What do we do with leftovers from Christmas dinner? Most especially scrap ham. The solution….Pochero or cocido. I prefer to call it Pochero as it is a very common dish in my hometown Cebu.

Pochero (Spanish spelling , Puchero) with its bounty of meats, sausages and vegetables is known as the “real national dish of Spain. Brought to the shores through the Spanish conquistadores, it is a favorite dish at Filipino festive occasions. With extra ham from the noche buena, the pochero is one way of recycling left-over meats. This recipe is richly flavored by the ham bones and scrap ham simmered with the beef.

Ingredients

1 kilo cubed beef (with some portions of fat)
1/2 kilo leftover ham bones
1/4 kilo scrap ham
8 to 10 cups water or enough to cover meat
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut in half
4 Saba bananas, peeled, sliced in half
3 pieces chorizo de bilbao sliced diagonally into 2 inch pieces
1 cup chick peas
1 head of cabbage quartered
1 Baguio pechay leaves separated

Read more »

Posted: November 20th, 2009 under Noche Buena, chicken.
Comments: 3

Are you planning your noche buena menu this early? Well I usually plan mine as early as November. Every Christmas, I prepare Embutido (otherwise known as Filipino style meatloaf) in large quantities. It’s the perfect Holiday dish to prepare for unexpected guests. One can easily freeze the embutido, slice it , heat it in the oven and serve. The embutido that I know is wrapped in sinsal (an internal pork entrail) which is ideal for steaming. Mom only prepared embutido on Christmas season. There are so many ingredients which need lots of preparation time but like I told you, once prepared, and cooked it’s perfect to store.

Here is my Embutido recipe.

Ingredients

2 pieces red pepper, minced finely
3 kilos ground lean pork
2 pieces carrot, grated finely
1 cup Chorizo de Bilbao, chopped finely (this is the one that gives the flavor)
6 eggs, beaten
200 grams raisins
300 grams pickle relish
3 onions, minced
1 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
3 1/2 Tablespoons fine salt
7 1/2 Tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 Tablespoon worcestershire saice
3/4 cup cornstarch

Garnishing

3 eggs hardboiled
5 pieces hotdog
4 pieces Vienna sausage

Procedure

1. Combine all the ingredients except the garnishings.

2. Blend thoroughly together. Before rolling , take a small meat portion and fry to make sure the flavors suit your taste.

3. Measure a 1 cup pork mixture. Spread pork mixture into 8″ x 10″ aluminum foil.

4. Make a rectangular well in the center.

4. Arrange slices of hard cooked eggs, Vienna sausage and hotdog. Roll until the ends of the pork mixture covers the eggs and sausages. Continue rolling the pork mixture back and forth until it covers the slices of eggs and sausages in the center.

6. The rolled mixture in the aluminum foil should reach around 1″ to 2″ in diameter.

7. Seal both ends. Repeat with the remaining pork mixture.

8. Steam bake in moderate oven over 350 F for 1 hour or steam for 30 minutes.

Makes 18 rolls

Isn’t this one of the perfect dish for Noche Buena?

Posted: November 5th, 2009 under Filipino Food, Noche Buena, Pork, Recipes.
Comments: 6

A Filipino party is not complete if there is no Macaroni Salad, whatever guise it shows up in. This recipe was a favorite party dish during our “growing up” years. Although I cannot remember the source of this salad, I hope you can try it out for your family and guests during the holiday season.

1 package salad macaroni

1/2 cup celery, diced or sliced

1/4 cup pimientos, chopped

1-1/2 cups hard-cooked eggs, chopped

2 cups ripe mangoes, peeled and diced

1/4 cup pickle relish

3/4 cup mayonnaise (or substitute with salad dressing for a lower-calorie salad)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 tsps vinegar (sukang puti)

1. Cook salad macaroni as directed. Drain well and chill.
2. Combine celery, pimientos, eggs, mangoes, and pickle relish.
3. In a small bowl, season mayonnaise with salt, sugar, vinegar. Add this to the celery mixture. Gently fold in the cooked, chilled macaroni. Blend thoroughly.
4. Serve on crisp lettuce leaves garnished with sliced, stuffed olives or tomato wedges.

Posted: October 15th, 2009 under Celebrations, Recipes, Salad.
Comments: 1

It’s the time of the year when one needs to plan for the holidays. As early as September, I already know what to bake for Christmas. A childhood memory that never fails to remind me of the Christmas season is Fruitcake. I used to bake a lot of fruitcake in the past but the girls never really got around to acquiring a taste for it. They preferred the Gingerbread Man Cookies because of the story behind it after I bake the first batch. That’s my then 16 year old daughter, Lauren when she helped me with my fruitcakes a few years ago. Fruitcake flavor is best when it has been aged for a few months in a cool place (preferably the refrigerator in the Philippines).

For those of you who want to bake Fruitcakes for the Holidays, here is a recipe which I call Golden Fruitcake. I’ve modified this based from my mom’s original fruitcake recipe. My Golden Fruitcake does not have a strong taste of brandy nor is it too sweet. Anyway, there’s a lot of preparation so make sure you run down the list carefully.

Here is my Golden Fruitcake recipe

Read more »

Posted: September 9th, 2009 under Baking Recipes, Cakes, Pastries & Desserts, Christmas.
Comments: 5

Bam-i is a noodle dish that we ate as kids growing up in Cebu. It is a Visayan dish as I’ve never seen it serve here in Manila. I love the two kinds of noodles: vermicelli and the egg noodles. It’s sad that my kids don’t really like the combination of the noodles. I think the taste is so divine and different from the usual pancit guisado. Timing is important so as not to overcook the egg noodles. Usually the vermicelli or sotanghon is cooked first before the egg noodles are added. I’ve innovated this recipe to include Filipino sausage which you can buy in the groceries. It gives a more smoky flavor to Bam-i.

Here is my recipe:

Read more »

Posted: August 9th, 2009 under Filipino Food, Noche Buena, Noodles, Recipes.
Comments: 16

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.

Read more »

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

Noche Buena is never complete without the traditional chinese Ham. I always choose Majestic Ham because it isn’t too salty for me. The secret to their moist, mouthwatering ham products is in their curing process. Their hams are cured in oak barrels, aged for full flavor, and seasoned with select spices before being cooked to perfection. It’s my preference, of course especially since they are so established with 70 years of curing and cooking ham to perfection under their belt.

The common glaze used is pineapple but this time, I used Apple-cinnamon glaze.

Here’s the recipe for Chinese Ham with Apple Cinnamon Glaze:

Ingredients
1 2 to 3 kilos Chinese Cooked Ham
2 cups Apple Juice
1/4 cup cherry brandy
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 medium apple , chopped
2 pieces bay leaf
1 tsp cinnamon powder
slices of green and red cherries
toasted cashew nuts
celery leaves

Read more »

Posted: December 30th, 2008 under Filipino Food, Noche Buena.
Comments: 2

New Year’s Eve noche buena must have a fruit salad on the dinner table. The most popular fruit salad is the Buko salad. The popularity of fruits during New Year’s Eve celebration is part of the tradition to bring in good luck, fortune and prosperity. Today, I will hie off to the grocery to buy ingredients for my fruit salad. Here is my recipe.

Read more »

Posted: December 28th, 2008 under Christmas, Filipino Food, Noche Buena, Recipes, desserts.
Comments: 4

To all the 1600 plus readers and subscribers of Pinoy Food Blog, I am grateful for your visit. I hope you have somehow gotten a few tips from my family’s Food Blog. I am amazed at the growth of this blog and at first I wasn’t that diligent in updating this blog. However, when I saw the growth of subscribers, I paid more attention. It is a good feeling to share old fashion tradition, treasured recipes and tips from me to you.

My family and I would like to wish you all the best of the season whether you celebrate Christmas or not. From our home to your home, I want to spread some cheer through our Noche Buena.
Read more »

Posted: December 25th, 2008 under Noche Buena.
Comments: none

Our Noche Buena is never complete without the hot tsokolate made from the native Tablea (cacao chocolate). I often visited my great grandmother in Cebu and her past time involved making tablea. The fragrant aroma is something that can never replace all those Starbucks frapucciono or chocolate drinks from fancy coffee shops. However, tablea is best prepared using a batirol and a tsokolatera so the consistency is smooth. A batirol is a wooden whisk used to mix tablea (a block of pure cocoa) and water into a thick, grainy, hot chocolate drink. The tablea and water are mixed in a cast-iron pitcher called a tsokolatera. Like a kawali or wok, a tsokolatera (Chocolatera or Chocolate Pot) performs better as it ages.

I made a cup of hot chocolate drink the other day with my trusty helper, Diding. Here is the proportion.
Read more »

Posted: December 24th, 2008 under Noche Buena.
Comments: 1

by Lauren

I hosted the Man Blog Christmas party at our house this year and I decided to prepare fiesta ham so it would really feel like a Christmas dinner. I didn’t want to use the pre-packaged sauce that came with the ham so I looked around the Internet for a simple ham sauce recipe I can make on my own. Eventually, I came across a recipe for a beer sauce that I modified a little bit. The beer sauce turned out to be a huge hit among my friends. By the time the party was wrapping up, the ham was completely gone – pineapple garnish, sauce and all!

I still need to make a couple of adjustments to the recipe; I think it needs more sugar and more beer. But this is the beer sauce recipe I used for the Christmas party.

Read more »

Posted: December 22nd, 2008 under Noche Buena.
Comments: 2

One of the dishes I prepared for our last Christmas day lunch in our old home in Makati in the year 2005 was Chicken Cannelloni. The young ones particularly raved the rich creamy Chicken Cannelloni. The recipe came from my sister, Lorna who modified it many times. I forgot to take a close-up photo of the Cannelloni dish but it’s the rectangular pyrex on the table. The great thing about Cannelloni is that I can prepare it a day before , freeze it and heat it on Christmas Day itself. It takes the stress away from cooking so many dishes in one day.

Cannelloni usually refers to rectangular pasta sheets that are rolled with a filling. However, sometimes the pasta dough is replaced with a cooked crepe, generally 3 to 4 inches in length and once rolled, one inch in diameter. After cooking the crepe (or boiling the pasta), it is typically filled with a savory stuffing which may include ricotta cheese, spinach, and various meats. It is then covered with a sauce, typically classic tomato or bechamel sauce, although many variations exist.

(wikipedia)

My Cannelloni version uses Bechamel sauce, chicken and ready made pasta as shown below:

Read more »

Posted: December 6th, 2008 under Noche Buena, Pasta, Recipes, chicken.
Comments: 8