I have discovered the joy of food experiments!

I have been going to Salcedo Saturday Market for several Saturdays this year and I have been a fan  their ready-to-eat samosa, freshly prepared pita bread and crostinis and so, so sweet langka from Batangas.  I have also discovered Gourmet Kitchen.  Gourmet Kitchen has  bottled Pesto that I believe is more flavorful and  fresher than Marks and Spencer’s pricier version.

I have also discovered Terry Selection, a Gourmet Store in the Podium (although they have a Makati branch).  They have fresh olives and cheese.  Not the bottled ones, mind you, but the fresh ones in some sort of a marinade. 

And yes, meat and fish from Rustans.  They have boneless sole, chicken fillet and meat of different cuts. 

Well, because of these  discoveries(that deserve their own posts), I have tried experimenting with the different ingredients.  Just a caveat,  I do not have any “Cooking background”.  I do not watch cooking shows on a regular basis and I do not have cookbooks.  So these are really just experiments.

Experiment 1 – Pork with Almonds Baked in Red Wine and Pesto Linguini

I got the spinach linguini from SM. I just cooked the pasta then added the Pesto from Gourmet Kitchen.  I sprinkled parmesan cheese and topped it off with fresh sun-dried tomatoes (from Terry). That’s it!

 I got the pork steak cut from Rustans. I marinated it with olive oil, salt, garlic and cracked black pepper for 2 hours.   I boiled it for 10 minutes.  Then I spread butter on my baking pan, baked the pork in Red Wine  from Ralph’s for 20 minutes at 70 degrees Celsius.  I topped it with slivers of almonds (from Terry).

I added Pastel for dessert.  Pastel is a delicious bun filled with yema.  It is Camiguin’s delicacy.  This was Frank’s pasalubong to us.

Result:

Pasta: The pasta was not so al dente. The sun-dried tomatoes were so good but it did not complement the flavor of the pesto linquini.

Pork: I should have marinated the pork overnight for that extra flavor.  I needed to add more salt to my marinade. Baking in red wine really made a difference.  The wine flavor seeped into the meat.  After the boiling and baking, the meat was tender. The almonds complemented the meat quite well.  

Pastel: Yummy!!!!!