Meal Makeover

I'm ashamed to admit that our family meals have been less inspired lately.  Week after week, it has always been pork sinigang, pork adobo, beef salpicao, fried chicken, grilled tanigue, spaghetti, baked macaroni...There are also days when I'm too lazy to cook so we either order pizza or buy from our suking Thai restaurant around the corner.  But even the stuff that we order doesn't change!  If you look at my order history from Pizza Company, you'd see that we only get medium hawaiian pizza with cheese crust.  It has also come to a point where the waiter at the Thai restaurant can already predict Richard's order, which is usually grilled beef, fried rice with pork and thai somtam.  Pathetic.  I'm just glad that my two alagas are not complaining.

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Last Monday, I took out all my cookbooks and Yummy magazines and spent the entire afternoon browsing through them.  This is the menu that I came up with:

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I also drew up a grocery list and bought all the ingredients. Last Tuesday, I made this:

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Hoisin and Honey Pork 

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with Chicken Sopas.

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The recipe actually calls for porkchops, but my suking grocery did not have any that time so I used pork belly instead.  It was good!  

Coming up with a weekly menu is not easy and can also be very stressful.  So I'm sharing my recipes with you. 

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Hoisin Honey Pork

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4 pcs. pork belly

3 Tbsp. Hoisin sauce (I used Lee Kum Kee)

2 Tbsp. honey

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First, I mixed the hoisin sauce and honey in a small bowl.  Then I brushed the hoisin and honey mixture on all sides of the pork belly.  I placed it inside the ref for several hours.  Then, I cooked the pork in the oven, on broiler setting.   The meat is cooked when the edges start to caramelize. 

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The smell is wonderful, I tell you!  You should try this at home.  It's easy.

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For my chicken sopas, I like to keep it simple. 

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1 chicken breast
2 cups macaroni
2 Tbsp. (approx) butter
1 Tbsp. (approx) cooking oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
Patis and pepper, according to taste
1 small carrot, diced
2 cups (approx) water
1 chicken cube
1 small can evaporated milk
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Here's how I do it: First, I boil the chicken breast until cooked through.  I don't throw away the stock because I also use it for the soup.  Then, I cook the macaroni noodles (something that my lola Aning taught me because this keeps the pasta from absorbing all the soup later on).  By this time, the chicken breast should be cool enough to handle, so I shred it into big chunks using my hands.

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Next, I saute garlic and onion in butter with a little oil.  Then, I add the shredded chicken breast, season with patis and pepper.  I let it cook for around one minute, then I add chopped carrots.  Cook for another two minutes, then add the chicken stock.  Add more water if you need to, and place one chicken cube.  Let this simmer until you feel that all the flavors have been blended together.  Don't worry about the carrot not being cooked well enough, because you can eat carrots raw.  

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Then you add the macaroni, wait for it to boil, and check if the seasoning is ok.  If not, add more salt.  Lastly, add evaporated milk, let it simmer for two minutes, and your chicken sopas is ready.

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I found that evaporated works best with chicken sopas.  I tried using fresh milk before, but it wasn't as malinamnam like with evap milk.  So for me, I do not use any substitutes.

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Some people put grated cheese, hotdog and chicken liver and gizzard to their sopas, but cheese makes the soup too rich for my liking so I don't put it anymore, and the last three ingredients are hard to find here so I don't even bother looking for them.

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I will share more recipes in the coming posts so stay tuned :)