Pork Steak

A grade 1 pupil can very well do a steak- fish, pork or beef. It is so easy and doesn't cost much. That's why when we had lunch one day at Antonio's in Tagaytay, I really was astounded when our gracious host paid a total of eighteen thousand pesos plus plus for our lunch of grilled certified angus beef prime rib eye steak, (with so much borloloy, of course, salads and drinks). I don't really care if Antonio's is included in the Miele Guide. I just think it is too pricey there.But in all fairness, the place is really beautiful and the salads great.

Here's a very simple steak recipe which I enjoy cooking for the family. you will need-

Pork steak (buy from the supermarket because they have the best cuts.The markets may offer fresher ones but they can't cut it the same way.)
salt, black pepper, msg
worcestershire sauce
kalamansi juice ( two pieces per cut)
a little brown sugar

Procedure:

Wash the steak cuts. Drain then rub with salt and calamansi. Add the black pepper and msg and rub on both sides of the cuts. Drizzle with worcestershire sauce. Marinate overnight. Bake for 45 mins at 350 deg. Goes well with veggies or salads.

Pochero

Cooking a dish like pochero saves me money and time. In just one preparation, I get to serve my family both meat and veggies. Plus, it has ingredients which my young grandsons love to eat- potatoes and carrots. Here's what you need-

Chicken (pecho or thighs), cut into 2- inch slices
Pork (kasim), cut into 2 inch slices
2 pcs Chorizo de Bilbao, sliced diagonally into 3 pcs
 (never use Chinese chorizo, it's good only for pancit)
garlic & onion
Cabbage, sliced about 2 inches long
Pechay Baguio, sliced about 2 inches long
Baguio beans, stringed then sliced  diagonally into two pieces
carrots, sliced or flowered or butterflied
cauliflower or broccoli (optional)
leeks, sliced about 2 inches long
sweet potato or camote, peeled, sliced into 2 inch pieces and fried
potato, peeled, sliced into 2 inch pieces and fried
ripe saba bananas, peeled, sliced diagonally into two pieces and fried
tomato sauce
1 can Pork & Beans (a good substitute for chick peas or garbanzos;
     I learned this from my Kumareng Alice O.)
seasonings (salt & msg)
cornstarch slurry

Directions:

Put the sliced pork and chicken in a stockpot. Cover with enough water then bring to a boil. Put a little salt once it starts boiling. Chicken cooks earlier than pork, so once done, remove it from the stockpot and set aside. When pork is done, set it aside. Reserve the stock.

Meanwhile, fry the camote, potato and banana slices one by one. Set aside. Roll in the chorizos in the same  oil. Remove and set aside once slightly browned. Saute garlic and onions.Add the chicken-pork  stock. Once it starts boiling, add the tomato sauce followed by pork and beans. Season.  Put in the browned chorizos first so its flavors will mix with the stock.. Then add the previously boiled pork and chicken. Slowly add the cornstarch slurry to thicken. Add the veggies one by one beginning with the carrots, Baguio beans, cauliflower, cabbage, pechay baguio and leeks. Stir in the fried veggies. Let simmer. Serve hot.

Fresh Garden Pasta

There are times when I get tired of preparing and eating pasta with either a red or a white sauce. When I look at food websites, all I see are "sauced" pasta. Until I came across a recipe of a sauceless pasta from no less than...Richard Gomez. I tried it once and now it has become a regular dish in my dining table. Here's how to do it-

Spaghetti, cooked al dente
white onions, cubed, lots of it
red bell pepper, seeded,cubed
green bell pepper, seeded, cubed
carrot, peeled, cubed
fresh basil leaves, minced
olive oil
parmesan cheese
ham, cubed
Salt, pepper, seasoning


Cook spaghetti, drain and set aside.
Heat oil in a wok and fry the cubed ham until it becomes golden brown.Set aside.
Add a little more olive oil depending on the amount of pasta to be cooked.
Put all the cubed veggies all at the same time and stir fry for a minute or two. Do not overcook. Season. Add in the fried ham cubes and then the pasta. Stir and see to it that all the pasta noodles are covered by olive oil. Slowly add in parmesan cheese and basil leaves while turning the pasta and veggies over and over.
Serve hot with lots of cheese

Suwam na Alimasag

The hubby wanted soup, pronto! But market day is still on Saturday. So I took a peep in the ref. I found-

left over Alimasag na matataba
Spinach ( i think Popeye's blood runs in my veins)
Ginger
a pack of Misua

When i make suwam, i don't saute the ingredients. I want to eliminate oil in our food as much as possible. Anyway, my oldies used to make suwam this way. So, I chopped an average size onion and together with the crushed ginger, I put them in a stockpot with enough water and let it boil. I half-opened the alimasag so that its flavors will mix with the water, onion and ginger. When the stock boils, I added the alimasag and the misua at the same time, let it boil some more and added the seasonings ( patis and msg- really, I have no issues with msg). I put off the fire and added the spinach.

We had soup, pronto!

Fresh Shabu-Shabu

The term fresh in this recipe refers to the main ingredients used. My very good friend, Arch. Lito De Dios, once served us a soup dish made by his wife, my Mareng Jhona. They called it Shabu-Shabu. For the main ingredients, they used crabstick and different kinds of fishballs available at the supermarket section of SM.It was a hit among us- mga majojondang thunders.

One time while I was making a list of what to cook for a small family gathering, I thought I would make this soup using fresh ingredients but following the directions the De Dios couple taught us. Here it is-

Ingredients:

Fresh alimasag, yung matataba, pwedeng hatiin sa dalawa para lumasa sa sabaw
Fresh tahong, yung malalaki
Fresh halaan
Fresh hipon, yung medyo malaki
Greens like dahong sili or leeks or kung sosyal ka, spinach
Finely minced white onions
2-3 beef cubes
cornstarch slurry to thicken the soup
salt or patis, black or white pepper, msg (if it is a non-issue to you)
Sesame oil

Directions:

In a stockpot, boil enough water for your needs. (Matuto kang tumantya nang maayos, ha?) Once it boils, put all the minced onions. Let it continue to boil. Then stir in the beef cubes. Add the alimasag, tahong, hipon and halaan one after the other. Stir. Season with salt or patis, black or white pepper and msg. Add the cornstarch slurry and continue stirring until the soup becomes thick. The thickness should depend on your own preference. Lastly, drizzle in sesame oil. The amount depends on, as my friend Lito said, "kung gano kalasang Intsik ang gusto mo". Put the greens just before serving.

Best to serve this soon after cooking. Reheating spoils the flavor.

Ooooopppppssss, mainit, hipan mo muna baka mapaso ang dila mo.

Fried Brown Rice

If I had lots of time in my hands, I would probably cook fried rice everyday. Left-overs, especially meats and sausages, make it a more festive dish. With left-overs, there is no need to scrimp. Pwede silang ilagay lahat since their shelf life is already very short. I have often used left-over menudo and asado for fried rice. And the carrots and siling pula stuck down in the crisper, minus the crispiness, can still very well be utilized.

However, it is still best to serve dishes with the freshest ingredients. I just discovered that brown rice is the best for fried rice concoctions. When boiled or steamed, it is not sticky. The best term to describe it is "buhaghag", which makes it very easy to turn over and over in the kawali or talyasi, depending on the amount one is cooking.

For this dish, one will need:

Brown rice, previously boiled
Minced garlic, lots of it
Chopped Onions, lots of it, too
Diced carrots
Diced red and green bell pepper
Green Peas
Corn kernels
Leeks, chopped thinly, lots of it
2 pcs Bockwurst or Chorizo de Bilbao, sliced about 1/4 inch thickdiagonally
2 scrambled eggs, diced
Salt and msg
Cooking oil and Butter (Daricreme buttermilk is a good substitute)

Fry the scrambled eggs first to save on oil. Set aside. Brown garlic in cooking oil then add onions. Add butter and mix well. Add Bockwurst or chorizo, mix, and allow  its fat to be rendered. Add the veggies, starting with the carrots except the minced leeks. Then, put in the boiled brown rice, mixing everything well for some minutes. Turn the fried rice over and over using a siyansi so that the veggies and the sausages are well distributed. Season with salt and msg, if you have no issues with it. Lastly, add the diced scrambled eggs followed by the minced leeks. Continue stir frying for three more minutes. Serve with leeks on top.

No need for another ulam.

Shepherd's Pie

One of the easiest dishes to prepare is Shepherd's Pie.

We had this for our Easter breakfast yesterday. For this you will need:

Ground Pork or beef ( when using pork, I prefer kasim or lomo)
Garlic and Onion
Red & Green pepper
Carrots
Green peas
Corn (optional)
Seasonings (salt, pepper, laurel leaves, oyster sauce)
Potatoes (mashed with butter, cream, cheese, black pepper & salt

Procedure:

Cook the ground meat as you would cook ginisang giniling. Sangkutsahing mabuti para hindi malansa. Add the veggies one at a time, depending on which needs more cooking time. ( A good cook knows that!) Add a little cornstarch before putting it on a baking dish so the meat and veggies will stick together.

Prepare the mashed potatoes. The yukon gold variety is good for mashed potatoes. I tried mashing potatoes in a blender and while the consistency is smooth, it doesn't go well with the meat. So I tried mashing it manually with a potato masher ( courtesy of my son, Poy) with a little help from Mr. Fork and Mrs. Spoon. It was better than the blended one. Spread the cooked ground meat in a baking dish. Distribute the mashed potato evenly on top of the meat. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.Goes well with steamed rice or buns.

That easy!

Let's eat!

I barely have time to update my personal online diary yet here I am starting a new blog. This has been on my mind for months now but the comings and goings in my family have prevented me from starting at once.

Welcome to my food blog!

I am a cooking enthusiast. Since I was a little girl, I have always watched my elders prepare our food- no matter how simple they are. I owe my acquired kitchen skills  to the people who raised me- my Inang Tale and my aunts. I always take pride in telling people that I come from a family of cooks and that my Amang Juan, Inang Tale's husband, was a cook of Gen. Miguel Malvar.before they met and married. That was a long, long time ago. I have no way of checking its veracity, but I took it as a bible truth.

In this blog, I will be posting pictures of foods that I myself prepared. I will share the ingredients I used but will omit the quantity. I believe every home cook knows which is less and which is more when it comes to taste. Please don't expect chef-quality foods here as I don't have their expertise-yet. The dishes that I will feature are those that I usually prepare for my family and friends- nothing fancy, but edible and non-toxic.

This blog is dedicated to my fans, those who love whatever kitchen magic I come up with. In order of appearance in my life they are- Timmy, Popoy, Nad, Joefel, Ann, Bajek and Aja. And oh, I almost forgot, there is this lady, Sherilyn, from the Heart Station of the Capitol Medical Center who wants me to adopt her only because she loves what I cook. This is for her, too.

If you noticed that the hubby is missing in the list, that's because he, in all of his 60 years, only appreciate pangat, prito and nilagang gulay. Hahaha!

For this intro, let me just post a picture of me in my best size so far since staying home to do the cooking. See you around!