Pinakbet

Pinakbet

Hello my loves!! I know its been awhile since i last posted on here but important thing is I'm back! :)

I went back home for about 3 weeks in pinas and had the taste of  proper home cooking. It then inspired  me to do a bit of rambling here and hopefully will help you a little bit in you own kitchen. We all know that this is a very tasty dish that we all love, maybe different ways in cooking it but really, whatever that pleases your tastebuds would surely do. And oh btw, dont forget to put some rice on while following these simple steps.

Ingredients

• 1/4 lb pork, thinly sliced
• 1 large aubergine, sliced
• 1 whole butternut squash, chopped into cubes
• 3 pieces large tomato, sliced
• 1 piece onion, chopped
• 1-3 cloves garlic, chopped very finely
• 8-10 pieces okra
• 1 pack of string beans
• A dash of Knorr seasoning sauce
• Salt or magic sarap if you prefer it ( according to taste )
• 1 cup of water

Optional ingredients:

• 1 medium-sized bitter melon, chopped
• shrimp paste (according to your liking) I know its never complete without this ingredient but when you have a foreign husband you've got to do without, still taste scrumptious anyway :)

Procedure

1. Heat oil in the pan then  sauté garlic, onion, and tomatoes.
2. Add in pork and cook until color turns light brown then add knorr seasoning sauce.
3. Put-in the shrimp paste and cook for 2 minutes. (Optional)
4. Add water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until pork is tender. (Simple trick, whilst waiting for your meat, put your veggies except okra into microwavable dish, cover and microwave them for a good 5 minutes.) veggies are cooked slightly, soft not mushy and not very crunchy either.
5. When ready, add all veggies in the pan and add all remaining vegetables and simmer for 5-10 mins, add salt or magic sarap to your desired taste.
6. Serve with steamed white rice.

Pictures to follow computers playing up.....

Tinolang Manok

It's always a comfort to have something soupy and hot to warm the system on a cold and miserable day. Yup, TINOLANG MANOK always comes to mind.  Being away from home may seem to be a challenge to find the ingredients for this recipe but fear not my lovely, there's always a substitute for things that are not easy to find. Just like the chilli leaves or malunggay some other places in the uk can get frozen version of these but you can always use rocket leaves if not available. Most of the asian store got green papayas but failing that you can opt for sayote.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, cut into serving pieces
•  chicken stock ( 2 cubes chicken cubes )
• 1 pc small green papaya, cut into wedges
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped
• 1 thumb size ginger, cut into strips
• chilli leaves/malunggay/rocket leaves
• Lemon grass

Procedure:

1. Sauté the garlic, onion, and ginger
2. Put-in the chicken and cook until color turns light brown
3. Pour-in the chicken stock and add lemon grass (enough to cover the chicken)
4. Add the green papaya wedges and simmer till soft.
5. Add the chilli leaves
6. Add salt and pepper to taste
7. Best serve hot with boiled rice