Beef kintsay

Special Beef Recipe


1. Boil Beef Shortribs in ginger and onions in a closed pot.
2. Let it reach boiling point and keep it there for 30 minutes.
3. After boiling for 30 minutes, simmer for about 2 hours (very low heat) until tender.
4. When the beef is tender already, sauté in a separate pan kinchay in ginger and onion and little oil.
5. Add soy sauce and Knorr seasoning to flavor when the sauté is almost done.
6. Pour the sautéed kinchay and sauce over the beef.

Happy eating!

Kilawin puso ng saging

Kilawing Puso ng Saging

1/4 kilo, lean ground pork
2 tbsp oil
one onion chopped
two cloves garlic
one big banana heart
2 pork cubes
one cup vinegar
one cup water
salt

1/2 cup vinegar combined with 1/2 cup water and salt (for squeezing and washing banana heart)

Procedure:

Make read 1/2 cup vinegar combined with 1/2 cup water and salt. (2 sets of this needed)

Strip banana heart until you get to the inner part that is more tender. Slice the banana heart and immediately immerse slices into the water-vinegar solution. Mix and squeeze banana heart in the solution then remove from the solution. Repeat in a new solution. Squeeze with fingers to remove liquid.

Heat pan with oil and fry the ground pork. Add in the garlic, fry and then add in the chopped onion. When well infused, put in the squeezed banana heart. Add vinegar, water, two pork cubes and boil open. Mix only when liquid has boiled for three minutes or so and keep boiling until liquid is just enough to cover the solid contents. Remove when tender.

Mondongo (Tripe and green beans)

May Ann showing off The Claw:
Sri Lankan crab at Singapore's No Signboard restaurant

Most of the dishes of the Macgregor-Esposo clan are quite unheard of such that a boyfriend once told me that if we get married I cannot cook what we eat at home because they are not "pambahay' recipes. Good thing he's married to someone else.



Below is another interesting recipe from Mommy and Abuelita dearest. I've looked it up in the Internet and Mondongo is a name of a tripe stew popular in South America. This one is done differently, though. You will need a few hours to cool the stock from the boiled tripe before going on to complete the procedure.

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo ox tripe
1/2 kilo green beans or habichuelas, cut two inches long
2 medium potatoes, cut like fingers, two inches long
4 cloves garlic
1 big onion
5 whole tomatoes peeled (boil in water till it cracks, then cool and peel)
olive oil or cooking oil for sauteing
patis
pepper

Cook the tripe in just enough water in a pressure cooker. Once tender or after around 30 minutes or so, remove the tripe and set aside the liquid to cool at room temperature.

Cut the tripe into strips and set aside.

After liquid cools to room temperature, put it in the refrigerator and wait till the fat hardens on the surface. Remove this fat. You will use the remaining liquid as your stock.

In a pan, saute the garlic, onion and peeled cut-up tomatoes until well blended. Add the tripe, add ground pepper and saute some more. Add the refrigerated liquid and bring to boil. (Make sure tripe is very tender at this point, otherwise, keep boiling until tripe tenderizes.)

If you have too much liquid, evaporate the liquid until it just about covers the ingredients in the pot. Add in the potatoes. Stir in the green beans when potatoes are nearly done. Salt with patis.

Chicken Chuletas

My mommy's mom , my abuelita, is a no-nonsense self-educated Bicolana who signed her documents with her thumbprint. She is perhaps responsible for improvising from the original versions of many of our dishes. She is so creative that when my brother Billy was 3 years old, she taught him to recite the story of Jesus' passion weaving bits of Bicolano, Cebuano, Spanish and whatever other language to create a very original oratorical piece.

(Sample line: Si Hesus nag-agto sa balay ni Caiphas....Pag-tapos gi-purung-purungan...) Can't really remember most of the lines, pity they did not have digicams then. During Lent she will take Billy to priests and nuns so that he could perform the lines. Abuelita would be all smiles and so proud as the nuns and priests allowed them into their cloisters.

We know this dish as simply "Chuletas" . It is a very simple dish but what makes it interesting is its lightness and piquant flavor. This dish is very economical because the whipped egg white provides volume while the strong flavor used to cook the chicken provides the distinctly tarty taste.

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast
2 eggs
5 cloves garlic
1/4 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon whole peppercorn
1/8 cup water
salt as desired
oil for frying

Pound the garlic, peppercorn together, then add the vinegar, salt, and the water to the mixture and mix well. Place the chicken breast in a small covered pot and pour in the mixture and boil, making sure the chicken is evenly saturated with the liquid. Boil until done and when liquid has evaporated and has been absorbed by the chicken. (It will be good if chicken is left with a light liquid coat from its own oil and the liquid mixture. ) When cool, cut the chicken in thin strips--it's okay to keep the peppercorn and garlic bits in. Set aside.

Separate the yolk from the whites. Whip the egg white in a bowl until it very stiff.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan.

In a separate bowl, add the egg yolk to the well-beaten egg white. When pan is very hot, quickly put a tablespoon of the frothy re-united eggs in a saucer and mix in 1 tablespoon of the chicken. Drop the chicken and egg mixture as though you are making a small pan cake. Fry lightly and turn. If your pan is big, you can fry several chuletas at the same time but make sure they don't touch each other. It is important to work fast because the egg mixture tends to lose its frothiness when exposed to air too long.

Don't over-fry, these things taste better when a little moist inside--a light brown color on each side would be perfect.

For busy moms, you can do the chicken and chop them ahead, ready for cooking with the egg at your convenience. Food keeps well because of the vinegar.

My maid is too lazy to whip the egg to a peak --the result is disappointing but tolerable, oh well --so today I bought her an electric beater. I must insist you make sure the egg mixture is frothy when you put them to the fire!

Scotch Broth

Photo shows the family in La Trattoria Pallota in Assisi doing what we do best--EATING!!!

Ingredients:

1 kilo beef brisket, in small cubes

(The Scots use lamb shoulder but Mommy said brisket is better. The Scots are simple, hardy folk and this is apparent in their fuss-free dishes.)

2 stalks celery, chopped
one onion, chopped
1/2 cup barley
1/2 cup dried split yellow peas
2 cubes beef bouillon (if using water instead of beef stock)
8 cups beef stock or water
1 carrot, grated
pepper, salt as desired

Soak the barley and peas separately for about 4 hours, then drain.

Boil the beef with celery, chopped onion, pepper, salt, and beef stock in slow fire until beef is very, very tender. Add in the dried peas, barley, beef bouillon and grated carrots. Cook until barley and peas are tender. (Barley cooks faster than dried peas but since this is soup, it's okay. The longer you simmer the ingredients together the more they give out taste!)

Remove from fire and serve hot.

Note: Use your common sense-- this is supposed to be a soup. If you end up with very little liquid, just add some more water.

Sarsa Italiana

Sharing an explosive moment with sister Dorthy

after a hearty meal at the Trattoria da Erminio:
"It must be the beans!" said I.

Sarsa Italiana

Maybe my mom called this Sarsa Italiana because of the typical use of lots of tomatoes. Like most of her dishes, this is simple and very good.

Ingredients
6 pcs Pork steak cut, skin removed
half cup flour
1 egg
salt
cooking oil
pepper
3 cloves garlic
1 onion, sliced
8 pcs red juicy tomatoes

Immerse tomatoes in boiling water until it cracks. Cool slightly and peel tomatoes then slice them in small wedges.

Break an egg on the pork slices and then add in salt, pepper, flour until well coated.

Fry each pork pieces until brown and set aside.

Remove some oil from the pan and saute garlic, onion and tomatoes until well blended. Add in the fried pork pieces and cook for about 20 minutes or until pork is completely cooked and liquid becomes thicker.

Remove from heat and serve.

Chicken Tim

I know Pata Tim as a Chinese pork dish so I have always wondered why my mom referred to this as Manok Tim. I have never encountered this dish anywhere else. But it is some kind of soul food!

Ingredients
whole chicken, cut up
1/2 kilo green onions, stalk intact (remove only roots)
1/2 kilo kinchay, stalk intact (aka Chinese celery) (remove only roots)

Note: buy kinchay that has a shorter sprout to make sure you don't end up with over-mature ones that become bitter when cooked.
1 tbsp patis or fish sauce
1 cup water
1 cube chicken bouillon
slice of ginger

Aaahhh! Real Pizza Napoletana!!!

Wash green onions and kintsay very well, cut off the roots but keep the stems and leaves intact except for the roots.
In a heavy or non-stick pot, create a nest from the green onion and the kintsay at the bottom of the pan. Add the ginger and the water and the chicken cube. Place the cut-up chicken on the vegetable nest. Cover and cook on medium low, keeping it covered for around 30 minutes. (Pot must be good enough to keep moisture in, otherwise you have to add a little water time and again)

Keep water level in the pan at least an inch thick. As the dish cooks, the vegetables give out a lot of liquid and this is what is infused in the chicken and in the resulting liquid.

After around 30 minutes, turn the chicken in such a way that the vegetables are also turned around it. Cook another 20 minutes or so.

Vegetables are supposed to end up very wilted and looking like loose ribbons wrapped around the chicken cuts.

Pour on dish and serve.