Chorizo Hamonado Vs. Chorizo Recado

A week before my trip to Bacolod, I was hoping I could get hold of some chorizos as I wanted to cook some. It didn’t occur to me that there were different kinds of chorizos. What was I thinking? I got hold of the Chorizo Hamonado from the Grocery. As for the Chorizo Recado, I managed to order several kilos during my trip.

 

For the Chorizo Hamonado, I could have fried it immediately, but I decided to boil it first before frying. It tastes sweet. As for the Chorizo Recado, I just cooked it straight (fried it).  Chorizo Recado tastes better though. Here you can taste some of the spices added in their curing process.

Chicken Pandan

The first time I ate Chicken Pandan was at a Thai restaurant and I wanted to re-create it based on how I believe it was prepared. Luckily we grow pandan leaves in our ‘garden’, so all I had to do was made sure I had chicken in the freezer.

I suppose it is a bit similar to cooking it Adobo style. The only difference is that the mere Pandan flavor and aroma is present.

Ingredients: Chicken Breast Fillet, Pandan Leaves, Soy Sauce, Cane Vinegar, Oil

Procedure:
1. Wrap the Chicken Breast Fillet with Pandan Leaves.
2. Heat the pot with a little oil. (sauteing garlic is optional).
3. Stack the Chicken Pandan inside.
4. Add some soy sauce. Make sure the level is just about same as the height of the chicken stack. (You may go a little above it)
5. Cover the pot and let it cook for 30 minutes in low-medium flame.
6. Upon 30 minutes, you may add in some vinegar, and you will notice the color of the leaves have changed. Re-position some chicken pieces if there are parts that are still yet to be cooked (this happens when you have a small pot).
7. Continue to cook for about 15-20 minutes.
8. In a separate heated pan, fry a bit the chicken pieces to lock in the flavor inside.
9. You may thicken the sauce by adding a little flour or cornstarch. NOTE: Just a little.

However, you may also serve the Chicken Pandan without the sauce. It is fine as it is. Just make sure you have some mashed potatoes (or some steamed rice) or mixed vegetables when you’re about to eat. Enjoy!

Omelette and some new kitchen tools.

Have you ever tried cooking omelettes? What is your success rate? I can never get the right pulse in making omelettes from a pan (even if it is non-stick). I tend to break the omelette which doesn’t look right and appealing.

Fortunately, I received a lovely kitchen tool. It is solely for cooking omelettes. Quite handy, really!

Ingredients: Eggs (2 per person),  Salt, Filling (tomato, cheese, mushroom, spam, sausage, etc.), non-stick spray like PAM

Procedure:
1. Beat the eggs. Lightly season it.
2. Spray some PAM on the omelette fryer. Heat it up a bit.
3. Pour the egg on one side of the fryer and cover. Lock the lid.
4. Cook for 3 minutes and then Flip.
5. Cook the otherside for about 2 minutes.
6. Shut off heat and open lid. Serve on plate.

 

Chicken Adobo with Calamansi

We have tried cooking Chicken Adobo the ‘normal’ or rather usual way. However, I was wondering what about cooking it with calamansi…and so I did.

Ingredients: Chicken (Adobo cut), garlic, Bay Leaves, Peppercorn, calamansi, soy sauce, vinegar, oil

Marinade the chicken in soy sauce and calamansi. A good 30minutes to an hour is enough to somehow get some of the flavor in the chicken. Helps tenderize the chicken too because of the acidity of the calamansi.

Procedure:
1. In a well-heated pot, add a little oil and saute the garlic.
2. Add in the chicken.
3. Pour in the soy sauce marinade.
4. Add peppercorn and bay leaf. Cover to cook.
5. After 25 minutes, pour in some vinegar. Mix the pieces and the sauce.
6. Cook some more for another 15 to 20 minutes.

The nice thing about Adobo is you can slow-cook. Low flame /heat and let time do the rest.

Chopsuey

Chopsuey is considered one of the vegetable dishes that is common in the Philippines, thanks to the Chinese influence. Its literal translation would mean ‘assorted pieces’. In fact it is true. There are different kinds of ingredients thrown into the pan, and voila! It magically becomes a dish.

For my attempt on cooking Chopsuey you will find below the list of ingredients that I used.

Ingredients: Pork, Bell Pepper, Broccoli, Chayote, Garlic, Onions, Carrots, Chopsuey Mix, Oil, Water

Procedure:
1. Cut / Chop all the vegetables you need, preferably in bite size edible pieces.
Note: Equal cuts mean the cooking time of each piece is also equal.
2. Cut strips of pork. You do not need a big chunk of pork in the dish. Thin strips make is better.
3. Heat up the oil in the pan (or pot, whatever you use in cooking).
4. Saute the garlic and the onions. You may add the pork strips after.
5. Cook until the pork changes color. Continue to saute and let the pork absorb the flavor of the garlic and onion.
6. Add the bell pepper and carrots. cook evenly.
7. Add Chayote. Stir. Mix. Cook! Cook! Cook!
8. Leave it covered for about 10-15 minutes, make sure they do not over cook.
9. Mix in the broccoli and stir in the Chopsuey sauce.
10. Leave to cook for additional 5-10 minutes.

 

French Onion Soup (with a twist)

This is my humble attempt to try out a simple French Onion Soup recipe. However, in the recipe it required some dry white wine – and I didn’t have any. Nevertheless, it still was an edible experiment. Note to self: Always have onions in your kitchen. I also didn’t have fresh beef stock but I  had to make do with a beef bouillon cube.

Ingredients: Oil, Onions, Sugar, Pepper, Salt, Beef Cube, Water, Bay Leaf, Bread, Cheese, Garlic

Procedure:
1. Heat up the pot and Add oil. Saute Onions and garlic. Make sure the Onions sweat and caramelize. Add sugar and continue to sweat the onions.
2. Add water and continue cooking.
3. Add the Bay leaves, salt, pepper, and beef cube. Cover the pot and let it come to a boil.
4. While cooking the soup, toast some bread.
5. Check pot after 15 minutes and stir. Check the taste of the soup.
6. Once cooked, pour some contents in a soup bowl. Cover the bowl with toasted bread and cheese.
7. You may further melt the cheese and cook the soup in an oven (if your bowl is oven-proof) or better in a microwave for a minute.
8. Enjoy a hearty snack/meal.

Tomato-based Pasta

There was ground beef in the freezer so I decided to make them into meatballs to be paired with the Tomato-based pasta I was thinking of preparing. I haven’t had much practice in making meatballs, and I was somewhat impatient in cooking, some of them cracked. They didn’t retain their shape. I have yet to experiment on this more. I rarely cook meatballs. Most of the time, I just cook hamburger patties (Thanks to the George Foreman Grill!).  Nevertheless, the outcome of my tomato-based pasta attempt was still ‘successful’…taste-wise!

Ingredients: Ground beef, Onions, Garlic, Egg, Mushrooms, Tomato Sauce, Cheese, Ground Pepper, Salt, Olive Oil, Water, Penne Pasta

Procedure:
1. Boil water. Add the Penne pasta. Add Salt.
2. While cooking the pasta, prepare the meatballs. In a bowl, combine the onions, ground beef, garlic, ground pepper, salt and egg. It is better to mix and form it by hand; so make sure your hands are clean before you start cooking.
3. Form the meatballs, not too big and not too small.
4. When the pasta is cooked, drain out the water.  Make sure the pasta is al dente. Set aside.
5. Heat up the olive oil in a sauce pot. Saute the garlic and onions. Cook mushrooms and add Tomato sauce.
6. In a different pan, heat up some oil and cook the meatballs until they are golden brown. Remove from heat and let dry in a paper towel.
7. Combine the cooked meatballs into the tomato sauce. Add the pasta and mix well. Put in a serving dish and finish off by sprinkling quick-melt cheese.

Menudo

I do like eating Menudo, and it’s just recently that I have tried to actually cook it. Normally this calls for some pork liver and chorizo de bilbao but I only had some pork in the freezer, so it is not the common recipe everyone does. Although, I did put some chickpeas (garbanzos) to somewhat complete the dish.

Ingredients: Pork (small chunks), Potatoes, Green / Red Bellpepper, Chickpeas (Garbanzos), Paprika, Pork Stock, Fish Sauce (Patis), Oil, Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, Garlic, Onions

Procedure:
1. Heat the oil, then saute onions and garlic.
2. Add the pork, cook till it browns a bit. Add tomatoes and bell peppers.
3. Cook till the tomatoes soften, and add the tomato paste.
4. Stir in till the paste coats the pork.
5. Add the pork stock. (or add water and pork cubes).
6. Let it boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.
7. Add Potatoes. Continue to cook till potatoes soften.
8. Stir in to avoid ingredients to sticking. Let it simmer for 5 minutes.
9. Remove from heat. Best served with rice.

Bistek Tagalog / Porkchops

This is quite easy to do. You just need simple ingredients. Calamansi and Soy sauce and Butter…because all these make food good.

First I had to marinade the meats (beef / pork; separately). They already sell soy sauce with Calamansi, so I got to use that for that marinade. I still added a few more fresh Calamansi for flavor. I like the citrus-sour taste. Marinade, can be for a few hours,  but usually I go for overnight, but not too long or else the meats have already been broken down by the citrus. Don’t forget to put it in the fridge when marinating.

Ingredients: Porkchops / Beef (sirloin cut), soy sauce, onions, calamansi, butter

Procedures:
1. Heat the pan with oil. Be mindful of the temperature of the pan.
2. Put in the beef, cook one side first, then turn. Cook it first in low heat; do not shock the beef in high heat or else the meat will be too tough / rubbery to eat.
3. Once you have cooked it in low heat for a minute or two, you may increase the heat a bit, and continue cooking. Same process for the other meat.
4. If you want thick sauce, you may let the marinade cook in the pan, adding your slurry (cornstarch + water), it will thicken a bit. But if you don’t have cornstarch, you may just do a reduction, it will thicken on its own.
5. Don’t forget to serve it with hot rice.

Oh Okra!

Just as I opened the fridge, I noticed we had lady fingers waiting to be cooked. I remember one of the first tasks I had from a chef in Malaysia. He asked me to cut those lady fingers for him. He was going to add it to the dish he was cooking, it was an Indian-vegetarian dish.

It is commonly called as Okra here in the Philippines. All I remember as a child, it is a slimy vegetable, thanks to the seeds when cooked. But if you wish to reduce the slimy-goo, you have to quickly cook it with some tomatoes or vinegar.

However, in case you prefer to eat it as is, you may just boil it with a some salt. Just note though, if you eat the seeds from its pod, it may contribute to uric acid increase, so keep it to a minimum.

Ingredients: Water, Okra (lady fingers), Salt

Procedures:
1. Heat a pot of water.
2. Add the Okra, and some salt. Let it boil.
3. Make sure it is not overcooked,drain the water and serve.