Grilled Tilapia (Inihaw na Tilapia)

One of the best and affordable dished in the Philippines. This recipe is delicious, simple, and really easy to cook. It suits best during vacations and outings especially on beaches where you had to cook most of in the grill.

Toi's Grilled Tilapia

• fresh whole tilapia, trimmed and cleaned (gutted and scaled)
• tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger (optional)
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
• Salt or fish sauce and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Banana leaves or foil for wrapping tilapia
  

Cooking Directions

1. some slits into the flesh of the tilapia, down to the bone. You can do this several ways: parallel to the backbone, or perpendicular (make it several slashes then), or use crosscuts.
2. Mix garlic, ginger if using, onions, tomatoes, salt or fish sauce and pepper in a small bowl.
3. Press down on tomatoes a bit with a fork to bring out the juices.
4. Carefully this mixture into tilapia cavity and into each cut/slash you’ve made.
5. Wrap the whole tilapia in banana leaves or foil and cook on the grill for about 20 minutes or just until cooked through and fish is fragrant.
6. If using the oven preheat to 400°F and bake, wrapped in leaves or foil, on a baking sheet, for about 20 minutes.
7. Serve hot!

Braised Pork

Hmm yummy braised pork. Actually this is just pork afritada!, haha! Again, another all time favorite especially during lunch time at weekends when the the whole family is complete. A great combination of pork, tomato sauce, herbs and spices, and potatoes make up this amazingly tasty treat.

Toi's Braised Pork (Pork Afritada)

• 1 lb. pork, cut into serving pieces
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 tbsp. patis (fish sauce)
• 4 potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 2 tbsp. fine breadcrumbs (or flour, or cornstarch)
• vegetable oil

Cooking Directions

1. Put pork in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Let stand 10 to 20 minutes.

2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir-fry pork pieces until no longer pink in color and turn lightly brown.

3. Add and sauté garlic until fragrant. Stir in onion until soft and translucent. Season with patis and then add potatoes, stir-fry for a few minutes.

4. Pour in water and tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer covered for about 25 to 30 minutes or until pork is cooked and potatoes are tender.

5. Add in bell peppers and stir to blend. Correct seasonings. Thicken sauce with breadcrumbs (or flour, or cornstarch, if using). Stir and blend and let simmer for another few more minutes.

6. Remove from heat. Transfer to a serving dish and serve hot.

Tinolang Manok

Chicken Tinola is one of the best chicken broth based recipe that is usually best during rainy season. Sipping that hot and delicious broth combined with herbs and spices will surely make you feel hungry for more.

Toi's Tinolang Manok

• 3 chicken breast, cut up into small pieces
• 2-3 garlic clove, minced
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 2 tablespoons gingerroot, zested
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 chayote, peeled and cubed (You can also substitute green papaya or winter melon)
• olive oil
• 3/4-1 cup water

Cooking Directions

1. Saute garlic, onion and ginger in oil for 30 seconds over med heat.
2. Add chicken and saute until chicken meat turns white. Add fish sauce.
3. Cover and simmer until chicken is almost completely cooked (7-10 min.). At this point, there will be a fair amount of broth, since all the juices from the chicken are coming out.
4. Add water (I usually add 3/4 cup and that gives me a pretty good, concentrated flavor. my mom adds a little more than a cup, and the flavor is much mellower and sometimes I add more fish sauce at the table. really, you should just experiment).
5. Add chayote and simmer for 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
6. Serve over rice.

Pinakbet

Another native Filipino recipe with different variations depending on your location. Pinakbet is a combination of veggies and meat. Different meats can be used, ranging from chicken, pork, beef and even fried fish. The seasoning also varies but the most common is the salted fish sauce (bagoong). Anyone will surely love the tangy delectable taste of this native veggy recipe.

Toi's Pinakbet

• 1/4 kilo pork with fat, cut into small pieces
• 2 Amapalya (bitter melons) sliced to bite size pieces
• 2 eggplants, sliced to bite size pieces
• 5 pieces of okra, cut in two
• head garlic, minced
• 2 onions, diced
• 5 tomatoes, sliced
• 1 tablespoon of ginger, crushed and sliced
• tablespoons bagoong isda or bagoong alamang
• 3 tablespoons of oil
• 1 1/2 cup water
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Directions

1. In a cooking pan, heat oil and fry the pork until brown, remove the pork from the pan and set aside.
2. On the same pan, saute garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes.
3. In a casserole, boil water and add bagoong.
4. Add the pork in the casserole and mix in the sautéed garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add in all the vegetables and cook until the vegetables are done, careful not to overcook.
6. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve hot with plain rice.

Beef Caldereta

This is one of the so called luxury Filipino dishes due to its prime delectable cuisine taste. Together with the right mixture of seasonings and tomato sauce. This recipe really stands out on occasions. Pork can also be used as an alternative, but beef brings out the taste. Another so called technique for this recipe is to let it chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours after cooking and let the thick sauce sink into the meat. Then re-heat and serve.

Toi's Beef Caldereta

• 1 cup bell peppers cut into strips
• 1 cup grated cheese (or use cheese spread)
• 1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
• tabasco sauce
• bay leaf, 3 large pieces
• salt, peppercorns
• mushroom, potatoes and carrots2 cups beef broth (1 beef cube dissolved in hot water)
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
• 2/3 cup liver spread

Cooking Directions

1. Boil the beef in the beef broth and pineapple juice, with the onion and a dash of salt and about 20 pcs of peppercorn. Let it simmer until the beef is tender.
2. Saute garlic, when almost brown, add the beef.
3. Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste.
4. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add the bay leaf, bellpeppers, carrots, mushroom, and potatoes.
6. If the sauce is too thick, add water.
7. When the potatoes and carrots are cooked, add the liver spread and cheese.
8. Add tabasco sauce.
9. Season to taste.

Tip: Chill in the fridge, until the sauce seeps into the meat. Re-heat and serve.

Pork Barbeque

Ok from pulutan, let us now turn our attention to charcoal cooked food. Imagine the chunky juicy taste of food cooked in natural charcoal, smoked to perfection. One of my all-time favorites is Pork Barbeque. This is one of our family recipes and I'm sure that it will keep your mouth watering. Keep this recipe handy on your vacations.

Toi's Pork Barbeque

• 1 kilo pork, for best results try the liempo part.
  
• Bamboo sticks (skewers)
  
• soy sauce
  
• 1 medium garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup of calamansi juice or lemon juice, whichever is available in your country.
  
• 1/2 cup of Sprite or 7up, whichever is available
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons of brown
  
• 1/2 cup of banana catsup

Cooking Directions

1. Cut pork into thin, long slices , separate the fatty skin part to be used later.
2. In a large mixing bowl, marinate the port with the soy sauce, minced garlic, chopped onions, calamansi juice, ground pepper, sugar, banana catsup and the soda.
3. Mix well and keep in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (turning occasionally).
4. Clean up the skewers and at least scrape off the wood splinters to avoid burning the barbeque during cooking.
5. Kebob! Place the pork in the skewers, place the fatty skin part first, that should be the placeholder for the rest of the port.
6. Over live charcoals, barbeque the pork on skewers until cooked - turning every few minutes on each side and basting the leftover marinate on the barbeque.
7. Serve and Enjoy! Goes well with beer!

Pork Kilawin (ceviche)

Speaking of beer drinking sessions. An event would never be complete without this oh so yummy pulutan, "pork" kilawin. Kilawin is derived from the word ceviche which pertains to food that are mostly prepared and marinated by citrus fruits and vinegars. As we all know, this recipe has many variations from fish up to red meats. So lets start preparing this delectable recipe.

Toi's Pork Kilawin

• kilo pork
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup Vinegar
• onions, chopped
• cups of water
• teaspoon salt

Cooking Directions

1. Place pork in a large casserole, toss in a pinch of salt.
2. Bring to boil for 20 minutes until the pork is tender.
3. Remove pork and slice into small pieced while still hot.
4. In a large mixing bowl, place the pork and add in the vinegar, soy sauce and the chopped onions.
5. Serve immediately! and enjoy

Baked Tahong (Mussels)

Whenever there is a beer sessions. A good pulutan should always be present. One of the best seafood pulutan that we always love is the Baked Tahong (mussels). First, tahong is really cheap and its easy to cook in just a snap. Add in a few seasonings and there you go, an instant cuisine to accompany your beer drinking session.


Toi's Baked Tahong

• 2 lbs clams in shell
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 medium onion minced
• 1 small tomato minced
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded quick melt cheese
  
• cheese
• calamansi or lemon slices
  

Cooking Directions

1. Clean the clams, remove the half upper shell. Prepare baking tray by putting aluminum foil and thinly cover with salt. Line up cleaned, opened clams.

2. Prepare the garnish in a small bowl, mix minced garlic, onion, and tomato with a dash of salt and pepper. This will be the garnish.

3. Garnish opened clams with the mix and add some cheese at the clam tops.

4. Put in oven at 350 F, and bake for 15-20 mins.

5. Serve immediately with freshly squeezed lemons. This can serve as appetizer.

Pork and Beans Stew! - Nilaga lang with beans!

Another one of my favorites. This is a Nilaga recipe variant and the main ingredient is white beans. It blends perfectly with the pork pata broth. Also the white beans add thickness to the broth which makes it ohh so tasty. This is very much perfect on cold and rainy seasons. Add a few leafy veggies such as Cabbage or Pechay and we're good to GO! If you want a different variation, you can use other beans such as black and red ones.

Toi's Porn and Beans Stew!

• 1/4 kilo white beans or sitaw beans (tip, soak in water overnight)
  
• 1/2 kilo of pork pata, choose the hind part since its meatier
• 2 medium onions, peeled and diced.
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  
• 1/2 cabbage or 1 bundle of pechay, sliced
  
• crushed pepper for seasoning
  
• fish sauch (patis)
  

Cooking Directions

1. Boil the pork together with the beans in medium fire until both are soft and tender. Continue to add water as needed. (tip, place a metal spoon, this shortens the boiling time). Add a few pinch of salt. 2. In a different pot, sautee the garlic together with the onion and then add the pork. 3. Add the boiled beans together with the broth. 4. Add pepper, and then bring in the cabbage. Add some fish sauce to taste. 5. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve and Enjoy!

Peanut Sauce? Oh Kare Kare!

This is a traditional Filipino dish served on special occasions as well as family dinners, again it has variants but everything revolves around the combination of the rich, thick flavored peanut sauce combined with the delectable salty taste of a shrimp paste (alamang). One of my college kumare asked for a Kare Kare recipe. So here it goes, enjoy!


Toi's Kare Kare

• 1/4 cup peanut oil
• 2-3 pounds oxtails
• 1-2 pounds beef tripe
• 1 large onion, peeled and sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 1 and 1/2 cups beef stock homemade or use canned
• 1 and 1/2 cups water
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons annatto oil
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter mixed with 1/2 cup hot tap water
• Several shots of Tabasco, or more to taste

Toi's Alamang

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 small tomato, sliced
• 4 tablespoons alamang

Cooking Directions

Kare Kare
1. Heat a large frying pan and add 3 tablespoons of the peanut oil. Fry the the oxtails until brown. Make sure that both sides are well. Place it in a pot
2. Boil the Ox Tripes for a few minutes, drain, and cool. Cut the tripe into strips 1/2 inch wide and 3 inches long. Add these to the oxtail pot.
3. Add peanut oil to the frying pan and saute the onion and garlic. Add to the oxtail pot along with the tomato, beef stock, water, salt, and annatto oil. Cover and simmer for 1-1/2 hours. Simmer partially covered for another 1-1/2 hours, stirring now and then.
4. At the beginning of the last hour of cooking, add the peanut butter mixture and the Tabasco. Taste and add more Tabasco and salt if needed. If all is not very tender, continue to cook a bit longer.

Shrimp Paste
1. Saute garlic, onions and tomato in a little oil. Add alamang. Saute for another minute.
2. Serve alongside the Kare Kare.

Pork ala Papa Sprite

Yes! Believe it or not, thats what I call this recipe. I really dont know the original name for this. I got this smoking Filipino recipe from my Granny. Years ago, when I was a kid, I always wondered on what my grandmother is doing with the Sprite.

Since we all know that its a softdrink. I never knew that I can be used for cooking. This Filipino pork recipe is a mix blend of sweet with a bit of a sour taste. Try this at your own risk! hahaha.


Toi's Pork ala Papa Sprite

• Kilo Pork Liempo, cut into serving size
• 2 Bottles of Sprite (12 oz)
• Pimientos
• Salt
• Banana Ketchup (Preferably, Papa Banana Ketchup)

Cooking Directions

1. Combine the pork and pimientos inside a big pot and pour in the Sprite.
2. Bring in to boil until the pork is tender.
3. Wait till the pork completely absorbs all the Sprite
4. Let the pork simmer a bit until the grease comes out.
5. Transfer to a frying pan and fry the pork until its brown.
6. Add in a few pinch of salt to taste.
7. Pour in the banana ketchup and let it simmer till the all the pork is covered in ketchup.
8. Let the ketchup sink in to the pork.

Serve in hot!!

Pork Nilaga dito! Pork Nilaga doon!

I usually cook during my weekend off days. While my wife, being in a call center, has an erratic off schedule. We know that busy people dont have much time to cook food so they resort to fast ones such as Hotdogs, Sunny Side Up Eggs, Bacon and any other Cold Cuts. Since its my rest day, I decided to cook a nice healthy early breakfast (2am) for my wife.

Pork Nilaga is one of the easiest Filipino recipes to learn. Nilaga in English is defined as boiled. Like other Filipino Recipes, the nilaga has different variations. You can either use pork or beef. The broth will be much tastier if you use Buto-Buto (Spareribs or Leg part, with the bone marrow). The vegetables that are used in the recipe also varies. The only limit is your creativity. My version of Pork nilaga is for those that have busy schedule and are always on the go since the preparation and cooking time is very minimal. Try it for yourselves.

Toi's Nilagang Buto Buto

• Kilo Pork , Ribs or Pata (Cut into 1 inch slices)
  
• 1 Large Potato, cut into serving portions
  
• Onion (quartered)
• 2 pcs. (corn cut into small serving portions) (Optional)
  
• 1 bundle Baguio Beans
  
• Half Cabbage or 1 bundle of Pechay
  
• Salt and Patis(Fish Sauce) to taste
• 1 clove ginger, mashed, peel of the skin.
  
• Water
• 1 teaspoon salt
  

Cooking Directions

1. Combine all the ingredients into the pot except the cabbage, baguio beans, fish sauce.
2. Boil them in high temp. Make sure that the pork, potato and corn are cooked well and tender.
3. Lower the temperature and throw in the cabbage and baguio beans.
4. Make sure that the green veggies are not overcooked.
5. Season with Patis(Fish Sauce) to taste.
6. Remove from heat and serve hot.
7. Enjoy!

Ang Asim ng Pork Sinigang!

One of the best native recipe of Filipinos is Sinigang. Just like the Adobo, sinigang has lots of variations. You can either choose pork, fish, beef and even chicken. Though I have never tried chicken, they all share the same sour soup taste. I even saw the famous mountaineer, "Romy Garduce" using corned beef as a substitute. Kindly check out my own version of Pork Sinigang. Truly a delicate Filipino Recipe.


Toi's Pork Sinigang

• Kilo Pork or Ribs (Cut into 1 inch slices)
  
• 10-15 pcs Tamarind (Sampaloc) (or one packet of any commercial sinigang mix)
• Onion (diced)
• 5 big tomatoes (quartered)
• 1 piece Radish (sliced)
• 1 bundle Sitaw Stringbeans
  
• 1 bundle Kangkong (river spinach
  
• Salt and Patis(Fish Sauce) to taste
• 3 pcs. Gabi (Taro)
  
• cups water

Cooking Directions

1. Boil Tamarind to soften. Pound, remove seed, keep the meaty part and strain all juices and set aside.
2. In a casserole, bring pork to a boil, drop in the taro, lower fire and simmer until pork is tender.
3. Bring in the onions, tomatoes and Tamarind juice (OR sinigang mix).
4. Add in all the vegetables .
5. Season with salt and Patis to taste.
6. Best Served hot under cold weather. Yum! Yum!

Anong Ulam? Adobo?

"Honey, whats for dinner? Guess what my wife prepared for tonight? The old fashioned, home cooked adobo. "

This is one Filipino dish that has lived up to its name. This Filipino recipe is considered to be the number one choice for all Filipinos. Life will never be complete without this masterpiece. I will never forget the salty, sour taste of pork and chicken mixed with pepper coupled with hot rice. Which made me think, who made the very first adobo recipe?

There are gazillion adobo and chicken adobo recipe. Every Filipino family have their own recipe and every region has his own variant. You just have to see what fits your taste. This is my very own recipe version of adobo. I hope you'll like it.

Toi's Adobo

• 1 kg pork lomo (this is a rounded shaped, fatless), cut into desired portions
• 3 cloves garlie - crushed
• 1/2 - 2/3 cup vinegar
• 1 pinch peppercorns - crushed
• 1 bay leaf, optional
• 1-2 tablespoon water
• 1 tsp rock salt
• 1 tablespoon of patis (fish sauce)
• additional water
  

Cooking Directions

1. Saute the garlic till its brown.
2. Add the pork with 1-2 tablespoons of water.
3. Let the meat simmer.
4. Fry the pork under its own fat.
5. Toss in the peppercorns, and bay leaf.
6. Pour in the vinegar.
7. Add a little water and let it boil in low heat until the pork is soft and tender.
(dont let the water dry
8. Pour in the patis or soy sauce, depending on your preference.
9. Serve on top of rice, ENJOY!

18 inch Please with Works!

It's one of those days where I had to unwind. To stay away from computers and stuff and have a little rest and relaxation, and what a great way to relax is take out a whole 18 inch new york style pizza. Surprised? Yes, thats my way of relaxation. Dining out and eating your hearts out.

Remember that checkered board design inside the yellow cab pizza restaurant. I kept on wondering, how on earth would a person mix all of these craps? "Well, for me some of the ingredients listed taste like crap". He turned them into a masterpiece.

Who ever invented pizza, he was such a genius. He turned a big hunk of dough, splattered with cheese, mushroom, meaty oh so yummy! tomato sauce, cucumber, radish, oh my sorry, kindly disregard the last two. Anyway, I like being served with a hot one out of the oven rather than those soggy pizza's served in thick crust. You know what im saying! hehe! Mahirap na mademanda.

I do have some what if's? Does yellow cab san francisco pizza taste differently as compared to yellow cab pizza philippines. Basically, I can assume that it does since after the outbreak of ....
man, its in the tip of my tounge, would you believe I had to login at yahoo messenger and ask someone from the chat room... hahaha

As I was saying, I can safely assume that since there are so many franchise owners. The quality of the services and products suffered. Still, yellow cab's new york pizza taste absolutely.... im lost for words... just try it. I do have one wish list from them, a chicago style pizza, or a deep dish pizza. They can also give some pizza coupons to selected customers such as me. hehe!