Honey Rosemary Seared Pork

I decided to propagate my pot rosemary through cutting few days back. I find it a waste to throw the extra leaves I removed from the cutting so I made use of it by cooking Honey Rosemarie Seared Pork.

I used Monterey liempo for this recipe as it is softer compared to the ones we can buy in a market.  We will not parboil our pork so it is preferred that it is soft. I have my own marinate recipe that I will also share with you.

Let me go ahead and give you the recipe.

Ingredients:

½ kilo Monterey pork liempo

½ teaspoon ground pepper

5-tablespoon Silver Swan Soy Sauce

8-tablespoon organic honey

¼ cup of fresh rosemary leaves

pinch of salt

5 tablespoon of cooking oil

Procedure:

1    Get a mixing bowl. Pour soy sauce, honey, and pepper, salt and mix well.

2    Add rosemary leaves and pork. Mix until pork is evenly coated with the marinate.

3    Pour oil in the hot pan and sear pork.

A very quick and delicious recipe that is worth trying. Hope you like it!

Pork Adobo sa Kamatis

It’s been a while since my last food article.  I feel so bloated right now after helping my self with two servings of rice and this variant of pork adobo. Having said the last, I opted to kill time by posting this recipe instead of killing myself doing fee proposals after office hours.

My usual pork or chicken adobo using soy sauce and vinegar is to crave for but this pork adobo using tomato is to die for.

If my memory serves me right, I have first tasted this dish when I was in primary school. My Lolo Ading is such a great cook that I remember hanging out with him when he is cooking at the back of the old carinderia in mid 1980’s (hope this won’t reveal my age). This dish brings back memories of his kindness, warmth and even his temper. I love my lolo!

Ingredients:

½ kilo pork liempo

6 medium size tomatoes sliced thinly

1 medium size onion, chopped

5 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 medium size carrots, diced (optional)

½ teaspoon of salt

½ teaspoon of ground pepper

1 ½ cup of water

Procedure:

Parboil pork with tomatoes, onion, garlic, and carrots, salt with 1 ½ cup of water. 

Wait until pork is soft.

Turn off the heat and remove pork, carrots and the broth.

Sauté and mashed tomatoes, garlic and onions until caramelized.

Add pork and carrots (set aside the broth) and sauté for another 6 minutes.

Pour the broth and let it simmer for 10 minutes to thicken and reduce the broth.

Add ground pepper.

Taste. Add salt if needed. 

Hope you like it!

Inusbungang Manok

One of the best dishes I have learned from my old folks is Inusbungang Manok. It is a variant of the regular Sinigang but with this dish, we use tamarind flowers and young leaves as main ingredient and chicken.

Using tamarind flowers and its young leaves add a distinct sour and tangy taste to Sinigang. For Pork Sinigang, I believe that it is good to use tamarind fruit but for chicken, the former is the best. I do not know if my old folks would be happy to know that I am sharing the recipe but let us take the risk and see.

Ingredients:

½ kilo chicken cut in parts

2 cups of Tamarind flowers and young leaves crushed

2 garlic kernel crushed

1 medium size chopped onion

1 medium size tomato sliced thinly

1 small ginger

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp of fish sauce

5 tbsp cooking oil

Procedure:

Sauté ginger until golden brown then add onion and garlic. Then add tomato and pinch of salt.

Add chicken and sauté for 3-5 minutes.

While sautéing, place tamarind flowers and young leaves in a bowl. Add a pinch of salt and crushed it with bare hands.

Add the crushed tamarind flowers and young leaves to the chicken and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Then add 3-4 cups of water and bring to boil.

Add fish sauce and ready to serve.

Bagnet with Baked Potato Marble

Amidst the RA 10175 protest and my unexpected long vacation, I decided to prepare Bagnet and Baked Potato Marble for my wife. While cooking, I am also wondering how RA 10175 will affect my writing ambitions. I am thinking of writing as a possible career option (what?!) in the future but I think RA 10175 will somehow influence the kind of genre and topics that I would like to write on in the future.

Anyways, let’s just go back to the dish. Kindly see ingredients and procedure below.

For Bagnet:

½ kilo pork belly

1 clove of garlic crushed

1 tsp ground pepper

1 tsp salt

Procedure:

Boil pork belly in 3 cups of water with garlic, pepper and salt for 10 minutes and let cool.

Once pork belly is cooled, deep fry pork for 30 minutes in low fire then remove pork and let it cool again.

Cool down and fry pork belly again for another 15 minutes in medium fire. Ready to serve.

For Baked Potato Marble

½ kilo potato marble

¼ bacon

2 tbsp butter or olive oil

½ cup quick melt cheese or Kraft Chiz Whiz

4 fresh basil leaves

Pinch of Iodize salt

1 twig of fresh rosemary leaves

Procedure:

Wash potato marble and place in microwavable dish.

Sprinkle salt, add 2 tablespoon butter or olive oil and mix well.

Bake for 15 minutes at 180 degrees until cooked.

Remove dish from oven and add chopped bacon, minced basil, rosemary and cheese then mix thoroughly.

Bake potato for another 10 minutes.

Chicken & Bacon Pasta Alfredo

I have to admit that weekdays are not always blissful and last weekend was a living and persistent proof that it is not. A stress-filled weekend can be treated in so many ways, some says shopping (which I thought of yesterday) can do magic but of course I tried so hard to keep my senses and conceded that this is not the most logical way to shake off stress (it will surely hurt). A good massage can also help but unfortunately, there are times that you are so stressed out that you think that a massage during war is counter -productive.

And so, after a weekend of death defying errands and Herculean tasks, I found myself craving for good pasta and so I prepare Chicken & Bacon Pasta in Alfredo Sauce. 

Ingredients:

• ¼ kilo chicken breast cut into cubes
• 100 grams sliced bacon
• 1 cup all purpose cream
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• ½ clove garlic, minced
• Pinch of salt, white pepper
• ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoon butter
• Fresh basil leaves
• 250 grams spaghetti

Procedure:

• Boil pasta until al dente and set aside.
• Pour olive oil and butter in a pan.
• Saute garlic and add chicken with a pinch of salt.
• Add bacon and white pepper until cooked.
• Pour all purpose cream and evaporated milk. Make sure that stove is in low fire.
• Add additional salt and pepper as needed.
• Add fresh basil leaves.
• Pour cooked pasta on the sauce.
• Finally, add Parmesan cheese.
• Serve hot and indulge.

Wow Dinuguan!

It’s been quite a while after my last blog. Days and nights had been hell busy but I always make it a point that I go back to either reading or writing. God has always been good despite the troubles and HE has given me time to write again.

Going home from an ephemeral night shift allows me to go straight to the market and buy what our kitchen requires. I was wondering yesterday if Dinuguan is a good “come back” article (LOL). And so I went straight to my “suking” meat stall and bought few kilos of pork (instead of pig’s innards) and dugo (pig’s blood). I would like to believe that not every cook or even chef in the country can cook the perfect Dinuguan. And of course, I assume that some of you have tried eating commercial Dinuguan maybe from Goldilocks, Mang Inasal or even at Lydia’s Lechon.  Among these three, I am inclined to eat it at Lydia’s Lechon if I succumbed to my cravings and come hell or high waters I won’t ever eat it at Mang Inasal.

Entering into a married life allows me to try new recipes and to experiment. Honestly, I have only tried to cook Dinuguan when I got married even though I know how to cook it way back high school and I owe to father and my ales. I have learned that if you know your VINEGAR and what it can do then you are off to a good Dinuguan. 

We should also remember that one of the main ingredients of this recipe is pig’s blood and cooking it with vinegar is the key to remove the unwanted stench (lansa). More so, some are using ginger for the recipe but I personally cannot consider that as an authentic Dinuguan. And I think that most of you are aware of another Dinuguan variant called Tinumis. As far as I know, the main difference is the consistency (Dinuguan is usually thicker than Tinumis) and the use of “usbong ng sampalok” (tamarind sprouts) while some other people use “kamias” to cook Tinumis.

In using vinegar on the recipe, we should take note that vinegar should be well cooked. The sign that your vinegar is cooked is when the pungent smell or taste is no longer there. Again, how you use your vinegar is the best way to remove the stench on pig’s blood and to have a delicious Dinuguan.

Furthermore, it is also essential how you add and stir the pig’s blood after sautéing your pork with crushed garlic and onion. You have to pour it gradually while continuously stirring it to avoid LUMPING of the blood. It is like doing the basic rue technique in a way as far as I remember my baking class way back.

Finally, do not forget to add your “siling pamaksiw” (green chilly) to add flavor in your Dinuguan.

For recipes and suggestion, do not hesitate to shoot me an email. By the way, I still owe 2 readers a recipe. Please bear with me, I just need to get my act back together and I will send it to both of you. 

Until next time. Boom!

Get High with Akay-akay

Looking back at my roots, I can always say that I have inherited a very good sense of appreciation for good food.  My taste buds were honed and exposed with different savor at a tender age.  Obando where I grew my ‘tahig’ from has a very rich history of gastronomy and a wide range of delicacies to offer as well as the neighboring municipalities like Malabon and Navotas.  An exemplary infusion of culture and food influences.

I remember the days that my siblings and I spent copious hours in our grandparent’s kitchen helping out in food preparation especially on occasions and holidays.  My memory of scrubbing batches of ‘talyasi’ and being literally inside it to forcibly remove burnt food particles is still excruciatingly crisp but conceded that it was all part of the deed. 

On this first blog I am hoping to share Gourmet Akay-akay from scratch and made the old fashion way.  I assume that most of you are not acquainted with the humble akay-akay.  For those who are not aware, akay-akay is made from sticky rice flour with sweetened mongo filing cooked with coconut milk.  Why the name?  Akay or akay-akay actually mean 'to led by hand'.  It was attributed on how each ball of sumptuous delicacy were lined up side by side in a aluminum tray as if they are holding each others hand.

It is cook by placing another aluminum tray with burning coconut husk on top of the akay-akay or you can also do it the modern way...yes, the oven!  For convenience, anyone can use the oven however, the burning coconut husk gives the akay-akay a very nice and distinct aroma and taste.

For the mean time, recipe is available upon request.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

 

Spaghetti and Mussel in Marinara Sauce

It never fail to amuse me that most Filipinos are so into Italian dishes to the  point that we can now consider it as one of our staple food.  I believe that you  would agree that in every children's party you attended in the past served tomato  base spaghetti  in different versions (most on the sweet side ofcourse).  A proof  that most of us love to eat spaghetti, some are  so innovative and creative that  they start using tomato ketchup (catsup) or worst, banana  ketchup which I  personally despise.

Just last week, I heard a knock on the door and when I opened it, I saw our  neighbor wearing a familiar smile shoving a plate of the ketchup base spaghetti  on my face.  I assumed that it was her son's birthday who is about 6 years old.  To  my surprise she told me that it was her father's birthday, the celebrator is  around his late 50's.

On my second blog, I prepared  Spaghetti and Mussel in Marinara Sauce.  The  marinara sauce I made the hard way from blanching of ripe red tomatoes, peeling  off the skin and removing the seed and sauteing it in olive oil.  Then I added salt,  garlic,  ground pepper, oregano and basil.  Marinara sauce is commonly spicier  that of the regular tomato sauce.

Why with mussels (tahong)?  If you are tired with meat balls or ground pork or  beef on your spaghetti then you can go seafoods.  I  preferably used mussels  because of its availability but you may also try clams, squid or even fish fillet.

More so, I  also remember that I used to sell mussel and fish with my mother way back  when I was seven years old.  My mother would carry two pails, one with the  modest GG and the other full of mussels and me carrying the weighing scale and  plastics (super FLASHBACK!).
I also recommend to add Parmesan and Romano cheeses in the sauce while  cooking for an even and enhance flavor.