Stewed Chicken and Shiitake Mushrooms with Fresh Tomatoes

Simple joys of home cooking ♥ After months of pondering when will be next time i'll be able to cook again. Here it is. The first recipe i cooked from my bunch of cookbooks which  i decided to bring with me when i got married. They were the best stuffs i brought with me ;)

Ingredients:

1.3 kg     Whole chicken, chopped into small pieces (i.e. one leg can be cut into 2 pieces)
1    pc     red onion, sliced
10 pcs    shiitake mushrooms, cut into halves
4 pcs       fresh tomatoes, cut into quarters
3/4 cups green peas
1/2 cup   flour

1/2 tsp   salt
Pinch of pepper

2 tbsp     del monte tomato paste
1 tbsp     rice wine
3 tsp       light soy sauce
3 cups    water
1 tsp       salt
1/2 tsp   sugar

Procedure
1. Mix chicken pieces with 1/2 tsp salt and pinch of pepper. Set aside for 5 minutes. Coat with 1/2 cup of flour.
2. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil or any cooking oil and fry chicken until browned. Remove. Add onion and mushrooms into the pan and stir fry until fragrant. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and stir evenly.
3. Add wine, soy sauce, and water, bring to a boil. Add chicken and season with salt and sugar.
4. Simmer for 45 minutes. Add green peas and cook for awhile.
5. Adjust seasoning and serve hot with rice.

Enjoy your dinner as we enjoy ours ;)

Beef Caldereta / Kaldereta (Beef Stew)

 
I super love the blend of tomato and cheese which makes every caldereta meal a hearty meal. :) My friend - Ria - is craving for beef caldereta today and so i decided to share our home recipe for this! We've loved our version of beef caldereta since our housemate Jovie came along three years ago! :) This is her recipe and you can actually do a variation of this with kambing/goat meat.

1 kilo            Beef kenchi (cut into cubes)
1 pc              garlic (whole - crushed)
4 pcs             red onions (sliced)
1 k                potatoes (cut into cubes)
2 pcs.            carrots large (cut into cubes or big chunks same size with your meat / potatoes)
1 pc              red bell peppers (cut into big squares / large dice)
1 pc              green bell peppers (cut into big squares / large dice)
250 grams    green peas
1/4 cup         cooking oil 
170 grams     liver spread (Reno Brand )
1 kilo            tomato sauce (Del Monte )
1 small pack tomato paste (Del Monte )
175 grams    quickmelt cheese (Che Vital )
                    black pepper, to season

** You can have any grocery or market butcher cut your meat to 'kaldereta' cut! -easy!

Procedure:
1.) Heat oil in a casserole with medium-high heat. When hot, saute garlic until golden brown, saute onion until translucent. Saute beef until liquid extract of meat evaporate until almost dry, season with freshly ground black pepper.
2.) Put in water just to cover meat. Put to a boil and lower heat to simmer for 2 hours (or until meat is tender), check once in a while and put in more water if necessary.
3.) When meat is tender, bring to a boil and put in liver spread, tomato sauce, tomato paste and quickmelt cheese for the meat to absorb the taste. Mix well until the mixture is well blended with the meat. 
4.) Put in potatoes, carrots, green peas, red bell pepper and green bell pepper. Bring to a boil and lower heat simmer for another 20 mins (or until potatoes are cooked to your desired texture)

Cooking is definitely about your and your guests! So just grab those ingredients and make it happen in your dinner table!!! Enjoy! :) Photos to follow!

Paella Ala L (Version 1)

This recipe was inspired by Paella ala Majorcana from my recipe book from CACs (where i took up Basics in Cooking and Baking) and made several changes according to the availability of ingredients from the grocery and my own gut feel!!! It was a merry merry merry Christmas eve since I got to appreciate my own cooking. 1st try and i can say that it was a success. I was so afraid of cooking up Paella before and with courage i plunged on to try it this Christmas.... and with love, i shared it with my family. :)

So I'm sharing my experience with you with this recipe.

Ingredients:

Meat / Seafood

1/4 k pork menudo cut

1/4 k chicken thigh with skin (cut into 4 per piece)

3 pcs Chinese Chorizo Sausage (sliced diagonally)

2 pcs. Pusit / Squid (big)

12 pcs. Shrimps

Vegetables

1 pc. garlic (chopped)

2 pcs. onion (chopped)

2 pcs. red bell pepper (diced into 8 per piece)

Others

1 cup olive oil

1 pack (about 1 teaspoon) saffron

4 cups uncooked rice

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

2 liters chicken broth (2 pcs. knorr chicken cubes in 2 liters water)

1/2 cup green peas (boiled)

2 pcs. hard boiled eggs

Instruction:

1. Heat 1/4 cup olive oil. Saute garlic until gold brown and saute the Shrimp and Pusit until half cooked and mix in the red bell peppers. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside in a bowl.

2. Using the same skillet, heat 1/4 cup olive oil. Saute the half of the onion until translucent.

3. Saute in the meat and chicken until cooked (about 8-10 minutes). Season with salt and pepper, cayenne pepper and the saffron. Set aside together with the seafood in a bowl.

4. In the same skillet or paellera (if you have one), heat remaining olive oil (1/2 cup). Saute onion until translucent. Saute the Chinese chorizo sausages. Place in 4 cups of rice and make sure that all the grain are well coated with oil. Pour in the chicken broth by cup. 1 cup at a time while constantly stirring the rice. Make sure that there is just enough stock to cook the rice at one time. You will have to pour in the stock in 6 batches as you patiently wait for the rice to cook. Turn off the heat.

5. Mix in the seafood and meat with the rice and place it in a oven safe plate or you can use the paellera (if you're using one).

6. Bake in the over for 50-60 minutes at 350-450 temperature.

7. Top the paella with green peas and egg before serving. :)

Too bad, it didnt make it to anyone's camera. Next time! :)

Thank you to my sisters - Elyse, Ernaline, Eunice - and helper - Jovie and my mom and dad for appreciating the food! Eda, I'll cook up for you some time. Wish you were here for Christmas.