Suman or Malangkit or Sticky Mochi Rice

Ingredients:

1 can Cream of coconut
2 bags Sweet Glutinous or mochi rice about 5 cups
1 1/2 - 2 C Dark brown sugar
1 stick Butter

Cooking Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook rice as you would cook any steamed rice (I use my rice cooker) and when rice is done put in large bowl then add stick of butter and brown sugar. Mix well then add cream of coconut and mix well. In a well greased buttered cake pan, pour rice mixture in and bake until golden brown. Let cool then cut into squares. If you want, you can add grated lime peel in it as well.

Enjoy!!

Basic Ahi Poke Recipe

Ingredients:

• 4 cups ahi (yellowfin tuna, sashimi grade) diced
• 1/2 cup onion, minced
• 1/4 cup green onion, minced
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• Hawaiian salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
This is the most basic recipe for ahi poke, served as a pupu or appetizer at most luaus and Hawaiian dinners.

Season ahi with Hawaiian salt. Add all ingredients, mix well then chill.  Toss well without smashing fish chunks.

You can get fancy by adding toasted sesame seeds, chili pepper flakes, chopped minced seaweed (ogo), and oyster sauce etc.  Poke is redefined everyday!!

Poke is such a simple dish but like Foodland Hawaii, the variations can go over 31 flavors as in ice cream!!  LOL

Enjoy!!

i love mine with a nice hot bowl of steaming white rice with the cold freshly made ahi poke!!  :9  mmmmmmmm

Lechon Kawali Special (Chicharon/Sitsaron with Onions, Tomatoes & Bagoong)

Ingredients:

1-2 crispy pork rind of chicharon chopped
1-2 tomatoes chopped
1 round onion chopped
1-2 Tbsp bagoong or patis to taste.
Fresh cracked black pepper
1-2 stalks of green leaf onions chopped

Method:

Chopped all and add to a mixing bowl and toss ligthly.

Top with fresh chopped green onions

Serve with rice!!

:)

Hawaii's Ilocano favorite!!

Shrimp Ceviche

Shrimp Ceviche

If you find the ceviche a little too acidic, drain out some of the juices after the marinating, add a little more avocado (or some olive oil) and/or a little more salt.

Ingredients

* 1 pound medium-small shrimp, peeled and deveined
* 2 Tbsp salt
* 3/4 cup lime juice (juice from 4-6 limes)
* 3/4 cup lemon juice (juice from 2-3 lemons)
* 1 cup finely chopped red onion
* 1 serrano chile, ribs and seeds removed, minced
* 1 cup chopped cilantro
* 1 cucumber, peeled diced into 1/2-inch pieces
* 1 avocado, peeled, seed removed, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

Method


1 In a large pot, bring to a boil 4 quarts of water, salted with 2 Tbsp salt. Add the shrimp and cook for 1 minute to 2 minutes max, depending on size of shrimp. (Over-cooking the shrimp will turn it rubbery.) Remove shrimp with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.

2 Drain the shrimp. Cut each piece of shrimp in half, or into inch-long pieces. Place shrimp in a glass or ceramic bowl. Mix in the lime and lemon juice. Cover and refrigerate for a half hour.

3 Mix in the chopped red onion and serrano chile. Refrigerate an additional half hour.

4 Right before serving, add the cilantro, cucumber, and avocado.

Serves 4-6.

This recipe was my wife's request since she loves shrimp. I made a large batch and she ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!! LOL :)

Enjoy!!

Hawaiian Style Beef Curry Stew

Hawaiian Style Beef Curry Stew

Ingredients

5 lbs Stew meat or beef brisket, cubed (more if you gotta have meat!!)
2-4 medium Potatoes, cubed
1 large Onion, quartered
2-4 large Carrots, sliced
3-4 stalks Celery, diced
3-4 Tbsp Curry powder (or more depending on your tastes)
4 C Water
2 cubes Beef bouillon
2-3 tsp. Salt (or more to taste)
1/2 C cornstarch and water
3-4 Tbsp Flour
1 stick of butter or margarine
Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1-2 whole sweet green bell pepper (optional)
1-2 Tbsp canola oil
water

Cooking Instructions

Heat a frying pan with oil, add stick butter and melt over medium heat. Add flour to melted butter and oil to make a roux. Fry flour to a nice golden brown but be careful not to burn it. Add meat and brown on all sides. Place browned meat in pot with water to just cover meat and beef bouillon cubes. Cover and cook for 1 hour. Simmer 1/2 hour longer. Then add curry and vegetables. Cook covered until potatoes are done. Add salt then stir in cornstarch water slurry paste.

Enjoy!!

Serves an army!! hahaha :)

Serve with hot steamed white rice and your side of macaroni salad and you got a Hawaiian plate lunch!!

Vietnamese Carmelized Pork with Egg (THIT KHO)

Thit Kho

Vietnamese New Year's Stew

3-4 tablespoons sugar
5 pound pork butt, in 1-inch cubes
2-4 teaspoons fish sauce to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup coconut juice (water from fresh coconut)
12 hard-boiled eggs, peeled

Melt sugar over low heat, cooking until caramelized and slightly brown. Stir in pork butt in cubes; brown.
Stir in fish sauce, salt, pepper, garlic and coconut juice. Add eggs and water as needed to cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer until meat is cooked through and eggs turn brown. Taste and adjust seasonings. Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro/chinese parsley and chopped green leaf onions. Spoon over carmelized sauce over dish and serve with hot steaming jasmine rice.
Optional: Add cabbage if there is enough liquid.

Serves 4-10

Enjoy!! :)

Sinigang Na Baboy (Pork with Vegetables in Tamarind Sour Soup) Revisited

 

Here is the recipe again. I'm going to list the complete ingredients that should go into the dish.

Ingredients:

2.5 pounds pork ribs, pork belly, or a combination of the cuts of pork. Some like lean or fatty combo. Cut in 1.5 inch cubes and 2-3 inch rib cuts. Rinse thoroughly, drain and set aside.

5 cups water

2 cloves garlic crushed, and minced fine

2 bay leaves ripped in quarters.

1 inch ginger root sliced in half and crushed. do not peel.

1 large tomatoes sliced

1 large onion sliced

fish sauce (patis) to taste

4-6 pieces of araimo/daisheen (japanese small taro root) peel and cut into 2 inch cubes

1 medium size white radish (daikon) peel and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices

8-12 pieces of okra, cut tops and tips off. Cut into 3 inch sections if large. Leave whole if you want to. Rinse thoroughly and soak in water to prevent browning. Drain before adding to pot.

6 pieces of Filipino sweet chili pepper

1 pound bunch of swamp cabbage (ong choy, ong choi, kangkong) Rinse thoroughly and drain. Cut into 3-4 inch sections from stems to leaves. Trim off hard end stem and discard.

3 packets of Mama Sita's Sinigang Soup mix or similar brand such as Knorr's. You may add more packets if you want it more sour. (my mom loves it real sour!)

fresh cracked black pepper to taste.

Directions:

Place pork and water in pot and bring to a fast boil. Drain out dirty water and rinse pieces of pork under running water. Clean pot of any scummy residue from the boil. Add drained rinsed pork into clean pot and cover with clean water. Bring to a boil then simmer til pork is tender. Usually takes about 45-60 minute on a nice simmer to get it tender. I used my pressure cooker and cooked it at 15psi for 10 minutes. Cheat yah?? lol but fast! :)

After pork is tender, add sinigang soup powder mix to simmering broth. Add garlic, ginger, onion, and tomatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add taro root (araimo) and radish (daikon). Continue to simmer for another 5 minutes. Add ong choy, okra, sweet chili peppers. Cover pot and simmer til vegetables are wilted and hard veggies such as the taro and daikon are fork tender. Add about 2-3 Tbsp of patis (fish sauce) to taste. Add fresh cracked black pepper to taste.

Serve with steamed white rice.

Yields about 4-6 servings.

Lechon Kawali (Crispy Deep Fried Belly Pork) Revisited

Hello again fellow foodies & bloggers!

It's been a while since posting. I've been so preoccupied with other projects in my life that I haven't had a chance to post anything since last year! Holidays and family gatherings have past and gone with so much delicious food and dishes and my beautiful wife Aurora and I have been so busy with work, school and play etc. So today while watching reruns of my Korean soap opera dramas (yah i'm hooked!) and cleaning up the kitchen, I was in the mood to cook but too lazy to go out and buy some ingredients. And all I had was two trays of fresh pork belly in the freezer, my new Circulon anodized wok that I got on Ebay, and my newly bought container of soybean oil from Sam's Club. I also aquired a 8 quart Presto anodized alumimum pressure cooker from ebay for $0.99 and paid $15 for shipping and handling! Not bad since the pressure cooker wasn't used for 2 years and was sitting in the seller's cupboard. When it arrived it was practically brand new. I was so suprised and ecstatic that I cooked Thit Kho (Vietnamese Pork with Eggs in Caramel Sauce) the same day I got it for dinner that night. My wife loved how fast it took and how big the pressure cooker was.

Lechon Kawali (Crispy Deep Fried Belly Pork)

Ingredients:

6 C Pork belly or side pork (equal parts fat and meat)

4 C Water Salt to taste
MSG to taste

4 C Cooking oil

1 bottle Mama Sita's Sarsa ng lechon (Sauce for Roasts) or

5 Tbsp vinegar, fresh cracked peppercorns, 1 clove crushed minced garlic, soy sauce, 1 bay leaf crushed and ripped, and patis (fish sauce) and chili pepper slices if you want it spicy. You adjust the ratio of ingredients to your taste.

Cooking Instructions:

Combine pork, water, MSG and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the pork is tender (usually 60-75 mins). This time I used my new pressure cooker and brought the meat to a high boil and covered the pressure cooker lock and cooked it for 15 minutes at 15 psi (pounds per square inch). Drain the pork and cool. Prick skin with fork and rub with salt and MSG. Leave in colander to dry for one hour. Heat cooking oil in a deep fryer or wok at high heat at about 250 degrees Farenheit. Fry pork until golden brown and crispy for about 45 mins to 1 hr. Drain on paper towels and cool in freezer for one hour. Reheat oil in wok and deep fry cold pork a second time at super high heat of 350 degrees Farenheit for 10 minutes to puff up the slices and re-crisp it (THE SECRET!!). Remove and drain on paper towels again. Cut into serving pieces and serve with Mama Sita's Sarsa ng Lechon (Sauce for Roasts) or vinegar/soysauce/patis sauce sauce. Also may be served with fresh tomato slices mixed with harm-ha (fine shrimp paste) sauce as a side salad dish with thin sliced raw round onions and green onions.

Additional comments

Also I would like to mention that the Ilocanos of the Philippines have perfected this recipe and they call it "Bagnet". It usually is a family secret passed down from generation to generation. Same with the "chicharon" (crispy deep fried pork skin puffs) recipes that are mass marketed across the globe. Filipinos love pork and make it an enterprise for everyone to enjoy. Most of the common marketed brands are Lapid's and a few others coming out of the Philippine Islands. Here in Hawaii there used to be Cristina's Chicharon on King Street next to Diner's Drive Inn in Kalihi but has long since closed down ran by good friend Philip Butay. His sister Evelyn Pascua has opened San Nicolas Chicharon & Sausage on King Street near the intersection of Gulick Ave. and King Street and has kept up their family tradition of making fine Filipino delicacies such as chicharon, lechon kawali (bagnet), and longanisa (vinegary pork sausages). I recommend going there if you crave real filipino chicharon and bagnet. They have a deli also at the location where you can order hot filipino plate lunch combos and tables to dine on. It's not a fancy place but there you can sample some good authentic home cooked Ilocano food at a reasonable price!

So enjoy my recipe and the food porn. lol!! But if you're lazy to cook just stop by San Nicolas Chicharon & Sausage at 2130 N King St. Tell Evelyn Reggie the guy who fixed her computer said hello!! :)

I'm glad to be back and hoping to be posting regularly again.

bye for now!

reggie

:O)

kaukau time!

Thit Heo Nuong - Vietnamese Pork Chops

 Ingredients:

2-4 Tbsp brown sugar or Splenda
2 Tbsp Fish Sauce (nuoc mam or patis)
1 stalk green onion, cut into 1/2" sections
1 stalk Lemon grass, crushed and roughly chopped
8 cloves garlic, crushed and minced fine
2 Tbsp canola oil
fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp MSG (optional)
6-10 Boneless Pork Loin Chops

Procedure:

• Combine and mix well sugar, fish sauce, green onions, lemongrass, chopped garlic, MSG, black pepper and oil. Pour over chops in a shallow dish. Let marinate 3 to 4 hours, turning meat occasionally.
• Grill over charcoal or bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes to 60 minutes or until cooked well done.

Serves 4-6 Enjoy!!
Let's kaukau na!! :)

This recipe is from Auntie Yvonne. She makes this her specialty at family gatherings and we all love it! The pork chops go well served with cucumber slices and iceberg lettuce over fragrant jasmine rice!! The dipping sauce is the spicy sweet sauce called nuoc cham used with the vietnamese crispy spring rolls (cha gio).