INGREDIENTS

Chicken (any part of your preference, I used thigh and leg)

Carrots

Garlic

Onion

Potatoes

Green/Red Bell Pepper

Tomato Sauce

Liver Spread

Salt and Pepper

PROCEDURE:

1. Saute garlic and onion until fragrant. 

2. Once fragrant, add the chicken and saute for about 5 minutes or until the skin turns brown. 

3. Add the tomato sauce. Just eyeball how much you'll need and add more as you go along. 

4. Add water, salt and pepper and do you first taste test. Simmer for about 3 - 5 minutes. 

5. Once you're okay with the flavor, add the carrots, potatoes, bell pepper and liver spread. 

6. Simmer until the carrots and potatoes are cooked to your liking. 

7. Adjust seasoning according to taste. Serve with chili and fish sauce on the side. 

And that's it! Easy peasy, right? A few notes, don't put the entire liver spread. Just take it one tablespoon at a time. Take it easy on the tomato sauce as well. If you put in too much, it'll be harder to remedy in the long run. It also tends to get more sour which means you'd have to put in more seasoning. But overall, I think you can't go wrong with this dish so goodluck. Btw, other versions have green peas and hotdog, I prefer to have those only during fiesta's (lol) but not when I'm cooking. Let me know if you have any questions. Happy cooking!

INGREDIENTS:
Shrimp
Butter
Garlic
Oyster Sauce
Ketchup
Sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste

PROCEDURE:
1. Melt half a butter in a large skillet over medium high heat.
2. Add garlic to the skillet, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Add oyster sauce, ketchup and sugar until consistency becomes a bit thick and all ingredients are well combined.
4. Add shrimp, salt and pepper, to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until pink, about 2-3 minutes.
5. Serve with hot rice. Yum!

Ingredients

Labong (Bamboo shoots)

Saluyot (Jute leaves)

Onions

Garlic

Ginger

Coconut cream/milk

Salt and pepper

Dried shrimp

Chili (optional)

Procedure

1. Before cooking, soak the labong in water for about 30mins to 1hr. 

2. Heat the saucepan and saute onions, garlic, ginger and chili until fragrant. 

3. Add the dried shrimp and labong and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. 

4. Add the coconut milk, saluyot, salt and pepper. 

5. Adjust the taste according to your preference. 

Notes:

Okay so a few notes on the recipe just in case some thing weren't clear. I usually soak my labong for an hour because the ones I get from the grocery have some funky smell. But the really fresn ones from the market, I don't soak anymore. The chili is optional because my god, have you seen the prices? Lolkl. A lot of people don't take heat as well so you can opt to add the chili towards the end. And if you guys are clueless about the dried srhimp, here's what they look like.  Instead of using shrimp cubes, I use the dried shrimps instead for the flavor. And that's it, you got yourself a decent meal to go with that super expensive rice that not NFA. Let me know if some of my other instructions were unclear, will be happy to answer everything. Happy cooking!

Hey, guys! Sorry to be interrupting the Discover Davao series, but I'm really excited to share this recipe. It's nothing special, and if you're still following my blog at this point despite the inconsistent blog posts, you'd know that I'm no fan of tedious recipes. I made a video out of it which is why I'm excited! As mentioned, my kitchen at the condo doesn't really give me enough room to get natural light, hence the recipes I film only come about when I visit Tagaytay with my boyfriend. They have an enormous kitchen with ample lighting, and it makes filming my recipes way easier!

For this recipe, don't be surprised if the hand in the video doesn't look to feminine. Yep, that's my boyfriend hand, haha! This is his recipe, and this time, I'm the one behind the camera! I'm so lucky because the boyfriend shares the same passion. He doesn't mind if he does the cooking or the filming so long as we do it together, lol. Ewww that was so cheesey almost puked myself, haha! Before I spew anymore cheesy statements here, let's begin!

Shakshouka or shakshuka (Arabic: شكشوكة‎‎; Hebrew: שקשוקה‎‎ ) is a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, and onions, often spiced with cumin. It is believed to have a Jewish, North Africa origin. Shakshouka means "a mixture" in Libyan Arabic or other Maghrebi Arabic dialects. It is likely that it was first known as chakchouka, a Berber word meaning a vegetable ragout,although "shakshek" means "to shake", in Libyan Arabic, Berber and Hebrew, giving a possible Punic origin to the name of the dish.(via)

Ingredients

1 can diced Tomatoes

4 large Eggs

4 cloves Garlic

1 big Onion

1 tbsp Tomato paste

1 tbsp Salt (adjust as necessary)

1 tbsp Pepper

1 tsp Paprika

1 tbbsp Chili Powder (optional)

1 tsp Cumin

1 tbsp Sugar

1 red Bell Pepper

Parsley (for garnish)

Olive Oil

Procedure

1. In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Saute onions and garlic until soft. 

2. Add the bell pepper and saute for about 5-7 minutes or until they're cooked to your preferred texture.

3. Once the bell pepper is cooked, add cumin, paprika, tomato paste and sugar. Stir well and allow mixture to simmer for a few minutes. 

4. Once the mixture has simmered, add the diced tomatoes. At this point, you can adjust the taste and add more sugar or salt and cayenne pepper based on your preferred flavor. 

5. Crack the eggs, one at a time, on top of the tomato mixture. Making sure that there's enough space in between the eggs. 

6. Cover the pan and cook for about 5-8 more minutes, depending on how you want the eggs to be cooked. 

7. Once the eggs are cooked, you can top it off with pepper and garnish with parsley. 

A few notes on the dish, I had a bit of trouble making sure there's enough space between the eggs so make sure you use a large skillet. The canned tomatoes also tasted a bit more sour than fresh tomatoes, which in turn prompted me to add more salt. Next time I make the dish, I'm using fresh tomatoes. Other than that, I loved it! This dish is easily customizable and is best served with hot garlic bread on the side!

I'm finally finished with my Conquering Cebu series! Before I resume my travel posts, let me just squeeze one recipe into the queue so I don't forget that this is a food AND travel blog, lol. I've always wanted to make a video out of my recipes. But my kitchen has really bad lighting, and I don't have a camera man to-go. I don't know how my favorite recipes make it on Facebook! But hey, here's to trying!

So, I made this recipe during the birthday of my boyfriend's sister. The theme was all-out Japanese and we were tasked to make Chicken Yakisoba. I haven't been utilizing my kitchen for some time because the heat is draining me. It doesn't help that our kitchen is not air-conditioned. The only time I get to cook is when I'm at the boyfriend's place in Tagaytay since their kitchen is spacious, a lot of space to move around. Plus the cold Tagaytay breeze is comforting when you're cooking. Let's begin!

My work has piled up big time but I don't care, I love what I do. There are times where the stress gets to me, but not this week, for some reason. Maybe because cooking has been extremely therapeutic; or it could also be that I've been trying to eat healthy too. My sleeping pattern is still all sorts of fucked up but I'm trying to normalize everything. Working out? Uhm, nah. I don't think I'll ever get back to working out which is why I'm eating healthy, lol. 

I'm still not in the blogging mood, huhu. When I was on vacation, everything was so fresh and I wanted to blog right away. Now that I'm back, I can't seem to get Cebu off my mind. I just want to go back and explore the Queen City of the South! I've been spending most of my time looking for seat sales, hehe. I hope I get my mojo back soon. So many stories and photos to share! For now, back to work, haha. I'm backlogged and another holiday is coming up. Have an awesome weekend!

I've been crazy busy the past few weeks which is why I haven't really had the time to work on my back logs. Good thing I'm already done editing the photos and I just have to work on writing the post, phew! Not sure if I'll skip my Friday's 10 Happy Things this week, but I thought about putting this recipe out first since it's very appropriate on a Friday. 

For today's recipe, we'll be talking about Mongo. In our office pantry, I would always tell the person in charge if they're running out of recipes since there's always Mongo every Friday. She would then respond that Mongo is served on Fridays like clockwork, but she also didn't know how or why it started. Do you? I've been stressing my guts out trying to find out why, but I couldn't so I just resorted to cooking it, hahaha! No connection at all, just want to share my dilemma. 

• Mongo Beans (rinsed and soaked)
• Pork (cut into small pieces)
• Garlic
• Onion
• Tomatoes
• Shrimp Paste (Bagoong Isda)
• Pepper
• Alugbati (Malabar Spinach)

1. In a saucepan, saute onion, garlic and tomatoes. 
2. Add the pork and saute until the color turns brown. 
3. Once the pork turns brown, add your Mongo beans with about 1 cup of water. Add more water when necessary. 
4. Simmer the Mongo beans for about 5 minutes or more, depending on how long you soaked it in water. 
5. After simmering, add the Alugbati before it is totally cooked. I usually add it 2 minutes before I turn off the fire. 
6. Gauge the flavor and add Shrimp Paste and Pepper as needed.