Chicken Pastel

A cousin has arrived from London for the birthday of his son this weekend, and his mom decided to have dinner at home. A home-cooked meal prepared for his family. My aunt saw the recipe at a local TV show and she wanted us to re-create the recipe for their dinner.

So this is what we've done...

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 kilo   Chicken fillet breasts, diced 1 inch cube
1 can          Cream of Mushroom
1 can          Evaporated Milk
1 pouch     All Purpose Cream
1/2 kilo      Carrots, diced 1 inch cube
1/2 kilo      Potato, diced 1 inch cube
500g          Whole Button Mushrooms, sliced in half
3 small      Green and Red Bell Peppers
3 tbsp        Garlic, crushed
1 cup         Onions, minced
Butter
Salt
Pepper
Cheese, optional

PROCEDURE:
1. Fried the potatoes and carrots, half cook only.

2. Saute garlic and onion in butter.

3. Add the chicken to the sauteed garlic and onions. Once cooked, add the cream of mushroom and all purpose cream. Let it simmer for 5 mins, then add salt and pepper.

4. Add the carrots, potatoes, mushrooms and bell peppers. Let is simmer for 3 mins. Taste if needed more salt.

5. Add the evaporated milk and simmer for another 5 mins.

Note: You can add the cheese together with the milk or transfer the entire chicken pastel in a baking dish topped the cheese and let it baked in the oven at 375 degree Fahrenheit until the cheese melts.

Crispy Buffalo Shrimp

Note: My inspiration for this recipe came from www.allrecipes.com, and as usual i tweaked it according to the availability of ingredients.

Aside from fried chicken, I also like shrimp; hence, this recipe. The typical Filipino dish is Sinigang na Hipon or Shrimp in Tamarind Soup. Having this dish at least three times a month challenged me to find another recipe for shrimp.

Excuse the picture because I used my phone

 

Ingredients:

Shrimp, peeled and deveined with tails attached

Creole seasoning - check the recipe here 

1 cup flour

Salt

Pepper

1 egg

4 cups of oil for deep frying

 

BUFFALO SAUCE

3 tbsp butter

3 garlic cloves

1/2 cup hot sauce of your choice

1 tsp cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

(1 tsp sugar is optional  to make it a bit sweeter)

Shrimp Procedure:

1. Marinate shrimp with salt, pepper and creole seasoning. Start heating the oil.

2. Mix the flour with 5 tbsp of creole seasoning. Add 1tbsp of salt and pepper

3. Beat the egg

4. Cover the shrimps with flour mixture, shake off excess flour and dip in the egg. Dip again in the flour mixture.

5. Shake off excess flour, and deep fry. Wait until it is golden brown, it will only take 3 to 5 minutes.

6. Drain excess oil through a paper towel. Toss in the Buffalo Sauce. Serve with sprinkled parsley.

Buffalo Sauce Procedure:

1. Saute garlic in butter. 

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and let it reduced until thick enough to cover the shrimps.

Mashed Potato Balls

I really love potatoes. I think i have consumed too many in roughly more than 20 years. From fries to salads to mashed potato, potatoes really excites me. It is low in calories (if you take away high calories components, grease, etc.), high in fiber and has antioxidants. 

So this is the latest I have tried. I actually saw the recipe from a chef (Ms. Len Santos-Ding) when she contributed the recipe online. I was ecstatic seeing it and very inspired. I didn't do the first attempt right because i used instant mashed potato but with several trial and error i think i hit a jackpot.

Ingredients:
Mashed Potato
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup flour
3 large potatoes
2 tbsp butter (if you have a garlic butter on-hand, the one you use for garlic bread you may use that to add flavor)
salt
pepper

Coating
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup bread crumbs (i use mortar and pestle to grind the crumbs some more, i want it fine)
salt
paprika
all spice


Procedure:
1. Boiled the potatoes until fork-tender. 
2. Mashed it, add butter, salt and pepper until you achieve the right taste for you. Make it a little saltier because you will add egg yolk and flour. 
3. Add the yolk and flour and mash it together, until well-blended.
4. Put it back in the fridge for about 1 hour.
5. Put all the ingredients for coating.
6. Make balls and roll it to the coating mix. Once you are done with all the balls, you can roll the balls again to the coating mix, similar to a double coating.
7. You may now freeze it.
8. Once the potato balls are frozen heat up oil and deep fry the balls.

Serve it hot.

Options for dip:
gravy
spicy gravy (send me a message if you want me to send you my recipe)
garlic mayo
ketchup 

This recipe is actually nice because you can freeze them and fry several balls that you will eat.

Potato and Apple Salad

Ingredients:

3   large potatoes, diced bite size
1   Gala apple, diced bite size
5   stalks leeks
3   celery
1   cup mayonnaise of your choice
salt
calamansi
all purpose cream
evaporated milk

Process:

Blanch the leeks.

Cut the potatoes in quarters, and boil it. Leave the skin on.

Let the leeks and potato cool down and drain excess water. Remove the skin of the potatoes and cut it into bite size to help cool down faster.

Prepare the mayo dressing. Thin it out with evaporated milk, add salt and whisk it. If you desire less mayo taste add all purpose cream, or evaporated milk until you get the desired taste.

Mix all the ingredients together. 

Note: My sister doesn't like the strong mayo taste in her salad so I often thin it out with evaporated milk so she can eat too. This recipe is inspired from a local hotel in the Philippines Vivere Suites. It was served to us on a bed of lettuce without leeks and celery. However, at the  grocery store earlier I couldn't get the lettuce i wanted, so i used leeks and celery to replace the "veggie" taste of the lettuce.

Cheesy Pork Wanton Poppers

I thought of this recipe because of the gloomy weather and the bad news about the flood in the Philippines. I wanted to eat something hot and different.

Ingredients:
1 pack Wanton wrappers
1 pack Cheese sliced into small bites

1/2 kilo ground pork
1/2 cup tomato sauce
5 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp Chinese Five Spices
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium onions, finely minced
3 tbsp olive oil

Preparation:
1. Saute garlic and onions to the olive oil.
2. Add all ingredients except the wanton wrappers and cheese. Let it simmer, and make sure there is no liquid left.
3. Let the pork cool.
4. Assemble the pork and cheese in the middle of the wanton wrappers. Use water to seal the sides.
5. Deep fry the poppers until it is golden brown.

You may want to dip the poppers in salsa, garlic mayo, ranch or cheese sauce.

Spicy Paprika And Calamansi Chicken

Few things I love to eat are chicken and spicy food, so this recipe is a real treat for me. And after trying the recipe I saw in the internet care of The Backyard BBQ, I had to change and add some ingredients that are available in our kitchen.

Ingredients:

6 pcs chicken (cut per portion)

3 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp Chinese five spices

1 ½ tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tbsp chili flakes (optional)

6 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 small onion, finely minced (you may substitute this with ginger about 3tbsp)

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

6 tbsp calamansi juice

2 tsp tomato paste

2 tbsp olive oil

Note:

You may use chicken tenders and/or remove the skin but I preferred to leave the skin on for additional flavor and fat when its cooking. You may also leave the chili flakes out of the list of ingredients because paprika will tend to taste spicy once it starts to cook. I added onions to remove the odd taste or “lansa” of the chicken especially during marination because I ran out of ginger

Preparation:

Prepare all ingredients to a big bowl and let the flavors will be infused together. It will become like a paste and you want the consistency of the paste all throughout the marinade time.

Let the chicken cuts be dry because you would not want a watery marinade. And transfer it to the marinade paste. Be sure that all chicken are well covered by the paste.

Let it rest for one to three hours and turn it every hour to ensure that each sides of the chicken are covered with the paste.

You may cook the chicken in the oven, or on top of the grill, but I cooked my chicken stove top in a little olive oil, about 2 tbsp of oil.

Serve it with hot steamed rice.

This is a very savory dish so be sure that you have desserts covered.

Stove Top Pork BBQ

If you want to enjoy a decent BBQ at home but circumstances prevent you from grilling outside, try this simple recipe. It is also a good alternative to cook meats in the freezer you haven’t use. Cooking BBQ with red wine is my weakness, and this is a great recipe if you have leftover wine stored inside your refrigerator. You can use chicken, beef or lamb.

Ingredients:

½ kilo pork

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ cup red wine

¼ cup oyster sauce

¼ cup combination of tomato paste and ketchup

½ cup water

2 tbsp. prepared mustard

4 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp. red chili flakes (optional)

2 tbsp brown sugar

½ tsp all spice

½ tsp Chinese five spices

½ tsp Italian seasoning

Preparation:

   1.      Mix all the ingredients in a sauce pan, and let it simmer for 2 minutes.

   2.      On a different sauce pan, boil the pork for 20 minutes on high heat.

   3.      Add the pork on the boiling marinade and cover it.

   4.      Cook the pork until fork tender, and serve it with steamed rice or roasted vegetables. Cooking time will vary to the meat you will use. For pork and chicken it may take 30 to 45 minutes. For beef and lamb about 50 to 75 minutes.