dynamite-ish

My good friend, Oli told me about this thing he and his friends cooked for a party once.  It was called, dynamite.

It was deep fried (crispy) spring rolls with green chilli, minced beef and cheese.

I love the meat, chilli and cheese combination, but I was not sure I was up for some deep frying.

I decided to, make it my own :)

As my brother and sister in law were coming for lunch, I decided it was the best time to try something out.

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For the chilli, I picked the same type used for dynamite.

I sliced off the top, made a slit and pulled out the seeds.  I don't think I'd be able to down one with the seeds intact.

heat

I  bought a pack of green chilli, but was surprised when I opened the bag, there was a smurfette.

more color = more fun

I started to think that I should have gotten traffic light chillies as well.  Maybe next time.

effect of a cold shower

Instead of minced beef, I decided to use the (homemade) chicken and pork longanisa that I had in the freezer.  

I sliced the patties thinly and fried them till they were crispy.

longanisa strips?

Here comes the tough part, assembly!

I used a mix of cheddar and mozzarella cheese.  it was the lining of the chilli.  It will also hold the meat in place.

an experiment on 'proximity theory'

It looked so good that I was tempted to serve it this way!

I think I made twelve.

At this point I was getting tired, after all this wasn't the only item in my menu.  I also had Carbonara, Jalapeño Chicken Wings and Mashed Potato with the latter, deserving it's own blog entry.  Coming soon.  

ready to bake

Popped it into the (overworked) oven and after twenty minutes… this.

party time

I really enjoyed cooking this and it was just a bonus that everyone loved it.  

We had no leftovers!

suka and PATTIES

I was on leave yesterday--and what a day it was :)

It is always nice to have an extra day.  Since getting married, things I do during these days had change dramatically.  

I woke up the same time as I do during weekdays.  I watched and talked to my husband as he was getting ready to head to work.  After seeing him off, I tried to sleep some more--by 10AM, I could not sleep any more.

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I went to our kitchen and set out to do what I had been excited to do since the day before.

Longanisa, the filipino version of a sausage.  

I was using my mom's recipe, only I tweaked it a little bit.  One of the changes I made was to put MORE garlic.   My sister told me that she does the same, adding more garlic. 

Instead of the usual cylindrical shape, I decided I would make  mini burgers instead.  I lined a baking tray with aluminium foil then I used my hands (making this is always so much fun!) and a spoon to make balls.  Each ball went to the tray and I almost immediately flattened it.  

Did I mention that it was so much fun?

I then placed the tray in the freezer and left it there for around thirty minutes.

When it was ready, I took it out, cut the aluminium foil and placed the patties in a plastic container that went back to the freezer.

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Okay, I lied.  I also made a few typical skinless longanisa pieces.

But it was so boring rolling the meat mixture.  Plus mini patties are cuter ;)

today's breakfast