Oyster Cake

Ingredients:
Yield (1 whole oyster cake about 10 inches diameter)

Fresh Oysters 1/4kg
Bean Sprouts/ Togue (about a handful)
Onion Leeks, green part (Chopped)
Garlic (Minced)
Wansuy (Finely Chopped)
White Onions (sliced)
Camote/ Kamote Powder 3/4 cup
Black Ground Pepper
Soy Sauce tbsp
2 large eggs, beaten separately
Minced Ginger (Optional)
Oil for Frying
2 Large pans



1. Wash and strain your oysters (15-20 mins.)
2. In a deep mixing bowl, mix everything,  bean sprouts, onion leeks, garlic, wansuy, white onions, camote powder, black ground pepper, soy sauce 1tbsp and 1 large egg.
3. Heat Oil in pan #1, if ready, mix the drained oyster into the prepared mix, and pour over the heated oil right away.
4. Pour Beaten egg on the edge of the cake slowly.
5. In a very low heat, cook the entire cake at one side for about 10-15mins. Please watch out as we don't want to burn the first side.
6. On your pan #2, preheat with little amount of oil. Make sure that you will be able to check the firmness of the cake, we should be ready by then to flip over the cake onto our pan #2.
7. Flip it really fast and with care, after transferring (flipping), cook the other side for another 10 mins. in low heat. 
8. Garnish with Spring Onions on top then serve hot!

TIPS!
It will be challenging for you to make the Oyster Cake really perfect... but once you have mastered the flipping by transferring from one pan to another, you will do it again and again effortlessly! 

It will be better if you will use non stick pans for less Oil... 

I hope you will enjoy your Restaurant-like Oyster Cake at home!

Onion Rings with Garlic Dip

Ingredients for the
BATTER Option 1
   All Purpose Flour
   Cornstarch
   Salt
   Black Ground Pepper
   Egg
   Cold Water

CRUMBS Option 2
   Bread Crumbs
   All Purpose Flour
   Egg
   Salt
   Black Ground Pepper

Big Rings of White Onion
Oil For Frying

FOR THE DIP:
Mayonnaise
Minced Garlic
Garlic Powder
Water (Room Temp)
Brown Sugar
Black Pepper Ground
Honey Dijon Mustard

1. (OPTION 1 BATTER)
Mix (1:1)All Purpose Flour and Cornstarch in cold water, add in egg, salt and pepper. Mix well. How to test if the batter is already ok? Dip your finger, and if the batter coated your finger with little drippings, then that's is already good, but if the batter drips like water, add more of flour and cornstarch. The batter should not be very thick. Dip your onion then fry.

(OPTION 2 CRUMBS)
Mix Flour, Salt and Pepper in a plate for dredging. Beat egg in a small bowl. pour bread crumbs in another plate.

Dredge Onion in flour salt and pepper mix, then dip in beaten egg, finally dredge again with bread crumbs, then fry.

2. Make sure you preheated your oil in very low heat. Also make sure your oil is really hot before frying. We want to achieve the crispy ones and not oily.

MAKING YOUR DIP
3. Mix water, mayonnaise, drops of mustard (to make it yellowish), 1 tsp of minced garlic, dash of garlic powder, brown sugar, black pepper ground in a bowl.
4. Have patience in mixing all the ingredients until everything is well dissolved.

5. Serve!


TIPS:
You can make more dip! Just fill it in a tight container and you can keep this for months (refrigerate)! You can also enjoy this dip with your favorite chips and for other fried dishes too!

I DON'T USUALLY MEASURE MY INGREDIENTS, BUT I STILL HOPE THAT MY RECIPE WILL STILL HELP!

ENJOY!

Native Chicken Arroz Caldo

This is a Comfort Food for me. I am not into "Lugaw/ Congee" but this dish always exempt me from my personal restrictions!

Ingredients:
Native Chicken, chopped in serving sizes
Ginger (minced)
Garlic (minced)
Spring Onions (Chopped), separate the green part and the white part
Saffron or Kasubha
Calamansi
Fried Garlic 
Fish Sauce or Patis
Hard Boiled Eggs
Oil for Sauteeing

1. Heat oil (not so much), saute minced ginger, garlic, saffron and the white part of the onion leeks. 
2. Add in native chicken. Once fragrant, set aside the chicken only. Leave ginger, garlic, kasubha and leeks in the pan. 
3. Throw in the rice, slightly toast  it. Until oil has been absorbed by the rice. 
4. Boil Water in a pot. Native chicken's cooking time will be about 1 hour or so. Add chicken pieces into our boiling water, about half way cooking (after 30mins),
add the rice. 
5. Mix occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking at the bottom of the pot. I strongly suggest that you use a wooden ladel or the plastic ones (heat resistant).
6. Add patis.
7. Once cooked, garnish with Spring onions, fried garlic, slices of Hard boiled eggs and calamansi, then serve. 


TIPS:
For mommies like me, you can also prepare this dish for our kid's baon... Make sure you put this in a sealed tight container to prevent it from leaking. 

SORRY I DON'T USUALLY MEASURE MY INGREDIENTS. BUT I STILL HOPE THIS RECIPE WILL STILL HELP YOU!

ENJOY!

Mojos (Potato Fry)

Ingredients:
Potatoes in thin slices (3x  thicker than Potato chips slices)
Cornstarch
BBQ Powder
Black Ground Pepper
Oil For Frying
Salt
Cold Water

1. Slice your potatoes, make sure you have washed everything well including the skin.
2. Make a batter, mix BBQ Powder, Salt, Black Ground Pepper, cornstarch and cold water.
3. Dip all the potato slices into the batter, we wouldn't want to expose the pototoes for so long.
4. Preheat oil in low heat, deep fry everything.

TIPS:
Make sure you preheated your oil in low heat, otherwise it will burn the coats without thoroughly cooking the potatoes.
Also make sure you drain the potatoes once cooked to prevent MOJOS from the oil soaking!

ENJOY!

Potato Gratin

Ingredients:
Quezo De Bola (Optional)
Cheese (Grated, Quickmelt)
Heavy Cream
Cream Cheese
Butter
Potatoes (Sliced thinly, Half Moon Shape)
Parmesan Cheese
Button Mushrooms, Cubed. (Optional)
Spinach (Optional)

1. Arrange sliced potatoes in your baking dish.
2. In a pan, melt butter, add in heavy cream, cream cheese, cheese, salt and pepper.(mushrooms and spinach)
3. Pour in white sauce over the potatoes.
4. Grate cheese on top and quezo de bola to cover the potatoes.
5. Pre-heat oven to 350f and bake for about 30 mins.
6. Garnish with parmesan cheese. Serve.

TIPS!
You can drop a little amount of TRUFFLE OIL onto the white sauce to make it TRUFFLE POTATO GRATIN!



IT'S CREAMY AND VERY EASY TO PREPARE! ENJOY!

Hainanese Chicken/ Hainanese Chicken Rice

The Ingredients are very easy to find and prepare, however, the method of cooking it and the challenge will come your way as you proceed in cooking the Hainanese Chicken. Well, once you have perfected this Famous Chicken dish, you will love doing this again and again.

PRE-COOKING...
 Ingredients:
Salt
Shallots sliced about 2 inche/Onion leeks
Ginger Sliced Thinly
Garlic Cloves (Smashed/Flattened)
1tsp Sesame Oil

1. Clean and pat dry your undressed chicken.
2. What to put inside the cavity of chicken?
    a. Shallots/Onion Leeks about 20-30pcs (2inches)
    b. Garlic Cloves 5-8 pcs
    c. Ginger about 5-8pcs
    d. salt
3. Rub the exterior part of the chicken with salt.


POACHING...
Ingredients:
Shallots/Onion Leeks in 2 inches slices
Crushed Garlic
Ginger Slices
Salt

4. Bring a large pot of water to boil (enough to cover the entire chicken), add in shallots/Onion Leeks, Crushed garlic, slices of ginger, salt.
5. At Boiling point, carefully submerge chicken into the water (breast side down). While cooking, no need to mix and move the chicken. Cook for about 1 hour.
6. Set aside the chicken stock.

It is very challenging how you will manage to remove the entire chicken out of the deep pot without breaking or tearing the meat. Sit for about 5-10minutes. Then prepare for COLD WASH... 




COLD WASH...
What you need?
Ice Cubes
Water
Deep Mixing Bowl

7. Prepare a deep bowl of cold water with Ice Cubes. Place the chicken under this cold water to tighten the skin. Remove from the cold wash then rub sesame oil all over the chicken. You can let this cool first. Slice into pieces then arrange to serving dish.

For the HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE...     

Ingredients:

Reserved Chicken Stock (Drained)

Garlic

Ginger

Shallots

Sesame Oil

Corn Oil or any Cooking Oil

Salt

8. You will be needing a food processor for this. I don't want those chunky ginger, shallots and garlic soaking around our uncooked Chicken Rice. First, Saute everything in oil. 1 part of cooking oil and 1 part of the sesame oil. Once Fragrant, set aside.
9. Using a food processor, blender or hand mixer... minced everything. (I have a portable mincer which I bought in Japan.. I think it is also available at DAISO or Japan Home Store here in the Philippines). Then put it back to the pan.
10. Add in the rice, saute, until the rice is fragrant and a little toasted.
11. Transfer to Rice cooker.
12. Pour in the Chicken Stock, mix and add a little salt, then cook.


MAKING GINGER SAUCE...

Ingredients

Corn Oil or any cooking Oil
Shallots
Minced Ginger
Salt

13. Just mix everything together in a bowl (no need to cook), some other people likes the ginger sauce salty, If that's the case, just add more salt to your satisfaction.  

SERVING THE CHICKEN...
14. On your serving dish, pour a little amount of Sesame Oil onto the slices of Chicken, garnish with some Onion Leeks on top and Ginger sauce on the side, then serve.  This can be eaten hot or cold/chilled. 
14. Do not forget to serve the Hot Steamed Hainanese Chicken Rice!


TIPS!
For small servings, you can just cook a small portion for smaller groups if you want to, just follow the same method with little less of everything! 

You can prepare the the STEPS 1-6 ahead of time. No need to serve the Chicken hot/warm or right away,  you can eat it even if cold and easier to chop/slice the meat too!



I JUST HOPE I CREATED THIS PAGE/DISH EASY FOR YOU TO FOLLOW... ENJOY COOKING!!!

Baked Chicken Empanada

Ingredients:

For the Dough

3 Cups of All Purpose Flour

8 tbsps COLD Water (with ice)

1 225g (Whole Bar)  of Unsalted Butter (cubes)

Extra Flour for Dusting

Cooking Materials:

Rolling Pin

Measuring Spoons

Measuring Cup

Cookie Sheet or aluminum tray or non stick baking tray

Weighing Scale (Optional)

Mixeir (Optional)

Deep Mixing Bowl

BBQ Brush (Don't use painting Brush, Please!)

Convection Oven 

1. Make sure you "ADD" a little patience on making this dough. Using your hand, try to slowly mix everything altogether until you create a ball.

2. on a clean and dry table, dust the surface with flour, and knead (massage) the dough using your bare hands to make sure everything is mixed evenly.

3. Set aside, or chill.

For the Filling:

Chicken Breast/Chicken Thigh 1/2kg Chicken Thigh : 1/2 Chicken breast

Raisins (you can put as much as these...)

Ground Black Pepper

Potatoes (sliced in little cubes), you can put as much of these, it will not make your filling dry

White Onions (Sliced in little cubes)

Red Bell pepper (Sliced in little cubes)

2 tsp Brown Sugar

Soy Sauce

Curry Powder (optional)

Carrots (Cubes, optional)

Oil for sauteing

Egg White (for the Egg Wash)

Chili Powder (optional)

1. Boil Chicken first, until done, let it cool for few minutes, remove meat, shred. You can use a fork in doing this or bare hands, whatever method you want to use for as long as it will make everything easy.

2. Set aside the chicken stock.

3. On a separate pan, add oil, Saute onions, red bell pepper, potatoes and raisins ( until well done. Add Black ground pepper and brown sugar.

4. Add in the shredded chicken meat. You can pour our saved chicken stock every now and then so it will not make the filling dry. Make sure the filling will not be "Saucy" to prevent ripping of our wrapper (Dough). Some other people uses oil to make it moist, however I want it a little "oil free" home made empanada for home consumption. 

5. I always include curry powder to give it a little kicky spice... Dash some!

6. Set aside and let it cool. 

FILLING/ FOLDING/ WRAPPING

1. Again, knead your dough.

2. make sure, you have a clean flat table for kneading. 

3. Dust your table and rolling pin with flour.

4. Sizes of Empanadas:

    4.1 3 tbsp of filling- Form a ball for your dough, GOLF BALL size (about 5-6 inches big)

    4.2 2 tbsp of filling-Form a ball for your dough, about the size of a LYCHEE. (a little smaller)

5. Preparing the wrapper, dust your table with flour, flatten the dough ball, dust again with flour on top of the dough, then start rolling.

6. We want to achieve the thinnest wrapper as we can but not ripping it off by wrapping. I hope you get my point here. 

7. Slowly peel the rolled wrapper and place wrapper onto a non-stick pan or a plate (for bigger empanadas), or place the wrapper onto your palm (for smaller empanadas)

8. Fill the wrapper with prepared filling, seal the ends by pinching using your fingers. (make sure you have about 0.75-1inch size of excess wrapper skins on the ends)

9. People separate/familiarize their empanada viands by the folds or how you make it creative in sealing the ends. 

       9.1 By using a fork, place the   empanada on a flat surface, press the ends to seal. 

       9.2 With the curled style, (refer to my pictures), pinch the first end then twist until you reach the other end.    

       9.3 Prick  the surface of the empanadas to let the steam come out. 

10. Brush the top with Egg white (Egg Wash)     

11. Place the turnovers on a baking sheet.

12. Preheat oven to 350f (176c) then bake for 50-60mins or until Golden Brown. 

13. Once cooked, cool everything on a rack, then serve Hot!

TIPS!

1. To preserve, you can prepare lots of these and place everything on your freezer for  months! 

2. You can also use other fillings like, tuna, corned beef, left over adobo, kuchay and curried potatoes!

3. With my dough recipe... you will love every bite of it...!

4. If you want to make a Whole Wheat Dough wrapper, you may do this ratio 3/4 cups of Wheat Flour and 2 1/4 cups of All Purpose Flour!

5. You can also try frying these if you don't have an oven at home. 

I love doing this over and over again! I hope that you will love this as much as I do!