Recipe 3: Creamy Chicken Macaroni Soup (Sopas)

Creamy chicken macaroni soup or sopas, is a family staple not only during rainy or cold season but also for the random days that we don't want to eat rice. Every Filipino family has its own version of sopas and I'm proud and happy to share our family's recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 300 grams skinless chicken breast or thigh fillet sliced into tiny cubes
• 200-250 grams macaroni
• 2.5 liters water
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 1 pc large carrot, grated
• 1 pc sayote, cut into thin strips
• 1/2 cabbage, sliced into thin strips
• 2 chicken broth cubes
• grated cheddar cheese
• salt
• ground pepper (black or white)

Procedure:

1. In a casserole, saute garlic, onions and chicken. Wait until the chicken is cooked then add the water then bring to a boil.
2. Add the macaroni and wait until it's almost cooked.
3. Add the cheese and broth cubes and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Add the vegetables, salt and pepper according to your preferred taste and mix, turn off the heat then cover for 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe 2: Pakbet Bisaya

Pakbet or Pinakbet is a famous vegetable dish in the country. It is just sauteed mixed local vegetables plus shrimp paste (bagoong alamang) and sometimes pork or pork cracklings. In our house, we normally serve pakbet whenever there's fried fish.

Bisaya is just one of the variations of this famous dish. This refers to those who are living in the southern part of Philippines (Visayas, Mindanao area). Since I grew up in Mindanao, this version is the one I knew. Anyway, if you wanna have a taste, here's how it looks and how to cook it:

Sorry for the poor quality photo, I just took it from my phone. :)

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• tomatoes, diced
• 1/4 squash, sliced
• 4 pcs eggplant (talong), sliced
• 15 to 20 string beans, sliced
• 10 pcs okra, sliced
• 2 tbsp shrimp paste
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 200 grams pork, sliced into mini-cubes

Procedure:

1. Pour cooking oil into the wok then saute onions, garlic and tomatoes. Add the pork then simmer until pork is cooked.
2. Add the shrimp paste, simmer for 2 minutes then add the squash.
3. When the squash is half-cooked, add the rest of the vegetables then simmer until all the vegetables are cooked.

There you go, 3 very easy steps to cook pakbet bisaya. You may also add ampalaya or bitter gourd if you want to. Anyway, as I've said, we normally serve this with fried fish and rice. Enjoy! :)

Recipe 1: Beef Steak

Beef steak or Bistek is an easy-to-prepare Filipino dish. It is a favorite dish in our family so I hope you too can enjoy it!

Ingredients:

• 2 packs of beef steak meat (roughly around 250g)
• 3 pcs onions, medium size, chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup of soy sauce
• approx. 5 to 6 tsp of calamansi juice
• cooking oil
• 3 medium potatoes, cut into flat rounds
• black pepper
• 1 tsp of sugar

Procedure:

1. Mix the soy sauce, calamansi, pepper and sugar in a bowl. You can adjust the taste by adding some more of the fore-mentioned ingredients until your desired taste is aquired.
2. In a separate frying pan, deep fry the potatoes for 5 minutes or more.
3. Separate one of the onions then slice it in rounds for garnish.
4. In a separate pan, saute onions, garlic and meat then pour the soy sauce mixture.Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.
5. Add the fried potatoes and mix. Add the garnish then turn off the heat and serve.