Fried Tilapia or any kind of fried fish is easy to cook. I’m sure that we all have our own ways of frying fish. I am sharing this recipe post just so you know how I do it. There is nothing special in my method. In fact, most of you might be doing the same…
What's Cooking?
Dinuguan at Puto
Dinuguan at puto is considered as a good meal combination for most Filipinos. This refers to pork blood stew and steamed rice cake. The pork is sauteed in garlic and onions. Water, vinegar, and pork blood are added and then cooked until it becomes nice and thick. It is best eaten by dipping (or scooping)…
Ideal Filipino Breakfast
What is your ideal Filipino breakfast? This sounds like an easy question, but it starts to get a bit challenging to answer when you start to think about it. I for one, want more than a single dish for this most important meal of the day . It should be a heavy meal with rice…
Barbecue
It is summer time again (here in North America). Time to clean the grill and get it running again. Steak, hot dogs, burger and bratwurst are some of the favorite foods to grill in this part of the world. However, we are not limited to these selections.
I chose to follow my cravings by grilling barbecue. I miss the grilled pork barbecue in the Philippines. Back in the days, I buy barbecue at least three times a week from a stall situated beside the entrance gate of our village. Aside from the barbecue, I also love the dipping sauce. The sauce is a mixture of vinegar, whole peppercorn, red onions, and “siling labuyo” (birds eye chili). The sauce is placed in tall cylindrical glass jars (these are recycled coffee jars: Nescafe or Great Taste, probably). I soak the barbecue in the sauce for a good 5 minutes to absorb the flavor. Since the sauce jar is shared by everyone, I make sure to get my barbecue right after the stall opens. That way, I am confident that the sauce is still fresh.
Delicious Warm Bulalo
Bulalo is a type of beef soup that is popular in the Philippines. This beef soup recipe is made using beef shank. It is important to use shank in making Bulalo because of the large bones attached to it. These bones contain marrows, which makes this dish very likeable.
I love to eat Bulalo, but I make sure that I don’t have it in a regular basis for health reasons. As they say, too much of a good thing is bad for you – eating Bulalo in moderation is always recommended. The thing that I like most about Bulalo is the bone marrow. I usually get the largest bone that I can have. I extract the marrow using a bamboo skewer (bbq stick) and eat it with white rice, along with a dip made-up of fish sauce, lemon (or calamansi), and birds eye chili (siling labuyo). Sounds delicious, isn’t it?
Beer Battered Cream Dory Fillet with Toyomansi
Have you heard about a fish called Cream Dory? If you are thinking about the movie Nemo, this is not Dory the fish that I am referring. Please, she is too cute to be cooked.
Cream Dory is another name for Pangasius, a white meat fresh water fish that are widely cultured in Asia. Pangasius is classified as a member of the Pangasiidae family. There are several varities of Cream Dory, the most famous and probably the biggest is the Mekong Giant Catfish. This can be found in the Mekong river — the 7th longest river in Asia. This might be the reason why Cream Dory is associated with catfish.
How about Batchoy Sisig?
Who wants to try this delicious sisig?
This sisig dish that I made for lunch is one of the best sisig versions that I ever had. I am saying this not because I am the one who made it — it is really good.
Would you believe that this dish is composed of leftover meat and innards from the batchoy that I prepared the other day? Yes, it is true. I intentionally added more meat and innards to the dish (don’t worry, the batchoy recipe indicates the appropriate measurement) because I plan to make sisig out of the leftover as an experiment.
An Improved Meatloaf Recipe
Are you looking for the best meatloaf recipe, but could not find one? I was looking for the same thing too, and I ended-up making a good enough meatloaf dish. Although the meatloaf that I made was good, I felt that it can use some more ingredients to make it better.
After a few months of experimenting and some tips from friends, I think that I was able to come-up with a meatloaf recipe that is like no other. I don’t want to speak for myself; it will be better if you’ll be the judge. Remember the burger steak recipe that we posted a few months ago? It was really good, isn’t it? Well, the idea came from that recipe. One ingredient that made the burger steak recipe stand-out was the onion soup mix.
Meatloaf can be considered as a comfort food depending on the person that is having it. If you consider meatloaf as your comfort food, you can enjoy it better by following our meatloaf recipe and adding a pouch of onion soup mix while mixing the ingredients. The onion soup mix provides additional flavor that collaborates well with the other ingredients.
I Want to Siomai Appreciation to Everybody
Before you say anything, I know. The title sounds corny. Please bear with me. I tried thinking of a cheesier title, but this is the best that I can think of. Got better suggestions? I love to hear them.
You all know that I greatly appreciate your time and effort for visiting this blog. I am also thankful for all your comments. I’m trying to pay that back by providing you with quality recipes and useful information. Aside from that, I also saved the last piece of Siomai just for you, as a token of my appreciation.
We will be celebrating our second Anniversary a couple of months from now. I can’t believe that Panlasang Pinoy is about to turn 2 years old very soon. While you were eagerly learning the basics of cooking Filipino Food and other dishes during the past years, I was familiarizing myself with the concept of blogging. We all learned so many things together. Thanks for always being around.
Time to Satisfy Your Buchi Cravings
Are you craving for Buchi? Well, I was a week ago. I tried to make my own, but I am short of sweet rice flour. I ended up craving for buchi for a week.
You know how it feels to want to eat something, but there is nothing you can do, especially if the food that you want is not available nearby. Good thing I was able to secure some sweet rice flour from the Asian grocery a few days ago; I was able to make buchi once again.
Making buchi is tricky. It might seem easy to just watch the cooking video and follow the steps. However, there are certain things that you need to comply to in order for your dish to be successful.
Delicious Grilled Pork Belly for Pulutan
Sabado (Saturday) night is the best time of the week to unwind. It is the time to be with family and friends – to eat, drink, and be merry. Shrug-off all the stress that accumulated during the past week and prepare for new challenges ahead, recharged.
Whether you are throwing a big party or a simple private get together, it is important to always serve the best pulutan. So, what is the best pulutan? It all depends on you. It can as simple as adobong mani, or something fiery like spicy chicken feet. Some might like grilled squid and chicharon bulaklak.
If you will ask me, the best pulutan (sometimes called finger food, beer food, or appetizer) is always a combination of meat and seafood. For example: baked tahong and grilled liempo (inihaw na liempo). If I want to have the combination in one dish, I’ll make sinuglaw.
Let’s talk about grilled pork belly at the moment. In my opinion, grilled pork belly has always been the favorite pulutan. Why? Simply because it tastes great; it is easy to prepare; and it is readily available everywhere – you can even have it as a main dish.
Easy Crock-Pot Beef Stew for Those Who Can Wait
The temperature here in Chicago dropped drastically over the past weeks. Snow turned into ice, while the wind continues to whistle its frigid tunes. They wouldn’t have called it the windy city for nothing.
While I’m lazily slouching at the couch watching my favorite Food Network shows (Iron Chef America good, but I find Chopped to be more entertaining), I thought of making some beef stew to make myself warm. I’m not sure if I have all the ingredients and I don’t plan to drive on ice. This is the time when online grocery shopping and delivery services such as Peapod come-in handy.
I needed some beef parts such as brisket or sirloin, some onions, tomatoes, a little dried thyme, and I also need to move my lazy bones. Good thing I still all of the needed ingredients in my inventory like a pound of beef brisket, a can of diced tomatoes, some onions, and dried thyme (except moving my lazy bones). I did not need to order groceries online at that point.
Ginataang Kalabasa or Ginataang Sitaw? Call it whatever you want
Kalabasa (Calabaza or Squash; some also call this West Indian Pumpkin), string beans, and coconut milk are the main ingredients of this Filipino Vegetable Dish known as Ginataang Kalabasa at Sitaw.This is also called Ginataang Kalabasa or Ginataang Sitaw alone, Depending on which of the two vegetables are dominant. Whatever you want to call it is not really important. What is important is that you enjoy eating this dish.
I cooked this famous Filipino Vegetable dish last week for our family dinner. I was hesitant to make this at first because I cannot find crabs (alimasag) to compliment it. It is true that you can add anything such as meat or certain seafoods to make this dish taste better,but I got used to cook this recipe with crabs.
I was in a Mexican grocery that day, good thing they have mixed seafoods that they call Combinacion de Mariscos. It is basically composed of sliced squid, shrimp, mussels, and some artificial crab meat. I was thinking that adding mixed seafoods in Ginataang Kalabasa at Sitaw would be a fair substitute for the absence of real crab; it turned out to be better.
Craving for Crispy Fried Daing
As I was about to depart from Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD) on my way to the Philippines two weeks ago, I had only one thing in mind: to have Crispy Fried Daing for breakfast on my first day in Manila. Yeah, I know that sounds shallow. I guess that I’ve been craving for Crispy Fried Daing for the longest time.
I only stayed in Manila for just a week to complete some errand and visit my relatives. It was hard to plan for my itinerary considering the amount of time that I had, but I did the most out of it.
Just in Time for Lunch: Ginisang Monggo with Dilis
It’s almost lunchtime, you woke-up realizing that you weren’t able to shop for groceries the day before. Eating out is not an option; you know that something needs to be prepared – anything. What will you do?
Improvise. Search for available food items in your pantry or fridge and make something out of them. What if you didn’t find anything? Well, stop reading this and run to the nearest grocery store, unless you plan to skip lunch. But seriously, you should be able to find something edible that’s worth whipping. Once you find something, it is up to your imagination to make lunch happen.
Sinangag na Dilis: What do you pair this with?
It has been over a year since I last tried cooking Sinangag na Dilis. As I shop for tuyo a few days ago, I noticed the dried anchovies (pinatuyong dilis) lying on the same rack. I thought that it is about time to make myself some crispy sinangag out of it – so, I grabbed a pack.
Cooking sinangag na dilis is similar to frying other dried fish; however, I always use less cooking oil (sometimes I use cooking oil spray to limit the oil). I always have this with garlic fried rice and some spicy vinegar such as sinamak or pinakurat. Simple isn’t it?
How about you? What do you pair Sinangag na Dilis with?
Nilagang Baboy Made Me Feel Warm Today
It is getting colder this past weeks. Autumn is definitely making a statement. I was thinking of something to cook for lunch this morning as I unpack all my fall sweaters and apparel. I have one issue though; I haven’t got anything to cook. It has been four days since my last visit to the grocery store and all I have are a few pounds of pork belly and some vegetables.
I want to have something hot for lunch. A soup maybe or some congee – suddenly, Nilaga (boiled meat) crossed my mind. I needed to check my inventory to ensure that I have all the necessary ingredients – good thing I have more than expected.
Pork belly, potatoes, Napa Cabbage, pork broth, and a little fish sauce is all I needed and all of them are within my reach. As I search my vegetable drawer, I saw half a bunch of spinach sitting around. I don’t have any plans to use it in any dish for this week so I thought of placing it in my Nilagang Baboy (Boiled pork soup) instead of letting it wilt. The dish came out great and it made me feel warm, as expected.
Note: This article is for the What’s Cookin category wherein I blog about simple dishes that I am serving for my family. I’m sure that some of you might want to know about the recipe of Nilagang Baboy. Don’t worry; you can always refer to our Nilagang Baka (Beef Nilaga) recipe. You may use Napa Cabbage or Bok Choy (or pechay); it is all up to you.
Longsilog: Something Heavy for Breakfast
Care for some Longsilog? As much as I would like to share this with you, I already consumed everything this morning for breakfast. Don’t fret; I can still share the recipe of longganisa and sinangag so that you can make your own meal.
Quick and Easy Corned Beef Dinner
What’s cooking last night? We had Canned Chunky Corned Beef sautéed in garlic and onions for dinner.
Before telling you how good it was, allow me to clarify something about corned beef to avoid confusion. Corned beef comes in two forms: the brined or salted beef and the canned minced or chunky beef (which is also called bully beef). Brined beef are salt cured beef; these are common in countries such as Canada and the United States. This is the kind that you usually get from the deli shops. Canned Corned Beef, on the other hand, refers to minced or chunked beef with a little gelatin. This type of corned beef are pre-cooked and sealed in a tin can – the same one enjoyed in the Philippines.
Tinapang Tawilis – An Unexpected Discovery
Tinapang Isda is the local term for smoked fish. Fishes like galunggong (hardtail mackerel or round scad) and bangus (milk fish) are boiled with salt, sun dried for a few hours, and placed in a smoker to cook some more and absorb the smoke.
When you go to your local market to purchase tinapa, it is more likely that you’ll end up getting Tinapang Galunggong, but if you are persistent enough, you’ll be able to find Tinapang Bangus. Tinapang Galunggong is the most common smoked fish and the most sellable because it is much cheaper than the later.
Do you know how to make tinapa? I haven’t made one from scratch yet but I have an idea on how to make it; thanks to the TV Show, Batibot. I’m not sure if you were already born during that time, but it was not so long ago. There was a “how to” segment in some episodes that shows kids how things are made. They get the attention of everyone through the jingle that they play on the background; the jingle goes something like this “Tinapang Bangus, Tinapang Bangus, Masarap ang Tinapang Bangus….weeeee”. Did it help you remember? Sometimes, it is nice to take a trip down memory lane.
Chicharon Bulaklak
They say that one of the age defying secrets is eating Chicharon Bulaklak; of course, they’re all joking.
Chicharon Bulaklak are crispy pork intestines. These are deep fried in oil or pork lard and are eaten as appetizers or beer food (“pulutan”). Eating this food is not healthy at all. In fact, this has a lot of fat and cholesterol content which can trigger or cause hypertension and heart attack – it was the punch line of the joke.
Tapsilog
“Almusal naman ang pag usapan natin” (Let’s talk about breakfast). There is nothing like a hot Tapsilog to start-up my day. This was what I had for breakfast this morning. I can still remember the flavor of the tender homemade beef tapa and the aroma of the sinangag. In fact, I can still smell the garlic till now (oops, forgot to brush).
This meal needs no introduction since most of us might be familiar with it. But, let me provide a little description for the benefit of our non-Filipino readers. Tapsilog is a slang (which later became an accepted name) for a meal consisting of tapa (cured beef similar to beef jerky), sinangag (garlic fried rice), and pritong itlog (fried egg).
“Kuya, where is the cooking video?” Sorry guys, there is no video for this post. My beautiful wife prepared this delicious meal for me. In fact, the meal was already served when I woke-up this morning. Don’t worry; I’ll try to convince her to do some cooking videos in the future – but I’ll need your help on that.
Also, this category which I call “What’s cooking” is all about the simple foods that we have everyday. Videos are not necessary for this category given that most of the featured items are simple to prepare; some might already have their own post or video (like the beef tapa and sinangag). But if you really insist, I can put a video of myself singing Frank Sinatra’s My Way (just don’t stab me or anything). Seriously, you can always shoot me an email or post your questions anytime.
Halabos na Alimasag Recipe
Care for some fresh crabs? These are the freshest crabs that I had since I learned to eat one. How fresh are these? Let’s just say that they were cooked immediately right after being harvested from the ocean. Sounds brutal, isn’t it? But cooking seafood right after being caught or harvested ensures you that you are having them on their freshest state.
The crabs were cooked in their own juice with the help of a little water and salt. This cooking method is called “Halabos” in Filipino. It is a simple cooking method wherein seafood such as crabs and shrimps are directly placed in an empty hot pan and cooked with their own juices. A little water and salt can also be added depending on your preference. Cooking these crabs using this method brought out its natural sweet taste that is often over powered by other ingredients.
The Dangsilog Effect
Danggit (dried rabbit fish), sinangag (garlic fried rice), and itlog (fried egg) make up a meal that is popularly known as Dangsilog. It is quite ordinary for Filipinos to combine the first or last few letters of all the components of a meal to come-up with a single name to associate the meal with. Here are examples of some famous meal combinations: Tapsilog (Tapa, Sinangangag, at Itlog), Tocilog (Tocino, Sinangag, at Itlog), Longsilog (Longanisa, Sinangag, at Itlog), Chicksilog (Chicken, Sinangag, at Itlog), and Pakaplog (Pandesal, Kape, at Itlog).