Chicken Congee / Arroz Caldo
While being sick all week last week, I had a craving for Filipino comfort food, arroz caldo, or congee. It’s basically rice soup with chicken in porridge consistency. I wanted that taste of ginger and soupy rice so badly. So I made some. The thing is, I actually can’t remember the last time I made arroz caldo. Let’s just say I enjoyed every warm bowl of arroz caldo last week.
By the way, the best rice to use in congee is sticky rice. The kind I use for sushi but I didn’t have any so I just used what I have which is the regular long grain rice. Fish sauce is also good with this but I’m low on Pinoy supplies so I just used salt. Believe it or not, my life didn’t crumble with those substitutes. When you crave for something, make it work with what you have.
Grilled Cheese Ham Tomatoes Spinach Sandwich
I made my daughter a grilled cheese sandwich yesterday and as I was cutting it in triangles, the melted cheese oozing out of the bread just looked soooo delicious. I wanted one for myself, so I made one. I decided to make a hearty grilled cheese sandwich by adding ham, tomatoes, and spinach. It definitely hit the spot.
Mini Rotelle Cold Pasta Salad W/ Cheese & Sunflower Seeds
Summer means a lot of things. One of them is making cold pasta salads. I suppose it’s ok to make them during winter too but it is usually during the Summer that I get to indulge in whipping up different kinds of cold pasta salads. They’d go with any grilled meat entrees, including kebabs, satays, burgers, just to name a couple. Pasta salads prefect to serve as side dishes during the summer parties in the backyard or as lunch for the family on regular days. This Mini Rotelle Cold Pasta Salad W/ Cheese & Sunflower Seeds is basically another version of Pasta & Broccoli Salad W/ Golden Raisins and Sunflower Seeds but without the golden raisins and chopped fresh broccoli. I added chopped eggs instead.
Salads, 2 Ways
I actually “made” this fruit salad very early on this month but I neglected to post it here since I already posted it in my Facebook and Twitter. I got so excited to show off what a beautiful fruit salad I “made” that I forgot where it was intended for. Anyhoo, I said “made” coz there’s really no making process that went on. All I did was buy watermelon, grapes and strawberries, cut the watermelon in half, then scooped out cute rounded balls. I tossed them with sliced strawberries and whole grapes. A perfect fruit salad for the Summer.
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Spicy Pork Binagoongan W/ Napa Cabbage
Pork Binagoongan is NOT one of the Filipino dishes that I make often. Truth be told, this is probably the 2nd time I’ve made it in my married life of 14 years. The first time I made it was years ago that I can’t even remember the exact year. I do remember though that I turned it into a filling for lettuce wraps. Yup, no rice. My husband would be surprised about this info too. This time around though, I ate the pork binagoongan with rice. Hey, why not, right?
After I cooked and consumed this Spicy Pork Bingoongan W/ Napa Cabbage dish for lunch the other day, I googled how other Filipinos cook it. Most of the recipes I’ve read call for big chunks of pork, simmered for a while, some in coconut milk, and some even cooked the pork chunks on the crispy side before adding the shrimp paste. I thought, well, that explains why I don’t cook this dish often. I know nothing of how to make it authentically, hah. I just sliced a pork steak in cubes, then sauteed them with garlic, ginger, tomatoes, green onions, and for a vegetable factor, I added slices of napa cabbage. VOILA!
Mushrooms & Onions Topping On Turkey Burgers
I decided to add a twist to the turkey burgers that I made the other night for dinner. Why? Because I like to twist things… I think I’ve used that joke before in one of the recipes here. It wasn’t funny before, and it’s not funny now. Whatevs, I’m still adorable. *AHEM*.
Anyhoooooo, so back to the turkey burgers. The patties were from Food Lion. They were already formed into perfect rounds so you can just get the same patties from any grocery store. My husband is so used to my terrible burger-patty skillz that he said he’s going to teach me one day how to make perfect burger patties so when he eats his burgers things won’t be flying out of the plate. Hmm, hellleerrrr, the patties were store-bought so I guess I’m not the only one who’s got burger-patty problems. BOO-YAH!
Alright alright…. on to the mushrooms and onions toppings…
Homemade Tocinokatsu
Like I’ve said many times before, Tocino is one of my most favorite Filipino dishes. It comes after pork adobo. I will forever profess my love to JMOM for teaching me how to make homemade tocino. So anyhooo, while blog hopping the Link Friday entries the other week, I came upon Tara, Let’s Eat recipe of Tocinokatsu. I’ve never heard of Tocinokatsu before until that day.
Tocinokatsu is basically your regular tocino, then breaded in breadcrumbs then fried in oil. It makes sense right? I decided right then that I am definitely making some as soon as I get a hold of some pork. So I did, and my whole world made total sense even more.
Creole Catfish Nuggets
My husband caught almost 60 pounds of catfish this past Friday night. It’s not just 1 fish, it’s a combination of 5 catfishes. When he got home that night, I asked if he caught any and he said he did but not worthy to keep at all. He went back outside and did whatever, then came back inside and asked me to get the scale and camera. I was all confused about the scale part.
Scaling? why?
Scale and camera..
Scaling, why?
I need the scale and camera, WOMAN! (he actually didn’t say the woman part but that would have been funny)
Ohhhh, Scale AND camera, ohhhhhhhhhh, you caught some, how many? Are they big???
Chicken Sinigang
It’s raining right now and I’ve suddenly had the craving for sinigang aka sour soup. I remembered the chicken sinigang I made weeks ago that I’ve been meaning to write about here but it’s just too simple I figured it’ll just be taking space. However, I like to build up my foodblog archives so I might as well. When I make sinigang, I usually use pork but it’s just as delicious to make it with chicken or beef short ribs. Since I love pork-anything, I prefer the pork sinigang. I didn’t have pork when I made this so I used chicken instead. It was good nonetheless. I believe chicken just takes a little faster to cook than pork.
Leftover Chicken, Salsa, & Green Onions Quesadilla
Besides fried rice, soup, or frittata, quesadilla is what I make to use up leftover meats. Just chopped up the meat, tomatoes, and green onions, then throw ‘em on top of a flour tortilla, then bind everything together with shredded cheese on top, and another flour tortilla to finish it. In this quesadilla, I used the leftover southwestern chicken and salsa instead of fresh tomatoes. This is perfect for quick lunch or those weekend munchies with the family. It’s quite easy so let me show you how.
