They’re both shrimps so what’s the diff anyway? Well, there are. Let’s go to the more obvious: salt water suahe has paler body color and pinkish (or orangy) head than other suahes. Another thing is that it typically has saltier taste.

Suahes in general compared to other shrimps or prawns are lighter in color, which are typically grayish green to black for prawns.

Prawns are meatier while suahes are sweeter specially when a bunch of live suahes are dipped in boiling water and then turn the fire off immediately. Once the shells are orangy, remove the water and you won’t need any other spice. Natural flavor.

For tonight though, I’m sharing a very common recipe.

Ingredients:
A bunch of Suahe ( I chose the saltwater)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Half stick of butter
2 tablespoons of Margarine
2 heads of native garlic or 4 cloves of Taiwan variety of garlic, crushed.

Procedure:
1) Clean suahe.
2) Over low heat, put in butter, margarine, and garlic. Saut? till garlic emits rich odor and gloden brown in color.
3) Put in suahe. Increase fire temp.
4) Mix to spread the butter-garlic falvor. Cover then put off fire when almost cooked. The remaining heat inside the pot will cook the suahe.
5) Be careful not to overcook or else the meat will be rubbery.
6) Serve with vinegar and crushed garlic on the side.

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This is not really a popular dish here in the Philippines but when I was thinking of anything new or unique to prepare for New Year or Media Noche, this came into the picture. A very simple dish that made a good conversation topic with my relatives. Most people here are familiar with Giniling or Arroz ala Cubana, so it’s like Giniling with a Twist.

Beef Pie

Meat: Just sauté minced meat (or ground beef), garlic, onions, and carrots in olive oil. I added corn kernels and green peas for more flavor and festivity (i.e. color). Season with salt and pepper. Set in a baking dish.

Mashed potato: Boil potatoes, mash, then add some butter and fresh milk. Spread the mixture over meat in the baking dish. Use fork to put some designs like straight lines or checkers.

Bake the pie in a preheated oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until the potato turns brownish.

Technically I’m calling this “Super Simple Beef Pie”. The name “Cottage Pie” is usually for beef or other meat while “Shepherd’s Pie” is for lamb. Whatevs…

Weekend… a time to spend much with my family… maybe not enough but better than nothing. Enjoy some hefty meals at home, sleep, watch TV, DVD marathon, read books. Why is two days always not enough right? Oh well, about family meals, here is a Pinoy Mechado or Beef Stew recipe done the “quick and easy” way. It’s true that most beef stews are done around 5 hours or so but I’d optimize my weekends with a lot more stuff that being confined in the kitchen for that long. Though I love being in the kitchen, spending time and eating with family is way better.

My original plan was to cook bicol express but when I saw how good the Mechado cut of Farm Fresh in SM Supermarket yesterday, it got me inspired. I’ve never cooked Mechado so this is a first. Clueless about the ingredients, I started heading to Del Monte sauces to look for anything that mentions Mechado. To my luck, there is a Quick and Easy sauce for this dish. Grabbing 2 packets, laurel leaves, and potatoes, I’m ready to take on this challenge.

Listed somewhere here is the recipe and cooking instructions. Suffice to say, my first take in this beef stew is successful and my family was happy about the tenderness of the beef and the delicious sauce. Simply done for simple joys

Cook it, share it!

Note: Some modifications were made to the recipe written on the sauce pack.

Ingredients:
1 Kilogram      Beef Mechado Cut or Beef Cubes
6 Cups      Water
2 Piece      Onion, diced
2 Piece      Potato, cubed
2-3 Piece      Laurel leaves
1/2  Tsp     pepper
1/2 Tsp      salt
2 Tsp      sugar
2 Packs      Del Monte Quick and Easy Mechado sauce

4.  Serve and enjoy with steamed rice like how Pinoys eat almost every dish with rice

Okay here’s the thing, while writing this post, the cookbook is downstairs and am so lazy to get it So I’ll make this post from my memory of the kitchen battle earlier.

The Ingredients…

1 cup of milk

1 cup of coconut milk (canned, powdered, or fresh)

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

butter

caramel: 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water

The Procedure…

Caramel:

1) Pour sugar in a saucepan over low fire and allow it to melt with occasional swirling. Once completely melted, pour in water. This will create some splatter so continuously swirl the saucepan to mix water and caramelized sugar.

2) Pour caramel into soufflé dishes or ramekins that were brushed with butter or margarine.

Flan:

1) Mix eggs and vanilla.

2) In a saucepan, mix sugar, coconut milk and milk. Over low fire, mix until sugar is dissolved.

3) Pour the milk mixture over the egg and vanilla mixture. Stir evenly and fast to avoid the eggs to curdle. If it curdles, strain the mix using a cloth or strainer with fine mesh.

4) Scoop some mixture and pour on the ramekins.

Cooking:

1) Place the ramekins in a roasting pan or deep pan. Create a bath, such that hot water is poured in the deep pan up to half-way thru the ramekin.

2) Place the pan in the middle of the oven that was pre-heated at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

3) Make sure the mixture doesn’t boil. Cook for about 50 mins or until the toothpick or knife comes off clean when inserted in the mixture.

Serve and enjoy

My flan had bubbles so the mixing is important to be slow and avoid getting air into the mix through fast beating or mixing

LOOK AT THIS…

Do I need to explain further what a lechon kawali is?

Oh well… Simply put it is deep-fried pork belly or liempo. There are various ways of preparing this. One way is to boil the pork belly with onions, garlic and other seasoning prior to deep frying.

This one here, I used Barrio Fiesta Lechon Kawali Seasoning Mix. I just followed the instructions at the back of the packet and that’s it… If you want to try it out, you may also refer to the official website of Barrio Fiesta.