Food

Yes, chili garlic sauce. Again. I can't seem to get enough of the stuff. And I'm not even fond of spicy dishes. No, correction -- I am not fond of overly spicy dishes. And that's what makes the chili garlic sauce perfect for me so long as I use it for cooking rather than for dipping. Yesterday's lunch was a stir fry made with chicken strips, firm tofu and kangkong. So unbelievable simple, so amazingly easy to cook and so utterly tasty that I had to stop myself from having a third helping...

First, The Breakfast Daily is up. I mentioned it a couple of entries ago and I was hoping to launch it much earlier. But we just moved houses and getting broadband installed took longer than I expected so the blog didn't actually go live until last night. What's in The Breakfast Daily? Breakfast ideas, some with recipes. Why didn't I just integrate the content in this blog? Lots of reasons, the most significant of which is that I want to write about food and health issues which I don't think properly belong in a recipes blog. Food and health can be very political issues so I needed a separate space for that.

It might not look like it, but the University of the Philippines Diliman campus is a haven of affordable, restaurant-quality cuisine. In the Shopping Center alone (near the UP Chapel and the infirmary), establishments like Rodic’s have been serving signature dishes (tapsilog) for decades - and they’re still a big hit among students today. [...]

...the launching of the breakfast blog will commence in a few hours. The templates need a few more tweaks then the links from this blog will be installed. Now, the recipe for the chicken and vegetable dish that you see in the photo above. That's what went into the kids' school lunch boxes yesterday. What was left became our lunch. What's in it? Strips of chicken thigh fillets, cubed squash and zucchini. With spices and herbs too, naturally.

Chicken Empanada is a favorite snack and party fare that I can serve hot or cold. I always thought making empanada was difficult but after baking Apple Pie, Empanada is a breeze. Here is an easy empanada recipe that uses baking. The ingredients and procedure includes two parts, the Filling and the pastry shell.

Ingredients

1. Filling

1 medium szied cooked chicken (flaked, cut to small pieces)
1 smal can green peas
4 medium sized potatoes, cubed
1 small can mushrooms, sliced
1/3 carrots, cubed
1 can cream of mushrooms or Chicken soup
1 tablespoon sugar
salt and pepper to taste
2 large onions thinly sliced and chopped

2. Pastry Shell

10 cups all purpose flour with
2 cups cake flour
2 cups shortening
1/2 cup margarine (or Crisco)
3 cups water (lesser depends on water absorption)
2 tablespoons salt

Procedure

A. Filling

1. Saute onions in 4 tablespoons margarine. Remove from pan.

2. Saute potatoes; add peas and mushrooms.

3. Add Chicken meat and cream of chicken or mushroom soup.

4. Simmer to cook and season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Set aside to cool completely.

B. Pastry Shell

1. Sift flours with salt; put in large bowl and cut in shortening.

2. When flour resembles corn meal. add water and mix well with hands.

3. Cover with wet cloth for 20 minutes before using.

For Filling Pastery

1. Roll out dough and cut into 4 x 3 steips.

2. Put a spoonful of filling in the center and fold over the 2 edges.

3. Seal the edges by pressing them with a fork.

4. Brush the top with eggyolk and prick with a fork.

5. Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes.

6. Serve hot or cold.

Note:

If you put teaspoonfuls, you come out with around 90 pieces empanada. Use milk if you have don’t have eggyolk to brush.

Despite never having gone to Iloilo, one of my favorite Filipino dishes comes from that province. Named after the district from which it originated, the la paz batchoy is a soup broth made out of chicken stock, shrimp broth, pork innards, crushed chicharon, vegetables, and noodles. It’s not a very difficult dish to [...]

Ingridients

• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 Tbsps granulated sugar
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1/4 cup melted vegetable shortening
• 6 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt

Preparation

1. Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in the sugar, stirring until dissolved. Let cool until lukewarm. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy and bubbly, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine the milk, yeast mixture, shortening and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Add salt and remaining flour, or enough to make a soft dough. Knead dough on a lightly floured board until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.Form dough into a smooth ball. Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise until double in bulk.
3. Punch dough down. Roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut rounds with biscuit cutter. A tuna can with both ends cut out works well if you don't have a biscuit cutter thats large enough. Sprinkle waxed paper with cornmeal and set the rounds on this to rise. Dust tops of muffins with cornmeal also. Cover and let rise 1/2 hour.
4. Heat greased griddle or heavy bottomed skillet, such as cast iron. Cook muffins on griddle about 10 minutes on each side on medium heat. Keep baked muffins in a warm oven until all have been cooked. Allow to cool and place in plastic bags for storage. To use, split and toast.

Source : http://www.yummyfood.net

People in the Philippines don’t normally rave about locally-made chocolate, probably because when you make a colonial-minded comparison to their foreign counterparts, the texture and flavor of the local ones would come off a little strange. Recently, however, I’ve been hearing a lot of wonderful things about Goya Dark Mint Chocolates from my friends [...]

We're not fully operational yet in out new kitchen. Although the unpacking is almost done, we had been cooking on a borrowed "super kalan" for the past few days while waiting for the new cooking range to be delivered... Not that we've been eating badly. It's a pain cooking with one stove but we manage, believe me. For instance, for lunch yesterday, we had a delicious soup made with salmon head, fresh tomatoes and basil picked from the garden...

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground pork or beef or chicken
• 1/2 lb shrimps blenderize 1/4 lb bigger shrimps for topping cook
  patis to taste
• 3 tbsp of tinapa flakes slightly toasted
• 1 pack mama cita palabok mix
• 1 pack atsuete powdered
  pepper to taste optional
• spring onion
• 8 boiled eggs 4 eggs blenderize 4 eggs for topping
• 2 bags palabok noodle 500gm each
• 2 garlic head
• 1 big onion
• 4 tbsp olive oil or canola oil
• 4 cans of chicken broth or 4cups beef broth
• 1/2c flour

Instructions

1. Boil 4 cups water,add a little salt. cook noodles for 15 to 20 mins or just half cooked then drain set aside
2. saute the ground pork with garlic and onion .add atsuete ,tinapa flakes,pepper,Add 3 cans or 3 cups of chicken broth when boiling add mama cita palabok mix with flour and 1can cold chicken broth ,pouring slowly until it's thicken .Add patis to taste.
3. On a separate wok pour half of sauce, when its boiling add the noodles for 10 or 15 min or until its cooked add more of sauce if needed .garnish with sliced eggs and cooked shrimps and chopped spring onion.