Tag: recipe

Ginataang Sitaw (String Beans in Coconut Milk)

Vegetables

Filipino Recipe

Ginataang Sitaw (String Beans in Coconut Milk)

This is another favourite of mine. Simple to make but so very healthy and delicious. Beans in the Philippines come in different lengths but they do taste like what they are supposed to taste – fresh and delicious. LOL
Sitaw


To make ginataang Sitaw:

  • 2 large bundles of sitaw or 1 large packet of string beans
  • 1/2 cup flaked daing (dried fish) or a small can of anchovies
  • 2 tbsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 cup minced onion
  • 1/2 cup cube pork
  • 4 tbsp bagoong alamang (this is optional if using can of anchovies as they are already salty)
  • 2 large hot peppers
  • 4 cups coconut milk

This is lovely cooked in heavy bottom pans like Le Creuset as it can be served from the stove straight to the table.

Anyway, any pan will do. 😉

Place the sitaw/string beans, dried fish or anchovies, ginger, onion and pork into a pan.

Add three cups of coconut milk.

Cover and cook until the coconut milk has almost dried.

Stir in what is left of the coconut milk and also add the hot peppers. If not using anchovies, add the bagoong to taste.

Stir to even up the mixture. Leave it uncovered and cook until the milk has curdled and almost dry.

Remove from heat at once and serve with lovely cooked boiled rice.

Serbian Tea

Uncategorized

Drink Recipe

Serbian Tea

 

To combat getting a cold in the Balkans or cure a cold itself, there is nothing better than a drink of hot Serbian Tea.

To make:

  • Slivovitz (plum brandy)
  • runny honey

Heat up the Slivovitz in a saucepan.

Add the honey to sweeten. (Honey is known to be a natural antibiotic).

Serve in small glasses.

Be careful as this concoction can be very potent but said to cure colds.

Misua – Patola (Kabatiti) Soup

Soup

Misua Soup with Patola, also known as Kabatiti or Luffa Squash

This is a very easy soup to make and yet very appetising.

It can be eaten as a soup on its own or with boiled rice for lunch or supper.  It can also be eaten as a quick merienda, meal between lunch and supper.

Ideal to give to children who just came home from school. Instead of cola and biscuit, why not serve this soup, it is healthier and gorgeous tasting.

If you do not happen to have patola, you can easily substitute courgette, which the Americans call zucchini.

You can get the misua noodles in Oriental supermarkets.  It takes a minute to cook it.

Misua – Patola (Kabatiti) Soup

  • 6 Cups of chicken stock or 6 cups of water and two chicken OXO cubes
  • 1/2 lb minced pork
  • 2 rolls of misua noodles
  • 1 large patola/luffa squash/kabatiti
  • 5-6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 finely diced onion
  • 2 tbps cooking oil
  • 3 tbsp fish sauce/patis (salt can be used instead)
  • ground black pepper
    —————————

    Saute the garlic and the onions in hot cooking oil till brown.
  • Stir in the minced pork.
  • When the pork had turned slightly golden, add the stock, patis(salt) and pepper.
  • Cover and boil for 25 minutes.
  • Drop in the patola; cover and cook for a further 5 minutes.
  • Now separate the misua and drop into the boiling broth.
  • Cover but turn off the stove.
  • Wait for a minute and it will be ready to serve as a delicious snack, lunch or supper.

Kutsinta – Rice Cake

Sweets & Desserts

Recipe

 

Kutsinta Recipe

bilao of Kutsinta

Kutsinta is my favourite amongst the array of rice cakes we eat for merienda, Filipino tea-time, in the Philippines. Kutsinta with its inviting orange colouring is so yummy garnished with latik, a dry-fried freshly grated coconut.

I used to look forward to kutsinta which my mother or grandfather would buy for merienda. It is eaten with the ubiquitous ice-cold Coca Cola or our Filipino version which is called Sarsi Cola, another favourite.

 

I found a recipe that is kinda easy to follow:

  • 2 cups of rice flour
  • 1 cup of brown sugar (demerara sugar)
  • 3 cups of water
  • 1 teaspoon of lye water, apparently lye water is a potassium carbonate solution
  • Freshly grated coconut for latik

————————————–

Mix the flour, sugar, water and lye water in a bowl.

Spoon the mixture into a muffin baking tray or ramekins, ensure to fill up halfway only.

But the muffin tray or ramekins into a big enough covered pan or walk to steam. If you have got a proper steamer then so much the better. Steam for at least half an hour or until a toothpick or sharp knife when inserted would come away clean, otherwise, continue steaming. Remember not to let the pan boil dry, add more water until the kutsintas are fully cooked.

As to the latik, just dry fry the grated coconut until golden brown, not burnt!

The ones my Lolo (grandfather) used to buy from our neighbour who was meanly called Kuba, due to her humpback, was really delicious. She used to put syrupy topping which were so appetising that you just have to slurp it. Kuba did use to make the most ambrosial rice cakes for meriendas around our street. She would bring out bilaos (rattan woven circular trays) after bilaos of kutsinta, maja blaca, puto, and pichi-pichi outside of her house to waiting for hungry customers. She would have made a fortune if she became professional with her cakes.

Mustard Mash Potatoes

Uncategorized

Recipe

Mustard Mash Potatoes

Someone in our house absolutely adores mash potatoes; he just can’t get enough of it. Anyway, the only way to make the mashed potatoes not become boring and predictable is to vary the flavour and taste from time to time.

Here is a particularly yummy recipe:

  • 1kg of potatoes, Desiree is a good choice.
  • 50g butter
  • 1.5 tbsp Dijon Mustard
  • 50ml cream
  • 1 tbsp salt

 

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 7 or 220 centigrade.

Place the unpeeled potatoes into a roasting tin and roast for an hour or until the potatoes are tender.

Set aside the potatoes and let it cool down enough to handle.

Peel the potatoes and place in a large bowl,

Now heat the butter, mustard and cream in a saucepan. Stir gently to mix. Do not let it boil.

Pour the mixture into the bowl of potatoes.

Add the salt and then mash until it is soft and so creamy.

Lovely served with grilled pork chops.

Enjoy.