We had a modest "Media Noche" dinner to usher in the New Year. It wasn't as festive as the previous year but we made do. I cooked 4 dishes at my apartment and brought it to the main house.

My niece and nephews were sleepy and the table ended up empty for most of the night. Around a quarter to 12, the noise from the firecrackers intensified and the neighborhood lit up with the flash of fireworks. It lasted for about 30 minutes and quieted down slowly after.  I traveled back to my apartment at 2am and aside from the sporadic noise of crackers lit a bit late, everything was back to normal.

Anyway, here's a summary of what I brought over.

I don't really know the exact name of this dish, but we had it often enough when I was growing up. It starts out sort of like stir fried beef and bok-choy (pechay) then ends up more like a stew, hence the "guisado" part of the name.

Whatever it's actually called, its pretty good with rice and fried fish. We don't usually pair it with other meat dishes since it already has beef in it.

I've been developing my Callos recipe for some time now. I became interested in this dish when I read a post here, here and from an episode of No Reservations that featured Spanish cooking.

Filipinos are no strangers to eating tripe or ox tail and we do have localized versions of callos, but I wanted to try the original version first. This recipe is pretty much patterned after the Callos ala Madrilena version.

When I managed to cook a good batch in my first few attempts I was very satisfied with the results. I kept the measurements and the cooking process and further refined it. Be warned that it takes several hours to cook this right. Even with a pressure cooker it will likely take 3-4 hours to complete.

As a kid, I was fascinated with the “abuhan” or the dirty kitchen that was common in  provincial households. During the yearly fiestas, I would play around the cooking area where they had large fires burning to cook the food. I would sometimes ask for / beg / filch a scrap of meat to roast over the fire. Good times.

I’ve been cooking since I was a teenager and could be trusted with the stove. It was part of our daily chores since my mom was working and someone had to prepare meals when she was away. Cooking rice was the first thing I learned.

I have some very fond memories of this "kakanin" or local delicacy. We were traveling to my mom's hometown in the early 80s when I first saw them. They were being hawked by a vendor on the bus we were on.

I've had puto before then, when we had family occasions in my dad's part of the country. (The "Ala-Eh" part. ) We usually partner it with Sopas. It was a hearty and very filling combination, well suited for large gatherings where good food and wise budgeting need to go hand in hand.

Puto Manapla is very different from the regular white puto. It has a different after taste, something else is added to get that distinct fermented flavor. Once you've munched on one, you had to have more until you get your fill.

I haven't really looked up what they used to make these types of rice cakes but I always suspected they put in sugarcane juice or even fresh sweet tuba (palm wine) to get that slightly sour-sweet flavor. One of the blogs I follow mentioned that they add tuba to help with leavening

This puto goes well with batchoy. A specialty in that part of the Visayas region. The salty broth and the sour-sweet taste of the cakes make a great pairing.

Here's a quick and easy way to make "roast" chicken.  It isn't really roasted in the traditional sense but we are aiming to get the texture of roast chicken without the use of a large oven. We'll start by poaching our marinated chicken then we will use a humble oven toaster to finish off this tasty dish.

You can actually make grilled chicken or what looks and tastes like grilled chicken if you have a hot enough oven. If you can maintain a specific temperature in the oven, the chicken will become seared and the its interior will cook properly. In our recipe here we won't be able to get the proper temperature to sear the chicken properly (since we are using a simple oven toaster) but we can make the skin a bit crispy.

No updates in a while. Blame Facebook. Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, Instagram, Personal issues and Work. I haven't had the time to really focus on a decent post and I didn't feel like putting up something half baked.

Let's just say I'm inspired to write again.

All the best to all of you out there. We have some very interesting months ahead.

Regards,

Fred.
Oh right, enjoy the Instagrammed picture of the Tuna Ceviche I had for lunch. The recipe is in the archive or you can click here. I used tuna instead of mackerel this time.