TURMERIC CHICKEN

It is time to share a recipe that I concocted from random ingredients that I have here in the house.  We have some turmeric and tamarind tea that is wasting away on the cupboard.  Although it is really good for your health this tea really stains a lot.  So for me, the best to use it was of cook it (of course.)  I figured this would go well as a base for some chicken curry, so here is the recipe for it.

Ingredients:

500 grams of chicken breast fillet, cubed

For the Marinade:

2 Tablespoons of Powdered Turmeric and Tamarind Tea (Turmeric tea will work on its own)

2 cups water

1 chicken broth cube or 1 Tablespoon of Chicken Powder

1 teaspoon of Sriracha Hot Sauce

1/2 cup of lemon juice (approximately from one medium sized lemon)

For Sauteing:

1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil

1 Teaspoon garlic, chopped

1 Teaspoon ginger, chopped

1 Teaspoon lemongrass crushed

1/2 cup Fish Sauce

1 medium sized onion, sliced (you can use shallots or red onion as well)

1 Tablespoon, cilantro (coriander) leaves, chopped

Place the water, tea and broth cube in a sauce pan and put in a low heat until the tea and broth cube dissolves.  Take away from the heat and add the lemon juice and hot sauce.  Place the chicken in the marinade and leave it for about 30 mins.  The heat from the marinade will hasten the process.

Heat the garlic, ginger and lemongrass in olive oil in another saucepan until it becomes fragrant.  Add the marinated chicken and keep the remaining marinade for the sauce.  Add the fish sauce and saute the chicken for about 15 minutes stirring constantly.   Add the onion, cilantro and the marinade.  Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered until the marinade is reduced to half.  Serve with rice. Lots of rice. 

Kung Hei Fat Choi! East Meets West Braised Beef

Happy Lunar New Year!  Braised Beef has been a staple in Chinese restaurants in the Philippines so for Chinese New Year I have decided to share my recipe for Braised Beef.  But one thing unique in this recipe is a fusion of East and West since I used red wine for braising.

You need:

half a kilo of beef cubes (brisket makes the best beef cut)
2 cups of red wine
salt according to taste
6 tablespoon of cooking oil
1 teaspoon of ginger cut into thin strips (julienned)
half an onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed and diced
3 cups of beef broth
1/2 cup of soy sauce
2 tablespoon of sugar
2 pcs star anise
1 carrot, sliced

and a lot of patience

Marinate the beef in red wine and salt and leave in the fridge for 24 hours.

The next day, strain the marinade from the beef thoroughly.  Keep the marinade for braising later.  In a large and shallow pot with a cover, fry the beef in cooking oil and make sure to have both sides browned.  The secret is to fry them far apart (about an inch) from each other so that there is even heat distribution to the beef pieces.  Fry them in batches if the pot can not accommodate frying the beef all at once.  Add more oil if it dries out.  After the beef has been fried put them in a plate and set them aside.  Do not line the plate with paper towel so that you can use that beef flavor that would settles down on the plate.  Trust me that is the good part.

On the same oil that you used for frying, saute the aromatics. Starting with the ginger until fragrant, then the onions until transparent and lastly the garlic.  Let it sizzle for a minute.  Bring the beef (and any drippings that is on the plate) back into the pot and saute with the aromatics.  This would be a great time to scrape that beef and marinade that settled in the pan during the frying process.  Season with soy sauce and sugar.  Put in the marinade, star anise and beef broth and let it boil.  Cover the pot and lower the heat.  I let it go down to simmering heat.  This is now the start of the slow braising process.  I allowed about 4 to 5 hours or until the beef is tender, stirring it constantly every hour.  The slow cooking also allows the alcohol to evaporate.  The test is when you pinch the beef with a fork it easily pulls apart.  On the last hour of braising, put in the sliced carrots.

Serve on top of steaming hot rice and enjoy.  Pair it with your favorite red wine.

Beef Stir Fry

Happy New Year!

My first recipe for 2014 is a quick and easy dish that I have done when I have gone home late from the office.  You just need to marinate it before hand so that the flavor penetrates the beef.

You need:

400 grams of beef tenderloin cut into strips

for the marinade
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

For stir frying
3 tablespoons of cooking oil
2 cloves of garlic - crushed
half of a piece of onion - diced
1 tablespoon of ginger - minced
half a stalk of lemongrass - minced
1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander seeds
one red chili cut into strips
1 tablespoon of parsley
a pinch of sesame seed

1. Marinade the beef with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder and leave in the fridge.  I made mine overnight.  I would recommend to put in a bit more salt since you won't put any more salt during the cooking process.

2.  To cook, heat the oil in a saucepan (or wok if you have one.) once heated put in the onions until semi transparent.

3.  put in the garlic and ginger.  At this point the kitchen will smell very very fragrant, in an oriental restaurant kind of way.  do not over cook the garlic as this will become bitter.

4.  As soon as the garlic becomes fragrant put in the beef and stir fry for about 5 to 7 minutes.  When it dries out put in half a cup of water.

5.  put in the chili and coriander and let it simmer until the water dries out again.

6.  Lastly, take it out from the fire and add the parsley and sprinkle the sesame seed on top.

Best served over steaming hot rice.  I had mine with an ice cold can of Heineken.

Enjoy!

Homemade Pancakes

One of the things that I missed from home is having pancakes for breakfast.  Pancakes has been one of my favorite comfort foods.  There was even a time during my childhood when I would put match sticks on top pancakes and pretend that it was my birthday.  The only problem living abroad is that they don't have pancake mixes here so I have to make these from scratch.  After a few futile attempts I was able to make the perfect fluffy pancakes.  Here is the recipe:

Dry ingredients
1 cup flour
2 tbsp of sugar (I used two packets of Dr Oetker Vanilla sugar, it works like a charm)
1 tsp of baking powder (don't overdo this as it gives out an unpleasant bitter taste)
a pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients
1 cup full cream milk
1 egg beaten (so the egg probably has low self esteem now because it was beaten.  Yeah, I know it's a bad joke #sorrynotsorry)
2 tbsp of oil or melted butter (the melted butter is better trust me on this one.  to melt just toss it on the pan you will use to cook the pancakes with.  This also lessens the oil you will use to cook.)

Combine the dry ingredients first then the wet ingredients.  Blend together using a whisk until all the lumps are gone.  Preheat a pan with 2 tbsp of oil or the butter that you used for the wet ingredients.  You actually just need to lightly oil the surface of the pan so that the pancakes don't stick.  Once you already have a good heat on the pan (place your palm an inch away on top of the pan, if you feel that there is already heat from that point then you have a good enough heat.)  Pour or scoop the batter into the pan with just a good sized pancake.  Make sure the pancakes don't reach the sides of the pan to make it easier to flip.  Once you see bubbles forming on the pancakes then flip them over.  This recipe makes 5 medium sized pancakes.

Don't have maple syrup?  No problem, put some Nutella, chocolate syrup, peanut butter or my current favorite Speculoos Cookie Butter on top of it.  Enjoy!

Mackerel in Tomato Sauce with Egg (Fish Sarciado)

Fish Sarciado

This is a typical Filipino specialty and is very easy to cook.  For this dish you will need:

Fish, filleted and deboned (I used half of a medium sized mackerel for this recipe)
Two medium sized tomatoes cut into quarters
one egg beaten
one onion diced
three cloves of garlic
two cups of cooking oil for frying enough to reach half of the fish's thickness
some flour for dusting the fish
fish sauce (or salt if you don't prefer handling fish sauce)
one cup of water
salt
ground white pepper to taste


Dust the fish with flour and salt on both sides
Heat your oil in medium heat in a frying pan or sauce pan for about five minutes
Fry the fish on both sides for about 7 minutes on the skin side and 5 minutes on the flesh side
Once done set aside the fish
From the same oil used to fry the fish discard some oil leaving about two tablespoons
Saute the onions then the garlic until the onions are transparent
Return the fish to the pan and saute the fish
Add the tomatoes and let it be heated for about 3 minutes
Add one cup of water and let the mixture simmer
Crush the tomatoes so make a sauce
Add the egg and mix it this allows more thickness into the sauce
Finally, add some fish sauce/salt and pepper to taste

Serve on top of hot steamed rice!  I actually wrote this entry while finishing my lunch.

Found a new cafe in Mongolia

Here in Mongolia there are no Starbucks unlike in Manila where there's one every corner (OK that's already exaggerated but in Makati City it's close to that.)  There is a Caffe Ti-amo though and there's about four of them here in Ulaanbaatar.  I've tried the one in Sky Department Store during my first month here.

I've blogged about Caffe Ti-amo about two years ago where I fell in love with their Gelatos and Affogatos (you can find my blog entry here Favorites: Gelato)  So when I saw the Caffe Ti-Amo here I tried their affogato and I was immediately brought back home even for just a few minutes.  Incidentally, I also met some Filipinos working here in Mongolia during that time too so the sound of people talking in my native tongue completed the experience. You can check out Caffe Ti-Amo Mongolia's  FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/caffetiamo.

However, today it was a welcome surprise to find this new cafe at the ground floor of Home Plaza Shopping Center near where I live aptly named "Cafe".  And as always, the first thing I tried is my all time favorite the Caramel Macchiato.

I would say the coffee and cake was not bad at all.  The mocha roll does have sesame seeds which was not quite a good combination with mocha but I would have to try the other cakes and their sandwiches next time to make a better assessment.  The price and ambiance was also OK and gives a home style atmosphere.  I also noticed that their tea and coffee are also offered as either hot or as a cold beverage which gives more variety   Next time I will try my favorite tea concoction which is the Chai Latte.

Ahh... suddenly life seems to be "close to normal" again.

Beef Mechado ala Executive Lunch

I have read somewhere that when it comes to recipes why mess with a classic.  I somehow disagree on this since my philosophy is - eating should be a celebration of the palate.  And each person's preference to flavor, appearance and aroma of food varies immensely.  So here is my take on a classic Filipino dish called Beef Mechado or Beef Stew in Tomato Sauce.

For this recipe you would need:

400 grams of beef cubes  (beef cubes from the shank part works best)

1 big potato sliced into round chips about one fifth of an inch or half centimeter in thickness

100 grams pouch of tomato sauce

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 medium sized onion sliced to small pieces

salt and pepper to taste*

* I replaced this with Patis (fish sauce) and chili paste but this varies per person's preference and availability (luckily I found some Korean fish sauce in the local grocery.)

1.  Boil the beef with enough water to cover the beef.  Add some salt/patis and let it boil in high heat for about 30 to 45 minutes or until the beef is tender.  Separate the beef from the broth once done.  The broth can be used later and the excess can be used as soup.

2.  Fry the potatoes until both sides are golden brown.  The objective is not to make it crispy, remember you are cooking lunch or dinner and not a snack.  Set this aside.

3.  From the oil you used to fry the potatoes get about 2 tablespoon and heat in a skillet.

4.  Saute the onions and then the garlic once the onions are transparent.  There is some question on whether the onion or the garlic should come first when stir frying.  I say it should be the onion since it cooks slower than the garlic.  Also, garlic essence is already extracted from heated garlic at about 2 minutes from cooking.

5.  Add the beef and stir fry for about 5 minutes, put in some more salt/patis and the pepper/chili paste according to your taste preference while stir frying.  If the oil dries out do not add more oil but instead put in some beef broth.

6.  Add the tomato sauce and about half a cup of beef broth.  Let this simmer in low heat for about 5 to 10 minutes and remove from heat once done.  Check it from time to time and don't let the liquid to evaporate or dry out.  If it does, add some broth but be careful not to dilute the sauce by adding too much.

7.  For plating, place the fried potato chips on once side and place the beef on the opposite side.

Serves 3 to 4

This can actually be a meal on its own but still would work well if eaten with hot steamed rice.

Bon Appetit!

P.S.  For the other side of Executive Lunch please subscribe to 2438 Miles Away.  There I would post about music, movies, television, books, technology and anything under the sun.