Amansinaya Cookbook

COOKBOOK
www.kitesurf-mindoro.com

Overview
OUR STORY 1
OUR TEAM 3
PHILIPPINE CUISINE 6
DRINKS8
VEGETERIANS & VEGANS 9
BREAKFASTS10
Breadpudding 10
Coconut porridge 11
French Toast 11
Tomato Onion Omelete 11
SNACKS12
Dynamite 12
Sweet Potato Chips 12
Samosa 13
Fajitas 13
Amansinaya Burger 14
Vegetarian Jackfruit Burger 15
SOUPS16
Mungo soup - Lentilsoup 16
Pumpkin Coconut Soup 17
Tomato Soup 17
Onionsoup 18
Mushroom Soup 18
Sinigang 19
SALADS20
Glassnoodle salad 20
Tomato Banana salad 20
Carrot salad 21
Cucumber salad with peanuts 21
VEGETERIAN MAIN DISHES 22
Vegetable curry 22
Eggplant Omelette 23
Pumpkin in Coconutmilk 23
Sweet potato adobo 24
Ginataang Gabi 24
Bananaflower Ginataag Puso ng Saging 25
Layered Cabbage 26
Jackfruit - Ginataang Langka 26
Green Papaya - Ginataang Papaya 27
Upo 28
MAIN DISHES WITH PORK 29
Groundpork Cabbage 29
Stuffed Bellpeppers 29
Pork Menudo 30
MAIN DISHES WITH CHICKEN 31
Chicken Adobo 31
Chicken in Peanutbuttersauce 31
Chicken drumsticks 32
Chickenfricasse 32
Chicken Curry 33
MAIN DISHES WITH FISH 34
Fish sweet & sour 34
Fish curry 35
Tuna in Coconutmilk 35
Kinilaw 36
Tuna in Tomatosauce 36
Tuna in breadcrumbs 37
Inihaw na Pusit 38
Squid Adobo 38
DESSERTS & SWEETS 39
Mango Float 39
Pumpkin dessert 39
Turon - Bananaspringroll 40
Caramelized banana 40
Apple Crumble 41
Rumballs 41
Carrot Cake 42
Leche Flan 42
Banana - Peanutbutter cake 43
Coconutcake 43
Sticky rice with Mango 44
INGREDIENTS45
Three years ago I moved to Mindoro from
Boracay for the consistent windy conditions.
My friends told me, I´d be crazy
to move to an area, known as the home to
the Mangyan (the tribal people) in the middle of
nature, no other foreigners, no coffeeshops, bars
and restaurants and limited shopping possibilitiesa
freshmarket 18km away but no supermarkets as
we know them or as I knew them from Boracay.
I´ve been living for 13 years on Boracay for the
kitesurfing and its good wind and we were missing
nothing as we had the best community of friends
returning every winter from their home countries
to spend time on the water together.
And with the development of tourism and the
islands, you could also live a Western lifestyle with
nothing lacking compared to Europe.
It was the windstatistics and googlemaps that made
me come to Bulalacao, as through the years Boracay
got overpopulated and the water polluted.
Number of European guests decreased the more
Korean and Chinese tourist were visiting.
A new place was needed- to cover what we were
looking for in the early years when we first arrived.
Simple life, palmtrees, white sand beaches and
Bulalacao a little town on the southern tip of the
island Mindoro is the completly oppositeit’s
the place, with little foreign influence.
Our Story
from Boracay to Mindoro
1

Guests often ask me,
how to make this and that or they
watch us cooking as we have an open
kitchen, where everyone can observe
how meals are prepared and its much
more fun, for the kitchen team to
be part of the resort life and still
interacting with the guests while
cooking.
New style of cooking had to be learnt - very little
spices, limited vegetables to choose from, fish,
chicken and pork. Many ingredients I normally
used to cook with were just not to be found.
A very inspiring place for shopping is the local
Mangyan market in Bulalacao on Tuesdays and
Saturdays. The tribal people leave their remote
villages in the mountains as early as 3 am to walk
down with torches all the way to Bulalacao town
center to sell the local grown fruits and vegetables.
Some of them are still wearing their tribal clothes
and often you see them chew betelnuthere
you can try.
I love to buy from the Mangyan people because their
products are guaranteed organically grown and free
of pesticides. The market is a good place for a chat
and you don’t need to bargain as prices are fixed and
so cheap anyway.
It started a phase of experimenting. Chefkoch.de was
a good guide in the beginning, you put the
ingredients we could find that day in the market
and picked one of the recipes that were given.
If we didn’t have all ingredients, we got creative
and replaced to imitate and get close to what the
recipe was meant to be. Now after three
seasons we have a good collection of meals - which
are a result of mixing the local cuisine with healthy
Western food. My priorities - it should taste good,
it should have loads of veggies and local ingredients
only and last but not least and actually super important:
It should be prepared fast and easy,
as we don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen.
if we have to cook for big numbers of people.
Our Team
good vibes - good food
There is one rule. Everyone helps with everything –
so you will find everyone in the kitchen too,
especially at dinner time when we are busy.
Gerry
Has been with us from the beginning. He is born in
the neighbouring fishing village and he was the one
who was cooking for all the workers when we were
building Amansinaya. I remember his tomato salty
egg salad from this time. He learnt kiting in the first
year of our opening and supports the daytrips
and kitesafaris as a guide and cook. He also joins
the Philippine Kitesurfing Tour and competes.
You wouldn’t believe Gerry is a Philippino but his
favourite dishes are Pizza, Burger and Mushroomsoup.
Roben
Also Roben has been with us from the beginning and
helped with the construction and turned into a beachboy
after the opening, realising soon, that you don’t
get a lot of time on the water for yourself when working
as a beachboy, so he soon changed to the kitchen
and is a guide on almost each safari or daytrip. He is
very motivated in Kitesurfing and same as Gerry he
also joins the Philippine Kitesurfing Tour. Roben loves
his red scooter and if you see the same motorbike in 5
different places, it's because he always moves it to the
shade when the sun moves during the day. The biggest
fan of Roben in the resort is Cabrinha since he was
taking care of her since she was a little piglet. Roben
loves Chicken Adobo, Burger and Mangofloat.
2 3

Annalyn
Annalyn came to us in the second year and is the good
soul of the kitchen. She loves experimenting and trying
new recipes. She loves baking for instance Christmas
cookies. Nonoy, her husband has a tricycle and drives us
and the gear to Balatasan, when we go on daytrips. Annalyn
can swim and loves to learn kiting and it is still on her
list of to do things. She loves to sing Karaoke and if there
is a Christmas party or a birthday you should have a song
prepared to join in. She makes the best mangofloat and
Annalyn's favourite food is Sinigang and ice-cream.
Jovy
If there is one always smiling and singing, no matter
what- it’s Jovy. You can’t miss her- she cleans the rooms
and is the one giving massage. Often she wears colourful
leggings. She likes Reggaemusic and can listen to the
same playlist every day and loves to dance. If you go out
with her, for instance to a Mangyanparty, you are guaranteed
to see her dancing full on. Jovy can not swim and
is scared of deep water, you can only convince her for a
tour on the SUP when you paddle. But she is
adventurous. She loves hiking and jungletrekking and
even climbed Mt. Iglit. Jovy makes the best springrolls
and her favourite meals are Spagetthi and ice-cream.
Toto
is the one at the guardhouse and responsible for water
pump and water tanks, fueling up motorbikes and
organising our drinking water. When we were building,
he was the first one to learn how to launch and land my
kite. He always comes to the kitchen to steal watermelon.
His favourite food is ihaw ihaw (anything grilled)
and Chicken adobo. He would be the perfect actor and
loves to sing and dance and is an adventurous soul.
If you ask him to be your jungle guide, he will take you
on a tour with his machete-but you are not
guaranteed to find the trail.
Cabrinha
is our famous pig growing bigger and bigger. She came to
us as a piglet when she was 6 weeks old. She came with
her friend who was pink and ugly, so we decided just to
keep Cabrinha. She is not so picky and eats all the leftovers.
She loves the beach and swimming, unfortunately
she also loves kites and kitelines and sometimes motorbike
seats. Thanks to her appetite, she grew so fast and
reached her final weight of approximately 120 kg.
Surviving 2 christmas and New Years. She was the only
one enjoying the typhoon Ursula and did not hide but
walk around in the storm enjoying the rain while
motorbikes and coconuts were flying around. The last try
to get rid of her was to swap her against four goats, this
also failed so she is still member of the team and
I wonder, if its still like this when you read this book.
Tiger
is the only dog we really feed, he came as a wild dog and
stayed. He is tame and clever enough to be friends with
every guest and to look always starving, so you guaranteed
feel pitty and let some of your food fall under the
table by mistake. During the off season he found his ugly
girlfriend brownie … but hey ho character counts and so
we allowed her to stay. But one plus one makes nine and
so we soon had Bailey, Oreo, Covid, Milka, Baloo, Junior
and Panther in the house. Thanks to their cuteness they
all found a home. Favourite food of the dogs- anything
of our dinner before Cabrinha eats it.
4 5

Philippine Cuisine
local specialities and useful things to know
What you must know about
the traditional Filipino cuisine
Filipinos are constantly eating. Three meals a day isn’t
enough, so they have added two meryenda, which
literally means snack. The afternoon snack can
include pan de coco (sweet bun with a coconutfilling)
or Bibingka (fluffy race cakes topped with cheese)
and super sweet 3 in 1 instant coffee.
Filippino food is compared to other Asian countries
poor in reputation. Have you ever heard
of a Philippino restaurant in the Western World.
If you ask Filipinos though, they think their
home cooked food is the greatest thing in the world.
When I travelled with Filipino friends for the international
kite competitions like the World Championships
in Sardinia, they were the happiest people to
meet other Filipinos there and to get invited for rice
and chicken Adobo.
If you ask me, Pinoy food is not as bad as the
international reputation, nor as delicious as locals
consider it. For Western taste it is normally
too sweet, too much meat, not enough vegetable
and too heavy. Influence of American food
are very obvious with fast food on every corner
and their Filippino version of Mc Donalds,
Jollibee with sweet hamburgers or sweet spaghetti.
What to order if you travel around
the philippines
Breakfasts
Let’s start with the breakfasts.
Rice, very often garlic rice with a fried egg on top
(Eggsilog), rice with honey-cured pork (Tocinolog),
Tapsilog is Rice served with salty beef stripes or
Longsilog is rice with pink coloured sausages.
Main dishes
No matter where you are in the Philippines you will
always find Adobo in versions of Chicken Adobo, Pork
Adobo any meat stewed in vinegar, soysauce and
garlic. Very often you find in the restaurants Bulaloa
beef soup or Sinigang- a meat or seafood tamarind
flavoured soup. Pancit Canton are fried noodles
with vegetable. Lumpia rolls are springrolls with
normally vegetarian filling of cabbage, sprouts
or carrots. Lechon, roasted pig, is served at
Celebrations.
Desserts
I must admit though I am a fan of Philippino desserts.
My favourite – and even my favorite dessert
worldwide – congrats to the Pinoy cuisine is
Mangofloat. It’s a frozen icecream cake with layers
of sweet condense milk and all-purpose cream,
graham cookies and mangos.
Halo-Halo ia a glass with fruit preserves, sweet corn,
young coconut, sweet condense milk and crushed ice.
Leche Flan is similar to Crème Brulee in Italy and
Inipig is glutinous riceflour fried with caramalized
sugar on top.
6 7

Drinks
softdrinks, beer and Gin
Vegeterians & Vegans
all you need to know regarding special diets
NON - alcoholic drinks
Often it is easier to find carbonated
soft drinks like Sprite,
Coca Cola, Royal in the local
sari-sari stores than bottled
water. Tap water quality varies
from island to island, to be safe
carry your water bottle. Calamansi
is a local citrus that makes
a healthy and tasty juice.
alcoholic drinks
San Miguel has a monopoly in
the Philippines- with the most
sold beer San Miguel pale, San
Miguel Light, flavoured San
Miguel Apple or Lemon and
Red Horse, which is an extra
strong beer by the same brand.
No Philippines visit without a
Rum Coke. The local Tanduay
Rum is cheaper than the Coke,
so the mix could be very dangerous.
In the province locals drink
the cheap Emperador (Brandy)
or Gin.
If you are vegetarian or vegan,
you will have a hard time
eating in the provinces of the
Philippines, as the cuisine is
dominated by meat.
Vegetables are very rare on the
local menu. So if you are not
vegan you will likely end up
with rice & egg, rice and mixed
vegetable or pancit cantonfried
noodles (check if meat is
added).
Kangkong Adobo is waterspinach
boiled in soysauce. If you
are lucky you can find Calabasa
ginataang- pumpkin in coconutmilk
or Petchay guisado-
Petchay stir fried with onion
and tomato.
8 9

Breakfasts
fast, delicious and easy to prepare
Here are the recipies of Amansinaya restaurant.
If you caǹ t find some specific ingredients in your country, doń t worry
and experiment as we once did. We would be happy to hear,
if you succeeded,messed up or if friends liked it.
Coconut porridge
Ingredients:
• 3 cups of fast
boiling oats
• 5 cups of water
• coconutmilk
• coconutflakes
• 3 spoons of sugar
or honey
• raisins
• peanuts
• seasonal fruits
Preparation:
Soak 3 cups of fast boiling oats in 5 cups of water and
bring it to boil, simmer for 2 minutes, add coconut milk,
coconutf lakes, 3 spoons of sugar or honey, raisins,
peanuts and add fresh seasonal fruit.
Breadpudding
Ingredients:
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 cup of water
• a little bit of oil
(for greasing the pan)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
extract
• cinnamon
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/2 loaf of tasty bread
or left over bread from
the day before, cut into
2 - inch cubes (it should
be 5-6 cups of bread)
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs - beaten
We normally use all our leftover bread from
the day before and it`s one of our breakfasts without
much work. Consider adding fresh or dried fruit.
Preparation
Heat the oven to 230°C, oil a baking tray. In
a big bowl mix warm water, milk, sugar, salt,
vanilla and cinnamon and add the eggs and mix again,
pour the bread cubes in, mix everything and pour
the mixture into the baking tray. Bake for 30 minutes
or until the custard is set but still a little wobbly
and edges of bread turns golden brown. Serve warm
or at room temperature.
French Toast
Ingredients:
• toastbread
(as many as you
want to eat)
• eggs - beaten
(one egg for
2 pcs. of bread)
• cinnamon
• milk
• syrup
Tomato Onion Omelete
Ingredients:
• 2 eggs
• 1 small onion
• 1 small tomato
• salt and pepper
The toastbread in the Philippines is called “Tasty Bread”.
Is it by accident or on purpose, that’s what we
asked ourselves when we ate that super sweet sponge!
Preparation
Anyway you can use any bread and soak it in a
mixture of beaten eggs with milk and cinnamon. Toast
it in a frying pan and serve with syrup.
Preparation
Chop the onion and the tomato, add the eggs in a bowl
and whisk them, Pour any cooking oil in a frying pan
and heat the pan for a few seconds, pour the egg mixture
in, after 2-3 minutes put the tomato onion mix on
top and fold the omelette and let it cook another 30
seconds- ready to serve. You can also add Eden cheese
to the tomato and onion. Ready to serve!
10 11

Dynamite
Ingredients:
• long green chili
• cheese
• lumpia wrapper
(springroll wrap)
Sweet Potato Chips
Ingredients:
• sweet potatoes
• corn starch
• oil
• salt
Snacks
small, healthy filipino starters
Dynamites are a kind of spring roll- a unique
version because it involves the use of stuffed long
green chili and will be a surprise when you eat
it if spicy or moderate spicy. Making dynamites is
easy and straightforward.
Preparation:
First prepare the chili and slice it lengthside on one
side. Remove the seeds and then stuff it with a stripe
of eden cheese. Wrap each stuffed chili in a lumpia
wrapper (springroll wrap) and fry until golden brown
and crispy.
Preparation
Cut your sweet potatoes into thin fries. Toss your sliced
fries in cornstarch before oil, as cornstarch helps
to get the outsides crispy. Put your fries on a greased
baking tray. Bake at 230°C. In the middle of baking
turn with a spatula. If golden brown and crispy. You
can add salt. A healthy and easy to make snack.
Samosa
Ingredients:
• flour
• vegetable oil
• warm water
• tomato paste
• onions
• cheese
• salt
Fajitas
Ingredients:
• 3 cups all
purpose flour
• salt
• baking powder
• vegetable oil
• hot water
• boneless chicken
• oil
• lime juice
• cumin
• red pepper flakes
• salt & pepper
• bell peppers
• onion
Preparation
2 cups of flour, 4 table spoons of vegetable oil, ¼ cup
warm water, salt, make a soft dough. The flour should
stick on your fingers. Make the dough into 4 equal size
balls that you flatten on the table. Put a bit of tomatopaste
on to each piece. Chop 2 onions into small pieces
and fry it until golden brown. Put the fried onion on
the flattened dough and add a piece of Eden cheese on
top of each. Fold the samosa once and push the edge of
the samosa with a fork to make it stick together. Fry in
a frying pan with oil until golden brown.
We can’t really buy all ready to eat Fajitas, so we
tried to make them. And what can I say? It’s worth
every roll and spatula flip.
Preparation
Combine flour, salt and baking powder, add some
vegetable oil, mix in warm water and make it into a
soft, dough ball. Then roll those balls out on the table
thin and boom- you have your tortilla- cook it
1 min in a non-stick pan.
For the filling: Chop boneless chicken in cubes into
a large bowl. Season chicken with salt and pepper.
Whisk together 1/2 cup oil, lime juice, cumin, and
red pepper flakes. Then add in to the bowl and toss
to coat. Cook the chicken in a frying pan until golden
and cooked through. Let it rest 10 minutes, then slice
into strips. Add bell peppers and onion to skillet and
cook until soft, 5 minutes. Add chicken and toss until
combined. Serve with tortillas.
12 13

Amansinaya Burger
Vegetarian Jackfruit Burger
Ingredients:
• burgerbuns
• groundpork
• onions
• egg
• fine dried
bread crumbs
• mustard
• salt & pepper
• onions
• gherkins
• tomatoes
• lettuce
• cheese
• BBQ - Sauce:
soysauce,
tomatopaste,
sugar
We introduced a burger night. In the beginning we
were shy- cause we thought people would tell us: how
can you serve junkfood. But then the opposite happened.
People love the change in a while and are happy to
have a burger and chips on their plate. So here is how
we do our version. We use ready made burgerbuns,
that we even find in the bake shops here and that, I
believe, they are available everywhere.
Preperation
For the burger: groundpork , onion, egg, 1/4 cup fine
dried bread crumbs, a little bit of mustard, salt , pepper.
In a bowl, mix the ground pork, egg, onion, bread
crumbs, mustard, salt, and pepper until well blended.
Divide the mixture into four equal portions and shape
each one into a patty about 4 inches wide. Cook burgers,
turning once, until browned on both sides.
BBQ Sauce:
In a frying pan with oil add a little soysauce, tomatopaste
and sugar and stir until it gets a creamy sauce.
To make the burger: Thinly slice the onion, gherkins
and tomato as relish. Chop the lettuce. Give the burger
buns a quick toast under the grill or in a toaster. To
serve: 1 tbsp BBQ on the bottom of one bun. Lay over
some lettuce, then the burger. Next come the raw onion,
gherkin and tomato. Add another dollop of sauce
on the top half of the bun – and pop it on top. Done!
Ingredients:
• burgerbuns
• Jackfruit
• onions
• salt & pepper
• olive oil
• egg
• all purpose flour
• onions
• gherkins
• tomatoes
• lettuce
• cheese
• BBQ - Sauce:
soysauce,
tomatopaste,
sugar
As we always try to prepare a vegiterian version of our
meals - here is the vegetarian jackfruit burger.
Preparation
200g jackfruit, 2 tbsp olive oil, ½ tbsp salt, 1 onion.
The boiled jackfruit (if not boiled yet, slice it and fry
in a a frying pan with salt and pepper and oil) mix with
egg and flour and make burger patties, which you fry
in a pan
BBQ Sauce:
In a frying pan with oil add a little soysauce, tomatopaste
and sugar and stir until it becomes a creamy sauce.
To make the burger: Thinly slice the onion, gherkins
and tomato as relish. Chop the lettuce. Give the burger
buns a quick toast under the grill or in a toaster.
To serve: 1 tbsp BBQ sauce on the bottom of one bun.
Layer over some lettuce, then the jackfruit burger.
Next comes the raw onion, gherkin and tomato. Add
another dollop of sauce on the top half of the bun –
and pop it on top. Done!
14 15

Mungo soup - Lentilsoup
Ingredients:
• 2 cups dry monggo
beans, mung beans or
green lentils
• 6 cups
vegetable broth
• oil
• onion
• garlic
• freshly grated ginger
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 bunch chopped or
pulled malunggay
leaves (or spinach)
• salt
Soups
best after a long adventurous day
Dinners are set meals in Amansinaya and start always with
a soup, which is a perfect and healty starter. We love soups that are
fast to prepare and variety of soup that we can use leftover
ingredients with - sorry to our pig Cabrinha - you can not eat it all.
Monggos are the same thing as mung beans.
They are widley used in Asian countries and
they cook almost exactly like lentils. Lentils are
my favorite! Something you can surely buy
wherever you live.
Preparation
Bring the broth to boil in a large pot. Add the rinsed
monggo beans and cook, uncovered for about 40 minutes.
You want the consistency to be like a very thick
soup. Saute the onion, garlic, and ginger in the oil in a
large non-stick pan. Add to the monggo pot and allow
the mixture to simmer together for a few minutes. Stir
in the coconut milk and malunggay leaves. Remove the
monggo pot from the heat. Not sure if it’s a Western
thing, but I like lentil soup sweet and sour, so I add
vinegar and sugar at the end.
Pumpkin Coconut Soup
Ingredients:
• 1 tablespoon
unsalted butter
• 1 diced medium
onion
• 1 fingersize ginger
cut into pieces
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon yellow
curry powder
• 1/2 pumpkin
• 1 cup ckicken stock
• coconut milk
• 1 l water
• salt & pepper
• pinch of sugar
• Equipment:
Blender
Tomato Soup
Ingredients:
• chopped tomatoes
• sliced onion
• ginger
• garlic
• tomatopaste
• vegetable stock
• water
• salt & pepper
• pinch of sugar
• oil
• Equipment:
Blender
There is one vegetable always available in Bulalacaothe
only one you are guaranteed to get- pumpkin and
before moving to here, the only recipe I had with
pumpkin was pumpkin soup. By now I would probably
make a whole cookbook just for pumpkin recipes. But
still one of my favourites is the soup.
Preparation
Fry the onions in oil together with the garlic, ginger,
curry, chicken stock and 1 l of water. Cut the pumpkin
into cubes and add it. Let the whole thing boil until the
pumpkin is soft. Let it cool down a bit and transfer the
mixture to a blender. After mixing the soup put it back
into a pot and pour the coconut milk into the soup and
warm up on medium heat stirring occasionally, season
it with salt, pepper and a little sugar.
Probably well known to everyone. A very easy
soup. Ready to serve in 5-8 minutes.
Preparation
Fry the onions, garlic and ginger in some oil. Add a
vegetable stock and 1/2 cup of water. Add the chopped
tomatoes and 4 spoons of tomatopaste, add more
water and let the soup boil. Let it cool down and blend
the soup. Season the soup with salt, pepper and tiny bit
of sugar. Warm it up again – ready to serve.
16 17

Onionsoup
Sinigang
Ingredients:
• oil
• 5 sliced medium
onions
• 2 minced garlic
• 1/3 cup dry white
wine
• 6 cups beef stock
• 2 teaspoons white
wine vinegar
• salt & pepper
• 2 tbsp. cornstarch
Mushroom Soup
Ingredients:
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 diced onions
• 4 minced cloves garlic
• 2 cans of sliced mushrooms
(fresh mushrooms
if available)
• 4 teaspoons chopped
thyme
• 1 cup white wine
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups chicken stock
• salt & pepper
• 1 cup all purpose
cream
• chopped fresh parsley
We don’t know how it happened, but a huge percentage
of our guests are French. There is almost no week
without French guests. As we never wanted to serve
the same soup twice a week and as there is never a lack
of onions in the kitchen, we thought lets make onion
soup- not what the French know from home because
of the lack of Cheese and baguettes, but we try to get
close. So here is a simple and quick to serve onionsoup.
Preparation
In a pot with oil add onion, garlic and fry until the
onions are glassy. Season with a healthy pinch of salt
and pepper, then add beef stock and vinegar. In a cup
mix the corn starch with water and add to the mix.
Boil the soup until thickens and add white wine and a
little bit of sugar.
When we kite long and we are short on time - this is
our rescue soup. So if you need something quick on
the table when you have unexpected guests - this is the
right thing to cook.
Preparation
Heat the oil in a large pot, sauté onion for 2 to 3 minutes
until softened. Cook garlic until fragrant, about 1
minute. Add mushrooms and 2 teaspoons thyme, cook
for 5 minutes. Pour in wine and allow to cook for 3
minutes. Sprinkle mushrooms with flour, mix well and
cook for 2 minutes. Add stock, mix again and boil, season
with salt, pepper and allow to simmer for 10-15
minutes, while occasionally stirring, until thickened.
Reduce heat to low, stir in cream. Adjust salt and pepper
to your taste. Mix in parsley and ready to serve.
Ingredients:
• 2 lbs. pork belly
• 1 bunch spinach
or kangkong
• 3 tablespoons
fish sauce
• 12 pieces string beans
or green beans cut in
2 inch length
• 2 pcs. tomato,
quartered
• 3 pcs. chili
• 1 tablespoon
cooking oil
• 2 quarts water
• 1 piece sliced onion
• 2 pieces
quartered gabi
• 1 pack sinigang mix
good for 2 liters
water
Sinigang is a sour soup native to the Philippines.
This recipe uses pork as the main ingredient.
Other proteins and seafood can also be used. Beef,
shrimp, fish are commonly used to cook sinigang.
The chicken version, on the other hand, is called sinampalukang
manok.
Preparation
Heat the pot with cooking oil, sauté the onion until
it's layers are separated from each other. Add the pork
belly and cook until outer part turns light brown. Putin
the fish sauce and mix with the ingredients. Pour
the water and bring it to a boil, then add the gabi and
tomatoes and simmer for 40 minutes or until pork
is tender. Put-in the sinigang mix and chili. Add the
string beans (and other vegetables if there are any) and
simmer for another 5 to 8 minutes. Put the spinach in,
turn off the heat, and cover the pot. Let the spinach
cook using the remaining heat in the pot. Serve hot.
Share and enjoy!
18 19

Glassnoodle salad
Ingredients:
• glassnoodles
• chili
• bell pepper
• tomato
• onion
• ginger
• pinch of sugar
• fish sauce
• oil
• vinegar
• crushed peanuts
• celery
• fresh coriander
Tomato Banana salad
Ingredients:
• tomato
• saba
(cooking banana)
• onion
• salt & pepper
• fresh basil
• additional:
cheese cubes
• for the dressing:
vinegar, oil, dried
basil leaves
Salads
fresh and creative combinations
Preparation
Boil the glass noodles. In a separate frying pan fry sliced
onion, ginger and sliced bell peppers. Add to the
glass noodles and add fresh chopped tomato and chilis.
Mix in a separate container 1 spoon of fish sauce with
half cup vinegar and ½ cup olive oil and 3 spoons of
sugar a bit of salt and pepper and mix into the salad.
Add fresh celery chopped in rings, fresh coriander and
smashed peanuts,t hen mix everything. Ready to serve.
First look you may think you've read something
wrong, but you didn’t. A rare combination but it
tastes amazing.
Preparation
Slice the tomato and saba (cooking banana), onion and
add salt and pepper and fresh basil for the taste. If you
have you can even add some Eden Cheese cubes. We
don’t have many choices for salad dressing so we mix
vinegar and Oil and some dried Basil leaves and use
this as a dressing.
Carrot salad
Ingredients:
• carrots
• apple
• raisin
• salt & pepper
• for the dressing:
oil, vinegar,
pinch of sugar
Cucumber salad with peanuts
Ingredients:
• onion
• cucumber
• peanuts
• oil
• vinegar
• salt & pepper
• pinch of sugar
• additional:
fresh chilis
Preparation
Grind the carrots and add grinded apple and raisins.
Salt and pepper to boost the taste and for the sauce
mix some oil, vinegar and sugar and add to the salad.
Fast, easy and tasty and a surprise for everyone!
Almost not worth a mention because its
soooo easy to make.
Preparation
Slice the onion, cucumber and mix in a bowl. Add
crushed peanuts and oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar.
If you have guests who like it spicy add some fresh
chilis. Ready to serve and perfect sidedish for fish dishes
or mashed sweet potatoes.
20 21

Vegetable curry
Ingredients:
Vegeterian Main Dishes
healthy and fresh not only for vegeterians
• potato cut into cubes
• 1 tablespoon
vegetable oil
• 1 diced
medium onion
• 4 minced cloves garlic
• 4 teaspoons curry
powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black
pepper
• 2 centimeter
pieces ginger
• minced 400g tomato
• 4 bellpepper
• a handful green beans
• 1 can green peas
• 2 glass / 1 can
coconut milk
This vegan & vegetarian dish is easy and fast to make
and you can be creative with the choice of vegetable
to add in, whatever you have at home.
Preparation
Place the potatoes into a large pot and cover with
well-salted water. Bring it to boil, then reduce the heat
to simmer, cover and let the potatoes cook until fork
tender–about 12 minutes. Once cooked, drain the potatoes
and set them aside. Return the pot to the stove
and add 1 table spoon of oil. Add onion and garlic and
sauté over medium heat until onion is tender. Add
curry powder, salt, pepper and ginger. Stir to combine
before adding tomatoes, bellpepper, green beans
and peas. Increase heat to medium-high and stir in the
coconut milk. Bring it to a simmer before adding the
potatoes back to the pot.
Eggplant Omelette
Ingredients:
• 3 pieces eggs
• 1 medium eggplant
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic
powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons
olive oil
Pumpkin in Coconutmilk
One of my favourite traditional dishes in the Philippines.
Sometimes a little different from region to region
but simple and fast and perfect for breakfast or lunch.
Preparation
Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add salt, ground black
pepper and garlic powder. Continue to beat until all
ingredients are well blended. Set aside. Use a fork to
create tiny holes all over the eggplant. Cook the eggplant
by either baking it in the oven at 400F for 20 to
25 minutes or exposing it in fire over a stove top until
the skin gets burnt and turns black. Let the eggplant
cool down. Peel the skin then cut the stalk off. Arrange
the eggplant flat in a plate. Gently mash using a fork.
Transfer the mashed eggplant to the bowl with beaten
eggs. Beat until the eggplant is well incorporated with
all the ingredients. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a pan.
Once the oil gets hot, pour the mixture into the pan.
Continue to cook in low to medium heat for 3 to 5
minutes. Flip the eggplant omelette, make sure that
the cooked part is facing down. Continue to cook for
3 minutes on the other side.
Ingredients:
• 500g pumpkin
• 300g topped and
tailed green beans
• 10 chopped cloves
garlic
• 1 medium onion
• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 tablespoon sautéed
shrimp paste
• fish sauce & oil
Preparation
In a pan heat oil then sauté the garlic and onion till
lightly browned, add the green beans and cook for
2-3 minutes, add the chopped pumpkin, coconut milk
and 1/2 can of water. Season with the fish sauce and
shrimp paste.
22 23

Sweet potato adobo
Ingredients:
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 chopped onions
• 4 miced cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup white
vinegar
• pepper
• 500g sweet potatoes
Ginataang Gabi
Taro Leaves in Coconutmilk
Ingredients:
• 2 medium size
gabi or taro roots
(alternative: spinach)
• 3 cups coconut milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon chopped
spring onion leaves
Warm and hearty is the name of the game with this
dish, ready for your table in just one hour.
Preparation
In a cookingpot with oil, add onions and garlic. Peel,
slice and add the sweet potatoes. Add water, soy sauce,
vinegar, pepper. Bring it to a boil; cover and simmer
over medium-low heat until potatoes are tender 25 to
30 minutes.
This vegan vegetarian Ginataang Gabi is mainly made
of taro leaves and coconut milk. It’s easy to make and is
delicious, creamy, and best served with steamed rice!
Preparing Ginataang Gabi is going to be the easiest Filipino
food you will make. All you would need to do is
simply combine the initial ingredients and allow it to
cook without mixing the ingredients for at least 15 to
20 minutes. Basically, the longer you allow it to sit without
mixing it- the better. Coconut milk is preferred
over water because it makes this dish creamy.
Bananaflower Ginataag Puso ng Saging
Ingredients:
• 2 large banana hearts
• 2 tablespoons
rock salt
• oil
• 1 peeled and chopped
onion
• 3 minced cloves garlic
• 1 shot fishsauce
• 2 cups coconutmilk
• 2 thai chili peppers
• salt & pepper
I guarantee you every person in the world knows bananas,
but before coming to the Philippines I have neither
heard nor eaten banana heart and same happens to
our guest, who can not identify what is served on their
plate, when we have banana heart.
Preparation
Peel and discard the outer, fibrous skin layers of the banana
heart until you reach the lighter, softer core. Trim
off the stem and discard. Cut into half and slice thinly.
In a large bowl, place the shredded banana heart
and rock salt. Let it stand for about 10 to 15 minutes
or until it begins to release the liquid. Using hands,
squeeze to release bitter sap. Rinse very well with cold
water and drain. In a wide pan over medium heat oil.
Add onions and garlic and cook until softened. Add
banana heart. Add fish sauce and continue to cook for
about 1 to 2 minutes. Cook, stirring occasionally, for
about 3 to 5 minutes or until releases liquid. Add coconut
milk and chili peppers. Lower heat, cover, and
continue to cook until vegetable is tender and sauce is
thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Preparation
Peel the gabi roots and wash, then chop into cubes about
an inch size.Put gabi roots, coconut milk and salt
altogether in a casserole and let boil for 15 minutes or
until gabi is done.Turn off heat and add spring onion
leaves. Serve hot. Can be eaten alone or with steamed
rice and fried fish.
24 25

Layered Cabbage
Ingredients:
• cabbage
• oil
• onion
• vegetable stock
• potatoes
• corn starch
• vinegar
• pinch of sugar
• cumin
• salt & pepper
Jackfruit - Ginataang Langka
Young Jackfruit in Coconutmilk
Ingredients:
• 1 kilo sliced unripe
jackfruit (langka)
• oil
• 5 minced cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon gin
• 1 sliced onion
• 3 cups fresh coconut
milk (gata)
• salt
• 5 pieces sliced red
pepper chilies
(siling labuyo)
This is a recipe of my grandma and has little to do with
the Philippines, but the ingredients are easy to get here
and it’s a simple and fast to make delicious dish, which
makes it perfect for us.
Preparation
Chop the cabbage into stripes. In a big pot heat up
oil and onion and add the cabbage until its really getting
brown and soft. Add pepper, salt, cumin and the
vegetable stock and let it cook for 20 minutes. Mix
cornstarch with a little water and add to the cabbage
until the sauce thickens, add vinegar and sugar for the
sweet and sour taste. Best eaten with boiled potatoes
that can be added in slices and cooked in the same pot.
Preparation
Place the jackfruit in a saucepan and add enough water
to cover it. Boil for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain
and set aside. Add oil to a preheated pan. Sauté garlic,
ginger and onions until soft and fragrant. Cook for 5
minutes. Add boiled jackfruit and coconut milk. Boil
until sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper. Add
sliced chilies and serve hot.
Green Papaya - Ginataang Papaya
Ingredients:
• 1 small green papaya
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1 cup malunggay
leaves
• 1 small sliced onion
• 4 miced cloves garlic
• cooking oil
• 1 thumb minced
ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground
black pepper
• 3 pcs. chili (optional)
• 1/2 cup water
Bechamel Potatoes
Ingredients:
• 9 small potatoes
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• oil
• 1 sliced onion
• 40g flour
• 250ml
vegetable stock
• 250 ml milk
• salt & pepper
Ginataang Papaya or unripe papaya cooked in coconut
milk is one of my favorite ginataan dishes. Green
papaya has a good distinctive taste, which I really like,
we sometimes add malunggay (moringa) leaves to
make this dish tilt to the healthy side. You can also use
spinach as a substitute for malunggay.
Preparation
Heat the oil in a pan. Saute the garlic and ginger and
add the onion. Continue to cook until the onion
becomes soft. Pour in the coconut milk. Simmer for 5
minutes. Cut the papaya into wedges and add it. Cover
and cook in medium heat for 15 minutes. Add water if
necessary. Put in the malunggay leaves. Stir and cook
for 2 minutes and add the ground black pepper and
chili (chili is optional).
A very German dish, introduced to Asia, easy to
prepare and loved by everyone.
Preparation
Wash the potatoes and boil 20 min in water with cumin.
While potatoes are boiling, fry onions in oil and
add flour – add slowly the vegetable stock and at the
end the milk and salt and pepper- at medium heat simmer
for about 7 min. Slice the potatoes and add in to
the sauce.
26 27

Upo
Ingredients:
• 2 big Upo/ cucumber
• 4 big tomatoes
• 1/2 l vegetable stock
• vinegar
• salt & pepper
• pinch of sugar
• cornstarch
For us it would be fried cucumbers for Philippinos it
is Upo, normally eaten with glass noodles, but not really
my favourite. So I mixed that Philippino vegetable
with a recipe with my grandmother's again and it turns
out pretty well.
Preparation
Peel the Upo or cucumber , take out the seeds and
cut into pieces 2-3 cm cubes. Fry the upo in oil. Add
tomatoes cut in pieces and add vegetable stock, salt
and pepper and let boil. Mix cornstarch with 4 spoons
of water. Let everything boil until it thickens and add
some vinegar and sugar for the sweet and sour taste.
Best served with potatoes. Enjoy!
Groundpork Cabbage
Ingredients:
• 1/2 lbs. cabbage
chopped
• 1kg ground pork
• 1/4 kg sliced
tomatoes
• 1 sliced
medium onion
• 1 teaspoon
minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons
cooking oil
• salt & pepper
Main Dishes with Pork
delicous dishes all around pork
Preparation
Heat the oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, sauté the garlic
and onion. Add the diced tomatoes. Stir and cook
until the liquid evaporates. Add the ground pork.
Cook for 8 to 12 minutes, then add the cabbage. Stir
and cook for further 5 minutes. Season it with salt and
pepper for extra taste.
Stuffed Bellpeppers
Ingredients:
• 1/2 kg ground pork
or mix of ground
pork and beef
• 1/2 cup cooked rice
• 1 cup water
• 6 bell peppers
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• garlic
• onion
• salt & pepper
• mint
• egg
Preparation
Glaze the onions in a frying pan with some oil, add the
groudpork. In a bowl, mix the pork chop with cooked
rice, egg, mint , salt, and pepper. Remove and discard
the tops, seeds, and membranes of the bell peppers.
Fill each hollow peppers with the equal amount of
mixture with a spoon. Aarrange them in a cooking pot
with the hollowed sides facing upward. (Slice the bottoms
of the peppers if necessary so that they will stand
upright.) Mix the remaining tomato sauce and Italian
seasoning in a bowl and pour over the stuffed peppers
and boil 10 minutes. Best served with rice.
28 29

Pork Menudo
Ingredients:
• 1 kg pork chopped in
cubes
• 1 cup diced potatoes
• 1 cubed carrot
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 piece lemon
• 1 piece onion chopped
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1 cup of water
• 4 pieces of hotdogs
sliced diagonally
• 2 tablespoons of
cooking oil
• salt & pepper
In almost every Philippine town fiestas or gatherings,
Pork Menudo can be seen in the dining table. This is
one of the most favorite “putahe” (dish) served. Many
Pork Menudo recipes include hotdogs, green peas, or
garbanzos and others would add sun dried raisins too.
Preparation
Combine pork, soysauce, and lemon in a bowl. Marinate
for at least 1 hour. Heat the oil in a pan and saute
garlic and onion. Add the marinated pork. Cook for
5 to 7 minutes. Pour in tomato sauce, water and then
add the bay leaves. Let it boil and simmer for 30 minutes
to an hour depending on the toughness of the pork.
Note: Add water as necessary. Add-in the hot dogs.
Cook for 5 minutes. Put-in potatoes, carrots, sugar,
salt and pepper. Stir and cook for 8 to 12 minutes.
Chicken Adobo
Ingredients:
Main Dishes with Chicken
delicious and easy, typical filipino meat dishes
• 1 cup of white
vinegar
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 1 whole garlic bulb
(smashed and peeled)
• 2 teaspoons of
rocksalt
• 1 teaspoon of
ground pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 pounds bone in
chicken thighs or
drumsticks
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 cup of water
Chicken in Peanutbuttersauce
Ingredients:
• 1 boneless
chicken breast
• 4 spoons of
peanutbutter
• 2 onion
• oil
• salt & pepper
• pinch of sugar
• tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• sweet potatoes
cut in cubes
• sliced
This is probably the most known dish of the Philippino
cuisine, the Adobo. If you ask people what dish
they connect with Philippino food 95% of the people
would most probably answer with Chicken Adobo
right after the rice.
Preparation
Combine the first six ingredients. Fry the chopped
chicken in a frying pan with oil and add it into the mixture.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
Its so unbelievable easy to make and a favourite
of everyone who loves peanutbutter. Good thing,
it can’t go wrong and always tastes good.
Preparation
Fry thegarlic and onion in oil. Add the diced chicken
breast, and cook for a few minutes, add tomatoes and
sweet potatoes. Stir in the peanut butter, wait until the
peanut butter is melted. Pour in the water. Add the tomato
sauce and seasoning with salt, pepper and sugar.
Cook and stir until the sauce has thickened, about 5
minutes more.
30 31

Chicken drumsticks
with mashed sweet potatoes and caramelized carrots
Ingredients:
• low sodium soy sauce
• extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 miced cloves garlic
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt & pepper
• 8 chicken drumsticks
• sweet potatoes
• carrots cut in stripes
• milk
Chickenfricasse
Ingredients:
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 1 kg chicken cut
in pieces
• 1 glass white wine
• salt & pepper
• 1 chopped
large onion
• 1 peeled and chopped
large carrot
• 1 can mushrooms
• 2 tbsp. all
purpose flour
• 1 glass chicken stock
• 1 all purpose cream
• 2 tbsp. freshly
chopped parsley
Preparation
In a large bowl, combine soy sauce, oil, garlic, and lemon
juice. Season it with salt & pepper. Add drumsticks
and toss to coat. Refrigerate and let marinate
at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 450°. Place the
chicken on a large baking sheet and bake until golden,
20 to 25 minutes, flipping halfway through. Mash the
sweet potatoes and add some milk and salt. Fry the
sliced carrots with oil and sugar in a frying pan.
Preparation
Heat the oil, season the chicken on both sides with
salt and pepper and cook until golden. Remove from
the pan and set aside on a plate. In the same cooking
pot add onion, carrot and mushrooms and cook until
soft, approximately 5 minutes. Add flour and cook 1
minute. Pour in white wine, add broth and cream and
season it with parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. Add chicken
back to pan and simmer until chicken is cooked
through and sauce is thickened for15 minutes.
Chicken Curry
Ingredients:
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 garlic
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 whole chicken
cut into pieces
• 1/4 cup curry
powder
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 1/2 cup sliced
ginger
• 2/3 cup sliced
onion
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 3 cup coconutmilk
• 2 tbsp. milk
• 3 cup cubed
potatoes
• 2/3 cup
bell pepper
• 1 can pineapple
chunks
• fish sauce
Preparation:
Marinate chicken in curry powder for 15 minutes.
Peel and smash garlic. Sauté the garlic, ginger and
onion in oil. Add chicken and fish sauce. Cook for 5
minutes. Add the reserved pineapple syrup and coconut
milk. Boil then allow to simmer for 10 minutes or
until chicken is cooked.
Add milk and potatoes. Allow it to boil then simmer
for about 10 minutes. Slice and add bell pepper, Pineapple
Chunks and simmer for 5 more minutes.
Ready to serve.
32 33

Fish sweet & sour
Ingredients:
Main Dishes with Fish
fish in many different variations
• 1 kg fish (we normally
use tuna or
barracuda) cut into
2-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons soy
sauce
• 1 cup flour
• salt & pepper
• 1 egg, well beaten
• oil
• 1/2 small yellow bell
pepper cut into cubes
• 1/2 small red bell
pepper cut into cubes
• 1 small onion (peeled
and sliced thinly)
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon
cornstarch
Preparation
In a bowl, combine fish and soy sauce. Marinate for
about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Get one bowl
with egg ready and in another bowl combine flour and
salt and pepper to taste. Individually dredge the fish in
flour, dip in the beaten egg and then dredge again with
flour to fully coat. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add
battered fish fillets until golden and cooked through.
In a bowl, combine pineapple juice, vinegar, ketchup,
sugar and salt, when dissolved together, add some
cornstarch. In a pan with oil cook the bell peppers
and onions, put in a bowl aside. Heat up the sweet and
sour sauce in that pan whisking regularly, for about 2
to 3 minutes or until thickened. Add bell peppers and
onions and cook for about 1 minute or until tender
yet crisp. At the end add fried fish fillets and cook for
about 1 to 2 minutes until heated through.
Fish curry
Ingredients:
• 1 kg tuna cut
in cubes
• curry powder
• 1 tablespoon finely
grated fresh garlic
• 1/2 kg tomatoes
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 finger sized ginger
• 1 medium onion
halved and
thinly sliced
• 5 sliced bell peppers
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon
brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. lime juice
• fresh herbs as basil
and mint
Tuna in Coconutmilk
Ingredients:
• sliced tuna
• 1 ½ cup fresh coconut
milk
• 1 cup eggplant sliced
• 3 cloves garlic finely
chopped
• 2 onions sliced
• 1 medium size ginger
sliced
• 2 bellpepper sliced
• 2 sweet potatos chopped
in pieces
• 1 tbsp. vinegar
• 1 tbsp. white sugar
• salt & pepper
Preparation
Heat oil in a large pan, glaze the onion, garlic and ginger.
Add peppers and tomato, continue cooking until
vegetables begin to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Add curry
powder and 1/2 table spoon of salt and cook further,
stirring often, add coconut milk, brown sugar, and 3
table spoons of water; add 1 to 2 table spoons of extra
water if it seems thick. Reduce the heat to medium-low
and simmer 5 minutes, uncovered. Dip the
tuna pieces into the sauce and gently simmer, covered,
turning the fish once, until almost cooked through,
about 3 minutes. Stir in lime juice and seasoning and
salt. Top with the fresh herbs.
Preparation
Heat the oil in a large cooking pan, saute the onion,
garlic and ginger, add the eggplant until the colour
turns slightly brown, add the sweet potato cubes and
the bellpepper and add some water and simmer 4-5
minutes. Add the coconut milk, chili and last but not
least add the tuna. As we want the fish only halfcooked
and not overcooked "this happens in most regions of
the Philippines". The tuna gets very dry if you leave
it cooking too long. Let it simmer over medium heat
maximum another 5-7 minutes. Add sugar and season
it with salt and pepper.
34 35

Kinilaw
Ingredients:
• 1 debonned fish
or fishfilet
• 1 cup vinegar
• 4 pieces calamansi
or half of a lemon
• 2 thumbs ginger
• 1 minced red onion
• 2 pcs. minced
green chili
• salt
• fresh ground pepper
• optional:
coconutmilk
We buy our fish in the mornings on Bulalacao fishmarket
and choices are limited, so you take what you
get- most of the time it is Tambakol (yellow fin tuna)
or Tunlingan (Chubby mackerel - Tuna) or Batalay
(Barracuda). A good fish for Kinilaw is Tanigue (Spanish
Mackerel), but it’s a bit pricey. If you want to do
the Kinilaw in Europe you can use any saltwater fish.
Just remember that since it will not be cooked in heat,
choose only the freshest fish or seafood.
Preparation
Wash the fish meat and tap dry with paper towels. Cut
into 1-inch cubes. Place the fish cubes in a bowl. Pour
in the vinegar and the juice from calamansi. Season
with salt and pepper. Add the ginger, onion, and chili.
Toss gently until well blended. Cover and marinate for
an hour or up to 3 hours in the fridge. The fish should
lose its translucent and pinkish color and should turn
whiter. Personally I love to add coconutmilk before
serving.
Tuna in breadcrumbs
Ingredients:
• 1 juice of one
medium lemon
• 120g fresh
breadcrumbs
• 2 garlic cloves
crushed to a purée
• 1 teaspoon dry
chilli flakes
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 4 tuna steaks
• salt
• 1 lemon
cut into 4 wedges
Looking for a delicious recipe with a difference? If you
are, you’ve found it! Here’s our grilled tuna steak with
garlic breadcrumbs for you to enjoy. Tuna is such tasty
meaty fish and the breadcrumbs add a bit of luxury to
it. A crisp salad is all you need to round off the meal.
Preparation
Preheat the pan. Use your fingertips to mix together
the lemon juice, breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley, chilli
and oil in a medium bowl. If the mixture seems too
wet, add more breadcrumbs. Season the tuna steaks
with salt and dip each side into the breadcrumbs mixture.
Press down with your hands to ensure that the
breadcrumbs coat the tuna evenly. Cook on the hot
pan for 3 minutes on each side until brown and crispy
all over. Place the tuna steaks on a chopping board and
use a sharp knife to cut them in half. Serve immediately
with a wedge of lemon and some crunchy mixed
salad – fantastic served with a glass of dry Italian white
wine.
Tuna in Tomatosauce
Ingredients:
• sliced tuna
• tomatopaste
• 2 chopped onion
• 1 cloves garlic
finely chopped
• 1 medium size
ginger sliced
• 3 eggplant chopped
into pieces
• 4 tomatoes
• 2 bell pepper sliced
• 1 tbsp. white sugar
• salt & pepper
Preparation
Heat oil in a large cooking pan, saute the onion, garlic
and ginger, add the eggplant until colour turns slightly
brown and the bell pepper and chopped tomato and
add some water and simmer 4-5 minutes. Add tomatopaste
and water, a little chili and last add the tuna- as
we want the fish only halfcooked. Let it simmer over
medium heat maximum another 5-7 minutes. Add sugar
and season with salt and pepper.
36 37

Inihaw na Pusit
Stuffed Squid
Ingredients:
• 2 large squid cleaned
• 2 medium ripe
tomato sliced into
small cubes
• 2 medium yellow
onion sliced into
small cubes
• 2 thumbs ginger
minced
• 3 tablespoons soy
sauce
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 1 lime or 2 pieces
calamansi
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground
black pepper
Squid Adobo
Ingredients:
• 1 kg squid, cleaned
• 1/2 cup water
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons
olive oil
• 1 small minced onion
• 2 minced cloves garlic
• 1 chopped tomato
• 1 tablespoon
soy sauce
Preparation
Arrange the squid in a bowl. Add soy sauce and lime.
Marinate for 12 minutes. Combine the onion, tomato,
ginger, salt and ground black pepper in a bowl. Stuff
the marinated squid with onion mixture. Secure the
head of the squid using a toothpick to prevent it from
falling off. Heat the grill and start to grill one side of
the squid. Brush some oil on top of the squid. Continue
to grill for 2 minutes. Turn the squid over to grill
the opposite side. Brush oil on top. Continue to grill
for another 2 minutes. Note: Flip the squid every 2 to
3 minutes until it gets fully cooked. Do not overcook
squid as the texture will be spoiled.
Preparation
Combine the squid, vinegar and water in a small pot
over medium heat; season with salt and pepper. Cook
for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a saucepan
over medium heat; cook and stir the onion and
garlic in the hot oil until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir
the tomato and soy sauce into the mixture. Pour the
squid mixture into the saucepan and bring it to a simmer;
cook together another 20 minutes.
Mango Float
Ingredients:
• 2 pack all purpose
cream
• 1 can sweet
condense milk
• 1/2 teaspoon pure
vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups graham
cracker crumbs
• 3 ripe mangoes, diced
Pumpkin dessert
Ingredients:
• pumpkin
• all purpose cream
• sugar
Desserts & Sweets
filipino and international desserts
The best way to finish a wonderful day after being on the water -
a tasty filipino dessert. Filipinos love sweet dishes,
for europeans the sweet spaghetti version
feels a bit weird, but others - such as Mango float - are
definitly among the top desserts worldwide.
Preparation
Combine the cream, sweet condensed milk and vanilla
extract in a large bowl. Beat it until it's double
in volume, about 4 minutes. Spread 2 cups of cream
in an 8-inch square baking dish, followed by 1/2 cup
graham cracker crumbs and a third of the mangoes.
Continue alternating these layers ending with mangos
each time,3 to 4 layers. Let it set it in the freezer at
least 8 hours or overnight.
Preparation
Slice the pumpkin roughly 2 cm thick pieces and remove
the skin.Lay the pumpkin into a large pot while
using one layer of pumpkin and one layer of sugar to
cover it. Let it soak overnight or at least for 5 hours.
The pumpkin will be covered with the liquid it releases
naturally. Bring it to a boil, when it's soft enough for
the fork to penetrate, rest it in a cool place then keep it
in the fridge till it's chilled. Serve with a small amount
of all purpose cream as a topping.
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Turon - Bananaspringroll
Ingredients:
• 16 pieces bananas
Saba, cut in half
(lengthwise)
• 1 ½ cup sugar
• 12 pieces lumpia
wrapper (springrollpaper)
• 2 cups cooking oil
Caramelized banana
Ingredients:
• 2-3 bananas
• 4-6 tablespoons sugar
• oil
• Rum
Turon is a type of Filipino snack (Meryenda). It is also
called deep-fried banana rolls or banana lumpia. A typical
Filipino dessert.
Preparation
Roll the banana on the sugar plate and ensure that the
banana is coated with enough sugar. Place the banana
with sugar coating in a spring roll wrapper. Fold and
lock the spring roll wrapper, use some water to seal
the edge. In a pan, heat the oil and put-in some sugar.
Wait until the brown sugar floats. Put-in the wrapped
banana and fry until it turns golden brown and the extra
sugar sticks on wrapper. Serve them hot as dessert
or snacks.
Preparation
Slice bananas into thick coins or lengthwise strips, depending
on your preference. Pour sugar onto a plate.
Roll bananas in the sugar, until completely coated.
Grease a medium size nonstick pan with oil and heat
over medium high heat. Add bananas and sugar and a
shot of rum. Cook the bananas until light to golden
brown underneath, about 4-5 minutes. Be careful not
to overcook or burn them (if you smell them browning,
or see color in the pan, flip them right away).
Gently flip bananas over to brown other side, turning
heat down to medium. The second side will brown in
about one minute.
Apple Crumble
Ingredients:
• 4 apples peeled,
cored and sliced
to 1 cm thick
• 2 tbsp. golden
caster sugar
• 175g plain flour
• 110g golden
caster sugar
• 5 spoons soft margarine
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 clotted cream
Rumballs
Ingredients:
• 1 pack grahams
or plain chocolate
cookies
• 1 can sweetened
condensed milk
• 1 shotglass Rum
• 1 teaspoon pure
vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsweetened
cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup finely shredded
or desiccated
coconut
• pinch of salt
Preparation
Heat the oven to 190 C. Toss the apples with 2 tbsp of
sugar and put in a 23cm round baking dish at least 5cm
deep, or a 20cm square dish. Flatten down with your
hand to prevent too much crumble falling through.
Put 175g plain flour and 110g sugar in a bowl with a
good pinch of salt. Add margarine and rub it in with
your fingertips until the mixture looks like moist bread
crumbs. Shake the bowl and any big bits will come
to the surface – rub them in. Pour the crumb mix over
the apples Gently press on the surface with the back of
the fork so the crumble holds together and goes crisp.
Sprinkle 1 tbsp of rolled oats and 1 tbsp of sugar over
evenly, if you wish. Put in the preheated oven for 35-
40 minutes, until the top is golden and the apples feel
very soft when you insert a small, sharp knife. Leave to
cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Preparation
Add the crushed cookies, coconut, cocoa powder,
condensed milk, rum and vanilla to the large bowl.
Mix the ingredients well using a wooden spoon, then
your hands once it gets too thick. (If mixture is too
thick, mix in 1-2 tablespoons milk). Scoop out a tablespoonful
of mixture and roll into a 1 - 1 1/2 inch ball,
then roll in coconut until completely covered. Place
on a baking sheet or tray and repeat until all the mixture
has been rolled into balls. Refrigerate until ready
to serve.
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Carrot Cake
Ingredients:
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup oil (vegetable
or canola)
• 1 cup crushed
pineapple
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups freshly grated
carrots (was about 5
medium carrots
for me)
Easy to make and a big surprise as its not too sweet and
not so dry. A must try- we love it.
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 C degrees. In a large bowl,
whisk together your sugars, oil, and crushed pineapple
until well combined. Add in the eggs and stir
until just combined. Dump in the cinnamon, nutmeg,
baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flour. Stir into
the mixture. Fold in your grated carrots. Pour mixture
into a greased 9x13 pan. Place into the preheated
oven and bake for 37-45 minutes (Mine took 40) or
until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven
and allow to cool it down completely before frosting.
(Place in the fridge to speed up cooling.)
Banana - Peanutbutter cake
NON - bake
Ingredients:
• 1 pack grahams
crushed
• peanutbutter
• a little bit of water
• bananas
• Equipment:
Blender
There is a funny little story to this recipe, as it got
invented by Dian. We had literally no ingredients nor
time for a dessert, that we hadn’t served this week yet.
All she could find was a package of graham cookies, 1
glass of peanutbutter and bananas. But now this one
is one of our favourites and we couldn’t believe when
many of our guests asked for the recipe.
Preparation
Mix the grahams with the peanutbutter and tiny bit
of water and use them as a bottom layer in a greased
baking tray. Blend all the bananas without water or any
liquid to a thick banana pudding and put it on the cak
as the top layer. Put the tray into the fridge until serving!
Leche Flan
Ingredients:
• 10 pieces eggs
• 1 can condensed milk
• 1 cup fresh milk or
evaporated milk
• 1 cup granulated
sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
extract
Leche Flan is a dessert made-up of eggs and milk with
a soft caramel on top. This delicious dessert is known
throughout the world. It has been a regular item in the
menu of most restaurants because of it's taste, ease in
preparation and long shelf life.
Preparation
Using all the eggs, separate the yolk from the egg white
(only egg yolks will be used). Place the egg yolks
in a big bowl then beat them using a fork or mixer.
Add the condensed milk and pour-in the fresh milk
and vanilla. Mix it well and put the mold on top of the
stove and heat using low fire. Add the granulated sugar
on the mold and mix thoroughly until the solid sugar
turns into liquid (caramel) having a light brown color.
Coconutcake
Ingredients:
• 115g butter, cut
into small pieces plus
extra for greasing
• 225g flour
• 115g sugar
• 100g desicated
coconut plus extra
for sprinkling
• 2 large eggs, lightly
beaten
• 4 tbsp. milk
Preparation
Heat oven to 160C. Grease a loaf tin. Sift the flour and
a pinch of salt into a mixing bowl and rub in the butter
with your fingertips until the mixture resembles
fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, coconut, eggs and
milk and mix to a soft runny consistency. Spoon the
mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.
Bake for 30 mins. Remove the cake from the oven and
sprinkle with the extra coconut. Return the cake to
the oven and bake for an additional 20-25 mins, until
well risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the
centre comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool slightly
in the tin, then turn it upside down to take it out onto
a wire rack to cool completely.
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Sticky rice with Mango
Ingredients:
• 3 cups sticky rice,
soaked overnight in
water or thin coconut
milk and drained
• 2 cups canned or
fresh coconut milk
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 ripe mangoes or
substitute sliced ripe
peaches
• Optional garnish:
Mint
Preparation
Steam the sticky rice until tender. Meanwhile, place
the coconut milk in a heavy pot and heat over medium
heat until hot. Do not boil. Add the sugar and salt and
stir to dissolve completely. When the sticky rice is tender,
put it in a bowl and pour 1 cup of the hot coconut
milk over; reserve the rest. Stir to mix the liquid into
the rice, then let it stand for 20 minutes to an hour to
allow the flavors to blend. Meanwhile, peel the mangoes.
The mango pit is flat and you want to slice the
mango flesh off the pit as cleanly as possible. One at
a time, lay the mangoes on a narrow side of a cutting
board and slice lengthwise about 1/2 inch from the
center — your knife should cut just along the flat side
of the pit; if it strikes the pit, shift over a fraction of
an inch more until you can slice downward. Repeat on
the other side of the pit, giving you two hemispherical
pieces of mango. The cook gets to snack on the stray
bits of mango still clinging to the pit. Lay each mango
half flat and slice thinly across. To serve individually,
place an oval mound of sticky rice on each dessert plate
and place a sliced half-mango decoratively beside it.
Top with mint if you wish.
Moringa
I had never heard of Moringa ( in the Philippines it's
called Malunggay ) until a year ago when it got big
also in Western media, as the new powerfood mentioned
in one line with Matcha. I realised that it's growing
everywhere in our bay and hasn’t been anything
special for us. Balatasan locals were used to add it to
their monggo beans to get the dish a sourly taste.
Some amazing facts: The nutritional contents of fresh
moringa leaves compared to common foods, gram
for gram is as follows: 7 times the vitamin C of oranges;
4 times the calcium of milk; 3 times the potassium
of bananas; 4 times the vitamin A of carrots; 50
times the vitamin B3 of peanuts; 36 times magnesium
of eggs; 25 times iron of spinach; 4 times vitamin B of
pork; 63 times potassium of milk; 50 times vitamin
B2 of bananas; 13 times vitamin A of spinach.
The malunggay tree known as the moringa oleifera
(simply referred to as moringa for short) has an economic
life span of 30 to 50 years. Each tree can produce
10,000 seeds per year. The seeds of Moringa produce
38-40% oil. Moringa is not only a natural ingredient
with cosmeceutical, nutraceutical food and pharmaceutical
applications but it is a highly promising
source of bio-fuel (renewable source of energy). Of
all the parts of the Moringa, leaves are used the most.
Ingredients
Philippino Ingredients explained
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When Moringa leaves are dried and turned into powder
form, it's potency increases. A dried Moringa leaf
has three (3x) to five (5x) times more nutrients than
a fresh Moringa as confirmed by researchers and laboratory
analysis. The dried leaf powder increases its
mineral concentrations due to water loss. Another
advantage of the dried leaf powder is that it has much
longer shelf-life. The dried leaf powder form is also
a nutritious ingredient for baby food, soups, vegetables,
and other food preparations without altering
the taste of the food.
Coconutmilk
Coconut milk or “gata” is one of the many popular
ingredients used in the Philippines. Any cooking that
has coconut milk in it can be called “Ginataan”. Since
we have no lack of coconut trees, finding a coconut is
not difficult and we never buy canned coconutmilk.
When we run out of coconuts or if the coconuts are
too young and only good to drink (Buko juice) we
can easily find it at public markets. If you are back
home just use canned or powdered coconut milk,
that you can buy nowadays in every supermarket. To
make coconutmilk fresh, the coconut will get halved
and the coconut meat gets grinded into flakes and the
flakes get washed with water and squeezed and you
receive the fresh coconutmilk. The leftover Flakes
can be used as desiccated coconut.
Saba - Cooking Banana
All our neighbourhood are Mangyans who farm the
Saba, cooking bananas and we often see big trucks
leaving completely overloaded and filled with green
bananas. Saba bananas grow in giant bunches at the
top of a tall central stem on the large banana palms.
They are shorter and thicker than a common banana,
with a blockier shape and sharply angled sides. Saba
bananas are often harvested while still green though
they will mature from green to a deeper yellow color.
They have a thick peel, which helps protect them during
any shipment. The flesh is white and dense, with
a starchy consistency. Saba bananas offer a rich flavor
profile, developing a taste somewhat like a sweet
potato when cooked. When ripe they are slightly
sweet with a hint of citrus and peach. Saba bananas
are available year-round. Saba bananas are primarily
used as a cooking banana versus a fresh eating variety.
In their immature, green state, they are cooked like
a vegetable and used in savory dishes. The sweetness
will neutralize any spicy foods. Unlike plantains, they
can be eaten raw when mature and yellow. Another
popular way to eat them is peeled, sliced and caramelized,
then topped with cinnamon, raisins, vanilla and
powdered sugar. They can be sliced, simply sautéed
in butter and topped with syrup. Use Saba bananas
are also used for ice cream or baked goods. Another
popular use for Saba bananas in the Philippines is for
making ketchup, or banana sauce, an alternate to tomato
ketchup. It's made using vinegar, spices, and sugar,
and some recipes call for chile peppers. It is often
mixed with rice or served with meats or chicken.
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