Belated Birthday Celebration

The boy's birthday was last week but we had already decided to celebrate this weekend. Our good friends, who just moved into their new house, kindly offered their home to have the little get-together. Birthday celebrations for us tend to be small affairs unlike the huge parties we would have when we were growing up in Dumaguete. It's far different these days but no less enjoyable.

I made palabok and pork barbecue for dinner and the wife baked a cake and made leche flan for dessert which is already a full party in our books. We had a couple of families over, our closest friends here in Adelaide and we had a fun time catching up over dinner and the kids played on the Wii until almost midnight.

I already made the barbecue a couple of times before. As for the pansit palabok, I just used the palabok mixes that you get in the Asian/Pinoy store. The sauce itself is easy to make what really makes the palabokis the toppings. Just add prawns, fried tofu, crushed pork crackling ( chicharon ), sliced spring onions and some squid balls and you get yourselff a little taste of home.

Don't ask me how the cake and leche flan are made, it's my wife who does the sweets in our family! :)

Sunday Night Dinner: Beef Salpicao

I've been wanting to try this dish for a long time and finally found a recipe from MarketManila.

I cubed about 500g of porterhouse steaks and marinated it for a few minutes in Worcestershire sauce and Maggi seasoning.

Next I chopped up a whole head of garlic. I then melted about 2 tbsps. of butter in about the same amount of extra virgin olive oil. When the oil and butter were hot, I dropped the garlic in and fried it for about a minute or two.

Next I put the beef and had it fry for a few minutes, in which time I seasoned with some salt and pepper, paprika and more of the Worcestershire and Maggi Seasoning.

I tried not to keep the meat at medium to medium rare as having it well done would toughen it too much.

The result: absolutely yummy!

( Next time I'd try to slice the beef into smaller pieces tough as I still had to cut it up even more for the kids. )

The Barossa Valley

Last weekend we took a daytrip to South Australia's wine country, the Barossa valley. The first and only time we were there was when the girl was less than 2 years old, the first time we visited Adelaide. It tooks us almost 6 years to visit again.

At any rate, last Saturday morning we all piled into our good friends' car and drove up to see some of the most scenic country views and have a little tour of this picturesque area. The Barossa is world famous for many of the wines produced in the region and many tourists come to visit the area. There are many wine tasting and mini tours that come through the valley to see the wineries and the sites.

We started by going up to the highest point of the Barossa valley. From the top of Mengler's Hill we could almost see the entire valley with it's grape plantations and many wineries. We spent time playing around in the statue garden at the hill and we took a lot of wacky pictures too.



We then picked up a few supplies on our way to have a picnic lunch. Our friends were all prepared with their own cooker and we had an impromptu barbecue at one of the many parks around the area.

After lunch we went to Maggie Beer's farmhouse which was a foodie's delight. Maggie Beer is a well known cook and author who's made her home in the Barossa valley. We catch her show, "The Cook and The Chef" all the time and we were genuinely excited to see where they actually shoot the series. We also got to see a cooking demonstration using one of Maggie's favourite ingredients, verjuice. They were passing around some samples of verjuice to show that it was not only for cooking but you can actually drink it straight up. In fact, the boy quickly developed a taste for it and had 4 shot glasses worth of the stuff. Of course, we couldn't help ourselves but got a couple of bottles to experiment with at home. The farmhouse also had for sale a lot of the Maggie Beer range of olive oils, patés, terrine's and other stuff. I'm sure will make it a stop on our next trip back.



After the farmhouse we had a quick stop at Angastown to buy some dried fruit and candies before our last stop, the Whispering Wall. The wall is actually the dam that forms the water reservoir for the Barossa valley. It's buit in such a way that sound echoes from one end of the dam to the other. It's build to exacting measurements that if you stand on one side of the wall, you can hear exactly what someone else is whispering on the other side hence the moniker.




After the wall we headed for home. We all had such a great time and I'm sure we won't let 6 years go by before visiting the Barossa again.

More pictures at our Flickr page here.

Christmas Day 2008

Christmas day came and went like a flash. The wife and I didn't stay up too late the night before simply because we knew that the kids would be up and early just begging to open the presents. We even got to see the remnants of the milk and cookies they left out from Santa. Turns out that Santa is a messy eater, just like our little girl! :)

The kids wasted no time in unwrapping the gifts and I got to say, nothing really beats the smiles of kids on Christmas morning. The kids must have been good throughout the year cause they did get what they asked for from Santa, and much more besides because they also got presents from both sets of grandaparents!



The boy and girl spent the morning playing with their new toys while the wife and I spent the morning getting ready for Christmas lunch. As what's fast becoming our family tradition, we hosted Christmas lunch at our home again this year. This time it was just us and our close family friends. It was a simple lunch of prawns, a roast strip loin of beef and roast pork and potatoes and a salad with a cheescake and ice cream for dessert.



It was good to be with friends on Christmas day, and as it turned out, the lunch soon stretched into dinner with lots of laughing and singing(!) and eating along the way. We watched a DVD and ended up playing Singstar until evening. A full Christmas day if you ask me.

Hasselback Potatoes

Hasselback Potatoes
Originally uploaded by chazzvid

I've seen this recipe for Hasselback Potatoes done on TV a few times before and I decided to try out for Sunday dinner. The wife bought a cut of beef for roasting and we served it with these potatoes and some veggies. We found a recipe for roast beef served with garlic mayonnaise.

The beef turned out quite well although a bit on the dry side. The garlic mayonnaise really went well with it. For a test run, it wasn't too bad. We wanted to try it out the recipes first because we wanted to serve this during our Christmas lunch with friends. Maybe next time we'll get a better cut of beef too.

Chinese Fried Chicken

Fried Chicken
Originally uploaded by chazzvid

There is a Chinese restaurant here in Adelaide that makes the best fried chicken. It's served in this broth which, as far as I can tell, is made up of Chinese rice wine and soy sauce as the main ingredients. The fried chicken is cut up and the broth is poured over it. I've never tried to make it myself until now.

I was only going to make fried chicken for dinner. What I usually do is boil the chicken for a bit in a mixture of water, garlic and soy sauce then dry the chicken and quickly fry it to crisp it up ( Thanks to Thess for this tip! ). This time, instead of pouring the resulting broth away, I took a taste and noticed it was almost close to the broth that the restaurant serves it's chicken with. I experimented with the broth a bit and came up with something similar.

I ended up frying some garlic, adding Chinese cooking wine and the broth together and boiled for a bit. I think it worked too because the wife took a taste and declared it exactly like what we would have had in the restaurant ( even better! ). At any rate, it was my first attempt and I think I can improve it with a few more ingredients.

Unfortunately, the kids had a taste of the broth and both didn't seem to care for it. So, they just had the fried chicken sans broth which they both finished anyway.

Lumpiang Shanghai

Lumpiang Shanghai
Originally uploaded by chazzvid

I was still recovering from the flu even over the weekend so we decided to stay at home for the most part. It was still cold and real soup weather but because we had prepared and frozen some Lumpiang shanghai from last week, we decided to have that for Sunday lunch instead.

Lumpiang shangahi or meat spring rolls is one of our easy cook meals we usually prepare and store in the freezer ahead of time. All we would do is just defrost the spring rolls and just shallow fry them a few minutes and there's a meal already.

Preparing it is easy as especially when we use prepared lumpiang shanghai mix. We just combine pork mince with some oyster sauce, soy sauce, chopped carrots, chopped onions or spring onions or coriander. We'd then top it off with Mama Sita's Lumpiang Shanghai mix. Then just roll the meat mixture store bought spring roll wrappers and freeze for another day.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Spaghetti and Meatballs
Originally uploaded by chazzvid

We had some left over uncooked meatloaf from last week so I decided to make it into the classic spaghetti and meatballs. Pasta is one of the easiest meals we can make.

In this case, I cooked the meatballs first by frying them. Then I took the meatballs of the pan, made a quick pasta sauce with garlic, onions and a can of crushed tomatoes in olive oil while the noodles was boiling away. When the sauce and noodles was ready I just mixed the meatballs, pasta and sauce together. Garnish with some parsley and parmesan it's a quick and easy dinner.

Daing na Bangus

This is typical Filipino breakfast fare. Bangus, or milkfish, is marinated in a mix of vinegar, garlic and spices and served fried as breakfast fare. The fish is actually store bought and I cooked and served it up as a part of a "balanced" breakfast of eggs, garlic fried rice and home-made atchara. It's a good thing we can get Pinoy food here in Adelaide as one sometimes misses these tastes of the old country.

Happy Mother's Day

We know it's a manufactured holiday to keep the greeting card companies in business but we can't help it. We fall for it every time. But in all seriousness, hope you mom's out there have a Happy Mother's Day. The kids and I got early and made breakfast in bed for their mom. She ended up sharing it with the kids anyway because it was bacon and eggs after all.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

It was the ANZAC day holiday today and we invited our friends over for lunch. I prepared Hainanese Chicken Rice which was just great on a cool day like today. There are tons of Chicken Rice recipes on the web and I've used a couple to come up with my own version. Chicken rice is basically chicken boiled in a stock. This is then served with rice prepared and cooked in the same chicken stock. The chicken itself is mildly seasoned so it's served with some chilli sauce ( I used the bottled kind ), dark soy sauce and a ginger/garlic/sesame oil sauce. I complete the meal with some blanched bok choy with oyster sauce and store bought fried shallots. Chicken and rice, a complete meal.

Grilled Salmon with Chive Sauce

Grilled Salmon with Chive Sauce
Originally uploaded by chazzvid

I was out grocery shopping over the weekend and found fish on sale now that Holy Week is over. The salmon fillets were half off! I just seasoned the salmon lightly with salt and pepper and grilled them a pan with olive oil, prepared some instant chive sauce from IKEA and served with steamed vegetables and rice. It was an instant hit with us and the kids. The girl even wanted some more which doesn't happen very often.

Another addition to our easy cook menu.

Adobong Itlog ( Eggs in Adobo Sauce )

Adobong Itlog
Originally uploaded by chazzvid

As with most Catholics during Lent, we avoid eating meat during the Holy Week, which is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. When I was growing up, adobong itlog would invariably be one of the dishes to be served during our weekday meals by our good old cook. I miss this dish whenever Holy Week comes around.

It's basically eggs, first hard boiled and then peeled and cooked in a adobo sauce. I actually fried off some garlic, onions and tomatoes first then add the eggs and mix up the vinegar, soy and water. Nothing to it really, it's just how one likes their adobo and the ratio between vinegar and soy.

Monday Dinner

Monday Dinner
Originally uploaded by chazzvid

It's steak diane, peas, onion fries and mashed potatoes. Today was a holiday Monday so we had time to prepare a proper dinner. While the wife and girl prepared the mashed potatoes, I got the steaks and onion fries going.

I found the recipe for the onion fries from a TV show and the steak diane from one of our old cookbooks. The peas were just the frozen kind just cooked in the microwave. I didn't think I got the sauce quite right but I think I'm getting the hang of cooking steaks with just the right amount of pink in the middle.

IKEA Swedish Meatballs

One of the things that keep us coming back to IKEA is the cheap food. We've come to love the Swedish meatballs served with gravy and Ligonberry jam. When we found out that they sold frozen ones to take home, we make sure that we always have a bag as a mainstay in our kitchen freezer.

It's amusing how most everything in IKEA comes with some assembly required. So we go from this:



to this in under 30 minutes which makes for a very quick and convenient lunch.




Of course, this is usually served in the IKEA restaurant with chips ( fries ) or vegetables. Being the Pinoys that we are, we just have to have them with plain white rice. :)

Homemade Chicken Teriyaki

Homemade Chicken Teriyaki
Originally uploaded by chazzvid

This was another quick recipe. Just marinated some chicken thighs in mirin, sake ( or rice wine) , sugar and soy sauce overnight. Then, taking the chicken out of the marinade, I quickly pan fried them for a few minutes on each side until browned and cooked. In the meantime, I boiled the marinade until it became a bit thick and poured it over the chicken. Served with white rice, it's a good weekend meal

Cheese Pimiento Sandwiches

This is a typical merienda for many Pinoy school kids. Admittedly, I've always had the store bought kind but this home made version is not too bad, better even. It's a simple recipe, blend together equal parts butter and cheddar cheese. Then, add to the mix, boiled, skinned and chopped red capsicum ( red bell pepper ) and sugar to taste. The taste brings me back to childhood days and afternoon snacks at home after school. The kids don't seem to like it too much though. That's ok, more for me then...

Pork Barbecue and Fried Chicken

Being it was the Australia day long weekend last weekend, we couldn't help but celebrate with a little barbecue at home. What other way to celebrate Australia's multiculturalism than to have a Pinoy style pork barbecue and java rice! :)

We found this simple recipe to marinate pork. Just soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, garlic and Sprite. After an overnight soaking in the marinade, I fired up the barbie and the results were almost as good as the pork BBQ we have back in the Philippines.

As for the fried chicken, we actually brought back some store bought fried chicken mixes from our last trip back. I actually tried it for the first time the other day and it wasn't too bad. The chicken actually almost tasted like Jollibee Chicken Joy. Couple that with the instant gravy it was again another taste of home. The kids liked it as well and eagerly ate up the chicken with gravy and rice.


Now, if only I can find more of these in Adelaide.

Lechon Kawali and Adobong Kangkong

I had a nice piece of pork belly defrosted in the fridge so I decided to make lechon kawali ( or a Filipino style roast pork ) for dinner. I also bought some kangkong, or what passes for kangkong over here to make adobong kangkong which makes a great side dish with the lechon. Instead of traditionally deep frying the pork, I just placed the pork in a rack in the oven and the results were the same, even a little bit "healthier" as I didn't have to to so much oil for deep frying. The pictures came out great too... :)

Roast Rack of Lamb

Sunday dinner was a roast rack of lamb served with cous-cous. This is the second time I cooked lamb and this turned out exceptionally well. The fat was well rendered and the meat still moist. My wife says she gives it 5 stars, hehehe. The girl quite enjoyed the cous-cous actually and we were mildly surpised that she finished everything in her plate. The boy, however, hated the cous-cous and I had to resort to making him a ham and cheese sandwich. Oh well, you can't please everybody.