Pork in Sour Broth (Sinigang)

Filipino food is prepared in a variety of ways. Some complex some simple. Also, due to a variety of influences from several countries that once colonized the country, food also therefore comes in such varieties. Some local recipes are actually a blend of the cuisines from these countries. So most will find Filipino cuisine sometimes to have the look of cuisines from other countries but, taste is entirely a different story. Like all other nations, it has that unique characteristic that shouts of its origin.

One favourite among the natives is known as ‘sinigang’. Sinigang is a sour broth that can be prepared with a variety of meat like chicken, pork, beef and seafood like prawns and a wide variety of fish. A variety of native vegetable are also included in the recipe. Also, the souring agent varies too. Some use, tamarind, guava, citron, tomato, kamias, santol, etc. This one I share uses tomatoes (kamatis in Filipino). So I hope people try this out and enjoy their ‘Sinigang na Baboy sa Kamatis’.

Ingredients

1 kg Pork (cut into rectangular pieces)

1 kg Tomatoes (quartered)

¼ tsp. Black pepper (ground)

1 tsp. Iodized salt

5 cloves Garlic (peeled and cut to small pieces)

1 pc. Onion (medium sized, peeled, whole)

1 ½ cup Water

½ kg Bokchoy (native pechay variety)

Cooking Instruction:

In a pressure cooker, place the pork, water, salt, tomatoes, black pepper, garlic, and onion. Pressure cook for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn off the flame and allow the pressure cooker to cool and loose pressure normally. Do not vent pressure but allow it to dissipate normally, the cooling time will afford additional cooking time to tenderize the meat. When no more pressure is inside the cooker, open and remove the meat, set aside. Put the native pechay leaves and put the meat on top of the leaves. Cover and again turn up the flame to high heat and until pressure builds up again but once the pressure begins to exhaust from the pressure cooker, immediately turn off the flame and again allow cooling normally as was instructed earlier. After which, you may enjoy the hot soup with some rice or bread.

Pork with Straw Mushrooms

I love mushrooms. One of my favorite mushroom recipe is pork with straw mushrooms. In this section I share my recipe. This is fairly easy to prepare so you might want to try it out. Please do feel free to leave your comments on this recipe if you have tried it out. I invite readers to voice out their thoughts on my other posts. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

125 g Pork strips

250 g Caned straw mushrooms

1 tbsp. Oyster sauce

1 tsp. Cornstarch

1 cup Water

1 tbsp. Cooking oil

¼ tsp. Black pepper powder

½ tsp. Sesame oil

4 cloves Garlic (minced)

1 medium Onion (chopped)

1 tbsp. Mirin wine

Salt (to taste)

Cooking Instructions:

Heat cooking oil in a saucepan. Sauté in the hot oil, the garlic and onion until garlic and onions together until the onion becomes translucent and begins to caramelize. Add the pork strips and stir fry until pork is coloured as if it were blanched. Add the water from the canned mushrooms and mirin, cover to simmer until pork is tender. You may add water as needed in order to tenderize the meat if the water from the canned mushroom is not enough for cooking. Make sure that the liquid is about half a cup when the meat is cooked.

In a small bowl, place cornstarch and add 1 cup water and mix well to suspend the starch. Make sure there are no lumps left of the cornstarch. Add oyster sauce and sesame oil into the mixture.

In the saucepan with the cooked meat, add black pepper and the sauce mixture prepared in the preceding section and stir well. Continue cooking until the sauce thickens and the starch is cooked. Add salt to taste and serve.

Stir Fried Chiken Fillets with Young Corn

Sometimes you want to have good food but you barely have time to prepare them. This one I think is tasty and can be easily prepared.

Ingredients:

1/2 kg Chicken breast cut into strips
1 pc. Egg, beaten
1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder
1/8 tsp. Black Pepper Powder
1/4 tsp. Iodized Salt
1/2 tsp. Onion Powder
1 piece Bell Pepper, cut into large strips
1/2 cup Water
1 tsp. Garlic, minced
2 tbsp Onion, minced
1 1/2 tbsp. Safflower Oil
1/3 Cup Safflower Oil (for frying chicken fillets, adjust quantity to suit)

For Sauce:
1 tbsp. Cornstarch
1/2 cup Water
2 Tbsp. Oyster Sauce
1/2 tsp. Sesame Oil
1/8 tsp. Black Pepper Powder

Cooking Procedure:
In a suitably sized bowl beat the egg and add garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper and iodized salt. Toss in the chicken and coat well.

Heat a small portion of the cooking oil in a Teflon pan and fry each side of the chicken strips until golden brown (do not overcook chicken as it will become dry). Set aside in a colander lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

In a suitable sauce pan, heat oil and saute minced garlic and onion until garlic turns brown and onion becomes translucent and slightly starts to caramelize. Add 1/2 cup water and boil. Add cooked chicken fillets and bell pepper. Simmer for additional 2 minutes. Add additional salt to taste.

Sauce:
In a small bowl, place cornstarch, add water and mix well to disperse cornstarch (there should be no lumps). Add Oyster sauce and sesame oil and mix well.

Assembly:
To the simmering chicken in the pan, increase the heat to have the liquid boiling and add the sauce. Mix well and continue cooking until starch is cooked. Serve immediately.

Beef Stew with Sibut (Chinese Herbs)

When cold season comes, I remembered my father always have either beef, duck, or chicken stew with a mixture of Chinese herbs (known locally as sibut). By the way, my father is Chinese... He passed away some few years back. I always remember the fun times we had together. How he cared for us. How he enjoyed sharing. Anything he can share to anyone he will. It's comforting to have something that reminds me of him and the good times he has shared with us... So, this simple recipe I will share. This one contains beef.

Ingredients:

1/2 kg Beef Eye, cut into large portions
1 pack Sibut (Chinese Herb Mixture, see picture below)
1/8 tsp. Black Pepper, whole
1 medium Onion (whole, peeled)
3 1/2 cups Water
1 tsp. Minced garlic
1 tsp. Slivers of Fresh Ginger
Iodized salt (to taste)

Cooking Instructions:

Place the beef cuts, whole onion, sibut, black pepper, salt, minced garlic, ginger and water in a suitably sized pressure cooker. Start heating the contents of the pressure cooker over high heat. When the exhaust of the pressure cooker begins to create sound (releasing steam), continue heating under high heat for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes reduce heat to maintain periodic release of steam in the pressure cooker and cook for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes. Turn off the flame and allow the pressure to subside by gradual cooling (just allow the pressure to subside normally, do not hasten cooling by running cold water over the pressure cooker). Once the pressure subside and it is possible to open the pressure cooker, open and check the saltiness. Adjust if necessary. Serve hot and enjoy...

Fried Eggplant with Cheese

I love cheese!!! Let me share my recipe for eggplant using cheese as one of the ingredients.

Ingredients:

5 pcs. Eggplant
1/3 cup Cornstarch
3 pcs. Eggs
1/4 tsp. Black Pepper (ground)
1 tsp. Basil (dried)
1/2 cup Cheese (grated)
1/4 tsp. Iodized Salt
Safflower Oil (for frying)
1 L Water

In a large saucepan, place the water and boil. Once boiling, add the eggplants and simmer until soft enough for easy peeling. Peel the eggplants and set aside.

In a suitable bowl, beat the eggs, add pepper, basil, cheese, iodized salt and mix well. Add cornstarch and mix.

With the aid of a fork, flatten the eggplant and dip in the batter. Heat oil in frying pan and pan fry the eggplant coated with batter on each side until golden brown. Note, while frying, spoon a equal portion of the batter so that it is equally distributed among the 5 eggplants.

Place fried eggplant on a colander lined with paper towels to absorb the excess cooking oil.

Plate and drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Enjoy...

Let Us Take Care of Our Planet so that it in Turn Cares for Us

While in one of my early morning walks with my wife, Marianne, we came upon an interesting farm scene. However, I did not have my camera that has the lens that can be fitted with my infrared filter. I did not want to remove the lens off my other camera. So, I told her later that day we would return and bring the other camera so I can take an infrared image of the place. However, it was so hot that afternoon that we decided to go there the next day instead. When we finally had a chance to go with the right camera, the plot was already being prepared by two farmers. They were not working there the previous day so I thought, that I will have to take the image with the two farmers working the field instead of my previous plan to take the image without any people in the scenery. So I created a near infrared image with two farmers taking turns plowing a small part of their rice field. In the center of the plot, there is a mango tree growing. Instead of removing the tree so that they can plow their rice field more easily, they did not. Instead, they allowed it to grow and they just go around the tree. For taking care and allowing the tree to continue to grow, they receive fruits in return. It finally occurred to me that having the two farmers in the scene added story to the image!

Like us, if we take care of our planet, it will return the care we gave to us. But if we choose to not do so, we will feel its wrath...

Flat Rice Noodles with Shrimps

Aside from photography, I also like to cook once in a while. Sometimes I get delicious results sometimes I get revolting products. Most of the time, I make do with what I find in the fridge. I now share this recipe to the readers who might want to try out this recipe I thought of. I think it tasted fine.

Ingredients:

For Shrimps -

400 g Shelled Fresh Shrimps
1 piece Egg (beaten)
1/2 cup Cornstarch
1/4 tsp. Black Pepper (ground)
1/2 tsp. Garlic (granulated)
1/2 tsp. Onion Powder
1/8 tsp. Ginger Powder
1/2 tsp. Iodized Salt
1 cup Safflower Oil (for frying, other cooking oil may be substituted)

For Noodles -

400 g Flat Rice Noodles
4 cups Water (boiling for cooking noodles)
1 tbsp. Cooking Oil

For Thickening Sauce and Coloring -

1 tsp. Sesame Oil
5 tbsp. Dark Soy Sauce
2 tbsp. Cornstarch
1/2 cup Water

Other Ingredients -

1/2 cup Julienned Carrot
1 tbsp. Minced Garlic
1/4 cup Minced Onion
1 tbsp. Safflower Oil ( for sauteing the garlic and onion)
1 1/2 cup Water
Salt (to taste)

Preparing the shrimps -

In a bowl, beat the egg, add salt, pepper, garlic, onion and ginger powder. Toss in the shrimps and mix well. Add cornstarch and mix well. Heat frying pan and add oil. Fry the shrimp with a little of the batter in the oil. To add shrimp to the pan, you may use a spoon. Set aside in a strainer lined with tissue to absorb excess cooking oil.

Cooking the noodles -

In a saucepan, boil the water and add the cooking oil (to prevent the noodles from sticking with each other). Cook the noodles to desired tenderness and strain to remove cooking water as soon as possible and set aside.

Preparing the sauce -

In a small bowl, place cornstarch and add water. Mix well until cornstarch lumps are not visible anymore. Add soy sauce, and sesame oil.

Heat saucepan, and add 1 tbsp. Safflower oil. Saute, garlic and onions until garlic becomes brown and onions begin to be translucent and start to caramelize. Add the 1 1/2 cup water and continue heating until the liquid boils. Add the fried shrimp and carrots. Add the Prepared cornstarch mixture and continue to cook until the starch is cooked. Season with additional salt if desired. Mix in the noodles. Enjoy...

Vital Energy Production Causes Unfavorable Climatic Changes...

Rice, the staple food of a large proportion of population in ASIA has suffered low supply since the beginning of this year. I hope people all over the world will open their eyes... To begin to act and not just talk on how to save our environment. Which is important not only for rice but for all life on earth. Will the people of earth be able to care for the planet? To restore the climatic balance? This beautiful image of growing rice is a reminder of how beautiful the world should be if we only take care of it. It is not so hard to do so but I think people in positions that have power to initiate earth saving measures have been capping their eyes and ears. They are just concerned with making profits, making money for themselves without ever thinking of the future of life in this planet. As if they have no more descendant that will suffer of their carelessness they practice now. Take for example energy production. Energy is a basic requirement for our modern living. However, world leaders still choose to maintain fossil fuel as major source of energy. There are many energy alternatives that are available to us but we choose not to harness them. Wind, sun, ocean currents, tidal flows, geothermal, and many more. If governments of the world place emphasis on development of alternative energy production some years ago we might have now some developments that will be vital for saving our world. But no, I think oil producing countries are against this because their economy will collapse when these technologies are available and practiced widespread. But their oil can still be used... Be used to produce other chemical products instead of just being burned in furnaces and engines to supply power. Their fossil fuel deposits are very vital for production of many organic intermediates and materials most essential for our modern living. But I wish we just use them for producing essential and useful chemicals and employ alternative source for energy. This way we minimize pollution and save oil deposits for use in the chemical industry and not for burning...