Bulalo Steak (Beef Shank)

Tender beef shanks, delicious marrow and yummy gravy together with toasted garlic….. I have to say, this is one of the dishes that I cooked that I really savored eating! I’ve had this several times when eating out, and this is usually served on a sizzling plate but I misplaced mine. I’ve been itching to do this for so long and I’m glad that I finally got to do it with amazing results. I started by choosing a big piece of shank, I only bought one because this was still at the experiment stage and didn’t want to waste it just in case things didn’t turn out well.
To make sure this was tender, I simmered this for 2 hours together with some peppercorns, salt, an onion, garlic and spring onions. Once tender, I lightly fried it in butter. I just wanted to brown it a bit on each side. To make the gravy, I mixed butter and flour in the same pan and added the broth from where the shank was cooked. Carefully add the broth to get the right consistency for the gravy. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the gravy over the shank and top with toasted garlic and chopped spring onions. Enjoy!
That marrow is calling you! :)

Pancit Canton & Fried Parmesan Dory

Noodles, a definite favorite in our household. Pancit Canton is basically one of the many stir fried noodle dishes that are very popular during gatherings. I’ve cooked this several times and many times I rarely stuck to the same recipe. I think there is just so many ways of cooking this with several ingredients you can add, so I guess I’ll try as much of the other variations as I can. For this variation, I just used ingredients that came to mind when I was in the grocery while thinking of the many types of Pancit I have eaten.

½ kilo chicken thighs (cut into ¼ inch)
200 grams chicken livers (coarsely chopped)
1 large carrot (julienned)
1 medium cabbage (coarsely chopped)
1 small can sliced button mushrooms
15 pieces shrimps (deshelled)
5 garlic cloves (minced)
1 large onion (minced)
Cilantro (chopped)
Oyster Sauce (3/4 cup)
Soy Sauce (1/2 cup)
Chicken broth (4 to 5 cups)
Sesame oil (1-2 tablespoons)
Egg noodles (Pancit)

Sauté the garlic and onions then followed by the chicken, livers, mushrooms and carrots. Add some salt and pepper. Let this cook until the chicken is done, then add the shrimps. Stir fry all of this then add the oyster sauce and soy sauce. After about 5 minutes, add about 200-300 grams of noodles. Add enough stock or water to make sure it does not dry up. The noodles will absorb a lot of the liquids so just add enough to make sure the dish does not turn out dry. Mix this thoroughly to make sure the noodles on top get to absorb the flavor as well. Once cooked, add some sesame oil and chopped cilantro.

The accompanying dish is a deep fried Creamy Dory fillet. Seasoned with salt and pepper and dipped in egg and coated with Japanese bread crumbs with Parmesan cheese. Light and crunchy, it’s a good match with the noodles!

Spicy Pork w/ Coconut Milk

This is a dish I picked up from a stall I sometime get my lunch from. I don’t think this is exactly how they cook it but the concept is the same. From the results, mine is just a bit saltier and the sauce is thick, but both taste pretty good. I also used thinner cuts as opposed to theirs and I used pork while theirs was beef. In any case, I think this dish can be created and taste the same with either pork or beef.
Since I used thinner cuts the cooking time is much less as compared to using thick cuts. I was done cooking in about 30 minutes. I just sautéed some minced garlic and onions followed by the pork sukiyaki cuts (1/2 kilo). Add some chili of your choice depending on how hot you want this dish. I used 2 finger chilis without the seeds. This was followed by ¼ cup of soy sauce, though I think I’ll use less next time. Let it cook for about 15 minutes then add the coconut milk, give it a stir and leave it for another 10 minutes for the flavors to develop.

Pork Steak

This is a Bistek recipe (assimilated from Beef Steak), except that i used pork sukiyaki cuts. Calling it Pokstek doesn't sound so appealing, so 'll leave it at Pork Steak. Just like Bistek, this is marinated and cooked in soy sauce and calamansi. I also add some freshly cracked black pepper and a teaspoon of sugar. With the Olympics ongoing, i just added an Olympic twist to this dish.

I find using sukiyaki cuts in this dish better than the usual sirloin cuts. I just used 250 grams of the pork sukiyaki cuts to make this, the other 250 grams coming up next.

Lumpiang Bangus (Milk Fish Spring Rolls)

There's this stall in Tiendesitas that sells frozen packs of Milk Fish Spring Rolls, and at 40 pieces for P100, i think that's worth it. Of course, if it didn't taste good, i wouldn't even mention it here. I've been there several times but can't seem to recall the name of the stall. I'll update this once i go there again. If you've ever tried deboning a milk fish, you'd know that this isn't easy to make. At 2.50 a piece, I'd rather buy this.

I eat this with sweet chili sauce. Yum!

Chicken Tinola

This was supposed to be my first entry for Lasang Pinoy Sundays when it featured soup. This was actually my second soup dish that i cooked, the first one was an experiment that didn't turn out well. So, to be sure, i went with something familiar and delicious. You can hardly go wrong with this since all it requires is sauteing some garlic, ginger and onions then adding the chicken and enough water to cover the chicken. Cover the pan and peel and cut some green papayas lengthwise or slice them 2 inches in length (Seeds discarded). You can have this longer, it's just that i prefer it that way. Wash a generous bunch of chili leaves, and remove them from the stalks. About half an hour later, add the green papayas and let them cook till soft. Season this with salt and pepper or fish sauce if you like. Before serving, add the chili leaves, give it a stir and leave it for about 5 minutes. In our home, we use fish sauce with or without chili peppers or soy sauce as a dipping sauces. Good meal. Good soup.

Pork Chops in Ketchup & Soy Sauce

Pork chops....so many ways of having it done. I'm planning on taking on the many versions. Most of the people i know, eat this the traditional way of it being seasoned with salt and pepper then fried. Dipped in vinegar and garlic or with gravy..it's good eats. I usually have my pork chops coated in bread crumbs, with or without herbs then deep fried. My wife introduced this version to me. I just suddenly had this version in my lunch box one day and I've enjoyed it ever since. It's also simple to make as i later found out. All this requires is a marinade of ketchup, calamansi, soy sauce and some water. Cook this in the marinade till tender and that's it. This was taken by my office window just before lunch.

Yummy Picadillo

This one dish that is quick and easy to do. There are many variations using more than just carrots and potatoes and i think they also taste good. I prefer the simple version though, just ground meat or in this case ground chicken, potatoes and carrots. The eggs i added because i think it goes well with it. Ground pork is usually used for this, but i prefer the flavor of ground chicken. All this needs is minced garlic, a chopped onion, ground meat (chicken, pork or beef), carrots and potatoes, tomato sauce and soy sauce. Saute the garlic, followed by the onions then the ground chicken, season with S&P and let it cook till no longer pink. Add about 2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 pack of tomato sauce. Add some sugar if you like it a bit sweet. Boil some eggs and serve it with the Picadillo. Goes well with rice or bread or just as is!

Stir Fried Chicken

I have always been apprehensive about stir frying chicken without any dark sauce or tomato sauce. My few attempts in the past always ended up lacking any flavor or having a flavor i didn't like. With my previous blunders in mind, i used a fusion of ingredients to make sure i do not fall short in the flavor category. The way i usually cook, is i rarely taste what i cook till near the end, way past the point of no return, i just smell it as i cook. I know it's a bad practice which could lead to disaster, but so far any disasters have been minimal and still edible. ;)

With this i used garlic (lots), ginger (about a thumb), lemongrass 4 inner cores, 1 red bell pepper, 1 finger chili, chopped onion leeks (1/2 inch), chopped celery (1/2 inch + leaves), coarsely chopped coriander and basil, 1 tbsp sea salt, 2 tablespoons fish sauce, cracked black pepper and 1 tsp of sugar. I marinated the chicken fillets (1/2 kilo) in salt, pepper, Chinese cooking wine, 2 egg whites and a tablespoon or cornstarch and left it for 1/2 hour before cooking.

I made this by sauteing the garlic and ginger till fragrant, then added the bell peppers and lemongrass followed by the chicken. At this point i added about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water. Let this cook till the chicken is no longer pink. Add salt, pepper, sugar and fish sauce. Moving on, i added the celery (leaves and stalks), coriander and basil. The finger chili was added in the end just to add a little bite. Let this simmer for about 15 minutes till the flavors really blend together. If this gets dry just add a little more water, i don't like my stir fries to be dry. The verdict? It tastes like a Thai, Chinese and Filipino dish. The dish called on the memory of my taste buds. The chicken was tender and carried lots of flavor, a total turn around from my previous attempts. One thing i wanted to do was to add mushrooms, but i was disappointed with quality i had so i skipped it. There will definitely be next time for this.

Calling this Stir Fried Chicken because it was "stir fried" is probably too overused. I am terrible in making up names, so i guess the best i can do is Peter's-Pan Stir Fried Chicken. :)

Chili Wraps

We had a party last night for a friend that was getting married. Congratulations Mady! I volunteered to make Chicken Salpicao while the Chili Wraps was a dish prepared by my other friend Michelle, I just assisted in the frying and buying the ingredients. To make this, i bought about 300 grams of long green peppers/finger chilies or locally known as siling haba. That was about 30 pieces. I also bought cheese, ham and small spring roll wrappers. Remove the seeds by making a slit lengthwise on one side of the pepper. Wash this in water and let it drip for a while. Once dry, place slices of ham and cheese inside, then wrap in spring roll wrappers. Fry till golden brown.

When handling spicy peppers, never make the mistake of touching your face and always wash your hands well after. For those not fond of spicy food, this will probably still be too hot. For those that love spicy food, it might be too mild. For me, it's spicy, but not too hot. It just lingers enough, waiting to be quenched by a sip of cold beer or a spoonful of rice.

Must Be Mom's

I’m going to classify newly found food as Foodie Finds from now on. Okay, so I didn’t exactly find this since this was brought by my cousin. (Thanks Cris). But then, again, I didn’t know she brought something last Sunday till I found it in the fridge. So I guess I still “found” it. ;) My wife got hungry around 9pm so I went down to get her some soup that I made . I then noticed this half empty box of small ensaymadas. I took one piece and even if it was cold, it really tasted well, so I had another piece. I also got 2 pieces, heated them in the microwave and brought it up together with the soup. My wife enjoyed them as well. It’s a fluffy light ensaymada topped with what seemed like melted yema and cheese.
Apart from the Parmesan Ensaymada of Tender Trap, this is one that i really like and would consider a good gift for friends and a favorite snack.

CAV - Wine Shop - Cafe

We had dinner at Silk at Serendra a few weeks ago and my friends suggested we go to CAV along Bonifacio High Street. CAV happens to be a wine bar. I am not a wine drinker, though I enjoy a couple every now and then, but most of the time I stick to cold beers, vodka or gin cocktails. That being said, apart from knowing that red goes with meat and white goes with fish or chicken, I knew very little.
When you enter CAV, you’ll immediately be faced with a row of wines that are ready to be sampled. They’ll give a card which is good per person or for your entire group. All you need to do is insert that card in a slot in the section of your preferred wine and choose whether you want a taste, which is about 20ml, half glass or a full glass. You select your choice as you would with a vendo machine. The prices here vary from P35 for a taste to a couple hundred. Just by tasting, you could easily rack up P1000 in you card!

I'm not sure if this is the same as the CAV wine bar in San Francisco, but it is a very interesting concept of serving wine. If you’re interested in sampling wines and don’t know where to start, this would be a nice place to go to.

Chicken with Pork & Beans

This is a quick meal to do and we've been having this way back before i learned to cook. I remember my used to use chicken feet for this dish, and it was delicious. Nowadays, we've switched to using chicken wings instead. I cooked this Sunday, and the photo above was all that was left for my lunch at the office.

To do this, just saute about a teaspoon of minced garlic in oil, add one chopped onion, then one chopped carrot, 1 chopped tomato, then the chicken. Season with salt and pepper and a tablespoon of soy sauce and continue to mix till it changes color. Add enough water to cover the chicken and let it cook till the meat is tender enough that it almost falls of the bone. Add 1 large can of Pork & Beans and 1 beaten egg. The addition of carrots, tomato and eggs is something i just thought of but originally we didn't use it. As i said, the photo above was all that was left... i guess they liked it. ;)

Chicken & Corn Soup V3

Here's another take on Chicken & Corn soup. Actually, this is much more than just chicken and corn. This is a complete meal as a soup. The steps to do this are basically the same as Version 2 with a few additions. With this version, i added a large tomato, 1 large carrot and a couple of stalks and leaves of celery, all chopped. While this was cooking, i had some pasta ready to be added. I cooked this twice in one day since i had to give away the 1st batch and the 2nd we had for dinner. The first batch made use of spaghetti cut into about 1 inch lengths while the other made use of pasta shells. The pasta shells looked better, but didn't get the chance to take photos of it.
I dunno if there is going to be a version 4 or maybe by that time, the name should be changed already. All i know is, this just keeps getting better.

Chicken Lollipops w/ Rosemary & Lemongrass

I guess I'm on a roll using Rosemary in my dishes lately. I really like the aroma it brings when you add it to food! Another thing that I've been using a lot of is Lemongrass, and like Rosemary imparts an aroma and flavor to liven up any dish. Chicken lollipops are readily available here in most major supermarkets, so no problem in acquiring that. The marinade is similar to my previous post except that i used Kecap Manis, added lots of finely minced garlic, salt, paprika, worcestershire sauce, dried rosemary and pounded lemongrass (the white inner core).

I used the leafy part of the lemongrass and tied it around the bone of the chicken lollipops. I then coated this in egg and flour then proceeded to deep fry it. The result are fragrant and crunchy chicken lollipops!

Buttered Rosemary Chicken

Chicken fillets, one of the easiest thing to cook and in so many delicious ways. All this took is a marinade of soy sauce, lots of garlic, pepper, some sugar and rosemary. Two hours in the fridge is enough for this to absorb the marinade.

To do this, i just fried some minced garlic in butter, added sliced mushrooms followed by the chicken. After a while, i added about 1/2 a teaspoon of Rosemary. This was done in less then 30 minutes.

To compliment this, I made some mashed potatoes with butter, cheese, milk and corn.

Baked Spiral Pasta w/ Pepperoni & Salami

Pasta....the many variations, how can you go wrong? Actually there are many ways, but let's skip that. ;) With this dish i made, everything was right and was even on time for dinner. I did this last Father's Day, and while i did get a lot pampering that day, i still wanted to do what i love doing, so they relented and let me cook for them. I opted to use Spirals since i always use spaghetti or other forms of it.

To do this, i used 5 minced cloves of garlic, 1 large onion, 1 large tomato, 1 large bell pepper (all three chopped), a can of sliced button mushrooms, 300 grams pepperoni, 300 grams salami, 1/2 kilo of ground chicken, 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp of dried basil, 1/2 tsp of dried thyme, 1/2 tsp of ground pepper, 1/2 tsp of paprika, lightly fried sliced hot dogs, sweet spaghetti sauce, a can of heavy cream, lots of cheese and chopped spring onions.

In hot oil, i cooked the garlic till fragrant, added the onions, the tomatoes, bell pepper followed by the mushroom, sliced pepperoni and salami (about a 100 grams each) then the ground chicken. Let this cook till no longer pink then add the ground black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, basil and thyme. After a few minutes, it really started to smell really good. I then added the spaghetti sauce and sliced hot dogs. Lightly simmer for a few minutes then turn of the heat then add the heavy cream and mix well.

Mix this with the pasta and place in a baking dish. Cover with pepperoni and salami ( i lightly fried mine or you can use an oven toaster). Top with lots and lots of cheese. Ideally, parsley should be used to finish this off, but since i forgot buy it, i used spring onions. I loved the way it turned out! Smelled great!

That's it! An instant hit, from the home to the office. A delicious Father's Day meal!

Chicken in Black Bean Sauce

This is favorite of mine when eating at Chinese restaurants though the taste tends to be inconsistent. Well, when faced with dissatisfaction -- make your own. I didn't follow a recipe for this, i just used ingredients i thought they would use and let my taste buds guide me.

I started by marinating the chicken (mostly thigh fillets) in corn starch, Chinese cooking wine, cracked black pepper, 1 egg white and a few tablespoons of bottled garlic black bean sauce. I left it for about 30 minutes then proceeded to saute garlic and onions followed by a sliced bell pepper. I then added the chicken, some some soy sauce and let it simmer till the chicken was cooked. As i always want this accompanied by some veggies, i blanched some Chinese kangkong and place it a plate and covered it with the chicken.

Another way of doing this is coating the chicken in flour and deep frying it, extra black bean sauce is added onto the sauteed garlic, onions and bell pepper. Pour over the chicken when done. Either way, is good!

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Didn't know that i could make cheese on my own. Some online research showed me the way and this is one thing that I'll try with different kinds of milk and herbs. Amy from Eggs On Sunday, provides a good step by step procedure on how to do this. For this, i used cow's milk and added fresh sweet basil to some. This and hot bread go well together. I'm really curious of what the results will be if i use it on pizza. I guess, that's going to be another post. :)

Asparagus & Kailan Leaves in Mushroom Oyster Sauce

Coming up with a name for this dish apart from describing its contents was more difficult that cooking the dish itself. I'm not a big fan of vegetables, but it's essential for someone my age and I'd like to set a good example for my daughter.

This is good on its own, but for meat lovers, this can serve as a side dish. Just saute some minced garlic and chopped onions in butter and oil followed by you choice of mushrooms ( i used sliced button mushrooms) then add oyster sauce. Let this cook for about 5 minutes. Boil some water and blanch the asparagus and kailan leaves. Transfer the blanched asparagus and leaves onto a plate and cover the mushroom and oyster sauce mixture. Done!

Burger & Fries

This is the third in a line of ground beef dishes. Just like the meatballs, this uses the same ingredients. I just formed them into patties, grilled them and topped it with caramelized onions. Best served with fries. :)

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Coming from the same batch i used for the Salisbury Steak, i made meatballs to go with this spaghetti sauce with basil. The many uses of ground beef! For the sauce i used ground chicken, garlic, onions, tomato sauce, sweet basil, salt, pepper and hot dogs. (It's a Pinoy thing. Specially when you have a 3 year begging for hot dogs!)

Steamed Tausi Spareribs

A favorite of mine when eating at Chinese restaurants! An order of this, 2 cups of white rice and lots and lots of chili garlic sauce! Found this terrific recipe at Jaden's Steamy Kitchen. Don't you just love the Internet?! Now i can enjoy this at home. It's really easy to cook, just marinade the spareribs for about and hour and steam! I really like the sauce, so i cooked the marinade separately to be poured over hot rice! Yum!

Steamed Spareribs with Tausi (Black Bean) Sauce

Salisbury Steak

Here at home, we've been making our own burgers for a long time but always ate it with a bun. I've always enjoyed Salisbury Steaks, it just seemed right that i try to do this at home.
Details to follow.

Mango Crabstick Salad

Adapted from the Mango and Lobster Salad of Rasa Malaysia (great presentation!). Since lobster isn't readily available in the market i go to and the fact that it's kinda pricey, this can serve as an alternative till i get to use lobster. I used a mango that wasn't ripe enough so this didn't turn out as good as i wanted. I still have a couple of mangoes in the fridge and I'll do this again this weekend. The mangoes should be ripe enough and sweet by then. This is really easy to do, just mix mangoes, crabsticks, cream, 1 tbsp of lemon juice and honey plus a few sweet basil leaves and stick it in the fridge. I can't wait to do it again!