My Weekend Recipes

During weekdays, I cannot consistently cook food due to rush hour and beside I am living alone so there’s no need to force myself to wake up every early morning to prepare meals, but on weekends I always make it a point to cook my own food! 

My weekend meals normally consist of fish, vegetables, brown rice, fruits and sea foods. I never eat meat on weekends. I only eat meat twice a month and during weekdays only (because I have no choice hehehe). 

Whenever I go to a wet market, I normally buy danggit, my favorite fish, if danggit is not available, I go for salmon. I would cook it in two types only: Sinabaw (with malunggay, lemon grass, tomato and ginger) and Paksiw. 

For vegetables I prefer Broccoli, Asparagus, Tokwa, squash, carrots and okra. I would cook it in olive oil and lots of garlic and onions. Sometimes I would barter a little on seasonings because I used Oyster Sauce if I cooked Tokwa hehehe. I never use vetsin and other commercial seasoning, except Oyster Sauce, when cooking. Back home, my father prohibited us to use vetsin.

Here are my usual weekend recipes: 

 1. TOKWA AND BROCCOLI (sometimes ASPARAGUS) 

 For this recipe, I usually make two variations: Tokwa and Broccoli or Tokwa and Asparagus. 

You Need: 

2 regular pieces Tokwa 

1 piece Broccoli (or 1 small bundle of asparagus) 

1 piece Onion 

4 pieces Garlic 

2 teaspoon Olive Oil 

3 teaspoon Oyster Sauce 

½ cup water 

Let the Tokwa simmer for 20 minutes to make it very tender 

Tokwa and Broccoli, this time I mixed it with Garbanzos

Procedure: 

Slice Tokwa into cubes. In a saucepan, prepare three cups of water and bring to boil, add tokwa and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Set aside. Heat the saucepan again, sautéed garlic and onion, then add the tokwa, stir it continuously and cover for a while, but make sure to check it more often so as not to burn the tokwa, uncover the saucepan and stir it again, repeat this step until the tokwa becomes tender, add the broccoli or asparagus and drizzle with oyster sauce, stir it occasionally to mix all the ingredients and to even out the taste. Add the water and let it simmer. Cover the saucepan. Check occasionally and stir. If you notice the broccoli becomes tender, remove the saucepan from the heat. Allow the food to cool before transferring it to a bowl. 

 2. SINABAW NA ISDA (danggit or salmon) 

While preparing your kettle or frying pan, clean the fish first by washing it with water, put it in a bowl with vinegar, lemon juice and salt to remove its bad smell. 

This is a very provincial recipe but I really love it and my week is incomplete without this in my meal!

One thing I detested eating sinabaw na isda in a carenderia or anywhere is the way it is cooked, it’s pretty obvious they did not clean it thoroughly with vinegar and salt because of the foul smell when served. Here I will be sharing to you my cooking style for a savory Sinabaw na Isda.

You Need: 

4 cups of water 

3 pieces of Danggit or salmon 

2 stems of Malunggay
1 stem of Lemon grass 

1 big slice of Ginger (crushed) 

1 bundle of Chinese Kangkong 

1 piece of Tomato 

1/2 tablespoon of salt

Procedure: 

Clean the fish with water and put it in a bowl with vinegar, salt and lemon juice to remove its bad smell. Set aside. Put the 4 cups of water in the kettle or frying pan (depends on what you are using) pour the salt and put the lemon grass and ginger. Bring to boil. Add tomato slices. Wash the fish with water again, add it to the kettle. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Add the Kangkong and Malunggay. Let it simmer for another 3 minutes. Make sure the vegetables would not be overcooked. Transfer to a bowl and serve. 

3. BUTTERY PRAWNS 

Oh yes! I love prawns!!!I grew up in a province that is so blessed with crabs, prawns and lobsters and all kinds of seafoods! When I lived in the city, I rarely experienced eating these oh so delicious varieties because it’s too expensive, but sometimes I would set aside enough money on weekends to buy prawns and cook it according to my style hehe! 

So here, I will be sharing to you my yummy buttery prawns, hope you can try this at your home too! Don’t forget to wash the prawns before you cook it.

You need: 

¼ kilo Prawns 

1 stick unsalted butter 

1 regular bottle of sprite or mountain dew 

3 pieces of Garlic (crushed) 

1 piece of Onion 

1 small slice of Ginger (crushed) 

2 teaspoons of Soy sauce (depends on your taste) 

Pepper to taste

Oh so delicious Prawns cooked in butter!

Procedure: 

Washed the prawns and set aside. Heat the saucepan, add sprite or mountain dew and put the prawns on it. Bring to boil while stirring occasionally until the prawns turn red. Remove it from the liquid and set aside. Heat the saucepan again and melt the butter, add onion, garlic and ginger, add the prawns and stir. Add soy sauce. Stir it again. Add the pepper. Let it simmer. Remove from the heat and serve!

Those are my home cook recipes hope you are delighted! I’ll share more recipes next entries, please follow my site to receive updates of Home Life! Thank you readers.