May 25, 2010

Chicken Pineapple (Pininyahang Manok)

My betterhalf wants anything with pineapple...period. That's the reason why I made an effort to learn this dish. The main ingredient, pineapple, made this dish sweet but not cloyingly sweet. You can use the fresh fruit, but to cut the prep time, i used the canned pineapple. Traditional pininyahang manok includes potatoes, carrots, and some bell peppers. And since I'm a (feeling) purist (read: tamad), i decided to not include those veggies anymore.

Here's my version of the popular pinoy dish.

Serves 3.

1/4 kg chicken (adobo cut)
1 medium size onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small can of pineapple chunks or tidbits (syrup included)
fish sauce (patis), adjust according to taste
dash of pepper
about 4 tbsp of evaporated milk
2 tbsp canola oil

Procedure:
1. Heat oil. Saute onion and garlic. Add chicken and stir fry (sangkutsa) for a minute or two. Add a tablespoon of fish sauce and stirfry the meat until they're are no longer pink.
2. Add 1 1/2 cups water and the juice of the canned pineapple. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Season with fish sauce and pepper.
3. Add the pineapple chunks and simmer until the meat is tender.
4. Add the milk and boil for another minute.
Serve hot.

Enjoy!!!

May 6, 2010

Baking 101: Cinnamon Rolls

Yeast breads are harder to bake than the quick breads. The dough requires kneading and proofing for hours before you bake it. You'll use yeast instead of the chemical leaveners (baking soda and baking powder).


I got this recipe from Yummy Magazine (Oct 2007 issue), and this is my third time to bake this. The first time i made this, the result was so-so, and a little hard. It was because i felt like Ms-Know-it-all, that I added flour to the original recipe. It felt like chewing a biscocho, the softer version, but still edible.


2nd try was a failure...heheheh! I didn't notice that the yeast that i used was a year old already (sorry! hahah!). The result was a flat and hard bread...ayun nai-3 points ko sa trash can.


The 3rd try was a success. I made sure to follow the recipe. The dough was too moist that i have to dust the table with more flour to knead it easier. I used a total of 5 cups of flour, including the flour i used for kneading.

A little messy, but worth it even if my arms got bigger than ever. I can use the mixer, but i didn't, to know the feeling of how to be a real panadera (hahaha!)...my future career!


To those of you who wants to bake this yummy bread, here's the recipe.


Bonus: you'll have free room freshener pa...cinn scent.