Spicy Chicken Wings

The plan was to make a Homemade Buffalo Wings, but because I didn’t have the time to buy the Frank sauce and other things, I decided to make this Spicy Chicken Wings which is by far, better than Buffalo Wings. (in my opinion of course).

Actually, you can use a wide variety of sauces, herbs and spices to cook chicken wings. The best combination for me is this recipe that i will share to you. Again, this is my personal choice and I’m sure, some of you prefers something else.

So here’s what you need just in case you want to try it:

• 10-15 chicken wings; cut into 3 parts.

this is how your wings should look like. Honestly, i love the wing tip. It ‘s crunchy and you can actually eat the bones. But because I was thinking about blogging this recipe, I decided to cut it. Some cut the whole tip but I can’t. I still want to leave a tiny winy toot to eat. haha!

• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 tsp. Tabasco sauce

1. Wash and cut and your wings and dry in a paper towel
2. Mix flour, garlic powder, paprika, salt, pepper and cayenne.
3. Mix chicken wings and spices in a plastic bag or zip lock. Refrigerate for about an hour.
4. Line baking pan with foil and smear with butter
5. Mix melted butter and tabasco sauce.
6. Dip chicken wings one by one and arrange in baking pan.
7. Bake in preheated 400F oven for about 40-45 minutes.
8. Serve hot and crispy.

I don’t know exactly where I found this recipe. Most probably in foodwishes.com since cayenne is one of Chef John’s fave ingredients. I was looking for this recipe in his blog but I didn’t find it. But all the credit goes to whoever the original recipe came from. Now, if you want your wings to be more spicy, then add more of the spicy ingredients. Enjoy!

Pork Stir-Fry with Noodles: The Leftovers!

Busy day with Fany because of tight schedules with doctors and doctors and doctors. We’re both fed up with all these schedules day after day. It was 1pm when we reached home and we’re both hungry. Nothing on the fridge except the cheesecake I made the other day. So I have to come up with something easy and delicious for lunch. I found veggies inside the fridge, about a quarter kilo of pork tenderloin inside the freezer and a pack of egg noodles and then I know I’m good to go. Sometimes leftovers were not meant to go to waste. You can always find something yummy to make using these ingredients. 

This recipe is supposed to be with i think 10 or more main ingredients. But since I have to make something out of my more or less 5, I will only share what I did. Most of the ingredients are vegetables so you can just add the veggies you like to make this recipe more fancy.

about 200g broccoli florets

1 pack (250g) egg noodles; soaked in hot water

1 yellow bell pepper; cut into strips

1 red bell pepper; cut into strips

2 carrots; peeled and cut into strips

1/4 kilo pork tenderloin; cut into strips

2 tbsp. soy sauce

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. chicken powder

50 ml. boiling water

1 onion; finely chopped

3 cloves garlic; finely chopped

2 tbsp. sesame oil or olive oil

lemon

• Marinate your pork with soy sauce.
• Fry onion and garlic in oil until transparent.
• Stir in your pork with soy sauce for about 3 minutes.
• Add 50 ml. of hot water plus sugar and chicken powder
• Stir in noodles.
• salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes you don’t need salt because soy sauce and chicken powder is enough.
• Toss for about 3 minutes until noodles is done.
• Toss in vegetables for about 2 minutes. Don’t overcook vegetables.
• Serve with lemon wedges.

I’ll try to cook Pansit from Philippines next time using Vermicelli Sotanghon and chicken liver. For now, enjoy this buzzer beater Stir-Fry Noodles. Enjoy ♥♥♥

Simple Cheese Cake

The downside of making a cheesecake is the “crack” after baking it. That’s why some people prefers to make a no-bake cheesecake to avoid the hassle. But since I am not a cook-to-sell foodie, I don’t really dwell much on the presentation. I am more on the taste and consistency. That explains why I posted this picture instead of the whole cake. Yes, as much as I want to avoid the “crack”, my cheese cake ended up with a big zigzag slit across the top. Oh well, no biggie. Besides, you can decorate the top with icing or whipped cream to cover the crack.

What I love about this cheesecake is it’s consistency and of course the taste. The golden crust on top gives a bit of a rough texture that blends well with the smoothness of the cake. It’s not so sweet and quite easy to make. Not as complicated as the Chocolate Cheesecake I made before.

So here’s how:

Ingredients:

• 200g Petit Beurre or Graham Cracker with 50g melted butter (in this recipe I used chocolate petie beurre)
• 750g  9% cheese
• 1 box/can sour cream
• 5 tbsp. plain flour
• 5 eggs; separated
• 1 and 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• another 50g. melted butter

• Crumb your petit beurre or graham together with your melted butter.
• Press it evenly into the base of your 26cm. springform pan and let it sit inside the freezer for later.

• Preheat your oven to 200C.
• Beat the egg whites with 3/4 cup sugar until smooth and stiff; set aside

• In another bowl, mix the egg yolks, sugar, flour, cheese, sour cream, vanilla extract and lemon juice; Mix thoroughly until smooth.

• Mix it carefully with your eggwhites; mix slowly not to knock out the air from the eggwhites.
• Now wrap your springform pan with plastic food wrapper

• Finally cover it with aluminum foil. This will prevent the water in going inside your cake.

• Pour the mixture into the springform pan with your graham. Tap it a bit to make the mixture even and fill the air spaces on the sides or below.
• Put your springform pan in another large deep baking pan and pour 1 liter of boiling water on the bigger pan.

• Put it in a 200C preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
• Lower the temperature to 160C and bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until your cake tester will turn out clean.
• Turn off the oven and let the cake rest inside for another 1 hour and 30 minutes.
• Chill inside the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

Wish I could post the Chocolate Cheesecake soon. I hope you’ll try this recipe at home. Feel free to ask any questions via the comment box. Enjoy!

Baked Hash Brown; The Jollibee Craze

People around twitter and blogosphere was raving about the new Hash Brown Burger from Jollibee and I don’t know what’s so special about it. As for my non-Filipino readers, Jollibee is a fast food chain in the Philippines similar to McDonald’s. 

Since it’s impossible for me to find Jollibee anywhere in Israel, I decided to make my own Baked Hash Brown Patties! Why not? It’s so easy to make with so little ingredients. Well, it’s not as fancy as Jollibee’s but who cares? I’m not selling it to 100 million Filipinos, it’s just another cure for a 10am craving.

And since I want it less fat and less fuss, I followed this recipe from liketocook.com. 

Ingredients:

• about half a kilo potatoes; peeled and coarsely grated
• 1 medium onion; finely chopped
• 50g. melted butter
• salt and pepper

Here’s How:

• Peel potatoes and grate; Rinse with cold water and squeeze hard to take out all the liquids. Some squeeze it with a tea towel or cheese cloth. But I made it with my hands and it was good enough.
• In a bowl, mix all the ingredients.
• Form into patties and put inside the freezer for about 30 minutes. The butter will solidify again you will have a formed patties. Freezing it will also make your hash brown crispier.

my hash brown patties ready for the oven

• Prepare a baking pan smeared with oil or butter. Arrange your patties and bake uncovered in a 350F preheated oven for about 30 minutes. It depends on how big your patties are. Test with fork. It should be crispy outside and soft inside. I baked mine 10 minutes and flip it for another 10 minutes.
• If you want to fry it then fry each side for about 3-5 minutes. 

There are many ways to make hash browns. Some adds cheese and cream and garlic. But I want it simple and less fat. Carbo-overload from potatoes is enough for me to enjoy this crispy, almost fat free hash browns straight from my tiny kitchen. Happy Weekend! Enjoy!

Garlic Chicken (Chicken with 20 Cloves of Garlic)

This recipe is from Chef John (foodwishes.com) and this is the 3rd time I made this recipe. I want to share this to everyone especially to Garlic lovers out there. This has exactly 20 cloves of garlic. According to Chef John, the original recipe has 40 cloves of garlic but for us who just want to have some fair garlicky day, the 20 cloves will be enough. 

One thing I hate about dressed chicken here in Israel is it has a lot of unplucked feathers. Ugghhh! In the Philippines, we submerge the whole dead chicken into a pot of boiling water for about 30-40 seconds and clean it. Very easy and very clean. Here it’s not allowed since it will not be kosher if you’ll clean it that way. The chicken from the supermarket are machine-cleaned and there are still a lot of unplucked feathers especially at the tip of chicken legs and wings. 

look how disgusting to see these feathers. I spent about 20 minutes just to clean my 10 chicken legs

Ingredients:

• 10 pcs. Chicken Legs (or you can use 1 whole chicken cut into serving pieces)
• 1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar
• 1/3 cup olive oil (Chef John use 2/3 cup with his whole chicken)
• 1 tsp. dried rosemary
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper to taste

My 10 pieces chicken legs

• First up, you have to make a couple of deep slashes all the way to the bone in 2 sides of your chicken legs. (picture above)

• Then you have to puree your 20 cloves of garlic with a blender or food processor together with your olive oil, red wine vinegar, and dried herbs; blend it to make a smoothie puree.

• Pour the marinade into your chicken legs in a large bowl and soak well. Make sure the puree will get into the slashes; Cover it will plastic wrap and refrigerate it overnight. Well i think 5-6 hours will be enough. Or you can prepare this in the morning and it will be good for dinner.

• Preheat your oven to 425F. Spread out your chicken in your baking pan which is covered with foil and smeared with a little olive oil. Generously salt and pepper your chicken and bake it for about 40-45 minutes.
• When it’s done, transfer it into a large serving plate and top it with Italian Parsley. It counteracts garlic breath. 

For a Filipino like me, nothing can beat a Garlic Chicken and Rice Combo! No, don’t make garlic rice. It will be an overkill. Instead, eat it with regular rice and some Pickles or Green Salad.

It’s a shame to throw away the garlic glaze from the chicken. I actually used some of it as my green salad dressing. It’s unbelievably and sinfully delicious that I can even eat rice with this and nothing else. 

Hope you’ll give it a try. Enjoy!

Romanian Eggplant Salad

Eggplant Salad, the “Fany” way!

Since Fany is from Romania, you cannot trick her when it comes to eggplant salad. She will know exactly if it’s authentic or not. Uh!

WARNING: If you can’t stand the idea of cleaning a mess like this in your stove, then forget this recipe. Unless you are having a bonfire outside your house.

Yes, WE NEED FIRE to roast the Eggplants!

According to Fany, it’s not allowed to roast your eggplant in an electric grill or over the coal. It has to be under a high flame! An authentic eggplant salad will always smell like burnt eggplant. If you cannot smell that distinct odor, then it’s not authentic. Talk about OCs here. Haha.

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggplants. Now find a young eggplant. I don’t know exactly how you can distinguish the young from old but it’s much better if you have less seeds inside. But anyways, any eggplant will do.
• vegetable oil
• salt and pepper
• slices of tomatoes

Here’s How:

• Pierce your eggplant with a fork. Make several piercing to avoid explosion.
• Roast until its soft enough and water is starting to drip.
• Let it cool to handle and peel it.
• Drain it in a strainer for about 30 minutes to drain all the water that makes your eggplant bitter.
• Finely chop your eggplant with a knife. Some use a wooden knife to mash it but a regular knife will do. Do not put it in a food cutter or food processor no matter how tired you are. It will break the seeds and your salad will be bitter.

this is how it looks like after chopping

• Transfer into a large bowl. Put salt and pepper. Gently pour a generous amount of oil; mix well with a fork. 

• Mix it until fluffy enough to eat. The color will change gradually as you put oil and mix. It will look more paler and softer.
• Arrange your tomatoes on top and serve.

I super love this with toasted white bread. Try this at home and you’ll know why it’s worth to clean your messy stove afterwards. Enjoy!

Pickles!

I love Pickles!

But I am not allowed to eat Pickles! For hyper-acidic people like me, pickles will forever be a No-No. It’s too sad to be deprived of something you love. But sometimes you cannot avoid to give in to temptations. Just like today when I decided to make a homemade cabbage and carrot pickles! Yey!

Cucumber pickles has been a constant mistake. I cannot make my cucumbers crispy. Maybe because I did it the wrong way or maybe the water is not hot enough. I don’t really know. But I’d love to try it again next time. I just need to find the perfect measurement and proportions of the ingredients. 

But now, let me share the basic way to make cabbage and carrot pickles. This recipe is an old recipe from Romania. Fany gave it to me 3 years ago. What you need are:

1 small cabbage; shredded

3 carrots; shredded

2 tbsp. Vinegar

2 tbsp. Salt

Dill

4 cloves garlic; halved

2 jalapeno 

1 liter boiling water

1 glass container with cover

• First of all, you have to wash your vegetables well. Make sure it’s clean enough
• Boil a pot of water and sterilize your container. Pour the water halfway and let it for about 5 minutes.
• Empty your container and put 2 cloves of garlic inside followed by Dill and 1 jalapeno
• Fill your container with shredded vegetables halfway.
• Put some garlic and dill again.
• Then add the remaining vegetables until it fill up the whole container.
• Push down to fill up the sides. Put more vegetables up to the rim of the container.
• Top with the remaining garlic, dill and 1 jalapeno.
• Measure 1 liter of boiling water. Dilute your salt and vinegar. Stir to dissolve all the salt.
• Pour into your prepared container up to the rim.
• Let your pickle sit for 2 days uncovered until it’s sour enough to put inside the fridge.

So simple. This reminds me of “Achara”, that’s how we call pickles in the Philippines. My favorite was the raw papaya with carrots and string beans. So there you go, I hope you will try it at home. It’s perfect as side dish to barbecue and steamed rice. Enjoy!

Graham Cracker Cake

The simplest cake I’ve ever made. And I’m pretty sure, an 8 year old child can do this. I made this with fresh peach and mango and it’s uber yummy. They also call this “refrigerator cake” maybe because this is a no-bake cake and the only way to make it firm is to chill it inside the fridge. There’s nothing fancy about this cake, only it’s super delicious, sugar free and refreshing.

Yesterday, I made Peach Mango Yogurt Pudding (which I will share later) and I had extra graham crackers and fresh fruits. I remember those times when I was still in the Philippines, we often make this cake for some occasions. That’s the time when I don’t have oven and mixer and of course, money to buy those pricey ingredients for more lavish cakes. Haha.

This is so easy to make, no fuss, cheap but one of the refreshing fresh fruit cakes ever. All you need are graham crackers, whipped cream and your favorite fruit. No sugar added, no flour, no baking =)

First of all, when I make simple graham cracker cake, I want it in a disposable aluminum pie plate because I want to mold the graham up to the sides. it will hold my whipped cream well. You can use your baking tin but don’t overcrowd your cream with lots of fruits. Otherwise, you will end up with messy and scattered cake. You can mold the graham up to the sides of your baking tin but i think it would be too high. You can use your pie tin too. 

Second, I whipped my cream well. I don’t buy powdered which you can put milk. I always buy 38% cream and whip it until it’s stiff enough to hold my fruits. 

Now here’s the ingredients for this small cake:

• 250g Graham Crackers. In this recipe I used 100g Graham, 100g of Lady’s Fingers and 50g digestives. (Nothing, i just want to experiment things, haha)
• about 60g butter; melted and in room temperature.
• 350ml. 38% whipping cream; whipped to stiffen.
• 3 large peaches; peeled and cubed
• 1 mango; peeled and cubed

Here’s how:

1. Put your Graham Crackers in a food processor and process until it’s finely crumbled. 
2. Set aside about 50g. of the crumbs for later.
3. Dump in your melted butter and mix thoroughly.
4. Transfer to your aluminum pie plate and press the crumbs evenly into the base and on the sides. Sometimes I use my potato masher to do this or if you don’t have one, you can use a clean bottle with a flat base.
5. Freeze the graham for at least 1 hour. I want the butter to be very firm. It will hold your crumbs in place.
6. After an hour, whip your cream to stiffen.
7. Dump it into your graham cracker base and spread evenly.
8. Decorate it with your fruits, covering all the sides, pressing down to put more fruits.
9. Finally sprinkle your remaining crumbs on top and chill for 5 hours or overnight. This will make your cream more firm.

Filipinos are used to Mango Float where they put condensed milk and all purpose cream. For me it’s too sweet and watery. I prefer the texture of whipped cream and fresh fruits. So there you go guys, it’s easy to do. You and your kids will love it. =)

The Ferrero Chocolate Collection

As promised to myself and to my chocolate-habitue’ evil twin, I finally bought a box of Ferrero. I really wanted the regular Ferrero Rocher since the hazelnut is quite difficult to ignore. But then me and my sis decided to take the Ferrero Collection box with 3 different varieties of Ferrero Chocolates. The Ferrero Garden Coconut became an instant favorite. I didn’t qualm over our choice to take this instead of the regular one.

Ferrero Rocher is my lifetime favorite. A combination of Nuts and Chocolates is always a winner.

the divine combination of creamy chocolate covering a whole hazelnut within a crunchy wafer all concealed in milk chocolate and ground hazelnuts. 

Ferrero Rondnoir is for dark chocolate lovers. 

A rich and creamy black chocolate pearl covered in a luscious wafer topped with crunchy chocolate morsels.

Ferrero Garden Coconut. I’m not a white chocolate lover but this one took me by surprise. It became a favorite after a half bite.

Creamy white coconut cream with crunchy almond inside and covered in delicate wafer and finally coated with shredded coconuts and a cream topping. Just heavenly.

For chocolate lovers out there, this is currently on sale in every supermarkets here in Israel. The whole box has 25 pieces of this mouth-watering Ferrero Collection for 39.99 shekels. There are small boxes too with I think 10 pieces chocolates for about 20-25 shekels. Other Swiss and Belgian chocolates are on sale too. You can avail more discounts if you have YOU card. If you have kids in the Philippines, this is the best time to buy candies and chocolates for them. =) And guys, avoid buying chocolates in Shuk Carmel. If ever you do, please check the expiration date. There are a lot of expired chocolates there. Beware.

Homemade French Fries

FANY FELL DOWN FROM HER BED TODAY!

Yes, my Monday started with a big bang at 6:30am. I found her on the floor with a lot of pointed sheets of glass around her. I thought I will have a heart attack. I was kinda half conscious and disoriented because I was still sleepy and I didn’t even know I’m barefooted. Anyways, all is well. She was not hurt, no broken bones, no blood, no hospital. We both laugh in the end because she cannot recall anymore what happened. I think she moved too much to the edge and she fell. So, all well that’s end well or in German ende gute, ales gut. 


Because we were both nervous, we want to reward ourselves with something good today. And there’s nothing more rewarding than crispy french fries and chicken schnitzel for lunch.

I found this recipe from Chef John’s video site foodwishes.com. It’s not as complicated as others thought it would be. Although there are just some strict instructions on temperature and some soaking and some frying twice. But everybody can do this at the comfort of their home.

All you need are:

• Potatoes. Russet or Kennebec. (I don’t know exactly what that means but I used regular supermarket potatoes.
• Vegetable oil for deep frying
• salt

2 things you might need but not really necessary.

1. Peel your potatoes and cut it using a knife in a long slender shape. I used that grater on top because I really want my potatoes to be evenly sized otherwise, they will not be cooked together at the same time. You can hand cut it but make sure they are the same in size.
2. Throw your potatoes in a bowl of cold water; soak it for about 30 minutes. You can change the water from time to time.
3. After soaking, dry up your potatoes using a paper towel. Dry it well.
4. Heat your oil for about 275F. I used the cooking thermometer above but if you don’t have one, you can  approximately estimate the temperature. I suggest to put your oil on medium heat. 
5. Blanch your potatoes in your oil. Tossing it occasionally for about 5 minutes. 
6. Take out your potatoes and put it in a paper towel. Let it cool completely in room temperature. Some even chill it inside the fridge.
7. Turn your stove to high heat and measure your oil temperature until 350F. 
8. This time fry your potatoes for another 5 or 6 minutes or until the edges starts to turn brown.
9. You can actually feel if its done with your spider spatula (this strainer-like spatula). The potatoes has a distinct sound or crispiness against it.
10. If you really want to make sure then you can take a bite. But be very careful coz it’s obviously super hot. If you want it to be extra golden brown and crispy, then you can fry it longer.
11. Dry your fries in a paper towel. Sprinkle some salt and Enjoy. 

The best way to eat fries is to eat it with ketchup. But some prefer mayo or barbecue sauce. But here, we love to eat it together with Chicken Schnitzel. 

I posted a recipe of this yummy breaded chicken HERE. It’s usually pounded and thin but today I made it on strips. You know, to make it a little different than usual. 

So there you go, I hope everyone will try it at home. Kids will love it. =)