Pork Meatballs with Sweet & Sour Sauce

If you’re already familiar with the recipe of making meatballs, then it’s the same with these meatballs on the dish. The difference is that they are coated with sweet and sour sauce. The dish is perfect to serve for lunch or dinner. Even kids love eating it.

Ingredients:
For meatballs:
1kg ground pork
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 medium egg
4 pcs spring onion, chopped
salt & pepper
cooking oil

For sweet and sour sauce:
2 tbsp. ginger strips
1/4 cup red bell pepper, sliced
1/4 cup carrots, sliced
1/4 cup pineapple syrup
2 tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp water
2 tbsp. ketchup
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup pineapple tidbits

Procedure:

For meatballs:
1. In a bowl, mix ground pork,  egg, breadcrumbs, onion, spring onion, carrots, salt and pepper.
2. Make batches of meat mixture by scooping each mixture on a tablespoon and form into balls.
3. Fry until they are brown on all sides. Transfer on a serving plate and set aside.

For sweet and sour sauce:
1. Saute onion, red bell pepper, carrot, pineapple tidbits and ginger on a sauce pan.
2. Add banana ketchup, water, pineapple syrup, soy sauce and cornstarch on the sauce pan. Mix well.
3. Bring to boil until the sauce thickens.
4. Pour the sauce over the meatballs and serve.

Brown Rice Cheesy Roll

Inspired from an ordinary sushi platter, I used brown rice as a base filling along with cooked ham strips and cheese. The seaweed (laver) wrapper is replaced with flattened whole wheat bread (or any bread of your choice).

Obviously, the breading stage is easy. You could use flour, bread crumbs and egg. On the dish above, I use evaporated milk, egg and breadcrumbs. The rolls are then deep-fried to golden brown.

How to cook brown rice? It's simple. 1 cup of brown rice is proportional to 1 - 3/4 cup of water. You can add up to 2 cup water to get a sticky brown rice consistency.  Before turning it to heat, allow the brown rice to soak for 25 minutes to soften its grains.

Ingredients:
1 medium egg, beaten
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup breadcrumbs
5 slices of bread
6-10 cooked ham strips
6-10 cheddar cheese
cooking oil for frying.

Procedure:
1. Flatten the slices of bread with rolling pin. Trim the edges of each bread slices to resemble a perfect square.
2. Spread a tablespoon of brown rice on each bread slice. Arrange cooked ham strips and cheese strips on one side and roll them together with the bread.
3.  On a separate bowl, mix egg and evaporated milk. Dip each bread roll into the milk mixture and coat with breadcrumbs.
4. Deep fry each roll into golden brown. Start with the seam at the bottom to prevent each bread roll from opening up. Drain on paper towels and serve.

Homemade Pork Dumplings

You probably have eaten a lot of dumplings in your favorite restaurant or fast food. If you run out of dumplings to eat, you can always make them at the comfort of your home. The process of making dumplings is tedious because it involves chopping some of the ingredients for filling and placing a teaspoon of ground meat mixture in each dumpling wrapper. Then the final stage is to steam them in batches until they are done cooked.

Here's a closer look of a dumpling I've made:

And here's how it looks inside:

They can be served as appetizers or just a simple viand for rice or salad.

Ingredients:
1/2 kg ground pork
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 small turnip, chopped
2 fresh egg, medium and beaten (separately)
4 spring onions, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
50 pieces medium dumpling wrappers
1/4 cup cooking wine
3 tbsp. sesame oil
A dash of salt and pepper


Procedure:
1. Combine ground pork, egg, onion, spring onion, carrot, cooking wine, sesame oil, salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix well.
2. Scoop a teaspoon of ground pork mixture in each dumpling wrappers and fold each into half-moon shape. Seal the edges using the beaten egg and fork.
3. Steam each batches in a steamer for 20-30 minutes.
4. Serve with soy sauce with chili-garlic twist.




                                            

   

Pininyahang Manok (Chicken Stew in Creamy Pineapple Sauce)

I love experimenting on making dishes from chicken and pineapple. Hence, I cooked Pininyahang Manok or Chicken Stew in Creamy Pineapple Sauce for the first time. The taste is just right! Just the right ingredients are blended using the recipe step by step, cooked together and you get a delicious Pininyahang Manok for lunch.

It's my first time to cook this dish so the food does not look attractive when presented on a square bowl. The ingredients I've used are ginger strips, pineapple tidbits with syrup included, crushed garlic, sliced onions, cubed potatoes, cubed bell peppers, peppercorns and a can of 154ml evaporated milk. Optional is 2/3 cup of coconut milk if evaporated milk is not available.

It's easy to cook this dish as it includes sauteing and simmering for half an hour. The procedure starts with sauteing garlic, onions and ginger strips on a medium pan with 2 tbsp cooking oil. Add chicken pieces and fish sauce (patis) and saute for 5-6 minutes. Add peppercorns/ground black pepper and pineapple syrup. Simmer and cover for another 5 minutes. Then add bell pepper, potatoes, pineapple tidbits and milk. Simmer without lid for another 5 minutes. Serve hot with plain rice.

Cordon Bleu Rolls

This dish simply came from 3 pieces of Cordon Bleu logs cut into bite-sized rolls. It's super easy to make - all I did was pound three chicken breast fillets with meat hammer, put a slice of cheese and ham over the fillet and roll them together. I secured them with  two pieces of toothpick on both edges before coating them with flour, egg and breadcrumbs and deep-fried them until golden brown. After each log has cooled off, cut each into bite-size rolls about an inch.

I'm back!

Hello everyone!

I'm back again. Things have been busy for me lately so I haven't updated this blog for a long time. Right now I'm going to post pictures of foods I've tasted recently and will look back just in case I crave for those foods that I missed eating.  Enjoy!

~ Capri

My Typical Pinoy Breakfast Plate

I used to skip breakfast during college. Now I realized the importance of eating breakfast, for it gives me the energy that I need throughout the day. I would like to share my own typical breakfast that I've had today, Filipino-style.

My breakfast plate consists of sunny side-up egg with double yolk (thanks a lot to my sister-in-law), chopped fresh tomatoes, two pieces of dried fish (tuyo) and a cup and half of plain steamed rice.

I'm sure other people out there have different preferences when it comes to their breakfast plate. Some would want tocino pieces, sinangag and omelette on their plate, others would choose beef tapa or fried bangus for their viand.

So what's on your typical breakfast plate?