Saturday, October 13, 2007

Pininyahang Manok or Chicken with Pineapple

We had a family get together last weekend to watch Pacquaio vs. Barerra Fight in Pay Perview HBO hosted by my parents and brother. It was potluck style get together. Each family brought something for the boxing event and this all happened just because of Pacquaio. Don't get me wrong we always have family get together in fact even if its not a holiday or a birthday, we all get together and most of the time hosted by my parents and sometimes my uncle or my auntie.

I could still remember when I was still single, whenever one family member will have some filipino food cravings that we dont normally eat on a regular basis it would be cooked and prepared and then we'll start calling everyone to come and join us. For instance if we have made some halo-halo, aroz caldo and tokwa't baboy , biko ( the one you eat during simbang gabi, we actually have those clay pot or clay plate),palabok, sopas, spaghetti, lasagna or if i've tried and cooked new recipe or just because we have some bbq definitely we'll call and they would come. Eating with them and the stories being told during consumption, I guess were and are one of the simple joy of just spending time with our family. And there were times that my aunt would call us because she made some mouth watering dishes. Well actually she knows lots of authentic filipino dish. Some days she'll call because she made some pancit lomi or pancit molo, batchoy, puto and dinuguan, diningdeng, murkon all of the filipino dish you could ever think of she could make it. And then there is my uncle, he'll call because of bbq, he loves bbq and he loves sharing it with us or when he caught something after goin' fishing or crabbing he'll call and say I have some fresh fish and crab " come, eat and take home some". Once he had a big bonus from work guess what he grilled some lobsters and ofcourse he called everyone to come and join to eat and still he gave us some live lobsters to take home to cook.

Notice anything yet? hahaha oh well so food been the staple of our family's get together. Even when we were in the Philippines its been like that. Simply knowing that someone is coming for a visit,vacation or returning from being away because of work, believe me lots of food would be prepared including the favorite dish of that person.

Food my be one reason of the get together but theres two other things that always happened during that get together. What? Singing and dancing ofcourse...oh how my family love singing. The microphone will go around the room and everyone will be eager to grab it hahaha...and while singing one will dance, other will join and laughters will fill the room. Others will have teary eyed from laughing and others running to the restroom from laughing so hard and end up doing number 1. Oh glory days passed us by so quickly but the memories truly stays as the treasures of our heart.
Anyway so I guess watching Pacquiao fight is the another way for our family to get together. And each family came bearing foodssss...lol. So on my parents dining table were filled with different kind of authentic filipino cuisine. We have Diningdeng, menudo, kaldereta, bbq, palabok, soup sotanghon, peking duck, biko and my chicken with pineapple. Sadly I was unable to take pictures of everything coz we forgot to bring our digital camera. So the picture that I only have is the chicken with pineapple that I've made from home to take to S.J for the potluck for Pacquaio fight. I've learned this recipe from my aunt whose passion in cooking kinda passed on to me.
So to make this pininyahang manok or chicken with pineapple you need; chicken cut into desired size, red and green bell pepper, 2 cans of pineapple chunks, garlic, onion, red pepper flakes and evaporated milk. Procedure: marinate chicken in the pineapple juice of the pineapple chunks 6 hrs or overnite is much better. Brown chicken and set aside. Saute garlic and onion. Put back the chicken and the pineaapple juice. When almost done put the pineapple,green and red bell peppers. Simmer then add the evaporated milk. Do not let it boil, just simmer and salt and pepper to taste. Absolutely tasty and the sauce is a dish by itself already. So during potluck it is one of the dish that were consumed right away.
I guess being that food is one of the staple in our family get together I tend to try and create new recipe to bring and to share with them. And till that get together my husband and "kulit" were and are the ones enjoying with much "gusto" the food that I serve on our "meza" or table.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like you, our family are very close also and great food always mean family get together. I'll try this pininyahang manok. Would be first for me to try it. Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

I love pininyahang manok! Sarap gutom na ko di pa lunch time.