With the addition of my stepson W to our family, there are definitely new challenges in the kitchen. Though I don’t need to dramatically change my cooking regime, there are times when I restrain myself from cooking too unconventional as … Continue reading Chicken Lollipops
Working the weekends for almost two decades made me unaware of how a real weekend felt like. Now that I just passed a major personal turning point in my life, and my short-lived marriage has been finally adjudged, it was … Continue reading Arriba! Arriba!
I remember reading somewhere that all you have to do is cook it the way you cook your steak… Continue reading Pan-fried Duck Legs and Honey-Mint Sauce
I have always loved sweet and spicy Korean-style fried chicken. Aerang said Korean soy sauce is the key… Continue reading Korean-Style Fried Chicken Wings
… combining them together would make a fantastic dish that could complement creamy Fettuccine. So right. It was such a big hit… Continue reading Garlicky Lemon-Parsley Chicken
The moment it landed on the table I know I have a hit. And yup, part of my experiments on non-Pinoy spices. This one with thyme […] Continue reading Food Friday: Baked Honey-Lemon Chicken
I hosted a simple dinner with new friends about a month ago and roasted 3 whole chickens. Potluck kami… so I ended up with massive left-overs. Don’t wanna be eating the same dish for days so I thought about paksiw na lechong manok. Perfect! Problem is… I don’t have Mang Tomas lechon sauce. Having no time to buy, I googled “how to make lechon sauce” and ended up reading Marketman’s recipe. Lechon sauce from scratch – fabulous!
I first tried his recipe; replacing cider vinegar with standard mukhasim vinegar and Reno liver spread with a packet of liver pate. Instant sawsawan for fried pork chops. Nice, YUM and chunky. Ubos agad. And so the next day, I decided to use the same recipe but go straight to paksiw na lechong manok.
Continue reading “Roast Chicken Stew (with Home-made Lechon Sauce!)”
Just wanna share this Kai Yang chicken dish I prepared few months ago back in Beijing. Oh this one is easy. I used a little help from a packet of Thai instant marinade mixture. The packet says it has soybean oil, sugar, garlic, soy sauce, salt, lemongrass, coriander, pepper, tumeric, so if we don’t have it maybe we can just buy these ingredients and come up with something pretty similar. Grilled or deep-fried.
I love Thai food (and anything Southeast-Asian) and that is a fact. It all started when I fell in love with authentic Tom Yam soup and Mango Fish served home-style in a restaurant managed and operated by our company’s Thai staff back in Brunei. Its distinct taste is just something we crave that we regularly frequent a small but cozy Thai restaurant in Yong An Li. Though there are few recipes I bookmarked for quite sometime now but have yet to recreate, particularly from Eet Smakelijk!, this is the first time I had the time (and the heart) to try. I happened to find a packet of Thai Green Curry Paste a week ago with a recipe attached that is surprisingly easy. Of course, I didn’t follow it exactly as written; made a few alterations on the how-to and voila! My first time to cook Thai! I’d say the result’s a success what with the added Thai spice in our lives for lunch.
What dish would you prepare in a busy day when you find out you only have chicken wings inside your refrigerator? Ah… one can think of a lot of things I would say. Oh well, I also found two pieces of potatoes, the usual spices and curry powder. Tada! A simple curried chicken dish. Yeah yeah, no coconut milk and other things so I refuse to call it chicken curry… but it’s finger-lickin’ good! 
Angelo of Eat Matters decided to tackle egg as an ingredient for the 17th round of Lasang Pinoy. Oh I thought about omelets right away but then, nilagang itlog has always been my favorite. Be it plain hard-boiled eggs as snack or breakfast just like what nourishes a poor Chinese laborer in construction sites here in Beijing, or toppings to a hearty chicken noodle soup. And so I present to you… chicken and marbleized quail eggs adobo.
A lot of things had been said about adobo – the national dish, soul food, the non-Pinoy’s favorite Pinoy food. There are also so many ways to cook adobo and for quite sometime I have always wanted it soupy but nowadays… mean and dark it is, just as I remember it as a kid.
Continue reading “Lasang Pinoy 17: Chicken & Marbleized Quail Eggs Adobo”
Is it too dark to look scrumptious? That is how I remember Mom’s adobo as a young child – mean and dark. Surprisingly, A loves it this way, too. So join me and delve into the dark side of adobo. … Continue reading Chicken Adobo
We had a wonderful weekend getaway staying at this resort hotel we designed years ago – a much-needed rest from the pressures of work I didn’t even plug my internet cable to check my emails. (Advance Happy Valentines Day to you, too!) Just a teeny bit of work… design consultation yeah yeah yeah but that’s it. The rest is simply wonderful especially when everything is free. Haha! The hotel suite, the spa, the pool and oh the food! I just got shy I couldn’t bring myself to take photos but I can still remember the escargots!
So much for that. Here’s my sinigang na manok (chicken in sour soup) using lemon (again!) as souring agent. I admit I never thought chicken could be used for sinigang until I’ve read about it in the net. Karen and Connie, many thanks. Never did I see sinampalukang manok as sinigang, poor me. Anyhoo, it’s actually my first time to cook it this way – chicken, aubergine, taro sans the tamarind. Oh well, sinigang simply rocks!
Yeah baby! I’m back (hope for good). My net issues seem to be gone for good and also managed to bloghop for a while and bookmarked few recipes that I would love to try. Here’s one from Stef (check out the original recipe) but instead of the good ole baking oven, I used the microwave.
Since we lived far away from relatives, most of our Noche Buena feasts were spent at home with few family friends dropping by after dinner and Christmas day itself was almost always a private gathering. As a child I remember there were only few houses in our neighborhood and the closest would bring over a bowlful of fruit salad and my mom in return would give a tray of bihon guisado (fried noodles). Everyone loves food and at Christmastime giving something homemade means so much more. But much like my online friend and blog contributor Erwin, I have fond memories of lechong manok at pritong manok (grilled and fried chicken).
Lechong manok became very popular during my late teens and just in time when our family reunions during the Christmas holidays became a tradition. This annual get-together event has now evolved into a potluck party and kicks off just before the season ends. Though my dad prefers bringing the ever-easy hamonado (fatty pork cooked with pineapple chunks and spices, photo shown below) and my titas usually request for my sister to bring fresh mussels for grilling or baking (not to mention my craving for original chunky buko pie that only dad knows where to get), time and availability is a hindrance and the smell of grilled chicken along the highway always offer the obvious solution sans the creativity of a beautiful tin or basket.
But as a child, fried chicken was the epitome of all holy and great and festive in my young mind that I wasn’t the least interested in the other sumptuous dishes however fabulous and tedious the preparation may be. I could devour more than half a chicken – huge enough for the thin kid I was – brown and juicy with delectable crisp skin. I’d be in a corner eating with much gusto, without rice or any side dish but a bottle of ice-cold Coke and the adults won’t hear a thing. Antonio (Cean prefers that name now) is very much like the 5-year old that I was. He’d check out everything served on the table and choose only one that he likes and I can guarantee it would be fried chicken with plain rice over anything else. I just have to make sure there is a bottle of ketchup next to him. By the time the party’s over, his godparents/grandparents already knew what to put together for him – a take-home package of his favorite food that would be thoroughly enjoyed and devoured before the day is out.