SAWCLicious: Grilled Pork in Sprite Marinade

I grew up at home learning that cola drinks are not only for drinking. They are also for cooking! When I was a kid, we would fry tikoy marinated in 7-up. I've seen adobo with Coke and most often we marinate pork or chicken with some Sprite! Yes, this may sound weird until you get to try the well tasted food. I don't know why it has to be the Cola but I'm guessing that it's the sweetness that makes it really good. For this blog entry, I'm sharing the Grilled Pork recipe marinated in Sprite. You can substitute pork with chicken. I had this during my birthday dinner and it was a unanimous thumbs up for everyone who tried it! It goes well with some pickled vegetables on the side (Atsara) and some soy-vinegar dip.

Grilled Pork in Sprite Marinade with Soy-Vinegar Dip

SAWCLicious: TauKwa with Minced Pork & Shrimps

I was out on an Asian store one weekend and saw TauKwa... I was so surprised to see it! TauKwa is a dried/fried tofu. The word TauKwa comes from the Chinese dialect (Fookien) that I am fluent of. I quickly grabbed one of it and called my mom to ask her how she cooks my favorite tau kwa home-made dish. So here is sharing a family recipe.

TauKwa with Minced Pork & Shrimps

SAWCLicious: Tonkatsu and Home-made Tonkatsu Sauce

Konichiwa! I've been cooking Chinese, Filipino, and other International cuisine. Just the other day, I've ventured to try out Japanese cuisine. I tried cooking Tonkatsu for the first time and my ultimate goal is to have this perfected so that I can cook Katsudon. Tonkatsu is simply a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet then sliced into bite-sized portions. It is normally served with Miso Soup and shredded cabbage. A very simple recipe...

On a weekday, I challenged myself to cook this and make a home-made tonkatsu sauce. My food testers did like the end result. I was only happy on my tonkatsu sauce as the pork was a bit thick and a bit dry. I couldn't pound it any thinner because I didn't have a meat tenderizer/pounder. 

It's a very simple recipe and you can opt not to deep-fry it.

Tonkatsu and Home-made Tonkatsu Sauce

SAWCLicious: Italian Meatballs

We had a welcome dinner for my friend and I wanted to serve some European dishes. I started browsing for Italian recipes when I happened to see Italian Meatballs. So, I did some research of different Italian Meatballs recipe and created with my own version. This is the first time I've cooked them and I really like it! Try it and let me know. It is served good with mashed potatoes or topped in pasta with parmesan cheese.

Italian Meatballs

SAWCLicious: Filipino Beef Stew (Nilagang Baka)

Notice that I've been posting a number of entries related to soup? I love soup and is always something I need to start with for a meal. Let me share another Filipino recipe called Nilagang Baka. Essentially, it is just a beef stew cooked with cabbage and other vegetables.

Filipino Beef Stew a,k.a. Nilagang Baka

SAWCLicious: Lechon Paksiw

I seldom cook pork at home. For some reason, I always feel uncomfortable after eating pork except for pork soup, dishes with minced pork, Filipino bbq, or lechon. At times though, I would crave for pork and would cook some to satisfy my craving.

Last Tuesday, Pia had dinner at home and I cooked lechon paksiw for the first time. I had a bottle of Mang Tomas lechon sauce in my fridge which I want to utilize before it spoils. It turned out to be nice, so let me share the recipe here. Lechon paksiw is normally cooked with leftover lechon. Since I don't have access to lechon here in Brussels, I used normal uncooked pork instead.

Lechon Paksiw

SAWCLicious: Shrimp & Chorizo Pasta

I'm writing a post from Lisbon! I took some vacation off this week and had planned to go to Lisbon with HT Couple and Rhea. This week was busy with work, I was in all day meetings at the client site and was working during the night. Every time I go back home, I was dead tired already. Pasta is the perfect combination for a quick dinner when such situations arise. 

I was not able to go to the grocery to buy meat and my favorite broccoli. Good things I still had some food in the pantry and freezer. Taking out different ingredients that I felt will work, I whipped something out and I show you Shrimp and Chorizo pasta! While writing this post, I tried to Google and found that this recipe exist also somewhere out there. Let me share my version here.

Shrimp and Chorizo Pasta

SAWCLicious: Stir-fry Pork with Celery

When I came to Europe, I am amazed by their vegetables. They all come of the same sizes and their ideal colors. One of those are celery. It is so green, each stalk is quite wide and has the same length as my arms. So imagine my hesitation to buy one as I just eat alone most of the time.

I do eat celery but I am not a fan. I always see the importance of putting some on certain dishes to bring good aroma and make it more delicious but that's about it (at least for me). So when I bought one last time because I wanted to put some of a Chicken Macaroni Soup, I had a huge left-over of the celery. So I thought to myself, what to do with it? I remembered this dish when I would go to China so I just tried to replicate it with what I think will work best, and here you go.

Stir-Fry Pork with Celery

SAWCLicious: Grilled Beef Chinese Style with Broccoli

I have this odd thing when I do my groceries. I need to browse aisle by aisle in the whole supermarket before I leave. Yes, even if I have to buy only 2 items! Thus, if I know I only need a few items, I would rather go to a smaller grocery rather than a hypermarket.

To add, I don't normally have a checklist. I would know on top of my mind the things I need by imagining how my pantry, bathroom, utility cabinet, and fridge looks like. For some reason, I'd remember how many yogurt I have left or if it's time to by some toothpaste.

SAWCLicious: Embutido

It's Christmas time! One of the dishes normally served in a Filipino family during Noche Buena (pre-Christmas dinner) is Embutido. Embutido is a meatloaf, often available commercially in the market/grocery. At least, this was the case when I was in Philippines. So, now that I'm in Brussels, I have to rely on my own to make one of this. I am quite surprised because I never thought it was so easy.

I was not convinced it was that good until yesterday night when my friend/colleague had dinner at my place and her son insisted that his mom should take the recipe because he definitely wants to eat it at home. So here is the recipe.

Embutido - The Filipino Meatloaf

SAWCLicious: Mapo Dofu/Tofu

Last weekend, I went to Dusseldorf with Hungry Trotter Couple to simply eat ramen. Yes, I was motivated  to drive 2 hours for a good ramen. (Blog post to come about the food!) Anyway, going back, before I left Dusseldorf, I went to this Japanese Restaurant named Na Ni Wa. I was sitting at the bar and looking at the Japanese Chefs cooking and saw them preparing mapo dofu. It made me drool and crave for it. I was just too full to order more food. So, I decided to take some notes and I tried it out. It turned out to be really really delish!

For those of you who do not know, according to Wikipedia, "Mapo doufu, or mapo tofu, is a popular Chinese dish from the Sichuan (Szechuan) province. It is a combination of tofu (bean curd) set in a spicy chili- and bean-based sauce, typically a thin, oily, and bright red suspension, and often cooked with minced meat, usually pork or beef. Variations exist with other ingredients such as water chestnuts, onions, other vegetables, or Judae's Ear (aka Jelly Ear, a mushroom)."


Mapo Dofu/Tofu!