Sugpo at Upo Buridibud

Sugpo at Upo Buridibud. Buridibud is one of my favorite Pinoy vegetables dish, it’s a vegetable dish usually made up of Pinoy vegetables cooked/boiled with sweet potato or kamote and bagoong na isda, and topped with fried or grilled fish or fresh shrimp. When times are hard the vegetables may be just topped with daing na dilis or hibe. Click the links below to see the recipes of some of my Buridibud and dinendeng in the archives.



Dinengdeng with Inihaw na Bangus

Dinengdeng with Inihaw na Tilapia

Buridibud, Dinengdeng a Alukon ken Patani

Dinengdeng with Beef Soured with Tamarind

Dinengdeng

Dinengdeng, Green Leafy Version

Saluyot at Labong

Tabungaw (Upo) nga Buridibud

Malaga ken Marungay, Samaral at Malungay

Cooking your favorite Pinoy vegetable dish is not limited to basic ingredients it would be good to tweak the ingredients to add level to a humble Pinoy vegetable dish and make it special. For my Sugpo at Upo Buridibud I used prawns instead of using small shrimps or dried shrimp. It may be an overkill using prawns on a boiled vegetable dish but I thought I could enjoy more my prawns simply boiled with my favorite vegetables.



Here is the recipe of my Sugpo at Upo Buridibud.





Ingredients:



1/4-1/2 kilo small or medium size prawns

1 medium size upo, skinned, sliced into thin wedges

1 medium size kamote, skinned, diced

1 medium size tomato chopped

1 small size onion, peeled, chopped

2-3 tbsp. bagoong na isda

salt

Cooking procedure:



Dilute bagoong na isda in 2 to 3 cups of water, strain in a sheave and pour solution in a medium size sauce pan, bring to boil and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, remove all scams that rises. Add in the kamote and simmer for another 3 to 5 minutes or until it start to disintegrate. Add in the onion and tomato let simmer for 2 to 3 minutes then add in the upo and prawns, add more water if necessary, continue to simmer for 8 to 10 minutes or until the upo is just cooked and the prawns turned red, do not overcook. Correct saltines if required. Serve hot with a lot of rice.

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Ginisang Alukon with Ampalaya at Talong

Ginisang Alukon with Ampalaya at Talong. For some reason I like this alukon, I just can resist buying some whenever it is available in my favorite supermarket the South Supermarket in Filinvest Alabang. I just buy it and decide later on how to cook it. Ginisang Alukon with Ampalaya at Talong came out as I was thinking on how to cook the alukon that was sitting in the ref for 2 days. It is simple, yes it is not a new dish, but it was the first time that I cooked ginisang gulay with alukon. It would have been best if I had some shrimp but I have to settle with pork to top my Ginisang Alukon with Ampalaya at Talong.

Here is the recipe of my Ginisang Alukon with Ampalaya at Talong.





Ingredients:



100 grams pre-boiled pork, cut into thin strips

2 cups, alukon, trimmed

3 medium sized long eggplant, trimmed, cut into thin strips.

2 medium sized ampalaya, trimmed, deseeded, cut thinly-crosswise

1 medium size tomato, chopped

1 small sized onion, peeled, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, peeled, crushed, chopped

2-3 tbsp. cup fish sauce

salt

cooking oil

Cooking procedure:



In a medium size wok heat about 2 to 3 tablespoon cooking oil till it start to smoke. Stir in the garlic then immediately after add in the onion and stir cook for another 1/2 minute then add in the tomatoes, continue to stir cook for about 1 minute. Now add in the pork and continue to stir cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Add in the fish sauce and stir cook for another 1/2 minute. Add in about 1/2 to 3/4 cups of water, bring to a boil and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Now add in the eggplant and ampalaya let cook for about 1 to 2 minutes then add in the alukon and continue to cook for another 2 to 3 minutes or until the vegetables are just cooked. Correct saltines if required. Serve with rice.

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Microwave Chocolate Orange Cake

Have you ever made a cake in a microwave? I knew of a girl at university who made them a few times as we didn't have ovens in our student halls, but I had never tried it myself. Until recently when my boyfriend wanted dessert after dinner, I hadn't made anything and didn't particularly want to spend long making a pudding, but I didn't want him to just get a bar of chocolate from the cupboard. So I had a look online for some microwave chocolate cake recipes and as usual put my own spin on it by adding some pieces of a Terry's chocolate orange that I happened to have in the cupboard.



Microwave Chocolate Orange Cake- an original recipe by Caroline Makes

Serves one but can easily be scaled up

4 tbsp self-raising flour

2 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 egg

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp milk

2 Terry's chocolate orange segments



You need a large, sturdy microwave-safe mug (i.e. with no gold trim!) to make this. You can mix the ingredients in the mug; it is easier to do it in a bowl but to me half the fun of this was making the entire thing in one mug.



Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder then make a well in the centre and break in the egg. Mix in as smoothly as you can then add the oil and the milk.

Insert two chocolate orange segments in the mug and push in.

Microwave on high for three minutes - that's all it takes!

You can either eat this straight from the mug or turn out (using a knife run around the sides) into a bowl. The chocolate orange melts on top and the rest of the mixture does actually turn into a cake! It's a bit on the stodgy side and certainly not the best cake I've ever had but for a dessert that you can make in less than five minutes from start to finish you can't complain!

I'm sending this to Dead Easy Desserts, the blog challenge run by Maison Cupcake and hosted this month by Michelle at Utterly Scrummy. The idea is to send in desserts that take 30 minutes or less to make; I don't think you can get much faster than this!

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El Nido, Island Hopping - Palawan Food Trip Part 1

El Nido, Island Hopping - Palawan Food Trip Part 1. I would like to take a break on posting recipes. This time I want to share in pictures our El Nido, Island Hopping Food Trip. By posting our El Nido, Palawan Island Hopping Trip, I hope in a way it could help our readers that are planning to go to El Nido.

Last December we finally have change to go to El Nido, Palawan on an island hopping adventure. The El Nido, Palawan Trip was supposed to happen this year. We originally have planned to first visit Coron and Calauit, Palawan with a side trip to the Underground River in Sabang. But then because Coron was directly hit by super typhoon Yolanda we decided to take the El Nido trip instead and hopefully go to Coron and Calauit this year.

I will not be posting so much on the island hopping experience on this blog that is reserved for a posting on our travel blog, Overseas Pinoy Travels. Instead I am only highlighting the food experience and adventures on our stay at El Nido and the foods that our tour guides have prepared during our island hopping tours.

Tour - A Lunch at Simizu Island

Tour - B Lunch at Snake Island

To get the most out of the trip we have planned to take at least 3 of the standard island hopping tours that are available.



Tour A - Visit the 3 lagoons on Miniloc Island. Small Lagoon, big Lagoon and Secret Lagoon, snorkel around Simizu Island and enjoy the white Sand on Entulala Island.



Tour B - A visit to Snake Islands, Cudugnun Cave, Catherdral Cave, Lagen and Pinabuyutan Island.



Tour C - Snorkel tour at Matinloc, Tapuitan Islands Secret Beach, Matinloc Shrine, Hidden Beach and Helicopter Island. Tour C was eventual abandoned halfway because of high waves due to bad weather.



We have opted to DIY itinerary instead of going to travel agents that offers tour packages this way we have more control on our time, places to visit and free choice on where to stay. With the exception of our island hopping tours, all our bookings are made online. Our island hopping tour booking was made upon our arrival, you may choice to book your tours on recommendations from your transport van driver or from your hotel either way it is cheaper than booking thru a travel agent in Manila.



Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Tiger Airlines fly to Puerto Princesa City daily, we have opted to take Cebu Pacific.

Land travel from Puerto Princesa City to El Nido takes about 5 to 6 hours. There are a lot of shuttle vans and RoRo aircon buses that run between Puerto Princesa City and El Nido. But do remember that the travel time is about 5 hours or more if you are taking the bus which departs at certain times only. I you are not comfortable to travel on a smelly and awfully cramped shuttle vans then I would recommend taking the Daytripper Transport Palawan, service includes airport or hotel pick up, comfortable seats with leg room and snacks, clean 10 and 12 seater vans and you could book and pay online.



Our hotel booking was made thru Agoda, there are good pension houses to stay if you are on a limited budget. We stayed at Zaniya Pension House, there is no point staying on an expensive and overrated hotels at El Nido there is not much difference on quality, anyway you will be out island hopping most of the day and when you return to your hotel you will be dead tired and want to sleep right away. Be warned that electricity in El Nido is only on from 2PM to 6AM, chose a hotel or pension house that have generator.

Dining and breakfast is not a problem, the town may be small but there are some good places to eat. For breakfast there are plenty of choices from the restaurants and eateries that line the beach front, just be there early before the boat boarding times of your island hopping tours, these beach front restaurants and eateries are also convenient for a quick snack after returning from your island hopping trip and before heading to your hotel.



For dinner obviously because we stayed only for limited time we were able to try a couple of restaurant in the town and at the beach front.



We had freshly made brick oven pizza pasta and salad at Altrove Trattoria.

Dinner Altrove Trattoria

At El Nido Art Cafe we had a feast of Filipino food.

Dinner at El Nido Art Cafe

El Nido, Island Hopping - Palawan Food Trip Part 1 is the first part of our food adventure on our recent trip to Palawan.

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Purple and Pink Butterfly Birthday Card

I found some cute stickers in Paperchase recently that had butterflies and a few sequins inside a clear rigid square so the butterflies move around if you shake the card. I decided to make them the focus of this card and covered a white square blank with patterned paper then placed three butterfly stickers along the top third line of the card (if you imagine the card divided into three with a line across each third). I used several round shiny stickers from another sticker pack to make three rows along the bottom of the card, graduating the colours from purple to pink. Finally I added a happy birthday outline sticker.

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Cheesy Lumpiang Shanghai

Cheesy Lumpiang Shanghai. The use of cheese in Pinoy cooking has become common. Cheese is being added to some Pinoy dishes that our grandparents would not imagine during their time. In fact I have some of my recipes in the archives that I have tweaked with the addition or adding extra amount of cheese. Click the links below to find the recipes of some of the Cheesy dishes that I have made.



Cheesy Pineapple Chicken

Cheesy Baked Embutido

Cheesy Pinoy Lasagna

Making a Cheesy Lumpiang Shanghai is not much different from your ordinary Lumpiang Shanghai recipe if you already have one. All you have to do is add generous amount of cheese, I just used cheddar cheese, I am not too sure it quick melt cheese will work it may just melt and ooze out from the wrapper and burn during frying. Roll the Cheesy Lumpiang Shanghai in a manner that the fillings are sealed, use large lumpia wrapper this will effectively seal the ends of the rolls.



For those who love cheese here is the recipe of my version of a Cheesy Lumpiang Shanghai.

Ingredients:



1/2 kilo lean ground pork

1/4 kilo shrimps, finely chopped

1 big block cheddar cheese, coarsely grated

1 medium sized onion, peeled, finely chopped

1/2 head garlic, peeled, finely chopped

1 large carrot, skinned, cut into small cubes

1 small bundle kinchay, trimmed, finely chopped

2 large size egg, beaten

3 tbsp soy sauce

salt and pepper

large spring roll wrappers

cooking oil

Cooking procedure:



Mix all filling ingredients thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper. Place 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp. of filling on one side of wrapper and wrap tightly, secure wrapper by lightly dabbing water on wrapper edge. In a wok deep fry lumpia at medium to low heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until wrapper turns to golden brown and filling is cooked. Serve with sweet and sour sauce or sweet chili sauce.





You may want to check these rolls recipe;



Lumpiang Sariwa, Lumpiang Ubod, Fresh Vegatable Roll

Pinoy Ham and Cheese Bread Roll

Chili Cheese and Ham Stick

Cheese Sticks

Chicken Cordon Bleu Rolls

Lumpiang Isda, Lumpiang Galungong

Ngohiong, Ngo Yong, Cebu’s Fried Lumpiang Ubod

Lumpiang Gulay, Lumpiang Togue

Lumpiang Shanghai

Turon Fried Banana Roll

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