CHICKEN ADOBO (ADOBONG MANOK)

Say Filipino food and the word adobo comes to mind. It is the most known Filipino dish and to some, the only one they know.

MENUDO CON GARBANZOS

Menudo is as synonymous to Filipino fare as adobo. It is one of the heritage dishes that has remained a classic. It is cooked with regularity in households and served as a staple in carinderias (eateries). 

CHICKEN AFRITADA

The question of why Philippine cuisine is not as popular as the other Southeast Asian cuisines still remain. There are funny, sometimes insulting answers. I choose not like to delve deep into the matter but I have a few ideas of my own.

PININYAHANG MANOK (FILIPINO CHICKEN STEW WITH PINEAPPLE)

The week's dinner menu in my hometown of Marikina is very predictable and limited. When asked about the dinner plans, a Mom would usually say, "something with do". Most of the dishes have the syllable do as in asado, mechado, adobo, menudo. Most Moms' randomly pick any of those dishes when planning what to cook for dinner.

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.

POLLO CON GUISANTES (MANOK SA GUISANTES)

The Philippines culinary icon, Nora Daza, passed away peacefully on the of September 13. Millions will mourn her passing, yet also celebrate the wealth of her culinary contributions. Her valuable legacy is the knowledge and passion for cooking that she selflessly shared. 

Ms. Daza was a gourmet chef, restaurateur and a bestselling cookbook writer.
Her recipes are lifesavers for the newlyweds who need to know all the basics of cooking and baking. It is also for homemakers who are always in search of new recipes. It also caters to the avid party giver who likes entertaining with grace but with minimum effort.

She makes the recipes straightforward and easy to follow. I always turn to her cookbook first before anything else because I am confident that it is the first step to doing things right.

PORK MENUDO

Menudo is a simple and very well known Filipino dish served by and to the common people. It is served at the roadside carinderia (eatery), in school and office canteens and as an everyday dish in people's homes. 

PORK ADOBO

If there is one dish that a Filipino should learn how to cook, it should be adobo. It is the quintessential Filipino cuisine. It is a very simple dish with only a few ingredients, yet every adobo is as different as the person who cooks it.

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.

BUTTER CHICKEN

 I have been planning to make butter chicken for some time now but I never could come up with the complete ingredients. My curiosity has been piqued since I've seen it in pictures and recipes. There is a bit of a hitch though. The list of ingredients is quite long and that challenges me a bit. As regulars here have probably noticed, most of my recipes have a short list of ingredients. It is quite a big task for me to shop for a lot of ingredients, let alone use them. Also, if I were to buy a lot of different kinds of spices (which the recipe calls for) and use a teaspoon of each, the rest is bound to get thrown away as I won't need them in the recipes that I usually make.

PATA TIM

Awareness of the art of cooking has been revived, thanks to cooking shows and food websites (such as food blogs). More people are interested in learning about food and different recipes. If they do not actually cook, they at least appreciate the looks, the story and the recipes that's behind every dish.

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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Pork Menudo

Thanks for dropping by. It would be nice if we could meet up on FACEBOOK or TWITTER. 

BEEF STEW WITH HERBED POTATO DUMPLINGS

When it comes to comfort food, beef stew is sure to get a mention. It is not only the taste that gives comfort, it is also the aroma that fills the house as it cooks that makes everyone look forward to actually eating it. 

BRAISED LAMB SHANKS WITH OLIVES AND LEMON

We've had a spate of freaky, super blustery weather last week after having an unusually mild start to the winter. Apart from the weather being worrying and disturbing, it wreaked havoc on tv aerials and satellite dishes. 

WAKNATOY (FILIPINO PORK STEW WITH SWEET PICKLES)

I come from the town of Marikina in the Philippines and so did my forebears. In fact, I can not trace any root other than this place. It is well known as the shoe capital of the Philippines. A new addition to the list of things to see in my town is the Shoe Museum which houses Madam Imelda Marcos' famous collection of shoes, some of which were made there.

BEEF GOULASH

Memories of summer is now in the distant past. The air is once again cold and damp. The trees are leafless and the ground full of fallen leaves waiting to be cleared. Our barbecuing days are over, at least for now. Warming stews and soups are what's best to eat at this time of year.

CHUNKY CHILLI CON CARNE

It is Guy Fawkes night in here in England on November 5. The story goes that in 1605, a group of people conspired to overthrow the King by blowing up the Parliament. Luckily, the attempt was foiled when hints of the plot was leaked to authorities. A certain guy called Guy Fawkes (yes, that's his real name) was caught in the cellar of the parliament building with 36 barrels of gunpowder. To celebrate the happy turn of events, people lit up bonfires. From then on, November 5 was called Bonfire Night and people celebrate with fireworks and bonfires where they burn effigies of Guy Fawkes. 

CHICKEN CACCIATORE

We are well and truly into autumn. Food that warms both body and heart are what we should now cook. Isn't it just nice to smell the aroma of delicious food as it slowly cooks? The anticipation mounts and is instantly gratified when the food is finally served.

EASY MEATBALL CURRY

Autumn has finally come. Having had a shabby summer once again, we were elated with the sudden burst of warmth and sunshine here in England in the beginning of October. We were hoping that the weather will turn tropical forever but of course that was not to be. The amount of leaves in the garden says it is definitely autumn. The garden has to be prepared for spring so armed with my trusty tools and assistant (code named husband) I tackled the dreaded task. 

BISTEK TAGALOG

This dish is a very classic Filipino dish called Bistek Tagalog but otherwise known in my town as tinoyoan which simply means cooked with soy sauce.