Water Spinach in Oyster Sauce

Mini my helper cooked a green vegetable to go along with the Grilled Pork Belly that I had today. It was easy to make all you need are; water spinach, garlic, onion, oyster sauce and pepper. Add a little bit of water if there was no water coming out from the washed water spinach.

Grilled Pork Belly

A new friend of mine Anne was showing me photos of her cooking. One of those was “Chili crab” but then there was another dish at the back of the chili crab. I asked her what it was and she said its pan-fried pork belly, and it was so easy to cook. She told me how to marinate pork in 3 different ways. That afternoon I went to the mall and was thinking of an easy to cook dinner. According to Anne the dish was easy to cook so I decided to have them for dinner. Trying to remember the ingredients for it I decided to make 3 different choices of sauces. I decided to grill it instead of frying for health reason. The one with fish sauce was very salty, the one with oyster sauce had a taste I can’t describe and the third tasted simple yet tasty. That night I had a chat with her and I asked her again how it was marinated. Sad to say, there was a mismatch of the other ingredients. So here’s the soy based marinate that I like and tasted better than the 2 sauces.

TO DO:

Combine the following:

· pork belly (160 grams) (sliced according to your liking)
· soy sauce (just enough to cover the pork)
· garlic
· lime (half)
· Peppercorn



WHAT TO DO:

1. Marinate for 30 to 2 hours.
2. Heat the grilling pan
3. Put the pork in the pan
4. Remove from pan when it's ready and cooked.

NOTE: This serving is for 2 people.

Sarciadong Isda with Chayote

I had a chat with my high school classmate via yahoo messenger two nights ago. He mentioned that his wife checks my food blog every now and then to get some recipes. Lately though I made my helper do the cooking since my husband is in America anyway, and I don’t have a fussy eater around the house. So last night I decided to do a simple dish “Sarciadong Isda”. This dish doesn’t include chayote but I wanted a vegetable in my dinner last night. You may double the serving size if you are cooking for your family.


YOU NEED:

2 fried fish
1 big tomato
1 onion (medium size)
2 cloves of garlic
Half of Chayote (whatever slice you like as long as it is still crunchy when you eat it)
1 egg (beaten)
1 tbsp olive oil (any cooking oil you have)
1 cup water
1 bay leaf (optional)
Pepper
Fish sauce or salt to taste

WHAT TO DO:

1. Heat olive oil in the pan
2. Sauté garlic and onion ‘till golden brown
3. Add tomato, sauté for a minute or two
4. Add chayote, water, bay leaf, pepper and fish sauce (just a little bit of fish sauce for now)
5. When boiling adjust the taste by adding more fish sauce or salt if necessary
6. Let it boil for another 2 or 3 minutes then add egg little bit at a time stirring
7. Turn off the heat
8. Put half of the sauce you cooked to the serving dish, arrange the fish, then put the rest of the sauce on top of the dish
9. Serve with steam rice.

Christmas Dinner 2007

We had so much food during Christmas lunch. So I decided to cook a simple dinner, minced Beef pie and a carrot muffin. I will post the recipe for the minced beef pie once I get the chance to measure the ingredients. I promise the presentation will be much better as well.

Christmas Lunch 2007

We had our Christmas lunch at the Grand Hyatt hotel, Jakarta. It was the best Christmas ever. The first plate had salmon with spinach stuffing, beef stew, fried rice, broccoli cooked in garlic and salmon ball. Second plate had sliced turkey with cranberry sauce, sliced ham with apple sauce, mashed potato in garlic and salmon. The third plate had a fresh oysters and salmon sushi. The roast beef was well done; it was juicy and just plain perfect. The last photo had tiramisu, black forest, lemon cheesecake and other to die for desserts.

Patrick's Birthday CAKES

My husband celebrated his birthday 2 days ago. We had a buffet lunch at Ritz Carlton hotel. Food is fantastic; there are lots of choices from Mongolian, Chinese, and Italian, western, Indonesian and Japanese food. A happy birthday song was played all over the place and then there came the cheesecake with strawberry on top and nuts on the side with candles of course. The staff along with a musketeer once again sung a happy birthday song.

After dinner he blew the candles of his second birthday cake. I bought this vanilla and chocolate ice cream cake a day before his birthday. I had it delivered at our home.

Before the night was over another cake came. It came from his office; it was another cheesecake with variety of fruits on the top with greetings on it. The bag and the box of the cake says Four Seasons hotel, it was obviously bought there.

Well, I had to invite kids in our house to eat the cakes. It was way too much for the 3 of us.

Nilagang Baka

I was thinking of cooking tinolang manok for lunch but I thought I better do nilagang baka. We haven’t had red meat for 2 weeks now so this is just right. Since it’s only me and my daughter eating it I decided to cook just enough of it. I promise I will give the exact measurements of the ingredients next time. However these are the ingredients for nilaga, you can add different vegetables if you like. You can also use fish, chicken, pork or prawn if you don’t have beef. Adjust the water if you need more and adjust the taste with more fish sauce or more beef stock to acquire the taste you like. You can also add more vegetables if you like vegetables. I totally forgot to measure everything this morning because our tummy was already grumbling hehehe. I looked for some ingredients in the fridge and these are what I found.

YOU NEED:

Tenderloin beef cut into 6 chunk cubes
1 medium size onion
1 potato
1 sweet potato
Bokchoy
Water
Beef stock
Fish Sauce
Pepper

WHAT TO DO:

1. Boil enough water in a medium size pot.
2. Add beef and onion. Let it boil for 5 minutes.
3. Add sweet potato and potato. Stir well.
4. Add stock and pepper. Let it simmer for another 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
5. Stir well. Adjust the taste by adding fish sauce.
6. Add bokchoy and let it simmer for 1 minute.