Ginisang Sayote (Saute Chayote)

There was a time I bought vegetables for my chopsuey recipe. There were carrots, cabbage, red bell pepper, young corn, cauli flower, string beans, black fungus and sayote. When I prepare all the vegetables, I decided not to include sayote anymore since there were lots of cut vegetables more than enough to make a chopsuey. Hence, I save the sayote for future recipe. After 3 days, I decided to cook a much known Filipino vegetable dish that comes with meat and tomato. There are variations in cooking this dish; some uses shrimps, beef or even chicken. What is important is that, everyone enjoys eating this authentic vegetable Filipino dish in whatever ingredients it comes with.

Ingredients:
250 grams ground pork
1 sayote (julienne)
1 tomato (sliced)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 small onion (chopped)
½ tsp. Ground pepper
1 tbsp. Fish sauce
1 cup water
1 Maggi pork cube

Procedure:

1. Wash ground pork in water, strain to remove excess water.
2. In a wok, sauté garlic and onion for 2 minutes then add tomato then sauté for another minute.
3. Add ground pork; mix well until pork brings out its own water. Cover for 5 minutes until water evaporates and tender.
4. Add ground pepper, fish sauce and sayote. Mix for another minute then add 1 cup water. Bring to boil. Add pork cube combine with the vegetable mix and simmer for another minute.

Fried Calamari

“Calamari” is a plural form of Italian word for squid. In food term, it is commonly known to be a batter-coated deep fried squid which is customarily serve as an appetizer. “The Cook” prepares Mayo-garlic dip which compliments the taste of the calamari.

 

Ingredients:
500 grams white big squid (cut in ½ inch thick)

 

Batter:
1 cup all purpose Flour
1/3 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Iodized salt
½ tsp. Ground pepper
Cooking oil

Dip:
2 cloves garlic crushed
Mayonnaise

 

Procedure:

 

1. Wash squid and drain to remove water. Set aside.
2. In a plate, combine flour, baking powder, iodized salt and ground pepper. Mix well.
3. Dredge each cut squid in the flour mixture until fully covered.
4. Heat oil in a deep pan, fry squid for 1 minute.

 

Dip:
Mix mayonnaise with garlic.

 

Tips:

 

• Small amount of baking powder can make your calamari crispier.
• Do not over fry the squid. Over frying will make the squid tough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Veggie Meatballs

A different fusion of vegetable and meat in a simple meatball preparation. Also, if you have some vegetables in your fridge and can’t think of what to cook, you may put them all together and add your favourite ground meat to make nutritious meatballs. Kids will surely love this!

 

Ingredients:

 

1 kg. Ground pork or ground beef
1 carrot shredded
10 pcs. String beans (finely chopped)
1 small onion (finely chopped)
½ tsp. ground pepper
1 tsp. iodized salt
All purpose flour
Cooking oil

 

Procedure:

1. In a bowl, combine ground meat with carrots, string beans, onion, ground pepper and iodized salt. Mix well.
2. Using a teaspoon as a gauge, get the mixture, mold into palm and dredge in flour.
3. Heat oil in a deep pan, fry molded meatballs.
4. Serve with catsup or barbeque sauce.

 

Pork Teriyaki

You can make your own Teriyaki sauce and can store it in a bottle, fridge it and use it whenever you want to marinade on meat, chicken or fish. Cooking is fast, it saves you time and effort. Best served as a rice topping.

 

Ingredients:

 

500 grams pork tenderloin (cut in strips)
1 tsp. Sesame seed
Spring onion (chopped)
Cooking oil (preferred canola oil)

 

Teriyaki sauce for marinade:
1 cup soy sauce
1 ½ cup white sugar
1 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. ginger (minced and crushed)
3 cloves garlic (crushed)

 

Procedure:

 

Marinade: mix all the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to boil. Stir continuously until the sauce thickens. Marinade 1/3 cup over pork overnight.

 

Fry:

1. Heat oil in frying pan; fry the pork to your desired doneness.
2. Add more teriyaki sauce and mix with the pork.
3. Remove from pan. Sprinkle spring onion and sesame seed over pork. Serve.

 

Carino's Grill in Dubai, UAE

Carino’s Grill is an Italian casual dining that has a warm and relax ambiance. As one approaches the restaurant’s door, you can feel the inviting smile of the dining staff greeting each guest, their hospitality would make one feel special as they lead you to your chosen seat.

 After a few minutes, a freshly- baked herbed bread is served paired with garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip as a free starter (this is really good and you can’t resist eating this bread). There are a wide range of Italian food choices, that you can hardly pick from because everything looks pretty delicious.

The upbeat servers  wearing a smile on their faces, take your order and pleasantly answer each guest’s questions on the selected menu and even makes great suggestions along the way. So from my frequent dining Carino’s Grill experience, here are "The Cook’s" recommendations of the best dishes among the flavourful handcrafted meals of Carino’s:

Spicy Shrimp and Chicken AED 56 (Php 700.00)

Large succulent shrimps, sliced grilled chicken sun-dried tomatoes, green onions and freshly sliced mushroom tossed with penne pasta in cayenne pepper and romano cream sauce.

                          Grilled New York Strip AED 72 (Php 900.00)

A hearty 12 oz. USDA center cut strip steak perfectly seasoned and basted on open-flame grill. Served with garlic sautéed spinach and a side of pasta of your choice (best with fettuccini in creamy alfredo sauce). It is served with mushroom sauce or pepper sauce.

                Italian Chocolate Cake AED 28 (Php 350.00)

Generous slice of flavourful and rich chocolate cake topped with sweet chocolate icing and chocolate shaving, served warm with vanilla ice cream.

Therefore, when you travel to Dubai for leisure, business or work, Carino’s Grill is worth visiting for your Italian dining satisfaction. I can truly say that your money is worth spending for your dining pleasure.

                      
Carino’s Grill Branches: Burjuman Center, Bur Dubai
                                     Dubai Festival Center
                                     Deira

Chicken Pastel

Chicken Pastel is dry bread stuffing. It is baked in a crust or poured over hollow bread when served. This time, The Cook’s Chicken Pastel is prepared with creamy sauce. You can top it on rice or serve with toasted bread or stuff it inside a pan de sal.

 

Ingredients:
1 kg. Whole chicken (cut in small sizes)
2 whole potatoes (squared)
1 red bell pepper (squared)
1 pack young corn (sliced ½ inch)
1 can Vienna sausage (drained and sliced)
1 slice quick melt cheese
½ lemon
1 small can button mushroom (sliced)
1 small onion (sliced)
3 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 cup water
¼ tsp. ground pepper
2 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. butter
1 small can evaporated milk
Cooking oil

 

Procedure:

1. Marinate chicken with lemon for 30 minutes.
2. Heat the pan with oil, fry the potatoes. Set aside.
3. Add 1 tbsp. oil in the pan, sauté garlic and onion. Add the marinated chicken, ground pepper, fish sauce and soy sauce, stir with garlic and onion until chicken is half done. Add water then put to boil.
4. Add potatoes, young corn, Vienna sausage, red bell pepper, butter and cheese. Boil for 3 minutes until potatoes and chicken are tender.
5. Add evaporated milk cook for a few minutes until sauce is creamy.

Sweet & Sour Hammour (Lapu-Lapu/Grouper)

Admittedly, I used to cook with ready mixes specially sauces that I have no idea of cooking and one of these is the sweet and sour. Why? It is convenient to use, saves me time and effort in my food preparation and in just a snap of a finger, Alas! The food is ready to serve. But, as I read the package, it offered a lot of preservatives which made me think if continued usage will be good for me and my family’s health. It made me think twice, it is a matter of convenience over risking health. Until one day, a good friend of mine Vivian has taught me of a very easy way of cooking sweet and sour sauce. At first I thought that it is difficult to prepare but as I go and put my hands on it, I realized that it was not. I am so grateful to my friend for teaching me her recipe and now I am sharing this to everyone.

 

Ingredients:
2 medium size hammour fish (Lapu-Lapu/Grouper) scaled and cleaned
50 grams carrots (julienne)
½ green bell pepper (julienne)
1 tbsp. Ginger (thin slices)
1 small onion (sliced)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
¼ cup tomato sauce
½ cup water
1 tbsp. vinegar
5 tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. corn starch mix in 1/3 cup water
Iodized salt
½ tsp. ground pepper (sauce)
½ tsp. ground pepper (fish)
Cooking oil

 

Procedure:

Frying:

 Rub in iodized salt and ground pepper to fish. Set aside for 30 minutes. Heat oil in frying pan, fry fish.

 

Sauce:

1. Heat oil in a sauce pan, fry ginger until a little bit brown. Sauté garlic and onion with the ginger. Add carrots, bell pepper and ground pepper. Stir for a minute.
2. Add water, vinegar, tomato sauce and sugar. Continue to stir until bubbly.
3. Add corn starch, simmer for another minute.

 In a serving dish, top the sweet and sour sauce over fried fish.

 

 Tips:

• Adjust the color of the sauce by putting more tomato sauce to meet your desired color. 
• Taste the sauce from when cooking to check if you still have to adjust other ingredients.

 

Lechon Kawali (Crispy Deep-Fried Pork)

Sharing how “The Cook” prepares and fry this all time favorite pork dish. There are a lot of ways on how this is being prepared but “The Cook” has a simple way of cooking it by which taste is not compromised. There will also less fear of frying this since it will not blow up when you started to fry the pork belly in boiling oil.

 

Ingredients:
1 kl. Pork belly (cut in 1 inch strips)
Iodized Salt
500 ml water
2 cups cooking oil (preferred corn oil or canola oil)

 

Procedure:

 

1. Boil pork belly strips in water. When tender, remove and drain in a strainer.
2. Sprinkle with iodized salt covering all sides of the pork.
3. Put inside the freezer for 3 hours or until pork belly are frozen.
4. In a deep pan, pour in the cooking oil and heat for 3 minutes. Put the frozen pork belly, sprinkle with water from time to time (you will notice blisters from the pork skin).
5. Turn the pork belly strip to the other side to fry to your desired color, again, sprinkle water until blisters come up the skin. When it is cooked, remove excess oil with paper towel.
6. Cut in your desired size.

 

Tips:

 

• Freezing the pork belly after boiling will give you a less blast of oil while frying.
• Sprinkling of water during frying will give you crunchier pork skin.