Oven Chuck Roast

 

Ingredients:

3.5 lbs. Beef chuck roast
seasoning (salt, pepper and Italian herbs)
5 large cloves garlic, minced
1 white onion, chopped
baby carrots
1 large Yukon potato, chopped
ground black pepper
1.5 cup beef broth
1/2 - 3/4 cup red wine, Merlot







 

 

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Season the meat with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning and let sit  - I let mine sit overnight. When ready heat skillet to seer both sides of the beef in canola or olive oil  till well caramelized and  develops a  toasted brown crust. Remove from the heat, set aside and ready the aromatic ingredients.

 

 

 

Sauté garlic and carrots with a dash of salt, stir and let cook for a few minutes then add the onions. Cover and let simmer till onions become translucent then add red wine, let alcohol evaporate then add the beef broth and bring to a boil. Let simmer for a few minutes on low-medium heat.

  

 

 

I just placed the meat in a Pyrex dish since I do not have a Dutch oven. Anyhow at this point remove the veggies from the heat and pour over the roast including the liquid.

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, when ready place meat inside and let roast for 2 hours. Add in the potatoes and continue to roast covered for another 30 minutes. This totals 2.5 hours where every 30 minutes I suggest basting the meat with the liquid. When cooking time is up, turn OFF the heat and let it sit covered with foil in the oven for half an hour.  

 

OPTIONAL: blender veggies and basting liquid to serve as gravy over the roast

 

 

 

Slice the roast thinly or however you like. Pour the liquid over the meat to retain moisture and arrange the veggies around it.  

PLATE. SERVE. ENJOY!

 

 

 

 

Quick Veggie Side Dish ~ Chunky Tomato Tuscan Kale



Only takes around 20 minutes to cook (^_^)b

Tonight I thought to have Kale prepared differently. Most people prefer this in green juice or salads but ever since I had this at work I made it a mission to decipher and deconstruct this dish. This is what I came up with --- a dish that literally has 5 ingredients, minus the water and seasoning.

Ingredients:

1 bag (10 oz.)  Kale, rinse thoroughly
2 tsp minced garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup diced tomato with basil, garlic and oregano (canned) - I used the Del Monte brand
1 Knorr chicken cube, divide in half
2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet heat oil on medium heat, sauté garlic and onions, season with salt and pepper, cover and cook till translucent. Add in the kale, increase heat to high and cook till leaves wilt down 50 %. Then add chicken cubes and water to bring to a boil. Pour in the tomatoes, let boil for a minute then lower heat to simmer for 15 minutes or till kale stalks are tender to your liking. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Plate, Serve and Enjoy!

Kitchen Confidentials - Salmon Sinigang

In most Filipino kitchens rarely would they run low on onions, garlic, tomatoes or ginger; toyo (soy sauce) and/or patis (fish sauce) - good God I think we have bags of these that would last us the whole month. Not to mention some sort of "sour soup"  (Sinigang) base powder. 

This morning I did an inventory check of the pantry and saw that I was still good with the "usual suspects", the only thing I had to do was find out from my tribe which kind of Sinigang they wanted - beef, pork or fish.

Since it's been a while this is what they requested...

The usual suspects:

1 large onion, sliced
1/2 cup sliced ginger
3 medium tomatoes, chopped into 8 piece wedges each
Tamarind soup base
patis
salt (if needed)


Accessories:


Tamarind leaves, 1 pack (1/2 lb.) 227 g
Okra, 12 pieces
Petchay, 1 bag - cleaned and trimmed of white stalk, green leafy part only
*optional: Banana pepper for spice


The Culprit:

3.5 - 4 lbs. Salmon head + cheeks

F.O.B. Fridays ~ Korean Inspired BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

It's been a while since I've done F.O.B. posts so here's a dish I prepared for my family yesterday... yup marinade and all!

Refer to my previous post for the marinade recipe:
http://cathyelpedes.blogspot.com/2014/08/korean-inspired-bbq-marinade.html

Ingredients:

2.5 lbs chicken drumsticks
BBQ marinade

• pour bbq marinade in aluminum tray and arrange chicken pieces in it, allow to sit at least 4 hours. For more flavor and best results let marinate overnight.

 
 
• preheat oven to 375° then when ready place the chicken in the oven and let cook for 50 minutes.
• set a separate timer to go off after the first 25 minutes and baste the chicken pieces with its own juice and some of the marinade.
• continue to cook for the remainder of the time.
• when time is up, turn off the oven, remove the chicken and place on counter top covered with a sheet of aluminum foil to tent for 10-15 minutes. 

Cover with foil for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Plate, serve... Enjoy!! 

Pork Nilaga

This dish is near and dear to me as it was the first I've ever cooked without my mom's guidance or her telling me what to do next. In my sophomore year in college I dared to cook this for my housemates and I'm pretty sure it wasn't as awesome at the time, but since then and several pots later... this is how I cook pork Nilaga for my family now ---

Ingredients:
5 garlic cloves
1 medium onion, cut into quarters
1 pork cube
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp whole pepper corn
1/4 cup patis (fish sauce)
2 tsp sugar
2 yellow potatoes, cut into quarters
1 pack (approx. 2.75 lbs) pork shoulder country style ribs
1 small cabbage head, roughly chopped
10 cups water, for soup

 

Load pork into an 8 Quart pot or any large pot you have, cover in water, set heat on high and bring to a boil.

When it starts to boil, the fat and protein will surface to the top, skim off as much as you can and toss. Adjust heat to low, add in the garlic, onion, whole pepper corn, pork cube and patis. Cover and let this simmer for about 35 minutes or till meat is tender.

Then add the chopped potatoes, bump up the heat to medium-low, add salt and sugar, let boil and simmer for 8-10 minutes slightly covered.

Turn off the heat, add in the cabbage, mix well and set aside from heat.

one of my "go to" comfort meals rain or shine!

Spicy Sesame Broccolini

Here's another quick and simple veggie dish I prepared today for dinner, I'm so glad I actually had the time to film it to show you how this was made step by step. 

Ingredients:
2 packs broccolini or sweet broccoli
2.5-3 tbsp Oyster sauce
1 tsbp Hoisin sauce
3/4 tbsp sesame seed oil
1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
toasted sesame seeds
2 tbsp hot water

2 packs broccolini

sauce mix

Watch and learn...

Oven Lechon: Chicken Leg Quarters

Hey everyone! It's been really hot the past week here in the Bay and although salads and light dishes seem more appropriate, I got the sudden urge to brine chicken quarters and roast it in the oven for some homemade lechon. I originally got this brine recipe from my sister but tweaked it a bit for my own personal touch :)

chicken leg quarters

Here's what I used:

1 whole garlic head or 8-10 cloves with the top end(s) slice off

1 large onion chopped in half

1 full carton (2 lbs or 907g) chicken broth

2-3 cups water

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp Kosher salt

1/3 sugar

1 tsp whole pepper corn

1 family pack chicken leg quarters 5 pieces (approx. 5 lbs) - Asian grocers sell this chopped and with slits for BBQ marinating but we're using this instead of the whole hen. The slits help make the chicken absorb more flavor faster. 

Combine all ingredients in a pot, on high heat bring this to a boil then turn off and remove from the burner, let cool. Clean the chicken quarters rinsing them a few times and place in big glass mixing bowl. When brine has cooled down and is warm enough to touch, pour this over the chicken pieces covering everything. You may want to flip and dunk the pieces every once in a while. If this is something you are making for dinner, prepare this in the morning for the best flavor. Most of the time I brine chicken overnight but for this portion, it has been soaking for about 6 hours.

chicken brine

When ready line a baking or cookie tray with aluminum foil, spray some Pam and place the chicken quarters. Preheat oven to 370 degrees. Load the tray in and let roast for 45 minutes. Check every 10-15 minutes and baste with it's own juices when you see it accumulate along the sides of the tray. Then lower the heat to 350 degrees and continue for another 10-12 minutes, do not open the oven anymore. When done, turn off heat, remove the chicken from the oven, place on table or counter-top covering with foil allowing to rest for 10 minutes.

Plate, serve and Enjoy!!

F.O.B. Fridays ~ Split Mung Bean Soup

When I was a kid I never did like "munggo" (mung bean soup), I always thought it was yucky, grainy, looked weird and murky. I realized that my first experience eating this dish wasn't pleasant so all my bad thoughts stuck with me till a couple years later. I ate this again (can't remember where) and was surprised that it actually tasted good.... really good! I took a good look at the soup and at the same time each spoonful I put in my mouth I tried to get a sense of the difference. Then it hit me! This was smoother in texture because there was less skins on the beans and floating in the soup.

{note to self}

That gave me the idea to cook this for my family now with the attempt to remove the skins. But one day while I was at an Asian grocery store walking down an aisle, I spotted on the shelf a packet of yellow mung beans. At first I thought it was a different type of mung bean altogether but it was the same bean just skinless and split into halves (happy dance). Since then I've been using this type of packaged mung beans when cooking this soup.

Here are the ingredients:
1.5 cup split Mung beans
1 3/4 lbs. pork belly
1.5 tsp minced garlic
1 medium onion, diced
2 medium tomatoes,  sliced into wedges (8 per tonato)
1 sweet pepper or banana pepper
1 pack (0.5 lb) frozen pepper leaves, thawed
Kosher salt
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup Patis (fish sauce)

1 tsp sugar

ground black pepper to taste

*optional: malunggay (horseradish) leaves are an alternative leafy greens for this soup dish.

PREP & PRECOOK BEANS:
Soak the mung beans for at least 1 hour. Rinse and boil in 3 cups water in a small pot, simmer on low for 10-12 minutes or until beans are cooked. Water will have reduced to the volume of the beans and will appear almost mushy. Turn off heat and add 1 tsp salt, mix well and set aside. 

PREP AND PRECOOK PORK BELLY:
Cut pork into half inch (or one inch if you prefer) pieces. Saute with 1 tbsp canola oil in a deep sauce pan on med-hi heat, season with 1 tsp salt, stirring occasionally while meat is still pink or pale in color. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes. Then adjust heat to low and cook till a golden brown color, stirring frequently. Spoon out about half of the rendered fat or oil and proceed to sauté the rest of the ingredients.

BEFORE (stir occasionally)

AFTER

 

F.O.B. Fridays ~ Beef Bulalo

I started something new some time ago on my Instagram account, as my schedule permits, Fridays I feature "Fresh Off the Burner" {hence F.O.B. not fresh off the boat okay LOL} dishes I just cook, it is real time food served and photographed as soon as it's cooked! Unfortunately I haven't posted the previous dishes on my blog so this is the first. Hope ya'll LIKE!

Ingredients:

1 pack beef shank (approx. 3 lbs)

half  medium onion

8-10 garlic cloves, slice 5 pieces into halves

1/4 cup fish sauce (patis) I used the Vietnamese brand  Nuoc Mam Nhi Phu Quoc "Flying Lion"

1 tsp pimienta negra entera

1 tsp Kosher salt

1 beef cube
 *optional - veggies of choice. I used baby bok choy and chopped green onions to top.

• in a 5 qt. pot place beef shank in, cover with water and bring to a boil on high heat, then simmer for 30 minutes. This helps eliminate the grayish protein that floats to the top. Skim this. When done, remove & rinse meat and the pot, then redo this process.
• filling the pot again with water covering the meat and bringing to a boil on high heat. Once it starts boiling, lower heat to low or low-med (depending on your stove top), place in the onion, garlic cloves, beef cubes, patis, whole pepper corn and salt. Continue to simmer for 2.5 - 30 hours. You can fish out the garlic cloves if you prefer towards the second hour, otherwise just keep it in the broth. The onion prevents the soup from getting murky after prolong boiling.
• add in your vegetables, garnish, serve and Enjoy! 

Seasoning... forgot to include the Kosher salt and ground black pepper

Simple, Easy and Delicious!

Pan Fried Pork Chops with Sautéed Asparagus

This dish is all about the plating and I got my inspiration from a seafood dish I had at Sir Francis Drake in San Francisco during my husband's company late Christmas party back in January. The dish I had was a piece of salmon steak atop some mashed potatoes and asparagus with some kind of tomato reduction sauce.

Here's what I did to achieve this plate of savory perfection:

Sautéed Asparagus

Here's an easy and simple veggie dish anyone can make. You can dine on this alone or as a side to another entrée like poultry or seafood.

Ingredients:

bundle of asparagus

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp Canola oil

1 cup whole grape tomatoes,  rinse and slice into halves

juice from a lemon

1/2 chicken cube

Salt and pepper to taste

• after you've cleaned and trimmed the ends of the asparagus, in a saucepan filled half way  blanch in boiling water that has been seasoned with salt and half chicken cube for 3 minutes.

• transfer into a bowl filled with ice water to stop the cooking process.

• using the same saucepan, clean and set back on heat to melt the butter then add the canola oil. Sautée garlic till lightly brown, add tomatoes, asparagus and lemon juice. 

• sprinkle with a pinch of salt and stir gently with rubber spatula, cook for a couple minutes but not till tomatoes wilt. 

• plate, season with pepper & parsley, serve and Enjoy!

Savory Filipino-style Pasta Sauce

Meaty pasta sauce with an Asian twist.

You hungry yet?

 

     Yeheyyy! It's a weekend of no work and that means preparing food that will last a couple days for my family. This is such a simple yet popular dish that in my culture is a must have and is always present at gatherings, parties most especially at birthdays or fiestas. Most Filipinos put slices of "red" hotdogs as the meat for this sauce but I prefer to stick to the usual meatballs and/or Italian sausage meat, and always try to find ways to fuse or incorporate a Filipino twist in popular dishes from other countries. This is my version of the typical pasta sauce marrying it with elements of our Filipino spaghetti sauce. It's sweet, it's savory... it's really good!

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 large onion, diced

66 oz (4lb 2oz) Ragu Traditional pasta sauce

12 oz Jufran Banana Sauce (banana ketchup)

1 lb Johnsonville Mild Italian sausage meat

1 bag (1 lb 10oz) Rosina Meatballs Italian style, fully cooked

1/4 c fish sauce

1tsp Kosher salt

1 tbsp sugar

pepper to taste

*Note -  the salt plus fish sauce may seem intimidating especially because it's a double dose, but I promise once you top or mix this with your pasta of choice the saltiness will tone down and you will just love the sweet-savory taste of this dish as a whole!

Let's cook...

How to cook Fried Rice using leftovers

Sometimes you run out of ideas for a meal or have some leftovers you would want to recycle in your next dish... but what?

How about making FRIED RICE!

I put this video up last year and want to share how I recycle day old food or leftovers in general into a dish that can stand alone or be served with another to complete a full meal!

Ingredients:

Garlic
Eggs
Crab meat
Beef (leftovers)
Frozen vegetables (peas and carrots)
Leftover refrigerated steam rice (mashed)
Soy sauce or Oyster sauce
Salt
Pepper
Chopped green onions
Fried garlic flakes
Sesame seeds

Lengua / Beef Tongue with Savory Mushroom sauce

OMG this is a dish I almost always make for parties or potluck and is such a hit with my friends! I always get asked "what's your recipe Cat?" ... so here it is ---

 This dish is close to my heart because my dad taught me how to cook this! Here is what I used in putting this dish together...

Kare Kare / Oxtail & Pork Spare Ribs in Peanutbutter Stew

This is a dish I could never grow tired of and here I combined both meats - beef and pork for that extra special taste for my family!

Just remember to cook the oxtail ahead of time till tender via a pressure cooker or if you're like me, I simmered the meat over low heat for 2-3 hrs to retain it's natural flavor. Also steam of cook slightly the vegetables for less time consumption at the stove top.

This is Capampangan cooking at home.

Ingredients:
pack of beef oxtail
pack of pork spareribs
canola cooking oil
garlic
onion
fish sauce
water
beef cubes
sugar
ground Annatto, diluted in water
Veggies: eggplant, bak choy sum, baby bak choy, green beans
stock, made from boiling the oxtail and ribs a second time
Bagoong (shrimp paste)

Corn in Sweet Rice / Ginataang Mais

This is a sweet treat that brings back memories of "mirienda" (snack or desserts) being sold by walking vendors who prepare and cook them at home and make a living by selling them on the streets, walking throughout villages and rural neighborhoods. This is Filipino comfort food at its simplest!

Preparing this with all natural ingredients is such as freshly made coconut milk/cream and corn preserves its authenticity but since living in an "instant" world where nearly everything is readily prepared, I opted to share a quick and easy version of making Ginataang Mais! 

Ingredients:
1 cup sweet rice
1 can coconut milk
1/2 can coconut cream
1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar
1 can sweet corn cream style

Pork Giniling / Torta

This is such a quick and easy dish to prepare and can literally be served in various ways - with rice, with flat leaf or red leaf lettuce as a wrap for a more healthier food option, also can be wrapped with a warm tortilla as a kind of breakfast burrito, can be filling in an omelet or scrambled eggs in your huevos rancheros.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. ground pork
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup calamansi
1/2 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
1 tbsp patis (fish sauce)
1 pork cube
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water
1.5 cup frozen veggies - peas and carrots (more if you prefer)
2 cups frozen diced potatoes


Note: precook ground pork seasoned with salt and pepper, to render fat and discard this.

Sinigang

Hello! I've decided to take a step into the blogger world seriously and I will do my best in updating this routinely as my work schedule permits. I will be linking videos here and there of what I have been up to and would like to share because I think visuals are important and add a little variation to the monotony of reading. I am a foodie at heart and if given the choice to choose between working full-time or part-time, I would pick part-time and utilize the rest of my day cooking and just trying out other recipes where I could incorporate into the Filipino palate creating a fusion dish but prepared and made at home! I really would like to change up or liven up dishes for my family so not to dine out too frequent which is why whenever me and my family do go out to eat, I really savor the flavors of the food and start thinking of ways to marry this with Filipino food.

 

 

 

But going back to simple and basic dishes, this is one of my faves and could be made pretty much with anything like beef, chicken, fish and shrimp.


Here are the ingredients I used for this Pork Sinigang dish:

2 lbs pork side with bone
8-10 cups water (for soup)
1 medium onion, sliced
1 large tomato, sliced
1 banana pepper
1/2 cup fish sauce
1 tsp kosher salt
packet of Knorr tamarind soup mix
1 Knorr chicken cube
Veggies: bundle of bok choy sum and green beans