Food memories at my dorm in UP consisted of adobo that mom cooked for us. See in the dorm, we were not allowed to cook our meals. Mom’s adobo did not contain any soy sauce and I often wondered how she cooked it. I never got to ask my mom because she died while I was a teenager who was not yet eager to cook. I saw a recipe once in a newspaper column and the writer called it the white adobo or Adobong Puti because it does not contain soy sauce. This type of adobo is light brown due to the browning during the cooking process. It is a bit sour too. I forgot to clip out the newspaper article where the recipe contained. Fortunately, Sam read a comment I left in MarketMan’s blog. Here, she shares her Adobong Puti recipe which I have innovated and cooked but forgot to take pics.

Try it and let me know…

2 kilos pork (with some fatty parts, like butt, or belly)
8- 10 cloves garlic
1 tsp coarsely cracked pepper
2 pcs bay leaves
1 1/2 cups sukang puti (coco when available)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoon sea salt

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Posted: May 30th, 2009 under Pork, Recipes, Site News.
Comments: 11

Pancit Molo has got to be the most requested soup dish in small gatherings at home. It’s been quite some time since I cooked Pancit Molo as it takes a lot of preparation as you will see below. But it is all worth it after you see the pleased expressions from your family members. Pancit Molo is best garnished with lots of toasted garlic. So here is the recipe for you to feast on.

Preparation is in three parts: the wrapper (if you want to make your own), the filling and the broth.

Let’s start with the wrapper

1 cup all purpose flour
2 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon salt
Enough cold water to make a dough

1. Place flour and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the center.

2. Add eggs and water in the center of the flour.

3. Work it up to a paste and knead until smooth.

4. Roll thinly with cornstarch.

5. Cut to triangular shapes with 3 inches on two sides and shorter on one side.

Note: You can always buy ready-made wanton wrappers at the vegetable/cold storage section of the supermarket.

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Posted: May 26th, 2009 under Cakes, Pastries & Desserts, Noodles, Pork, Recipes, kakanin, suman, native rice cakes.
Comments: 4

Before Jollibee or even Tropical Hut came out with the Filipino version of the Italian Spaghetti, there was Makati Supermarket’s spaghetti sold in their coffee shop in the early sixties. This is probably how the sweetish Filipino spaghetti evolved. A popular American blogger once commented that our Jollibee spaghetti tasted horrible. It must have seemed different from Italian spaghetti since the latter is sour. Filipino spaghetti has sweet sauce.

Filled with vienna sausage, ham strips, ground beef and grated cheese, the sauce of Makati Supermarket’ spaghetti is sweet with a tinge of spiciness. When I was in college during the mid-seventies, my dorm-mates and I would travel all the way from the UP campus to Makati Supermarket in Ayala. The supermarket does not exist anymore. These days you can eat their spaghetti at Cash and Carry Supermarket along , President Osmena Highway (South Superhighway) near Buendia Makati City and Makati Supermarket in Alabang.

A reader pointed out to me that some evidence of an even earlier birth of the “pinoy spaghetti” exists in the memoirs of Gen Douglas McArthur (yes the “I shall return guy”). I am not able to pull the line verbatim but it went mostly like this:

this sauce, so sweet on spaghetti, hardly seems like spaghetti sauce but it is good.

Through the years, I developed my own Filipino-Style Spaghetti Sauce. If you are in a hurry, you can always buy those ready-to-use Filipino Style Spaghetti sauce sold at the supermarket. But let me tell you, there is nothing more srcumptious than cooking spaghetti sauce in your own special touch. Here is my recipe which you can always innovate.

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Posted: May 24th, 2009 under Pasta, Recipes.
Comments: 10

When I made Shrimp Potato Salad for my ex-boyfriend (now my husband), he was very impressed. He loved the salad. Salads are so easy to prepare so that’s why I prepared this. I remember how I researched on the best combination for this salad. It’s a composite of a lot of recipes. You can also revise the recipe. Here it is.

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Posted: May 23rd, 2009 under Recipes, Salad.
Comments: none

I am sure most of you are familiar with Chili Con Carne. It’s a spicy and hot dish which my children just love to devour with hot steaming rice . There is another bean dish that is quite the opposite of the Chili Con Carne. It has a sweet taste to it. With ingredients like chorizo bilbao, bacon and pata, you can just imagine the combination of these yummy flavors. Baked Beans was one of the first dishes that my sister, Myrna and I first cooked when we lived independently after college.

Ingredients
1/2 kilo red kidney beans
1 pork pata or leg, front (1 kilo)
3 medium sized onions
1/2 cup oil
20 grams garlic, minced
1 small can tomato paste
1/4 lb bacon
2 small chorizo bilbao, sliced
5 pieces hotdog, sliced
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
dash of pepper
salt to taste
2-3 tablespoon brown sugar

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Posted: May 21st, 2009 under Pork, Vegetables.
Comments: 1

I never knew how to make ginataan until I became a mother. I recall eating ginataan as a child but never took the time to cook it as I was growing up. Even when I took up Principles in Food Preparation in UP Diliman under the late Matilde P. Guzman and learned the technique of Extracting Coconut Cream and Coconut Milk, I still didn’t take time to cook a batch of this yummy filipino merienda fare. Anyway, by the time I became a mother, I decided to cook it for my kids. Here is my recipe.

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Posted: May 18th, 2009 under Coconut Milk, Filipino Delicacies, Noche Buena, Pork, Recipes.
Comments: none

This isn’t an original recipe. My sister got it from an American cookbook. Spanish rice pairs so well Chicken Cannelloni. This was very popular in our home in 1978 to 1980. I can just taste it now!

4 strips of bacon
1/2 cup thinly-sliced onion
2-1/2 cups peeled, cubed tomatoes
1/4 cup green bell pepper, cut into strips
2 tsps. salt
1 tsp. paprika
1 clove of garlic, minced
dash of pepper
1-1/2 cups cooked rice

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Posted: May 15th, 2009 under Recipes, Rice.
Comments: 1

Crispy Spinach or Crispy kangkong is basically an appetizer during parties. Don’t expect to get Vitamin A because they all died after the extreme heat. The most you can get are fibers and that urge to munch on something crunchy other than potato chips. So try this out.

Ingredients

2 bundles of Kangkong ( or spinach) or roughly 1/4 kilo
2 beaten eggs
2 cups cold water
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon refined salt
3 cups cornstarch
1 cup all-purpose flour
cooking oil

For Garlic-Mayonnaise Dip
Mix all of these below:

1 cup low fat mayonnaise
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
dash of pepper

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Posted: May 13th, 2009 under Recipes, Vegetables.
Comments: none

Adobo flakes is a hit in the family. It is quite easy to prepare. Just cook some adobo or recycle leftover Adobo, shred into flakes and toast to the right combination of chewy and crisp perfection. My husband prepared Adobo Flakes for the kids yesterday.

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Posted: May 9th, 2009 under Pork, Recipes.
Comments: 2

I first ate Korean Beef Stew at the old Kimchi Korean Fastfood in the mid-seventies. My love for Korean beef stew inspired me to make my own version similar to the Kimchi Korean beef Stew. Here is my version that is a hit with my guests.
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Posted: May 6th, 2009 under Beef, Recipes.
Comments: none

It is not often that I am in Cebu. The last time I was there was in 2005. Two months ago, my sister and I booked at the Marriot Hotel where we usually stay whenever we have a business transaction. Naturally when I am in Cebu, I choose the dishes native to the place. For breakfast, it was the Cebu longaniza (Philippine sausage). The longaniza from cebu is a combination of sweetish and spicy flavors. Oh how I miss the tasty longaniza. I don’t have to be in Cebu to miss one of my breakfast fare. As soon as I reached Manila, I searched for the recipe. Though it is skinless version, the taste is similar to that of the Cebu longaniza.

Here is the recipe of the Skinless Pork Longaniza:

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Posted: May 2nd, 2009 under Pork, Recipes.
Comments: 7