Married Cooking: Strawberry Fie… (I mean) Jam Forever

Strawberry jam was something that I did not enjoy as a kid, preferring the ube jam from the Good Shepherd Sisters in Baguio. As an adult, I’ve learned to appreciate, but not actively look for, strawberry jam alongside my toasted bread in a random breakfast or two. With all things in life however, these preferences have a way of throwing curveballs every now and then. This time around it took the form of a strawberry rescue buy.

After a recent typhoon forced several farmers up north to harvest their strawberries too early, there was a call for a rescue buy from Rural Rising PH. We discussed what we would do with two kilograms of strawberries and led into the idea of making strawberry jam.

Since I’ve never tried making it before, I’ve checked out several recipes online but stuck to something readily available to most of us and used Crouton Crackerjacks’ recipe on Youtube.

The ingredients in the Crouton Crackerjacks recipe are:

• 2 lbs (approx. 0.907kg) strawberries
• 2 cups of granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Team Glasses Tweaks:

1. Used roughly around 1 ½ kg of strawberries
2. 3 ½ cups of granulated sugar
3. 2 Tbsp of lemon juice

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  Chopping along

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  Simmering amongst others

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  Stirring some more

How to make strawberry jam:

1. Using a small knife or a melon baller, remove the leafy and white parts on the top of each strawberry. Slice the berries into smaller bite-sized pieces and place into a large bowl.
2. Drizzle the strawberries with lemon juice. Use a strainer to keep the seeds from falling in. 
3. Pour in the sugar into the bowl and fold until the strawberries are coated with the sugar granules. Cover and leave it for around an hour or so to allow the sugar and strawberry to macerate.
4. Place the strawberry mixture on a deep pot over medium high heat and constantly stir around until consistency has thickened and reached a deeper red color. I would suggest wearing some gloves since the splatter will be hot while mixing. 
5. If the foam is threatening to overflow or sticking to the bottom of the pan, lower down the heat to medium until the foamy bubbling subsides.
6. Once it’s done, pour the strawberry jam into sanitized containers. It should keep for around three months in the fridge or a little longer than that.

Bloody but yummy

The strawberry jam was not sickeningly sweet and can be used as a spread for toast or placed on top of vanilla ice cream, like what Kat suggested after dinner. It keeps excellently in the refrigerator!

Mix and matched strawberry jam for everyone!

Please let us know what you think of this recipe in the comments below.

Married Cooking: Sesame Beef and Sardines Furikake

One of the new habits I wanted to try for a long while now is to make bento for Kat. Since I work from home and she works at her office as a health professional, I have some time on my hands to experiment a bit and learn something new. After all…

“Food makes people happy, it takes you back home, it says so many things that words can’t say.” – Sophia Loren from “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life”

Sesame Beef Strips on the left and Sardines Furikake on the right

For my first foray into making bento, I used the Sesame Beef Strips and Sardines Furikake recipes from http://www.justbento.com. 

With the Sesame Beef Strips, the original recipe called for:

• 200g / about 7-8 oz. beef (thinly cut into strips)
• 2 tsp. soy sauce
• 2 tsp. Mirin
• 1 tsp. brown sugar
• 2 tsp. + 1 tsp. sesame oil

Here were the tweaks I made:

• Substituted the brown sugar with honey
• No mirin on hand
• Added an extra teaspoon of soy sauce
• Added a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar

Steps:

1. Pour the soy sauce, vinegar, and honey into a bowl. Mix vigorously until the honey incorporates into the marinade.
2. Put the beef into the marinade and let it soak in the fridge overnight.
3. Heat the pan or work and add one teaspoon of sesame oil. Cook the beef over medium heat for a few minutes until the beef is tender and well-coated. What we’re aiming for is a dark brown color. 
4. Sprinkle some sesame seeds for that extra flair. You’re now ready to serve!

With the Sardine Furikake, the original recipe called for:

• 2 cans (each can containing about 4 ounces / 120 g of sardines; a little more or less doesn’t make a big difference) sardines packed in oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon of dry sherry or whisky or sake (optional, but the alcohol does take away a lot of the ‘fishy’ smell that some people don’t like)
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• Lots of freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch of dried red chili pepper flakes (leave out if you don’t want it spicy)

Here were the tweaks I made:

• I’ve used one can of sardines
• No pine nuts on-hand
• No chili pepper since it triggers my GERD

Steps:

1. Drain the oil from the sardines and pat the fish dry with a paper towel. The goal is to take as much of the oil out as possible.
2. Heat up the pan or wok, then place the fish in. Break the sardines up into small flakes with a spatula. Stir-fry over medium to medium-low heat. We only want to take out moisture but not burn the fish.
3. Add whiskey (or the sherry or sake) into the pan and continue stirring until the alcohol dissolves. It should only take a few seconds to do so. 
4. Add in Worcestershire sauce and continue stirring until the fish flakes absorb the sauce.
5. Mix in black pepper and stir for around half a minute more, then take the pan or work out of the fire.
6. Store the furikake into an airtight container and place it in the fridge. It should last for around a week.

Here is one little tip that I learned over the week. While furikake is normally sprinkled on top of freshly cooked rice, I found that it’s also good to add on top of your Aglio Olio pasta.

We hope you enjoyed reading this recipe and let us know what you think. Happy Eating!

Married Cooking: Making Passata

Welcome to another edition of Married Cooking. This time, Kat and I made some passata by using this recipe from Stefania Balducci. We bought our tomatoes along with other vegetables from Session Groceries. For this batch, we used around 1kg of tomatoes.

Stefania’s recipe was as simple as it gets, with some tomatoes, a pinch of salt, and some fresh basil leaves for a fresher taste. In our case, we didn’t have any basil on hand so we made do with what we have.Chop the tomatoes into cubes with a sharp knife. The goal is to keep as much of the juices and flesh as intact as possible. 

1. Place the cubed tomatoes into a stainless steel pot (in our case, a non-stick one) and add a pinch of salt.

2. Cover the pot and let it gently simmer for five to ten minutes.

Simmering the Tomatoes

3. Take the tomatoes out of the pot and separate its flesh and juices from the skin and the seeds. In the video, she uses a food mill but since we didn’t have it, I made do with a strainer and a wooden spoon. Using the latter is a tedious process so we’re definitely getting a food mill soon.

Straining

4. Place the strained tomatoes back into the pot and reduce it for fifteen to twenty minutes.

Voila, you now have passata.

A few hours later, we used it with some black olives, garlic, and Parmegiano Regiano. It’s less acidic and watery to use than typical store-bought tomato sauce, making it a tasty alternative. We highly recommend using it not just for pasta dishes, but also as a topping for homemade pizzas, bruschettas, or anything needing a good dose of tomato sauce.