Tocino (pork or beef)

Here is a Nora Daza recipe I found in my mother's notebok which I want to share. One thing's sure this is delicious. Nora Daza is famous for her food recipes. I remember when I was little she had a regular cooking demo on TV that my mother watched with intensity (ha-ha!). Yeah, my mother was really hooked on Nora Daza's TV show. Going back to pork or beef tocino, here it is...

from wikipedia.org

1 kilo sirloin (pork or beef)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugr
1 tsp salt peter (salitre)
2 tbsp coarse salt
2 tsp msg (optional)

Slice beef or pork (with some fat) thinly to desired size. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients and allow meat to marinate for at least 2 hours before cooking or refrigerate for future use.

Tocino is a popular breakfast recipe along with fried egg. It is a sweetened cured pork or beef or chicken meat dish. A native delicacy that is similar to the cured hams, commonly reddish in color and tastes sweet. It's name came from the Spanish word, tocino, which is used to describe cured meat.

Chili paste

Filipininos love to dip their food. Hot dips are a favorite particularly for siomai, fishball, kekiam, etc... We probably got this habit of dipping finger food in sauces from the Chinese. Here's a recipe for chili paste great for siomai, fishball, kekiam, okoy.... etc....

To make chili paste:
1/8 kilo chilies (or siling labuyo)
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

Combine chopped chilies and minced garlic then simmer for around 20 minutes or till most of the water has evaporated. Add oil, simmer and stir well.

Another version is to heat some oil in a pan. add some atchuete seeds to extract the color, remove atchuete seeds. then add the chilies, garlic and simmer. Add a pinch of salt.

For siomai, many said chili paste is great if mixed with finely chopped pork and shrimp.

Siomai wrapper

To make siomai wrapper:

1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable or corn oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Beat egg and mix with flour till free of lumps. Bring water, cooking oil and salt to a boil, then pour in flour. Remove from heat and beat until mixture forms a ball. Divide the dough into 1 1/4 -inch balls. Roll each ball on a floured board until paper thin. Use this to wrap your siomai. Recipe for siomai is available in this site.

You may increase your water to 1 cup if you want a thinner and more manageable dough. You may not include the egg yolk if you want a white wrapper. The yolk makes the wrapper yellowish in color.
 

Siomai sa Tisa (Cebu)

from pinoyrecipe.net

Ingredients
1 kg ground pork (suggested proportion of fat to lean meat is 1:3) or 1 kg Prawn (shrimp) peeled
1/2 cup chopped sinkamas (water chestnuts or turnips), if not available, you may use sayote (a year-round vegetable)
1/2 cup chopped carrots
2 medium or 1 large minced onion
bunch of spring onions or leeks
1 egg
5 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
about 50 pieces of wanton or siomai wrapper
for sauce: soy sauce, calamansi (lemon), sesame oil and chilli paste

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients for the filling in a large bowl. Refrigerate pork mixture for about 20 minutes. Spoon 1 tablespoon of mixture into each wrapper. Fold and seal. Meanwhile, boil water and brush steamer with oil. When the water gets to a rolling boil, arrange the siomai in the steamer and let stand for 15-20 minutes, longer for larger pieces. Serve with soy sauce, calamansi and sesame oil or chilli paste.

To make siomai wrapper:

1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable or corn oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Beat egg and mix with flour till free of lumps. Bring water, cooking oil and salt to a boil, then pour in flour. Remove from heat and beat until mixture forms a ball. Divide the dough into 1 1/4 -inch balls. Roll each ball on a floured board until paper thin. Set aside.
   
To make chili paste:
1/8 kilo chilies (or siling labuyo)
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

Combine chopped chilies and minced garlic then simmer for around 20 minutes or till most of the water has evaporated. Add oil, simmer and stir well.

Another version is to heat some oil in a pan. add some atchuete seeds to extract the color, remove atchuete seeds. then add the chilies, garlic and simmer. Add a pinch of salt.

Chili paste will also taste great if mixed with finely chopped pork and shrimp.
Pork Dumplings

Okoy

I remember going with my mother to buy okoy in a Chinese restaurant somewhere in Binondo. I can still remember the smoke, the smell and the clattering of cooking utensils and waiters going to and fro. Everytime we had okoy for lunch, my mother studied all the okoys she bought to determine its ingredients. She made her own recipe.

Ingredients: ¼ kilo fresh alamang or shrimp; ½ cup powdered malagkit; 1 cup hot water; 2 tbsp achuete oil, ground pepper, salt, msg.

Thoroughly wash and drain the fresh alamang or shrimp. Meanwhile, dissolve powdered malagkit in hot water. Add achuete oil, salt, pepper, msg. Blend batter well until consistent. In a pan, heat oil enough for deep frying. Add to the batter well drained fresh alamang just before frying to avoid thinning of batter. Pour about ¼ cup and fry until crispy. Drain excess oil in paper towel. Serve with your favorite dip. The best dip for me is vinegar with chopped garlic.

Other version of okoy has mongo sprout and/or shredded unripe papaya in addition to alamang or shrimps. If you use shrimp, be sure to remove the "horn" and the "hair" from its head.

Dilis Crispies (fresh)

My mama used to cook this when  was a little kid. This is one of her recipes, hand-written on an old notebook, half-eaten by termites. All these years I have kept it, like a precious gem. Dilis (I guess this is anchovies in English) are small slender fish, about 2 to 3 inches long. Fresh dilis can be prepared as kilawin, a very appetizing dish. For now, I will share Mama's dilis crispies, one of my favorite food.

1/2 kilo fresh dilis; 4 tsp. calamansi (chinese lemon) juice; 4 tsp. table salt; 1 tsp black pepper (ground); cornstarch; and cooking oil for frying.

Remove head of dilis. Wash fish very well and allow to drain. Soak fish in a mixture of salt, juice and pepper for about 15 minutes. Drain and dry fish under the sun for about 20 minutes by scattering the fish on a tray. Cover with screen to keep away flies and other insects. Place cornstarch in a plastic bag, drop some dilis and shake untill all the dilis is well coated with cornstarch. Fry the dilis until golden brown and serve with your favorite dip or sauce. Happy eating!

Yacon-sweet, tasty and healthy

Yacon both sweet and healthy, study shows
Florante A. Cruz, UPLB and Philippine Agricultural Journalist, Inc. - CALABARZON
Yacon tubers on sale at the market. Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/santos/68253396/sizes/o/in/photostream/ Have you ever tasted yacon, a crunchy tuber with a sweet apple and watermelon-like taste? Despite its sweetness, yacon is known for its low-calorie content. Yacon, however, is not just for weight-watchers. Research  by the group of Dr. Evelyn Rodriguez of UP Los Baños Institute of Chemistry shows that the tuber from yacon, a perennial crop closely related to the sunflower and grown in several areas in Northern Luzon and Mindanao, has more benefits than most people may know. Through a grant given by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), various phytochemicals in yacon were isolated, identified, characterized and quantified by Rodriguez’s research group. Phytochemicals are compounds naturally occurring in plants and are considered as health promoters. According to the study’s results, yacon being grown in the Philippines is very rich in phytosterols, phenolics and fructo-oligosaccharides. Fructo-oligosaccharides are a type of carbohydrates produced in plants. They are sweet but not metabolized by the human body. This makes yacon a good alternative snack or dessert even for diabetics. Several bioassays were also conducted to determine the potential contribution of these phytochemicals to health and wellness. According to the study, the phytosterols of yacon tuber and leaf oils reduced blood serum cholesterol levels, indicating a potential for helping reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The study also shows that the phenolic compounds found in yacon leaves and tubers exhibit potent antioxidant, anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory activities. These results suggest that, like quercetin, the phenolic compounds from yacon can help prevent carcinogenesis and other chronic diseases. Rodriguez’s study solidifies yacon’s place in the map of “functional foods” which are highly considered for health and wellness not only because of their nutritive value but for their physiological benefits to the human body as well. Yacon, according to the findings of Rodriguez’s research group, could form part of a person’s diet. In combination with other healthy and functional foods such as fruits and vegetables, it may also help reduce the risk, delay, or even prevent the occurrence of, chronic and degenerative diseases.   (from: http://www.up.edu.ph/upnewsletter.php)