Category Filipino Cuisine

When I make pancit I usually add sliced pork or chicken in it with the veggies. Sometimes with mixed seafood like squid rings, crab flakes, or shrimp. My point is that, my pancit always has a protein component. But lately I’ve been making meatless pancit especially when it’s paired with lumpias(egg rolls) which I also usually make with either ground beef or pork. For a change and a twist one day, I roasted tofu squares in the oven then tossed that with the cooked pancit in the end. The combo was surprisingly good.

When I decided to take pictures of the process of making Bistek, I thought I was just going to upgrade an old post here at Feistycook with much “better” pictures. Well, it turns out, I actually don’t have one in the archives. I do however have the catfish and pork variations. I could’ve sworn I’ve written about Bistek in the past though. It might have been in the previous foodblogs I’ve written for years ago and didn’t bother importing it here. In any case, here’s one now so I’m gonna stop babbling now and just get to it.

Everyone is posting holiday stuff on Facebook everyday and I’m just loving each and everyone of them. Christmas trees, children’s pictures, family gathering pictures, lovely messages, holiday recipes, etc. One of the pictures I LIKED recently is the one my sister-in-law posted where they’re playing poker. It made me think about the year my husband was deployed in Korea so we spent the holidays without him, and he spent his without us. My in-laws celebrated that Christmas with us so  my son and I weren’t that lonely. Then days after that was my birthday (Dec 31st). My friends in that small Army community made sure I spent my birthday with some kind of party. It was a small gathering with drinks, food, and Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. It was actually that year when I learned how to play that card game. It was fun learning the history of card games along with tips on how to bluff. I became so good at doing the latter actually. It was fun listening to my friends teasing me how I’ve  managed to bluff them all. Our poker nights continued when my husband got back from Korea. I really miss those days.

Get together with friends of course always involves food. I remember making lumpias and wings during our poker nights. Those 2, plus chips with  dips are definitely the best finger food to serve during Poker night. If and when my husband and I get to play a round of poker sometime in the future I’d definitely serve these baked lumpias.

The process of making baked lumpias is not that different from making any kind of lumpias or egg rolls. The only thing that’s changed is how to cook them. Instead of frying ‘em up in oil, you bake them in the oven. That means healthier, and no greasy splatters everywhere. I reckon’ that’s a welcome thing for any of us who are trying to live healthy but still would love to enjoy the food we love. Hey, guilty as charged!

If you are like me who likes whole tilapia, a place to find them is at Wal-Mart. The store sells frozen whole tilapias for about $7. Depending on the size of the fish a bag has 3 or 4 whole tilapias in it. The tilapias are completely cleaned, meaning they’re gutted and scaled. Each fish come in an individual vacuum packed bag so you can take out what you only need for either frying, steaming, grilling or baking.

I actually baked 2 whole tlapias when I made this dish but only arranged the bigger fish for the picture. So for this recipe take out 2 tilapias to thaw out before cooking.

Sometime ago I found out from fellow food blogger and friend Iska of Iskandals that the other way I cook a fried chicken is actually similar to Max’s Fried Chicken. Max’s is one of the famous restaurants in the Philippines which apparently serves one of the best fried chicken in the country.

Iska’s version is steaming the chicken first. I on the other hand used the par-boiling method hence the title above. Whichever version you try the idea is to pre-cook the chicken first before hitting the oil to fry. The result? Crispy skin without the usual breading of a traditional fried chicken, plus juicy and moist on the inside.

My husband would really eat anything I cook. I know this coz he tells me all the time and he does eat anything I serve him. When I’m thinking out loud what to make, or when I ask him what he wants to eat for lunch or dinner he’ll say, “make anything, you know I’ll eat it.” However, there’s one dish he’ll never eat. That’s fish head soup. Being a Filipino I’ve had my fair share of fish head soup growing up. The latter involves a fish head, sour broth, and veggies. It’s pretty much like any sour soup we love to call SINIGANG, either with chicken or pork.

With my husband’s frequent fishing trips you’d think I’m taking advantage of using the fish head all the time but that’s not the case at all. When he cleans the fish that means the head goes too. I don’t mind, really. I only ask him to save the head when I get the craving or the ambition to deal with cooking a fish head. When he caught the 5-pound bass last month it just didn’t feel right to throw away the head after I cut up the steaks for the sweet and sour dish so I saved it to make sinigang bass head soup. Since I was the only one in the family who would eat this it took me 4 days to finish it. I just warmed up a bowl in the microwave to eat for lunch.

Here are the crappies that my husband and brother-in-law from one of their fishing trips last month. He came home with these alongside a 5-pound bass which I turned into a sweet and sour dish plus a fish head soup that I’ll post some other time. I didn’t do anything fancy or special with them. My husband gutted and washed them thoroughly that night he brought them home, stored them in the fridge then a couple of days later I scaled, chopped a little bit off of the gills and tails, washed them again, then baked them whole for lunch.