Macrine's Favorite Lunch and Other Pinoy Dishes

This is Macrine's Favorite lunch-Fish Taco Garnished with Cactus and Tomatoes salad.

Macrine enjoying her fish taco with cactus/tomato salad and  a dash of  mild Picante sauce

Her second choice of lunch is lengua ( beef tongue)* taco. Both tacos we purchased at our nearby Mexican restaurant- Tres Hermanos. On Tuesday the lengua taco is on sale for only $1.99 each. However, the fish taco is always $2.97 each all week.

There are several good Mexican Restaurants within 10 miles distance from our residence. As a promotion to attract more customers,our Bath lady informed us that on Wednesday, the tacos are only $1 in Elk Grove- about 30 minutes drive from our residence. Tres Hermanos is very popular. On weekdays from 11AM to 1PM, the waiting line to be served is about 15 minutes. The food however is excellent and worth the wait.

* Speaking of beef tongue( lengua), my favorite recipe in the Philippines is lengua Estofado

Lengua Estofado- one of my  favorite Pinoy dishes for special occasion

For the recipe visit :https://recipenijuan.com/lengua-estofado-recipe/

For other Mexican dishes that Macrine and I also enjoy visit this site:

https://myfavoritepinoydishes.blogspot.com/2018/11/enjoying-mexican-food-beef-tamales.html

For My Favorite Filipino Dishes read:

https://hubpages.com/food/my-favorite-philippine-dishes

For Angela's Dimayuga 10 Essential Pinoy Recipes as Published in the NY Times read:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/dining/filipino-food-recipes-angela-dimayuga.html?searchResultPosition=2

I feel like Cooking Oyster Rockefeller Today

Today is not a special day such as my birthday or Mother's day. I just feel like cooking a special dish to celebrate being alive and without lingering pains in my octogenarian body. Thank you Lord for this day!

Oyster Rockefeller is one of my favorite dish to cook. With the availability of fresh oysters, it is an easy recipe.

I used spinach, Parmesan cheese, onions, garlic, olive oil, parsley and bread crumbs as the ingredients. Sometimes I add bacon/mushrooms/shrimps(Bienville)*, If I have it in my refrigerator.  My recipe is similar to this recipe.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/oysters-rockefeller/  

For other ways of preparing oysters visit the following site:

https://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/raw-rockefeller-9-essential-oyster-preparations

*Origin of Oyster Rockefeller and Oyster Bienville

Oysters Rockefeller, according to legend, were created about in New Orleans. They were invented to mark the occasion of a visit by industrialist John D. Rockefeller to the Crescent City.

Oysters Bienville, on the other hand, also comes to us from New Orleans. It was named in honor of an early governor Louisiana, Jean de Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville.

These two are very elegant dishes . They are the epitome of style and sophistication and the very embodiment of living the good life.

An Easy Recipe for Baked Okra

I planted Okra in my garden this year. The following photo is my 4th harvest this year. I usually cooked the okra by just steaming it and then sauteed with butter and shrimp paste ( bago-ong) with a little vinegar. I am tired with this recipe so I searched for a roasted or baked okra recipe and I found the following from Cooktoria.com

HOW TO MAKE BAKED OKRA:

1. Preheat the oven to 450F degrees.

2. Rinse the okra, and dry with a paper towel. Trim away the stem ends, and then cut it into 1/2 to 3/4-inch pieces. Spread the okra on a sheet pan in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil, paprika, salt, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Stir.

3. Bake the okra for about 15 minutes. The okra should be lightly browned and tender, with a nice seared aroma. Serve immediately.

This is a simple, flavorful, and easy Baked Okra recipe. Seasoned with paprika, salt, and a pinch of cayenne, this okra makes a great snack or side dish.

Ingredients

1 lb. fresh okra
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. paprika
salt to taste
a pinch of cayenne pepper optional

❤ COOKTORIA.COM

Four New Dishes I Really Enjoyed this Week

This is one of the new dishes that I enjoyed this week.

The other day when I was shopping at our local Filipino store and restaurant ( kare-kare and pancit and buko pandan ice cream), I saw the above package- Bangus( milk fish) Embutido. I have not tasted this before although I am very familiar with standard Embotido made of ground pork. The package was $7.99. The dish was delicious with steam rice and pancit and worth every penny I spent.

Last week three other dishes that Macrine and I enjoyed were Taco de Lengua( Beef Tongue), Taco de Tripa (tripe) and Menudo con Pata ( Tripe soup with pig's feet). The above three dishes I purchased from our local Mexican restaurant. I highly recommend that you have to taste the above three dishes if you have the chance. Order the dishes from an authentic Mexican restaurant ( Not Mexican-American or Texan)

The Menudo dish I modify by adding garbanzo beans and tomato sauce to simulate my favorite Pinoy recipe. In this restaurant, their fish taco is also out of this world. The fish is cut in small cubes and highly seasoned with a very mild fishy smell. It is better than the fish Taco I have tasted in San Diego, California.

Our local Mexican Restaurant ( Tres Hermanos) offered several meat choices for their taco or burrito dishes. Besides the Carne Asada( beef steak) or Pollo Asado( grilled chicken), you could have Al Pastor( BBQ Pork), Chile Verde(Green Chili Pork), Tripitas( Beef tripe), Chorizo ( Mexican sausage), Lengua ( Beef Tongue) and Buche (Pig stomach). I have tasted all of the above meat offerings on my tacos/burritos except for the Buche.

Cooking Chile Relleno and Casserole Stuffed with Seafoods

There are several recipes in the web on how to cook Chile Relleno and Casserole. I have my owned recipe of chile relleno and casserole using fresh Poblano peppers stuffed with either shrimps or Crab/lobster meat. It is essentially the same way as in the video below, but instead of just plain Monterey Jack cheese, I add either shrimps ( precooked) or crab or lobster (Shredded - imitation is OK) to the stuffing.

There are several sauces you can used. Since I am lazy, I just used Picante Sauce all ready to use. My daughter used Cholula Sauce. Cholula hot sauce is a brand of chili-based hot sauce, manufactured in Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico, and licensed by José Cuervo. According to its manufacturers, Cholula hot sauce rates 500-1,000 on the Scoville scale though other sources measure it as being over three times hotter, at 3,600 Scoville units.

There are several videos in the Web on how to cook Chile Rellenos and Casserole. The following video is easy to follow: