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!