Char-Broil Grill

My favorite cooking gadget for this season....





After we ourselves installed our pool, we have been enjoying bumming under the sun when weather permits.

When hubby bought this, I was busy cleaning up the house. He went to home depot and sent me a picture message. I immediately went online and looked at the bad reviews of that product, called him about it, then he looked for the next cheap grill, still bad reviews. This one is the third cheapest, with mixed reviews so we went for it.



I have no real complaints so far...

Chicken and Zucchini Stir-Fry

When I do cut up a whole chicken for purposes of cooking adobo or BBQ, etc., I end up with the chicken back, which is mostly bones and very little meat. Sometimes I boil the whole thing for stock (and later on get the meat for arroz caldo or mami), but sometimes I patiently try to cut the meat off the bones for use in stir-fries.

Since this is a season to get fresh zucchini (and summer squash) from the grocery stores, it is a good time to stir-fry them together.

Ingredients:
1/4 to 1/2 cup of bite-sized chicken meat, marinated with soy sauce (enough to coat) for 30 minutes
1 small zucchini
1 small summer squash
2 tbsp oil
2 stalks celery
1 small onion
red and yellow bell peppers (I used a handful, diced)
1 cup cold chicken broth, mixed with 1 tbsp cornstarch (have extra mix of 1/4 cup broth with 1 tbsp cornstarch just in case you still need to thicken)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Slice all veggies as shown on photo.
Heat wok or skillet on medium, add oil and let heat up. Stir fry onion and celery until translucent, add the chicken and cook until chicken is browned. Add zucchini and summer squash, and the bell peppers and stir-fry about 1 minute. Stir in chicken broth/cornstarch mixture and cook until thick (or you may have to add some more broth/cornstarch mixture). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Patrick's Ice Cream Creation

My son is also quite the adventurous eater. This is how he usually likes his ice cream:

Waffle bowl
vanilla ice cream
whipped cream
chocolate sauce
maraschino cherry

Chicken and Pork BBQ (Pinoy style)

Every working Pinoy or even high school/college student probably has been exposed to the wonderful flavor of Pinoy-style BBQ. Merienda or lunch, it never fails to satisfy our tummy. The vendor who has the yummiest marinade can be guaranteed of income that will rival that of a blue- or even white-collared job in the Philippines, as long as he/she has the perfect spot - usually near schools or wet markets.

I was working with a nurse before, whose husband was laid off, and turned to selling lunch at work for extra income. We loved their BBQ. I, being a working mother then, did not have much experience in cooking save for the usual sautee, boil, fry, with my specialties being the leche flan and lumpia. I asked for their recipe for their BBQ, because back then I would only marinade mine in adobo mixture then grill...not achieving the results I wanted. Since I was already about to leave the Philippines, she told me what she did with the adobo marinade: add ketchup, sugar and 7-up. No recipes, really, but I had that in mind.

The closes recipe I saw online was that of ut-man's chicken BBQ, and with addition of some ingredients, here is now my recipe...

Ingredients and Instructions:
Meat (chicken or pork for me; about 2 kilos), marinated overnight or up to 3 days.

Marinade (amount of spices depends on your taste preference):
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup 7-UP
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 head garlic, crushed
1 tbsp. salt
1 tsp freshly milled black pepper
5 bay leaves
1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional; I wanted a slight kick in my BBQ)

For grilling:
Mix 1 tbsp cornstarch with 1/2 cup cold water.
Drain the meats and reserve the marinade. Boil the marinade and add the cornstarch/water mixture gradually to thicken the sauce. This makes it easier to stick to the meat when basting while grilling.
Grill the meats on one side until the surface is dry on that side. Turn over and baste with the boiled marinade. Do the same on the other side. Repeatedly do this until the meat is done.

Simple and yummily Pinoy!

Wave-Your-Flag Cake

One of the desserts I prepared for July 4th. Made with layers of (from bottom to top):

Mamon (Filipino chiffon cake)
White Chocolate Pudding and Cream Cheese (recipe courtesy of MaMely; she suggested white choc pudding instead of vanilla. I got it from a post that she has now deleted so I cannot provide the link. I did not print out the recipe then because I was just using the laptop while making it.)
Blueberries and Strawberries

However, my son made a Florida Citrus Cake that he displayed minutes earlier than I did the flag cake, so by the time this cake arrived on the table, the FCC already was almost gone and the eaters were already scooping out the soft vanilla ice cream. Only 3 slices were eaten from this cake. Sigh! Oh well, I just wanted to be in the spirit of the July 4th.

Buco Pandan Salad

Another longed-for Filipino dessert...

I got ideas from oggi (but I don't have pandan leaves nor gulaman bars). I was adamant I would NOT ever use Jell-O for this classic Filipino dessert. For one thing, I never liked Jell-O gelatin. The consistency is just not the same. Too jiggly and soft for me. And they gel longer too. Plus, they come from animal sources (the collagen), while agar-agar is from a seaweed.

Anna, Celia and I wolfed our serving down hungrily. My kids looked freaked out by its color, but loved its taste.

WARNING: Eat sparingly. Loaded with cream cheese and heavy cream (kaya nga yummy!).

Ingredients and Instructions:

For the gelatin:
juice from 3 buco (young coconuts)
1 can (14 oz) pandan leaves extract (Maesri brand; sent to me by Deb -- Thanks!)
water (enough to reach 4 cups when combined with buco juice and pandan extract)
1 (20 ml) buco pandan flavor (McCormick)
4-6 tsp of agar-agar (available at amazon.com; I bought mine, an expensive brand, from Spice of Life here but seeing amazon's, I should have just ordered from them.)
1/2 cup sugar

Note: The suggested ratio of agar-agar to liquid on the back of the label was 1 tbsp agar-agar to 1 cup of liquid. I read from burntlumpia's post that he found 1 tsp in 1 cup gives the right consistency, and that 1 tbsp results in too firm a gelatin.

Let agar-agar stand in the mixture of liquids liquids for 15 minutes then start boiling together until agar-agar is dissolved completely. Try cooling a small amount in the fridge for about 3 minutes and check if you like the consistency. If not, add a little more and reheat until the agar-agar dissolves. Add sugar when agar-agar is completely melted (not sure if it would get in the way of dissolving the agar-agar so I added it last). Place in 13x9 glass pan; cover and chill until solid. Cut into cubes. Mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Shredded young coconut meat (I had very little from the 3 buco because only one of them had meat that was not mala-uhog, so I opened 2 cans of canned young coconuts pre-cut in triangles. I discarded the "buco" juice from those cans as they tasted like very diluted. The coconut meat that came from these cans were not too pleasing when eaten plain, but mixed as buco salad, they are ok. The frozen shredded are too mature for buco salad use. The freshly shredded ones are still the best.)

1 can kaong (palm seeds in heavy syrup); drained (optional; I added because I had it in my pantry, and goes well with coconut)

Creamy Sauce
1 (14 oz) can condensed milk
equal amount of heavy cream (use the can of condensed milk to measure)
6 oz cream cheese spread

Beat the cream cheese first until smooth. Add the condensed milk slowly, then the heavy cream. Pour into the gelatin and shredded young coconuts and let chill.

Tapioca Pearls (optional)
Boil 4 cups of water then add 1/2 cup of tapioca pearls. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Turn heat off, cover and let stand 15 minutes or until translucent. Rinse with cold water 3 times. Place in a jar then add cold water to cover and refrigerate. Add these only when serving the buco pandan salad (not sure what the effect is if you mix right away).

Note: I love placing my buco pandan in the freezer for about 30 minutes to an hour to have some ice crystals before serving.

Manang's Ube (Taro) Ice Cream

This post is dedicated to Yvette and to every Filipino who craves for ube ice cream but has no access to ready made one.

I called it Manang's Ube Ice Cream because I did not rely on others' recipe for this. I just had the idea brewing in my head for some time now, and I dare say it was one very good idea, and it was successful at satisfying my craving for an ube ice cream.

[UPDATE: 7-8-09
I was not aware that July is officially the National Ice Cream Month, until I read about the Social-Ice Cream contest on Tangled Noodle's food blog. The contest is co-hosted by ScottySnacks and SavorTheThyme. My initial thought on the matter was that, non-Filipinos would probably welcome this with mild reception, with the final product looking so plain, and the flavor unknown to most and probably will not be appreciated by anyone who is not Pinoy, who did not grow up in the Philippines. So far, that is the kind of reception it gets from my family, so I get discouraged bringing any ube-flavored Filipino food to a non-Filipino gathering. However, with TN's prodding, I figured it would not hurt to expose to the world the unique Filipino flavors, so here goes my ube ice cream post as my entry to the said contest.

For non-Filipinos, to give you a background on ube, it is the real yam, purple yam at that. Not the sweet potato that are labeled yams in the grocery stores. Filipinos and other Asians use ube on a lot of desserts, especially ice cream and cakes, probably as often as we use coconuts or sweet sticky rice.]

After our family celebrated the 4th of July here at our house, the next day was a much better day to get together and grill foods and swim in the pool, and with a lot of leftovers (uncooked hotdogs and burgers and BBQ) I called/texted out an impromptu invitation to some of my friends for a pool party. Two of my friends came. Some of the items I served were buco pandan salad and ube ice cream (I served the buco pandan salad on the 4th and nobody among my in-laws were interested in it and I made the ube ice cream the next day using leftover homemade old-fashioned vanilla ice cream (which my in-laws and hubby love soft served as in freshly churned).

Out of the 6-qt (1-1/2 gallons) recipe I made, we had about 3.5 qt (about 2 cups less than 1 gallon) leftover. Instead of putting in the freezer to harden further, I left it in the fridge to just keep it chilled, with plans to turn it into ube ice cream. I would have made a two-hour trip to the Asian stores to get some frozen grated ube, but I remembered I had two packets of powdered ube. So even though I did not really like the ube haleya made out of powdered ube, I thought maybe it would do ok when mixed into ice cream. So I made the haleya and cooked until thick but runny enough to make it easy to mix with the ice cream even when fully cold. I even placed it in the freezer for about 1 hr or so and it was still easy to scoop out and mix with the ice cream. Then I churned to make the soft ice cream, then added the rest of the ube haleya by hand. I deep froze for about 2 hrs enough to give us some hard ice cream (at the center it was still soft).

My Filipina friends' verdict? Parang Magnolia daw("It's like Magnolia's.") [To non-Filipinos, Magnolia is a famous brand of ice cream in the Philippines.]

Me: "Pwede na i-post sa foodblog ko yung recipe?" (So,I can post my recipe in my foodblog?")
Celia: "Oo! Pwedeng pwede!" ("Yes, of course!")

Celia often visits my site too for some recipes. If she does not have success in making, say, leche flan, she is lucky enough to get a chance for an actual demonstration from me (For example, I taught her how to make caramel in the microwave).

The next day my ube ice cream was very very hard I had to zap in the microwave for 1-1/2 minutes (in increments of 30 second) to easily scoop out. But it was not icy gritty at all. Not as smooth as Magnolia in my opinion, but maybe because I added too much haleya (you know how frozen haleya can get too tough). But who complains anyway of having too much real flavor into something such as this? Our usual complaint about flavored foods (ice cream, ensaymada, etc.) is not having enough of the real flavor (bitin ba), and too often loaded with the artificial flavoring. Well, this one is packed with real goodness of ube. The pandan flavor adds volumes to its goodness.

Ingredients:
1 gallon or less Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream (Click to get to its recipe page; make 6 qt if you want to experiment with different flavors or just leave out some as plain)- refer to the link on how to make it. You NEED to have an ice cream maker, rock salt, and crushed ice. I have been using the Rival Ice Cream Maker for 3 years already.

Ube Haleya
1 packet powdered ube (4.06 oz)
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups milk
1 tsp pandan flavor (clear colored)
enough purple food coloring to achieve the tint as desired (both for haleya and the final ube ice cream mix)

Instructions:

Prepare the old-fashioned vanilla ice cream. Chill in the fridge good before freezing. This is your base for any flavor you want. Place the aluminum ice cream maker bucket in the freezer.

Prepare ube haleya and chill until cool enough to not melt the fat content of the heavy cream in the vanilla ice cream.

(The fat content of heavy cream, especially ultrapasteurized, plus the egg custard in the base help in emulsifying the mixture. The flour when cooked, plus the cooked ube, both help in hindering any ice lattice formation by the water content. These factors help so that the resulting ice cream will not give you ice crystals. Well, that's how I have come to understand the science behind ice cream making.)

Mix half of the ube haleya with the ice cream base. Place in the cold aluminum bucket, cover and position in the plastic outer bucket.Run the ice cream maker. Make sure the aluminum bucket is covered well before you start placing ice and rock salt around. Keep adding ice and rock salt until the motor stops running. This is the soft ice cream stage. Finish hardening the ice cream by transferring into an ice cream container and deep freezing it. Cover the top with cling wrap to avoid freezer burn if you have air space in the container.

Melon Shake

TYPE SUMMARY HERE

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Pan de Leche (Milk Bread) Pain au lait

PAN DE LECHE from mrsrustysdelight.multiply.com

1 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tablespoon Rapid Rise Yeast
1/3 cup granulated Sugar
1 tsp salt
... Add the above ingredients into a bowl. Mix to combine. ( if you are using a stand mixer, use its bowl.)

B.
1 1/2 cups of milk, &
1/4 butter or margarine

... In a microwave safe container ( I use glass measuring cup), nuke for 1 min 30 sec or less or until warm to touch.

C.
1/2 cup of whole powdered milk
2 cups of All purpose Flour.
...In another bowl, mix the 2 Ingredients.


PROCEDURE:
*Gradually add the liquid ingredients (B) to flour-yeast mixture (A).

* If using a standmixer, dough hook attached; gradually add B to A at speed 1.

* Then increase speed to 2 for 2 minutes then gradually add C and knead for another 2 minutes or more until the hook picked up dry ingredients (C).

* If needed, add a little flour at a time, to make the dough forms into a ball ( or clings into the hook) and elastic so when stretched, the dough become thin to let the light pass through ( window pane test)
Note: Overkneading can Break the Gluten!

* Form the dough into a ball and let it rest for 10 minutes in a buttered bowl.

* Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces.

Pumpkin Cake Roll

I first tasted this when I visited my friend Fe, and I never thought I'd like pumpkin cakes of any sort, but I loved this, so I asked for the recipe. It was actually the recipe on which I based my ube cake roll.

Ingredients:

Cake
3 eggs
1 cup sugar (white)
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

Filling
1 cup confectioner's sugar
4 tsp butter
8-oz cream cheese (softened at room temp)
1/2 tsp vanilla


Instructions:

(If you like a slideshow to visualize this, please refer to ube cake roll post.)

Preheat oven to 375 deg F.

Mix all ingredients and beat well. Spread onto a parchment paper on a pan 11x17x1 inches.

Bake at 375 degree for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place paper towels (or flour sack) on the countertop and sprinkle confectioner's sugar. When done, flip the cake over onto the paper towels and peel off parchment paper. Roll up like jelly roll both the cake and the towel and cool off completely.

Prepare the cream cheese filling by blending all ingredients well. Chill until ready to spread.

Unroll and spread filling then roll up again. Wrap with foil and refrigerate. Slice when ready to serve.

Waffles

TYPE SUMMARY HERE

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Cocoa Crinkle Cookies

 

I did not make this. My MIL did. She makes this about once a year and gives us a big bag of them freshly made. So, even though I have the recipe, I thought I'd let myself look forward to having this at least once a year from her, just as I like looking forward to having paris brest made by my SIL every Christmas or Thanksgiving, whenever it was her turn to host a major holiday. Moreover, I am still trying to learn how to bake full-bodied cookies (instead of flat ones) using the Tollhouse recipe.

Everyone in our family loves them, including my husband who always look forward to getting treats from his mom (and he loves traditions, so this is one traditional food for him).

Recipe is from Hershey's Classic Recipes book; also in their website.

For more photos of actual making of these delights, please refer to the chef's wife's post here.

Cocoa Crinkle Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa or HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Combine granulated sugar and oil in large bowl; add cocoa, beating until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to cocoa mixture, beating well.

2. Cover; refrigerate until dough is firm enough to handle, at least 6 hours.

3. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease cookie sheet. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in powdered sugar to coat. Place about 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.

4. Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched lightly and tops are crackled. Cool slightly. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

Sisig (using Pork Face, of course!)

Sisig is hard to come by nowadays for the likes of me, transplanted from my beloved Philippines to this rural country.

Good thing, being a rural place that this states is, one time I had a pig's head which my in-laws did not like (they had their pig slaughtered and knew I wanted what they did not, so I got some pork goodies).

What else is there to do with a pig's head than to turn it to a Filipino classic ppulutan dish called sisig?

Of course, I turned to the internet to look for recipes (those of Market Manila and burntlumpia, in particular), and tweaked the method to suit what I have at home -- boiling then oven-roasting instead of deep-frying, before chopping. This takes about 2 days for me at least (boiling and drying separately from roasting and cooking the sisig per se).

Too bad that recently, somehow it seems that there is now a law prohibiting the slaughterhouses to reserve the head and the innards to give to the owners per request. During my first year here I was able to get the pork and beef intestines, and the pork head, but now I can't. I don't know if I can request from a grocery store, but then I do not trust meat from unknown sources (and I mean meat from pork/beef/chicken that we did not raise ourselves. If you are aware of the practices in animal farming here in the US, you would understand why). So this is a fond memory for me, having cooked sisig at least once in my lifetime, served during a Christmas gathering with my Pinay friends. It was literally heart-wrenching (after eating just a bit, we knew we had loads of fat from this dish), but was transported back to the Philippines for a while.

Ingredients:
pork head, boiled, deboned, chopped

BOILING
water enough to cover
10 or so peppercorns
2 bay leaves
salt (approximate depending on amount of water)
1 head garlic

ROASTING
spray of olive oil
sprinkles of garlic salt

SISIG PROPER (for about 3 cups of chopped pork face/ears)
1 big onion, chopped
3 chopped green chilies (amount depends on how hot you want it)
freshly milled black pepper
salt

crushed chicharon
sliced green chilies
vinegar
lemon juice

Instructions:
Boil the head in a big pot for about 30 minutes. Let drain. Dry out further by placing in the fridge atop a wire rack on a baking pan uncovered at least overnight (but do not overdo by drying more than 1 day).

When ready to roast, heat up the oven with the rack placed at the very bottom. Set to 450 deg F.

Take out the pig's head. You are going to use the whole ensemble. Brush or spray the pig's head with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic salt. Roast for 15 minutes then lower the heat to 350 deg F. Bake for 1 hour.

Separate meat/fat/skin from the bones. Chop, chop, chop.

At this point, you may want to freeze some for later use. You will not be able to consume the whole thing unless you have a whole barangay of Pinoys who would gladly have their share of this artery-constricting concoction.

Prepare the other ingredients. Heat up your cast-iron griddle (the wider the better) on high for about 5 minutes. Lower the heat to 6 or even 4 so as not to burn and place the chopped pork face. Stir, stir, stir until it renders it own fat. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add black pepper and salt to taste. Stir some more until it becomes fried in its own fat so it get a little crispy.

Drain the excess fat. Drizzle with vinegar and lemon juice. Adjust taste accordingly by adding salt and pepper. Top with chicharon and some more sliced chilies.

Chicken Inasal

I recently tried the chicken inasal recipe from overseaspinoycooking.com. I never really knew how it tasted like. I know there was one Chicken Inasal outlet somewhere in Makati that I tried eating it, but was not too impressed (still preferred the lechon manok from Andok's or Baliwag, and one in Manila which seemed owned by a Japanese (superb herb and brine flavors! I would only get the chance to buy from them when I had to go home to Bulacan from a station near Jose Reyes hospital.)

But I remember one of my friends who is now located in this state and found me through this foodblog had chicken inasal and she recommended this recipe. I probably should have used more marinade, or marinated longer. I also goofed because when I had to boil the marinade before grilling, I mistakenly added soy sauce when there should not be (too much inclination for me to do things this way when making barbecue of anything). It was good, but only kinda skin-deep, so next time I am gonna make more marinade and will probably leave them in the fridge for more than overnight.

I did use annatto oil per MaMely's recipe. I had to try twice because I burnt the first. When she said simmer, she meant simmer! As in, start and keep the heat on low; not boil then lower to simmer. Haha! Now I got a whole cup of it in an 8-oz canning jar without seeds (take note, MaMely!)

Thanks to both foodbloggers!

UPDATE:
Because I was not too satisfied with the outcome of the recipe I initially tried, I googled it again. Found one at Market Manila but no recipe; just ingredients. Well, I do not like guessing when it is my first time to cook something. For something I have cooked many times before, I can cook without measuring (the measurements here in my recipes are often approximate, and given here for the sake of the newbie cooks who might want to try my recipes).

Reading the comments under MM's post, I came across this one particular comment which got me intrigued, so next time I am gonna try it:

Here’s 1 foolproof delish inasal recipe I have been following eversince I got this from the free recipe booklet of Lea and Perrins worcestershire sauce:

1 whole chicken,(approx.1kg), quartered
6 stalks lemongrass, white part pounded
1/2 tsp chopped ginger
1/3 cup annatto oil
1 cup soda(sprite)
2 tbsps tamarind paste or juice
1/3 cup tamarind leaves, washed
3 tbsps chopped garlic
3 tbsps lea and perrins worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tbsps patis
1 tsp pepper
Place all ingredients in a bowl and marinate for at least 25 mins. Transfer in a pan and bring to a boil to cook chicken for about 15 mins.Remove chicken and simmer stock for another 15 mins.Strain and reserve stock for grilling.
Cook chicken over hot charcoal and brush frequently with the reserved stock.Cook just until chicken has burn marks.Serve with sinamak or spiced vinegar.
To make sinamak, put red chilies, garlic, peppercorns, ginger and onions in a bottle.Fill with vinegar and let the flavors infuse for at least 8 hours.Serve with grilled chicken.

I never go wrong with this recipe and am always ensured with a thoroughly cooked, moist and flavorful chicken!Sometimes I omit the tamarind leaves when not available and just increase a tbsp of the tamarind paste/juice or even use sinigang powder and it’s still the same flavor! Try it! Thanks to that free booklet of recipes!

Another recipe shared this time by Emeriza D.

Manang..heres my recipe of chicken inasal originally from my cousin sa bacolod.. hope you like it. I preffered po na grilled sya.. but okay din ang baked po.

*Whole chicken (cut into serving portions)
i rub nyo po ng salt..and leave it for 30-40 min.
then pour vinegar, lots of garlic (2 head) and lots of ginger..(pinoy suka po) enough to cover the chicken lng po (soak it for 1-2 hours lng po para di maluto sa suka)

Mag gisa po kayo ng luya and bawang at dinikdik na lemon grass po damihan ng mantika ( yun po yung i spread nyo sa chicken while cooking it) atsuete powder for coloring and salt to taste

pagtapos pong ibabad yung chicken, tusuktusukin para ma sure na papasok lasa ng ginisa mixture

ihaw lng po...

then sa sawsawan po... Kalamansi, toyo at suka, little amount of sugar to balance the taste.

yung pinaggisahan po ng pan... pwede pong dun mag gawa fried rice.

Menu for July 4th

Gotta prepare for July 4th...I am the IT for this year. Yikes! Menu in mind: pork and chicken barbecue, hotdogs and burgers (for the Americans), chips, veggies with dip, tossed salad, potato salad, deviled eggs, cut up fruits, orange salad (or ambrosia), fruit salad (pinoy style), homemade vanilla ice cream, wave-your-flag crema de fruta...

Oh wait...I don't have Pinoy visitors...the only Pinoys are myself and my boys. I might end up with lots of leftovers. Oh well, we'll see

What's in your menu?

Biko with Custard Topping

Prepared by my friend Anna's mom...

Oven-Fried Chicken

TYPE SUMMARY HERE

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Pinoy-Style Fruit Salad

Very simple to make...truly masarap!

Ingredients:
canned fruit cocktail
1 jar kaong
1 jar nata de coco
Other cut up fresh fruits
1 cup mayonnaise
1 can condensed milk
1 8-oz softened cream cheese
Instructions:
Drain the fruit cocktail  and other ingredients. Mix together with mayo, condensed milk and cream cheese. Chill.  You may add other fresh fruits like apples, kiwi and some buko meat.

A Truly Vegetarian Dish

Healthy and Hearty...


Ingredients:
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 tbsp skinless peanuts, roasted
3 cloves minced garlic,
1 medium onion, sliced
1 pack cubed firm tofu
handful of snow peas
1 small carrot, sliced thinly
half napa cabbage, sliced

Instructions:
Heat oil. Sautee garlic, onion, peanuts. Add tofu and veggies and cook for about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Baked Ham & Cheese Open Sandwich

 

After 6 years of marriage, only now did I learn of hubby asking for this type of open sandwich that he used to make for himself when he was still living alone.

He said just set the oven on low broil (or high; just keep looking), lay the bread slices on the pan, place sliced cheeses then top with bacon. He said the cheese would be toasted or burnt and that was inevitable. (Actually I like toasted cheese on pan de sal reheated in oven toaster.) I experimented by adding egg on mine near the end of broiling the second batch (which was not too successful as it slid down right away; I had to scoop the cooked egg from the pan).

Truly a food trip for a hot summer day!

Strawberry Milk Shake

"I don't even like strawberry shake, but this is delicious!" -- Husband

My kids love it!

Probably the good store-bought strawberries made a lot of difference. Seldom are we able to get really good strawberries from the store. Usually they are puckery and hard, pinkish red instead of really red. This time I got a "Limited Edition" from a "William & Anderson" farm in California (not Mexico!). We liked them eaten as is, and we love the shake made with them.

Ingredients:
16 oz strawberries
1 to 1-1/2 crushed ice
1/2 cup sugar
enough milk to reach 4 cups in the blender
4 scoops of vanilla ice cream

Instructions:

Place strawberries in the blender first, followed by sugar, then crushed ice. Pour milk to level of 4 cups, top with 4 scoops vanilla ice cream. Blend using liquefy or blend mode. Use pulse setting, pressed for about 10 seconds, if the mixing seems not to include the top part. Once it starts making a funnel, revert to liquefy or blend mode to make the mixture smoother.

Ahhhh! Sarrrrap!

In a few weeks' time, we will have the chance to get "real" strawberries...as real as picking them straight from the strawberry farms around here...not sure how sweet they will be as they have not seen sunshine in weeks! But then again, if made sweet by ice cream and sugar, or if made into jams, being tart will be a plus anyway.

Reader's Photo Gallery #5

Thanks to BabieBoo for this set of photos of supersoft ensaymada that she made.

Baked Peanut Chicken with Peanut Sauce

Since working on 12-hour shifts, our family had spent more and more time eating at a Chinese restaurant nearby, which is open until 9pm. My husband has developed a liking for their fried rice, peanut chicken, chicken pepper, and general tso chicken. The peanut chicken seemed like it was baked as whole breast with coating of crumbs with chopped peanuts, sliced into strips then poured with peanut sauce. I thought it was easy enough to re-create. The chicken pepper looked like they were small pieces of chicken meat (as if they were scraped from the bones), dipped in some sweet batter then deep fried, then stir-fried with bell peppers. I imagined it to be a very tedious task for some recipe made out as an afterthought of what to do with the small almost insignificant pieces of chicken meat, so I was not at all interested to re-create it at home the way I imagined it to be. Maybe someday I will try to come up with my own version. General Tso recipe can be found everywhere, but I am not too inclined to have it -- too sweet and hot for me.

The first time I tried to make peanut chicken, I did good with the baked chicken, but not the sauce (trying to make it without a recipe as a reference). This time, I looked for a recipe that had a photo that looked like the peanut sauce we are familiar with now, then looked for an alternate recipe that had almost the same ingredients except the coconut milk, since I never imagined the peanut sauce from that Chinese restaurant having any coconut taste.

I baked the chicken using my nu-wave since I was gonna cook only one breast (I marinated the other breast along with other cuts for grilling sometime later). To supplement this (I knew it was not enough to feed my family for one supper), I cooked shrimps with ketchup sauce (a favorite of my sons), and stir-fried some small chicken meat pieces with zucchini for the vegetables (All the chicken came from one whole that I pulled out from my freezer last night to thaw. The bones were almost stripped of all meat, but I still simmered it for stock). All were eaten with plain rice. Husband likes eating plain rice flavored with nutmeg, salt and sugar, and half n half. This peanut chicken earned his approval!

I ended up having some leftover chicken and shrimps, and lots of leftover stir-fry.

Ingredients:

Baked Peanut Chicken
1 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped (I got raw Spanish peanuts from Spice of Life)
1 packet Shake n Bake (extra crispy)
1-2 tsbp soy sauce
1 whole chicken breast

Peanut Sauce
1 cup creamy peanut butter (do not use old-fashioned style or freshly ground)
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can chicken broth (I used my homemade chicken stock)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (I actually used lemon; that's what I had on hand)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

Instructions:
Marinate the chicken breast with the soy sauce for about 30 minutes to one hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauce ingredients.
Mix peanut butter with chicken broth thoroughly, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Bake the chicken at 350 deg F on one side for about 15-20 minutes then flip over and cook another 15-20 minutes or until done. If it tends to burn easily on a 4-inch high grate, use the 2-inch. (I am still trying to get to know nu-wave, so I am still groping my way through here.)

(For conventional oven, pre-heat oven to 400 deg F, then grill chicken for about 20-25 minutes on each side. Bake until done.)

While waiting for chicken to cook, simmer the peanut sauce for about 30 minutes or until you achieve desired thickness.

Slice chicken pieces then pour peanut sauce over.

Easy Chicken and Mushroom with Rotini Pasta

Another quick-fix chicken favorite in my family. I just have to make sure my pantry is stocked well with canned cream of mnushroom, sliced mushroom, and pasta, and cooking is a breeze. This is done within 15 minutes.

I may use fettucine or rotini pasta for this. Rotini has the advantage of trapping more sauce, though.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cut into cube (or use leftover from roast chicken)
2 tbsp butter
1 (10-3/4 oz) can of cream of mushroom (I use the roasted garlic variety)
1 medium can sliced mushroom
1 lb rotini pasta

Instructions:
Cook

Reader's Photo Gallery #4

Thanks to Ebie and Z (mother-daughter blogging tandem -- they are so cool!), to Thet and to Emma for the photos they submitted for the gallery!

Pan-Fried Salmon Steaks

My kids and I love the taste of salmon...even plain with just the barest of seasonings - salt and pepper. And since wild Alaskan salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acids (a healthy fat), this also cooks on the pan with very little oil to start with, as it also releases its own oil as it cooks, and comes out with crispy crust, almost like it was deep-fried, especially at the belly part. You can pretty much say "na-prito sa sariling mantika" (fried in its own oil). When summer is here, these are the most craved for dishes for me, and would be more so when I start producing my own tomatoes freshly picked from my garden. (That reminds me, this is also a good time to make salted eggs.)

Photo depicts how we Filipinos typically enjoy our fried fish -- with slices of tomatoes, green onions (or chives, as how I used here), and onions (I used Vidalia just for the taste of it), with a drizzle of patis (fish sauce) and some lemon juice, enjoyed with plain (or fried) rice. Pinoy na Pinoy! A lot of our typical Filipino meals are not at all gourmet, but if you look at food mags of today (like bon appetit), they are looking more and more like the Filipino style of enjoying food. Maybe because of the growing concern about going back to the basics of food (a rebellion against industrialization of food)...oh well...I am babbling here, an after effect of reading the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. Well, let's get on with how I prepare my salmon steaks -- nothing fancy gourmet-y. Just plain home cooking, Pinoy style.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
salmon steaks
salt and pepper to taste

For tomato dip/salsa (whatever you call it!)
3 medium tomatoes, diced
onion greens, snipped
thin slices of vidalia onions to taste
1-2 tbsp fish sauce (or anchovy paste)
a drizzle of lemon juice (best to use calamansi if available)
(optional) fresh baby spinach

Instructions:
Sprinkle salmon steaks with salt and pepper to taste. Heat up your pan on medium low (#4) for 5 minutes. (Meanwhile, you can start preparing the tomato dip/salsa.) Add oil and distribute evenly; wait 1-2 minutes. Place the salmon steaks on the pan and let cook one side for 2 minutes. Flip over, cover loosely, lower the heat to #2 and let cook for another 4 minutes or until salmon is done (test with fork; if fish easily flakes off, it is done).

Enjoy with prepped tomato dip/salsa and plain or fried rice.

KNB: Deviled Egg Platter

 

I was looking for a platter for deviled eggs, which I plan to prepare for my son's graduation party on Thursday (I have been busy so I blog less often at present), and for July 4th. Nothing was really tickling my fancy until I saw this one. And when it finally arrived, although it looked more like a wedding gift (complete with a decorative box at that!), I loved how it also signified spring to me, with the bird salt and pepper shakers and the intricate floral design at the center. The ceramic was of good quality, so it was not like it was gonna break with the usual handling. (I do have a dinnerware set that I made a mistake of buying; they were so fragile!)

A bit pricey, but well worth it!

UPDATED 6-16-09 to include the above photo with deviled eggs. The deviled eggs here were made using homemade pickle relish and mayonnaise to taste (as prepped by my SIL).

Beef Mechado

What's the differece between beef mechado and kaldereta? Different people have tried to describe the two. I have my own, too, but first, the similarities: beef chunks (or roast), garlic, onions, bell peppers, tomato sauce, bay leaves, peppercorn, potatoes, carrots.

Now for the differences:
Kaldereta - add liver paste or sausage (or if I had it, Reno liver spread), and cheese. Other optional add ons usually include black olives.

Mechado - add soy sauce and vinegar (others use only soy sauce), and snap beens (aka Baguio beans) (plus I added celery here)

The two definitely differ in taste, but both are awesome! And hubby likes 'em both! They are very American-friendly Filipino dishes, and my kids love bringing them to school for lunch, though they never care to learn what they are called aside from "beef stew."

Ingredients:
2 lbs stew meat (beef cut in chunks)
3 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
1/4 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup diced bell peppers (green and red)
1/4 cup soy sauce (I actually used 2 tbsp of Tamari soy sauce and then regular soy sauce to make up 1/4 cup total)
1/4 cup (red wine) vinegar
2 bay leaves
10 peppercorns (appoximate)
salt to taste (I used about 1 tsp kosher)
1 (15-oz) can tomato sauce
1 big or 3 small potatoes, cubed
1 big carrot, cubed (I did not have any at the time)
2 cups snap beans

Instructions:
I made use of pressure cooker for this, since I wanted to be able to cook this up quickly in time for supper. We were busy during the earlier part of the day working out in the garden.

Heat the pressure cooker empty on medium high for about 3 minutes. Add oil, saute the garlic, onions, celery, and bell peppers. Add the beef, and saute until brown. This will results to beef sweating and will put out about 1/2 cup of liquid. Sprinkle salt and stir. Add the tomato sauce, vinegar and soy sauce. Stir and close the lid. Pressure-cook as directed by your manufacturer for 15 minutes (starting to count the minutes once the pressure valve pops up; don't forget to switch to low heat enough to maintain a steady gentle steam coming out of the lid). Meanwhile, cut the potatoes and carrots into cubes. Microwave for about 2-3 minutes to partially cook. Once 15 minutes are up, add the potatoes and carrots and stir. Close the lid tightly (do not set to pressure cook; just keep tight) and cook for 3 minutes; add snap beans, stir, cover tight again and turn off heat. By the end of this cooking, the sauce has thickened enough, thanks to potatoes and all the flavors have blended wonderfully. Serve as topping for fried rice (if you are Pinoy) or with bread/biscuit (if you are a Westerner). I served it with biscuit to hubby (quick enough to prepare compared to bread).

(Cooking style will vary with regular pot. You may have to add water to prevent drying up. Of course, cooking time for beef will also vary and may reach 45 minutes to an hour to cook this cut until tender. You, the cook, will just have to grope your way into cooking the rest of the ingredients. Potatoes and carrots added together will probably take 15 minutes (or you may add the carrots 5 minutes later), then snap beans will require 2 minutes or so depending on how cooked you want it.)

LaPiS: pearlySHELLS

 

I was sooo pleased when I found this at Walmart, not only because it was on sale, but because it was a Capiz artwork! And when I flipped it over, it was made in the Philippines. Too bad it cannot be used for food ("may cause food poisoning").

Capiz --

The Capiz shells when used as ornaments and decors turn simple living into elegant and cozy-looking environment. It is well known to be a good indoor as well as outdoor décor major raw material. The Capiz shell products are also very well recognized in the world market because Capiz is the only living paradise for the Capiz shells that can be found in their vast sea treasure chest.

Some popular Capiz shell chips decorating design include gift items, indoor decoration and outdoor decoration ornaments. “Captivating Capiz” chip-made products range from lanterns, lamp shades, window pane, chandeliers, curtains, picture panels and frames, Capiz shell balls, plates, decorative bowls, candle holders, tiles, flower vase, door hanging chime, soapdish, pendant, globelight, necklace decor, beads, bird cage, floor lamp holders, faux chandelier, gift boxes, collection item rack and many more.

From internetphilippines.com

However, I was not too sure how authentically Capiz this is...it easily chips off at the edges...oh well...I just wanted a Pinoy touch in my kitchen decor. Maybe I could put some wrapped candies on it, or salt and pepper shakers...

This is my entry for this week's edition.