Tag: southeast asian
Banana Coconut Milk Drink with Nata de Coco
Banana Coconut Milk with Nata de Coco
Every time I shop at my local Asian market, Dragonstar, I pick up these bottles of coconut milk drinks. They basically consist of coconut milk and water, sugar, some type of fruit, and these small, chewy coconut gel cubes called nata de coco. The nata de coco sit on the bottom and you chew them as you drink. Sounds a little weird to have chunks of something in your drink, but it grew on me; much like boba tea and basil seed drinks did. So I took it upon myself to learn how to make it.
Equipment
- immersion blender
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups coconut water
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 small banana
- 1/4 cup nata de coco
Instructions
- Using an immersion blender, purée the banana with the coconut water, coconut milk, and sugar until smooth. Set aside.
- Cut each cube of the nata de cocointo 8 smaller cubes.
- Placd the nata de coco in the bottom of a glass.
- Pour the coconut milk drink over the nata de coco and serve.
Filipino-style Carbonara
Filipino-style Carbonara
Italian pasta carbonara consists of spaghetti cooked with pancetta, eggs, garlic, and a lot of parmesan cheese. Filipinos have adapted the recipe to fit their palate, using more bacon than anyone should eat(I actually cut the amount by half), mushrooms, onions, garlic, in a heavy cream sauce with parmesan cheese. This is the type of comfort food that will make you want to take a nap for the next week.
Ingredients
- 1 lb spaghetti prepared according to package directions
- 1 lb slab bacon diced
- 1 lb button mushrooms sliced
- 1 medium onion diced
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- salt and pepper to taste
Garnish
- parsley chopped
- parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Sauté bacon in a large sauté pan over medium heat until crispy; about 8 minutes. Remove from the pan, keeping the bacon grease.
- Sauté the onions, mushrooms, and garlic for 6 minutes. Remove from the pan.
- In the same pan, melt the butter.
- Whisk in the flour for 2 minutes to cook away the raw taste.
- Pour in the chicken stock; whisking away any lumps.
- Whisk in the heavy cream. Simmer for 5 minutes until it starts to thicken.
- Stir in parmesan cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
- Stir back in the bacon, onions, mushrooms, and garlic.
- Toss in the cooked spaghetti. Cook for 4 minutes, letting the pasta absorb some of the cream sauce. Garnish with chopped parsley and more parmesan cheese.
Filipino-Style Grilled Pork Belly
Filipino-Style Grilled Pork Belly
Filipinos love their pork belly. You typically will see it either braised in some sort of way or fried, such as lechon kawali. But did you know that you can grill pork belly? Grilled pork belly is marinated in a calamansi juice base with lots of garlic and chilies, if you’re looking for spice. The marinade is saved and reduced down with oyster sauce to be used to baste the belly. The belly is then grilled for a couple minutes a side. Once there is a sear, you can start basting each side with the reduced marinade. It takes about 15 minutes in total to grill. If you don’t have a grill, you can prepare the pork belly under the broiler the exact same way. The pork belly is served with a vinegar based dipping sauce to help cut through all of the richness.
Ingredients
- 1 lb skin on pork belly sliced 1/2” thick
- 1/4 cup calamansi juice
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 1 Thai chili finely minced
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
Dipping Sauce
- 1/2 cup vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp white onion finely minced
- 1 Thai chili pepper finely minced
- 1/4 tsp salt
- pinch black pepper
Instructions
- Mix all of the dipping sauce ingredients together. Refrigerate until ready for use.
- Mix together the calamansi juice, fish sauce, garlic, chilies, brown sugar, salt, and black pepper.
- Marinate the pork belly for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Save the marinade once the pork belly is finished basking in its juices.
- Place the marinade in a pot over medium high heat. Simmer for 10 minutes until it is reduced.
- Mix in the oyster sauce and set aside.
- Turn on your oven’s broiler. Place the pork belly on a rack on a baking pan lined in foil.
- Broil or grill the pork belly for 3-4 minutes a side.
- Brush the top side of the pork belly with the reduced marinade. Broil or grill for 3 minutes. Flip over, baste, and broil or grill for 3 more minutes.
- Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
