Cantonese Sweet and Sour Beef

I usually use pork cubes in making sweet and sour meat but since I am saving the pork in the freezer for pancit on Sunday (my youngest daughter's birthday), I decided to use the beef this time.  I've had this before in a Chinese restaurant and the taste was really yum!  The only difference between the two is that the beef one has rice wine vinegar and spring onions.  Oh plus the way it is cooked.  You can compare it to my sweet and sour pork recipe in my past posts.  Both are delicious but have different tangy tastes.  This dish is less complicated to cook than the other one though.   I suggest that you cook both recipes and let me know which one do you like better.

Ingredients
1/2 beef, sliced thinly
1 375 g, pinapple pieces in tin
1 green capcicum, deseeded and chopped
2 stalks spring onions, chopped
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1/4 pineapple juice
1 tsp caster sugar
2 tsp cornflour
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp sunflower oil

Procedure
In a bowl, mix together the pineapple juice, rice wine vinegar, caster sugar, dark soy sauce and cornflour.  Set aside.
Pour the sunflower oil to the beef.  Make sure that the meat is well coated with oil.
Heat a pan. 
Fry the meat for two minutes.
Add in the capcicum, spring onions and garlic.  Sautee for another 2 minutes.
Add in the pinapple pieces.  Cook for another 2 minutes.
Pour in the juice.  Simmer until it starts to bubble.
You can add salt and pepper if you like.

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Sticky Chicken Wings

I was supposed to cook buffalo wings but there was no oyster sauce in my pantry so I had to think of something else to cook.  I ended up doing a copy of my usual bbq sauce but without the peanut butter and yep the wings tasted really great!  This one would be great for parties and picnics.

Ingredients
1/2 k chicken wings
1/3 c tomato ketchup
1/4 c dark soy sauce
juice of one lemon
1 tbsp worstershire sauce

Procedure
Mix the ketchup, soy sauce, worstershire sauce and lemon in a bowl.
Marinate wings for at least an hour before frying or grilling.
Serve with chips or mojos.

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Meatball Tagine with Eggs

Tagine or tajine dish is of North African origin.  Morrocans and Tunisians have also their own version of this dish.  It was name as such after the name of the earthenware pot that they use to cook it.  In the Philippines we call this pot -- claypot (banga, balanga).  The difference between the tagine pot and the philippine claypot is the height of the pot.  Tagines have wider mouth and shallower than the Philippine claypot.  I think the Filipinos would agree that the aroma that's coming from the claypot adds a lot to the taste of the dish.  When we were still kids, our family would always prefer to use claypots and open fire (using kahoy or wood) because of the additional flavour the dish or even rice would get from the pot.  I think there are still small shops at the towncenter that sell this type of pots.

Tagine photo courtesy of  morroco.com

Filipino claypot courtesy of reflectionofasia.com

I've found this tagine recipe in one of the recipe books that my husband had subscribed for me.  I got interested because it seemed like it would really taste yummy...and not too much ingredients are needed.  The original recipe calls for a teaspoon of cumin but it is a strong spice, I decided to just add 1/2 cumin.  I do not have a claypot or tagine pot so I used the sizzling pan instead.  We all love the dish and it was so difficult not to finish the whole thing in one sitting.

Ingredients
Meatballs
1/2 k beef, minced
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp coriander
salt and pepper to taste

Tagine
1 large  onion, chopped into rings
1 tsp sugar
150 ml vegetable stock
1/2 cumin
4 tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
4 eggs

Procedure
Mix all the ingredients for meatballs.
Roll into small balls.  Refrigerate for an hour.
Heat a sizzling pan.  Pour in the olive oil.
Caramelise onions with sugar until they are soft and transparent.
Add in the rest of the ingredients for tagine except for the eggs.
Cook for 15 minutes.
Add in the meatballs and cook for 10 minutes more. 
Switch off the stove.  Put the eggs in the dish.
Serve in the sizzling pan.

   
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Chocolate Rice Bubble Nests

Having 2 kids who are quite picky with food makes me think all the time on what dish to prepare that they would eat.  We bought Kellog's Rice Bubbles for them and it seemed like that they loved it the first few days until they get bored.  I decided to do the recipe at the back of the box hoping the kids will be interested again in it.  I have changed some the amounts of ingredients to suit my taste and the kids' tastes.   I also did a small twist to it , instead of jelly beans, I put football chocolates which look more eggs.  They loved the nests!!!  I also loved them...I am actually eating one of the nests while typing this recipe...hehe!

Ingredients
4 c rice bubbles
1 c dessicated coconut
3/4 c icing sugar
4 tbsp cocoa powder (cadbury)
250 g copha (solidified coconut oil)
15 patty paper cups
30 chocolate footballs

Procedure
Sift the sugar.  Mix in all the ingredients except the copha. Set aside.
Cube the copha.  Slowly melt in a saucepan.  Let cool a bit.
Pour the copha onto the rice bubble mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon.
Scoop enough mixture onto the patty cups and make a shallow well at center (like a nest).  Put a couple of chocolate footballs on top of the nests.  Refrigerate until firm.

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Beef Asado (Family Recipe)

This recipe was hand down to me by my Nanang Osang + (a spinster grandaunt).  She taught me how to cook this way back when I was still in the elementary school.  She's one strict lady who really loved food to the max level!

In this dish however I had to use things that are available in my kitchen.  I cannot find calamansi or calamunding here in Australia so I had to use the juice of one lemon + vinegar.  Use your taste buds in balancing the taste closer to the taste of the soy sauce - calamansi mixture.  I had discovered that if you mix lemon and vinegar and then add them to the soy sauce the taste would be good.
Our original recipe also uses chicken breast (white meat part) and the legs.  The meat, potatoes and carrots are not cut too.  They are only sliced after they are cooked. The sauce will also be poured onto the serving plate.  I could have done the original way but having two little toddlers around me wouldn't give me much time so for the purpose of cutting back time, I did it the short cut way.

Ingredients
1/2 k beef round, cut into pieces
1 large potato, quartered
1 large carrot, cut into pieces
1 large onions, minced
5 medium onions, whole
1 tin tomato sauce or 4 tbsp tomato paste dissolved in 6 tbsp water
1 tbsp garlic, minced 
1 red capcicum, sliced diagonally
1/4 c soy sauce (I used marca pina)
juice of one lemon
2 tbsp  white vinegar

Procedure
Marinate beef, potatoes, carrots,  and medium whol onions in the soy sauce - vinegar - lemon mixture for at least 15 minutes.
Fry the potatoes and carrots first before the beef to avoid the pan having too much fat.  Fry just until about cooked.
Remove from pan and drain excess oil.
In another pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil from the the other frying pan.  Sautee onions and garlic.
Put in the meat, carrots, onions and potatoes.
Pour in the marinade mixture.  Add half a cup of water.  Boil until meat is tender.  You can always add a bit of water if you want but just make sure that you do not over dillute it.
Pour in the tomato sauce or paste - water mixture onto the pan.  Simmer for 10 minutes.
Serve hot.

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Nilagang Pata ng Baboy (Pork Hock Stew)

I don't know which one I like better --- Beef or Pork Nilaga but all I can say is I love them both! Hehe.  Beef has a strong taste and would be more lovely if you add the fats to it when you cook your nilaga.  Pork Pata is also wonderful especially if the pork fats would be really cook for a number of hours that when you eat them, they just melt in your mouth.  I know both are bad for your health especially if you have a problem with your blood pressure but they're just so tempting to eat :).

I have already posted Nilagang Beef recipe so I will just add a bit this time.

Make sure that you get the front pork hock because it has more meat.
Ask your butcher to cut the pork hock into at least 5 pieces.  Boil them in a salted water for at least 3 hours ( I boiled mine for 4 hours) or until the fats and skins are alsmost off the bones.
Then follow the recipe for Nilagang Beef.

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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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