Stewed Pork and Pumpkin

This recipe was inspired from My Recipes, Stewed Pork and Squash.  I altered and modified the ingredients.  The main ingredients like the part of the pork and the veggie, were not available at the time I bought them.  Moreover, I did not include the chili powder cos I have a child who don't like strong spices yet.  What's more, I replaced the ground red pepper to just ordinary crushed black pepper.  On top of that, I used chicken cube instead of a broth.  

Here's my version - 

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon canola oil 

1 medium red onion, chopped 

1 teaspoon of garlic, minced 

at least 1/2 kg pork, twee bak, sliced at least 1/2 inch

1 teaspoon of ground cumin 

1/4 teaspoon of crushed black pepper

1 (15-ounce) can Hunts stewed tomatoes, undrained

1 1/2 cups of water

1 Knorr chicken cube

less than a pound pumpkin, cut into cubes 

fish sauce or salt to taste 

Preparation:

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat.  Add onion and garlic, saute until onions are soft, stirring frequently.  Add crushed black pepper, stir.  Add pork.  Stir and cook for few minutes until pork change color, not raw.  Stir in stewed tomatoes, add water and chicken cube.  Bring to a simmer.  Cover in low heat and simmer until the pork is tender, stirring occasionally.  Add the pumpkin then simmer until the vegetable are soft.  Add fish sauce to taste.  Good for 4 pax. 

The dish was great.  It was flavorful even without the other spices.  I believed if I did not modify the ingredients, the dish will be more savory.  By the way, I find the recipe in the budget meal category.  

Korean Sweet Pancakes

Flashback... 

About a year ago, I tried the recipe of Casaveneracion's Hoddeok (hotteok) or Korean Sweet Pancakes.  This was the time that my oven was broken.  Anyways, her recipe was easy to follow cos she took effort of taking photos per instruction and the ingredients were not hard to find.   When I want to try new recipe I often visit her blog.  To know more about the pancake and the recipe, just visit her site ;-P

Sinigang Fried Chicken

Not long ago, there's an appetizing yet effortless photo from one of the Chef I followed on Instagram.  I've never heard and tried the "Sinigang Fried Chicken."  Based on his post, it really looks delish!!  Yeah, chef's hashtag food-porn are Instagram worthy.  Based on  the name of the dish, I thought the recipe was simple.    Right away, I'd searched for the recipe.   Find a few, so here's  my version of the dish ;-)

Sure-enough, it was easy-peasy!!  

You only need:
1x whole chicken, cut into desired pieces;
generous amount of fish sauce;
1x 40g Knorr Sinigang sa Sampalok Mix Original;
Corn flour (available on hand) & 
Canola oil for frying

Marinate the chicken with fish sauce and Sampalok mix for an hour.  Before frying, coat chicken with corn flour.  

Of course, the flavor was really sour, tamarind hehe.  Initially, my son who is not used to the tamarind flavor especially adding it to the fried chicken, he did not like much.  When I cooked tamarind base soup I only give him a small portion of the soup, that's why.  Anyway, the rest of the family enjoyed the twist.  Update, the next day while he was eating lunch (leftover chix), he told me he already liked the tamarind fried chix!! hehe

Oh wait, just so you know here's the post of the Chef ;-P 

Yeah, I have a feeling you are laughing haha, chos!! Cos my version versus his was, aaahh!! Meh?!  Well, please remember "don't judge the book by its cover" haha!! I know the Chef has a secret ingredient and mine was only the obvious.  Anyways.

This dish is worth the try.  Till next time!! 

Day 26: Meatballs Soup with Misu

Our dinner.  Here’s the recipe. . .

You need:

For the meatballs: 230g minced pork; 1pc medium size carrot, shredded; 1pc medium onion, minced; 3pc cloves garlic, minced or shredded; 2 tbsp flour; 1pc egg; 1/4 tsp dried parsley; salt and pepper to taste.

For the soup: 1 pc medium onion, minced; cooking oil; 4 1/2 cups of water; fish sauce; 1pc pork cubes; 50g flour vermicelli or misu; and pepper to taste.

Optional: 2pc corn cub, cut small

1. Combine all together meatball ingredients.
2. In a casserole, heat cooking oil and saute onions.  Add water and bring to boil.  Add the pork cubes and small amount of fish sauce about 2tbsp. 
3. Once water is boiling, form a ball on meatball mixture then drop carefully on soup.  Simmer until meatballs ready.  Optional: while simmering you can add the corn cub.
4. Add the flour vermicelli and season to taste.  Simmer for a few minutes. 
5. Serve hot and enjoy.

Baked Mussel @ 261 !

I finally made it! This recipe had been on my list a long time ago :D just waiting for a very good fresh mussel.  This is the other part of my post A Mussel Day, kindly refer to the link on how to clean the mussels.



For Baked Mussels you will need:

• 1 kilo fresh mussels
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3 to 5 cloves garlic, minced or shredded
• 1/2 cup grated cheese

1. Place cleaned mussels on cooking pan with no water.  Cover and cook over moderate heat.  It is ready when shells open up.  Discard closed shells if any.  Drain the water.  Let it cool.
2. Preheat oven at 250F.
3. Prepare baking tray.  Remove top shell and line shell in baking tray.
4. In small bowl, combine the shredded garlic and melted butter.
5. Brush each mussel meat with butter and garlic mixture.
6. Top with grated cheese.
7. Baked in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
8. Serve while hot and enjoy!

For info, one baked mussel have 261 calories :D

A Soaking Prep for Suman Sa Lihiya

Later I will be making Suman Sa Lihiya.  Right now, I am soaking the glutinous rice with water for at least three hours.  I’ve never done this before and either my parents.  Wish me luck and I hope this works :P

A Mussel Day

It’s been long that I’ve not bought mussels.  Often when I see in market (not regularly) it not good, its dead and mostly shells are already open.  As I’ve been wanting since last year to prepare baked mussels.

I was so fortunate this time when I went to wet market today!  His mussels were all good, so I bought one kilo at $3.50! Yehey!!

I’m still in the process of cleaning the mussels. How to clean the mussels?

1. Check your mussels one by one, discard mussels that are open and shells that are broken. 
2. Place in a bowl and wash mussels several times.  After washing several times and still you see that water still dirty, its okay. 
3. Cover with water and place in fridge to soak for several hours.  Please change water at least every hour. 
4. When your ready to cook the mussel, wash the mussels again and pull the beards and clean the shells with knife or kitchen scissors.  Check again for open shells if any then discard. 
5. Then its ready to cook.

In a little while, I will be making baked mussels for our dinner! Happiness!

P.S. I just noticed from the photo that one shell's open.  Actually, that one is not dead, after a while it did closed :) 

Buffalo Chicken Wings Stick

If you like buffalo chicken wings, try this homemade buffalo recipe and surely you will love this!

I found this from All Recipes.  I thought it was easy and simple and true enough it was really easy and I love the flavor.

I didn’t follow everything.  Like the flour mixture, I just used my available chicken breading mix.  And for the butter and hot sauce mixture, I used regular tomato sauce and shredded garlic.

The important direction that I strictly followed was refrigerating the chicken with flour mixture for 60 to 90 minutes.  I made mine for 90 minutes.

So these are the ingredients:

• 10 chicken wings stick
• 1/2 cup chicken breading mix
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1 clove garlic, shredded or minced
• oil for deep frying

1. Wash chicken and drain.  In mixing bowl, coat chicken evenly with chicken breading mix. Cover and refrigerate for 60 to 90 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a deep fryer.  Fry coated chicken until golden brown. Set aside.
3. In a cooking pot, heat butter until melted.  Add the garlic and tomato sauce.  Mix all together and turn off heat. 
4. In same cooking pot of your butter-sauce mixture, add the fried chicken and stir together. 

Please note that you can alter your sauce with butter mixture.  You can purely use hot sauce (from original recipe) if you can tolerate the spiciness .  Or you can actually mix the hot sauce and regular tomato sauce as long as the butter and red sauce mixture are of equal parts.  Lastly, the refrigerating process of chicken and flour mixture made the chicken crispy :)

Paksiw na Pata

My Paksiw na Pata version was inspired by a dear friend of mine and touch of Nora Daza.   I learned to cooked this when we were new here in Singapore.  I almost forgot this recipe until I read it from Let’s Cook with Nora.

My friend said, the only important thing I should remember when cooking this recipe that the vinegar, soy sauce, and brown sugar should be in equal parts. 

You need:

• 1 large pata or pig’s feet
• 1/2 head garlic, crushed
• 1 laurel or bay leaf
• 1/2 cup dried banana blossoms, soaked in water
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• peppercorn

Clean pata.  In large cooking pot or pressure cooker, combine all the ingredients except banana blossoms.  Bring to boil and remove scum if using a regular large pot.  Simmer until meat is tender.  Add more water as needed if cooking in regular pot.  No need to add water in pressure cooker.  Add banana blossoms and simmer for few minutes more.  Serve hot and enjoy!

Sarap to the bones

Oh la la, I enjoyed the version of Panlasang Pinoy's Max's Style Fried Chicken.  We all love it!! Sarap to the bones talaga! The whole chicken was steamed with spices and deep fried with salt and pepper.  Please note that aside from his ingredients, I added ginger and star anise from one of his reader's comments/suggestions.  The skin even the bone was really crispy and the meat is not dry. 

Servings: good for 4 to 6 person (share share) serve with rice and other side dish.  Best for 1 to 2 person with or without rice - oh la la the best!! 

So really really really happy that I bought a steamer pot few days ago.  Just so you know, my hubby gave me money so I could buy new clothes.  Instead I bought few kitchen stuffs again, wehehe.  Okie okie, its worth it.  Cos above all, I enjoy and love food (Priority A) more than fashion stuffs (Priority C) hi hi.

Um, about the fried chicken, will definitely cook this again and again!!! Thanks so much Panlasang Pinoy!! :)

Coming up: Puto Rice Muffiin from Asia Recipe.

 

Crispy Pata

This morning, I imagined myself eating crispy pata (pork leg) :D.  Glad my hubby was off from his work today so I went to market just to buy one, happy I found a nice pork leg.



From market, I requested to cut it by 4 parts.

What to do:

• After cleaning and removing hair, if any, boil the pork leg (just like cooking pork stew/nilaga) with peppercorns, onions, garlic and water. Bring to boil and remove scum.  Add pork cube and fish sauce.  Simmer until tender (When its really tender, when fried - for sure sure its crispy, like major major crispy :d).  I actually cooked it with pressure cooker for 30 minutes. 
• Remove the meat from stew, let it cool and dry for few minutes (put in fridge).  By the way, I left a portion of meat for my kids in soup for their meal, they prefer soup/stew than fry;
• Once cool and dry, dust meat with ground black pepper and rub with Maggi Magic Sarap All-in-One Seasoning granules;
• Deep fry in a deep saucepan until tiny blisters appear on the skin.  And chop into desired pieces.

Serve with your favorite sauce and rice.  Well, my crispy pata was really crispy and delicious!!

Enjoy and good luck :)

Homemade Doughnuts

After Churros, the next thing I had in mind is to try making doughnuts :)  Well, I did it this afternoon for our snack, original plan was for breakfast but I can't get up in bed early due to nice weather.  The recipe was inspired by Crispy and Cream Doughnuts by Kelly from All Recipes. 

The original recipe yields 18x but I changed the servings to 9 doughnuts.  Since this is my first try, don't want to waste too much and 18 pieces are too many for my family.  From there, I followed the ingredients for 9x doughnuts and the procedure as well.  The dough was ready at least an hour when I checked  but I started the direction #3 after two hours cos I was busy this afternoon doing other chores.  Then the rising of the cut doughnut to make it rise again was at least 15 minutes.  Based on the photos, dunno if I fried too long  but it's not over cooked when I tasted it.  It was yummy.  Actually, my doughnuts yielded more than 9 pieces, but I forgot to take note of it.  I wonder how it taste if I bake it?  Anyways, I'm happy my family likes it.  Best serve with coffee :)  Go ahead try the recipe and enjoy!! :)

Ube Halaya

Finally, I found purple yam or purple sweet potato (not actually sweet) in grocery store.  As far as I know, there are only few who sells purple yam in Singapore, as one of the locals have told me that only few people in Singapore buy purple yam.  Been longing for this dessert, my old time favorite.  I love the ube jam from Baguio.  So here’s my version of Ube Halaya. 




You need:

• 1 kg purple sweet potato / purple yum
  
• 14 oz / 1 can condensed milk
  
• 1/2 cup butter

Procedure:

1. Boil purple yam until cooked. Drain from water.
   
2. Peel and mashed with fork.
   
3. In low heat, melt butter in non stick cooking pot.  Add condensed milk and stir to combine.
   
4. Add the mashed purple yam then continue stirring until the mixture becomes very thick for about 10 minutes or so.
   
5. Transfer mixture into a mold or container and let cool.
   
6. Refrigerate for at least an hour, then serve.

Result: To be honest, the texture was quite dry.  But the taste was yummy, even the sweetness was fine.  Next time, should I cut down the purple yum a bit? Hmm if I cut down, for sure it will be more sweet and I don't like that to happen.  Any suggestion?  Ha, I will google for other recipe.  Well, will keep you posted when I make another one :)
  
14 Sep 2010 Update:  Pls visit My Improved Ube Halaya recipe :) 

Churros

My hubby and I were watching The Legend is Born - IP Man movie the other day.  There’s a scene when the actress was frying a bread stick and suddenly I thought of Churros.  So I searched for the recipe and found two versions of ingredients.  Others had it with eggs and butter.  Well, I chose the simple ingredient and procedure by All Recipes.  For this recipe, I used a biscuit pump like this one…



I tried it today for our snack.  Here’s my version. . .

Ingredients:  1 cup water; 2 1/2 tablespoons white sugar; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons cooking oil; 1 cup flour; cooking oil for deep fry; 3 tablespoons white sugar; and a sprinkle of ground cinnamon (adjust according to preference).

Procedure:

1. In a small plate, combine sugar and ground cinnamon.  Set aside.
2. In a non stick sauce pan over medium heat, mix water, sugar, salt and cooking oil.  Bring to boil and turn off heat.
3. Add the flour into the boiling water mixture and stir until it forms a ball.
4. Heat oil in a deep frying pan, make it very hot.
5. While waiting for the oil, I put the mixture inside the biscuit pump.  Pipe the mixture using biscuit pump (desired length). Instead of directly piping it into the hot oil, place it on the plate with glad paper.  Then fry until golden brown and drain on paper towels.
6. Roll the churros in the sugar and cinnamon mixture. 

Result: It was crunchy and very good! The fried bread itself without sugar and cinnamon mixture tasted good already.   The recipe will satisfy 2 to 3 persons.  Serve with coffee or  hot chocolate drink.  Best with chocolate dip.  Serve For breakfast or snacks.  Try it and enjoy!!:)

Here’s a video for your guidance.  Warning: not English :D

Dancing Chef: Yellow Curry Paste

If you want a curry that is not spicy, try this Yellow Curry Paste pack from Dancing Chef.  Per label at the back, it says “…Yellow Curry is a mild, yet full-flavored and intensely aromatic curry that can be enjoyed by the young and old alike.”  Sure enough, my whole family enjoyed the taste.  They more like the non-spicy compare to Thai Green Chicken Curry.  So I’m the only spicy person in our family :p  For the record, it was the first time that my kids tasted curry, glad they ate it.  And as a family, we never tried curry in resto/ outside, so when I see others eating I’m actually drooling.  I can’t order cos I can't eat it all by myself.  So I tried cooking it at home, our second curry meal.  The recipe for this is the same as the Thai Green Chicken Curry.