Prawns with Black Bean Sauce

Prawns with Black Bean Sauce. I want to share a delicious easy cooking method for prawns or large shrimps. I used large prawns for this recipe but medium to large shrimp would also do the job. For the black bean sauce I just used those bottled black bean sauce sold on most supermarket. They are convenient instead of the usual canned fermented black beans or tausi. If you don’t have access to the bottled black bean sauce the Pinoy tausi can also be used, just mash the fermented black bean then sauté it together with the garlic, ginger and onions. Cooking is fairly simple, the dish is just another version of stir-fry dish. Here is the recipe of my Prawns with Black Bean Sauce.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo large to medium size prawns, shelled, deveined
1/4 cup black bean sauce
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 thumb size ginger, cut into thin strips
3-4 stalks leeks or large spring onions, cut into diagonal sections
2 small size bell pepper, cut into strips
1-2 tbsp. oyster sauce
1-2 tbsp. corn starch
salt to taste
cooking oil

Cooking procedure:

Prawns with Black Bean Sauce - Cooking Procedure

In a wok sauté garlic, ginger and onion until fragrant. Add in the prawns and continue to stifry until color start to change to orange. Now add in the black bean sauce, black bean sauce and 1/4 -1/2 cup of water, continue to stir cook for about a minute. Add in the bell pepper and leeks and stir cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Correct saltiness if required. Thicken sauce with cornstarch diluted in 1/4 cup of water. Serve hot with a lot of rice.

Tokwa’t Pinakurat, Firm Tofu with Pinakurat Vinegar

Tokwa’t Pinakurat, Firm Tofu with Pinakurat Vinegar. Ok may be this do not require a recipe, all that I have done was to fry slices of firm tofu, cut into cubes then served with pinakurat. Pinakurat is a versatile condiment that can be used in Pinoy cooking with some imagination the use of pinakurat in Pinoy food is limitless. My Pork Adobo sa Pinakurat was a hit everyone loves it especially those who like spicy foods. This is my first time to use pinakurat with tokwa, I am sure it is great also with tokwa’t baboy or any tokwa combination below.

Other tokwa recipe:

As I said the use of pinakurat in Pinoy cooking is limitless, any Pinoy food that you could think or have tried with pinakurat please do share with us. Here is the recipe on how I made my Tokwa’t Pinakurat, Firm Tofu with Pinakurat Vinegar.

Ingredients:

2 blocks firm tofu, cut into rectangles

1 medium size onion, chopped

1/2 cup pinakurat vinegar

1/2-1 tsp. sugar

salt

cooking oil

Cooking procedure:

In a deep frying pan fry tofu in batches for 2 to 3 minutes each side or until crisp, drain excess oil.

To serve chop the fried tofu into cubes, place in a serving bowl and pour over the pinakurat, add the onion, sugar and salt to taste, toss to mix and serve.

Pork Adobo with Chunky Chicken Liver Sauce

Pork Adobo with Chunky Chicken Liver Sauce is another innovative dish that I want to share. This adobo recipe is rich in sauce with chunky chicken liver. This dish will not only make you drool it is so tasty that literally make you eat more rice. The tasty chicken liver bits in the adobo sauce gives texture which was so good with piping hot rice. It was even better a day after.

Cooking this adobo version is fairly easy just put all the ingredients in a saucepan. There is no especial cooking procedure, just cut or dice the chicken liver into small pieces, it will then disintegrate as it cooks with the pork. Here is the recipe of my Pork Adobo with Chunky Chicken Liver Sauce.

Ingredients:

1 kilo pork belly cut into large cubes

1/2 kilo chicken liver diced or cut into small pieces

1/2 head garlic, crushed

1/2 cup vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tbsp. brown sugar

3-5 pcs. bay leaf

3-5 dried red chili

1 tsp. peppercorns, crushed

salt

Cooking procedure:

In a thick sauce pan put all the ingredients add enough water to cover meat and bring to a boil. Set heat to medium low and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes or until pork are tender and the liver has disintegrated. Correct saltiness and sweetness according to taste, set heat to low and continue to cook until the liquid has turned into an oily chunky sauce stirring occasionally to avoid burning the bottom. Serve with a lot of rice.

See other related adobo recipes:

Duck Breast Adobo, Adobong Pato
Adobong Isaw, Adobong Bituka
Pork Adobo sa Pinakurat
Tokwa't Baboy Adobo with Oyster Sauce
Special Adobo
Batangas Adobong Dilaw
Batangas Adobo
Adobo sa Asin, Adobong Baboy sa Asin
Adobong Baka, Beef Adobo
Adobong Atay at Balunbalunan ng Manok sa Pinya
Adobong Ilocano, Chicken Adobo
Pork and Chicken Adobo
Adobong Puti
Adobong Manok sa Gata, Chicken Adobo in Coconut Milk
Adobong Kambing
Lamb Adobo Humba, Adobong Bisaya
Pork Adobo with Pineapple
Adobong Sitaw at Baboy

T-Bone Steak with Mushroom and Oyster Sauce

T-Bone Steak with Mushroom and Oyster Sauce. For a while I have been thinking if my T-Bone Steak with Mushroom Gravy could be tweaked to have the dish closer to the Pinoy palate. The dish is already prepared Pinoy style but some of the ingredients may not be available in some Pinoy households. These steak dishes obviously are cooked or served with sauce or gravy. We Pinoy just love our food with gravy, we like to top it on our rice an example is the fried chicken we have to have it with a lot of gravy to match with our rice. This is been very common sight on fried chicken fast food restaurants, a customer could order a single piece of chicken with extra rice or two and several trips to the gravy station.

Ok back to my T-Bone Steak with Mushroom and Oyster Sauce. I wanted to use ingredients that are available in to most Pinoy, the T-Bone steak may be to much but use pork chop instead. Perhaps I could make another post in the future on a pork chop version using canned button mushrooms. Her is the recipe of my T-Bone Steak with Mushroom and Oyster Sauce enjoy.

T-Bone Steak with Mushroom and Oyster Sauce - Ingredients

Ingredients:

2 pcs. T-bone steak
100 grams, button mushroom, sliced
1/2 cup oyster sauce
1 small size onion chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp. dried parsley flakes
2 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. sugar
coarsely ground peppercorns
salt
cooking oil

Cooking procedure:

Dash the steak with salt and pepper, keep aside. Heat 1 to 2 tbsp. of cooking oil in a medium size frying pan. Broil the steaks for 5 to 8 minutes each side, keep aside. To make the sauce, heat the same frying pan with all the steak residue, add in the garlic and stir cook for about a minute now add in the onion and parsley, stir cook for another minute. Add in the mushroom and continue to stir cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add in the oyster sauce and about 1/2 to 3/4 cups of water and sugar bring to a quick boil and let simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, correct saltiness if required. Add more water if salty. Thicken sauce with cornstarch diluted in 1/4 cup of water, cook for another minute or until sauce has thicken. Now add in the broiled steak a let cook for about 1 -2 minutes to let the sauce infused to the meat. Serve immediately with mashed potato or rice.

Chicken Igado

Chicken Igado. Some of OPC’s readers are asking if igado can be cooked using chicken instead of the usual pork. Today I tried to cook igado using chicken gizzard, liver and breast, the result was great my chicken igado was comparable to the pork igado version.

To make the dish I used equal parts of chicken gizzard, liver and breast. Cooking is basically the same with my pork igado except that I have to parboil the gizzards which requires more cooking time to make it tender. To those who have been asking for a chicken version of igado here it is the recipe of my Chiken Igado.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo chicken breast, cut into strips
1/2 kilo chicken gizzard, boiled, sliced into strips
1/2 kilo chicken liver, sliced into strips
3/4 cup canned chickpeas
3/4 cup canned green peas
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 head garlic, chopped
1 medium size onion, chopped
1 medium size chopped, cut into strips
3-4 pcs. bay leaf
1 tsp. peppercorns
1-2 tsp. sugar
salt
cooking oil

Cooking procedure:

In a sauce pan, sauté garlic and onions. Add in chicken gizzard, chicken breast and soy sauce stir cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add vinegar, lower heat and cook uncovered for 3 to 5 minutes. Add 1 to 2 cups of water, peppercorns, sugar and bay leaf simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Add in the chicken liver and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes or until sauce thickens and almost dry. Season with salt to taste. Add chick peas, green peas and bell pepper and cook for another 1 minute. Serve with a lot of rice.

Duck Breast Adobo, Adobong Pato

Duck Breast Adobo, Adobong Pato. Out of curiosity the other night I bought a pack of duck breast. All this time I have been wondering how duck breast would taste like when cooked adobo the Pinoy way. The duck breasts are kind of red meat and have thick skin and which I thought would be good cooked adobo style. I know duck meat would taste gamey so I intentionally cooked it with extra aromatics. I originally planned to cooked it with the combination of pork but then that would masked the true taste of the duck so I opted to cooked it without the pork.

Other than the extra aromatics I tried to sticked to the basic traditional cooking method of adobo, I just throw all in the ingredients in the pot let it braised till most of the liquid has evaporated and formed into and oily sauce. Because of the extra thick skin of the duck a lot of oil was rendered, which resulted discarding all the extra duck oil.

The final product was great, it is a little gamey as expected may be taste more like a native free range chicken and the texture more like a pork meat. Should you want to try it here is the recipe of my Duck Breast Adobo, Adobong Pato, enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 duck breast, about 1 kilo, cut into large cubes

1/2 cup vinegar

1/3-1/2 cup light soy sauce

1/2 head garlic, crushed

1 thumb size ginger cut into slivers

1 stalk lemongrass trimmed, crushed

1/8 tsp. coarsely ground pepper

3-4 pcs. bay leaf

1-2 tbsp. sugar

1/8 tsp. chili powder, optional

salt

Cooking procedure:

In a large sauce pan place the lemongrass at the bottom, add in the duck meat, garlic, ginger, ground pepper, bay leaf, vinegar, chili powder and soy sauce. Add in 1 to 1/2 cups of water, bring to a boil and simmer for 15 to 25 minutes until tender and until the liquid is reduced to half. Correct saltines if required. Now continue to simmer at low heat until most of the liquid has evaporated and has turned into an oily sauce. Discard all the extra rendered oil. Serve with a lot of rice.

Escabeche, Escabecheng Barramundi

Escabeche, Escabecheng Barramundi. This is my second recipe of barramundi a fish that is very common here in Australia. The first recipe was sinanglay na barramundi was one of OPC’s best innovative recipe. Now if you are trying to find some good Pinoy way of cooking the fish I would like to share a simple and easy one, escabeche Pinoy style.

Escabecheng Isda, Escabecheng Barramundi

The Pinoy escabeche is basically sweet and sour using the simplest ingredients. For the souring ingredient we just use vinegar, for sweetness of course just sugar and some soy sauce a very common ingredient in Pinoy cooking for added saltines. For the aromatics just ginger, garlic and onions, the basic aromatic ingredients for most Pinoy households.

The additions of some colourful ingredients is even an options like bell pepper, carrots spring opinions. The truth is any firm flesh fish may be used like salmon ect. Here is the recipe of my Escabeche, Escabecheng Barramundi.

Ingredients:

1 kilo sliced barramundi, scaled cut to desired size
2-3 thumb size ginger, cut into thin strips
2 small size bell pepper, julienne
1 small size onion, sliced
2-3 clove, chopped
2-3 stalk leeks, chopped diagonally
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
salt
cooking oil

Cooking procedure:

Wash barramundi and drain dry. Season with salt. Fry fish in a large frying pan until golden brown and crisp on all sides, Drain on paper towels. Keep aside. I a sauce pan quickly sauté garlic, ginger and onions. Add in add in soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water let boil and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, do not stir.

Thicken sauce with cornstarch dissolve in 1/4 cup of water. Correct seasoning with salt and sugar. Add in the rest of vegetables, cook for another half a minute. In a big platter arrange the fried barramundi and pour sauce over the fried fish. Serve immediately.

Halabos na Hipon o Sugpo, Steamed Shrimp or Prawns

Halabos na Hipon o Sugpo, Steamed Shrimp or Prawns. To most Pinoy, one of the best ways to prepare fresh shrimps or prawns is halabos or steamed. The fresh shrimps or prawns steamed in its own juices with minimal aromatics, these may be some crushed garlic and or ginger or just little salt. Steaming the shrimps or prawns with its own juices retains the natural sweetness and freshness of the seafood.

The steamed shrimps or prawns are eaten with bare hands and served in a simple vinegar dip with crushed garlic and some birds eye chili. A reasonable sized shrimps are rather expensive to most Pinoy, but whenever there are some family occasions the cost won’t deter us from enjoying freshly steamed shrimps.

Shrimps and Prawns at Dampa sa Macapagal

This morning I got some fresh large shrimp from Coles Supermarket, it deed cost some dollars but what the heck we have as I said satisfy our cravings once in a while. Fresh shrimps or prawns true with other seafood should not be overcooked to maintain its sweetness and most importantly overcooking will make the shrimps or prawns meat rubbery as rubber.

To cooked may halabos or steamed shrimps the whiskers and thorn shall be trimmed although it can be cooked as it is I do not want all those long whisker all over my steamed shrimps. I just dump the cleaned shrimps in a deep pan trow in some crushed garlic, some salt to taste and about 1/2 cup or water to start the steam.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo medium to large shrimp, whiskers and thorn trimmed

2-3 cloves garlic, crushed

salt to taste

vinegar with crushed garlic and chili dip

Cooking procedure:

In a deep pan, add in the crushed garlic, salt to taste and about 1/2 cup of water. Bring to boil then throw in the shrimp into the boiling water, replace the pan lid and let boil for about 2 to 3 minutes until the shrimp has turned to red orange. Serve immediately with the vinegar garlic chili.

Dahon a Gourmet Tea Lounge in Melbourne

Dahon a Gourmet Tea Lounge in Melbourne. Looking for a Pilipino restaurant in Australia? And I mean a truly good one. During my more than a year stay in Australia I have already visited almost all the major Australian Cities except Darwin. I also have traveled to some of the mining, coal, oil and gas outbacks. I travelled a lot because that is the nature of my work. During those travels to this date I am still searching for Pilipino restaurants in Australia, and I think that is what every Pinoy in Australia have been looking for, or I may not be looking hard please correct me if I am wrong. To those who have been in Australia for some time or have been here for good please do share if you know some good Pilipino restaurant in Australia or at your location in particular.

Dahon at South Melbourne Central

Finally I have found and visited one Pilipino restaurant in Melbourne and I may check the second one sometime this week. Yesterday it was my free day so I took long taxi drive to Melbourne to this restaurant simply called Dahon a gourmet tea lounge. I have already done some Google search on Dahon and have found some good reviews from fellow Pinoy food bloggers base in Australia and I also found out that the place is in fact owned by a food blogger her self Cherrie of Sweet Cherrie Pie. That added more enthusiasm to visit Dahon, I did not mind shelling out some good bucks for a 20 minutes taxi ride to the place, off I go.

South Melbourne Market

Overseas Pinoy Cooking does not give restaurant reviews, however I could not help it but I have to write the good things that I had during my visit to Dahon. I have to mention also that this is not a paid post, it is part of my Food Trip series aimed at helping our kababayans find good Pinoy food.

First of all I just want to talk about the place. Dahon is located at South Melbourne at South Melbourne Central opposite the famous South Melbourne Market at Cecil Street, make sense? I guess most of you never heard of a place with all the common name. It is just about AU$10 to AU$12 taxi ride away from the City center, that's what I spend anyway. I could not tell you how to go there by trams where the City of Melbourne is known for, I do not know how to ride those trams, I wish Manila have similar trams instead of jeepneys. Oh yeah I am going out of topic.

Melbourne's Famous Trams

The truth is I was expecting the usual Pilipino restaurant with a turu-turo counter which is common on most overseas Pinoy restaurant that I’ve been to. Dahon is a teashop or a teabar it offers an array of tea drink mixes I suppose that's how the name Dahon may have come, dahon in Pilipino is leaf.

Dahon's Relaxing Décor

The place has a relaxing décor and a choice of seats they have chairs and tables if you go there to dine or if you elect to just to relax with your favourite tea drink they have several couch and if you go there in large group they do have high and low stool seats and tables.

Stool seats and Tables for the Large Group

I would say their food is excellent judging from the food that I have tried and from the reviews that I have read. I have an order of my personal all time favourite pancit canton noodles. It was great as expected the noodles are not overcooked and with generous amount of vegetable, meat and seafood toppings. It was served with a yellow kalamansi how about that?

All time Favorite Pancit Canton Noodles

Fried Vegetables Lumpia

Pork Barbeque on Skewer

The pork barbeque was excellent perfectly marinated and grilled just right. Their fried vegetable lumpia was equally good served with soy sauce, I would have prepared it served with a vinegar and a lot of garlic and chili but that didn’t matter because they do have a really beautiful bottle of vinegar with chili and garlic on each table. I had one of their tea blends, I tried the watermelon, I could not say bad about it.

Pinoy Classics

On their menu you can order other the Pinoy classic steamed or java rice with pork barbeque or chicken adobo barbeque and chicken inasal. If you are not into rice try their barbeque baguettes. These are in addition to their tea drink mixes and blends.

Final word excellent place, if you are looking for a Pinoy restaurant something different from those turo-turo style restaurant or just unwind with a refreshing drink of tea then this is the place to go.