Tag: comfort food

Ginisang Munggo (Sauteed Mung Beans)

Chicken

Filipino Recipe

When I was still in the Philippines, Ginisang Munggo was as staple as the boiled rice on our dinner table. At least once a week we had the munggo with the ubiquitous fried galunggong (mackerel) eaten with boiled rice.

Munggo is delicious and nutritious and fairly cheap and easy to make. It could be cooked as a vegetarian dish by adding tinapa (smoked fish), dilis (dried anchovies) or hipon (dried shrimps) or just with bitter gourd.

But my favourite version is cooked with a bit of pork, quickly boiled and then fried in its own fat.

Whenever my Mother cooked munggo, she would skim the green skin of the munggo beans which  floated on top of the simmering water.

She would then continue boiling the mung beans for another few minutes and then take a mug full of the boiling mung beans. She would then add a tablespoon of sugar and a good drop of evaporated milk to it and call me to eat it. (Once upon a time, I was a thin child, my Mother was worried that I was not eating enough; yeah hard to believe now! LOL) It was really lovely. Thank you, Mummy!

The rest she would cook like the recipe below.

Ginisang Munggo (Sauteed Mung Beans)

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup munggo (mung beans)
  • 5 cups water
  • 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1/2 lb. pork belly strips, sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 tbsp. patis (fish sauce)
  • salt to taste
  • 1 cup ampalaya leaves or substitute spinach or watercress; you can also use 1 ampalaya (bitter gourd), deseeded and chopped

Cooking Procedures :

  1. Boil mung beans, in a couple of cups of water, until soft and the green skin of the beans are coming apart.  Get a slotted ladle and try to take out as much of these green bits which should float on top, discard.  (This is my personal preference, it is safe and can be tasty to just leave the green bits to boil with the mungbeans flesh.)
  2. Continue to boil and add more water.
  3. In a frying pan, heat the oil.
  4. Add the pork and cook until they have turned golden brown on all sides.
  5. Add garlic, onions and tomatoes. Sauté until the  tomatoes have wilted and turned mushy.
  6. Now, transfer the sautéed pork into the boiling mung beans.
  7. Season with patis and salt to taste. Bring to boil and let it simmer until thick.
  8. Add ampalaya leaves or bitter gourd. Cover and remove from heat. Serve hot.

Serve with hot boiled rice and a freshly fried fish!

Comfort Food: Chocolate Sandwich

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Chocolate chips
There are times when you want something quick, easy and yet tasty to make and eat.

If you are feeling out of sort, under the weather or just fancy to just chill and grab a delicious comfort food other than potato chips but a more filling sandwich, wouldn’t it be great to have a lovely recipe for a grilled chocolate sandwich? 🙂

Well we have got that very recipe right here.

Comfort Food: Chocolate Sandwich

Ingredients:

Soft bread like challah, brioche or a soft white sliced bread.
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
a handful of chocolate chips or any chocolate bars
butter

Method:

Thinly coat a frying pan or a griddle with butter and heat over a moderate heat.

Slice the bread, if using challah or brioche, to make a sandwich or sandwiches.

Using a large flat dish, beat the eggs with the milk.

Dip the slices of bread to the egg mixture.

Remove and transfer into the pan.

Spread the chocolate chips, or any of your favourite chocolate bars, onto the bread and cover with another bread also dipped in the egg mixture.

Turn round the sandwich when it had turned golden and cook the other side.

Enjoy with a nice cup of hot coffee or a cuppa tea.

Truly delicious.

Basic Fish Cakes Recipe

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Fish Cake is one of those ultimate comfort food.  It is so yummy and yet so easy to make and you can make it out of left over fish supper and veggies.

Fish cake with salad is a complete meal.IMG_0455
Basic Fish Cakes Recipe
You cannot go wrong with this fish cake recipe; great recipe to use the leftovers of fish and mashed potatoes.
Delicious with salad!

Ingredients:

 500g mashed potatoes (leave chunky)

 500g cooked fish, flaked (cod, salmon, haddock)

 1 egg, beaten

 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

 salt and pepper to taste

 plain flour for dusting

 olive oil for frying

Method:

1. In a bowl, combine all ingredients except for the flour and olive oil.

2. Flour a clean work surface. Take 1 heaping tablespoon of the fish cake mixture, roll into a ball, then pat down into a flat patty. Dust lightly with flour.

3. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan. Shallow fry the cakes until brown and crispy on both sides.

Sinigang Na Baboy – Pork Sinigang

Food Preparation & Recipe Tips Soup

Filipino Recipe
Philippines

Sinigang Na Baboy – Pork Sinigang

Sinigang na baboy is a pork sour soup dish which is native to the Philippines. Sinigang can also be beef, prawns, or milkfish.

Sinigang na baboy is my personal favourite. It is my comfort food when I am ill with cold, cough or getting over a flu or fever, when my taste bud is not at its best.

My English husband and son seem to love sinigang too. I eat it with boiled rice but they would just have theirs on its own like a soup.

When we cook sinigang in the Philippines, we would sour the soup with tamarind and tomatoes but since tamarind is not readily available in local supermarkets here in London, I just use Mama Sita’s Sinigang sa Sampaloc flavouring which is just as good.

This recipe is from www.myfilipinorecipe.com which uses the traditional sinigang recipe.

Pork Sinigang
Photo by JMorton

Sinigang Na Baboy – Pork Sinigang:

Ingredients:

  • 10 tamarind seeds or 1 packet sinigang mix
  • 1 kilo pork; cut in 1 1/2 inches chunks (liempo, kasim, or ribs)
  • 1 onion; sliced
  • 4 tomatoes; sliced
  • 1 Daikon radish (labanos); sliced
  • 5 string beans(sitaw), cut in 2” length
  • 1/2 cup kangkong leaves (river spinach)
  • 4 pieces gabi (taro); peeled and cut in halve
  • 2 whole siling haba (long green pepper)

 

Side Sauce

  • Fish (or soy) sauce
  • Lemon (or calamansi) juice

Pork Sinigang Cooking Instructions:

  • Boil the tamarind seeds, mash, and drain the juice. Set aside.
  • In a saucepan or stock pot, boil pork until tender. Add onion, tomato, and tamarind juice. Add gabi until tender and thickens the soup. Simmer, then add radish and string beans. When tender, add kangkong leaves. Season with fish sauce according to taste.
  • Serve or side with fish sauce and lemon (or calamansi) juice or soy sauce with lemon (or calamansi) juice, whichever is your preference.

Pork Sinigang using Mama Sita Tamarind flavouring

Being now a domicile in London, UK, I would just go to any oriental supermarket and buy some Mama Sita Sinigang na Baboy flavouring.

I would cook and boil cubed pork belly in lots of water. Now and again, I would skim the scum that develop on the surface of the boiling water.

When meat is nearly tender, I would add tomatoes, onions and the Mama Sita Sampaloc mix and just continue boiling.

After 5 minutes, I would then add de-stringed green beans, 3 to 4 long green chillies, and a medium size sliced daikon radish.

When the vegetables are cooked. I would serve this immediately with some boiled rice. Fever is then simply sweated out from eating this hot spicy/sour yummy concoction.

Please see the attached photos of my recent effort.