Independent Me 101

Independent Living 101

I’ve been sailing through the waves of independent living since last year. Friends and colleagues have been very supportive; they listened, shared and taught me golden values that will last through my lifetime. In a nutshell, I’ve learned a lot from these 4 important aspects of life: physically, emotionally, financially and spiritually. This blog comes in a series which tells of my journey as an independent woman and I hope you guys can bear with me.

First Series: Growing Up

The Black Bowl
One of the things I learned is cooking. Yes, I do cook, but I am more of a passion eater. (My friend Flora asked me that last night). But before I learned how to cook, I went through a lot of “food experimentation” and “first-time tastes”. I love eating Caldereta-flavored tuna (that made the can opener my best friend), which serves as a rice bowl topping for me. I was completely “addicted” to flavored juice and iced tea (Tang Fruit Teaz, super thanks for the yummy flavors), which I religiously stack in our fridge. The staple Lucky Me Chili-Mansi Pancit Canton and Shomen Chicken Cup Noodles also served as my food friends. I also had to do-away with soda and junk food, which I think was also good for me. However, I came to realize that I was just taking in not-so-healthy food and that, it was about time for me to learn how to do simple and quick dishes.

Having been born to a family of good cooks wasn’t easy, and I can see how I’ve become a “bouncing baby girl”! The whole cooking thing wasn’t easy at first, especially when one doesn’t have a stove for cooking, and with the mere fact that I was born to be an eater. I started by eating whole wheat sandwiches- with tuna, luncheon meat, egg or liver spread as fillings. However, I started to have a hard time “moving”, maybe because of the dryness of the food I was taking in. It was then I decided to buy an electric stove. It was kinda costly (aside from the 1000W it consumes!), but it was just the first step of eating the good way. With a little help from my electric stove, which I used to share with Vanessa, my roommate- I learned to cook odd dishes to not-so-odd dishes (improving!)

I develop this love for experimenting veggies and meat. Ever tried eating stir-fried sayote and carrots with shrimp, chicken and pork? It was yummy! How can we ever thank Magic Sarap granules for making our dishes more scrumptious? This also reminds me of my late-night dinner over homemade pasta, (Triggy style), which I shared with housemates from House A, which I’m a part of right now. Our Ilonggo version of Chicken-Pork Adobo was also a staple food and Pinamalhan na Bangus, which I will be sharing later.

The whole cooking thing is actually exciting, and I developed another hobby: doing the grocery. I love listing down things I need in the kitchen, from the spices to pasta noodles sold by the kilo (thanks to to Moonwalk Wet Market, dry goods and veggies were not that pricey). Sunday was a “Lutong Bahay” day for us. With also some insights and recipe sharing from Mylene and Flora, it was like taking a crash course on Cooking 101.

Food budget? Well, I admit almost 25-30% of my salary goes to food alone. Not bad, but of course, if there’s a way of trimming it to like 15-20%, it would be better. I simply can’t do away with other stuff like Skyflakes crackers, Lipton Berries Tea, 3kilos of Sinandomeng Rice (Thanks to Cagayan Rice), a pack of Sugar-Free Chips Delight cookies, a box of Selecta Fortified Low-Fat Milk and Oishi Choco Flakes. This is heaven for me.
The Works:
Ilonggo Chicken – Pork Adobo

This delineates our way of cooking adobo from the Tagalog – style, which is toyo-based. This dish uses atsuete and laurel leaves, which leaves a distinct color and flavor to one of Pinoy’s delicacy.

Ingredients:
½ k. pork, adobo cut (Ilonggos prefer more taba cut)
½ k. chicken (breast or thigh)
½ cup atsuete seeds, diluted in chicken-pork stock
½ cup chopped garlic
A pack of laurel leaves (5-6 pieces)
3 tablespoons vinegar
Salt and sugar to taste

Procedure:
Boil pork in a kawali. Simmer for 10 minutes or until tender. Add in chicken, chopped garlic and atsuete extract. (Tip: add ice cubes to make pork tender fast.) Add laurel leaves and vinegar and season with salt and sugar to taste. Simmer until the broth dries up, and the chicken-pork is sautéed in its own oil.

Optional: After cooking this dish, you may cook Java rice from what was left in the kawali. Just add your cooked rice and make sudsud until it becomes yellowish in color. Don’t forget your garlic bits on top! This dish is perfect with uga or tuyo and a glass of Coke (straight from the sari-sari store, bottled version) filled with ice. Yummy!

Pinamalhan na Bangus

I was quite confused with pinaksiw and pinamalhan. Pinaksiw is the one which is vinegar and water based, while pinamalhan is more vinegar based than water, and is drier in consistency than pinaksiw.

Ingredients:
Bangus, paksiw cut (an average-sized bangus is usually 4-5 slices)
½ cup vinegar
¼ cup water
¼ cup chopped garlic
2 pcs. Siling haba
Cooking oil
Salt, ground pepper and vetsin to taste

Procedure:
Mix vinegar and water in a casserole. Add bangus and chopped garlic. Put on low fire for 5 minutes. Add Siling haba and season with salt, ground pepper and vetsin to taste. Simmer for 5 minutes and add oil when the water-vinegar mixture is dried up.

Optional: Okra or ampalaya can be added to give it a more tangy and bittery taste.