Sibuyas Republic

Mother’s Day coincides with our Barangay Fiesta here. Hence, it was an all day “busy me” in the kitchen. As it was the Fiesta, it was customary to prepare couple of dishes for lunch (Beef Kaldereta and Cordon Bleu) and desserts, too (Buco salad and Grahams in Mango Cream).

When the last visitors had left and after watching the annual “Flores de Mayo”, we realized we had nothing to eat for dinner. Off I rummaged through the fridge and not knowing exactly what else to cook, I grabbed what was readily available.

-some chicken breast which were loose pieces from the Cordon Bleu I made earlier

-the last pieces of potatoes which were not used from the Beef dish

-carrots, bell pepper and celery (green beans sana kaso naubos na pala)

-1 large ripe mango

I was too tired already, yet, I don’t want to sleep feeling guilty for not cooking dinner for my “forever hungry family”. So, in order to finished with the cooking earlier, I move my ass off to the kitchen. Applying multitasking, as always…

First off, I “brush-off” the dirt from the skin of these potatoes. Make a small cross cut on top of each potatoes. Sprinkle a small pinch of salt and  ground black pepper onto the cut. Bake for 15minutes @ 180 degrees Celsius.

While potatoes are in the oven, prepare the chicken breast. Cut chicken thinly or as desired. Sprinkle salt and pepper, garlic powder and cayenne pepper for that extra spice. Chopped the celery finely and dab the chicken into it. Then, coat each chicken piece with flour, then scrambled egg, then bread crumbs. Deep fry for 3-4 minutes.

Again, while chicken is frying, prepare the sauce. Instead of the usual chicken gravy, I prepare mango sauce. Puree the mango into the blender.  In a small pot, place half a teaspoon of butter. When melted, add in 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Wait until it caramelize. Add in the pureed mango, add salt and pepper to taste. The sweet mango sauce will balance off the spicy and garlicky flavor of the chicken.

For the veggies, you can either steam veggies of your choice. In my case, I placed the carrots and bell pepper onto the same oven where I baked the potatoes (though, only 3 minutes is all it needs to cook up the colorful veggies)

Then, dinner’s ready in 30 minutes.

Hubby’s verdict:

Presentation: 3/5 (Sauce should have been more artfully displayed, he said. Er, Sorry naman…I am no chef )

Potatoes: 4/5 (He loved baked potatoes, but misses his servings of rice )

Veggies: 2/5 (More greens daw!)

Chicken: 5/5 (The kids loved the chicken. Hubby said it tasted Oriental (Ano daw?) + he could eat more because I discarded the skin )

Mango sauce: 5/5 (More healthier than ordinary chicken gravy. Will be perfect with fish fillet, too)

I do not exactly know how to call this dish. Since it was prepared during Fiesta here…so is the title

How about you? Have you cooked up something new the past days?

My share for

Goodness thanks to the little daughter for I can use her iPod.

For one thing, it’s a little easier toting along anywhere. I hadn’t had fun carrying my laptop over at the kitchen along with the camera when there’s something “cooking in the kitchen” that necessitates a blog story. Worst can happen to any gadget when I had to placed them at kitchen countertop. One time my laptop became a victim of a blender mishap. I had to brush off sauce debris at the keyboards. Then, there’s the camera which had been dropped onto the floor more than ten times.

With the iPod’s easy portability, I can place it in one corner and with just a soft tap on the screen, website browsing is a no-mess. No keyboards that will caught up in mess. Double tap on the iPod’s screen and viewing mode will be zoomed in. No need to grab the old pocket camera for I can use the iPod’s camera, though, I have to be content with it’s low-res picture quality.

Oh, of course, I wish that what I am  borrowing using is the new The New iPad . It could be a lot easier browsing through a larger screen. Better camera. But, then, owning one is not on the priority list for now.

For now, let me enjoy daughter’s iPod where I installed All Recipes.com Dinner Spinner. A free  app for Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Kindle Fire. It’s an impressive app where you just spin off your food choices according to type of dish, particular ingredient, and cooking time. And, viola, you will provided with available list of recipes where ingredients are listed, cooking preparation and number of calories are listed in every dish.

Browse more than 40,000 recipes on our site
Search recipes by nutrition
Search by single ingredient
Include (or exclude) up to eight ingredients
Bookmark your favorite recipes
Full access to your Recipe Box
Scan items and search for recipes that use them.
Add scanned items to the spinner screen.
Scan items and add them to your shopping list.
See and edit your Allrecipes shopping list.
Create, save and share multiple shopping lists.
Email recipes to your friends
Share recipes on Facebook and Twitter
View recipes in kitchen-friendly format
Browse recipes without the interruption of ads

What I like about this app is how easy finding recipes and bookmark every recipe found and stored right away on your favorites. Best of all, recipe format is easy to follow, no links that are commonly found in most websites.  It’s a haven for newbie cooks.

As promised, here’s another mango treat this super hot, hot summer. MANGO POPSICLES. Nothing fancy. Nothing artificial. All-natural. Just like these ripe mangoes.

For the recipe, it’s as simple as making fruity smoothie.

What you need.

2 medium ripe mangoes

half teaspoon sugar (optional)

heavy cream or yoghurt

dash of cinnamon

1 cup orange juice (or lemon juice)

small plastic cups for molds (store bought, 25 pesos for 50pcs)

popsicle sticks (store bought, 10 pesos for a A LOT)

Preparation.

• Slice the mangoes. Discard seed.

• Separate the flesh pulp from the skin.

• Place in a blender. Add all the ingredients.

• Beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.

•  Fill up each cup to almost full.
• Insert the popsicle stick. The density of the smoothie will hold up the sticks in place.
• Freeze for 4-6 hours.

Lick it!

Enjoy the freshness of fruits that are in abundance these summer months. You can make popsicles out of strawberry, watermelon (thumbs up), dragon fruit (though, the fruit’s a little pricey these days), pineapple. There’s too many fruits available in your fruit vendor.

You can even combine few fruits to make one delicious popsicle flavor. And, who knows popsicles can even be enjoyed by those who are trying to lose weight.

These tips might be useful in preparing delicious and equally nutritious popsicles without feeling the guilt.

• Use only fresh fruits when making popsicles. Avoid fruit juices as it may contain some form of sugars.
• Use low-fat yogurt or skimmed milk in order to be worry-free from fats.
• Incorporate the addition of edible herbs like mint and some citrus peels like lemon and orange zests. It’ll add flavor and tang to the popsicles.

Why deprive yourself from eating delicious desserts when you can enjoy the best of both worlds. Savor the fruity coolness of popsicles this summer without having to worry about your waist. If kids can enjoy them, YOU CAN!

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Summer was the best time of the year for enjoying as many fruits there is. My trip to the market became sort of exciting as I always looked forward to buying fruits which are in season. Prices of fruits come in a little cheaper when the are in abundance. That goes true with ripe mangoes. Though, they’re not in the best produce this year, as the extended rainy season in the last “ber” months leaves havoc on the trees when its flowers were a-blooming.

Nevertheless, ripe mangoes in our province are sweet, if not the sweetest of its kind. Pardon my bragging. We just so loved ripe mangoes here that next to bananas, its the fruit that will surely invade my fruit tray. Same as in any other fruits, mango fruit pulp packs a lot of essential nutrients -copper, potassium and amino acids, too. More significantly, Vitamin C and Vitamin A found in mangoes powers up its antioxidant properties that counteracts free radicals, the caused to many diseases and certain types of cancer.

There are a lot food preparation to enjoy ripe mangoes. Here in our home, we enjoyed the fruit as is, or be made into smoothie, or mango salsa, or mango pudding, even mango popsicles and other desserts.

But, sometimes, peeling this somewhat simple yellow fruit can be too daunting a task. My kids always end up with thinly slice mangoes, where most of the fleshy pulp were left at the seed part. Sad part is, the kids shun off the seed part and I always end up getting it as my share

Today, as we have fish over lunch, I tried making mango salsa. It’s a great combination for fried fish. I did asked my daughter to cube the mangoes while I diced up tomatoes and onions. Sadly, she doesn’t know how to do simple a task I asked of her. When I did showed her how the trick of cubing mangoes are done…I had this idea that I had to show here the simple and easy-to-do mango cubing technique.

Here goes.

However, my first tip goes on how to sliced off the mangoes to get thicker slices. Start off by getting a sharp paring knife and starting at the thicker part of the mango, slide off the knife guiding it through the seed all the way to the tip. Of course, it shall be a “bumpy ride”. But, a good paring knife will glide off easily.

When mangoes are sliced, make slanting cuts in each slice piece. Or, it is okay to sliced off in straight lines. However you prefer. Slanting slice will just make diagonal cuts, just as to achieve aesthetic food presentation/garnish.

Here comes the fun part. You might wonder what in the world was the wineglass doing in the picture? Sounds like a wrong glass for smoothie? Before I decided to run this post, I googled up similar post regarding how to make dice or cube mangoes. Top five on Google search I have visited have almost the same procedure/technique -slicing off the mangoes in either slanting or straight line, then, separating the fleshy part from the skin (peel) using the same knife! I used to do this procedure in the past, I end up with uneven slices and some flesh still attached to the peel. “Sayang!” Then, one particular site caught me off laughing because the procedure climaxes at the part where the sliced mangoes needs to be “pulled off” using the fingers. Ending the post with picture perfect photo of “more uneven sliced mangoes and uneven edges” showing in its undersides. I was laughing because I had tried the procedure many times. Many times. Ripe mangoes have soft pulp, pulling it off from its skin can cause pressure, it shall leave a hollow mark or dents, deforming the pulp. Plus, ripe mangoes can be too slippery to hold with fingers. Or, if you add more grip = uneven shapes. Sorry. I had to share my bad experiences.

So, here goes the use of the stemware. Slide off the mouth of the glass through the sliced mangoes and glide all the way down. Ripe mangoes are soft, did I say. The stemware will glide smoothly like a knife cutting through the mangoes…

Final product. Uneven shapes? That happens when the daughter makes double transverse cut on the sliced mangoes

I hoped the next time one buys ripe mangoes in the market and wishes to make fresh mango salads, make sure that a stemware is available up for grab. It will save time for preparation plus, it’s a lot safer than using a knife in an oval shape mango fruit

Hope this post helps