Ginataang Hipon with Veggies

Still in the moment of evading pork, here's another recipe without one. Another healthy and delicious dish that will surely be craved by adults and children too.

Ingredients:

2 cups coconut milk
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup ginger, sliced
2 cups squash, cubed
1 cup string beans, cut into 1 inch long
1 kilo shrimp
salt and pepper to taste
Siling haba (optional)

Procedure:

1. Put the coconut milk into the wok and let it heat. Mix with garlic and ginger. Bring to a boil.

2.  Add squash and string beans and shrimps. Continue cooking until done and sauce is reduced. Season with salt and pepper. You may add siling haba for a spicy taste.

Tofu with Shiitake Mushrooms

In this hypertensive situation at home, we've gotta put more veggies on the table. Since we are more of a pork-people, I need to have a slow transition. I will start with tofu since it also serves as an extender for meat. Aside from that, tofu has low amount of calories, large amount of iron and a little fat. Tofu can also be high in calcium or magnesium depending on the coagulant used in manufacturing. Tofus are super healthy food. And, delicious, too.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp soya oil
1 330 gms firm tofu, sliced thinly
7-8 pcs dried shiitake mushrooms, cut off stems and cut in halves, soak in water
2 tbsp teriyaki marinade
1/2 cup mushroom water
1 tsp cornstarch, dissolve in 50ml water
salt, pepper and sugar to taste

Procedure:

1. In a pan, heat soya oil and fry tofu until lightly brown in color on both sides. Drain the excess oil and set aside.
2. In the same pan, saute ginger and garlic. Put in mushrooms and teriyaki marinade. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.
3. Add the mushroom water and simmer for about a minute. Pour in dissolved cornstarch and cook until slightly thickened.
4. Put the cooked tofu in a nice platter then top with mushroom mixture. You may add chili sauce if you want it spicy.

So easy to cook right? You gotta try this at home, so yummy!

Cooking Techniques 2

Another technique which is essential to know is BROILING. I usually confuse broiling with grilling. Mind you guys, these two are two different ways to prepare food.

Like grilling, broiling also use radiant heat to cook food. It is the best alternative to grilling. The only difference between the two is the location of the heat source. In grilling, the heat is coming from below up to the grill. Broiling, on the other hand, has heat source above the food.

Ovens could be used in broiling since they have heat sources on top as well as on the bottom. Other heat sources could be burners or electric coils. To fully utilize the heat, you have to preheat your oven, then adjust the rack to set the food closer to the heat source and you should keep the oven door open to prevent the  heat source from shutting down upon reaching a certain temperature.

Broiling is used in dishes that needs a golden brown or slightly toasted top such as brulees and some dishes with cheese.

Cooking Techniques 1

Hi! I will be sharing with you some cooking techniques that all of us must know. Oftentimes, we cook depending on how we see it from our mothers, cook shows or recipe books. Most of us, though, hardly know the basics of preparing food.

For a start, here is SEARING...

Searing is the process of caramelizing the sugars on the meat's surface in order to make an outer layer of flavor and texture. The seared layer of the meat will hinder juices from flowing out of the meat and onto the pan. Overall, searing provides a meat more flavor, better texture and juicier as well.

How to sear? Firstly, make sure that the pan is very hot. The use of oil may depend on how fatty a meat is. But, if you are to use an oil, do not utilize oils that have low smoking points or the oils that ma burn easily. Examples are olive oil or butter Canola. The peanut or sunflower oils are absolutely great for searing.

This is searing guys. Try to make some seared steak at your desired taste.

Sinigang na Managat

This is a very simple dish that does not require green leafy vegetables. When you cook this, you will learn that this dish offers fullness of flavor to your taste buds.

Any dish which use Managat fish (red snapper) is considered superb. The Managat was once regarded as pest because it feasts on the milkfish fingerlings in the fishpond. However, its exquisite flavour made it one of the first-class fish, thus, expensive of course.

In this recipe, I used batuan instead of sampalok or any sinigang mix. Batuan is the souring agent commonly used by Ilonggos in most of their soup dishes.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo Managat, sliced
3 pcs tomatoes, quartered
2 pcs onions, sliced
10 pcs batuan
3 stalks onion leaves, diced
3-5 pcs siling haba
Salt to taste

Procedure:

Put 3 cups of water to a pot. Put the tomatoes, onions and batuan then bring to a boil. Then, put the Managat fish and wait until it becomes tender. When the fish is cooked, put in the siling haba and onion leaves. Season with salt.

It is better if you eat this meal with a sweet n salty combination of spices.

To do this, sautee chopped garlic, onions and tomatoes in a litle amount of oil. Put 3 tablespoons of fish sauce, then, put a teaspoon of sugar.

The salty-sweet flavor will be best with the sour soup of Managat.

Weekly Menu Guide

It is another year for all of us peeps! We will be having new tasks, new experiences, new people to meet and of course, new food to taste. I actually look forward to more cooking and  more food to satisfy my palate.

One thing that I keep in mind this new year is to be more practical in cooking. And the best way to have a cost-effective meal is to prepare a weekly menu. I would like to share with you my menu for the week. You might be wondering why it started on a Thursday instead of Monday. Well, today is payday and I went to grocery only this afternoon. haha! I hope that you will find this helpful.