Lemon Butter Garlic Shrimp

A trip to El Nido won't be complete without a serving of lemon butter garlic shrimp from local seafood restaurants.  How do they make it sweet and tangy?  I bumped into this recipe from panlasangpinoy.com  tweaked it to taste and voila!  It was a finger licking, shrimp sucking feast.

Ingredients:

1 kg medium sized shrimps

200ml lemon soda (sprite)

1/2c butter

2 bulbs of garlic, finely chopped

Salt

Pepper

Chopped parsely

1. Clean shrimps, devein.

2. Soak in lemon soda for about 10 minutes.

3. Heat pan, melt butter, add a tsp of oil to avoid burning.

4. Saute chopped garlic until light brown.

5. Add the shrimps, avoid mixing too frequently, let it cook one side at a time until light orange in color.

6. Add the used lemon soda, simmer to reduce to desired consistency.

7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

8. Add chopped parsely.

9. Remive from fire and transfer to a serving plate.

Crabs with Alavars Sauce

Crabs have been one of my favorite.  A friend invited me over for lunch and as soon as we learned that crabs will be served, we took the opportunity to learn how she prepares them.

First things first, how to kill a crab.  One can be brutal, by putting live crabs in hot couldron or cutting it half while alive or one can be a little bit humane with freezing them:

1. Wash crabs in running water.

2. Place live crabs in a big pan, put ice then add water just enough to cover half of it.  

3. The ice cold water puts them to sleep after 20-30 minutes.

Ingredients:

6 kgs jumbo crabs

3 white onions

3 garlic bulbs finely chopped

Tub of Alavar Sauce

Salt

Oil

4. On high heat, heat pan, put in the crabs, sprinkle with salt and cover to steam.  The crabs will produce its own fluids, if there's none, add a little bit of water.

5. Cover the pan to steam.

Halfway, cut and remove the straw tied to its claws/body.

6. Continue cooking until orange.

7. Remove from fire, then clean with water, remove the abdomen, carapace (top shell), gills, and other undesired parts and then chop.  See this link http://www.chow.com/recipes/30377-basic-steamed-blue-crabs for step by step instruction how to clean it.

8.  Heat the same pan with a little oil, saute chopped onions.

9. When it is half done, add in and saute the chopped garlic.

10. Add in the chopped crabs.

11. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

12. Pour in a tub of alavar sauce for a wet saucy mixture (like the cooked crab below). If you prefer to have it just slightly coated, half a cup of alavar sauce to one jumbo crab will do.

Alavar Sauce can be bought from Zamboanga.  

I bumped into this facebook account that sells them in Cebu but haven't bought from them:

www.facebook.com/alavarsaucecebu

Contact number: 09772154208 for P250 for half a kilo or P400 for a kilo.

13. Mix together.

14. Remove from fire and transfer to a serving plate.

Wow that was easy.  Now i'm hungry again. 😋

Steamed Rice Cebu Style

We call this steamed rice Cebu style because steamed rice is usually associated with plain white rice while any Cebuano would associate it as a rice in a bowl with meat toppings as popularized by Ding Qua Qua and so many other hole in a wall restaurants.

1/2 kg diced pork tenderloin with a little fat

8pcs shrimp

1 small onion

3 cloves crushed garlic

3 tbsp kikkoman soy sauce

2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 tsp shaoxing rice wine

2 tbsp constarch

1 cup chicken or pork broth

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 cup cold water

4 cups plain white steamed rice

1 tbsp kikkoman

Prepare thr rice:

1. Over high heat, saute garlic in hot pan.

2. Add rice and tbsp kikkoman soy sauce and fry.

3. Remove from fire and set aside.

Prepare the topping:

1. Saute onions and garlic in hot pan with oil until cooked.

2. Add pork until tender, almost cooked.  

3. Add shrimp until almost cooked.

4. Add 3 tbsp soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil.

5. Over medium heat, add chicken or pork broth and let it boil for 5 minutes.

6. Dissolve cornstarch in cold water. Set aside.

7. Add worcestershire sauce.

8. Add the cornstarch mixture. Stir continuously until thickened to desired consistency.

Spinach dip

Onion

1. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil over low heat.

2. Add sour cream and chopped spinach. 

3. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Blend mixture to desired consistency.

5. Heat in microwave when ready to serve with grated mozzarella.

Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

1 pack elbow macaroni

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

2c milk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp dried mustard

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1. Cook elbow macaroni as directed on the package.  Once cooked, drain and rinse with running water to avoid cooking further. This keeps it al dente and prevents it from getting soggy.

2. Melt 2 tbsp butter, add 2 tbsp flour and make a roux over low heat.

3. Add 2c milk, stir constantly with a whisk. Turn heat up to medium.

4. Add spices: salt, paprika, mustard, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder.

5. Add 1c velveeta cheddar cheese, whisk to melt. Add another cup, whisk to melt.

6. Pour the cheese sauce over the macaroni.  Bake for 150C or 325F for 30 minutes.

Tender Juicy Crispy Pata

Another comfort food is the crispy pata.  Not all can serve it right.  What's the secret to tender juicy crispy pata, fried or baked?

Ingredients

1 whole pig's leg

3 lemon grass (stalk only)

1/2 onion

2 tbsp Oyster sauce 

6 pcs bay leaf

2 tbsp whole peppercorn

6 pcs star anise

6 tsp rock salt

2 tsp black pepper

3 tsp garlic powder

15 c water

10 c cooking oil

Procedure

1. Pour water in a deep cooking pot, let it boil.

2. Add lemon grass, bay leaf, whole peppercorn, star anise, 2 tsp salt, oyster sauce. Simmer.

3. Add the pig's leg in the simmering pot over low-medium heat until meat becomes tender for about 3 hours.  The pig's leg can be just half submerged in water.  Slow cooking makes the meat tender.

4. Remove the leg and set aside and hang to cool and dry. Keep it in the ref overnight uncovered.

5. Scor the leg (scar horizontally using a knife). Baste with oil, rub the leg thoroughly with garlic powder, black pepper and salt.  This keeps it dry.  Allow it to absorb the rub for 15 minutes.

6. Heat a pot with oil.  Deep fry the leg with medium heat until one side becomes brown and crispy and then flip it to cook the other side. 

For a healthier alternative or should i aptly say less sinful way, you can bake it at 475F for 30 minutes, then lower it to 375F for another 20 minutes.

7. Turn off heat. Remove leg and drain excess oil.  Serve with sprite, soy sauce, onion, salt, pepper for dipping sauce

Fried Chicken ala Sunburst

Fried chicken is anyone's comfort food.  It looks very simple but why do KFC, Popeyes, Jollibee, Sunburst serve it better with tender juicy meat and crispy skin than any home cooked fried chicken.  I bumped into Skip to Malou's modern asian series on fried chicken ala Jollibee and tried it out.  My jollibee chicken turned out to be ala sunburst looking, my family thought we bought it from the local restaurant.  The technique was indeed successful but the taste needs a little tweaking.

Ingredients

8-10 pcs chicken parts

Marinade:

Lemon

2tsp rock salt

1tsp black pepper

1tsp garlic powder

1/2c all purpose flour

1/2c cornstarch

1tbsp garlic powder

1tbsp five spice powder (ngohiong powder)

2tsp salt

1tsp pepper

Procedure

1. Thaw chicken completely. Clean and drain excess water.

2. Toss chicken with lemon, salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Marinate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.  I once omitted this step and found it very bland.

3. Prepare the batter, whisk together flour, cornstarch, salt, pepper, garlic powder and five spice powder.

4. Heat oil in a deep wok, cast iron is best as it retains heat longer.

5. Dredge the chicken with the flour mixture. Coat it in between the skin and meat as well, this gives body and makes the skin crispy. Make sure all sections are properly coated and dried. Shake off excess flour mixture.

6. Drop a few flour mixture, if it immediately floats, the oil is hot enough.  Make sure it's not smoking otherwise you'll burn the chicken. Drop 5-6 pcs into the pan at a time.

7. Deep fry until golden brown for about 10 minutes on medium-high heat. Occasionally turn it around to prevent from burning if the bottom sticks to the pan.  Never under cook chicken, but overcooking makes it tough.

8. Remove from fire and drain excess oil.

9. Wait a minute to heat the oil again the cook the second batch.