GRILLED PORK BELLY RASHERS (INIHAW NA LIEMPO)

Filipinos share the love for the pig belly with the Americans. If the Americans love bacon to the max, Filipinos love belly pork in all forms. Yes, they are liempo-maniacs. Liempo is the Tagalog word for pork belly, the most used part of the pig in the Philippines. Be it a soup, stew, roast or even vegetable dish, the ingredient is always liempo. Such is the affliction of liempo-ma: death by pork rather than by chocolate. Pork is so delicious, fatty, addicting and bad for you that it's almost obscene to eat...and there lies its charms.

ASIAN BACON AND SPRING ONION PANCAKE

Pancakes and bacon are a perfect team in any way it is interpreted. This pancake may sound like your usual breakfast grub and the addition of spring onions may raise some eyebrows.

Let me explain. This is actually my version of Chinese spring onion pancakes. It is not at all your typical soft and fluffy American pancakes. It is made with a dough, not batter. Probably the only similarity is that they are both flat and fried in a pan.

MELONADE

HSBC's advert with a pretty little girl behind a lemonade stand is so charming. Talk about pushy Moms (why are we always the bad guys?), but it is her Dad who makes her lemonade. It is so sweet that she is so business savvy. It is so sweet that she is multi-lingual at a very young age, such a good foundation for a future business mogul. It is fascinating that though the street is an ordinary residential area, it is the on the tour bus route. It is so clever that none of the neighbours have noticed the business opportunity except this cute little girl.

GRILLED CHICKEN AND PEACH SUMMER ROLLS

When the weather is warm or at least dry, we barbecue. The word barbecue may mean a full blown grilling extravaganza to some but for us who originate from the tropics, it is just a way of cooking. We char grill or barbecue instead of frying or baking or boiling. 

In the Chinese concept of yin and yang, barbecues have yang properties. They induce heat in the body. Salads on the other hand have yin or cooling properties. Made into summer rolls, barbecued meat achieves a perfect balance. 

LIME AND MANGO CHICKEN

Umami is yummy. Simply defined as a meaty savoury taste but it actually comes from glutamate, one of the building blocks of proteins, not necessarily from meat. I know that that still doesn't explain much. But just think of it as extra yumminess. 

One product I almost always use as a sure fire umami inducer is light soy sauce. It is a seasoning that goes well with any recipe. It gives saltiness as well as that extra punch that wouldn't be given by adding salt alone. It blends with other seasonings and won't stand out.

THAI STYLE BEEF SALAD

My teenage daughter had dinner with some friends at a Thai restaurant. She loves Thai food and was looking forward to the meal as well as the company. She ordered Thai beef salad and thoroughly enjoyed but said it was a bit too hot for her taste. We are all fans of Thai food but can't hack the heat sometimes. It is the birds eye chillies that they use that can leave bit of sting on the tongue.

For the very reason that I make my own green curry paste, I do my take on Thai beef salad. This is simplified version, made with your normal supermarket items but still captures all the essential tastes in the original dish. If you have leftover steaks (I know that hardly happens) or roast beef, then you are just minutes away from enjoying a flavour packed salad. Did I say that it is low fat? Apart from the 1 tbsp. of oil in the marinade, the rest is fat free. Just make sure you trim off the fat from your meat. Hearthy, healthy and tasty.

This recipe makes 2 main or 4 starter or side portions.

Ingredients for the steak:

500 gms. rib eye steaks
2 tsps. soy sauce
2 tsps. lime juice
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsps. cooking oil

Cut diagonal slashes on the steaks, 1/2" apart. Turn over and cut diagonal slashes, going in the opposite direction. 

Mix the rest of the ingredients and use as seasoning for the steaks. 

Pre-heat the barbecue, grill pan or grill. Cook the steaks on high heat to your desired doneness.

Leave to rest and cool.

Slice, against the grain, into thin strips.

Ingredients for the dressing:

1/4 c. lime juice

2 tbsps. of fish sauce

2 tsps. of crushed garlic

2 tsps. of chopped red chillies

6 tbsps. of honey

Mix all of the ingredients together and use to dress the salad.

Ingredients for the salad:

200 gms. salad greens
1/3 c. sliced cucumbers
1 tomato, sliced
1 small red onion, sliced
2 tbsps. roughly chopped coriander leaves
2 tbsps. chopped peanuts
2 tbsps. crispy fried onions

Method:

Divide the salad greens into 4 portions. Top with the tomato, cucumber, onion and beef slices. Drizzle each with a quarter portion of the dressing. Sprinkle with the coriander, crispy onions and peanuts.

All rights reserved ©Adora's Box Copyright 2011. 

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SPINACH CRISPS AND ARTICHOKE DIP

I don't know what to say. After coming up with a recipe, cooking it right and shooting the photos, I hit a blank wall as to what to write to begin the post. This happens a lot of times, not often, but a lot.

How strange it would be to just post a straightforward recipe. I guess what separates a recipe site from a food blog is that little personal note. This may not come easy at times but I can't post a recipe without an intro: it is like opening the front door to someone, turning your back without saying a word, expecting him to follow inside.

BANANA PUDDING TURON

Eating with our fingers is a primal instinct. We first learn about food by touching. By instinct we know how to make our fingers lead food into our mouths. Alas, when we learn the joys of eating with our fingers we are told not to do it.

Since we are all grown up now, we can do as we please...even eat with our fingers. In today's society it is now acceptable to eat with our fingers, as long as we are eating "finger foods". 

The label "finger food" have been coined to attach to tactile, bite size food that made hand-to-mouth eating an accepted norm. It is fun food. Yes, especially to those who have less washing up to do.

A lot of food can be converted to finger foods to make them easier to eat: just two fingers needed. That gives you eight fingers free to do other stuff (e.g. texting). To make banana pudding a two-finger-food, I have encased it in a spring roll wrapper. This is a more upbeat version of a favourite Filipino snack called turon which is made with cooking bananas, dipped in brown sugar before being wrapped in spring roll pastry. A bit of the sugar oozes out, caramelises and speckles the turon. 

This spring roll not only has bananas as filling but also brown sugar and vanilla custard. It's a pudding wrapped up and ready to go in an edible vessel. The brown sugar melts into a caramel and the ripe bananas soften and meld with the custard. What else can be better than finger food but finger food with an oozy, melty filling. The mess is its allure. 

Yield: 16 turons

Ingredients:

4 ripe eating bananas
3/4 c. evaporated milk
2 eggyolks
2 tsps. corn flour
brown sugar
19 cm. x 19 cm. spring roll wrappers
1 tbsp. plain flour mixed with 1 tbsp. water to form a paste
cooking oil for frying

Whisk the milk and corn flour together. Add the egg yolks and blend together.

Transfer to a saucepan and cook on low heat while constantly stirring until very thick. Leave to cool, then refrigerate.

When the custard is cold, prepare the wrappers and the bananas. 

Separate the wrappers. Cut each banana into half lengthwise. Split each half into two crosswise. You should have a total of 16 pieces of bananas. 

Lay a sheet of spring roll wrapper on a board with one corner nearest to you. Spread 1 tbsp. of custard on the wrapper, sprinkle 1 tbsp. of brown sugar and top with 1 piece of banana. Roll up (see the intructions on how to wrap a spring roll here) and seal with the paste. Do the rest of the rolls. 

Heat up enough cooking oil to shallow fry the rolls. The oil has to be quite hot. Fry the rolls briefly just until the wrapper is crisp and golden brown. Do not fry for too long or the custard will ooze out. Drain on kitchen paper. Serve hot.

All rights reserved ©Adora's Box Copyright 2011. 

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ASIAN BARBECUE BEEF BRISKET

Some people plan their meals before heading to the shops. I, on the other hand, belong to the other group of "some people" who usually plan my meals according to what I have. My freezer is usually full of an assortment of meat cuts and joints among other things. Faced with a beef brisket joint, there are a lot of ideas that come to mind. Being of Asian origin, my inclinations tend to veer towards that direction.