SQF: Gyudon-ish beef dish

30 JANUARY 2011. I had it all planned out. I was going to cook gyudon. I don't know why, I was just craving for something Asian, I suppose. Due to the major renovation going on at SM Southmall, Tokyo Tokyo is closed and it was only during the wedding night that I was able to eat there again, but at the ATC food court (yes, hubby and I were out gallivanting at ATC on our wedding night. LOL). And there's that unopened bottle of mirin which has been glaring at me from the shelf for months already. I decided that it was finally its time.
On Saturday morning, it happened mom was going to the plaza to buy fresh meat. I was just about to start doing some laundry. I quickly dressed and went with her.

I bought over a kilo of thinly sliced beef for the gyudon and about a kilo of beef round which I requested to be ground for that suddenly-I-want-pasta moments. The meat easily cost me P500. O_O Good thing I bought the other ingredients way in advance.

It turned out I had to slice the beef some more. The beef was still on the thick side. But even after I had worked on it some more, it wasn't still gyudon-thin. How do they get it so thin in the restaurant? =( I tried to get it as thin as possible. The result looked more like beef stirfry strips. Hahaha! Well anyway, I proceeded with the cooking.

I'm not very familiar with beef, as I'm a chicken person and my only relationship with beef goes as far as pasta sauce. I discovered that cooking it to the right tenderness, or at least to an acceptable level, takes quite a long time. Hubby and I got a pressure cooker as a wedding gift, but I'm just as much scared of it as I am of the oven. =| So I let the beef cook away in the pot.

After carving for Asian for so long, I had a delicious meal. Ate more than I should have. LOL. Hubby enjoyed eating (the leftovers survived for a couple more meals the day after). Mom said it was something like lomo because of the ginger. Too bad I didn't have that sweet red ginger stuff they have at Japanese restaurants. That would've completed the look. Plus thinner-cut meat.

My gyudon-ish dish topped on rice

Little bro came home late from a PC repair service (rumaraket na ang kapatid ko). Mom instructed him not to eat at his client's (because he usually does), so he was able to try out the beef. He was asking me about it before he left, saying he didn't know what gyudon was. When I saw him later that evening, he said, "Your beef is good."

I'll cook this again another time. When I find a way to have the meat cut thinner.

Gyudon-ish
Serves 5 or more
recipe to follow (based on several versions I found online)

*BB*

SQF: Char-Xu

19 OCTOBER 2010. The moment I popped open the lid of my bottle of char siu sauce, I knew at once that we were going to have a fantastic lunch.

Chinese barbecue sauce "char siu"

Char siu sauce is my latest discovery. It's a Chinese barbecue sauce which is quite common in Chinese restaurant dishes, usually with pork or chicken. It can be used as a sauce, added a marinade or basted while grilling meat.


I planned ahead that I will make fried rice. It's only me and dad at home. Hubby-to-be, a rice monster, was on his way and would be joining us shortly. Mom and little bro are already out of the house, and we'll meet them in Makati after lunch.


Having a recent meal at Mongolian Quick-Stop in mind, I derived my favorite ingredients and pulled out cucumbers and tomatoes from the fridge. I also borrowed some carrots from mom's stock. I still have chicken breast and a piece of chorizo. And of course, the usual suspects for stir frys: garlic and onions. And my newly opened jar of char siu sauce.

Ready!


Chili garlic sauce has been a trusted friend when it comes to fried rice, but this time I skipped it in favor of siling labuyo. I only put two pieces, sliced, but the effect was immediately recognizable. It enhanced and "heated up" the barbecue taste.

The ingredients make for a deliciously colorful dish.

I served dad and hubby-to-be a plate each. We were supposed to eat light, as we were going to a birthday party. But they went for seconds.


Their only request. Make it spicier! Next time, I'll double the labuyo. XD


I had some leftovers, which I packed for baon the next morning. Sarap!

Char-Sue: Spicy Barbecue Fried Rice

Spicy Barbecue Fried Rice (ala Renn Xu)
As always, no exact measurements! Hehehe
4-6 cups of leftover rice (or as much as you like)
1 head garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced finely
2 tomatoes, sliced
1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded
1 Chinese chorizo, diced (can be optional)

Char siu sauce + water

1 cucumber, diced
1 carrot, julienned
2 pcs (or more, if you want it hotter) bird's eye chili (siling labuyo), sliced
Peppermill (or just pepper) and salt to taste
Sesame oil (can be optional)


*BB*

SQF: My chicken is Asian

(Hindi ako masyadong mahilig sa chicken, ano? Hehehe)

12 SEPTEMBER 2010. It was Sunday again, and little bro and hubby-to-be were home alone again. My uncle and cousin had arrived the past week from Leyte and Cebu respectively to attend the Manila leg of the Villareal fiesta. They were scheduled to fly back home Wednesday, so they were maximizing the remaining days by visiting relatives scattered in and around Metro Manila.

Just like the Italian version, I've meaning to cook Honey Ginger Chicken since I got a booklet of McCormick recipe cards with the March 2010 issue of Yummy (and that was way back in March). I already shopped for ingredients I could store, like rice wine, but I kept on either using some of the ingredients for other dishes.

But this particular Sunday, everything just happened to be available, like the lemons, which we would only have because I would buy. I put the thawed chicken wings in a very Asian-smelling marinade. The marinade needed at least an hour, so hubby-to-be and I went to church.

When we came back home, it was frying time. It's supposed to be deep fried, but for some reason I'm not very comfortable with deep-frying. I just fried away, so there were still pale spots on the chicken. Hahaha!

The recipe calls for whole chicken parts, but I used wings.

Stolen shot by hubby-to-be.
Oh, I'm wearing that house dress again...

Hubby-to-be helped me with preps for the sauce. And by taking pictures.

Loaded with fresh ginger bits, the sauce is every bit as Asian as possible.

The sauce is easy. Just put together the ingredients. I was tasting it as it was simmering in a pot, and it was weird. I mean, it wasn't the taste I was expecting so I was rather concerned it wouldn't turn out well. But wait until you toss it with the rice wine marinated chicken.

No need to go to an Asian restaurant! Kain na!

But when I tossed the cooked chicken pieces into the sauce...wow! Ang sarap pala. The three of us all had a great Asian dinner. =)

You can do this dish ahead of time by half-frying the marinated chicken and storing in the freezer, as I did with the leftover chicken. I put away the leftover sauce in the refrigerator. That same week, mom requested me to make dinner and I was able to whip this one up in almost a flash. They like it. Little bro even requested me to cook it for his birthday next year. Puwede na raw pang-handa. ^_^

Honey Ginger Chicken (Wings)

Honey Ginger Chicken

www.mccormick.com.ph

If you want to try it, I can scan and email the recipe card. ^_^

*BB*

SQF: My chicken is Italian

2010 JULY 11. My parents were leaving me, little bro and hubby-to-be home alone. A cousin who lives in Makati is celebrating her birthday. I had to pass--even if a quick trip to Market! Market! was tempting--because of colds and my still-heavy head.

I intended to cook Italian-Style Chicken Wings for Monday evening, but I didn't want to eat sardines or corned beef just now. This is the first recipe under the "Take 5 Ingredients" section of Meals in Minutes. This is actually the first recipe I earmarked, but because I kept on using the spaghetti sauce for pasta or chicken wings were constantly absent from our freezer, this got delayed.

The Italian-style sauce is composed of sauteed garlic,
sweet-style spaghetti sauce and Italian seasoning. I also
added a dash of cayenne pepper powder. So easy, right?

I prepared the sauce. I guess I didn't mince the garlic enough. LOL. Also, the recipe called for 500g of sweet-style spaghetti sauce. I only had 250g, so I added a 250g pack of a Three-Cheese version, which did make the dish a bit cheesy.

Coat the chicken wings with breading mix and fry.

Frying the coated chicken took a long time because I made the mistake of using a small pan. And I didn't want to deep-fry. Hubby-to-be already arrived; good thing he ate before he left. But little bro was starving. I decided to toss the cooked ones with the sauce while the last few pieces were still cooking so we can already eat.

Voila! A great alternative to your usual fried chicken.

The dish was simple but flavorful. I was already full after just two pieces as I ate a lot of rice with it. Three pieces were left for dad's lunch tomorrow. Later, I texted sis-in-law, who also owns a copy of Meals in Minutes, to try the recipe. Sayang, my baby nephew can't try it yet. I'm sure he'll love it.

Italian-style Chicken Wings

Find it on Yummy Meals in Minutes

*BB*

SQF: Seafood Sunday

27 JUNE 2010. After Charlie Tsong was eaten and the leftovers stored in the fridge, we were resigned to have a the rest of the Sunday in peace. Mom got out a whole fresh chicken from the freezer, ready to be turned into afritada for lunch.


But then, Aling Toning, a vendor with whom my mom is a suki, came ringing at our gate. We bought some vegetables form her. Aling Toning was with another lady vendor who brought fresh seafood in timbas like galunggong, clams, mussels from Cavite, dulong, alamang among others.


Now, it's been a long while since I had tahong; we're constantly in a red tide alert, although there's usually none. Hahaha, paranoid.


And suddenly, aha! We declared it Seafood Sunday. I immediately requested my dear fiancé, who was to quietly spend Sunday with us, to buy quickmelt cheese somewhere on his way here. We ended up inviting big brother and his family over for lunch as well.


Using a recipe on Yummy as a reference (which we didn't entirely follow anyway), we set to work making Mixed Tempura out of the shrimps we bought and a couple of carrots and an eggplant we had in the fridge.

Veggie tempura

Honestly, our Ebi Tempura ended up looking more like
Camaron Rebusado. LOL! Will have to study the tempura mixture...

At the same time, we portioned the tahong: half was steamed and set aside for another meal, the other half was baked for lunch.

Sobrang cheeeeeeeeeeeeeesy!

Big bro's family arrived to find mom, husband-to-be and me in a mess in the kitchen, halfway through the tempura so big bro was able to help out. I had big bro sample Charlie Tsong, which he found good.

Behind the scenes...

My lovely family + a great quick-fix meal = perfect Sunday. =)

Baked Tahong
serves 4 and more (in our case, it served 8)
1 kilo fresh mussels (tahong)
1 small box quick-melt cheese
1 head of garlic, sliced into fine bits (or maybe you can use garlic powder)
Dash of ground pepper


Mixed Tempura

serves 4 and more (in our case, it served 8)

1 kilo fresh shrimps (I prefer good-sized suahe)
Sliced vegetables (we used carrots and eggplants, but you can also use sweet kamote)
(about) 3 eggs Egg
(about) 1 cup flour
(about) 2 cups Japanese breadcrumbs


Photo credits: my sis-in-law! *BB*

SQF: Charlie Tsong

27 JUNE 2010. I woke up with the usual pasta itch. Now that our choir's no longer serving at church in the morning and I attend mass in the late afternoon, I have more time to cozy up in the kitchen.


I'm a fan of Yellow Cab's Charlie Chan Chicken Pasta. Whenever I have extra budget, I'll always try to get one (or nag my fiancé to get one, hahaha). True, it doesn't really go well with pizza; it's more of a "stand alone" dish. But well, it's something different from your usual pasta fare, and my subconscious (even at the time I wasn't even learning to cook yet) made a mental note to discover the recipe sometime soon.


And that sometime soon was now. I remembered there was leftover chicken in the fridge. But it was like...2 Sundays old? LOL. I cooked the pasta first (I find adding a bit more salt to the water than usual gives the pasta extra flavor, which is a good thing when you're making dull/bland sauces). I shredded the chicken and tossed it in a little water just enough to boil the shreds with a bit of salt and pepper. I set the chicken, stock and all, aside.


It starts with the usual sauteing of garlic and onions. The chicken came next. As usual, I did a trial-and-error on the addition of the soy sauce and chili garlic, so the thing tasted too soy saucy, making me put in a few tablespoons of the chicken stock. I added the pasta and on a whim, put in some oyster sauce, a couple of tablespoons, I think. A bit of salt (which I should've eliminated because I already seasoned the spaghetti while cooking), pepper a bit more water...and whoops, I forgot the mushrooms, in you go. And I turned off the heat.

Apologizing for the bad photo. Haven't yet charged my newly-repaired
but very-much-loved digicam at this time so I just used my phone.

Initially, I called it "Charlie Chan-Chanan". LOL. My mom forgot what Charlie Chan was, so I had to explain to her that it was the pasta we liked at Yellow Cab. She recalled it was the one with the peanuts.


She, dad and little bro were the first to try it. Mom commented I was a fast pasta maker already (and I used to be so afraid of doing pasta!). Dad admired how I can whip up new things out of the blue, and with the "recyclables" and the few ingredients we actually have on hand. And little bro complained it was too spicy (which I expected him to say--everything's too spicy for him, LOL).


Several factors did affect the taste. One, the leftover chicken I used was turbo-broiled with a soy sauce and lemon grass marinade so it already had its own flavor (and I shredded it with utter abandon that some pieces looked like sahog for pancit, LOL). And I used a bit too much soy sauce (which permeated the dish distinctly) and a bit too little oyster sauce (which didn't make through the soy sauce taste that much). Then I forgot to add the mushrooms; I tossed them in when I was done cooking. LOL. When I was trying to resolve the saltiness, I used the chicken stock, which I forgot I seasoned with salt. Hahaha. I also used sliced pieces and stems, not shiitake, which our fridge never had. Maybe I will get some for the next attempt... Oh yeah, peanuts! I didn't put peanuts...because the ants got first to the bag of peanuts we have here. LOL


My big brother and sister-in-law came over during lunch (another unplanned SQF!) and I had them sample the pasta. What's left of it, that is. They both liked it; big brother suggested adding something, which I took note of. He also christened the dish "Charlie Tsong". LOL

Charlie Tsong, formerly known as Charlie Chan-Chanan

I would've loved to have my baby nephew try it, but then, apart from Cerelac, he's only allowed to chew on his fingers. LOL


This dish will need just a few more tweaks. At the end of the morening, I was pleased with how it turned out. I never expected to get this close to it when I was cooking recipe-less. It was indeed "Charlie Tsamba"! =)


Charlie Tsong
serves 4 (and a bit more)
half of a 400g Spaghetti pack
half a head of garlic, minced
half a small onion, sliced (I think this can be done away with)
half a can of mushrooms (try shiitake if you have!), drained and sliced as you like
Leftover chicken, shredded
Soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Chili garlic
Ground pepper to taste (easy with the salt now!)
Peanuts (sana, hahaha)


P.S. So sorry, no measurements! Very Xu, hahaha! I'll put them in next time I cook it again. Oh, I Googled for a Charlie Chan photo and found other blogs trying to do the recipe. Funny, I am actually really close to the real recipe after all. =) *BB*

Sunday Quick Fix (SQF): Pasta ala *recycled* breaded chicken with lemon glaze

25 APRIL 2010. Cooking is a wonderful skill. I've always admired (even envied) people who can cook. I love watching cooking shows, but I would oftentimes feel depressed afterwards because I don't cook.


Cooking is a special ability that can make people happy. But to be able to whip up something new out of an old dish--recycle, if you will...now that's talent.

So I made Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze for lunch yesterday. We had it again for dinner, but because my younger brother came home late, he didn't eat anymore when he got to the house. Three pieces remained, plus almost a mug-full of lemon glaze.

What to do? What to do? Hmmm...

Must cook...must turn this into a new dish!

Guess what happened?


Whipping up my favorite basic recipe (olive oil + garlic + tomatoes, but + parsley this time, not basil), yesterday's lunch ulam turned into this morning's pasta. Wahahaha!

Breaded chicken with lemon glaze spaghetti. LOL

Verdict: Well, it was OK for me (God, is that my standard answer?). The rest of the family liked it. Even Don, who's not a fan of sauce-less pasta, devoured the rest of the pot. I guess it was a good change from the usual saucy pasta we have here at home. Same reason why the accidental pasta was also a hit.


But this new discovery is subject to improvement (mainly because I had leftover chicken only, the topping was scarce). Will keep you posted on further developments. *BB*