Nilagang Bulalo ng Baka (for the love of hot soup)

I'm thankful that my parents taught us how to eat beef. Because, my mom's family (her siblings and parents) does not eat any beef dish. Well, not all of them but most of them. Otherwise, I will be missing the delicious taste and exciting experience of sipping the hot soup of nilaga, the spicy taste of kaldereta or the sweet-sour blend of bistek. There you are... join me in sipping one of my favorite soup dish: Nilagang Bulalo ng Baka (this is not the Bulalo soup dish, although we used the beef shank in preparing this Nilaga and Bulalo are still two different dishes).



INGREDIENTS:

1 kilo beef shank, cut into cubes
3-6 medium sized potatoes
baguio beans
pechay
1 celery stalk
sibot
garlic
onion
salt and pepper

HOW TO:

Boil the beef shank together with garlic,onion, sibot, salt and pepper until tender. Add the potatoes until it is cooked. Add the baguio beans, pechay leaves and celery stalks when the beef and tomatoes are tender to bite. Add some more salt and pepper if desired.

It's that easy!

Love,

Bella Donna

Tuna Spaghetti in Olive Oil

From the tuna spaghetti in fresh tomato that my ex taught me, I twisted the manner of cooking tuna spaghetti from tuna spaghetti in cream sauce (which I have already posted), and tuna spaghetti in olive oil (which I am about to post now).

I cooked this tuna spaghetti in olive oil when we went to visit a friend who had a motorcycle accident. But more than the bruises and wounds, he had a deeper pain to deal with after he and his partner broke up after 5 years of being together. Truly, relationships does not guarantee that you'll be together forever. Anyways, just to lighten up, we thought that we should cook (actually, I was the only one who did the cooking as my friends have no patience in the kitchen) something to make our friend feel better.

TUNA SPAGHETTI IN OLIVE OIL

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo pasta spaghetti
2 cans of tuna flakes in oil
olive oil
garlic
white onions
pepper
basil
french bread
tomatoes
balsamic vinegar

HOW TO:

Bread Dip:
Slice some tomatoes, add a little of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and some salt. Mix them together.

Pasta Dish:
Cook the pasta according to package directions or until it's al dente. Saute the garlic and onion in olive oil. Pour in the tuna flakes in oil (you may also alter the other can to a spicy flavor). Put some salt and pepper to taste. Add the drained pasta to the tuna mixture and dash some dried basil. Serve with french bread and the dip.

Mangia, mangia!

Love,

Bella Donna

Buttered Tahong for Pulutan

I miss Mommy Anne's Buttered Mussels (Tahong). Every time we visit her at home in Sta. Ana for videoke nights and drinking session, she would cook some of our favorite pulutan like tokwa't baboy, lechon paksiw, and most of it all, the classic buttered tahong. She would steam the mussels and lovingly take them out of the shells, saute some garlic and ginger with butter, add the tahong and serve them while we empty San Mig lights off from their sari-sari store.

Anyway, when I went to the market, bought some tahong and cooked buttered tahong --- my own version. Haha, my own version only because I left the shells intact to the meat as I was so lazy to take them out. I just want to eat them right away. I put a few pieces of dried chili as I sauteed the meat with butter just to give a little spice.

Love,

Bella Donna

Poor Man's Veggie Dish

Have you ever had those veggie left-overs in your fridge? Cabbage, pechay, swamp cabbage or any of those cabbage family? Well, we always do. It could be left over from pancit or chopsuey dish that we cooked the night before. So to keep those beautiful veggies from waste, we use what is remained from the ref and pretty much, it serves one more meal in a day. Here's a very simple dish that you can pair with grilled, steamed or fried fish or meat: "Poor Man's Veggie Dish"

Ingredients:

Left-over cabbage, cut into strips
1 can of tuna flakes in oil (you can alter with sardines or fried fish flakes)
garlic
onion
salt and pepper

How To:

Heat in a pan a small amount of vegetable oil, saute garlic and onion. Put in the tuna flakes and then the cabbage. Sprinkle a small amount of water and add salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pan and let it simmer for a few minutes or until the cabbage are crunchy. Do not overcook.

Tips:

You can also use pechay or swamp cabbage or any leafy vegetables with this dish.

Love,

Bella Donna

Bangusilog--- I love breakfast!

There's just no good thing that can wake me up in the morning other than the voice of my niece saying "ah, yey-yey and her tiny scream that could fill up the whole room. She's a one-year-old little girl with very thin hair strands and tan skin who walks up to our room banging the door, crawling up on our beds and sit on top of your belly thinking you're a little horse she's riding on. Weekends like these makes me get up with the smell of minced garlic being sauteed in a pan and the sound of the cooking oil's tiny bursts when you put the cooked rice on to make it a sumptuous garlic rice served together with homemade daing na bangus (smoked milkfish). The vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper marinade bring out the best in milkfish especially if it's done overnight or just as when the fish is cooked in vinegar. Wow, it's really heaven :) My siblings differ in cooking the egg for breakfast. One would like a sunny side up, rare, one toasted, one scrambled. I like mine with the yolk rare because I'd like to put it over my garlic rice. We still buy extra pandesal with peanut butter because my mother would have it as "appetizer" while waiting for the main dish. Pretty much, but hearty for all of us. :) Oh, I love breakfast!

Love,

Bella Donna

Creamy Tuna Spaghetti and Roasted Rosemary Chicken

I first started loving authentic pasta dishes when I started going out with my ex who is an Italian. It was not an instant appreciation of his food and culture but then, day by day, his food became my food of choice. There is a saying that there are two things you can't take away from a person: his language and his food. Either way, both influences others greatly. Through the years of him cooking for me during weekends, I have learned tasting, preparing, cooking and criticizing his food and others' as well. I've also learned cooking some dishes that is toned down to Filipino taste and this particular dish is one of them.

CREAMY TUNA SPAGHETTI

Ingredients:

1 kilo spaghetti (you may also alter to linguine, a flat spaghetti)
2 big cans (420g each) of tuna flakes in oil
1/4 kilo of bacon (optional)
1 can of button mushrooms, sliced (optional)
2 cans of all-purpose cream
whole basil
Italian seasoning
minced garlic
minced onion
olive oil
salt to taste
ground black pepper
ground parmesan cheese

How to:

Boil the pasta according to package direction. To make the pasta more tasty, put half of the stock (or juice) of the tuna flakes while you're boiling the pasta. While you're waiting your pasta to be al dente, fry the bacon bits until the it's golden brown and crispy or until the fat gets out. Set aside. Saute, in a heated pan, the minced garlic and onion in a small amount of olive oil. Add the mushroom and the tuna flakes. Let it sit on fire for a few minutes. Then add half of the tuna stock and bring to boil. Season with salt and ground black pepper. Also dash some basil and Italian seasoning for some aroma. Add the all-purpose cream and let it simmer until the sauce is creamy. Put the creamy sauce on top of the pasta, sprinkle some parmesan cheese and bacon bits. You may also dash some more of the basil and Italian seasoning if you desire.

ROSEMARY CHICKEN

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
soy sauce
salt
ground black pepper
rosemary leaves
minced garlic
minced onion
calamansi juice

HOW TO:

Rub the salt, ground black pepper, minced garlic and onion and rosemary leaves onto the chicken. Add some soy sauce and calamansi juice. Set aside for at least 30 minutes before broiling. For better results, you may marinate overnight before broiling. Serve with your favorite pasta dish or mashed potato.

There you go, guys. I hope you like it! Dig in!

Love,

Bella Donna

Ampalaya Con Corned Beef

Here's our twist for ginisang ampalaya: Ampalaya con Corned Beef

Ingredients:

2 pieces medium-sized Ampalya (bittermelon, sliced thinly)
1 egg
1 small can of corned beef
5 cloves garlic (or just the way you want it)
1 onion
ground black pepper
salt to taste

Saute garlic and onion on a heated pan, add the ampalaya. When the ampalaya is cooked, add salt and pepper to taste and then add the corned beef. Let it simmer for a few minutes. Add the egg and let it set for a while. Serve hot.

Tip: To lessen the bitterness of ampalaya, rub some salt after you slice the ampalaya and then wash with cold water.

Love,

Bella Donna

Burger, Burger, Burger!

When I was in high school, my parents used to operate a canteen beside our school in Pasay. My mom made her own hamburger patties that she sold on that year. It was made of ground pork, seasoned with soy sauce, black pepper, salt, garlic, onion a bit of parsley, and egg. Dashed with love and generosity.



During those time, we have a gay friend who is also operating a burger stand outside school. He was very popular among students. Most of them would go to his stand and spend the rest of the afternoons. And one of those students is this girl who used to be one of my best buddies back then. I just didn't know what happened after elementary days. Maybe we had the same crushes or something. But, she suddenly came to me at school and said: "kahit ano pang free ang isama mo sa burger mo, hinding-hindi bibili sa yo si Spencer!" (That boy was the most popular crush among girls at school) I was like, what was that??? Anyway, after that encounter, I never talked to that girl who used to be my "bff." I still made a lot of friends after her, though.

Despite that, I never lost my appetite making and eating hamburgers. Friends are like burgers; some of them maybe bland some of them juicy and tasty. You just got to pick the right ones to satisfy your hunger.

Love,

Bella Donna