Beef Afritada
Topic: Beef
Afritada is a meat stew with green peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, etc. You can add carrots to have more colors. Since it is a stew, the best part to cook is the shanks.

Ingredients:
500 g beef shanks, sliced
1 carrot, cubed
2 medium potatoes, cubed
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 onion, whole
1 onion, sliced
2 tbsp. ginger, shredded
1 ripe tomato, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. whole peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 cups beef broth
1/2 tsp. black pepper powder
3 tbsp. cooking oil
salt to taste

Directions:
1. Put the beef, 1 bay leaf, peppercorns and whole onion in a pot. Add salt and water to cover the meat. Boil and simmer for 1-2 hours or until tender. Drain, reserve 2 cups broth.
2. Heat oil in a skillet, saute garlic, slice onions, ginger and tomatoes until the ginger are aromatic. Add beef, potatoes, carrots, bay leaf and broth (add more water if desired). Bring to a boil, add tomato sauce. Simmer until the vegetables are half done.
3. Add soy sauce, fish sauce,oyster sauce, black pepper powder and bell pepper. Cook until the vegetables are done. Season with salt and pepper.

Chicken Lechon Kawali
Topic: Chicken
Lechon kawali involves boiling, then frying the meat or chicken, then dip into a salty-sour and spicy sauce. I have my own version of this dish which is after deep-frying it, I will brush olive oil mix with soy sauce and oyster sauce on it, it will add more taste to the skin and it will also looks very shiny and tempting to eat.

Ingredients:
1 kg whole chicken
1 onion quartered
3 cloves garlic
1 stalk lemon grass
10 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 tsp. salt
Oil, enough for deep frying

Sauce #1:
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. oyster sauce
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Sauce #2:
juice of 2 lemons
3 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. onions, chopped
1 tsp. garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Put all the ingredients except oil in a pot. Pour enough water to cover the chicken. Cover the pot and bring to a boil until done. Drain well. let cool.
2. When cooled, deep fry in hot oil until light brown. Remove from oil, re-fry one more time until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
3. Combine all the sauce #1, brush it on the surface of the chicken. Slice the chicken into serving portions.
4. Combine the sauce #2, make it as your dipping sauce.
Serve it immediately while the skin are still crispy!

Cabbage Salad
Topic: Salad
I'm always a big fan of plain salads without heavy dressings, I like it very natural that's why whenever I made salad, I only add few dressings on it. Cabbage is one of the first vegetable salad that I learned to eat since childhood, I always made it whenever we have no enough time to cook vegetables.

Ingredients:
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped, not shredded
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, cubed (very small cubed)
1 tomato, sliced thinly
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. Italian Dressing
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Sprinkle few salt to the chopped cabbage, lightly squeeze, add some water and drain.
2. Combine cabbage, onions, tomatoes and green bell pepper in a salad bowl.
3. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, Italian Dressing, salt and pepper.
3. Mix well and serve.

Spaghetti
Topic: Pasta
Spaghetti is an Italian word means "thin string", the dish is orginally Italian but very common in many countries nowadays. It is one of my favorite recipes to cook since I was in high school and my friends liked it so much. I tried many ingredients already, sometimes I cooked it with shrimps and chicken but the former is always the best for me. My husband was not fond of spaghetti before we were married but now it is one of his favorites. I always add sugar, soy sauce and oyster sauce whenever I cooked one, these sauces will make a big difference to the classic spaghetti sauce and neutralized the sour tomato taste!

Ingredients:
500 g spaghetti, cooked
1 1/2 cups ground beef
1 carrot, shredded
2/3 cup baguio beans, sliced very thinly
2 onions, minced
2 ripe tomatoes, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 tsp. ginger powder
1 1/2 cups traditional spaghetti sauce
1 cup tomato ketchup
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 1/2 cup beef broth or more
1 tsp. white sugar
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
grated cheese

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a pan, saute garlic until brown, add onions and tomatoes and saute until the tomatoes are very tender.
2. Add the ground beef and bay leaf. Cook until the meat is done. Add carrots, beans and broth, season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.
3. Pour in the spaghetti sauce, ketchup, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and ginger powder. Simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat and adjust the seasonings.
5. Transfer to a bowl separately from the pasta.


Tips: Serve in 3 containers, the pasta, the sauce and the cheese. Let everyone mix their own to suit their personal taste of combining the mixtures.

Garlic Bread
Topic: Snacks
Why pay more for a very simple garlic bread when you can do it at home? Here's the basic recipe, you can adjust it depending upon your taste. You can add some herbs like parsley or oregano to add more taste, but I always prefer the plain one. This is what we always cook at home when we ate spaghetti or some noodles.

Ingredients:
1 baguette bread, sliced diagonally 1/2 inch thick
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
grated mozzarella cheese

Directions:
1. Combine butter, sugar, salt, garlic powder and fresh garlic.
2. Brush each side of the bread with the butter mixture.
3. Arranged the bread in an oven dish and bake in a preheated oven for 3 minutes.
4. Take out from oven, flip the bread and put some grated cheese on it.
5. Return to the oven and bake for 1 minute or until the cheese melts.

Serve with Spaghetti or Pancit Canton