Pork Stir-fry in Oyster Sauce with Bokchoy/Pechay

Ingredients:

Marinate:

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

Grated ginger

1/2 tsp White pepper or black pepper

1/2 kg Pork (thinly sliced)

STIR FRY:

Oil for stir fry

A few slices of ginger

Minced garlic

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce

2 tablespoons oyster 

1 tablespoon Mirin (optional)

1 teaspoon white sugar (use this if using Mirin) if not using Mirin use 1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar instead

1 cup of water

Chopped Red/orange Bell peppers

3 stalks, chopped spring (separate white and green part)

Chopped Bokchoy/Pechay (separate stalks and leaves)

1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

Slurry:

1 tablespoon Cornstarch

1 cup Water

1. MARINATE: Put meat in a bowl. Add all the other marinade ingredients: baking soda, corn starch, soy sauce, white pepper, and squeeze the juice from the grated ginger over the meat, then add the grated ginger to the mix. Mix everything together, coating all the pieces of meat evenly. Set aside. You can cook the meat right away if in a hurry or  if you have time allow to marinate at least 10-15 minutes.

2. Heat up the wok or pan. Add some oil. Put in the slices of ginger, stir until you smell the aroma. Add in the minced garlic. And then the white part of the spring onion. Stir for a few seconds.

3. Add the marinated meat to the pan. Stir and try to separate meat which are sticking together. Brown the meat evenly.

4. Add the soy sauce. Stir. Then add in the oyster sauce. Stir well. Simmer for a minute and then put 1 cup of water. Simmer until the sauce slightly boils. If using Mirin, add the 1/2 tsp white sugar, if not using Mirin add the 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar. Stir well.

5. Add now the bell peppers and the white stalk of the bokchoy/pechay. Stir for a few seconds. Meanwhile, mix the slurry ingredients: cornstarch and water. Then drizzle it on the meat mixture. Stir well.

6. Once the sauce starts to boil, add the green part of the spring onions and the green leaves of the bokchoy/pechay. Stir for a few seconds until sauce begins to thicken.

7. Drizzle the sesame oil. Stir. And then if adding Mirin, drizzle it, too. Stir again. And done!:)

8. Plate it and eat it with rice or noodles. Enjoy!!!

Quick and Easy Healthy Wrap

Do you want a quick and easy breakfast, brunch, or lunch? Here is a very easy, healthy wrap. Wraps are versatile to make. You can put any leftover veggies, meats that you have in your refrigerator. Wraps are mainly made of soft flatbreads rolled with different kinds of fillings. You can use tortilla, lavash, or pita breads for this. In this photo I used a rectangular flax, oat bran & whole wheat lavash bread. I put in some chopped lettuce, chopped tomatoes, slices of ripe avocado, spoonfuls of cottage cheese, and some sliced ham. I made another variation with some leftover breakfast sausage (not on photo). Lay down the fillings on the flat bread and roll. Quick and easy! You can dip or drizzle it with your favorite sauce. Ranch, mustard, honey mustard, whatever you prefer. Try this and enjoy!

Summer Pasta Salad with Baked Chicken Breast

Filipino-style Spanish Bread

Amidst all the chaos outside because of COVID-19, we are still grateful for the daily provisions God has given us. Praying for other people who have a hard time putting food on their table for their families. May this pandemic will end soon in Jesus Name!

Yesterday, with nothing else to do and craving some sweet Filipino bread, I decided to make some Spanish Bread. It's a rolled bread with some sweet filling inside and coated with some bread crumbs on the outside. It is very good to pair with coffee for breakfast or to eat at snack time. It took a while to knead the dough, my muscles were getting tired already, lol. I had to call a back-up baker in the form of my husband, lol. He had the machinery (strong muscles) to do all the kneading. I just had to bark the instructions on how to do it well, lol. 

Finally after almost 3 hours of preparation and proofing the dough, we got some fresh, sweet Spanish Bread! God is great!

P.S. Forgive the different sizes and not so pretty rolls, haha. My first time to make it. I'll do better next time. But the taste is great!

Japchae (Korean-style Stir-Fried Glass Noodles)

In recent years, I've been addicted to Korean dramas. Naks! Haha, feeling teenager. Anyway, no one can debate how interesting K-Dramas are. More and more people from all over the world started watching K-Dramas, K-Pop stars, etc. Most of their K-dramas have light and feel-good stories. You don't end up watching a movie with a heavy heart.

Anyway, because of my addiction to K-Dramas it opened up to knowing their type of cuisine or food, too. Watching the actors eat their food in a movie/series heartily makes you want to try it out. This was what lead me to research some Korean recipes. 

Japchae is one of the foods that I wanted to try. I have also a Korean friend who cooks and shares Korean food with us, so I got to taste it once. It tasted so good, much like our Pinoy Pansit bihon and sotanghon. The only difference is the preparation and the kind of noodles used.

Japchae is made from sweet potato glass noodles. It's thicker than our sotanghon noodles and more chewy in texture. Instead of stir frying the noodles with all the other ingredients like we do with sotanghon gisado, you just mix the cooked sweet potato noodles (cold ) with the rest of the ingredients. You just have to balance the sugar and soy sauce content for flavor.

It is a hearty meal by itself. It already has the noodles, some meat ( I used stir-fried beef), eggs, and different kinds of vegetables. Or if you want, you can make it as a side dish and pair it with more meat and rice. I cook it from time to time when I crave Korean food. Try it out!