Crispy Fried Chicken

There are so many ways you can do for chicken recipe and one the most popular favorite is fried chicken. In fact fried chicken is one of my son’s favorite dish. He is not yet two years old but he can surely point to you when chicken is on the table.

He first tasted fried chicken in McDonalds and from then on, he does like to munch crispy fried chicken. So in effort to do the same recipe, my wife prepared crispy chicken for him which he would not surely miss out since he is a fuzzy eater.

You can enjoy fried chicken on so many different ways to prepare it, but the one that my wife prepared was a sure must try. SO prepare your pen and paper and take down this wonderful recipe for you to try. You just need flour, egg, milk, salt, ground black pepper, cayenne powder and your chicken. Now in order for your chicken to be crispy, you need to prepare the flour, salt, black ground pepper and cayenne mixture.

You would also need to dip it in egg and milk mixture. After you have washed your chicken, you need to dip it in the egg and milk mixture and then roll it in the flour mixture. See to it that the chicken is fully covered equally and then wait for 20 minutes before you dip it again for the second round in egg and milk mixture and then flour mixture.

my crispy fried chicken

Wait for 15 minutes before frying it, this is the technique to keep it crispy. When frying, put a lot of oil in the pan or if you have a deep fryer, the better. But if you don’t then just put lots of oil where you’re chicken looks like it is swimming. See to it that the oil is hot before placing your chicken else it will stick at the bottom of the pan especially if you’re not using a nonstick pan.

baby wants the drumstick part

Dee if the chicken is light to medium brown before turning it to the other side for frying. Make sure that the flame is into medium flame, not slow flame else your chicken will be soft, not stiff and crunchy. You can dip your fried and crispy chicken into a ready-made gravy or ketchup, whatever you like to use for the dipping. Serve hot and enjoy eating it with your family and friends.

Ripe Papaya for your Health

Most of us would skip fruits for breakfast and some of us don’t know that it is important to eat fruits in the morning before we start our important day. Some of those easy to eat fruits plays a vital role in our health which is of course may aid us from fighting off toxins in our body, good for our digestion and help keep us strong in our immune system.

Some of these breakfast fruits as I may call it are bananas and apples. They are important part of everyday breakfast meal. You may also include berry fruits like strawberries, blueberries and blackberries which you can include in your breakfast meal like pancakes, porridge and cereals.

seedless papaya

Papaya is also important for those who are suffering constipation. It has antioxidant and is good for the skin. If you notice that most soaps in the Philippines contain papaya enzyme because it is said to be beneficial to the skin giving it a soft and healthy glow.

Papaya can be prepared in so many ways. It can be served as is, smoothie, papaya shake and more. The one I had for lunch was seedless and it was ripe picked meaning it was not adulterated or chemically treated to make it ripe. You can easily select a ripe papaya by checking its skin if it is firm, obviously ripe and sweet ripe smelling scent. There was no bump, dark and swelled openly part to it and you can detect if they have used chemicals to make it ripe by checking the top part on to where they have cut the fruit.

Sweet papaya

Some may not favor the taste of papaya, but I can definitely say that it is good for our health. Although caution on eating is necessary because it is a natural laxative which means too much of eating papaya will send you to the toilet I don’t have to emphasize why. Have you eaten your breakfast fruit today? Will you also include papaya into it? Have a pleasant day everyone and keep reading my posts.

Pancakes for our breakfast

Who wants some pancakes for breakfast? I am sure that most of you would like to eat pancakes for breakfast as well. But it’s not the regular breakfast meal here in India since this breakfast meal is obviously from the Western, I just adopted it when wifey got a pack of Pancake Mix from Philippines and she prepared it for our breakfast.

We did encourage our little one to eat, but as a fuzzy eater we need him to watch some youtube cartoon showing pancakes being eaten by kids. Does make a little encouragement but still not a hungry eater like other kids who favored to eat pancakes.

Perfect pancakes for breakfast

It’s just an easy recipe since it’s readymade, all you needed to do is to follow the instructions given at the back label. What is important here is that you need to use a nonstick pan or tava to make it easier to flatten and smoothen the outlook of your pancakes.

I did test pouring small amount of the batter and then using the slowest flame so that I may not overdo it and wife does not want it a toasted pancake. We don’t have maple syrup so honey is the best syrup for us to use, and of course butter that melts on top of your hot cooked pancakes.

You can also try it with fresh cut fruits like strawberries, banana and some spreads like peanut butter and jelly and any combinations that you would like. You can also include whipped cream if you want it more appealing.

photo credit: Image taken from my own camera

Chicken Afritada

Today’s recipe is Chicken Afritada, it is another Filipino dish prepared by my wife and I am just the taster. If that is about spicy and hot Indian dish, expect me to post it here. So without further delay, I will just talk about what is needed in this dish.

Sorry if I don’t put it in list and in measurements because I don’t personally cook the dish. I just ask my wife the ingredients for the recipe and you can freely browse the internet for the same recipe but then we just have alterations if one or two ingredients are not available, we do supplement something else. Like for example, we don’t have red bell pepper so wife just used red tomato.

The trick is just to put the tomato once the chicken, potato and green peas is done. So, to start with the procedure of how she cooked it, she asked me to cut the chicken into medium pieces. Then washed it properly and put it into pot. Add salt and water and wait till the water drains out till you add the oil into the chicken. Once you get the chicken into light brown, sauté it in garlic, onions and put the bay leaf.

Chicken Afritada

Then after sautéing, put some Maggi ginasa mix (this is available in Philippines), I don’t know if you can get this on any Asian stores near you. After this put fish sauce then add the potatoes. Put to medium flame and stir as often so the potatoes won’t stick then add ample amount of water. Just remember not to put too much water since this is not a soup dish. Once the water boils and you check if your potatoes are half done, you can now add the green peas. If you have carrots, you can also add it now.

Since we don’t have available carrots, we skip on it and once our potatoes are cooked, that is the time we put our tomatoes that are cut in quarter sizes, just remove the seeds. If you have red bell pepper, you can add it now. After this, you need to add the tomato sauce, some seasonings like salt and black ground pepper. But since we don’t have tomato sauce, we just used tomato ketchup and added sugar into it. This recipe is somewhat sweet and tangy so you can add sugar according to your preference.

Lunch is ready, have some Chicken Afritada

Chicken Afritada is served with rice and is a good combination also with other fried fish meal. Hope you do like today’s recipe. Have a nice day everyone! Thank you for reading my post. You can also write me if you like to request some recipe that I can make for you.

Photo credit: Photos used are personally clicked on my digital camera

Buco Pandan Dessert

Hello friends, another wonderful day today full of good things from God. Another recipe to share here well of course, this comes from my wife’s creativity. Both of us share the kitchen when cooking and I can only cook during my off days and indeed it was exciting.

Today is a sweet dessert for everyone which is called Buco-Pandan, buco as we know is good for our health particularly drinking its juice, a natural water made from heaven. Pandan though is a leaf which is aromatic in smell. Sorry guys, the recipe alone is indeed needing pandan but since I don’t have it here, you can use the pandan extract which you can find on Asian stores available.

pearl balls being cook

My wife also included some pearl balls or tapioca balls in this recipe. Just boil 2 packets of ALSA gelatin which is green in color. Then separately boil the pearl balls and keep it aside. After some time you need to mix this on your gelatin. Grate some buco in strips and keep it aside too. After the gelatin has been cooked and cooled down, slice it into cubes and place on a salad container that you have.

ALSA Gelatin

Mix altogether the sweet milk or condense milk, all-purpose cream, the pearl balls, buco strips and gelatin. Keep it inside the fridge and serve with a smile. Well this is just easy recipe for you to prepare, but I can’t guarantee if the ingredients maybe available in your place, else you can improvise for what you can mix or add in your sweet but if you want to stick with the original recipe, then three important ingredients for you will be pandan leaves, gelatin and buco.

Finally, Buco Pandan with Pearl balls

Adding pearl balls is just an option which if you want it chewy while eating this delicious recipe, you can just include it and you can’t go wrong with it. I just don’t recommend including any fresh fruits since this is not a fruit salad anyway. Hope you enjoy this delightful sweet and have a pleasant day everyone.

photo credit: Taken from my own camera

Ginataang Halo-halo

This is another recipe that my wife prepared and she said that we were not able to complete it because some ingredients are missing and we cannot buy it since it is not the season and not available like the jackfruit.

We have our banana plantain but it is still green and unripe so she did not included it. What we had prepared was the sweet potato, yam, pearl balls or tapioca balls and the bilo-bilo which is made from glutinous rice.

You just need to be patient on grinding the glutinous rice and make a dough out of it. After that you need to make a ball in your palm and set it aside. Boil water first for your sweet potato and yam. You need to put the yam first because it is harder to get cook than the sweet potato. Once the yam is 65-70% done, then add your sweet potato.

By the way my wife already prepared in advance to cook the pearl balls or tapioca balls. It is just smaller balls so it took only 20 minutes for them to get cooked and she already added sugar into it. Once your sweet potato and yam is ready, you can now add the balls made from glutinous or sweet rice. You can now pour the can of coconut milk into the pot and stir it well hoping that the glutinous balls would not get sticky at the bottom of your pan. Don’t forget to include sugar in cooking this recipe. The last that you need to add is your ready cooked pearl balls.

simply delicious

If you have jackfruit you can include it too. For the extra added scent you may include pandan leaves but since there is none here, you can also try to buy the concentrated one which is available in the market. Although as I have said, this is just optional and we have not included this on our recipe due to lack of time to search.

sweet potato,yam,peal balls and glutinous rice balls

Ginataang Halo-halo is a famous snack or meryenda in the Philippines. It is served hot or some may prefer to eat it cold. But what I can say is that this depends on your taste and liking. It is a must try recipe that you will surely love to serve for your family.

Palitaw Delicacy

There is no exact English term for this delicious recipe from Philippines which is made from glutinous rice. My wife made this and it was not that easy because we need to grind the glutinous rice to become powdery in consistency before we can make a dough out of it.

Glutenous Rice, not yet grinded

molded and shaped as oblong

You need to roll it on your palm and use rolling pin to flatten and smoothen the edge. It should be even so that it will be easier for the palitaw dough to be cook. It was just easy to cook because once you put it into boiling water, you will just have to wait for some time for the palitaw to float and that’s it, ready for the next step.

put to hot water

once it boils, you need them to float 

About the next step, once your palitaw is done, you need to mix the following ingredients like shredded coconuts, sugar and sesame seeds. For us we have toasted some local sesame seeds since we cannot find the black sesame seed which is really the one for the palitaw recipe, but its okay to use the white sesame seed if you don’t have the black one.

finish product, enjoy your Palitaw

Palitaw is a famous snack delicacy in Philippines

By the way palitaw means like to float or be seen on top so that is what the name of this recipe derived from. I don’t know if this was an original Filipino recipe or taken from the Spaniards but it sure is a must try for everyone who enjoys snacks and delicacies. It is also perfect to match on the beverage of your choice like coffee, tea, cold drinks and so on.

Buttered Shrimp

Every day is a celebration especially when you get up with a smile, thanking God about the goodness he has done. A day will never be complete without a family that you bond with because they are special. I enjoyed simple recipes which is really easy to cook without being an expert cook.

You just need a patient heart, a passionate action on what you do and walla! You can have a delicious meal right in front of you. Buttered shrimp is something like that. It is special, not all can eat (especially if you have allergies in seafood), but does not make you down with it.

To start with buttered shrimp, all you need is a frying pan, butter and seasonings like salt and black pepper. Cleaning your shrimp or prawn is another thing, you need to remove the shell and deveil it. Now since this is buttered shrimp, you can optionally include garlic as you sauté it. But just make sure you don’t overdo it else the garlic will taste bitter and it is not good.

You can also include onions but see to it that you slice it smaller like your garlic. This depends on your liking. If you just like plain butter salt and black ground pepper, that’s good. But if you want to venture out and be creative, everything is possible for you to include as long as the theme for buttered shrimp is still there.

You can eat this recipe along with other veggie soup and rice. You can also include it as a platter dish served with your favorite drink. Hope you enjoy your buttered shrimp. Have a nice day everyone.

Photo credit: Taken from my own digital camera

Beef Spring Roll

This lovely dish is readily available on the streets of Mumbai which you can enjoy especially at night. It is not usually every day that I plan to buy it but during the times I sit back, relax and enjoy sipping my cold beer drink. Beef spring roll is easy to prepare when you have the time of course to make a wrapper for the spring which here they use the dough for making flat bread which is usually the same concept of preparing for this wonderful street dish.

 The beef is marinated with spices, cooked in the way that your tongue would simply like it. They usually include chopped onions and pickles into it when you buy. It is grilled and you need to wait out for some time to make it done and you just want to hope also that the line or queue would not be too long for you to take it home.

I do enjoy this type of recipe especially during rainy nights when it used to give you extra warmth in the body and you can definitely say that it will always be one of my comfort foods that I really enjoy. By the way, you can enjoy beef spring roll on any beverage that you want like coffee, tea, cold drinks. But for me, cold beer is enough as I enjoy my off day of work, sit down, unwind and relax together with my family. This is my first entry food for my newly opened blog and hope to keep posting for more exciting and wonderful taste of India and to where my tongue would take me, I will be happier to share it with you guys. Hope that you will keep reading my post as I will keep a journal of great food finds here in India and abroad.

Photo credit: Taken from my digital camera