Chapter 27: Chapter 25
While I am waiting for the banana con yelo, I started preparing for the other dishes, fortunately, the chef helps me to prepare all the ingredients needed and all i need to do is the cooking process. I decided to start with ginataang alimasag followed by giniling and menudo then last is the pansit. Of all the four main dishes, pansit is the easiest and fastest one to prepare.
I decided to add vegetables with the ginataang alimasag, the calabaza squash and string beans which is suitable pair with the crabs. The ingredients needed are fresh blue crabs as the main ingredient, coconut milk, string beans, calabaza squash, fish sauce, ground black pepper, onion, garlic and cooking oil.
Like what I said a while ago, the measurements of each ingredients depends on the amount of the dish you want to prepare. Make sure that the calabaza squash is sliced into cubes, string beans are cut into your desired length ( but we normally used at least 2 to 3 inches long ), onions are sliced and garlic are minced.
Heat the cooking pot and pour the cooking oil, saute the garlic and onion then add the fish sauce and coconut milk then let it boil. While I am waiting for it to boil I also started preparing for menudo. I decided to do multi-tasking, the faster we finish cooking the earlier we can eat and I am salivating already just by it smells. It the chef to watch over for the ginataang alimasag before I started my preparation to cook menudo.
All the ingredients needed for menudo are pork, pig liver, potatoes, carrots, soy sauce, lemon, chopped onion, minced garlic, sugar, tomato sauce, water, hotdogs, cooking oil, dried bay leaves, salt and pepper to taste. The amount of garlic, onion, sugar, lemon, bay leaves, salt and pepper depends on the taste you like.
Make sure that the carrots are cut into cubes, potatoes are diced and hotdogs are sliced diagonally. First thing, you have to marinate the pork with soy sauce and lemon in a bowl for at least an hour, since I already asked the chef to prepare the ingredients in advance, so the pork that I will be using is already marinated by him a while ago.
Heat oil in the pan and saute garlic and onion then add the marinated pork and let it cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Then pour in the tomato sauce, water and dried bay leaves. Let it boil and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour depending on the toughness of the pork and add water as necessary.
While waiting for the menudo, I went back to the ginataang alimasag and continue the cooking process by putting in the crabs and stir it then put the lid to let it cook for another 10 minutes. Since Everything is on the wait, I started to prepare for the giniling too. But before that, I make sure that we have a lot of rice cooked, I am sure one cup of rice won't be enough for today's dinner.
To cook giniling, the ingredients needed are almost the same as the menudo. Ground pork acts as the main ingredients, diced potatoes, diced carrots, tomato sauce, crushed garlic, minced onion, water and cooking oil. Granulated sugar, salt, pepper and one piece of pork or beef knorr cubes is also needed to taste. Boiled egg is an optional ingredients, but I personally don't use boiled eggs in my giniling.
First step is like any other, heat the cooking pot and pour - in the cooking oil, when the oil is hot enough then saute the garlic until it became golden brown and add up the onions and saute it until the texture became soft. Put in the ground pork and cook it for five minutes. After five minutes, add the pork or beef cube, tomato sauce and water and let it boil. Simmer it for 20 minutes.
While waiting on the giniling, I went back to the ginataang alimasag then added the calabaza squash and cook it until it becomes a little soft then add the string beans, stir and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes and turn off the heat.
Now that I am one down, I decided to start preparing pansit since it is the last dish that need to be prepare. And since I am waiting for a little bit long time for the giniling and menudo to continue the cooking step, why waste the waiting time without cooking another dish right? Multi-tasking is good to save more time and I love doing multi-tasking. * smiles *
Ingredients for pansit are rice noodles as the main ingredient, one or two packs of rice noodles is enough to serve ten to twenty persons. Your desired amount of pork meat that are sliced into small pieces, you can also use chicken meat and shrimp for your pansit depending on your taste. If you prefer to use chicken meat, we normally use cooked, deboned and cut into thin slices. What we usually do is separate the chicken meat by using a fork to avoid it from being crushed or smashed.
We will also need diagonally sliced pea pods or snow pea, carrots cut into thin slices with a minimum of 2 inches long, cabbage can be either chopped or sliced depending on your desired cut, celery leaves is an optional ingredient, chopped onion, minced garlic, one piece of chicken or pork cube, soy sauce and water..
First, soak the rice noodles in a water for about 10 minutes. In a large pot, saute garlic and onion then add the pork or chicken meat and let it cook for 2 minutes. Add the water and chicken cube to be dissolved and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Add all the vegetable ingredients and simmer for a few minutes and sit it aside together with the meat but let the liquid stay on the pot. Then add the soy sauce and mix well, followed by the soaked noodles mix it well and cook it until the liquid evaporates completely. Put the vegetables and meat back and let it simmer for a minute or two, mix it well until everything is mixed together and pour it in the serving plate.
The last steps for giniling is adding the carrots and potatoes in and then stir it until all the ingredients are properly distributed. Simmer for another 10 to 12 minutes and add salt, ground black pepper and sugar to taste then stir and pour it in the serving plate to serve.
The last few steps for menudo are adding in the pork liver and hotdogs and let it cook for 5 minutes. Put - in the vegetables ( potatoes and carrots ) together with sugar, salt and pepper to taste then stir and cook it for another 10 to 12 minutes before serving it.
Since everything is done and cooked, I asked them to pour everything in their own separate serving plates or bowl and set it in the dining table together with lots and lots of rice * evil smirk *. I feel like I have a very big appetite today, I am planning to eat three to five cups of rice * smirk * no reason to diet.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Invisible_girl09
Invisible_girl09 Credits - Panlasang Pinoy for the recipes
visit palansapangpinoy.com for more recipes and visit their youtube channel panlasang pinoy
This is not sponsored, I am just a fan of panlasang pinoy, it guides me to prepare filipino dishes every time I tried to cook.