Lechon

Lechon Kawali

Mom is on a cooking mode again. This time, we tried the Maggi Lechon presented by Chef Boy Logro of Idol sa Kusina cooking show in Channel 11.

Think lechon kawali and you’ll be thinking of pork liempo swimming in oil.
This version of lechon kawali is the “healthier” version (baked) than the traditional lechon kawali which is deep fried in oil.

Procedure:

Boil 1 kilo whole liempo in about 2 liters of water with 2 packs of pork granules for 45 mins or until tender. Remove from broth and rub with 2 pcs 8-gram MAGGI MAGIC SARAP. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Wrap liempo in foil and bake in a 350 F pre-heated oven (I used our turbo
for this, setting it to "Roast"function) for 1 ½ hours or until golden and crispy.

Let the liempo rest for 10 minutes before chopping into serving pieces.
Serve with lechon sauce or your favorite dip.

WHB# 344 Sinantolan

 When our family transferred to Pila, Laguna, I tasted new dishes.
There's sinampalukan (tamarind based dish) and kinamatisan
(tomato-based dish). There is also Sinantolan(Santol dish),
a great side dish to fried and grilled foods.

Santol

Santol

Santol (Sandoricum koetiape), also known as wild mangosteen,
is usually eaten ripe. The fruit is sour-sweet with a pleasant tart
taste. There are varieties that are very sour even when ripe.
These varieties are good with sinantolan dish.

Sinantolan

Sinantolan

Ingredients

• 15 pcs Santol
• 1 Cup coconut cream
• 2 Cups coconut milk
• 3 pcs Siling Haba (finger Chillies)
• 3 to 4 TBSP Alamang (fermented tiny shrimps or krill)
• 4 cloves Garlic (crushed)
• 1 medium onion (sliced)

Cooking Directions

1. Cut Santol in half and remove seeds. Prepare a bowl with water
2. and grate santol pulp on it using a kudkuran (a bench coconut grater).
3. If you don't have a kudkuran, you can peel off the skin of the santol,
4. remove the seeds and grate in a food processor adding a little amount
5. of water. Squeze grated pulp to remove the juice. This is done to 
6. remove the "tart" taste.
8. Place all ingredients in a pan except the coconut cream. Bring to a boil,
9. stirring occasionally. When the mixture is almost dry, add the coconut
10. cream and simmer until oil appears on the side of the pan.
11. Remove from heat and serve.

I am submitting this entry to
Weekend Herb Blogging (WHB) 
hosted by dear Marta of  
Miangare e un po come viaggare. 
WHB is a weekly event featuring
specific herb or plant ingredient 
in your recipe. Halo of 
Cook Almost Anything oversees
the event.

I eat in Phitsanulok

Twice, I was able to visit my sister in Phitsanulok, Thailand.
Being food lovers, we based out sightseeing in places
where there are good food. My sister joked that I have alreayd
toured the whole Phitsanulok, checking out these food stops
and we even got lost a few times.

Paephufathai restaurant along the Nan River serves the tastiest
Tom Yum in Phitsanulok.

Tom Yummy!

These sheds on the other side of the Nan river becomes alive at night
as tables are set up for diners.

Most customers are students and teenagers who wants to hang out
for cold drinks and shakes.

I wanted something exotic shake but the waiter had trouble understanding
I ended with plain milk shake with some corn flakes on top.

We did got lucky with this delicious squid salad for only 50 Baht

Stir fried chicken with nuts at Vinmarn Din Restaurant.
It was the first time I was served with whole chilies mixed in the recipe

I saw these weird looking fruit in the grocery called Sa-la. It's sour.

Near my sister's place, you can buy Pork Krapao for only 30Baht.
I forgot to tell the cook not to make it too spicy and she even served it
with hot sauce on the side!




















A few meters from Wat Phra Mahathat is the Hanging Feet restaurant.

There are no chairs provided you sit on the side of the restaurant
with your fee hanging beside the wall, hence the name.

Inside there are tables where you can squat while eating.



Basil, celery, cucumber, string beans,cabbage are the usual
vegies served raw with your meal. Take you pick.

Five Spice Roasted Chicken

Today is Mother's Day.

Mom's special request today is roasted chicken for lunch
and Dad's Pinoy Style Spaghetti for dinner. She made some
vegetable tempura to go with the chicken but I forgot to take
pictures of it.

Instead of the usual lemongrass roasted chicken, I opted for a simple recipe,

Five Spice Roasted Chicken

It's very easy to make. Choose chicken parts you like. Clean and pat dry.
Rub salt, pepper and five spice to chicken parts and  let stand for 30 minutes.
Roast chicken until cook about 30 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Happy Mother's Day to all moms!

catsup packets, leftovers and pizza

Homemade pizza is so easy to make.

I always keep those leftover breakfast meals ( hotdogs, ham, embutido,
tocino) during the week. Come Sunday, I got plenty for my pizza toppings.
If I forgot to buy pizza sauce from the grocery, I use catsup packets
for the sauce.




















No pizza crust? I use bread instead. Pandesal, sliced bread, monay
sliced thinly. And I am not shy on the toppings. Sprinkle some
Italian seasoning to make it feel "authentic". :D

Pop in the oven toaster for a few minutes.

I've got myself a pizza!




















Those extra pizza, I keep in a tight container and freeze. Next time
I crave for pizza, I just pop one in the toaster.

I just stumbled on Mellow Yellow Monday and I got intrigue.
This one's for all yellow lovers.

   

Crispy Kangkong

Kangkong is abundant in our place. I was complaining to Dad
about the kangkong growing in our backyard. It has taken a lot
of space and needed to be trimmed.  Dad says he’d  make some
pickled kangkong  with the trimmings. And I made crispy kangkong
with the leaves.

kangkong is rich in iron and fiber

crispy kangkong

kangkong leaves
cooking oil for frying

batter:  2 Tbsp cornstarch
            1 Tbsp water
            1/2 teaspoon salt
            2 egg whites

dip:      1 cup yogurt
            1 tsp crushed garlic
             paprika
             curry powder

clean the kangkong and remove the stalks (you can reserve
this to make adobong kangkong). pat dry the leaves using a
napkin. set aside.

mix well the ingredients for the dip.refrigerate.

in a bowl, mix the batter ingredients. heat the oil
until very hot. Dip each kangkong leaves in the batter
and deep fry until the leaves turns dark green. drain
in paper towel.

Serve with yogurt dip.

Sharing this crunchy appetizer
to all Weekend Herb Blogging
enthusiasts hosted by Graziana
of  Erbe in Cucina.

Paho

When summer approaches, I am always on the lookout for Paho.
It's a small variety mango about 2 inches long with a very short season
(a few weeks to a month about March to April).

 Paho can be eaten raw, pickled or made into salsa. It has the pungent
aroma of concentrated dill with a taste of unripe green mango.
.

Paho with tomatoes and salted eggs. A perfect appetizer for
any fried or grilled dish.

This is my entry to Weekend Herb Blogging
event hosted by Simona of Briciole.

Ukoy / Okoy

We always have vegetable lumpia (vegetable spring rolls) during Good friday.

Since it's a no-meat day, tokwa (tofo or soy bean cake) is used. Lunch would

be Lumpiang Hubad (Naked Spring Rolls, a spring roll minus the spring roll 

wrapper hence the name) with sweetened garlic sauce. Leftover veggies would

then be wrapped in spring roll wrapper and fried for supper.

For a change, I tried making Ukoy / Okoy. It's like fried lumpia without 

sauteing the veggies before wrapping in spring roll wrapper. The basic ingredients 

are shrimps, tofu and bean sprout.  I added some carrots, squash (from my uncle's 

farm) and sayote / chayote (Sechium edule)  which we have in our garden.

batter:

       1 cup flour

       1/2 cup cornstarch

       1/2 cup water

       salt and pepper

      

filling:

        1 cup  julienned sayote

        1 cup julienned squash

        1 cup julienned carrots

        1 cup bean sprouts

        1 cup sliced tofu

        1 cup shrimps

oil for frying

      

Make the batter and set aside.  Mixed the vegetables except the tofu.

In a ladle, place the mixed vegetables. Sprinkle the tofu and shrimps

on top. Pour batter just enough to coat. 

Slowly dip in hot oil. Remove ladle and fry until golden brown.

Serve with vinegar and crushed garlic.

Pork BBQ

I was supposed to cook Menudo but was too lazy to do peeling
and chopping so I decided for barbecue instead.

I marinated the pork slices in garlic, dayap juice, salt and pepper
for about an hour. Placed them in bamboo skewers and grilled them.
I also used Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Barbecue Sauce as baste.

Steamed Fish

I have featured steamed fish  before, the recipe we got from a magazine.
This time I go this recipe from the internet (Rhonda Parkinson, about.com guide)
while searching about Chinese New Year. Steamed fish if often served during
New Year celebration to symbolize  abundance for the coming year.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons salted black beans
1 1/2 pounds whole walleye or red snapper, well cleaned (I used Tilapia)
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
green onions, for garnish

Place the black beans in a bowl and cover with warm water for about 2 minutes.
Stir and rinse. Drain well. Add the ginger, oil, garlic, salt, sugar, soy sauce and
sesame oil. Mix and set aside. Cleaned the fish well and pat dry. Rub the cavity
and outside of the fish with the black beans mixture. Place in foil, cover and
refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Steamed the fish over boiling water for about 15 minutes until cooked
(check if the fish flakes easily).

You can also microwave it for 3 minutes on high. Rotate the dish and cook
for another 2 minutes on high.

I wanted to try out our new Imarflex turbo broiler, so I cooked it at 450F
for 20 minutes.

Garnish with green onions before serving.

WHB# 320 Nilagang Saging (Boiled Banana)

Come harvest time for bananas, we would have plenty of
unripe bananas at home. Dad would choose the large ones
to sell and the smaller ones are left for our consumption.

This is another way of boiling banana that I learned here in Pila.

Instead of boiling ripe bananas, unripe banana is used. Washed
it thoroughly, and with you palm, press each banana to crack it.
Place in a large pot with water and add salt. Boil bananas until
cooked. The sap of the fruit will mix with the water adding flavor

and will turn the fruit brownish. Served with grated coconut and 

sprinkle sugar.

Sharing this snack to all
Weekend Herb Blogging lovers.
This week's roundup #320
is hosted by Astrid of
Paulchens Foodblog?!

A Real Fruit Salad

I spent New Year with my sister in Phisanulok, Thailand. It was my

first time abroad. I had a wonderful time visiting tourist spots and

trying out new dishes. One of my memorable time was making the

fruit salad for New Year's eve. It was my first time to make the salad

without using canned fruit cocktail!

I mixed persimmon (my first time to eat), some kiwi, dragon

fruits, strawberries, apples, grapes with all purpose cream and

condensed milk. I also added cream cheese (I saw it on tv) and

it turned out great.

As a final touch, I sprinkled granada seeds on top!