CHEESY SPINACH BUTTER SPREAD

My husband and I were walking along the Binondo Chinatown Manila as we, well regularly on a weekly basis do it as part of "our therapy" ( I wont mention anything about it but I'll do a separate blog regarding that). Anyway, just as I was saying, I get to see this beautiful and green veggie called the "spinach". I bought a  big bunch of it with no particular recipe to cook in mind. And then we ran onto the grocery store to score a butter and cheese ( I ran out of it) and then look what I have done with this and really with no exaggeration it's a blockbuster!! And I would like to make a special mention to a dear college friend Con for the recipe request as I grab my computer first thing in the morning today to blog about it. There you go Con! 

Chinatown Manila

what we need

there you go!

Ingredients:

Spinach (blanch and wash with cold water then squeeze to remove the excess water just like the above image)

Milk

Butter

Cheese

Onion 

Garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

Mix all ingredients in food processor and viola! You'll get that appetizing, yummy and delicious Cheesy Spinach Butter Spread in an instant! So easy and amazing right?!

You can actually enjoy this as dip or you can also mix this with pasta just like any other pesto sauce.

ROAST BEEF WITH GREEN BEAN AND MUSHROOMS

Beef is really our family's favorite, cook it in 101 ways and it will surely be a hit in the table. The beef recipe I'm gonna show you today is Roast Beef with green beans and mushroom. I have cooked this over a year or two and it took me for awhile to remember how I marinade this beautiful meat. And now I remembered...Okay got it! Now let's go down with the ingredients and procedure for this delicious, quick and easy meal. Enjoy your cooking!!

Roast Beef with green bean and mushroom

Ingredients

2 pcs Tenderloin steak bone in

3 tbs Balsamic Vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 a cup Butter for frying

Green Beans

Mushrooms

Procedure:

Marinade the meat in balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Then fry it over to a half a cup of butter.(Yes you read it right, half a cup of butter because we really love butter and you will be using it for other ingredients) until slightly golden brown on both sides. You don't need to over cook it as it'll be transferred to turbo broiler. sad I still don't have oven. So this will be roasted over in turbo broiler for about 30 minutes. The result is almost the same as in traditional baking or roasting. Then fry the vegetable to the left over butter in a pan and season it with salt and pepper. Once you serve the meat, pour over the remaining butter left in the pan as it has more juice and flavors in it.

COOKING INA'S BEEF PARES

There you go, I found the Beef Pares photo on my archive and as I promised, I'll share with you the recipe. 

I have two version of this recipe and the difference is actually the meat cuts that I used. The first one, I used Beef camto and the other one, bone marrow. I also made 2 types of preparation, one is I serve this over with rice and then soup on the side and the other one is served over noodles. Both ways is a hit and blockbuster to my family. One tip that I have to share is you need to prepare the dish a day before because it requires a very slow and long cooking process especially if you prefer to use the bone marrow. I don’t prefer the pressure cooker because slow and long cooking process especially with beef is much tastier and tender. Tender in a way that it never becomes saggy and corned beefy texture (I hate it!) Much more so if you cook this using charcoal stove or kalan de uling, you’ll get the best result.  But then again if you will be using the prime cuts like the tenderloin or sirloin 1 to 1 ½ hours of boiling is quite enough to cook the dish.

Ingredients

½ Beef Camto

1/4 cup Dark Soy Sauce

3 tbs Brown Sugar

3 pcs Star Anise

1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

3 tbs Oyster sauce

Sesame Oil

2 tbs Minced Garlic

Fried garlic for garnishing
Spring Onion for garnishing

Cornstarch/water mixture

In a large sauce pan, pour in water, star anise, cinnamon powder and beef camto and bring to a boil over very slow cooking process. Once it’s tender, separate the meat to the broth. In a bowl combine soy sauce, brown sugar, oyster sauce and sesame oil the set aside. Then fry the minced garlic until crispy and golden brown (make sure not to burn the garlic or it will taste bitter) and then set it aside for garnishing. In another sauce pan, sauté garlic, onion and beef, pour over the condiments and the cornstarch mixture to thicken the sauce. Season it with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with rice and garnish it with garlic and spring onion and the soup on the side. Or it can also be served with noodles, garnish with garlic and spring onion and pour in the soup and enjoy!

Beef Pares with rice

Beef Pares with rice

Beef Pares in Noodles

CHICKEN AFRITADA FILIPINO CLASSIC

I was looking at my picture files and trying to pick the next best thing to post and there I came across another classic dish. It's called Chicken Afritada. I honestly not into traditional Filipino cooking but because it is a call of duty of being a mom and a wife whose very much into traditional Filipino dish, so there I was in the kitchen doing what I need and love to do. It's our irony in the kitchen, three against one. My husband and two kids against me, I prefer out of this world dishes, inventing and innovating, while them, like what I have said is into traditional Filipino dish. So much so of the kitchen conflicts, I'll start it off by introducing you to my next recipe called "Classic Chicken Afritada". (By the way, this dish is so easy because my last post about the chicken curry recipe, I just replace the curry powder with tomato sauce and the procedure and ingredients are almost  the same).

Classic Chicken Afritada

Ingredients

1/2 kilo Chicken 

2 Medium sized potatoes sliced into cubes

1 medium sized carrots sliced into cubes

1/4 kilo Baguio Beans/Green Beans

1 pc Red/green Bell Pepper

1 cup Tomato Sauce

2 tbs minced garlic

1 medium size onion

Salt and Pepper

Bay Leaf

Fish sauce

Procedure

1. Fry the carrots and potatoes in oil then set aside.
2. In a pan, saute garlic and onion then put the chicken and seared. Cook until tender
3. Season with fish sauce and add the bay leaf.Let it simmer for awhile.Then put in the tomato sauce and the vegetables.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve

Another dish so simple yet very flavorful and hope your family will enjoy, just as our family did!Happy eating!!

COOKING INA'S CREAMY CHICKEN CURRY

Let me share to you one of the classic dish I made and if I may remember it correctly, I have cooked this over a thousand times already. Why? Because this is indeed one of my son's favorite dish. Among which are, Sinigang na Baboy, Adobong Baboy, Nilagang baboy. All traditional Filipino dish. But this dish captured the heart of my son maybe because of the different flavor it has. It has a distinct taste and blend so well with coconut milk giving this dish a delightful, creamy and savory taste you will surely enjoy. Allow me to share with you the simple recipe and I hope you will try and enjoy this dish with your family. Happy eating!

COOKING INA'S CREAMY CHICKEN CURRY

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 kilo of Chicken Breast
2-3 Medium sized potatoes cut in wedge
2 Medium sized Carrots sliced
1 Medium sized Red Bell Pepper cut into julienne
2-3 pcs Jalapeno/local green pepper
Spring onion for garnishing
1 cup Coconut milk
3 tbs Curry powder
1 tbs Fish sauce to taste
2 tbs Minced garlic
1 medium sized Onion sliced
2 tbs Ginger
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Fry carrots and potatoes in oil and separate. On a wok pan saute garlic, onion and ginger and then put the chicken breast
2. Let it simmer until the chicken is cooked and tender
3. Season with salt and pepper and a little of fish sauce to taste
4. Add the curry powder
5. Then pour in the coconut milk and let it simmer for awhile until it cooked then put the carrots, potatoes and bell peppers and jalapeno
6. Serve it in a platter and garnish it with spring onions on top.

 COOKING INA'S CREAMY CHICKEN CURRY

THE BEGINNING OF MY COOKING JOURNEY

Two words always comes together, when you think of cooking, you think about food and when you think about food, you think about cooking. For some people, they love to eat but they don't cook. They would enjoy eating in a restaurant or let somebody else cook for them. And for some, they love to cook but they don't eat what they cook. They just enjoy cooking for their love ones and that makes them happy already. But not me, I cook for myself and my family and eat with them the food that I cook. I can still remember when I was still a little girl I would love to look at my grandma while she’s preparing the dish to cook. I would love to see how she creatively sliced the vegetables and how she created the rhythm while chopping it. I was really amazed to see how the vegetables where sliced evenly and accordingly. Since then I started to practice my own chopping techniques and mimicking my grandmother kitchen skills to almost all kinds of leaves that we have in our backyard.   Now that I can cook my own dishes, I can perfectly applied what I have learned from my grandmother. This is the beginning of my journey to wonderful cooking and so glad to share it with you.