Beef Rendang (Anne's Version)

Awesome picture www.aglugofoil.com. That is how my dish really turned out!

I do not claim to have a found an improvement to this Malaysian dish but I did found my way around the limitations in ingredients here in Quezon City. So it is good news that we can still enjoy this rich stew even if it is quite a search mission to get hold of some key ingredients.

The cooking style is definitely not familiar because instead of just chopping the aromatics, we need to blend or pound it into a paste. Also I did not let my beef go through the pressure cooker and just let it simmer in the electric stove. I do have a gas stove but I use the electric stove for stewing. The heating plate retains heat even if turned off so I just turn it on for 5 minutes and turn it off for 15 minutess through the 2-hour cooking time. The flavor slow cooking delivers is definitely worth it. A coal stove will also work wonderfully for this. Cook this the night before you intend to serve it to really get the most flavor, as with any old stew.

Ingredients:
Flavor paste
1 pc siling haba, seeds removed, chopped
4 pcs siling labuyo, seeds removed, chopped
2 medium red onions, chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 tbsp finely sliced fresh lemongrass (or about 4 inches worth of the white part near the roots)
1 tbsp galangal paste (I found Thai Galangal Paste in Cherry Foodarama)
1 thumb-sized ginger, sliced
1 - 2 tbsp water, to thin the paste as needed

1/2 cup dessicated coconut, toasted dry on a pan
1/2 kilo beef brisket cut to chunks
1 cup coconut milk (or simply milk of one coconut - put all that milk in!)
2 cups water (as needed)
2 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Premium Soy Sauce (it's supposed to be Malaysian thick soy sauce)
2 tbsp regular soy sauce
2 tsp curry powder
8 asitaba leaves, sliced thinly (but it's really supposed to be lime and turmeric leaves. Asitaba tastes nothing like them but hey, those are the only leaves I can get in my front yard))
Pepper and patis to taste

Procedure:
In a mortar and pestle, combine first 7 ingredients and pound together until it becomes a paste. Otherwie, use a blender and whiz away to make a paste. Add water if necessary to thin the paste ito a manageable texture. Set aside.

Toas the dessicated coconut until golden brown. Grind to a paste or blend in the blender again. Set aside.

In a pan, heat oil in medium-high flame and add the flavor paste. Saute until it becomes very aromatic about 3-4 minutes. Add the beef and stir in for about 3 minutes more.

Add to the beef mixture the coconut milk, the water, the curry powder, both soy sauce and pepper. Bring to a simmer. Then add blended toasted coconut and asitaba leaves. Mix thoroughly, cover and bring to a slow boil.

Now lower the heat and you can go back surfing, wash the laundry or watch Sherlock Holmes and let it stew for about 1.5 hours or until beef is tender. Just make sure that you stir it occasionally, every 10-15 minutes so it will not burn at the bottom.

When it is done, it will be brown, thick and grainy from the coconut. Serve it with hot rice and cucumber slices.

Posted via Blogaway

Posted via Blogaway

#49: Piri-piri(-inspired) Chicken

"Tinola, fried chicken, adobo, afritada, caldereta... Ano pa nga ba? Nakukurta na utak ko!" 

I remember this to be the woe of my grandma when she can't think of anything else to do with good old chicken. And I know a lot of battle-scarred Pinoy kitchens suffer from the same chicken-again fatigue.

So to make our chicken-loving selves enjoy some variety, I have a number of other chicken dishes that is not a typical Pinoy household fare such as Pollo al Ajo and Chicken Florentine. There are a few others that I am still too lazy to write about but today, Igot inspired to share my experiment that brought yet another refreshing dimension to our favorite bird. This recipe is inspired by a barbecue sauce called Piri-piri made of a chili called, well, Piri-piri. :-) This version is the pan fried one. Not very authentic but hey, this is definitely manageable for our busy schedules and an absolutely good eats for the family.

#47: Quiche Lorraine

My husband marveled at me when he learned that for most of my life, I did not eat breakfast. I didn't like it much if it meant left-over rice from last night and some desiccated fried fish from 2 days ago. Or if it means jars of spreads beside a loaf of bread.

However, during our honeymoon in Coco Beach, I realized that it can be the most beautiful meal of the day so long as you prepare it properly - prepare it with a little affection :-) When preparing breakfast, you have to throw in some respect because it should not be just a chore that you have to get by in the morning as you rush to school or work.

The ketchup garnish on the side was my tacky and contrived attempt
to dress up this quiche a bit. Still yummy though.

So in honor of breakfast, how about we try a lavish spin on your typical breakfast ingredient: eggs!

#43: Spicy Stir-Fried Pork

I am slowly warming up to experimenting on Asian flavors. It's ironic that I am Asian yet I am totally foreign to the flavors of our neighbors like kaffir, galangal, coriander, rice wine, lemongrass, cardamom, and many others. What I usually find in groceries are ingredients that lean towards Western cooking. So in a quest for new flavor dimensions, I recently tried an Asian-inspired salad and this delectable stir-fry dish.

This flavorful stirfry may take some time to prep but is a breeze to cook. The secret to quick stir-fry meals is having ingredients that are cut in smaller pieces so the heat can go through it quicker. Guess what else?

#41: Chicken Florentine

when I buy chicken, I always ask the butcher to keep the chicken breast whole and I just use the rest of the chicken for stews or for frying. The breast of a whole chicken can fairly feed 2 to 3 people. If you want to feed four, set aside 2 whole chicken breasts for your meal.

This one is just so restaurant-y that some people are intimidated to even try to do this. But I assure you that this is much easier than it looks. Again, malunggay is the leafy vegetable of choice here more for its nutritional value. The slight bitterness of this vegetable goes well with the ham and cheese.  However, if you prefer kangkong or native spinach, it's okay. You will definitely wow your family or your friends with this elegant offering. 

Chicken Florentine

Sosy Level: 5

Pawis Level: 3

Featured Ingredient: Malunggay (don't you just love it? I have another Malunggay recipe here)

#39: Oriental Cabbage Salad

I used to have this notion that salad greens can only be lettuce. Whatever its first name is, so long as its last name is lettuce, then that's what you can use for salads: Romaine lettuce, Iceberg lettuce, Butterhead lettuce and so on. Otherwise, there are the more expensive and equally hard-to-find greens (at least here in the Philippines) such as the alfalfa, arugula, rocket, mustard, chard.. most of these I haven't even seen yet in person! I only see this whenever I watch Jaime Oliver! He has his own organic veggie garden, so.. oh well.

Going back, my brain was stuck in this idea that leafy salads only belong to the upscale Filipino dining table. That was until one of my mentors Kuya Hubert Cheock introduced me  to this clever little salad  made from our featured ingredient: CABBAGE!

#38:Friendly Oatmeal Biscuits

If you feel that the Mango Sesame Cookies  was a bit too much for beginners, then this one should be good fit for cookie rookies like you. I present to you the Oatmeal Biscuit! Not only can you boast of cooking something that is packed with fiber, this baby also boasts of a buttery melt-in-your-mouth texture with little crunches here and there. It is perfect with your milk tea and a good book like, say, the Hobbit or Remember Who You Are by Ed Lapiz. You only need the bare minimum of cookies, of course, with the addition of the oats: butter, sugar, flour, vanilla. So yeah, this is certified for beginners. :-D

Oats. It's such a friendly pantry item. You can make porridge from it, granola, muesli and desserts like cookies. Whenever you are attacked with a hunger pang, oats always lend a helping hand, filling (and cleaning) your tummy and patting you on the back, affirming you that you made the better choice by snacking on them. In this era where people are suddenly clamoring for wellness, oats have been elevated to a new level of popularity and for a good reason.

#35: Coffee Roasted Chicken

Coffee.. I am so in love with it that I even add it to my chicken! Haha! you may think that this will taste funny but really, what coffee adds to this is the smoky flavor without the actual carbon crust on the chicken. This is so delicious and simple, you can almost do this even if you don't have any cooking experience at all. And, it adds a truck load of pogi/ popularity points if you serve this to your friends. Little do they know that it is made of only 5 ingredients. 

#33: Cucumber for All Occasions Part 2

Now we have come to the second installment of our cucumber festival. The first couple of recipes are quite common but these two here are more adventurous.

Tzatziki's Long Lost Pinoy Brother

Now where getting somewhere! And that somwhere is Greece. This is a traditional Greek dip but we will try to make it more down to earth, ok? Strictly, it should be made with Greek yogurt which is richer than the yogurt we know. But hey, yogurt is already a bit pricey here so I guess we can make do with that. It's up to you if you want to scour the international aisle in your supermarket and find the real thing. :-D

#3I: Cucumber for All Ocassions Part 1

I got this cucumber picture from a site that sells -
you guessed it right! Cucumbers!

Before, I introduced you to the world of Buttered Vegetables. Now I want you to meet my friend the cucumber. This will be a series on how this simple and cool vegetable can make your dry days a bit more refreshing. Aside from the fact that this is packed with vitamin C, adding this to the menu will ensure that you will have your serving of vegetables and fiber for the meal. All of these recipes will more or less serve four people, depending on how herbivorous they are, haha! ;-)

#29: Garlic-Crusted Fish Steak in Citrus Butter

Actually, we were already eating when I said:
"WAIT! Don't mangle the fish yet! It still has no photo!"
Good thing it's still a bit intact for my cameraphone, hahaha!

This is what I cook when I'm feeling lazy because this is very, VERY easy. I must admit though that fish steak slices may be more expensive than your usual tilapia but if you think about it,you get more meat and less fish bones in these steaks. 




But do not take this dish lightly because you might be taken aback by how good this one is. Take this, 5 ingredients. Good eh? You may use blue marlin or pink salmon if your budget can afford it. Or, a simple mahi-mahi slice should do the job. Cream Dory fillets may also work but you have to thaw and drain it well because it seems that those fillets have a lot of water in them. Tsk,tsk! If I use it for this dish, I end up with my steaks swimming in its juice, therefore, I am not able to create a crispy crust for the steak. So are you ready? 

#25: Pestong Buhay Ito! (The Basic Pesto Recipe)

Ahhh... pesto. The refreshing pasta sauce that is friends with a lot of good things in the savory world. Not only is it elegant, it is also utterly easy to make, especially with a blender. I did my first pesto manually by chopping the basil and garlic until it was ultra fine. I almost feel redundant to say this but yes, our featured ingredient for this recipe is, what else? Basil!

Thanks to divinedinnerparty.com for the delicious photo

Pesto
Pawis Level: 1
Sosy Level: 4
Will feed either just two or a dozen. It really depends on the use.

#23: Mango Sesame Cookie Recipe

I am fond of baking cookies for my friends and family. That is because I know that the people around me don't bake and it is like an uber-special treat if they received these hand-crafted, dainty little goodies inside that crackling plastic box. People usually think that baking cookies is the level one of baking. I think level one is cupcakes. You just make the batter and pour them into the molds, pop them in the oven then Tadah! Cupcakes.


I feel like cookies are more level 2. I even find making quiches easier. While I know that the mixing and measuring of ingredients and the baking technique is simpler with cookies, it seems to be more tedious in the handling process. I feel like maintaining accuracy of measurements and application of baking instructions as with bread and cakes is easier than the repeated process of making little balls, patting them into, well, patties, sprinkling stuff, rolling them into stuff, putting fillings in between and so on takes so much time, effort and delicate handling to make sure they turn out looking pretty. You can't be a rough wrestler with cookies. You have to be as delicate as the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland to pull nice, exquisite cookies off. Maybe that's the reason why it is an effort for me. I'm not exactly your Barbie Princess type. 

#21: Tuna Vegetable Pasta

This recipe was taught to me by one of my Sisa girlfriend, Charis (hi Yox!). I was initially curious and eventually it earned my respect (after I sampled it, if two servings can be called a sample) because it was sooooo flavorful for something nutritious and has eggplant. Imagine, it has carrots, chunks of tomatoes, sweet white onions, bell peppers and eggplant swimming in tomato sauce and a dash of olive oil. What's more, it has tuna in it. I usually place a dish in my hall of fame if i get to have my my good friend "I" to eat something she hates. In this case, eggplant. *pat in the back* (Good job, Anne.)


Indeed, who will not eat eggplant when it is what gives this pasta dish its distinct character. It's smoky flavor punctuates (or rather gives it an exclamation point!) all the merry flavors that are at play in this tomato-based recipe. 

#19: My Banoffee Pie

My daughter's bear even covets to have a bite.

So, I got enamored with the flavor, elegance and simplicity of Banapple's Banoffee Pie. I wanted to eat some more so I said I'd rather stuff myself with it at home. I then relived all  the flavors I enjoyed, checked the internet for some of my co-foodie's versions and came up with my own. Yeah! One whole pie just for me and my household!
You will just have to have a hand mixer though to whip the cream that we have in our recipe. I'd like to make the caramel sauce our featured ingredient but it is not exactly an ingredient. Caramel sauce calls for its own recipe so we'll make it the banana. 
We are used to eating banana just as it is when we need a quick snack or when there is nothing else to eat. Well, it is becoming increasingly popular anyway as a breakfast or meal substitute because it has all the works: vitamin C, potassium, energy from natural sugars, digestible carbohydrates, zero fat and cholesterol, dietary fiber. However, we fail to see that we can squeeze it into a sandwich with some peanut butter, or toss it with some orange segments and simple syrup,  or turn it into a luscious dessert just like this one! Oh this is going to be exciting! 

#17: Pininyahang Atay ng Manok (Sarap nito!)

Perhaps I was treated to a death-by-tomato-dishes when I was young that is why I'm more inclined to prepare coconut or milk-based sauteed dishes now that I have my own kitchen. I still loooove kalderetang baka (the type that has peanut butter, and cheese and coconut milk *sigh*. I'll share the recipe for that soon!) but there is something refreshing and light about this Pinoy dish that we're going to bring to life this time.


This is an attempt to make you liver-haters to love the luscious, buttery, slightly bitter and earthy taste of our featured ingredient: chicken liver. Chicken liver is much smoother and lighter on the palate than pork or beef liver. Its rather eccentric characteristics are balanced out by the beach-loving, tangy flavor of pinapples that is sweet, sour and fruity at the same time. Then the whole marriage is tied by the rather subtle but creamy contribution of milk, both cow's and coconut (or whichever is available in your pantry at the moment). This nutritious and friendly viand could easily become a favorite in your repertoire of good food.

#15: Pumpkin Bisque

Don't you just love that dollop of cream on top?
Thank you http://www.olivecocomag.com for
the tantalizing photo!

Okay fine, it's really just pumpkin soup. Bisque just sounds more expensive. :-D

A  very good friend of mine hate our featured ingredient today: pumpkin or what we Pinoys commonly call kalabasa. The mere mention of kalabasa as part of her meal will make her stick out her tongue. Maybe because her only idea of kalabasa dishes are Pinakbet  and Guinataang Gulay (Vegetables in Coconut Milk). But I take pride in the fact that I was able to make her enjoy kalabasa through this hearty soup. She liked it so much she requests for it every now and then if she’s ever gonna visit our place. When we have this in our home, I just eat a big bowl of this filling soup with 4 pices of buttered toasts (although that is not a very good diet option, is it? Wheat bread perhaps?) and I’m good for lunch. Even my almost-2-year-old loves her rice to be swimming in this soup. Come to think of it, this is one tasty way of having your children get that beta-carotene in their diet.

#13: Simple Pinakbet (The Recipe)

Calm down, calm down...

The recipe you waited for is here. :-D This is simple because it only has the bare necessities: kalabasa, string beans and malunggay. The more elaborate ones include eggplant, okra, malunggay fruit, patani, kalabasa flowers, some wrinkly vegetable that looks like short string beans like the one in the upper right of the picture here. Are you familiar with that? Anyway, the more vegetables you use, the more bagoong and pork you should use as well to make sure that it will stay flavorful.

#10:Blackened Chicken on Creamed Leafy Bed

I saw this on TV a few weeks ago but it required spinach. Hmmm... spinach may be affordable in POpeye's town but not here in the Philippines. So you know what I did? I substituted it with kangkong (water spinach) and  malunggay! It looked the same, tasted really good and is sure-fire to be very healthy. If you don't know yet, malunggay, when cooked right, it is the ultimate vegetable. You can practically live just eating malunggay leaves as your vegetable! Take this:


"Gram for gram, moringa leaves contain four times the calcium and two times the protein in milk. It also contains seven times the vitamin C in oranges, three times the potassium in bananas, and four times the vitamin A in carrots. "(Ernesto Ordoñez, IInquirer)


I thought that this is such a nice balanced meal that is perfect for lunch or baon for your kids. You just have to stock up on a number of spices first before you do this because this is spice-heavy. Meat and veggies, spicy and creamy, strong and mild. I love this because it is so simple yet when you serve this, it oozes with elegance, flavor, and wholesome goodness,  this should be part of every family's menu! 

#8: Buttered Vegetables

These baby carrots from eatjax.com
indeed look tasty and refreshing

This vegetable side dish is so versatile because it can go with any fried or baked meat dish that's relatively dry or monotonous in color. I usually pair this with Pollo Al Ajo because it balances the chicken's rich, spicy flavor with the light and refreshing flavor of the beans, carrots, the earthiness of the mushrooms and the sweet bursts from the corn. The light crunch and color definitely add not just nutrition but also life and depth to your meal whether it be simply fried chicken or fried fish. At the end of the recipe, I added variations to this to suit your taste and the main dish that it will be partnered with.