It’s been a while since I’ve contributed an entry to Weekend Herb Blogging, but now I am back to share with you this wonderful Thai herb called pak-chee or sawtoothed coriander, named so because of the leaves which are long, slender and serrated. It has a similar but rather more pungent flavour than the cilantro leaf. It is easier to cultivate than cilantro, so now this takes the place of cilantro in most of the dishes I cook at home. They are perennial so they tend to last long unlike cilantro. Here is how it looks.

The scientific name of pak chee is Eryngium foetidum. Pak chee is one of the herbs used in Southeast Asian cooking (except Philippines *sigh*) and is one of the flavors in the Thai soup tom yum. Other names are Mexican coriander, fitweed and long coriander. Interestingly, while it tastes and smells like the cilantro, it grows well in areas where the cilantro doesn’t grow well because of the heat.

So hurray for me, I have an alternative to cilantro. We don’t use this herb in Philippine cooking (hence the sigh above) but I was lucky to have neighbors from Myanmar. They eat a lot of this and it grows well in their garden. They gave me the carte blanch to “raid” their pak chee plots anytime I want! Since they are so easy to grow, I have my own patch of pak chee in our garden already.  One of the dishes I savor with pak chee is Thai fried rice.

Thai Fried Rice

2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp Thai shrimp paste
1 tbsp fish sauce
5 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 tsp chili flakes (add more if you want)
4 cups leftover cooked rice
2 eggs, scrambled, fried and sliced into strips
4 pak chee leaves, chopped
green mangoes, sliced thinly
fresh chilis
extra pak chee leaves

Heat oil in a wok and add the shrimp paste. Stir in the garlic and mix everything till garlic is translucent. Add chili flakes. Add the cooked rice and stir constantly till rice is well-heated throughout. Add half of the eggs and mix well. Turn off heat then add the pak chee. Put rice on a plate and garnish with mangoes, chilis and extra pak chee leaves.

Siri from Siri’s Corner hosts this weeks Weekend Herb Blogging recap.

The coconut pancakes I made a few months ago were a big hit, but my original plan is to actually perfect making coconut crepes. Or just crepes in general. I’ve always been fascinated with crepes ever since I got my first introduction to crepes in Old Quebec. I have this old pocketbook on crepes which I usually read before sleeping. What makes it difficult to make, for me at least, is that we don’t have any of the non-stick flat pans that makes life easier when making crepes. At home, the pans are all cast-iron wok-type ones. But I do manage. One thing I’ve noticed though is that if I am to make the perfect coconut crepes (with coconut milk in the batter) is that I’d better get the non-stick pan. Somehow, the addition of coconut milk changes the chemistry of the batter (maybe too much fat), that the crust tends to separate from the rest of the crepe. Anyway, after several mishaps, I start to churn passable crepes that when mix with the grated coconut filling and sauce makes a wondeful and filling dessert.

Coconut crepes

1 cup flour
2 cups coconut milk
1 tbsp sugar
1 egg

Mix everything together to make a smooth batter. Strain the batter then refrigerate for at least an hour.  A non-stick pan is preferable for cooking crepes. Grease the pan lightly and heat. Once heated, add about 1/4 cup of batter then gently tilt the pan so that the batter covers the surface of the pan. Heat a few seconds till crepe is set then invert. Heat the other side for a few seconds then remove crepe from pan. Repeat the same process for the rest of the batter.

Coconut cream sauce

1 cup brown sugar
2 cups coconut cream

Mix sugar and coconut cream in a sauce pan and gently simmer over low heat thickened. Stir occasionally to prevent lumps from forming.

To assemble crepes:

Place a crepe on a serving plate. Place 2 tbsp of grated coconut across the center. Fold both sides, one on top of the other. Drizzle with coconut cream sauce and serve. Alternately, you fold the crepe into quarters. Top crepe with grated coconut and drizzle with coconut cream sauce.

Binatog is a Laguna delicacy made of warm boiled corn and grated coconut. I got my first taste from a neighbor who sells this delicacy in our place. She would go down the street and shout “Binatog”. If we want to buy some, we’d shout “Binatog” as well and she would come at the gate and we’d get our fill.

I haven’t had binatog for several years so it was a pleasant surprise to find a vendor selling binatog during our visit to the Sta Cruz palengke. I wasted no time buying and eating and interviewing the vendor how she made it. First the corn variety are the white sticky ones unlike the yellow sweet corn favored by most. The kernels are dried then boiled. In between these steps is treating it with apog to whiten the kernels as well as to soften the skin of the kernels. To assemble the binatog, the vendor shapes a piece of banana leaves into a cone, scoops the boiled corn kernels till the cone is filled, adds a dash of salt and tops it with grated coconut.

Yum!

When I saw this recipe for Old-school Pork Chops with Apples and Sage from No Special Effects, I knew I just had to cook this at home. The only modification I made was to use tarragon instead of sage as I couldn’t get hold fresh sage. Tarragon, though,is a mainstay in my cooking since it grows profusely in the garden. I usually substitute it for sage such as this garlic chicken roast. Getting back to sage, I hope I could get a seedling soon so I can cultivate it at home. I’m beginning to get curious about how it tastes and smells like.  The lightly fried apple slices are perfect foil for the rich pork chops.

Old-school Pork Chops with Apples and Tarragon

I’m sharing this post to Grow Your Own hosted by Ning of Heart and Hearth. Check out too, my sister’s Grow Your Own post - Chicken Adobo sa Gata (chicken adobo in coconut milk).

Sta Cruz is the provincial capital of the province of Laguna in the Philippines. Hence it is a busy town with the palengke busier than most of town markets in the province. Every Thursday is market day or tiangge, where products from all over the province are brought to Sta Cruz by farmers. The streets are lined up with food, clothing and other merchandise. My sister and I were there several Thursdays ago to go through the market and check out what were on sale. The following photos were taken inside the public market itself. These items are commonly sold daily in public markets in Laguna though the Sta Cruz market has more choices in terms of fish, vegetables and delicacies.

Karpangus or a cross between karpa (carp) and bangus (milkfish). Much like tilapia with a lot of bones

Crabs or alimango

Freshwater snails

Assorted vegetables

Karpangus (again) which you can buy whole or sliced (see above)

Dried fish/tuyo

Smoked fish or tinapa

There is also a section that sells rice

I have been remiss in maintaining my To market, to market… blog event but I am getting it back up again. Do you have any farmers’ market adventures to share? Post your entries until Nov 15 and link back to this post.

Breakfast is my favorite meal. And Sunday breakfasts at home are really special. We always make it a point to prepare something special for Sunday breakfast. For example, grilled liempo with garlic fried rice is a favorite. Sunday breakfast is always a lazy affair where we could catch up with each other, talk about family news or the latest antics of our cats and dogs.

Anyway, this egg in salami cups is easy to make, much like the herbed baked eggs and omelets inspired by the Barefoot Contessa.

Eggs in salami cups

4 fresh eggs
4 salami slices
chopped fresh tarragon
salt

Place salami slice in a ramekin or cupcake pan. Pour the fresh egg and top the eggs with salt and chopped fresh tarragon. Bake at 300 oF till eggs are set. Remove from ramekin and serve.

This round-up for this edition’s Grow Your Own is rather late. My internet connection has been very slow the past few days but here it is now.

So what are the home-grown goodies this round? Click on the photos to go to the original post.

Radishes from PG of My Kitchen Stories.

A simple radish salad

Jalapeños from Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes.

Jalapeños Jelly

Tomatoes from Victoria of feed yourself.

Tomatoes and avocado salad

Bok choy from Kim of  Live::Love::Eat!

Fried rice with bok choy

Lavender from DK of Culinary Bazaar.

Strawberry and Lavender Sorbet

Thai basil from Jennifer of Northside Food.

Thai-style stir fry

Cilantro from Ning of Heart and Hearth.

Boiled shrimps with coriander

Squash from Rachel of The Crispy Cook.

Roasted Ambercup Squash

Pechay or Bok choy from Ela of Everything’s Herbed. (PS-Ela is my sister and this is her first time to join a blog event!)

Ginisang pechay

Vegetable flowers from my garden.

Flower power salad

Andrea (the GYO creator) hosts the next round of Grow Your Own. If you want to host GYO, check out the Grow Your Own Hosting page also at Andrea’s Recipes.

I have the privileged of hosting Grow Your Own from Oct 1 to 15, and I would like to share with you my first time to use flowers in a dish.

I have always fancied using flowers as food but never had the chance to do so. I’ve seen a lot of recipes, from salads to tempura to savory dishes. So it was with great delight that I made a salad of flowers all grown from the garden. We have been growing ampalaya (bitter gourd), patola (ridged gourd/luffa) and Baguio beans and have been enjoying cooking them at home.

In the last few weeks, I have been staying at home mostly, always wondering what to cook. So with great delight, I noticed these three vegetables flowering and an idea to make salad came to mind. Should I call this Flower Power Salad?

Flower Power Salad with Asian Dressing

Get a handful of everything:

Patola flowers
Ampalaya flowers
Baguio beans flowers
Gotokula leaves
Saw-toothed corander leaves
Thai basil leaves

Dressing

4 tbsp vinegar
4 tbsp water
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar
2 cloves garlic
1 Thai chili

Mix vinegar, water, fish sauce and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil till sugar has dissolved. Taste according to your preference and adjust as necessary.

To serve, arrange eveything in a platter and serve with the dressing.

It’s my turn to host Grow Your Own!

I look forward to you posts.