Chicken Pochero

I remembered this recipe from one of the local cooking shows I used to watch on weekends back home. With just a few pieces of chicken, pochero makes perfect sense because of the different "extenders" in the dish. But I had to make a few adjustments since I didn't have any chorizo and eggplants in stock. I used vienna sausage in place of the chorizo and made the dish with a lot more sauce than usual ( my kids prefer dishes with sabaw to go with their rice). We usually serve soupy viands with the soup on the side and the meat and veggies in another plate/bowl.

Chicken Pochero

Ingredients:

Chicken cut into serving pieces
Saba (plantain) bananas sliced diagonally about 1/2 inch thick
Sweet potatoes sliced into 1/2 inch thick rounds
onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic,sliced
Carrots sliced diagonally
10-15 leaves of chinese cabbage
Vienna sausage cut in half, reserve the broth
1 /2 c. of tomato sauce
1 c. water
salt
pepper

Shallow fry the bananas, sweet potato and chicken until sides turn slightly brown. Drain in paper towels.
In a pot, saute the garlic and onions. Add the chicken, carrots, tomato sauce , broth from the vienna sausage and water. Simmer . Add the rest of the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. I usually add a pinch or two of sugar whenever I use tomato sauce or tomato paste , I think it somehow balances the acidity.

Baked Tilapia Fillet

We had this for lunch yesterday and it turned out pretty well even my kids liked it considering that they're a little picky with what they eat. When I did this dish I had the idea of cooking it the same way we made grilled bangus back home in the Philippines. The aroma of tomatoes, onion and garlic on the broiler is just so wonderful my kids often came to the kitchen asking what was I cooking and exclaiming "It's (smells) delicious mommy".

Baked Tilapia Fillet

Ingredients;

2 large tilapia fillets
2 tbsp. calamansi juice
salt
pepper
3 tomatoes sliced
1/2 onion sliced
4 cloves garlic sliced into thin slivers
1 medium knob of ginger sliced
melted butter or olive oil

Marinate fillets with calamansi juice, salt and pepper for at least 15 min. Mix tomatoes, onion, ginger and half of the garlic season with a little salt. Brush the aluminum foil with butter place half of the tomato mixture and then one fillet on top. Brush the fish with butter and sprinkle half of the remaining garlic. Wrap and seal the foil. Do the same with the other fish fillet. Bake for 15-20 min. at 375. Open the foil and bake for another 5 min. or until the garlic flakes become toasted.

KARE KARE

Kare-kare

The best short-cut in making kare-kare is to buy a good kare-kare mix.
I use mama sita's kasi mas malasa yung peanuts.

Q. Bakit ang talong sa kare-kare tumitigas?
A. Kasi may mani (?) yaikks!
Kay rey galing tong joke na to ha

Ingredients:

oxtail, tripe (twalya), pork hocks (pata) can be used
(pwede rin beef or chicken)
1 onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic,sliced
10 peppercorns
1/2 tbsp. iodized salt
1 bay leaf
kare-kare mix
peanut butter, not the sweet kind I prefer the chunky one
pechay
eggplants, cut horizontally ( 2 inch cylinders para di madaling
malusak)
sitaw, cut into 2 - 2 1/2 in length

Boil the meat in water with the onion, garlic, peppercorns, salt and
bay leaf. Make sure that the meat is totally submerged in water. Cook
until fork tender adding water as necessary.

Remove meat transfer to a dish/bowl. In the same pot boil the sitaw
for 2 min, add the eggplants and after 5-6 min. add the pechay. Turn
of stove when pechay stems are translucent.

Remove vegetables. Pour out some of the stock (you can put this in a
ziploc bag and freeze for future use ex. lugaw, sopas etc.) retaining
at least 2 cups in the pot. Dissolve 1 pouch kare-kare mix in
remaining stock in pot. Turn on heat. Stir and let boil until thick.
Add peanut butter according to taste. Put in the meat back into pot.
Simmer and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve with the cooked vegies.
Don't forget the bagoong alamang.

Lumpiang Shanghai

Lumpiang Shanghai

I did'nt really measure the ingredients for this recipe especially with the seasonings. I just try to adjust the taste by frying small portions of the lumpia mixture and then I let my tongue decide if it lacks a little more of something.
Approximately the main ingredients consist of a pound of ground pork, 1 whole carrot grated, 1 large onion chopped, 4-5 stalks of celery (preferably with leaves ) chopped and 2 eggs. The seasonings would be salt , ground black pepper, soy sauce and oyster sauce.
It's best to wrap the mixture immediately since it tends to get watery after some time because of the juices from the meat and vegetables.
Deep fry in oil at medium heat till it turns golden brown then drain in paper towels.