Squid Ink Pasta, Chorizos And Tuna

I was marveling at the dried pasta selection over at Terry Selection at The Podium when I chanced upon a pack of squid ink pasta. Almost instantaneously, I visualized the pasta to be infused with red sauce, chorizos and tuna. Perfect for Jake’s dinner, excellent for my quest for a pasta eye candy that was to be quite unique and tasty.

Incidentally, my Sister, Tina, and Brother in law, Oliver, stopped by our place that night I made it. Timely and definitely a welcome surprise, I was so ganado tossing the whole pasta ensemble knowing that I had guests to sample the dish.

The black colored-pasta had a stellar taste that I momentarily forgot that I had burned a thousand calories that afternoon from a spinning class and would just gain it back(?) with the bande-bandehadong pasta that I devoured that night. Yikes!

Okay, the recipe:

1/2 kilo squid ink pasta

1 can chorizos, halved vertically and sliced

1 can Del Monte tomato sauce petite cut

2 cans tuna lite, drained

1 cup Del Monte tomato sauce (Original flavor)

1 head of garlic, minced

1 onion, minced

1/2 cup capers

1 cup black pitted olives, sliced

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

1 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped

2 tbsps fresh parsley, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

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Cook pasta according to package directions. Set aside.

In a skillet, saute onion and garlic. Add chorizos, tuna, capers and olives. Continue stirring for two minutes. Throw in basil and oregano.

Toss in pasta. Top with tuna and cheese. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve hot.

Buttered Spareribs Stew

Slow cooking makes sure you get the maximum taste of your meat. Flavors become richer, concentrated and harmoniously blended. This stew is a favorite in my Mom’s crib.  She usually uses babyback ribs but I kinda thought spareribs would be as good and was I right!

Best eaten with steamed rice, I guarantee you 50 burps after you eat this!

Buttered Spareribs Stew

1  kilo pork spareribs, chopped into cubes

5 medium-sized tomatoes

2 heads of garlic

1 oinion, sliced

1 cup green peas

3/4 cup butter (reserve half for final flavoring)

1 tsp soy sauce

canola oil

1 tsp cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

water

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Season pork with salt and pepper.

Saute onion, garlic, tomatoes, soy sauce and half the butter. Add Pork and cover with water. Set in low-medium heat and bring to a boil until meat is done or you may add water until desired tenderness is achieved (about 1 cup only everytime needed).

When sauce has been reduced to half:

Add green peas, cayenne pepper, 1/2 cup canola oil and the remaining half of the butter about 15 minutes before turning off the heat. Serve hot.

Korean Noodles With Pork And Mushrooms

Lately, I have been drawn to Korean grocery stores for their cooking must haves. My penchant for anything Korean was ignited once again after my friend and I trooped over to Ye Dang very recently to sample the most talked about Korean restaurant in the metro.

Cruising the aisles of my newly found favorite Korean grocery somewhere in QC, I saw a huge pack of glass noodles that I would make into some spicy noodle dish. A toss up of noodles, shiitake mushrooms, diced pork and coated with hoisin, pork broth and sesame oil, this dish was the welcome nightcap I looked forward to after a long day.

The dish may appear to have a close semblance with another favorite Korean dish, the chap chae. However, this one  didn’t include spinach, beef and soy sauce in its list of ingredients.

Spicy Noodles With Pork And Mushrooms

1/2 kilo glass noodles

5 pcs fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced

3/4 cup hoisin sauce

3 tbsps brown sugar

3 slices of pork spare ribs

1 cup cabbage, finely chopped

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 white onion, minced

2 tsps chili flakes

salt and pepper to taste

sesame oil

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Season pork with salt and pepper. Boil until pork becomes tender (keep the broth!). Slice and discard the bones. Set aside.

In a skillet, saute onion and garlic. Add mushrooms, cabbage and pork. Stir in hoisin sauce ang sugar. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour about 4 cups of the pork broth and bring to a boil.

Add glass noodles and reduce heat  to a medium simmer.

Cook until noodles are tender and soupiness is gone. Add chili flakes. Serve hot.

Everyday Kainan Weekend!

Inspired by my Lola's menudo

If a menudo contest would be held today, I would definitely be in it. Why, this has got to be  a flagship dish of my childhood filled with memories of good food, good food and the best menudo.

Inspired by my lola’s famous menudo, this version, and I am confident to say, is the BEST version for me. It is unique in that the taba have been cut off from the lean meat and are made into chicharon then later on combined with the rest of the menudo ensemble. The meat is marinated in soy sauce and calamansi before it is cooked. In that way, meat is flavored long before you start infusing flavor as you heat it. Also, it barely uses commercial tomato sauce that usually tastes fakely thick  and artificial.

In this recipe, the small amount of commecial tomato sauce is only to spike some color to the dish.

In fact, my lola’s version totally did away with the use of commercial tomato sauce. She used REAL tomatoes.

During my childhood, we ate it best with a glass of ice-cold Coke. It made the whole pleasant dining experience intensified and more satisfying. To date, Coke has remained to be our menudo’s best partner.

With this perfect tandem, expect the dining table to burst with energy in the conversations, chitchat and bonding brought to you by the happy hormones triggered by a fabulous loveteam named– Menudo and Coke.

Menudo

1 kilo pork casim, diced with fat and lean meat separated

6 medium-sized tomatoes, sliced

1 medium-sized onions

5 cloves of garlic, minced

2 small boxes raisins

1 big can garbanzos

1 small pack tomato sauce

1 red bell pepper, minced

3 large potatoes, diced

4 pcs calamansi

3/4 cup soy sauce

Canola oil

Salt and pepper to taste

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Season lean pork meat  with salt and pepper. Marinate with calamansi and soy sauce for 30 minutes.

Season taba (fat) with salt and pepper. Cover with water in a small frying pan. Cook until water has evaporated, taba has turned into golden brown  and crispy. Set aside.

Meantime, in a frying pan, fry potatoes until they turn golden brown in color. Drain from excess oil and set aside.

In a skillet, saute onion, bell pepper, garlic and tomatoes. Add lean pork meat. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with water. Bring to a boil until water is reduced into half and meat already very tender. Add tomato sauce, garbanzos and raisins.

Continue simmering for another five minutes. Add fried potatoes and chicharon (taba from the casim). Serve hot.

Molo Soup

Hot, hot, hot!

Literally and figuratively, molo soup is HOT!

The warm, comforting and soothing effect of this soup are enough reasons to make this a staple in your kitchen menu. The solid combination of chicken, pork dumplings and the garlicky flavor of the broth just make a perfect soup.

Especially lately that it has been raining, molo soup should be the excellent comfort food with a wet weather at the backdrop.

Molo soup

For the pork dumpling:

1/2 kilo ground pork

1 onion, minced

1 egg

4 tbsps flour

salt and pepper to taste

molo wrappers

For the chicken broth:

1 pc chicken thigh/legs

salt and pepper to taste

1 onion, quartered

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1/4 cup deveined shrimps, chopped

1 medium onion, sliced

1 head of garlic, minced

2 tbsps patis (fish sauce)

1/2 cup dahon ng sibuyas (green spring onions)

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To make the broth, season chicken with salt and pepper. In a pot, cover with water and add onion. Cook until chicken is tender and cooked. Shred chicken and set aside. Meantime, keep stock for later use.

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The pork dumplings are made by seasoning the ground pork with salt and pepper and adding onion, egg and flour. Mix well and wrap in molo wrappers. Set aside.

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In another pot, saute onion, garlic, chicken and shrimps. Season with patis. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Once boiling, drop dumplings and cook for ten to fifteen minutes. Top with dahon ng sibuyas (green spring onions). Serve hot.

Adobo Fetuccine

I thought of whipping up pasta this morning for Jake’s baon. However, as I ran through, mentally, what pasta I usually send to his lunch bag, I thought it had been the same banana (or pasta!) over and over again.

Okay, eureka moment did it again and I found myself plucking out from my freezer some pork tenderloin that I rarely (read: Unhealthy kasi ang pork!) buy. Why, paminsan minsan lang naman.

I just happened to chance upon this great cut of loin when I did the grocery at SM Hypermarket, Centris Station over the weekend. Their meat selection was overwhelmingly abundant and had the best quality. However,  this pork tenderloin called my name the loudest! Lol.

I just had to give my usual adobo a facelift, though. I used balsamic vinegar instead of the usual white vinegar and ‘visiting’ spices from China, namely hoisin and oyster sauces. It turned out great. So, who says Italians, Pinoys and Tsinoys can’t get along?

1/2 kilo pork tenderloin, cut into bite sizes

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1 head of garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

1 3/4cup hoisin sauce

1/4 cup oyster sauce

1/2 kilo fetuccine noodles

water

1/2 cup olive oil

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Meantime, season pork with salt and pepper. Add garlic , balsamic vinegar and cover with water. Cook until pork is VERY tender, about 1 1/2-2 hours and sauce is reduced by half, almost just enough to cover the meat mixture. Add about 1/2 cup olive oil then pour in hoisin and oyster sauce. Stir and simmer for another 4 minutes. Top meat mixture on pasta.

Yakinuki-Wrapped Chicken Roulade

Yakinuki commonly refers to a Japanese method of cooking bite-sized meat (usually beef and offal) and vegetables on gridirons or griddles over flame of wood charcoals carbonized by dry distilation (sumibi) or gas/electric grill.

Originating from horumonyaki, it now enjoys immense popularity  among foodies all over the world. Invented by Korean immigrants in the Kansai area after the Second World War, it has been a favorite dish or major ingredient in major dishes across the globe.

The first time I tried yakinuki was when a Japanese Resto opened somewhere in Valero street and invited me and Jake for some great Jap meal. I thought their yakiniku was totally awesome, literally melting in my mouth.

Fast forward to last Friday, I saw a pack of yakiniku sitting on one of the freezers of the newly opened SM Hypermart along Quezon avenue corner Edsa. Yeah, It was calling my name, alright. Ahh, almost automaically I knew I wanted these yakiniku strips to be all over my chicken roulade.

The fusion of an Asian wrap on Europe’s roulade just made the perfect combination. Every bite just spelled YUMMINESS font 88!

Okay, how to do it:

Yakinuki-wrapped chicken roulade

6 yakinuki strips

6 whole chicken breast fillets, seasoned and pounded

salt and pepper to taste

Filling:

1/2 kilo ground pork

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 chicken cube

1/2 cup pickle relish

1 small can crushed pineapple, drained

2 bell peppers, finely cubed

1 egg

3 tbsps flour

salt and pepper to taste

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Preheat oven to 350c.

Using a transparent plastic wrap, pound chicken breasts to thin and make bigger the chicken meat. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Meantime, mix well all the remaining ingredients (except yakinuki strips) to make the filling.

Assemble chicken on a flat surface. Scoop filling and spread on the center of the breast fillet. Top with another breast fillet to seal the filling. Form into a roll.

Wrap the roll with yakinuki strips. using a string, tie the roll to prevent disintegration while baking. Place rolls on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes.

Once cooked, REMOVE STRING. Let it rest for ten minutes.

Slice roulade and serve with gravy or the dripping.

Baked Hoisin Ribs

Hoisin sauce  is the equivalent of America’s barbeque sauce in Chinese cooking. Its acceptably sweet and sometimes pungent characteristics make it a favorite ingredient in a lot of Asian dishes. Hoisin is powered by a number of spices specifically some fermented soy, garlic, vinegar, and usually chilis and sweetener.

Today, I baked some ribs with some hoisin marinade. I loved how the hoisin coated the fall-off-the-bones ribs quite perfectly. Ahh, this one is delightfully one of the best hoisin dishes you should try and sample.

Okay, you will need to pressure cook your ribs before you bake it. I prefer tenderizing meats first before I submit them into the oven. I want to be able to control the smokiness, degree of caramelization of the sugar in the sauce and the doneness of the meat. You don’t want to burn your marinade and the meat way before the meat gets done!

Anyway, my 1/2 kilo sliced pork ribs (the part you use for lechon kawali) went to the pressure cooker. Pressure cooked it for 25 minutes. Remember, the timing for the pressure cooker ONLY begins when the whistle begins to make noise NOT when you seal the lid.

When done, remove meat from water, season with salt and pepper  and generously lather and baste with hoisin sauce. Let stand for 30 minutes.

Meantime, preheat oven to 400 c. Bake for 25 minutes. Serve hot!

 

Creamed Pork Stew

A crowd pleaser, this creamed pork stew is definitely a delectable treat at any given dining ocassion. Creamy and extremely  palatable with the other flavors jumping out of this dish, this should be on your plate this very minute!

classic pork stew

I originally  cooked a simple but delish pork stew and I thought it tasted  sooo good as it was until I had a eureka moment again and decided to pour in some cream to further liven up my stew. The dish just got better and better. And yeah, it turned out to be  the best!

Okay, to do the creamed pork stew you will need:

1/2 kilo pork loin, cut into thin strips

3/4 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced

1/2 kilo ripe tomatoes, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 medium sized red onion, sliced

1 medium-sized bell pepper, julienned

1/4 cup soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup all-purpose cream

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1. Saute pork in onion, garlic and tomatoes in butter and oil. Add pork, season with salt and pepper and soy sauce.

2. Bring to a medium simmer. Add water until pork is tender and tomatoes totally wilted. Midway into cooking, throw in bell peppers and mushrooms.

3. Add cream. Bring to a simmer and stir for about four minutes,. Serve hot.

German Franks In Spicy Tomato Sauce

A German Wurstchen or a frankfurter sausage is, traditionally, made from veal and lean pork meat. The flavor, usually powered by some fresh seasonings like fresh onions and other great tasting spices, just makes it one of the best-tasting sausages around.

Interestingly, the mixture is encapsuled in some  natural sheep casing and cooked through a special smoking process. The cooking method definitely yields the aromatic factor that makes this sausage extra addictive.

It was said that during the 13th century, a butcher from Frankfurt created this dish in Vienna and later on made this dish world-famous. Now that’s interesting, a German creating the frankfurter in Vienna!!

Anyway, Jake got me some German franks from his trip to Germany. He brought home several kinds of sausages, but the one I picked to cook first were the franks. So, what did I do? I did some mean spicy frankfurter bites in spicy tomato sauce. It looked something like this:

 

The juiciness of these sausages was well accompanied by the rich taste of the spicy tomato sauce. Imagine Regine Velasquez in a concert backed up by the Philippine Philarmonic Orchestra! Yeah, something of that magnitude…

Anyway, to do this you will need:

2 German frankfurter sausages, sliced diagonally

1/2 cup tomato paste

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 onion, minced

1 bell pepper, julienned

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

oil

 

 Saute garlic, onion, bell pepper and sausages. Stir in tomato paste. Slowly add in water to thin the sauce until desired consistency is achieved. Season with cayenne pepper, regular ground pepper and salt. Add chopped rosemary. Serve hot.

 

 

 

Paksiw Na Pata

 

Food doesn’t have to be complicated to be big in taste. In fact, most dishes that, to me, are drool-stimulating  are those that are simple, common and very easy to make. The secret to making it extra rich and scrumptious is actually in the way that it is cooked.

Let’s take the case of my all-time favorite, paksiw na pata. I am bothered by the fact that quite a number of restaurants serve these pork knuckles half-cooked and still gummy. If this is their way of saving up on gas, time and effort, then I suggest that they better just ditch this dish for dishes that are less labor-intensive. Serving them matigas and makunat kinda bastardizes the real thing.

Paksiw na pata is best eaten when it’s tender, falling off the bones and immeresed in a sauce that has the balance of sweet and sour.

Ahh, my dad loved having this dish while he watched his fave tv programs. He liked this with matching ginisang munggo with dahon ng sili or pritong bangus (na ‘posta’ and hiwa..).

I’m reminded of how my dad introduced me to simple but delish home-cooked meals that included halaan soup with dahon ng sili, inihaw na liyempo in just salt and pepper, batchoy (that was made super tasty courtesy of the kinchay), laing, inadobong atay ng manok, pancit molo, etc.

And this, paksiw na pata. Another great flagship food of my happy childhood.

So easy to make, here’s how to do it:

You will need..

1 pork pata (front, it’s meatier!), chopped

1 cup vinegar

1/2 cup soy sauce

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1/2 cup banana blossoms (bulaklak ng saging)

3 pcs saba (banana plantain), cut diagonally

1/2 cup brown sugar (adjust according to taste)

1 tsp pamintang buo

1 laurel leaf

salt and pepper to tase

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1. Season pata with salt and pepper. Put pata in a casserole with the garlic, onion, paminta, vinegar and soy sauce. Cover with water and bring to a simmer. It is best slow-cooked (about two hours).

2. Continue adding water until meat is tender and sauce is reduced to half. Add saba, laurel leaf , sugar  and banana blossoms about 2o minutes before turning off the fire.  Serve hot.

 

 

 

Sweet Ham In Two Easy Ways

I enjoy working with sweet ham. It’s versatile, flavorful and pleasantly juicy. A great  ingredient for cocktail pica, paninis, salads, soups or even for ‘pangsahog’, sweet ham just shines at any given time in any dining event. In Manila, my favorite brands are Adelina’s, Excelente in Quiapo and Salazar’s. Ahh, Adelina’s ham in hot pan de sal with kesong puti, God help me! Sarrrap!

My sister-in-law, Tish,  recently swung by Manila from Cagayan De Oro City. My in-laws had her bring this fantastic Oro ham for pasalubong. The ham just oozed with all its  precious juices. The meat,  tender and moist, perfect for a great omelette. The kind that you would make papak!

Meantime, Jake’s aunt, tita Aling,  gave us some wonderful and tasty  native eggs from her farm. I thought the two would make a perfect tandem for a power omelette. And, it did!

And so went the first of  the two dishes that I used it in.

To do this simple omelette, you will need:

3 eggs, scrambled

3/4 cup sweet ham, cubed

1 red bell pepper, julienned

7 pcs pitted olives, sliced (optional)

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, cubed

1 onion, chopped

1 tomato, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

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1. In a skillet, saute onion, garlic and tomato. Add ham, olives, bell pepper and cheese. Stir lightly. Set aside.

2. In a separate pan, pour beaten eggs creating a round form. Add ham mixture.

3. Flip two sides of the egg to enclose the ham mixture. Serve hot.

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You will be amazed with the next dish, it’s caramelized ham. This one is a personal favorite. I always obsess in having this for breakfast with scrambled eggs with sliced onions to match.

Even your one-year old kid can shine in the kitchen doing this. It involves just three steps all in all. Step one: slice sweet hams. Step two: dredge in white sugar. Step three: Fry.

Sweet hams aren’t really sugary sweet. Intensifying its sweetness  will perfectly strike a balance with its built in saltiness. Best served with hot steamed rice and coffee.

Tinumis!

Mom served our favorite tinumis today with a very wet weather at the backdrop. Can there be anything more soothing than having your best comfort food in the middle of a chilly-rainy-sleep-encouraging day?

Tinumis is a favorite dish among Nueva Ecijanos where it is believed to have originated. It is closely similar to dinuguan, only it uses ground pork (as far as my Mom’s version is concerned) as opposed to dinuguan’s pork that is cut in chunks.

Growing up, I always looked forward to having this on our dining table. The distinct taste of pork blood, combined with the gratifying flavor of ground meat and the zing of the peppers and vinegar just left me pleasantly stuffed each and everytime I had it on my table then.

Now, fast forward to 2009, Mommy had me go back to those days. Her tinumis for lunch just made my day. Great weather, fantastic comfort food, good company, life is great.

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To do tinumis, you will need:

1 kilo ground pork (whole skin included, separated from meat)

200 gms Pork liver , chunked

3 cups pork blood

1 cup vinegar

1 tali tanglad (lemon grass)

8 pangsigang peppers

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 medium-sized onion, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

water

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1. Season pork and the pork balat with salt and pepper. Add garlic, onion and vinegar. Dump everything in a casserole. Don’t stir for the first 2 minutes or until vinegar is cooked. Bring to a simmer until vinegar seeps into the meat ensemble. Add water when necessary until the meat is cooked.

2. Midway into cooking, add liver, tanglad and peppers. Remove pork balat and cut into fine cubes. Throw back into the mixture.

3. Meantime, strain in pork blood onto the mixture. Coarsely chunk the blood left on the strainer and throw back into the mixture again. Continue simmering until meat is cooked. Serve hot.

Dampa Forever!

My sister turned a year wiser very recently and decided to mark her natal day by grabbing some great eats made up of baked oysters, crabs, shrimps, etc.

Dampa was to be her ‘party place’. Fantastic!

Dampa destinations have flourished around the metro in the last few years that it made sensation. If my memory serves me right, these dampa places have been around as early as in the 80’s and Roxas boulevard (then Dewey boulevard) has been the original hub since it all began and grew big time.

The concept of dampa or sometimes referred to as a paluto eatery, is that you go to a particular resto (in our case, we went to ChaCha at Julia Vargas Avenue), and will have the option to either personally scour for fresh eats (meat, vegetables or seafoods) at a nearby palengke or ask the restaurant runners to do it for you.

They then cook what has been freshly bought. Next, you are handed a menu that contains plenty of options as to how you want your food cooked  (ihaw, sigang, kilaw, etc). Ahhh, it’s the coolest.

And, FRESH is the operative word here.  I can’t overemphasize how satiating it is to  eat at these dampa places that serve everything fresh and great. Yeah, nothing beats eating anything F-R-E-S-H!

Now, I’m hungry again. Anyway, here goes what we had:

The ‘hot front act’ dish was made of halaan soup with onion leeks.

My family is a crab-loving family. These crabs got amputated in the first ten seconds that it landed on our table!

These shrimps were dipped in a special sauce by the resto. Sweet, nutty and malinamnam, the sauce was a hit.

Baked oyters in garlic and cheese.

Grilled tuna belly. Fat, juicy and smoky, I love this!

Baked scallops. A must-try!

Meet my FOODIE mom, Baby. My nephew, Marty, and my daughter, Sam.

My celebrant-sister, Tina and her hubby, Oliver.

My sis-in-law, Michelle with my brother, Jerome and their son, Marty.

The family!

My husband, Jake.

And me looking very, very stuffed by this time!

Elle’s Gastronomic Cooking (Part I)

My good friend from high school Elle Acuña-Lorenzo and I have been in the thick of some culinary-related banters lately. I see her food styling and photography (by her husband) on facebook all the time and man, they sure rock!

Anyway, I got an email from her today in response to my request for her to let us sample (at least, via our ‘cyber palate’, haha) her dishes. Here goes her note:

Dear Caren,

I hope you will be able to use my recipes in your blog. I really love reading your blog & trying out your recipes. Parang natetempt na naman ako mag-aral ng culinary. About 3 years ago I took a short 3 month course at ISCAHM at Katipunan and I enjoyed it tremendously. I just love cooking so much & thanks so much for sharing your passion. Sobrang kaka-inspire.

 Mwah!

Elle Acuña Lorenzo (a.k.a Mari)

Yummy Baby Back Ribs – Pork

 1. 1 Rack of pork ribs – about 1 -1.5 kilos

 2. Marinade ribs – soy sauce, mustard, tomato ketchup, lea & perrins, garlic, calamansi, pineapple juice, sprite & brown sugar.

 3. Put ribs in pressure cooker with marinade.

 4. Bake slowly till cooked while basting in its own sauce.

 Procedure:

 Mix all ingredients except pork and adjust amount of ingredients to your own taste. Afterwards marinade pork for about an hour then pressure cook for 10 minutes.

Transfer to a pan and bake for 10-15 minutes at about 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Serve hot.

 Serving Suggestion: may serve with salad & potato gratin

*Will publish two more of her recipes in the succeeding posts.