one filipino dish a week

That right there has got to be the most beautiful picture I’ve taken so far. It makes my mouth water every time. My photography skills aren’t really that great but I got it right this time.

Not only was the picture perfect but I think I might have gotten this dish down pretty good as well. The last time that I tried this out I had the idea of making it more American-ized style steak. It came out good but not exactly what I wanted. My childhood memories of bistek aren’t really that great. I think in the Philippines a pretty tough cut of meat is used… not exactly sure what it is. So I wanted to really try to find a good cut for this dish. Last time I used flank steak but that came out a little on the tough side so this time I used a skirt steak. Okay, I know that this is a pretty tough cut of meat as well. However, when I started to dig a little bit more about the skirt steak I learned that this is the diaphragm muscle of the cow AND what’s used it authentic fajitas. I’ve had some amazing juicy fajitas in Houston so I was excited about this one.

The portion size that I used here is only really good for 1.5 so adjust accordingly:

1lb skirt steak
2 T soy sauce
2 oz kalamansi juice (about a shot glass worth)
pepper and salt to taste
1 T oil (I used olive oil)
1/2 medium Spanish onion

Slice the skirt steak into about the size of a deck of cards. Then put it in between plastic wrap and flatten.

Marinate the steak in the soy sauce, kalamansi and pepper for a few hours. I marinated it in the morning put it in the fridge and it was good when I got back from work. I heated up the cast iron pan. Once it was nice and hot I poured the oil in and laid the steak down. This is pretty thin steak so it really only takes 2 minutes each side for it to cook (medium rare). If you cook it any longer and you’ll have shoe leather in your mouth. Take the meat out of the heat and plate. Cook the onions in the pan juices that was remaining until it caramelizes and pour the rest of the marinade in with it. Put it on top of the steak and pour the remaining juices.

The steak came out just right. It was nice and pink in the center. Don’t fear the pink! I know Filipinos tend to over cook meat. There’s no point in buying good quality meat if you just over cook them. The kalamansi penetrated to the meat very nicely and had the perfect acidity to it. This would have gone real well with some nice red wine.

I served this with rice cooked with pandan leaves. The pandan leaves gives off this amazing fragrance to the rice. A perfect combination to the steak.

p.s. Someone sent me a message through the contact form but I accidentally deleted it thinking it was spam. If you can resend your comment/question. I would be glad to answer.

New stockpot! Time for some soup! The weather is just right for some Bulalo as well. This is made with beef shank. Below is a diagram showing the different cuts of beef which I got from wikipedia. As shown the shank is from the leg of the beef. It’s perfect for soups because the bone and connective tissue gives that beefiness after it has been simmered for a while. Yummy!  Growing up I loved sucking down the bone marrow. So good and so buttery.

Here’s the ingredients that I used for my bulalo:

2 lb beef shank
2 medium onions
3 cloves garlic
2 bunches bok choy
3 corn on the cob
sea salt and pepper to taste

Quarter the onions, peel the garlic and throw into the pot together with the  beef shank and put enough water so that it covers everything. Bring to a boil and make sure to take the scum that rise to the top. Lower the heat and let simmer for at least a few hours until the beef is tender. For this amount of beef I only had to do it for 3 hours and it was just the right tenderness. Throw in the corn and cook for about 10 minutes then throw in the bok choy. Serve hot!

Weeknight cooking is always a challenge for me. The precious few hours between work and sleep are tugged and pulled in all sorts of different direction (cook vs order out, veg out at watch tv vs workout, finish some work vs read something I like, etc etc). On the way home last night I wanted some Filipino style beefsteak or bistek or bistig (i think the last one is more just my family’s joke). Bistek has that saltiness and the sourness that is characteristic of a lot of Filipino dishes. Exactly what I was looking for.

Bistek is one of a few Filipino dishes (I think) that doesn’t have a long list of ingredients. Just perfect because I haven’t been to the market to stock up yet. Thin sliced beef marinated in kalamansi or lime and soy sauce, with some sauteed onions and you’re good to go. I made a slight change this time around and used thicker pieces of meat…probably because of laziness. I used flank steak (the muscle part of the belly of the cow). I cut the pieces of meat into 2 inch cubes and marinated it in some lime and calamansi (I didn’t have a lot of either so I did a combination). I also made some potato wedges for a more steakhouse effect but the true Filipino that I am I still had a little bit of rice with this. This is definitely a great weeknight meal. Fairly quick (sans marinating), easy and flavorful.