch up, here’s a few more recipes from our food blog, Cooked from the Heart (click on the recipe titles below for the recipes):

Rice Noodles with Beef & Mint

This recipe is one of our latest favorites. We’ve made it a few times more since we realized how good it is with fresh mint! The first time I made it, I served it with rice noodles as noted in the recipe but as we found out on subsequent versions, this is just as good over steamed rice. If you’re not too much into beef, pork and chicken works quite well with the spices and the addition of mint too. You’ll probably agree that this dish is all about the mint!

Pan Fried Tilapia with Miso Curry Sauce

If you love fish, here is an easy and delicious weekday meal. If you don’t have Miso just your favorite curry sauce or sweet and sour sauce will also work nicely with this recipe.

My daughter who does not eat fish only had the vegetables in the sauce over rice and she deemed it delicious! If you’re like her and don’t like fish either, this sauce will probably work over some pan fried chicken too.

Chinese Braised Ribs

I just love ribs cut this way (so much easier to eat) and I love them braised Chinese style like you get at dim sum restaurants. We haven’t been to dim sum lately and I was having a craving so I thought I would make them myself.

Little did I know how much my husband would love them too! He usually does not like messing with dishes that have a small meat to bone ratio. He just doesn’t think the effort to be worth it. lol! But surprisingly, he really loved this dish.

Corn & Egg Drop Soup

This is the accompanying soup when I made with the Chinese braised. Since my daughter eats very little meat and was also feeling under the weather, I knew she would not want any of the braised ribs. She does love soups though and what better for a sore throat than soup, right? So I made her this egg drop soup with corn and this was all she had for dinner. She had a couple of bowls of it, so she was good