The making of an Overseas Frantic Worker

My all-time favorite Filipino food would have to be Kare-Kare. I grew up eating this dish on special occasions and in my father’s side family gatherings. For those who do not know, it is basically a peanut stew of oxtail, tripe, beef, green beans, eggplants, pechay and banana heart. It is slow cooked to perfection and it is eaten with the Philippine shrimp paste, Bagoong. Like all my uncles, aunts and cousins, I believe that we are very particular and critical in how our Kare- Kare should taste, smell and look like. It should always be like how my Lola (Grandmother) makes it. My grandmother makes the best Kare-Kare in the entire Universe. It must be all the love that she puts in that makes it taste oh so wonderful and oh so special. Luckily, my mom learned how to make it the way that we all like it: Lola’s style. So even if my grandmother is not around anymore, we can still enjoy eating it as if she never left us. Too bad for me though that I am thousands and thousands of miles away from home. My mom is not here to cook it on days that I want to celebrate or days that I feel bad. To be honest, I have never seen how my Lola or my mom made Kare-Kare. I guess it was because I wanted it to always be something extremely special and let it be a mystery in itself. Now that I am Finland I kind of regret that I never really made an effort to find out exactly how my Lola and my mom made the dish.

I wanted to eat Kare-Kare during the entire week (Like all the other favorite dishes I want to eat and devour every single day) and I knew it would be a great risk on my part to even attempt to make it. I believe in my cooking skills but I don’t know if I am capable enough to pull this off. I know from the start that I can never do justice on my grandmother’s way of making Kare- Kare. But, I do hope that this would be enough to make Lola say “I’m glad you tried.”.

So, here goes nothing.

Pork Kare- Kare (Peanut Stew with Pork)

*Because I am in Finland where key ingredients to Asian cooking is scarce, I had to make do with anything that I had. Some may find it strange but when you’re abroad and you are craving for something from home. This is the only way to do it.  ^^

Ingredients:

Pork, cut into large cubes (You can substitute this with oxtail. tripe and beef if it is available nearby)

Potato, large dice

Carrot, rounds

Cabbage, diced

Cauliflower, a few pieces

Onion, cut into strips

Garlic, 2 cloves roughly chopped

Peanut Butter, 2 Tbsp

Fish sauce, 1 Tbsp

Shrimp paste or Bagoong, 1 Tbsp

Bay Leaves, 2

Ginger powder, 1/2 tsp (You can use fresh ginger as well)

Ground black Pepper, 1/2 tsp

Water or Pork Stock

Procedure:

1. In a pot halfway filled with water, place the pork, bay leaves, black pepper, and ginger powder. Let the pork boil until it is tender or roughly around 1 hour. 

2. When the pork is tender, set aside. Don’t throw the stock or the boiling liquid because it will be used later on. Get another pot and heat with oil. Saute the garlic and the onions.

3. Add the potatoes and the carrots. Saute until they get a little brown.

4. Add the peanut butter and mix it with all the sauteing vegetables.

5. Season with fish sauce. (You might be wondering why my fish sauce has chilis in it. It’s the only one I have. Haha) 

6. Add the shrimp paste next and stir everything well.Simmer for a minute or two.

7. Add the boiled pork to the pot (Do not include the stock yet. Just the pork). And make sure it gets coated with the peanut sauce. 

8. Add the stock until the pot is half full. Stir and let it simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. If you think that the sauce is too thick, you can add more stock. The longer it simmers, the sauce tends to get thicker.

8. Add the green beans, cauliflower and the cabbage. Then cover again and let it simmer 5 minutes more. 

9. Once the cabbage and beans are done, you can now transfer your home-made Kare- Kare into a single serving dish, with bagoong, of course. 

I do know that my Kare-Kare may have skipped on a lot of steps and ingredients like annatto oil/ water. I know that this would never ever taste the way my grandmother and mom would make it. But, I am just glad that I tried and I did. 

In my heart, this would always and forever be my favorite dish.

To my Grandmother and Mom, I hope that you are both proud of me :)

This week has been a leftover cooking week. I think I did a great job with cooking up leftovers to make something good and different out of it. It’s already Saturday and I am a day away from ending this so-called leftover week. Last night, my friend and I had some nachos and a few beers for dinner/ midnight meal. I slept soundly through the night and woke up craving for rice. I didn’t want to cook anything complicated and I just wanted a hearty and filling BRUNCH.

With leftover mandu (dumpling fillings), I decided to make a Korean rice topping with it and with other vegetables I had in the refrigerator. The Korean 비빔밥 or the rice topping is considered as one of the cheapest and healthiest meals in Korea. Anyone can make it and sure as hell, anyone can afford to eat it.

Any leftovers can be used for this dish. The only essential ingredients that you will need to make this are Korean Chili paste ( Gochujang or 고추장) and Sesame Oil.

Korean Bibimbap (비빔밥)

Ingredients:

Cooked Rice

Carrot, Cucumber, cut into thin strips
Cabbage, Onion, cut into thin strips

*Actually, any vegetables can be used in making this. I used these veggies because it’s what I had in the chiller.

Leftover blood sausage (You can substitute it with spam, ham, sausage, tuna, pork, beef, etc)

Leftover Dumpling filling (for added component)

Soy sauce, 1 tsp.

Sesame Oil, 1 tsp

Korean Chili Paste, 1 Tbsp

Egg

Procedure:

1. Heat a pan with sesame oil. Saute all your vegetables (except for the cucumbers) separately and set them all aside. Fry your sausage, spam, tuna or whatever meat that you have prepared for this. Set it aside, as well.

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3. In the same pan, fry the egg (or two) to your desired doneness. I like mine well done so pardon the ugly egg picture. A trick in making your eggs look like it was flipped and still runny is to add a little water in the pan and immediately cover it so that the steam cooks the surface of the egg yolks and the egg whites, without burning it or overdoing it.

4. Cook through the leftover dumpling filling and also set aside.

5. In a bowl, place a cup of cooked rice and arrange all your toppings in any way or order that you would like. Add the chili paste and drizzle the sesame oil on top, last. It would be nice to sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds if you have them. It’s too expensive to buy it in Finland…so, pass.

How to eat:

MIX IT LIKE CRAZY!!!! (I think the kids will enjoy mixing their bibimbap. Mommy won’t have an excuse to say that they’re, uhhh, playing with their food. Haha)

I’m not playing with my food. I’m enjoying it. ^^

After a night out of drinking or hanging out with friends with a little booze, it’s always an utmost necessity to grab some midnight grub. I don’t why but food eaten after a fun night out seems to taste even more delicious and comforting than anything else you’ve had that day. It doesn’t matter what you eat but if you eat it after a night out, it seems to end the day perfectly.

My favorite midnight grub back home would be a Porksilog. For those who don’t know what it is, it is a combo meal of garlic rice, a fried egg and a breaded porkchop. It is not much but it is definitely satisfying <3 <3 <3

Unfortunately, there aren’t any places in Finland that sell Porksilog or any midnight grub for that matter. As I was so hungry, I was desperate to cook anything so that I could satiate my hunger.

Tantanaanantanaaaaaaaaaannn~~~~

A fritata was born.

Midnight (Leftover) Fritata

Ingredients:

Leftover dumpling (mandu) filling mixture— Actually you can use whatever leftovers you have at home. It’s your time to be creative! ^^ A little experimentation does not hurt anyone ^^

2 whole eggs, beaten

Mozzarella Cheese, grated

Procedure:

1. Add the leftover dumpling filling into the beaten eggs and mix together. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Heat a pan with oil. Set it on high heat first. Pour in the mixture and spread evenly on the pan. Once the mixture has settled (and its bottom quite stable and not too runny), turn the heat on medium and cover the pan so that the steam cooks the fritata through and through.

3. Once it is cooked, add grated mozzarella on top.

4. When the fritata is no longer runny at all, you can now flip the fritata so that you also get that crispy and golden brown color on the other side. Not to worry if you cannot flip or don’t know how to flip. If you have a pan that can be placed inside the oven (metal handles), you can finish the fritata in the oven. Bake it until the top gets a nice crisp and golden brown color.

5. Transfer to a plate after a minute or two. Go crazy with decorating your fritata! You can eat this with a good toasted french baguette or better yet, just the way I like it, with rice.

Maybe next time, I shall attempt to make my own porksilog. But, for now, this shall do. ^^