Recipe # 4 Adobong Manok - My Husband's Expertise

My last entry for the month of firsts does not have anything to do with me. Today's featured recipe is my husband's first. Adobo is the first (not to mention the only) thing he has has cooked. It is the best though!

At home, though I am the one who does most of the cooking, I have to admit that if my husband puts his heart into it, his cooking would always turn out better than mine. I have heard that men are actually better cooks/chefs than women. With my papa for example, though his cooking is limited, he makes really good pansit lukban and bistek tagalog. I swear, papa can compete against the best pansit restos is Lucena. My husband on the other hand, steals the stage for his adobo. I remember just giving him instructions on how to cook it, then without supervision and interference, he did it well on his first try!!! (injustice :p)

You'll need:

3/4 kilo of chicken, chopped into 2-3 inch strips
cooking oil
5 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 small onions diced
10 peppercorns
salt and pepper
bay leaf
water
vinegar
soy sauce

How to:

• In a hot pan with oil, saute garlic and onions until garlic is brown and onions, carmelized
• Add the chicken and brown on both sides
• Add a little bit of salt and pepper
• Add water, about 1 cup or depending on preference
• Lower heat, and cook chicken covered for about 15 minutes
• Add vinegar and soy sauce on a 1:2 ratio (1 spoon of vinegar is to 2 spoons of soy sauce) adjust till desired taste is achieved.
• add the pepper corns
• add the bay leaf
• cover for another 5 minutes.

Serve.

Bon appetit!

We eat this viand with green mangoes (kalabaw) and bagoong. The contrast between salty and sour mixed in your mouth will guarantee a rice-free kaldero in less than an hour.

Who says you have to spend for a great meal? This dish costs P130.00 all in! It can feed 4 hungry people.
So get your cooking gear out and start the fire.

Your hot cook,
Hahan

P.S. It was my son's (supposed) 4th bday on April 27th. He would have loved Jayson's adobo. Happy birthday, Melo! Love mama and papa.

Recipe # 4 will be posted tomorrow, April 30th

Due to a conflict with my work schedule, posting is moved to Saturdays at noon. Come back tomorrow at lunch time for a new recipe :p

Recipe # 3: Sinigang na Hipon - Meeting the Parents for the First Time

Welcome to week three of the month of firsts ! 

Does any of you have a significant other? I do. I have been married to him for four years. Before we got married, we dated each other as boyfriend and girlfriend for two years. It was during this period when I first got to meet my now biyenans.

Here in the Philippines, one of the significant milestones in a relationship is the part when you meet the parents. For me, this happened in 2005.  Jayson took me to their ancestral house in Sta. Cruz, Laguna at around September (?) for the 2005 Annilag. The Annilag is an annual festival that celebrates and showcases the history, people, products and culture of the various cities and municipalities of Laguna. This event happens at the Laguna Capitol which is at Sta. Cruz. 

Before going to the festival, we had lunch at Jayson's home. And yes, my now mother-in-law served sinigang. I was not a fan of sinigang until that day. Of course I've had sinigang on other prior occasions, but in no other instance did I want to have sinigang more often until I tasted mommy's. Napakanin talaga ako !  Pretending not to have a big appetite is difficult faced with "the sinigang". 

Upon my first sip of her sinigang broth, this picture (kidding aside) appeared on my mind:  sand at my feet, hot salty wind, sunny skies, coconut trees and waves.  This has since become my perfect beach food! 

Mommy brags, “lahat ng tumikim ng sinigang ko, yun at yun ang hinahanap.” I agree. Each time I visit her at Sta Cruz, she knows she’d have to cook sinigang for me. I need not tell her. She knows that I have been captured in her sinigang spell. Indeed.

You’ll need:

• Rice Water – hugas bigas

• 1/2 kilo shrimps
• Patis, No salt needed!
• 1 medium Onion, peeled and halved
• 2 Tomatoes, quartered.
• Kangkong leaves and tender stalks
• String Beans cut in two inch proportions.
• Radish, peeled and chopped
• Okra (lady’s finger), halved

• Sinigang Mix – to save time. If time is in your hands though, I’ll show you the longer version of making sour broth at the P.S. part of this post.

How to:

•           In a pot, combine rice water, onion and tomatoes. Bring to a boil.

•           Once boiling, reduce heat. Add the shrimps

•           Cook covered for about 15 minutes or until shrimps turn orange, stirring occasionally
•           Add sinigang mix and patis – adjust till it suits your taste. Simmer for 2 minutes

•           Add the, Okra and Radish. Cook for 3 minutes
•           Turn off the heat. Add the Kangkong and sitaw. Cover for 2 minutes

Best served on a Sunday at lunch when the family is all together. Serve with steaming white rice and ice cold coca cola. ;)

Bon appetit!

This is a great appetite inducer even if you are not hungry. To those of you who have lazy eaters to feed, serve sinigang ! At home, I swear, dieting is not an option when we have sinigang. Joey, my brother, who is health and weight-conscious, loves it. He ditches healthy eating and opts for rice, rice and rice when I cook this dish. He makes up for it by jogging with cotton, my dog.

Go on, cook it. Watch the sweat drip off your loved ones’ foreheads as they enjoy this ulam while it’s hot. Watch the rice disappear from the kaldero !!! Satisfaction guaranteed.

A dip/Sawsawan consisting of patis, calamansi and siling labuyo is an option.

Who says you have to spend for a great meal? This dish costs about P200.00 all in. It can feed 4 hungry people. So get your cooking gear out and start the fire.

Your hot cook,

Hahan

P.S. You want to make sinigang in not the instant way?

Here it is:

-          boil about a kilo of sampaloc (for ½ kilo of shrimp) in a pot.

-          After boiling, turn off the heat and let it cool for about an hour.

-          Once cooled, squeeze the sampaloc (pigain). Extract the fleshy sampaloc meat, discard the peeling and seeds

-          Add the sampaloc extract to the rice water

-          Follow all the other instructions above sans the part where you add the sinigang mix.

Voila!

Recipe # 2 : Afritada - My first time

And just like that it's week 2. Had a chance to try last week's recipe? What do you think of it?

To continue our month of firsts theme, I have decided to share with you the first thing I ever learned to cook - tadah! Chicken Afritada. I learned to cook this, through (special mention) Lomelita "Mhillet" Tan. She was a classmate in my 9th grade T.H.E (Technology (?!?) and Home Economics) class - Mrs Duero's. If my memory serves me right, the class was grouped into 7(?) and each group had to cook an ulam for lunch. Mhillet took the lead in our cooking session. She was obviously the only one in our group who knew how to cook so the others, including myself, were left with the washing, peeling, setting and cleaning up - the messy stuff. The cooking itself was left under her control.

Ang paghanga ko!

And because I admired her cooking skills so much, I asked my mama to help me cook it at home. She gave me instructions, and let me have my first kitchen experience. It was divine despite the many cuts and burns I encountered during my deflowering. O yes I bled! So it's true that first times can be painful.

When lunch time came, Papa asked, "who cooked our ulam?", and mama replied, "Si Hahan". After tasting, they both said, sarap! Of course they were supportive... they are, after all, my parents! But still, music, music, music. Yes, I was 15 and I was devirginized in our kitchen-- I had cooked for the first time! Yabang!

You'll need:

- Half of a whole chicken, cleaned and cut into 2 inch parts (you can just instruct your suki to cut the chicken for you)
- 4-5 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2-3 small onions or 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
- 1 tomato, washed and cubed
- salt & pepper (measure accdg to taste)
- fish sauce (patis) (measure accdg to taste)
- chicken stock
- bell peppers (lara)
- carrots and potatoes, washed, peeled and cubed (or quartered, or accdg to preference)

- tomato sauce & canned peas
- cooking oil

How to:

- In a hot pan with cooking oil, saute (gisa) your garlic until slightly brown;
- add the onions and saute some more until translucent;
- add the tomatoes
- add the chicken and drizzle it with a little bit of fish sauce; brown the chicken on both sides

- add the chicken stock (you can buy canned stock at your local grocery store, or you can make it yourself by simply boiling chicken in water for about 20-30 minutes. Remove the chicken and voila! you have stock); cook chicken, covered, for about 10 minutes

- add the tomato sauce, carrots and potatoes; reduce the heat to minimum and cook covered for another 10 minutes.

- add salt and pepper till desired taste is achieved.
- add peas and bell peppers; cook for 5 minutes

Now grab your steaming white rice and plate everything up!

Bon appetit!

I hope this dish brings back memories of your wonderful first times. My first times are mostly learning experiences that made me who I am now. I hope yours did well for you too.

Who says you have to spend for a great meal? This dish costs about P160.00 all in! It can feed 4 hungry people. So get your cooking gear out and start the fire.

Your hot cook,
Hahan

P.S. Got a first learned recipe you’d like to share? Post your comments and suggestions

P.S.S. Happy 1st anniversary of our Second Wedding, Jayson ...my husband, my partner, my life.

Recipe # 1 : Microwave Chicken - My Happy Meal

Howdy! Finally it’s April 8th! Before we get to the cooking part, I’d like to give just a bit of an introduction and an outline of what to expect from this blog. I have decided for this blog to be a one year project (at least for now). My goal is to post one new recipe per week (every Friday at around breakfast time). I have also decided to have a theme per month. That means, the recipes per month are somehow going to be related to each other. Maybe later on, when I have enough readers, I can designate a free month. On that free month, readers/followers can request the recipes they want to see, and I’ll post them here as I have learned them from my wonderful moms. I have already mapped the recipes for the next 52 weeks. Still, nothing is final, except for this month's recipe list. Feel free to post or email me your comments and suggestions!

Moving forward, April’s theme is “A Month of Firsts”. This is my first time to do a food blog, and what follows here is my first recipe entry. Expect April to be filled with stories of several of my firsts, and the recipes that I associate with them.

This week’s special is the first food memory I have. I honestly cannot recall any other meal that ante dates my memory of this dish. So this is a great way to start April – I share with you a recipe of the first food I ever became aware of since I was born. Read on.

My father was the first in his family to acquire a microwave oven. I remember the fascination my relatives had at first sight of that appliance. Many had it mistaken for a tv. So, to flaunt the oven’s use, my mama made this dish. It’s aroma is superb. Nothing else smells like it. Nothing else takes like it. This dish is something that I’ve had frequently during the holidays when I was a child. It was my mom’s family potluck contribution. It was always a winner.

I have associated the smell of this dish with fond childhood holiday memories. Oh those days when I was younger! We’d go to my lolo’s house at Tandang Sora, Lucena. Everyone else in the family was there. There were lots of food, gifts and warm hearts. This is such an easy to make and wonderful tasting dish. We used to have it only during the holidays. You can have it right now after reading this entry.

You’ll need:

One whole chicken, neck detached, make sure there’s an opening for the stuffing
Salt
Pepper, slightly ground only to create a nice spotted effect on the chicken after it’s cooked
Paprika – for a golden color
Calamansi
Pandan leaves – mama also suggests lemon grass as an alternative
Cilantro – my addition to mom’s recipe
Camote / Sweet Potatoes – my addition as well (idea taken from Max’s restaurant)
Cooking Oil to fry the camote in

How to:

- Clean the chicken
- Sprinkle calamansi juice on the whole chicken. Not too much, you don’t like your chicken to be sour; discard the seeds

- Rub the chicken with Salt, pepper and paprika – Mama likes rubbing the chicken’s insides with these ingredients too. So if your hand fits in your chicken, do it. Otherwise, use a nice sharp knife to make way for your hand.

- Stuff the chicken with Pandan and cilantro leaves.

- I personally like laying the chicken atop a bed of cilantro and pandan leaves for maximum flavor.
- Set the stuffed chicken in a microwave dish
- Cook uncovered in a microwave for 50 minutes (the cooking time depends on your oven)
- Cook till brown
- Enjoy the splendid aroma while it cooks

- While the chicken is baking, wash, peel and cut the camote in lengthwise strips, and deep fry till brown and crispy. Drain, and serve as a siding to the chicken.

You can use ketchup for a dip, although you won’t need it. The flavors are fantastic in themselves! Don’t forget the steaming white rice and ice cold coke!!!

By the way, this is also awesome for dieters and romantics. Simply replace rice and camote with fresh greens and tomatoes plus your favorite dressing, pull out a bottle of nice sweet wine, and you’re set with a really healthy yet yummy meal.

Bon appetit!

I hope this dish creates a gateway to memory land for you, the same way it does for me.
Happy eating! Happy sniffing those lovely flavors! And happy licking your finger tips!

Who says you have to spend for a great meal? This dish costs about P180.00 all in! It can feed 4 hungry people. So get your cooking gear out and start the fire.

Your hot cook,
Hahan

P.S. Got a happy meal you’d like to share? Post your comments and suggestions.