Simple Pork Adobo

It's not everyday we eat adobo in the house. Thanks to Tiyang Sima of my husband who taught me how to cook adobo should I want to prepare one. Her recipe was very simple:

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo pork ( can be pigue, kasim, pata)
soy sauce
peppercorn
DM vinegar
white sugar
crushed garlic, onion
Thai fish sauce (optional)

In a pan, combine sliced pork with water, vinegar, soy sauce and peppercorn. Cook the combination over low fire for an hour or two. Then set aside.

In a separate pan, saute garlic until it turns brown, add in the onion and the sugar. Toss until the sugar melts. Put the pre cooked meat together with its sauce to the sauteed ingredients. Simmer for a few minutes. Then it's ready for serving!

Best served with plain rice and steamed veggies!

How about you, what's your adobo made of?

Jinky Went to Market

I'll do away from the usual cooking topic of this blog. I'll share with you, my dear readers, how far our Php100.00 can go nowadays when it comes to buying selected vegetables and spices.

Sayote/Chayote Php10.00
Carrots 13.00
Talong/Eggplant 5.00
Tanglad/lemon grass 2.00
Bawang/Garlic 15.00
Cherry tomatoes 10.00
Tomatoes/kamatis 10.00
Green chilies 7.00
Sibuyas/round onions 8.00
Red bell peppers 15.00
Onion leeks 5.00

This is quite pricey because I sourced them out from our air-conditioned supermarkets. For those with tighter budgets, above items can be bought at lower prices inside our laray/bagsakan area along Alunan Street, this city.

We just have to consider every time we go to the market, the freshness and the nutritional value of the veggies we are buying. Wilted items must be shunned upon because it won't last long and we can never be sure if it's still safe for our family's consumption.

This is a friendly reminder from a Mom who cooks and loves to do the marketing during her free time!

Dried Baby Shrimps with Cherry Tomatoes

I chanced upon these lovely fresh cherry tomatoes in one of the supermarkets here in Gensan. Got a bunch for only 10 pesos. While pondering on having fresh vegetable salad with this seldom found goodie in our supermarkets, I saw dried baby shrimps (locally known as kalkag) being displayed along the new dried fish section of another posh supermarket here in the city. I wasted no time on buying a hundred grams costing Php25 of this childhood favorite of mine. I thought of having fried rice with it for breakfast but seeing the gleaming cherry tomatoes in the fridge made me opt for sauteed dried baby shrimps with cherry tomatoes (in vernacular, kinamatisang ginisang kalkag, 'love it! :-))

Ingredients:
Olive oil
50 gram dried baby shrimps
garlic, onions and cherry tomatoes
Thai fish sauce to taste

I just sauteed the garlic, onion and tomatoes in olive oil. Then I put the dried baby shrimps which I previously soaked in cold water for around ten minutes. Covered the pan for a minute or two, seasoned it with Thai fish sauce and presto, another bloggable recipe done!

I had the pleasure of reminiscing my childhood days while savoring this simple but very tasty and affordable recipe.

I just can't wait to have my fresh vegetable salad paired with fried rice and dried baby shrimps soon. . . .Hmmmm

The Tale of the Tuna Tail in my Kitchen

I have long been wanting to cook crispy tuna tail in my kitchen but it was not materialized for a long time. It's because I don't have the following:

a pan big enough to fry whole tuna tail;
the patience to wait for the frozen tuna tail thawed; and I have
fear that I might end up cooking tuna tail that is not fresh anymore and is laden with too much preservative.

Thanks to the fish section of the Robinsons supermarket. There I discovered that they are selling fresh tuna tail at Php70.00 a kilo. It is also interesting enough to note that scaling as well as chopping the tail to your desired cuts is being offered for free by the amiable staff in the fish section. I love mine sliced an inch thick for easy frying.

I just followed my dear lola's way of frying fish. Sprinkled a bit of salt over the fish and then I drizzled the seasoned fish with a little DM vinegar. The explanation I got from her was that the mixture of salt and vinegar makes the fish smell better and the fried fish' color would turn brown faster and I hereby affirm this myth from the kitchen of my younger years.

Now, I am bent on trying other recipes for tuna tail. Thanks to Robs fish section and to my lola, cooking tuna tail now is as easy as counting 123.