Home cooked: Beef con Ampalaya with tausi

I bought ampalaya so we have veggies for dinner when my mom came over to attend my son's moving up day. We ended up doing something else so it got stuck in the fridge for a couple of days. I thought to whip up this recipe instead of the original plan I had of just sauteing it with egg.

Again, this was my first time to cook this so I just followed the recipe I found on the internet. 

Here's the ingredients:

2 medium sized ampalaya (bitter gourd), sliced

about a cup of black beans (Tausi)

2 tablespoons corn starch diluted in water

onion and garlic for sauteing

half kilo of beef sirloin cut into strips

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp soy sauced

salt and pepper to taste

What I normally do when I cook ampalaya is to soak it in water with some salt to lessen the bitterness. Got this tip from my mom. Others advise to blanch or pre-boil it but I feel that it takes away the nutrients if you boil it first.

Here's the cooking prodecure. Marinade the sirloin strips in soy sauce for about 10-15 minutes. When ready, saute garlic and onions then add the drained sirloin tips. Put in tausi and bring to a gentle boil. Add amplaya and about 2 cups of water, then cover to boil. You can then add some soy sauce and oyster sauce to the mix. Taste. Add pepper and some more salt to adjust saltiness to your liking. Ampalaya takes some time to cook. Just a few minutes before it is done though, start adding the cornstarch to thicken the sauce. 

This is a pretty easy dish that serves 5-6 persons. Enjoy!

Beef con Amapalaya with Tausi

Home cooked: Pad Thai recipe

Since I left my corporate job, I have been experimenting a lot more in the kitchen. One of the things I wanted to try cooking at home was Pad Thai. I saw this one pot recipe from Tasty.com and it seemed pretty easy.

Boy, was I in for a surprise. I am not sure if it was the heat but I actually got tired preparing all the ingredients. I feel that it could have been more simple if I just sauteed everything instead of frying the egg, tofu and chicken breast separately. 

Yes, I deviated a little bit on the recipe I saw online. I added tofu, removed sriracha (because I have a kid to serve too, but really because we didn't have it in the pantry), did away with rice vinegar and used cane vinegar and a little bit of cooking wine instead.

Here is the full list of ingredient I used:

2 chicken breasts cut into strips 

4 small blocks of tokwa/firm tofu, chopped into small cubes

about 2 cups of bean sprouts

2 eggs beaten

spring onions

red onion (use shallots if you have it in your pantry)

garlic

400 g pad Thai noodles

sesame oil

olive oil

1/3 cup chopped peanuts

For the sauce:

1 lime

1/3 cup red cane vinegar

1/4 cup cooking wine

1/3 cup fish sauce (patis)

1 knorr shrimp cube

chili flakes (optional) 

1/3 cup brown sugar

I basically followed the instructions on the video. I first cooked the noodles according to package instructions. Drain and set aside. Using the same pan, add about half a teaspoon of sesame oil and some olive oil and cook the chicken breast. Once done, set aside. I did the same to the tokwa. Then, I fried the scrambled eggs. After that, I sauteed garlic and onions. I put in the green onions and bean sprouts into the mix. I later tossed the chicken, scrambled eggs and tokwa into the pan as well. Then, add the cooked pad thai noodles.

For the sauce, mix all the ingredients and pour over the pan. Then add peanuts. You can adjust the taste to your liking. The finished product looked a little pale than the usual pad thai we get at restaurants. People at home did say it was good. At least all the hard work was paid off with their compliments.

I added the chili powder (we did not have chili flakes at home) to my plate as each one of us at home had our own level of tolerance for spice.

Homemade Pad Thai with Chili powder

There you go. Do not hesitate to substitute ingredients that you already have in your pantry for recipes you see online. Enjoy!