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Saging Pinaypay

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Saging Pinaypay a childhood favorite and one ultimate comfort food. We usually get this treat after having our afternoon nap time before we go outside to play with our friends in the streets of our village.

It was the first time that I introduce one of my favorites to V and I’m such a proud Mama when he enjoyed 3 pinaypay all to himself that is after making sure he left one piece for his Dad.

Saging (banana) Pinaypay (to fan out, paypay is fan). Slice bananas thinly and spread it out like a fan dip on your pancake batter and fry. Sprinkle with some sugar and serve.

When my husband saw the photo I posted on facebook he called up to ask what I prepared. Described pinaypay as the saba banana dip in a pancake batter and pan fried. He just replied that they call it by a different name in Manila, it is called Maruya.

Saging Saba has been a staple in our household ever since I got pregnant. It’s one of my go to food when I can’t eat anything. I eat it boiled, fried, stewed, or braised in sugar. It’s simple delicious and nutritious.

Quickly grab some Milk Tea!

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I was surprise and happy that my nearby favorite Korean Cafe – Modern Hansik (will write a little review soon) now offers one of my most missed milk tea back home – Quickly!

Although there is a difference between how they serve it back in Manila, the milk tea is served almost like a shake/ice cream with crushed ice, tapioca pearls and taho. In Modern Hansik they serve it just with ice cubes and tapioca pearls. According to our Modern Hansik friends they are still waiting for the Quickly machine set that will be delivered soon.

For my nearby neighbors here in Al Nahda I’m happy to inform you that Modern Hansik delivers this yummy milk tea that is a perfect combination to their yummy Korean style chicken!

 

Modern Hansik (located at the back of Blue Mars supermarket)

Shop 2 AHLI House A Amman St. Al  Nahda 1

Contact Number: (050) 138-8191 / 04 254 7748

Eating again

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Breakfast: Tortang Talong, Fried Dilis, Tomato Sardines, Tomatoes and Cucumbers

I’m so happy that we are entering our 2nd trimester with my appetite back and enjoying kitchen work again.

On our first trimester all the food you see above I can’t eat. Then I woke up with a craving to eat Tortang Talong, Sardines, and Dilis I was happy to find all of the ingredients in my pantry.

Happy New Year!

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This is our 2nd New Year here in Dubai and we once again spent it with friends watching fireworks at the Jumeirah open beach.

We went to the beach prepared with our tent, BBQ stuff, food, blankets, and chairs. The tent was up and the grill was set on fire when 3 beach guards (we think) approach each group asking to put down tents and turn off the fire since it was not allowed. A bit of a boohoo since we were all looking forward for some warm soup (we had beef mami) and bbq’d  hotdogs while waiting for the show.

with Ryan+Lyke Cruz

 

 

Luckily the couple R+L  prepared some Kaldereta and I prepared a few fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls or else we could have been hungry all night.

Happy New Year from Cruz and Caidoy family

 

We did manage to sneak in some bbq while waiting for the grill fire to die down :). V had so much fun playing in the sand while waiting for the fireworks. He just kept on asking us whether it was time yet for the fireworks and when it was over he asked if it’ll be new years party again the next day.

 

Wishing everyone a year full of blessings and smiles. Happy New Year!

 

Pregnancy Scare

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Entering our 6th week I experienced an on and off pain in my lower left pelvic. The sudden pain when I move would last about a minute then goes away.

I’m naturally a worrier especially after giving birth to V and the worry-some me has doubled and emotions have heightened with this pregnancy. One afternoon the pain was back – a sudden stabbing pain and it lingered till late night. Immediately I sent a message to my OB and describe the pain. Her reply was “We should be worried. Please go to the City Hospital and have a scan. It could be an ectopic pregnancy”

wikipedia – An ectopic pregnancy, or eccysis , is a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo implants outside the uterine cavity.

If this is the case the only option was to terminate the pregnancy as it could also cause harm to the mother. I cried myself to sleep.

C kept re-assuring me that everything will be alright.

The next day we headed to my OB’s clinic to have a scan. I tried my best to not cry of the possibility of losing our 2nd baby. While waiting for our turn to see the Sonographer a family of 3 came out the Mom was in tears while the Dad whispers to her “its’ ok..shh” and the daughter just sat beside them smiling at us.

I so wanted to stand-up and give them a hug while I was fighting back my tears, then nurse Carol told us it was our turn. I laid back and we waited for the image on the monitor. “Baby is ok and in the right place, Ate”  I was happy and said a prayer of thanks and strength for the family at the waiting area.

For the first time we heard our baby’s heartbeat.

Please say a little prayer for all the mom’s who have lost a child that they may have the strength to move on. A prayer for all pregnant ladies that we all have a healthy and safe pregnancy.

Kare-Kare

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I had a chance to cook for my mother-in-law and when your husband speaks highly of his parent’s cooking it would be hard for a new member of the family to get that seal of yummy approval.

There I was a new wife standing in our kitchen with a couple of printed recipe on how to prepare my MIL’s ultimate favorite food which is kare-kare. It doesn’t help that this is my first time to prepare the dish by myself.  I read through each recipe and took note of the procedure and ingredients that was familiar to me.


My MIL’s eyes lit up when she saw that we had kare-kare for lunch and immediately asked who cooked the dish. My husband proudly replied “Si Gail. Sino pa ba.”  which I think has a hidden message that would translate to – Don’t worry Ma, I’ve found a wife who can cook good food for me. “hehehe”

C’s parents enjoyed the lunch we prepared for them with much gusto and though I haven’t got a chance to prepare a meal for them again I honestly think that this kare-kare got their seal of yummy approval.

Kare-kare is a peanut butter base oxtail and tripe stew with a variety of mix vegetables, serve with rice, and bagoong alamang on the side.

I hope you enjoy this Kare-Kare Recipe

Kare-Kare

Ingredients

250 grams of Ox Tail
250 grams of Ox Tripe
1 tbsp. Annato Oil
1/2 Cabbage head
a bunch of Petchay or Bok Choi
a bunch of Sitaw (long String beans)
2 Eggplants
1 puso ng saging (heart of banana plant)
1 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1/4 cup of Rice flour
1 whole Garlic, minced
2 Onions, diced
8 cups of meat stock
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

Place ox tail and tripe to a large casserole cover with water. Bring to a boil and remove scum as it rises. Cover and simmer until tender, about 4-6 hours. Alternately you can use a pressure cooker to cut the cooking time. Strain about 5-6 cups of meat broth and set aside. Cut meat to serving pieces and set aside.

Prepare the vegetables. Cut the cabbage into two and remove the core. Cut of the white part of the Petchay from the leaves. Cut string beans to 2″ long. Discard the hard part of the puso ng saging and cut to cubes.

Place rice flour on a skillet and toast it till lightly brown. Set aside.

Mix peanut butter with 1 cup of broth.

Mix toasted rice flour with 1 cup of broth.
In a large casserole, heat the annato oil and saute the onion and garlic for about 15 seconds. Add meat pieces and cook until it has absorb the color of the oil. Pour in 3 cups of broth and bring to boil. Lower heat and add vegetables wait a minutes after each vegetable: sitaw, eggplant, puso ng saging, cabbage and pechay.

As soon as you’ve added the pechay pour in peanut butter and rice flour mixture. Stir to blend well and make sure that you don’t have lumps. Cook for another 2 minutes until sauce is thick. If you find that your sauce is too thick for you just add about 1/2 cup of broth till you get the right consistency.

Serve hot with rice and bagoong alamang on the side.

Expecting a plus 1

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It has been weeks that I’ve been craving for salty food.

I’m such a lazy Mama this week. The only thing that I manage to do with a smile is to eat and sleep and eat and sleep.

Then I had a feeling that something is just not quite normal. A good change.

 

A positive result – we are pregnant! 

We are on the early stage of pregnancy, 5 weeks to be exact.

I’d like to ask you to say a little prayer for our safety.

ohh lovely Tuyo, why you so smelly?

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I’ve been craving for tuyo for a week now and all I have is a picture.

V and I absolutely love tuyo (a Filipino word that means dried) paired with garlic rice, tomato onion salad and vinegar (spicy for me). We can enjoy this salty dried fish  for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Our whole family enjoy this Filipino delicacy with much gusto – foot up on the chair armed with our hands we dip and drench this stinky, crunchy, yummy  salted dried fish on a spicy vinegar mix and ate endless tuyo with tomato and rice.

As you can see it really is not that lovely to look at with the fish staring back at you. The smell oh men it just lingers for days specially when you are living in a condo. It’s not a healthy dish as well, I mean it really is just salt and more salt absorb by the fish and then it’s fried.

Yet it endures migration. Endless household in the country have some kind of tuyo stash in their cupboard and enjoy the thing for breakfast.  You can probably see that almost every Pinoy who moved out of their home country carrying a bag of this delicacy inside their luggage – a little smelly something that would always remind you of fun times on the dining table with your whole family.

A Pinoy might be coming home with a different accent and/or wearing some posh dress but when tuyo is serve in the dining table we eat together as one forgetting the accent and designer dress, eating with our hands and foot up on the chair, we laugh and lick our fingers and come home.

 

*Tuyo and Pinakurat is available in most stores that sell Filipino food. We also managed to buy some decent salty dried fish at Deira fish market.