Tortang Talong Special Recipe

Its been a month since I started putting up the urban gardening project at home, I finally pick my first harvest - 2 pieces eggplant.

Since our son is in Nueva Ecija, this will be enough for me and Mommy for our lunch.

What to do with this two pieces of eggplant? Simply turn it into Tortang Talong.

Tortang talong or eggplant omelet is a common Pinoy dish made by grilling the whole eggplant, pelled, dipped in egg mixture then fried. It is usually served with toyo-mansi (soy sauce and calamansi) as dip.

But I made toratang talong special my adding ground pork, tomatoes and onions.

Really yummy! Look.

Here is the recipe of Tortang Talong Special.

Tortang Talong Special Recipe

Ingredients

2 pcs eggplant, grilled, then peeled

2 pcs egg

1 onion, chopped

2 pcs tomatoes, chopped

1 cup ground pork

salt to taste

Instruction

1. Mash the grilled eggplant keeping the stalk intact. Set aside.

2. In a bowl, beat eggs until slightly frothy.

3. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

4. Dip the eggplant into the prepared mixture then fry in a hot pan greased with oil.

5. Top the eggplant with half of the vegetable mixture and continue frying.

6. Carefully flip, by not breaking, and cook for another 2 minutes.

Serving size: 2

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Mango Float Recipe

I mentioned in our previous post that summer time is also season for mangoes. Unripe mangoes are best paired with Spicy Alamang.

How about ripe mangoes?

Some turn ripe magoes into jam, ice candy, and shakes. Here is another suggestion that you will surely enjoy summer with mangoes - Mango Float.

Mango float is an easy-to-make and no-bake dessert using only 5 ingredients.  It is similar to crema de fruta made with layers of graham crackers, all-purpose cream, condensed milk, and ripe mangoes.

This is best served chilled but other served it frozen to have an ice cream-like texture.

Mango Float Recipe

Ingredients:

1 tetrabox All purpose cream, chilled

1/2 to 1 can condensed milk

1 pack graham crackers

2 mangoes, sliced

1 tbsp instant coffee powder dissolved in 1 cup water 

Instruction:

1. In a bowl, pit chilled all purpose cream and condensed milk. You can add more condensed milk if you want to make the dessert sweeter. Mix well and set aside.

2. Dip graham crackers in coffee mixture then lay in the bottom of a square or rectangular container.

3. Cover the graham crackers with cream-milk mixture.

4. Lay sliced mangoes on top of cream-milk mixture.

5. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 two more times ending with the magoe slices on top.

6. Chill or freeze before serving.

Serving size: 10-12

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Spicy Alamang Recipe

Summer is already here and what connects to summer is the season of mangoes. Speaking of this summer fruit, unripe mangoes is best paired with spicy alamang.

source

Alamang is a variety of bagoong made from small shrimp known as krill. In preparation of raw alamang, the krill is cleaned thoroughly then washed with weak brine solution. It is then mixed with a 1:3 salt to shrimp ratio. It is important to follow the ratio of salt and krill. The mixture is then fermented for several weeks.

It is importatnt to follow the ratio because oversalting or  undersalting will have a great effect on the bacteria involved in the process thus affecting the rate and quality of fermentation.

Raw alamang is commonly sold in the fish or seafood section in wet markets. Cooking spicy alamang is easy but it takes lots of patience in order to attain the thick, sweet-spicy flavor.

This is also a good for homemade business.

Here's an easy recipe. For bulk cooking, just do the ratio and proportion for the ingredients.

Spicy Alamang Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup of alamang or shrimp paste
2 medium tomato, diced
1 small onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons brown sugar
3 teaspoons vinegar

Instructions:

1. Heat a pan. Add the pork and sear until brown and the oil comes out.
2. Add onion, garlic and tomato then saute for 5 minutes in low heat.
3. Add the raw shrimp paste, sugar and vinegar. Let the vinegar cooked first before covering.
4. Cover and cook in low hear for 10-15 minutes, with occasional stirring.
5. Let it cool and transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

Yields 1 bottle (approximately 250-300 grams)

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Gyoza Recipe

During the Enhanced Community Quarantine, kids staying at home will become bored and will look for something to do. Allowing them to help in simple kitchen tasks is a good way to kill boredom. But of course, guidance from us, parents is highly needed.

Here is one recipe that your kids will surely enjoy doing - Gyoza.

Gyoza is dumpling commonly cooked in China and other East Asian Countries usually served during the Chinese New Year. 

Gyoza is a mixture of ground meat and vegetables sealed in a dumpling wrapper. This can be boiled, steamed, pan-fried, or deep fried.

By the way, I bought a dumpling maker molder so making Gyoza is easier.

The common way to cook this is to pan-fry until the wrapper turned crispy. A small amount of water is added into the pan then covered to quickly steam the dumplings.

It is best served with a dip composed of soy sauce, vinegar or calamansi juice, and brown sugar.

Here is an easy recipe of Gyoza.

Gyoza Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups cabbage , finely chopped

1 small carrots, finely chopped

1 small onion, minced

15 dumpling wrappers

100 grams ground pork

salt, pepper, oil, soy sauce and vinegar, brown sugar for the dip

Instruction:

1. Saute onion and ground pork until golden brown.

2. Add the chopped cabbage and carrots. Cover and cook in low heat until the vegetables are cooked.

3. Transfer in a bowl to cool.

4. Using a dumpling maker , put about 1 tbsp of the mixed vegetable. You may need to seal the edges with water before pressing.

5. Brush off any excess cornflour from the bases of the dumplings.
6. Heat a non-stick frying pan with 1 tbsp vegetable oil.
7. Fry the gyoza on one side only – don’t turn them over, you just want one crispy side. They should be golden brown after about 2 mins. You can stop here if you want it crispy.

8. Add a little water to the pan and cover with steaming lid. If steaming lid is unavailable, use the pan's cover but make it a little open by putting a ladle.
9. Cook over a medium heat for 3-5 mins until the water has evaporated and the gyoza filling is cooked through. Set aside.

10. For the dip, mix 2 tbsp soysauce and 1 tbsp vinegar or calamansi juice. Add 2 tbsp water and 1 tsp brown sugar. Mix well.

Serving size: 3

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Cucumber Lemonade Juice Recipe

Summer is coming and you can feel that the temperature is increasing.

Here is a simple and easy to do juice that will cool you down - Cucumber Lemonade Juice.

Cucumber-Lemonade Juice

Ingredients:

1/2 cucumber, finely chopped (remove the seeds)

1 whole lemon, squeezed

2 tbps honey (depends on your preferred sweetness)

1 liter of cold water

Instruction:

1. In a pitcher of water, add the lemon juice and finely chopped cucumber.

2. Add the honey and mix well.

3. Chill and serve with ice.

Serving size: 3

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Creamy Tokwa Recipe

The entire Luzon Island is under Enhanced Community Quarantine because of the Corona Virus Disease-19 or the COVID-19 and most individuals are staying at home but some are still need to report to their work just like us.

For those who are staying at home, it is quite difficult to think of what to cook for everyday menu.  Here is one suggestion - Creamy Tokwa ala Max's.

All you need is to fry the tokwa, cut into chunks, and cook in creamy sauce. Adding bits of chili is an option if you want a bit spicy. 

This is best served over sizzling plate with steamed rice.

Here's an easy recipe:

Creamy Tokwa Recipe

Ingredients:

6 pcs small blocks of tokwa, fried until golden brown, cut into chunks - 20 pesos
1 medium-sized bell pepper, chopped
1 medium-sized onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup all purpose cream - 40 pesos
salt and pepper to taste
chili, optional
= 60 pesos

Cooking Instruction:

1. Saute onion and garlic until onion becomes transluscent.

2. Add fried tokwa and all purpose cream and let it boil.
3. Lower the heat and simmer until sauce thickens.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Add chili, optional

Serving size: 4

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Lunch Baon Ideas: Pork Bistek and Turmeric Rice

My husband, my son and I are bringing lunch baon to work and school. Aside from it is safer to bring baon, you can eat healthier food and can save a lot. Save a lot? Yes, because for the 3 for us I can prepare lunch baon that is less than 100 pesos lang. Unbelievable?

So now let me start to share lunch baon ideas that is good for 3-5 persons for less than 100 pesos. To start with, here's one of the lunch baon that we had.

What's in my Yumbox

Snack: egg-mayo sandwich

Lunch:  turmeric rice, bistek, grapes, marshmallows, mentos

Pork Bistek and turmeric  rice in #BubeeLunchJar

For less than 100 pesos, you can have lunch baon good for 3 persons na. Here's a rough computation of ingredients and the easy cooking recipe of Pork Bistek.

Pork Bistek Recipe

Ingredients:

1/4 kilo pork lean. Sliced thinly (para madaling lumambot) - 50 pesos

1/4 cup calamansi juice (5 pieces) - 2 pesos

1/4 cup soy sauce - available sa kitchen

Onions, sliced - 2 pesos

= 54 pesos

Cooking Instruction:

1. Marinate pork in calamansi and soysauce for at least 4 hours.

2. Set aside the marinade first.

3. In a hot pan, stir fry marinated pork until cooked and tender.

4. Put the marinade and simmer for about 2-3 minutes.

5. Add sliced onions and continue simmer for another minute.

Cooking time 10-15 minutes.

Turmeric Rice

Add 1/2 to 1 tsp turmeric powder to 3 cups hot rice.

Serving size: 3

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