Beef with Mushrooms and Quail Eggs

Ingredients:

• beef
• canned mushroom, sliced
  
• green peas
• quail eggs
• garlic and onion, diced
  
• soy sauce
• salt
• butter or oil (butter is better :))
  

Procedures:

• Cut the beef into thin strips. Marinate it in soy sauce for about an hour or two.
• Boil the quail eggs and peel off the shell. Set aside.
• Saute garlic and onion (in butter or oil), add the beef strips and saute for a while. Pour the soy sauce (that you use as a marinade), as well as the liquid (juice) of the canned mushroom and let it simmer until the beef is tender.
• When the beef is ready, add the sliced mushroom and green peas and simmer, again, for about a minute or two.
• (In the process, you'll see that the soy sauce and mushroom juice that you use to boil the beef with will evaporate and the dish will eventually dry up.) Add three to four slices of butter or more if you like, saute and incorporate everything together.
• Season with salt, if necessary.
  
• Add the quail eggs, mix and serve.

We had this for lunch last Wednesday, my husband and baby boy love it!

Happy cooking!


Second dose of:

&

Chayote with Ground Pork & Moringa

Ingredients:

• chayote (sayote), sliced thinly
• moringa (malunggay), stems removed
  
• ground pork
• garlic, diced
  
• onion, diced
  
• cooking oil
• water
• salt
• pepper or hot chillies

Procedures:

• In medium heat, saute onion, garlic and ground pork until cooked.
  
• Add the chayote slices and moringa leaves, saute for a minute, add a sprinkle of salt and pepper (I used a few pieces of hot chili peppers cut into halves as I like it a little hot), add a few cups of water, mix a little and let it simmer until the chayote is cooked (preferably, less than 5 minutes).
• Serve with steaming white rice.
  

I cooked this last Friday before we went to my mom's house for the weekend, my parents love veggies and fish but as I can't cook something fish-y for them, this vegetable dish could do for now (or forever) *grins*.

Happy eating!

Omelette

Ingredients:

• eggs, beaten
  
• ground pork
• carrots, shredded
  
• garlic and onion, shredded
  
• cooking oil or butter
  
• salt
• pepper (optional)

Procedures:

• In medium heat, saute the shredded garlic and onion quickly (no browning needed), add the ground pork, saute until the redness of the meat disappear or until you get your preferred color, add the shredded carrots, incorporate all the ingredients together, saute a little and set it aside.
• In the same pan, fry the eggs for about a minute or until it's cooked, sprinkle some salt and/or pepper if you like, put a little or a lot (whichever you think is best) of the sauteed pork, fold in half and toss in a plate.
• You can serve it as it is or with some fresh tomatoes, you can eat it with toasted bread or with rice - I say rice!

*** I shred the veggies to avoid the prying eyes of my non-vegetable-eating-son, if you don't have any problem as such, you can add more veggies and have it in bigger size.
*** To make the scrambled egg more bubbly or fluffy, beat the egg white first and then add the yolk and beat it again or you can add a few drops of cold water or some condensed milk.

Happy Cooking!


My first dose of:

&

Corn Dog Pinoy-Style

Ingredients:

(for the batter *)

• flour *
  
• baking powder *
  
• yeast (optional) *
  
• sugar *
  
• salt *
  
• food color (optional) *
  
• water *
  

• hotdog (or any kind of sausage that you like, you can even use cheese if you want to)
• cooking oil
  

Procedures:

• Mix the flour, baking powder, yeast and water in a bowl to make a batter, add some salt and sugar to taste. The batter's consistency should be way thicker than that of a pancake mixture, if it's too watery it might not hold when it's deep fried.
• (I used jumbo and regular-sized hotdogs as I wanted to make a big and small variety) Cut the hotdogs, if it needs to, to your preferred size. Put it on sticks and set it aside.
• Coat the hotdogs on stick in the prepared batter and then deep fry, repeat the process until you get your desired size, I did it thrice, both on the big and small ones. By doing it a little at a time, the dilemma of having it cooked outside but not inside is minimize.
• You can serve it as it is or with a drizzle of ketchup, mayonnaise or mustard.
  

I want my corn dogs with mustard or mayonnaise or both, how about you?

Fresh Pick: Hot Chili Peppers

We have a mini-garden at home and aside from flower-bearing plants, we also have some herbs and spices like the hot chillies shown in the photo above. I don't have a green thumb and I'm scared of worms so it's actually my hubby who keeps and maintain it - he so love gardening. He even tried his hand in planting veggies and fruits like lettuce, eggplants and tomatoes, sadly when Bagyong Ondoy struck Metro Manila, all the seedlings died.

I used those hot chillies in my previous post (Roasted Chicken recipe), I put some in the marinade and some were used in the dipping.

Two of the most wonderful benefits of having a spice and herb garden:

1. You can save some money.
2. It is easily accessible, just pick some when you need some.

Isn't it nifty?

Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 whole dressed chicken
• calamansi
• soy sauce
• chilli peppers (optional)

Procedures:

• Marinate the chicken in a mixture of soy sauce and calamansi, you can also opt to put some chili peppers to add a little bite, for 4 to 5 hours, to be sure that the flavors are well infused in the chicken meat. Be sure to submerge the whole chicken in the marinade, I suggest you use a big and deep bowl or cooking basin, if you can't do as such, try to turn the chicken from time to time to be sure that all parts are equally marinated.
  
• 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 timer ends, it's done.
• Serve with a bottled sauce (Mang Tomas) or with a calamansi and soy sauce dip.

Easy and yummy. Later guys...

Soshiwong (Ham & Cheese Rolls)

Ingredients:

• sliced bread (tasty)
• ham
  
• cheese
• eggs, beaten
• bread crumbs
• cooking oil
  

Procedures:

• Prepare the ingredients - (a) Flatten the bread slices with a rolling pin, if you don't have a rolling pin, use a clean glass bottle of softdrinks, preferably, the one-liter bottle; (b) Cut the ham slices into halves, if you want it bigger, it's up to you; (c) Cut the cheese in strips, be sure to check how many cheese strips you need before you decide on how thick you're gonna cut it.
• Lay the flattened bread in a plate, put the ham first, followed by the cheese. Wrap it up, dub with some eggs at the end to seal it close, you can also use a toothpick if you want.
• Dip the furled bread into the egg and roll it on the breadcrumbs.
  
• If you have a deep-fryer, well and good, just heat the cooking oil and deep fry all the soshiwong/ham & cheese rolls until golden brown. If you don't have a deep-fryer, use a deep wok, a small cauldron, anything you like as long as it will do the trick.
• Serve it as it is or you can cut it in half to make it more enticing. Play with your presentation, make it fun and cool, I tried to make a stack-o roll but I came up short *lol*.
  

Bon appetit!

Filipino Beef Steak (Bistek Tagalog)

Ingredients:

• beef, sliced to your preferred size
• onion, cut into rings
• garlic, diced or chopped
  
• calamansi
• soy sauce
• cooking oil
  
• salt and pepper (optional)

Procedures:

• Marinade the beef into a mixture of soy sauce and calamansi (and pepper, if you like), taste test the marinade if necessary. Set it aside for at least half an hour, preferably tuck in the refrigerator.
• After the suggested time, take the beef out of the marinade, heat some oil and pan fry the beef slices until golden brown and then set it aside. Also, be sure to keep the used marinade as it is.
  
• In the same pan and oil, fry the onion rings until it gets a little soft, set it aside afterwards.
• Stir fry the garlic in the remaining oil, put the beef in and then pour the marinade, mix it a little and then let it boil for 10-15 minutes.
• Try it out and do a recipe tweaking if necessary. When all is well, drop the onion rings and let it simmer for a minute and you're done.
• Serve hot with a bowlful of rice.

Happy eating!

Playing It Cool with a Recipe and Utensil

You Are Made Of Pizzazz, Fascination, and Delight

3 parts Pizzazz 2 parts Fascination 1 part Delight And a Splash of Impishness Finish off with a squeeze of lime juice

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Blogthings: Our Quizzes Weren't Written By Bored 12 Year Olds

You Are a Fork

You are truthful, direct, and straight forward. People find your honesty to be a bit piercing at times. You are driven and wildly ambitious. You know what you want, and you take the most direct path to getting it.

What Utensil Are You?

Blogthings: We're Not Shrinks, But We Play Them On the Internet

In need of distraction? Make a glass of orange juice and try some of these quizzes, it just might make you smile... I did!

Fresh Pick: Alileng

One of the perks of living in the Navotas-Malabon area, aside from the free swimming pool during high tides, is that you have the chance to cook and eat the freshest fish, as in straight from the fisherman's boat to your hand. But, as I am not a fan of fish and any fish-based dishes, this privilege does not apply to me but it certainly benefit my family. My antagonism to fish-based dishes is not hereditary, my family loves to eat fish, even my son, who is so picky on what he eats, prefer fried fish to other dishes. Actually, I am so thankful that he is, I don't want him to miss out on necessary nutrients and omega-3 acids that is found on fish.

Moving on... photo above is an Alileng (sorry I have no idea what is its universal name), a really big one at that, it is estimated to be 3 feet long and weighed more than six kilos, and it would have cost us more than a thousand bucks if we had gotten/bought it in the market. Well, you have to know some people to acquire a fish this big without shedding a penny *lol*.

They (my nanay and tatay) made two dishes out of it, Fish Fillet and Sinigang. I was too lazy and uninterested to snap some pics, promise I'll be snappy next time *grins*.

Ciao!