Recipe | Fish Cakes Salad

There are so many ways to create your own salad, but I still haven't explored about it yet, so whenever I make my salad at home, I usually stay with the typical ingredients - lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and sometimes, tomatoes. Even if I go for these ingredients time after time, I do try to mix and match, so I won't get tired eating the same ingredients over and over again.

My mom cooked some Paksiw na Galunggong for lunch and this I used to create this salad for my dinner that day.


Fish Cakes Salad
{serves 1}

Ingredients - Fish Cakes

• Leftover fish from Paksiw na Galunggong - bones removed, meat flaked
• Finely minced garlic and onion
• Finely minced chili fingers (optional)
• Flour and/or Cornstarch
• Panko Breadcrumbs (optional)
• Paksiw sauce (as needed)
• salt and pepper (to taste)
• Oil for frying

How to Cook - Fish Cakes

• Mix all ingredients except for the oil. 
• Using a melon baller or a measuring spoon, scoop out mixture, roll it with the palms then flat it. Do this until all the mixture has been prepared into little patties.
• Heat oil and fry the patties until brown. Drain on paper towels, and set aside.

Ingredients - Salad

• Lettuce of your choice (I used a combination of romaine and lollo rosso)
• Carrots, julienned
• Cucumber, diced
• Tomatoes, diced 
• Green bell pepper, sliced thinly
• Red Onion, sliced paper thin
• Pomelo
• Store bought Thousand Island Dressing, mixed with ground pepper

How to Assemble - Salad

• Layer your salad ingredients in your choice of plate or bowl
• Top with the fish cakes
• Drizzle with dressing.

Things to know:

> If you don't have leftover fish paksiw, you can use any kind of fish you like - just cook it in water with your choice of seasonings (salt, pepper... with onions, garlic, and bay leaf if you like) then flake it. Or, you can just boil / steam the fish then flake it.

> If you want to go with the Paksiw, cook the fish with vinegar, salt, pepper, chili fingers, onion, garlic, and ginger. Set it aside for a few hours so the vinegar sauce would penetrate the fish meat.

> To bind the mixture, I used the vinegar sauce from the paksiw, but you can also use 1 egg as your binder. I decided not to go with the egg to lessen the calorie content of my meal.

> You can pan fry the patties or use a pan grill. The choice is up to you. Since the fish was pre-cooked, all that was needed was to crust the outer parts of the patty for added texture.

This salad tasted like sandwich minus the bread. The pomelo provided more tang into the dish, and now I can say that I love, love, love having fruit on my salad. This is one versatile dish and you can go with different choices. You can also go with your choice of dressing - the Mango Vinaigrette went well with this, too.

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7-Eleven Slurpee Bring Your Cup Day

I think all of us just love Slurpee. I for one, loves filling up the cup provided by the 7-Eleven staff, trying to fit as much product as I can to the point of tapping the cup into the counter, because admit it or not... filling the cup is part of the fun.

Well now... not only do you get to pour your own Slurpee, you can also bring your own cup and enjoy the goodness of Slurpee for only 29 pesos!


On November 07, 2013... 7-Eleven, in partnership with Coca-Cola will have the Bring Your Own Cup Day, wherein you can bring whatever kind of cup you want to bring - no matter how small or big. Of course, there will be rules. All 7-Eleven stores will have a standee with a hole, and if your cup fits the "maCUPangyarihang bilog," you can use such container.

Other things to consider:

• The container has to be fixed in shape. Even if there will be curves and even if the container has a crazy shape, as long as it is fixed, it's good. What's prohibited is the usage of plastic bags (sando bags, garbage bags, to name a few).
• It has to be clean and watertight.
• There should be no leaks or drips. You can bring your tall pitcher and tilt it to fit the hole, but there should be no spills on the floor. If you're going to bring tall containers, better bring its lid as well.
• Strictly one cup per customer. If you have a lot of unique containers, pay for one cup first, then line again for the other containers.
• No refills, of course. Let's not abuse this awesome opportunity to splurge on Slurpee.

There will be two flavors for the Slurpee Bring Your Own Cup Day at 7-Eleven - the cool and classic Cola and Rad Raspberry. Take your pick among the two and enjoy your frozen drink.



I still don't know if they will allow combining two flavors come BYO Cup Day, but this event is going to be available for one day, so be creative and choose your container well. Whether it's a thermos, a kettle, a blender, a hard hat... or your pet's dish, as long as it fits the maCUPangyarihang bilog, it's fair play.

Here's the best part of all - 7-Eleven is going to give away 5,000 pesos to the customer with the best container. On November 07 until November 08, all those who availed of this treat can upload their images on Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag - #BYOCupDay.

I am now thinking of what crazy container to bring, but I have to select carefully because this event has already happened in Australia and Malaysia, and people there have already brought all sorts of crazy containers. Save the date - November 07, 2013... and don't forget to Bring Your Cup!

This promo is open at all 7-Eleven branches nationwide.

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Cooking with Leftovers

Last Friday, good friends from Jollibee sent us two Chickenjoy Bucket Treats. Each bucket contained 8 pieces of fried chicken, and because it's just us three girls here at home, eating all the chicken pieces was a little overwhelming. We did send some to our next door neighbors (the essence of eating Chickenjoy is to provide joy, and I think the kids next door were happy for the treat), but we still had too much to eat. Thankfully, one of the buckets contained all breast parts, so after we ate our share of the chicken, I decided to take out all the breading and skin from the breast parts, flaked the meat, and store it in the freezer for future use.

What we did to the flaked chicken meat?



Pansit Bihon
We typically use pork for our pansit bihon, but chicken was a great ingredient for this dish, too, so for dinner, mom and I shared this bowl of noodles. I truly don't know how to cook pansit bihon, so this was my mom's cooking, and because she mixed the veggie-meat toppings to the noodles, I had to fish out several vegetables and flakes of chicken.


Chicken Salad Sandwich
Whenever we have leftover roasted chicken, the very first thing we always do was to flake it and turn it into a sandwich spread. Typically, we just mix mayonnaise, chicken, finely minced onion, and seasonings (salt, sugar, ground pepper), but for this I also added finely chopped carrots and green bell peppers, just so we could eat carrots and green bell peppers, too! :) I didn't add any cheese to the mix to cut a little on the calorie count, but my sister would grate cheese into her sandwich before eating it.

To make the sandwich, I brushed the bread pieces with mustard, spread the chicken mix, and topped it with sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce (I used a combination of butterhead and lolo rosso).


Empanada
One weekend morning, I turned on the television and the network was showing a replay of one of their old shows. I wasn't able to watch the first few scenes, but the show was featuring a particular province here in the Philippines, with this empanada as it's one native delicacy. I miss cooking and eating empanada, so when I saw that mom didn't use all the cabbage when she cooked the pansit, I decided to try cooking it.

Chicken Veggie Empanada
{makes 12 pieces}

Ingredients (Filling)

• chopped cabbage
• chopped upo (bottle gourd)
• chicken flakes
• water
• little amount of oil
• minced garlic and onion
• salt and pepper to taste

How to Cook (Filling)

• Heat oil in the pan and saute onion, garlic, and chicken flakes. 
• Add the upo and cabbage and continue sauteeing it until the upo sweats. Add water as needed - you only wanted enough water to cook the veggies with less sauce as possible.
• Season according to your preference, and set it aside to cool.

Ingredients (Pastry)

• 1.5 cups all purpose flour
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 125 grams lite butter (cubed)
• 1/8 cup cold water
• 1 egg
• oil for deep frying

How to Cook (Pastry)

• In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients, including the butter.
• Using your hands, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it looks like crumbs.
• Add water and egg, knead until you form a dough.
• Dust a big wooden (clean of course) board with some flour and continue kneading the dough.
• Flatten the dough with the help of a rolling pin.
• If you have a dumpling maker, you can just use it to cut circle pieces of the dough. Knead the unused dough and repeat the process until you have used as much of the dough.

How to Cook (Empanada)

• One circle dough piece at a time, add about a tablespoon of filling into the upper half part of the dough.
• Cover the filling with the lower part of the dough and crimp the sides to seal in the filling. If you don't know how to properly do this, you can opt to use a fork to seal in the dough.
• Using a sauce pan, heat as much oil and deep fry the empanadas under low heat. Don't overcrowd the pan as the pastry could be delicate to work with.
• Take out the empanada pieces as soon as it turns golden brown and place it on a plate lined with paper towel to drain excess oil. 
• Serve warm or at room temperature, whatever suits your fancy.

The recipe for the pastry, I got from BusogSarap.Com because even if my siblings and I have cooked different kinds of empanadas in the past, I wanted to make a dough with definite measurements. You can head over this site to check step by step images on how the author created her version of empanada. I used half of the recipe she originally shared because we are only three people at home, we didn't need to eat that much in one sitting and I still don't know if I will like the taste because in the past, the empanada we cooked were usually like that of Chicken Afritada (chicken, potatoes, raisins, green peas cooked in tomato sauce) or what we called "Embananas," with filling made up of mashed bananas cooked in sugar. 

I did like how it turned out. I didn't know cabbage and upo can be a great combination, and even without the chicken, it still tasted good (I created a "slave empanada" without chicken). The original empanadas I saw on the TV show didn't really use any meat, it was just a combination of cabbage and upo. If only I know from which province this was taken. Anyway, my mom said that I might have used thick dough (still had to roll it more) and it was a little hard. Well, not really hard, hard... my sister said it was actually good as is and that the butter added more dimension to the taste of the pastry, but she did agree that it needed a little softness. How to do that? I still have to figure out.

Hopefully next time I can create this with the "kaliskis" dough. 

Three meals using leftover flaked chicken. Who knew cooking with leftovers can be fun and satisfying, too? Happy weekend, foodie friends!

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Siklab Filipino Favorites {Glorietta 3}

I love to eat foreign cuisine, but I always find myself wanting to eat Filipino food. I believe there is just nothing like it, and the comfort it brings doesn't just fill the tummy, it feeds the senses, too.


If you're someone who just love Filipino food, there's another restaurant to try - Siklab Filipino Favorites, located at the third level of Greenbelt 3.

"Siklab," which literally means “to catch fire” or “burst into flames,” serves dishes that are in their best hot-off-the-grill goodness. Guests can also look forward to nothing less than an explosion of flavors even in the most simple of dishes.

“At Siklab, the story doesn’t end with serving all-Filipino dishes but we present these dishes creatively, the Bistro way,” Chef Josh Boutwood says. “Both usual favorites and some unique Filipino dishes will be served with interesting twists. The taste, however, is still traditionally Filipino — but richer and more flavorful,” he further hints.

The restaurant’s interiors are accented with wooden planks and black droplights that lend a laidback, almost rustic vibe to the place. But it’s this homey and inviting ambiance that heightens the dining experience at Siklab, creating just the right kind of setting for a satisfying meal.

Dishes to try at Siklab Filipino Favorites?




Salads that are prepared with fresh ingredients that are truly Filipino: salted eggs, green mangoes, pako, kesong puti and grated coconut. They also serve leafy malunggay and kangkong as well as other vegetables that make up dishes like Pakbet and Monggo Soup.


For appetizer, Kuhol Sa Gata (local escargot drenched in coconut cream and spicy ingredients) is a winner.


Chicken Barbecue
Chicken pieces are smothered in Siklab’s marinade made of coconut soy sauce, citrus and other spices and the meat is grilled to exact temperature and tenderness. The smokey aroma and intense flavor of the chicken plus its juiciness and succulence, bite after bite, will delight even the most discerning palate.


Barbequed Liempo
A slab of perfectly grilled juicy pork belly best eaten with piping hot steamed rice and condiments on the side, is a crowd favorite.


The adventurous eater may order Grilled Pig’s Ears, a not-your-usual grilled fare but equally tasty and enjoyable.


A healthier alternative is the Tuna Belly, a juicy and tender chunk of tuna sprinkled with chilis and garlic.

For desserts you may opt for...


Minatamis na Saging (Caramelized Bananas)


Turon 2.0
Bananas that becomes fancier as it comes adorned with homemade sugar snap cones and topped with banana ice cream with banana compote.


And the classic Filipino native delicacy - the Biko.

These are just the few of the many more dishes to try at Siklab Filipino Favorites. Whether you're the type who loves grilled food or soupy Pinoy dishes, there's something for everyone at this restaurant.

As part of Bistro Group’s portfolio of restaurant concepts, Siklab carries the same brand of customer service, great food and friendly ambiance that the chain is known and loved for. In the local food scene, Siklab distinguishes itself as a blazing new venue where families, friends, expats, urban professionals and balikbayans can enjoy an authentic Pinoy dining experience – proof that Filipino dishes are definitely worth dining for.

For more information and reservations, please call 729-7431 and 32. Also, you may also follow them on Facebook.

Big thanks to the Bistro Group for providing the images and its descriptions.

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