Balotinto Pasta

Okay, okay.  The dish sounds horrible, but I guarantee you that it tastes good and quick to prepare!  I can't think of any other name.  So I shortened the ingredients of this dish to balotinto, which means bacon-longganisa-tinapa-tomato.

Ingredients:
*Feel free to play with the measurements of the main ingredients.  If you want to have more tomatoes, then please add more, etc.  

Sliced tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes here)
1 fried longganisa, chopped
3 pcs tinapang Salinas, flaked
2 slices of bacon

2 tbsps olive oil
pinch of thyme
salt and pepper to taste

cooked penne pasta good for one serving

- Cook penne pasta according to package instructions.  Wash, drain, and set aside.

- Prepare ingredients indicated above.

- Heat pan.  Render bacon on heated pan until it produces oil.  Set aside bacon.  Chop it to pieces.

- Add olive oil on the heated pan.

- Saute sliced tomatoes.  Rub thyme onto palms on top of the pan where you are sauteing tomatoes.  Add flakes of tinapang Salinas and chopped longganisa.  Saute.

- Toss in cooked penne.

- Serve with your choice of cheese and sprinkle some chopped basil or parsley if available.



Happy Cooking! :)

Mac 'n Cheese w/ Sweet Chicken Fillet

Are you sick of packed Mac 'n Cheese that you have on your shelves and wanting to do a homemade version of it but scared to do so?  Don't fret!  Mac 'n Cheese is way easy to cook and I don't get why people are too lazy making their own.  Due to the demands of my friends, I'm sharing you this simple recipe.

Note:  I don't usually measure the amount of ingredients I use.  Just follow your gut.  If you'd like it to be more cheesier, then add more cheese.  If you think it's too thick, add more milk.  Trust your instincts. Measurements below serves as basis on how much ingredients I put in this recipe.

Mac 'n Cheese Ingredients:

1/2 kg macaroni shells
1 L milk
185g grated cheddar (I prefer Eden cheese)
drop of yellow food coloring (if you're using white cheddar)
1 tbsp of butter
**optional: parmesan and other cheeses

Preparation:

1. You can either boil the macaroni shells in salted water or boil it directly with milk.  But with this recipe, I boiled it with milk.
2. When the macaroni is al dente, add grated cheese.  Stir.  Then drop red food coloring if you're using white cheddar.
3. If mac 'n cheese turns out dry, just add milk.  Do the same thing when reheating.
4. Add butter before serving.
5. Serve with seared sweet chicken breast fillet.

turnover chicken fillets if halfway done just like above

Seared Sweet Chicken Fillet Ingredients:

1 kg chicken breast fillet
1/2 cup brown sugar
1-2 tsp salt
1 tbsp canola oil or olive oil
pepper to taste
1/2 tsp Spanish paprika


Preparation:

1. Rub salt on chicken and rinse in cold water.  This method is traditionally practiced at home to get rid of its impurities.
2. Salt chicken again.  Crack peppercorn and dust Spanish paprika onto your fillets.  
3. Heat skillet.  Add small amount of oil.
4. Spread brown sugar on a plate.  Dredge chicken with sugar.
5. Sear dredged fillet.  Adjust heat to medium.  Once meat turns white halfway, that's the time you should turn your chicken fillet.

Sear chicken while you are boiling your macaroni shells.

Bacon-Basil-Eggplant Pasta

Here's another simple pasta dish that I came up with months ago.  I was too hungry and haven't gone to the local market, so I ransacked our fridge and cupboard for ingredients and had bacon, tomatoes, eggplant, basil, garlic, onions and spaghetti.  That's pretty much the ingredients needed for this recipe.

Bacon-Basil-Eggplant Pasta

Ingredients

• Garlic, chopped
• Onions, sliced
• Eggplant, sliced
• Tomatoes, sliced
• Fresh basil (don't put too much)
• Bacon
• Spaghetti
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Parmesan, grated

Procedure

1. Cook pasta according to package instruction.
2. Render bacon on a deep pan.  This means cook bacon alone on a medium heated pan.
3. Set aside bacon.  Sweat onion on bacon fat.  Sweat, meaning, letting the onion turn translucent and not burning its sides.
4. Add tomatoes, then eggplant.  Once eggplant and tomatoes are cooked, add cooked pasta and toss it.
5. Stir in bacon and fresh basil.  Add salt and pepper.  Don't forget to taste it so you could adjust how salty you want it!
6. Serve it with parmesan cheese.

Anchovies-Tomato-Bell Pasta

I've made fresh pasta (the noodles) from scratch for the first time when I was studying at MIHCA (Magsaysay Institute of Hospitality and Culinary Arts).  It's a very gratifying experience!  So here's the very simple recipe I've learned from school.  It's quite intimidating, but you'd get to enjoy doing this from scratch (if you have time and patience).  But, of course, you can still use dry pasta (the one that we normally buy in groceries) for this.

photo by thestraydrifter

Fresh Pasta Ingredients:

• 1 cup Bread Flour or 1/2 cup APF (all-purpose flour)
• 1 egg (room temp, not straight from the fridge)
• pinch of salt

Procedure:

1. Strain flour.  Add salt.  Make a well.  Add egg in the middle.  Knead until consistent, not sticky and not dry.  If sticky, add flour.  If too dry, add water.  Don't over knead because dough will turn out rubbery.
2. Roll into a ball and dust it with flour.  Cover it with cling wrap and chill it for 15-30 minutes.
3. Cut dough into half and roll it horizontally with a rolling pin.  Dust flour on dough. If you have pasta maker, flour equipment then set the dial to 1 and insert rolled out dough.  This will help flatten dough more.  Repeat this while setting the dial on number 2.  Set dial on number 5 when cutting.
4. If you don't have pasta maker, roll out dough thinly.  Dust dough with flour so it won't stick.  Cut pasta dough with knife according to your preference.
5. Cook fresh pasta in boiling water with oil and salt for 30 seconds.
6. Strain.  Drain.  Toss it directly to the sauce.  But if you need to hold it before serving, run cold water over cooked fresh pasta to avoid overcooking, then toss it with a little amount of olive oil.

Sauce Ingredients:

• Anchovies, chopped  (dried or smoked fish is an alternative)
• Green and red bell peppers, chopped
• Tomatoes, concasse

I don't make measurements when it comes to the main ingredients of sauce.  I adjust or assume the right amount for the dish.

Procedure:

1. Boil water in a pot.  Slice an X mark at the bottom part of the tomato and dig out the center top of it (imagine leaving a small hole).  Throw those tomatoes right onto the boiling water.  Let it boil for a minute then transfer it to an ice bath (water with ice).
2. Remove skin.  Slice in half, remove seeds.  Chop.
3. On a pan, heat anchovy oil (or olive oil if you don't use anchovies).  Sautee chopped tomatoes.  Add green and red bell peppers.  Toss cooked pasta on it.  Taste.  Add salt if needed.
4. Serve right off the pan.

Kain na!  :)