Tuna Croquettes

I may have designed it too look like a small crab (or atleast tried to haha), but the picture is actually of tuna croquettes. Croquettes are very easy to make, and you can pretty much fill it with any meat or vegetable you like. I actually wanted to put some chicken and mushrooms in this one, but I got too lazy so I used tuna instead! Here's what you need to make about 4-5 croquettes:

Ingredients:
1 can of 150g tuna flakes (i prefer hot and spicy century tuna)
1.5 really big potato
1/4 of a carrot, diced into small cubes
1 onion finely chopped
Panko
Flour
2 eggs (1 beaten)
Salt and pepper

Directions:
1. First boil the potato (need not be peeled)
2. When the potato is boiled, mash it and add a tsp of pepper and a pinch of salt
3. Break an egg into it and mash together
4. Let the mashed potato cool.
5. While the potato is cooling, prepare tuna, carrots, and onion.
6. Sautee carrots and onion using about 2 tbsps of the oil from the can of tuna
7. Throw out the rest of the oil or save it for some other dish.
8. When the carrots begin to soften and the onion begins caramelizing, add the tuna flakes
9. As they cook together, break the flakes into smaller pieces
10. Saute for about 5 minutes until the tuna, carrots, and onions are no longer so wet
11. Mix have of the contents of your pan with the mashed potato.
12. Roll mashed potato into a small ball the size of your palm. As you do this add a bit more tuna+carrot+onion in the ball and roll again. Repeat process until there is no tuna and mashed potato left.
13. Dredge the balls in the flour, dip in the beaten egg, and then coat with panko. Repeat till all balls are coated.
14. Put oil in a pan, about an an inch thick.
15. When it is hot enough (you will find out if you put a bit of panko in the oil and it sizzles and floats), fry one side of a potato ball.
16. As it fries, press it down with the spatula so that it kind of looks like a little 1 inch pancake.
17. When the bottom part is brown and crispy, flip the potato.. well now it's a flat-ish circle haha
18. Repeat until all the balls are done!
19. Serve either with tartar sauce/mayonaisse or Tonkatsu sauce! :D

! Warning Do NOT try to make the croquette too big, unless you have some kind of cool cooking device or if maybe you're using a deep fryer, because it will BREAK.

Tonkatsu

Hi guys! It's been a while since my last update; I've been enjoying my summer vacation way too much! I hope you enjoy this post though, it's a recipe on how to make Tonkatsu.

Tonkatsu is a Japanese dish; "ton" meaning pork, and "katsu" for cutlet. It's one of the easiest dishes to make and here is how:

Ingredients:
Pork cutlets or pork chops de-boned
Flour
Beaten egg
Panko (Japanese bread crumbs) with a pinch of salt and pepper
Salt and Pepper
Tonkatsu sauce*

Directions:

1. Season the pork cutlets with salt and pepper
2. Put the flour, beaten egg, and panko in separate bowls
3. Coat the pork cutlets by dipping it into the flour, egg, and panko (in that order)
4. Heat some oil in a fryer to medium high heat (you'll know it's hot enough when you put some panko in, it floats to the surface, and makes a slight sizzling sound)
5. Fry both sides of the pork until it is golden brown
6. Cut each cutlet into about an inch thick strips (as seen in the photo)
   

! Remember not to get the oil TOO hot (smoking) because you'll burn the panko and the pork will either get burned too or won't be cooked thoroughly. You can do this by lowering the heat to medium when you notice that the pork is almost done.

*Tonkatsu sauce - my favorite tonkatsu sauce is the Bulldog brand. It can be bought in most supermarkets in the Japanese food section or Asian groceries. You can also make your own by mixing the following:
Ketchup, Worcestire sauce (ratio 2:1),
a pinch of sugar,
and a pinch of chili garlic (more if you like it sweeter or spicier)

Chicken Teriyaki

Finally, here is my recipe for chicken teriyaki, as inspired by the many cooking websites I visit frequently, the Japanese food(my favorite cuisine) I've eaten, and what I've seen on TV.



Ingredients:
4-5 chicken breast fillets or boneless chicken thighs cut into about an inch thick strips
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce*
some vegetable oil
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch (or more depends on how thick you want your sauce to be)
salt and pepper
water

Directions:
1. First mix your sugar and teriyaki sauce.
2. Pour some of it on your chicken; just enough to coat the chicken well. Don't drown it. Then add a pinch of salt and about 2 tsp pepper. Massage it all into the chicken and let it marinade for about 20 minutes to an hour.
3. Meanwhile mix what's left of the teriyaki sauce + sugar mixture, cornstarch, and about 1/4 cup of water. The cornstarch will help the sauce thicken and the water makes the teriyaki sauce less strong.
AFTER MARINATING...
4. Drizzle some oil on the pan and let it go to medium heat.
5. Put in the pieces of chicken and cook until all sides are opaque and even a little brownish (about 4-5 minutes)
6. Then add the teriyaki mixture sauce. Leave it there, stirring the contents of the pan together until the sauce begins to thicken and bubble. It will do this faster, as well as cook the chicken more thoroughly if you put a lid on the pan. Just make sure to check every now and then and stir. Your sauce and chicken then would look a like this:



7. It will be done when the sauce is thick enough and the chicken is thoroughly cooked.
8. Serve chicken on plate with the sauce drizzled on top, or on top of rice with some sauce drizzled on top. Or if you're a little obsessive compulsive, put your sauce on the
side and that'll be fine too! Enjoy! :)

*TERIYAKI SAUCE
Teriyaki sauce can be bought at any local supermarket. I recommend the Kikkoman brand. If you can't find any ready made sauce you can also make it yourself by mixing together the following ingredients:
1/2 cup light soysauce
1/2 cup mirin
2 tbsp sugar

Very simple stir-fry vegetables

Dinner was great! As I wrote in my previous post I did make chicken teriyaki and cooked vegetables as a side dish. I'll get to the teriyaki soon enough, but for now here is my recipe on how to make a very simple, healthy, yet tasty stir-fry vegetable dish that works great on the side or a even a snack!



Ingredients:
1/4 round cabbage sliced into strips
1 carrot sliced into thin strips or those thin half circles
sesame oil
vegetable oil
fish sauce (patis)
light soysauce
pinch of salt and pepper
crushed garlic (depends how 'garlicky' you want it to be)
1 red onion sliced

Directions
1. Heat some vegetable oil in your skillet (not too much; you're not going to deep fry anything)
2. When the oil is hot, add in the red onions and garlic. You know the oil's hot enough when the onions and garlic make a soft sizzling sound.
3. Put in your carrots and just mix them together.
4. After about 2 minutes, put in your cabbage. Let it stay on top for a minute or so to absorb the flavors of the onion, garlic, and carrots.
5. Finally, add a pinch of salt and pepper, about 2 tsp. of sesame oil, and 2-3 tsp of fish sauce/patis, and a tsp. of light soy sauce
6. Mix and keep mixing them together, so all that flavor can go around until the vegetables cook. You'll know it's cooked when the cabbage starts to turn transluscent and soft.

Enjoy! :D

Hey guys!

Hi guys! Today one of my school mates actually texted me asking about the chicken parmesan I put up on my site. It makes me happy that people actually do get to look around this lil' old blog of mine! So far I have had 500+ hits and that's not so bad for a site that's not advertised much! I'll be making some chicken teriyaki later tonight for dinner, so expect a post for its recipe soon after. I've made grilledteriyaki FISH before, but with homemade teriyaki. Too bad though that the fish broke into pieces because I just used ordinary fillet and not the steak kind. Also, my sauce wasn't as thick as the ones in the restaurant. It tasted pretty good but didn't look it haha! Hopefully my chicken teriyaki later will be better! I'll be using some ready-made teriyaki sauce made by KIKOMAN. I think I'll be cooking some vegetables and toge as a side dish too, if we have any in the fridge.

I'm thinking of making videos with me making my recipes someday. I don't think I'll have enough time this summer; I'll be busy next week with org stuff for school, and then after I'm flying off to Boracay for the World Youth Alliance camp. Oh and I still need a better looking kitchen! Plus my family or our helpers shouldn't be home then because I'm sure they're going to watch me, and that'll just make me feel awkward. Hahaha! If I do end up making videos someday though, I'll be posting them all here too! So I hope you can check that out. :)

Kebabs

Wow it's been quite a while since I've last uploaded anything on here. I've still been cooking, but the uploading part... well I've been busy a lot with university. Thank god it's the summer break now! I'm so happy! So anyway, for today's recipe I'm sharing with you how to make kebabs. It's not the traditional kebabs that one can buy at Mr. Kebab or other Persian restaurants. This one is a mix of the different recipes I found over the internet with a touch of my choice herbs and spices.

Beef tenderloin/any soft beef part cut into cubes
Zucchini cut into circle-y things
Tomatoes (not the big ones that can be seen in commercials of tomato sauce)
Red onions

Marinade: (Just mix together)
Lotsa crushed garlic
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
salt and pepper
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
thyme

Directions:

1. Marinate the beef in the marinade for about an hour or so
2. Then on a skewer/bbq stick just stick in a small red onion, a tomato, and some beef cubes
3. When the grill/griddle is very very hot, put the stick on and baste with the marinade for a minute or so on both sides (just to sear the outside and get those nice burn marks)
4. Move it then to a less hot area of the grill/griddle (not leesssssssss hot; just on medium heat) until the meat is cooked, which if the size of your cubes are similar to the ones on the photo (you can infer by comparing it to the size of the tomatoes, zucchini, and onions beside it), is in about 15-20 minutes; depending if you want yours rare, med
5. Do the same to the zucchini slices

Fish and Chips

This recipe I got from Jamie Oliver's show, Oliver's Twist, which is one of my favorite cooking shows on television. It's really easy to make and I've made it a little bit my own by adding on my own dip, a few more ingredients, and using milk instead of beer (which is mainly because I didn't have beer at the time haha)

Ingredients:
1. 4 Fish fillets: something nice and firm but not steak-y (I recommend lapu-lapu, dori, or tilapia)
2. Salt and pepper
3. 1 cup Milk
4. 1 cup regular Flour
5. Cayenne pepper
6. 2 egg whites, whisked until white and sticky
7. 2 Potatoes (or more if you want a lot of chips!)
8. Dijon mustard
9. Mayonaise
10. Lemon/calamansi

Directions:
For the Fish
1. Season the the fish fillets with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper
2. Mix together the egg whites, flour, milk/beer, and season with a bit more of salt, pepper, and cayenne.
3. Dip the fish fillets into the mixture
4. Fry in hot oil about an inch thick to ensure crispiness. Each fillet will be done in about 5 minutes.

For the chips
1. Peel the potatoes (I like to leave a little skin on)
2. Cut into wedges or thin strips or discs, it's up to you
3. Blanche in oil
4. When the fish is all done, you can re-fry the potatoes again in the now very hot oil so it will be nice and crispy.

For the dip:
Mix mustard to mayo (2:3) with a pinch of pepper

Serve together, seasoned with salt and pepper, with mustard and lemon juice on the side.

ENJOY!