Hans Beef Dinuguan

Another dish that our guest enjoyed during Hans birthday celebration was Beef dinuguan. Dinuguan is a Filipino rich stew of beef or pork with blood. To some people this is an alarming dish as it uses animal blood. It is a bit similar to Europeans blood sausage or the British black pudding in saucy stew form. But the most closest to its appearance was ancient Spartans "mezzos somos" which is pork or buffalo meat cooked in vinegar and pork blood.

Filipinos love to pair this dish with steamed rice cake or commonly known as "puto". We use the meat on the face of the beef and the meat and fats lining its neck and the hear itself. Others uses intestines and kidneys but we prefer the face, neck and the heart. Most of our guest has requested for a take out of that dish along with Puto Pandan and Puto ube. Good thing we cooked 5 kilos of beef meat for that dish. So here is our way of making that bloody stew.

Ingredients: (for 1 kilo beef)
1 kilo beef (chuck or brisket with its heart)
1 1/2 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
3 pcs. green chili (siling panigang)
5 pcs red chili (chopped)
2 medium onion bulb
1 whole garlic heart
3 cups beef or pork blood
water used in boiling the beef (broth)

Procedure:

Boil the beef until tender and set it aside until the meat is cool enough to handle. Keep the beef broth for later use. sliced the meat into bite sized cubes or at least half inch each. Put the meat in a pot and pour in the vinegar and cover it, let it boil for 15 minutes in medium heat without stirring until the natural juices of the meat mixes with the vinegar. Put in the onion, garlic, red chili, salt and pepper and stir. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes. Pour in the beef broth and let it boil again. Mix the blood and slowly stir them in. Make sure that before you put the blood, there are no big lumps of blood in it. You can remove that by squeezing all the big lumps and loosen them up. let it simmer for another 5 minutes and add the green chili.

Serve hot with rice or best with puto. My mom's Dinuguan is always a runaway winner whenever we have occasions in our house. It is also one of the best seller in our Carinderia. No wonder many of our guest has requested for a take out of that dish and I can bet my two eggs that its without a doubt the best if not one of the best Dinuguan there is.

Hans Corn Dog.

As I have shared on my previous blog about my youngest birthday celebration, I'm posting some of the dishes we made for him. First is the corn dog. some would ask "why corn dog?" commonly on a kiddie party is a cabbage stuffed with hot dog on a stick with marshmallows on its tip. I choose to skip that and make corn dog instead. As simple as it look but its one of the early finishers among our dish. All that is left was the aluminum foil covered cabbage. So here is my simple recipe.

Ingredients: (for a half kilo pack of hot dogs)

1/2 kilo. hot dogs
1 cup fresh milk
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
a dash of salt and pepper
barbecue sticks
cooking oil for deep frying
1/2 melted butter (optional)

Procedure:

In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients then slowly add the wet ingredients such as milk, egg and melted butter. Mix them well until you get that smooth and lump free mixture. Make sure that the batter is not too watery or too stiff, otherwise adjust it by adding flour if it is too watery or milk if it is a bit dry or stiff. Then place inside the refrigerator for at least 15 to 20 minutes before using. While the batter is in the ref. I suggest that you steam the hot dogs and put them on the barbecue sticks. Why do we have to steam the hot dogs? when deep frying batter coated hot dogs, the coating get to cook so quickly and turns brown while the hot dog inside it stays a bit raw. Its just a matter of seconds as you dip the hot dog on the heated oil and the batter cooks instantly. We do not want a dark looking corn dogs as it affects the taste.

Placing the batter inside the refrigerator makes it more fluffy and coats evenly on the hot dogs. Just like having to coat a shrimp tempura where the batter is usually cold out from the fridge. As soon as you have coated the hot dog quickly dip it on to the heated oil and carefully draw it out as soon as the color turns golden brown and not dark brown. Let the excess oil drip into a paper napkin then serve immediately.

I enjoyed watching the kids get their hands full of those corn dogs, some of them took three sticks and still comes back for another. Good thing I cooked 2 kilos of it. Next is "Beef Dinuguan" so better wait for that post.

My son's first birthday

My youngest kid, Hans Zander celebrate his first birthday last Nov. 15. We celebrated it by staying the whole day at a hotel and bringing the kids at the mall where they played and dine to their hearts desire. The next morning we all ate at the hotel's breakfast buffet room. The whole day was filled with laughter and good food. In that 24 hours, I saw the smiles, the laughter, the excitement and amazement on my kids eyes. I saw how happy my wife was and everything that we planned before all came true.

After two weeks, we again celebrated Hans first birthday by preparing some real home cooked good food along with some kids and a few of our friends and relatives, this time at my mother's house. We had clowns, some prizes for the kids, some loot bags, a great cake, balloons and all the works to make that day extra special. Two separate days of celebrating my sons first birthday, one with a more private and personal touch, the other one in a more festive mood. On those occasions, one we never forgot to do is to thank God almighty for all the blessings He gave us for the whole year, all the hardships we encounter so that we may live stronger in faith and have contentment on the things that we have and share some of them to those whom we think needed the most.

Life has been good to us, and I know it will always be better as long as we have the faith, the attitude, the hope and the love for each other as a family.

On this note I would like to share some of the food we made for that celebration. I made corn dogs, sweet chicken wings, spaghetti, sauteed sotanghon, beef dinuguan, beef with broccoli, two large bilaos of puto pandan and puto ube. We also have maja mais, buko lychee, and fresh lumpiang ubod. A five gallon apple iced tea and some litters of beer.
The next post will be some of the ingredients and procedures on how we cooked those that I mentioned.

Pinoy Favorite Meriendas

Yesterday after posting my Chicken Sinampalukan recipe, My cousin who now lives in Japan, requested for an Okoy recipe which according to her every time she attempts doing it, the crust is as hard as a stone. The reason  for that is due excessive use of baking powder. Baking powder in large amount causes that hard crusty surface.

By the way to those who do not know what "Okoy" is, it is a Pinoy native merienda that is usually made up of bean sprouts (Toge), flour, water, baking powder, and some food coloring, deep fried in a very hot oil. Fresh shrimps can be use as toppings or slices of tofu. Anchovies can also be use or some cook slices of meat. So here are the basic ingredients of an Okoy.

Ingredients:

Toge (bean sprouts) - 1 kilo can yield up to 12 regular size okoy
Flour - 2 - 3 cups
Baking powder - 1 small sachet or at least 1 teaspoonful
Water
Oil - for deep frying
Food coloring - 1 small sachet or half a teaspoon color orange or yellow
Salt and pepper
Fresh shrimp or sliced tofu for toppings

Sauce:
White Vinegar -
Soy Sauce
Onion - sliced
Green chili - sliced
Sugar
pepper

Procedure:
Mix flour with water, baking powder, food coloring, salt and pepper (just a dash to taste). Be sure that the consistency of the mixture is not to watery but not too dry. You can gauge it by dipping a spoon and the batter must have that elasticity on it. Otherwise you can add water or flour little by little until you get that smooth consistency. Pour in the Toge and mix them well make sure everything is coated with the mixture.

Scoop the mixture in a small saucer and top it with tofu or small shrimps. Make sure to cover your toppings with small amount of the mixture to prevent them from falling off. Deep fry them by letting the mixture slide off the saucer to retain its circular shape. Get the Okoy out of the oil as soon as it turns golden brown and floated above the oil. Drain on paper towels to remove excess oil.

For the sauce:
In a small pot, pour in vinegar, onions, chili, sugar, soy sauce and pepper and let it boil WITHOUT stirring them. Adjust the taste as you may like it.

Note: Grated squash or grated green papaya can also be use as replacement for bean sprout specially if you are suffering from arthritis. Enjoy...