I’ve decided to feature Asian recipes, recipes I am most at home and familiar with. I’m kicking-off this 4-part recipe series with a popular dish from the Philippines, Nilagang Baka – Boiled Chuck Shoulder Roast with Vegetables.

This has got to be one of the easiest of Philippine dishes to cook.  One just needs to be patient specially in the absence of a pressure cooker.  I do have a pressure cooker but I decided to go old-school with the dish.  That is, I boiled the beef until very tender, which took 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Boiling also happens to be one of the healthiest methods of cooking.

There are many interpretations for this dish. At the barest minimum, I usually cook it with napa cabbage and some potatoes.  But I wanted vibrant colors for this assignment so in addition to napa cabbage, I added some carrots, sweet corn on the cob, and instead of just regular potatoes, I used red potatoes.

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

2-3 lbs. chuck shoulder roast, cut into 2-inch cubes
1 medium onion, quartered
1 large carrot, cut into 1/2-inch thick pieces,
2 ears of corn, cut into thirds
10 pcs red potatoes, cleaned (with a vegetable brush) and halved
1 nappa cabbage, cut off the core and separate the leaves from each other
10 pcs. peppercorns
sea salt

For the dipping sauce:

1 lemon
fish sauce
jalapeno or chili  peppers, sliced

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Put the beef cubes, peppercorns, and onion in a stock pot.  Fill the pot with water until it is about 2-inches above the beef.  Add some sea salt then boil.  Skim the scum that rises.  Turn down the heat and let the beef simmer until it is fork tender (about 2 to 3 hours).  Add water as needed, keeping the water level 2-inches above the pieces.

2.  Add the potato halves and carrots during the last 30 minutes of boiling and the corn during the last 10 minutes of cooking.  The nappa cabbage can be added during the last 2 minutes of cooking.  Adjust seasoning then serve with steamed brown rice and dipping sauce.

3.  For the dipping sauce, mix the juice of one lemon, fish sauce then add the jalapeno/chili pepper slices. :)

The hour after hour after hour of boiling brought out the natural flavors and goodness of the beef.  The broth, in spite the use of only a handful of seasonings (if not less!) was really good and flavorful.  The beef and the vegetables were all oh-so-tender.  The number 1 beef fan in the house (hubby!) couldn’t be more pleased.  As for me, I was very well pleased, too.  After all, this was a meal that took me back to my Nanay’s (grandma’s) kitchen, back when I could eat anything I want and not worry about things like fat burner, metabolism, calorie count, etc. *sigh*

Mabuhay, y’all!  Cheers to meals that take us “home”!

Growing up, Sundays were usually dubbed seafood days, Sunday being the day my Mom went to the (wet) market.  We made it a point to cook and eat the crabs and mussels the day they were bought.  My Nanay (maternal grandma) usually made soup with the fresh mussels.  It’s a very simple and easy-to-make soup.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb mussels
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 thumb-size ginger, sliced thinly
a bunch of spinach
salt/fish sauce and pepper to taste
7 to 10 cups of water (maybe more!)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  In a pot, saute the ginger in hot oil for a minute or until the aroma of sauteed ginger fills the air.
2.  Add the onions and ginger and saute until the onions are translucent.
3.  Add the mussels and water then season with salt/fish sauce and water.
4.  Boil until the mussels are cooked then add the spinach. It’ll only take a few seconds for the spinach to wilt. Serve.

This is another one of ‘em dishes that take me back to my childhood.  Home-cooked meals truly are the best.  I never imagined I’d be doing the home cooking myself!  Hahaha!

This soup can easily be a go-to dish when one is in a hurry because, one, it is easy to make and two, chances are, the ingredients are already in the fridge and pantry.  Oh yes, three, it is healthy, so one can take a break (if not stop altogether!) from thinking about weight loss products and eat a healthy yet filling soup.

INGREDIENTS:

1 head (approximately 3 Tbsps) garlic, minced
1 Tbsp oil
1 medium onion, minced
3-4 tomatoes, cubed
1 lb ground turkey
salt or patis (fish sauce) and freshly ground pepper to taste
4 cups chicken broth (beef broth if using ground beef) or water
2-3 potatoes, diced

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Saute the garlic in a saucepan until brown, then add the onions and tomatoes and cook until soft.
2.  Add ground turkey, salt/patis and pepper to taste.
3.  Add broth/water and potatoes.  Simmer until the potatoes are done.

Alternatively, you may use half a pound of ground beef and half a pound of ground pork.  ;)

Have a great week ahead, y’all!  Cheers!

This week’s La.Pi.S. theme is “Melted Bliss”.  Anyone who knows me well enough would probably guess I’ll have photos and a recipe which features melted chocolate.  Well, chocolate WAS my first choice, being the hopeless chocoholic that I am.  But I decided to go for cheese instead, because I’m a cheese-aholic, too! :P

In early March, I received a package from Foodbuzz with coupons from Kerrygold so I could take part in yet another Tastemaker program.  The two coupons are for any one free Kerrygold butter or cheese.  In addition to the coupons, there were two small recipe booklets which contain sample recipes for winter and summer.  Last week, I finally got myself a free block of unsalted butter (equivalent to two sticks) and a block of aged cheddar cheese. On Tuesday, I made what I now call Cheesy Chicken and Veggie Soup which is largely based on Kerrygold’s White Chicken Chili recipe.

It is creamy, cheesy, healthy and filling.  This is a meal in itself.  Even I was surprised at how good this turned out to be.  It is supposed to be a winter recipe but I say it can be made any day of any season.

For this dish, I used 1 1/2 cups of grated Kerrygold Aged Cheedar Cheese.

Hubby knew I was giving my free cheese a kitchen test drive.  He waltzed into the kitchen looking for it and found my bowl of grated cheese.  I swear, he loved the cheese’s flavor and creaminess that he was just about ready to wipe my bowl of grated cheese clean!

Here’s the recipe…

INGREDIENTS

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 onion (about 8oz. or 1 cup), peeled and diced
1 yellow bell pepper (8oz. or 1 cup), stemmed, seeded and chopped
1 can (about 14 oz.) cream style corn
1 can (about 14 oz) peas and carrots or your canned vegetables of choice
2 cups whole milk
2 cups shredded cooked chicken (I used left over sotre-bought rotiserrie chicken)
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded Kerrygold Aged Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

1.  In a large pan, combine oil, onion and bell pepper.  Stir often over high heat until onion is limp, 3 to 4 minutes.
2.  Add corn, milk and vegetables.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, to blend flavors, about 10 minutes.
3.  Stir in chicken.  Season with salt and pepper.
4.  Stir in the Aged Cheddar cheese and serve immediately.

My daughter and I love soup, so it didn’t come as a surprise that this wowed us.  Now Hubby, is a different story.  He usually won’t go for soup.  But he had to have seconds with this one. Oh the things he does that make me happy!  Hahaha!  ;) Melted cheese is bliss!

oOo

Kerrygold, a product of Ireland, takes pride in the fact that their butters and cheeses are made using milk from grass-fed, growth-hormones free cows.  They also don’t have additives and and preservatives.  These explain the price tag on Kerrygold products.  My coupons were worth $4.99 each.  And you won’t find Kerrygold products alongside “regular” cheese and butters.  You’ll find them at the deli section of the supermarket. ;)

I will give the butter a kitchen test drive next! :D

Abby chose the purple noodles (which turned pink), while I chose the orange noodles for myself and assigned the green ones to Hubby.  You can say we had a noodle station going at home.  *wink*

These are the ingredients that went in the noodle soup:  sliced chicken breast, green onions, crushed garlic chips and imitation crab.  We also had hardboiled egg, which I decided not to slice anymore.

I had fun assembling the noodle components in the bowl.

Don’t forget the egg! *wink*

To finish it off, pour hot chicken broth into the bowl.

For the broth, I sauted garlic and onions in a pot then poured the chicken broth (yes, the one used to boiled the chicken breasts!) in, seasoned it with salt and pepper then waited for it to boil.  Easy peasy!

Anyone who can boil water can do this.  We had so much noodles I almost offered some to the workers of the New York Moving Company, who were loading our neighbor’s stuff into their huge truck. But nah. I’m way too shy! Hee hee.

How’s that for a meal in a bowl? *wink*

Let’s drive off to the farm…my other Weekend Snapshot entry.

Have a great week ahead!

Yesterday, a busy day, I decided to cook sinigang na bangus (milkfish in tamarind broth) for lunch.  The fact that it only takes about 30 minutes to cook (it might be longer if using pork instead of fish) just makes this soup-slash-viand all the more appealing.

I have to admit that I cheated in making this dish.  I sought the help of Knorr Tamarind Soup Base Mix.  Hee hee.  *wink*  I hope this little admission of guilt doesn’t make my Nanay turn in her grave.  Tamarind isn’t always availalble in the Asian supermarket we go to.  My Mom and I have tried using lime as our sour soup base, but it just wasn’t the same.

It’s been a while since we’ve had sinigang.  Abby loved it and constantly asked to be served extra green beans (no stringbeans at the supermarket so green beans it was for us!).  With only Hubby, Abby and me partaking of the sinigang, I get to have the fish head (back home, it’s my Mom who has that privelege.).  Woot!

With cooler weather making it’s way to our part of the world soon, it looks like we’ll be having sinigang a little more often. ;)

As I was reading the cooking suggestions at the back of the package of vermicelli noodles, the word shabu-shabu seemed to have turned on a switch in my head.  Immediately, I made a mental list of the contents of my freezer, zeroing in on three particular ingredients: dumplings, prawn balls and immitation crab.  Perfect, we could have a simple Hot Pot dinner at home. ;)  Why oh why haven’t I thought of that before?!!

I went to work right away and sauted several cloves of garlic and onions in a pot.  After about a minute of sauteing, I poured the chicken broth in, seasoning it well with salt and pepper.  As soon as it started boiling, I dropped in the dumplings, prawn balls and immitation crab meat.  All this time, my vermicelli noodles were soaking in cold water (15 minutes of soaking as per the instruction on the package).

When all the ingredients I dumped in the pot floated to the surface of the boiling broth, I dropped in the noodles and turned off the fire after a minute or so.  Dinner was ready!  Quick, easy and yummy!

Abby loved it, and Hubby did, too (like he had a choice!).  Abby had fun during dinner because she got to use chopsticks (with kiddie attachment) to pick out the prawn balls and crab.  I, on the other hand, can’t be an impartial judge of our meal.  First, I’ve always loved noodle soup.  It’s one of my favorite comfort foods.  Second, I cooked it!  Hee hee.

I honestly think it’s always best to use real chicken broth for soup or whatever recipe calls for chicken broth.  It just tastes so much better than if one were to use bouillon cubes.  I haven’t used canned broth yet ever so I can’t say if it’s any good.

On our next grocery shopping trip, I’ll be getting more hot pot ingredients and make sure to include veggies, which we have ran out of.  Hee hee.  And next time, I hope to make shabu-shabu from home.  I’ll have to do a little research on the different shabu-shabu sauces first.

Macaroni Soup or sopas as we call it in the Philippines.  I’ve always loved sopas.  And in spite of the Texas heat, I had a bowl of sopas and some crackers for lunch Friday last week.  There are a number of variations to cooking sopas.  Usually, chicken is used.  Some add shredded cabbage and milk, too!  Hubby doesn’t want too much veggies in his sopas.  I just threw in a few pieces of carrots.  Instead of chicken, I used ground turkey.  And to add more flavor, I dropped one chicken bouillon cube. :D  Yum!

What’s your comfort-in-a-bowl? :D

The theme for week #7 of Lasang Pinoy, Sundays is “Soup”.  I love soup, but I’m a bit partial to one that is already a meal in itself, like noodle soup and porridge (or congee as it is commonly referred to in the Philippines).

Last Sunday, we had dinner at TC Noodle House and I realized it’s been ages since I’ve had congee.  I thought I ought to give it a try.  I ordered something really simple, but something I’ve always liked:  Porridge with Centruy Egg (Hundred Year Old egg is what it’s called here)… 

I had very high expectations because we like TC Noodle House and their food.  But, the porridge, while OK, wasn’t exactly what I had hoped it would be.  It was bordering on bland.  I’m used to tastier, well-seasoned ones from Chinese restaurants in the Philippines.  This porridge reminded me of lugaw (Filipino term for porridge) that my Nanay (maternal grandma) would make for my Lolo (grandfather) when he’s sick.  I had to use lots of soy sauce!  And the century egg?!  They were cut into very small pieces!  I doubt if they even used a whole egg for the porridge.  Hmp!

After everything I’ve said, I still haven’t decided if I’ll have porridge in that place again.  Seafood porridge next time perhaps?  We’ll see.  You’ll definitely hear read about it when it happens.