Category: Recipe

We had this Red Snapper dish early this week. We got this fish in the Filipino store/market and knew right away that we’re gonna have Escabeche. I grow up eating Red Snapper (in the Philippines it’s called MAya-Maya),aside from Tuna (tuna belly),it is my favorite kind of fish. I forgot how expensive they are.  I try to get wild caught fish whenever I can instead of farm raised, even though it is more expensive.  I just feel like the flavor is really superior in wild fish.  Anyways, I wasn’t thinking about the price when I got it, all I know is that it’s coming home with me.  I’m just sharing this because I find it expensive , $18 for this medium size fish.  Is that too much for a fish?I honestly don’t know. Although, once I had a bite of the crispy, meaty fish,and the sweet and sour sauce ,I and the Hubs totally agreed that it was worth it. So worth IT! I prepared it Escabeche style. I deep fried the fish then made a sweet and sour sauce.  I sautéed onions, garlic, carrots, green peppers and then added the sweet and sour sauce once the veggies were soft and tender. Then I poured the sauce on top of the fried fish and served it over boiled rice.

Recipe: Sweet and Sour Sauce(panlasang pinoy.com)

Another quick stir fry recipe I cooked last week ( Recipe from The Everyday Chinese Cookbook)

Ingredients:

1lb. rump steak

2 tbsp. sesame seeds

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp vegetable oil

4 oz. mushrooms,quartered

1 large green peppers,seeded,cut into strips

4 spring onions,chopped diagonally

boiled rice,to serve

For the Marinade:

2 tsp cornflour

2 tbsp chinese rice wine or dry sherry

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 in fresh root ginger grated, 1 garlic clove,crushed

few drops of tabasco sauce

Procedure:

1. Trim the steak and cut into thin strips.

2. Make the marinade. In a bowl, blend the cornflour with the rice wine,then stir in the lemon juice,soy sauce,tabasco sauce,ginger and garlic. Stir in the steak strips,cover and leave in a cool place for 3-4 hours.

3. Place the sesame seeds in a wok or large frying pan and dry fry over a moderate heat, shaking the pan,until the seeds are golden. Set aside.

4. Heat the sesame and vegetable oils in the wok or frying pan. Drain the steak, reserving the marinade, and stir fry a few pieces at a time until browned. Remove with a slotted spoon.

5. Add the mushrooms and green pepper and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the spring onions and cook for 1 minute more.

6. Return the steak to the wok or frying pan, together with the reserved marinade, and stir over a moderate heat for a further 2 minutes until the ingredients are evenly coated with glaze. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds and serve immediately with boiled rice.

I love stir fry, especially if it’s beef!  It’s my favorite kind of meat to use, my least fav is pork because I tend to overcook it and it gets dry.  I kinda followed the Food Network recipe from their website and I added the usual stir fry veggies:-)  I will make this again,recipe to keep!

Recipe : Beef Stir Fry (adapted from Food Network)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons Chinese Shaoxing rice wine, dry sherry or whitevermouth
• 1 pound beef sirloin, thinly sliced against the grain into strips
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 3 to 4 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 5 to 7 dried red chiles, halved
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 8 heads baby bok choy, halved
• Pinch of sugar
• Cooked rice, for serving

Directions

I was looking for a simple and healthy recipe online,and this caught my attention from wholeliving.com.  I had all of the ingredients needed and was not really up for a complicated dish last night since I would rather watch the NBA playoffs.  The recipe calls for a slow cooker, but I just used my Le Crueset and the stove top and cooked the chicken for an hour. I prepared mashed potatoes to go with the dish.

Ingredients:

Another Adobo dish that I prepared last week. I really liked the result of this one.  Normally I don’t use brown sugar to caramelize the pork, I just brown the meat and then add all of the basic adobo ingredients. I could have adobo at least once a week, so comforting and reminds me so much of home. The only thing I don’t like when I make adobo is that I end up eating way too much rice:(

Ultra Rich Caramelized Filipino Pork Adobo (www.pepper.ph)

makes 4-6 servings

1 kg Pork cubes

1/2 cup Soy sauce

1/2 cup Vinegar

1/2 cup whole garlic cloves

My Chive herbs are growing happily in our yard and I’ve been thinking about using them in a cream cheese dip/spread after I had some chive and onion cream cheese in Panera Bread.  So last week I used some of my chives and made this simple cream cheese recipe.  I know you can get herbs anywhere but there is something about planting herbs in your own yard and using it in your cooking/recipes.

Ingredients (www.food.com)

I’m so into Pioneer Woman lately!  If she’s not on the food network I check On Demand if they have her show.  I think it’s because I’m kinda intrigued with her life on their ranch, and I cannot get over her colorful Le Creuset pots!  LOVE IT!!!  She prepared this salad and it looked so yummy.  We are not big salad eaters in our house and I know we need to change that.  I didn’t use Pecans because we only have almonds.  I also made the dressing and I’m thinking from now on I will make my own dressing, it is so simple and much healthier compared to what you get in the store.  We loved this salad so much that we had it three times this week already!

Ingredients (recipe:http:// thepioneerwoman.com)

• 12 ounces, weight Salad Greens (spring Mix)
• 2 whole Apples, Cored And Sliced Very Thin
• 1/2 cup Pecan Halves
• 1/4 cup Dried Cherries
• 6 ounces, weight Blue Cheese, Cut Into Chunks
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Dijon Mustard
• 1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup (more To Taste)
• 1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar (more To Taste)
• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• Salt And Pepper, to taste

Preparation Instructions

We had a simple curry dish for dinner tonight.  I bought the shrimp this weekend and I had planned to just roast them but Hubby prepared the tuna tartare last Sunday and we had a lot of extra ingredients like the coconut cream, lemon grass(they’re not cheap), and the red curry paste, so I just decided to make a Red Curry dish and use the shrimp instead of chicken (my choice of meat whenever I have curry).  I didn’t follow an exact recipe here but I did check Pioneer Woman’s curry recipe and the food network site to get some inspiration.  I sauteed the shrimps first for a couple of seconds because I wanted them cooked together with the spices.  Shrimp cook very fast and gets tough if you overcook them, so you gotta watch out!

After the shrimps, I sauteed onions, garlic, ginger,red peppers, lemons grass (smells so good in the kitchen). Then I added 3 tablespoons of red curry paste, coconut cream, fish sauce. Let it  boil, then I added young sweet corn because I like it but you can add other veggies if you want (like carrots, peas). That’s it!

This is the Tuna Tartare that Hubby made during my In law’s Birthday dinner we had last weekend. We almost always order tuna tartare whenever we eat out, it’s just so good! I get that not everybody will get this dish right away, especially since it is still “raw” fish after all.  Lucky for me, Hubby was able to turn me on to tuna tartare goodness:-)

Here’s the recipe: Tuna Tartare (Chef Stefan Richter)

Ingredients

For the sauce:

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons sweet chile sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

2 tablespoons siracha

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons coconut milk

1 tablespoon chopped lemongrass

1 tablespoon minced and peeled ginger

1 tablespoon Thai curry paste

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1/2 tablespoon fish sauce

For the tartare:

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1/2 avocado

1/2 lb. raw sushi-grade tuna

Chopped cilantro and sesame seeds, to taste

Directions

1. To make the sauce: combine all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan. Stir well. Heat over high heat until sauce comes to a boil.
2. Transfer the sauce to a food processor or blender and carefully blend.
3. Pour into a bowl that is set over an ice water bath. Let cool.
4. Once the sauce is cool, mix 2 tablespoons of the sauce with the 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise.
5. Cut the avocado and the tuna into uniform 1/2-inch squares.
6. Carefully fold the tuna, avocado, and sauce together. Mix in the chopped cilantro and sesame seeds. Stir and serve.

Serves 2-4.

We are finally back home from our vacation in Florida! It was such a fun and relaxing time with my Hubby.  Last Saturday (our last day in FL.) while waiting for Hubby to get ready, I was watching the Food Network and the Pioneer Woman was on, she was making this pizza and it looked so good!  Since then,I’ve been thinking about this Fig- Prosciutto pizza, I LOVEEEEEEE anything that has prosciutto,well actually I LOVE LOVE LOVE prosciutto( I hope you get the idea). So I made this for dinner tonight, and after eating half of it, the cravings gone!  I will definitely make this pizza again, so good and so easy ( I bought the pizza crust from the store)! Just delicious and I’m in prosciutto heaven.

Recipe (thepioneerwoman.com)