Foot and Fire

Today is Cinco de Noviembre in Negros Occidental wherein we observe this non-working holiday to commemorate a local Independence day for the Negrosanon.  How else can I make something as memorable as Cinco de Noviembre but to have a liberty to cook something out of our ordinary fare. So, I made Meatless Caldereta, Meatless Barbecue, and Spicy Stringbeans with minced cutlets out of dried vegemeat cutlets and these threesome turned out so well and yummy. Sadly, there's no photo of the Spicy stringbeans as we had it while my phone was charging upstairs.  Vegemeat Cutlet Preparation In every cup of vegemeat cutlet, put two cups of hot water or broth of choice or hot water and dashes of bonito/mushroom granules. Let soak for 20 minutes. I added katsoubushi or bonito flakes in mine to lend flavor. After 20 minutes, separate the cutlets from water, squeeze out the water from the expanding cutlets, and reserve the water. By weight or volume, the cutlets expande...

Why fishcake? Well, I was asked by everyone who partook the popular Korean foodfare called fishcake. Well I told tgem that it's not in ball form but flat so it's fishcake like pancake, and not like our fishball. In addition, our usual fishball  may shape like a ball but I doubt if there's fish in it but this fishcake tastes like fish. Do you think I got away with this clever explanation? Hahaha So, on the left side of the picture above, I had fishcakes in a soup base I made from mushroom granules, bellpepper and chili garlic sauce.  On the right side is a sweet spicy saucy version. I added hoisin sauce, chili garlic sauce, and some liquid to let cook the fishcake from the soup on the left. It was a hit. There we go with our fishcake adventure. 

I love chicken gizzards because they have this chewy texture while I also love chicken livers because they have melt-in-your-mouth texture. Cooking both with masala kari or mixed spices sauce, one can bring out thw taste of these chicken parts. For this one, I didn't use coconut milk. Oil Garlic onions 500g Chicken gizzard 500g Chicken liver Potatoes, cubed Turmeric powder Paprika powder Bayleaves Cracked Peppercorns Chili powder Chili peppers Salt In a wok, Saute gizzards and livers in oil, garlic and onions. Add water and bayleaves. Cover for 5 minutes in high heat.  Add water and potatoes. In a bowl, place all spices and mix well and add hot water. Add dissolved spices to the wok. Add the chilipeppers and Cover. Let cook for 10 minutes. Adjust taste with salt. Mash two livers to thicken the sauce. Serve hot with rice. 

Appetizers are appetizing. I really wanted to make a pomelo salad but either I have no othet ingredients around when pomelo is in, or we all devoured it by just pairing it with salt. But I got a chance one time and I did it. Fresh tuna to go with this is my other goal.... Canned Spicy Tuna flakes, reserve oil Cucumber, cubed Pomelo, peeled and separated Salt  Pepper Mint leaves Mix first three ingredients in a bowl. Mix lightly. In a jar, place the reserved oil, salt and pepper. Shake well. Add to the mixture. Garnish with mint leaves and served chilled. 

One of the ways to enjoy apa or lumpia wrapper is to wrap sliced cheese and fry them just before serving. Since we got 50 pieces of freshly cooked lumpia wrappers, we halved it and used the other half for vegetable lumpia and the other half for this one. I used our left over queso de bola for this one and left over quickmelt cheese. Love the lingering chesy taste quezo de bola while the quickmelt version of the cheese was overshadowed. Using the ordinary cheddar cheese, one can actually turn a cheese stick special by rolling the cheese slices in a condensed milk or some refine sugar. I also tasted the spicy cheese stick of my sister in law whe she sliced the jalapeno into two and combine the cheese and the halved chili before rolling and sealing it. It actually tasted good. I recommend for starters to use bellpepper as I love the taste and the aroma of bellpeppers. Here's a photo of the last two cheese sticks we just had...