Mechado

I invited a friend to join me today to learn basic food cooking. We cooked mechado for our 1st class. Mechado is a Spanish dish. I used pork and chicken instead of beef.

· 3 tbsp olive oil
· 4 cloves of garlic, crushed & chopped
· 3 tbsp black soy sauce
· 2 laurel leaves
· 1 onion, chopped
· 1 ½ cup tomato sauce
· 2 potatoes, sliced
· 1 carrots, sliced
· ½ cup green peas bean
· 1 cup garbanzo
· 1 green bell peppers, sliced
· 3 cup of water
· ½ kg pork
· ½ kg chicken


Boil pork for 15mins with salt, pepper, laurel leaves and black sauce.

Heat the non-sticky pan in medium setting. When the pan has already been heated, put the olive oil and wait another couple of minutes. Fry the potatoes until golden brown.

After you have done that, add in the crushed garlic. Sauté the garlic and you will know it is finished when it turns a light golden brown color. Add in the sliced onions and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add chicken. Mix and cook for 5mins. Add the boiled pork and broth. Mix, add the tomato sauce and carrots and boil for 15mins.

When the pork has been sautéed, put sliced potatoes. Now let everything simmer for about 15 minutes.

Add green bell peppers , garbanzos and green peas then mix. Add pepper and salt to taste.

Leave it until all the ingredients have fully cooked.

Taco salad on Roti Prata

• 250g ground beef
• 2tsp burrito powder (Oldelpaso)
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste
• 1 medium head lettuce, shredded, about 4 cups
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 1 avocado, chopped
• 2 Jalapeno peppers; chopped
• 9 plain roti prata(tacos/chips)
• salsa sauce

Brown beef in a non-sticky pan; drain off excess fat. Sprinkle burrito powder and stir in water. Simmer, uncovered, until liquid cooks away, about 8 to 12 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, tomato, avocado and jalapeno; toss. Spread salsa sauce on roti prata and put the taco salad then roll.

Ready to eat.

Sinigang

Sinigang is a Filipinos favorite soup. It is similar to Vietnamese canh chua, Indonesian sayur asam, and Thailand's tom yam, its characteristic flavor comes from tamarind which gives it a sour taste and overwhelms the taste of its meat.

· 2 onion, sliced
· 3 medium-sized tomatoes, cut into 6
· ½ kg pork ribs, cut in serving pieces
· 1 bunch kang kong leaves
· 6 lady finger, sliced into 3
· 10 long beans, cut in 3inches length
· 4 yam or gabi, peeled and cut in serving pieces
· 2 pieces long green sili or chilli
· 2 tamarind broth cube
· 6 cups water
· Salt and pepper to taste
The pork ingredient can be replace: fish (bangus), shrimp, or beef.

Boil pork ribs in water & salt. Add half of the onions and tamarind broth cube. Boil for 10-15mins. Add yam. After 5mins, add long beans, sili and lady finger. Toss in the tomatoes and half of the onions. Simmer until the meat is tender then season with salt and pepper. Put in the kang kong.
Serve with rice.

French Toast

our Saturday morning breakfast...
A fast and easy preparation



· 8 slices of bread
· 2 eggs
· 1 cup milk
· 3 tablespoon condense milk
· Pinch of salt
· butter


Beat the eggs lightly with a fork. Stir in sugar, salt, and milk. Dip slices of bread into the mixture and fry in butter, turning once, until lightly browned on both sides.

You can serve with crispy bacon and hot chocolate or coffee.

Seafood Pasta

250g pasta
1/8cup butter
3spoon olive oil
200g shrimp, peeled and deveined
500g mussels, removed from shells
5 mushrooms, sliced
5 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, minced
2 spoon all-purpose flour
2 cups evaporated milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 cup dried chilli

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 4 minutes or until al dente; drain.

Melt butter in a non-sticky pan over medium heat. Add olive oil. Saute shrimp for 1 minute on each side. Stir in garlic, and cook for 1 minute. Remove shrimp with a slotted spoon; set aside. Add mushrooms and gradually whisk in milk, then cook until thickened. Stir in flour. Cook, stirring for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and season with salt and pepper. Return shrimp to sauce, and spoon over cooked pasta.

Mongo Guisado (Stewed Mung Beans)

Mongo Guisado


All time favourite Filipino. This dish is given a make-over with a lot of nutritious spinach or malungay leaves. It’s very simple to prepare. A plus point for me, that my son loves it.

· 4 cups of water
· 1 ¼ cups green mongo (mung) beans
· 2 tbsp canola oil
· 1/2 onion, chopped
· 4 cloves garlic, chopped
· ½ cup diced pork
· 1 cup small prawns - peeled, heads discarded
· 20 stalks of spinach
· 2 tbsp patis (fish sauce)
· Salt and pepper to taste

Soak the (mongo/green) mung beans in about 2 cups water for 4 hours. Bring the same water to the boil and simmer beans until tender and most of the water has been absorbed, about 20 to 30 mins. Set aside. Heat casserole in medium heat then add oil. Sauté onion and garlic until soft and fragrant. Add diced pork and sauté until brown and crispy. Stir in mung beans and 2 cups fresh water. Bring to boil and simmer over medium heat until pork is fully cooked (add more water if necessary). Add the spinach leaves or malungay and prawns. Cook until the prawns turn orange in color, about 1 to 2 mins. Seasons with salt and pepper. Best to serve with fried fish and Calamansi with fish sauce or toyo.

Nutella

Nutella is Alvin and Albert's favorite spread now! Albert loves it for his afternoon snacks and Alvin for dessert(spread or fruit dip) after dinner.

Info:
Nutella is the third most popular Facebook page on the planet. It's the brand name of a hazelnut-based sweet spread registered by the Italian company Ferrero at the end of 1963. The recipe was developed from an earlier Ferrero's spread released in 1949. And now marketed in across the globe.

Nutrition Facts:
Nutella is a delicious hazelnut spread that contains quality ingredients such as skim milk and a hint of cocoa. Nutella® spread on whole wheat bread, or any multigrain product, with orange juice or skim milk is a good combination for a balanced breakfast that the entire family will enjoy. Nutella contains no artificial colors or preservatives.

Allergy Fact:
Nutella is generally not recommended for people with an allergy to nuts.
Nutella is also not recommended for people with milk allergy or lactose intolerance because of its skimmed milk and whey content.

Paella

Paella is synonymous with Spanish cuisine. It is an internationally known Spanish rice dish. We Filipinos have created many version paella. Here's my own version of PAELLA.

· ½ pint of olive oil
· 2 cups of rice & 1 cup glutinous - cooked w/ lemon grass
· ½ kg of shrimps - peeled and preserved the tails
· 1 crab – sliced into 4
· 1kg of mussels or clams
· ¼ kg chicken
· ¼ kg pork belly
· 1 green pepper –cut to ribbons
· 1 red pepper –cut to ribbons
· 2 cup tomato sauce
· 10 string beans
· 10 snow peas
· 1 small onion
· 2 tomatoes – diced, removed seeds and peeled
· 1 clove of garlic
· 1 hard boil egg – sliced for decoration
· Salt & pepper to taste

Begin to cook in water & pitch of salt the crab & mussels or clams (make sure you clean the mussel with water and salt). Start to heat non-sticky pan and put oil then toss the garlic until light brown then add the onion. After a minute, add diced tomatoes. Add the pork belly and chicken. Stir for 5minutes and add the tomato sauce. Let it braise about 10-15 minutes more.. Add the shrimps and rice and stir well. Make sure you removed the lemon grass. Simmer for 10mins in very low heat. Add and mix well the mussels, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, sweet peas, and string beans. Cover the pan for 5-10 minutes until slightly dry.

Transfer in a large porcelain pan and bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes.
Decorate with hard-boiled eggs, red and bell pepper peas just before serving (after baking it)

Chicken Arroz Caldo

Arroz is rice; caldo means hot. Despite its Spanish name, this dish is the Filipino version of the Chinese porridge.

· 1/2kg Chicken, cut into serving
· 2 Tb canola oil
· 6 garlic cloves -- minced
· 1 whole onion -- finely sliced
· 1/4 cup ginnger -- finely sliced
· 1c Rice grains
· 1c glutenous rice - soaked overnight
· 7 cups water
· 2 Tb fish sauce (patis)
· 1 chicken stock cube
· 2 stalks lemon grass - pound
· 5 Stalks green onion -- finely sliced for garnish
· 1 Calamansi - sliced into two
· Salt and pepper to taste

In a large non-stick soup pot over medium heat, saute
garlic, ginger and onion in oil. Add lemon grass, chicken pieces and fish
saue and cook for another 3 minutes. Add rice, water
and a little salt and pepper. Cover and simmer in
medium low heat for about 30-40 minutes or until the
consistency of a light ceamed soup has been reached.
Stir occasionally while cooking. Correct seasonings
to taste. If rice soup becomes too thick, add a little
water to thin it a bit. Garnish individual bowl
servings with sliced green onions & a slice of calamansi just before
servings.

Potato and spinach soup

Potato and spinach soup

This soup is a good way to use old potatoes that are already softening in storage. As for the greens, I used spinach. You can also use other greens such as lettuce leaves, parsley, cilantro, or green onion tops - this is a good clean out the fridge soup.

1 diced onion
3 old potato and diced
10 stalk of spinach (just the upper part with leaves)
1 chicken stock cube
2 cup water
1 cup full cream milk

Sauté onion with salt until it softens. Add water and chicken stock cube. When boiling, add the potato until cooked. Just after turning off the heat, add the spinach and cover for 10 mins. Blend the potato with the soup until it becomes puree; don’t over blend. Blend the spinach & milk together with the blended potato.

Serve with Tender pork chop and stirred veggies

Tender Pork Chop & Stirred veggies

Tender Pork Chop
The Pork chops require overnight brining. Brine the chops up to two days beforehand. Just remove from brine after an overnight soak, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to cook.

Ingredients
· 4 Pork chops
· 1 cups full cream milk
· 1 tablespoons salt
· 1 tablespoons sugar
· 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
· 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
· 1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
· ½ cup oyster sauce

Combine milk, salt, sugar, grated lemon and pepper in a zip-top plastic bag; shake well to dissolve salt and sugar. Add pork; seal and refrigerate overnight. Remove pork from bag; discard brine. Pat pork dry with a paper towel. Brush the pork with oyster sauce and sprinkle pork with pepper and salt.
Heat a large non-stick grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat the pan with cooking oil. Add pork; cook 3 1/2 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.

Stirred veggies
Ingredients
· 1 sliced eggplant
· 1 sliced carrot
· Cut Stalks of spinach
· 1 slice of butter
· Pinch of salt

Heat a non-sticky pan on very low heat. Add carrot and stir for 3 mins. Add eggplant and spinach. Stir and cook for 5 mins.

Serve with Potato and Spinach Soup

Paris, France

Paris was the last leg of our Europe trip. We took a high-speed train (which was TGV) from Gare de Cornavin in Geneva to Gare de Lyon in Paris, France. We reached Paris at around noontime. Because we pre-ordered our Paris Visit Pass from the Internet, Alvin had to collect it from the store outlet which was located near the Louvre while Albert and I stayed in the train station.

We decided to take taxi from the train station to the hotel because we had big luggage. The taxi driver took as for a ride! Instead of taking a more direct route, he went around Paris and we had to pay 35 euros!


After a short rest at the hotel, we went to our first item in the itinerary, the Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower. I must say that Paris really has a lot of cultural heritage! All the buildings, structures and statues are picture worthy. We were awed by the sight. Anyway, we walked from the Trocadero to the tower and decided to go up to the top. There were so many tourists so queuing for the ticket already took as 45 minutes. The elevator took us midway of the tower. The view was already spectacular. We could see most of Paris and its entire grandeur. We decided to go to the top. The queue to the elevator was darn long! It took us around one hour to get to the lift. The view at the top was also good.


The second day (21st May) was Albert’s day. We took Albert to Euro Disneyland for the whole day. I bet he enjoyed everything that he saw and did there. He particularly was very happy riding the cars and trains.


Our third day (22nd May) was hectic. In the morning, we went to see Hotel de Ville and Notre Dame. These were really beautiful buildings. I wondered how they could build such intricate and ornate structures. Even the surrounding buildings were also pretty. Everything there was artistic! In the afternoon, Alvin and Albert went back to the hotel to rest while I went around shopping! I went to the popular Paris department stores of Boulevard Haussman, the Printemp and Galleries Lafayette. I saw for myself how Asians were REALLY crazy about Louis Vuitton bags. Everyone was buying more than one bag! Then I also went for a glimpse of another shopping district, the Avenue Montaigne and Avenue des Champ- Elysee where the legendary designers like Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton and some trendy shops like Zara and others are located. After the shopping and window shopping, I went to Arc de Triomphe to meet Alvin and Albert. Again, another majestic monument. After climbing the arc, we were very tired. But as the sun was still up (the sun sets at 9:30 pm when we were there which was spring and I think it’s the best time Europe because day-time is longer), we took a bus to visit Louvre. Majestic!





On the fourth day (23rd day), we went back to the Louvre Museum. We first had our lunch in the Jardin de Tuiliries which was just in from of the museum. Then we went to the museum. It has three major wings. We decided just to visit one of the wings were Mona Lisa was exhibited. I must say that there lots of exhibits from various artists in Europe and different times. It was just overwhelming to absorb everything. The most famous of the exhibits were of course the Mona Lisa. Everybody was scrambling to get a picture of the piece! We had to really squeeze in to get a good view (and picture) of her famous smile. And that was it. After that, we strolled on the streets of Paris, the ones along the Seine River going towards the Conciergerie. I also bought some souvenirs from the street vendors. Another tiring day was over.


On the fifth and final day in Paris, we went to Versailles. We visited the palace which was again, very gorgeous. As our train was very early in the following day, we went back to the hotel early to pack up and get some sleep. The last five days in Paris were really tiring but amazing for us.

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