Recipe: Menudo

Someone handed me a bag of raisins and that gave me the idea of making Menudo. Menudo is a staple in almost every Philippine gatherings and almost a comfort food. Everyone has different interpretation when it comes to this dish. I used Chicken and Pork with this recipe as well as Cayenne Powder instead of Paprika to give it a kick. Also, since I cannot find pork liver, I used chicken liver instead.

Ingredients:
2 lbs pork, cubed
1/2 lb chicken liver
1 chicken leg quarter, cubed
4 hotdogs, sliced
4 small potatoes, cubed
4 medium carrots, cubed
4 large plum tomatoes, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
3 tbsp garlic powder
3 tbsp cayenne powder
1 can (10 oz) chicken stock
1 cup raisins
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
3 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tbsp fish sauce (patis)

Cooking Procedure:

1. Combine soy sauce and fish sauce in a boil. Add in pork and chicken and marinate for 10 minutes.
2. Heat cooking oil in a pot. Add in onion and garlic powder, saute for a minute.
3. Add in pork and chicken and cook until brown. About 5 to 7 minutes
4. Pour in chicken stock. Add in cayenne powder, hotdogs and chicken liver. 
5. Stir in tomato paste. Add in raisins, potatoes, carrots and yellow pepper.
6. Once its boiling. Lower heat to simmer. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. 
7. Serve with rice. 

Enjoy!

Variation:

• You can cut down on the cayenne powder if you don't want it to have too much of a kick. Or use paprika instead.  
• Use tomato sauce instead of tomato paste. 
• Pork liver instead of chicken liver. If you are using pork liver, make sure you saute it first in garlic to remove the gamey smell. 
• Instead of fish sauce, use calamansi or lemon.

Recipe: Chicken Rice Curry

Curry is a blend of spices used mostly in Indian cuisine. Curry has a lot of benefits like lowering your blood sugar, cholesterol and preventing the C word. This recipe is easy to make.

Ingredients:
4 chicken leg quarters, chopped to smaller portions
1 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 cup chicken stock
1 large onion, diced
1 cup green peas
4 potatoes, cubed
2 tablespoon minced garlic
4 tablespoon curry powder
3 tablespoon oil

Cooking Instruction:

1. Heat oil in a cooking pot. Add garlic and onions. Saute for five minutes or until the onion is translucent
2. Add in the chicken and cook until the chicken changes color. 
3. Add potatoes. Pour in the chicken stock. 
4. Add in curry powder and stir until blended. 
5. Add the uncooked rice and green peas. 
6. Cover and cooked for 25 minutes until rice is cooked

Recipe: Chicken and Pork Adobo in Coconut Milk

Coconut milk is use in many tropical cuisines -Cambodian, Filipino, Indian, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Thai - to name a few. It's hard to find fresh coconut milk here so I resorted into using canned milk. For this recipe, I added some serano peppers to add some kick to it.

Ingredients:
1 lb Chicken thighs
1 lb Pork chunks
1 serano pepper, sliced
Juice of 2 medium sized lime
4 stalks celery, chopped
small bunch of parsley, chopped
1 garlic bulb, crushed
2 cans (13 oz each) Coconut Milk (I used Thai Kitchen)
Salt and Pepper
Oil

Preparation:
Heat oil in a large pot or dutch oven, add garlic and serano peppers. Saute for five minutes.
Add in pork chunks and chicken thighs, pour in lime juice, stir until chicken and pork are covered with lime juice.
Pour in coconut milk. Bring to boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for an hour.
Add in the parsley and celery. Simmer for another hour or until pork is tender and chicken is cooked
Serve over jasmine rice.

Enjoy and let me know how it goes.

Restaurant Review: Pio Pio

604 Tenth Ave (between 43rd & 44th street)
New York, NY
(212) 459 - 2929


Peruvian dishes
Price: $4 - $30
Dine In
Take Out (selected branches)

I went to the city for an event and my friends asked me if I want to go with them to Pio Pio for dinner. They were surprised that I haven't been to Pio Pio and it surely wasn't a disappointment.

Pio Pio is a Peruvian themed restaurant that started in 1994 in Rego Park, Queens and has since branched out to other parts of New York City and surrounding islands. It has branches can be found in Jackson Heights, Queens; Mott Haven in the Bronx; and Four branches in New York City - Upper West Side (Amsterdam Ave), Hell's Kitchen (Tenth Ave), Murray Hill (East 34st)  and Upper East Side (First Ave).

We got their pretty late (10:30pm) and luckily the kitchen was still open. Once you open the two big glass doors, you are greeted by marble top that has the menu. Being so late, I didn't think that any hostess would be around - I might be wrong as well, maybe there are no hostess at all. Anyway, as you walked in, you will be greeted by the place's long bar with marble top and nice wooden bar stools on one side and a couple of bar tables on the other Browsing around, I could see they have a great variety of liquors. Once you walk all the way to the back and down the stairs, you almost feel like you are in a different world. The walls were branch-like making you feel like you are in a wooden place. There is ample seating with most tables can seat 2 and 4 people. There is also enough sitting for larger groups especially on the farther side with padded bench-like sitting that could accommodate at least 20 people.

Looking at the menu, the dishes are either mostly chicken or seafood. We ended up ordering the Matador Combo which is a whole well-marinated rotisserie chicken - chopped into fourths, rice and beans, tostones (sliced plantains), avocado salad, salchipapa and a giant pile of fries topped with sliced hot dogs. Surprisingly, the service was quick, the wait time between ordering and the order coming out of the kitchen was fairly short. Again, this could be different if you came in during lunch and/or dinner time. I would say that the combo can feed 2 - 3 people. The chicken was juicy and sumptuous. Rice and beans were delicious. The tostones were crisp. The avocado salad was fresh and the salchipapa has just the right kick on it. The sliced hot dogs were bit salty but the fries were crisp and not soggy.

The price is fairly reasonable with price ranging from $4.00 appetizers to $30.00 main dishes. The Matador Combo cost us $30.00 but was split between 5 people. And all of us were fairly full after the late dinner.

Overall, I would say that this is a nice place to meet up with friends or even a nice place to meet up with a date. I would definitely go back to this place again - maybe even try the other branches to see if they all have the same food standards.

Pio Pio's website

Pio Pio's facebook page

Recipe: Spicy Chicken Drumsticks

As most of you know, spicy wings have been a staple for Superbowl Sunday. But what if you are tired of eating wings all the time? So I decided to make my own Spicy Chicken Legs. More meat to the bone..

Ingredients:
10 chicken drumsticks
1 Lemon, sliced in half
3 small boiler onions, minced
2 tbsp Paprika powder
1 tbsp Garlic powder
2 tbsp pepper
2 tsp cooking oil
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
2 tbsp Siracha hot sauce
1 cup water
1 tbsp flour

Preparation:
1. Place the drumsticks into a pot, pour water until the drumsticks are covered.
2. Add in oil, garlic powder, 1 tbsp of pepper, and juice of half a slice of lemon. Cover and boil till the chicken is cooked.
3. Meanwhile in a separate bowl, add in juice of the other half of lemon, paprika powder, minced boiler onions, jalapeno pepper, water, siracha hot sauce and flour. Mix well and set aside.
4. Heat up oven to 350F.
5. Once the chicken is done. Place the drumsticks in a foil pan. Pour in the mix sauce and baked for 30 - 40 minutes.
6. Serve while its hot.. and I mean HOT!!!

Enjoy