Lutong Pinoy: Kwek kwek

Time for some old-fashioned Filipino street food. I couldn’t believe they call this thing “Kwek kwek.” Kwek kwek is the clucking sound chickens make in tagalog. Maybe i’m wrong, I’ve been gone for over 15 years after all. Anyway, despite how these look (don’t even try to mention how many weight watchers points these are) these are highly addicting, so don’t knock em till you try em!

 

Let’s start with the ingredients.

3 hard-boiled eggs or substitute Balut
1 cup flour
1 tbsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
Red food coloring (I substituted 1 tsp. paprika for mine)
Water
Enough oil for deep-frying the egg.

 

Mix all of the dry ingredients. Heat the oil to 350 degrees.

Add a little bit of water at a time to the mix until the texture of the batter is not too watery or dry.

Remove the shells and toss the egss in the batter, coating them evenly.

Using a spoon or a long serving spoon, gently drop the eggs in oil. Turn them if necessary. Cook it until the batter is a crispy looking red-orange color and remove from heat.

This is what makes it sooo good, Kwek kwek is served with spicy vinegar. Betcha can’t eat just one!

Dang, I cant make ‘em fast enough ><; Hopefully I can keep my cholesterol in check! LMAO

Laissez les bon temps rouler – Cajun Style Po’Boy

Something different for today’s cooking, I’m making Cajun food, from Cajunia! I think it’s from the middle east Arkansas somewhere, who knows. Anywhoo, it’s called a Po’Boy or Poor Boy. If you eat at a Popeye’s a lot that would be the Catfish sandwhich on the menu, and the reason why I learned to cook this one.

Gar ici mon ami, let us begin with a few Mashwarohn (Catfish) fillet, cut up into manageable slices, 1 cup of cornmeal, 1 tbsp of each: salt, pepper, paprika, granulated garlic, granulated onions, cayenne powder, for my own twist, I added sage and basil, and dredge with milk and 1 scambled egg.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Mix the milk and egg then dunk the mashwarohn in it.

Take a fillet and coat each one evenly.

Toss them into hot oil, 350 degrees farenheit preferably. Fry until it is a crispy golden brown, flip it over if the other side is inadequately cooked.

When they are done, put them over a plate with paper towels or napkins to drain excess oil. Give it a minute or two to cool down, or not if you’re like me. In either case, bon appetite!

Ca c’est bon! Easily one of my very best meals yet. Serve as a sandwich or side with steamed rice or gumbo. Oh my, I do think I need to shave my legs now.

第2次日本料理 ～チャーハン～

Mmmm… Fried rice, always a favorite of mine. Today I am making チャーハン(Chahan) It is Chinese fried rice suited to Japanese tastes. I will be making mine with the leftover pork loin kiritoshi I had for my お好み焼き.

I used some salt, pepper, 1 scrambled egg, sesame seed oil, and chicken bouillon cube dissolved in a little bit of water. As I rushed to prepare the ingredients, I forgot that I am making Japanese fried rice so I added a little bit of dashi to the chicken broth. The rice vinegar is optional, I add it to the rice before I eat it, gives it a little kick.

I browned the pork in a 12″ frying pan.

When the pork is cooked, take it out of the pan and pour half of the egg into the fryer. This is my style of cooking chahan. Usually you add the whole egg.

Implicating my style, add 1 cup of rice over the cooking egg, stir a little bit, and pour the rest of the egg over the rice. Mix thoroughly.

Stir fry the rice, adding a little bit of the broth to the rice. Don’t pour all the broth at once, or it will end up soggy.

Add a teaspoon of sesame oil, gives it a very aromatic smell. Damn this is making me very hungry.

Another ingredient I forgot in haste, are green onions. Once again, leftovers from my お好み焼き recipe.

Stir in the pork cooked previously.

When done, add some beni shōga (pickled red ginger) as a side. As I have previously stated, I like my rice showered with plenty of rice vinegar.

And this is me enjoying my freshly cooked plate of chahan. Don’t mind the expression, I was watching… uh… “boxing” at the time. Yeah.. Boxing.

第1次日本料理 ～お好み焼き～

Its been a while since I made Okonomiyaki. So long, in fact, that my hon-dashi’s expiration date was 09.04.04 and my aonori has turned tan colored.

Here’s me griddle whilst I prepare me tools.

The kiji and green onions. Mmmmm, getting hungry already.

Tossed in some pork loin kiritoshi to top it off. I’m cooking it in two different styles, on the side, and on top.

Looking good!

Its done! Now topped with mayo, okonomi sauce, Aonori and Katsuobushi.

My special edition okonomiyaki. Care to take a guess?

Itadakimasu! Just look at that disgusted delighted face of mine.

Something to share

Good news everyone, I’m here to share the joys of CP!

NOOOOOOOOOO! I’m talking about Carnivorous Plants!

I have always been fascinated with carnivorous plants but they are pretty hard to find locally, especially if you’re looking for a specific plant family. They are widely available online, with some stores that cater to specific plants, although I am pretty reluctant to buy it online mainly because I’m worried about the condition of the plant when I recieve it.
I currently have three pots with three types of plants:

Sarracenia Rubra also known as the Sweet Pitcher Plant. Dionaea Muscipula is the common Venus Flytrap. Drosera Capensis, commonly known as the Cape Sundew plant.

My first carnivorous plant was a Venus Flytrap I found at the 99 cents store about a year ago. I call him Chompy. He’s a pretty healthy one, blooming several flowers about every two months. I found another one, Junior, earlier this year, but I was really hoping to get a color variation “Akai Ryu” and a giant mouth variation and plant them all in a pot.

 

I’m really looking for these two types of pitcher plants: Nepenthes Rajah, Nepenthes x Ferrugineomarginata. I find the Sarracenia family a little bit too bland for my tastes, but beggars cant be choosers. I called it Mario cause it reminds me of the pipes in the Super Mario Bros. game.

  

Sundews are beautiful plants, and I had an obsession to look for them ever since I found one being sold at a local OSH. At a local nursery, some carnivorous plants were being sold, but most were in terrible condition, most are dried up and are dead or dying. I bought Lucky just in the nick of time, it was the healthiest of the sundews I found there, with just a few leaves dried up and the stalk being mostly green.

   
   

These plants are almost as fun as any furry pet. Sure you cant play fetch with it or would need to clean up after it, but watching it grow and catch/forcefeeding it inscects are pretty fun.

— 09/17/09 Edit —

I really love sundews, they’re very pretty plants, especially in the mornings. Cartman, true to his name, is really getting fat. Lucky on the other hand, is doing very well. He is sprouting new leaves, though not as fast as Cartman is. Lucky, however, is sprouting a new flower stalk! Yay! It wasn’t there yesterday, so he sprouted that sometime today. I’m really excited to see it bloom, the Cape Sundew flowers are reportedly very beautiful when they bloom.