Marinduque Cuisine-Best in the Island?

It has been almost two years since my last posting about Philippine cuisine, specifically Marinduque cuisine. But the latest posting from one of my on-line friends in FB, reminded me that food is an excellent topic any time of the year. My on-line friend who is a Caucasian American( JM) and married to a Filipina posted on his FB wall that his wife relatives from the Ilocos Region sent them fresh Lapu Lapu, Prawns and kankong ( a native vegetables), the other day. JM commented that his wife is a good cook and served him chili prawns, fish sticks and kankong sautéed in oysters sauce that night for dinner. The menu made me hungry and reminded me of my wife's recipe of prawns in garlic sauce, sweet and sour bingao and chicken cooked in coconut milk with saffron and green peppers. Bingao is an ocean fish in the red snapper family. It is more fatty than Lapu-Lapu and taste like pork with no fishy smell. The texture is similar to fresh water eels. It is very expensive and rare. I am sorry I can not give you an English name, but bingao is better tasting than Lapu Lapu. We will not be in Marinduque until the end of the year. But the first thing I will instruct our housekeeper is to look for Bingao in the fish market as soon as we arrived.

Now back to Marinduque cuisine. There are four dishes that the Marinduquenos are proud to call their very own. First, they have the ADOBO SA GATA. This is usually a native chicken cooked in coconut milk with green papaya and pepper leaves, spices and dilaw ( a yellow spice) also known as tumeric, (a cheap imitation of saffron). The native chicken is sometimes tough but has a more sweet-tasty feel compared to the regular chicken. The native recipe do not call for green, yellow or red peppers fruit, but my wife always instruct our cook to add this three kind of peppers for color/texture. This is my #1 favorite. I could eat this every week with gusto.

The second dish is the dinugu-an or Kari-kari. The Marinduqueno kari-kari has ox blood but a dryer sauce(compared to other regional blood pudding dish) and very spicy. This is a different dish from Kare, made of tripe and ox tail in peanut butter sauce with green beans. I do not know the details of how it is cook, but when Macrine's aunt give us her Kari-kari, it taste like heaven with rice cake (puto) or just steam rice (I am salivating now, just thinking about it). If you hate spicy dishes, this is not the dish for you .

The third and most delicious of the native dishes is ulang-ulang. It is made from the coconut lobster and young coconut ( shredded buko), coconut milk and a sprinkling of garlic pepper, unions and kalamansi juice( similar to lemon juice). It taste heavenly with steamed rice and noodles.

The fourth dish native to the island is "laing". It is made from taro(gabi) roots and leaves with garlic, ginger and coconut milk. Sometimes, dried fish ( dilis) or tulingan is added to the dish and a tint of shrimp paste( bagoong)


To All Married Men Readers! Do you believe in the statement that, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach". This statement really applies to me! Comments?

Mushrooms Stuffed with Dungeness Crabs

Special today in Food Maxx Grocery store here in Northern California are whole Dungeness Crabs for only $2.99 per lb. I believe this will be the lowest price one can purchase Dungeness crabs this season. I purchase two almost 2-lbs each of whole crabs costing me only $12. In my previous posting, I wrote about my favorite crab cake recipe, crab quiche, garden salad with crabs and a corn and crab soup. Today, I wanted to try cooking an appetizer that is easy to prepare since I am an amateur cook. I found the following ( allrecipes.com) recipe and it reminded me of the dish I once order at the Red Lobster Restaurant near our residence.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter, melted

24 fresh mushrooms

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons minced green onions

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 cup diced cooked crab meat

1/2 cup soft bread crumbs

1 egg, beaten

1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed

3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided

1/4 cup dry white wine


Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Prepare a 9x13 inch baking dish with 3 tablespoons butter. Remove stems from mushrooms. Set aside caps. Finely chop stems. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the chopped stems and green onions and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in lemon juice, crab meat, soft bread crumbs, egg, dill weed and 1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese. Thoroughly blend the mixture.

Place mushroom caps in the buttered pan, and stir until caps are coated with the butter. Arrange caps cavity side up, and stuff cavities generously with the green onion and crab meat mixture. Top with remaining Monterey Jack cheese. Pour wine into the pan around the mushrooms. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven 15 to 20 minutes, until cheese is melted and lightly browned. Serve warm. Bon Apetit!

Relleno Na Bangus for your New Year's Eve Dinner

Yesterday, I posted the simplest recipe I can think of for bangus. Today, I like to share with you a special recipe for bangus that our family here in US and Marinduque enjoyed very much. We usually prepare this dish only during special occasion like birthdays and holidays. This a good dish to serve for your New Year's Eve dinner. This is my wife's recipe for Relleno na Bangus. Relleno means stuffed. The hardest and time-consuming part is deboning of the fish. Otherwise the recipe is very simple but not recommended for amateur cooks like me. The ingredients are as follows:

Ingredients

1 medium size bangus (milkfish)
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 lemon
1 tbsp soy sauce
42.5g raisins*
60g peas
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
* Here in US, sweetened and dried cranberries may be used instead of the raisins


Directions of preparation:

Clean fish by removing scales, removing gills and the insides. Cut part of the tail. Pound the flesh of the fish to loosen it up. Cut open from the backside lengthwise. Scrape out fish meat, being careful not to tear the skin. Set aside. Squeeze half of lemon into the meat and soya sauce. Boil 2 minutes. When cooled, remove fish bone from the meat.

In a skillet, saute garlic and onion in olive oil. Add the fish meat, and all remaining ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook 5 minutes. Cool. When cooled, fill the skin with all of the cooked mixture until the fish is formed again. Sew the side to seal the mixture. Fry (used vegetable or olive oil) the fish whole. Slice fish crosswise to serve.

Sweet Corn and Dungeness Crab Soup

With the Dungeness crab in season here in Northern California, the cost of whole Dungeness crabs is only $4.99/lb in Safeway and $ 5.19/lb at Raleys yesterday. I bought two 2-pounder crab for only $20. After cleaning, the two whole crabs yielded about 16 oz of meat including the meat from the claws. I was looking for a simple recipe in the Web, but I did not find one that is simple enough, so that an amateur cook like me can do it without using my brain. Then suddenly I remember a very simple dish that my wife used to prepare. It is her corn and crab soup. Here's the recipe, so simple even a person who has never cook in his/her life will enjoy doing it.

8 oz crab meat ( Dungeness,Maryland or Philippine hard or soft shell)
1 onion ( sweet preferably)-minced
1/2 clove garlic
1 16 oz can golden sweet corn, cream style ( Del Monte brand preferred)
salt and pepper, soy sauce to taste
2 cups water
vegetable oil
chives or green onions (optional)

Saute the onions and garlic in oil until cooked. Add the sweet corn and 2 cups of water. Add salt and pepper or soy sauce to taste. Let the mixture simmer and add the crab meat. Mix and stir until the soup simmers. Add the chives or green onions as the garnishing.(optional). Serve Hot!

Very, very simple! Delicious and Nutritious!

A Simple Crab Quiche Recipe

Due to the abundance and reasonably price( only $3.99/lb) fresh Dungeness Crabs this week here in Northern California, I was able to experiment preparing several dishes using crab meat. I have prepared crab omelet, corn and crab soup and crab cakes. Today I am experimenting on preparing my first crab quiche recipe. The following is the simplest I found in the Web.

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk

1 cup crab meat

1 cup diced Swiss cheese

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium bowl, beat together eggs, mayonnaise, flour, and milk until thoroughly blended. Stir in crab, cheese, and onion. Spread into pie shell. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Enjoy and Bon Apetit!

Reference: allrecipes.com

Honey Baked Ham and Potato Casserole

Honey Baked Ham/Potato Casserole

In my recent posting, I discussed my experience in how I spent about one hour in line just to purchase a spiral honey baked ham for our Christmas dinner, known in the Philippines as the Noche Buena. In that post, I expressed my feeling of frustration as well as of not being appreciated when my wife indicated that my purchase of a 4.5 lb ham was not adequate for our nine guests. My wife felt, I should have purchased at least a 6 lb ham or bigger.

My decision to buy a smaller ham was based on my experience that besides the ham we will have other several dishes in the Noche Buena menu, so that there will be lots of leftover ham. My estimate was correct. We have about 2 lbs of ham leftover. It is getting stale in the refrigerator, unless we used if for another recipe. I have made ham sandwiches with sweet Hawaiian rolls which is delicious. BUT THERE are still about a pound of leftover ham.

Today, I am getting sick of looking at the ham, so I asked my wife her recipe for another ham dish that is not only simple but also delicious. Here's my wife simple recipe. She called this recipe her Honey Baked Ham and Potato Casserole.

6 big potatoes
2 medium sized unions
1 bunch parsley
1 quart sour cream
1 cup of milk
1.0 lb of honey baked ham( other brand of ham may be used)
0.5 cup Flour flavored with garlic salt and ground black pepper

Peel the potatoes and sliced it to about 0.5 inch thick. Slice the unions. Shred the parsley. Chop the honey baked ham into small slices. Grease the pyrex dish with cooking oil. Layered the dish first with the sliced potatoes, then the ham, then the onions, sour cream and parsley. Sprinkle this layer with flavored flour. Repeat the layering and flavoring process until the dish is almost full. The top layer should be another slice of potatoes To the top of the dish pour about 1 cup of milk. Cover the pyrex dish. Baked in the oven for about an hour at 350 degrees Use a cuisinart in all your slicing activities, to make cooking easier for you..

My wife tells me, she has a few other recipes for leftover hams, but the recipes are more complicated and required more ingredients and longer time to prepare, such as a ham quiche or souffle

Do you have a recipe for left over hams, you want to share?. I will appreciate it very much, if you do. Bon Apetit this coming New Years Day Feast and Celebration!



Note: In the Philippines as well as in other parts of the world you need to have 12 pieces each of round fruits that must be on the dinner table at the stroke of midnight if you want to be lucky and prosperous for the coming year.

My Special Crab Cake Recipe

I was searching for the simplest crab cake recipe in the Web with a lot of crab meat and less additives. I found this classic Maryland crab recipe by Susie Middleton published at Fine Cooking Magazine. The only additive is the breadcrumbs. With the abundance of Dungeness Crab this week here in Northern California, I was able to purchase 4 whole 1.5-pounder Dungeness Crabs from Food Max at only $3.99/lb the other day. I believe this will be the cheapest price the crab market will allow based on historical data of the crab season here in California.

This was my first time to prepare crab cakes, but the recipe looks very simple. The hardest part was cleaning the crab. It took me about an hour to harvest about one pound of meat from the two whole crabs bodies and claws. My neck started to strain from the concentration of extracting the meat from the crab shells and claws. If you are lazy, and have no time or patience to extract the meat from the whole crab, you can purchase fresh and pasteurized meat. The disadvantages are that you will miss the butter or fat of the crab and you will pay much higher for your meat. For example a 4 oz of lump meat cost about $21.99 in Safeway.

After tasting the recipe below, I will prepare it again perhaps next year Dungeness Crab season. If the price of Dungeness Crab is still $3.99/lb next week, I plan on cooking another crab omelet, a crab quiche, a crab garden salad Louie and may be another crab cake dish again. Bon Apetit!

1 lb. crabmeat, fresh or pasteurized ( Dungeness, Maryland or Philippines)
1 large egg
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1-1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1-1/2 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce Kosher salt
1-1/4 cups fresh breadcrumbs (from soft white sandwich bread)
1 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 Tbs. olive oil
Lemon wedges for serving

1.Drain the crabmeat, if necessary, and pick through it for shells. Put the crab in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

2. In a small bowl, whisk the egg, mayonnaise, mustard, Old Bay seasoning, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/4 tsp. salt. Scrape the mixture over the crab and mix gently until well combined. Gently break up the lumps with your fingers but do not overmix.

3. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs and the parsley over the mixture, and mix them in thoroughly but gently; try not to turn the mixture into a mash—it should still be somewhat loose. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 to 3 hours.

4. Shape the crab mixture into 8 cakes about 1 inch thick. In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat the butter with the olive oil over medium heat. When the butter is frothy, add the cakes to the pan (8 should fit comfortably). Cook until dark golden brown on the underside, about 4 minutes.

5. Flip the cakes, reduce the heat to medium low, and continue cooking until the other side is well browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges on the side for squeezing over the cakes.

Reference: www.finecooking.com/classicmarylandcrabcake/Photo by Scott Philip

My Favorite Pinoy Merienda or Desserts

The following are my favorite Filipino desserts. All are of Filipino origin except gateau le sans rival and brazo de mercedes. Looking at the pictures below has my salivary gland fully activated. Yum, Yum indeed! If you have not tasted any one of the desserts below, I feel sorry for you, but it is not too late unless you are dying of diabetes. Even if you are diabetic, a small portion of the dessert is fine. Just do not forget to take your metformin or an equivalent anti-diabetic drug.

1. Bibingka
Puddings are big in the Philippines. Bibingka, a popular dessert of pudding is made of ground rice, sugar and coconut milk. This pudding is baked in a clay oven and topped with fresh, salted duck eggs or shredded cheese.

2. Guinat-an
Another popular pudding in the Philippines is guinatan served with lashings of deliciously sinful coconut milk. It even taste better if garnished with fresh jack fruit slices.
3.Halo-halo

Halo-halo or literally mix-mix is actually an exotic fruit mix that is similar to Malaysia's 'ice kacang'. This delightful fare, featuring exotic fruits and vegetables come colorfully stacked under shaved ice. Due to its popularity in the country, this dish is known as the 'Queen of Desserts'.
4.Kutsinta

Kutsinta or brown rice cake is a favorite snack among the locals. This rice cake made of rice flour and brown sugar is delicious, especially when served with freshly grated coconut.

5. Gateau le sans Rival popularly called sans rival or Cake without a Rival
There are several recipes of this very delicious and sweet dessert in the Web!
6.Leche Flan


7. Brazo de mercedes


8.Maja blanca-

Here's a short video how to prepare this delicious dessert

9. Suman-could be made with sweet rice, or cassava flour wrapped in either coconut or banana leaves.

Last but not least is Turon.

9. Turon- ripe plantain ( saging na sab-a) wrapped in lumpia wrapper. Deep fried and sprinkle with a tinge of brown sugar. Yum, Yum.

Note: Filipinos love to it. Besides the three meals, there is always a merienda at around 3 to 4 PM. Sometines there is a morning snack at 10AM. Our favorite afternoon merienda in Marinduque is turon because of the abundance of plantains. Living in the Philippines reminds me of our Bahamas cruise vacation several years back when we had meals six times a day which included a mid night buffet. If you love food joined a cruise vacation or live in the Philippines.

Three Dishes for My Birthday Party

Last Friday was my birthday, but I had an overactive stomach that day, so we did not have any party. However, yesterday, my sister-in-law(Charo Jambalos Levin)and Merlet Perlas from Palo Alto visited my wife and me to have a celebration of my birthday. They brought with them two whole Dungeness Crabs a gift from my wife's niece, Elaine Lazarte Chalfin of Mountain View, California. They also brought with them two other dishes, the chicken adobo sa gata and the Chicken Quesadilla dish. The recipe of the three dishes are as follows:

A.Dungeness Crabs in Oyster Sauce

1. Divide and crack the whole steamed Dungeness Crabs into small portions. Save the Butter.

2. In a separate pan, saute ginger, and garlic with vegetable or olive oil.

3. Place the cracked crabs into the pan, stir until it simmers.

4. Add the crab butter with enough water to transfer all the butter into the pan

5. Add 2 tbs of oyster sauce, then the scallions.

6. Continue stirring until it simmers. Serve Hot.

B. Chicken Adobo sa Gata(Coconut Milk)

1. Chopped one whole chicken into small edible portions. Take out most of the skins and wash the meat

2. Saute garlic and onion in vegetable or olive oil in a pot. Put the chicken in the pot, stir and mix. Add a tsp of powdered black pepper. Boil the chicken for 10 minutes or until cooked without adding any water. Add about one tsp of tumeric powder* ( dilaw or yellow in Pilipino) and simmer another 10 minutes.

3. Add 1 can of coconut milk and simmer until the dish turn yellow. Then add ½ cup of vinegar, and mix. Add slices of green and red bell peppers, salt and pepper to taste. Serve Hot. Total time should be around 30 minutes.

* If you are rich, used safron instead of tumeric

C. Chicken Quesadilla ( Excellent for Left over Baked Chicken)

1. Shred the baked chicken. Place the chicken in a tortilla flour. Add Cheddar Cheese.( Any kind of cheese will do).

2. Close and flip the tortilla. Place in a hot skillet ( no oil). Invert tortilla and cook until the cheese melts. Add your favorite salsa( mild or hot) and sour cream. My favorite salsa is the HOT Pecante sauce. My wife prefers the MILD version. Bon Apetit!

Again thank you, Charo, Merlit and Lanie for my birthday treat!

Honey Baked Ham Again for our Christmas Dinner This Year

Our main dish again this year for our Christmas Dinner is the spiral honey baked ham. We will have 9 adults and one child for dinner this year. Yesterday, I already purchased a 5 lb ham at our local Honey Baked Ham store, to avoid the long lines. But I was mistaken about avoiding the waiting in line. I still waited for 35 minutes to be served since there were about 60 customers ahead of me. The store carries also glazed turkey breast besides the honey bake ham. If you wait to buy your ham today, expect a line from 2 to 3 hours and wait outside the store in the cold. This year though, the parking at the back of the store was well organized. The store hired a parking attendant directing the in and out traffic caused by the hundreds of ham and turkey buyers this week.

Every year I am always wondering why this ham is very popular compared to other hams. The reason is explained in this short posting from the Honey baked ham website as follows:

"The spiral ham had its origins at Honey Baked Ham Company over 50 years ago. Harry J. Hoenselaar opened the first Honey Baked Ham Company store in Michigan. He made hams one at a time - and made sure every one met his exacting quality standards. He'd start with only the best quality bone-in ham, marinate it in his secret curing recipe, smoke it for as long as 24 hours over select hickory embers, slice it and then glaze it with his now-famous honey sweet and crunchy glaze. At that time, the spiral ham was born, Harry patented the unique spiral slicer he invented and the rest is history.

There are a number of benefits to spiral sliced hams. For one, spiral slicing is convenient. You don't need to worry about carving your ham when you buy a Honey Baked spiral ham. Secondly, spiral slicing creates uniform, perfectly sized servings of our moist and delicious ham. Third, the spiral cut makes the ham more attractive when it's placed on your table. Plus, because Harry spiral sliced his ham first and then added his delectable sweet glaze, none of the glaze is lost during the slicing process".

I have tasted Chinese ham and other brand of smoked hams before. They are more salty compared to the honey baked which has a sweet taste and indeed really delicious. I paid $6.99 per pound for the ham I purchased yesterday. It is not a bad buy since it is a delicious meat dish. Of course besides the ham we will have other dishes such as Dungeness crab omelet, chicken macaroni salad, Filipino noodles ( pancit), chicken adobo with salad greens, mango ice cream, peach and pumpkin pies, Hawaiian sweet rolls and steam rice. Again my dear readers, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Safe New Year.

Talangka or Asian Shore Crab in Coconut Milk

Photo from fotochef.blogspot.com
In my previous posting I described how I watched harvesting the bangus (milk fish)from my parents fish pond when I was growing up in the Philippines. Along with the bangus, hundreds of mini crabs known locally as talangka were also harvested. The correct English name for talangka is “Asian shore crab” because of the square shaped top shell.

I remember eating the small crabs that our maid cooked in coconut milk. It is called locally as Ginat-an na Talangka. This Filipino dish has also shrimp paste( bago-ong), garlic, ginger, and chili(hot pepper). Do not over cooked the crabs. You may used vinegar with crushed garlic as a good dipping sauce. The best part of the crab is the red fat (TABA),oftentimes known as the Filipino caviar. Here's how to eat this delicious dish.

First remove the top shell, then split the body into two and remove the legs. Dip into vinegar/garlic sauce, and eat the body only. The legs are pretty sharp. Omit the hot pepper if you do not like it spicy hot. This dish is super high in cholesterol and not for persons with high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. Bon Apetit!

Last year ABC News featured Chef Bun Lai of Miya Sushi Restaurant in New Haven, Connecticutt regarding his recipe of crab popcorn. I am sure it taste better than shrimp popcorn. Chef Bun Lai urged everyone to eat Asian shore crab popcorn to help restore the ecosystem balance in the Eastern seashores of the US.

The scientific name of the Talangka is Hemigrapsus sanguineus. It is sometimes called as the Japanese shore crab or Asian shore crab, crablets or mini crabs. This is a species of crab from East Asia. In recent years, it has been introduced to several other shores in other countries, and is now an invasive species in North America and Europe.

Feasting on Dungeness Crab this Season

I purchased my first fresh Dungeness crabs last week for this year crab season. Safeway had a sale for only $4.99 per lb. I bought two medium-sized whole crabs costing me only $16.24. The price of Dungeness crab in the other stores in our area were at $6.99 per lb. Dungeness Crab season started last November 5 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Needless to say Macrine and I had a feast eating with our hands and fingers. The crab meat was delicious along with garlic bread and green salad with fresh avocado slices and honey mustard dressing. There was a left over crab (claws and 1/4 body) that I cleaned today and made into an omelet. Here's my simple recipe for a crab omelet.

2 potatoes- peeled and slice into 1/4 inch cubes
1 onion-cut into small cubes
1/4 small cabbage shredded
3/4 cup crab meat
olive oil and garlic salt
6 eggs

Sauted the onions in oil until cooked. Add the shredded cabbage and heat at low heat until cooked. Add the potato cubes and continue heating until the potatoes are cooked. Add the crab meat and mixed and then pour the beaten eggs into the pan. Cooked until the eggs are cooked. Invert the omelet in the pan and continue heating at low heat. Serve 6.