AFRITADA

 Afritada is one of the many tomato sauce based Filipino dishes, with lots of choices for the main ingredients. Seafood, meat, poultry or even eggs, can be use in making this tomato base stew. Choices of vegetable from potato, green beans, carrots, red bell pepper, can be added for this saucy chicken dish with vegetables.

Ingredients :

• 1 Whole chicken
• 3 Medium size potato
• 2 Medium size Carrots
• 1/2 Cup Green peas
• 1 Red or green pepper
• Ground pepper to taste

Maximize Ingredients

• Afritada Mix
• Chicken broth

While browsing for something to prepare for our blog, lots of selection for Pinoy dish mixes. I was a bit hesitant in picking one, I don't have any idea what meat do I have in our fridge. I grabbed this menudo afritada mix, two choices in one. 

Fry potatoes in cooking oil. Set aside

In the same pan, stir-fry chicken until golden brown

Pour the dissolved mix, simmer until the chicken is tender. Add hot water if necessary

Add fried potatoes, bell pepper and green peas. Cover and simmer for another few minutes or until vegetables reaches the desired tenderness 

Cooking Tips : 

1. You can add chicken broth and season with ground pepper for a richer flavor
2. Afrida mix can be use in meat poultry or mussel afritada

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RESTAURANT STYLE FRIED CHICKEN

Traditional fried chicken recipes are simply chicken dusted in flour and fried crisp, but this delicious variation uses a fried chicken mix that contains marinade, batter breading and gravy in one pack. This fried chicken is great hot, but also makes a wonderful picnic item served cold. 

Ingredients :

• 1/2 Kilogram chicken

Maximize Ingredients :

• 1 Packed Fried Chicken Mixes

The good thing in keeping a bunch of mixes in our pantry, helps us maximize our time. At anytime, we can make a crispy fried chicken without going out. One pack is good for ½ kilos of chicken. It contains four packages inside; marinade, batter, breading and gravy. Dissolve marinade mix in 1/3 cup (80 ml) water until free from lumps. Marinate chicken for 1 hour, turning occasionally and drain.

Dissolve batter mix in 1/4 cup (60 ml) water until free from lumps. Set aside.

Dip marinated chicken in batter then coat with breading. 

Frying chicken is a slow cooking food -- not because it takes forever to prepare, but when frying a crispy outside and juicy inside. It is why fried chicken is the perfect summer Sunday meal.

Dissolve gravy mix in 1 cup (240 ml) water until free from lumps. Bring to a boil then simmer for another 3 minutes with constant stirring. Serve with fried chicken

Cooking Tips : 

1. After you flour coat the chicken, let the chicken rest on a rack for twenty minutes to form a crust before you fry it. This also allows the chicken to warm to room temperature which will help it to cook through. Use the time to finish any sides.

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GINISANG BAGUIO BEANS

Ginisa is one of the famous and traditional favorite Filipino food, Ginisa is to Sauté or cook in oil with garlic, onion or tomato. Seafood, poultry and meat are added into vegetable to pepare this recipe.
String beans or baguio beans with ground or sliced  meat, are the basic ingedients for Ginisang Baguio Beans. Just like any other Filipino ginisa dishes, garlic, tomatoes, onion and baguio beans are fried on heated oil first. Then the meat is added. When the meat is cooked or tender, add water or broth, then the vegetables or the Baguio beans. Beans should not be overcooked to keep its crunchiness. String beans can be used in substitute of the string beans. 

Ingredients :

• Baguio beans 
• 1 medium onion 
• 2 Cloves of garlic
• 2 Medium size tomato
• 1 Tablespoon oyster sauce
• Salt and Pepper
• Cooking oil

Maximize Ingredients :

• Beef broth mix
• Magic sarap
• Beef patties

Instead of going out to get a few pounds of ground beef or pork for our Ginisang Baguio beans, we used beef patties that was sitting in our freezer. Sauté garlic, onion, tomato and crush beef patties. Let it simmer for 4 minutes while stirring. 

Add magic sarap and oyster sauce, stir frying for a few minutes. You may use soya sauce for oyster sauce substitute. 

Add water or broth and Baguio beans, let simmer for 6 minutes on medium low heat. Remove cover and stir. Season with salt and pepper, and cook for 6 more minutes or until the beans are tender. Serve with plain white rice and fried fish.

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PAPAITAN

Pinapaitan is another popular Filipino soup dish that was originated from Ilocos region, it is also one of the favourite dishes during drinking sessions. The original ingredients are goat meat and innards such as liver, kidney, heart and intestine. Goat meat are hard to find in the market, beef as the substitute have become famous. Time preparation are needed in making this dish, from finding the meat and other ingredients. in this recipe, you could have the bitter sour soup and a bottle of beer in  just a matter of minutes.

Ingredients :

• 1/2 Lbs beef tripe
• 1/2 lbs beef meat
• 2 Stalks of spring onion
• 2 chilli
• 1 Onion
• 2 Cloves garlic
• Salt and pepper

Maximize Convenience :

1. Pinapaitan mix
2. Magic Sarap

Innards such as liver, heart, kidney and intestines are some of the best ingredients in making papaitan, we are going to make this recipe as simple as everyone could prepare it. Tripe are the easy to find innard in meat sections in our place, we are going to boil this with beef meat until tender.

Saute garlic and onion. Add the meat that are sliced in bite sizes, chilli and green onion. Add water, depends on how much amount of soup you want. Season with salt and pepper and add magic sarap or ginisa mix for a stronger flavour.

Traditional way of making this dish, needs sour ingredients like tamarind or balimbi fruit and bitter taste from goat bile. The use of too much bile will result of becoming bitter, but can be adjusted with kalamansi or lemon extract. You don't need to do this process, papaitan mix had the complete flavour you want for your soup. Once the soup starts to boil, pour the papaitan mix and let it simmer for a few minutes. 

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SARCIADONG ISDA

Nothing could be easier than this tasty fried fish, which is particularly delicious accompanied by sauté tomato. The flavour of ginger, which add the strong flavour on the sauce. If you have left-over fish, this may save time in preparing and cooking. Frying will only take 5-10 minutes on both side, still speedy enough for a quick weeknight meal served over fluffy white rice.

Ingredients

• 1 Lbs round scad (galunggong)
• 1 Large onion
• 2 Cloves garlic
• Salt and Pepper

Maximize Convenience

• Can whole tomatoes
• Magic sarap

Galunggong or round scad, has been part of Philippine daily menu, it is extremely common in Philippine water. Can be cook with vinegar, soya sauce or fried it. and serve with sliced fresh tomato and shrimp paste. I pulled a packed of frozen Scad in our fridge, kids want it with tomato sauce. After removing the innards, I let it sit for a while with a rub of salt and fried it.

Ginger are thinly cut, garlic into small pieces and  bigger slices for onion. tomato ? we are out of fresh tomato, we used whole tomato in can and the juice for our sauce. diced, whole or any kind of tomato in can are the the main canned prepared ingredients in our pantry for it's usage. Making pasta sauce, cooking stews and salsa, tomato are the main ingredients. Not only are they a tremendous time-saver, but because they have the longer life.

Finished with a dash of  Magic Sarap, and season with salt and pepper. Give a few minutes to simmer, 

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BICOL EXPRESS

This is quick, easy and convenient cooking of a creamy and spicy flavoured Bicol Express chicken recipe. Instead of using pork, we made use of chicken. To make this recipe as fast as the Bicol Express line, we used the Maggi Magic meals. Instructions are so easy to follow, you don't need any skill in cooking, just add water and the choice of green vegetables. Goes to the bag, flatten and cook in rice cooker with your rice. You have your rice and Bicol Express done together.

Ingredients :

• 1/2 Lbs of skinless and boneless chicken
• 2 Cloves Garlic
• 1 Medium size onion
• 1/2 Lbs wing beans

Maximize Ingredients

• Magic Meals Bicol Express
• Magic Sarap

Easy Extras 

• Fish sauce

By the way you can use pork or any meat that you want, we used skinless chicken for a change. Maybe we want to reduce a bit of fat in our cooking, to make it healthier for sometimes. My sister who works at Nestle, packed a bag of Magic Meals and other Maggi seasoning, from my vacation in the Philippines last July. I didn't try any of this since the day I cameback.

'Till one day, we were so busy. We had to do a shoot for our next upload, the scheduled recipe is Espasol. It's 11:30 am, lunch is not ready yet and we had to leave the house for work at around 1:00 pm. I grabbed one of the pack and read the instruction, in 45 minutes I had my hot rice and Apritada. We choose Bicol Express for our featured recipe today, we did some changes to make it more flavourful. The cooking time are much the same as the pocket, the only changes is sautéing and cooking must be done separately from the rice. We sautéed garlic and onion then brown the chicken.

After sautéing, we added the sliced winged beans or sigarilyas. Stir frying for a few minutes, before adding the Bicol Express powder from the pack. Add water and cover, simmer until the chicken is tender. Add Magic Sarap and seasoned with fish sauce.  We had our lunch as fast as we didn't expected, the outcome was so delicious. The taste of the sautéed fresh garlic, onion and browning the chicken was so good. Do not add any chilli, it comes with  the hot spice that you are going to love. We highly recommended this to all new in cooking and busy moms, cooking  the convenient way of our native dishes.

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TINOLANG MANOK

Chicken recipes are always a favourite recipe, from making soup, grilling and stewing. Tinola is one of the easiest chicken recipe, with few and easy to find ingredients. The aroma of ginger and chili leaves, make it typical for asian cuisine. Nowadays most of the green leafy vegetables are frozen packed and available anytime of weather. We tried this recipe using Ginger Soup Base Mix, the taste of the soup is not as good as sautéing fresh ginger, garlic and onion. We added Ginisa Mix and season with fish sauce, the flavor is as good as doing it from scratch. 

Ingredients

• 500 Grams chicken
• 6 cups (1.5 L) water
• 2 Chayote
• 1/2 Cup chilli leaves
• 4 Cups of water
• 4 Peppercorn
• Salt to taste

Maximize Ingredients

• 1 Pack Ginger Soup Base Mix
• 1/2 Pack Ginisa Mix

Easy Extras

• Fish sauce

Chicken are cut into the desired sizes, chayote were peeled and cut. the next step is to put chicken, chayote, pepper corn and let it simmer until boil, add the Ginger Soup Base Mix (Tinola) and Giniza Mix. Simmer until chicken are cooked and chayote are tender. The cooking time of chicken varies on what type are you using, it may take longer if you are using stewing chicken. The meat are tougher and a little scrawnier, but they're great for slow-cooking, such as in a stew, and they make wonderful stock.

As what the old couple always says " the soup is done, take a sip before it gets cold", after simmering for  a few minutes, add the green chilli leaves and taste. Tinola can be added to our daily menu, or a back-up in row row situation. Don't let our fridge dried out with chicken or other meat and frozen vegetables and we are ready for the rainy season. Tinola is high in vitamin C, to help ward off the flu. 

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