Mango Beer Braised Beef Spare Ribs

Mango Beer Braised Beef Spare Ribs. Using beer in cooking is just like using another spice or flavor in the dish. Just like other spice and aroma ingredients it should not be overdone. Beer will add some bitterness and sweetness to a braised dish. Our dish for today is a good example the fruity mango beer will add some fruity sweetness and mild bitterness to our sweet salty and bitter braised recipe.

The beef spare ribs is slow cooked with beer plus some of my favorite braising sauces and aromatic spices for hours at low heat.

Here is the recipe of my Mango Beer Braised Beef Spare Ribs.





Ingredients:



1 kilo beef spare ribs

350 ml Mango Beer

1 whole garlic, cut in half

1/4 cup oyster sauce

2-3 table spoon Hoisin Sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

2-3 slivers, ginger

1 tsp peppercorns

2-3 pcs. star anise

2-3 pcs. bay leaf

2-3 tbsp brown sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

salt

Cooking Procedure:



In a saucepan put beef, pour water to cover, bring to a boil and simmer for a minute. Now drain first boiled water and rinse off all scum. Return beef in the saucepan pour in the beer and fresh water to cover, add in the garlic, ginger, star anise, bay leaf and soy sauce. Bring to a boil and simmer at low to medium heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, add more water as necessary. Add sugar, oyster sauce and hoisin sauce, simmer for another 15 to 30 minutes or until the meat are tender and start to fall out from the bone and the liquid has reduced to about half. Thicken sauce with cornstarch diluted in 1/4 cup water. Correct saltines if required. Serve hot with a lot of rice.

See other related asado recipe:



Braised Chicken Wings with Tausi

Braised Pork Leg with Tausi

Braised Lamb, Pinoy Style

Oxtail with Mushroom and Oyster Sauce

Braised Pork Belly and Quail Egg

Beef Asado, Braised Beef

Chicken Asado, Asadong Manok

Asado Bulalo, Beef Shank Asado

Braised Beef

Beef Pares

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Adobong Okra

Adobong Okra. Okra is one of the Pinoy vegetable that I have noticed that are regularly available here in Darwin both in the supermarkets and produced Sunday and Saturday markets around town. The okra quality is very inviting I was tempted to purchase some without thinking what to cook out of it. Well I did not have trouble what to cook, I decided, why not try adobo using the dark soy sauce that I have recently bought from the Asian section of Woolworth Supermarket.

Adobong Okra is another addition on vegetable adobo in the archives that I have posted, check out the list below should you are looking for other vegetable adobo recipes to cook.



Adobong Asparagus

Adobong Choy Sum

Adobong Bok Choy

Adobong Labong, Bamboo Shoot Adobo

Adobong Kabute

Adobong Sitaw

Adobong Sitaw at Baboy

Adobong Kangkong

Here is the recipe of my version of Adobong Okra.





Ingredients:



250 grams okra, trimmed, cut into half diagonally

1 cup pork belly, cut into strips

1/2 head garlic, peeled, crushed

1 small size onion, peeled, chopped

1/4 cup vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 tsp. peppercorns, crushed

2-3 pcs. bay leaf

cooking oil

salt

Cooking procedure:



In a pan, place the pork and add 1 cup of water bring to a boil and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes or until pork are tender and all the liquid has evaporated and start to render fat. Add more water as necessary. Shift pork at one side and stir-fry garlic and onion fragrant, stir in the pork. Pour 1/2 cup of water and add in bay leaf, peppercorn, soy sauce and vinegar. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes without stirring. Add in okra and stir cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until the okra are just cooked but firm. Correct saltiness if required. Serve hot with a lot of rice.

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Meal Planning Monday - week 42

I'm a sucker for pretty stationery and love notebooks, sticky notes and so on. I went into Paperchase last week to literally just buy a pencil (for scribbling notes in my choir music) and ended up spending £8 on this magnetic meal planner. How cute is that?!

Each week is a page that you tear off afterwards - I prefer this to the wipe-clean kind even though it is less economical, because I always find the pen that you get with the wipe clean boards runs out or goes missing, and this just looks neater. And if you really wanted, you could keep each week's page for future reference!



It also comes with a shopping list notepad (in the far right of the picture) which is really helpful. My only quibble is that Saturday and Sunday are smaller boxes but it's at the weekend that I do more cooking and plan lunches as well as dinners, so I would prefer to have more room for those days, not less!





We are both back at work this week and at the moment have no social events or evenings out planned, but I feel I have neglected my friends lately in favour of redecorating and my boyfriend and I could use a 'date night' as we haven't had one for ages (unless you count the evening we went round Ikea!). So this week's meal plan may change as and when I arrange to see people. However, I've just read there are tube strikes planned for this week from Tuesday to Thursday so maybe I won't plan to go out after work at all!



I am sharing my meal plan with At Home With Mrs M for her 'Meal Planning Monday' blog hop as I usually do. This time she has started a new regular slot called 'Meet the Meal Planner' and the first person to take part is yours truly. So if you're interested in finding out more about how and why I do my meal plans, head on over to her site and read this.

Monday

I'm at a choir rehearsal in the evening so my boyfriend will have dinner at his mum's



Tuesday

I have to go to some after-work drinks so will be home a bit late and need something quick so have bought frozen pizzas.



Wednesday

Chicken curry for him, prawn curry for me



Thursday

I'm out at a work colleague's leaving dinner so my boyfriend will probably have dinner at his mum's



Friday

Tacos with potato wedges



Saturday

Lunch spaghetti carbonara

Dinner Slimming World cheesy broccoli and potato bake from 'Comfort food that slims' with sausages (Quorn sausages for me)



Sunday

Lunch baked camembert with crusty bread - yes, I know that doesn't really fit with Slimming World...

Dinner Slimming World Mediterranean chicken tray bake from 'Comfort food that slims'

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Island Chicken

This month's letter for Alphabakes isn't an easy one - i. Other than icing, not a huge amount springs to mind. I made Idaho potato cake last time the letter came up for Alphabakes in March 2013 - quite an original idea, I thought. This time I was at a bit of a loss, and hadn't unpacked any of my cookery books since moving house (though they now have their own bookcase in the kitchen which is a joy to behold!). I had a browse around on the internet and came across a dinnertime recipe called 'island chicken'. Which island though, I don't actually know!



This is quite a zingy recipe using vinegar (trust me, it works); the soy sauce makes me think the island in question might be somewhere in Asia but with other ingredients including paprika, celery salt, cloves and rosemary I don't really know. If anyone has a guess as to the origins of this recipe, please let me know!



As I was making it I was a little dubious about how it would taste but it was really nice and I would definitely class this dinner as a success.



I largely followed the recipe from the link above, but missed out the beaten eggs which you dip the chicken in before you breadcrumb it, as it was already wet enough from the marinade. I also didn't have any rosemary and didn't use the green pepper for the 'gravy'.



Also, I used chicken thigh fillets which are fairly small so the chicken didn't need anything like the hour in the oven that this recipe calls for; I think I had it in there for less than half that. I served it with vegetables and mashed potatoes.

The marinaded chicken

In breadcrumbs, about to go in the oven

making the sauce

and serve

I'm sending this to Alphabakes, the challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter I have chosen this month is I.

s chicken pieces

1/2 cup vinegar or lemon juice

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

1/2 teaspoon powdered clove

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon rosemary

2 eggs (beaten)

1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper - See more at: http://ift.tt/1vWDk1T

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Tinolang Manok sa Zucchini

Tinolang Manok sa Zucchini. I was craving for chiken tinola but I cannot find papaya or sayote at the supermarket, I thought zucchini would be a good alternative. This is not the first time that I used zucchini on some of my Pinoy Dishes. I even have a version of pinakbet using zucchini as one of the vegetable ingredients.

Please note that zucchini cooks quickly and becomes really soft and mushy when overcooked, I suggest that to add the zucchini at the end of cooking do not overcooked it should still be crisp.

I have also used some baby spinach in addition to the zucchini. Cooking is straight forward, it is basically the same with my tinola recipes in the archives.



Tinolang Manok with Sotanghon

Tinolang Manok sa Patola

Tinolang Manok sa Ampalaya

Tinolang Manok sa Papaya

Chicken with Ampalaya Tendrils and Sotanghon

Chicken Binakol

Chicken Halang Halang



Here is the recipe of my Tinolang Manok sa Zucchini.





Ingredients:



1 kilo chicken, cut into serving pieces, bone in

4-6 zucchini, cut into wedges

150 g baby spinach

2-3 thumb size ginger, skinned, cut into strips

1/2 head garlic, peeled, crushed, chopped

1 medium size onion, peeled, chopped

3-5 pcs. long green chili

1 tsp. peppercorns

1/4 cup fish sauce

1 tsp. sugar

salt

cooking oil

Cooking procedure:



In a large sauce pan sauté garlic, onion and ginger until fragrant, add in the chicken and stir cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add in the fish sauce and stir cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Pour in 4 to 6 cups of water, add in the peppercorns bring to boil and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Then add in the sugar, long green chili and zucchini simmer for another 3 to 4 minutes or until zucchini are just cooked. Correct saltiness if required, add in the baby spinach and cook for another 1 minute. Serve hot.

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Slow Cooker Baked Potato

I haven't used my slow cooker for a few months since I moved in August, so was inspired by the Slow Cooker Challenge on Farmersgirl Kitchen to dig it out. Janice, aka Farmersgirl, has an open theme this month so I had a look around on other blogs to find something that would be fairly easy. I came across a couple of recipes for jacket potatoes done in the slow cooker - it never occured to me to bake them like that. Jacket potatoes take a good 1-2 hours in the oven depending on size (I like to choose the biggest potato I can find) and in a slow cooker they take pretty much all day: about 4 hours on the high setting, or up to 8 hours on the slow setting, which the other bloggers recommended. However, I wanted a baked potato for lunch and wasn't getting up that early in the morning, so I did mine on the high setting.



One useful tip I came across was to wad up little balls of tin foil and place them on the bottom of the slow cooker, and the potato (wrapped in foil) on top. This stops the bottom of the potato from being in contact with the base of the slow cooker and developing a brown spot.



I rubbed the potato with a little oil before I wrapped it in foil but that was all I needed to do. Four hours later I had a beautifully soft potato. The skin didn't crisp up which I do quite like, but then sometimes in the oven I find the skin crisps too much and is inedible (I really enjoy the skin of a baked potato though I know a lot of people don't).

I was in the mood for a sour cream and chive filling but didn't have any sour cream or any chives. Instead, I had a little pot of blue cheese salad dressing so I mixed some of that with a spoonful of mayonnaise and two spoonfuls of fat free natural yogurt, and added some chopped parsley (the only fresh herb I had) on top. It tasted lovely!



I wouldn't normally bake a jacket potato in the slow cooker over doing it in the oven if I was at home, but the beauty of the slow cooker is that you can put it on then go out all day. So if you want a baked potato with your dinner but don't want to wait an hour or more after you get home from work (if like me you aren't home until 7pm) rather than having to do it in the microwave I would definitely recommend doing it in the slow cooker. And the blue cheese and parsley filling was very tasty!



As already mentioned, I'm sending this to the Slow Cooker Challenge, hosted by Janice at Farmersgirl Kitchen.

Using a slow cooker is also more economical than using the oven and potatoes are cheap as chips (literally) so I am sending this to Credit Crunch Munch, the thrifty cooking challenge hosted by Hannah at A New Addition on behalf of Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab Food 4 All.

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Chicken Bopis

Chicken Bopis. To Overseas Pinoys who are lovers of bopis and have for some time craving the dish but cannot cook one because the pork or beef internal organs for some reasons are not available in your locations, I would like to share a chicken version instead. Otherwise try my vegetarian version Vegeterian Bopis.

Occasionally on some supermarkets here in Australia chicken innards are available, and I am sure it may be available elsewhere specialty where there is a large community of Asian or Filipino in particular. For the chicken innards ingredients of my version of Chicken Bopis, I used the hearth, gizzard and liver. Similar to my pork bopis recipes the chicken innards has to be parboiled before chopping to small cubes. Just remember that the gizzards will take longer to cook.



Here is the recipe of my version of Chicken Bopis, bring out the beer! the mango beer?

Ingredients:



1/2 kilo chicken hearth, parboiled, diced, finely

1/2 kilo chicken gizzard, parboiled, diced, finely

1/4 kilo chicken liver, parboiled, diced, finely

1 medium size labanos, skinned, diced finely

1 medium size carrot, skinned, diced finely

1 red bell pepper, deseeded, diced finely

1 green bell pepper, deseeded, diced finely

2-3 red long chili, sliced

2 tablespoon black pepper, coarsely ground

1/2 head garlic, peeled, crushed, chopped

1 medium size onion, peeled, chopped

1/4 cup atsuete / annatto in oil

2-3 pieces hot chili, chopped

1/4 cup soy sauce

3/4 cup vinegar

1/4 cup patis

3-4 pieces bay leaf

cooking oil

salt

Cooking procedure:



In wok sauté garlic and onion till fragrant, Add in diced chicken hearth, liver and gizzard and stir cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until it start to sizzle. Add in vinegar and cook for 2 to 3 minutes now add in annatto oil, patis, soy sauce, bay leaf and black pepper, stir cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add in 3 cups of water and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes now add in carrots, labanos, and hot chili, simmer for another 3 to 5 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Correct saltines if required. Add in bell pepper and red long chilies, cook for a minute or two. Serve hot with a lot of rice.

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