Beef Stir Fry w/ Hokkien Noodles

One thing I love about stir fry recipes is the simplicity and quickness of cooking them. The richness of the flavor and great smell from the kitchen while cooking are enough to make someone drool.

A friend of ours gave us a big chunk of beef round so I told my hubby that maybe I should make some stir fry for dinner.  Usually an asian stir fry would ask for hoisin sauce but gee I didn't realize that I've ran out of it so I had to whip up some other ingredients to cook it. 

I really didn't use any measurement  in this stir fry recipe so I had to remember at least how much I put in...goodness!  Well anyway, just use the rule of tasting to suit your preference.

Ingredients
1/2 k beef round (cut into paper thin size)
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ginger powder
salt and pepper to taste
300 g Hokkien noodles
6 pcs bok choi (or pechay)
1 green or red capcicum (strips)
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 medium onions (wedges)
peanut oil

Procedure
Mix soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, sugar, ginger, a bit of salt and pepper in a small bowl.  Set aside.
Heat up the peanut oil in a wok.  Sautee onions and garlic.
Add in the beef and stir.  Cook for  at least 2 minutes.
Put in the bok choi and capcicum. Stir for another 2 minutes.
Pour in the mixed sauce.  Stir.
Add in the noodles.  Stir for 2 minutes and then remove from wok.
Serve hot.

***Soak the noodles in a warm water while stir frying all the other ingredients.


A comment or two will be appreciated...

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My Baked Macaroni Experiment

Baked macaroni is just so lovely!  It's my husband's first taste of it and he certainly loved it so I might have to bake this again sometime. 

A little bit of trivia --- I didn't know that there's a legend that Marco Polo found this macaroni in China and brought it to Europe!  but then again, it's just a legend...if you want to read more about it and some macaroni info, you can go to this http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/id/50/


Ingredients
500 g elbow macaroni (cooked according to package instruction)
1 c grated cheese
1 tin tomato sauce
1 tin whole tomatoes w/ sauce
1/2 k lean minced beef
6 pcs hotdogs, sliced diagonally
100 g bacon pieces
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sweet basil
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp sugar
1 large onions, minced
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 red capcicum, chopped
1 carron, cut into little cubes
1 1/2 c beef broth
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure
Sautee onions, garlic and capcicum.
Add in the minced beef.  Just before it gets cooked add in the hotdogs and bacon.
Add in carrots.
Put in the seasonings and herbs.  Stir well.
Pour in the tomato sauces and the beef broth.
Simmer until thick.

Pour into the pasta (large baking dish) and mix well.
Top w/ bechamel sauce and grated cheese.
Cover the dish w/ foil.
Bake in a 200C preheated oven for 1 hour or until the top turns a little brown.  (Remove foil just 10 minutes before the baking time is over)

A comment or two will be appreciated...

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Easy and Simple Corned Beef Spaghetti

When my husband asked me what's for tea tonight, I told him ---Spaghetti honey!  Then he replied, "the sweet pinoy spaghetti?"  I said, "nope, just a bit of this and that kind of spaghetti" hehehhehe.  Although, he eats pinoy style spaghetti, I know he finds it sweet to his liking so this time I tried a different approach.  I had tins that I can use for the sauce...although no hotdogs.  He certainly fell in love with this simple and easy recipe that I made and even said I should do it again.

Ingredients
1/2 tin hamper or hormel tin corned beef
1/2 tin hamper or hormel tin ham (cubed)
1 medium onion (minced)
1 tsp garlic (minced)
1 carrot (minced)
1 tin mushroom (sliced)
1/2 c cream
1/2 c tomato sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/3 c water
2 tsp italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 K spaghetti noodles (cooked according to packet instructions)

Procedure
Sautee onions and garlic. 
Stir in the carrots and mushrooms.
Add in the corned beef and ham.
Pour in water.
Add in the tomato sauce and paste.
Add the Italian seasoning.
Put in the salt and pepper.
Simmer.
Switch off the stove.
Pour in the cream and stir.
Serve with the noodles.
A comment or two will be appreciated...

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Tuna Pesto Penne Rigatto w/ Black Olives

I've found out that my former student, Jana (thank you for the photo). cooked tuna pasta with her home made pesto so I asked her if she could give me her recipe.  However just like me, she would sometimes cook using taste method...in short no particular rule in measurements of ingredients.  Anyway, that's what make us different and more at home with our cooking. 

Here is a good recipe in making this dish.  Trial and error until I was able to make a good one.

Ingredients
1/2 penne rigato
1 tin tuna in water
2 c fresh basil leaves
1/2 c freshly grated parmesan cheese or romano cheese
1/2 c extra virgin oil
1/3 c  walnuts
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt and  pepper to taste

Procedure
Cook the penne according to package instruction
Grind basil in your blender using pulse mode.  Add the garlic and continue to pulse. 
Add olive oil slowly.
Add the cheese.  Continue grinding.
Put in salt and pepper and grind again.
In a small bowl, put in the tuna (tuna in water tin). Add in the pesto (will depend on how much you want). 
Serve with noodles
Top with olives.

A comment or two will be appreciated...

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Pancit w/ Sotanghon and Singaporean Noodles

I think  this is the best pancit I have ever cooked.  I cooked this one for my baby girl's first birthday and I tell you it's quite delicious.  You don't need to put any other additional seasoning befor you eat it because it is already well seasoned.

Ingredients
600 g pork, diced
200 g sotanghon noodles
200 g singaporean noodles
100 g snow peas
100 g green beans, chopped diagonally
100 g cabbage, shredded
4 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium size carrot, matchstick sliced
1 chicken broth cube
1 ginisa mix
4 tbsp kikkoman soy sauce
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 c water
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure
Season pork with salt and pepper. 
Sear the pork in a non stick pan. Remove from pan when the meat becomes a bit brown.
Sautee onions and garlic in the same pan. 
Put the meat back and stir in with the onions and garlic.
Add in the broth cube and ginisa mix.
Put in the sauces.
Cook for 2 minutes.
Add in the veggies. 
Pour in water.
Simmer just until the veggies are half cooked.
Add in the noodles.  Stir.
Simmer for two minutes.
Remove from fire.

A comment or two will be appreciated...

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Shrimp Fetuccine by E. Estrada

One good thing about being a teacher is finding your former students liking the things that you also like doing -- cooking and baking.  Eliza Estrada was one of my students in Social Studies way back when I was still teaching at Miriam College.  She's one of my smart and well behaved students who would never ran out of stories to tell.  I recently found out that she posted a dish at FB and I asked her if I could feature this in my foodblog and she immediately said yes.  Thank you dear!  Like many other Filipinos, her dish is made better by tasting as she cooks it.  No big rule in measurements, just trust your instict and your taste buds.  I would surely try this one too as soon as I get prawns.

This is her email:

Saute ng garlic in oil, then add 1 pk of heavy whipping cream (473 ml).. Stir in half a pack of 6blend italian cheese (parmesan, romano, mozzarella, asiago, provolone and fontina), then I just added more parmesan cheese.. Stir under low fire.. I added the shrimp and broccoli. Then stir in fettucine.. Add salt pepper to taste and parsley flakes.. Then remove from fire... :)

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Thai Noodle Pinoy Pancit

No birthday would be birthdays if there would be noodles on the table.  I cannot remember a time when there was no pancit on the family table when someone was celebrating his/her birthday in our family.  It is supposed to bring good health and long life to the celebrator according to my parents and other oldies in the family.  I guess this is also true in most Filipino families.  This is just one of the many obvious influences of the Chinese in the Philippine cuisine. 

Normally, I would use bihon or sotanghon noodles in cooking pancit but since I am in another country and we are a bit far from the Asian store I had to use whatever noodles we can get from IGA which is just a short walking distance from our house.  I would also usually use fresh veggies and slice or cut them patiently but since this is my daughter's birthday and I am the only one who would cook for her party, I really need to do a shortcut so I preferred to use the frozen mixed veggies. 

Even if I did a little bit of change with the ingredients the pancit still taste the same.  I guess that usually happens when you're so used to cooking the same dish for a loooooonng looooooongg time.

Ingredients
600 g flat noodles (pad thai noodles)
1/2 k pork, cubed
200 g mixed veggies (frozen mixed veggies ---carrots, beans, brocolli, cauliflowers)
100 g cabbage, shredded
1 large onion, minced
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1/4 c spring onions, chopped
1 tbsp parsley
1/4 c soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp maggi savour
1 chicken broth cube dissolved in 1/4 c warm water (or shrimp flavor)
1 magic sarap
1 c water (add more if you want to dillute the salty taste)
pepper to taste

Procedure
Fry the pork until just cooked.
Add in the onions and garlic and stir.  Cook until onions are transparent.
Add in the veggies.
Put in the sauces, and the rest of the ingredients except noodles.
Remove the veggies when already cooked (make sure that they are not overcooked)
Set aside.
Put in the noodles onto the pan.  If there's not enough sauce, add a bit of water and do a taste - test and add a bit of the sauces if it becomes too bland for your taste.
Place the noodles in a big serving dish and put the veggies on top.
Serve with lemon or calamansi.

A comment or two will be appreciated...

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Spinach Fetuccini w/ Meatballs & Bolognese Sauce

I still have half of the uncooked spinach fetuccini from the last time I cooked a pasta.  This time I decided to use it for a meatball - bolognese sauce pasta. 

Normally, it is better to make your own chunky tomato sauce instead of using the ones in the tin but I did not have much time to spare this time so I decided to just use the one in tin.

One more thing that I have changed in the recipe is the all spice ingredient.  Since I do not have it, I used the mixed herbs instead.  The zuchinni is really yummy in a bolognese sauce, it adds a little bit of sweet taste to it.  I also did not add much red wine on it since I am not really a big fan of this type of wine.  I only added half a cup just to give a bit kick to it.  I used the dried basil instead of the fresh one since it's what's available in my pantry but if you want fresh ones, might be better.  Only remember one thing though, if you decide to use dried herbs instead of the fresh ones, make sure that you lessen a third of the original amount that you will be adding to the dish since dried ones are more concentrated.

Ingredients
meatballs or 500 g beef minced
1 onion, minced
1 tbsp garlic,minced
425g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 carrot, grated
1 zucchini, grated
2 tbsp mixed spice
1/2 c red wine
1/3 c fresh basil, chopped ( I used the dried ones)

Procedure
Sautee onions and garlic.  Add in the tomatoes, tomato paste, carrots, zucchini, mixed spice and wine.
Put in salt and pepper.
Bring to a boil.
Put in the meatballs.
Reduce heat and simmer until the fresh tomatoes are soft and the the sauce becomes thick.
Put in the basil and simmer for a few minutes.

Spinach Fetuccini
500 g
Cook according to packet instruction.

Serve with parmesan cheese on top.

Note: If you are using the dried basil, add 1/4 c or a bit less.

 A comment or two will be appreciated...

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Beef Stroganoff with Spinach Pasta

Beef Stroganoff is one favorite that my husband and I couldn't miss.  I have always loved the gravy like sauce of this dish.  We sometimes have this as our main dish with rice or pasta. 

Beef Stroganoff is a Russian dish which has its origin in Russia in the 19th century.  The name might have come from the famous, large and important family of Stroganov or  Alexander Grigorievich Stroganoff of Odessa or a diplomat, Count Pavel Stroganov. The first known recipe of this dish was published as early as 1861.  From then on, it has become popular throughout the world that many variations of this dish have been made. 

Ingredients.
1/2 k beef strips
1 c beef broth
2 cups button mushrooms, chopped
1 c onions, minced
1 tin of cream of mushroom soup (Campbells)
1 tbsp garlic
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp plain flour
1/2 c butter
1 c cream
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure
Marinate beef with soy sauce for 30 minutes.
Add the plain flour.  Make sure it is evenly distributed.
Heat a pan and melt butter.
Sear beef in the melted butter until brown.
Remove from pan.
Sautee onions and garlic until onions are transparent.  Put in the mushrooms. Stir.
Add in the beef.  Stir.
Pour in the broth and cream of mushroom soup.
Boil.
Pour in cream.  Simmer for 2 minutes.
Remove from fire.

Pasta
I've used the San Remo Spinach Fetuccine.
Cook according to package instruction.  I did it for 18 minutes to achieve the aldente texture of the pasta.

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Our Fave Chicken Sopas

This is my own recipe of chicken sopas.  You might notice that like what I did with the chicken at the nilugawang manok recipe, I also marinated the chicken with fish sauce first before cooking the dish.  This would make the chicken more flavoursome so even if you add water or broth to the dish, the meat would not lose much of its flavour. 



Ingredients
500 g chicken wings, chopped
300 g shell pasta (or any pasta you want)
1 c cabbage, shredded
1/2 c carrots, sliced like matchsticks
1 c evaporated milk
3 pcs hotdogs, sliced diagonally
2 tsp garlic, minced
1 medium onion, minced
1 chicken broth cube
4 tbsp  fish sauce
7 c water

Procedure
Marinate chicken with 2 tbsp fish sauce for 30 minutes.
Cook pasta according to packet instruction.
Sautee onions and garlic. 
Put in the chicken and sear the meat.
Put in the hotdogs.
Add the carrots and cabbage.  Stir.
Add water, broth cube and fish sauce.
Boil.  I would usually boil it longer than usual until the chicken meat separates from the bones.
Add the pasta and simmer.
Pour in the milk.
Serve hot.

A comment or two will be appreciated...

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Spring Rolls with Rice Vermicelli Noodles (Lumpiang Shanghai the healthier version)

I would always make spring rolls or lumpiang shanghai for my husband and he would always bring some to his friend at work. It has always been a blockbuster.  They both love the taste and the crispiness of the spring rolls.

Spring rolls are usually eaten on spring season/festival in China, hence the name.  They are well known appetizers in Asia especially the eastern and southern parts.  The versions are various depending on what place you are from.  They could be made from mince meat, seafood or veggies. 

Spring rolls has always been a favorite of my family.  They are always present in all occasions.  I have never been to a party in the Philippines without seeing lumpiang shanghai on the table.  In our town, it is easy to prepare them since you don't really have to mince the ingredients manually.  You can just go to your favorite suki meat vendor at the market and they could mince everything for you using their heavy steel or metal (?) mincer.  Here in Australia, I had to do everything manually since I am always forgetting to get that multi-function chopper at K-Mart or Harvey Norman.  I should have told my husband to get that $10 chopper at Harvey Norman online sale, geez!

Well anyway, this time,  I have altered the ingredients similar to the one that we had at a resto in Charleville,Queensland.  It was Jenny, a Filipina friend, who told us that they had this nice spring rolls and that we should really try them.  Unfortunately, when she took us in the resto, there were just a couple of rolls left (must be their best seller) so we just got one each.  I shared a bite with my hubby.  They were actually good!  The difference from the ones that I am used to make is that they had noodles and had more veggies. 

I was searching for the origin of spring rolls and I have found out that this particular one with the noodles has its origin in Vietnam.  Due to lack of resources (financially), their spring rolls are mostly made from veggies and sometimes lacking in meat. 

Ingredients
100 g green beans (baguio beans), sliced diagonally
1 medium size carrot, julienne
200 g cabbage, shredded
200 g potatoes or sweet potatoes, cubed
2 medium size onions, minced
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1/4 k pork (lean), thin strips
1/4 k mixed seafood (any of your choice)
2 tsp knorr or maggie savour seasoning
1 tbsp fish sauce (or to taste)
Spring roll wrappers (lumpia wrappers)
150 g rice vermicelli noodles

Procedure
Sautee onions and garlic.  Put in pork meat and seafood mix.  Stir until cooked. 
Add the seasonings (savour, fish sauce).  Stir.
Put in the veggies and add 1/2 cup of water.  Boil a bit. 
Put in the rice noodles and stir. 
Remove from fire.
Cool the filling.
Wrap just like the way you do with spring rolls or lumpiang shanghai.
Fry at low fire. 
Serve with your favorite dip.

A comment or two will be appreciated...

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Instant Pancit Canton with a Twist

Instant Pancit Canton is the easiest meal that one can have when there's no more time to cook or buy ingredients from the market.  Just boil some water, and put the noodles in..mix the sauce and presto!  You have one nice meal!

In the Philippines, Lucky Me, Maggie and other instant noodle meal are quite very popular.  If I can still remember it right, we used to buy Php2.50 per pack.  Now I am not that sure how much does it cost to buy a pack of instant noodles. 

Here in Australia, you can buy the Philippine brand instant noodles at any Asian-Filipino store.  Howevery, if you are far from those stores, there's no choice for you but to get anything similar to it.  Nanay was the one who told me about Mi Goreng instant noodles that my brother in law would always buy in Melbourne so my husband rushed to the shop to buy some. 

We used to have it just plain boil and mix the sauce then eat but I grew tired of it.  I decided that maybe I could add a bit of twist to it so the taste would be similar to the homemade pancit canton dish.  The result was really good that whenever we have them on my pantry, I would certainly cook them with a twist.  

Here's the recipe

Ingredients
3 packets of Mi Goreng (or any instant pancit noodle brand)
1 c of mixed chopped veggies
1 c mixed seafood
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 medium onion, minced
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp maggie or knorr instant savour
1 tsp of ginisa mix granules

Procedure
Cook the noodles according to packet instructions.
Set aside the sauce mix.
Sautee onions, garlic, ginisa granules, mixed seafood and veggies.
Pour in the sauces  (the ones that come with the noodles and the other sauces)
Turn the heat to low and put in the noodles.  Mix well and serve hot.
A comment or two will be appreciated...

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Seafood Marinara Spaghetti

My husband bought a mixed seafood packet in a box the other day.  I was wondering what am I going to do with it because the prawns and squids in the mix were quite small.  I would not buy them if we have fresh ones here.  How I miss the fresh seafood in Hagonoy! 

Because of their sizes, I can only use them as panghalo or just a flavouring for my dishes.  Then I remember the seafood spaghetti that I have had before in the Philippines.  I've looked for recipes on the internet and I did  find some but most are complicated.  I did not have much time to cook yesterday since I felt so tired...not much sleep because of my 8 month old baby girl, and my 21 month old toddler.  So, anyway, after reading those recipes, I'd decided to make my own recipe of Seafood Marinara Spaghetti.  Marinara sauce is actually tomato based sauce so don't be surprised if the taste has a bit strong tomato taste.

Ingredients:
500 g spaghetti (cooked to package instruction)
500 g seafood marinara mix (or fresh seafood, get adventurous)
1 275 g tin of peeled, crushed tomatoes
3 medium size, fresh tomatoes (boiled and crushed)
1 C tomato sauce  (or 1/4 C tomato paste dissolved in 3/4 c water + 1 tsp sugar)
2 tbsp, garlic, minced
1 medium size, onion, minced
1/4 C olive oil or 50 g butter
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried parsley (or fresh ones, minced)
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp flaked chillis (or fresh ones)
1/3 C heavy cream
1/2 C parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Sautee onions, garlic.  Add fresh tomatoes, tin tomatoes and tomato sauce.  Cook until a bit thick.  Put in all the herbs including the cheese.
2. Put in the marinara mix. Cook for 2 minutes.
3. Pour the cream and add salt and pepper.  Simmer.
4. Serve hot.

Note:  See the ingredients for the other tips.  You can play with the amount of herbs that you would like to add.  Sometimes I would add more depending on the amount of sauce I am making.  If the sauce is a bit strong for you because of the tomatoes, just add sugar.

 A comment or two will be appreciated...

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Pasta Carbonara

Carbonaro is an Italian word which means charcoal burner.   Italians believe that this noodle dish was first made for Italian charcoal workers.   There was even a suggestion that it was made to give tribute to  Carbonari which means "charcoalmen", a secret society prominent in the unification of Italy.

It was first described after the war a Roman dish, when many Italians were eating eggs and bacon supplied by troops from the US.  It was even called "coal miner's spaghetti" in some parts of the US.  (wikipedia, Better Homes and Garden Magazine)

I've seen a lot of carbonara recipe in cook books, internet and magazines.  Some are complicated though.  What I did is to simplify the ingredients and the measurements making sure that the pasta carbonara will not become dry.  The amount of the ingredients is very easy to memorised.  My husband asked me once when I was cooking at my in - laws' place if I could really remember the ingredients, the measurements and the method.  Of course I said YES!  I can even cook this with my eyes closed LOL.

Ingredients:
500 g spaghetti/fetuccine noodles
400-500 g bacon
100 g butter
1 C thickened cream
1 C parmesan cheese, grated
1 tbsp garlic, minced
2 medium onions, minced
5 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Cook the noodles according to package instruction.  If there is no instruction, just cook it in a boiling water with salt and oil for 18 minutes.  If you are using angel hair pasta the cooking time is shorter.
2. Fry the bacon (do not slice yet...most of the recipes you will find will tell you to use bacon rashers which I hate using because I always get blisters from the hot oil or butter) in the butter.  It will depend on you if you want the bacon cooked crisp or not.  I prefer cooking half of the bacon crispy and the other half, just cooked.  When the bacon is cool enough, use a pair of scissors (instead of a knife)  to cut it into small pieces.  Set aside.
3. Whisk in a bowl the cream, cheese and eggs.  Add salt and pepper.
4. Sautee onions and garlic.  Add half of the bacon.  Put in the noodles.  Make sure that everything is well mixed. 
5. Pour the sauce mixture and bled well.
6. Top with bacon and serve.

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Jap Chae Glass Noodles

This Korean noodle recipe reminds me of the days when Denden (a former co teacher) would have the noodles brought to our school parties by our Korean students. The marriage of the the saltiness and the sweetness in the recipe is just perfect! I would often tell myself then that I would try cooking this someday. Fortunately I have found a nice and yet simple recipe on the internet (I forgot the source though). 

I cooked it first on our New Year's Eve dinner in the Philippines in 2009 and I did it again a few months ago in Australia.

Ingredients
1/2 pound dried Korean sweet potato noodles
2 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil, divided
1 tablespoon cooking oil
3/4 cup thinly sliced onions
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 stalks scallions, cut into 1″ lengths
1/2 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced (shitake, wood ear)
1/2 lb spinach, washed well and drained
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Procedure:
Fill a large pot with water and boil. When water is boiling, add the noodles and cook for 5 minutes. Immediately drain and rinse with cold water. Drain again and toss with only 1 tsp of the sesame oil. Use kitchen shears to cut noodles into shorter pieces, about 8 inches in length. Set aside.

In bowl, mix soy sauce & sugar together. Add the cooking oil in a wok or large saute pan on high heat and swirl to coat. When the cooking oil is hot but not smoking. Fry onions and carrots, until just softened, about 1 minute. Add the garlic, scallions and mushrooms, fry 30 seconds. Then add the spinach, soy sauce, sugar and the noodles. Fry 2-3 minutes until the noodles are cooked through. Turn off heat, toss with sesame seeds and the remaining 1 1/2 tsp of sesame oil.

Note: You can buy the glass noodles at any asian stores if you are abroad and in Korean shops if you are in the Philippines.

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