Egg’s Nest

This post was inspired by a Facebook status I saw last week by one of my friends, Mackies.

The recently engaged and in love Mackies posted a picture of her first attempt to prepare, whatelse… Chaaaran! Bird’s Nest. And so I thought, “haven’t done this is a long while… Lemme see…”

Well… I’d rather call this Egg’s nest for the reason that the other star in this show is an egg. The other one is the bread.

This is really a simple and easy to prepare breakfast (or meryenda) favorite. Just get 1 piece of egg, 1 piece of bread, a non-stick pan, some oil or butter, seasonings or just salt and pepper.

First step is to create a hole in the middle of bread using a cookie cutter or if not available, just use a small glass or coffee cup and cut around the cup’s edge. Heat pan, spray or drizzle with oil. If using butter, spread some till melted and then put in bread. Crack the egg into the hole of bread. Season with salt and pepper. Wait till egg is done to preference. That’s it. Serve and enjoy.

In the picture above, I put in some freshly ground pepper, salt, and dried basil leaves. I covered the pan to fully cook the egg. I’m not really the oozing-sunny-side-up-egg kind. Another alternative is to toast one side of the bread, flip it over, then put in the egg. In this way, both sides of the bread were toasted.

It tends to be toasty and crumbly that’s why I did not pre-toast one side. But if you like it that way, then do it. If you like to put on grated cheese, why not

It’s been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And there are ways of making it more interesting in a simple way like preparing egg’s nest.

Suffice to say I prepared this for my afternoon snack, may not be as important than breakfast but it was definitely good with my afternoon coffee.

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“Isda” is a local term for fish. This maybe galunggong, tawilis, tambakol or tulingan. For those who are not so familiar with these fishes, Yellow Fin might ring a bell.

1) Clean and salt fishes or slices of fish.
2) Arrange in a clay pot together with slices of onions (about 2 pcs medium or 1 large piece) and crushed garlic (1 whole piece if Taiwan variety or 3 pcs if local variety).
3) Fill pot with water up to the level of arranged fishes.
4) Add salt and pepper.
5) Add in vinegar, about a cup. After boiling for about 10 mins, vinegar may be added if preferred. For some, placing dried kamias at the bottom (before piling up the fishes) may be used in place of vinegar.
6) Boil for 10 mins then lower down heat to simmer.
7) Usually this is cooked for about 4 hours minimum up to 6-8 hours in Batangas over fire from wood. Hence, there is no worry for consuming so much LPG or electricity. When the fluid has reduced by half, which is now brownish in color, water may be added up to the time it reaches until 4 hours. The term for this is “banto.” Wait till around 1-1.5 cups of fluid had been left after hours simmering. Serve with steamed rice.
9) Enjoy!

Batanguenos eat this with “sabaw kape.” This is when Barako coffee is poured over steamed rice.

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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