June 2014 – thefoodcritic.me

Ultra healthy “Dulong” topped Ampalaya Salad.

June 28, 2014/0 Comments/in pilipino, Sea & Freshwater Food, Veggies & Salads /by Dante

Healthy “DULONG” Topped…AMPALAYA SALAD
(SILVER FISH TOPPED BITTER GOURD SALAD
…kids will enjoy munching)

Diabetic or not,
side to your fried favorite,
or as pre-main course taste neutralizer,
this mega healthy salad will fit in to your desired preference.

My “comfort” always ready “pica-pica”
each time I yearn to commence the night with red wine.
Be ready. With this “innovated” prep sequence,
even your kids will love to munch this to no end.

INGREDIENTS:
1 piece extra large ”ampalaya” (bitter gourd),
de-seeded and sliced sideways.
1 large cucumber, de-seeded and cut to small pieces
1 green mango de-skinned, de-seeded cut to small pieces
(the more “asim” (sour) your mango the better)
2 fresh red tomatoes each sliced to 4
30 grams “fried Dulong” (fried silver fish)
BITTER-REDUCER SOLUTION:
Enough tap water in bowl to cover “ampalaya” slices
15 grams salt dissolved well in above mentioned “ampalaya” water
15 ml. “patis” (fish sauce)
(In this solution, salt reduces bitterness of “ampalaya” by 30-50%
while “patis” imparts fish flavor to it)
VINAIGRETTE:
50 ml. EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
30 ml. Apple Cider Vinegar
20 ml. honey
3 grams yellow mustard
2 grams salt
2 grams ground black pepper
PROCEDURES:
1.   After giving a little tossing & mixing to your bowl of
“ampalaya” slices in bitter-reducer solution,
refrigerate for 2 hours.
2.   Combine all ingredients of your vinaigrette
and whisk thoroughly, Set aside.
3.   In a mixing bowl, summon from ref your
“de-bitterized ampalaya”
add in cucumber, mango, tomatoes and “fried dulong”.
4.Mixing thoroughly, pour in your “vinaigrette”.
5. Give a little tossing…garnish…serve.

SSS (Simple Skirt Steak)

June 26, 2014/0 Comments/in american, Beef /by Dante

SIMPLE SKIRT STEAK
(VIA OVEN TOASTER)
Primarily liked for its taste rather than tender-bite friendliness,
skirt steak is the boneless beef cut from the short plate.
Try this easiest recipe that you’ll enjoy working on
fulfilling your family’s satiety.

(Taken from & hereby thanking Wikimedia Commons)

Mostly utilized for fajitas, stir fries, burger patties
and other ground beef needing dishes, this cut,
to minimize toughness, is normally braised, marinated or quickly pan seared
before subjecting to original recipe intentions.
My being carnivorous surmounted again last night
ensuing to this quick no-hassle dinner plate of goodness…
at the same time satisfying my palate as “pulutan”
(finger food to go with alcoholic drinks).

tawilis picture

SIMPLE SKIRT STEAK
(VIA OVEN TOASTER)

Ingredients

MEAT:
½ kilo slab of short plate.
Better if you can get hold of square-ish cut for more appealing presentation. Freeze overnight.
Against the grain of the meat, slice to desired thickness. Set aside.
(Check this write up re: slicing against the grain by Serious Eats)
MARINADE:
150 ml. red wine (any)
3 grams salt
2 grams ground (or cracked) black pepper
1 gram dried thyme
1 gram nutmeg powder
2 grams coriander powder
1 gram Spanish paprika powder
3 grams garlic powder
1 gram sugar (white or brown)
COOKING MEDIA:
oven toaster
toaster’s flat or corrugated pan
10 ml. EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
tongs

Instructions

In highest setting, pre-heat toaster. Making sure the upper rod is the one set to heat red-off.
Into red wine, combine all ingredients of the marinade. Stir and blend well.
Add in beef slices and, massaging a little, ensure all sides absorb the marinade.
Heating rod on fiery red state, pour EVOO unto flat/corrugated pan, scatter.
Line up slices and wedge to topmost nearest the heating rod.
Toast/roast for 1 minute each side.
That’s all. Done.
Best with cold beer, red wine or share with loved one in a rice meal.

DISCLAIMER: Above are test kitchen and household-produced dishes. All ingredients utilized are of food grade quality passing international and domestic sanitary standards. While we find the results highly acceptable, no guarantee nor explicit assurance is hereby issued when recipe is performed by readers. For one, although of similar breed, spices, herbs and other ingredients vary from country to country/region to region that possibility of affecting end taste, aroma & bite-feel is great. Further thereto, mentioned sensory evaluation (aroma, taste, mouth-feel) is subjective.

Create your own SISIG. Enjoy it 6 ways: as is, with rice, make into Roll, Crepe, Empanada or wrap in lettuce.

June 24, 2014/1 Comment/in american, italian, pilipino, Pork, spanish, VEGGIES, Veggies & Salads /by Dante

“SISIG”
“Sisig” (see’ seeg) is an original Filipino recipe started by folks
from the country’s northern part, Pampanga.
Often served as appetizer, on as is plain meat in sizzling plate,
as food to go along with beer, wine or liquor.
Modifications introduced by different regions rendered the delicacy
the status creating it a main course to go with rice meal.

To date, none that I know of, this preparation is somewhat similar or present in other countries.
Reason: the original recipe calls for the use of “char-grilled boneless pork mask” which,
I believe, is not at all sold out there.If yes, then great let’s proceed.My innovations: the use of other pork cut for lesser fat content
but still juicier & more tender to bite, the use of ingredients’ blend
other than those used in the original formula and
the technological sequence of preparation,
all contributing to a well rounded taste complemented by a different type of presentation
…in rolls, crepe or “empanada”.

Simple procedure attaining excellent taste and thereabout optimized
due to chronological production sequence.

So flattered am I when this innovation was actually approximated
(trying very hard) by no less than 5 restaurants in the Metro.

Smokey, vinegar-y & lemon-ly acidic, piquant with hints of onion, red cayenne and
cracked black pepper while crackling sound of seared pork skin fills your mouth
every tablespoonful encounter.
Highly recommended as “antipasto” for your cold ones.

And, again, I use the grammage system of prep by weight
not the volumetric cups & teaspoons.
Pound the weighing scale to your tabletop once more.

Servings: 20-25 X 50gram serving
Prep time: 45 minutes
Grilling time: 30 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
MEAT:
1 kilo skin-on pork mask if available
OR
1 kilo skin-on picnic shoulder (“kasim”)
¼ kilo lightly boiled chicken liver (semi cooked). Mash to a paste state. Set aside.
FLAVOR ENHANCERS:
Cane vinegar     70 ml.
Fine salt          5 grams
Cracked black pepper      2 grams
1 bulb large white onion finely chopped. Set aside ½.
1 clove garlic crushed. Set aside.
2 pcs “labuyo” (bird’s eye chilies) finely chopped.
soy sauce 50 ml.
palm oil        15 ml.
GRILLING & SERVING MEDIA:
griller
charcoal
Your OWN ROLL, CREPE SKINS or EMPANADA WRAPPERS

ROLL, CREPE & EMPANADA RECIPES:
Check out this PIZZA CRUST RECIPE by MELY MARAVILLA here:
http://melyskitchen.blogspot.com.br/2014/02/how-to-make-pizza-crust.html
and will make our OWN ROLL, CREPE & EMPANADA WRAPPERS:

1.    Using Mely’s recipe, just remove the YEAST and make your dough THINNER
…this will be your ROLL.
2.    Much much thinner, YEAST REMOVED and with 600 ml. evaporated milk,
60 grams butter and 8 pieces beaten eggs added to Mely’s recipe
(this will be like the consistency of a pancake flour blend-a viscous fluid):
and this will be for your crepe (or KREP).
Unto flat frying pan, pour 30 ml. of mix and flatten in a round-circular motion by a small rolling pin.
Brown a bit and there you have a crepe.
3.    Of Mely’s PIZZA CRUST RECIPE, get 100 grams dough,
dusting with little flour every now and then, flatten well to make it round.
This will be your Empanada wrapper.

PROCEDURES:
1.    De-hair and clean well meat.
Boil to “bite-friendly” tenderness but not to the point of disintegration.
2.    In fiery red charcoal, while tossing and tumbling boiled meat as needed,
grill enough to sear or turn skin dark brown.
3.    Slice and cut into 4 pieces per square inch. Set aside.
4.    In a suitable frying pan, heat palm oil.
Add in crushed garlic, toss until brown, dump the ½ chopped onion-mix and tumble until translucent.
Remove or strain cooked solids. Set aside this “flavored oil”.
5.    In a bowl, in this sequence and while tossing constantly,
mix cut meat with chicken liver paste, toss well then pour in vinegar,
soy sauce, salt, black and “labuyo”. Mix well.
6.    In the same frying pan with “flavored oil” pour in meat mixture
and lightly heat tumbling well to avoid sticking to bottom of pan.
7.    Remove pan from heat and lastly, add in the other ½ chopped onion. Tumble.
8.    In still live charcoal or at direct fire from gas stove,
heat very lightly YOUR ROLL until little brown spots appear.
Lay flat unto plate and pour in 50 grams “Sisig”.
Add any combination veggies (cabbage & carrots etc.) you wish as ADD-ONs.
Roll as shown in picture. Cut into 2-3 pieces if desired.
Garnish. Serve.

OR, while heating YOUR CREPE in flat cooking ware, add in your “Sisig”
and add-on veggies, roll as in picture. Serve.

OR, lay flat YOUR ROUND EMPANADA WRAPPER, fill in with 30-50 grams “Sisig”,
FOLD and cut to HALF-MOON effect…FRY…PRESTO!
You will be happy to serve your EMPANADA SISIG.

You dislike MSG (Monosodium Glutamate-Vetsin). Do you know that the other types of food you eat contain the same ingredient as MSG? The truth behind this dreaded enhancer. Read on.

June 21, 2014/0 Comments/in Food Reviews, Recommendation-Condemnation, Ingredients' Reviews, ugaling-pinoy-good-bad-filipino-attitude /by Dante Morados

You dislike MSG (Monosodium Glutamate or Vetsin).
Fine…but do you know that the other types of food you eat contain the same ingredient as MSG?
THE TRUTH BEHIND YOUR DREADED MSG.

Have seen, witnessed, heard many saying…
“I don’t like MSG & I don’t eat food with MSG”.
I can say…tell that to the marines.Look closely at what you’re eating.
The seasonings, sauces, dips, dressings, batters, marinades and thousands of other food
…contain YOU’RE DREADED MSG. You veer away from the known brand of Vetsin
but you consume other types of food that contain the same ingredient present in the former.
You like ? seasoning, ? oyster sauce or ? soy sauce…they all contain MSG.You’re delighted with instant noodles especially on cold rainy days;
you love the taste of your dish when you add your favorite “seasoning” to it
and you brag of your handmade pizza or that from your fave parlor…
CHECK IT OUT.
One way or the other, they contain your hated MSG.
Learn from this link: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html
(thanks truthinlabelling)
WHY? Afraid of consuming it?
MSG is sodium salt of glutamic acid.
It is obtained through fermentation of either: sugar cane, corn or tapioca (cassava)
Crystal MSGs are crystals.
A closer look even in its powder form, MSG is millions of small crystals.
THEY DO NOT HAVE TASTE AT ALL but are good flavor enhancers.Human tongue is consists of “taste buds”, small tiny cells of about 10,000 or so
scattered in different parts of tongue’s surface.
These “taste buds” are the ones responsible for humans to feel what they are consuming
then these cells send signal to the brain-and brain analyzes what taste it is
(sweet, salty, bitter, sour and the latest addition…umami)Women possess more “taste buds” than men.
Babies and young ones have more of these and wane as they grow older.
They do not actually seize to exist but are just out there-inactive-due to various factors:
smoking and alcohol which tend to numb these “buds” faster,
unhealthy mouth condition where dirt, grime and leftovers cover these cells
until they form part of them and as we grow old through time their taste potency also diminishes.So, the more active “taste buds” the better we grasp the taste of food.
When MSG is added to a recipe, these tiny crystals actually “hones”
(in Tagalog…”hinahasa”) or “scrapes” the covering of these “buds” exposing them to the true taste of the food.
That’s it, MSG does not impart any flavor or taste but helps us identify specific taste.CAUTION: not because MSG has that effect, “pilosopo” (one track mind) will claim,
“why not put a ton of MSG so we can taste the food really well”, NO!
Put a bit more and be ready to experience ache at the back of your head.
Too much of anything is…ahh you know what.

Still, the best ways to revive and/or revitalize “taste buds” are:
1. quit smoking-minimize alcohol intake
2. have a healthy mouth habit
3. when brushing teeth, scrub lightly tip, top and back of tongue
4. …and this is fun, always try to identify the ingredients used in your every intake.
Over time…you will be amazed…you are “a food critic”, too.

So far there are only 4 reliable (I hope)
MSG manufacturers supplying the world:
1. Aji-No-Moto (Japan) – more of the home directed crystals
2. Vedan (Vietnam) – used by majority of food processors
due to low price and in powder form
3. ADM (USA) – no nonsense best quality
and also more on the powder type
4. Unknown China-made.
5. …there could be other brands somewhere-for sure it’s repacked.

CHECK YOUR LABEL NEXT TIME. IF IT STATES: NO MSG BUT CONTAINS EITHER OR BOTH I+G
(meaning Disodium Inosinate + Disodium Guanylate…then STOP & decide if you’ll continue)
Reason: full flavor identifying & enhancing effects of I+G
go well-hand-in-hand with MSG.
When the former is present so is the latter.

Piniritong Dinuguan (Fried Pork Mask Stewed in Hog’s Blood)

June 20, 2014/0 Comments/in pilipino, Pork /by Dante

PINIRITONG DINUGUAN
(FRIED PORK MASK STEWED IN HOG’S BLOOD)
“Dinuguan”
has been a signature Filipino dish since time immemorial.
Different regions and localities vaunt their own version of this recipe
which foreigners term as “chocolated pork”.
In view, no matter what variation nor modification is applied
in terms of ingredients or part of meat utilized,
they all boil down to: stewed pork with hog blood.
Making waves currently is the presentation that contains
“chicharon” (pork crackling) on top…aptly calling it
“Crispy Dinuguan”.
Veering away, this recipe’s technological cooking procedure
will NOT make use of “chicharon”
but desired crunchiness is attained.

INGREDIENTS:
MEAT:
1 kilo pork mask, eardrums included, fully cleaned, sliced into 4 pieces
BOILING BROTH MIX:
1 liter tap water
10 grams salt
3 grams cracked black pepper
10 ml. ginger juice
(This blend removes “lansa” (fishy-ness) of meat
and letting it absorb little flavor
otherwise not attained by boiling in just plain water)
FRYING & SAUTEING MIX:
30 ml. EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
6 cloves crushed fresh garlic
3 small “siling pansigang” (banana peppers or chili fingers),
de-seeded and sliced into smaller pieces.
HOG’S BLOOD MIX:
1 kilo hog’s blood. Strain to get away from further coagulation
or lumping. Set aside.
100 ml. of leftover boiling broth mix
25 ml. cane vinegar
15 ml. soy sauce
FLAVOR ENHANCERS:
80 ml. fresh milk or evaporated milk
10 ml. “patis” (fish sauce)
10 ml. ginger juice
4 pieces dried bay leaves
2 grams ground black pepper
OPTIONAL 3 grams MSG
PROCEDURES;
1.    In a suitable casserole, blend all ingredients of boiling broth mix.
2.    Add pork mask slices and boil to desired tenderness.
3.    Remove boiled mask, cut into smaller pieces.
4.    Set aside both pork mask pieces and
the leftover boiling broth mix which will be utilized later.
5.    In frying pan, under medium setting, heat EVOO,
fry garlic and sliced banana peppers for 1 minute.
6.    Add pork mask pieces, tossing constantly
and continue frying until they turn crispy (approx. 5-8 minutes)
7.    Using slotted ladle retrieve fried mask and set aside. This meat is done.
8.    In the same leftover frying/sautéing mix (oil), add in all ingredients of
hog’s blood mix. Transfer to another casserole if need be.
9.    CONSTANTLY STIRRING, (to avoid further blood coagulation)
bring to a boil.
10.When boiling starts, add in ALL ingredients of the flavor enhancers.
Continue boiling for 1 minute adding
extra “patis” or black pepper or milk if so desired.
DONE. This is now your “DINUGUAN” without the meat.
11.When serving, pour unto bowl, add in desired quantity of fried pork mask,
mix a bit, garnish with “sili pansigang”
then serve with a smile and be PROUD of your creation.

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