Arroz Caldo

Growing up,  I remember eating arroz caldo or lugaw whenever I'm sick. It is probably a norm back home, feeding children rice soup whenever they are not feeling well. What's with this lugaw? Probably since it has a lot of fluid, it is easier to digest especially if children had lost appetite when sick. It is also popular as an introduction to eating real food for babies. I remember giving lugaw to my daughter when she was 5months old. She loved it since. And would request for it from time to time. She calls it porridge, eversince she read Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where Goldilocks ate the porridge the bears left on their table. Porridge is somewhat different. Rice, oats, semonela, wheat or corn is boiled in water or milk, with sugar or honey to make it sweet. I didn't have the heart to tell my daughter that lugaw is different, as long as she eats it, I don't mind how she calls it. Lol.

Lugaw is Chinese in origin. It is called congee, from the word kanji, which is an ancient food of the Tamil people. Congee has thousand years of history in China. It is popular in Asia, but also cooked all over the world. It is called different in every country. In Philippines, it is called lugaw. Some parts of the Philippines, with a more prominent Spanish influence, calls it arroz caldo. Arroz caldo is a little different from lugaw because of some ingredients added to it. It has safflower and black pepper as spices instead of tradional ginger and scallions for lugaw. I like to put all the ingredients though. I would have ginger, onion, garlic, black pepper, and of course, safflower for color and distinct taste.

Here is a simple recipe for arroz caldo.

Ingredients

1         cup              jasmine rice
1/2      tsp               safflower
2         cloves         garlic, minced
1         tsp               chopped ginger
1         small           onion, chopped
1         tbsp             vegetable oil
2         tsp               fish sauce (patis)
2         cups             chicken stock

Toppings

3         pcs               brown eggs, boiled
1/2      cup              dried dilis, fried
3         pcs               kalamansi, or lime
1         pc                 green onion, chopped

Procedure

In a pot, sautè ginger, garlic and onion in vegetable oil. Add the rice and chicken stock. Let boil until rice is cooked, about 20 minutes. Add patis and safflower. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Transfer to a serving bowl, add boiled egg, dilis, onion stalk and kalamansi on top. Enjoy!

Spaghetti

If there is a non-Filipono dish that I couldn't live without, it would be spaghetti. I just love spaghetti, I could eat it everyday. I have created a recipe to make make spaghetti more Pinoy style, which is a sweeter than the usual marinara sauce that Italians and Caucasians make. I use to put hotdogs, which is one of the main ingredients in Pinoy style spaghetti, but since Sophie and I are not crazy about hotdogs, I took it out of my recipe.

I have been cooking spaghetti for decades. My friends especially would expect it when I invite them for my birthday parties back home. And now that I have Sophie, spaghetti is always part of the menu whenever she has birthday parties.

Pasta is a part of my weekly menu. I prefer spaghetti and mostaccioli. I would cook pasta once or twice a week. Sophie's preference varies in time. Before she loves spaghetti marinara, then she got tired of it and just wants spaghetti noodles with olive oil and mozarella cheese. Then she moved on to shrimp pasta in olive oil and parsley. A few months ago, she tried fettuccine alfredo. And have been eating it twice a week, with toasted garlic bread. Now she is back to loving spaghetti in marinara sauce. Who knows what she would request next.

Below is my own version of spaghetti in marinara sauce. It only takes 30-40 minutes to make.

Ingredients

1     lb           spaghetti noodles
1     lb           ground turkey or chicken (you could use ground                                beef)
1     jar         Everyday Essential garden spaghetti sauce
2     pcs         medium carrots, chopped
1     pc           medium onion, chopped
3     cloves    garlic, minced
1/4  cup        white sugar
1     tsp          salt
1     tsp          pepper
1/2 cup          water
3     tsp          vegetable oil

Procedure

In a pot, boil water and cook spaghetti noodles for 7-8 minutes, or until it becomes 'al dente'. Set aside.

In a saucepan, heat oil. Sauté garlic and onion. Add ground turkey. Cook for 15 minutes. Add carrots, cook for another 10 minutes.

Add the spaghetti sauce, sugar, salt and pepper. Pour water on spaghetti sauce jar and mix with remaining sauce inside. Add to the saucepan. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Pour over cooked spaghetti noodles.

Optional- sprinkle cheddar  or mozarella cheese on top.

Buon appetito!!

Fish Sarciado

I lived in a small town in Calamba, Laguna when I was young. The town is bordered by Laguna de Bay, the country's largest lake, on its northwest side. Calamba is approximately 34 miles south of Manila, the capital.

Laguna de Bay, which is a few blocks from where I used to live, is covered with milkfish and tilapia ponds. I remember when storm would hit the province, overflowing the lake, letting the fish out of the ponds. We call it 'bangusan na'. Naturally, tons of milkfish has to be sold for a lower price. People would buy in tens of kilos. We have learned to preserve it, dry it (daing na bangus). And would eat fish for days. Because of this, we have to cook fish in different ways. I prefer frying or broiling fish. I would combine it with rice and tomato/onion/alamang salsa or dip it on spiced vinegar. But sometimes I get tired of eating fried fish. And want to try something else. I have learned to cook paksiw, pinangat, and sarciado.

Sarciado, sometimes spelled as sarsiado, is fried fish in a sauce, or sarsa. The sauce is made mostly of egg and tomatoes. One thing good with sarciado is, you can either eat the fish after it is fried, with the sauce on the side. Or simmer the fried fish in the sauce. It is like two dish in one. The dish is somewhat similar to escabeche.

I have been thinking of cooking sarciado but undecided if I will use milkfish or tilapia. But since there is only tilapia and pompano in the market I went to, I decided tilapia it is.

Here is the recipe for fish sarciado.

Ingredients

1     whole        tilapia, cleaned and cut in 3 pcs
2     pcs             brown eggs
2     pcs             plum tomatoes, diced
1     pc               medium onion, chopped
3     cloves        garlic, minced
2     pcs             onion stalk, chopped
2     tbsp           fish sauce (patis)
1     cup            water
1     tsp             ground pepper
2     tbsp           vegetable oil for sautéing
1/2  cup            vegetable oil frying fish

Procedure

Fry the fish. Set aside.

In a sauce pan, sauté onion, garlic, and tomatoes in vegetable oil. When cooked, add water, patis and ground pepper. Let it boil.

Add fried fish, simmer for 2 minutes.

Beat the eggs, pour in top of the pan. Let it cook before mixing the dish. Add onion stalk. Simmer for another minute.

Serve with rice.

This dish is very easy to make. Preparation and cooking time T
took me 30 minutes. Hope you can try this dish.