Ginisang Mais for the Soul

I originally posted this on my personal blog, The Misis Outtakes, but I realized that it is also a good recipe to try during the rainy days. Not to forget, it is corn season now! So I am sharing this to you before I take a six-day vacation leave. Haha! Husband and I are flying to Palawan tomorrow, and backpacking to El Nido!

I am a self-confessed probinsyana. And even though I didn't like eating vegetable when I was young, I knew how to cook them (and eventually ate what I cooked) by the help of my mom. She's not really a good cook, but we love her pacham recipes. Pacham as in pachambachamba lang haha.

Today, I cooked one of the recipes I learned from her -- ginisang mais. I thought it was a Kapampangan dish, but I recently realized that it is a proud Tagalog dish. Jeff loves this so when he went for a tripping the other day in Nuvali and Tagaytay, he made sure he'll grab some white corn along the way. 

You only need few items for this recipe.

1. Native white corn

2. Shrimp

3. Ampalaya leaves

4. Fish sauce or boullion cubes

5. Onion

6. Garlic

7. Hot water

They say the first step is always the hardest. It is very true in this recipe. Shred the corn off the cob. Jeff bought eleven native white corn so it took me about thirty minutes to finish. Make sure that you have white corn and not the yellow Japanese corn that you also see along Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay Road or Katipunan. In Antipolo, you can actually buy shredded corn near Iglesia ni Cristo. If ever you pass by the area, say hi to mom in Jun and Fe Cold Cuts! ;)

I had about 750 grams of shredded corn.

Prepare the shrimp. Ask your husband to shell the shrimp because besides eating, this is the only thing that they will do. Do not throw the shrimp heads. Why? I will tell you later. ;)

You can also ask him to pluck the ampalaya leaves off the vine. The ampalaya leaves will balance the sweet taste of the corn.

Now let's start cooking. Sauté the onion and garlic. My Tita Tess told me to put the onion first so the garlic won't burn. Put the shrimp afterwards. 

When the shrimp turns orange, put in the shredded corn. Mix and cover. 

Remember the shrimp heads? Pour hot water and mash it. I learned this from my father-in-law. We are just basically getting the shrimp flavor from it. Get the strainer and pour the juice in the pan. 

Mix and let it boil. Make sure to check it once in a while to prevent from drying, the corn may get all the water so make sure to pour more hot water. Let the corn cook. Season with fish sauce or bouillon cubes. Today, I used shrimp bouillon cubes. Let it boil.

Put in the ampalaya leaves. You can also use sili or malunggay leaves. Cover the pan and turn off the stove.

Let the leaves cook.

This is best served with fried fish but we discovered that we don't have fish in the fridge anymore. Huhu. 

Top it on your rice. Carbs on carbs! Haha!

Enjoy the rain and the holiday!

Photos taken using my Samsung Galaxy Nexus, edited using Snapseed, and watermarked using eZy Watermark.

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Rainy Days and Mondays and Arroz Caldo

...rainy days and Mondays always get me down.

No, not today.

It was very rainy today in Manila and most streets are flooded and not passable. My husband and I woke up early because he is going to work, while I will go to my former office to get my cheque and run some errands before we go to Palawan this week. We had a rough night -- it was raining cats and dogs (and dinosaurs!), not to mention the loud thunders and lightning. I couldn't sleep. I just kept waking him up because I was scared. My husband prepared to go to work while on his phone, trying to figure out how to get to the office in this kind of weather.

I watched him go back and forth. At the back of my head, I knew work will be cancelled. After thirty minutes, it was final -- no work today. Hurray! A whole day of snuggling with my husband! I asked him if he wants to eat anything and he said arroz caldo (rice in chicken broth). We told my parents-in-law that we will cook lunch and headed to the supermarket. We bought ingredients for arroz caldo as well as champorado (chocolate rice porridge) because he wants to eat that for merienda.

I love cooking for Jeff. And he loves it when I cook for him. It was a joy watching him dig in to his bowl of arroz caldo without any comments or complains. It was actually very easy to cook it. Unfortunately, I forgot to take some photos. Anyway, I will still share to you my recipe.

Arroz Caldo

Photo from www.sweetcherriepie.com.

Ingredients:
1 kilogram glutinous rice or malagkit
1/2 kilogram chicken, chopped like Tinola
8 eggs, boiled
100 grams ginger, sliced
1 onion, chopped
garlic, chopped
ground pepper
4 pieces chicken bouillon cube
fish sauce
onion leek, chopped (we were not able to get this because it was not available in the supermarket)

1. Wash the chopped chicken and boil in a big pot. When it boils, take out the chicken and set aside. Do not throw away the broth.
2. Pour the glutinous rice in the pot where you boiled the chicken. Let it cook. Make sure to mix it once in a while so the rice won't stick to the bottom of the pan. Add two chicken bouillon cubes. Boil another kettle of water and make sure to add water occasionally to make sure it doesn't dry up. I use hot water so it won't mess the temperature of the mixture.
3. On a separate pan, saute the ginger, onion, and garlic. Make sure you don't burn them because it will give a dark color to your arroz caldo. Add in the boiled chicken chops.
4. In another pot, boil the eggs. My mom told me to leave it without a lid because when the water boils, the eggs will bump into each other and will break. TIP: To know if the egg is already cooked, scoop it out of the water and if the shell dries right away, it is ready.
5. After the rice is cooked, pour the sauted ginger, onion, garlic, and chicken to the pot. Stir and taste. If it needs more taste, put it buoillon cubes and fish sauce. Put the ground pepper, stir, and turn off the fire.
6. Serve hot. Top it with chopped onion leeks and hard boiled egg. And maybe calamansi and fish sauce.

So that's how Jeff and I spent our rainy Monday. How about you? How did you spend your day? I heard Ria spent her day cleaning their house because the flood went inside. Aww.

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Pinakbet with Tomato Sauce and Crispy Pork Ribs

I have originally posted this on my personal blog, The Misis Outtakes, but I'd also like to share this here with you, fellow wives.

If one of these days you find yourself bored and hungry, and luckily you also find a full set of pinakbet ingredients in your fridge, here's a good recipe for you. Better news is, I've put a little twist to my pinakbet. Ready to cook? Game!

Kidding aside, this really tastes good!

Ingredients:
1 onion
garlic
5 pcs ripe tomato
oil
1/2 of a medium sized squash
3 pieces camote fruit
1 medium size ampalaya
2 pieces eggplant
10-12 pieces okra
stringbeans
1/2 kilogram spare ribs
tomato sauce
salt and pepper

Steps:
1. Saute onion.

2. When the onion becomes a little transparent, put in the garlic. One of my aunts told me before that you should sprinkle a little salt when sauteing onions and garlic to add taste.

3. Add the ripe tomatoes. My mom mashes the tomatoes to create a sort of tomato sauce.

4. While waiting for the tomato to cook, prepare the pork. I recently learned that pork should be air dried so the oil won't spatter. I didn't have so much time today so I just patted it with paper towels.

5. Heat the oil in a pan. Or a casserole.

 6. Deep fry the ribs.

 7. Take out the pork and put it aside.

8. Go back to the other pan and put the camote fruit and squash. My mom told me that you put the hardest ingredient first. Put water and let it boil.

9. After a few minutes, check if the squash and camote is a half cooked.

10. Put the ampalaya next. I believe cooking is common sense. You just put in all the vegetable haha!

10. Next is the eggplant. Try not to mix the vegetable often because the quash and camote might get mashed too.

11. Last to put is the okra and string beans. Do not overcook! :D

12. Last but not the least, pour the tomato sauce! Since this is my first time to cook pinakbet, I didn't know how much tomato sauce to put so I just poured the entire 250ml pouch. Put salt and pepper to taste.

 Look at that yummy pinakbet! Top it with the crispy pork ribs. Serve with steaming rice and Coke! I am so proud to say Jeff loved this pinakbet. :D

Ria, when do you plan to cook this for Jayr? :P

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