Classic Lemon Bars

We have 2 meyer lemon tree in the backyard. Sometimes I get overwhelm with them because they litter the yard. They bear fruits all year round so we always have lemon in the house. When I have more than enough in the house, I give some to the neighbors or take some to work. I also use them for cooking and the kids makes fresh lemonade whenever they feel like having one.

I'm a big fan of lemon cake, lemon cookies and lemon bars. I have been itching to make them from scratch with all the fresh lemons I have around but I never get around to it. I finally had the time and made these beautiful and delicious classic lemon bars. I found the simple recipe on foodgawker. I decided to blog it on my site because it is worth sharing!

Note: The most important part of this recipe is cooking time, all ovens and pans are different, so it's really hard to tell how long to cook something; the best thing I can do is to tell you what to look for. Make sure when you're only cooking the crust that you don't let it get too dark (it will take away from the flavor if it cooks too long) and if its undercooked, they'll be harder to keep intact, and they'll be more gooey than anything. Same thing goes for when you're cooking the bars with the filling; you want a golden color around the edges, nothing too dark, or they'll be too stiff, and if undercooked, too gooey.

Ingredients and Preparation: (20-25 bars)

Crust:

2 cups flour (sifted)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup unsalted butter (firm)

Topping:

2 cups sugar
2 lemons,  juiced and rind grated
4 tablespoons of flour
4 eggs beaten
pince of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour and powdered sugar together in a big bowl. Mix in the butter in pieces and mash with hands thouroughly or use a blender if you have one. Do not over mix. Pat mixture into bottom of a greased 9x13x2 baking pan or a non-stick pan.

Bake for 25-30 mins until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes.

To make topping mix flour and sugar, add to beaten eggs; add lemon juice and salt. Mix thoroughly. Pour topping over crust, return to oven for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Let cool before cutting into squares.

Chicken Muamba/Apritada

Chicken, chicken and chicken! We just can't have enough chicken to eat. There's so many chicken recipe and I always find myself cooking it adobo style, baked, broiled, tinola or jamaican jerk. Today, I defrosted about 10 pieces of chicken drum stick and I started searching for a simple recipe that I could experiment with. I found 2 that were interesting enough and I knew I had all the ingredients in my pantry. The first one was Chicken Asado/Apritada which is a Filipino dish and it reminded me that it was one of my favorite dish back home. The other one was Chicken Muamba which is an African dish (Angola/Congo) and it is very similar to the Filipino dish. The only difference is one vegetable ingredient. One has potatoes and one has okras. Well, I didn't have potatoes in my pantry but I had a bag of fresh okras and everything else. So, I decided to call it Muamba/Apritada! It is delicious and very satisfying. I almost ate 2 servings today!

Ingredients and Preparation
5 servings

10 pieces of chicken legs
1 14.5 ounces can dice tomatoes
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
4 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoon vinegar
1 medium onion chopped or slice very thin
6 cloves of galic chopped
3 dried bay leaves
1 lb fresh okra (ends removed)
6 tablespoon olive oil
salt and black pepper for seasoning

Heat the oven to 450 degrees

In a large frying pan, add olive oil and heat it up. Add the garlic and onion and sautee for about 3 minutes or until onion is limp

Add the chicken and mix with the onion thoroughly

Add the salt and pepper and season all over, cover and brown the chicken

When the chicken is brown and somewhat cook (about 10 minutes), transfer it in a baking pan

Add all the remaining ingredients - diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, soy sauce, vinegar and bay leaves

Add the okra and cover with foil. Bake for 1 hour

Serve hot with steamed rice and enjoy!

Chipotle and Citrus Baby Back Ribs

I had planned to bring ribs to a family gathering for new year celebration but we ended up not having it due to everyone's schedule. Well, I bought the ribs already so they ended up in the freezer. A few days later, I decided to marinate one slab and try a recipe that I was putting together in my head. The recipe turned out perfect and the ribs are absolutely tender, juicy and tasty. I have a feeling that this is going to be one recipe to be repeated every summer for gatherings.

Ingredients and Preparation
Servings 2

1 slab of baby back ribs (about 10-12 pieces of ribs)
1 fresh valencia orange
1 fresh lemon
1 tablespoon of Ground Chipotle Chili Pepper seasoning
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 cups of water
Sweet Banana sauce for dipping (Philippine Ketchup)

NOTE: Marinate meat overnight for better tasting

Drizzle the salt, black pepper and chipotle seasoning on both sides of the ribs. Cut the slab in 2 section (5-6 ribs each slab) and put inside a 1 gallon ziplock. Slice the valencia orange and lemon in half and squeeze the juice inside the ziplock covering all parts of the ribs. Close the bag tightly and shake it a bit. Open the bag again and release all the air and zip it tightly. Marinate in the fridge overnight or at least 6 hours.

READY FOR COOKING:

Set the oven to bake for 425 degrees. Arrange the ribs in a shallow baking pan and pour all the liquid from the bag in the pan. Add 2 cups of water. Seal and cover the pan with heavy duty foil and bake for 2 hours. It might seem long but this is slow steam cooking and it will give you off the bone tender licking good ribs!

Dip the ribs with sweet banana ketchup or your choice of barbeque sauce. I prefer the banana ketchup because it goes well with the chipotle seasoning spice. Sweet and Spicy = yummy!

Crab w/ Coconut Milk and Ghost Pepper

There is an abundance of crab this season and I have had my share of this delicious crustacean. Crabs are my favorite shellfish. My grandfather on my father's side was a fisherman in the Philippines and I remember the days when he used to come home along with other local fishermen carrying their bounty. Fresh crabs, fish and shrimps every day!

I've had baby crabs, mud green crabs, blue crabs, alaskan crab and dungeness crabs. I think that my favorite is still the mud green crabs. They are very fatty and sweet. Most of the time, I will just boil the crab with salt and then eat them with steamed rice and dip the crab with vinegar. Lately, I have been experimenting on how to prepare my crabs to make them feel special and make my meal more tastier! I've been trying all types of peppers to come up with a spicy recipe. I'm so blessed to be living in the San Francisco bay area where you can find dungeness crab for as cheap as $2.99 a pound! I can totally eat these babies every day :)

Here is what I prepared today and I think it will be a great recipe to repeat on every crab season! I think that the Ghost Pepper made a difference because it is suppose to be the hottest pepper in the world! WHOA!!! My mouth was on fire but it was absolutely delicious with the coconut milk and thai basil.

Ingredients and Preparation:

Serves 1

1 Dungeness Crab Fresh or Pre-Cooked

1 Ghost pepper or 5 Sereno peppers (cut in half)

1/2 tablesoon ground black pepper

1 can of coconut milk

3 cloves of chopped garlic

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 cup of fresh basil leaves

1/3 cup water

Clean the crab well and chop it into pieces. Save the green and juicy stuff in the shell and set aside. If you don't like that part of the crab, toss it but I prefer to incorporate it because it will taste better with it.

Heat up your wok or large frying pan or pot and add vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and brown by stirring frequently. Then add the crab pieces and water and do a quick stir. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.

Uncover and add the coconut milk, basil, blackpepper and ghost pepper or your choice of hot pepper. Stir, cover and cook for about 15 mins in medium heat. Enjoy this dish with steamed rice.

Steamed Shrimps With Fresh Minced Garlic and Butter

A group of us from work did a night shift at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco and served 875 dinner meals to the homeless. We served breaded fish, boiled red napa cabbage and rice. It only took about 2 1/2 hours to serve that many people! After serving, I was craving for some fish even tough I smelled like fish the entire night! I asked one of my co-workers if he wanted to stop by China town and have dinner with me and my daughter who happened to be just getting off school and was in the neighborhood. We chose to go to my favorite place in China town - R&G Lounge Restaurant. I used to go there 2-3x a week when I used to work at the financial district area. I let Roy picked from the menu and what he ordered was NOT ON THE MENU! This dish was one of them and I craved for it the past several days and I decided to prepare some to satisfy my cravings.

Ingredients:

1 lb shrimps with shell (10-12 count - medium to large size)

4 cloves of fresh minced garlic

2 tablespoon butter

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups of water

Preparation:

Rinse the shrimps thorougly. Split the shrimps in half by cutting them from the back meat side. Make sure that your knife is really sharp otherwise, the shrimps will be mushed. Arrange the shrimps in a round pie platter or large plate. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste

In a small pan, melt the butter and stir the garlic in it for about 1 minute. Do not let the garlic turn brown. Turn off the heat.

Heat the wok or steamer and add water. Put a bowl upside down in the middle of the wok. Put the plate of shrimp on top of the upside down plate and make sure its evenly in the middle just to make sure that the plate is not submerged in the water. Sprinkle the melted butter and garlic all over the shrimps. Cover and steam for about 8 minutes or until the shrimps have turned bright pink. Enjoy with rice and a veggie side. Or serve as an appetizer.

Brussel Sprouts and Portabella Mushrooms

For Thanksgiving this year, my family agreed that we do a potluck instead of me cooking the entire feast. I volunteered to prepare and bring the turkey and one side dish - Macaroni and Cheese. Of course, instead of cooking just those two, I decided to prepare an additional side dish and made it as the stuffing for the turkey too. It was quite delicious and was a hit. If you like brussel sprouts or would like to at least give this mini cabbage a chance, you must try this recipe.

Ingredients: Serves 4 as side dish

1 lb or 1 package of fresh brussel sprouts (cut in quarters)

2 large portabella mushrooms (diced)

4 cloves of fresh minced garlic

1 stick of butter or margarine

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp of red pepper flakes (optional)

1/4 cup water

Preparation:

In a hot pan and medium heat, melt butter and add garlic. Let garlic brown a little and then add sprouts and mushrooms. Stir well until butter and garlic is incorporated fully with the veggies. Add the water, salt, pepper and the red pepper flakes. Stir, cover and cook in medium heat until sprouts are tender but not mushy (about 8-10 mins). Stuff a bird with the veggies or eat as a side dish.