pilipino – Page 5 – thefoodcritic.me

3-Way “Nilagang Baka”

October 9, 2015/0 Comments/in Beef, pilipino, Veggies & Salads /by Dante Morados

“3-WAY NILAGANG BAKA”
(Veggies Laden Boiled Beef Flank Served 3 Ways)
Almost a photocopy of my October 4, 2014 post in the old blog format,
this “Nilagang Baka” is different though both utilized beef flank.
Allow me to re-state prologue of the previous post.
Flank and the immediately adjacent short plate are widely used
cuts of beef for commercial concerns.
Flesh (lean), which dominates the cut, is secondarily layered by cartilage
then thin soft fat before the skin.
Together with brisket, it is also usually processed into real cattle corned beef,
real burger patties and real franks-sausages.
I claimed real for majority of mentioned items processed in the country
are made from buffalo beef from India (similar to our carabao meat)
…which is why-it MUST be termed as CARA-BEEF.
Check this post to enlighten us on the kinds of beef.
Further, most of the “pares” & “beef mami” mistakenly known by many
as that coming from cattle beef flank, short plate or brisket
are actually derived from CARABAO
called “LOMO SA LOOB” (internal loin)
No worry. Nothing’s wrong except:
mis-conception, mis-representation by some merchants
and the darker brown color of lean than those of real cattle beef.
Fact is, I love them for they have higher protein content and a lot cheaper.
Ok now, the Camto we will be dealing with is from flank of cattle beef.
Rainy season here and this type of dish goes well with steaming rice,
“patis” (fish sauce) with or without crushed “labuyo” (bird’s eye chillies)
and, for me, a soda by the side.

(thanks wikihow, Wikipedia & Google)

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Serves: 8

Cooking media: big frying pan, deep casserole

Game plan: this is a different cooking approach. Be ready to rock.

INGREDIENTS:

1 kilo camto or beef flank cut 1.5” to 2” thick and 2”-3” long
1 small white onion-sliced
3 grams salt
2 grams ground black pepper
1 small cabbage sliced

3 pieces peeled Japanese corn cut each into 3
2 bunches of “bok choy” (type of Chinese cabbage) root ends removed
3 pieces “saging na saba” (cardava banana or saba banana) peeled each cut to 3
2 pieces “camote” (sweet potato) each quartered

50 ml. palm or soya oil
10 ml. “patis”
OPTIONAL MSG…2 grams
Water

PROCEDURES:
1. Via casserole, in enough tap water to cover sliced meat, bring beef to boil until tender. When done scoop out tender beef set aside as well as the broth which will be utilized later.

Heat oil in pan. Add in onion. Sauté until translucent.
Add in corn, banana, camote , salt, pepper and the OPTIONAL MSG. Toss and tumble well. Continue on until a bit brownish.

4. Transfer all into casserole with broth. Boil.

5. When banana and camote are about 80% done, scoop them out and set aside. Continue boiling corn until desired tenderness is attained.

6. When corn is done, add in boiled beef, banana and camote. Flavor up with patis and continue on for another 3 minutes.

7. When done, remove casserole from fire. Add in bok choy and cabbage. COVER casserole for 2 minutes-cooking both veggies in a crunchy-nutritious state.

8. Separate veggies and beef from soup. Serve 3 ways.

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.

CONDEMNATION: OMG! YUKy “Bara-Bara” (wantonly & blindfoldedly adding anything to food) Resto

September 29, 2015/0 Comments/in Food Reviews, Recommendation-Condemnation, pilipino, Sea & Freshwater Food /by Dante Morados

Tagging wifey to accompany our daughter for her annual check-up in one of the biggest, most modern, classy and really elitist hospitals, had lunch break in one of restos in the complex.

Holy…my daughter’s “Tapa” was dredged in flour to make them crispy…and categorically bland. This is the height of “no-brainer” approach to make meat appear crispy.
Nonsense recipe in this case.
My wife’s “Sinigang” showed off the old stock plain boiled-fish belly that left us scratching our tongues-bellies being “MAKATI” (itchy to tongue when bitten). Topping it all, soup was also 100% bland, acidity anemic but, mind you, dumped with bowl-full of veggies.
As usual. Another try to be “culinarist”.
Good recipe “innovators” or creators use their heads for flavor roundness…not plain experiments or “bara-bara” approaches resulting to misfires.

Clue: Again in posh BGC housed in the biggest hospital in the area.
Learned that owner chef is so popular.
Not an excuse to serve that kind of food.

Chicken Breast and “Ampalaya” Salad

September 24, 2015/0 Comments/in pilipino, POULTRY, Veggies & Salads /by Dante Morados

CHICKEN BREAST & “AMPALAYA” SALAD
(FRIED CHIX BREAST with BITTER GOURD/MELON in a GREAT SALAD )

Healthy “finger food tummy-pushed by red wine”
is at center stage again.
“Ampalaya” (bitter gourd/bitter melon) is great for those
who have high glucose bodily index.
Sans skin, breast presents the healthiest part of chicken.
Fry in olive oil, mix them altogether along with sliced apple, tomatoes,
carrot and cucumber. Drizzle with “your own healthy vinaigrette”.
What more is there to enjoy with friends?

chicken breast picture

CHICKEN BREAST & “AMPALAYA” SALAD

Prep time	Cook time	Total time
1 hour.	30 mins.	1 hour 30 mins.

Makes/Serves:	4
Cooking media:	frying pan with cover, slotted ladle to scoop out fried chicken cubes, bowl for mixing veggies
Game Plan:	Frying chicken, flesh so moist, results to splatters. Cover the pan.

Ingredients

MEAT:
Breast of medium chicken, fully cleaned, de-boned, de-skinned, cubed, seasoned with 5 grams salt .
3 grams ground black pepper. Set aside.
VEGGIES:
1 small “ampalaya” , thinly sliced, soaked in water with salt for 30 minutes then hand squeezed to drain out bitter juice. Set aside.
1 medium tomato, sliced
1 small apple, fully washed, skin intact for more colorful presentation, half sliced-half cubed
½ cucumber, de-skinned, sliced
½ carrot, de-skinned, sliced
VINAIGRETTE:
50 grams mayo (any)
20 grams mustard
15 ml. EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
8 ml. cane vinegar
2 grams brown sugar
3 grams salt
2 grams cracked black pepper
100ml. EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) for frying

Instructions

Heat oil and fry chicken cubes until light brown. Set aside.
While frying, mix and tumble well all veggies in a bowl.
Follow up by blending your vinaigrette to a sauce consistency.
In your serving plate, pour in veggies, garnish them with fried chicken cubes by the side and drizzle with vinaigrette for a different salad prep.

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.

FRIED PAMPANO IN “INNOVATED” ADOBO SAUCE

September 17, 2015/0 Comments/in pilipino, Sea & Freshwater Food /by Dante Morados

Fried Pampano In Innovated Adobo Sauce
(FRIED SILVER POMFRET IN A DIFFERENT ADOBO SAUCE)
From Spanish word “Adobar” (marinade or seasoning),
“ADOBO” is a type of Filipino cuisine dating back
pre-Spanish colonization of the country.
For preservation, the boiling of meat in water and salt, early folks thought of
adding vinegar into the method to further the shelf life of boiled meat.
To date, no record shows how this prep was called until
Spaniards set foot and introduced soy sauce into the process
stating such marinade was termed “adobar”.
Early cooks liked the result as salt was lessened
and the flavor that soy sauce imparted created a different taste profile.
Cutting short…Adobo came to fore,
went through different regional modifications,
adding poultry, seafood, veggies or combination thereof to the process
and till now-further innovations are continuously tried.
Herewith, Spanish’ Adobar refers to “the marinade” or “seasoning”
hence the “flavoring process”
while Pinoys’ Adobo, in strictest sense, is the “cooking process”.

pampano image picture

Fried Pampano In Innovated Adobo Sauce

Prep time	Cook time	Total time
30 mins	30 mins	1 hour

Ingredients

SEA FOOD:
1 medium sized Pampano (silver or black pomfret) fully cleaned of internals, pointed fins cut.
DON’T SLIT sides to prevent skin break up while frying.
Never mind not salting or peppering it. Full flavor is attained when Adobo sauce is drizzled unto fried fish.
FRYING NEED:
100 ml. palm or soya oil
DIFFERENT ADOBO SAUCE:
20 ml. palm or soya oil for sautéing garlic & bay leaves
6 cloves crushed fresh garlic
2 dried bay leaves
40 ml. oyster sauce (I prefer Lee Kum Kee)
10 ml. cane vinegar
15 ml. soy sauce (any)
60 ml. tap water (should you wish pineapple juice, it’s better)
15 grams brown sugar
3 grams cracked black pepper
2 grams chili powder (this gives a little “kick”-and it is NOT chili pepper powder…it is chili powder which consists of 5-8 ingredients in it)
OPTIONAL:
3 grams MSG
5 grams tapioca (cassava) starch dissolved in 15 ml. tap water-sauce thickener
(I prefer to use tapioca starch, sometimes modified one, as it results to lasting viscosity vs. corn starch.
ADD-ONS & GARNISH:
12 pieces skin-on baby potatoes-fully scrubbed & rinsed skin
6-8 pieces quail eggs
3 tomatoes-as garnish
any greens-for colorful eye appeal

Instructions

Heat oil in frying pan. Carefully throw in a droplet of tap water unto heated oil.
When that drop “rumbles” and “splatters” up and about…your oil is ready.
Fry your fish per your desired done-ness. Cover pan to avoid “oil splatters” everywhere.
When done, scoop fish out and set aside.
Even while frying, you can start your sauce. Heat casserole, add in oil then your crushed garlic and bay leaves.
Tossing consistently, sauté until medium brown.
Pour in water, soy sauce, vinegar, oyster sauce, sugar, cracked pepper, chili powder and the OPTIONAL MSG.
Add in skin-on baby potatoes and quail eggs and boil.
After 3 minutes of boiling, quail eggs are done. Scoop out, rinse with cold tap water, de-shell and set aside.
After another 5 minutes of boiling, your baby potatoes are cooked-but-crunchily done. This time, add in your hard boiled quail eggs.
Then your tapioca starch-water solution to thicken sauce.
Continue boiling for 2-3 minutes or until you see good-viscous sauce.
Lay your fried fish unto plate, garnish and drizzle abundantly with different Adobo sauce.
Smile as you serve your new creation to family.

Few things about recipes

September 10, 2015/0 Comments/in american, chinese, Few Things About Recipes, Food Reviews, Recommendation-Condemnation, pilipino, Pork, ugaling-pinoy-good-bad-filipino-attitude /by Dante Morados

HEAVENLY CRISPY.

NO DOUBLE FRYING…Ultra crispy outside heavenly tender and juicy inside. Indulge in the “marinade mix” that catapulted this ChiQ-Juan to its ultra crunchy creation.

No mega dusting of flour or starch. Just the right amount incorporated into its breading blend applied post marination. The blend of ingredients in its breading made possible the crispness despite single frying.

Further…to attain “real crunchiness” (whether for chicken, pork & beef)
NOT DUSTING WITH STARCH OR FLOUR then frying. This is the height of
“simplistic approach” to cooking, a “no-brainer” system tantamount to “cheating” consumers.While depending on the meat raw mat to be used to come-up with “a masterpiece” with desired crunchiness, marinade mix (spices, food-grade cures or phosphate binders, flavor enhancers, condiments and the liquid to be used) greatly contributes to crispy end product. Adding to such is the time table on how many “aging days” are actually needed for desired result. Shorter or longer will give negative outcome and/or “taste overshadow”.Equally important are: the type of oil to be used (kind plus its boiling and smoking points), temp when to fry, when to retrieve and rest and where to store post frying-bearing in mind how long MUST be the HOLDING period before serving. WHEW!!! It’s really a “thinking system”. In my coming INGREDIENTS SPECIALIZATION INSTITUTE you will learn the right & proper ingredients mix to use in any recipe you desire plus the technologically-chronological system of processing or cooking exuding desired aroma, taste, texture at much lower cost than the “BARA-BARA approach” (blindfolded addition of whatever spices, herbs and ingredients that come into mind or what our hands can instanly reach)

WRONG COOKING PROCEDURE.
Filipino cooks’/chefs’/housepeople’s (majority but NOT ALL) wrong way of salting fried red-up eggs.
They DUMP…literally dump…salt in any part of egg that their salt-laden fingers have aimed.
And so, that part becomes SOOOOOOOOO salty while other parts retain bland-ness. PWEH!

Filipino Food Myth.
After resting for more hours than normal and usual, with wifey dashed to our favorite place,
Macapagal Avenue, to satisfy cravings for Filipino “inihaw” (grilled) and “sabaw”(soup recipe).
Pangs (my wife) marketed for “liempo” (pork belly) & “ulo ng maya-maya” (head of Red Snapper)
for plain salted & peppered grilling and “sinigang sa miso” (tamarind-flavored soya paste soup) respectively.
“Eh anak ng 74 na malanding tipaklong, yung “maya-maya” ay dehins tinanggalan ng “KALISKIS”.
Pag-subo mo, sasabit sa ngala-ngala mo kaliskis. Di mo tuloy ma-enjoy yung fish.
Tamaan kayo ng kidlat” (In English, whew, the cooking establishment, to the hatred of 74 grasshopper whores, did not de-scale the fish that each time you bite into it…scales fill your palate & entire mouth).
You really won’t enjoy savoring the dish. May you be hit by angry lightning) Why? Ano dahilan nyo at kapag fish na “sinigang” o “inihaw” ay dapat may “kaliskis”?
What? What? Gagalitin ako eh.(In English, again, whew, why is it that when you cook “sinigang” or grilled pork, scales are not removed. Why? What? You drive me angry)
Don’t you know a better grilling technique?
Just oil the grill bars and/or lay fish at griller ONLY when coal is fiery red.
But when it comes to “sinigang”, here, there is NO reason whatsoever. De-scale the fish… my God.

Re-Heating Food

Re-heating your favorite “sinigang” or “asim soup”, REFRAIN from engaging it via microwave oven. Check previous posts on what “sinigang” is – or which kids like to call “asim soup”.
Reasons:
1. Moisture of food is “absorbed till dried-up” by the microwave that the former tender meat becomes “rubbery” afterwards. Should you wish to pursue via this medium, sprinkle few drops of water or marinade or what have you before microwaving.
2. Acid is absorbed by the system that after microwaving your “sinigang” or “paksiw” (vinegared fish), acidity is reduced to 1/3. To preserve original taste, reheat by suitable pan or use appropriate container then shelve unto oven toaster and reheat for few minutes at medium temp.

SUMPTUOUS FOOD IS NOT PLAIN INVENTION.
It is the “accurate & proper harmony of ingredients and flavors used in precise technological production sequence
to come up with desired taste-not of the maker but that of the patrons”.
In short, you, your loved ones and friends are not your “clients”.
Fact of life is: they will not come to your restaurant, café, bar, joint etc. always. Most of the time, they are not the paying clients.
You will find real and comebacking customers if your concoctions are enjoyably approved by them.
Test your recipes with people you don’t know. Collate their comments sent through “anonymous emails” (and you know the reason why…)
If your batting average is high, chances are, your masterpiece will make it.

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