My daughter Lauren was dying to cook paella for our Christmas Eve dinner over 2 years ago. I bought all the ingredients in the morning but I wanted to cook it already while the seafood was still fresh. My recipe for paella is one where I can pre-cook everything and place it on the pyrex dish for baking at a later time. It made sense to prepare it now then bake it just before Christmas dinner. I can’t be hassled with cooking just before the Noche Buena.

Here is my Paella, Filipino Style recipe. Lauren assisted me with the cooking.

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Posted: November 21st, 2008 under Beef, Filipino Food, Pork, Recipes, Seafood, chicken.
Comments: 4

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 throughly together.

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 19th, 2008 under Filipino Food, Noche Buena, Pork, Recipes.
Comments: none

Chicken Relleno or Stuffed Chicken. Relleno comes from the Spanish word “Rellenar” which means “to stuff. The chicken is stuffed with ground pork, ham, vegetables, hard boiled egg, etc. and then baked. Here is a favorite dish which I want to share with you. The hard part is in the deboning but once you’ve mastered it, stuffing the chicken shouldn’t be too hard.

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Posted: November 17th, 2008 under Filipino Food, Noche Buena, Recipes, chicken.
Comments: 1

A lot of you have been clamoring for a siopao recipe. It’s been ages since I last cooked siopao. My recipe is based on”Favorite Filipino Recipes” by Pat Dayrit. The recipe is comprised of two parts: the dough and the filling. Let’s start with the dough first

Dough
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon dry yeast
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons pork lard

Procedure for Dough

1. Place the sugar and yeast into the lukewarm water.

2. Let stand for 10 minutes.

3. Mix flour, baking powder, remaning sugar and lard.

4. Add the mixture of Number 3 to the yeast mixture in number 1.

5. Knead until smooth.

6. Let rise for 2 hours. (Prepare filling while waiting for the dough to rise)

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Posted: September 11th, 2008 under Filipino Food, Recipes.
Comments: 4

Ube (Purple Yam) Halaya is one of my favorite desserts that I remember with fondness. Mom often prepared Ube Halaya in a pyrex dish. I liked the natural purple color instead of the bright purple color that I often see in commercial ube halaya. The best ube comes from Bohol because of its aromatic fragrance and sweetness. Perhaps, this legend explains the gift granted to the Bohol Ube Kinampay. Kinampay is a kind of ubi, the most expensive kind yet there are many varieties that are named Kinampay. The Bohol Ube Kinampay can be found in Dauis, Panglao, Tagbilaran, Corella and other southwestern towns of Bohol.

Granting you have the Bohol Ube, here is a simple recipe of Ube Halaya prepration. There are many variations that use coconut milk and evaporated milk but I use condensed milk.

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Posted: August 13th, 2008 under Cakes, Pastries & Desserts, Filipino Food, Recipes, desserts.
Comments: 2

I’ve avoided simple recipes in this blog simply because I think one can easily get it from other sites. But for the sake of my readers, let me a menudo recipe. Menudo is my husband’s favorite dish. Too bad my kids don’t really like it. I like my menudo to have some raisins in it but my husband does not want any of it. Here is my recipe

1/2 kilo pork cut in small cubes
2 Tbsps. Oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion chopped
1 chorizo bilbao or spanish sausage (sometimes we use hotdog)
1 cup tomato sauce
1 piece red or green pepper
1 cup garbanzos
2 cups broth
2 potatoes, cubed and fried
salt to taste
dash of pepper

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Posted: July 19th, 2008 under Filipino Food, Pork, Recipes, kakanin, suman, native rice cakes.
Comments: 2

Pork barbecue is a fast selling food item. It’s easy to cook and convenient for the hungry customer. The only thing I dislike about grilling the pork barbecue is the smoke. In our old neighborhood, I told the maid to grill just outside the gate. Now some passerbys often think we are selling barbecue. Hehe, maybe I will sell them one of these days. Anyway, I prefer my barbecue to be a bit sweet. Here’s my recipe for Pork Barbecue Marinade:
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Posted: June 16th, 2008 under Cakes, Pastries & Desserts, Filipino Food, Pork, Recipes.
Comments: 12