Deep fried pork in chili garlic salt

Hi, all! It's been so long since my last update, but as the saying goes, "better late than never", right? I've just been so busy, really. I hope you understand. I was actually so surprised to see that the site viewing counter rise to 6,500+ views! It's amazing. I never expected to have so many readers. Thank you so much to each and everyone of you. To make it up, here is a very good recipe I'm sharing with you! I hope you like it!

You know those deep fried pork in that yummy chili oil things in a lot of Chinese restaurants? For dinner today, I tried to make it myself, and voila! I succeeded. There's still some room for improvement, of course, but it definitely was real tasty! My family and I enjoyed it a lot.

Ingredients

1 inch ginger (peeled)

1/2 kilo pork ribs

rock salt

black pepper

1 egg (beaten)

3 small red chilis, sliced

4-5 garlic cloves, minced

Marinade

soysauce (just enough to cover the ribs, but not too much the ribs can swim in it)

half a lemon or 2 calamansi (juice)

salt, pepper, ginger

Coating (mix together. 1.5 cornstarch: 1 garlic powder: X chili powder)

cornstarch

garlic powder

7 spice powder/spicy chili powder

Directions

1. Put the ginger, ribs, and a dash of salt in a pot of water and boil until the ribs are tender.
2. Take out the ribs and ginger from the pot and put aside. You may discard the water.
3. Marinate the ribs in soysauce, some lemon/calamansi juice, salt, pepper, and the remaining ginger for atleast 40 minutes
4. After the 40 minutes are up, dip the marinated ribs in the beaten egg and coat with the coating
5. Fry this in medium-high heat, enough to get the coating crispy and light brown. Put aside.
6. Discard 3/4 of the used oil from the pan/wok, lower heat.
7. When the pan/wok is no longer so hot, saute 1-2 tbsp of rock salt, chili, garlic. until garlic begins to brown and the oil begins to evaporate.
8. If oil is too little, add a little bit more, put heat to medium and then mix in the ribs and some of the remaining marinade. Don't be afraid to add more salt, pepper, or spice powder, if you want!
9. Toss in pan/wok until ribs turn a darker shade of brown (but before it burns, of course!).
10. Serve with some vinegar and RICE!

What's great with this recipe is you can use the same style of preparation to other meat like chicken or fish or even tofu (but for tofu, fish and chicken fillet cuts, no need to boil anymore since it cooks quickly)! Enjoy! :)

Kansi

Hi, guys! I know I haven't updated for a while; I've been quite busy. I hope this one can make it up to all of you though, it's a very worthy first post for 2010.

This is a dish I first tasted when I lived with my cousin in Virginia. Her husband is a Filipino from Bacolod and his relative, Carmel, who is also from Bacolod made some Kansi for us during one of our parties. Kansi is an Ilonggo recipe that is sort of like a cross between Bulalo (beef bone marrow and vegetables soup) and Sinigang (sour pork soup). Carmel was kind enough to share the ingredients with me, and tonight for dinner, I finally got around to try and put it together. Here's how:

Ingredients
1.Beef Bones (3-5lbs) and/or Beef Shank (3-5lbs)
2.Lemon grass (2 stalk)
3.onion (1 medium)
4.Fresh ginger (1/2 cup, sliced)
5. 1 long hot pepper
6.Atchuete powder(1 Tablespoon)
7.sinigang mix (2 Tablespoon or to taste)
8.Canned Green Jackfruit (1 can)
9.salt & pepper (to taste)
*I also added some garlic to the recipe and tomatoes, and used fresh green jackfruit (sliced) instead.

Directions
1. Saute garlic and onions
2. Add beef and ginger into the pot and pour just enough water to cover most of the meat
3. Leave it to boil for about an hour, thirty to two hours
4. Lower heat to simmer, add more water into the pot until meat is completely submerged
5. Mix in sinigang mix, salt, and pepper (I used about half of the pack of sinigang mix since I liked it more sour)
6. Mix in pepper (add more if you want it to be spicier)
7. Put in sliced green jackfruit
8. Leave to simmer until jackfruit is cooked and beef is very soft
9. When it's almost done, put in lemongrass (tie it into a knot) and atchuete for color
10. Simmer for about 10 minutes and serve with hot rice.

I'm not sure if my version was as good or as authentic tasting, since it's still up to the cook to blend proportions up to his/her liking, but I loved it when I ate it, so you might too!

Bacon-wrapped Ribs

This is one of the easiest yet tastiest (and also probably unhealthiest) dishes I have ever made. And this I'm proud to say is something I came up with all on my own. I was just thinking, bacon and ribs - how can you go wrong right?

Ingredients

1. Emeril's rib rub
2. Ground pepper
3. Vegetable oil
4. Hot sauce
5. Pork Ribs
6. Bacon
7. Baking/cooking Foil

Directions

1. Wrap bacon around each pork rib and lay in a glass baking container (leave some space between pork ribs)
2. Brush ribs with a little vegetable oil
3. Smother each rib with Emeril's rib rub, ground pepper, and hot sauce
4. Cover container with foil, and marinate for 1-2 hours
5. Bake in oven at 350F for 1hr 45 mins up to 2 hours
6. In the last 15 mins before it gets done, take the foil off the container
7. Take out the oven, let it cool for a bit
   
8. Serve with lots of rice, mashed potatoes, and maybe even some roasted veggies!
   
9. ENJOY!!! :)

Fresh Salsa

Goes great with chips, fish, and even steak! Also very, very easy to make.

Ingredients
3 Fresh tomatoes - diced
1-2 red onion - diced/chopped coarsely
1 half lemon slice
1 jalapeno(sliced)/1 tbsp chili flakes/any chili you like
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions
Mixe together in a bowl, cover with cling-wrap, leave in fridge for atleast an hour (or a day if you want the flavors to blend together better), ENJOY!

Kimchi Fried Rice

I first encountered Kimchi Fried Rice at Kaya Restaurant. It's great with flavorful dishes because the spice in the rice can balance it out, and it's actually really easy to make!

Ingredients:
1 small bottle kimchi
2-3 cups of rice
2 eggs

Directions:
1. Heat some oil in a frying pan or a wok
2. Sautee some of the vegetables from the kimchi bottle
3. Add rice, mix together in pan
4. After a few minutes, pour in the remaining kimchi juice
5. Mix until it is not too wet
6. Crack the eggs onto the rice and mix until cooked together

Voila! :D

Buffalo Chicken Wings

Ingredients
Chicken wings with wing from mini drumstick thing separated (Healthier option would be breast fillets cut into strips)

*Marinade in:
HOT SAUCE. The more the spicier
Salt and pepper (don't be afraid to put it in there)
Cayenne pepper powder
Pepper flakes

Buffalo wings sauce
Butter > sweet chili sauce
Salt and pepper, cayenne pepper
Spicy sili cut into small pieces/crushed and/or pepper flakes
Diced garlic

Directions

1. Bread chicken wings (optional) and then fry on medium to high heat oil until cooked and crispy in one pan. Take out wings and set aside.
   
2. In the same pan, leave only little of the used oil and then melt butter in it.
3. Saute garlic until it begins to brown
   
4. Add the sweet chili sauce, peppers, and a little salt
5. Add the crushed/cut spicy sili and/or pepper flakes
6. Stir on low heat til it begins to simmer.
7. Mix sauce and chicken together and voila!

You can use a ranch dressing dip or blue cheese dip with this. :)

Tom Yum!

Here is how to make Tom Yum soup.
Ingredients:
-Shrimp and/or squid
-Green chili (sliced on one side about thrice. The more slices and chili, the spicier)
-Tom Yum paste* (30g to every 500g of water)
-Tomatoes cut so that it kinda looks like potato wedges (sorry I don't know what that cut is called haha)
-Pechay/Leafy vegetable
-Fresh or powdered coriander
-Bunch of lemongrass
-Onion leaves (cut)
-Onions, garlic, a little ginger (all chopped)
-Salt and pepper

Directions:
1) De-shell and de-vein shrimp. Don't throw shells just yet. For squid, just slice ala-calamares
2) In a heated pot, saute the garlic and onions with 1/4 amnt of water (total amnt of water depends on how much soup you want.. just keep in mind the tomyum paste to water ratio). Add the shrimp heads in soon after.
3) When shrimp heads begin to change in color, add another 1/4 of water along with the ginger. Boil for a few minutes. Then take out the shrimp heads (which by then should be very orange already)
4) Add the remaining 1/2 of the water into the pot with the tom yum paste, shrimp, squid, tomatoes chili, and vegetables
5) Mix in the coriander and onion leaves as the water is boiling, put in a dash of salt and pepper to taste.
6) Soup is ready when the shrimps have turned pink and and squid has become firm. Put in the bunch of lemon grass when you are about to turn off the fire.
7) Wait for it too cool a little bit and then serve! :)

*Tom Yum paste
You can purchase tom yum paste in most Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Singaporean, Thai etc groceries. If not, what I do sometimes is I just mix tamarind powder (sinigang mix is fine too), curry mix, and patis (fish sauce) in a 1:1:1 ratio. I also add more coriander --this time fresh than when I use the tom yum paste.

Lazy Chili

I made this for dinner some time ago in March and had to make do with whatever we had in the pantry, hence the lack of beans and other traditional ingredients. I recommend this for lazy people who don't have the time to make the perfect blend of cumin and other spices and buy ingredients not sold in the local mini-grocery or market.

Lazy Chili
Ingredients:
Ground beef or pork
Mushrooms
Tomatoes
Onions
Garlic
Red pepper
Spicy red or green pepper
McCormick Chili con Carne seasoning dissolved in about 1 cup water
Cheese
Salt and pepper

First, saute onions, garlic in oil. Add the peppers next, then the mushrooms and then the tomatoes. When you can start to smell the flavor, put in the ground meat and cook it. Season it with salt and pepper while cooking. When it is cooked, add the dissolved McCorming Chili Con Carne seasoning. Mix it well and then cover the pot with a lid. Keep the fire going until it starts to thicken. Serve with cheese on top and Tortillas or plain white rice. Really also great as a dip for chips on movie nights with friends. :)