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.

Korean Ice Cream

This is probably one if the best tasting ice cream I have tried. I first tasted this ice cream on my Korean Airways flight to Manila. And now, I am eating (unlimited cups of) this ice cream again here at the Incheon Airport Lounge.

The taste reminds me of a cross between Häagen-Dazs and Selecta Gold's Caramel Cheesecake. But instead of caramel there is a strawberry ripple in it. The cheesecake bits is superb!

Not a bad way to be stranded in the airport at all.

Mongolia

I'm back!!! No, not in the Philippines but just back to blogging.  So it's already a month of being here in uber-cold Mongolia where the temperature hasn't gone up above zero degrees since I came here and this is just the beginning of winter.  I think if they offer here beer below zero it won't be profitable because I just leave my beer bottle outside my window and it turned to below zero.

Anyway, my life here has just been okay so far.  If I miss Filipino food I try to cook with what ever ingredients I can find in the local grocery.  I got  a package of canned goods and noodles from the Philippines so I can cook some sisig or pancit canton whenever I feel like to.  I still watch TV Patrol and other Filipino shows through live streaming.  And most importantly, I get to Skype with my wife and daughter everyday.  So aside from the climate, the distance and the language difference life still goes on (somehow) normally.  But not without days of wishing I am still back home.

A few days ago I posted this on my Facebook wall:

It actually came to a point where I asked myself "What am I doing here?"  And the reason why I measured it in twelve years is because I have this observation that events in life have a twelve year cycle (more on that on a separate post but you should try to check if that theory is true in your case as well.)  So I tried to reflect on my past twelve years and see if I ever thought of working abroad long term.  Twelve years ago I left my long time work with a local company and moved to a multinational company where I stayed for the next six years.  And the reason was not to work abroad but just to have the opportunity to travel.  Traveling abroad on business trips became more frequent but only on a short term basis as the need arises and my miles were piling up.  There were some invitations to explore opportunities to work in the Middle East and Papua New Guinea but turned them down.  My reason was that I can not bring my family with me and I don't want them to go through a tremendous adjustment.  Then how different were those opportunities to this one you may ask, and my simple answer is none at all except that this time I am determined to make a change in my life.  The time is right, the situations are different.  As I have mentioned in my FB post as life is a succession of events and experiences I believe that I have gathered enough experience in the past forty one years of my life to muster the strength to take this leap of faith.  The journey inside this elevator called life continues.

And for those who ask if there is Mongolian BBQ here, sorry but there has never been a Mongolian BBQ that originated in Mongolia and no I haven't seen Mr. Shooli either.

Ang Chicken ni Manang ay Hindi Check

So today I decided to check out what the fuzz is about Manang's Chicken. Somebody told me that it's the closest thing to Bon Chon Chicken so I gave it a try at their Glorietta Food Choices kiosk.

My verdict, well I'm not exactly solved about it.  The soy garlic sauce coating the fried chicken tastes like teriyaki sauce to me.  Plus the portion of the chicken is too lean that I hardly got any meat out of it.  The touted crispiness that made this chicken a hit on midnight markets was not there.  There is an option to replace the rice with a side dish which is good for those who like me are on a (ehem) diet.  I replaced my rice with macaroni salad and was a bit disappointed with the quality of the salad as well.  It's too sweet with a taste of pineapple which I don't see.  I am not sure if it was intended to be a chicken macaroni salad but I didn't even catch a glimpse of chicken in it.

I should probably try another branch to compare but for me this meal is 2 out 5.  Kudos for price and for having the option to replace rice but for food quality, taste and over all satisfaction it fell short of expectations.

We didn't start the Fire... Amazon did.

So the battle has now shifted to the tablets. A couple of tablets already came out running on their respective operating systems since Apple came up with the Ipad in 2010.  But the latest one which is met with much anticipation is the Kindle Fire which would be available by November 15th.

The Kindle Fire runs on a forked (customized) android OS running on a 1 GHz OMAP 4 dual core processor by Texas instrument.  It has 8GB of internal storage good enough to store 6,000 books.  It has Wi-Fi and micro USB 2 connectivity.  While it is still primarily an e-book reader it can play movies, TV shows, songs and of course games like the very popular and addicting Angry Birds!  The price point comes at a low $199 which makes it one of the most affordable tablet around. Wow, imagine checking out an online cookbook or watching cooking videos right at your kitchen.

And since Executive Lunch is now an Amazon Associate you can pre-order the Kindle Fire or the new Amazon Kindle (at $79 dollars! That is a great deal!) just by clicking the banner at the top of this page.

Ciao! 

The Champ is Here!

One of the most scrumptious of Pinoy comfort food is the Champorado.  It is glutinous rice cooked in cocoa.  It is sweet and served with a swirl of evaporated milk.  It goes well with tuyo, dilis or even salted egg (itlog na maalat.)  For some reason this food reminds me of rainy days as champorado never fails to keep my tummy warm when I was a kid on cold rainy days.

I usually get my champorado fix from Tapa King and Max's restaurant where they serve this as part of their All day breakfast line up. You got to try the Max's variety as it is called the Triple Chocolate Champorado and boy does it live up to its name!  It tastes like a bar of milk chocolate was melted into each bowl :)

For my mom's recipe here is how we make this in the good old days.

You need:

8 Tablespoons of Ricoa Breakfast Cocoa

1 cup of glutinous rice or malagkit

4 Tablespoons of white sugar

3 cups of water for cooking the rice

1 cup of hot water for the cocoa

evaporated milk

To cook:

Bring the 3 cups of water to a boil and add the glutinous rice  Cook until the water boils again.  While waiting for this, mix the cocoa with one cup hot water and let the powder to be completely dissolved.  Add this mixture to the boiling rice and stir constantly for another 15 minutes.  Add the sugar and cook for another five minutes but t don't let the water dry up.  Serve with a swirl of evaporated milk and enjoy!

For the Love of Cheesecake 2: House of Silvanas Takes the (mini) Cake

September has come and gone (here in the Philippines at least but it is still September in the US as of this posting.)  First of all, there are a few things to be thankful for the month of September.  As I have mentioned a couple of days ago I just reached the big 4.0 and September also marks the first year of my blog.  Time does fly so fast.

Some of my favorite posts where my take on the best blueberry cheesecake I have ever tasted.  (See For the Love of....Cheesecake!  and "Unboxing" a Becky's Kitchen Blueberry Cheesecake.)  Since then I have been on a look out for places that offered blueberry cheesecake as well as revisited some old favorites.

This one is from Yakimix.  Like every buffet the serving of the cakes are bite sized so this one is just a teaser. The cheesecake is more on the sweet side and the graham crust is too thin.

This came from my favorite Italian restaurant Italianni's.  As you can see I tasted it first before I can even take a picture :)  Well even though this is one my favorite places the cheesecake was a little bit of a let down.  This is the same cheesecake base as their sister resto FlapJacks but as you can see there is no real blueberries in it but just syrup.  The serving size is a bit big and it would take two to three persons to finish it.

This hefty piece is from Bob's a famous cafe in Bacolod.   This cheesecake is screaming CHEEEEESE!  And is a bit on the salty side. Also the crust is not made of graham crackers and a bit nutty . Bob's now has a branch in Makati along Dela Rosa St.

This one is from Market on the 5th at St Luke's Medical Center.  It is on the sweet side but it was quite OK. A bit expensive though for the serving size.  I think I was paying part of the hospital with it :) And I didn't come there for a check up either.

But if you are looking for value for money as well as being yummy then try out these mini blueberry cheesecakes from House of Silvanas

I was very careful with it because I thought that the cheesecake base might be too soft but lo and behold the base is more cake than mouse.

There is even an ample graham crust.  But the only one let down on this version is that there are no whole blueberries on the topping.

And since it is my birthday month what would be more fitting than to have one whole box of Becky's Kitchen Blueberry Cheesecake for my birthday.

This is truly a little piece of heaven here on earth :-D

Happy Birthday Executive Lunch!