A celebration of life

Today, 13th of July, I've turned 37 and I'm wearing it proudly like a badge. We made the celebration a day earlier to accommodate those who have work and school on a Monday. Its just a small and simple celebration in fact its just my family, my parents and siblings, my mother in law and my bayaw with his family and a few pamangkin. Their presence made my birthday complete.

As I have mentioned in my previous blog about our plans for this day. Well it didn't turn out the way we wanted it last Saturday. Instead we just went out for a grocery and some happy meals for the kids.

The following day which is a Sunday, I woke up early and proceeded to Balintawak Market tagging along our new house help. I bought a weeks meal menu list. The pata I used was pre ordered a few days ago from my Kuya so that I could enjoy a huge discount on it. Eventually, my kuya gave me two large whole fresh tuna. He said its his gift for my birthday. Each tuna weighs about 2 kilos. So I was really thinking what to do with it.

At around 10:00 am after an hour and a half at the market, I hurriedly cook my pata and clean the tuna I got from my kuya. Still pondering on what to do with it. Should I cook it with coconut cream?, steam it with fresh herbs?, grill it?, or simply make a ceviche out of it. Ceviche is the Latin American version of our "Kilawin". Some say the name Ceviche was coined from the Spanish word "Escabeche" which means to marinate or from the word Cebo, a name given to corvina fish commonly used in Panama or Peru as main ingredient for their Ceviche.

I was really bent on going for a Ceviche but on the other hand I'm also thinking of our kids and a my nephew and my niece. They should also enjoy a fish recipe that a Ceviche may not be appropriate for them because of its sourness and spiciness. Finally I decided to grill it. What better way of grilling it is to marinate it with soy sauce, white wine, some ginger and garlic, a dash of pepper and sugar, and finely chopped chili's.

I sliced both Tuna and make medallions out of it. I placed them all on a bowl and pour my mixture and let it marinade for 3 hours inside the ref. Also I prepared a sour cream dip for an added tangy taste. Listed are my ingredients for the Tuna Recipe.

2 fresh whole tuna (1.5 to 2 kilos each) cut into half inch thick slices.

1 cup of soy sauce

1 cup of white wine (Chinese cooking wine or rice wine will do)

Dry sweet Sheree wine can also be use

5 cloves of crushed garlic

2 red chili chopped finely

Sugar (add according to desired sweetness)

pepper

Preparation:

After slicing the tuna into half inch thick. Place them in a shallow bowl and pour in the marinade mixture. Let it stay inside a refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours. make sure to turn each slices a few times to evenly distribute the marinade. Grill them until a bit brown. Do not overcook them as they will become too flaky and may stick too much on your grill.

Dipping sauce:

2 box of Nestle all purpose cream

6 pieces kalamansi (juice extract)

pepper

dash of sugar (to balance the flavor)

finely chopped mint leaves

Pour 2 boxes of Nestle all purpose cream in a bowl. Add the kalamansi juice on it without stirring it. Let it stay for a while and you can notice the cream curdling up due to its reaction to the acid. After 10 minutes add the sugar and pepper and finely chopped fresh mint and stir it making sure the sugar is well dissolved. Place it inside the ref and just pull it out when you are about to serve the dish.

They enjoyed my tuna so much and ask me what kind of marinating mix I used. Also they find my dipping sauce just right for the tuna and perfect for the fried spring rolls my wife made. Its just a few hours of enjoyment, a few hours of laughter, of different stories to share, of eating and drinking. But to me that was one of the best birthday I ever had. They are all here, the people I held very very dear to my heart.

My Pata

Another year is passing and I'll be celebrating my 30th birthday this 13th of July (I never got out of 30 lol). My wife and I has made plans for that day. Since its a Monday, we'll be having a family date on the Saturday which is the 11th probably to watch a movie or anything that will make my kids happy. Then by Monday we'll just stay at home and prepare some good dinner. My wife is really craving for pasta and miracles of miracles, she volunteered to cook a pasta dish for me. I told her not to go for pesto base pasta since it'll be a little bit hard for her to prepare (she's 5 months preggy by the way). So I suggested a tomato base pasta using fresh tomato instead of canned or sauces. Its her call if she'll be using sea food or meat on it. As for me I'll be preparing a Chinese dish which we Filipino has learn to embrace and devour literally. Its called Pata Tim.

I usually use the front legs of the pig for this or for any other pata dish because its leaner and has smaller bone structures unlike the back part that has the elbow part which is a large bone thus lesser meat. In buying a pata or pork knuckles or feet, Make sure that it has lesser hairs and is well cleaned. Also look for skin ruptures in between its toes and if it has a bad smell even how little DON'T BUY it. Those are common signs of a Foot and Mouth Disease which are deadly to swine and may harm human if eaten. So go get your pork feet at the grocery stores or look for NMIC certificate if you'll be buying from a local wet market.

So how will I cook this and what are my ingredients? My mother, who by the way has been my mentor and inspiration in every meal I prepare (aside from my wife and kids of course :D) has taught me her way of cooking it. On every occasion she never misses out this dish and has gained popularity from our relatives and our loyal customers at my Mom's Carinderia (local diner). In fact she always get request and orders for this dish.

Listed below are my ingredients:

Pork Pata (front leg) - 1 whole piece with hooves removed and cleaned

Crushed or Chunk Pineapple in can - 1 medium size can.

Star Aniseed - 1 clove

Soy sauce - half cup (just add it little by little depending on your taste)

Whole pepper

Sugar - add according to taste

Carrots - 1 medium cut and sliced using shaped cutter

Leeks - at least 2 stalks

Procedure:

First is to boil the Pata in a casserole full of water. If your pata is 1 kilo just add 1 tbsp. of salt unto the water before boiling it. Let it boil until the meat become a bit tender. Do not over cook it then remove and let it drain for a while. Prepare a wok deep enough for your pata to be fried. Once again do not over fry it. Just enough until the skin gets a Little brown. Remove it from the wok and set aside. In a bowl mix together the soy sauce, sugar, the juice from the canned pineapple chunks. Taste it first before pouring it to the pork. It must have that salty and sweet taste with a hint of pineapple juice. Then, using the casserole before, place the pork in it and pour in the soy sauce mixture along with some pepper corns and the star aniseed. Make sure that it is at least 3/4 below the liquid mixture. If your sauce seems to fall short of that measurement, use part of the water we used to boil the pork before. Let it simmer until the sauce thickens.This will make the meat more tender to a point that it can easily fell off from the bone and the aroma and taste more flavorful.

Serve it on a platter and top with carrots sliced and shaped thinly for decoration purposes and some fresh leeks. Enjoy!!!

My Kids Graduation

This is still part of my updating since I started browsing our photos from my pc. I found this photo of my kids during my second child's graduation last March 09.

Marc Adrian, my second child, has finished his kinder schooling at Lord Jesus the Redeemer Academy here in Quezon City. His older brother Angelo Darel took Kinder and grade 1 from the same school. Lucky for us Adrian never took Nursery and instead started on Kinder 1 and 2. the school specializes on special education and the teachers were very patient and dedicated in giving proper education for the children. We enrolled our kids there even though they are very normal, so as to expose them to special kids and their plight. They have learn not to mock or tease or even make fun of other kids and instead sympathize with them. They also learn the value of giving and empathy.

The ceremony went on smoothly with action songs and dance numbers presented by the students themselves. As Adrian accept his diploma, we felt a sense of pride beaming from his eyes. His smile also shows that he had something done forhimself that would give him enough encouragement and self esteem.

Meanwhile his Kuya Darel surprised us with his first honor award. A recognition I never had during my schooling years (lol). We never pushed our kids to really study hard. We thought that if they could enjoy their schooling without the pressures of always reading a book, writing down things or answering questions, they could learn to appreciate more the value of education and eliminate boredom and fatigue.

Now that both of them are in grade school, we transferred them to a much bigger school facilities. Where they can excel more and interact more with other kids and grown ups. We also had the chance to get 100% free tuition fee for Darel due to his fisrt honor status and a 15% discount for Adrian since we enrolled them both on the same school. Its is such a fulfilling experience for us parents to have passed the very first stage of our childrens education process. Yet many things will come and more has to be done.

Baked Cream Dory in mushroom sauce

Last May 21, my wife celebrated her birthday and as promised I have to cook a new menu that I haven't tried before. There are many things that came into my mind. From pork to chicken to beef to vegeteables, even salads and simple appetizers. My wife ask me to prepare a fish menu since most of the time I ussualy go for chicken or pork.

So I decided to go for Cream Dory. A day before my wife's birthday, I went to Muñoz market to look for fillet cream dory. But to my surprise prices of fillet fish has gone way way up. A fresh fillet lapu lapu now cost Php.500 a kilo, Maya maya 350, Betilla 400 and most of the other fishes there cost just the same. To top it all there was no Cream Dory.

I went straight to Walter mart just beside Muñoz wet market. There I found a frozen cream dory priced at 200 per kilo. "Nice" I said to my self, at least I can save a little more for some other ingredients. I bought 2 kilos of it, then some canned cream of mushroom, sliced button mushroom, fresh spinach, parmesan cheese, and other stuff I needed.

So here are the ingredients I bought for my Baked Cream Dory in Mushroom sauce.

Cream Dory (frozen fillet) - 2 kilos

Cream of mushroom (canned) - 2 cans

Sliced mushroom - 1 can

Nestle Cream - 1 can

Fresh spinach - 2 packs

Parmesan cheese - 1 pack (grated)

Onion and garlic - minced

Salt and pepper

Butter

lemon - 4 pcs.

Procedure:

I first thawed the fish in a bowl of water still inside its package. After an hour or 2 I brush butter on it, extracted lemon juice and seasoned it with salt and pepper. Since the fillet is a bit long, I cut it first diagonaly into 4 cuts and pan seared it. Searing a fish doesnt mean frying it on hot oil but just placing it on top of a hot pan brushed with oil. Using teflon coated pan helps a lot. Also always put the fish skin first for a crispier skin. When the fish all turns flaky white, that means you have to remove it and set them aside.

For the sauce, I sauteed minced onion and garlic and the drained sliced mushroom on melted butter. Then I poured in the cream of mushroom, the all purpose cream and a cup of water. Seasoned it with salt and pepper and a dash or dried rosemary. Let it thicken then turn off the heat.

Baking process:

In a aluminum baking pan or baking dish, brush it with some butter and place the fish on it on straight lines. Put 1 to 2 leaves of fresh spinach on each cut and pour some of the mushroom sauce I made earlier. Top it with grated parmesan cheese and put inside a pre heated oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes. Once some bubbles form on top of the cheese or it begins to brown a little that means the whole process is done. Serve in a large plate and put some parsley for some decorations.

We did enjoy that night along with some close relatives and friends. Aside from the fish, I also prepare pork dish and a chicken dish, but that will be for another post. Oh before I forgot I also cooked Pasta carbonara that night since made mushroom sauce, might as well cook something that will not cost much and can enhanced the fish and pork menus.

My wife...well she just enjoyed her birthday and gave me a great back massage for the days hard work.

Chicken Sisig

I just thought of posting this as I was browsing through my food photos. So here is the story behind my Chicken sisig.

Last New Year, we celebrated the event at my "biyenan's" home as requested by my wife. Since I really love cooking. I volunteered to make a chicken recipe that can be eaten as a viand or as a pulutan. It has been sort of a custom for us that I'will do some special food concoction for them every New Year or Birthday Celebration. They thought I cooked that great lol. In fact my wife is my number one fan when it comes to home coking and specialty recipes that sometimes I just invent.

A year ago I did a Korean style shabu shabu hot pot, also a pork sisig and some barbecue. This year it will be a chicken on the spotlight.

So how did I made that recipe? here it goes...

Ingredients

Chicken breast - 2 kls. deboned

Chicken liver - 1/2 kls.

Cane Vinegar - 1 cup

Soy sauce - 1/2 cup

Bay leaf or laurel leaf

water - 1/2 cup

2 Green Chilis (panigang) sliced into thin strips

4 pcs red chilis - chopped finely

Chicken cube - 1 pc.

oil

salt and pepper

kalamansi juice - extracted from 12pcs kalamansi

BBQ Marinade sauce - 1 cup

Onion - 1 whole medium chopped finely

Garlic - 5 small cloves chopped finely

Procedure:

Mix 1 cup of BBQ marinade mix and the kalamansi juice in a bowl. Add the finely chopped garlic and the red chilis. Mix them well and pour on to the deboned chicken breast seasoned with salt and pepper. Let it for at least two hours. It is also better if you can marinate the chicken overnight inside your refrigirator to let the mixture really sip into the meat.

After marinating remove the chicken from the bowl and grilled them slightly along with the chicken liver. Do not over cooked the chicken as it will be sauteed later on. Cut the chicken and the liver into small dice size and set aside.

In a hot wok or "kawali" pour in some oil and add the onions, garlic, and the chopped chicken and liver. Sautee them for a while then put in the vinegar. Under low heat, let the vinegar boils thru without stirring the mixture. Then add some soy sauce and the green chilis. Put on the bay leaves or the laurel leaves, water, and chicken buillon cubes. Let it boil for 2 more minutes or until the liquid reduces. Determine the taste if it gives you the right saltyness, the right spike from the chili, the right sweetness from the marinade, and the aroma as it boils. If you think it lacks salt just add a little according to your preferrence.

On a seperate burner, prepare to heat a sizzling iron plate and pour in some of the chicken on to it and top it with egg and calamansi. Serve sizzling hot with a hot sauce or sweet and chili sauce.

It was really a feast for them (my family and my biyenan with my bayaw and his family) to see the sauce sizzles and the egg slowly cook on top of it. They have enjoyed a less oily sisig since I used chicken instead.