Chicken Arroz Caldo

This had been an eventful September. There are so many things to be thankful for, new friends met, and accomplishments to be happy of. It's been a month of endless blessings and with all the activities that took place such as opportunities of service and worship with my SFC Singapore community, gatherings with old friends, and solid projects at work, I decided to just stay at home for this month's last weekend so I could give myself some "alone" time.

I really miss having nothing to do but sleep, read, and eat. I needed a break to doze off and just lounge---

Like a (big, fat) boss.

So for this gloomy Sunday, I went to the nearby Shengshiong supermarket and grabbed a few ingredients to make an awesome Chicken Arroz Caldo. The last time I ever ate this was when I attended midnight mass here in Singapore last year (for free).

I guess it was just hot and "swak" to celebrate a good month and begin a busier one by cooking this porridge.

Ingredients:

- 2 1/2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
- Minced garlic
- Julienned ginger
- Chopped onion
- Hard boiled eggs
- 1/2 kilo of chicken parts
- Patis or fish sauce
- 1 chicken cube/ stock
- 5.5 cups of water
- 1 1/2 cup of Thai jasmine rice (uncooked)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Minced spring onion
- Toasted garlic

First, I sautéed the garlic, onion, and ginger in the saucepan. I sprinkled some pepper and waited until the ginger's a bit brown. Then I added the chicken bouillon cube so that all the ingredients would absorb the flavour. After that, I added the chicken parts, fried them for a few minutes, then put the fish sauce. I'm just so thankful that there was still some patis left in the kitchen, which was just right for this dish. When the chicken's already tender, I mixed the uncooked rice with it and poured the water.

At this point, I added the hard- boiled eggs and and seasoned it with salt and a little bit of pepper to blend the taste. 

While waiting for at least 45 minutes until the rice is cooked, I toasted the garlic in oil which I'd use to garnish. Remember, make sure you carefully toast it and prevent the minced garlic from getting burned. Otherwise, your arroz caldo would taste nasty and bitter. Once it turns golden brown, put it in a platter with kitchen napkin to absorb the excess oil.

When it's finally done, I put the arroz caldo on a bowl and garnished it with garlic and minced spring onion. Voila! Here's my Chicken Arroz Caldo with egg and a lot of love, which was just perfect for a rainy and lazy Sunday. Hello there, OCTOBER!

A Few Ramblings Afterwards

1)      After giving a tour to a close family member to a place where you currently live, you’d realize that you’re the one who’s acting more like the tourist. You took for granted the entire familiar the whole time you’re there and now that you’re given the time to explore it, fireworks were sort of everywhere.

2)   After reading the Fifty Shades trilogy, you will never get to look at cable ties in the same way again. Upon devouring all pages, your standards on men may probably elevate.The thing is, it’s badly- written but addictive. Nevertheless, you’ll come to a point where you’d say, “Oh crappy crap crap, here we go again with the lovemaking narrative crappy crap.”; then you'd suddenly get tired (of reading). But there are those however's... and the Christian Grey casting contests will consistently occupy your head.

3)      After listening to Paul McCartney’s and Wings’ Silly Love Songs, you will feel all too giddy about romance, even if you have no significant other. You will justify your sentiments by singing, well, a lot of silly love songs.

4)      After a three- day travel, you will only experience the fourth day when you dream of it in your bed. Most relaxing day ever.

5)      After finishing all TV series this season, you will think of fillers to make up for them as you wait for a few more months. You’d download pointless films and shows. That’s it. 

6)      After watching the music video for alt+J’s song called Breezeblocks, you would choose from your own real- life experiences an event which you could play in reverse yet still matches the song. It doesn’t have to be disturbing, though.

7)      After successfully surviving DAY 1 of the General Motor’s Diet as a first- timer, you would want to pulverize whatever's in front of you or whatever you get hold of. Self control is the key. Discipline is the shiznit. 

8)      After running 10 kilometers non- stop on a stressful day at work, all you’d want to do is rest. Still, you would want to run ever so wildly again in that glorious pair of compression tights.

9)      After watching The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan’s third of the Batman saga, you will ask yourself this: “WHY?”

Obviously, this was how I grasped reality after having gone through a crazy yet awesome mid- 2012. Your realizations may not be as cranked- up as mine, so just proceed. 

alt+ J's Breezeblocks (Original)

                                          alt+ J's Breezeblocks (Reversed)

                                       

Sipo Egg

A gazillion of people have no idea that cooking is one of my strong interests. It was only recently that I've posted in Facebook some of the dishes that I cook during the weekend. For others, it's unusual how a woman with an active lifestyle and busy schedule like me could still kill time in the kitchen. That's one big surprise to most, but to my loved ones whom I serve food ever since I learned to cook, it was only normal. 

I remember myself arguing with my father who enjoys pestering me in the kitchen by volunteering to cook with me, which I didn't allow because he'd eventually meddle with my city- cooking style versus his Ilocano way of preparing food. Papa, by the way, was that parent who woke up early to prepare our baon for school. Then, there's my brother who does the best stews, thick- sauced Caldereta, and that killer Sinigang, but consistently criticizes my well- loved Adobo just to annoy me. In the end, he'd crave for my pasta dishes and on- the- go meals. My mom, well... she enjoys eating what the three of us create (yeah, she's so careful and sweet with the criticisms), but I must say that I should give her credit for those desserts she made, the California Maki she rolled, or the banana cakes and cheesy potatoes she baked when I was younger.

Here in Singapore, even in the lack of the usual Filipino ingredients available, I must say that there is quite a number of good foreign stuff in the market which excites me all the time as they aid in really bringing out the taste of the dish. I'd experiment a lot until I give the food a Pinoy touch. My housemates and I then settle everything in the dining table.

Just recently, nostalgia hit me as I recalled this one dish which I got to taste in Pampanga during a field training in my previous company. My Kapampangan colleague had me taste for the first time a viand that they call Sipo Egg. Until now, I have no idea why it's called Sipo but I did recognize some quail eggs and mixed veggies in a creamy ensemble which tasted great with rice. I never got to try it for the second time in any restaurant in Makati, or probably, I haven't been to a place which actually serves this authentic Kapampangan dish in the metro.


I told myself: "I'll come back to Pampanga for that (and Sisig, haha!) or perhaps attempt to cook that..." However, for some odd reason, this didn't materialize!

So after a year, and with this nostalgia of that creamy and delectable memory, I made a version of Sipo Egg and prepared the following ingredients:

- Sliced carrots

- A cup of shrimp

- Diced celery stalks

- Diced turnip

- Chopped baguio beans

- Nestle cream

- Green peas

- Diced luncheon meat

- 20ish hard- boiled quail eggs

- Butter

- Ginisa Mix

- Onion

- Cornstarch dissolved in water

- A bit of evap milk

- Salt and pepper to taste

Now, that's a lot of stuff, right? I did the usual drill of sauteeing the onion with butter and added the luncheon meat and shrimp. When the shrimp was already a bit brownish in color, I put the rest of the veggies. After a few minutes, I added the Nestle cream, water, cornstarch, and the quail eggs. When it boiled, I just poured like two tablespoons of evaporated milk and then added a dash of pepper, ginisa mix, and salt.

Here's the outcome:

RESULT: My housemates loved it! The three of us managed to have great amounts of the Sipo Egg served over steamed white rice! Verdict? AWESOME!

This is my first time to blog about my kitchen- related activities, although it's been really like a feast every week or so in our dining table. I guarantee more posts about my daring adventures in the kitchen. The thing is, I really am taking the art of cooking seriously now more than ever!