Bacon Obsession

As Chef Sharwin Tee of Lifestyle Network's Curiosity Got the Chef puts it, everything is better with bacon. I so agree!

Bacon is a regular pantry staple in our house and I buy at least a pack for 1 week. Ever since I tried the Lean and Mean variety of Purefoods, I was hooked. I never liked greasy bacon so the lean type is perfect for me. I'm not saying this because I'm trying to be health conscious but that's just me - I don't like greasy bacon.

So when I tried comparing the Lean and Mean variety with the regular kind of a different brand, I was shocked! Look at the price difference! Let's just say I'm not about to change my bacon preference anytime soon.

Purefoods Lean and Mean Bacon at P171.50
Regular bacon of another brand at P199.50 = price diff of P28.00
I'm sticking to this!

Fishtek Tagalog

Filipinos love soy-based dishes - adobo and the local bistek. Who would not? It's simple, easy, and flavorful. A quick dish best served with lots of white rice!

This recipe is very easy and uses the healthier option of fish fillet instead of beef. I saw this in the September 2011 issue of Yummy magazine and remembered my last pack of cream dory fillet in the freezer.

Fishtek Tagalog
Yummy Magazine September 2011

• 1/4 to 1/3 cup soy sauce
• juice of 6 to 10 calamansi (about 2 tbsps)
• black pepper, to taste
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 500 grams cream dory fillet
• olive oil
• 3 onions, sliced into half moons

Cut fish fillet into 4 to 5 slices.

Combine soy sauce, calamansi, pepper and garlic.

Marinate fish in the soy sauce mixture. Leave in for about 20-30 minutes. Do not overmarinate.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add olive oil.

Remove fish from marinade and fry in pan. Fry till golden brown or fish is cooked through.

Set fish aside in a plate.

Add few drops of olive oil and fry the onions until caramelized.

When onions have caramelized, pour the marinade to the pan and simmer.

Once sauce simmers, return fish to pan and toss with the onions. Turn off heat.

Serve hot.


Pawis rating: 1 of 5 super easy!

Chicken Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's pie is something I'd always order from one of the restaurants I'd regularly visit near our office. It's an all-in-one dish: carbs from the mashed potatoes, protein from the meat, and fiber from the veggies.

The dish looks pretty easy to make - like baked macaroni in individual ramekins. Searched through the sites I regularly visit and was glad to find this easy recipe.

The recipe is from Home Cooking Rocks, another site that is mostly devoted to Filipino dishes. I love that the author includes her recipes for some non-Filipino dishes as well. This one's a perfect example. From what I have tried so far, shepherd's pie is usually made out of beef. But this one's made of chicken breast fillets - just right for the health-conscious :-)

I think the hardest part in making this dish is preparing the mashed potatoes - scrubbing them, then mashing them is just painful. I say this because I don't have a nifty gadget to do this easily for me. Yes, I mashed them potatoes with my humble fork. I like my mashed potatoes with skin, so this saved me the pain of removing the skin from the hot potatoes before mashing them.

Next, the chicken dish - really good! The dish is very simple but the taste is just good. I didn't follow the recipe to the dot - I used chicken breast fillets and some Hungarian sausages because I don't have smoked ham. This combination worked well. When I started cooking this I thought the sauce would be very thick because the recipe calls for cream. So I had my milk ready. But I didn't use the milk at all. The taste and consistency of the sauce was just right.

Let's cook!

Chicken Shepherd's Pie
Recipe from Home Cooking Rocks

Make the mashed potatoes

• 3/4 kilo potatoes or 5 pieces of medium-big potatoes
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup or more of milk
• salt and pepper
• few tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese

Wash and scrub the potatoes clean especially if you're keeping the skin. Pierce with a fork all over and drop in boiling water. Boil for 30 minutes or until you can insert a fork easily into the potato.

When the potatoes are done, put them in a bowl and mash them.

Add the butter.

Season with salt and pepper.

Gradually add the milk. Do not pour the milk all at once. You'd want to put a small amount at a time till you get the consistency you want.

Add the parmesan.

Set aside.

Prepare the chicken filling

• 1/4 kilo chicken breast fillets
• 3 pieces hungarian sausage
• 1 large onion
• 1 small pack frozen vegetables (corn and carrots)
• 1 small can sliced button mushrooms
• 1 cup of cream
• salt and pepper

Thaw your frozen vegetables.

Chop the onions.

Cut the chicken breast fillet into cubes. Season with salt and pepper.

Slice the sausage about a quarter inch thick.

Melt butter in a pan. Cook the chicken until lightly browned.

Add the hungarian sausage and cook for about 3-4 minutes. Add the chopped onion.

Add the vegetables.

Pour the cream and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble the pie

Place the chicken filling in an 8" baking dish.

Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the chicken.

Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 20-30 minutes. The pie is done when the top is lightly browned.

Nice and brown and dripping at the sides :-)

Pawis rating: 2 of 5 very easy! A simple, very tasty, all-in-one dish that even kids will like :-)

Filipino Custard Cake

Fact: I can eat a whole plate of leche flan. Well, you may not be surprised with all the deserts I've been making (and eating!). There's something about the smooth custard and the sweet syrup that is just heavenly.

My daughter loves leche flan too. I introduced her to leche flan while eating at a local Goldilocks restaurant. She was hooked! Whenever she'd see leche flan at home or at a restaurant menu, she would ask for it. She takes after her mom! :-)

Leche flan plus angel cake = custard cake = sweet tooth heaven! Custard cake for me is very Pinoy. You can find this anywhere - from small bakeries outside your house to the fine restaurant uptown. This has been a pleasant dessert ever since I was little.

Off to Google again for a good custard cake recipe. Found just what I was looking for at a website by a Filipina based in the US. I browsed through her other recipes and observed several things: (1) She's not a professional food writer. She writes very straightforward - which I like. I'm not into food literature that much - Food is meant to be eaten, not to be read. (2) She has loads of tips! I read through all of these to make sure I follow her recipe correctly. I'm glad I did :-), and (3) I like that she includes the reaction of her family whenever they try the food she serves. She's very honest with this - she even mentioned her husband does not like a cake she made.

Done with the website review and on with the cooking! :-)

Filipino Custard Cake
from Kusina ni Manang

Manang's recipe is for a 9X13 pan cooked bain marie. I have a problem with this because my 9X13 pan fits snugly into my oven so there's no way I can cook this on top of another pan.

I had to divide the recipe into 8" round pans. A 9X13 pan recipe will make 3 8" round pans. I made 2 8" pans so I had leftover leche flan. I used up the whole cake batter though.

First, make the caramel. In the 8" round pans, place 1/2 cup sugar each.

Heat on top of low heat until the sugar melts. Be careful not to burn the sugar like I did, oops!

The right way

The burnt way

Prepare the custard mixture.

• 4 whole eggs
• 1 can condensed milk (14 oz)
• 1 can evaporated milk (15 oz)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Add all the ingredients in a blender.

Pulse 3 times for 3 seconds each.

Do not overblend or your mixture will form bubbles. Set this aside.

Make the chiffon cake

• 5 eggs
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 2/3 cup cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp oil
• 6 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 1 tbsp grated lemon rind
• 1/2 cup sugar

Separate the eggs. Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and set aside.
Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Make a well in the center and add the wet ingredients including the rind. Add the sugar on the sides of the bowl.

Using a mixer, start beating from the center to the side of the bowl. Mix until well blended.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter with a spatula.


Assemble the cake.

In the pan with the solidified caramel, pour the custard into the pans. In my case, I used 1/3 of the mixture on each pan (so I have leftover 1/3).

Pour the cake batter on top of the custard.

Bake at 325F bain marie for 45 minutes. Bain marie is a method of cooking via a steam bath. Place your cake pan in a larger pan with water. The water has to be 1/2 - 1 inch high.

The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean.

This is plating fail!

So painfully ugly! It's a delicious mess though :-)

A slice for me! The custard was really smooth!

Plating the second cake - again, failed

Off-center, plating mess hahaha! Bahala na si batman! It was super yummy though!

Pawis rating: 3 of 5 only because there were several steps involved. The individual steps though were relatively easy :-)