Bicol express

Bicol Express

1 can coconut milk (70%)
1 lb diced pork (I used shoulder, but belly is more traditional...just too much fat for me)
5-6 cubanelle peppers, sliced (you can vary the variety of pepper you use depending on the amount of heat you can tolerate)
3-4 thai bird chilies (optional, for added heat)
1/2 bottle alamang, drained and rinsed
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, sliced
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pan, boil pork until almost tender and the water has evaporated leaving the pork in its rendered fat.  Add the garlic and onions and saute for a few minutes until soft.  Add the drained alamang and coconut milk.  Simmer until the coconut milk is reduced to at least half, and the oil from the coconut milk floats to the top.  Add the chilies and simmer for another 10-15 minutes until the chilies are soft but not mushy.  Season with salt and pepper.

A few notes...

1.  Try to find coconut milk that has no added additives/preservatives.  The one I use is 70% coconut milk and water. That's it.  I find that the ones with added guar gum, etc, don't produce the coconut oil that is the mark of a true bicolano dish :)

2.  Whenever you cook with coconut milk, reduce it first before adding ingredients that cook quickly (like shrimp, veggies, etc).  It takes a while to reduce coconut milk, and if you add these ingredients too early, they will be overcooked before you get that nice reduction.

3.  Bicol express traditionally is chilies in coconut milk, with a bit of pork just for added flavor.  This version has a bit more pork to make it more substantial so it can be eaten on its own, and not just as a condiment, which is what bicol express usually is in the Bicol region.

Serve this with lots and lots of steamed rice!

Better Than Chicharon

Be still my beating heart! What could be better than thinly sliced pork belly, cooked until blistery and crunchy?

My mom gave me this recipe during her recent visit but my youngest sister has sworn me to secrecy so unfortunately I cannot, in good conscience, divulge the secret to this divine concoction. I can say though that it's boiled, dried then fried. The drying step is my own twist to the recipe.

I will live vicariously through this post, because I've decided that, for the sake of my lipid profile, I will only make this dish once a year.

Coconut milk bagoong

I just had a flash of genius, if I may say so myself. I decided to cook a small jar of Barrio Fiesta bagoong (spicy) with a cup or so of coconut milk. I let the coconut milk simmer and evaporate until all that was left was the coconut oil and the oil from the bagoong. The bagoong tasted a_m_a_z_i_n_g.

Sotanghon

For the longest time, we lived up the street from my maternal grandmother. She hailed from Pampanga, a province in the Philippines known for its zest for good food. From my lola, I learned how to eat durian, fried catfish, buro (don't ask what this is), and camaro or sosohong (don't ask either). She taught me how to eat with my hands and peel crabs like my life depended on it. I learned about matching the right sawsawan (dipping sauce) with the right food...vinegar with crushed garlic and black pepper with grilled pork, calamansi and patis with grilled fish, tomatoes with bagoong for fried milkfish, soy sauce with sili for paksiw na isda, ketchup with knorr for fried chicken. There were times when I had 3 or 4 small containers beside my plate just for my sawsawans!

One of my favorite dishes whenever we'd go to her house was sotanghon. I loved that sotanghon so much that I wouldn't eat sotanghon anywhere else. In my mind, nothing ever came close, and nothing still does. My lola has since passed and I have since moved to a different continent. But that sotanghon still remains, in my mind, an elusive ideal that no other sotanghon will approximate.

This version that I made for our New Year's celebration was very good, but it was not, and will never be, my lola's sotanghon.

Recipe:
3-4 pieces chinese sausage, sliced
1 whole chicken
1-2 heads of garlic, minced finely
3 tbsp. annato/atsuete seeds
3 celery stalks
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp. peppercorns
1 onion, quartered
300g peeled shimp, chopped or kept whole if they're small
1 cup dried wood ear mushrooms, rehydrated and sliced
5 pieces green onions, chopped, white parts separated from green parts
Sotanghon (bean thread noodles)
fish sauce, salt and pepper

Stock:
1. Place chicken in a stockpot and cover with water.
2. Place onion, celery, bay leaves and peppercorns in pot.
3. Add salt and let simmer for about 45 minutes until the chicken is cooked.
4. Remove chicken and let it cool.
5. Remove the flesh from the chicken and shred by hand into smallish pieces.
6. Meanwhile, strain the stock and remove excess fat.
7. Set aside both the chicken meat and the stock.

Topping:
1. Place annato seeds in a cup of oil (yes, that's right...one whole cup).
2. Heat gently until the seeds color the oil. Remove all the seeds and discard.
3. Place garlic in the same oil over medium to high heat and fry until the garlic is just about golden. Be careful not to burn the garlic! Drain and set aside.
4. In the same oil, saute the white parts of the green onion and the chinese sausage until the sausage is fully cooked.
5. Add the shrimp, chicken and mushrooms.
6. Season with fish sauce and pepper to taste.
7. Saute until the mixture is well incorporated and any liquid has evaporated.
8. Drain the oil and set the topping mixture and the oil aside.

Noodles:
1. In a large pan, place about a cup of the topping mixture along with the oil left over from sauteeing. Add about 3 cups of stock and bring to a simmer. Taste the stock and adjust seasoning at this point. This stock will flavor your noodles.
2. Add the noodles and let it absorb the stock.
3. Keep mixing gently, adding half-cupfuls of stock at a time and letting the noodles absorb the liquid. The amount of liquid you use will depend on your noodles.
4. When the noodles are done, set this aside.

Assembling:
1. Place noodles in serving dish.
2. Place toppings on top (where else?!)
3. Garnish with fried garlic and green parts of the green onion.

Enjoy!

Tapsilog

I've been on a posting spree today. I'm just scared that I'm going to lose these scraps of paper stuck to my fridge door with my tried-and-true recipes! So here's my version of tapa. Nope, not tapas, which has become so popular these days! I mean beef tapa, the Filipino breakfast dish of marinated beef, often served with garlic rice (sinangag) and eggs (itlog). The meal therefore is called TAPSILOG from TAPa, SInangag and itLOG.

There are endless variations to the SILOG:
*Tosilog - with Tocino (sweet marinated pork)
*Longsilog - with Longganisa (Filipino breakfast sausages, of which there are as many styles are there are provinces in the Philippines)
*Bangsilog - with Bangus, or milkfish (our national fish)
*Adsilog - with Adobo
*Cornsilog - with corned beef
*Spamsilog - with Spam, obviously
*Tusilog - with Tuyo, dried salted fish
*Tinsilog - with smoked fish

Anyways, you get the pictures. So on to the recipe...

2 lbs of sliced lean beef (1/8 to 1/4 inch thick works best)
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper (freshly cracked makes a big difference here)
1 whole head of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 tbsp. salt

1. In a large ziplock bag, put all the marinade ingreadients and swish around until incorporated.
2. Add beef and swish around again to make sure each piece of meat has been blessed by the vinegary goodness.
3. Keep in the fridge for about 24 hours. After this you can cook it, or store it in the freezer for a rainy day (both literally and figuratively...I just love breakfast food when it's raining outside)

To cook, place entire contents of bag in a non-stick pan with about 1/4 cup of oil. Turn heat up to medium-high and let marinade evaporate. During this time, I often take the opportunity to cut the meat into smaller, more manageable pieces (about 1x2 inches). I use tongs and kitchen shears and do this right on top of the pan. As the marinade evaporates, lower heat to medium and let the meat fry in the oil, keeping the meat moving so as not to have burnt spots. The sugar in the marinade will then become sort of like a glaze and will become sticky and shiny. Serve the tapa with eggs, rice and vinegar. Sliced fresh tomatoes with some scallions and fish sauce on the side doesn't hurt either.

Cheese Pimiento

Cheese + mayo + pimiento (roasted red peppers) + a secret ingredient = one of my favorite spreads in the world! Nothing brings back memories of afternoon meriendas like cheese pimiento sandwiches. I think this spread is best on simple white bread (none of this 7-grain, flax seed stuff) or Fita crackers (which I guess is the Filipino version of Ritz crackers).

To make this spread, I used one small block of Cracker Barrel extra old cheese, one jar of roasted red peppers (which contained about 8-9 whole peppers), Hellmans low fat mayo, and the secret ingredient....don't gasp....condensed milk(!!!)....yes, yes, it's unusual to say the least, but trust me on this.

This recipe couldn't be simpler:
1. Grate the cheese into a large bowl.
2. Mince the pimiento and drain very, very well. You may need to push the pimiento against your colander to get out as much liquid as possible. Add this to the cheese. The chopped pimiento, not the liquid, ok?
3. Add 6 heaping tablespoons of mayo.
4. Add 2-3 heaping teaspoons of condensed milk.
5. Mix well.

The intermingling of the saltiness of the cheese, the tangy creaminess of the mayo, the kick of the pimiento and the hint of sweetness from the condensed milk is truly addicting.

Molo Soup

The fall weather is upon us and when the chill in the air is beginning to show its face, there is nothing more comforting than a bowl of soup.

Molo soup is a Filipinized version of wonton soup and it's basically made from very similar ingredients. I personally think that Molo soup tastes better...but that's just me :-)

1 lb. lean ground pork
1 lb. peeled shrimp, finely chopped
1 onion, minced finely
1 carrot, minced finely
3 tbsp. oyster sauce
salt and pepper
70-80 wonton wrappers
1/2 chicken or 2 bone in chicken breasts, boiled and shredded (use this to make your chicken broth)
2 heads garlic, minced
4 spring onions, chopped
8 cups chicken broth

Step 1: Make the filling
1. Combine pork, shrimp, carrot onion, and oyster sauce.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Mix well until thoroughly combined.
Note: The food processor makes very quick work of this.
4. Set aside 4-5 tablespoons of the mixture and use the rest to make the wontons.
5. Place half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of filling in each wonton wrapper. Seal edges with a bit of water. Set aside.
Note: To see if seasoning is ok, I usually nuke a small bit in the microwave for 10-15 seconds so I can actually taste it before I go ahead and make the wontons.

Step 2: Fry garlic in oil until slightly golden.
This is a very important step. The savory, crunchy bits of garlic floating on the soup makes this dish. No garlic, no molo soup.
Note: Do this in the soup pot where you will actually make your soup so you can use the garlic infused oil to saute the soup base.

Step 3: Make the soup
1. Saute half of the chopped spring onions in the garlic infused oil for a few seconds.
2. Add the meat/shrimp mixture and break it up as you saute.
3. Add the shredded chicken.
4. Pour in the chicken broth.
5. When the soup is boiling, drop the wontons ever so gently in the broth, stirring gently after every few pieces so they don't stick to each other.
6. Season to taste with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper.
7. Simmer for 15 minutes or so.

Step 4: Assemble the dish
Ladle soup into bowls and top with fresh spring onions and fried garlic. Enjoy with eyes closed. Feel the warmth of the broth take away the chill of the nippy fall air.

Note: This recipe serves 8-10 people. If that's too much, keep some of the wontons and fry them up another time. It's excellent dipped in sweet chili sauce.

Callos ala Madrilena

I've mentioned that being under Spanish rule for 300 years has left an indelible mark on Filipino culture. This dish is another testament to that.

I grew up with my mom's Callos frequently gracing the buffet table during special occasions like Christmases and birthdays. As a child, I often skipped over this dish and gravitated toward more mainstream fare like pasta and fried chicken and lechon. But as I got older and my tastebuds matured, I began to appreciate the complex marriage of the tripe, chorizo and ham, slowly simmered until the flavors became one. It's been a while since I've had my mom's Callos...years and years and years. But the memory has been imprinted in my culinary consciousness.

I was walking around the grocery one day, and lo and behold, they had lots and lots of tripe! Cleaned, parboiled and packaged ever so neatly, they called to me and gave me the perfect opportunity to finally try my hand at making one of my mom's specialties. After I bought the tripe, off to the Latin market I went to buy fresh chorizos and a day later, there it was.

I didn't have a recipe so I cooked it al oido (which literally translates to by ear...my mom uses this phrase a lot to mean just play it by ear/just wing it/make it up as you go along...anyway, you get the idea). It turned our really well. Really, really well. And there was A LOT of it. Much more than what our family of four could consume. Besides, the 2 kids weren't crazy about tripe. It was seredipitous that a day later, we were going to Tito O and Tita M's house to celebrate Lola H's 96th (!!!) birthday. So I brought this huge container of Callos and it became part of a wonderful celebration, just like the Callos of my childhood.

Callos ala Madrilena

400 g beef tendon, sliced into 1-inch pieces
500 g tripe, cleaned and sliced into 2 inch long strips
3 pcs. chorizo (sliced if using canned/dried, removed from casing and crumbled if using fresh)
1-2 cups chopped ham
1/2 cup olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 red pepper, diced
2 tsp. smoked paprika
1 can tomato paste
1 can whole tomatoes
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. chili flakes
1/2 cup grated sharp cheese
1 cup green olives, drained
2 tbsp. knorr seasoning
1-2 cups beef broth
1 large can chick peas/garbanzos, drained
sugar to taste
salt to taste

1. In a large, heavy pot, saute the onion and pepper in the olive oil until soft.
2. Add the chorizo and saute until it renders it fat.
3. Add ham, paprika and tomato paste.
4. Add the tripe and tendon and saute for a couple of minutes.
5. Add the tomato paste, tomatoes, pepper, chili flakes, knorr and pepper.
6. Cover with a tight lid and simmer slowly for 4-5 hours, until the tripe and tendon are very tender. Check every so often to stir and make sure that it doesn't dry up. Add beef broth as needed just to keep the sauce going.
7. When tender, add garbanzos, olives and cheese. Adjust seasoning with salt and sugar.
8. Simmer for 15 minutes more to help all the flavors meld together.

The seasoning of this dish will depend a lot on the flavor of the chorizo that you use. I was lucky enough to find fresh chorizo. But I'm sure canned or dried chorizo would taste just as good. The amount of salt you will need depends on how salty the other components of the dish are, so wait until everything is tender and adjust your seasonings then.

Sugar is something that I think many people underuse when cooking savory dishes, especially tomato-based ones. Vine-ripened tomatoes are very sweet and when picked at the peak of their flavor probably would not need any additional sugar. However, I find that canned tomatoes lose a lot of that sweetness and they often do not have that balance of sugar and acid. So I often will add a pinch (or more) of sugar to many of my tomato-based dishes. Of course this is a matter of preference and if you don't like any hint of sweetness in your savories, just omit this ingredient. You will regret it though. Hehe!

Crispy Pata

Filipinos have a long-standing love affair with crisp, crackling pork skin. That's understandable, right? Who can resist biting into a piece of lechon or chicharon or bagnet or lechon kawali? But I think my favorite of all crunchy-skinned pork dishes is crispy pata. Because not only do you have the crackling skin, you also have the tender, gelatinous sinews of the pork hock.

Traditional crispy pata is a pork hock, boiled in seasoned water, dried for a while, then deep fried until the skin turns blistered and golden. I don't have the time, patience or equipment to do all that, so I tried crispy pata in my turbo broiler and it came out great! Yay!!! No longer do I have to go out to partake of this gastronomic delight...I can't have it right here, in the comfort of my own home, where I can gnaw on the bones to my heart's content.

1. Take a pork hock and rub generously with salt and pepper.
2. Cook in the turbo at 300 until skin turns brown and crisp. Mine took about an hour.
3. Flip the hock and turbo for about 20 minutes more to get everything cooked just right.
4. Serve with a sauce made with 1 part soy sauce, 1 part vinegar, sugar and chopped onions. Chili peppers are optional.

Caldereta

This dish is proof of the immense influence the Spanish had on Filipino cooking. It's difficult not to imbibe so much of a culture that was around for more than 300 years, pretty much permeating everything from our religion, to our names, our language, and our food. I think this is what makes Filipino food so different from those of our Southeast Asian neighbors. Because the Philippines was under Spanish rule for so long, add to that the omnipresence of the Chinese, Filipino food, as a final product, is truly an amalgamation of Malay, Hispanic and Chinese cuisines.

Caldereta is essentially a beef stew, along the lines of osso buco and other occidental stews, but the use of coconut milk makes it decidedly Filipino. This dish is considered "celebration food," served during birthdays, fiestas and other gatherings. It's a Friday. In my book, that is always cause for celebration.

Caldereta

2 lbs. beef, cubed
1 medium onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1/2 can whole tomatoes (about 4-5 pieces and half the juice)
salt
pepper
1/2 cup beef broth
2 tbsp. soy sauce
2 cups coconut milk
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 red pepper, cut into strips
1 cup drained whole olives

1. Season beef with salt and pepper.
2. In a heavy pot, like a dutch oven, brown beef on all sides.
3. Add onion and garlic.
4. Add tomatoes, crushing them as you add them.
5. Add soy sauce, bay leaves and beef broth.
6. Cover pot and simmer over low heat until beef is tender, about 2 hours.
7. Add potatoes, red peppers, olives and coconut milk. Adjust seasoning with salt as needed.
8. Simmer uncovered for 15-20 more minutes until potatoes are done and sauce has thickened.

Pork and Long Beans in Coconut Milk

I mentioned before that I come from a region in the Philippines which is known for cooking everything with coconut milk. I've successfully passed on my love for coconut milk to the hubby and the boys, hence the ubiquity of coconut milk-based dishes in this blog :-)


Pork and Long Beans in Coconut Milk

1 lb. lean pork, cut into strips
1 can coconut milk (about 2 cups)
1 medium onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 slices ginger
2 thai chilis, chopped (optional but highly recommended)
3 tbsp. shrimp paste (Barrio Fiesta brand)
salt to taste
1 bunch long beans, cut into 2-inch pieces

1. Simmer coconut milk, pork, ginger, garlic, onions, shrimp paste and pepper until pork is tender and coconut milk has rendered some oil (about 20 minutes).
2. Season with salt to taste.
3. Add long beans.
4. Simmer for 5 minutes more until long beans are cooked but still has some crunch.

Adobo sa Gata (Adobo in Coconut Milk)

Adobo is probably the quintessential Filipino dish. This dish, which is a stew of a protein in vinegar, garlic, black pepper, and soy sauce, can be found in practically every Filipino household. There are endless variations...more soy sauce, no soy sauce, dry, saucy, twice fried, chicken, pork, chicken and pork, etc., etc.

I posted a favorite recipe a few weeks back, but today I decided to try something new. Adobo sa gata is a dish popular in Marinduque, an island province in the Philippines. I based my recipe on the one in "The Best of Food Magazine Cookbook" and I just tweaked it a little bit.

12 chicken pieces (I used legs)
2 tbsp. cooking oil
4 tbsp. vinegar
2 1/2 tsp. salt (to taste)
1 tsp. ground black pepper
3 thai chilis
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 slices ginger
2 bay leaves
1 medium onion, sliced
2 tsp. turmeric powder
2 cups coconut milk

1. In a pan, heat oil and brown chicken pieces well.
2. Lower heat and add salt, pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, bay leaves and vinegar.
3. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes until almost all of vinegar has evaporated, flipping chicken pieces once.
4. Add coconut milk and simmer for about 20 minutes.
5. Best served with white rice (like many other things).

This recipe was a hit with the boys! Definitely a "make again" dish!

Adobo Flakes

Any Filipino cook worth his/her salt will know how to make adobo. This dish of meat stewed in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves and pepper is prepared in almost every household in the Philippines. But each region, each province and each cook will have his or her own variation of this ubiquitous dish.

This version of mine is by far my favorite way of cooking adobo. I don't make it often because it involves many steps and dirties up so many pots and dishes. But when I do, I make a huge batch enough for 3 meals or so. I serve one portion and freeze the rest so we can reheat the adobo and have it when we feel like having something truly Filipino.

ADOBO FLAKES

8 chicken legs (thigh and drumstick)

2 cups light soy sauce

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup apple cider vinegar

10 cloves garlic, smashed

1 tbsp. whole peppercorns

4 bayleaves

2 tsp. minced garlic

2 tbsp. oil

1. In a non-reactive pot, simmer chicken in the next 6 ingredients for about 45 minutes. Do not cover the pot and rearrange the chicken once in a while to make sure that all of the pieces spend some time submerged in the simmering liquid.

2. Once the chicken is done, take the pieces out and cool. Meanwhile, strain the cooking liquid and remove all the fat that floats on top. Set the liquid aside.

3. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones.

4. In a non-stick pan, saute the minced garlic in the oil until brown and add the chicken meat plus 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Boil over medium high heat.

5. As the liquid evaporates, break up the chicken pieces and stir occasionally. Add 1/4 cooking liquid at a time and let this evaporate while shredding the chicken meat with a spatula.

6. Continue with this for another 4-6 times or so, adding liquid as the chicken meat dries up. You will use up about 1 and 1/2 cup of your cooking liquid.

7. Let the chicken meat fry in the pan, stirring frequently and making sure the bottom does not burn. Slowly, you will see that the chicken meat will become dry and slightly crisp.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are pictures of the transformation...from the ordinary to the sublime :-)

Diced Pork

Many of my med school days (and nights) were spent in a generic cafeteria-style restaurant on P. Gil called Orchid House. "Orchid," as we fondly called this place, was where we went when we wanted decent food in a comfortable atmosphere for a fairly reasonable, student-friendly price. For us, it was kind of like "Cheers" where "everybody knows your name."

Sadly, Orchid is no more. They changed their name a few years ago and I'm not sure if the familiar faces are still there. But Orchid is and will always be part of my med school memories. And their "diced pork" will remain in my culinary consciousness forever.

This is my tribute to that dish...

400 g lean pork, diced
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. Knorr liquid seasoning
2 tbsp. minced garlic

Marinate pork in the next 4 ingredients for 1-2 hours. In a large pan, fry the garlic and set aside. In the same pan, put 1/4 cup of oil and add the pork. Boil on high heat until almost all the marinade has evaporated. Turn the heat to med-high and fry the pork in the remaining oil until all the marinade is gone and the pork pieces become slightly crisp on the outside. Drain well. Put in a serving platter and top with the fried garlic. Serve with lemon/soy sauce/chili oil mixture and eat with copious amounts of rice.

Crispy Beef Shank

Last year, during our trip to the Bay Area, we went to Union City looking for Jollibee. But as we were driving around, searching around the strip mall, we came across a miracle. Right in front of our eyes was the recently opened, first international branch of Gerry's Grill!!!

After 2 years of living in Toronto, longing for sisig and crispy pata and crispy tadyang, we couldn't believe we had a Gerry's Grill, right in front of our very eyes! We excitedly ordered as much food as we thought we could finish and more. We closed our eyes as we savored each and every bite of ulam with garlic rice. Yum, yum, yum!

I had a whole beef shank sitting in my freezer so I thought I would try cooking it "Crispy Tadyang" style.

1 whole boneless beef shank, cut into 2 inch thick pieces

5 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 onion, quartered

1 tsp. black peppercorns

1 tbsp. salt

3 bay leaves

1 tsp. fice spice powder (or 3 pieces of star anise)

Put all ingredients together in a large pot. Cover with water and boil until beef is tender. I used a pressure cooker and cooked the beef for 20 minutes.

Once beef is tender, drain well and pat dry with paper towers. Fry until outside is crisp. Top with fried garlic

Serve with sauce made of 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1 tsp. sugar and 1 small chopped onion.

The beef was crisp on the outside and juicy and meaty on the inside. Perfect with the sauce over steaming white rice.

Ginataang Sitaw (Long Beans in Coconut Milk)

Hailing from the Bicol region has taught me that practically anything tastes better with coconut milk. Bicolanos cook every imaginable vegetable in coconut milk, from sigarilyas to gabi leaves to unripe langka and even santol! We even have a version of dinuguan with coconut milk!

Coconut milk is such a wonderful ingredient and it's too bad that many people will never be able to try cooking with freshly extracted gata. The canned version is passable, but it never really measures up. When coconut milk is simmered for a long time, it gives off this magnificent oil that gives dishes such wonderful depth of flavor.

Unfortunately, fresh coconut is hard to come by here in Canada. I doubt that the coconut is among their major agricultural products :-P

Ginataang Sitaw (Long Beans in Coconut Milk)
1 bunch long beans cut into 2 inch pieces
200 grams ground pork
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 tsp. bagoong/shrimp paste
1 can coconut milk
3-4 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp chili flakes or a couple of chilis, chopped (optional)

1. Saute garlic and onion until fragrant.
2. Add pork and saute until pork is no longer pink.
3. Add bagoong and mix with pork.
4. Add coconut milk and fish sauce. This would also be the time to add chili, if using.
5. Turn heat down and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. When the coconut milk has reduced to about 2/3 its original volume, add beans.
7. Simmer for 5-7 minutes more until beans are done.

Dried Beef Tapa

Yay! It's the weekend once again, which in our household means it's time for our favorite meal...BRUNCH!

My mom brought (smuggled, actually) some dried beef tapa from Lucena when she came to visit last year. She brought 5 bags and the one we cooked today was the last one :( :( :(

This tapa is different from the usual marinated beef slices. Because it's dried, it has a crunchy-chewy texture and the flakes of salty meat go so well with a simple tomato/green onion/vinegar/fish sauce salad on the side. Truly the ultimate tapsilog.

We savored each and every bite, knowing that this batch was the last of our precious stash. Ma, next time ulit ha!

Sinigang: the ultimate comfort food

Nothing brings back happy and warm memories of the Philippines like a hot, soothing bowl of mouth-puckering, saliva flow-inducing sinigang. Even here in The Great White North, sinigang remains one of our staple meals, making an appearance on our dinner table at least once a month.

It's so quick and easy, I even consider it "emergency food." The pressure cooker makes quick work of frozen pork bones and in half an hour, a perfect meal is ready. I also consider it "budget food." $2.70 for 3 pounds of neck bones, $1.29 for the kang kong, another few cents for the gabi, a couple of tomatoes, an onion, sinigang mix --- a nutritious, delicious dish that feeds all of us for less than $7.

I do use ready mix pang-sigang (gasp!!!) but I tweak it a little by adding tomatoes, onions, whole peppercorns and patis :-)

SHORT CUT SINIGANG

3 pounds pork neck bones
2 plum tomatoes, quartered
1 medium onion, quartered
1/4 cup fish sauce
3-4 pcs. gabi (or edo as it is known here), peeled
1 tsp. black peppercorns or siling pangsigang (if you have some on hand, which I usually don't)
1 bunch kang kong (look for tung choi in the chinese market) or spinach
1 to 1 1/2 packets of Knorr Sinigang Mix with Gabi (my preferred brand)

1. In a pressure cooker, cover pork bones with enough water.
2. Add in tomatoes, onion, fish sauce and pepper.
3. Seal pressure cooker and cook until pressure cooker whistles.
4. Lower heat to maintain whistling. Cook for 12-15 minutes.
5. Release pressure.
6. Skim off fat then add gabi/edo. Simmer for about 5-7 minutes, until gabi is almost done.
7. Add sinigang mix. Adjust seasoning according to taste.
8. Finally, add the green veggies.

9. Simmer a few minutes more until veggies are done.

Other vegetable options include sitaw/long beans, eggplants, radish, or any other green leafy veg. The possibilities are endless...

Porkchops bistek-style

I miss calamansi. Bistek is not the same, pancit is incomplete and nilaga with lemon and patis just isn't quite right. But nonetheless, we need to make do with what we have, so here goes.

Bistek (Pork version)

-- I know, I know. Bistek means beef, but I only had porkchops in the fridge.

8 porkchops (about 1/2 inch thick) or 500g thinly sliced beef

1/2 cup dark soy sauce

2 tbsp. kikkoman soy sauce

juice of 1-2 lemons (depends on how sour you like it and how big the lemons are)

1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp. worcestershire sauce

pepper

1 large sweet onion, sliced into rings

2 tbsp. oil

1. Marinate meat in the next 6 ingredients for about an hour then drain well. Set marinade aside.

2. In a pan, heat the oil over medium high heat. Cook the onions until lightly caramelized. Set aside.

3. In the same pan, cook porkchops in 2 batches, letting each batch brown well before cooking the next.

4. Once both batches are browned, return meat to pan, add the marinade and simmer for about 15 minutes.

5. Add the onions last and simmer for a few minutes more.

6. Done! Quick and easy :-)

Note: Some soy sauces are saltier than others.

Suggestion: Taste your marinade before putting the meat in. Adjust accordingly.

Turbo Chicken

Sometimes simple is best. Take "turbo chicken" for instance. This is our favorite way of cooking chicken. Nothing beats a butterflied chicken, seasoned generously with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, cooked in a "turbo broiler". I like it with Jufran, worcestershire and sriracha. Hubby uses tabasco instead of sriracha, Son #1 just has Jufran plus worcestershire, and Son #2 eats his with Heinz tomato ketchup.

The final product, a golden brown chicken with perfectly crisp skin, reminds me of Max's Fried Chicken. So good!!!

How to cook: Butterfly chicken, season both sides generously with salt and pepper. Cook in turbo at 200 degrees Celsius, skin side down for 25-30 minutes. Flip over and cook another 20-25 minutes until golden. Trust me, this recipe is foolproof!