Kekiam Balls

I learned this recipe from my pops, remember that I hailed from Malabon City, thus making stuff out of fish is kinda an in-bred quality among us citizens, hahaha.



Ingredients:

• ground fish meat
• ground pork
• carrots, minced
• green onions, minced
• onions, minced
• garlic, minced
• salt and pepper
• egg
• flour
• cooking oil, for deep frying
  

Procedures:

Note: My mom told me that you can buy ground fish meat in the market, you just have to ask, and be willing to pay a minimal fee. But if you opt to do it yourself, be sure to pound on the fish first to loosen its meat before you scrape it off.

• Ratio of ground fish and pork is 1:1
• In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients listed above except for the cooking oil, be wary of the seasoning and the flour, you don't want your kekiam balls to be flour-full and meat-less, nor do you want it too salty or too hot, right?
  
• Shape it into balls, deep fry and you're done.
• One tip though, just to make sure that you got your desired taste, try deep frying one ball first and taste test, then do the necessary tweaking. After that, try frying another one and taste it again, just keep on trying until you perfected it. If I can live with estimates, so can you, hahaha, good luck with that :)
• This is good as a pica-pica food or as a viand, it can stand alone or you can serve it with ketchup or any dips/sauces that you want.

Happy cooking!

Failed Attempt 1 - Salad Drink

As much as would love everyone to think that I am getting better in this homemaking business, I know better, and to start something different in this blog, I decided that I will chronicle not only those recipes that I succeeded in doing but also those that miss. Well, nobody said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it :)

So, for my very first entry in the failed attempt category, look and be amaze (more possibly the opposite of it) at my very own Salad Drink. This kind of thirst-quencher can be seen frequently among street peddlers and small kiosks around the mall, I am a fan so I decided to try making one on my own, oh well, practice makes perfect, hehe.


Truth is, it actually tasted good, it's just that, it didn't passed the aesthetic part, it doesn't look visually appetizing at all, right? It could have been something great *lol* but a few wrong moves and it resulted to this.

Let me count the ways (that I messed up):

• I shredded the jelly instead of cutting it into cubes, I thought, it would work just like that of Buco Pandan.
• I put it in it the freezer when I'm done and it's not yet time to serve it, I don't know why but those little Tapioca balls just won't show themselves anymore.
• Instead of using a gazillion ice tubes, I used a gazillion liter of cold water.
• I only used coconut milk, I think, it should be a mixture of canned and coconut milk.

There might be more that I don't know of, anyway, we'll find out the next time I try concocting one again.


This is a crappy post, well, it suits the topic, failed attempt in cooking and a failed attempt in blogging it *lol*.

Turbo Broiled Chicken

Lesson learned: Veggies and meat doesn't get cook at the same time, meat tends to cook longer than their soil-produced counterparts, so learn from my mistake, do not insert the vegetables in your chicken, hahaha. My carrots and potato chunks turned out burnt and mushy, the chicken tasted wonderful though, so that kind of made up for my itty bitty mistake, hehe.



Ingredients:

• fresh whole chicken
• lemongrass
• calamansi
• garlic
• soy sauce
• pepper
• paprika
• salt
• sugar (optional)
  

Procedures:

• Make a marinade out of the soy sauce, pepper, salt and calamansi. Set aside.
• Infused some garlicky taste to the chicken by rubbing minced garlic all over its body, inside and out.
• When you think you've had enough of the garlic smell on your hands, marinate the chicken. Let it sit overnight if you can, if not, give it at least a minimum of 4 hours. Be sure that the whole chicken is drench in the marinade, if you can't make that much of a mixture to submerge it whole, just turn it around from time to time just to be sure to marinate all parts equally. If you have those kitchen syringe thingy, do inject the prepared mixture to the chicken's body to lessen the marinading time.'
• When you're almost done, shake some paprika powder to its skin to enhance its color, paprika doesn't really give that spicy kick but it does make the food more picture-perfect.
• Put the lemongrass inside the chicken's body and tie the legs together to seal it.
  
• Roast the chicken in a turbo broiler, set the timer to an hour and gradually increase the temperature every 15minutes, start at 100 and end at 250. At this rate, you can be sure that you cooked the chicken meat thoroughly without burning the skin.
  
• When the machine dings, it means it's done.
• Serve with a dip, a sauce or none at all. It'll be yummy in any way *smirks*.

Happy broiling :))