Mozarella Sticks

I love mozarella sticks. As a snack, on pasta, as an appetizer... It's just so yummy and comforting! Recently I saw Giada do this on tv and I tried to do it myself. It's not so hard after all!

Ingredients:
Mozarella cut into sticks
Panko (bread crumbs)
Egg
Parmesan
Salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Whisk egg in a bowl.
2. Mix panko and some parmesan, salt, and pepper in another bowl.
3. Dip sticks into whisked egg and then into the panko. Repeat until the cheese is fully covered.
4. Put cheese sticks into a tupperware and put in the freezer for about 2-3hours or even up to a day.
5. Heat oil in a frying pan.
6. When oil is very hot, fry the cold mozarella sticks until they are crispy.

Voila! Best served with a salsa dip or marinara sauce. :D

Chicken Parmesan

I try to make dinner for my family once every few weeks. Today I made this for dinner along with mozarella sticks, the recipe of which in my next post. :)

Ingredients:
Pasta
Chicken Breasts
Parsley
Carrots diced into tiny, tiny pieces
Garlic, Onions
Canned whole peeled tomatoes
Tomato Sauce
Tobasco/Hot sauce
Salt, pepper, sugar, cayenne pepper
Mozarella Cheese
Panko (bread crumbs)
Parmesan Cheese
Whisked egg

Directions:
For the chicken
1. Rub chicken with salt and pepper.
2. Dip in egg and then the bread crumbs which are mixed with a bit of salt, pepper, and parmesan.
3. Repeat process until all the breasts are covered well.
4. Fry in high heat until golden brown, and then put aside.

For the sauce
1. Saute garlic, onion, and carrots until they all soften. (a handful of each except garlic > onion and carrots)
2. Then add the can of tomatoes and some tomato sauce. (1:1)
3. Put in the chopped parsley (less than handful, more than a few pinches)
4. Add salt, sugar, peppers to taste
5. Put in tobasco sauce!
6. Simmer until sauce thickens
7. Blend together in a blender until sauce is no longer too chunky

Chicken parmesan
1. In a pyrex, put in the pasta and mix it with the sauce.
2. Place cooked chicken breasts on top.
3. Grate lots of mozarella and parmesan on top of the whole thing
4. Bake in 350 F for 15 minutes or until cheese melts.
*In my case, I ran out mozarella so I didn't get to put too much into it. The more the better though, so don't hesitate in covering even the whole thing with the yummy cheese.

Chix and Cheese in Bacon

Ingredients:
Chicken Fillet cut into thin slices, slightly flattened with salt and pepper
Cheese
Saute'd Garlic and onion
Roasted red pepper (from a can is fine)
Bacon

Put one ingredient on top of another in this order:
Bacon, chicken fillet, cheese, garlic and onion, and red pepper --> ROLL (bacon will be like your wrapper) and put on a bbq stick. GRILL. :D

For remaining peppers, feel free to grill them... They become nice and sweet :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. :)

Murdered Hotdogs

I remember eating and making this snack ever since I was a little kid. Making it my own by adding a few more ingredients, I've also discovered that aside from as an afternoon merienda, it also goes great with a bottle of cold beer.

Murdered Hotdogs
(Serves 1-2)

Ingredients
2-3 hotdogs sliced into small pieces (either all meat or red; doesn't matter)
regular ketchup
1 medium to large onion
hot chili/chili powder/hot sauce/red chili flakes (the more the spicier)
cooking oil
parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions
1) Heat the oil in a pan, and then saute onion and hotdog pieces.
2) Add some chili, keep frying
3) After around 2-3 minutes, add ketchup (about half a cup --more if you're big on ketchup) and chili
4) Mix together in pan til ketchup begins to simmer.
5) Sprinkle with a bit of parmesan and serve! :D

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.

Singapore and Philly cheese corned beef

So I just got back from my Singapore trip last January 2. It was awesome over there! The shopping, the sights, the nightlife, and of course, the food. On the left I've made a collage of some of the dishes I tried over there. My favorite is the Cereal Prawns which is the biggest one in the collage. It's fried prawns and cereal that is very crispy and slightly sweet. It's so good that even the shells can be eaten! I tried the dish over at Hawkers near Esplanade and of all the food I have tried in my stay there, that is the most unforgettable one! In a good way! We ate it with pineapple rice, another tasty treat, grilled stingray, and Tom Yum soup. The last two had quite the spices, so I wouldn't recommend it for those who mind sweating a bit and getting their tongue a little burned. I would gladly come back though. :D I have yet to try cooking it myself, but watch out for that. I will try some day soon.

Some other goodies really worth mentioning are the buffet breakfast over at the Singapore Zoo which made me forget that we went there for the animals and not the food haha, the spicy Mcwings over at Mcdonalds which was so juicy and slightly spicy, the swedish meatballs at IKEA which surprisingly went great with the sweetness of the linden(sp?) berries, the Sing ice cream sandwich sold in the streets which was great, especially because it didn't melt as fast as I expected, and the "BBQ Shabu Shabu" in Pasar Oleh Oleh, Bintan, Indonesia. Well I included it with the Sing food already because Bintan is very Singaporean; the currency used to pay for stuff there is even SGD. Tiger Beer, the Singaporean counterpart of my country, Philippine's "San Miguel/RedHorse" is lighter than I thought it would be. It's good though.. 'swabe'. It reminds me a little of Cerveza Negra, but lighter. Bintang Beer of Indonesia is quite like Cerveza too, but it feels very watery and thin. San Miguel Strong Ice and Red Horse are still on top for me. :)

For more info on these dishes, check out my flickr account over at http://flickr.com/photos/kamums

Meanwhile, let me go on with the recipe I will share with you today. Wanting to make a philly cheese steak sandwich since before I left for Singapore, I decided to finally make one when I got back. Unfortunately, we still did not have any good tenderloin/sirloin or any beef cuts for that matter so I settled with what I found in the pantry --corned beef.

PHILLY CHEESE CORNED BEEF
Ingredients
1 small can purefoods corned beef
1 red onion
1-2 cloves garlic
cheeze whiz
2 slices bread
olive oil

1. Heat a little olive oil in pan
2. Sautee chopped onion and garlic
3. Put on high heat, and then add corned beef
4. Keep on pan until corned beef is dry and begins to crisp
5. On one slice of bread, put the corned beef. Make sure to include the little burnt pieces stuck to the pan --those are the crunchiest, yummiest corned beef parts
6. On the other slice, spread on a rich amount of cheeze whiz
7. Put slices together, grill in sandwich griller or toast. :)