Lumpiang Shanghai, Hubad

Lumpia without the rice wrapper. Nothing fancy. All there is to do is mix the ingredients together, roll it up into balls or like what I did, into a very unappealing shape. Hehe.It's my mom's recipe. Then I added a few more ingredients. I forget the proportions. Mix everything in a bowl: grated turnip and grated carrot (squeeze out the juice!), finely chopped celery (better if it's Chinese celery), chopped shrimps, chopped spring onions, chopped onions, some salt, and ground pork. Leave for a few minutes to let the flavor set. Add an egg or 2, shape, roll in a little flour and fry away!It's good to dip it in sweet chili-garlic sauce. Or sweet-sour sauce. Or catsup.

November 12, 2009

Korean Not-Beef BBQ, plus plus

Somebody taught me this recipe a long time ago. Back in college. I think that was Toto Labrador. I looked again in the internet if it was really a recipe for Korean BBQ. Yup, it's called Bulgogi. (If I'm mistaken, sorry.) Hmm, there are variations but the some basic ingredients are common. Thanks Toto!

Now, to twist the recipe a bit. I'm not going to use beef, I'll use pork so I can brown it without making it tough. Cut the pork in bite-size pieces and marinate it in a little soy sauce, brown sugar, chopped ginger, chopped spring onions, crushed garlic, and sesame oil. I usually add one ingredient at a time, massaging each into the meat. Makes me believe the flavor gets better that way. Haha. The sesame oil is the last. What you'll have should not be a soupy marinated pork. The marinade should just coat the meat evenly, and stick to it.
Leave it for an hour or better, a whole day and fry in a little oil, but very hot. That's it! Oops, this is one of those times that I forgot to take a photo of the cooked food.

When I made this, I made 2 more dishes to go with it. First, I cut up some leeks and spring onions and mixed them in a beaten egg/pinch of flour/salt mixture and fried it. Just make a vinegar/soy sauce mix for dip.
The next one, I chopped some cabbage, carrots and Baguio beans into small pieces and stir-fried it with a lot of garlic and onions in sesame oil, and added a little salt and sugar.That's it!

November 9, 2009

Sathan's BBQ Ribs

I was in front of the kitchen counter staring at the thawed pork ribs, 7pm. After a few more red water dripped from the side of the ribs, I thought "Whatever. Just as long as I make this easy." I grabbed whatever sauce and seasoning we had and just baked. Luckily, it turned out fine. Just had to do a little "retouching" and a little cheat :-)

Here's what I did: From staring at the pork ribs for quite some, I guessed it was about more than a kilo. So I thought about less than a cup of total sauce would be enough to flavor it. 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce, 1/3 cup of soy sauce, 3 tbsps of tomato catsup, 1/2 tsp of ground black pepper, 2 tbsps of oyster sauce, 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar, 2 tbsps of olive oil and a teaspoonful of hot sauce. Mixed them all together and slobbered it all over the ribs. (Hey, this is the "balanced" flavor I thought was right, ok? You can always do your own proportions.)

I set the ribs on a foil-lined tray, covered with another sheet of foil and baked at 180˚C for an hour. (Next time, I'll bake it longer.)

I thought that was it but when I pulled it out of the oven, all the juice was in the tray. So I cheated. I took the sauce and reduced it on the stove and poured it back onto the ribs. Done!November 2, 2009. (The fire photo is not mine.)

Hey!

Been some time since I posted anything here. Time for a little filler -- makes me feel somewhat useful and productive. :-)

It's not that I haven't been experimenting on the stove. I have. I'm just not very happy with the shots I took. It's always been night time that I decide on a whim to cook something, so the photos are too dark, and look uninspired. And some of the food look like shit, literally. Time for a little Photoshop, hehe.

Soon, I'll be needing some new food shots. I should start experimenting more.

But hey, the food wasn't bad. Still tasted good to me. I'm thinking of names like: Sathan's Baked BBQ Ribs, Lumpiang Shanghai Hubad, and Korean Not-Beef BBQ. :-)

Molo Soup with Camote Leaves

Guess where the unused leaves from the tilapia went?

This is the third dish I prepared. Oh, that was October 11. Haven't been really cooking that much lately. Slight touch of lazy. Right now, I'm baking some pork ribs. I'll see how that'll turn out. It's a BBQ, but I'm mixing hoisin sauce and white wine vinegar, along with other sauces from the ref. :-) I'll post it when I get to take a nice photo.

Back to the molo soup.

I got a traditional recipe, and since I had some unused camote leaves, I thought I might as well try putting them in the soup. Didn't ruin it. :-) Again, I forgot to take a photo. Oh well.

Mix together some chopped spring onions, ground pork, a few chopped shrimps, plus a few drops of premium soy sauce and sesame oil. Hey, it's not bad to have the cheap brown salty soy sauce around, but from time to time, use the good kind ok? Wrap in wonton wrappers to make about 15 or more, depending on how much soup you want to make.Boil a piece of chicken breast and shred. Save the broth, you have to have at least a liter.

Saute chopped onions and garlic. Add the shredded chicken and stir for a few seconds. Pour in the broth and let it boil. Throw in the dumplings and boil for a few minutes. Add a few whole, peeled shrimps, cook for a few minutes more and turn off the flame. Add the camote leaves and if you have some more chopped spring onions and leeks left over from the fish, throw those in as well.
That's it!

GreenFire Caldereta

Hehe, it's the traditional Caldereta recipe, I just added more than a few green chilis.

Cube a kilo of tomatoes and boil (don't add water) for around 30 minutes in low flame. This'll be the tomato sauce.

While the tomatoes are stewing, brown about a kilo of beef cubes in olive oil and set aside. brown a small slab of pork liver, chop and set aside. Brown some sliced chorizos, and set aside.
In the same oil (or add a few more drops), sauté chopped onions and crushed garlic. Add the beef and the liver, and stir for a bit. Pour in the tomato sauce, and about half a cup of white wine vinegar (this tastes better, trust me). Stew for a bit. I prefer to just partially cover the pot so the vinegar's strong taste evaporates and leaves a sweetish flavor. I don't know if that's true, but it works for me. If the sauce is too thick, just add some water.

When the meat is halfway tender, mix in some cubed carrots and potatoes and sliced bell peppers. Add salt and whole black pepper a some laurel (or bay?) leaves. Add some whole pitted olives too.Stew some more until the meat is tender and that's it! Put out the flame and throw in a handful of green chilis.I took a picture before adding the green chilis. Then completely forgot. Oops.

BakedBroiled Garlic Tilapia with Camote stalks

I bake this fish close to burning. Just to have a different flavor.Get 2 big tilapias, set them on a baking tray, just small or big enough to fit the fish snugly. Pour a little soy sauce, just to flavor the fish. Crush a whole head of garlic and throw that into the fish. Add some chopped onions and thinly sliced leeks. Make sure to put some under the fish too. Get a bunch of camote tops and remove the leaves, then cut up the stalks into small pieces. Spinkle these onto the fish, almost completely covering them. Last, add a little celery salt and a few drops of sesame oil.Bake at 220˚C, until everything turns almost brown (about 30 minutes).

You'll notice that the fish won't have that bad fishy taste when you try this. I think it's the combination of garlic and camote stalks that eliminates that. Plus the near burning! Hey, you can always choose not to broil it, it'll still taste good. :-)

Overtido Embutido

Thanks to Jim and Rhorie Battad for this recipe. I'm calling it Overtido because it's loaded with onions, just as the Battads instructed. I reinterpreted the recipe though, I hope they won't mind, hehe. I added grated apples in the mix.

I was making this on September 26 for a couple of friends who were supposed to come to the house for a few drinks and some songs. It was raining very hard that day and before I started boiling the rolled meat, I got a call from my sister that their house was underwater already and that they had gone up a neighbor's third floor to stay safe. There was nothing we could do from where we were. Just to hope that everyone remained calm and be alert.

I resumed making the meatloaf. Hey, I needed to stay calm. And who knows, they might be on their way out of the flood and to our house, hungry. Didn't happen. They had to wait till the next day to get away. They were safe, and the meatloaf was saved for them.
Get ready with a food processor for this. You'll need it for re-grinding the meat and finely chopping all the ingredients. Mix together a kilo of ground pork, and half a kilo of chicken. Regrind to make it even smoother. Get a large mixing bowl and throw in the meat. Mix in about 1/4 kilo of chopped (by hand) shrimps or prawns, 6 (or more) finely chopped onions, 2 finely chopped bell peppers, 2 finely chopped carrots, 1 finely chopped large apple, about half a cup of raisins, a tablespoon on salt, and 2 tablespoons of premium soy sauce. I mix in a little bit of pickle relish also.
Prepare some aluminum foil and wrap about 2 cups of the mix in a 12 x 12 sheet. You'll probably make about 4-5 loaves. Put them in a large pot and fill with just enough water to cover each. Boil. When the meat is firm enough, take them out of the foil and boil some more. The water should be reduced by that time, or if there's still too much, just take out some. Add a pack of tomato sauce and some ketchup and continue boiling until the sauce thickens. Make sure the meat doesn't crumble. Take the meat out of the sauce and continue boiling if you need to reduce the sauce further.
Serve with the sauce on the side. Or you can fry the loaf first to brown the outside. That's it!

By time I was done, the power was down. I had to shoot by a candle light.

Hey!

It's been a while since I last posted. Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng blew out my fire. There's this blah feeling that throws the flavors into blandness. For some time, I didn't have the appetite to even turn on the stove.

But that is slowly ebbing away. Today, almost 3 weeks since my sister and her family lost everything in the flood, I decided to cook again. Time to shake away the blues.

I'm still preparing the photos, and remembering how I cooked each. As soon as I have that done, I'll post them all. There's Greenfire Caldereta, BakedBroiled Tilapia, and Molo Soup with Camote Leaves.
And before I forget: During the storm, I was preparing an Embutido I learned from a good friend. Even after hearing the bad news, I kept on cooking to take the edge off the dread. And I was hopefully thinking, if they suddenly pop in out of the storm, there'll be something to eat. I'm calling this meatloaf Overtido Embutido.

Finally, Tuna Pasta Sauce

WITH Turkish Saffron. Don't exactly know what kind of flavor it added, but the overall taste was nice and a little woody. Good wood, haha. And the sauce looked pretty, with the tiny red stringy bits. I think this is healthy too.
Cut up around 8-10 medium-sized tomatoes and boil them. No need to add water. This will be your very own healthier, homemade tomato sauce. When it's cooking, lower the flame and stir from time to time because it easily burns. Give it about 45 minutes to an hour.

WHEN the tomatoes are just about done stewing, Chop some onions, garlic, a little celery and carrots. Sauté in olive oil, add a can of tuna, stir well, add the tomatoes, stir some more. Pour some mushroom water (soak some shiitake mushroom in hot water and use the water. You can chop up the mushrooms and put it in the sauce too!). Reduce the liquid. Season with ground black pepper, celery salt, fresh basil leaves and Turkish saffron. Keep stirring till the sauce thickens. That's it.

Don't forget to cook some good pasta while doing this.

If you want a stronger basil taste, add it to the tomatoes when you stew them.

Calamansi Fried Chicken

HAD THIS with the beef stew. Just to have something fried. I know, I know, it's bad, but hey...

Rub some celery salt into the chicken (don't know where I got this. Just found it in the kitchen. It's celery-flavored salt granules) till the outside of the chicken feels squishy. When I do this, somehow, the flavor seeps in better. And it fries well. I don't know, maybe it's some kitchen superstition. Sprinkled a bit of ground pepper, a little soy sauce, just for color and some calamansi juice. Massage everything into the chicken and leave for a bit.Then deep fry. Add some toasted sesame seeds and sliced leeks on top when serving (in case you left some unused from the beef stew) to make it purty, haha.

Korean Beef Stew, Light.

Linda Floro shared this recipe to me at one shooting session and since then, this has been one of the family's favorites. I've twisted the recipe a little by not putting too much soy sauce, taking out sugar and adding some pepper.

BOIL some beef ribs in water. A kilo and a half of beef is a good amount. When oil starts collecting above the water, take it out. If you don't care about it, leave it. It adds a lot of flavor and well, a lot of heart disease too. :-) Careful. On the side, soak some dried shiitake mushrooms in very hot water for 30 minutes. Cube some carrots, slice thinly some leeks, crush garlic, cut onions, toast sesame seeds.

Ok, in between putting in the ingredients, give it about 5-1o minutes for each flavor to cook into the meat and the broth:

Add some peppercorns and the garlic.

Pour about a a fourth of a cup soy sauce, use the real, premium kind. Add about 2 tablespoonful of oyster sauce, and a third of a cup of mirin. Use a little of your own judgement here. The soup should not be too dark, but not too light. The amount of each flavoring you put depends on how much water you used. Better to start with a little of each and add gradually till you strike the balance that you prefer. Sip a little of it, do a quick chp chp chp chp chp chp sound, say hmmm when it's right.

Throw in the onions, the sliced shiitake and the water it's soaked in, and the carrots. I add some young corns too.
Add the toasted sesame seeds.

Wait till the carrots and corns are soft. Turn off the heat, sprinkle a little sesame oil (or not, if there's too much oil already.). Add the leeks on top when serving.

I wonder what the Koreans will say about what I did to their stew? O well, it tastes good to me.

CucumberPandan Ice Cream

Special thanks goes out to Paolo Toledo for hating cucumber and giving me the idea to do this! Love you my friend, this is very "delightful" (yes, I just used one of my most-hated words). The ice cream's not perfect yet. It tends to have some crunchy iced cucumber, as it doesn't completely meld with the cream. I'll try to fix that next time. It's probably in the mixing process. Didn't spoil the fun though.

Popped some sliced cucumber in the blender, poured in a can of condensed milk and a small can of evaporated milk. Added a little sugar and a few drops of Pandan extract, and set it on high speed for a few seconds intermittently. Then I poured it into a large bowl where I have the chilled cream ready. Mom used an electric mixer and mixed away. While that's being done, I made a thick mix of Pandan Gulaman and cooled it down a bit and folded (hah! A cooking term I just learned!) it into the cream mix. Sorry, I'm using so many "mix". I have to learn more kitchen words. Blend? Melange? Medley? Hmm, mix is just right.

Anyway, that's it! Freeze the thing for about half a day or till the kids'patience wear out, and enjoy! Might be nice to add a few mint leaves to complete the coolness, as another friend suggested. I mean coolness literally ok? :-)

This is one of the things we had at Fontana.

Hey!

091909 A weekend at Fontana. Missed having my brothers around. But we still had a good time. My first time to join the family at the pool. Relaxing. But of course, an out of town getaway is a nice excuse to experiment with cooking, hehehe. Just brought a few, easy-to-carry ingredients and we had some excellent food, if I may say so myself.