A little bit about food on a fertile island in the Tropics

I'm glad we reached the end of the leftover holiday treats. Me pants are a bit tight, ya know?

I'm feeling quite happy about being back into the regular routine as far as eating goes. Somehow we got out of the habit of our meatless Mondays. We do often have meatless meals but sometimes we can forget to make dinner a meatless meal. I like the weekly reminder to cut the meat and find some new and fun veggie recipes. Some of my very favorite cookbooks are the Moosewood Restaurant series. They are probably my most used cook books, especially the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites, and Moosewood Celebrates. So good.

So I stocked up on a few days worth of produce at the local market this morning. I am amazed at how much I can get for 300 pesos ($7 USD). All of this is grown (save the apples and mandarin oranges) on Cebu Island. I can point to the mountain where these mangoes were grown. I love that if we need to save money on the food budget, all we need to do is eat simply using more stuff available at the market. I often buy fish there as well (if I can get there in the morning since the fish is not on ice) and can get 8 small fish (enough for two lunches for me and Ella) for about 20 pesos.

For 7 bucks I got 1.5 kilos of some of the most delicious mangoes in the world, 6 mandarin oranges, 6 Fuji apples, 2 carrots, long beans, 2 eggplants, some pumpkin-like squash, tomatoes, a handful of chili peppers, 1/2 kilo of water spinach, kamote tops (greens of the local sweet potato), plum tomatoes and the shredded meat of one small coconut, which I used to make fresh coconut milk for our dinner tonight. 

What's on the menu? (From Moosewood Celebrates)

Red lentils & brown rice

Mango chutney

Curried greens with cashews

Ella and I went outside for a bit and I noticed the papaya tree we had cut down in November is back in full-force. These papaya trees grow like weeds here! It's nice to have fresh papaya but I have a hard time keeping up with it all and much of it ends up falling to the ground and rotting in the hot sun. Not a nice smell. Maybe I should sell some at the market down the street. Unfortunately it's not the best papaya. My neighbors like to make achara (pickled papaya) with the unripe papaya but I don't enjoy it much. My favorite is the red lady papaya that I can find at the supermarket for about 20 pesos. It's oh so sweet and Ella loves it.

A little fun in the sand box before lunch

Today's lunch: Crispy fried fish, rice, bananas and mangoes.

 

What are some of your most used and loved cookbooks?

Tasty Tacos

Finally, a recipe!

I have realized recently how satisfying it is when I make something that is healthy, delicious AND takes only 30 minutes or less to make. This recipe fits the bill.

Since living in the Philippines I've had to make tacos less often because tortillas are not available and must be made from scratch. Although easy to do, it takes a little time and thus defeats the purpose of throwing some tacos together for dinner in a hurry. I also usually have to make my own salsa and cilantro isn't always available so that's another deterrent.

Well, this past week I found some decent-looking whole wheat tortillas at the store so I bought about five packs to stock up and try them out. Turns out they are pretty good! Too bad there is no guarantee they will ever show up at the store again. That's just how it goes. Also, this week, cilantro has been available and tomatoes, too. So I've made tacos a few times this week already.

Easy Vegetarian Tacos

Elements:

Tortillas (preferably whole grain)
Grated cheese
Salsa (store-bought or home-made)
Creamy black beans
Stewed winter squash

For the black beans:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
dried ground cumin
dried cayenne or chipotle powder (unfortunately I have to leave out the spicy parts due to my stomach issue but ordinarily I would add something spicy)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cloves of garlic
splash of vinegar

Method:

Heat oil in small sauce pan, add onions and green peppers to pan and saute till soft. While they are cooking add a little salt, ground black pepper and a few shakes of cumin (my favorite spice!) and whatever spicy element you choose. Add the black beans and mash with a potato masher until creamy. Add about 1/4 cup of water or broth while you are mashing. You don't have to mash it completely, just 1/2 to 3/4 of it till you have some chunky black beans in the midst of creamy black beans. Add more liquid, if needed. Bring beans to simmer. Add two cloves chopped garlic and heat together for few minutes. Turn off heat and add a splash of vinegar.

A note about garlic:

Adding garlic at the end of a recipe preserves more of the flavor and the nutritional benefits. To maximize the disease-prevention power of garlic, mince it at least 5 minutes before cooking it. Chopping garlic activates enzymes that convert allantoin to it's active state. Allantoin is the powerful chemical in garlic that it's anti-disease properties are attributed to. Eating onions and garlic daily reduces risks of cancer and other diseases. Onions also should be chopped and allowed to sit for a few minutes before cooking, for the same reason. This also applies to broccoli. Different plant chemicals, but same idea behind it.

Stewed Winter Squash

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2-3 cups winter squash, chopped into small cubes (I use something like acorn squash here because it's available year-round; whatever orange winter squash you have available is fine)
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup water or broth
salt
1 tablespoon of honey or maple syrup

Method:

Heat pan to medium-high in a large skillet, add squash and onions and sautee for few mins. Add water (or broth), a few shakes of salt and the honey or maple syrup. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for about 5 minutes, till squash is almost completely cooked. Uncover and continue to simmer till liquid evaporates and squash is soft but not overcooked. Taste and add more salt and/or honey, if needed. Squash should only have a hint of sweetness.

Salsa (in case you want to make your own, this is how I make mine)

Chopped tomatoes
Fresh lime juice
A huge amount of chopped cilantro
Chili peppers (if you don't have a stomach problem like me. I miss spicy food!)
Finely chopped white or red onion
A few shakes of tabasco or Mike's hot sauce or whatever you have on hand
About a tablespoon of veg/olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix and let sit at room temp until ready to eat (I usually make the salsa first, then set it aside so the flavors meld together)

Other filling options: (on the next night I made this filling to augment what we had leftover)

Chicken & bell peppers (our old stand by)

Sautee sliced onions and bell peppers in hot oil, add chopped chicken, add salt, cumin and pepper, sautee on high heat till cooked. If you use a large enough skillet, the chicken, peppers and onions will start to char and get browned like when fajitas are served in restaurant. I love this. The key is not have a too-crowded pan and high-heat. Sometimes I add about a tablespoon of tequila for flavor and to help scrape any bits off the pan before serving. Can also squeeze a lime over it at the end, then it can be called margarita chicken. Yummy!

So easy!!!

This recipe may seem a little strange but I'm telling you the combination of sour/spicy salsa, mild beans and slightly sweet squash is yummy! Andrey agrees. I got the idea to use squash from my favorite tacos in Seattle at a place called Aqua Verde. They have these sweet potato tacos with crumbly cojita cheese on whole grain tortillas and they are SO delish! I have no idea if kids will go for this as I have no idea about that yet.