Red Cooked Pork (Adobo) and Mushrooms with Beer

Here in Asia, we simply call this dish Adobo. Anything stewed in soy sauce is Adobo. But I have heard that in the West, this is called red cooked pork. :) Of course my kids insist that the color of adobo is brown, not red. I explain that red-cooked pork sounds nicer than brown-cooked pork :)

By whatever name this dish is called, this dish is still the ultimate comfort dish for many Filipinos. Have you heard of the saying that if you do not know what dish to cook, simply prepare adobo?


This is a simple Pork Stew, easy to prepare and yet, the taste is made sublime by the addition of beer. The fragrance is more complicated as well. :) By the way, this dish is certified kid-friendly because by the time the pork is cooked, the alcoholic content of beer had already been evaporated. You cannot detect the taste of beer in the finished dish.

I confess I did the same cooking style as I did with our regular Adobo, except that instead of adding water, I added beer.

1 kilo pork belly, cut into serving sized cubes

4 T cooking oil

8 T garlic, minced (or more, if preferred)

4 T sugar

4 T cracked peppercorn

1 and 1/2 C soy sauce

2 cans Beer

1 C water, optional (my kids prefer lots of sauce)

200 gms golden mushrooms

200 gms straw mushrooms, sliced

4 pcs large dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water, then chopped

Salt and sugar to taste

cilantro for garnish, optional

1. Heat the oil in a wok or a cooking pan. Add in the sugar, cook at low heat. Wait for the sugar to caramelize.

2. Add in the meat cubes and stir the meat, so that the cubes will be evenly coated and browned with the caramelized sugar. Add in the soy sauce, peppercorns, garlic. Stir to mix evenly.

3. When the mixture boils, add in the 2 cans of beer. Do not stir until the mixture boils again. Accordingly, if you stir, the sauce will have a bitter aftertaste. But I have always followed this instruction so I cannot confirm if this is true or not. :)

4. When the mixture boils, add in shiitake mushrooms and the cup of water. Let boil again and simmer for an hour and a half to two hours. Check in once in a while to see if the sauce is drying up. My kids like their adobo saucy, so I add in lots of water. (Alternately, start in the morning and just drop the contents of this pot in the slow cooker and you will have a wonderful smelling dish come dinner time).

5. Add in the straw mushrooms and golden mushroms before serving, and let cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Adjust taste with saklt and sugar, depending o your preference. Isn't this dish versatile?

6. Garnish with spring onions or cilantro before serving. Serve hot with rice.

Make that lots of rice. You will not be able to resist the aroma and the taste.

Stewed Pig's Blood with Beef and Tamarind Leaves (Dinuguan)

I know, I know the picture and the title (and hence this dish) is something straight out of "Fear Factor." I also apologize to those who are observing lent. But this dish just came in from Hubby's friend and office mate M. Happy happy birthday M!!!

Here in the Philippines, perhaps, because we are a poor country, we do not waste any part of the pig's body (or beef or chicken). We cook the head and ears (yummy sizzling sisig), we cook the intestines, the heart, the brain, and yes, we even cook the blood. And we come up with creative ways of cooking these parts. Dinuguan or stewed pig's blood is always a mainstay in menus even if it does not look appetizing. Why? Because it is delicious and healthy. You have got to try it!

I also want to take this opportunity to highlight the diversity of Filipino dishes. This dish is an example of how a different region can cook the same dish. Here in Manila, we usually cook this dish by stewing the pig's blood with pork meat. Then, we add vinegar and chilli. But this dish adds tender beef and uses tamarind leaves as the souring ingredient. According to M, whose mom cooked this delicious dish, this is the only way they (from the Batangas region, south of Manila) would cook this dish.

I confess I have not cooked pig's blood yet. The reason is that being here in mega Manila, we do not know the source of pig's blood that are available in the market. M's mom would only cook this dish from freshly slaughtered pig. This is the only way to ensure that the blood is clean.

But theoretically, I think I know how to cook it. Tenderize the beef meat by boiling and simmering in water for an hour or two. Saute some garlic and onions, add the tenderized beef, and the finger chillies. Then add the blood while passing the blood through a sieve. A lola (grandmother) told me that this is to ensure that there will be no clumps of blood in your dish and the resulting sauce will be smooth and thick. Finally add the tamarind leaves and salt and pepper to taste.

This dish tastes different from the regular dinuguan (stewed pig's blood) we are used to in Manila. It is richer, tastier. Thanks, M!

Roast Pork with Potato Noodles Soup

On busy weeknights, noodle soup is one of my favorite dishes to make. It is easy to prepare, as long as I have broth. Everything comes together easily. Just boil the broth, add the noodles and the cooked meat (or seafood), and lastly the vegetables. It makes for one satisfying dinner.

That is why I always have home-made broth on hand. Pork bones, chicken bones are cheap. I buy them weekly and make a big batch of broth once or twice a week. I freeze the soup in portions. I simply take out a portion or two when needed.

However, the soup or the roast pork is not the main star of the dish today. The soup is made from homemade pork broth. The roast pork is simply our left-over take-out from a Chinese restaurant. The star today is the potato noodle. Have you heard of potato noodle?

It looks like the Japanese ramen cooked or uncooked. The packaging of the noodles when I bought it also looks similar to the Japanese ramen, but the label says it is potato noodle. Since the other words in the packaging were in Korean, I could not confirm if it is indeed noodles made from potato flour. I have a strong suspicion that it is.

The difference is in the taste and texture. It is not salty like the ramen, and the texture is chewy, more like the chap chae (Korean glass noodles). Hubby, who loves noodles declared this the better quality noodle. It is certainly worth buying and cooking again and again.


3 packs (350gms) potato noodles (Korean)

4 C pork broth (substitute with any broth you have available)
250 gms roast pork, sliced
3 pcs shiitake mushrooms, soaked, sliced
salt and pepper
green onions, chopped


1. Boil the broth in a dutch oven or wok. When boiling, add in shiitake mushrooms
and roast pork. Let boil for 15 - 20 minutes until mushrooms and pork are softened.

2. Add in the noodles and cook for 4 minutes (according to package directions). Season with salt and pepper. Ladle into individual serving bowls and top with chopped green onions.



Sharing this potato noodle dish with the Presto Pasta Nights community, one of my favorite food events, because we do usually have pasta every week. (Though, I cannot post the same recipes all over again :). I was feeling lousy when I missed the 100th edition of the Presto Pasta Nights but I am here for the event's second birthday!!! Yippee!!! Congratulations to Ruth of Once Upon a Feast for one of the food blogging world's long-running weekly event!

Tofu with Spicy Minced Pork and Mushrooms

Are you familiar with the spicy canned minced pork with mushroom? In Hokkien (Fujian Chinese dialect), we call it "Ba Chiu." This canned product is very versatile. Though, I would usually stir fry the spicy pork in a little garlic and then top it on tofu for a quick deliciously spicy dinner.

One day, I had this one good block of tofu and I wanted to make this "Ba Chiu." However, my pantry ran out of this canned pork! What to do? I made my own home made version of Spicy Minced Pork - "Ba Chiu."


300 gms lean ground pork, marinate in
2 T soy sauce
dashes of ground pepper (as much as you like)
a few drops of sesame oil
1 T cornstarch

5 T canola oil
5 pcs dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 1 hour, drained, sliced
5 T minced garlic
1 onion, chopped
2 pcs green long peppers (siling haba) or finger chillies or bird's eye chillies, chopped
1 T soy sauce
1 T oyster sauce
dash of sesame oil, optional
salt and pepper to taste
green onions, chopped

1 block tofu


1. Heat up the oil in a wok or a cooking pan. Saute the onions until caramelized and soft. Saute the garlic until fragrant.

2. Add the marinated ground pork. Cook for a while until meat changes color. Add in the mushrooms. Stir for a while and add in the chillies (more or less, depending on your preference). Add in the soy sauce and oyster sauce. Sitr for a while. Cover and simmer until meat is cooked through.

3. Add in the chopped green onions. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with sesame oil.

4. In a microwavable serving dish, heat up the tofu for 30 seconds; until just warm. Top with the cooked ground pork mixture. Serve hot with jasmine rice.





No more canned spicy pork for me. This is a very healthy and delicious dish, made with all natural ingredients. The kids love this dish. It is flavorful and fragrant. Soft and easy to chew (yes, my kids are lazy;)

This is also an easy to prepare dish, made with ingredients readily available in our pantry. Well, probably except for the dried mushrooms. You can omit the dried mushrooms or substitute fresh mushrooms. The dish will still be delicious! Dried mushrooms are easily available in Asian groceries.

Sharing this healthy tofu dish with the Monthly Mingle community, a foodie event by What's Cooking and What's For Lunch Honey. This month features healthy family dinners. Please check out the What's Cooking blog for the round-up after February 9.

Wonton Soup

knights of the round plate :D

Happy Chinese New Year, Everyone!

This past week, the children have been busy doing a lot of Chinese arts and artworks at school. They were making red paper lanterns, cutting out red Chinese characters, coloring, cutting and pasting the 12 different animals of the Chinese astrology. I have given and received a lot of sticky rice cakes (Nian gau in Chinese Mandarin; tikoy in Filipino). It is work as usual for everybody here, of course, as Philippines do not really celebrate the Chinese new year officially. But for the small Filipino-Chinese community here, we still do celebrate the tradition, in our own way, as our parents and grandparents have done so in the past years.

The Chinese New Year (Xin Nian) or the Spring Festival (Chun Jie) is one of the more important holidays in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and probably Malaysia or Singapore. They have a week-long holiday over there. This holiday is based on the Chinese lunar calendar. The New Year's day being the first day of the first lunar month. That is why it falls on different dates of our Gregorian calendar. This year, the new year's eve falls on Sunday, Jan 25 and new years' day on Monday, Jan 26.

Goodbye year of the rat, welcome the year of the ox! Inspite of the recession and depression many people around the world are having, I think we should all feel more positive and "bullish" this year. :)

How do we celebrate the Chinese new year?

Quite simply, with food! :)

We have a family dinner, usually with fish (yu) because the Chinese word for fish - "yu" sounds like (homonym) of the word that means "left-overs". So having fish symbolizes good wishes that we will have more than enough (that is why we have left-overs) for the year. We will have noodles. Traditionally, it is the misua (thread-like flour noodles) with eggs. This is to symbolize long life. Although, these past few years, we have replaced misua with other kinds of noodles, sometimes even pasta like spaghetti. As long as these noodles qualify as long :) We usually have Dumplings (Jiao Zi) as well. In China, it is customary to make dumplings for the new year. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape is like a Chinese tael (ancient Chinese money).

We usually simply buy our dumplings. However, last year, I had the privilege of witnessing how real homemade Dumplings were made. This was made by the mainland Chinese members of the Mandarin Fellowship of our Church. They made the dough from flour and water, kneaded them by hand. They made the fillings. I simply watched and acted as translator between them and the other non-Mandarin speaking people. I found out that even different regions in China have their own flavor of dumpling filling! But they all taste great just the same! And do you know that they start making dumplings by dinner time, and eat as the dumplings are cooked and then they make again, (talking and bonding while cooking) and eat again...and again... up to past midnight! Wow! A great way to celebrate, don't you think?


And so this year, I set out to make Dumplings (Jiao Zi) myself for the Chinese New Year. And ended up with wontons. :) Why? Simply because I did not try to make the dough!!! I thought it was too much work - the kneading, that is. Although I can use the pasta maker. But you see, I get no break from work, so I thought using store-bought wrappers would cut my cooking preparation in half! Wrong move on my part. The fillings tastes great but the wrapper made the supposed-to-be Jiao Zi into wontons.

Dumplings are not to be confused with wontons. Dumplings have thicker, chewier skin and a flatter, oblong like shape. They are often steamed and eaten with soy-vinegar dipping sauce. Wontons have thinner, sphere-like shape and are usually served in broth.

I made the first batch (see the first picture above) and still tried to steam the dumpling-wontons, hoping for the best. But the thin wrapper could not hold the shape up. So, I had no choice but to cook them in broth. Next time, I am REALLY going to make my own wrapper!

Kisses wontons made by Daughter

For the dough (which I did not make)
for every 5 cups of flour, add 1 egg, a pinch or two of salt and just enough water to hold the dough together. Knead or pass through the pasta maker several times and roll flat into 4 inch size round discs.


For the filling

1/2 K lean ground pork
1/2 K napa cabbage, chopped very finely, water squeezed out
5 -8 pcs dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated, chopped very finely
5 T minced garlic, optional
1/4 C chopped green onions, optional
salt and pepper to taste
1 t sesame oil


Mix the filling ingredients very well. Scoop out a tablespoon into the wrapper. Dab a little water into your finger, pat on one side of the wrapper, press together to close, crimp the edges to decorate. (As you can see from the pictures, I made short-cuts again :) Steam for 15 minutes and serve with soy-vinegar dipping sauce.






But as you can see, mine did not turn out to be dumplings. So, I made another batch and boiled them in Chicken broth. Added some napa cabbage and green onions. And they still turned out to be delicious wonton soup! Hearty and filling and warm, perfect for the windy and cold nights.

Xīnnián kuàilè!

Gōngxǐ fācái!

Chinese-Style Cream of Corn Soup

This is a perfect soup for these windy and chilly nights. Warm, and nourishing. This is also so easy to prepare. Perfect for these busy days, which I am going through nowadays!

This is also a very easy and simple recipe. Just three ingredients. But full of flavor. Son said this is one of his favorite soups. Hubby says this soup would have been healthier if I use real corn instead of the canned creamed corn. But I am not shucking real corn when I am in the middle of a big project. :)


1 can (15 oz) creamed corn
100 gms bacon (use low fat), chopped to bits
2 eggs, well beaten

4 T minced garlic
1 and 1/2 can of water
salt and pepper to taste
4 T cornstarch dissolved in 4 T water
sesame oil, optional


1. Cook the bacon in a non-stick wok or cooking pan until cooked and browned. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant.

2. Add the creamed corn. Use the empty can to measure one and a half can of water. Add water to the cooking pan. Let boil. Simmer for 2 - 3 minutes.

3. Add the cornstarch mixture. Let boil while stirring all time. The soup will thicken.

4. Add in the beaten eggs, slowly stirring the soup until the eggs are cooked. Sprinkle with sesame oil, if using. Serve hot.


Thick soups like this with beaten eggs are always known as Chinese-style soups in this country. Another trademark of Chinese soups is the use of the fragrant sesame oil. Sesame oil is known a a "hot" food, so it is very appropriate to add some to your dishes and soups during cold season.

Oh, if you have more time, you can use boiled, real corn instead of the canned ones. :)

Autumn Apple PorkChops : A FabulousFood.com Recipe

I know for most places on earth, apples are associated with autumn. So the scent and aroma of this fruit brings warm comfort during cooler days. But here in this tropical country, we do not have autumn season. Apples are always associated with the holiday season though, starting November and December. Markets and supermarkets would be brimming with bright red apples. And who can resist these juicy and crispy temptations?

I remember when I was a child, apples would be a real treat. Why? Apples do not really grow in a tropical country. At that time, importations of foreign goods and foods are limited. Imported goods like apples are quite expensive. Nowadays though, because of globalization and free trade policies, we have access to most products around the world. Our kids can enjoy apples, grapes, pears, etc., anytime they want. Does more choices mean progress? :)

Now, that would take a long discussion, so let us go back to the recipe. :)

Here is an interesting recipe I found at the FabulousFood.com site. This recipe sounded interesting as I have not tried cooking with apples before. It also looks so easy to do, and easy to prepare. Easy and healthy are synonymous with this kitchen.

I basically followed the original recipe, except that I left the porkchops brined overnight. My kids are quite picky about their pork chops. They want their meat super soft. I thought if we can brine turkey, I am sure we can brine pork chops, too! So I tried brining the meat first in salt and pepper solution. I also used a real apple, which I grated instead of using apple juice. Here's my retake on the recipe:

4 pcs pork chops, brined
1 T flour
2 T butter
1 onion, chopped
1 apple, skin removed, cored, grated
1/2 C water
2 T sugar, optional

1. Lightly flour the pork chops. Melt the butter in a non-stick skillet. Brown the chops on one side in the butter. Turn the chops to brown the other side.

2. Stir in the onions, grated apple, water and sugar. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes. Serve immediately.


Result? Tender juicy chops that the kids find interestingly delicious. It might not look colorful and pretty. But it is flavorful and fragrant.

Another discovery. We added chopped cilantro. What can I say? We just love cilantro! And we discovered that cilantro pairs beautifully with apples!






This is my entry to the FabulousFoods.com Cooking Club Challenge this month, featuring fall favorite recipes.

It's So Easy to Make Your Own Pasta! Plus Wonton Noodle Soup

This wanton noodles soup in chicken broth is not the star of the show today. But for those of you who are interested, it is so easy to put a comforting warm bowl of noodle soup dish like this together. Boil several cups of chicken broth (made from scratch, please), throw in some store-bought pork and shrimp dumplings, add some green veggie of your choice (this time I added chopped napa cabbage), season to taste, add the noodles and serve piping hot. It is truly a comforting dish this time of the year :)


The star of the show today is my new toy -- my newest baby -- my very own pasta maker!!! Can you hear the happy shrieks of this proud mama? :)

Hubby gifted me with a pasta maker. This is not surprising of course, because this family eats pasta every week if not twice or thrice a week or as much as we can! He figured making our own pasta would be healthier because it would not contain any preservatives of the store-bought ones. And we can be creative and add more healthy ingredients to our pasta. My head is already brimming with possibilities, I can add carrots, or basil, or spinach...

See the first picture? the noodles used in the wonton soup? Those are made from half plain flour and half whole wheat flour. Now, isn't that healthy?

The pictures below were taken the first time I made pasta. Since it was the first time, I followed the exact recipe written with the instruction manual of the pasta maker. I used plain flour and halved the recipe.



On a clean surface, measure 2 cups of flour. Make a well in the center and add in 2 eggs (room temperature). The proportion is one egg for every cup of flour. Whisk the eggs with a fork. Then slowly incorporate some flour while beating. Keep incorporating more flour until you cannot whisk anymore. Using a dough cutter or your hands, knead the dough until it comes together into a smooth ball.

At this point, it was hard for me to keep the dough together. The flour just would not stick together! I cheated and added 2 tablespoons of cold water ( I figured 1 tablespoon for every cup of flour) and it worked! :) I just took the idea of adding cold water from making a basic pate brisee pie crust :) And it worked! The dough formed easier...




Divide the dough into smaller balls. Let rest, covered for at least 30 minutes. I did not get this part of the instruction from the manual. I got this from the internet. The purpose of this resting is to allow the gluten to relax. Actually, another site said that we should allow the dough to rest in the refrigerator. But somehow, I forgot the refrigerator part and just left the balls on the kitchen counter. I didn't think any harm was done. We have cooler weather nowadays. :)

The dough should not be sticky. Otherwise it will stick to the rollers. Add more flour if the dough sticks to your fingers. It should not be too dry that it is falling apart either.





Set up the pasta maker. Set up the two smooth rollers at position one. Cut the balls into half (or smaller parts) and with 1 piece at a time, pass the dough into the two smooth rollers while turning the handle. Repeat this several times. When the dough has taken a regular shape, pass this dough over at position 2, several times, then on to position 3 and so on until your desired thickness.




Insert the already thin and long dough into the cutters. I have 2 sizes of cutters included in my pasta maker. One for fettucine (wider noodles) and one for spaghetti (though the noodles came out flat and not round). Slowly turn the handle while letting the dough be "cut" and catch the resulting pasta with your other hand.

In my case, the kids were so eager to turn the handle, which they call "cranking up" the machine, so I let them do the turning while I have both hands on the dough. :)





The instruction manual says to lay these noodles on a clean table cloth and leave it to dry for at least an hour. I hanged the noodles on a clean clothes hanger instead. An hour after, it is ready to cook!

Nothing beats the taste of homemade pasta. You'll never go back to eating store-bought pasta again. (Though I have to finish the stocks I have left in my pantry :) It is easy to cook (ours took only two minutes!), it is cheaper, it is definitely nutritious and it has the al-dente quality that we are looking for in a good pasta.

Tomorrow, I will share another wonderful dish I made using homemade pasta. So, stay tuned!



Sharing this pasta making experience with the Presto Pasta Nights community headed and hosted this week by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast. To see last week's delicious dishes, please check out the round-up wonderfully written by Daphne of More Than Words.

Broccoli and Parma Ham Quiche

This is my continuing love story with Quiche :)

You may find this quaint or worse, weird... that I am making a big deal out of making quiche. I know quiche is something ordinary in western kitchens. I hope you understand that this is an Asian kitchen, where it would be easier and simpler to stir-fry the parma ham with broccoli. This is also a tropical country, where the tropical heat will affect the texture of the crust if I do not work quickly... But for Wandering Chopstick's Weekend Wokking, where we present different ways to cook an ingredient, I try to make it something more special, something different, something I do not normally do.

And I love quiche. :) I love the flaky, buttery crust. I love this all-in-one complete dish, perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I love broccoli, too. For my family, broccoli is considered one of the super-veggie. Packed with all anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals incomparable to other veggies. To see the complete nutritional value of Broccoli, please hop over to NoobCook's site. She did a thorough research on the healthy benefits of broccoli.

So the marriage of broccoli and quiche in a dish is just perfect for me!!!

Can you tell I am biased for broccoli? Of course! I had the honor of picking the secret ingredient of the month! :)

This month the Weekend Wokking community will explore different ways we can cook broccoli. If you have any broccoli dish that you would like to share, please join us and submit your dishes to the newly crowned master chef who cooks a lot - Wiffy of Noobcook, who is hosting this month. Email your dishes to weekendwokking (at) noobcook (dot) com.




For the crust recipe and the tips on how to get the flaky, buttery crust, please see my previous quiche dish here. Although, this time, I experimented and and substituted 1 cup of plain four with 1 cup of soft whole wheat flour. Here is the final ingredients I used for the crust: (Instructions and baking tips here.)

1 C soft whole wheat flour
1 and 1/2 C plain flour
1/2 t salt
1 C cold butter, cut
1/3 C cold water


After the dough is ready, roll out dough on the quiche dish. Press the dough to conform to the shape of the dish. Prick the dough with a fork. Prebake at 350F for 10 minutes.


Chop up some parma ham, onions, garlic, bell pepper and broccoli and spread out on top of the pre-baked crust. See the picture above? Isn't it very colorful? You may add in as much (or less) ingredients as you like. This is what makes the quiche a versatile dish - you can add in whatever ingredient you have in the fridge. :) But since the Weekend Wokking event is featuring broccoli, I added lots of healthy broccoli!




For the egg mixture:

6 eggs
1 C cheddar cheese
2/3 C all-purpose cream
1/4 C fresh milk
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
dash of nutmeg, optional (tip from my German missionary friend)


Whisk all the ingredients together and pour into the quiche dish (with prepared crust and broccoli and parma ham). See the picture above? The broccoli looks as if they are swimming... :)

Bake in the preheated 350F oven for 60 minutes or until it tests done in the center.






Sharing this yummy, tasty and healthy dish with Weekend Wokking, created by Wandering Chopsticks, to celebrate the many different ways we an cook one ingredient. The ingredient for the month is broccoli, hosted by the lovely Wiffy of Noobcook. To see last month's delicious ways to cook the pumpkin, please see the round-up presented by yours truly! Check out the previous round-ups (featuring different ingredients) here.

Pork Soup with Bak Kut Teh Spices

What this picture lacks is green. Unfortunately, I ran out of green onions and leeks and cilantro or anything green! But even though this bowl of hot soup lacks in color, it is truly full of taste! I hope you get to try it!

I was able to taste the famous Singapore Bak Kut Teh (Pork Soup) when I visited Singapore a couple of years ago. However, I remember each bowl of Bak Kut Teh tastes different in different restaurants. I remember it being flavorful with spices. So maybe, each restaurant or food stall have different proportions of herbs used. Regardless of the difference, we loved the soup!

I never tried making this soup at home. Hmmm, come to think of it, I wonder why? These days, I think we can easily find the recipes on the internet. That's what we food bloggers are here for, right? Anyway, I was quite happy when I found this pack at one of the bigger supermarkets. I'm sure similar packets will also be available in Asian groceries.




The flavors and spices are already prepared! Isn't this great? The ingredients listed in the pack are: Chinese Angelica, Barbary Wolfberry Fruit, Szechwan Lovage Rhizome, Liquorice root, dried tangerine peel, cinnamon, star anise, pepper, fennel, coriander, salt, caster sugar, monosodium glutamate, ajitide I+G (Disodium 5' - Isonate Disodium 5' - Guanylate). The first few ingredients listed are familiar to me. But I was frowning at the monosodium glutamate and those others I cannot even read.

Still, I thought of giving this pack a try. Then maybe next time, I will have to research and try to cook this soup using all natural ingredients.

The instruction says to cook a kilo of chopped pork belly with bones in water, with the spices (the pack contains) and with whole garlic cloves.

Garlic. Now this is something I approve of in any soup, or in any dishes, for that matter. I know it produces halitosis, but that is a minor side effect compared to its various health benefits. Besides, since the whole family eats it, we do not really detect the smell from each other. To tell the truth, we rather like the smell of garlic. :)

Garlic can help prevent heart disease. Eating garlic can control high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even cancer. In other words, it can prevent a wide range of diseases. I know of many people who even eat raw garlic as a replacement for their high blood pressure drugs. They claim garlic is an effective and cheaper and natural than the medicines prescribed by the doctors. But please do not do this without the knowledge and guidance of your family doctor. And have your blood pressure checked everyday if you are planning to do alternative medicine.





Sharing this deliciously spiced soup and the healthy garlic with the Weekend Herb Blogging community, now headed by our new herb goddess-in-chief Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything at Least Once. This week's lovely host is my blogging friend, the soon-to-be chef who cooks a lot - Wiffy of Noobcook. Please do check out the third anniversary round-up done by WHB first chief Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen.

Pork Stew (Adobo) with Mushrooms

Adobo is usually the first dish that every Filipino learns to cook. This is of course because it is a very common and very popular dish here in the Philippines. It is almost considered a national dish. It is simple and very easy to make, and yet very flavorful and tasty, perfectly paired with a steaming bowl of rice. Every Filipino family has his/their own version of Adobo, often with the secret recipe handed down throughout generations.

Typically, the dish is made from pork or chicken or a combination of both. It is slowly cooked in soy sauce, vinegar, crushed garlic, bay leaf and black peppercorns. Here, the variation starts. Some versions do not have soy sauce, their dish is simply flavored with vinegar. Some versions have sauces, some are browned in the oven or pan-fried afterwards to get the desirable crisped edges. Some versions contain only plain meat. Other versions can have vegetables like eggplants or spinach or string beans added. Some versions add more herbs and spices like star anise, or the red colored achiote (achuete). Some do not. I have heard of adobo with gata (coconut milk) and chillies (for those who prefer the spicier kick). I also know of a version with pineapple juice (and crush pineapples) added for the sweetish-sourish taste. Of course, with all the different versions, no adobo would taste and look the same.

So what makes a true adobo? Surprisingly, it is all of the above. Every Filipino would know just by smell alone that the dish is an adobo dish, no matter what version it is. Perhaps it is because of the smell, but then perhaps because it is a dish that defines the Filipino!

For my family, a good-tasting adobo is a dish where none of the spice flavors dominates but rather the taste is a delicate balance of all the ingredients. It has the perfect blend of saltiness and flavor with a hint of sweetness and sourishness.

Here is my version of the adobo, adopted from my grandmother's cooking and my father-in-law's version:

1 kilo pork belly, cut into serving sized cubes

4 T cooking oil

8 T garlic, minced (or more if preferred)

4 T sugar

4 T cracked peppercorn

1 and 1/2 C soy sauce

1/2 C rice vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)

1 C water

200 gms golden mushrooms

200 gms straw mushrooms, sliced

Salt and sugar to taste

cilantro for garnish, optional

1. Heat the oil in a wok or a cooking pan. Add in the sugar, cook at low heat. Wait for the sugar to caramelize.

2. Add in the meat cubes and stir the meat, so that the cubes will be evenly coated and browned with the caramelized sugar. Add in the soy sauce, peppercorns, garlic. Stir to mix evenly.

3. When the mixture boils, add in the vinegar. Do not stir until the mixture boils again. Accordingly, if you stir, the sauce will have a bitter aftertaste. But I have always followed this instruction so I cannot confirm if this is true or not. :)

4. When the mixture boils, add in the cup of water. Let boil again and simmer for an hour and a half to two hours. Check in once in a while to see if the sauce is drying up. My kids like their adobo saucy, so I add in lots of water. (Alternately, start in the morning and just drop the contents of this pot in the slow cooker and you will have a wonderful smelling dish come dinner time).

5. Add in the mushrooms before serving, and let cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Adjust taste with saklt and sugar, depending o your preference. Isn't this dish versatile?

6. Garnish with spring onions or cilantro before serving. Serve hot with rice.

Sharing this Filipino dish with the World Food Day event launched by Val of More than Burnt Toast and Ivy of Kopiaste. This event features dishes that represents our own countries, so that we can have a conga line of international dishes to feed the world!

The objectives of World Food Day are to heighten our awareness of the problem of hunger in the world and to bring to our attention what we can do about it personally. It is a day to encourage us and our governments to be well informed on the issues and to have a plan of action!!!

World Food Day brings to our attention the plight of 862 million undernourished people around the world ...even in our own backyards!! This is sadly a true condition that is happening here in this country. Do you know that many - as in millions of children in this country are dropping out of school because of hunger?

Global warming and the biofuel boom are threatening to push the number of hungry even higher in the decades to come. Add to these problems are the worldwide financial meltdown, and the rising food and energy costs. By having more information, by raising awareness, and finding solutions, we can combat hunger around the world together!!!! We need a plan of attack!!! To find out more about what you can do in your area... visit the World Food Day site here .

This is a worthy cause to support. One earth, one people, one dish at a time.

Weekend Wokking : Coconuts

It is Weekend Wokking time once again! This is a monthly food event launched by Wandering Chopsticks to celebrate different ways we can cook one ingredient. The ingredient of the month is something close to my heart - and to every Filipino's heart - the wonderful COCONUT! Do you know that the Philippines is the second largest coconut producer in the world? Thank you Marija for choosing the versatile coconut!


In the Philippines, the coconut is commonly given the title "Tree of Life." It its theorized that if you were to become stranded on a desert island populated by palm trees, you could survive purely on the tree and coconut alone, as the coconut provides all of the required natural properties for survival.

Nearly all the parts of a coconut tree is useful. The juice of the nut can be used for drinking. In fact, coconut water contains sugar, fiber, proteins, anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals. The water alone is a highly nutritious food source. The meat is edible - raw or cooked. The shell of the nut can be used to make musical instruments, or beautiful decorations, buttons or even jewelries! The husk and its fibers are used to make hemp ropes, or can be used for compost, or made into charcoal. The sap derived from the tree are made into wines (tuba). The heart of the palm is an edible delicacy. The leaves are cleaned and used to wrap food in cooking - broiling or steaming. They also provide materials for making baskets. Coconut oil is getting popularity as medicine. The roots were traditionally used as medicine as well. The trunks can be used as bridges, furnitures, or even buildings. Do you know we have a Coconut Palace here in Manila? It is an entire mansion made from coconut trees alone!

And I have only scratched the surface of the many uses of the coconut...


Anyway, since the coconut is quite abundant here. It is used in our daily cooking. Both the meat and the milk extracted are used - not just the main meals but for desserts as well. I am featuring two recipes using Coconut cream/milk for Weekend Wokking. For more information on Coconut milk and cream, please click on my first featured recipe the Maja Blanca Salad.

Maja Blanca Salad

Many Filipino desserts usually use the fresh coconut meat. We make our fruits salad with the meat. Or we add them to jellies. But this dessert uses coconut milk for a change. It is very easy to prepare. This dessert makes a good meal-ender. It satisfies our sweet-tooth without being cloyingly sweet.

Spicy Minced Pork with Long Beans

Many dishes are prepared using coconut cream/coconut milk. This dish is a simple but yummy example. Coconut cream/milk is quite versatile because we can add them to a variety of meat, fish, seafood and vegetables dishes. And the resulting dishes are quite flavorful because we usually add chillies and fish paste.



This is my entry to the Weekend Wokking event, featuring the Coconut. This month's host is Ivy of Precious Pea. Please check her cute, adorable site on Wednesday, Oct 1, for the round-up, and for the next secret ingredient. I am particularly excited for the next ingredient because next month's host will be... ME! Yay!

To see the previous round-ups and the different ways we cooked the other special ingredients, please check out the listing here.

Vietnamese Pork Chops

My kids does not really like pork chops. That's probably because my regular way of cooking them - grilled, or broiled, does not really produce super tender meat. They are juicy, flavorful, alright, but... just not super-tender enough for the kids. I mention the adjective "super-tender" because that is how my children prefer their meats - soft, falling off the bones, almost melt-in-the-mouth kind. You can tell I do not cook pork chops often.

When I read about Wandering Chopstick's Braised Pork Chops with various herbs, I knew I just have to try it. She promised these pork chops are "incredibly tender." She braised the pork chops until they become tender. Which makes sense! Why have not tried this before???

4 pcs pork chops

2 stalks lemongrass, finely minced
6 cloves garlic, finely minced
1-inch knob ginger, finely minced
1 chili pepper, finely minced
2 T honey
2 T Vietnamese Fish Sauce (I used Filipino Fish Sauce)
1 T rice wine vinegar
1/2 t ground black pepper

1. Chop the lemongrass, garlic, ginger, and chili pepper, as finely as you can. Mince everything in a food processor until everything is a fine paste. (As you can see from the picture, I simply chopped everything and did not use the food processor to make a paste.)

2. Add honey, fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, and ground black pepper. Then slather the marinade all over the pork chops.

3. In a large sauce pan on high heat, drizzle a bit of oil and quickly sear the pork chops. Add 1 cup of water, turn the heat down to medium-low and let simmer for at least 1 hour. ( I think I added 30 minutes more of braising to make the chops super tender.)



Other than not making the herbs into paste, I followed all her instructions. The result is truly a soft, melt-in-the mouth, falling off the bones pork chops. I think the taste is also the same, except that the texture of the sauce is more rough. Next time, I will make sure the herbs are minced to have a finer, and smoother sauce.



This dish goes to the Bookmarked Recipes community. Bookmarked Recipes is a world-wide foodie event....where anyone from anywhere can blog about a recipe they had bookmarked from a cook book, food magazine, food blog, food website, from TV etc, make it and submit it to a weekly roundup. It is created and regularly hosted by Ruth of Ruth's Kitchen Experiments. But since Ruth is on vacation, this week's edition will be hosted by Pam of Sidewalk Shoes. I personally made last week's round-up. You may want to check it out here. :)

Pork Chop Noodle Soup

Two kinds of noodles (Mami) are usually served in local Chinese restaurants : there is the dry Noodles and Noodles in Soup. There is not much difference actually. The soup is just served separately in the dry noodles version. Sometimes, the dry version has some kind of sauce or gravy drizzled on top of the noodles, for a more flavorful plate. When you only tell the waiter "Chicken Noodles," or "Beef Noodles," chances are, he might serve you the dry version. More often than not, the more service-oriented waiters will clarify if you prefer your noodles in soup or not. Because they know, in this tropical country, most diners prefer their noodles in hot soup.

Noodles in hot soup are easy to prepare at home. You basically need some kind of noodles. Egg noodles or ramen noodles will be fine. I even used angel hair pasta several times. You also need a soup base. I either use pork broth or chicken broth. Then, you need the topping of meat (can be pork, chicken, beef) and vegetables (bok choy is often used.)

I have some left-over stewed spicy pork chops. But there was no more sauce because the kids finished them off by spooning the sauce over their rice. What to do with the left-over meat? Add them to sandwich buns (nah! we're not exactly sandwich people!) , or make Pork Chop Noodle Soup! Yes! Easy to prepare, perfect for a rainy day dinner.


2 packs Japanese instant ramen noodles
2 pcs stewed pork chops
4 C pork broth, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste
several stalks of baby bok choy, blanched briefly
spring onions, chopped

1. Cook ramen according to package directions. Arrange on 2 large soup bowls.

2. Top each bowl with a slice of pork chop. Preferably add in some left-over stew sauce. Arrange some bok choy leaves on top too.

3. Ladle in hot pork broth into the noodles. Garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro leaves, if preferred.



This is my first entry to the Presto Pasta Nights, created by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast. This week's host is Kitchenetta of Got No Milk. Please check out her site in a day or two for the round-up of pasta dishes prepared and cooked around the world.

Winged Beans Stewed in Coconut Milk

Do you know what this is? It is a type of legume that grows in hot and humid countries like the Philippines. It is called Winged Beans. Primarily due to the "4 wings" or the frilly edges of this bean. The picture above is a cross-section cut of a bean pod. Sometimes, it is called Asparagus pea, or Four-Cornered bean, or Manila Bean. In Chinese, it is called Yi Dou. In Filipino, it is the Sigarillas/Sigarilyas. Studies have shown that this bean is comparable to the soy bean in protein and nutritional content.

The whole Winged Bean plant is edible. The shoots, flowers, roots, leaves, pods and even the seeds can be eaten. I have not tried the other parts though, I have only cooked and tasted the pods. The pods, which can be green, or purple are four-sided and flare from the center into ruffled ridges or "wings." I apologize I do not have a nice picture of the whole pod. You can click here to see what the whole pod looks like. I think the Winged beans may be found in specialty produce markets and some supermarkets. Choose small beans with no sign of discoloration. Because the shorter ones are more tender. If you get the longer ones, the cooking time might also be longer. Wash and trim before using.


500 gms winged beans, sliced cross section (as above)
500 gms lean ground pork
2 T fish paste (bagoong)
3 slices ginger
4 T minced garlic
2 -3 finger chillies (sliced thinly), or more if you prefer it more spicy
1 T rice vinegar
1 C (330 ml) Coconut Cream
salt and pepper to taste

1. In the skillet or wok, add a little oil, saute ginger until golden brown. Add garlic, and saute until fragrant but not burnt.

2. Add in the lean ground pork, and saute until the meat changes color.

3. Add in the fish paste and vinegar. Stir around a little.

4. Add in the winged beans and finger chillies. Mix everything up so that the beans can absorb the flavors of the meat and fish paste evenly.

5. Add in the coconut cream. Cover and simmer until meat and beans are cooked. Around 20 minutes. Add in some water if you prefer more sauce.

6. Adjust seasoning. Serve hot with plenty of rice.




I know this is an ugly picture. In reality, it is also an ugly looking dish. But I assure you it tastes very good. It is flavorful and spicy. I started cooking this dish because Hubby would rave about this dish served in his office canteen - even when it contained loads of fat. At least if home-cooked, I can choose to use the leaner cut of meat.



Submitting this dish and the featured Winged Bean to the Weekend Herb Blogging, a worldwide food event produced by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen to celebrate herbs and unique plant food and the dishes we make using these ingredients. This week's host is Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons. To see last week's delicious round-ups, please check out Marija's Palachinka.

Pork in Watermelon and Tamarind Soup (Sinigang na Baboy sa Pakwan)

What kind of Kitchen CEO are you? Do you...

(1) Plan your meal for the week ahead, balance all the needed carbohydrates, protein, minerals and vitamins of all the dishes you plan to cook, vary the type of cooking you are going to do (i.e. one day stir-fry, baking the next, stewing the following day...); buy the ingredients needed for those dishes and cook accordingly?

or do you...

(2) Just go out to the markets and/or supermarkets and check out the produce, which looks good and fresh, buy them and only after that do you think of what dishes to cook with those ingredients you bought?


I confess, I am a number (2). Which is a big no-no for organizing people like my Hubby. He is not happy when I cook a dish with one (or two) ingredients are missing. For me, it does not matter as long as the overall taste is not affected. And sometimes, using substitutions with other ingredients I have on hand turned out to be a surprise. (The dish featured today, for example.) He is not happy when I suddenly disappear from the house, just to run to the nearest neighborhood grocery to buy a little of this or that. This one, I concede is not practical anymore now. A major disadvantage of this non-organization is of course, the time consumed thinking of what dishes I will cook... :) I do not like ingredients to go to waste, so I really have to cook them all...

I bought a huge watermelon from a big supermarket chain. It was labeled "seedless." Of course I prefer to buy seedless because it is easier to feed children the seedless fruits, and it is less messy too. I am willing to pay a little bit more just to encourage my kids to eat more fruits. Imagine my dismay when I cut open the fruit and found lots of seeds inside! Grrr...

Hubby and I consumed almost half of it. What to do with the other half? I remember there was a recipe is the Food Magazine, Philippine edition, many years ago about Sinigang sa Pakwan and I really wanted to try it. This left-over "seed-full" watermelon is my chance. Usually the fruits in this household get consumed fast, specially cooling fruits like melons and watermelon. But this time I have a lot of watermelon left to try this recipe!

This recipe adapted from Food Magazine, published August 2006, pp 36 - 37. The Recipe was shared by Krip Yuson.

Some things I tweaked from the original recipe:

(1) The original recipe called for beef short-ribs with pork belly. I only used pork spareribs.
(2) The original recipe did not add water. Its juices must have purely come from the tomatoes and the watermelon. But I used my induction cooker, so I had to add water or the bottom of my pot will be burnt.
(3) I did not add okra or radish to my soup. For one thing, I did not have these on hand, and my kids does not like to eat them. But I don't think this made any changes in the taste.
(4) I added the taro roots early in my cooking because I prefer the taro roots mushy, and I can mash them into the soup to make a thicker soup consistency.


1 and 1/2 Kilos watermelon, peeled, seeded, cut into chunks
2 C sliced tomatoes, seeded
1 K pork spareribs, cut into chunks
2 pcs large taro roots (gabi), peeled, sliced
1 large onion, quartered
2 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
4 pcs finger chillies (siling haba)
1 bundle string beans (sitaw), cut into 2" long
1 bundle Swamp cabbage or water spinack (Kangkong), trimmed, washed
Salt or fish sauce (patis) to taste
200 gms tamarind, boiled, softened in 1 C water

1. Extract the tamarind juice by passing the water with boiled tamarind through a sieve and squeeze juices more out.

2. Blanch the pork spareribs in a pot of boiling water. This step is to remove the impurities.

3. In another clean pot, arrange the watermelon at the bottom. Then add in the tomatoes, taro roots, then the blanched spareribs. Add in the tamarind juice and around 10 cups of water. Cook over high heat until boiling, then simmer until meat is cooked and the watermelon are soft and mushy. This will take around 1 hour.

See the soup boiling furiously, deliciously and colorfully?
The veggies rose up while the meat sank down...

4. Start adding the vegetables starting with the finger chillies and the string beans. Cook for about 5 to 10 minutes until the vegetables are crisp tender.

5. Add in the onions and stems of the water spinach. After about 1 minute, add in the leaves of the water spinach.

6. Season with salt or preferably fish sauce to taste. Serve piping hot with lots of rice.



Hubby commented that we had two days of Tamarind soup - different flavors but still sour soup. He was not complaining. In fact, he enjoyed it. It was delicious! A little sweetish sour, delicately spiced. He was just saying that we tend to eat more rice with tasty/spicy dishes. And he wanted me to start dieting... :) Oh well, I just thought that having hot soup is good with the rainy weather we are experiencing right now.

I also want to use up whatever ingredients we have in the fridge. As I have said, I am a number two. Don't we all experience that feeling sometimes? We have some odd and ends in the fridge that need to be cooked, a little of this, a little of that. What I do is, I search for recipes that will use the ingredients I have on hand! Of course I do not want perfectly good food to go to waste, plus, I do not want to contribute anymore trash to our limited landfill. (Just a little effort to save Mother Earth.)

Other Sinigang recipes I have made:

Milkfish in Tamarind Soup (Sinigang na Bangus sa Sampalok)

Milkfish in Wild Mangosteen Soup (Sinigang na Bangus sa Santol)

Prawns in Tamarind Soup (Sinigang na Hipon sa Sampalok)

Pinoy Tom Yum Prawns (Thai inspired Sinigang na Hipon)




This hot and tasty soup is my entry this week to Bookmarked Recipes, a food event where anyone from anywhere can blog about a recipe they had bookmarked from a cook book, food magazine, food blog, food website, from TV etc, make it and submit it to a weekly roundup. This delicious idea was concocted by Ruth of Ruth's Kitchen Experiments. To see last week's delicious round-ups, please click here.

Abalone Congee with Mustard Greens

The weather has been cold and damp the past week. I know in most parts of the world, people are celebrating summer at this moment. But here in this tropical country, we only have two seasons: dry and wet. It is now the wet season or the monsoon months. This means we get lots of typhoons or we get lots of rains. Either way, streets get flooded, our shoes get muddy, our clothes get wet... unless we stay inside the house for two to three months.

Last week, there was no typhoon but there were three low pressure areas, so we got lots of rain. Yesterday, one low pressure area has intensified into level one typhoon. So, we got more rains today.

I'm sorry for sounding so gloomy. Hubby was feeling gloomy too. With the rising oil prices, labor costs, electricity costs, local business outlook is not good either. So, to cheer him up, I thought of cooking one of our comfort foods - the flavored congee (In Fookian, we call it Kiam Be).

Actually, the congee is a common dish in every Chinese household. Often, mothers would cook this plain when children are sick. Babies are fed congee for their first solid food. Probably that is why it has become a comfort food for most of us. That is what our mothers cook when we feel uneasy or uncomfortable.

There are as many variety of flavored congee as there are ingredients. With just the rice as the main ingredient, we can put in as many ingredients to flavor the rice as how we want the congee to taste like. We can use a variety of seafoods, meat, and vegetables or a combination of ingredients. I have posted another flavored congee before - the Dried Scallop Congee, also one of our favorites. Here is another one. My green-loving Hubby prefers this one because it has mustard greens.

2 C mixed rice (1 part white rice, 1 part red rice), washed
8 C water
a few slices of ginger
4 T minced garlic
250 gms lean ground pork, marinated in
- 3 T soy sauce
- 2 T cornstarch

2 bunches mustard greens (also called leaf mustard or green mustard cabbage), cleaned, cut
1 can abalone
4 pcs dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 4 hours, sliced with stems discarded


1. Saute ginger in a little oil (preferably canola oil) until golden brown. Add garlic and saute until fragrant but not burnt.

2. Add in the lean ground pork. Stir fry until color changes. Add in the rice and soaked mushrooms. Mix well.

3. Add water and the liquid from the can of abalone. Simmer after the liquid boils. Cook for 15 - 25 minutes until rice is cooked. You may add water if you prefer your congee watery.

4. When rice is cooked, add in the chopped mustard greens. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until the greens are limp and cooked.

5. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Slice the abalone meat thinly.

7. Ladle the congee into individual serving bowls. Top with the sliced congee. Sprinkle with chopped green onions or scallions if preferred. Serve hot.




This is the can of abalone we have here. Abalones are large sea-snails or marine mollusks, considered an expensive delicacy in Asia. It tastes of the sea yet clean, tender crisp, delicate and light. In Chinese, abalone are called Bao Yu, and often is a part of an expensive Chinese banquet. It ranks with the Shark Fin Soup, that is considered a symbol of wealth and prestige, and is traditionally reserved for special occasions such as weddings and other celebrations. But unlike the Sharks (the source of the Shark's Fin Soup), abalones are not endanged, and is in fact commercially farmed nowadays.

You can say using this expensive delicacy is truly the ultimate comfort food. It is for my Hubby. When he started eating, he was telling me he was not feeling well, he does not feel like eating. (That's how depressed he was.) But after tasting some spoonfuls, he continued eating. I was surprised he finished the whole bowl!

Yes! Life is good. No matter what kind of weather we have outside. God's grace abounds everyday. Good food, happy family, I have enough.

Stewed Bamboo Shoots

Bamboo Shoots are edible young shoots that come out of some species of the bamboo plant. In my family, we always say that we are eating what the Pandas are eating. Though I think it is incorrect. The type of bamboos that the pandas eat are not the shoots but the stems and leaves of the bamboo plants - which are more fibrous and tougher to chew.

Here in the Philippines, we often cook the fresh bamboo shoots (called Labong) in coconut cream. Bamboo shoots are good and healthy food. They are a good source of potassium and fiber. After all, if a panda can grow as big as they are through eating bamboos alone, then it must truly be good food!

The bamboo shoots featured today are the dried or dehydrated variety you can get from any Chinese or Asian grocery. It is not the fresh or canned ones. Fresh bamboo shoots are readily available in markets and groceries here in the Philippines. I am not sure though if dried bamboo shoots are readily available here except in Chinatown. I got mine from my mother-in-law who just came back from a trip to China...

Actually, the fresh bamboo shoots are tastier, and more tender. But you have to consume them immediately. They do not keep well. The dried bamboo shoots can keep... well, almost for a long time. However, to cook them, you have to rehydrate them for quite a long time (in my opinion). Their color and texture is also different now, darker, crunchier. My mother-in-law says she like them this way...

To rehydrate, get some, around 2 handfuls of dried bamboo shoots and wash them well. Soak them in water overnight. The following day, drain the water and soak them in boiling water. Do this draining-soaking in boiling water once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once at night. The bamboo shoots will expand. The next following day, if you want softer bamboo shoots, drain and soak them again in boiling water in the morning. By noon, they are ready to be cooked.


around 2 C rehydrated bamboo shoots
4 slices ginger
several cloves of garlic
4 T cooking oil
1/4 C dried oysters, rehydrated by soaking in hot water for half a day
250 gms sliced or cubed pork
1/2 C soy sauce
1 T white rice vinegar
1/4 t cracked black peppercorns
1 T sugar (optional)


1. Saute the ginger in a hot wok with the oil until golden brown and fragrant. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant as well.

2. Add in the dried oysters and the pork. Stir fry for a while until pork changes color. Add in the bamboo shoots. Add in the soy sauce, vinegar and the sugar. Add in the cracked peppers. You may also add some water if you want more sauce.

3. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 and 1/2 hours to 2 hours. Alternately, you can use a slow cooker.


This is my entry to the Weekend Herb Blogging, a world-wide food event that features herbs and unusual plant ingredients around the world and the dishes we cook with them. Weekend Herb Blogging was started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. This week's host is Divya of Dil Se. To see last week's interesting round-up, please check out Kelly of Sounding my Barbaric Gulp.




For some interesting trivia:

Do you know that the bamboo symbolizes longevity for the Chinese? It is therefore good to have bamboo plants in your garden or even inside your house.

There is a Philippine myth related to bamboo. The local creation story or folklore says that the first man (Malakas) and the first woman (Maganda) each emerged from split bamboo stems on an island created after the battle of the elemental forces (Sky and Ocean).


I just realized, that this is my 100th post! Wow! 100 recipes. And I'm still learning. Please do leave comments, criticisms, violent reactions so that I can improve this blog. What would you like to see more of?