A Piece of Fish Steak

I chanced upon the other day sliced fresh Malasugue fish at KCC supermarket. Bought a kilo composed of 5 neatly sliced glowing in freshness of this white meat fish.

The first two slices ended up as tinola for our dinner that night. What remained was cooked Pinoy Bistek style for our lunch this sunny Saturday noon.

Ingredients:
fish
calamansi, pepper, garlic, patis
onions
oil (vegetable and olive)

I marinated for an hour the fish in calamansi, pepper, garlic and of course, Thai fish sauce (patis). I then fried the marinated fish in vegetable oil. Kids love our fried stuff well done so the fish was just taken out of the pan when it had this golden brown color.

Serving as toppings of our fish steak are onion rings stir fried in olive oil. You could smell the aroma of the onion once its done and it's sweet and spicy taste blends well with our tasty fried fish.

Best served with newly cooked white rice!

Crave for Steamed Fresh Crabs

A very good friend from Kalamansig supplies me with fresh crabs and prawns. If I'm not in the mood for cooking (although once in a blue moon), this is what I do with my crabs!

The easiest way to cook crustaceans, by steaming!

missing feet and claws courtesy of my little kittens in the kitchen (oh how they love it!)

This is so easy to prepare. you just need
water
vinegar
salt and pepper( or whatever seasoning you want)
a large boiling pot and of course,
fresh crabs

Over mixed vinegar and water and topped with sprinkled seasonings, steam the crabs for 20 - 25 minutes and voila! Bright red, tasty crabs ready to be served right before your eyes...

Happy eating!

My Fresh Basil Pasta Gift

It was the birthday of my niece yesterday. I gifted her a bilao of one of my kitchen masterpieces when it comes to pasta cooking.

Early morning yesterday saw me picking fresh basil leaves from my sister's garden. Picked a handful of it and early in the afternoon it served as one of the basic ingredients of a recipe I love most. Armed with my mortar and pestle, I made my own simple pesto made out of fresh basil, garlic, pepper, some local nuts and of course, olive oil. After pounding, I have a cupful of the aromatic basil leaves ready for mixing with my pasta sauce.

My pasta sauce is made up of the following ingredients:

garlic and onions sliced into small bits
fresh chicken meat sans skin and bones (sourced out from Robinsons Supermarket)
fresh milk
cream of mushroom
pepper
olive oil
Thai fish sauce (again from Rob, one thing I found out, a liter costs only Php59 pesos
compared to the 200 ml bottle priced at 27 :-) )
(good for me because I don't use rock salt in my cooking )
fresh basil leaves /pesto

I usually do this recipe with seafoods but knowing there will be lots of young people in the party I settled for pure chicken meat and surprisingly, it tasted better!

I cooked the sauce the way I normally do with any spaghetti sauces. We just have to remember that the meat must be well done as well as the liquid ingredients. Last to be added on the sauce is the pesto/fresh basil to retain the aroma and its distinctive taste.

This is best served with toasted garlic bread, smile and love!

Jinky's Spaghetti

I love my spaghetti with lots of spices!

Ingredients:
450 gram pack spaghetti
Del Monte Tomato Sauce and Catsup
olive oil
beef
garlic, onions, bell pepper and fresh tomatoes
pepper
Thai fish sauce
cheese
sugar (optional)

Cook the pasta according to directions written on the pack. Salt and cooking oil are a must while boiling your pasta.

As I boil the pasta, I also concoct my sauce at the same time. I saute in the olive oil garlic, onions, bell pepper and tomatoes (sun ripened). Pre-cooked ground beef is then added. I let it simmer for a few minutes. My seasonings when making the sauce are just Thai fish sauce and pepper. I don't put salt and MSG at all. I sometime add in a little sugar when my kids crave for sweet spaghetti. After I put the tomato sauce and ketchup, I just let it cook for a few minutes. After making sure that it's done, I then mix it with the fully cooked and drained pasta. Presto! we now have a spaghetti oozing with the aroma and crunchiness of different spices. Top this then with cheese. Me and my kids love our cheese chunky, that's why we prefer it sliced than grated.

Jinky's Belated Birthday Bash

I just turned __3 last August 25. To thank our Lord for having gone this far, hubby and I decided to prepare something for our dear friends and loved ones. Dear blogger friends also brought something to share that's why we had overflowing food and drinks.

Food we feasted on were:

Lechon (cooked to perfection by Pollo Porco)
Crabs
Shrimps
Fish Kinilaw
Sinugbang Panga
Sotanghon Guisado
Mixed Seafoods
Baked Macaroni
Pasta
Thai Rice
Fruit Salad
Fresh Fruits

For making this day such a blast, I would like to thank Sir Gilbert Tan, Orman & Avel Manansala with Marzz, Arnel & Rose Lim, Gay, Ric and Sheng, Xyril, Alexis, Junith, Bryan, Ipe, Jouis, Lovely, Ethel, my brother Alan and sister Alpha, Alvin, Emy, and to my ever supportive hubby Arnel and kids!

Also, to all of you who remembered and took time out to greet me on my special day, daghang salamat! You rock, people!

Thank you, guys! :-)

Tiramisu So Sweet

Our home is full of tiramisu lovers. The reason why we're so sweet (he he he!). This is a dessert anyone can concoct anytime, anywhere. Owing to its simple and easy to find ingredients.

This is my version of this classic dessert. . .

Ingredients:

Choco Grahams
Cream
Milk
Chocolate syrup

I love doing this piece because I usually do it with my kids around. Presently, they can do it on their own without me supervising them. We just mix in a big bowl the cream, condensed milk and chocolate syrup. We then put this mixture in between layers of grahams biscuits in a tray. We all love our tiramisu in thick layers to balance the sweetness. As shown on the picture above, a tiramisu that is chocolatey but not too sweet! This is best served chilled not frozen.

Recently, an australian friend of mine made her own version of tiramisu for my sister's birthday. Here it is!

In lieu of almond nuts, she used our local sweetened and sugary peanuts. Quite pricey because she also used cream cheese and espresso for the filling. But it's worth it because it really tasted heavenly! She replaced grahams biscuits with a chiffon cake she baked personally. This is the tiramisu made with the best effort and competency while mine is made out of love and patience.

How about you, guys, what's your tiramisu made of?

Now It's Biko

Here's one of those recipes my lola taught me when I was still young. It's one of the delicacies being handed by our family from generation to generation. It normal to find this fare on the table during fiestas, birthdays, reunions, weddings, etc. and even on times wherein we should be fasting :-)

Olaer Resort, where I grew up under the care of my grandmother, used to be filled with fruit bearing coconut trees. Cooking with gata was not a problem then. You just have to do a little strolling under those coconut trees and presto, one, two or more coco fruits await you there. Armed with our old "kaguran", making gata for biko comes over easy.

For every kilo of malagkit, we use three pieces coconuts and 1/2 o 3/4 kilo muscovado sugar. We used to cook this using wooden fire. Cooking time usually lasts for 2 to three hours. This is often served as snack or dessert.

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