Sauce & Snack from the Filipino American cookbook: Tomato-curry Refrito and Adobo Pecans

Looking for a hero to add depth and zip to your meal? Enter a good sauce that compliments just about anything and is wonderful to use throughout the week. Jennifer Arana's gorgeous and inspiring cookbook contains a tomato curry refrito recipe to spoon over fish or chicken. That's just a start, let your heart decide how you want to use it! Mine said to try pairing this with some brown lentils to make a vegetarian dish-I added that to some quinoa-corn pasta for a filling lunch this week and also tried eating it with corn tortillas and avocado for breakfast.

I love when I decide to cook two or more dishes in one go and the oven temperature is the same so I can save time!

While there is the thrill of a treasure hunt going to an ethnic market for new ingredients, we all have weeks that spending a leisurely trip to the market isn't an option. Jennifer's tomato refrito and adobo pecan recipes are such that you might not need to even hit an Asian market for as they call for fairly common pantry items!

Tomato-curry Refrito

2 pints of cherry tomato (575 g), rinsed and stems removed
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp yellow curry
1 green onion, finely diced
1 tsp minced fresh ginger (I didn't bother peeling off the outer skin)

Roast in a covered pan in the oven at 325 F for 1 hour until the tomatoes collapse and release their juices. Let cool before storing in the fridge.

To do a single serving of my suggested meal, I found 1/2 cup cooked lentils and 2 oz (Uncooked weight) pasta to be just right, with 2-3 spoonfuls of the refrito. Enjoy with a vegetable side of your choosing! (I went with my Ecuadorian cookbook boiled beet, potato, green beans salad with lime juice, olive oil salt and pepper).

Adobo Pecans

A little sweet and savory snack to liven up your mid-morning or afternoon slump.

Only made minor modifications made to make it soy free, avoid using refined sugar

2 cups pecans
4 tsp coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
coconut sugar
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp of lime juice (in place of calamansi juice)

Mix ingredients in a bowl until pecans are coated evenly.

Spread out in a single layer on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Try not to have any touching each other.

Bake 20 minutes at 325 F. Remove from oven and let cool 20 minutes before storing in an airtight container.

The Cookbook-Inspiring and Substitutions

The cookbook does offer recipes for all courses, explains the traditional dish and any changes the chef made (to call it her own or because of traditional ingredient sourcing), and happily some vegetarian options (a couple examples are, a mushroom-tofu dish and instead of chicken porridge it can be mushroom), but many dishes call for shrimp paste. Vegan Livejournal forum notes that shrimp paste often isn't meant to impart a seafood flavor to a dish but to add savory depth. One of the posters said that veggie bouillon, water and kelp made them a fine substitute (that suggestion would likely be soy and gluten free if you check the veggie bouillon ingredients!) If I give this a shot, I will report back.

The corn and coconut soup is calling my name despite 80 degree weather and 78% humidity. Just need to go find canned strips of coconut (buko) and pick up cilantro. I would certainly consider owning this cookbook, considering how much I wanted to just rush out to the market to find ingredients.

Food question: What is your go to sauce or seasoning blend? Non-food question: What has peaked your interest this week?