WCS turned ILYS: Beef with Garlic Oyster Sauce

I don't get to see my in-laws often. To be honest, I'd rather spend the weekend somewhere nearby, if not at home. There's also Saturday night choir practice and Sunday morning mass service midway through the weekend, so going somewhere far is not really advisable. Usually, it would just be hubby who would go to Calamba on random days. So when I do go to visit hubby's family, I've made it a point to bring something, usually ulam. Once, I also bought some of my Cheater Cookies, which my mother-in-law liked.

After a very long while, I visited with hubby just this Saturday and brought some Stir-fry Beef with Garlic Oyster Sauce.

Stir-fried Beef with Garlic Oyster Sauce

I'm very happy with this stir-fry. It's simple but really delicious. My mom told me it was something worth serving to guests and my dad complimented me that I've really gotten good in cooking (palakpak ang tenga, hehehe). Hubby's parents liked this dish, too. They even served it to a couple of guests who dropped by their house shortly after hubby and I finished lunch.

Because we planned to leave early on Saturday morning--supposedly at 8:00 AM, but because I suddenly decided to make a cheater breakfast, we were not able to leave until almost 9:00 AM--I planned to already cook the evening before. However, I had to render overtime on Friday night. Hubby and I arrived home almost 11:00 PM. We just took a quick break then went to work. I asked hubby to help me prep up as I had two recipes in line: the beef dish for lunch, and my very own chicken sandwich spread for the choir's after-practice merienda.

"Men for a Month" featuring...hubby! Hahaha!

While the rest of the world sleeps, here's
me and hubby toiling away in the kitchen

As I said, I love this recipe. My only complaint is not on the dish, but on the meat. Beef takes so long to cook, even if you have them sliced thinly. I'm afraid of pressure cookers so don't suggest that I use one. The good news is, because it does take time, the flavors in the sauce would have been well absorbed by the meat and all the waiting would be worthwhile.

Stir-fry the beef until it changes color.

Not the usual sequence. The garlic and onion

come in after the beef has been stir-fried.

The bell peppers make this dish colorful.

Add oyster sauce, water and brown sugar. Season with

salt and pepper, stir in sesame oil. Before serving, you
may top with spring onions and sesame seeds (if you
have). Easy, no?

With the two recipes, I finished sometime between 2:00-3:00 AM (take note, the beef was still somewhat rubbery, hahaha). Hubby already went on ahead and went to bed an hour before and I let him go lest he started slicing his fingers. ^_^

Other recipe this evening/midnight/early morning: Chicken Sandwich Spread

Stir-fried Beef with Garlic Oyster Sauce

Recipe in Yummy Menu for a Month and Yummy.ph

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SQF: Swabe, pare!

I have this cookbook at home I bought from National Bookstore last year. From the cover, you may assume it will have something to do with drinking beer. You are right. The cookbook's title is Pulutan: From the Soldier's Kitchen.


I am not an alcohol drinker (you can't even make me drink Cali). The closest to alcohol that I ever had (and actually liked) was Chamdor. And it's not even liquor, but sparkling juice (I drink only the peach flavor with the orange label, by the way). Oh, and the mass wine during my First Holy Communion and the wine toast during our wedding (neither of which I liked).


So why do I have a cookbook entitled Pulutan? Because my not drinking alcohol has not really stopped me from loving pulutan fare. I love popular local beer mates such as sizzling sisig, calamares, kilawin, etc.


Another reason I bought the book was its history. It was written by two soldiers. Yup, two army guys who were part of the Magdalo mutiny way back in 2003. While they were detained and awaiting their fates along with their other comrades, they would cook. Relatives visiting them would bring fresh meat and seafood. Sometimes, relatives brought them food. The book became a collection of their experiments and of recipes learned from fellow soldiers and their relatives and friends. The book had a wide array of common dishes, tricked-up recipes and exotic options.

Swabeng liempo (sorry, no spareribs available)

We tried the recipe Swabeng Spareribs one evening. I had earlier bought over a kilo of pork liempo. And although the recipe explicitly called for spareribs, that didn't stop big bro, who got curious with the recipe, from trying it. The recipe isn't about the usual suspects; I was forced to buy some ingredients I don't often use, like liver spread (which I don't really like much), and mix them with bell pepper, pickles, etc (huh?).


The dish received mixed reviews, although generally positive, form the family. I personally liked it since I like strong flavors. Little bro found it overpowering for his simple palate.

Rice meal made swabe.

I'll cook this another time. I think my father-in-law will like it. =)



Swabeng Spareribs
Recipe in Pulutan


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ILYS: A quick fix for Saturday (finally, it's a pork dish)

On non-working Saturdays, I revert to what I call "housewife mode". For people who know me as a working girl, they probably could not picture me in such a mode. Some actually can't and they seem surprised that I can do household chores. Probably because I've always been the unica hija and people probably think I live like a princess. But I know my way around the house like any pauper would.

So on weekends, even before I got married, I do laundry (at least, the laundry that we do not send to the laundry shop), put our things in order, mend clothes, etc. And now, I also cook (and yes, I don a duster to complete the housewife look, hehehe).

Just this Saturday, I did something very housewife-y also: I went to the market. I usually tagged along whenever mom goes there. But I wanted to experience doing the marketing myself so I decided to go alone. Anyway, the market is nearby, about a ten-minute walk (or less) from our house. Hubby, who was on his way to work, and I caught a backride on a trike about a quarter past 5:00 AM, and I dropped myself off at the village plaza. I didn't walk as it was still dark as night.

I was at the market very early, early enough to catch the delivery of fresh meat taking place at Boyet & Belle's, mom's preferred vendor. I think they unloaded about 5 or 6 large pigs. I waited for a while as Mang Boyet and his boys chopped the meat into the different sections and cuts (liempo, kasim, pigue, even isaw, dugo, etc.) with such ease you'd think they were working on toys.

The nice thing about going to the market very early is there is very little crowd. In fact, almost zero. Mom's usual shopping schedule is around 8:00 AM, when there's already more than a handful of people in each stall. In some instances, a certain cut of meat is no longer available, or some kinds of fish and vegetables have also run out. I must say I did my pamamalengke quite leisurely that morning. I took my time consulting my Menu for a Month copy, and comparing and selecting what I needed. I had first pick of everything, so to speak.

I would've stayed longer, but the sun was finally out. And my load was heavy. For a while, I completely forgot I was shopping solo. On top of the meat I bought, I also had a number of different vegetables, a whole piling of lacatan bananas, and a loaf of sandwich bread. I must've looked like a walking store already. =) But if I had not yet felt the load, I would've probably shopped around some more. Maybe next time I'll bring a bayong.

I made mini pancakes for breakfast when I got home. Because I also started cooking early, I finished just as my parents and brother were waking up. I haven't quite made up my mind what to cook for lunch. But despite that and the laundry I had to do, I was looking forward to a relatively lazy Saturday...

Until the doorbell rang. Surprise, we had visitors. =) In came my mom's nephew (but because of our age gap, I was often confused whether to call him "uncle" or "kuya") and his wife and their driver. They had some business with my parents. At first, I thought they weren't staying long. We served them chips and biscuits and ensaladang mangga. I still had the lesiurely feel around me. But as was always the case with relatives, a visit which is "saglit lang" would last at least half a day. LOL. I ended up suddenly snapping out of it and rushing to cook lunch.

I bought several kinds of meat and fish: a kilo of semi-sukiyaki-cut beef for gyudon and half a kilo of ground beef round for pasta sauce, a kilo of pork strips for stir-frying, a whole fresh chicken for tinola or afritada, and some fresh sapsap, one of my favorite fish, for pinangat. After quick consideration, I opted to cook Pork Stir-Fry. And ASAP!

Marinade pork in a mix of soy sauce, honey and garlic

I always like to marinade meat longer, overnight if possible. So I marinated the pork for more than 15 minutes, while I was preparing the other ingredients.

Aside from their health benefits, veggies give dishes
beautiful colors so I try to cook with more of them

The beans and mixed vegetables were "cooked" quickly in boiling water with salt. I made a miscalculation with the mixed vegetables and bought too little. What I did to compensate for the lack was dice a big carrot.

I heated oil in our trusty old wok. Although it wasn't specified, I used olive oil and it was fantastic. The pork was stir-fried in high heat.

When pork is cooked, lower the flame and pour in the
marinade (ah, this is what I did wrong...I chucked everything
--pork and marinade--into the wok at once...no wonder it
was soupy, LOL).

In went the the bell peppers and mushroom. Then later, during the last few minutes of cooking, the rest of the veggies.

Serve warm.

Wow, ready in a jiffy. =)

I immediately made a disclaimer that it was my first time to cook the dish. The fast stir-fry was received well by my family and our guests. I recall my cousin's driver commenting, "Sira ang diet ko dito." Mom assured her it was OK because I used olive oil. Of course, I cannot answer if the amount he ate was OK even if I used olive oil. ^_^

It was remarked that the dish tasted like higado. I'm thinking perhaps it was the amount of bell pepper I used.

Pork Stir-Fry
Recipe on Yummy.ph or Menu for a Month

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Odes: Kuya's grilled pork...level up!

LAST WEEK OF DECEMBER 2010. After the wedding was over and all the gifts were opened and hubby has officially moved into our house, we set a time to visit my in-laws. Hubby's family lived in Calamba, Laguna. The area is not in a galaxy far, far away really. But for someone like me who doesn't go out much, any place beyond Alabang and Las Piñas is far. There was a time when I was younger that even Festival Mall in Filinvest felt like it was in China. Hahaha!

We set it on the 27th. I suggested to hubby we have exactly the same thing we had when he took me there for a visit December of the previous year. His mom made pancit sotanghon and his dad grilled liempo and made ensaladang talong and we bought lechon manok from Chook's to Go along the way. It was a very enjoyable lunch. We ate outdoors under the blue sky surrounded by plantations of all sorts of vegetables (they live in a farm area) dotted with large fruit trees and very tall coconuts. We even had hubby's then best man-to-be with us. He is based in Dubai, but always spent the Christmas holidays in the Philippines.


We picked up a few groceries beforehand, but most of the stuff we plan to cook (like the fish and lechon manok) we can buy along the way. Some, like the vegetables, were available in Calamba (they do live in a farm after all), but we still bought some, which turned out to be absolutely unnecessary. We brought a pack of tomatoes, only to find they prepared more than a kilo of it (among other vegetables) for us to take home. Hahaha!


I decided to marinade pork for the grilled liempo. Kuya has this simple marinade recipe especially for grilling, which we all love. I followed it, adding a few more ingredients.


I felt sick when I woke up the next day. I wasn't feeling well since the evening before, which was so unfortunate. My stomach couldn't tolerate much of anything. Ignorant as I was, I had a pregnancy scare. But it was just because of my acidity pala. Hahaha! I skipped a meal the night before, because I ate the meal before it rather late and still felt full. Ayan.

It was hubby's uncle, who had experience running a carinderia, who did the cooking when we were there. Even the delicious pancit sotanghon, with generous amounts of sahog. I was able to eat a bit (but only until I expelled everything, eeew). Personally, I found the pork I marinated a bit bland. But hubby's family said it was good. I thought they will be able to keep some of the marinated meat, but it lasted just as long as lunch lasted. =)


I'm just sorry I wasn't able to enjoy the day much. I spent much of the time lying down after lunch. There was also grilled tilapia, ensaladang talong...sayang. =( Good thing I left some liempo at home, which hubby grilled when friends came over on the holiday after our visit to Calamba. And thank goodness Danes loves taking pictures. Thanks to my indisposition in Calamba, I absolutely forgot to take pictures of my recipe when it was cooked.

Photo credits: Danes 12/31/2010

Marinade
Olive oil, about 2 tbsps
Soy sauce, about a cup (or enough to soak the meat)
Calamansi, more than 10 pieces
Dried rosemary, about 1 tbsp (pounded/crushed a bit)
Honey, about 3 tbsps
Ground black pepper to taste

Procedure: Mix marinade ingredients in a bowl and add the liempo (good for about a kilo or so). Marinade for at least an hour. I did overnight. ^_^

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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. ^_^

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I Love You Sabado (ILYS): To bread for the first time

24 APRIL 2010. Since I started taking cooking to heart, I always looked forward to Saturdays (Saturdays with no work, of course). It's a day for me to practice. Sundays are hectic, as my brothers and I have church commitments in the morning.

The day began like any other day, with me waking up to the tune of my baby nephew's meowing in the other room. Played with him for a while and went down to get ready. I already knew what I'd be doing today.

I liked eating breaded stuff: breaded chicken, breaded pork, breaded fish, breaded whatever. But I've always thought breading is difficult. It seemed like such a hassle. So, back then, if you'd ask me to cook breaded chicken, I'll just fry the thing and say I didn't hear you say "breaded".

My nephew asleep in his carrier on the dining table while
I was cooking, oblivious to the chaos I was making in
the kitchen.

Now that I actually tried breading, I found the FEB (flour-egg-breadcrumbs) process quite entertaining. I thought before it was a hassle. Well, there were a lot of soiled plates and bowls after, but it was cool. Used to a workplace where the Toyota Production System is standard, a simple setup for cleaning up while cooking is in progress became second nature. It was of course quite tricky when doing breading, as you need all the containers at the same time and you finish using them at the same time. But it was OK.

OK, so they're supposed to be golden brown,

and they're just, well... brown. LOL.
Hey, there's my reflection on the kettle! 

I finished frying the breaded breast fillets... and it turned out we didn't have rice yet! LOL. So I took a break... to fold up some clean laundry and finish washing my own clothes the moment my sister-in-law vacated the sink (talk about multitasking!)

My Meals in Minutes propped like the Holy Bible next to the stove.
Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze on page 31.

Just as the rice was almost done cooking, I made the lemon glaze. I didn't exactly follow the quantities here, though, as my 3 lemons yielded 2 extra tablespoons of juice (I just needed 6 tablespoons). So I just made mental calculations on how much more water and honey I should put.

And voila! My first breaded project was plated, drizzled over with sweet-sour lemon glaze and topped with not-so-very-finely chopped parsley (OK, tinatamad na ako, noh! Gutom na ako!).

Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze

Dad was the first to have a bite. Was quite flattered when he said I can already cook for a restaurant (palakpak ang tenga, hehehe). =) I also got positive comments from my mom, older brother (who cooks better than I do and is very hard to please when it comes to food) and his wife.

Baby can't eat with us yet, so he settled for his favorite finger food.

Personally, the dish was OK. I think I should season the chicken a bit more. I was also afraid to dump the entire all the glaze on the chicken when I served it. I was thinking that it might be too strong, but I put some on a small bowl and served it on the side. As it turned out, we ended up pouring spoonfuls of it on our plates like soup and I had to refill the bowl. =)

I started prepping for this dish past 9:00 AM. We ate by 12:30 noon. Not bad, as I had to wait for the rice to cook (which involved some bumming around and lying on the bed) and did laundry and cleaned up and had to call my parents several times to come to the table. 


Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze
Find the recipe on On Yummy Meals in Minutes


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