Hi, I’m Connie!
Welcome to Umami Days, a blog that advocates innovative home cooking for pleasurable everyday dining. No trendy diets, no food fads and definitely no ludicrous recipe names like crustless quiche, noodleless pho or chocolate lasagna.
Home Cooked
Pork ribs sinigang
A good translation for pork sinigang is “Filipino pork and vegetables in sour broth” but it doesn’t completely capture the …
Salmon belly sinigang
A mixed vegetable soup with sour broth, sinigang encompasses an array of dishes that may contain meat or seafood. The souring …
Chicken sinigang
Sinigang, the Filipino vegetable soup with sour broth, has mostly been associated with pork, fish and shrimp. But did you …
Scrambled eggs with bacon and tomatoes
An easy and delicious breakfast, the eggs, tomatoes and basil are cooked in rendered bacon fat. Serve the scrambled eggs with …
Baked shrimp omelette
Eggs, shrimps, broccoli florets, tomatoes, Parmesan and parsley are stirred together, ladled into a six-hole muffin pan and …
Scotch eggs
Boiled eggs are wrapped in garlicky sausage meat, breaded and deep fried until golden and crisp. Serve Scotch egg as a snack, …
A Cook’s Diary
How to extract tamarind juice
Around the world, tamarind is consumed as food in various ways. The fruit is made into candy or jam. The pressed juice can be …
A punch called sangria
A drink that was all the rage in the U. S. in the 1960s, it’s tempting to label sangria as a retro punch but it’s much older …
How to clean fresh whole squid (calamari)
If you like squid (or if you’re just a fan of crispy calamari), knowing how to clean fresh whole squids is an indispensable …
How to clean, peel and devein shrimps and prawns
How shrimps and prawns should be deveined and prepped depends on how they are intended to be cooked. There is a simple way …
Are crab sticks made with real crab meat?
If you’re allergic to crabs (or all crustaceans) and wondered why eating kani (crab sticks) never made you sick, it’s because …
Okra: how to grow and how to cook
It is not hard to grow okra in a home garden. Cooking it is more challenging. We’ve learned that smaller pods are more tender …