If John is to Marsha, Bonnie is to Clyde or Romeo is to Juliet, these are perfect partners as we know them.  In eating perfect pairing is also primordial. A true partnership is one that takes the  building blocks and construct something  greater by far than those parts alone. Food partnerships can be hit and miss, but once you have the perfect pairing no matter how simple the dish is, it could be like eating in a five star hotel

In the Philippines fried fishes is often served with vegetables like buro (pickled vegetable), ensalada (salads) or sautéed.  And with the rainy season ravaging the country nothing beats a good summery food to bring us our smile and confidence back.  Here’s a very simple tomato salad recipe to enjoy with your friend fish or fried meat dishes;  Kain na!

Recipe:  Ensaladang Kamatis

“Sometimes the best thing to do is not to do it.”

I’m not really good at giving advice and mind you  sometimes I could even be a very  lousy confidant.  But on the other side  I’m a great listener and I  have an interesting sense of humour.   Having said that, I am still not certain how on earth I  always find myself in the middle of a squabble.  I’m sure it is for my sense of humour, I really think so, otherwise I have a magnet.  Whether feuding family or warring friends I always end up being an arbitrator for them, sigh.  I hate to take either side and much more to give lecture simply because I lack the wisdom.   So it is in moment like this that I give my funny pill aka overly-used jokes :-)

So to match with this sour tasting story I thought why not cooking some Escabeche for lunch.  Escabeche comes from the Spanish or Persian term that means something “acidic’, evolved away from the typically cold dish in Spain, often marinated overnight in the sour sauce. While in the Philippines, the term escabeche refers more often to fried fish that is slathered with this sweet and sour style sauce.  As much I am not a fish aficionado, I always try to explore around the corner and use my culinary curiosity in cooking my dad’s recipe for Dalagang Bukid or Mountain Maiden fish Escabeche.

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Recipe:    Chicken Escabeche

Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands and islets.  Imagine that some of these islands have names while others don’t and few have only the luxury to be  seen during low tide. It is no secret  That Magellan the great explorator while in search for the famous “Spice Islands” took refuge in one of our islands, probably to get some food and brought Christianity too along the way. But Helas, when he set foot in the island of Cebu was probably  tired from long voyage, famished, weak and the moment he drugded into the shore, CLAAAACK…..his head chopped off with a corroded bolo of the local ruler Lapu Lapu.  Though that is not exactly how our history teachers told us the story (sigh).  And to compensate our courageous guy an entire family of an excellent fish was named after him.  Well that is at least what most Filipinos think.

Lapu lapu fish are groupers or garoupa.  Their colors vary from beautiful orange and red to the wonderful tasting black ones.  When I do snorkelling in the island of Cebu you will see Lapu lapu mostly on the reef hiding.  Their stout body impedes them from swimming fast and of great distance.  In Philippines it is one of the most priced fishes served on speacial occasions.

The most common recipe for Lapu Lapu is steaming and dipped simply with soy sauce and kalamansi.  You could also grill them and top with some sarciado (sautéed tomatoes).  In here I tried to make some fish and chips dish using Lapu lapu fish fillet.  If you happen to have a whole lapu lapu in your fridge and do not know how to fillet a fish check on the video.  But if your lucky, you can buy already these lapu lapu in fillet.

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Recipe: Lemon and Pepper Lapu Lapu Fish Fillet

When I was a foreign student in distant past ,  my foreign classmates were always curious to know about my country. Nothing beats the beauty of diversity wherein people of different walks of life, age, race and religion  were put together in a nourishing environment and profound interest on one another.  If could turn back the time I would do so, because it was truly an enriching experience.  Most often my friends are curious about the Filipino cuisine for we are not as legendary as Thai cuisine.  It is always a pleasant surprise for them to hear  that in fact  we’ve been colonized by Spain for 300 years and their strong influence on our cuisine is remarkable.

Sarciado is one of those Spanish influenced dishes we grew up with.  Sarciado is basically a tomato based sauce cooked separately and topped on fried fishes that are more often left-over the other night.  It is our way of making them appetizing again.  There are various variations of Sarciado dishes that we cook like pork, beef; chicken and even boiled eggs or vegetarian sarciado.

Here is a basic meat based Sarciado dish recipe of my auntie, enjoy:

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Recipe:  Pork Sarciado

“When time gets rough, always  have noodles.”

One of the fondest memories I have of my dad when I was a kid, was where those rainy nights that we were all lazy to cook in the kitchen and would just stay up late  chatting and storytelling. ( Well you know we didn’t had television yet Only real goodness bonding moments to the max.  And in the end dad will bring as along with him to Aling Tinay’s Noodle House (A smally eatery opened 24 hours).  And there we would slurp her best selling beef noodle soup and eat hot pandesal together. These moments were priceless.

A year ago, we went on vacation in Malaysia and there I discovered Mee Sup and its similarity to Filipinos Mami Noodle Soup. It was a delightful discovery rencontre but my palate was still longing for the taste I grew up with.  Mami Noodles are noodle soup extensively eaten in Philippines day and night.  When I say day and night I truly mean it.  Filipino’s eat more than three times a day if we include all those tiny snacks we nibble in between meals.  And most of the time the star of this snack time are noodle soup.  That is reason why cup noodles that just need to add hot water or boiling water is flourishing.  Pinoy Mami Noodles consist of a meat bouillon , yellow colored noodles (miki) and topped with different ingredients.  The more toppings there are the more luxurious it is.  Enjoy the recipe and have fun putting more toppings on it.

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Recipe:   Beef Mami Noodle Soup

You can also best enjoy this dish with:

Dumplings and Pot Stickers

Siomai

Siopao

“An apple never falls far from the tree.”

While parenthood may disburse an eternal joy, gratification and personal growth, it could also bring an enormous challenges and frustration to most of us.  Child feeding is a very good example.  Everyday it is like going to war against my daughter. When she was a lot younger she could eat almost anything we give her but now that she could talk and complain it’s another completely different story to tell.   With her bionic and suspicious eyes she has a way to filter her plate to only the things that she like , much  to our despair of course. Sigh.  But come to think of it, my hubby and I were picky-eaters ourselves as a youngsters.  But with time we metamorphosized into bona fide epicureans.  For now I’m waving my white flag hoping she’s just on her experimentation stage and will transformed into a food lover like us as well someday

And speaking of being picky, one of the food that I abhor as a young kid was Atis or sugar apple.  In some parts of the world it is known as custard apple.  They are native to tropical Americas and widely grown in the Philippines.   Atis is part of the Annonaceae family that includes the more commonly known cherimoya ,guyabano or soursop and surprisingly, theilang-ilang tree. The Spaniards may have brought the seeds to the Philippines in the early 17th century and the local name hails from the Aztec “ahate”.

Eating Atis 101

Atis is fruit that  can be heaven in taste, provided that you have the patience.  Once you cut the fruit in half hundreds of seeds inside are coated with a soft sugary pulp or meat that tastes like a super sweet custard. You can scoop them with a teaspoon and eat directly. Warning:  its a real pain in the neck for you have to unseed them as you eat them inside your mouth.  But once you master the art of eating and unseeding them you will reach your Atis Nirvana Mode.

They are normally abundant during summer between March to May in the Philippines.  I haven’t tried making any dishes out of them yet.  Maybe they’ll be good in some bake sweet dishes.

Sharing this Atis Photograph at Black and White Wednesday Week 41, event created by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook and hosted by Cafe Lynnlu.  You can check my other previous entry.

When life gives you lemon, make some lemonade.

One of the things I resolved to do this year is to be more optimistic in life. To learn to get rid off this negative attitude I always have  and appreciate even the simplest beauty of life.  It’s been  a rough year and I need a handful of this  to get through. But sometimes no matter how much we try to keep afloat we still find ourselves juggling between sulking  and giving up or smiling and holding on. Afterall, life is all about these, a big adventure.

Just today, I finally had the courage to look at all the photographs that pinches me in the heart and tried finding  beauty  in them and reminiscing only the happy thoughts.  I think it is already a good start.

And when I feel and blue I reach out to my comfort drink Kalamansi Juice. This Lemonade is a very comforting drink you can enjoy both hot or cold.  Kalamansi or Calamondin is the hybrid of Mandarin orange and Kumquat , extensively used in Philippine cuisine and South East Asian countries.  They are of the same family as oranges so their white flowers are also as fragrant.   When buying choose the one that are bright and  green and firm to the touch.  You can use them as replacement for lemon or lime.

I’m sharing this recipe to this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging #343 an event created by Kalyn and now under the caring wings of Haalo of Cook Almost Anything.  This week’s host is Cleare from Il Pomodoro Rosso.

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Recipe:  Kalamansi Honey Juice

When Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise announced their divorce I wasn’t really heartbroken.  I was never a great fan of Mr. Mission Impossible neither of Mrs. Dawson’s Creek, but  I felt sad that their relationship didn’t work specially there’s a Suri left in the equation.  As I read that news, I just realized all the magnificent photos of our recent trip to historical city of Vigan in Ilocos Region last summer. Well you see, in the late 80′s when Mr. Cruise was still a struggling actor creating a name in Hollywood he came to this almost unknown but beautiful city of Vigan for the filming of the movie Born on the fourth of July.  We got lucky reserving  the most coveted room of the Old Mansion that Mr. Cruise slept.  I can brag about it now, that we slept on the same bed and my husband was there too . He heheh,

But kidding aside both souvenirs and photos of this summer trip were put into oblivion because of the road accident we encountered.  After months of hospitalization, theraphy the trauma is finally over.  Time heals all wounds.  I think, our family is ready now to savour the Vigan memories after hibernating for months in our head.

Old Spanish Inspired City of Vigan

From top to bottom: Vigan is great place for hunting Antiquities and Handicrafts

Our Calesa waiting for us

Let the cat out of the bag.

Vigan is known for their longanisa, a country’s favorite Spanish inherited local  pork sausages. They are much more famous than Tom Cruise’s Vigan escapade in the Philippines.  Anyways, Vigan longanisa are not sweet unlike the ones we have in Manila. These vigan longanisa are used also in Empanada that are excellent to taste in the Plaza of the city. They are meatier and lots of garlic flavor on it truly perfect for this Pasta dishes.

I’m sending this yummy Longanisa Bolognese to Ruth of Once Upon a Feast for this week Presto Pasta Night # 273 creator and hostess of this yummy event.

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Recipe:  Vigan Longanisa Bolognese

“Carry your childhood with you and you’ll never get older.”

I grew up with three siblings.  We were different and we still are   We had our differences and we still have. But no matter how far this life has brought us apart  we still keep anchoring back to our childhood to stick us together.  For we find comfort and solace in them.  Everytime we look back we only see good and happy memories. All the rainy days and sadness of the past were coated and sweetened with our mindless laughter, simple needs and sparkling souvenirs.

Few months ago, we got an invitation to the neighborhood’s reunion. We should be happy and excited for  It’s been a long time that we left the place where we grew up.  And It could have been a perfect moment to see old familiar faces and to catch up with all the lost time.  But we let ourselves get drowned with our busy schedule and let it slipped away.  I supposed that at the back of our mind we weren’t really ready to face the reality and that all these were just a distant past and everything were figment of our naive imagination.  We opted to keep these blissful thoughts intact instead.

As summer  ended so swiftly,  I began nostalgic with the coconut macaroon sweets that I used to peddle in the street as a child.  It was more fun to me than working.   The granny in the neighborhood will bake them in the morning and I will sell them in the afternoon.  I was euphoric everytime I finished selling them all before  the dusk.  I guess that is what I’m missing right now,  finding greatness on simple things.

Pinoy Macaroons

Contrary to the French macarons that are based on egg whites, powdered sugar and almonds our Macaroons are more of a sweet delights made with coconut.  This recipe is a version of coconut macaroons we love to nibble in our family. This recipe is more like of a tart.

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Recipe:  Pinoy Coconut Macaroons

**”May asim ka pa ba?” (Do you still have the peps?)

Debating is healthy in maintaining balance in any relationship. That’s what people often say.  Being a lawyer has never been a part of my lingo but everytime  hubby says something I always have this itching to say the opposite . Do not  worry because like any fairy tale story I agree to agree with him in the end, I just love the idea of teasing him.

However few weeks ago, I don’t know what he ate and we embarked on a discussion about women and our vanity. Ahh I remember he was criticizing the plethora of my shoes and bags.  And for the first time I felt I was arguing for real, hedging in defense of all women.  Our misogyne society has been maligning women since ages against our eternal quest to be come beautiful.  Personally I do not see any problem in that , what is wrong with feeling pretty and getting confidence out of it.  As long as it’s done tastefully, morally and with respect to our body and state mind.  In short, no to extreme make-over )

So next time your husband tells  you that men age like wine and women like cheese just reply them back with a beautiful smile and a bowl of Sinigang.

** May asim ka ba pa? Literally means do you still have the sourness? In the Philippines it is a favorite phrase to tease maturing women.

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Recipe:  Spicy Sinigang

Sinigang is like Thai’s Tom Yum soup.  In this version, I made it spicier and more acid to give lots of kick and peps.

“Fishing is  the sport of the drowning worms”

When I was a kid, my parents never had any problem making me finish my vegetables on the plate, unlike my sisters.  For I have always loved vegetables.  But when it comes to fish and seafood it was an eternal torment to me, unlike my sisters. So just imagine the  daily ordeal of my parents  concocting family’s menu peped up with their children’s aversion for vegetables and fish. Whew, we were indeed a royal pain in the butt !

Now, as a mother, I have always wanted to show good example to my daughter.    So When I met my husband even before she was born, I tried appreciating fish little by little.  I could only eat a handful of local fishes on certain occassions: embedded in a dumpling, smuggled in a salty pie or locked up in  a soup! Such a waste for someone who’s born and raised in an archipelago blessed with tons of varieties of marine life.

Bangus or milkfish is one of the few privilleged fishes that merits entry to my kitchen.  Bangus or Chanos chanos in other part of the world, are fishes that lives around the coasts and island reefs.  Then they migrate to mangroves , swamps and lakes and only goes back to the seas to mature sexually and reproduce.  Bangus is known for being a bony fish, so in Philippines where they are consumed heavily “boneless bangus” or deboned bangus are readily available in the market.

How to Debone Bangus?

You will be needing sharp knife, chopping board, basin with water, mosquito forcep straight and of course your bangus. Wash the fish.  Scaling them or not depends on the dish you will be cooking.  Then cut the fish on the dorsal side from tail to the head running the knife along the backbone of the fish. Lay open your fish and remove all the intestinal organs.  You can use the paper towel to pat dry the blood.  Using the forceps remove the spines.  Then the rib bones that are just under the belly cavity.  Then the intermuscular spines, you will be needing to cut a small slit from head to tail and follow the dent; all the spines are stuck in there with the help of the forcep pull them one by one.  The lateral intermuscular spines in between the dorsal and ventral muscles.  Pull out the Y shaped spine and the 3 delicate spines.  And then lastly the spines on the tail region.  This may sound complicated but with the help of this video deboning your bangus is a lot easier.

Deboning your bangus

Bangus Belly is my favorite part of this fish.  There are various recipes for bangus you can try:

Paksiw na Bangus (Stew in Vinegar)

Sinigang sa Bayabas (Stew in Guava)

Daing na Bangus (Marinated and fried

Sinigang na Bangus (Stewed in Tamarind)

“When in Rome do as the Romans do”.

Kitchen is one of the best venue to probe one’s ingenuity.  We have witnessed how eminent dishes metamorphised over time and over places from a simple recipe to a much complicated dishes much to the pleasure of our palate.  This is true, because nothing can stop a real epicurean to cook and prepare their favorite meal even with the absence of the most important ingredient.  Adaptation is the key.

History proved itself how kitchen disasters and mishap brought something surprisingly good: the famous French pattisserie tarte tatin or the Pampanga’s local delicacy , Sisig. The bottom line of all these, when ingredients are rare count on our inventiveness on pulling it through.

In our family next to rice pasta is the most consumed dish.  Probably because of its versatility and the Italian blood in the family (ok very small percentage)  :-). Anyways, when the family  cravings for pasta comes (this happens once a week creativity is very important.  Puttanesca is crowd pleaser and I already tasted similar dish making use of Philippines local anchovy, we call Tuyo.  My husband abhors the smell of Tuyo, after all it is sun-dried sardines Filipinos eat in the morning breakfast with rice.  So I immediately grab the occassion to make my husband appreciate this delicacy without him knowing it.

This puttanesca recipe is a great way to make your family eat a healthy packed meal.  You can replace to you with other fishes if you have like Tinapa (Smoked Fish) , Tulingan (mackerel tuna)  or yellow fin Tuna.

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Recipe:  Spicy Tuyo Puttanesca

Rice is the most important staple food in most part of the human population.  In the Philippines, we eat rice three times a day but sometimes it could be even more .  We could eat rice as a dessert and even in snacks!  A real testimony on this enduring love affair between Filipinos and rice!

But I bet, many of you knew very little about Philippines mountain rice.  This rice is absolutely delicious. It’s brown and red rather than plain white like the rice grown in the lowlands.

In the northern part of the mountainous region of the Philippines rice is cultivated in the beautifully arranged hand-made terraces. Farmers use no fertilizers, no pesticides only their savoir-faire handed from generation to generation. A real labour of love. There rice is never consumed elsewhere because there is no excess to bring them to the markets in the city. They only plant what their family could consume, if there is an excess they share it in the neighborhood.   Planting and harvesting them requires elaborate rituals and traditions unknown to city dwellers and tourists.  Bundles of rice are cut and dried under the sun in the morning and kept under the roof in the afternoon to avoid the afternoon rain.

Here are the photos of  my recent trip to the north, my eight hours long and bumpy ride plus 2 hours of trek to this region was absolutely magic.

Stairways to heaven, Rice Terraces of Batad

Carefully preparing the rice after harvest for drying

Ramon, our hospitable guide and leader of the clan

Animal skulls adorn the native hut to protect against bad spirits

Some useful tips for rice

Washing Rice

In Asia, washing rice is very important.  In the same casserole where you will be cooking the rice wash the rice with the clean running water.  Wash the grain using your hand to remove all dirt and unnecessary particles or on it.  Traditionally we pick the impurities by hand but rice nowadays are much cleaner than the olden times. We wash rice 3 times or until the water becomes clearer.  The rice wash is normally use in making soups like  sinigang .

Cooking

When we cook rice we normally use our hand to determine the amount of water to put. I know it is not so scientific but our mothers and their mothers taught them that way. When water is added on the rice put your palm, if the water level falls in the middle of your fingers then it is perfect.  The less complicated version is: 1 and 1/2 cups of water for every cup of rice. Cook them covered on high fire and once the  water started to boil, lower fire and simmer it half covered. We use pandan leaves to perfume our steamed rice.  If you have the luxury of adding some to your rice you will smell the difference .  You just need to add two to three leaves and let it boil together with your rice.

But of course the easiest way of cooking them is with your rice cooker.

Storage and Usage

If you miscalculate your rice and there are left over remember you can always store them. Cooked rice when cooked and stored properly in the fridge could be kept for three days.  You can use clean tupperwares and seal them correctly.  Use microwave when heating them, you can add a tablespoon of water to avoid drying them.  Reheat them for 30 seconds or more.  Left-over rice is often used in making friedrice in the Philippines.  For recipe you can check it here.

The black and white photo of rice is my entry to this weeks Black and White Wednesday  Week 40 an event created by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook,  this week’s event is hosted by Anusha of  Tomato Blues, if you are interested in joining this event here are the guidelines and to know who will be hosting next week.

I love dessert.  And who doesn’t anyway?

In fact, It’s my favorite part of the meal and even so the idea of having “dessert first” always entices me. So the other day, I bumped into a friend and our discussion ended up with dessert recipes, I was totally surprised that she dislikes dessert.  I understand her point that most often desserts are almost synonymous with sinful food : high in calories , too sweet, too heavy, too fancy and everything.  Well of course, not all desserts are like that I told her.

So I shared with her this easy to do comforting Filipino dessert that is absolutely hard to resist and yet guiltless: Cassava Suman.  Suman is Filipino delicacy we eat as dessert or snacks made with sticky rice or cassava (manioc) that is steamed and wrapped in banana leaves.  This dessert is perfect hot or cold that can be served with fresh ripe tropical fruits or hot coffee.

If you are not so familiar with Cassava or Kamoteng Kahoy in Tagalog it is known as Manioc or Yuca in other parts of the world.  Cassava is actually a root crop with thick , rough and brown outside with a detachable rind of homogenous white flesh inside. it is a good source of carbohydrates.

Cleaning  and Preparing Cassava

When you buy them from your favorite Asian store, be sure to wash them properly and thoroughly to remove all the dirt on the surface.   Use a brush and lightly clean the surface with it to get rid of all the dirt. Choose cassava that are not too big and not to small.  Cut them in medium sized pieces before peeling. Once they are cut, with the help of your knife make a small incision on the  skin and lightly tear it off. Ready a basin full of water and soak the cut and peeled cassava on the water for a while.  Wash them thoroughly again in clean running water.  Now they are ready to for your recipe.

Suman Cassava for 15 to 20 pieces

Ingredients:

1.5 kilos of Cassava

1 cup of coconut milk

1 cup of brown sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

banana leaves for wrapping

Procedure:

Using a grater, grate the peeled and washed cassava.  The end product will be a soft tiny pieces of white sticky rind.  To be sure, measure the grated cassava it will give you about 2 cups of grated cassava;  In a bowl mix the sugar with coconut milk and vanilla essence.  Then add the grated cassava.  Mix well.  Cut your banana leaves in about 12 inches lenght.  To use them easily warm the banana leaves first over fire.  Once your banana leaves have softened; put about two tablespoons of cassava mixture.  Put the mixture in the middle and fold the leaves toward the center. You will have about fifteen to twenty pieces of suman. Steam them for about thirty minutes in a double boiler. Do the toothpick test to verify if its ready.

Tips:

You can adjust the recipe; remember that the grated cassava should be twice the liquid (coconut milk).  You can also adjust the sweetness you can put more or less sugar;  You can also add variety in this recipe: you can use honey instead of sugar, add chopped nuts like cashew or pistachio or add some coconut strips or even more inventive by adding some chocolate on your suman. Have fun

One of my favorite children stories growing up was the story of “the hare and the turtle”.  I enjoy this because of the moral we learned at the end : that any underdog could win any battle if we perserve.  I’m not really a hardworking person so this is a good motivation for me to be one. Well  I blame this laxity on the beautiful weather of the country where I was born:  with blue sky and sunny weather everyday who really needs to work ?

Anyways, having said that growing in an Archipelago where seafood is abundant availability of meat is often confined to chicken, pork, beef and rarely lamb and goat.  So the first time I tasted and heard about rabbit meat, it was a delightful “rencontre” for the meat tasted almost like chicken but much juicier and tastier.  This is dish is not a traditional Filipino recipe but could easily be done using our basic ingredients in the kitchen.  If you have the ocassion of  getting some meat rabbit or simply using chicken this is a very easy and delicious recipe to try.

Ingredients:

1 kilo of rabbit cut in serving portions (one whole chicken cut in serving portions)

1 tablespoon of butter

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

2 tablespoons of flour

4 bay leaves

1 onion minced

2 gloves of garlic minced

2 big carrots, peeled and sliced

2 tablespoons of black olives (optional)

1 teaspoon of vinegar (you can replace this with lemon juice or kalamansi juice)

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

1 bottle of San Miguel Beer (other beer or apple cider whichever is available)

1 cup of chicken stock (water + chicken bouillon cube)

salt, pepper to taste

1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley

Procedure:

In a bowl put your rabbit season it with salt and pepper and then dredge it with two tablespoons of flour.  Then ready your casserole, under medium fire put the butter and the cooking oil.  Fry lightly your rabbit be sure that all sides are little bit golden brown in color.  Then remove the rabbit and set aside;  On the same casserole you can add a little bit of cooking oil if necessary: fry the garlic, onion , carrots and black olives.  Fry them for about five minutes then put back the rabbit.  Add the salt, pepper, vinegar, tomato concentrate and bay leaves.  Pour the San Miguel beer and chicken stock.  Lower the fire and simmer covered for about forty minutes;  Check the meat if they are tender continue simmering until the meat are tender.  Taste the sauce if needs to have more salt and pepper.  Turn off the fire and let it stand cover for few minutes.  Before serving, you can re-heat it and topped it with chopped parsley and served with steamed rice.

Eating is one of the interesting part  we enjoy when we travel.  Appreciating the sceneries, arts and culture is just part and parcel of it because the whole experience of the trip is often highlighted by sampling the local specialties whether we like or dislike them it is always a learning experience we will never afford to let go.

On my recent weekend trip to Batangas I was truly amaze on how this province is rich in cultural heritage to enjoy and a lavish local cuisine to sample.  But of all the things I have tasted during the trip it was the Batangas Pancit Lomi that I truly enjoyed.  Pancit Lomi or Lomi is Filipino-Chinese noodle that is flat and thick that is popular in Batangas area.  In almost every corner in Batangas there is a Panciteria to sample this appetizing soup dish.  Each restaurant may vary the ingredients they use but nonetheless it is a comforting dish one will surely love.

Ingredients:  Recipe is good for 5 to 6 people

250 g of pack of fresh lomi  noodles

100 g of sliced pork

100 g of sliced chicken breast

100 g of sliced pork liver

1 teaspoon of hibe (dried shrimps)

4 gloves of garlic, minced

1 big onion chopped

2 cups of chicken stock (you can use bouillon cube or chicken bones boiled in water with some onions and carrots)

1 carrot shreaded (cut in julienne strips)

some cooking oil

salt, pepper to taste

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of cassava flour or cornstarch

2 tablespoons of water

1 beaten egg

Toppings:

3 tablespoons of chopped green onion  (sibuyas na mura)

3 tablespoons of chopped garlic, (fried it should be golden brown)

1 kikiam, fried and sliced

6 pieces of meatballs fried and halved

Procedure:

This dish is very easy to cook but needs a lot of preparation.  Start by pourign some cooking oil a wok and sautéing the chicke, pork and liver with onions and garlic.  Continue frying then add your hibe.  Pour the chicken stock cover and let it simmer.  At the first boil, add your lomi noodles, salt, pepper and soy sauce to taste cover and lower the fire;  Continue simmering for another five minutes until the noodles are cooked.  Dilute the cornstarch with water and pour over the soup and mix.  Cut the fire and add the beaten egg.  Serve hot and put your toppings of chopped green onions, fried garlic, kikiam and meatball.

Sinigang na Santol or Santol Soup is not really the traditional way of cooking this Filipino comforting dish.  But when santol season comes in the Philippines and Santol is abundant using this fruit for this delicious dish is worth trying.  I have a friend who showed me on how they cook sinigang na santol in their family using salmon and it was really fantastic! I was thinking of making the dish he taught me using Bonesless Bangus or milkfish but I had not time to go to the market and to buy some.  Good thing I always have some  frozen pork on the fridge and was able to try his recipe of Sinigang na Santol.

This is truly the versatility of sinigang recipe is that you could be creative and inventive!  If you have salmon or bangus this recipe is perfect!

Ingredients:

1 kilo of santol, peeled and cut in halves

1 kilo of pork belly or liempo cut in big chunks

* if you have salmon or bangus you can replace the pork

a bunch of kangkong or talbos ng kamote (kamote tops)

some okra or gumbo

2 eggplants, sliced

1 onion, peeled and quartered

2 tomatoes, quartered

two tablespoons of cooking oil

salt, and fish sauce to taste

Procedure:

In a casserole put your cooking oil , then sauté briefly onions and tomatoes.  Fry them briefly for about 2 minutes then pour in your water about two to three cups.  If you have hugas bigas (water from washing rice) you can use them.  Cover and let it boil.  Once they boil add your meat , some salt and fish sauce to taste.  Cover and let it simmer for ten minutes.  After ten minutes add your santol and taste the soup.  Cover and lower the fire and let it continue to simmer for another ten minutes.  Check from time to time.  Add your vegetables and let it simmer for another five minutes.  Taste the soup if it needs some more salt.  If you will be using fish like salmon or bangus.  You will have to add them at the same time you add the vegetables as they cook more quickly than meat.  Enjoy!

I really do not consider myself a hardcore nationalistic but when it comes to dessert I must admit I am a big fan of Kakanin or Filipino Desserts.  I won’t deny loving  chocolate cakes,  creme brulée and other pattisseries  but I melt and would easily give in to much humbleer and less fancy Filipino desserts.  I owe this affection for kakanin to my dad who adores filipino desserts.  And when it comes to Kakanin one thing we always enjoy eating at home is Suman.  Suman is a dessert of sticky rice wrapped and cooked in banana leaves.  Nothing beats a freshly made suman with sweet golden mangoes to pair with and hot salabat (ginger tea) .  There are different types of suman to enjoy: there is Suman sa Ibos , sticky rice wrapped in buri or palm trees then cooked in coconut milk.  There is also Suman sa Lihiya, lye water wrapped in banana leaves.  Suman sa lihiya are light green in color as the color of the banana leaves colored the sticky rice.  This suman is specialty in the provinces of Tanay and Antipolo in Rizal often enjoy with sauce made from coconut millk.  In Visayas Suman is known as budbud kabog, they are using millet or type of a cereal.

This is a recipe from my Grandmom

Sticky Rice in Banana Leaves Approximately 15 to 20 packets

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of glutinous rice (malagkit)

1 teaspoon of salt

half a cup of white sugar

3 cups of coconut milk

banana leaves for wrapping

Procedure:

Start by washing the rice.  Then put the rice in a basin add some water until they are completely submerged and let it soak overnight.  The next day drain well the rice.  In a large wok or talyasi pour the coconut milk, rice, stir in sugar and salt and cook over low fire while stirring constantly.  The idea is to make it dry.  It is ideal to cook over low fire to avoid burning and sticking the rice on the wok.  Once the mixture is completely dry cover it with a banana leaves, then turn the fire and let it rest for a while.  When the rice have cooked and cooled down, scoop 2 tablespoons of cooked rice on your wilted banana leaves and wrapped.    Once they are all completely wrapped place them in a rice cooker and cook for about ten more minutes.  You can add a little water to avoid burning your rice cooker.  You can also cook this in a steamer if you dont have a rice cooker.

Let’s admit it, we are living now in fast paced society that mother’s job is not only confined to raising children and running the house as more and more Filipino mom’s  play an imporant role in the labor force. Countless moms find themselves working in almost any fields successfully nowadays.  Wearing two hats is never an easy task, so cooking sometimes could be a big task for our moms to accomplish.  As busy mother, we are always in a constant search for healthy and easy recipes to cook.

Here is one of my favorite Filipino recipe for cooking shrimps.  Hilabos or Halabos is a stir fry dish for cooking shrimps.  You can use small or big shrimps for this recipe.  Suahe is the best type of shrimp you can use for this recipe as they are much sweeter and flavorful.  I normally buy my shrimps in the market during weekend, clean and deveined them and freeze them in Ziplock plastic bags  ready for use anytime when I am busy.

You can make this version spicy if you want and eat with lots of steamed rice.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 kilo of shrimps (suahe or gambas)

* for this recipe I used medium sized suaje and removed the shells entirely for easy eating.

2 tablespoons of chopped garlic

1 teaspoon of curry powder

2 tablespoons of kalamansi juice or lemon juice

some cooking oil

salt and pepper

some parsley for decoration

Procedure:

In a bowl, mix the cooking oil about 3 tablespoons with salt, pepper, curry powder; mix them well and add your shrimps.  Let it marinate for about thirty minutes.  Get a frying pan and put some more cooking oil and fry your shrimps.  Cook them for about five minutes or until shrimps have changed color, turn off the fire.  If you want a spicy version put a tablespoon of tabasco or a pinch of cayenne powder.  Decorate with chopped parsely before serving.

You can serve this dish on sizzling hot plate if you have at home.

If Tom Yum is for Thailand , Sinigang is for Philippines. And If there is one comfort food all Filipinos surely love that is sinigang!  Sinigang is a Filipino sour soup traditionally based on tamarind or sampaloc.  This dish is a manifestation of filipinos fondness for soury taste.

Cooking Sinigang is very easy and versatile to make as we can use any meat or seafood of our preferance and even the souring ingredient that we can use depends on the ingredient available in our kitchen.  We can make them out of tamarind, kamias, santol, mangoes , santol while others use kalamansi or lemon. We can also use the tamarind young flowers  blossom.

The Recipe for Traditional Sinigang is tedious and requires long preparation.  It is the reason Knorr came out with their ready to use sinigang mix.  But of course nothing beats the taste of sinigang made from scratch.

Procedure:

Traditionally our grand moms used to use hugas bigas or water got from washing rice.  The soup is much thicker and opaque in color.  In your casserole, pour a liter of water or hugas bigas then add your onions and tomatoes that are cut in big chunks, cover and let it boil.  Once it started boiling add the sampaloc or tamarind, let it boil.  Once the sampaloc are tender and soft get them one by one and put in a bowl.  Mash them and extract the juice using the back of the fork.  Add a laddle of hot water from your boiling soup.  Then pour them directly on your boiling casserole using a strainer or cheesecloth to separate the pulp and seeds.  After this stage you can add the meat, fish or seafood you wish to cook.

Here’s list of sinigang recipes you can enjoy:

Sinigang sa Miso

Sinigang na Bangus sa Bayabas

Sinigang na Bangus

Sinigang na Baboy sa Bayabas

Sinigang na Santol

There are so many food that give us comfort. But when rainy season comes in Manila this is one of the comfort food we always cook in our family.  Well you see we grew up in a neighborhood where there was a lot guava trees and when rainy days come the guavas where in full bloom ready for harvest. Sometimes you don’t even need to harvest them as they are scattered on the ground

Sinigang with guava’s as compared to sinigang with tamarind are on lighter and sweeter side than being acidic.That is why most people prefer guava sinigang.  When cooking this type of sinigang  remember to choose guavas that are well riped as it is easy to get the juice out of them.  You have the option to leave the guava pulp or not with the soup.  In our family we love to eat guava sinigang paired with sauteed shrimp paste (ginisang bagoong).

This guava soup recipe is very versatile as you can replace the pork with beef or bangus (milkfish ) as you prefer.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

about a kilo of pork belly or liempo cut in big cubes (you can use also the pork rib part if you want a more tasty soup) you can also replace the pork with beef cubes

about a kilo of ripe guava (it needs to be soft on the touch and pungent in smell)

* if the guava sinigang ready to use mix is available you can use this

about a bunch of kangkong (water spinach) or kamote tops (sweet potato leaves)

medium sized banana heart blossom cut in big chunks (wash and remove the outer layers first then cut)

1 radish peeled and sliced about half an inch

1 big onion, peeled and quartered

3 big plumpy tomatoes, wash and quartered

2 siling haba (chili finger green)

1 teaspoon salt, some fish sauce (patis) to taste

about a liter of water or hugas bigas (water used to wash the rice)

* Please note that you can use other vegetables on this soup dish like: sitao (string beans, eggplant, okra (gumbo), etc.

Produre:

In a big cooking pot pour about a liter of water or hugas bigas then add your quartered onion and tomatoes.  Turn on the fire and let it boil.  While waiting for the water to boil, was the guavas and cut them in halves.  Scoop out the seeds and set them aside.  As soon as the water boil add your halves guavas and pork then cover the pot. After about ten minutes take one by one the guavas from the pot, they should be soft and tender.  Lower the fire and let the soup continue cooking with the pork.  In a bowl mash the cooked guava using a fork, add the pulp and pour a laddle of hot water from your boiling soup continue mashing to get the juice out of it. The hot water will help you extract the juice from your guava.  Pour the guava juice directly on to your cooking soup use a strainer to separate the seeds and the pulp. Then  get a clean cheesecloth put the pulp and seeds then squeeze thoroughly until the last drop of juice is taken out from the mashed guava pulp and seeds.  Pour this on to your boiling soup.  Cover and continue boiling until the pork is tender probably about thirty minutes.  On the last minute add all the vegetables and cook for about ten more minutes, put a teaspoon ofsalt and  2 tablespoons of fish sauce (patis) to taste. Cut the fire and let the vegetables be cooked on the hot soup.  Serve hot in big bowls with  steamed rice and sauteed bagoong.

Yesterday night, I was invited to a dinner in a friend’s house and upon arrival at their place  I was totally smitten by their garden that is filled up with lots of tropical fruits.  But what particularly called my eyes was the santol tree that is loaded with fruits.

Santol (Sandoricum Koetjape) is tropical fruit very popular in Philippines and other Asian countries.  The fruit is said to be indigenous to the old Indochina and the Malaysian Peninsula.  There are two varieties of santol ; the yellow and the red one.  The thick skin needs to be taken off to see the pulp and seed in the middle. Santol is a fruit that you can eat raw with some salt or shrimp paste (bagoong) but other than that these are the different recipes that make use of santol.  Enjoy!

Recipes for Santol:

Santol Juice

Santol Preserves/ Candied Santol

Sinigang na Santol

Sinantolan

It is always a big surprise for my foreign friends to learn that in Philippines Avocados are eaten primarily as as a sweet stuff: as used in milkshakes or for making creamy sweet salad dessert contrary to most countries that are salty.  Although more and more Filipinos nowadays tend to consume avocados in savory salads with the growing influence of the outside world.  Come the month of June avocado are in full season.  It is normally the best time to buy them.

Avocados could come in two colors: the violet ones or green ones with the yellowish pulp inside.  When choosing avocados choose the one that have shiny skin and firm to the touch but not hard.Avoid buying avocados that are too soft as they tend to be overripe and mature.

Ingredients:

1 kilo and half of avocados

half a cup of milk (evaporated milk)

4 to 5 tablespoons of  sweetened condensed milk

some crushed ice

Procedure:

Cut in two lengthwise the avocado, remove the seed and scoop out the pulp using the spoon.  Blend all the ingredients.  I like mine with still some big pieces of avocado I can munch.  Add more condensed milk as you want.

Filipinos are known  for having close family ties.  In our family for example to keep our bond alive : we make it a tradition to find time to dine outside together or to just prepare a simple meal at home once a month even if we are all grown-ups married and with kids.  This is always a good way to catch up on our chit-chat over our lives, success, worries over a good meal.  My youngest sister who’s still single and is not very keen to cooking but loves eating is the guest of  honor for our simple lunch at home this weekend.  As I am the hostess, I thought of preparing her favorite since we were kids, that is Pork Tofu and Tausi. This is actually tokwa’t baboy level up  If you want to put a twist on your normal tokwa’t baboy try this dish!

The recipe is good for 3 to 4 servings

Ingredients:

3/4 kilo of pork belly (good deal of meat and fat)

4 small blocks of tofu

some cooking oil for frying tofu

3 tablespoons of cooking oil

2 tablespoons of tausi or black beans

2 tablespoons of chopped kintsay

1 long green chili sliced

3 gloves of garlic

1 small onion sliced

a thumbsized ginger, peeled and sliced

4 tablespoons of vinegar

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

Procedure:

In a frying pan pour some vegetable cooking oil.  When the oil becomes really hot (oil is really quiet) put gently your tofu and fry on both sides until golden brown.  Set them aside and let it cool.  when its ready sliced them.  Slice also the pork into bite size pieces.  Get your sauce pan and add two to three tablespoons of cooking oil.  Put the ginger, garlic and onion, saute until they get wilted;  Add the pork and cook them while mixing for about 5 to 7 minutes.  Then add the sliced tofu and and black beans continue mixing.  Pour half a glass of water , cover and let it simmer for about 7 more minutes.  Put the soy sauce and vinegar, then taste the sauce.  You can add some more soy sauce if it still need more saltiness but the black beans normally is a bit salty.  When the meat is tender, add the chopped kintsay and chili and served immediately.

Filipinos love starting their day with a heavy meal in contrast to most europeans who take a rather light breakfast of bread and jams. Filipinos adulation for rice and something fried like fish or meat is inherent to us considering that we needed a lot of energy and stamina to work in the fields as what our forefathers have been doing.  And if there’s one breakfast dish that is never absent on our table it is Tocino.  Tocino or Cured Pork Meat , is actually of Spanish inheritance.  The word tocino itself actully means bacon in Spanish.  although in other former colonies of Spain like Puerto Rico or Cuba Tocino is just like a slab of fat used in cooking to add more flavors.  Filipinos version of tocino is more like of a bacon but of a sweeter version.  Tocino are often served with garlic fried rice and fried egg.

The best tocino are said to be the ones made by the kapampangan’s (Province of Pampanga in Northern Luzon) they even have a fermented pork dish very similar to tocino pork curing procedures.  Pork tocino is actually our family’s favorite.  I remember there was a time in my childhood we had tocino not only for breakfast but also for lunch and dinner.  This is not a traditional recipe for making tocino but this one is an interesting flavor to try!

Note: Saltpeter or Potassium nitrate is the traditional ingredient used in making tocino that gives this dish the reddish color.  But it is quite dangerous to use too much as this is an active ingredient used in making fertilizers and gunpowder.  I highly recommend using food coloring or annisseto (natural food coloring) or just leaving it as it is.

Ingredients:

For every kilo of pork (use porkloins with good deal of meat and fat)

4 tablespoons of rocksalt

6 tablespoons of brown sugar

half a cup of pineapple juice

Procedure:

The proportion is always the same: for every kilo of pork you need to add 4 tablespoons of salt and 6 tablespoons of sugar.  Meaning there should always be more sugar than salt.  In a salad bowl put your cleaned pork, then add the salt and sugar then give a good massage to your pork.  Then pour the pineapple juice.  If you want to put some red color on it. Use a red food coloring give a few drops of it.  Then cover it with plastic wrap and keep on the fridge for about two to three days.

Cooking Tocino:

The traditional way of cooking is to add a little bit of water with your tocino on a frying pan and let the water completely evaporate.  Then add some oil and fry.

My daughter just turned five years old few days ago and  I can’t believed my eyes how time flew so fast. She’s no longer a baby.  I still remember the days when she was young.  And  I think one of the hardest part of being a parent to her when she was young is giving her her medicines. When you see her suffer and all you can do is to force her to take her medicine against her will. Every medication time is a non-stop wrestling, a pinch in parents’ hearts and liters of tears from the little one.

It is true indeed that on trying times like this we could seek comfort from our favorite dishes. It’s been a decade seen I tasted a bowl of dinuguan (pork blood stew) one of my auntie’s speciality. My version was still far from her but every spoonful of it was a bed of roses. Don’t worry  those days were also a distant past, for my daughter accepts politely her medicines now even if it doesn’t taste good.

This Filipino dish normally uses pork innards and fresh pork blood.

Ingredients

half a kilo of pork tender part cut in small cubes (choose part with enough fat and meat)

1 1/2 cup of pork blood  (Ideally you buy them very early in the morning in your favorite pork butcher in the wet market.  Pigs are normally slaughtered very early in the morning so if you come in the afternoon all blood are normally bought already.  Otherwise you have a suki and can order in advance)

2 garlic pounded

1 onion sliced

1 teaspoon of grated ginger

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons of apple vinegar (you can use any type of light vinegar)

half a cup of pork broth

some oregano (about a tablespoon)

salt, pepper

Procedure:

In a casserole, sauté garlic, onion and ginger with cooking oil. Add you pork, (or if you have intestines, etc) and oregano. Continue stirring until the pork has changed color. In a bowl, put your pork’s blood and crush with your hands the blood to avoid them from coagulating. (This could be bloody Pour them on your sautéd pork. Continue stirring. Pour your pork broth and let it simmer for fifteen minutes. Before turning off the fire, add your vinegar, pepper and salt to taste.

Sampaloc or Tamarind is one of the most abundant fruit tree growing in the Philippines.  They grow almost everywhere in the country in the wild.  They aren’t really my top favorite fruit but they are versatile and used primarily in preparing great dishes in Asian cuisine.  I remember when I was a kid (those days that we aren’t still talking about protecting animals and stuff like that) my dad would always invite me to come with him and his friends to do hunt wild birds in the nature.  Way back , we really don’t need to go far to find wild birds in the forest: we’ve been to Novaliches, Baras and Morong most of the time.  While dad is chasing birds with friends (he normally goes back home empty handed ) while I profit gathering fruits, snails and shrimps in the forest.  It was really a lot fun.  And speaking of gathering fruits, I remember I would go back home with about a sack of tamarind.  When they are ripe they just fall on the ground.  I love to cook them in sweet caramel and sell them as tamarind candies to my friend.

One of these days I swear, I’ll cook some of these tamarind candies that I missed so badly!

So what are tamarind or Sampaloc?  Tamarind are fruit bearing tree indigenous to Tropical Africa.  They are extensively used as a souring agent in different dishes.  When they are still unripe they can be used as an ingredient to famous Filipino soup dish  called Sinigang.  The flowers of tamarind (yellows and red) are also good ingredient to replace the unripe fruit as a souring agent for Sinigang.  Others prefer to use the latter as they are more subtle and sweeter compared to the tamarind ponds.  When tamarind becomes ripe, the pods have fleshy fruit inside that is acidic and sweet at the same time.  They can be use to make desserts, candies or flavors for drinks.

Recipes using Tamarind:

Sinigang (Tamarind Soup with meat or Fish)

Pinangat (Fish Stew in Tamarind)

Tamarind Iced Tead

Tamarind sweet candies

No birthday’s or special celebration in the Philippines is complete without a Pancit on the table.  Inherited from the chinese immigrants in the Philippines Pancit signifies long life and longevity.  Whether  a big or small celebration pancit will definitely be the star on the table.  Pancit or Pansit (noodles) comes in different form: the rice noodles (Bihon) or the Canton (egg noodles).  Although vegetable based Pancit Canton also exist (Malunggay or Squash) in the supermarket today for a much healthier packed noodles.  Each family has their own recipe of Pancit that they would cook only on this momentous gathering.  Eating pancit is something truly Filipino , why did I say so?  Firstly, Filipinos could eat pancit three times a day; for breakfast, lunch, dinner or sometimes even for snacks.  Secondly, Filipinos love eating Pancit with something else, like steamed rice, pandesal or puto.  I know that is double carbohydrates but we love it that way!

Ingredients:

Half a kilo of Pancit (Bihon or Canton)  approximately for 5-6persons

6 gloves of garlic, crushed

1 big onion chopped

some cooking oil

2 boiled chicken breast, shredded

100 g of pork boiled, cut in cubes

10 pieces of shrimps (suaje)

2 big carrots, peeled and cut in julienne

1 big onion leeks, chopped

half a medium sized cabbage, sliced thinly

150 g of baguio beans (, sides removed and sliced)

chicken+ pork stock

salt, pepper, some soy sauce

kinstay (chopped) optional

Procedure:

Start by preparing the stock.  In a big casserole put the chicken breast and pork filled it with water and let it boil until the meat are tender.  Set aside the stock the chicken and the pork.  When the chicken is no longer hot to handle shred the chicken meat using your hands.  Cut the pork in cubes.  Get a big sauce pan put the pork and cover it.  This portion is called sankutsa, after few minutes you will see the fat from the pork melting.  You will fry the pork in its own fat.  You can add some more oil if you wish so.  Once the pork are brown and golden on the surface, remove it from the oil.  On the same oil put the garlic, the onions and the vegetables, stir fry the vegetables.  Put some salt and pepper.  Then put back the pork, chicken and the shrimps.  You can also add other ingredients not mentioned in the recipes like kikiam, fishball or squidball.  Continue cooking for the five minutes until the shrimps are cooked.  Turn off the fire.  Put back the chicken and pork stock in the casserole let it boil .  Then add your pancit (canton or bihon) and let it cook in the stock.  You can add some soy sauce to taste and pepper.  Once the stock has been absorbed by the pancit add half of the stir fried vegetables on the pancit.  Cut the fire, serve it immediately on a big serving dish, top it with the rest of the vegetables, some kintsay.  Enjoy this with a slice of kalamansi.

For other Pinoy Noodle recipes:

Chicken Sotanghon

Palabok

Pinoy Sweet Style Spaghetti

One of the most interesting discovery my friend and I did a year ago was exploring Manila’s Chinatown on foot and enjoying a promenade gastronomy.  I have been hearing a lot of raves about dining and eating in Binondo but it was only last year I discovered it.  I remember, when we were kids my dad used to bring us to Ma Mon Luk for a hot mami (hot noodle soup) and siopao but it was amazing how Chinatown has changed in so many years.  I was really surprised to discover so many secret food kiosk to try in Manila’s Chinatown, afterall wikipedia says that it is in fact the oldest Chinatown built outside China.  Of all the food that I have tasted it is dumplings that i love the most.  I spent a year in a dormitory sharing a room with a Chinese girl and I always see her prepare these type of dumplings.  These dumplings or pot stickers (fried dumplings) are easy to do and will sure impress everyone else.

Ingredients:

for the dumpling dough

rice flour +  warm water (proportion is 2 is to 1)

some flour for dusting

Procedure:

The rule is simple in making your dough: the flour is always twice the measurement of your warm water.  So 2 cups of flour then add a cup of warm water.  Mix them well using your hand.  When the dough doesnt stick to your fingers anymore it is ready.  Put some flour on the table for easy handling.  You can use a mouth of a glass to trace the circle you will be needing.

Ingredients:

Filling:

250g of ground pork

100 g of chopped chives

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

salt, pepper, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of flour

grated ginger aobut 1 tsp

Procedure:

Mix in a bowl all your ingredients including salt and pepper.  Then get your prepared dough put a teaspoon of your filling and close it gently with a some water.  Continue dusting with flour all the prepared dumplings. You can steam them for about ten minutes or fry them.  If you want to fry them better use a non stick pan.  Arrange your dumplings in a non-stick pan and pour some water.  Do not submerge the dumplings just enough to boil it for a while about 5 minutes.  When it dries up, add some oil and let it change into a golden brown color.  Be sure to cover it during the boiling and frying time.  Kain na!

The recipe is a pork dumpling if you want a vegetarian recipe just take off the meat and replace it with some more vegetables like mushrooms and leeks.

Alas, the fiery summer heat is gone and rainy season is here!  We all love summer for its almost synonymous with vacation and beaches. But rainy season could also be something to look forward too!  In a country where 35°Celsius is common a cold air with some drizzle could be refreshing from time to time.  And during rainy nothing beats the lousy weather outside with a hot comforting soup.  One of the soup we love to cook in the afternoon snack during rainy season is Sotanghon.  Although instant sotanghon soup is readily available in the supermarket today; a good way to feed your sotanghon cravings when you have them and you don’t have time, but still nothing beats the real Chicken Sotanghon our grandmoms and moms cook.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 pack of sotanghon noodles (glass noodles) about 250 g

4 gloves of garlic pounded

1 big onion sliced

half a chicken

2 bay leaves

1 big carrot, peeled , cut in julienne

half head of a cabbage, sliced

2 boiled eggs

1 teaspoon of atsuete seeds + 2 tablespoons of water

cooking oil

salt, pepper

water

Procedure:

In a casserole, put the half chicken, bay leaves and water.  The chicken should submerged in your water.  Cover and let it boil for about 35 minutes.  During the first boiling of the water lower the fire and let the chicken simmer gently into the water.  Once the chicken is tender, stop cooking get the chicken and set aside the stock.  Once the chicken is cold enough pick the chicken meat to separate from the bones. Set aside the chicken meat.  Then get a deep casserole, put some cooking oil and fry the garlic and onion.  Once they are wilted add the carrots and chicken.  Pour the chicken stock and let it boil.  Add the sotanghon noodles.  Salt, pepper to taste.  Add the annato seeds water for coloring.  Turn off the fire then add the cabbage and cover it.  Serve very hot with some puto or pandesal.

I remember when I was a teenager the love team Sharon Cuneta-Gabby Concepcion was really my favorite followed by Maricel Soriano-William Martinez.  My friends and I would sneaked out after classes to watch in movie houses for their latest flicks while eating Dunkin Donuts Well those were the days of my simple teenage life.  Few weeks ago while cleaning our living room I saw a magazine that talks about Sharon Cuneta and her passion for cooking. So I’m sharing one of her specialties.  Although Carbonara is not very Filipino Sharon Cuneta is indeed 100% part of the  Pinoy Pop Culture!

Ingredients:

1 pack of pasta (500 g serves 4 persons)

150 of pancetta or bacon

a cup of mushrooms

1 pack of all purpose cream

6 egg yolks

salt, pepper,

some olive oil

about half a cup of grated parmesan cheese or pecorino

First of all, cook the pasta as package indication.   Meanwhile, ,in a frying pan warm the olive oil then fry the bacon or pancetta until it’s crisp and golden.  Then set them aside. On the same pan fry the mushrooms, set aside.  In a bowl whisk your 6 egg yolks with your parmesan or pecorino cheese and all purpose cream.  Add a little bit of salt and pepper.  Fold in the cooked mushrooms. When the pasta is cooked, drain them quickly, leaving a little bit of water with it to add some moisture in your carbonara. Put back the frying pan with bacon, then pour your drained pasta, mix well.  The pour in the cream mushroom cheese sauce.  Mix them well then cut the fire to avoid over cooking your yolks.  You can top it with some more grated cheese.

In my recent trip to Hong kong, I finally realized how different is chinese foods we enjoy here in the Philippines compared to the ones they serve in restaurants over there.  I must admit I prefer our Pinoy Chinese dishes that has been “filipinized”.  Taste is really after all a matter of getting used to.  It is no denying that Chinese culture has immensely influenced our palate and our dishes; from pansit to lumpia to lugaw and some other.  And of all these Chinese dishes we cook my personal favorite is Chopseuy.  It is easy , healthy and delicious.  And this dish is one way to make use of all the remaining vegetables sleeping on the fridge.  There are different versions again of this dish: some put milk, while others make a sticky sauce with cornstarch.

I grew up in a family that it is the Dad who is the househusband while Mom goes out working.  Dad cooks everyday easy to prepare recipes as he had a lot of household chores on top of this home-based work.  I am sharing you my dad’s Chopseuy Express, this is the one he cooks mostly on a Mondays when there are lots of fresh vegetable left-over from the Weekend Nilaga (Beef Boiled Soup).  My Dad secret ingredient; chicharon! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

half a head of a cabbage (cut in bite size pieces)

about 100 grams of baguio beans (green beans)

1 carrot, peeled and sliced

1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut in cubes

1 patola, peeled and sliced

2 gloves of garlic pounded

1 onion sliced

cooking oil

2 tablespoons of soysauce

1 tablepoon of fish sauce (patis)

1 pack of chicharon

some water

salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon of cornstarch + 2 tablespoons of water

Procedure:

In a very hot wok, put your cooking oil, sauté the garlic and onion until wilted.  Then put all the vegetables and start stir-frying for about 8 minutes.  Put some soy sauce, fish sauce, salt, pepper and chicharon.  You can put a little bit of water to avoid burning the vegetables.   Try a vegetable like carrot when its tender to the bite the vegetables are ready.  Pour your cornstarch diluted in water.  Continue mixing.  Turn of the fire.  Serve immediately with steamed rice.

What’s in the name?

I have always loved Manila clam because of its simplicity and versatility.  They go well with soup, pasta and you can also feast on them raw direct from their shells.  They are in fact the sweetest and the smallest hard clam shells you could find in the market.  Like you my curiousity about the name of this clam arises, Manila clams, why Manila when it was the Japanese who popularized them apparently.  I made my research online and discovered that these clams where actually named after a seafarer Catalan Antonio Fernandez y Manilao who discovered these clams in 1567 in the warm waters of the western coast of Northern Luzon.  It was used to be called Manilao clams but the “o” was later dropped for it was a lot easier for the natives to pronounce them.  Manila clams have become an important commodity during the Galleon trade and that is how it found its way in the European tables.

When buying clams be sure to choose the clams that are beautiful, unchipped, that are not broken, open or damaged.  After buying them, unwrapped them so that they can breath and store them in cool area.  Just before cooking soak them in fresh water for twenty minutes that way they filter away sand and salt in their body.  After twenty minutes, take the clams one by one. Do not strain them as the sand are at the bottom of the water. If you have a brush clean each clam to remove any sands on its shell.  Now you are ready to cook them.

Wanna ride a Bicol Express?

When we speak about spicy Asian foods people would normally think of Thai, Indian or Malaysian curries.  Very little is known about our famous Chili Stew , Sinilihan or more popularly known as the Bicol Express.  For I bet, this is one spicy dish that will surely please all spicy lovers out there.  My mom hails from Samar and back then I remember we would often take a bus ride from Manila passing to Bicol then off to the port take the ferry and continue the journey up to Samar every summer to visit our grandparents.  It was a long, winding, bumpy and a dusty ride to Calbayog but we never complained.  In fact, I always enjoy our long scenic ride along Bicol: the sight of the majestic Mayon Volcano and the delicious delicacies people are selling on the bus are truly worthwhile.  My first encounter with this dish was in a small eatery (carinderia) during our stop-over on one of our numerous journey to Samar.  I literally cried because I never expected it to be that spicy but it was really delicious.  I don’t cry anymore when I eat this dish in fact it has become part of my comfort food that brings me good memories of the past.

Trivia:  Bicol express was invented by Cecilia Kalaw in the 60′s inspired by the cooking of the Bicolanos, afterall she grew up in Naga.

Ingredients:

1/4 kilo of pork ( cut them into pieces)

3 cloves of garlic pounded

2 big onions sliced

a finger size ginger, peeled and pounded

2 stalks of lemon grass

1 cup of coconut cream (kakang gata)

half a cup of coconut milk

15 pieces of siling haba (finger peppers)

5 pieces of siling labuyo (chili pepper)

cooking oil

salt, pepper

2 tablespoons of Fish sauce (patis)  or 1 tbsp of Bagoong (shrimp paste)

a cup of vegetable of your preference (string beans, sigarilyas, etc)

Procedure:

Start first by cutting in halves the  red and green chillies and seeding them off.  This way your Bicol Express is milder, still has the spicy punch but eatable. Then chop them. Warm up your casserole and add your cooking oil.  Put the garlic, onion and ginger, sauté them until they are well wilted.  Put the cut pork and continue caramelizing for about 5  minutes.  Then add half of the chopped chilies, shrimp paste or fish sauce, lemon grass, then continue sautéing.  Pour the coconut milk and let it simmer for about ten minutes.  When the sauce has reduced in volume add the rest of the chopped chillies, your desired vegetables and pour the coconut cream.  Continue simmering until pork is tender.  Put salt and pepper to taste.

Everytime I visit Vigan, Ilocos I never miss to eat their local specialty the Vigan Empanada.   Here’s a vigan empanada recipe for you to try!  If you visit Vigan, in the northern part of the Philippines you will see these empanada vendors preparing and cooking in their small make-shift kiosk in the plaza .  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

for the Empanada dough

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of salt

half a cup of water

1 egg

1 egg white

1 teaspoon of vinegar

3 tablespoons of shortening

1 tablespoon of anniseto (atsuete) dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water or orange food coloring

Preparation:

Start by preparing your empanada dough.  In a bowl beat water, egg, egg white, vinegar and orange coloring together.  Set this aside.  In another bowl,  mix together the flour and the salt.  Put the shortening into the flour mix using a pastry blender to be sure they are evenly mix. Put a well in the middle and pour the liquid ingredients from the first bowl into the center. Mix them altogether until it becomes stiff and they don’t stick to your fingers anymore. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead it just until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth. The Ilocanos use a lot of oil instead of flour when they knead their dough.  You have the option of using oil (any kind of oil) or flour. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, but never more than 24 hours.

Empanada Filling

half a medium size onion chopped

1 garlic clove minced

half a teaspoon of cumin powder

half a teaspoon of dried oregano

250 g of vigan longanisa (or ground pork or beef)

1 small unripe papaya, peeled and grated (substitute with chayotte if not available)

1 small carrot grated

salt, pepper

eggs

some cooking oil

Preparing the Empanada filling:

In a bowl mix evertyhing (vigan longanisa or any ground meat of your preference, grate papaya (chayote), carrots, onion, garlic, salt, cumin, oregano and pepper).  Set aside.

Making the Empanada:

Once the empanada dough is ready, flatten them and make circles using any rounded tool you have at home.  Put your desired filling in the middle, and crack an egg.  If you are making small empanada you can use quails egg or egg of small size.  Close it and crimp the sides using a fork.  Fry them on deep casserole with hot oil for three to four minutes or until they are golden brown.

Langka or Jackfruit is a widely cultivated fruit tree in the Southeast Asia that said to have originated in the rainforest of India.  This fruit is widely used in curries in India while in Philippines this is a versatile fruit that we cook when it is unripe as a delicious dish and when ripe we used this in making desserts.  Even more interesting, the seeds of jackfruits are also cooked and boiled and are perfect snack to enjoy like edamame.

In the province of Samar, my grand-mother would always cook her langka dish with some dried fish and it’s truly unforgetably delicious.  So if you are lucky to have some  in your kitchen do not forget to add it in this dish.  Otherwise shrimps or meat would also do well with langka

Ingredients:

about half a kilo of unripe jackfruit meat

1 cup of coconut milk

1 to 2 pieces of dried fish

salt, pepper

3 cloves of garlic

cooking oil

chili pepper (optional)

Procedure:

In a sauce pan, put some cookign oil and sauté the garlic.  Add the jackfruit and continue cooking for another three minutes.  Then pour the coconut milk and put the dried fish on the top and cover.  Simmer over low fire for about fifteen to twenty minutes.  Stir and taste, you can add some salt, pepper and fish sauce (patis) if necessary.  The chili pepper is also optional.  You can add it on the top before serving.  Best eaten with steamed rice.  Kain na!

Other recipes with coconut milk:

Ginataang Kalabasa/ Squash in Coconut Milk

Laing / Gabi leaves in Coconut Milk

Next to lechon this is one dish I often  had big cravings for when I’m abroad or far away from home;  stewed vegetable in coconut milk. Ginataang Kalabasa or squash in coconut milk  is one versatile dish that we can cook anywhere else in the world provided that there is  Asian grocery nearby.  I remember with Filipino friends overseas we do weekend get-together and this dish never fail to bring us closer to home.  Thank God powdered coconut milk exist already as this is a good replacement to fresh coconut milk.  But of course nothing beats  the real one.  My mom would only cook this dish if she could find fresh coconut in the market.  The more matured the coconut is the thicker the meat gets and is best  for this kind of preparation.  She  normally buys the one with bumbong (young coconut shoot) inside , thats truly yummy to munch.

Here’s a delicious recipe for Ginataang Kalabasa, each household in the Philippines have their own version for this dish, but the secret of course lies on your coconut cream and ginger

Ingredients:

1 small squash/ kalabasa/ kabocha (peeled and cut in cubes)

1 bunch of sitaw (string beans) (cut in bite size pieces

3 cloves of garlic

1 small onion sliced

1 small ginger sliced

1 tablespoon of shrimp paste (bagoong) optional

1 table spoon of fish sauce (patis)

1 cup of coconut milk

about 250 grams of shrimps

cooking oil

chili pepper (labuyo) optional

salt, pepper

Procedure:

In a pan put some cooking oil, then add the ginger, garlic and onion.  Sauté until they are wilted.  Add the vegetables and shrimp paste and sauté for another five minutes.  Then gently pour the coconut milk and let it simmer over medium fire for another five minutes.  Add the shrimps, salt, peper and fish sauce to taste and continue simmering until vegetable are soft and tender.  You can add the chili pepper if you want it spicy.

What’s your favorite lumpia?

This is indeed another Fiipino comfort food, a childhood favorite of mine .  Who couldn’t resist to its crispy golden brown wrapper that reveals its filling in every bite.  Filipino lumpia or Pinoy springroll is of Chinese origin derived from the Hokkien word lunpia.  Our chinese neighbors may have brought these dish along with them when they settled in Southeast Asian region.  In Philippines, lumpia could be fried or fresh and fillings vary from meat, fish, shrimps or vegetables.  No parties is complete without our delicious lumpia shanghai or lumpia hubad.  Fried lumpia are best eaten when they have just been fried.  These are the varities of Pinoy lumpia or springroll:

Lumpia Sariwa/ Fresh Lumpia

Lumpia Hubad/Naked Springroll

Lumpia Shanghai

Lumpia Prito

When I was a student in college back then, I remember I would eat fried lumpia everyday for dinner after school as there is no more carinderia open late at night in our street.  In honor of those days, Im sharing this delicious and easy recipe of fried lumpia:

Ingredients:

1 kilo of bean sprouts (toge)

1 carrot (sliced in julienne strips)

1 sweet potato (sliced in julienne strips)

1 big white onion

1 tofu (diced)

about 250 g of shrimps ( deveined and remove the shells)

salt, pepper,

2 tablespoons of fish sauce /patis

lumpia wrapper about 20 pieces

cooking oil

Procedure:

In a pan, start first by preparing the fillings.  Put a little bit of oil then sauté the onions, shrimps and tofu.  Then add the vegetables (bean sprouts, carrots and sweet potato). Put some salt, pepper and fish sauce to taste.  Add a little bit of water just to avoid sticking of the vegetables on the pan.  Cook for about five minutes.  Set them aside.  Separate one by one and delicately the rice paper wrapper.  Get one rice paper and work on a clean surface.  On the bottom part of the edge of the wrapper put a scoop of your cooked vegetable filling.  wr one side of the edge of the wrapper scoop the cooked vegetable filling  then gently fold right and left edge and roll first the filled side towards the other end.  Seal it with some water.  Deep fry until golden brown;  Serve them with your favorite  spicy vinegar sauce.

Filipinos are always been a fan of ampalaya!  A trip to Filipino markets will show the abundance of this vegetable.    Ampalaya or bitter melon, a vegetable native in India, has always been part of Filipino diet .  It may be bitter but Filipinos love it that way! We can enjoy it in salad, or simply sautéed with meat or shrimps.   And another part of ampalaya Filipinos love to eat are its leaves/tendrils or talbos.  You could buy them in bunches in the market at a very affordable price.  Or if you are lucky, a tour in a neighborhood you can ask them for free . Filipinos are believed to be the largest consumers of ampalaya leaves/tendrils (maybe because of its affordability and versatility).  The leaves are tasty and have tangy taste perfectly added on vegetable soups like corn soup or more popularly used in mung beans (munggo).

For more recipes on ampalaya here are the links:

Ampalaya con carne/ Ginisang Ampalaya

Ginisang Munggo with Ampalaya (Mung Beans with Ampalaya)

Ampalaya leaves/ Talbos ng Ampalaya Salad

Ingredients:

1 bunch of fresh ampalaya leaves (you can replace this with watercress if you are overseas)

1 big red onion

2 red tomatoes

2 salted eggs (itlog na maalat)

Salt, pepper, some oil

Procedure:

Pick the leaves and tendrils one by one.  Clean and pat them dry.  Boil some water and blanch briefly the ampalaya leaves, soak them immediately in water with ice.  In a bowl, put your salad oil (about one tablespoon) add some salt and pepper.  Cut the onions, tomatoes and salted eggs.  Toss the leaves, onions, tomatoes and salted eggs with the dressing.

I’m a self-confessed travel junkie.  And what i love the most about travelling is meeting extraordinary people, watching beautiful sceneries and of course enjoying a culinary experience!  On my latest vacation in Bacolod, I literally fall in love with their grilled chicken aka Chicken Inasal.  You can eat them as it is or with some rice.  A perfect main dish or snack to enjoy with a bottle of beer.

This recipe is perfect to prepare when you will be hosting a party at home.  All you need to do is to marinade them the night before and grill them in front of your guests.  Here’s the recipe and hope you will like it!

Ingredients:

About 1 to 2 kilos of chicken parts of your choice (it depends on you thigh, breast, wings, etc)

1 tablespoon of rocksalt

1 tablespoon of black pepper

about 1 tablespoon of grated ginger

4- 6 gloves of pounded garlic

2 tablespoons of kalamansi juice (about 5- 10 kalamansi depending on the size)

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1 tablespoon of vinegar

1 tablespoon of soysauce

1 tablespoon of annato seeds + 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (for basting)

Procedure:

In a bowl mix all the marinating ingredients: rocksalt, pepper, vinegar, soy sauce, kalamansi, ginger and garlic.  Mix well.  Then add up the chicken parts.  Try to marinate them for a minimum of an hour inside the fridge.  Be sure to cover it so it wont absorb the smell of the fridge.  Then dilute with a little of water the annatto seeds. Then in a fry pan, heat up the oil then add you annatto water.  Cut the fire.  Use this annatto oil to baste your chicken when you grill them.  Cooking time will depend on the size of chicken.  Watch them over carefully to avoid over cooking or burning;  It is normally best served just after cooking.  Kain na!

Filipino food are always said to be high in calories.  And everytime I think of these sinful dishes I always think of Lechon Kawali or Bagnet to Ilocano.  During my last vacation to Vigan, I was lucky to have the opportunity to enjoy their local delicacies and specially bagnet.  I know it is not so good for our health but sometimes we can allow ourselves to have little bit of this joy! Anyways, I tried to compensate it by running an for few minutes Lechon Kawali is a dish that is very easy to do and is so practical to re-use for other recipes;  So when, you cook your recipe be sure to cook in bulk and save the rest in tight containers.  you can Use them as toppings for ginisang munggo (sauteed lentils), pinakbet, tokwa and a lot more.  So I’m sharing everyone my neighbor’s special lechon kawali recipe.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

about 1 to 3 kilos of liempo

1 head of garlic (pound it)

1 tablespoon of peppercorn

1 tablespoon of salt

5 laurel leaves

water

1 cup of sprite (optional)

Oil for frying

Procedure:

In a big casserole put your cleaned liempo (pork with fat) then rub it with rock salt and peppercorn and pounded garlic.  Then add the bay leaves (laurel leaves), sprite and water.  The liempo should be completely submerged in water.  Boil over medium fire for about an hour or more until the pork is tender.  Get the pork and let it rest to completely dry it from water.  You can use the pork broth in making soup or cooking your noodles.  Then in a deep frying pan (you can use a casserole) fill it with cooking oil.  Warm this up.  When the oil starts to become quiet, it means its ready;  Put your pork and fry until golden brown. It could take between ten to fifteen minutes depending on the size of your pork.  Put it in a strainer after frying to drip all the oil.  Chop it at your desired pieces and served with ready made lechon sauce or simply soysauce-vinegar chili sauce.  Kain na!

Thank you to our reader Peyton for sharing this delicious and healthy drink, very easy to make!

Submitted by Peyton

Ingredients:

* Goji
*rasberry juice 1/4
* 1 cup ice cubes
* 1 banana
* 1 mango

Procedure:

add all ingredients in a blender and blend utill smooth

Submitted by Muriel Justado

Ingredients:

* 2 ripe mangos

* 1 cup of sago

* Angel Kremdensada (all-purpose cream and condensed milk)

Procedure:

for 1 cup sago (preferably mini-sago, cooked and let cool) i use 2 whole ripe mangoes… one mango, peeled & cubed and mix with Angel Kremdensada and put in a blender (don’t add water), set aside …. for the other mango, peel and chop into small cubes and mix with the cooked sago then add the blended mango ang cream… chill … then serve!

Submitted by Nez Rodriguez.

Ingredients:

* Lumpia wrappers (depending on how many you want to serve) in this case 6 pieces
*Cheese cut into 6 strips not longer than wrapper’s width
*cooking oil

Procedure:

In a casserole put some cookign oil. Sauté your garlic, onion and carrots. Add your chicken and continue mixing. Put the hotdog and cook for about two more minutes. Pour your water with the chicken bouillon cube dissolved in it. Cover and let it boil. After the first boil add your macaroni noodles and continue cooking for another ten minutes. Then add up your cabbage, milk, salt and pepper. Turn of the fire, the warm liquid will continue cooking the rest of the ingredients. You can also add some chicken liver and gizzards in this soup if you want.

Submitted by Nez Rodriguez.

Ingredients:

* Some slices of bread (depending on how many you want to serve)in this case 5 slices
*1 beaten egg
*supermarket bread crumbs
*1 pc processed ham,sliced into strips not longer than bread length
*Sliced strips of cheese not longer than bread length
*Cooking oil for deep frying

Procedure:

Press each slice of bread onto palm till flattened.Place a strip of ham & cheese in the bread.Roll bread with the strips inside.Soak in egg.Roll in bread crumbs.Fry in pre-heated oil.Watch closely as it cooks fast,remove bread when golden brown.Let it cool for 5 mins & enjoy.

Thank you to Nez Rodriguez for sharing us this delicious all-time comfort soup of Pinoy

Proposed by Nez Rodriguez

Ingredients:

*Few strips of chicken
*4 handfuls of macaroni pasta
*Half an onion,sliced
*Two cloves of sliced garlic
*1 tsp of msg
*1 tsp of salt
*1/2 tsp of sugar
*1 glass of very creamy powdered milk (5 tablespoons)
*1 tablespoon oil

Procedure:

Cook pasta first by boiling water with a 1/2 tsp of salt & cooking oil. Boil.Add pasta.Wait 15 to 20 mins,till pasta is cooked.Remove water.Set aside.Then the soup. Saute onion,till caramelized,add garlic,then add strips of chicken. When chicken looks white, add milk,msg,salt,and sugar.Boil for 2 mins,add pasta,boil for 3 to 5 mins.Let it cool for 5 mins & eat up.

Yema are custard candies we inherited from our Spanish colonizers of more than 300 years.  Have you ever wondered how these heavenly like candies came about?  The truth is, yema had a very interesting beginning in our history.The word “yema” actually means “yolk” in Spanish.   During the Spanish occupation millions of egg whites and egg shells were used to build churches in the country. It was a technique in the olden times to use them as mortar to hold the stone together. And that left Filipinos with an overabundance of yolk.  So as not to put them to was with their ingenuity and passion for food gave birth to recipes that calls for yolks: cookies (like uraro type), leche fland and of course Yema.

This is one candy all Filipino love!  It is easy to do and will sell well too among your friends! I have consulted numerous ways, recipes and techniques in making them but I guess these two are the best

Recipe 1 (Normal Yema)

Ingredients:

2 cans of condensed milk

3 egg yolks

1 tablespoon of melted butter

3 tablespoons of chopped langka (jack fruit)

3 tablespoons of chopped nuts

Procedure:

In a bowl cream the egg yolk and condensed milk.  Then pour in a casserole and cook slowly over medium fire.  You should continue mixing it to avoid sticking.  Cook it until it thickens.  Add your chopped nuts and jackfruit.  Let it cool and form the shape you want.

2 cans of condensed milk
plastic cellophane for wrapping

Directions:

• You will have to use a regular frying pan to get the best result, not the non-stick one.
• Pour the condensed milk in pan and put on medium heat.
• Using a metal spatula, stir the milk as if you are scraping the bottom of the pan.
• This must be done continuously to avoid burning the milk and to prevent it from sticking at the bottom of the pan. This will also ensure that it is cooked evenly.
• You can tell that the yema is done if your condensed milk sticky.
• Let it cool and wrap in cellophane cut outs for easy serving.

Recipe 2  Yema with Caramel

Ingredients:

1 can of big condensed milk (about 396 ml)

10 egg yolks (8 if you are using big size)

finely grated zest of lemon or lime (whatever is available)

1 cup of sugar

half a cup of water

1 teaspoon of cream of tartar

1 tablespoon of melted butter

Procedure:

Start by beating the egg yolk with an electric beater.  In a separate bowl, put a little bit of water (about 1 tablespoon) and add the grated zest of lime.  Press them together and squeeze out the essence.  Add this essence to your beaten egg.  Pour in the condensed milk and mix well.  Cook this mixture in a non stick pan over low fire while stirring constantly to avoid burning.  When the custard thickens and change color turn of the heat and let it cool. Form some balls using a spoon and your hands with this custard. And now for the caramel.  First dissolve your sugar in the water be sure that all the sugar are completely dissolve.  Then add the cream of tartar and melted butter.  Pour this mixture on a pan and cook slowly until it thickens as caramel.  To test if your caramel is ready, with a teaspoon drop a small amount of caramel in a plate if it hardens immediately it is ready..  Dip one by one your yema balls in the caramel.

This is truly a perfect pulutan , fried squid!! And if you are hungry for more try them with white rice even better!

Ingredients:

half a kilo of Squid (medium or big size)

half a liter cooking oil

one cup of beer

half a teaspoon of paprika

salt and pepper

3/4 of flour

Procedure:

Clean and slice your squids.  In a bowl mix the beer, flour, paprika, salt and pepper.  Mix them well.  In a deep frying pan , warm your oil, once it’s ready dip your squid into the batter and fry them until they are golden brown.  You can serve it with different kinds of sauces: mayonaisse with a little bit of mustard, vinegar and chili or soy sauce with a slice of lime.

How about making your own home-made sardines.  A great way to cook your sardine fish and tomatoes. For a version more filipino you can replace the sardines with galunggong fish.

Ingredients:

1 kilo of sardine fish (you can replace this with galunggong) cleaned and washed

some cooking oil

3 tablespoons of flour

salt

1teaspoon of chili powder (optional)

one fourth cup of olive oil

20 cloves of garlic minced

1 big onion sliced

1 teaspoon of fresh ginger chopped

half a cup of tomato purée (tomatoes skins and seeds removed puréed in a blender)

1 teaspoon of tomato paste

4 tablespoons of vinegar

salt

pepper

Procedure:

Dredge the fishes with flour and fry them on a shallow pan with some cooking oil.  Set them aside.  In another casserole, put some olive oil (about 3 tablespoons) and start sautéing your garlic, onion and ginger.  Add the tomato paste, tomato puree and vinegar.  Put your fried fishes and chili powder.  Let it simmer over medium fire.  Pour the rest of your olive oil.  Salt and pepper to taste.

One of the special delicacies Filipinos  love is empanada. It is a popular bread dish in most Latin countries like Spain and Portugal but the Filipino version is something very close to our taste. There is even one very popular in the north which is Vigan Empanada (recipe here) You can do it with pork, chicken and even in beef.  It is a good way to make use of your leftover meat.   This is a bit of Indian taste but I assure you, you won’t regret it! This will be a perfect snack partnered with your favorite cold soda or beer!

Ingredients:

Empanada dough:

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of salt

Half a cup of cold water

1 egg medium size

1 teaspoon of vinegar

3 tablespoons of shortening (butter/margarine /oil)

Egg white for brushing

In a bowl mix the water, the egg and the vinegar.  In another bowl mix the flour  and salt. Then add your shortening (butter/margarine/oil) into the flour. Mix well, then pour on the water-egg-vinegar mixture.  Knead them well.  Let it stand for an hour inside the fridge.  Now your dough is ready.

Empanada filling:

250 g of ground beef

Cup of potatoes cubed

1 chopped onion

1 teaspoon of curry powder

1 teaspoon of cumin powder

Salt, pepper

Cooking oil

Procedure:

In a pan, put some cooking oil and fry the onion until it’s wilted.  Add the potatoes and ground beef and cook for another five minutes.  Add the spices, salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside.

Once the empanada dough is ready, flatten them and make circles using any rounded tool you have at home.  Put your desired filling in the middle, close firmly with a fork and brush with some egg white.  Deep fry until golden brown.

If you want Vigan Empanada try this recipe  here

Filipinos love dried fish.  Whether big or small, they will definitely have their favorite dried fish.  Perfect for breakfast or even for lunch and dinner dried fish or daing are nutritious and very easy to make.

You can choose the fish you want to use in making your daing.  If you prefer bangus consumption is immediate.  However other fishes like galungong or bisugo can be made into daing that you can keep for months.

Ingredients:

about a kilo of your chosen fish (galunggong or bisugo)

about half a kilo of salt

Procedure:

Clean properly your fishes.  Slit them into two and scrub salt on the surface.  Clean them with running water. Salt is necessary in keeping it clean and free from bacteria.  Pat dry your fishes with a clean towel.  Sprinkle salt again on all the surfaces.  Put them on screen if you have one.  Its easier to dry them.  Let them dry in the sun until its completely dried.  The process could take for days.

When summer comes I remember those childhood days that I would hurriedly collect coins from my parents cabinet to buy my favorite thirst quenching summer snack: Ice-candy.  Whatever is the flavor, there will always be a magic in store in everybite of it.  A truly refreshing means to beat the heat of the summer! We did had a refrigerator at home so most of the time we are just buying it from the neighbor. So when the day comes, my uncle sold us their old refrigerator, it was ice-candy everyday. Making this is fun and easy.  You can make your kids help you in preparing this.  You can use your fruit drinks or be creative in using other flavors.   The following recipes calls for simple fruit drink based ice-candies to more elaborate flavors.

And you, what is the flavor of your favorite ice-candy?

Ingredients:

1.  Ice Candy

for simpler flavors you can use any fruit drinks you have available: whether in powder or in concentrate

orange powder drink (prepare as indicated in the label)

strawberry flavor drink (prepare as indicated in the label)

chocolate milk flavor

Chocolate powder mixed with some milk, prepare as indicated in the label

2. Ice candy

for more creative flavor:

halo-halo flavor

one fourth cup of sago (tapioca)

1 tablespoon of dried raisins

half a cup of shredded coconut meat

1 sweetened banana (saba in preferance)

half a cup of melon strips

half a liter of coconut juice

one fourth cup of evaporated milk

5 tablespoons of sugar

Procedure:

For simple flavors after preparing your juices with the help of a funnel pour them on your ice-candy bags.  Fill them half-way and close them by making a knot.  Freeze for 24 hours.

For halo-halo flavors, mix everything in a big bowl.  Taste the sweetness to determine if you want to add more or less sugar.  Pour them with the help of your funnel on your ice-candy bags.  Freeze them for at least 24  hours.

3.  Ice Candy

for Ice-cream like Ice Candy

1 kilo of fruit (mango/langka/avocado/etc)

1 big can of condensed milk

half a cup of water

you can add some yabu or cassava flour (1 tablespoon)

Procedure:

Choose well ripe mangoes for this recipe.  Scoop them and make a purée using your blender.  Then dissolve your cassava flour and water and pour this on your mango purée.  Add one can of condensed milk.  Continue blending until well mix.  Laddle this mango mixture in your ice-candy plastic bags and freeze.

Lumpia is a delicious and a healthy Filipino appetizer.  It actually resembles to the popular Asian dish spring rolls.  In Philippines we actually have several versions of this dish, it could be with vegetables, fresh or fried or with meat or fish that is also fried.

Enjoy this fresh Lumpia recipe!

Sariwang Lumpia

Ingredients:

half a cup of sliced cabbage in julienne strips

1 carrot sliced in julienne strips

1 singkamas (jicamas) sliced in julienne strips (if not available you can use chayotte)

one cup of bean sprouts

1 small sweet potato sliced in julienne strips

1 onion sliced

2 cloves of garlic minced

10 pieces of prawns boiled, shelled and cut into two lengthwise

half a cup of shrimp broth

1 small block of tofu cut in small cubes

salt

pepper

1 teaspoon of fish sauce

some cooking oil

lettuce

10 pieces of lumpia wrapper

10 pieces of lettuce salad

2 tablespoons of peanut (crushed)

Procedure:

In a pan put the cooking oil, sauté the garlic and onion.  Once it has becomes translucent add the vegetables (carrots, singkamas, cabbage), stir fry for about five minutes add your tofu, salt, fish sauce and pepper.  Pour the shrimp stock and cover, let it cook for another five minutes.  The vegetables should be a little bit crispy.  Drain your vegetables.

Assembling the lumpia:

Lie your lumpia wrapper, put a lettuce leaf, put 1 prawn and scoop your cooked vegetables. Put a teaspon of ground peanut.  Roll it gently one time, then fold the sides then continue rolling to seal it. You can serve it with sweet and spicy peanut sauce.

If you want to know more Filipino Lumpia Recipes:

Fried Filipino Lumpia (Fried Vegetable Springroll)

Meat Lumpia Shanghai

Fish  Lumpia Shanghai

This is one of the recipe I always do when I have guests at home.  Requires small time preparation but will really impress your guess.  The idea is to buy to your nearest butcher a pork tenderloin cut (lomo), ask it to be clean and the rest is just a matter of marination and roasting.  YOu can serve this with steamed rice or some vegetables sautéed in olive oil.  Kain na!

Roast Pork

Ingredients:

about a kilo of Pork for roasting

fresh frigs of rosemary leaves
zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons of honey
2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of vinegar
some salt and pepper
some olive oil

second part:
half a stick of butter
a quarter of glass of water
1 teaspoon of flour
some olive oil

Procedure:

In a bowl mix all the ingredients: lemon zest, lemon juice, salt,pepper,rosemary leaves, soy sauce,honey,vinegar and olive oil. Mix them well. Rub this marinade on your pork and let it stand on this for about thirty minutes. Preheat the oven at 180 ° celsius. The best way to cook pork is to roast it slowly on temperature that is not too strong. Heat a pan and put half of the butter on it and brown a little all sides of your pork (about 2 to 3 minutes at a high temperature). In your preheated oven roast your pork slowly for about thirty minutes. Putting some marinade and water from time to time to avoid drying up the meat. After the cooking time let the pork put it out of the oven and let it stand for about ten minutes before slicing them. During those time prepare the sauce; get all the juice and marinade in the pan, add some water witht the flour dissolved on it. Warm it up on the stove and stir it. As soon as it starts to thicken add the remaining butter. Pour this over your sliced pork.

Bagoong is an important Filipino delicacy and ingredients to most of its dishes;  Be careful of its pungent odor for its actually fermented.  Bagoong could be alamang “tiny shrimps” or in fishes. Filipinos love to snack them with green mangoes or just even to top them on newly cooked rice.

Bagoong Guisado

Ingredients:

about half a cup of bagoong (shrimp paste)

1 teaspoon of sugar

2 tablespoons of vinegar

some chilies (labuyo) this is optional if you want spicy

some pork fat

1 red onion chopped

Procedure:

In a pan, put your pork fat add a little bit of water and cover it.  Let it boil and let the oil come out from the fat.  Fry the fat from its oil, add the garlic then the onion.  Add the bagoong and continue frying.  Add the sugar and vinegar cook until the vinegar has completely evaporated.  If you want a spicy bagoong add the chopped chilies.

One chinese delicacy that I really love is siopao or steamed bun with meaty filling inside.  When I was a kid I remember trying to cook this dish but it was really a big failure.  The bun came out hard and not really palatable .  Nonetheless, I still love eating siopao.

Siopao is a popular filipino snack of steamed bun with meat filling. Some like it with Pork Asado while others prefer Bola Bola.  Interestingly, we could know the flavor inside a siopao by the color indications on top of the buns.  Isn’t that great!  If you have some left-over meat (like adobo or even roasted chicked could do the thing), this recipe is a great way to make use of them.

Note:  Recipe has been updated.  Thanks for your valuable comments

Pork Steamed Buns (Siopao)

Recipe for 8 pieces

Ingredients:

3 pieces of dried shitake mushrooms

* soak them for few minutes in boiling water, then rinse and slice

250g All-Purpose Flour

1 tsp Instant Yeast

5g Baking Powder

25g Sugar

A pinch or two of Salt

1 tbsp Sesame Oil

130ml Lukewarm

150g  of ground pork

1/2 tsp Salt

A pinch of Pepper

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Soy Sauce

1 tsp Oyster Sauce

1/8 tsp Five-Spice Powder

1 tbsp CornStarch

1 tsp Sesame Oil

40g Spring Onion chopped

1 tbsp Chopped Ginger

Procedure:

Sift flour and baking powder together in a large bowl. Add yeast, sugar and salt in the flour.  Add one tablespoon of sesame oil and mix.  Mix lightly using a spoon of fork then add a little bit of  lukewarm water , then mix.  Add again the water and mix.  Pour the rest of the warm water and mix.  Then with your hands the dough until they do not stick on your fingers anymore and they are smooth.  Then put some flour on your chopping board and transfer the dough.  Knead the dough for ten minutes until they are elastic and smooth.  Make a ball shape out of this dough.  Put them back in the bowl cover with plastic and let it rise for thirty minutes.  The trick is to put this bowl in a basin with hot water of about 104° Fahrenheit to help the dough from rising faster.  In another bowl put the ground pork, chopped spring onion, salt, pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, oyster sauce, five spice powder, chopped ginger, chopped mushrooms and cornstarch, in other words all the ingredients.  Mix them well and evenly.  Put some sesame oil in your hand and make some equal size of meat balls.  Set them aside.  Then get your dough.  Take off the plastic and knead it for few minutes to let the air go out.  Then again, flour your chopping board and put your dough.  Then roll it into a cylinder shape.  Cut evenly 8 pieces of dough.  Then shape each dough into a ball using your hand.  Then cover them with a towel and let it again rise for another ten minutes.  After ten minutes get one ball of the dough, flatten it using a rolling pin until they achieve about 4 inches in size. Put the pork ball mixture in the middle of the dough then using your fingers twist and fold the edge to seal the dough.  Place a baking paper sheet on each dough balls.  Put them in a steamer, the steamer should already be warm but the fire should be in moderate strength.  Steam them first for fifteen minutes.  The buns will inscrease in size.  Then put the fire strongly and steam them again for another fifteen minutes.

When summer comes fresh fruits are in season! Nothing beats a great day filled with a healthy delicious snack or dessert! Enjoy this easy to make fruit salad recipe.

Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

1 apple, cored and diced

1 ripe mango, peeled and diced

5 big strawberries sliced

about half a cup of pineapple chunks

about half a cup of watermelon sliced

about half a cup of melon

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder

2 tablespoons of honey

chopped fresh mint leaves

Procedure:

In a bowl mix the lemon juice, with honey and cinnamon. Set aside, in another bowl mix all the cut fruits. Toss in the fruit with the lemon-honey-cinammon mixture. Topped with fresh mint leaves.

When warm weather comes salad recipes are a must! Here’s one healthy recipe of prawns and bean sprouts you will definitely love!

Prawn and Bean Sprouts Salad

Ingredients:

for the salad
100 g of vermicelli noodles (glass noodles) 2 carrots 50 g of bean sprouts 150 g of shrimps (cooked and without shells)

for the sauce 1 small ginger 1 tsp of soy sauce 2 tbsp of sesame oil 1 tsp of sesame seeds 3 tbsps of lime juice 1 tsp of honey

Cook the vermicelli or glass noodles in a big casserole with water as you would cook a pasta noodle. Let it cook for five minutes only then drain it. Wash it with cold running water to avoid from sticking. Wash and peel the carrots and courgette. Cut them in julienne strips. In a bowl mix all the vegetables together with the vermicelli noodles and cooked shrimps. For the sauce mix together all the ingredients in a small bowl and add just before serving.

Are looking for a healthy Filipino recipe? Here’s one easy to do, simple, easy on the budget but loaded with healthy stuff and goodness!

Stuffed Tomatoes (Rellenong Kamatis)

Ingredients:

about 5 to 7 big ripe tomatoes

1 red onion , minced

one fourth kilo of ground beef

half a cup of cooked rice

one egg yolk

salt, pepper

grated cheddar cheese for garnishing

Procedure:

Cut the upper part of your tomato, delicately empty them using a spoon set them aside for filling.  In a bowl mixed the rice, ground beef, onion, egg yolk, and the rest of the tomato you collected.  Mix them well, add salt and pepper.  Scoop them and fill your emptied tomatoes, topped them with cheese and bake in the oven at 180° celsius for about 25 minutes.  This is a complete dish!

Chinese influence in Filipino cooking is evident considering the popularity of noodle dishes, dimsums and dumplings.  Siomai is one of  these dishes all filipino love.  In siomai recipes we normally use half pork meat and half shrimp for filling.  But do you know that we can also do it with beef filling or pure vegetarian version?

Beef Siomai

Ingredients:

half a kilo of ground beef

half a kilo of ground pork

* you can either use one kilo of beef if you prefer (for vegetarian version you can replace the beef with mushrooms and tofu that is chopped finely)

1 onion minced

some spring onions chopped

a thumbsized ginger pounded

2 teaspoons of sesame oil

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 teasepoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of tabasco (optional)

siomai wrapper

Procedure:

Mix in a bowl all the ingredients except the siomai wrapper.  Mix them well using your hands.  Taste if it additional salt is needed. Wrap them in wonton wrapper.  Steam for about ten to fifteen minutes and serve with soy sauce and kalamansi.

Sometimes making kids eat fish could really be a big trouble.  Fish lumpia shanghai (fried fish springroll) could be a good way to entice kids to eat them.  They are easy to make and you can use both raw fish or left over cooked fish. This is one easy to make dish that all filipino children love! A deeply fried golden brown fish lumpia dunks perfectly with ketchup!  Try this recipe I’m sure you will not regret it

Kain na!

Fish Lumpia

Ingredients:

About one cup of flaked cooked fish meat

* you can use any fish like bangus or galunggong . Or any white fish available in your market .  You can use left over cooked fish.  With the help of a fork, flake it and remove all the fish bones. You can also use raw fish, just ask your fish vendor to cut it in fillet style.  At home chop it finely with a knife or use your food processor.

1 onion chopped

1 carrot chopped

2 tablespoons of chopped pickles

1 tablespoon of flour

5 tablespoons of milk

1 egg yolk

salt, pepper

and lumpia wrappers

Procedure:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, except the lumpia wrapper. Let them stand for about fifiteen minutes. Spoon this filling to your lumpia wrapper and fold them. You can cut them in to three to have smaller lumpia . Fry them until golden brown and serve with some sweet and sour sauce!

If you want to try more Filipino Lumpia here are the links:

Fried Filipino Lumpia (Fried vegetable springroll)

Fresh Lumpia (Fresh springroll)

Lumpia Shanghai (Fried meat springroll)

Sisig is actually a Kapampangan delicacy that’s popularity spread out all over Philippines.  In Kapampangan the term sisig actually means to snack on something sour.  Sisig is a popular “pulutan” or an accompaniment when people are drinking beers or wine.  Here’s a recipe for this Kapampangan recipe my Kapampangan friend taught me,hope you like them.

Sisig

Ingredients:

pig’s head (you will be needing the cheek, nose and ears)

1 big onion peeled and halved

1 carrot peeled

some water

some cooking oil for frying

1 chopped onion

3 chopped green chilies

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of vinegar

kalamansi for decoration

some butter

salt, peppercorn

2 teaspoon of tabasco

some fresh chilis for decoration

Procedure:

There are three phase involve in cooking a sisig.  The first one is boiling.  Boil your pig’s cheek, ears and nose in a large casserole with water, some salt, peppercorn, onion and carrots. Cook them until they are tender.  You can use a pressure cooker to speed up this task.  The second phase is to grill them.  Over your charcoal fire, grill your cooked pork’s part.  Brown them on both sides.  After this you need to chop them very thinly.  The last phase needs a frying pan, put some cooking oil, sauté your onion and chopped green chilies with your cooked chopped pork.  Add the soysauce, tabasco and vinegar.  Before turning off the fire add your butter, decorate with sliced kalamansi and chilies.

Pinangat is a filipino dish which originated in Bicol region, the land of chilies, coconut and gabi. Although more popularly for Manilenos this is called Laing. Pinangat is a nice blend of gabi leaves tied with coconut leaves and simmered in coconut cream. Try this bicol version and you will love this!

Ingredients:

about 7 to 10 fresh gabi leaves (depending on the number of your guests count 1 to 2 leaves per person)

*never wash your leaves just wipe them to clean them

about one kilo of sliced gabi leaves, stalks and gabi root

about half a kilo of ground pork

1 tablesoon of bagoong (shrimp paste)

1 big onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic pounded

some chilies

1 cup of coconut milk

half a cup of coconut cream (kakang gata)

Procedure:

In a bowl mix well your ground pork, bagoong, chopped onion, garlic, chilies and sliced gabi leaves, stalks and gabi. Pour a quarter of your coconut milk. Get one leaf and put about 2 to 3 tablespoons of your mixture in the middle of the leaf. Close the leaf outwards going inwards to be able to come up with a small package like. Tie them with coconut leaves or simply kitchen threads we use for cooking (tying chicken legs when roasting chicken, etc). Put in a deep casserole your small gabi packages. Pour your coconut milk and let it simmer slowly over medium fire. Add your coconut cream and let it continue simmering. It is done when you sauce becomes thick and coconut oil starts to come out.

When the season of tomatoes comes, cooking Pinangat na Tilapia is the best way to make use of their abundance. We often grill or fry tilapia but cooking them in soury soup rich in tomatoes is worth a try!

Pinangat na Tilapia (Stewed Tilapia)

Ingredients:

5 to 6 medium sized tilapia, scaled and innards cleaned

about half a kilo of tomatoes

half a glass of freshly squeezed calamansi juice

* you can replace this with any sour ingredients like kamias, sampaloc (tamarind) or unripe mangoes

some salt

cooking oil

some water

Procedure:

In your deep casserole put all your cleaned tilapia, put a handful of salt and top it with sliced tomatoes.  Pour some water,they should be completely submerged in the water.  Let it simmer over medium fire.  At the first boil, take off the bubbles gathered on the sides of the casserole, lower the fire, put about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and add your calamansi juice.  Taste the soup if you need to add more salt.  Cover and let it boil once more.  Turn of the fire.

Asado is actually a spanish term cut meats which are cooked in open grill. In Philippines on the other hand, asado is an interesting dish with meat a little bit sweet and soury in taste. We can use the left-over in making the fillings of the popular chinese buns “Siopao”.

Ingredients
a 1 kilo pork (cut in bite size pieces) you can choose the part with some fat and some meat to make the dish much juicy

1 onion, chopped

1head of garlic minced

3 large potatoes peeled and quartered (optional)

3 cups of vinegar
4 tbsp. cooking oil

some salt, pepper to taste

some bay leaf

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

some achute juice for coloring

3 large tomatoes cut into small pieces

2 star anise

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 tablespoon of honey

Procedure:

Put the pork in a saucepan and add vinegar, pepper and half of the pounded garlic. Later, add the salt, bay leaf, star anise, brown sugar, honey and soy sauce. Allow it to boil for 2 minutes.Add 2 cups of water and let boil until pork is tender. Fry the potatoes until golden brown, then set aside. Saute garlic, onion, and tomatoes, then add pork mixture, potatoes and atchuete juice, to the mixture and cook until done. Serve hot.

My childhood memories are always filled with laughter and what else good food!Have you heard about garlic that could make people cry? Probably not yet. Well I thought when I was a kid that it was only onion that could make people cry but I was wrong. I still remember way back in high-school, my dad went home with a kilo of garlic a gift he received from a old friend.  The next morning, “Ate” our eldest sister decided to cook some garlic fried rice to make use of our left-over rice and at the same time to impress our dad.  But when my Dad came home he was so furious for my sister used 1 kilo of garlic in doing the fried rice. She’s been scolded and she cried the whole day because of garlic  :-)  there you have it.

As I enjoy my breakfast yesterday I couldn’t help but remember all those fried rice I ate growing up as a kid. My dad boasts of his greatest fried rice recipe. And I assure you it’s true. Love this simple garlic fried rice recipe!

Fried Rice Recipe (Sinangag sa Bawang)

about 2 cups of left-over rice

* It is always better to use the left over rice. Not only they are economic but it is easier to cook them than freshly cooked rice. If you are using freshly cooked rice let it stand for a while until its not hot anymore or else it will stick to your pan

some gloves of garlic pounded (you can use more or less depending on your taste)

some cooking oil

salt, pepper, a bit of soy sauce

you can add some chopped ham, grean peas or any vegetables sitting on your fridge (but they are optional)

Procedure:

You will start by mashing the rice grain by grain using a fork or your hand (its your choice). My dad normally wets up his hand to facilitate this task. Warm up your pan then put your rice that’s been separated grain by grain. The idea is that it is no longer a big mass of cooked rice. Over medium heat continue stirring the rice so it won’t stick or be burnt. When the rice is hot enough, make a small hole in the middle put your pounded garlic and your cooking oil. Brown a little bit the garlic and fold the rice. Add some salt, pepper, soy sauce to taste. Presto it’s done. You can add up also some chopped omellete, ham and some vegetables.

ps, my dad used to have a glass of water standing by.  He drizzles some water from time to time when the fried rice becomes too dry.

Next to Bangus, Hito (catfish) are Filipinos’ favorite non-salty water fish.  They are normally abundant in some lakes or cultivated.  There are various ways of serving it but it grilling it is the easiest!

Inihaw na Hito

Ingredients:

Depending on the size count one hito per person

some salt

some calamansi juice (lemon juice)

cooking oil

freshly milled peppers

Dipping sauce:

4 tablespoons of soy sauce

chopped red onions

chopped chili (optional)

3 tablespoons of vinegar

Procedure:

Start by cleaning your Hito or catfish.  Take off all the intestines and all innards.  Wash it.  Pat it dry.  Scrub salt,calamansi juice and cooking oil inside and outside the fish.  Grilled it for about ten to twenty minutes depending on the size.  Serve it with your dipping sauce, mix all together.

Next to rice filipinos love eating pasta. Here’s a healthy option to prepare your favorite carbonara spaghetti.

Vegetarian Carbonara

(serves 2 to 3 persons)

Ingredients:

about 250 g of spaghetti pasta or any pasta of your choice

2 yolks of large eggs

2 tablespoons of olive oil

about 250 g of fresh button musrooms sliced

4 tablespoons of double cream

salt, and freshly milled pepper

some freshly chopped basil

Procedure:

Start by cooking your pasta. Meanwhile heat your pan and add your olive oil, fry your mushrooms, put some salt and pepper. In a bowl whish your egg yolks and add the cream. Mix them together. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and toss it in the same pan with the mushrooms. Add the cream mixture, freshly milled pepper, a little bit of salt and basil.

When we were kids we used to visit our grandmother’s place in the province where we often spent our best vacation ever.  Our activities included catching grasshoppers, dragonflies, gathering fruits, flowers and best of all snails. I know this is one specialty thats kinda special, afterall they are snails.

Kuhol sa gata

Ingredients:

about a kilo of Kuhol (you can use any type of snails available in the market)

one bundle of kangkong, cut in pieces

one onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 thumbsize ginger pounded

1 cup of coconut milk

2 tablespoons of bangoong (shrimp paste)

Procedure:

In a casserole  put some cooking oil then sauté the ginger, garlic and onions.  Add the bagoong and continue stirring.  Put the snails and pour in half of the coconut milk.  Cover and let it boil for about twenty minutes.  Add the kangkong leaves and stalks and the rest of the coconut milk and simmer slowly until the sauce thickens.

This is definitely one of my favorite miryenda perfect with very cold softdrink. Our neighbor makes the best bitso bitso I ever tasted; long before Dunkin donuts and Mister donut mushroomed in Philippines we were already enjoying this delicious Filipino sweet goodies.

Bitso Bitso (Pinoy donut)

150 g of flour
1 tablespoon of vanilla essence
50 g of sugar
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 egg
10 cl of warm milk
1 sachet of dry yeast
a pinch of salt
cooking oil for deep frying
and icing or granulated sugar for coating

Dissolve the dry yeast in warm milk. Separate the egg yolk from the white. In a bowl put the flour, half of the sugar, the salt, the orangeblossom water (optional) or vanilla essence, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and the egg yolk. Mix them well. Then add the yeast-milk mixture in the flour. Mix well and let it stand for three hours. Whisk the egg white until it becomes firm, then add the rest of the sugar. Mix them well. Add this mixture on the dough and combine them until it becomes homogenous. Warm your oil in a deep frying pan. Scoop a spoonful of your dough and slide it directly to the warm oil. It should be cook on both sides until its golden brown, about five minutes. After cooking dry them in

Ingredients:

3 cloves of garlic pounded

1 thumbsized ginger pounded

1 onion chopped

4 stalks of lemongrass (tanglad) white part only

1 kilo of chicken cut in serving portions

1 cup of scraped coconut meat (buko)

2 cups of water

3 cups of coconut water (the liquid inside the coconut)

some fish sauce to taste (patis)

some cracked pepper corn

1 chicken cube

1 cup of leaves of siling labuyo (chili leaves)

some cooking oil

Procedure:

Start by sautéing the garlic, ginger and onion with some cooking oil. Add the chicken when the onion becomes transparent. Dissolve the chicken cube in the 2 cups of water then let it boil. Add some fish sauce, peppercorn to taste. Pour the 3 cups coconut water and let it simmer for another hour or until the chicken is soft and tender. Add the coconut meat and chili leaves then turn off the fire. You can serve this inside a coconut for a fancier presentation.