Chicken Galantina

 Learning how to debone a chicken has been one of the greatest highlights of my food life. Never thought I’d be able to cut through those chicken cavities!  Why, it seemed too intimidating, laborious and kinda time consuming until I learned  how it’s done. And, the first step? Courage.

With the help of my trusty knife, my first attempt was a resounding success. I just let my knife cut through the flesh while it parted from the bone. Trust me, your instincts will guide you all the way. Easy!

I will post pics soon to graphically demonstrate how it’s done. Meantime, you may opt to have your butcher help you with the deboning.

Ahhh, I just adore this dish. It’s a deadly combination of the chicken’s succulence and the filling’s melt-in-your-mouth factor! Individually, the chicken and the filling are already great and all. How much more when combined? Add to that the sauce from the drippings, hello! That’s super!

Anyway, thought I’d share with you one of my favorite dishes. Guys, it’s yours for the taking, dig in!

Chicken Galantina

1 whole chicken, about 1.5 kilos

1/2  kilo ground pork

1 cup carrot, grated

3/4 cup pickle relish

1 small can crushed pineapple, drained

1/2  box cheddar cheese, grated

1/4 cup  cream of mushroom soup (powdered)

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 large onion, roughly minced

1 large red bell pepper, minced

2 sliced white bread (tasty), cut into small pcs

1/4 cup raisins

salt and pepper to taste

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1. Debone chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. For the filling:

Mix well all the remaining ingredients.

3. Stuff the chicken with the mixed ingredients.

4. Preheat oven at 350C. Bake for an hour or until chicken is cooked.

5. Let stand for twenty minutes.

6. Place drippings in a dishware. Serve with the galantina.

TOUCHDOWN!

Coming up next…

Moussaka

Mustard-Mayo Tuna Sandwich Spread

Great-tasting sandwiches do make me giddy every after bite. ‘Great-tasting’, to me, would mean chunky tuna, creamy mayo and a dash of mustard, all in between two slices of freshly grilled whole-wheat bread!

I keep a jar of sandwich spreads in my ref handy for ’emergency’ purposes. There are times when Jake and I would experience some pangs of hunger in the middle of the night and would automatically turn to these bottled spreads to stuff our famished tummies. One of my favorite spreads would be this mustard-mayo tuna sandwich spread. It’s  got the merry mix of creaminess, chunkiness, yumminess and HAPPINESS in every bite! Ahh, it’s so good that I even convert it into a salad topping when there’s extra. The crunch factor is made possible  by the onion, cucumber and celery, while the zing from the mustard and boy, do they rock!

Mayo-Mustard Tuna Sandwich

1 can tuna (solid in brine or hot and spicy)

3/4 cup mayo

3 tbsp mustard

1 medium-sized onion, minced

1/4 cup cucumber, chopped

1/4 cup celery, chopped (optional)

lettuce

2 slices of cheddar cheese

a slice of tomato

salt and pepper to taste

2 slices whole wheat bread

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1. Drain tuna from all the liquid. To take off the ‘lansa’ factor, soak tuna chunks in 3 cups drinking water and drain.

2. Mix tuna, onion, cucumber, celery, mayo and mustard together. Season with salt and pepper.

3. On a slice of grilled bread, put lettuce, cheese, tuna spread and a slice of tomato on top. Seal with the remaining grilled slice. Serve.

TOUCHDOWN!

Coming up next….

Chicken Galantina

Jack’s Loft, And Ours Too!

As newlyweds about four years ago, the place Jake and I first stayed in was  fifty steps away from Jack’s loft in San Juan. No wonder, we trooped over to the place quite often then– whether to just have a swig of banana- peanut butter smoothie or grab a big time bite!

Just today, ‘Jack’ and I had a reconnection of sorts. My high school friends and I decided to hook up at Jack’s loft, Tomas Morato for a catch-up chat. Once  again, I feasted on their gastronomic delights with my eyes closed! Yum-o! 

Our fantastic beginning was made up of lettuce and everything nice…

classic caesar salad

 After much deliberation on what to order next, we finally decided to get carbonara, chicken fingers, beef salpicao, and grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes. Now, that’s 3 hours straight on the treadmill! Haha!

crispy chicken fingers

 

beef salpicao

Their beef salpicao just had the right blend and consistency of the soy sauce and oil. Very garlicky but not offensive nor bitter. Beef, so tender. Yum! Ahh, how we raved about this salpicao (translation: pinag agawan namin!).

grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes

 Their mashed potato dish has got to be one of the yummiest I’ve sampled. It’s soft, creamy and literally melts in your mouth!

classic carbonara

 I just love their carbonara. The pasta noodles lock in much of the flavors of the white sauce. The play of salty (courtesy of the bacon) and creamy in the sauce, absorbed by the lingune noodles, just makes the whole ensemble wonderful beyond words!

Cheers!!!

Chinese-Style Steamed Dory

I can’t be luckier to have a Chinese neighbor whom I frequently exchange goodies with. Her Chinese cooking is very reminiscent of those fares typically sold in a lot of good Chinese restaurants in Binondo. It’s authentic, hardcore and real Chinese! Nothing adjusted to the Filipino palate. It’s genuine Chinese cooking, period.

Steamed Dory. Two of my favorite things, combined. I love anything steamed and I love Dory. This dish is best for those who avert red meat or those who are battling with the bulges. It’s light, tasty and healthy.

There is a minor tweaking in steaming this dish from the usual method that yields major difference in taste. Ahhh, love this! Indeed, thou shall always love thy neighbor!

Chinese-Style Steamed Dory

2 large fillets of cream dory

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon light soy for each fillet

2 tbsp grated ginger for each fillet

1/2 tsp chili flakes or chopped fresh chili

1. After washing the fillets, lather them with grated ginger. Steam for ten minutes.

(Note: Don’t season your dory with salt and pepper at this point. You would want to extract all the excess juices from the fillets first before you season it.)

2. Remove excess juice from the fish.

3. Season with salt, pepper and light soy. Steam for another ten minutes.

4. Garnish with chili flakes or chopped fresh chili on top. Serve hot.

Adobo-Brown Rice Sinangag

We are definitely brown rice converts by now. I mean, my family has succumbed to the concept of healthy lifestyle yielding better health and a more productive ‘self’. Foodwise, we have started embracing the fact that anything organic and low fat is good. Amen.  So, brown rice is it for us now. Well, save for some ocassions when we have guests at home who still would howl for the white variety…

But who says you can’t have that yummy fried rice while being healthy with your choice of brown rice?

Cooking brown rice is a bit different than when you cook the white kind. The brown rice bigas is soaked in water for a good thirty minutes or so before they are cooked. Once cooked, you gotta let it sit for a day or so (in the ref, of course) to achieve the ‘lose’ texture that is best for fried rice.

To do the adobo fried rice, mince about 5 cloves of garlic. Saute in canola oil. Add 4 cups of rice. Season with salt, pepper and a swig of liquid seasoning. You may throw in about 2 tsp chopped chives if you wish for added flavor and extra kick. Once cooked and plated, top with shredded chicken adobo (recipe below). You may actually opt to toss the adobo already along with the chives.

Chicken adobo

1/2 kilo chicken

1/2 cup vinegar

5 cloves of head of garlic, minced

water

laurel leaf

peppercorn

salt and pepper to taste

canola oil

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Mix in garlic, vinegar and water enough to cover the meat.

2. Midway into cooking, add laurel leaf and peppercorn.

3. Bring to a simmer until tender and flaky. Add water as needed. Continue to fry until meat gets flaky and crunchy if you wish. Add canola oil as needed (chicken is expected to render fat, though).

I personally keep a container of adobo handy all the time. I store it in my freezer for future use. Who doesn’t cook adobo at least once a week, anyway? I even use it as panini filling (ah, that’s for the next blog, perhaps?)         

There.

 

 

 

Herbed Yellow Rice

 

How I crunch at the thought of skipping rice during times I ‘attempt’ to go easy on my carbs. How much more when the rice is much more satiating than the main viand! Arg, I cannot, for the life of me, go through my daily motion without being fueled up by the mighty rice!

For the last two days, I have been having a serious affair with my rice that would later on be fried, wolfed down and remain to be a memory…

I dished out this herbed yellow rice for my friends Aileen and Mai, who swung by my place separately for two nights. In both evenings, I had this and a beef viand plus some vegetable dish to boot.

Healthy, yummy, earthy and truly fragarant, this rice simply rocks.

I just fried four cups of day-old rice into 3 tbsp butter. Seasoned it with salt and pepper, mixed in a teaspoon of turmeric powder  and threw in chopped fresh rosemary, tarragon, oregano thyme and flat parsley, all herbs 1 tsp each . Then mixed it til flavors blended in perfect harmony. TOUCHDOWN! Now, how simple was that?

Coming up next…

Adobo-Brown Rice Sinangag

Spanish Chorizo And Cheddar Cheese Omelette

The original version of this dish uses scrap ham. Those hams that come from Excelente in Quiapo or Adelina’s Ham are certainly  the ones that garner  adulation and patronage from foodies like me. However, last I checked our fridge for Adelina’s, what greeted me, in one of my food containers, was a lonesome long stick of Spanish chorizo that seemed to have begged me with the, “Eat me! eat me!” appeal.

Chorizos always have that effect on me. It just makes me bite and devour it  selfishly with my eyes closed. To the point of addiction. To the point of gluttony. Ah, to the point where I mechanically eat and eat and eat these chorizos some more. And, to couple it with cheddar cheese? Arg, holy cow! Deadly combination, I must say.

Last week saw me dishing out this mean Spanish chorizo and cheddar cheese omelette. Used my new baby, my non-stick greenpan that’s eco-friendly and amazingly efficient. Wow, if you’re serious in your cooking, this pan is a MUST-have!!!

The bed of egg from the omelette  just flipped so perfectly from the pan to the serving plate!

Anyway, let me share with you my omelette  experience in the company of my Spanish chorizos. Here goes:

3 whole eggs, slightly beaten

1/4 cup all-purpose cream

1 long stick of chorizos, sliced

1 red bell pepper, minced

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

1 tomato, chopped

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp worcestershire sauce (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

canola oil

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1. Saute garlic, tomato, onion and bell pepper in oil. Add chorizos. Season with salt and pepper. Add worcestershire sauce (optional).  Add cheese.

2. Mix beaten eggs and all purpose-cream together.  Pour eggs on a buttered skillet to form a round bed of egg. Distribute the chorizo mixture over one half of the egg. Fold egg with the chorizo filling inside. Serve with  your favorite toast.

TOUCHDOWN!

Hearty Cream Of Spinach Soup

Having Popeye as spinach’s biggest endorser to date, this veggie has gained immense popularity from all four corners of the globe. It is, hands down,  universally acclaimed as one of the biggest providers of calcium and iron. It’s flavorful, versatile and physically appealing to the naked eye.  That’s  why I love giving this green leaf some interesting twists and turns when I get the chance.

The other night I got my hands working on this cream of spinach soup. It’s simple, rich and elegant. So, who says those three can’t go well together? 

To cut to the chase, here goes the recipe:

Hearty Cream Of  Spinach Soup

1 pack of fresh spinach, coarsely chopped

1 box all-purpose cream

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1  small onion, chopped

1 and 1/2 cup chicken or beef stock

salt and pepper to taste

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1. In a skillet, saute garlic and onion. Throw in spinach and mix in stock. Bring down to a simmer. Never overcook the spinach.

2. Meantime, transfer this mixture into a food processor or blender.

3. Pulse until semi smooth.

4. Put back on the skillet. Switch heat to medium. Add cream. Season with salt and pepper. Stir. Serve.

Coming up next…

Spanish Chorizo With Cheddar Cheese  Omelet

Zesty Chicken and Potatoes

Sam’s yaya Lisa has been in the thick of watching cooking shows lately. She tells me how much she wants to learn the art of cooking someday. That, to me, is a great start.

The other night, she made this– zesty chicken with potatoes. I love, love, love the mouthwatering blend of asian soy and calamansi! And, I want lots! haaay, you can NEVER have enough of this once you start biting into it.

Anyway, here goes yaya Lisa’s recipe—

Zesty Chicken With Potatoes

2 pcs whole chicken breasts, halved

5 pcs calamansi, juiced

3/4 cup soy sauce

3 medium-sized potatoes, cut into sticks

salt and pepper to taste

canola oil

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1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Marinate in soy sauce and calamansi for a good 30 minutes to two hours. The longer it gets soaked, the better.

2. Fry the chicken. Once cooked, add the remaining marinade. Make sure you achieve the ‘agaw mantika and soy sauce’ effect.

3. In a separate pan, fry potatoes.

4. Mix chicken and potatoes together. Serve.

Chicken Pochero

A Filipino dish majorly influenced by the many races that’s been ‘in and out’ of our archipelago like the Malays and Spaniards, pochero has been enjoying immense accolades from big foodies like me. The salty and sweet blend (from the saba ) gives the dish an interesting dimension.

Interestingly, the original pochero is actually a merry combination of beef, pork and chicken, but since we try to avert the last two for health reasons, I decided to make this chicken pochero.

But the real kick in this dish happens when you start eating this mean dish with the eggplant-squash siding. I promise you, baby, once you’ve tasted this siding, pochero will never be the same again without it. PROMISE!

Chicken Pochero

3 whole chicken breasts, chopped

3 pcs chorizo de bilbao, sliced

3 pcs saba, sliced

4 medium-sized potatoes, wedged or quartered

4 pcs tagalog pechay, leaves separated from the stem

10 pcs string beans, trimmed

1 small pack tomato sauce

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 large onion, chopped

1 tomato, sliced

2 tbsp patis or fish sauce

canola oil

2 cups water

salt and pepper to taste

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. In a pan, saute garlic, tomato and onion. Sear in the chicken. Mix in fish sauce. Add water. Midway into cooking, throw in the potatoes and saba. Cook until tender.

2. Mix in chorizos. Bring down to a simmer.

3. Put in tomato sauce.

4. Add pechay and string beans. Serve with the siding.

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Eggplant-Squash siding

3 medium-sized eggplant, peeled

quartered squash, peeled and seeded

3 cloves of garlic, finely minced

2 tbsp white vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil eggplant and squash. Once tender, remove from the pan and mash and mix together. Put garlic and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with the pochero.

Sicilian Tuna Pasta

To date, this dish has been one of the most labor UNintensive meals I turn to when I’m too lazy to belabor myself with cooking. Sicilian tuna pasta– oh yes, inspired by the great cuisine of Sicily (Italy). Food and wine are the two main attractions of Sicily and the former, a ‘must-indulge-in’ when you happen to be there. Sigh, but we are here. Ha! Anyway, might as well bring home the flavors of Sicily, huh? We had this last night. With wine to match. And, stories to boot. How  I look forward to dining at home with Jake after a long stress-peppered day.  Good food and a glass of red just complete the whole dining experience. Okay, here goes:

Sicilian Tuna Pasta

1 pack san remo linguine pasta (or any pasta of your choice, half kilo)

1 small can tomato paste

1 small pack tomato sauce

1 can tuna (in water or brine)

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

1 green bell pepper, finely chopped

1 head garlic, minced (I love garlic, others find 1 head too much but to me, 1 head just makes the dish extra tasty!)

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped (optional)

1 tbsp fresh sweet basil, chopped (optional)

1 tbsp fresh Italian flat parsley, chopped (optional)

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

olive oil

1. In a pan, drizzle about 4  rounds of olive oil  (about 4 tbsp)

2. Saute garlic. Add tuna, bellpeppers, tomato paste, tomato sauce.

3. Slowly mix in chicken stock to thin the tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Add herbs (optional)

5. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

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Cook pasta according to directions.

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Plate pasta and sauce separately.

Classic Embotido

I used to sell these yummy meat rolls for a good  coupla christmases. The tradition of selling this goody treat  temporarily came to a halt when prices of this embotido’s ingredients shot up and I felt I did not want to sell and explain at the same time why I would jack up prices, too.  Haaay, I’m kinda bad in doing business.  I’m always daunted by my consumers’ reaction (violent or otherwise) when price and quality are concerned.

Anyway, Here goes the recipe for this classic embotido. I take pride in sharing this with you since it’s something very, very close to my heart. A ‘pamana’ recipe from my lola. Again, something that transports me to my childhood, back when I used to call this “embutiBo” as a five-year old, haha.  Something I devour every holiday season everytime I make it. Like adobo, it goes through several ‘make-overs’ everytime I have it in my ref. I promise to post blogs on this embotido ‘make-over’ soon. Meantime, here goes the recipe:

CLASSIC EMBOTIDO

1 kilo ground pork

1 large carrot, grated

1 small bottle pickle relish

1 small can crushed pineapple, drained

1 box cheddar cheese, grated

1 pack cream of mushroom soup (powdered)

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 large onion, roughly minced

2 red bell peppers, minced

1 green bellpepper, minced

4 sliced white bread (tasty), cut into small pcs

4  small boxes of raisins

1 can vienna sausage or 5 pcs hotdog, everything halved lengthwise

salt and pepper to taste

3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced lengthwise into four

salt and pepper to taste

1 can chorizo bilbao, finely chopped (optional)

1. Mix all the ingredients except for hard boiled eggs and sausages. Let the mixture sit for an hour.

2. Lay about 1 and a half mugs (sorry I use mugs to measure, lol) of the meat mixture on aluminum foil. Assemble the hard-boiled eggs and sausage vertically and side by side. So, when you cut through once cooked, the eggs and sausages would peep through.

3. Roll the meat mixture with the eggs and sausages inside. Close on both ends.

4. Steam for an hour. Let stand for another hour. Serve with bread or rice.

Personally, I like soy sauce and calamansi with my embotido. Sometimes, though, I use ketchup. Haaay, comfort condiments, you bet.

However, if you are to serve it in a party, I suggest you whip up something more fancy for the dressing such as VELOUTE sauce.

It’s…

             1 1/2 cups beef or chicken stock

            2 tablespoons unsalted butter

            3 tbsp flour

            Salt & Pepper, to taste

In a saucepan, raise heat to medium. Melt butter then add flour to it to form a roux. Stir in stock until thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

Chicken Tacos

Work, ‘Sam time’ and ‘me moments’ have kept me tied up from doing anything ‘intensive’  in the kitchen, lately. Anyhow, I cannot NOT wear that apron as long as I’m home. Cooking has got to be my sweet ending at the end of a long day.

Alright, what to cook.. what to cook..

Tacos, that’s got to be it. How many times in a year do you get to munch on a good, yummy meat taco? Hope I did hear you say–OFTEN. A few nights ago, I decided to make  chicken tacos instead of the usual beef version.

FOR THE MEAT SAUCE, I just sauted 1/2 kilo ground chicken in garlic (about 1 head, minced), 1 red bell pepper (diced),  1 green bell pepper (diced) and three ripe tomatoes (diced). Salt and pepper to taste. Delaying the seasoning won’t dry out your meat too soon.

Coated the mixture with 1 small pack of pizza sauce. Threw in about 1/4 tsp teaspoon cumin powder and taco seasoning (about1 tsp).

Please note that you don’t want to make your chicken mixture too saucy, otherwise, it’s going to be too messy and unmaneageable to eat. Set aside.

On a separate dishware, put in about two onions, roughly minced. NEVER overmince the onions, you will lose a lot of its juice and flavor.

soon to be tacos...

Then grate some cheddar cheese.

Shred some lettuce. For extra appeal, I opted to use my red cabbage (That’s colored violet! Haha!).

Prepare the tabasco, of course!

Assemble the ingredients on the table. Grab some taco shells. Put chicken meat first, then lettuce, then followed by the onions, diced raw tomatoes  and topping the whole ensemble with cheddar cheese!!!

Please note that you may substitute the chicken with beef (of course), fish (grilled and flaked) or grilled chicken that’s been cubed. Same method. Personally, I love the chunky chicken version, too. You get a lot of good bites when there are lots of yummy chunks to bite on. There.

PLATE WELL, please. Thank You…

Coming up next…

EMBOTIDO!

Grilled Beef Burgers On Warm Focaccia Bread And Green Salad

 

Shucks, anything but the LPG! We were out of lpg for all of five days due to the shortage and boy, was that sooo B-A-D. And since I do most of my cooking using the gas range, NOT to have it would mean ‘ihaw’ action while the tank is empty. Haay, anyway, I just had to take the challenge: what to cook using my lonesome griller.

I had a few minutes to be able to orchestrate a sumptuous dinner. Our mass was at 7pm and would end 8pm-ish. We didn’t want to have dinner too late in the night and so I had to dish out something simple, yummy and grilled.

Anyway, I made some good old beef burgers with basil and garlic. Ground round is the way to go. It’s lean, juicy and grills well. Later on, the grilled burger would sit on warm herbed focaccia bread that I bought from Legaspi Weekend Market. And, to complete the dining experience, I whipped up some green salad with honey-balsamic dressing. Now, who would ever guess that it would be a product of a twenty-minute effort? Ha!

GRILLED BURGERS ON WARM FOCACCIA BREAD

1/2 kilo ground round

1 large head of garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp chopped fresh basil

1 egg

1. Mix everything together.

2. Shape into patties. Grill for seven minutes on both sides. Serve.

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Mixed Greens on honey-balsamic dressing

1 pack lettuce greens

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp margarita pomegranate (optional)

2 tbsp honey (or sugar)

1/2 tsp chopped fresh basil (optional)

1. Whisk together oil, vinegar, margarita and honey.

2. Drizzle on mixed greens. Serve.

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Coming up next….

Chicken Tacos

 

 

 

Stir-Fried Sirloin Tips With Sitcharo

 

If only memories of childhood could be labelled according to flavors, I’d label mine ‘roasted garlic’ on sirloin tips combined with sitcharo! Mmmm..  how my late dad devoured this dish everytime mom whipped it up for us. We couldn’t get enough of it. It had the ‘eat me! eat me!’  factor that left us going for seconds.. and even ‘thirds’!  Anyway, thought I’d share with you this simple dish that’s packed with all my yummy childhood food memories.

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Here goes:

STIR-FRIED SIRLOIN TIPS with SITCHARO

1/2 kilo sirloin tips or sukiyaki-cut sirloin

4 pcs calamansi

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 head of garlic, minced

sitcharo leaves

1/2 cup canola oil

salt and pepper to taste

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1. Season meat with salt and pepper.

2. Marinate for about 30 mins in soy sauce, calamansi and about 2 tbsp oil.

3. In a shallow pan, lightly roast garlic. Then throw in  sirloin tips until natural meat oil is secreted and soy sauce blending in with the oil. Remember to have the ‘agaw sauce and mantika’ effect. Add about 2 more tbsp oil as the meat starts to dry out.

4. Throw in sitcharo leaves (quantity depending on your preference). Serve right away.