How to Make Tomato Salsa Brushchetta

Bruschetta is a famous Italian antipasto.  A friend of mine makes really good bruschetta with tomato, much better than the ones served at La Tegola.  So I'm off to the test kitchen and made this:


Ingredients:

6 Medium sized Baguio tomatoes cubed
2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
4 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Pesto
2 cloves finely minced Garlic
1 tsp Lemon/Calamansi
Salt and pepper to taste
Baguette/French Bread

Prepare the Salsa:

Chop tomatoes, place them in a bowl.  Add balsamic vinegar, olive oil, pesto, lemon and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Store in the refrigerator.  Serve a few hours later when the tomatoes have sipped in the flavor.  Adding some fresh basil or cilantro will enhance the flavor.

Prepare the Bread:


Toast the bread without coating it in olive oil first. Toast on a griddle for 1 minute on each side. Take a sharp knife and score each slice 3 times. Rub some garlic in the slices and drizzle half a teaspoon of olive oil on each slice. This is the more traditional method of making bruschetta.  Alternatively, simply brush olive oil on one side, rub with garlic then toast.

This also goes well with paper thin pizza bread, you may use this pizza dough recipe and roll it really thin, you may add some herbs to give it a kick.

You might also want to try mushroom bruschetta.

Mushroom Bruschetta

Some friends are crazy over mushroom bruschetta. Indulgent as they are, aside from the pizza, they finished two orders of it at Tinder box. That's 6 servings for about P300 per order. So they decided to ask a common friend to cook for us. The latter unselfishly is willing to show his culinary skills but is never generous to share those techniques. So he asked us to prepare the following ingredients:

• dried Porcini mushroom
• white button mushroom
• shallots
• garlic
• fresh basil
• salt and pepper
• parmegiano

This evening, I tried to figure out how to cook it with the ingredients I have on hand at home, it tastes good enough; I finished about 6 pandesal bread from french baker with it.

Ingredients:

• 2 garlic cloves chopped
• shallots (substitute with garlic and onion)
• 15 grams of dried porcini
• chopped fresh basil
• 1  tbsp  virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5 slices french bread/baguette
• 2 tbsp dry white wine
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 tbsp grated pamesan cheese
• 1 chopped tomato (optional)
• truffle oil (optional)
• parsley (optional)

Mushroom mixture:

1. Soak dried mushroom in hot water for about 15 minutes, then slice.
2. In a sauce pan, saute garlic and shallots in olive oil and butter.
3. Add white wine and reduce.
4. Add the sliced mushroom, saute for about 5-8 minutes until cooked.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Toss in chopped fresh basil*, tomato and cheese while hot.
7. Remove from fire.

* in the absence of fresh basil, i substituted it with pesto sauce.

Variation: instead of wine, add a dash of steak seasoning and worcestershire sauce when the mushrooms are almost cooked.

Prepare the bread:

1. Slice and toast french bread.
2. Remove from toaster, while hot: rub fresh garlic and brush with extra virgin olive oil.
3. Spoon the mushroom mixture on the bread, drizzle a few drops of truffle oil and garnish with basil/parsley and cheese when ready to serve.

Porcini mushroom are available in:

Santy's for P146 per 20 grams
Werdenberg Intl for P2888 per 500 grams.

Spaghetti Al Quattro Formaggi

Quattro Formaggi translates to four cheeses.

I was off to Tinder Box to get some cheeses after gym class. I should have sweat it out more than usual, but I didn't. Anyway, out of the guilt trip, I tried out this recipe for dinner and it's heavenly sinful!

200g uncooked pasta (penne/macaroni)
40g butter
1 cup all-purpose cream
30 g grated parmesan cheese (parmigianno)
30 g gorgonzola or bleu cheese
30 g each of any 2 of the ff: provolone, fontina, pecorino, gruyere, emmenthal
pinch of salt (optional)
white pepper
nutmeg

1. Cook the pasta as directed.
2. Grate the hard cheese.
3. A few minutes before the pasta is ready, melt all the other ingredients:
- Heat cream and butter in a nonstick sauce pan over a medium low heat.
- Add (grated) cheese, add the hard cheeses first.
- If it gets dry add a little bit of pasta water or cream.
3. Stir constantly because the cheeses will settle, melt over the bottom of the pan, and burn if you don't. Let it slightly reduce to desired consistency. (warning, don't over reduce, since this mixture tend to dry up when cold.)
4. Add salt (optional since cheeses are salty) & white pepper to taste, and a pinch of freshly ground nutmeg.
5. When the pasta is just shy of being done, drain it. Transfer it to a skillet, stir in the sauce, and cook over a brisk flame, fold and toss in the cheese cream until most liquid is absorbed.
6. Remove from fire and serve immediately.

-0-
Price of cheese per 100 grams, I used the following:
P71 (Arla) Blue cheese (50% off from SaveMore's yellow tag sale)
P120 Gruyere
P187 Fontina (I've read in most recipe that this is a must.)
P150 Parmesan (grated, which is much cheaper)

-0-
I had the Gruyere, Fontina and Parmesan grated since these are hard cheeses. I ommited the nutmeg and replaced the white with black pepper since I didn't have these on my cupboard, yet it tasted good! :)

Pizza Dough

I've been wanting to try making pizza, but I didn't have an interesting recipe until I got this, I ought to try this one.

Warning! Yield: 5.6kg dough.

4kg all purpose flour
2cans (330ml) pilsen beer
150ml olive oil
50g iodized salt
60g yeast

1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast on the warm water, and stir to dissolve it. Set aside until the yeast starts forming bubbles in about 5 minutes.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk to combine beer, 2 tablespoons olive oil, sugar, salt, and yeast. Fit bowl on electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix until incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Slowly add flour, and mix until dough is fairly stiff, about 10 minutes.

3. Sprinkle some flour on the work surface. Place the dough on the floured surface. Knead the dough briefly with your hands pushing and folding. Knead just long enough for the dough to take in a little more flour, and until it no longer sticking to your hands.

6. With your hand, spread a little olive oil inside a bowl. Transfer the dough into the bowl.

7. On the top of the dough, make two incisions that cross, and spread with a very small amount of olive oil. This last step will prevent the surface of the dough from breaking too much while rising.

8. Cover the bowl with a kitchen cloth, and set the bowl aside for approximately 1½ – 2 hours until the dough doubles in volume. The time required for rising will depend on the strength of the yeast and the temperature of the room.

9. When the dough is double its original size, punch it down to eliminate the air bubbles.

10. On a lightly floured work surface, cut the dough into desired proportion. (220g for a 12" thin crust)

11. On the work surface, using a rolling pin and your hands, shape one piece of dough into a thin round layer to desired diameter.

12. Transfer to a pan or pizza stone, add preferred topping. Cook at 500F for 20 to 25 mins.

SpaghettiVongole

I prepared this for Christmas dinner...

1kg fresh live clams
2cloves garlic, minced
a bunch of parsley, chopped

1/4tsp dried red pepper/chilli flakes
1/2c dry white wine
1/2c olive oil
4large peeled & seeded tomatoes, diced
bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
450g spaghetti, cooked to package directions

1. Prepare the clams - scrub and let it purge in salted water for several hours. (1kg clams to 3L water with 200g non-iodized salt)
2. In a pan, heat olive oil, saute the garlic.
3. Add chilli pepper and parsley when the mixture starts to brown lightly.
4. Add live clams; the shells open as it cooks.
5. Add wine, reduce.
6. Add the tomatoes.
7. Add spices*
8. Don't overcook the clams as this hardens.
10.Add salt and pepper to taste. Since the clams are salty, need not add salt.
11. Toss in the cooked pasta.

*may add bay leaf, star anise, chicken powder for added flavor.

SpaghettiFunghiPorcini

This is my first "edible" pasta ever. Edible in the sense that it satisfied the palet of my worst critics, no less than my three siblings and my three-year-old picky niece (who enjoyed cooking with me).

Spaghetti with pricey Italian mushroom called Porcini.

1c dried porcini mushroom
2c hot water
1large onion, thinly sliced
4cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3tbsp olive oil
1c dry white wine
1pc chicken/beef broth cubes
1tsp chicken powder
1/8c butter
1c whipping cream*

500g durum wheat spaghetti, cooked al dente to package instruction

1. Soak dried porcini mushroom in hot water for about 30 minutes. The water will turn dark. Set aside.
2. Heat a large pan, sautee garlic and onion in olive oil.
3. Remove mushroom from the water, add to the pan and let if cook for a minute.
4. Strain the remaining water to remove sandy residue of the mushroom and add it to the pan. Simmer for a minute or two.
5. Add white wine, simmer to reduce.
6. Add broth cubes.
7. Add butter.
8. Add chicken powder.
9. Add salt and pepper to taste. It should be a bit salty as this will neutralize when the pasta is added.
10. Add cooked pasta, mix together then remove from heat.
11. Fold in cream.

*for cooking, my personal preference is this brand Arla whipping cream.