Bistek Tagalog: Beef Steak Filipino-style

It's Saturday and time once more for me to don my chef's hat (naks...hahaha). I'm sure all the Filipinos out there are familiar with Bistek Tagalog -- the Filipino version of the Western style steak. As usual, this is the result of the creativity of the Filipinos in order to stretch out this recipe to feed more people and makes use of native ingredients like calamansi.

I made use of sirloin steak sliced thinly and marinated it in a mixture of calamansi and soy sauce. Remove from the marinade and brown in oil for about 5 minutes. Add the marinade. Add soy sauce and a bit of water as needed. Top with pre-cooked white onions, sliced into rings. Serve over hot rice. Yummy!

Tag category: Recipe

Sinigang na Baboy: Pork Soup with Tamarind Mix

My husband accompanied me to the grocery yesterday and I asked him what he wants for lunch today. He said sinigang na baboy (pork soup with tamarind mix). So I decided to grant his wish. Besides, I love cooking soup-based meals since it's an all-in-one meal.

The grocery we went to was out of pork pieces specifically for sinigang. I had to settle for liempo. Unfortunately, the pork pieces we got had lots of fat in it. But the good thing with this kind of dish is that it's not fried and there are vegetables so I still consider it somewhat healthy.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 kilo pork liempo
gabi (taro)
enough water to cover the pork
1 pack tamarind mix (I used Knorr's sinigang sa sampaloc mix with gabi)
onions, chopped
tomatoes, sliced
chili pecante (about 5 pieces)
kangkong leaves

Procedure:

Combine the water, pork and gabi and cook in a pressure cooker, about 5 minutes. Remove from pressure cooker (be careful, it's hot) and transfer to another pot. Add the tamarind mix, onions, tomatoes and chili. Let it boil and simmer for about 20 minutes in order to let all the juices out. Add the kangkong leaves and let it boil again. Remove from heat. Best served with rice and patis (fish) sauce with siling labuyo. Yummy!

And for dessert? Voila! Bibingka (sweet rice cake) which was a pasalubong from my husband after he came home from the gym this morning. (Sweet noh?!)

Tag category: Recipe

Korean Beef Stew

Tag Category: Recipe

A fellow blogger, Mita, requested my recipe for Korean Beef Stew, so I decided to prepare this dish today. If you're reading this Mita, this one's for you.

1 head garlic crushed
1/4 cup oil (can be reduced later)
3 pcs. siling labuyo
1 tsp. shredded ginger
1 kilo beef short ribs
3 tbsp. sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 cups water
3 tbsps. corn starch
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 tbsps. toasted sesame seeds
leeks

Combine the first 10 ingredients. Cook until beef is tender. I use a pressure cooker which takes about 30 minutes. Others do not like to use pressure cooker and prefer the slow-cooking method to allow the flavor to seep in. In that case, it takes about 3-4 hours. After cooking with a pressure cooker, transfer to another pot and bring to a boil, then simmer. Add the corn starch, sesame oil and sesame seeds. I have to admit we ran out of corn starch, so mine doesn't have it, but it is preferable if you put it in order to thicken the sauce. Then transfer to a serving dish. I added chopped leeks to give it that decorative touch. Voila!


In our case, I do not immediately put the sesame seeds in because there are others here at home who do not like the taste of sesame seeds. I just put some on the side so that those who prefer it can just put it in their dish. We respect diversity in our house...hahaha.

Anyway, since this is a Korean dish, I decided to pair it with Kimchi. No, I did not make the Kimchi nor do I know how to make it. Fortunately, these things are readily available in groceries and supermarkets. I prefer the chinese cabbage variety.

Arrgghh, I'm gaining weight with all this cooking. Oh well, I'll just start dieting next week....hopefully.

Bicol Express

The abundance of coconut trees in our islands is probably one of the reasons why our culinary culture is steeped with dishes using this ingredient. Coconut milk, which can be extracted from coconuts, can be found in native dishes like bringhe, bikol express, guinataan and laing. While coconut milk is now readily available in cans and tetra paks, I still prefer the taste of freshly extracted coconut milk.

I decided to cook bicol express today since it was my turn to cook in the kitchen. It was tough extracting coconut milk. Fortunately, Manang Anita was there to help me. I still had trouble though in slicing the pork since the skin was tough. Manang told me it was probably because the pig was already old. Ouch! I suddenly wished I had once of those super sharp knives available in the TV shopping network, so sharp according to the commercial that it can even slice aluminum. Hahaha…I’m really a sucker for these kinds of commercial.

Anyway, here is my recipe for bicol express:

cooking oil
5 pcs chili pepper (siling amerikano, the big green kind. You may also wish to use siling labuyo. Just adjust the amount according to your
taste/tolerance for heat.)
1 tbsp. salt
4 cups thin coconut milk
1/3 cup ready-made-bagoong ( I used Barrio Fiesta’s bagoong)
½ kilo pork liempo, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium-sized onion, minced
2 cups thick coconut milk

Heat the oil. Brown the garlic before adding the onion. Then add the pork and the bagoong. After 5 minutes, add the salt and thin coconut milk. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Add the chili pepper and cook until half of the liquid has evaporated. Pour in thick coconut milk and continue cooking until oil comes out.

Here’s the finished product.
My husband absolutely loved it! :-)

Tag category: Recipe

My version of squash curry

I decided to try out Mitam’s recipe for squash curry. Please check out her site, The Unofficial Cook, for the recipe.

Let the onions, garlic, ginger and curry powder cook slowly. (Haha…pasensha na, the pot looks very old)

Add the coconut milk and the squash

Bring to a boil and let it simmer

Unfortunately, her version looks a whole lot better than mine. Hahaha…mine doesn’t have a very good presentation. But believe me, the dish tastes great. I would recommend it for curry lovers. Next time I make this dish again, I’ll probably add chilis though. I have a penchant for hot dishes. Thanks to Mitams for the recipe. :-)

Lutong Pinoy

Tag Category: Recipe

(Note: For non-Filipinos reading this entry, the title of my post means “food cooked the Filipino way.”)

I was feeling quite lazy this morning, I just wanted to lie in bed and sleep the whole day. But since today is Sunday, it was my turn to cook our meal. Hmmmm … what to do … what to do.

I looked at the refrigerator and searched for ingredients. I wasn’t feeling particularly creative today, I just wanted to prepare something quick and easy. I saw a pack (1 kilo) of jumbo hotdog. I decided to try out a very simple meal which I saw in some turo-turo. “Turo-turo” literally means “point-point” referring to a small cafeteria selling various meals catering to the C-D-E crowd where customers can just “point” to whatever meals they want to eat. The meals are supposed to be cheap, hence, turo-turo owners must be able to come up with simple meals which consists of cheap ingredients and are easy to cook so as not to consume a lot of electricity/LPG.

But I digress. I cooked the pack of hotdogs first, then sliced it and set it aside. Then in a wok, I heated 2 tsps. oil and sautéed some minced garlic and sliced onions. Once the onions became transparent, I put in some chicken liver. After a minute or two, I put the sliced hotdogs and 400 g. of tomato sauce (I used the UFC brand which is kinda sweet since Filipinos are not used to the traditional tomato sauce and prefer the sweet kind) and 2 cups chicken broth (plain water will suffice). I added some salt and pepper to taste. Finally, I put in 5 chopped chilis (the relleno, inferno hybrid or elephant trunk type...not too hot) to give it some kick. Here is the finished product.

Believe it or not, my nephew and nieces loved it! Ubos na ubos. What Filipino child/pre-teen can resist any dish containing hotdogs? Hahaha! Uhhm, by the way, I have a confession to make. I cheated. I was too lazy to cook some more so I asked Manang Anita to cook nilagang baka (beef and vegetable soup) and fried tofu.

With the rising costs of energy and gasoline, people from walks of life, and not only Filipinos, must come up with ways on how to survive on a very limited budget.

My recipe for comfort on a rainy day in Manila...

What can I tell you….it’s been raining like hell in Metro Manila for the past three days. For a short while this afternoon, I finally saw some dry patches of land. So, my hubby and I (by the way, we both stayed home today since I was not feeling well and hubby decided to take care of me…sweet noh) went to the supermarket for a while to get some groceries. On our way out, hubby bought 2 shawarmas for our merienda.

When we got home, hubby and I excitedly opened our shawarmas with the gusto of an eagle attacking its prey. To our dismay, the shawarma looked like this...

Grabe…super konti ng sahog. Anyway, what can you expect for 45 pesos or approximately US$0.90. Despite the small serving, hubby definitely enjoyed his shawarma, so I let him have the rest of mine since I was on a diet.

After eating the shawarma, hubby went back to sleep. Sarap kasing matulog pag busog, di ba? So with nothing left to do, I decided to cook pasta for our dinner. I went with linguine in white sauce since there were lots of all-purpose cream left in the cupboard. I left out the eggs which are usually included in my standard version since I had to be health conscious. Here is a picture of the finished product.

Ingredients: minced onion, olive oil, bacon (prosciuttos are hard to come by in this part of the world), all-purpose cream, chicken broth and parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Tag Category: Recipe

My Recipe for Bolognese

For the first time in many weeks, I found myself without anything to do on a Saturday. No badminton tournaments to watch my hubby play or to assist him in officiating. So, I decided to cook Bolognese. This is my first time to cook this dish although in the past, I’ve tried to cook lasagna which also consists of ground beef and tomato sauce.

Fortunately, my Bolognese was a hit among my nephew and nieces. Here is a picture of this dish, followed by my recipe which I’ve revised since some ingredients are not readily available in Philippine supermarkets.

2 tsps. olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 small whole onion, minced
I lb. ground beef
I small can tomato paste
1 cup beef broth
500 g. tomato sauce (can add more, depending on your taste)
1 small can of champignon mushroom, sliced
salt and pepper, to taste
½ tsp. oregano
½ tsp. basil
1/3 cup of all-purpose cream (to lighten the color)
1 lb. pasta (either penne or spaghetti)

Heat the oil in a large wok, add the garlic and onion and cook until the garlic is lightly browned and the onion becomes transparent. Add the ground beef and cook for about 20 minutes or until the beef turns brown. You can add the broth if the beef dries up. Then add the tomato paste and the tomato sauce. Add the seasonings. Add the cream at the end in order to lighten the color. Serve sauce over hot pasta. Enjoy!

Tag Category: Recipe