Escabecheng Isda

In my regional travels all over the country, I always chance upon local fare that is most charming and unforgettable. This ESCABECHENG ISDA recipe was one that was shared by a contestant in a sponsored cooking show on TV.

I tweaked this by adding 2 fish bouillon cubes. When this fish bouillon cube was first launched the fear of most housewives is that it will make their dishes smell and taste fishy and metallic. But alas, what it does is just the exact opposite, add this to your fish recipe and remove that fishy smell and taste.

The combination of red and green bell peppers is also another innovation of mine. The vibrant red and green colours does lend excitement to an otherwise blah and ordinary home fare fish dish. The sweet, sour and salty taste of this dish is perfect. I use this measurement whenever I make sweet and sour sauces and even for sweet and sour pork.

ESCABECHENG ISDA

1 kilo matambaka or alumahan, half fry in oil and set aside

Mix 1 cup water with 3 Tbsps. tomato catsup, 3 Tbsps vinegar and 2 Tbsps. sugar

In the meantime, sauté 3 cloves garlic, 1 medium size onion sliced, 6 tomatoes seeded and diced, allow to simmer until tomatoes are tender. Next add 2 green bell peppers and 2 red bell peppers seeded and diced and ¼ cup spring onions chopped. Next add the water, catsup, vinegar and sugar mixture. DO NOT STIR. When boiling add 1 Knorr fish cube. Lastly add 1/8 tsp ground black pepper and 1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup water.

Tinapang Bangus Carbonara

This is one of my most favorite no-meat pasta recipes. I always serve this during my parties because it has become a constant favorite. A friend of mine asked me for the recipe so she could try it at home. The only thing she omitted was the topping which is the mixture of mayonnaise with the tinapang bangus and garlic. Turns out that missing out on that one crucial part of this recipe did not deliver the desired response and enthusiasm she saw when her children came to my parties. The panoply of flavours... sweet, sour and savoury makes this dish alluring that once you start eating you can't seem to stop.

TINAPANG BANGUS CARBONARA

Ingredients:

4 Tbsps olive oil
1 whole garlic, skinned and chopped finely
4 T smoked bangus flaked
dash of salt
1 Knorr Fish Cube ( you may add more as desired)
1 1/2 tetra pack all purpose cream
1/4 cup Lady's Choice Mayonnaise

400 g cooked linguini noodles
4 T pasta water

TOPPING
2 T grated Edam cheese
2 T tinapang bangus (get from flakes sauted in the garlic/Knorr Fish Cubes)
1 80ml pack Lady's Choice Mayonnaise

In a skillet, heat olive oil. Saute garlic, low fire, only till it begins to turn golden brown. Drop in Knorr Fish Cubes , bangus flakes, salt ,cream and mayonnaise. Simmer. Add pasta and pasta water. Cook until creamy. Top with LC mayonnaise mixed with the sauted Smoked Bangus. Lastly add grated Edam Cheese.

A Golden Feast

What's the best way to celebrate 50 years? Celebrate it with family and friends with a Golden Feast to boot. The sumptuous dinner for our friend Tony was a mouthwatering array of equally eye catching and inviting dishes.

The buffet table was lined with Fish Ala Pobre, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Pork Spare Ribs, Sushi Platter, Baked Macaroni, Beef Caldereta,Pancit Canton, Pata Tim and of course the BP provoking Lechon. The Choco Swirl Cupcakes with Golden Pearls were heavenly. Not to be out done was the leche flan and the almond jelly for sweet tooth monsters like myself and my friend Heidi.

Another friend Joey, when asked which dessert would he prefer, admonished his lovely young wife Mitos by saying, pwede bang dalawa, bakit papipiliin pa?

Pasta Sardinoise

Staring at my cabinet, I saw 2 cans of sardines, which were bought after Ondoy’s terror. From experience, I know that these will last a lifetime in there. I decided to open one but to my horror, the fish was just too fishy for my taste, ngeks sa lansa talaga. What to do so this doesn’t go to waste? Elevate the sardines’ status from Sardinas na may Misua to PASTA SARDINOISE.

Now it’s time to scrounge for other ingredients to turn this dish into something extraordinary. In my ref I checked and found the following:

A half cup of pitted black olives
A half cup of capers
A cup of tomato sauce

To cure that over fishiness, drain the tomato sauce from the fish and deep-fry and set aside.

In a sauce pan, sauté in 2 Tbsp of olive oil

6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 tsp dried rosemary
½ Tbsp salt
¼ tsp ground pepper

Add the tomato sauce and let simmer. Put the fried sardines, olives and capers. Let simmer for about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings accordingly.

Cook 200g of linguini or spaghetti noodles according to package directions.

Again, plate so the dish will really look delectable and inviting. Put about a cup of the noodles on a plate, using a fork, twist to make a rounded heap. Pour the SARDINOISE, top with Parmesan cheese if you like.

Easy Baked Mac

One of the first pasta recipes I learned in my early years of cooking was this EASY BAKED MACARONI which I would like to share. The original recipe was more complicated and difficult to follow. Through experimentation and a lot of hit or miss, I finally simplified the original recipe, adjusted it to my taste and added beer. I thought of adding beer to replace cooking wine which I often see in meat sauce recipes.

I discovered that cooking with beer helps tenderize the meat faster. It was only much later that I found out that beer does have a tenderizing effect on meat. I also found the malty mild distinctive flavor of beer rather pleasant, hence this recipe of mine was born. You may add canned sliced mushrooms on top if you wish.

Likewise, I also use this meat sauce and white sauce recipe for a QUICK AND EASY LASAGNA. All you have to do is use lasagna noodles and voila, you have a superb tasting lasagna already. You may add dried rosemary to the meat sauce just for that added punch, not too much though as rosemary tends to dominate and overpower the flavors of other spices.

Here are the ingredients for the meat sauce...

1 kilo ground beef
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium sized red onions, finely chopped
2 Tbsp sugar
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 Tbsp fine salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp ground pepper
1 cup beer
½ cup water
1 cup tomato sauce

And here are the ingredients for the White Sauce:

1 can evaporated milk
1-70g pack cream of mushroom soup
1 ¾ cup water

Just cook 450g macaroni noodles according to package directions and then top with
grated cheese

Follow this steps...

Dissolve the cream of mushroom soup in a little evaporated milk, then add the rest and the water. Mix well until there are no more lumps then set aside.
In a sauce pan, sauté the onions in olive oil, when onions turn soft, add the ground beef, stir until meat is no longer pink, remove any excess liquid.
Add the sugar, bouillon cubes, salt, Italian seasoning and ground pepper. Allow beef to cook some more, about 10 minutes.
Add the beer and water, cook until almost dry. Add the tomato sauce. Cook for another 30 minutes or until oil comes out on the sides of the sauce pan.
Place the dissolved cream of mushroom soup in another sauce pan, bring to a boil while stirring constantly. When this thickens turn off heat and let cool.
Arrange this on a 3 quarts baking dish, put the meat sauce first, top with macaroni noodles next then add meat sauce again, and then the white sauce, repeat layering until the dish is full.
Top with grated cheese. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes

Chicken Ala King

CHICKEN ALA KING

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter8 to 10 chicken thigh fillets½ cup sliced canned button mushrooms, liquid included (200g)2 green bell peppers, diced2 pimientos, diced½ c all purpose cream
2 cups of chicken broth where chicken was cooked add liquid from canned mushrooms (add hot water if liquid will not amount to 2 cups)salt to taste
¼ tsp nutmeg
2 Tbsp LC Mayonnaise

Procedure:
1. Rub 1 tsp salt on chicken thigh fillets then cook by simmering in ½ cup water. Cool and cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes.

2. Core and remove the seed from the bell peppers and pimientos. Dice.

3. Melt the butter in a thick-bottomed pan. Add the bell peppers and pimientos and cook for about a minute. Remove from the butter and set aside.
Reheat the butter. Add the all-purpose cream.

4. Pour in the chicken broth little by little, stirring as you pour. Add the cooked chicken, mushrooms and bell peppers. Season with salt and nutmeg. Cover and simmer for about 5 minutes. Put Lady’s Choice Mayonnaise, stir and simmer until mayonnaise is dissolved and the dish becomes creamy.

5. Serve with rice or toasted bread or in commercially available pastry cups. This will also be great served cold with buttered toast.

Please note that I added mayonnaise at the end to thicken the sauce and round off all the flavors of this dish.

Tuna Carbonara

When I came back from Thailand last August, I was totally floored by the prices of all commodities in the market. The price of pork has gone up from 115 to 192, which used to be the price of beef. Beef has skyrocketed to 220 up to 280 or even more for some cuts. Now veggies are also priced as high as meat.

I was looking at the poor quality of the ground beef in the market which I was intending to use for spaghetti and macaroni and thought, why should I use beef? Why not try cheaper and healthier alternatives? I decided to make TUNA CARBONARA using what I could from my cabinet. Sometimes the pocket is a great dictator for creativity.

To make TUNA CARBONARA I gathered the following ingredients which I already had.

2 small cans of tuna(which my son Francis purchased during Ondoy's panic buying aftermath).

A half pack of powdered cream of Mushroom soup (tagal ng di nagagamit)mix with

A cup of leftover evaporated milk (1 can is equal to 1 3/4 cup) plus

A cup of water

1/4 block of cream cheese

A half cup of all purpose cream Mix the mushroom soup, milk, water, cream cheese and all purpose cream in a bowl and set aside.

In a pan, saute 6 cloves of garlic and a chopped onion. Then add a cup sliced mushrooms and the 2 cans of tuna. Pour the cream of mushroom soup mixture, add a dash of nutmeg, one Knorr Fish Cube, some Italian seasoning, oregano and marjoram.

Now here's the part that makes a difference. Instead of just mixing 200g of cooked linguini (flat spaghetti noodles) with the cooked white sauce, try plating. Place about a cup of cooked linguini on a plate, twist to make a rounded heap using a fork pour the TUNA CARBONARA sauce, add some grated cheese and some finely chopped parsley. This will turn your simple home-cooked meal into a gourmert looking meal. Enjoy!!!