Beef is a great source of iron, protein and B vitamins like Vitamin B6, which helps strengthen our immune system, and Vitamin B12 which helps the normal functions of brain and nervous system and blood formation. It is also recommended that we have to eat beef twice a week with a serving size of a 3 to 4 ounces per serving or just a size of a deck of cards.

Well, I got to know all of these information during my son’s Nutrition Month celebration a while ago. It was very entertaining watching my son dancing with the tune of “Makulay ang Buhay sa Sinabawang Gulay” and very informative listening to Nutrition Tips given by the gradeschoolers.

Anyway, here is my recipe for BISTEK or FILIPINO BEEF STEAK or BEEF STEAK TAGALOG.

1/2 kilo beef strips

for marinade/sauce:

1 cup soy sauce
1/4 calamansi juice
3 tbsp. Kikkoman soy
1 tsp. pepper
cooking oil
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
3 medium white onion, peeled and cut into rings
1 cup water

Wash the beef with running water. Drain.

Pound the beef strips with mallet to easily tenderize the meat.

In a bowl, combine soy sauce, calamansi juice, kikkoman soy and pepper. Adjust flavor by adding any of the seasonings.

Divide the mixture into two. Half is for the marinade and the other is for the sauce. Place the half in a sealed container and store in the ref. Place the other half of the soy mixture as the marinade on a large container.

Slip on the beef strips. Mix until it is well blended.

Store in the ref (not in the freezer) for overnight.

To cook BISTEK:

Get the marinated beef and the half of the soy mixture out of the fridge. Separate the beef strips with the marinade sauce.

Heat pressure cooker on medium heat. Swirl oil and saute garlic and add the beef. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add the soy mixture and 1 cup water. Then seal in the pressure cooker. Cook for 20-25 minutes.

When the 20 minutes are up, release the pressure from the pot according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Then add the onion rings. Cook for another 5 minutes.

You may add water, salt, pepper, soy sauce or calamansi juice to adjust the flavor. Serve with rice.

*** If you are not using a pressure cooker, you may traditionally cook the beef until it is tender.

BAKED CHICKEN IN CREAM is the simplest chicken recipe using an oven. It is easy as ABC. It doesn’t need to be an expert doing this dish as long as you put your heart in all you do in the kitchen.

BAKED CHICKEN IN CREAM

3 tbsp. butter
1 kilo chicken, cut-up (breast, thigh, leg)
1 cup Nestle lite cream
2 medium onion, peeled and quartered
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
onion spring
salt
ground pepper

Preheat oven to 375

Wash chicken with running water and dry with a clean towel.

Season chicken with salt and ground pepper. Set aside.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Slip the chicken into the pan and cook partially until browned about 8 minutes, turning several times so that chicken won’t stick. Transfer on a plate and set aside.

Pour cream in a baking dish. Add onions, garlic and onion spring.Slip on and arrange chicken in the baking dish.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

And serve.

I have posted a DINAKDAKAN recipe few months ago wherein, I used mayonnaise and some seasonings. When my mom read that post, she suggested me that she will make a DINAKDAKAN with dressed with real pig’s brain as long as I give the credits to her. So this time, it’s my mom’s recipe of the authentic Ilocano cuisine of DINAKDAKAN without the substitute for
pig’s brain.

DINAKDAKAN (with pig’s brain)

pig’s brain (you may ask this from your local meat vendor)

1/2 kilo pig’s ear, pig’s skin (or just simple ask the vendor any pork meat for Dinakdakan)
1 kilo slab of pork
3 cups medium white onion, peeled and chopped
1/4-1/2 cup calamansi juice
1/4 cup mayonnaise
salt
pepper
red chili peppers, chopped

Place pig’s brain in a small plastic (plastic for ice making will do). Tie the plastic soas water will not enter the plastic.

Put in a small saucepan and pour water, about 1/2 liter water.

Bring to simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove the plastic from the water and place pig’s brain on a plate.

Put pig’s ear, skin and meat on a large saucepan or pot. Add 1 liter of water. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring to boil and cook until tender, about 30-40 minutes. Remove from broth.

Grill with charcoal or with automatic griller the meats.

Chop skin, ear, meat into small pieces.

Place chopped meats in a large bowl.

Add about 2-3 tablespoon of cooked pig’s brain, mayonnaise, white onion, calamansi juice,red chili peppers, salt and pepper. Mix until well blended. Adjust flavor by adding salt or calamansi juice.

Serve.

DINUGUAN

1/2 kilo pork belly
1/4 kilo pork intestines, cleaned thoroughly
1/4 kilo pork liver
3-4 cups fresh pig’s blood
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 cup green kamias, thinly sliced (optional)
5 green chili peppers
3 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 medium ginger, peeled and minced
2 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup vinegar
1 bay leaf (laurel)
salt
pepper (optional)

Simmer and cook pork belly, pork intestines and pork liver with 1 liter of water for about 30-40 minutes.

Remove meats from saucepan and cut the belly, intestines and liver into small slices. Set aside broth.

In a separate skillet or saucepan, heat cooking oil and saute garlic, ginger and onion.

Add sliced pork belly, liver and intestines.

Season with salt and pepper. Add vinegar then cook for about 3-5 minutes.

Add 2 cups of pork broth. Bring to simmer. Cook for 5-10 minutes more.

Slowly pour in pork blood, stir continuously so as the blood mixture won’t clot.

Add kamias, green chili peppers. Season with salt.

Simmer in a low heat until sauce is thick.

Serve while hot with steaming white rice or white puto.

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU

1/4 butter
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
12 slices cooked/sweetened ham
6 slices cheddar or quickmelt cheese
2 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs
salt
ground black pepper
cooking oil

Beat eggs in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside

Pound chicken breasts to flatten them. Rub chicken breasts with butter, salt and pepper.

Top each chicken breast with cheese and ham.

Roll the chicken breast from edge to edge, securing the edge with toothpicks.

Dip the rolled chicken breasts in beaten eggs until all sides are coated Then, coat with bread crumbs.

Heat cooking oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and deep-fry the chicken breast until all sides are browned. Remove from heat.

Then fry the remaining chicken rolls.

Remove the toothpicks from the fried chicken roll.

Slice according to desired slices, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.

And serve your elegantly golden fried CHICKEN CORDON BLEU.

GINISANG KALABASA is a hearty, hefty, and simple Filipino vegetable dish sautéed in fresh shrimp paste. If you have allergies with shrimp paste or you simply not acquainted with it, you can season the dish with salt as a replacement. Still, you will get almost the same taste of Ginisang Kalabasa. Pinoy vegetable dishes are best paired with a fried fish and steaming white rice and a dip like bagoong with kalamansi or soy sauce with vinegar.

GINISANG KALABASA

1/4 cup cooking oil
1 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2 onion heads, peeled and quartered
1/4 kilo porkloin, diced
1/2 to 3/4 kilo squash, peeled, seeded, cubed
5-8 pieces okra, head removed
1 cup string beans, cut into 3 inches long
2 tbsp. shrimp paste (alamang)
1 tsp. fish sauce (patis)
salt

Cook sliced porkloin with water until tender. Set aside.

Heat a large wok over medium-high heat. Swirl in the cooking oil, then
add the garlic and onion. Saute for 30 seconds.

Add in the cooked porkloin. Cook until pork turned light golden brown.

Add shrimp paste. Saute for about 2 minutes.

Add squash, okra and string beans, stirring constantly for 2 minutes.

Pour in the pork broth and bring the to a simmer, and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly until vegetables are cooked.

Serve.

CHICKEN CURRY is an unusual dish originated from South Africa, yet a cultural intersection appears that Mediterranean, British, Dutch, African and Indonesian refinement contributes to its taste. And our country also embraces Chicken Curry dish into our palates. My father who worked in Bahrain for more than ten years introduced us to the original Mediterranean experience of real Chicken Curry packed with much turmeric, curry and cumin spices and lots of red peppers. A very different from the Chicken Curry of which Pinoys cook. Though poles apart, the curry in the dish throw in the very essence of the dish which is the Curry.

PINOY CHICKEN CURRY

1 1/2 kilo chicken, cut-up
2 tbsp. cooking oil or unsalted butter
3 large onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp. fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 teaspoons dry mustard
3 tbsp. curry powder
1⁄2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup water

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add the onions.

Raise the heat to very low and cook, stir frequently, until golden and soft,

Add the garlic and fresh ginger.

Stir in the curry powder, ground ginger, black pepper, and raise the heat to medium and cook about 20 seconds.

Add in the coconut milk and water, then add the chicken pieces, submerging them in the liquid. Raise the heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer and cover.

Reduce the heat to low, and cook slowly for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is very tender or almost falling off the bone.

Remove any visible fat off the surface of the sauce. And serve.

Noodles are found in every region, in every country and in every continent. Asia has a long history for noodles. And most noodle dishes flee to its national origins. Evidently, every home including Filipino homes has its own technique and taste for cooking noodles. Yet since I was a kid, these noodles, thin, thick, white, yellow, fresh, dried, are introduced by the Chinese. No wonder they are famously called Chinese Noodles.

There is no mistake in cooking Chinese noodles as long as the noodles are cooked firm and perfect. Any topping and method will make the dish good. So I cooked a VERY VEGGY EGG NOODLES (Pancit Canton), a thick dried egg noodles with lots of vegetables for an all-in-one-dish.

VERY VEGGY EGG NOODLES (Pancit Canton)

1/4 cup cooking oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
3 onion heads, peeled and quartered
1/4 kilo porkloin, sliced into 1/2″
1 kilo pancit canton
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. fish sauce (patis)
2 cups pork broth
1 cup carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup Baguio bean, cut into 1 inch long
1 1/2 cup cabbage, sliced into pieces
salt
ground pepper

Boil in sliced porkloin with 3 cups of water into a saucepan until cooked and tender. Separate broth and porkloin. Set aside.

Heat a large nonstick wok over medium-high heat. Swirl in the cooking oil, then add the porkloin, garlic and onion. Stir-fry until the porkloin turns golden brown, about 1 minute.

Stir in the 2 cups broth, soy sauce, sugar, and black pepper. Bring to a simmer.

Add the carrots, Baguio beans and cabbage. Simmer and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the Pancit Canton noodles. Raise the heat to high and toss constantly until the noodles absorb much of the sauce.

Remove from the heat and serve.

TINOLANG MANOK WITH AMPALAYA

1/4 cup cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4 heads onion, peeled and quartered
1 large fresh garlic, peeled and minced
1 kilo chicken, cut into slices
3 tbsp. patis (fish sauce)
3-4 cups water
2 medium ampalaya, seeded and thinly sliced

Heat a large work or pot over medium heat.

Swirl in oil. Saute garlic, onion and garlic for about 2 minutes.

Add in chicken. Cook and stirring constantly until chicken flesh turn white.

Pour in water, cover and simmer until chicken is cooked and tender.

Add sliced ampalaya and cook for 3-5 minutes.

Season with fish sauce. Serve with steaming white rice.

As any mother would say, simpler is better. And nothing beats the stress-free cooking of a SCRAMBLED EGG. I added a handful of French fries to add an appeal to my 4 year old son, Colby, who loves fries.

SCRAMBLED EGG WITH FRENCH FRIES

1 teaspoon unsalted butter or cooking oil
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon milk
salt and ground black pepper to taste

cooked french fries

Either heat the butter or oil in a small nonstick skillet over medium heat.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl while the skillet heats. Use a fork to whisk in the milk until almost uniformly yellow.

Pour the mixture into the skillet, tilting it so that the mixture coats the bottom. Then use a rubber spatula to lift the fluffy bits off the pan’s bottom.

Tilt the skillet to bring more of the unset egg into contact with the hot surface. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the cooked French Fries on the half side of the egg.

Lift the other side, covering the side with fries. Cook for another 10-15 seconds.

Gently scoop the scrambled eggs with fried fries on a serving plate and serve with rice or bread.