Overseas Pinoy Cooking

Pichi Pichi is another popular Pinoy delicacy, specifically in Metro Manila and the Tagalog region. The traditional pichi pichi is made up of steamed grated cassava and flavored with pandan with grated coconut topping. At present other flavoring and colors of pichi pichi are now available. These are usually sold at kakainin stalls packed in assorted flavors and colors. There are even versions with cheese toppings. The ingredients are simple all that is needed is a couple of cassava root, sugar and some flavoring. Traditionally lihiya or lye water is used to make the pichi pichi chewy but be warned that this is actually a chemical it also gives an awful taste, especially when used more than what is recommended. Lye water is sold at wet market condiments stalls but this can be omitted if not available at your location. Some recipe requires that the grated cassava be squished out of its juice. There are cassava varieties that are poisonous when not prepared and cooked properly. C

Pad Thai is the popular Thailand version of stir fried noodles. It is strongly flavored with “ nam pla ” (the Thailand name for patis or fish sauce), tamarind paste and hot chilies. It is also tinted to bright red orange by annatto extract. Pad Thai is one of the most popular Thailand dish. Many Pinoys have come to love this Thailand version of stir fried noodles including myself. I would like to share a simple way and Pinoy style of cooking the dish using substitute ingredients available on most Pinoy household. For the noodles, use any dried flat rice noodles that is also available on most Pinoy food store. Nam pla as previously mentioned is just patis.  Tamarind paste can be extracted from fresh tamarind, but a good substitute is the sampalok sinigang mix in sachet or bottled paste. Atsuete is widely used in Pinoy cooking so with the other ingredients. Here is the recipe of my Pinoy style Pad Thai, good luck.. Ingredients: 1 kilo flat rice noodle 4 bloc

Lomi Special , some readers were requesting the recipe of lomi, in fact I do have already a recipe for lomi but that was cooked using instant lomi noodles . Click here to see that post . Today I would like to share my special version of lomi, beside the usual lomi ingredients I also used kikiam and squid balls and some hoisin sauce. For the noodles I use those fresh yellow noodles that are sold at most Metro Manila supermarket, It is actually the same kind that are sold on most wet markets. To reduce the lye water after taste I recommend that fresh yellow noodles be parboiled for a minute or two first and rinse thoroughly. Lye is widely used to make “ kunat ” or springiness in noodles. Here is the recipe. Ingredients: 1/2 kilo fresh lomi noodles 12 pcs. squid balls cut in half 12 pcs. kikiam, cut into small wedges 2 cup small size shrimp, shelled 1 cup pork, boiled, cut into strips 1 cup chicken, boiled shredded 1 small size carrot, cut into stri

Kamote-que, is a popular street food that is cooked similar to banana-que , it is deep fried slices of sweet potatos with caramelized sugar coating in bamboo skewer. The cooking procedure is the similar to banana-que. Kamote-que is peddled by street vendors near the premises of school campuses or along the streets where there is a lot of foot traffic. Kamote-q is very popular to school student as they are very filling and cheap. Ingredients: 1 kilo big size  kamote , sweet potato 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 liter cooking oil bamboo skewer Cooking procedure: Using a small knife remove skin of each sweet potato and slice/cut crosswise about 3/4 inches thick. In a large wok at high flame heat cooking oil. Put the sliced sweet potato in the wok and deep fry for 8 to 10 minutes or until color change to light brown. Sprinkle brown sugar over the sweet potato and continue to fry and stirring occasionally for 3 to 5 minutes or until sugar has melted and have infused to

Palitaw, Dila-Dila is a simple Pinoy merienda made up of boiled glutinous rice dough rolled in grated coconut and sugar. The original recipe uses galapong , galapong is derived from soaking the glutinous rice for several hours drained and ground in stone grinders. Not to worry glutinous rice flour is the ideal substitute and is readily available everywhere. The name palitaw is coined from the cooking process where the uncooked dough will sit at the bottom of boiling water and when cooked will float, dila-dila for the reason that they are shaped like the tounge. Cooking is simple, the flour to water ratio is 2:1, for every two parts flour one cup of water is required to make the dough. For dipping/coating in addition to the grated coconut, I use the not so mature coconut. I substituted the regular sugar to muscuvado sugar of course regular sugar will do the job but I wanted it the way it was served back during my childhood, we used to live near a sugarcane fields where muscuv

Sotanghon Noodle Soup is another popular Pinoy noodle soup. It is usually served as merienda. Sotanghon noodle soup is popular at karinderias , at school and office canteens. I have always missed those orange colored noodle soup served at our office canteen when I was starting to work. Sotanghon noodle soup is very easy to prepare. The secret of a delicious noodle soup is the broth. I used one whole chicken including the optional pork meat and boiled for at least 30 minutes for the broth. Just keep aside the extra chicken for future use. In addition use also generous amount of garlic and stir fried until fragrant. The orange tint of sotanghon soup is derived from the use of achuete it gives that distinct flavour beside the visual appeal. Here is the recipe enjoy. Ingredients: 1/4 kilo  sotanghon  noodles, vermicelli noodles, rinsed 1 big size chicken breast, boiled, shredded 2 liter broth from pre-boiling chicken and pork 1 cup pork, boiled, cut into strips 1/2 he

Tortang Alamang is not the usual type of omelet to most. A packet of dried alamang have been lying in the cupboard for sometime now. I first thought I could use it as a topping for a vegetable dish but I could not find the right vegetables at this part of the world. Alamang is usually used as topping for boiled vegetable dish to most Pinoy household in the Countryside. Tortang alamang is no different from other type of omelet, dried alamang is first sautéed with onion and tomatoes to re-hydrates and partly cook the dried krill before blending it with beaten eggs. I wanted a thick omelet so I used the same cooking method from my other torta recipes . Of course, it could be cooked whatever omelet cooking method that is convenient or to your preference. Here is how I cooked it. Ingredients: 1 1/2 cup alamang , dried krill 4 big size egg, beaten 1 small size onion, chopped 1 medium size tomato, chopped salt and pepper cooking oil Cooking procedure: In a pan, saut

Ginisang Munggo is another comfort food that I always love. When in overseas mung beans are always available on most supermarket, how ever leafy vegetables that suppose to go with ginisang mungo most of the time will not always be there. Overseas Pinoys have come to adapt to whatever vegetable substitute that is available. Spinach is a popular substitute, but the fruit of ampalaya or eggplant will do should there are no other leafy vegetable available. Today I am lucky to find talbos ng sili at a neighborhood Pinoy store in our area. I usually used a couple ginger slivers whenever I cooked ginisang mungo, I like the gingery aroma like a tinola . Today I like to go further I wanted my ginisang mungo with generous amount of ginger with chili tendrils similar to a real tinola.  There is no special procedure in cooking this dish, all I had done was used two thumb size ginger and a lot of talbos ng sili. I was even lucky that the chili tendrils that I both came with young green chilies th