CRISPY CHILLI BEEF

The question is simple. What do you want to eat? The answer not so much. While one can come up with a one word answer such as Mexican, Thai or pizza, someone might go indecisive and complicated. 

BEEF MORCON

As Christmas approaches, one can't help but feel nostalgic. Though some seek to inject new ideas into their Christmas celebrations, many still yearn for their Christmas past. I for one yearn for the lovely Christmases I had when I was growing up. The wonderful food, the family togetherness and the presents are part of the warm memories I'll always treasure. I also miss not being the one to orchestrate the Christmas preparations.

BACON TOPPED MEATLOAF

Although meatloaf has its origins from Europe, it is not as popular here as it is in the US. I make it fairly regularly because, not only is it delicious, it is also very easy to make. Meatloaf is not a dish that's seen a lot in UK cooking programmes but Nigella Lawson made meatloaf in her show and she draped hers with bacon. Nothing new there but it just caused me to wonder why I do not do that. Maybe that is why I do not look like her yet. 

PHILLY MAC AND CHEESESTEAK

One dish meals are lifesavers on busy days. Quick and easy is the way to go. There is one rule that I try not to break: Never sacrifice taste.

BEEF RENDANG

You'd think that warm climes would equate to cooling food but it is quite the opposite. When in Asia, we eat hot food even in the sweltering heat.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS

Our house is a mere 15-20 minutes drive from Ikea. We go there quite often, just to have coffee, a meal or just to meander around crockery, candles and flat pack furniture. The last stop is always the food shop where I get my stash of gravy mix, lingonberry jam, crab paste and the occasional pack of frozen meatballs. Yummy stuff those. I have heard that people smuggle them on the plane to bring to Ikea-less countries.

CHORIZO BURGERS

Chorizo is one of my favourite ingredients. It is one of the ingredients that make Filipino food special. We used to buy chorizos in tins, coated with bright orange lard and labelled chorizo de Bilbao (referring to Bilbao, Spain). I wonder if it really originates from Bilbao as we have the propensity to label food with place names even if they don't really connect.

MONGOLIAN BEEF

Mongolian beef, despite what the name suggests did not originate from Mongolia. It is a product of Western commercial cuisine geared towards creating a taste experience that is suited to their palate but recreates the flavour of a foreign cuisine. Although the traditionalists and the purists will shake their heads, I find nothing wrong with that. I who tweaks and twists my recipes actually like that sort of thing. 

PRAWN WONTON AND BEEF NOODLE SOUP

Wanting to eat noodles is a basic and natural yearning for Asian people. The first mouthful makes the first and lasting impression. The soup, the noodles and the toppings all have to taste good. It is quite a tall order but is not that difficult to fill. Having said that, the best noodle soup in town still eludes me and I have to make mine at home. 

POT ROAST BEEF IN CREAMY MUSHROOM GRAVY

I like the tradition of having roasts for Sunday lunch. It gives me a reason to look forward to the weekend. Sometimes though, I prefer having a lie in rather than rushing to get lunch ready. 

BEEF IN GUINNESS

St. Patrick's Day must be the most fun saint's feast day that I know. The celebration is so global that everywhere in the world joins in the merrymaking. A good amount of Irish grub and tipple is consumed on this day.

BEEF AND SHITAKE MUSHROOMS ON TENDERSTEM BROCCOLI

My Mum-in-law's cooking is very simple yet it is always delicious. It is the no fuss no frills way she cooks that make it that way. She makes food with simple clean tastes, none of the ingredients overpower each other. There is no tricks nor science employed. It is quite the opposite. She cooks simple fresh ingredients quickly to capture their natural taste at their prime. Thus vegetables end up so tasty and fresh even when they are just fried with garlic and light soy sauce. 

COTTAGE PIE

We have been extremely lucky to have mild weather since the start of the winter. 11° C on Christmas is nothing short of a miracle. Alas, as we all now know, good things don't last. The cold snap has descended and I'm feeling the cold right to my bones.

OPEN BEEF AND MUSHROOM PIES

As the seasons change, we also change the way we eat. We need warming food to bolster our bodies against the cold weather. We eat rich and hearthy meals rather than fresh light ones.

ARROZ ALA CUBANA

Rice is so important to the Asian culture so much so that the Chinese greeting "Chifanle meiyou?" directly translates as "Have you eaten (rice) yet?". The concept of food revolves around rice and what can be eaten with it. In the Philippines, it is not uncommon to ask or be asked "Ano ang ulam ninyo?" which means "What  is your viand?" or "What are you eating with rice?". It is not a poking question but, since it is one of the most important daily concerns, people tend to talk about it, much like talking about the weather.

FILIPINO STYLE SPAGHETTI

Spaghetti, though an everyday food, brings fond memories of special occasions. Every birthday party probably has spaghetti as one of the dishes served. For me, spaghetti brings to mind Christmas. We always serve spaghetti for Christmas brunch. All the children (as well as the adults) look forward to spaghetti. If we are lucky enough to have leftovers, we look forward to eating pan fried spaghetti for breakfast the next day. The pasta with sauce is heated in a pan with a touch of oil. The spaghetti becomes dry and caramelized with toasty bits of meat and cheese. Super delicious!

THAI STYLE BEEF SALAD

My teenage daughter had dinner with some friends at a Thai restaurant recently. She loves Thai food and was looking forward to the meal as well as the company. She ordered Thai beef salad and thoroughly enjoyed but said it was a bit too hot for her taste. We are all fans of Thai food but can't hack the heat sometimes. It is the birds eye chillies that they use that can leave bit of sting on the tongue.

ASIAN BARBECUE BEEF BRISKET

Some people plan their meals before heading to the shops. I, on the other hand, belong to the other group of "some people" who usually plan my meals according to what I have. My freezer is usually full of an assortment of meat cuts and joints among other things. Faced with a beef brisket joint, there are a lot of ideas that come to mind. Being of Asian origin, my inclinations tend to veer towards that direction. 

KARI KARI (FILIPINO OXTAIL STEW)

As a Filipino, I naturally love Filipino food. It is the food my tastebuds have been honed on. Although it is one of the lesser known Asian cuisine, those who have tasted it, rave about it. Not much herbs and spices are used but the flavour comes from the natural taste of the best ingredients. A lot of our food are simple and probably doesn't have an edge in terms of presentation. I think for our food to have a wider multicultural fan base, we have to present them in a way which is more universally appealing.

Our Kulinarya Cooking Club theme for this month of June, courtesy of our gracious hosts Tina of Pinay in Texas Cooking Corner and Cherrie of  Sweet Cherrie Pie is native Filipino cuisine. A recent revival of Filipino heritage dishes has brought to the fore old recipes that through the years have been eclipsed by modern and foreign cuisine. Although a lot of Filipino dishes has Spanish or Chinese influence, there are also a lot of indigenous Filipino dishes that truly originated from the Philippines. 

Kari kari, also called kare kare, is one of the all time favourite native dishes. It is a stew, usually made with oxtail or tripe or a variety of meat cuts (I used oxtail and shin of beef with marrow bone), with a rich peanut gravy that derives its characteristic yellow color from annatto seeds. Ground fried or roasted peanuts and ground toasted rice grains provide richness to the sauce. Although modern cooks use peanut butter, ground peanuts is the traditional and correct ingredient for making the traditional recipe. Kari kari is not complete if not served with a side dish of ginisang bagoong (sauteed shrimp paste). 

Kari kari apparently originates from the Southern part of the Philippines. It was brought to Manila by the Moros (the Southern natives) where it was embraced as a national dish. The flavour is very characteristically Malay, owing to the Southern tip of the Philippines' proximity to the other Southeast Asian countries. Although there has been mention of the name being derived from the word curry, I think the more logical explanation is that the Malay term for dishes with sauce is kari which simply means sauce.

I have interpreted this dish in a way that can be better appreciated by Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike. It is one of those Filipino stews that becomes uniform in colour when cooked. Filipinos say that our food is unappealing because it is usually brown. In this case, it is yellow. I have cooked the vegetables separately and just added them to the dish in the end. This way, the sauce remains pure and rich, undiluted by the juices of the vegetables. The vegetables have retained their original colour too because they were not cooked in the yellow sauce. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 kg. oxtail and shin of beef meat
3 large onions, sliced
cooking oil
3 tbsps. of annato (achuete) oil
1 1/2 tbsps. crushed garlic
1/4 c. ginisang bagoong (sauteed shrimp paste)
3 tbsps. toasted store bought ground rice
2/3 c. ground fried or roasted peanuts
8 snake beans (sitaw)
6 eggplants or 10 baby eggplants
1 fresh banana heart, split into 6 wedges and soaked in salted water (or use tinned cooked banana heart like I did here)
ginisang bagoong to serve

Method:

Cut the shin meat into big chunks, similar to the size of the oxtail pieces. 

Pan fry all the meat pieces, a few pieces at a time in the cooking oil until well browned all over. 

Transfer the browned meat and 1/3 of the onion slices into a big pot and cover with water. 

Bring to a boil and simmer until tender (about 2 hours). This can also be done in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes.

Take the meat out of the stock and set aside. Strain the stock and skim off the fat from the surface.

Toasted rice and ground peanuts.

Heat up a big pan or wok and add the annato oil. Sauté the garlic on low heat until fragrant and starting to crisp. 

Add the onions and sauté until very soft. Add the peanuts and bagoong and stir for about 2 minutes. 

Add 5 cups of the stock and bring to a boil. 

Add the ground rice. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes. 

At this stage, I pureed the sauce with a hand blender because I like my sauce smooth. 

Return the meat to the sauce and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.

Store bought ginisang bagoong.

Split the eggplants into halves, lengthwise, and fry until cooked. 

Boil the snake beans and banana heart separately.

Add the vegetables to the kari kari and simmer for 3 minutes. Serve with ginisang bagoong.

For the annato (achuete) oil:

Heat up 1/2 cup of cooking oil. When hot add 2 tbsps. of annato (achuete) seeds. Take off the heat and leave to steep and cool. Strain the seeds off. Use the oil in recipes.

All rights reserved ©Adora's Box Copyright 2011.  

                        See the other posts for this month's theme:

Palitaw  from Day of Chef by Day 

Avocado Shake from Malou of Skip To Malou

Pinais na Isda from Iska of Iskandals.com

Grilled Panga ng Lapu-Lapu from Erwin of Iskandals.com

Tapsilog from Cherrie of Sweet Cherrie Pie

Kulawong Talong from Elizabeth of Asian In America

Kalamay na Pinipig from Jun of Jun-blog

Kutsinta from Tina of Pinay in Texas Cooking Corner

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SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALL TOMATO SOUP

People bask in the sunshine in the summer and think that that's just a given. Alas, such is usually not true in ye old Britain. A soggy summer seems to be in the stars (again). I am not altogether sad about the rain. It is ironical that it didn't rain as much as it should have in the past months so the water reserves is now deemed inadequate for the "summer months". As a result, a nationwide hosepipe ban has been declared as early as spring which means we are not allowed to use our hosepipes for whatever watering activities we had in mind. Thus my gratefulness for a spot of rain every now and then. I won't need to lug buckets of water to the back of the garden.