Breakfast at home is either pan de sal, whole wheat bread, fried rice with longanisa or pancakes. I don’t make pancakes from scratch so I make it a point to buy those ready mix from all sorts of brands. Just recently , I got introduced to Maya ‘ThinkHeart’ Whole Wheat Pancake Mix. This is certainly good news because I want as much fiber in my...

Menudo has been a mainstay in any Filipino dinner table. This rich dish of cubed pork, liver, potatoes, with a tomato base comes in as many variations as there are ingredients available to the adventurous cook. I am sure each of us have different way of cooking menudo. Chef Jill Sandique shares two exceptional versions of Menudo, by using with my favorite sauce Lea...

There are so many versions of adobo and each one of them tastes just as good. This adobo version uses buko juice that adds zest to the sauce. The origin of this recipe came from “The Adobo Book” contributed by Achie Diaz de Rivera) but I modified here and there to suit my taste. Of course you can modify this too. ingredients 1 kilo pork spareribs adobo...

Time was it was safe to buy Ice Scramble from vendors. Those were the days when water was much cleaner, without risk of Hepatitis A infection. These days, once can easily buy Ice Scramble at the Philippine malls but for those who reminisce this good ole street food treat, you can prepare one at home. One just needs to know the classic Ice Scramble base, and choose...

There are as many recipes for adobo as there are Philippine islands. My two favorite recipes are the white adobo and the adobo cooked in coconut milk. Food memories at my dorm in UP consisted of adobo that mom cooked for us. See in the dorm, we were not allowed to cook our meals. Mom’s adobo did not contain any soy sauce and I often wondered how she cooked it....

This recipe came from my sister, Lorna who modified it many times. I forgot to take a close-up photo of the Cannelloni dish but it’s the rectangular pyrex on the table. The great thing about Cannelloni is that I can prepare it a day before , freeze it and heat it on Christmas Day itself. It takes the stress away from cooking so many dishes in one...

I prepare Embutido (otherwise known as Filipino style meatloaf) in large quantities. It’s the perfect Holiday dish to prepare for unexpected guests. One can easily freeze the embutido, slice it , heat it in the oven and serve. The embutido that I know is wrapped in sinsal (an internal pork entrail) which is ideal for steaming. Mom only prepared embutido on...

The grilled eggplant in this recipe is a delightful and healthy addition to the usual or should I say, boring, baked pasta dishes that we’ve had in the past. Try using a variety of grilled vegetables such as zucchini, carrots and broccoli to add a bit of zing to some of your typical pasta concoctions. Ingredients: 1 box penne rigate, about 225 grams 1/3 cup...

New Year’s Eve noche buena must have a fruit salad on the dinner table. The most popular fruit salad is the Buko salad. The popularity of fruits during New Year’s Eve celebration is part of the tradition to bring in good luck, fortune and prosperity. Today, I will hie off to the grocery to buy ingredients for my fruit salad. Here is my...

What do we do with leftovers from Christmas dinner? Most especially scrap ham. My favorite is Majestic Ham. The solution….Pochero or cocido. I prefer to call it Pochero as it is a very common dish in my hometown Cebu. Pochero (Spanish spelling , Puchero) with its bounty of meats, sausages and vegetables is known as the “real national dish of Spain....

Need more ideas for your noche buena? ANC Talkback with Tina Palma’s Christmas episode is all about Pinoy Christmas Cooking . It was aired December 20, 2010 and will have replays on December 21, 1pm and on December 25, 5am and 10am on ABS CBN ANC. They featured three recipes: Fresh Mango Lumpia and Chocolate Eh recipe and Kaldereta and pastel de pollo. Photo...

Bam-i is a noodle dish that we ate as kids growing up in Cebu. It is a Visayan dish as I’ve never seen it serve here in Manila. I love the two kinds of noodles: vermicelli and the egg noodles. It’s sad that my kids don’t really like the combination of the noodles. I think the taste is so divine and different from the usual pancit guisado. Timing...

Chicken A la King is a great snack item for cocktail parties. I remember mom making it when we had teen parties in the seventies. It’s actually simple to prepare and it will surely be a hit when you have merienda parties. Let me share her recipe: 1/2 cup diced Champignon Mushrooms 1 medium sized onion, chopped 4 Tablespoons butter 1 kilo chicken breast, cooked...

Healthy drinks don’t always have the most appealing flavor, so you end up drinking them because you have to, not because you want to. But after trying the new preservative-free Minute Maid, I was slapped with the wonderful pulpy reality of how great this juice tastes! It tastes the way orange juice should taste—citrusy, orangey, with just the right amount...

Pako salad is one of my daughter’s favorite salad. Pako is a fiddlehead fern similar to the flavors of watercress but not as peppery. It has a slight crisp texture to it which makes it a very intersting salad. Sourcing pako tends to be a challenge so when you find a supply at your local market, grab them the chance. Ingredients a bunch of pako leaves, cut to...