Not Your Ordinary Menudo

It's my first Filipino dish here on the blog!

I have cooked sinigang, tinola, kare-kare, adobo, afritada and pochero several times, and I can write about them with my eyes closed.  So I challenged myself and menudo is a first for me.  I know it's popular and common among  households so I put a little twist into it; adding unusual ingredients and making a few spins.

Start working on the dish by marinating 1kg of pork, cut into small bite-size pieces, with 1/2 cup of Sprite (oh, yes!) and 3 tablespoons of spanish paprika.  Add a few dashes of nutmeg and 1 tablespoon of dried thyme, mix well, and cover for at least 30 minutes.

In a large casserole, saute 4 cloves of crushed garlic and 1 large minced onion.  Add the pork (save the marinate) and cook until the meat turns brown.  Add the marinate and simmer until almost all the liquid has evaporated.  Pour in 3/4 cup red wine and simmer again over low fire, reducing the wine to about 1/4 cup.  Add 1/2kg of pork liver cut into small cubes and 1/4 kg of sliced hotdogs.  Keep mixing and simmer for another 2 minutes.

Pour 500 grams of tomato sauce, add 1.5 cups each of diced potato and carrot.  Continue simmering until the veggies are soft but not breakable.  Add 1/4 cup raisins, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 medium red bell pepper, deseeded and cut into short strips, and about 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese.  Mix and simmer for another 2 minutes.

Your menudo is now ready.  Serve with rice.

Happy eating!

I'm on Twitter @imavjavier

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Grilled Porkchop with Mango Salsa

The preparations and procedures involved in the making of this dish are very basic, but your palate will thank you for the scrumptious taste.  In less than 15 minutes, I'm sure you can do this anytime, in any occasion.

First, let us prepare the rub. Mix together one large clove of crushed garlic, one teaspoonful of paprika, less than half a teaspoon of nutmeg and chili powder, salt and pepper, two teaspoons of lemon juice and few dashes of dried thyme.  Use this for two pieces of porkchop, bone in, about half an inch thick.

For the salsa, combine one medium diced tomato with 1/4 cup diced ripe sweet mango, one tablespoon of chopped celery stalk, 1/4 cup diced onion, one tablespoon lemon juice, a few dashes of cider and salt and pepper. You may add at least 1/4 cup of chili for that "kick".

Simply grill the pork until cooked and serve with the salsa on top.

Happy eating!

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Pineapple Chicken Burger with Mango Barbecue Sauce

Pineapple and chicken go well together.

My love for this combination started when I was in pre-school. I remember my mama would often cook Pininyahang Manok (Chicken and Pineapple in milk sauce) for my packed lunch. I enjoyed the sweetness of the fruit with the tenderness of chicken and creaminess of milk. The slices of hotdog sauteed with the chicken added enough saltiness into it. *slurp*

I don't remember the last time I had that dish. But because I'm too familiar with it already, I went for something I haven't done before. And to make it even better, I made a special sauce for the star of the meal. I really do hope my palate will please you.

Prepare the following:

Burger patties
- 700 grams ground chicken (no skin)
- 1 pc red bell pepper, seeded and minced
- 3 pcs minced shallots
- 3 cloves of minced garlic
- 3 eggs slightly beaten
- 250 grams crushed pineapple (juice included)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- salt and pepper

Sauce
- 350 ml tomato catsup
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3/4 teaspoon cumin powder
- 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup minced (yes, I did that) ripe mango (should be sweet)
- salt and pepper

Here's how:

To prepare the burger patties, simply combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Using a molder (you may substitute any round container lid), arrange about four tablespoons of the mixture (about 1/2 inch thick) in a plastic sheet and keep in the freezer if you don't intend to cook it yet. (Yields about seven patties). When cooking, grease a non-stick pan with olive oil. Cook each side for 3-4 minutes over medium fire.

Mix together all the ingredients of the barbecue sauce except for the mango and simmer over very low fire for 6-7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the mango and continue simmering for another 2 minutes.

Happy eating!

I'm on Twitter @imavjavier

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Chicken Peri-Peri (Piri-Piri)

While reading this book about various ingredients that work really well when combined together, I came across with chicken and chili.  Quite frankly, I thought that was ordinary since most Filipinos use chili in sauces and dips for almost all proteins.  Oftentimes, we mix chilis with vinegar, soy sauce and fish sauce with calamansi (my personal preference). But my interest got tickled when peri-peri was mentioned in the book. I know I have not tasted it before. So that’s when I started checking Google.

With all the recipes I saw, the three most common ingredients are: oil, citrus juice (lemon) and, of course, chili. As usual, I put my personal spin into it.

Take two large chicken breasts, skin on and bone in. Place them in a large bowl then pour in 1/3 cup orange juice. Add two pieces minced shallots, two cloves of crushed garlic, one teaspoon each of cayenne powder, ginger powder (or two teaspoons crushed ginger), chili powder and paprika. Season with salt and black ground pepper, and add four tablespoons of olive oil. Lastly, toss in a handful of chopped red chilis. Mix thoroughly and marinate for no less than 24 hours.

After 24 hours…

Grease a grilling pan with olive oil. Make sure the pan is totally hot before placing the chicken (skin side first). Cook over medium fire. Brush the chicken with the marinade until it cooks. Serve with salad or any starch.

Happy eating.

I'm on Twitter @imavjavier

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Cliché

New year. New beginnings. New life. Who in the world doesn't believe these? Well, I do. And with the new chapter I started a couple of days back, I decided to join the bandwagon of writing down resolutions. Fact of the matter is, am not really a fan of prepping a (long) list of new year's resolutions. But I told myself I want to be better. I have to improve myself.

I set two criteria when I wrote down these last night before going to bed. First, they have to be realistic. and second, they must, at all cost, be achieved.

• Read more
• Cook new dishes (It actually means to be more inventive)
• Cook for others
• Travel (somewhere I've never been to) at least twice this year
• Save
• Spend more time at home
• Volunteer
• Care less
• Care more
• Seek a mentor
• Try (and learn) something new
• Find THAT job that I love (which is...I dunno yet what exactly it is)
• Don't. Get. Stuck.

What are your resolutions? Share. Someone might just help you with them.

I'm on Twitter @imavjavier

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Beef in Red Wine with Black Olives

Thanks to the busy holidays, I wasn't able to put much on my site last month. But I promised to myself that I have to write something at the start of the new year. So here's a recipe which I've actually tried a couple of weeks before Christmas. (Did I say I was too busy to write?)

What I have here is a dish that can be done in any day. The fact of the matter is, I read it from Elizabeth David's cookbook. What really prompted me to do this is a bottle of unfinished red wine. As you may know,  a bottle of red wine has only a day or two to keep its richness once opened. So I maximized the remaining wine through this.

I got here about 500 grams of cheap beef cut into cubes (about an inch thick) browned in two tablespoons of unsalted butter.

I poured in 1.5 cups each of stock and wine and added one large piece of bay leaf, parsley and a teaspoon of dried thyme.

I then covered the casserole with foil and simmered it over low fire for about 1.5 hours. Then I added about a cup of whole pitted olives and simmered it for another 15-20 minutes.

Here is the end result. What better way to eat this than with rice!

Happy eating!

I'm on Twitter @imavjavier

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