Food Hauz

Me, me, me…I can hear myself fighting for my right to take a bite of this yummylicious Filipino-style sweetened cured meat. Pork tocino plus rice with egg is my favorite breakfast accompanied with a hot cup of coffee. Perfect, ain’t it?

We once hopped into an Oriental store and found a ready-to-cook tocino made in the Philippines. Despite my craving, its price tag hindered me to throw it in our basket. I search for recipes online and found them easy. However, remembering Country Bob’s all-purpose sauce, my experimental self decided to make her own tocino recipe.

I will be sharing the recipe here but please know that I am never accurate with measuring ingredients. I always trust on my instincts and fortunately, my recipes always came out good if not perfect. *WINK* *WINK*

My tocino ingredients include:

Garlic

Pepper

Apple cider vinegar

Soy sauce

Brown sugar

Country bob’s all-purpose sauce

Pork chops or loin

Procedure is not complicated at all. First is to cut meat into about ¼ inch thick. Mix all other ingredients then marinate meat. I keep the marinade refrigerated for at least 3 days before cooking.

When cooking, I heat skillet then place meat on it. I don’t add water since the meat will produce its own juice eventually. In the case where you want your tocino to have a little sauce, you can pour some more of the marinade sauce on it when cooking. I never timed how long it gets cook. I just make sure it’s on medium heat and watch close til it looks like it’s done.

Thanks to country bob’s all-purpose sauce and looking forward to try out the recipes they sent with the sauce…

This is the pasta I used, 250g of San Remo instant lasagna

Prepare the meat sauce first:
oil
garlic
onions
ground beef (500g)
tomato paste (5 tbsps)
tomato sauce (600g)
salt and pepper
nutmeg

Then the white sauce:
butter (2 tbsp)
flour (2 tbsp)
1 big can of evaporated milk
quickmelt cheese (125g)

Once the sauce is done, arrange it in the baking dish starting with the pasta, then the meat sauce and the white sauce. You can have up to 4 layers. Make sure each layer is fully covered with sauce to keep the moisture.

After the last layer, top it with grated quickmelt cheese.

Bake for 45 mins.

Here’s an easy recipe for a chocolate muffin which I have tried.

Easy Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa (Hershey’s)
¾ cup refined sugar
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup butter or margarine, melted
1 cup milk
1 tbsp vinegar
1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)
A little chocolate chips, for topping

Method:
(1) Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, soda and salt.
(2) Make a well in the centre. Pour the melted butter, milk and vinegar into the well.
(3) Stir until all ingredients are moist. Add 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and mix well.
(4) Spoon the batter into muffin cups.
(5) Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top.
(6). Bake in a preheated oven at 180° C for 20 minutes.

I know there are already ready-mix pancakes available in the supermarket, but, honestly, I don’t heart them as much as what my Sis’ mixture or my friend’s. And here’s a recipe from my chef friend, Stephen that you can try. Hopefully, I can try his specialty one of these days.. Paging: Stephen! Drop by here in Cebu and bring us food! Hehehe.

Pancake Recipe

Ingredients:

200 grams All purpose flour

2 tsps sugar

4 pcs eggs

pinch salt

1/3 cup melted butter (unsalted)

1 ½ cups full cream milk

Procedure:

1. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and sift.
3. Mix all wet ingredients, except for the egg whites, in a separate bowl. Beat until well mixed.
4. Gradually pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, continuously stirring until a smooth batter is formed. Let rest for 20 minutes.
5. When ready to cook, beat egg whites until foamy. Fold this into batter.
6. Heat frying pan and fry batter until done.

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Yummy picture above is also taken from Stephen’s blog.

Adobo is one of my favorite Filipino dish. And I want to share this recipe I got from Filipino Food Recipes site. And I hope I can cook a very yummy adobo someday.

Estimated cooking time: 50 minutes

 

Adobo Ingredients:

• 1/2 kilo pork, cut in cubes

• 1/2 kilo chicken, cut into pieces

• 1 head garlic, minced

• 1/2 yellow onion, diced

• 1/2 cup soy sauce

• 1 cup vinegar

• 2 cups of water

• 1 teaspoon paprika

• 5 laurel leaves (bay leaves)

• 4 tablespoons of cooking oil or olive oil

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

• 3 tablespoons water

Adobo Cooking Instructions:

• In a big sauce pan or wok, sauté garlic and onions on cooking hot 2 tablespoons of oil.

• Add the pork and chicken to the pan. Add 2 cups of water, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, vinegar, paprika and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or when meat is tender.

• Remove the pork and chicken from the sauce pan and on another pan, heat cooking oil and brown the pork and chicken for a few minutes.

• Mix the browned pork and chicken back to the sauce and add cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken. Bring to a boil then simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

• Serve hot with the adobo gravy and plain rice.

Adobo Cooking Tips:

• You have the option to add crushed ginger to the onions and garlic when sautéing. Ginger adds a unique flavor to your pork/chicken adobo.

As what I have told you in my previous post, I really love Buko Pandan. Here’s a Buko Pandan recipe courtesy of Bohol.ph that I love to try one day.

Ingredients

8 leaves of Pandan - cleaned well
5 Buko (Coconut)not too hard, not too soft- Grated to strips
Water from 5 Buko (approx. 10 cups)
3 small cans of Nestle Cream
1 medium can of Condensed Milk
2 bars of Green Gulaman
1 3/4 Cups Sugar (more if you want it sweeter)
1 cup Kaong (optional)

Preparation

1. Boil buko water from 5 coconuts together with 8 pandan leaves that are individually twisted to break the fibers and expose the juice. Simmer for 20 minutes.

2. Before adding 2 bars of gulaman, make sure you remove the pandan leaves and check if the remaining coconut water is equal to 8 cups - 1 bar of gulaman is good for 4 cups of liquid. If it is not 8 cups, less will mean hard gulaman and more than 8 cups will result in mushy soft gulaman. Ensuring gulaman is well-dissolved stir well. Add sugar while mixing. Do this for 5 minutes

3. Pour through a strainer into cooling trays. Wait till it cools and hardens, then put in fridge.

4. Meanwhile, mix the grated buko with the 3 cans of cream and 1 can of condensed milk.

5. Add kaong if you prefer.

6. Get gulaman from ref and cut into 1 cm cubes. Mix with buko mixture.

Your buko pandan is now ready!

Dr. Steven A. Schnur’s new book, The Reality Diet, has recipes the entire family will enjoy–including the kids. Packed with yummy desserts (non-sugar), high-energy breakfasts, and easy-to-fix dinners, we know you’ll enjoy them all, including this one for Apple Streusel.

Streusels, along with cobblers and crisps, are American classics. But like most things American, streusel has its roots in another country, in this case Germany—and Streusel is a German word meaning “sprinkling.”

1/4 cup 2:90 granola

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon sugar substitute

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons light margarine, chilled and cut into pieces

Nonstick cooking spray

1 large unpeeled apple, cored and sliced

One container 2:90 vanilla yogurt with fiber (providing up to 90 calories)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, mix together the granola, brown sugar, sugar substitute, and cinnamon. Using a pastry cutter or 2 knives, cut the margarine into the granola until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Spray a small, round (5-inch-diameter) baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Evenly arrange the apple slices in the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with the streusel topping and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until bubbling. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve from the baking dish topped with the yogurt.

Serves 1

CALORIES 360; FIBER 6g; FAT 14g; PROTEIN 9g; CARB 53g; SODIUM 300mg

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Dr. Steven A. Schnur is a board-certified internist and cardiologist who has been in private practice for more than 15 years. He is committed to helping patients achieve lasting weight loss through a high fiber diet