Steak!

I'm in the east coast right now, and for a little more American type dinner, I cooked steak and potatoes. Still served with rice though, of course, I am still Filipino afterall.

This is a very simple yet tasty recipe for a steak. You need the following
Ingredients:
1. Quality beef steak about half or so inch.
2. Worcestire sauce
3. Coarse ground black pepper
4. Salt
5. Garlic powder
6. Butter
7. Baby potatoes
8. McCormick all-purpose seasoning or your favorite blend of herbs (rosemary goes well with steak)
9. A few cloves of garlic
10. Zip lock bag big enough to fit your steak
11. Griddle (a frying pan that's used for grilling over the stove)

Directions:
1. Soften the meat by beating it lightly with a meat hammer or any hard object. You can put the meat in the ziplock before doing this, so the meat juice won't fly around.
2. Rub both sides of the meat with pepper, salt, and garlic powder. Don't coat the meat with it, just apply enough for the meat to absorb it all. About a teaspoon or so of the pepper > salt and > garlic powder put together for about 3 inches long steak.
3. Put the meat back in the zip lock and splash some Worcestire in there. Just put enough to coat the meat, don't drown the meat in the sauce.
4. Close the ziplock, while taking out the air from the bag. Wrap the plastic around the meat so the marinade will set in. Leave for about 20 minutes or more.
5. Heat the griddle, put on medium heat. Melt butter on it, then saute garlic, a few dashes of the McCormick seasoning/your favorite herbs, and potatoes (potatoes take a long time to cook, so if you're in a hurry, it's easier to microwave it first for 3-5 minutes and then saute in the butter). When potatoes are about to cook, put it on the less hot part of the griddle.
6. Put the heat on high and put meat on the griddle. Leave until sides brown and have grill marks.
7. Lower heat to medium and leave meat on, depending on how you like it. The longer you leave it on the more "done" it's gonna be, and leave it just for about 10-15 minutes and you get it rare.
8. Serve the meat and potatoes on a plate, and pour the butter and drippings from the pan on it.

Enjoy!!! :D

Happy Sausages

I was bored one day and decided to have some fun with my food. It's not really a recipe, recipe; it's just another way to present a snack we all like to eat: sausages/hotdogs! This one I call happy sausages inspired by the octopus designed sausages in bento boxes!

You just need a couple of sausages or hotdogs, preferably bite sized. Defrost them, and then make a + shaped cut (but only til half of the sausage; don't cut all the way) on one side of the sausages. Get your pan and fry them til they brown, and the + shaped cut will make your sausages look like they have legs! Slice some cheese and fashion them into eyes and a mouth for your sausage. Stick 'em on the sausage (they'll stick because of the oil), and then design with ketchup, mayo, and mustard!

Katsudon

First of all, I would like to thank the 1000+ people who have visited my food blog! Knowing my blog has been visited by so many people makes me very happy. Thank you!

Here is a recipe to celebrate! It's very simple, but I read online that Katsudon is usually eaten before a big test as "katsu" is a homophone of the verb 勝つ katsu, meaning "to win" or "to be victorious". And well, I don't have any tests or anything (my 1st term in senior year of college has just ended actually), but I hope to continue to feel victorious in the sense that people will continue to visit my blog.

Anyway, enough of me blabbing! Here is the recipe for one serving of Katsudon:

Ingredients:
1 Tonkatsu cooked and ready! A chicken fillet can also be used as substitute instead of pork (chicken katsu is called Torikatsu, if I'm not mistaken).
1 egg
1/4 leek sliced diagonally
1/2 onion sliced
50ml water
1/5 tsp powdered dashi (I use Ajinomoto brand dashi found in most Japanese sections of the grocery. Market Market in the Fort has many varieties of powdered dashi)
1 tbsp kikkoman soysauce
1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp brown sugar
1.5 cup of rice put in a rice bowl big enough to fit your Tonkatsu

Directions:

1. Mix water, dashi, soysauce, mirin, and brown sugar and put in heated pan
2. When mixture begins to be hot, add onion
3. When the mixture is boiling and onion has begun to be transluscent, add your Tonkatsu
4. Beat egg lightly and pour over mixture and tonkatsu
5. Put some of the leeks on the Tonkatsu
6. Cover the pan for about a minute, or until your egg has reached your desired consistency.
7. Slide everything onto a bowl of rice.
8. Serve and eat while hot! :)

*Thanks to the Cooking with Dog show for some tips!

The Meatlover's Pizza Sandwich

Ok, so I haven't been posting much recently. I've just been so busy! Anyway today I was craving for a slice of pizza, but we didn't have any at home and I didn't have enough money to buy, so I decided to just make something kind of like a pizza. I call it, the Pizza Meatlovers Sandwich! Now the picture doesn't look so appetizing; I just used a 2 megapixel camera phone since my DSLR's with my brother, but trust me, it is reeaaal good.


Ingredients:
2 slices of bread (regular sandwich bread is fine, cibatta is better)
Ketchup (regular flavor. NO Tamis-Anghang or Banana ketchup for this)
Ground black pepper
Basil (can either be fresh or dried)
Quickmelt cheese and or mozarella
Feta/white cheese in herbed olive oil (optional)
1 Green olive (optional)
2-3 slices spiced Ham
1 and a half big strip of Bacon
1/4 of onion

Directions:

1. Spread ketchup on one side of both bread slices (don't be frugal, but don't put too much that the bread will get soggy)
2. On one bread slice, put lots of slices of your cheese, crumble about two-three small feta cubes, and put about half a teaspoon of the herbed olive oil over it.
3. Slice the onion and green olive and put these on the same side of the bread as the cheese/s and ketchup
4. Add a pinch of pepper
5. And add, if using fresh basil, slices of 1 leaf. If using dried basil, just a dash
6. Fry the spiced ham until it begins to brown
7. Fry the bacon until the meat is reddish brown and the edges crispy
8. Add on the meat on the bread
9. Cover with the remaining slice
10. Grill sandwich in a sandwich griller until bread has browned with grill marks, and cheese has melted. *
11. ENJOY! :)
    

To make it meatier, feel free to add sauteed ground pork or beef, pepperoni, or whatever your favorite meat is! Just remember not to use too many salty types of meat or else the pizza sandwich will become too salty.

*If you do not have a sandwich griller, I guess you can use the oven toaster and toast the sanwich for about 5 minutes.

"Brich": The ultimate breakfast sandwich

Inspired by a similar concept my friends and I tasted in Baguio, I decided to make my own, smaller version of it. I call it the "Brich" which is short for breakfast sandwich. It's basically a sandwich made up of my favorite breakfast foods.

For bread, I used pancakes (which I made just by following the instructions on the box) which I spread some butter on. In between the 2 pancakes, I just put some ham, salami, bacon, scrambled egg, lettuce, and cheese (just the plain square cheese slices available in supermarkets --I like Anchor brand the best). I spread butter on the top pancake and poured some maple/pancake syrup on the whole thing. I would've put cornflakes and maybe even some peanut butter or jam, but when I made it I was just going to eat it as a snunch, so I didn't want it to be waaay too rich. I mean, it's rich and heavy enough already.

The brich goes well with a glass of milk, water, or orange juice. Although I recommend water because I think the brich already seems fattening, and extra sugar won't be needed haha

Korean Beef Stew

Ingredients:
beef short ribs or the beef part used in kaldereta, cut about 2 inches thick
2 carrots peeled and chopped into half moons
1 onion
garlic
2/3 soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1/2 cup water
about a tsp of ginger
about a tsp of sesame seeds
sesame oil
4 tbsp sugar
salt and pepper to season
Chili peppers

directions:
1. Boil beef until soft (about 15 minutes)
2. While waiting, mix the soy sauce, mirin, water, ginger, crushed garlic, a dash of sesame oil, sugar, chili pepper
3. Take the beef out of the boiling water
4. Sautee onions and carrots and then after a while, sear meat
5. Lower heat and add mixture
6. Simmer until meat is very tender (around 20 minutes)
7. Before it is done, add some sesame seeds and mix it in the pan.
6. Serve!

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