Friday, July 27, 2012

How To Cook Chicken Adobo in Filipino Style



Adobo is one of the most popular dishes which the Filipinos are really proud of. This Filipino dish comes with different variations and cooking styles. Typically, Adobo whether pork or chicken, is stewed in soy sauce, vinegar and garlic. Extenders like potatoes or boiled egg can also be added. Some are cooked in sweet style and some has a delicious sour blend.

Adobo is famous for its brown, oily orientation. The blend of soy sauce and vinegar with the natural oil of the meat gives a mouth-watering taste of the dish. Along with Sinigang, Adobo is considered the top viand known in the Philippines. It is also one of the best dishes that build up popularity of Filipino cuisine around the world. Different provinces in Luzon, northern part of Philippine Archipelago, have different kinds of styles in cooking Adobo.

There are Adobong Ilocano, Adobong Pamapanga, Adobong Ilocos, Adobo of Pangasinan and many other variety of taste of Adobo. Even international countries had adopted the traditional way of cooking Adobo. With their added spices and ingredients, other countries had made the local dish of Filipinos to an international flavour for everybody.

The dish is said to be originated from Spanish cuisine, but several Asian Food Historians claim that Filipinos have already been cooking Adobo even before Spaniards came to colonize the Philippines. Cooking vinegar is one way to preserve meat during the early times. The method of cooking Adobo is believed to be a practice of food preservation.

Here’s my one of a kind recipe of Chicken Adobo, which I learned from my neighbor, who is a Cook in a cruise line ship abroad. The procedures follow the traditional way of cooking the dish. Simple but you must try and taste a yummy dish for the day!

Ingredients:

¾ kilo Chicken, cut into desired pieces
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup vinegar
Minced garlic
Salt & pepper

Procedures:

1.    Rinse Chicken in a large container. Drain water.
2.    Slit parts of chicken for the meat to easily absorb spices and flavours. Marinade it in ½ cup soy sauce, pepper and garlic for 30 minutes.
3.    Put the marinated chicken in a saucepan. Add ½ cup vinegar and bring to boil until meat is tender and completely absorbed the vinegar and soy sauce.
4.    Fry the chicken until its golden brown.
5.    Add another ½ cup soy sauce and ½ cup vinegar.
6.    Add salt and other spices preferred for a good taste and aroma.
7.    Simmer for 10 minutes.
8.    Serve hot and enjoy a tasteful dinner with your family!

Chicken Adobo is indeed a very usual dish to any Filipino kitchen. Aside from chicken is cheaper than pork, chicken meat is easier to cook than meat of pork. It is much cheaper to serve for lunch, dinner or even for breakfast. Chicken Adobo is not only best to partner with steamed rice, but also fried rice and garlic rice are good to pair with Adobo. Extenders like boiled egg and potatoes give the dish a delicious blend. The presence of garlic and pepper does not only add to the flavor of Chicken Adobo but also it gives it a delightful aroma.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Mashed Potato Recipe: Something You Can’t Do Without when Eating with the Family




One side dish that you can’t do without is the mashed potatoes and this is why you should have this whenever you are at home and preparing a meal for the family. This especially goes well when there is steak or something equally good as that meat and such. Now, there is some good mashed potato recipe that you can get online which you can use to make your own mashed potato.

Mashed potato is pretty much like the rice because it offers us some carbohydrates and such. You can’t do without it when you have heavy main courses like steak and such. It is quite easy to make the mashed potato especially when you have a bunch of potatoes, perhaps some milk and the likes. You have to be prepared with all your ingredients when you are making the mashed potatoes.

Potatoes today are quite costly but without having to do the mashed potato recipe when you have meat in your dinner table like steak, perhaps something roast and the likes, your dinner won’t be complete without the mashed potato that you need. Mashed potato is especially delicious, too, when there is gravy put on top of it. Mixing with gravy, the kind that you put on your steak and the likes, could be quite tasty thus this is something you shouldn’t miss as the side dish to the steak that you have.

INGREDIENTS:

·         1 Tbsp milk
·         1 and 1/2 pounds of yukon gold potatoes,
·         Salt and Pepper
·         4 Tbsp heavy cream
·         1/2 teaspoon salt
·         2 Tbsp butter

You can do a little tweaking to the mashed potato recipe that you get anywhere. If the mashed potato that you make out of the recipe you have on it isn’t quite well, then you can’t miss to tweak a little on some of the ingredients that you add to the said recipe once you begin to cook it. This is because a little tweaking or sprucing up on the said recipe can give something tastier when it comes to cooking the mashed potato.
Perhaps you can add a little more salt when you cook it. You can also add sugar, if you want it sweeter or herbs when you want it to smell better than when the dish is without the herbs. You can choose whatever you’d want to do with the mashed potato you decide to cook with the recipe that you get online or offline, perhaps in some cookbook or some other.

You should always be equipped with the basic recipe for the mashed potato and some others because it is the basic one that you can tweak to create your own kind of mashed potato for example. This is especially good when you are the kind who experiments a lot on the food you eat or you prepare for your family during dinner time and such.

Truly, you can’t miss a good mashed potato recipe when you already have been cooking some steak in your kitchen and such. A good mashed potato will actually give you a complete meal especially when you are eating with your family and friends some steak and the likes.

One Hot Homemade Tortilla Recipe

Tortilla comes from a Spanish word which means “little torta” or “little cake.”  It is generally originated in Spain and known as a part of Mexican food.  Before the production of tortillas was hand press or hand patting, but in the emergence of modernized technologies a tortilla making equipment had been invented.

When I hear the word “tortilla” only two words enter my mind. One is omelette, an egg mixture dish and the other is flat thin bread or cake made out of flour. Several tortillas all over the world had been created and differ slightly.   

The typical Spanish tortilla is done through beaten eggs mixed with different ingredients such as sliced potatoes, bell peppers, onions, chives and more.  While a Mexican tortilla is made from maize or wheat flour, depending on the thickness and texture of the tortilla.  Their difference is that Mexican maize tortilla are those that are associated with Mexican dishes such as Tacos, tostadas and flautas whereas a Mexican wheat tortilla is best identified in making burritos. 

Wheat tortillas are initially low in fat and but good source of iron, thiamine and B vitamins while maize tortilla provide low sodium content food with calcium, potassium and fiber.   But both are very low in cholesterol, too.

From the time when it had become a popular Mexican mainstream food, people had become more innovative in creating a homemade tortilla recipe or pre-ordered dish that would set it off from the rest. With the increasing demand for tortillas in the country of Mexico, it essentially becomes part of the Mexican cuisine.  But nothing beats the homemade tortilla recipe with many flavours and varieties at your wishes.  Homemade tortilla recipe is best found in small towns, because factories are common in the cities and villages.

A simple yet out of this world homemade tortilla recipe goes something like this. First thing is to familiarize with the basic ingredients namely, the following:

o   1 ½ cups All Purpose Flour (add extra for the kneading of the bread)
o   1 teaspoon salt
o   1 teaspoon Baking powder
o   3 tablespoon Butter, at room temperature
o   2/3 cup warm water
o   Pinch of chili flakes or chili powder

Directions:

1.       In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients
2.       Lightly blend in the butter, mix well.
3.       Form a hole in the middle and slowly add in the water, incorporate well until you have soft dough.
4.       Knead the dough manually or you can use the rolling pin. Pour flour once in awhile to avoid it from sticking to the pin.
5.       Seal off the dough with a wax paper and let it rest for about ten minutes.
6.       Divide the dough into 12 sections and roll out each into thin pancake shape. Again, flour much often to allow the dough to expand or until it reached it’s the desire thinness.
7.       Heat up a non-stick pan over low heat, then cook the tortilla and flip it over to cook the other side for about two minutes on each side.
8.       To reheat tortilla, wrap it in aluminum foil and bake it in the oven for five minutes.

With a homemade tortilla recipe at hand, take out any leftovers from the fridge (either pork, beef or chicken) then chopped off a little cucumber, lettuce or any fresh green veggie, onions and bell peppers.  Place it in the middle of the tortillas and add some mayonnaise and mustard to zest up the taste. Then roll it up to form a cone. Now you have a BURRITO! Hmmmmm, isn’t that hot!