Steak ala Pobre and Pinakurat
We often say that the secret to a great tasting dish is in its marinade… I agree. When it comes to frozen and ready to cook meals, Steak ala Pobre has got to be one of the yummiest and easiest to prepare. You can either thaw it for like 15 minutes while you pre-heat your oven, then you can throw it in and wait for another 15 minutes; or you can also opt to fry this one; but I suggest baking to avoid extra fat from the cooking oil.
When I am already short of time, this is my number one option because I can do other things while I wait for it to be cooked. ;p
This heaven sent dish is available at all major grocery stores, especially in SM groceries. It only costs 95 pesos, serves 2 to 3 persons, and the best part is, it is indeed boneless.
Another important ingredient to a great tasting meal is the sauce (sawsawan). We Filipinos love to have fish sauce or soy sauce with calamansi, or vinegar with salt or soy sauce by our side while we eat dishes like fried fish, chicken, or liempo; lumpia, and the like that is why I am introducing you to yet another great find =)
People would normally ignore vinegar with this type of packaging and go for widely advertised brands, but that should not always be the case. I have nothing against popular brands because indeed they are goodies; but Pinakurat, is just so awesomely blended – with just the right amount of all the elements you look for in a vinegar.
Pinakurat is available at all leading grocery stores so go ahead and try this one with your favorite dish.
Pasta I – The Noodles
Because I really love pasta, I’ll post a series of entries about pasta and a variety of sauces you’ll love as much as I do =D
First stop should ofcourse be about the pasta – which is the generic term for different variants of noodles. Aside from the sizes and shapes (approx 3500), pasta is also classified according to how they’re made – fresh (usually prepared by the professionals, watch Iron Chef and surely you’ll see how it’s done) or dried (available at all grocery stores).
Here’s my attempt to answer some of the most common questions regarding pasta:
1. How do I determine which type of pasta to use for a particular sauce?
Answer: The rule of thumb here is: thick and chunky sauces are best served with tubular or spiral pastas; smooth sauces like cream and oil are best for long and thin pastas like spaghetti and fettucine; tiny pastas like stellin are usually used for soups.
2. What tips can you give in cooking pasta?
Answer:
- Always use a large pot with lots of water (about 4 cups of water per 100 grams of pasta)
- You can choose to add salt or meat broth before adding the pasta to the boiling water
- Stir while cooking the pasta to avoid them clumping together
- Do not leave the pasta in the pot of boiling water even after turning off the fire because the heat stays and therefore, the pasta is continuously being cooked
- The same principle as the previous tip applies here: when the pasta is already al dente (literally means “to the tooth”), drain the water using colander and run tap water onto your pasta
3. What is the ideal way of serving the sauce?
Answer: It depends.
If your goal is to ensure that you infuse the flavor to your pasta and to serve your dish immediately, you can opt to mix your pasta with the sauce before serving.
If you are serving pasta to numerous people in a buffet table, you shoud separate your pasta from the sauce to ensure that the sauce is not entirely absorbed by the pasta, leaving it dry looking; and to ensure that the pasta does not become overcooked from constant heat from the container.
If you’re planning to pack your pasta and bring it over to your work place the next day, let the sauce cool down first and then top your pasta with the sauce in a lunch box before refrigirating. Heat using microwave the next day and your pasta will still come out perfect.
Well, good luck to cooking your way to al dente pasta =D
Plastics
These days, all sorts of ugly things are happening – cow skin for chicharon, janitor fish for fish sauce, i could go on you know but I’d rather not because it is very disappointing.
One of the things that has caught my attention is the issue about bottled water not being safer than tap water, and the plastic used in these bottled water is harmful to us and to the environment.
Anyway, here’s a basic list of plastics so that you guys can do the necessary precautions. Just look at the bottom of the plastic container and notice the number inside the triangle; the number corresponds the type of plastic used, as follows:
- Polyethylene terephthalate (PETE) – used in sodas, water, and liquid medicine bottles; generally okay for single use for food
- High-density polyethylene (HDPE) – used in milk, laundry detergent, shampoo, plastic bags, grocery bags, recycling bins, agricultural pipe, base cups, car stops, playground equipment, and plastic lumber; very safe and transmits no known chemicals to the food
- Vinyl, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) – used in cooking oil bottles (the transparent ones) and soft PVC toys; it contains softeners like phthalates which can interfere with hormonal development because it mimics human hormones
- Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) – used in plastic cling wraps, sandwich bags, dispensing bottles, and food plastic bags; very safe and transmits no known chemicals to the food
- Polypropylene (PP) – used in yogurt cups, auto parts, industrial fibers, food containers, and dishware; very safe and transmits no known chemicals to the food
- Polystyrene – used in disposable coffee cups, take-out containers, cafeteria trays, plastic utensils, toys, and other expanded polystyrene products (e.g., Styrofoam); it can leach styrene, which disrupts hormone production and affect reproduction, into food; this type of plastic is not easily recycled so guys please avoid buying poducts made of this plastic
- Other plastics, including acrylic, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, fiberglass, nylon, polycarbonate, and polylactic acid – used in baby bottles, dental fillings, sports equipments, 5-gallon water bottles, and linings of canned food and beverage; when exposed to hot liquids, it leaches out Bisphenol A (BPA), which is an endocrine disruptor; it has also been linked to a wide variety of problems such as cancer and obesity (OMIGAHHH); BPA is also harmful to the environment
Having read all sorts of related stuffs, I think the scariest part there is that mothers are actually endangering the health of their young ones without knowing it. When they sterilize baby bottles, they are actually inducing the release of BPA.
And when I think about how BQ and I interact with plastics grarr! horrors! We are drinking from water inside plastics that belong to type 7, eating food from cans that also belong to type 7, drinking from coffee cups that belong to type 6, cooking food from oil in plastics that belong to type 3, aaaahh!!! I even pour hot water to our plastic lunch boxes to “kill bacteria” but what I didn’t know was I am actually releasing all sorts of harmful chemicals from the plastic waaa! Anyway, to calm my nerves, I recently bought this nice glass lunch box and will soon think of a way to purify our water without the pastic part =D
Multi Purpose Frying Pan
This non-stick Sunnex pan is one of the most useful cookware I own; I actually have two favorites but I am only featuring the first one for now. I only bought this pan for around 900 pesos and all I can say is, it is worth every peso simply because I can use it for many purposes, it’s light, and it’s very easy to wash!
The pan is ideal for frying because even though it is kind of deep (for deep fry), it has small circumference to make better use of cooking oil. I mean, no need to put in tons of cooking oil just so you can deep fry your french fries or chicken.
Bangus Ala Pobre
It is also ideal for cooking rice means like fried rice or paella because its depth helps prevent your rice from jumping outside the pan.
In summary, this pan is good for saving cooking oil, saving yourself from oil burns, and of course in saving yourself from cleaning the entire kitchen (from oil spills and flying objects).
Organize Your Ref
This tip is really simple and should be known to everyone, but I guess many people take organizing their ref for granted. Organizing your ref is very important because it reduces the risk of you cooking unfresh food and therefore reduces the risk of you serving a bad tasting and unhealthy food to your love ones.
Anyway, here’s how to:
- Buy several plastic containers of different sizes to ensure that you have a container for all food serving size; I bought mine for P300++ only and these containers are dishwasher, microwave, and freezer safe, from True Value
- Divide the food (chicken, pork, beef, etc) according to serving size and dish; for example, if you bought 1/2 Kg ground pork and you intend some of that as a main dish like ground pork with tomato sauce and a small portion of that as an ingredient to misua noodles then you should get 1 big container for the big portion and a small container for the small portion
Just imagine if you put all 1/2 Kg of ground pork in one container and you are only to cook the ground pork with tomato sauce for the day; you’d have to bring out the whole thing from the freezer, wait for it to thaw and get a portion of that, and worse, you have to bring the thawed ground pork back in the freezer – that’s just gross!
Invest on Chamois
One of the things I appreciate most about my hb is his constant effort to help me in doing household chores especially in dishwashing We both hate doing it but since I hate it more, he is really kind enough to do it. Thank God! =D
Anyway, one of the common problems when washing the dishes is this:
And really, no matter how hard you try to avoid water spills, it’s just inevitable. So at the end of the day, you just have to deal with it and come up with a genius solution because wiping with ordinary rug, microfiber stuff, and even that pranela thing street children usually sell, won’t do the trick.
It might, but that’s after you wipe it a dozen times and yet the output is still not satisfactory simply because when the water spill dries, water marks are still all over. Imagine your car air dried after a heavy rain. Ugly isn’t it?
So what do I have for you? Tadaaaa!!! (Note that this is not about the brand hehehe)
It may seem unconventional since chamois are mostly used for cars but you see, we can also use them for our kitchen, it really does wonders =D
