Corned Tuna and Sausage Spaghetti

Ok. Let me just do this quickly before I forget and while I have time before I have to pick up Kissy at the bus stop.

I had no idea what to have for lunch today. I didn't want to have afritada again. The afritada is good, by the way, and I've been having it for lunch and dinner for about 3 days now. So, I thought I wanted something different this time and then decided to start on the spaghetti I had promised Kissy for merienda.

I was supposed to use corned beef instead of ground pork for the spaghetti sauce. But I had corned beef for breakfast this morning (in a sandwich) and I was thinking I could do something different. I quickly scanned the pantry and there were cans of corned tuna just sitting there. I had bought them weeks ago to try; heard corned tuna was healthier than corned beef and just as good. So, I decided it was time to find.

I had a corned beef sandwich with a cup of hot choco for breakfast.

In the process of making the sauce, I noticed it didn't look appetizing enough (from a kid's point of view)  and realized it lacked the usual hotdogs that kids love so much. But I was totally out of those super good all-beef hotdogs 'cause I used them all up for the afritada. Hmmm....another quick investigation of the pantry...and voila! Saw my cans of vienna sausages! There's my answer :-)

So, it became a corned tuna and sausage spaghetti which was totally delish! Here's how I put them all together:

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 small onion, chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1 can (155 grams / 5.5 oz) corned tuna
1 can (135 grams) Vienna sausages
500 grams sweet Filipino style spaghetti sauce
salt and pepper to taste
3 teaspoons cooking oil
500 grams spaghetti noodles
Grated cheese

Procedure:
1.  Saute garlic, onion, carrots, corned tuna and sausages.
2. Add in the sweet style spaghetti sauce and simmer for 5 mins.
3. Add a dash of salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pour over cooked spaghetti noodles.
5. Top with grated cheese. Enjoy!!!

Finished product.

Spaghetti with a glass of mango juice. It's lunch time!

Simple. Not messy at all. No tedious preparation involved. Go ahead, try it today!

Ting

Running For Terry

Today, September 19, 2014, my little girl participated in her first Terry Fox Run in school. I understand it was an easy run around the backyard of the school, though I don't know how many laps they ran or how long they took out there.

Of course, always the curious one, I had to find out who Terry Fox was, what the Toonie for Terry was for, and why the annual run?

I discovered this short bio online and found it very helpful in making me understand and empathize more:
http://www.terryfox.org/SchoolRun/legacy_story.html

In summary, Terry was a young boy of 18 who lost his leg to cancer. He endeavored to run across Canada with an artificial leg to raise awareness and funds for cancer research. He was successful in his goal but died when his cancer returned.

Today, his legacy lives on and Terry Fox Runs are held every year in Canada and several other countries in aide of cancer research. The kids in school donated a toonie each for the Terry Fox Foundation.

The article is a better source and more touching than this hurried roundup, believe me. I strongly suggest you read it.

I wish I had read up on him sooner. Maybe then I would have not been too lazy to go back and join Kissy in their run in school earlier today. Well, I'll get my chance next year. My running shoes will be waiting.

My little girl ran for JULIA + TERRY

The Terry Fox Run Logo

Beef with Mushrooms

Hi, all! I wish everyone were having a good day but I heard there's a typhoon over in the Philippines where a lot of my family and friends are, so I hope everyone is safe and dry and warm.

Anyway, I posted my lunch yesterday on Facebook and I've received a couple of requests for the recipe. It's quite simple, really and very easy to make.

I love mushrooms so I put Beef with Mushrooms on my menu list and finally got to do it. Here's how:

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo beef, cut into 1/2 inch cubes                                                                                

                    * I used beef stew cuts. If you want your beef tender, I think you should boil                                             beforehand. This is what I'm gonna do next time.)

• flour for dredging 
• 2 beef cubes in 3 cups water for the beef broth
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon parsley, finely chopped
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 cups of mushroom, sliced                                                                                                       

                    * I used Brown Mushrooms (it said on the packaging) for this recipe.

• Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in skillet ready for frying.
2. Dredge beef in flour and fry until brown.
3. Once fried, lower the heat and pour in all ingredients except mushrooms : onion, parsley, celery and beef broth.
4. Let boil and simmer till your beef is tender (about 30 - 45 minutes).
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Put in the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes more.
7. Serve and enjoy!

I couldn't help but enjoy a cup of rice topped with my beef and mushrooms! That was lunch. I had it again for dinner but this time I had bread with it instead. Still, yummy!

Sharing what I learned in the process of preparing this dish,  about differentiating Parsley and Cilantro. I opened the fridge and found 2 almost identical bunches of green leaves which threw me off a little so I did some research and asked how the "pros" could tell them apart.

Chicken Asado

Hello again!

I wasn’t that eager to post my Chicken Asado recipe since I felt, hmmm... it was more of a trial of sorts and it still needed some “polishing”. But, it came out good and a friend is actually asking for a copy (no secret ingredients here! Haha) so here it is now:

Ingredients:

§  1 kilo chicken

§  1/4 cup lemon juice

* I used the concentrated juice (see picture below) ‘cause it’s what we had in the fridge. If you do use the same, you might want to be a little conservative and try to start with a little first and then add on according to taste. I will take note of how much I use next time. J

§  8 tablespoons soy sauce or half a cup

* Again, I’m not too sure about this. I kept on adding so I’m guessing I put in about half a cup. As with the lemon juice, add according to taste.

§  1/4 cup butter

§  1 1/2 cup of tomato sauce

§  1 large onion, diced

§  2 pieces dried bay leaves

§  2 large potatoes, quartered

§  2 teaspoon salt

§  1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

§  3/4 cup cooking oil

Procedure

1.    Rub the chicken with salt and pepper and let stand for at least 30 minutes to an hour.

2.    Pan fry the chicken. Set aside.

3.    Heat a cooking pot or wok then put-in the butter.

4.    Sauté the onion in butter.

5.    Add-in the bay leaves and cook for a minute.

6.    Pour-in the tomato sauce and bring to a boil.

7.    Add the soy sauce and lemon juice. Stir and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.

8.    Add the pan-fried chicken and simmer for 10 minutes.

9.    Place the potatoes in and continue to simmer for 7 to 12 minutes.

10. All done! Transfer to a serving dish.

For a small family like ours, 2 adults and 1 kid, this recipe was good for 3 meals.

The lemon juice concentrate that I used.

                                   

For newbies in the kitchen like me, I’m adding something new to learn.

Kitchen Vocabulary:

Pan Fry

       

Pan-frying is one form of frying characterized by the use of just a little or minimal cooking oil. You only need enough oil to grease the pan. Because of the minimal coverage, you must flip the food so both sides can be cooked.

Happy cooking!

Ting

Beef Pares

 My daughter is perhaps the best judge of my cooking - always honest and 100% credible. My husband may be being polite when he praises my skills but the smile on my daughter's face cannot be faked (at least not at her age right now).

Tonight, she let out a squeal of delight after the first spoonful. The single word, "masarap!" was music to my ears. She had second servings...that ought to count for something, right?!

Here is the recipe for the Beef Pares I made for my family tonight:

• 1 kilo/ 2lbs Beef Fingers
• 5 cups water
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1 ginger, minced
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 1 beef cube
• 2 pieces star anise (or substitute with half teaspoon of five-spice powder)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsps cooking oil
• scallions or green onions, chopped finely (for topping)

Procedure:

1. Pour 5 cups of water and let boil. Once boiling, put in the meat and boil until tender (we waited an hour and a half for our meat to be ready; a pressure cooker may be used if in a rush).

2. When meat is tender, allow to cool down and slice into cubes. Set aside beef stock to be used later.

3. Place oil in a heated pan and saute garlic, ginger and onion.

4. Put meat in the pan and saute for about 2 to 3 minutes.

5.  Next, add the soy sauce, 1 cup of beef stock, star anise or five-spice powder. Stir and bring to a boil.

6. Add the brown sugar.

7. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir and simmer for a few minutes til the sauce thickens.

8. Top with chopped scallions.

Here is my final product!

Try it. It`s super easy. Notice the ingredients are quite simple and I realized Pares has no "sahog" at all (well,except for the onion toppings). The flavor is all in the beef and  the sauce. 

Would love to hear from you. How did your Beef Pares turn out?

Ting