Chicken Noodle Soup

What to do with all those excess pasta when you happen to prepare more that what is needed for your usual pasta dishes? Well I think one of the easiest thing to do is to turn them into chicken noodle soup. Simple ingredients can sometimes make a hearty soup which you can enjoy for dinner with bread.

Ingredients:

½ kg Chicken breast (cut into thin strips)

¾ tsp. Iodized salt

1/3 cup Evaporated milk

4 cups. Water

2 tbsp. Garlic (minced)

1 pc. Onion (medium, sliced thinly)

½ tsp. Black pepper (powder)

1 tbsp. Safflower oil

2 cups. Leftover pasta (cooked)

Cooking Instruction:

Heat oil in pressure cooker and sauté garlic and onion until garlic is golden brown and onion starts to caramelize. Toss in the chicken and stir. Cook for 1 minute and add the salt, black pepper, and water. Cover and pressure cook for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn off the flame and allow to cool normally. Do not vent the steam, the additional time for normal cooling is used for further cooking to extract as much of the flavour as possible. Open the pressure cooker after cooling down which takes about 10-15 minutes and skim off any fat that may float to reduce the fat content of the dish. Add the milk and turn on the heat. Toss in the cooked pasta and heat so that the broth starts to boil. Continue boiling for about a minute and turn off the heat. Serve hot with bread.

Chicken in Sweet sauce (Chicken Tocino)

Tocino is a popular Filipino dish. It is pork that has been cured in sugar, pineapple juice, Gin, garlic, and pink powder. The use of pink powder imparts that distinctive taste to cured meats. However, some people would like to avoid eating foods that has been preserved by addition of pink salt so some households cook this dish fresh. Meaning, they cook using all the ingredients I have mentioned but without curing the meat and without the pink salt. It tastes somewhat different from the cured product but nevertheless interesting and nice too. So can you also do this recipe for chicken. I have cooked this simple recipe without the customary ingredients used for tocino and I think the outcome is nice too.

Ingredients:

1 ½ kg Chicken (cut into serving pieces)

1 pc. Onion (medium, cut thinly)

2 tbsp. Garlic (minced)

¼ tsp. Black pepper (powder)

1/3 cup Sugar

¼ tsp. Iodized salt

½ cup Water

Cooking Instructions:

In a suitable saucepan, place all of the ingredients and heat to boil. Once it boils lower the flame to maintain a steady simmering boil. Simmer with occasional stirring uncovered until the sauce is reduced to dryness. Continue heating and stirring until the sugar starts to caramelize and coats the chicken. Serve with either steamed or garlic rice.

Soy Pork

I have previously made ‘Soy Chicken’ recipe, now why don’t we try ‘Soy Pork’? I tried it and the outcome I think is nice overall.

Ingredients:

1 kg Pork (cut into large cubes)

1/3 cup Dark soy sauce

1 tbsp. Sugar

2 tbsp. Garlic (minced)

1 pc. Onion (medium, finely chopped)

1/3 cup Water

1 tbsp. Safflower oil

½ tsp. Sesame oil

Cooking Instruction:

Heat safflower oil in pressure cooker and sauté the garlic and onion until garlic is golden brown and onion starts to caramelize. Toss in the pork and stir. Cook for about 1 minute and add the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and water. Pressure cook for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn off the heat and allow to cool normally. Do not vent the steam from the pressure cooker to hasten cooling. The time required for normal cooling which is about 10-15 minutes is used as additional cooking time to make the meat more tender. Open the pressure cooker and skim off excess fat to reduce the fat content of the dish. Serve with steamed rice or with plain steamed buns.

Crabstick Tempura

Want to have something to eat fast? This crabstick tempura is so easy to prepare...

Ingredients:

250 g Crabsticks

1 pc. Egg (beaten)

Dash of freshly ground black pepper

1/8 tsp. Iodized salt

1 tbsp. Cornstarch

2 tbsp. Safflower oil

Cooking Instruction:

In a bowl, beat the egg and add the black pepper, iodized salt, and cornstarch. Mix well and toss in the crabstick. Coat the crabsticks with the batter and fry in hot oil on a Teflon pan, brown both sides and set aside on paper towels to absorb excess fat. Enjoy as hors d’ovres or as delicious snack with Tempura dipping sauce.

Ground Beef with Snow Peas

Try this... Interesting, simple, and nice...

Ingredients:

¼ kg Lean ground beef

¼ kg Snow peas

1 tbsp. Oyster sauce

¼ tsp. Iodized salt

4 cloves Garlic (minced)

1 pc. Onion (medium, sliced thinly)

Dash of freshly ground bell pepper

1 tsp. Cornstarch

1 cup Water

1/3 cup Water (for suspending the starch)

1/8 tsp. Ginger powder

1 tbsp. Safflower oil

½ tsp. Sesame oil

1 tbsp. Mirin wine

Cooking Instruction:

Heat oil in Teflon pan and sauté garlic and onion until garlic is golden brown and onion starts to caramelize. Add the beef and sesame oil, cook for another 2 minutes. Add oyster, salt, black pepper, ginger powder, mirin wine, and water. Boil and simmer covered until liquid is reduced to about ¾ cup. Add the snow peas and cook for 1 minute. Suspend the cornstarch in water and add to the cooking mixture. Continue cooking with stirring until the starch is cooked and serve. Enjoy with plain steamed buns or as rice topping.