Pork adobo

I must say I am a very lucky person. During my visit to the Philippines, I have met and made so many new friends, see many new birds, and I was taken care of by very kind and friendly people, I was so touched for the warmth and kindness I got from people there.

I was invited to stay with a very sweet birding couple, Tito Bob and Tita Cynthia. (Tito and Tita is a respectful way to address people who are at the same age like your parents in a formal way, I was told).
More than that, I had a chance to enjoy the home cooking by Tita Cynthia and I really loved the pork dish. I could not hide it on my face that I love that dish so much, thus Tita Cynthia sent me the recipe and she said its simple, you can try.

I told my friend about the dish and asked her to come and try my new recipe as I love to share my cooking with others. It turns out very tasty, though not as good as Tita Cynthia's Abodo, and here is the recipe I got from her.

This Adobo can be made either with pork, beef or chicken. What Tita Cynthia made was with pork and I really missed that so I decided to make with pork.

Ingredients:

300g pork with little bit fat
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup soya sauce (I used dark soya sauce, the taste and the color are better than the normal one)
Garlic, salt, peper and one bay leaf.

Method:

Cut the pork in small pieces then put all ingredients in a pot. Boil then add a cup of water, boil then simmer till the pork is tender.
If you like egg, you can add one egg. Boil the egg then peel and put in the port together with the pork.

We ate this with steam rice and some pickle cabbages, so yummm!

Thank you so much Tita Cynthia for the recipe!

Crispy Fried Duck

Don't know why I always feel hungry when it rains, and always feel like eating something heavy, hearty, so I made Crispy Fried Duck today for lunch.

Ingredients: (for 2)

- Duck breast: 500 gr
- Spice paste*: 100g
- Cooking oil: 1 tbsp
- Lemon grass: 2 stalks, bruised
- Cinnamon Stick: 5 cm length
- Chicken stock: 1 litre

Marinade:

- Spice paste*: 50g
- Salt: a pinch
- Black peppercorns: 2-3, crushed
- Rice flour: 50g

*Spice paste: Grind coarsely these ingredients and mix with a little bit of water: large red chillies, shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger, turmeric, candle nuts, dried prawn paste, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, nutmeg, cloves salt


Method:

1. Marinate duck with half the spice paste for 1 hour in a cool place.
2. Heat oil in a heavy saucepan, add remaining spice paste, lemon grass, cinnamon stick and saute for 2 minutes. Pour in stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute.
3. Add the duck breast and bring back to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes till the duck is 80% cooked. Remove from the heat and leave duck to cool in the stock. When cooled, remove from stock and drain well.
4. Marina duck. Rub duck with spice paste, salt and pepper and dust evenly with rice flour. Deep-fry in medium hot oil till duck is crispy and golden brown in colour. Drain well and served with steam rice, can use the sauce of soya sauce mix with chili sauce and warm water.

Pork & Cucumber Salad

Ingredients: 
- 200g pork fillet
- 1 large or 2 small cucumbers
- 2 tablespoons small dried prawns, soaked, cleaned

Dressing:
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon tamarind juice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground dried red chillies
- 1/4 teaspoon dried shrimp paste
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tables spoon ground roasted peanuts.

Method:

1. Boil the pork till just cooked, about 20 minutes. Cool, then slice thinly.
2. To prepare the dressing: Blend the tamarind juice, chillies, half of the shallots and shrimp paste until fine. Stir in the rest of the dressing ingredients and mix all in a large bowl. Add the dried prawns, pork slices and cucumber. Toss well.
3. Serve with steamed rice.

Fried Rice with Kim chi and Fresh bacon

I haven't cooked for myself a proper meal for ages since I have been too busy. Got a week off from work because of the horrible Migraine made me bored so I looked at my camera and found the picture of the fried rice I made just a week before I got the migraine and today, I am not totally recovered yet, but the pain is bearable to write this post.

It is not easy to cook for one person, so left over food is always a big problem for me. And I got an idea for left over rice, with some fresh bacon and kim chi (fermented cabbage in Korean style), I had a wonderful fried rice that tasted so good that I need to share on this blog.

Ingredients:


- Shallots
- Fresh bacon
- Kim chi (can buy in Korean food store)
- Chili paste (option)
- Spices,  and of course, cold cooked rice (or left over rice)

The amount of each is up to your taste, to your like.

Method:

Heat the pan, fried the thinly slices of bacon till the oil is out and both sides become golden, put in the shallots, then the rice, reduce the heat, stir constantly so the rice won't be burnt about 10 minutes, put in the kim chi and little chili paste (if you want it spicy) and continue stir about 10 more minutes then add some salt and pepper and serve.

Enjoy!

My simple fried prawns

I love fried prawns, but don't like the tempura ones as too much batter, and I also don't like just prawns being fried, then will be boring. How about just a very thin layer of batter for my simple fried prawns.

Ingredients:

- 300g prawns, peeled and clean

- 1 egg

- 1 table spoon wheat flower

- salt, peper and chili powder

- cooking oil

Methods:

Mix the flower, egg, a little bit of water with salt, pepper and chili powder till it becomes a thin batter. Put the prawns in and mix gently till all the prawns are cover in that thin batter.

Heat a little bit of oil, just one table spoon, in a frying pan till it is hot. Take each prawn, shake off the liquid, and put on the pan one by one.

Fry each side till it turns golden.

And here are the fried prawns, with a very thin layer of batter that I like, not too oily, but not boring, love it ;)

Sauté shrimps/prawns with fish sauce

I think all Vietnamese love this dish, it goes so well with hot steam rice and some pickle vegetables and so easy, so fast to cook. You can apply this recipe for either shrimps or prawns. If you choose prawns then you should peel them. I like the small shrimps which can find only sometimes in the local market, the ones they get from the river, not the farm ones, taste much better

Ingredients:

 - 200 g of shrimps or prawns

 - 1 tsp turmeric powder (for both better flavor and nicer color after cook)

 - 1 tsp of dark soya sauce 

- 1 tsp of fish sauce

- 1 tbs of cooking oil

- a pinch of sugar

- Garlic and ginger, as you wish

Method:

Heat the oil, saute the garlic and ginger till flavor, add turmeric then the shrimps and stir constantly till it is a little bit dry then add sugar, continue to stir in low heat till it is dry, add soya sauce and fish sauce, then cook till the prawns are dry. Serve hot with steam rice.

My mom's steak

Here is how my mom usually makes steak for us, her recipes are always simple with all ingredients we can get easily in Vietnam, so yum!

Ingredients: (for one person)
- Beef fillet (200 gr)
- Lemon, chili sauce
- Pepper
- Fish sauce
- Garlic
- Roasted peanuts (optional)
- Cooking oil
- Sesame oil
- Sugar

Method:

1. To make the sauce: Crush around 1 tsp of roasted peanuts, then mix with 1 tbsp of good soya sauce, 1 tsp of minced garlic, 1 tsp of chili sauce, 1 tsp of lemon juice, a pinch of sugar.

2. Marinate the beef with 1 tsp of fish sauce, pepper, 1 tsp of lemon juice, 1 tbsp of sesame oil, a pinch of sugar, 1 tsp of minced garlic for around 3 hours.
Heat the pan with cooking oil till very hot and cook the beef as you desire, rare, medium or well done.

Served with tomato salad and above sauce.