Yesterday I cooked Adobo.

I first simmer all the ingredients together–garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, black pepper, laurel leaf, a little bit of cooking oil and pork broth dissolved in water. When the pork is tender, though–and this is a top secret–I separate the pork from the remaining stock and fry it in a wok/non-stick pan with lots of finely chopped garlic and a hint of oil. The pork becomes slightly crispy on the edges (but watch out for oil splatters) and the garlicky taste dominant as well. After all sides have been seared with garlic, I put the fried pork and garlic bits back on the stock where it was boiled before, and I let it simmer for a good five minutes and oh, was it really good.
I’m not really against the conservative adobo with pork stock and all; I do it since I love my adobo to be a bit fried, yet it still has the soup and all. You could also put oyster sauce in it for consistency.

And of course, tomatoes, itlog na pula and atsara!
Today I cooked Beef Bourguignonne

The French may be losers in terms of pronunciation and spelling (it’s beef ber-gin-yawn, with a slightly silent, nasal n on the last syllable) but their dishes are worth the spelling headaches anyway. Today I cooked something out-of-ordinary, something that’s completely European.
You need these ingredients:
cooking oil (or olive oil)
dry red wine (somewhat expensive, ranging from 190 to 300, I think)
1 kilo blade steak, cut into strips
button onions (or preferably, small onions)
shallots, chopped (onions would still be good)
garlic, minced
butter
flour
bay leaf
basil, chopped
parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
beef stock (or broth cubes)
button mushrooms, halved
This is basically what I did (I wouldn’t want to put the entire cookbook here):
- First, sear the blade steak on all sides in cooking oil. You can do it in batches if you want, as long as your pan is nonstick.
- Put the garlic and shallots, then let ‘em fry for a couple of minutes.
- While doing step 1, prepare a saucepan and boil your red wine in medium heat. Put bay leaves. Let it boil for 4-5 minutes (until the volume becomes 1/3 lesser).
- When the garlic and shallots are cooked, put flour. I don’t really follow the measurements, but you shouldn’t coat the entire pan (lol). It’s for the wine to become viscous in the next step.
- Transfer the wine you boiled in the saucepan to the beef.
- Put beef stock (or a single Maggi Beef Broth Cube) and herbs. You don’t really have to buy basil and parsley since these guys are optional (but I went all the way to the mall to buy them, anyway).
- Boil for two hours or until the beef’s tender.
- Right before the beef becomes tender (like thirty minutes before the boiling reaches two hours), in a different saucepan, heat and fry button onions and halved mushrooms in hot butter.
- Transfer them to the main dish when the beef’s tender.
- Serve with toasted bread or rice.
What’s really amazing with red wine-based stews is that it has this different punch–that punch that’s out-of-our-tongues since it’s definitely not Filipino, the sweet taste of red wine. Also, the aroma is just inebriating at some point. It’s great for the kind of dinner dates where you would want to get laid and everything since you’re not-so-sober. Nah, kidding.
Reference: Pol Martin’s Supreme Cuisine cookbook. It’s my Mom’s.