Pork Menudo

A meat dish consisting of pork meat, pork liver,  potatoes, carrots, raisins and tomato sauce is called Menudo. This dish is usually cooked as a simple viand for lunch or can be served at parties or special events.

Ingredients:
1 kilo pork shoulder, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup pork liver, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 cups tomato sauce
4 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup sun-dried raisins
2 medium potatoes, diced into 1 inch cubes
1 large carrot, diced into 1 inch cubes
2 cups water
2 tbsp. cooking oil
1/4 cup green or red bell peppers, diced into 1 inch cubes
salt & pepper
1 tbsp. fish sauce

Procedures:
1. Saute garlic and onion in oil until the onion becomes translucent. Add pork shoulder and liver and cook until slightly brown. Add fish sauce and cook for 3 minutes.

2. Add tomato sauce and water and stir. Let it simmer for 2 minutes. Add raisins, potatoes, bell pepper and carrot. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the carrot and potatoes are tender.

3.  Add salt and pepper. Adjust according to your taste. Cook until the meat is tender and the sauce has thickened.

4. Serve hot with plain rice.

Ar-Arosep or Lato Salad

Finally, I got to eat Lato or Ar-Arosep salad for lunch as appetizer paired with our Rellenong Bangus main dish. It's been a long time since I've last ate ar-arosep/sea grapes. I think it was last June 17, 2011. Since the lato salad has a salty taste, there's no need to add salt. I only garnished the dish with sliced tomato and onion.

Anyway, I had a great lunch meal!

Sarciadong Tilapia

This popular fish viand is a typical favorite among Filipinos who are not into eating meat. The process of cooking is easy to prepare and cook. Basically this is simply a makeover of fried tilapia, adding sauteed tomato and onion sauce. You can eat it plain or with steamed rice.

Ingredients:
3-5 pieces medium tilapia, cleaned
3 pieces medium ripe tomatoes, diced
1 pc medium onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 pieces fresh eggs, beaten
3/4 cup water
salt & pepper
1 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp flour

Procedures:
1. Coat the cleaned tilapias with flour and deep-fry on both sides until golden brown. Transfer on a serving plate and set aside.
2. Saute garlic, onions and tomato in a pan until the tomato has wilted.
3. Add fish sauce, salt and pepper. Stir and add water. Bring to a boil.
4. Add beaten egg and gently stir.
5.  Pour the sauce over the fried tilapias and serve hot.

Meatballs with Misua Soup (Filipino Almondigas)

Filipino Almondigas is another term for Filipino Meatballs in Misua Soup. Misua, according to Wikipedia, is a very thin variety of salted Chinese noodles made from wheat flour. The dish is composed of a combination of ground pork, breadcrumbs, egg, salt, pepper and onion. They are formed into bite-size meatballs and simmered into misua soup base. It is best eaten hot on a cold weather or just eat as a viand along with plain rice.

Ingredients:
25 grams misua, pencil-length
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp chopped onion
1 cup celery stalk, chopped
1 kilo ground pork
salt and pepper
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 large egg, beaten
1 tbsp flour
2 cups water
2 medium red tomatoes, chopped


Procedure:
1. In a mixing bowl, combine ground pork, breadcrumbs, onions, egg, flour, salt and pepper. Scoop about 15-20 tablespoons and roll into bite-sized balls. Pan-fry until golden brown. Set aside and let cool.
2. Saute garlic, onion, celery and tomato on the same pan. Pour water to use as stock base when the onions become translucent and the juices from tomato comes out. Stir water gently and let it boil.
3. Add misua noodles and let it cook for 3 minutes. Put the cooked meatballs into soup stock. Simmer for for 5 minutes. Remember to adjust taste according to your preference.
4. Transfer meatballs with misua soup on a serving bowl. Serve hot.

Bangus Bistek Tagalog

Have you heard of bangus or milk fish?  If you’re familiar with it, you already know how delicious it tastes when cooked. I’ve come up with a recipe that I can use the fish to braise with using soy sauce and lemon. This is a perfect viand for those who are not into eating meat.

Ingredients:
3 tbsp cooking oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp water
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp pepper
1 large milkfish or bangus, cut into steaks
1 large size onion, cut into rings


Procedures:
1. Marinate the fish steaks into half of lemon juice and half of soy sauce for about 25 – 30 minutes. Omit the marinade and fry the fish slices in a pan of 3 tablespoon of cooking oil with medium heat. Be careful of the oil splatter, it hurts and it’s ugly. Transfer on a plate and let it cool. Set aside.
2. On the same pan, discard some oil and saute onion rings until the color becomes translucent. Set aside on a plate and let it cool.
3. To make the “bistek” sauce, pour over the remaining soy sauce, lemon and water on the same pan and let it boil for about 5 minutes. Add ground pepper. When the sauce is reduced to half, transfer the fried fish steaks on the pan and cook for 5 minutes. Transfer on a serving bowl and garnish with onion rings. Serve hot with plain rice.

Marinated Fried Milkfish with Tomatoes and Onions

Here’s another recipe for fish lovers out there and it’s a milkfish. The fish is cut open on sides and deboned, scales, guts and innards removed. It is then marinated on a generous amount of vinegar, crushed garlic, pepper and salt overnight. Then it is fried to golden brown.
Expect the oil splattering when you’re cooking the fish so be sure have a pan lid ready to protect yourself. If you hate the splatter, you can sprinkle or coat some flour on the fish before frying.

Ingredients:
1 large size milk fish, cleaned, sliced on one side and de-boned
1 cup white vinegar
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/3 tsp. salt
4 cloves garlic, crushed
cooking oil
2 tbsp flour

For garnish:
1 medium hard-boiled egg, chopped
1 medium red tomato, chopped
1 small onion, chopped

Procedures:
1. After the overnight marinating, remove the fish and coat with flour and fry until golden brown on both sides.
2. Transfer on a serving plate and garnish with tomato, onion and hard boiled egg.
3. Serve hot with plain or Java rice.

Kimch Fried Rice with Tocino

This dish is very easy. If you love Kimchi (traditional fermented Korean side dish made of vegetables with a variety of seasonings according to Wikipedia), I’m sure you will love it even more when there are a lot of ways to create dishes with it. Rice for example, can be mixed with Kimchi and it will instantly turn into Kimchi Fried Rice. The dish starts with chopped kimchi, onions, olive oil, Kimchi juice and seasoning (optional) of your choice and lastly, cooked/leftover rice. You can garnish your Kimchi rice dish with spring onions or pork tocino (sweet cured pork as shown in the  image) or any meat of your choice.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup Kimchi, chopped
2 tbsp Kimchi juice
1 tbsp seasoning (your choice)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups rice, cooked
1 tbsp olive oil
Garnish - your choice of garnish may either be sweet cured pork strips, scrambled egg, garlic flakes, spring onions or whatever you prefer.


Procedures:
1. Heat olive oil in a wok. Saute onion and kimchi until the color becomes translucent and the kimchi juice appears.
2. Add you choice of seasoning (optional) and Kimchi juice (from the Kimchi container). Saute well until coated.
3. Add cooked rice and mix well until evenly coated with kimchi juice and chopped kimchi.
4. Garnish with your favorite toppings – meat, fried garlic flakes, spring onions or whatever you prefer. Serve hot.