02.27.09

A Couple Easy Filipino Recipes

Posted in Uncategorized, cooking at 5:02 pm by Administrator

I have never considered myself a gourmet cook.  I’ve been more of a “practical” cook, while my hubby has been more the gourmet cook around here.  But he doesn’t cook Filipino food, so this is my recipe for Filipino chicken adobo.  It’s a simple recipe, and since I realized that I didn’t have any pictures of it, I cooked it for the boys today.  This is for Laura fresh off the stove.

Here’s the recipe:

~5 whole chicken legs with the legs and thighs cut apart (some people use white meat, but I prefer dark)
~1/4 cup water

~1/2 cup organic apple cider vinegar (or regular vinegar for those who don’t care about organics.  Also if you like a more vinegary taste, of course add more vinegar)
~1/4 cup soy sauce (if you like things salty, you can add more soy sauce, if you care about organics, then I use organic Tamari)

~1/4 tsp pepper corns which I crush part of them (again, if you like more spice, add more)

~6 large garlic cloves coarsely crushed and chopped

~2 or 3 bay leaves

~1 scallion chopped for garnish

Cooking instructions:

In a skillet wide enough to accommodate all the chicken, deep enough to accommodate all the liquid, and with a cover place all the ingredients except the scallions.  Bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 40 minutes to an hour or until the chicken is fully cooked.  Check occasionally to make sure the chicken is submerged in the sauce while cooking or baste the chicken with the sauces occasionally.  When cooked scoop out the chicken onto a serving dish, pour the sauce over the chicken, and sprinkle the scallion garnish before serving.  Viola! Serve with rice and any other veggie dish.
Now there are various ways to cook this as some adobo recipes use pork or fish or beef or even a combination of meats with chicken gizzards and livers.  I usually like it with gizzards and liver, but my local Whole Foods didn’t have any organic chicken gizzards or livers today, wah.  Some like to thicken up the sauce a bit, so a liver sauce can be made for that.  Basically you cook up some liver and make a paste of it and add it towards the end of cooking the adobo.  And then there are even those who fry up the chicken a little first with the garlic, and then add all the wet ingredients.  I do it the easy way and just toss it all in and let it go.
Another comment is that chicken can have a lot of fat sometimes, so if the chicken fat bothers you, then just trim the fat before cooking and also remove the fat as it comes up during cooking.

Another fairly easy Filipino dish is lumpia shanghai.  There are actually many different kinds of lumpia, which is basically a wrapper that is filled with ingredients of any kind.  The amount of time and energy required would depend upon what you want to put into the wrappers.   Some have lots of stir fried veggies, others have slivered palm hearts, and yet others like Korean style even have noodles in them.  Not all lumpias are fried, either, as some are eaten raw.  So some lumpias are time consuming to make while others not.  However, I found a website that shows how to make lumpia shanghai pretty quickly and easily.  Here’s the link.  http://onefilipinodish.com/blog/2009/01/lumpia-shanghai/  He made a nice little video, and how much clearer can that be?  This is what lumpia shanghai looks like when done. They are generally the smaller of all the different rolls.

Well, I thought those two Filipino dishes are amongst the easiest to start with.  I’ll try to add more later like kare kare (an oxtail dish), and deela.  Not sure I’m spelling that one right, but deela is aka lengua aka tongue. But I also like pancits, which are different kinds of noodle dishes with different kinds of noodles–i.e. rice noodles, egg noodles, wheat noodles, mung bean noodles, etc.  I think I’m a bit out of practice cooking these things especially since they aren’t exactly considered the most healthful dishes being fried and all with lot of meats and fats, but hey, that’s part of me heritage.  So I did grow up eating quite of bit of this stuff. . .
Okay, hope you like it!

Marlakins

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