Longsilog! Not.

Soya wadi or technically is texturized vegetable protein (TVP), also known as textured soy protein (TSP) is a meat substitute made from defatted soy flour, a by-product of making soybean oil. It is quick to cook, high in protein, and low in fat (looks could be mistaken as dried cat's poo).

Marinated this hydrated soy flour overnight in Mama Sita's Tocino marinade and pineapple juice for that longanisa taste.

Just fry in oil. Ketchup would be a good partner, Papaya atsara is also nice.

Rice is fr garlic fried rice with a bit of tumeric for that yellow collor, a bit of curry for flavoring.


Makes me reminisce my young days (still a carnivore back then) when my tatay cooks me real "lang-gonissas".
And to add flavor, I add the frying oil of the meat to my rice. Yumm.

Halawa

Good find!

Halawa / Halwa / Halva, which is made from sesame seeds and paste. Sweetened with sugar and honey. Available in plain, with pistachio toppings, with almond toppings.

Around 120 pesos for this size. Would last in your fridge for weeks.

Could be compared to "pastillas" in the Philippines.
Good for quick deserts and mid afternoon sweet cravings.

The word 'halawa' (حلاوة) in Arabic means 'sweetness' while the word halwa (حلوي) means sweets or candy.

Veggie Pansit

Another noodle dish.


This would be less complicated compared to the normal noodles for the carnivorous, and more healthy of course. I used "Bihon" noodles for this recipe, and its quite easy to prepare, just let it sit submerged in water and its ready to cook.

Ingredients:
Bihon noodles (not so much. looks can be deceiving, dried noodles expands when soaked in water)

Onion and garlic for sauteing

Tofu (for toppings)

Beans (baguio beans type)

Carrots (cut into small cubes)

Cabbage (cut into small pieces)

Ground pepper

Sesame oil

Procedure:
Soak the bihon noodles first before preparing the other ingredients, so when you're finished slicing and dicing, your noodles would have already came to life from it's decade long dry state.

Saute onion and garlic. In medium flame, add the other vegetables, beans, carrots, cabbage...

"Always remember to add first the ingredients which takes longer to cook" - your nanay

Yes, thats a rule. If you add them the otherway around (leafy vegs first, hard legumes later), your vegs would turn out overcooked and whilst others are still raw.

Add sesame oil or soy sauce to add flavor to your vegs.

Fry tofu seperately, till brown and crispy. I'd like to recreate the original chicharon experience in pansits by using crushed tofu. Close enough, adds good texture.

Go back to your noodles. Stir fry strained noodles in pan 3-5minutes, add a little sesame oil for that oriental taste. Soy sauce or salt to taste.

Prepare:
Place bihon in plate. Add sauted vegs as toppings, sprinkle crushed tofu on top, add ground pepper.


enjoy

Onion pasta

It's been awhile.

Not much time lately to post my recipes. Though, I had been able to take notes and photos of the food I cook, which always test my Amore's patience (she had to wait for me to finish taking photos of the food before touching it). I have been busy also with some projects and did some little traveling.

This post's recipe is a simple pasta dish. Something you could cook up when unexpected guests arrive, just boil some pasta and stir-fry veggies, mix it up, and oil it up.

As with my Amore's cravings, she asked one night for a pasta meal. Problem is that I haven't stocked up tomatoes or veggy meat to go with it. Ended up preparing onion pasta.

Ingredients:
Onions (brown or white, 1 whole)
Button mushrooms (fresh is best)
Garlic cloves (just a little for sauteing)
Green pepper (or red if you like it spicy)
Olive oil (love it)
Olives (love it too)
Ground black pepper (can't cook without)

Procedure:

1. Boil your pasta. Penne', spaghetti, fettucini, elbows... whatever you have in the cupboard.

Add pasta in boiling water with a teaspoon of oil, a little salt. Be careful nto to overcook the pasta (follow cooking instructions written in the packaging carefully).

2. Saute your onions!

Saute in veg oil or butter your garlic, onions (nice if cut in rings), mushrooms and green pepper.

3. Prepare

Put pasta on plate, add your sauted veggies on top, drab some olive oil, add your black pepper and salt to taste. Add parmesian if available.

Hint: slice or crack red/green peppers before cooking to make it spicy.

Eggsperiment

Dubai. Where tap water is scalding hot.

Its noon and the sun is at its peak of heat. I opened the tap for some reason, "shit! init ng tubig." And i told myself, I bet water this hot could cook an egg... Ding! and an eggsperiment popped into my head.

Challenge:
Cook raw egg under hot water tap for 30mins.

Prize:
Food for lunch

Cool, eggs here comes with expiration dates. My nanay taught me that fresh eggs should still be with that grainy texture, old eggs are the ones with a smooth shell. But here in Dubai, you just do math! count the days before the expiration date! (like thats easy)

After having the brilliant idea of cooking egg under the tap and mainly because I hadn't had lunch yet, I started the eggsperiment.

I placed the egg in a bowl and put it under the tap.
I never let the water flow for 30mins, I just replace the water in the bowl every 3 - 5 mins. Did this process until I made my 30minute mark.

Tada! 30 minutes is up and at that point I was spining the egg to see if its hardboiled. It was spinning good, but that won't be the test to see if the eggsperiment is a succes. We need to crack... the egg.

The result: uncooked egg

Conclusion: 30 minutes is not enough to cook an egg if water is not extremely hot.

The prize? well, I can't eat an egg raw. So, I made it into..... (see following pic)


Fried egg sandwich with tomatoes on toast bread






















Yumm

Lumpiang Tofu

Being vegetarian (for 5 years now) its refreshing to think that what you are eating is good and healthy. More than the positive effect of this thinking, you'll feel the effect of not eating meat, like feeling lighter and cooler, not feeling heavy after having a good meal and easier bowel movement (yakers). I would advice this diet to people who are concerned with their health and for the desperate ones who want to lose weight, this could be a healthier alternative to killer diets like starvation and the ones that makes you eat only high protein food which is meat.

For my food entry this time, I made "Lumpiang shanghai". It's good for packed lunch, since its easy to cook if you have prepared it beforehand. And another reason why I chose this recipe, is because of those gazilion birthday parties we attend to when we were still little. In those parties its always a routine having small hotdogs on toothpicks with little pineapples and marshmallow that always spoils the glory of eating hotdog on its own, sweet spaghetti with tasty bread that serves as napkin for your mouth as well, mocha cake from goldilocks, and then, the lumpiang shanghai that hardens like a twig when it gets cold.

Ok, here's how it goes. Same procedure as to making it T-rex style, saute the meat with spices, let it cook, cool it down then wrap them in lumpia wrappers, fry/soak in hot oil until cooked and yummy brown.

For this recipe we will substitute ground meat with our ever-handy, ever-versatile tofu. First, mash the tofu, (use your hands, its fun. let it ooze out of your fingers) mash it good. then saute tofu in a pan with a little oil. Saute until light brown. This may take a while, so find some other things to do... like pillow fight! When tofu is light brown, put aside and saute garlic, onions and some chili (you could explore and add a little curry powder). When onions and garlic are ready, add the ground tofu, let it cook a bit, settling the flavors to the tofu. Don't forget to keep mixing or else the tofu underneath will burn. 10 to 15 minutes of cooking would do. Remove from flame and let it cool.

Wrap, fry, strain excess oil. Best served in a birthday party.

Pininyahang gulay

Inspired from pininyahang manok which my amore truly misses. We call it "pininyahang manok" but it is actually "pininyahang veggy meat". As our friends know, we both are vegetarians (Pescetarians, to be specific) According to wiki, Pescetarianism is a diet in which the only animals consumed are fish or other seafood. So, this veggy meat, and this kind we have is called "magic meat". Probably derived from its magical properties to became meat like from a dehydrated from after being soaked in water (pineapple juice, in this recipe). I think its made from wheat and corn fibers, maybe thats why it has fibrous properties.

After consulting to various pinoy blogs on how to cook "Pininyahang manok" old-school and t-rex style, I gathered the ingredients:



INGREDIENTS/SAHOG:

Potatoes (3 medium sized pieces - cut into quarters)

Carrots (1 medium sized piece - cut into smaller units than of the potatoes)

Onions (1 whole)

Garlic (a few cloves)

1 can pineapple chunks (put aside juice/preservatives to soak the veggy meat into - if your using chicken, dump the meat into the juice to marinate)

Half serving of instant coconut milk (Forgot the brand, but I remember its imported from sri lanka- you could use the real thing or the coconut king instant mix would be alright)

half cup milk (evaporated or fresh milk)

A few pieces of veggy meat (this thing expands like your belly when soaked)

Dried chili flakes
(like the ones in sbarro pizza where you could hoard when you do your take outs)

Ground pepper

And, lets start cooking. Saute the garlic & onion in oil(very standard to filipino dishes as I had observed) till garlic is light brown and onion a little transparent and soft. Add in dried chili, its better to cook chili at the first stage of cooking so that the juice blends well with the oil(base) of the food. Add in carrots and potatoes since they would take more time to cook. If you' re using chicken meat, cook the meat first then put aside when its nearing half-cook state. Take your time cooking the vegetables, then, bring in the meat, let it cook a bit then add your coconut milk and evaporated milk. I read that to avoid curdling of the coconut milk, just don't cover the pot or pan when cooking. Then add your pineapples, it will juice out so you don't have to add water for "sabaw". Add patis to taste. Serve and sprinkle in pepper.

Serves 3-5. So, we had this for dinner and brunch the next day with our kaning lamig.

Pritong Isda!?!

Yes, pritong isda.

Nakabili ako ng fresh fish sa grocery dito, halos 110 Php sa isang buong maliit na tangigue (not bad). Though, i'm not sure of the freshness, i could only wonder how many days it has been laying there, in layers of crushed ice, and how many small bottles of visine were used to keep its eyes clear.

Ok, tama na sarcasm. I just marinated the tangigue slices in a bit of soy, a bit of salt (to preserve the meat) and a lot of lemon juice. Fried two pieces and kept the rest for next time.

The best part of this meal is not the main course itself, but the side dishes.

We have "Burong hipon" (yes, its the stinky rice) which I brought from the Philippines. Carefully wrapped in newspaper and plastic and was strategically placed in between my socks and underwear for cushion (thank god it did not break and spread its juice all over my clothes).

The buro goes well with fresh green tomato slices which we bought from the local grocery.

And we had overpriced salted eggs.
Bought locally, quite good, natural oil still dripping from its yellow center. I just remembered a great song just now, http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/eggsong .

Still, another side dish is the "papaya atchara".
From the local "de belchor" Filipino grocery.

After the good meal, then we had to deal with the smell the fried fish and the buro left us. Sticking on the walls, on my clothes and even my hair, candles and incense covered the smell a little, then, we had to open the doors and windows for air, letting in the dubai heat and flies.

Sarap pa rin. Buro!

1st day breakfast

Tuyo, tortang itlog at fried rice.




































Salamat sa aking nanay for the tuyo!

Very pinoy ang unang breakfast dito sa dubai. Miss din kasi ni amore ang pinoy food (sino bang hindi makaka-miss diba?)

Simple lang, fried tuyo with garlic-pepper-vinegar sawsawan, tortang itlog na may button mushrooms (sourced locally) na bagay sa ketchup (uy, naka mafran-banana kami, thanks to "de belchor" filipino grocery). Garlic fried rice na may tumeric powder (from an indian grocery) para makulay ang buhay.

Huhugasan ng orange juice o kape.

Ang unang blog sa lahat

Hello blog. it's me.

This blog is about the (mis) adventures of my survival cooking in Dubai.
I just flew in Dubai exactly 9 days ago, (stop counting, its was last April 24th of the year 2008).

I came to Dubai to cook! to cook for my Amore that is.

I named this blog as "Pinoy Survival cooking in Dubai", it is not that food & ingredients here are scarce, but I see my cooking as a tool for survival. Survival not only in the sense of our physical existence but of the survival of our Filipino soul.

I aim to share my my cooking. Because cooking is the reflection of one's inner spirit to give and to share fully what you are capable of. I cook not only to have the produce of the process devoured, I cook because I want to nourish other people, in body and in soul.

mangan ta! kain na!