one filipino dish a week

The change of weather got to me recently and I was feeling under the weather last week. The Girl, being the best girlfriend that she is, made me some pospas. Pospas is a rice porridge and very much a comfort food. It’s something that you get to eat when you’re sick. And that is the majority of the times that I’ve eaten pospas is when I’m sick or if it’s cold and rainy outside. But I would eat it any given day. It’s just that good.

What’s goes in it?
1 cup of white rice
4 boneless skinless chicken breast diced
1 cup chicken stock
2 cloves Garlic
1 inch Ginger
scallions for garnish

Saute garlic, add chicken stock, bring to a boil, add ginger and rice, turn heat to medium-low then simmer until the rice is slightly mushy, then add chicken, cook until chicken is tender, salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot and garnish with scallions.

We all have our favorite dishes growing up and for me it was (and is) my mom’s chicken macaroni salad (and leche flan). This chicken salad however is like the abominable snowman it’s rarely seen and it’s really only talked about. So folks, be very grateful that I was able to capture this dish in a picture before it was all gone.

In my pan fried flounder post I spoke about the influences in Philippines cuisine. The Americans had a huge influence in the 50+ years that they were the sheriff in town. The American influence includes Hollywood movies and canned goods. My mom’s chicken salad is a product of the American influence.

Here’s how my mom made it:

chicken breast
elbow macaroni
mayonnaise
Kraft sharp cheddar block diced
yellow onion diced
sweet pickle relish
1 can pineapple tidbits
1 can sliced beets diced

Boil the chicken. Make sure to salt the water. Once cooked cut the chicken into cubes. Boil the elbow macaroni. Once the pasta cooked and drained mix in the chicken, cheese, onion, relish, pineapple, and mayonnaise to taste. Then add the beets in the end for color. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Serve cold. Perfect for that summer picnic/lunch!

Eat Filipino Food!

Growing up in Cebu you see rotisserie chicken all over the city. And I looove lechon manok or chicken inasal or Filipino style rotisserie chicken or whatever you want to call it! So I decided to make one. Unfortunately, I don’t have that awesome rotating cooking apparatus so I had to improvise and make do with what I have.

This is how I made it:

2 cornish hens
2 stalks lemongrass
1 medium size spanish onion
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

I used cornish hens because they’re smaller and could easily be eaten by just one person (aka Me!). I rubbed the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. I then stuffed it with the lemongrass, minced garlic and julienned onion. I marinated it in the soy sauce overnight. The marinating is the key part to this whole operation. So make this ahead of time like on a Friday night after happy hour and before going back out again (ok I know that’s not very realistic but hey I can dream).

After the chicken has been bathing in the soy sauce marinade for a long time it’s time to reap your rewards. I wanted to broil the chicken to give it the cooking that I think would be closest to the rotisserie. The one thing about the broiler is that it was too close to the fire and it was burning the skin too much before it was time. So I had to move it farther from the flame. Continue basting the chicken with the marinade as you are cooking. Cook the chicken until it’s 165deg F using an instant read meat thermometer.

We ate the chicken with a nice bottle of riesling. It complemented the chicken pretty well. This was one of those sweet and fruity, low alcohol (9.5%) rieslings. This also would’ve been great with some atsara (which I had in the fridge but didn’t take out… doh!).

I’m not that good at carving I tore up all the skin as I was trying to plate this chicken. So it looks naked right there. But still real gooood nonetheless! The chicken was juicy and you can smell and taste the lemongrass.

Eat Filipino Food!

This post was inspired by this video. Quite a brave guy if you ask me.

So I’ve been asked why I haven’t written about adobo yet. Here it is. Adobo is considered by many THE quintessential Filipino dish. The hints of sour may put off the uninitiated but the sourness is comforting to displaced pinoy yearning for home. There are different stories of where the name of the dish is really from, is it truly Filipino, is it borrowed from the Mexicans, etc. As far as I’m concerned the Filipinos have made this dish our own and have put our stamp on it that it can’t be de-coupled anymore.

I wanted to make chicken adobo but I wanted to make it a little bit “healthier” with chicken breast. I was kind of skeptical if this would really work. The problem with chicken breast is that there’s not much flavor to it and it dries out quickly. I browned about a 1.5lbs of cubed chicken breast on the pan before I put in the soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves and garlic mix. I let that simmer a little bit until the chicken cooked through. I took the chicken out and let the mixture reduce. I put the chicken on a plate and poured the sauce over it. I garnished it with some scallions.

It wasn’t bad. But definitely not the best chicken adobo I’ve had. I think if the chicken breast were marinated in the soy sauce-vinegar mixture for about 15-20 minutes before cooking would’ve made it better. Let’s eat!