Hit of the month: Binagoongan

I know that this might not seem like a new recipe to Filipinos, but I personally haven't cooked binagoongan in my life, and it turned out to be a hit.  My version is spicy and has cripy pork instead of the usual soft pork.

Ingredients:
Pork liempo - cut in 1-inch cubes
onion
garlic
1 tomato, chopped
bagoong - 1 heaping tablespoon
sitaw
sinigang na sili - 2 pcs, seeds removed

Boil the pork in garlic, onion, salt and peper until softened, about 10 min.  Drain, then fry til crispy on the outside. Set aside.

Saute onion in 1 tbsp oil.  When the onion is translucent, add the garlic, tomato and bagoong (you can add as much as you want really).

Add in the sitaw and cover until cooked.

Add the cripy pork and chili last, and mix. You can add 1/2 cup water if you want there to be some sauce. Then cover for 5 min to let the flavors mix together.

Serve :)

Review: Nestle Butterfinger Ice cream

I recently wanted to try Nestle's Butterfinger ice cream.  I was craving the crunchy peanut taste of the Butterfinger bar, and since it was a hot afternoon I decided that this was the best way.  I bought the 800ml tub from Rustan's Supermarket at Forbes Village.

After taking it home, I immediately tried it, but then I was let down.  It was disappointing!  It tasted just like ordinary chocolate ice cream and nothing like Butterfinger. Satisfaction rating for this product is 2 out of 10.

Of course, I had to let Nestle know about this.  I send them some feedback, and I was pleasantly surprised when they responded almost right away.  They offered to replace it and also give me some gift certificates.  Now, who could say no to this?  It took less than a week for a Nestle employee to contact me, and for another to come to my house and replace the ice cream.  We also discovered that the ice cream was expired.  The marking on the bottom was July 2012, and I bought it in mid July from the supermarket.  I'll have to take it up with the supermarket for selling me an expired product, but that will be another story.

As a replacement, I got Nestle's Kitkat bites ice cream, and this time I am glad to say that I was very satisfied by the quality.  I also got P300 worth in gift certificates!

Thank you Nestle for your quick and excellent service.

Thank you Liz, and Jinky.

Makansutra night at Manila Ocean Park

We had dinner at makansutra after the kids went to see the penguins at Ocean Park.  We tried their hainanese chicken, char kway teo, wonton mee, and pad thai noodles. It remided me of when we lived in Singapore when we survived on char kway teo and wonton mee. Good memories.

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Rice week: Chicken stock rice

In honor of rice week, I tried to make a simple flavored rice with 5 ingredients.

Ingredients:
oil
minced garlic
chopped onion
chicken stock
washed rice

First, heat up your pan with oil.
Saute onions and garlic in the oil.
Add the rice until they have a sheen of oil on them.
Add your chicken stock, and cook like you normally cook rice, or you could transfer it to a rice cooker.

The result: a light flavored rice, but not as flavorful as I hoped.

Rice week: Java rice

I decided this week is rice week. As a start to the week, I will try Java rice. The filipino version. Since there are so many recipes out there, I decided to compile a few and see where that takes me.

First off, java rice by casa veneracion

Here is her recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 tbsps. of coconut (or some other palm) oil
• 2 tbsps. of finely minced garlic
• 2 tbsps. of finely minced ginger
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 2 tbsps. of finely minced lemongrass
• 1 finely chopped bird’s eye chili
• 1 tsp. of turmeric powder
• 6 c. of cold cooked rice
• salt, to taste
• crisp onion slices and chopped scallion (onion leaves), to garnish

It looks simple enough, and I love that she did a step by step with photos. I'm not sure about ginger, and lemongrass being in the rice though. Wouldn't biting into those ingredients be a not so pleasant experience?

Bacon muffins - try!

Bacon Cheese Muffins (from The Muffin Cookbook, 1989)

1/2 pound bacon
vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c. milk
1 3/4 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 c. (4 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 c. crunchy nugget-like cereal

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In large skillet, cook bacon over medium-high heat until crisp. Drain, reserving drippings. If necessary, add oil to drippings to measure 1/3 c. In small bowl, combine dripping mixture, egg and milk; set aside. Crumble bacon; set aside.

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar and baking powder. Make well in center. Add dripping-egg mixutre all at once to flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Batter should be lumpy.

Fold in bacon, cheese and cereal. Spoon into greased or paper-lined muffin cups, filling about 3/4 full. Bake 15 – 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from pan. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

Jan 2012: Trip to Papa Johns with the kids

January 2012