Food: Tips - SkyFlakes crackers can be a substitute for cornstarch

There are so many uses of cornstarch in food preparation, it is usually used as thickening agent in liquid-based foods such as soup, sauces, gravies, etc. It can also be used on adobo, sauté, chop suey, and many more. However, if you don't have a cornstarch you may use a substitute SkyFlakes crackers or any other flour-based crackers that you can avail in your place.

Materials/Equipment:

SkyFlakes crackers

Grouding bowl

Hot (optional) water

Procedure:

1. Place the crackers into the grounding bowl and powderize it.

2. Turn the powder into a syrup by adding (hot) water and mixing them.

3. After mixing well the powder and water, the mixture is now ready to be used.

 

Application:

Sautee broccoli with cornstarch dressing.

Chicken feet adobo with Skyflakes cracker sauce dressing.

Food: Meat - Dinakdakan

Ingredients:

1 kl pork meat from the head (optional: ears and brain)
8 calamansi or 1 big lemon (extract the juice)
3 table spoons of black pepper
1/3 cup of minced onion
1/4 cup of minced ginger
3 pcs of green pepper (thinly sliced)
Mayonnaise
Salt

Materials:

Cooking container
Knife and Chopping board
Big bowl


Procedure:

1. Boil and cook the pork using the cooking container, if you've got the brain boil it for 2 minutes and then set aside.

2. When cooked, let it simmer before slicing it in 1 inch by 1 centimeter by 1 centimeter.
3. Put the sliced meat into the big bowl, then respectively the black pepper, minced and sliced ingredients, calamansi/lemon juice and the salt.

4. Mix them well, taste if the salt is enough.
5. (Optional) Mash the brain and mix it to the mixture.
6. Add mayonnaise dressing and mix the dinakdakan well until the sliced meat is completely dressed with mayonnaise.
7. Serve. It can be consumed with rice or as a wine dish.

Food: Soup - Mussel Soup

Ingredients:

1 kl mussels
3 liters water
1/4 kl tomatoes
1/4 kl onion
1/4 kl ginger
salt
vegetable oil
other seasonings (optional)

Materials:

knife
frying pan
cooking container/casserole

Procedure:

1. Wash the mussels
2. Peel the ginger and slice into thin chips
3. Slice each tomato into 8 cuts
4. Slice each onion into 8 cuts
5. Heat the frying pan and place oil, then put all the main ingredients into it.

6. Cook the mussels and the ingredients for 15 minutes using the frying pan, stir it from time to time and add little water if needed.
7. Put the the cooked food into the cooking container or casserole and boil it with the 3 liters of water.
8. While boiling, add some salt and all the prepared seasonings
9. When cooked, serve on bowls.









It can be eaten during meal with rice.

10 Commandments of life with regard to eating

1. East as often as three times, but it is healthier to eat twice a day. Eat nothing between meals as it is necessary for the stomach to rest.

2. The more simple the food the better it is for the stomach. Choose simple food and have either fruit or vegetable, never both at the same meal. Choose which are in season and produce in the country. The food should be gathered and prepared just before eating.

3. Fruits and vegetables should never be combined. always choose one or the other.

4. the first condition toward good health is to eat leisurely and masticate well. The question of disease or health is settled in the mouth and rests on mastication.

5. Do not drink while eating. Take liquids before or after the meal. Otherwise there will be trouble in digesting.

6. avoid salt as much as possible especially in raw foods because it causes rheumatism and injures the liver and kidneys. Never use vinegar because it is very injurious.

7. Never sweeten milk with sugar because it causes fermentation. If we wish the  milk sweetened we should use honey.

8. Eat more or less of what is most valuable. The majority of persons become sick and die before their time because they continually put something in the stomach, loading it with too much food.

9. Be happy at the table and be thankful to God for all His mercies. Avoid excitement and anger and give the digestive organs an opportunity to function well.

10. Movement is the brother of digestion. If there is scarcity of movement for quite a while we suffer with indigestion and become diseased. If your work is intellectual, never work immediately after eating for it hinders the digestion, thus helping to bring on disease. Without movement we can have neither strength nor health.

Food: Facts – Of Bacon, Fatback and Salt Pork

• -     Bacon is a cut from the side of a pig

• -          Fatback is a cut from the back of a pig and is not salted or smoked.

• -          Salt Pork is a cut from the belly and sides of the pig. It is fattier than the bacon, salt-cured but not smoked. Its saltiness varies; and in order to reduce the saltiness, parboil it before using. Salt pork if tightly wrapped and being kept in a refrigerator may have a food quality lifetime of up to 1 month.

Cooking: Tips - How to make a soup

• -          Do not put salt into a soup until it is cooked and skimmed as the salt prevent the fat from rising.

• -          Fresh parsley lessens the need for salt in soups.

• -          Soup or stew can be more flavorful when onions are sautéed first in butter or oil before adding other ingredients.

• -          When cooking milk or cream soups, cover the pan/cooking container in order to prevent caking or formation of a “skin”.

Cooking: Tips - What to do with very greasy pot of soup

-          When the pot of soup is too greasy, wrap some ice cubes in a plastic bag or use cellophane of ice by dragging it slowly through the surface of the warm soup. The oil will harden and stick to the bag. Wipe the bag and repeat the process if necessary.