Dinuguang Baboy

Dinuguang Baboy

(Pork Blood Stew)

Ingredients:

½ kilo pork, cut into cubes

1½ cups pig’s blood

10 cloves of garlic, minced

1 medium bulb onion, chopped

6 tablespoons fish sauce

15 pieces unripe tamarind fruits

white vinegar

table salt

long chili (siling haba)

cooking oil

water

Cooking Instructions:

Put pork and about half a cup of water in a pot.  Add a pinch of table salt and heat to boiling.  Let the water evaporate then switch to medium or low flame.  Allow the pork to be fried in its own fat until medium brown.  Add oil if necessary.  Scoop up the pork, drain and set aside.  Toss the garlic in the pot and sauté until golden brown.  Add onions and stir until tender.  Put fish sauce and stir in the pork.  Add half a cup of water and place the unripe tamarind on top of the mixture.  Cover and simmer over low heat until the tamarind fruits are soft.  Get the tamarind fruits and mash on a bowl together with some of the liquid from the pot.  Drain the extract into the pot.  Repeat three times making sure that none of the seeds or peels of the fruits are mixed with the pot mixture.  Add the pig’s blood into the mixture with stirring.  Cover and let the mixture simmer over low or medium heat.  Stir the mixture occasionally to prevent burning the blood.  Once the blood is dark-colored, balance the saltiness with the acidity by using white vinegar and table salt.  Add long chili and continue to simmer until the mixture thickens or until the blood is fully cooked.    

This recipe will serve up to four people.

Additional Notes:  If tamarind fruits are not available, you can use vinegar as a substitute.  Just make sure to add the vinegar in moderation as it has a tendency to increase the acidity of the mixture very abruptly.  Also, add vinegar after adding the blood and not before.

Paksiw na Saluyot

Paksiw na Saluyot

(Saluyot Cooked in Vinegar)

Ingredients:

2 handfuls of saluyot leaves

6 cloves of garlic, crushed

fish paste (bagoong)

cane vinegar

water

  

Cooking Instructions:

Mix half a cup of water and one tablespoon of fish paste in a pot.  The mixture need not to be salty at this point.  Bring to a boil over low heat.  Add the crushed garlic cloves.  Let it simmer for a couple of minutes.  Add the saluyot leaves.  Cover the pot and let the mixture simmer over low flame.  Once the leaves are half-cooked, add one to two tablespoons of cane vinegar.  Do not stir.  Cover the pot and simmer for five to ten minutes.  Stir the mixture.  Balance the acidity of the vinegar with the saltiness of the fish paste by adjusting the two ingredients if needed.  Once satisfied, continue cooking the mixture uncovered until almost dry.

This recipe will serve up to two people.

Additional Notes:  The saltiness of the fish paste and the acidity of the cane vinegar may depend on the brand names of these products.  Feel free to adjust the ratio according to your taste.  However, please bear in mind that the water evaporates as you cook and the mixture becomes saltier.  It is always safe to use less fish paste at the beginning then adjust as the need arises.  You may use rice washing (hugas-bigas) as substitute for plain water.

Mac 'n' Matoes

Mac 'n' Matoes

(Creamy Tomato Macaroni)

Ingredients:

150 grams elbow macaroni

130 grams Vienna sausage, diced

198 grams champignon mushrooms

210 grams corned beef

500 grams tomato sauce

100 grams all-purpose cream

70 grams cheddar cheese, shredded

5 to 10 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium bulb onion, minced

1 teaspoon ground black pepper
cooking oil

Cooking Instructions:

Cook the elbow macaroni until al dente.  Drain and set aside on a bowl.

Pre-heat the cooking oil on a sauce pan and toss in the Vienna sausage.  Fry the sausage until brown but not burnt.  Move the sausage on one side of the pan and toss in the garlic.  When the garlic turns light brown, add the onions.  When the onions are tender, mix in the sausage and put the champignon mushrooms.  Sauté for a couple of minutes.  Add the corned beef and sauté for five more minutes.  Pour in all the tomato sauce and ground black pepper. Stir well under medium flame.  Pour in the all-purpose cream.  Stir well until the entire mixture is homogeneous in color.  The amount of cream that you will add may depend on your personal preference.  You may add more or less of what is in this recipe.  Add the cheddar cheese and simmer for a few more minutes with occasional stirring.

Pour the sauce on the drained elbow macaroni.  Mix well.

This recipe will serve up to five people.

Additional Notes:  For this recipe, I used Libby’s Vienna sausage, Palm corned beef, one 250-gram sachet of Del Monte tomato sauce (original), one 250-gram sachet of Del Monte Filipino sweet style tomato sauce, and Nestlé all-purpose cream.  Please take note that the taste may be different if you are using other brand names.  However, it should not hinder you from trying them out.

Crema de Fruta

Crema de Fruta

(Fruity Refrigerator Cake)

Ingredients:

500 grams all-purpose cream

168 grams sweet condensed milk

Graham crackers

fruit cocktail, drained

unflavored gelatin powder

  

Cooking Instructions:

Pour the all-purpose cream and sweet condensed milk in a bowl at room temperature.  Mix well.  Feel free to adjust the amount of condensed milk.  Make sure that the amount of cream is always greater than the amount of condensed milk.  Chill the mixture for at least six hours.

Layer Graham crackers on a square or rectangular container.  Pour in the chilled cream mixture on top.  Set another layer of Graham crackers on top of the cream and top it off with another layer of the cream.  Repeat this procedure until you have your desired height.  This is where your personal style comes in.  If you want a more compact cake, apply the cream mixture thinly and stack more layers; if you want a creamy cake, stack less layers and apply more cream.  Once you are satisfied with everything, top the cake with drained fruit cocktail.

Dissolve the gelatin powder in boiling water.  Make sure to follow the instructions on the sachet.  Cool the mixture slightly while making sure that it is still fluid.  Scoop small volumes of the gelatin mixture and pour over the fruits.  The purpose of adding gelatin is to ‘cement’ the fruits together so they don’t fall apart when you take a slice of the cake.  Once the gelatin cools to room temperature and solidifies, chill the cake for at least six hours.

In the photo:  I tried using a trapezoid-like container for the cake.  Though I ended up with a delicious slice, take note that some of the gelatin ran off on the sides and soaked some parts of the cake.  I also used more layers of Graham crackers and less cream in between.  Notice that the cake is compact and you can’t easily distinguish each layer.  There are actually ten layers of Graham crackers on this cake!

Pinatisang Baboy

Pinatisang Baboy

(Pork Cooked in Fish Sauce)

Ingredients:

½ kilo pork, cut into cubes

10 cloves of garlic, minced

1 medium bulb onion, chopped

6 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 table spoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon black pepper, ground

2 tablespoons cooking oil

2 dried blades of bay leaf

Cooking Instructions:

Mix the following in a pot: pork, white vinegar, soy sauce, ground black pepper, half of the minced garlic, and four tablespoons fish sauce.  Marinate for 30 minutes.  Cook in low flame and stir occasionally.  If the mixture dries up and the pork is still not tender, add water.  Continue cooking in low flame until the liquid is reduced and the pork is tender.  Remove from the stove.

In a pre-heated pan, pour in the cooking oil and sauté the remaining garlic until medium brown.  Toss in the onion.  When the onion is tender, add the remaining fish sauce (approximately two tablespoons).  Stir in the cooked pork mixture from the pot.  Put the bay leaf.  Stir and let it simmer in a covered pan for not more than five minutes. 

This recipe will serve up to four people.

Additional Notes:  You may reduce the amount of fish sauce that you will be using.  Every fish sauce sold in the market has its own characteristic saltiness.  Jufran Thai fish sauce was used in this recipe.

Turon na may Keso

Turon na may Keso

(Cheesy Banana Spring Roll)

Ingredients:

4 medium Saba banana, peeled

4 tablespoons brown sugar

8 pieces spring roll (lumpia) wrapper

cheddar cheese

cooking oil

Cooking Instructions:

Slice the banana into two lengthwise.  Cut the cheddar cheese such that its width is almost half of the sliced banana.  Sprinkle brown sugar on both sides of the banana before placing on a piece of spring roll wrapper.  Place the cheddar cheese next to it and roll them together (see Additional Notes).  Fry in cooking oil until golden brown.

This recipe will serve up to four people.

Additional Notes:  These are additional instructions on making the spring roll.  Lay the wrapper on a clean plate.  Place the banana and cheese on one side of the wrapper, usually the side closest to you.  Cover the banana and cheese using the edge of the wrapper, then roll them together.  Halfway through, fold the left and right edges towards the center then roll all the way through.  Moisten the final edge with water to seal the contents in.  

Ginisang Gulay sa Oyster Sauce

Ginisang Gulay sa Oyster Sauce

(Sautéed Vegetables in Oyster Sauce)

Ingredients:

300 g eggplant, sliced

300 g string beans, cut to pieces

¼ kg ground pork or beef

5 tablespoons cooking oil

1 tablespoon fish sauce

6 to 10 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium bulb onion, chopped

1 medium red bell pepper, cut to strips

60 g oyster sauce

2 tablespoons ground black pepper

Cooking Instructions:

On a heated frying pan, brown the sliced eggplants.  Do not put oil.  Remove eggplants from the pan.  Put oil in the pan and throw in the string beans.  Stir fry until slightly tender.  Remove the string beans while draining the oil back into the pan.  Put the ground pork or beef and fry until brown and crispy.  Put the meat on one side of the frying pan to make room for the spices.  Toss in the garlic and sauté until medium brown.  Add the onions and stir until slightly tender.  Add fish sauce and mix in the meat.  Stir for a few minutes.  Add the eggplant, string beans, red bell pepper, and ground black pepper.  Stir in the oyster sauce.  Mix well for not more than three minutes.

This recipe will serve up to three people.

Additional Notes:  Do not fry the eggplants in oil.  Eggplants absorb oil and you may end up adding more oil just to fry the eggplants properly.  Once the eggplants are cooked, the oil is released and you will end up with a very oily dish.  Do take note that you may add more oyster sauce than what was indicated here.  However, too much oyster sauce may make your dish very salty.