Shrimp, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Salted Duck Egg Pasta

After a two-month break, Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge is back with a very interesting theme for the month of February...and that is "PULANG ITLOG" (Red Egg) or what's also known as Itlog na Maalat (Salted Eggs) in the Philippines.

Like other Filipinos, I really enjoy eating itlog na maalat. I love it as a filling for pandesal, as a topping for bibingka and large ensaymadas, and as an accompaniment to any fried fish. When I was young, I loved eating it with daing na bangus for breakfast. I remember my mom slicing the salted eggs into wedges and serving it with diced onions and tomatoes and the fried daing na bangus. Hmmmm...that was one simple meal that never failed to satisfy my tummy! Having that on our table would always make me eat more rice than I usually do! 

For this month's Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge, I decided to share a recipe that I created instead of the above mentioned ways that we Filipinos use salted eggs for. I call it Shrimp, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Salted Duck Egg Pasta. It's a simple pasta dish that uses itlog na maalat  both in the sauce and topping, and that gives it an interesting texture. 

Baked Filipino-Style Spaghetti

Like me and Ryan, our two daughters love Filipino-style spaghetti. They love it so much that it's something they very often request me to cook. Well, it's the irresistible sweetness in it that makes it seem addicting for them. Whether it's with meatballs or with the regular ground beef and hotdogs, this pasta dish never fail to bring sweet smiles on their faces. But there's a special version of it that they love even more. I'm talking about this Baked Filipo-Style Spaghetti...

...which is so creamy, cheesy, and truly irresistible for children and adults alike. This has the same cheese topping as the Baked Macaroni that I've shared here before, wherein I used 3 types of cheese: parmesan, cheddar and mozzarella. 

Though the Filipino-Style Spaghetti is pleasing enough to eat as is, this baked version takes it to a whole new level. Baking it not only let the spaghetti absorb more flavor from the sauce, it also makes it extra comforting because of the added gooey cheese! 

Bulanglang (Boiled Mixed Vegetables with Broiled Dried Fish)

I can say that my parents really did a pretty great job at introducing me to vegetables when I was little. Unlike most kids, I grew up eating my veggies and loving them. I still do. I enjoy all kinds of vegetable dishes - from blanched, sautéed and stir-fried to boiled, broiled or baked. But truth be told, there's one vegetable dish that I hated back then...and that is Bulanglang...a dish that's popular in the Philippines especially to those who have access to fresh vegetables. It's a mixture of different vegetables cooked in rice water seasoned with fish bagoong and then topped with broiled fish which gives its distinct bitter-burnt flavor. I really didn't like it when I was kid. I don't exactly remember why. All I remember is that my mom always served Bulanglang with fried fish, and everytime we have this duo for dinner, I would only eat fried fish. My parents didn't force me into eating the bulanglang, but they would always tell me how delicious and nutritious it is. I've always believed in the "nutritious" part. With all the vegetables in it, I'm sure it's packed with all the vitamins and minerals! But "delicious",  I always doubted it. How can boiled vegetables be delicious? I remember that I was already in high school when I decided to finally give it a try. Well, honestly, I was surprised with how good it is! It's different but my parents were right --- it's delicious! Since the first time I tried it until now, Bulanglang became a favorite Filipino vegetable dish of mine. You may think of it as bland because it's boiled, but I tell you, it's not! The combination of all the flavors from the vegetables plus the bagoong and the dried fish worked so well, making this dish extraordinary but really tasty and comforting. I'm sure you won't believe...but my daughters love this, though they don't eat the slimy okra. :)

The manner in which Bulanglang  is cooked varies from region to region. This one I'm sharing with you is my dad's version from Batangas. Though the vegetables I used for this recipe are what's available here in my side of the world and may be different from what's commonly used, the way of cooking is the same. 

I'm bringing this to you in connection to Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge. In the Philippines, Nutrition Month which focuses on the importance of eating vegetables is celebrated in the month of July. That is why Isabel of My Expat Mommy and Kai of Bucaio chose the theme "Pang-Habang-Buhay", and we're supposed to share a nutritious dish that contains either vegetables or fruits. Bulanglang is just perfect for that!

If you want to eat a "guilt free" meal, with no oil, no fats, no meat at all, Bulanglang is the answer! The best thing about this dish is that you can choose the vegetables according to your liking. Just be sure to know which vegetables should be added first. The hard vegetables like papaya and kalabasa should go first, and the soft and leafy vegetable should be added last.

Kutsinta

Cherrie Moore of  Sweet Cherrie Pie & I are the hosts for this month's Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge, and because June is the month when we celebrate Philippine Independence Day, we have decided to focus on our country's unique dishes.

As I've mentioned before, Filipino Cuisine is a mixture of many different cuisines from countries which have colonized the Philippines. But there are lots of dishes that we can call our own...dishes that can be found "ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINES" and we thought that it would be good to share them with you. 

After checking my archive, I realized that I've already posted most of my favorite native Filipino dishes here on the blog. I was having a hard time thinking of what recipe to share when suddenly I thought of this favorite snack that I used to enjoy during my childhood days which is called Kutsinta...

Kutsinta is a brown (sometimes orange) and sticky cupcake which is made from rice flour, brown sugar, achuete (which is used to add color and flavor), water and a little lye water. It is cooked by steaming and is served with grated coconut.  It is a traditional Filipino snack that's very easy to make, and can be found almost anywhere. Kutsinta is my mom's favorite and she would always buy dozens of it everytime she goes to the market. She would also make it at home whenever she finds the time. 

For this month's Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge, I'm sharing with you my mom's kutsinta as I remember it. I think the only difference is I used annatto powder instead of achuete juice because I couldn't find achuete seeds here. The result, however, is basically the same except for the tiny particles of annato powder that settled in the bottom of the kutsinta. So if you can find achuete seeds, soak about 1 Tablespoon of it in 2 Tablespoon of water for about 10 minutes. Get ½ Tablespoon of that juice and add it to the kutsinta mixture instead of the annatto powder.

Chicken Strips Adobo Sandwich

I don't know about you...but I sooo love stew. Just like any other typical Filipino, I love eating it with rice...but I also enjoy eating it with rolls and bread, especially the leftover. Whether it's beef, chicken or pork stew, making a sandwich filling out of it always excites my taste buds. I remember that when I was little, whenever we have stew for dinner, whether its adobo, afritada, estofado, kaldereta or menudo, I would always ask my mom to make me some stew filled pandesal or pandelemon for breakfast the next morning. Sometimes, I would even bring them to school for snack. Even now, I still love that kind of sandwich. During our road trips, I would usually cook adobo or menudo the night before then stuff them in buns. My family consider it as a very yummy on-the-go meal!

For this month's Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge, I found the perfect chance to share one of my family's favorite stew sandwiches with you. Thanks to our host, Louie Yan of East and West for choosing "Filipino portable bites offered by food trucks" to be this month's theme. Here in the US, I've only seen food trucks when we were in NYC. If I am to find one here in Texas, I would love if they have Filipino food like those in California...and how I wish they have this Adobo Sandwich!

It looks so good, right??? If there are food trucks selling this here in Texas, I'll definitely be a frequent customer! And if someday I'll have my own food truck or Filipino fast food restaurant, this Chicken Strips Adobo Sandwich will be one of our house specials! This is no ordinary sandwich, I tell you! It has the goodness of the Filipino all time favorite adobo plus the yummy combination of egg and cheese and the added spice of Jalapeño pepper and onions! 

Though I enjoy any kind of stew, adobo is my most favorite because it is the quickest to cook and it doesn't require much ingredients. For the sandwiches that I prepare for our trips, I usually use shredded leftover pork or chicken adobo, but for this post, I used freshly cooked chicken breast strips adobo with Jalapeño pepper and lots of onions. Chicken breast cut into strips cook a lot faster so this will be perfect for on-the-go meals like this.

You should try it! I'm sure you'll love how tasty and filling this is!

Mais Queso and Ube Macapuno Ice Candy

It's now summer in the Philippines, and it's that time of the year again when I feel like I really want to go there so I could enjoy summer the way I used to. Just like here in Texas, the scorching heat of the sun back home can be annoying, but our weekly beach picnics,  the deliciously refreshing coolers that my mom used to make and our vacations in Batangas and Bulacan (where my brother and I got to bike and play kites as much as we wanted) always made summer time so enjoyable and memorable for me. I don't remember any dull moment during my summer vacations...it was always fun, I tell yah. Even when I was just home playing with my dolls or reading my books, there was always this excitement within me because of the thought that when afternoon comes, my mom will always surprise me with a delicious treat.

For this month's Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge, our wonderful hosts, Arnold of Inuyaki and Jun of Jun-blog, want us to share Ice Candy or any frozen treats that remind us of summer in the Philippines. Back when I was a little girl, my mother used to supply ice candy to our school cafeteria so she used to make ice candy all year round. This is the reason why I've always considered ice candy as my most favorite Pinoy frozen treat, summer or not summer that is. So even though I've already featured a number of ice candy flavors here on PiTCC like strawberry, avocado, chocolate, buko and sweet corn, I still chose to share ice candy for this month's KCC Challenge. But this is no ordinary ice candy...the flavors I chose to feature are two of the most famous Magnolia ice cream flavors when I was growing up. They were actually my favorite flavors back then. I'm talking about the Mais Queso (Corn & Cheese) and Ube Macapuno (Purple Yam & Coconut Sport).

I know this may sound intriguing for non-Filipinos...but I tell you, these two combos are really good. For those who liked the other ice candy flavors that I've featured before, Mais Queso (Corn & Cheese) and Ube Macapuno (Purple Yam & Coconut Sport) are two flavors that you should also try. They're definitely delicious and refreshing! If you can't find ice candy plastic, just use any popsicle mold you have...it won't really matter. :)

Chicken Sotanghon Soup and our Noche Buena Menu

Just 9 days to go before Christmas...and I couldn’t help but get nostalgic about the holiday celebration back home. For me, nothing compares to celebrating Christmas in the Philippines! It's not just about food and parties...it's rich in traditions, and that makes our celebration unique among other countries. 

The Philippines is known for having the longest Christmas celebration in the world. Though it begins formally on December 16 with the start of the Simbang Gabi (a nine-day novena that culminates with the “Misa de Gallo” on Christmas Eve to welcome the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ) and continues until the first Sunday of January which is the Feast of the Epiphany, Christmas carols start ringing in the air and colorful lights and decorations can be seen everywhere as early as the first day of September.  It's like four months of celebration! 

When I was a kid, Christmas celebration starts in our home on the first weekend of October when my family and I set up our Christmas tree and hang parol (Christmas lanterns) by our windows. Following that would be the endless shopping and wrapping of gifts for our close friends and relatives. In the month of December, we used to observe Filipino traditions like going to Simbang Gabi (night mass) from Dec. 16-24, watching the Panuluyan (reenactment of the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem) on Christmas Eve, having Noche Buena (Christmas Eve feast) and doing the Pagmamano (visiting godparents and elderly relatives) before noon of Christmas Day. And since my birthday falls on Christmas Day, we always had a party in the afternoon, and my late mom used to cook all kinds of Filipino food. I just love how food overflow in our house on this special day! It's one of my favorite things about Christmas! :)

Though we are now far away from home,  I want Christmas to be fun for my daughters just as much as it was for me. Because it is impossible to do most of the Filipino traditions that I grew up with, all I can do is to start some new ones that can give my daughters the same wonderful holiday experience that I had. I believe that the secret to a memorable Christmas is doing things together with your loved ones without forgetting that Christ should be the center of it...so that's what we do! Together, we would put up the Christmas tree and other decorations the weekend before Thanksgiving...wrap Christmas presents...give gift to the Angel Tree at their school and at church...bake cookies for our friends...attend Advent masses and Christmas mass...and prepare for the Noche Buena feast that we've been hosting for the past seven years that we've been here in Texas. Every year, I cook a combination of Filipino and American food, and that's what I'm going to share for this month's Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge. This month, Kulinarya's challenge is hosted by Joy of Gastronomy by Joy and Sherilyn of Senorita Sisa, and they've chosen  Noche Buena as the theme.

So here it is...our Noche Buena Menu for this year which includes Chicken Sotanghon Soup that has always been part of our Christmas feast since I was a kid. It is such a comforting noodle soup that gives us warmth after attending the Misa De Gallo.

 

My daughters love this as much as I do. It may not be the star of our Noche Buena...but our feast won't be complete without it!