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. :)

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. :)

Banananutter

Perfect for a midnight snack or those days when one is in need of sweet comfort food.

Banananutter
Ingredients
1 Banana
1 Bar of favorite chocolate (not too sweet)
1 1/2 tbsp peanut butter

Put banana in the freezer and leave it there for about 20 minutes to an hour. Right before you take it out, microwave the peanut butter and chocolate until they melt. Take out cold banana, slice into small circles and mix with the hot peanut butter and chocolate. Sprinkle some nuts on it (cashew or peanuts will do) and you're done! Best served with a scoop of vanilla or coffee ice cream.

Parmesan Tempura w/ Lemon Butter Garlic sauce

Something I cooked up for dinner on the 30th of November. My mom had bought some shrimp to eat for dinner, but sick of having to eat it simply steamed and with garlic and vinegar like it's usually prepared around here, I decided to take the challenge.

I didn't have enough time to go shopping for gambas ingredients so I decided to just modify tempura. I'm still thinking of an interesting name for it (feel free to post your suggestions!), but until then I'll just call it what it is:

Parmesan Tempura with Lemon Butter Garlic sauce
Ingredients:
Shrimp, de-shelled and de-veined
Flour/cornstarch/panko breadcrumbs for the coating
Parmesan cheese
1 egg
Salt and pepper
Butter
Finely chopped GARLIC (a lot.. maybe 4-5 cloves depends on how strong you like the taste of garlic; i like it really garlicky)
Lemon/Calamansi juice to taste

Let's begin with making the sauce. Heat a pan and put in about 2-3 sticks of butter until it starts to melt. Sautee your garlic in the butter and then when the garlic starts to brown, add in the lemon/calamansi juice to taste. Leave it on low heat for about a minute or so just to let the tastes combine. When that's done, pour 3/4 of the sauce (including the garlic) into a small bowl.

Now marinade the shrimp in salt and pepper for about 15 minutes or more, just so the taste sets in (you can of course do the salt and pepper step before making the sauce to save time). Crack the egg into a bowl and the mix the coating with parmesan cheese in another bowl. Dip the shrimp into the egg and then into the coating mixture and set aside.*If you want to do this in an easier, faster way, just dip all the shrimp in the egg and then put it in zip lock bag containing the coating and then just shake it, much like the Mcdonald's shakeyerfries thingamajig. Heat up the same pan used for making the sauce and use the 1/4 left of the sauce in it as your oil. When it is hot, fry the shrimps until the tail turns pinkish red and the coating is crispy. By then the remaining garlic from the pan would turn crispy as well, so take that and put on top of the shrimp when serving. Oh and for the sauce, either just mix it all together with the shrimp, or serve it on the side as a dip like in the photo (above).

Tada!

Crunchy Tuna Melt

When I wake up more than 1 hour after lunch, I usually end up cooking up my own lunch or... "snunch" (snack that serves as my lunch). Today was one of those days, and my snunch was a Crispy Tuna Melt sandwich. I just thought of this today, but the inspiration for the crunch I got from a bar/resto near my school where my friends and I hang out a lot. Here's the recipe:

Crispy Tuna Melt
*Makes for 2-3 sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 small can hot and spicy century tuna
1 red onion chopped up
1 tomato chopped up
1 egg
1 pack skyflakes, or whole wheat crackers (depends on how crunchy you want your tuna melt to be)
mayonaise
quickmelt cheese
Bread slices

First, heat the pan with 1/4 of the oil from the can of tuna. Sautee the onions until they begin to caramelize, then add the tomatoes and the contents of the can of tuna. Keep sautee-ing until the oil begins to evaporate and then add the egg. When they all begin to cook together, break the crackers into small pieces and mix in the pan. Turn off heat after about a minute or two.

While waiting for the contents of the pan to cool a bit, spread some mayo on the bread slices. Then add some cheese onto it, and then finally, the contents of the pan. Put on some more cheese slices, and then finally complete the sandwich with the other bread slice. Grill or toast the sandwich until brown and serve!