Sinampalukang Manok (Chicken in Tamarind Soup Base)

Cutting on your calorie intake? Trying to eat healthy? But your all time favorite filipino dish or "ulam" is sinigang na baboy? And so far according to the Question and Answer part of my blog, sinigang na baboy right now is on top of the list of "What is your favorite filipino dish"? Who would not like it? Aside from it is tasty,delicious and would warm you up, it has plenty of vegetables. But....here comes the but.. if you are trying to cut your calorie intake I guess you could not have it as often as you want. So if you've had it just a few days back and once again craving for it, the best alternative is the " Sinampalukang Manok". It is as tasty, delicious and all of the vegetables in the sinigang pork could be used also in this dish. So the only difference is the kind of meat, chicken instead of pork.
And as I've mention before, spring came and we hardly eat any kind of red meat. And since I would like to keep it that way, sinampalukang manok came to mind to cook as sinigang . I have cooked it lots of time before I got married so I know it would be the best alternative for sinigang na baboy in some occasion ( now and then we crave for the sinigang the baboy so we give in. once in a while is not bad than all the time right?).
Anyway, even before, my parents,brother and other relatives loved it when I make it for them. Once, while eating it, one said: "hmmm sarap ah. parang nasa philippines tayo ah..". And now married why not cook it again. I did and my husband and son absolutely love it. I normally serve it steaming hot with hot steamed rice and all the time they were both asking for more and would ask the next day if we have more. And now that it is staring to get cold, eating it is much better than ever. We just had it a week ago and my husband requested for me to cook it again. So I did, and sinampalukang manok was prepared on our "meza" last nite once again. It is healthy, loaded with different kind of vegetables and the tamarind soup base contained vitamin c. So now that cold season is coming soon, sinampalukang manok would definitely frequent our "meza" or table.

Ingredients: Chicken cut into desired size. String beans,raddish,eggplant, okra(optional),anaheim pepper, 2 siling labuyo (crushed), young tamarind leaves if none, use green mustard leaves, sinigang tamarind powder packet, salt to taste or use just a tad of patis with calamansi.

Procedure: Brown chicken and put aside. Saute onion,garlic, (ginger optional) put back the chicken add the crushed siling labuya,power tamarind and a bit of patis with calamansi. Let it simmer and then add water just enough to cover the chicken and add the anaheim pepper. Cook until chicken is done. Add all the vegetables last and half cook only. Serve hot with hot steamed white rice or hot steamed brown rice. ( shhhh.. others have patis with calamansi or lemon on the side for added taste)

Chopsuey

"Eat your vegetables!"

I could still recall as if it was just yesterday that my mother was asking me to eat my vegetables. She will go on and on how good it was for me and that I would not get sick as often by eating lots of it. I would normally eat my vegetables but there are some that I would not eat like the "ginisang ampalaya" which now I love eating and the "talbos ng camote" which up to now I can not eat. But one dish that my mother wont have to ask me twice to eat my vegetables is when she prepared chopsuey for lunch or dinner. I love eating them then and I love eating them till now. I dont know why I love it, maybe because of the different colors of the vegetables, the sauce, taste of different vegetables blend well together or perhaps because it has shrimp,chicken,beef or pork. No matter what I would eat it with much "gusto" . It is our family's all the time order also when we eat out in any restaurant. So maybe that's why I love eating it. I love eating it with hot steaming rice and "toyo at calamansi" on the side. Yummm.

Anyway I have cooked it before when I got married but end up having lots of left over and I am the only one eating them. So I stop cooking them till last nite, I tried once again to cook them. As I've said in my earlier post spring came and we hardly eat any kind of red meat. It has been poultry,fish and plenty of green salad for the past few months. So I thought of cooking chopsuey to give it another try. Result? My son ate the carrots and a little bit of broccoli. My husband took it to work for his lunch. So I guess, I've got a better result this time. I'm not going to push it and cook it again sometime soon but I'll be definitely cooking it again in the future.



Ingredients: Mixed vegetables: any combination of broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, snow peas, red bell pepper, onion, garlic, the chicken, pork, beef and shrimp are all optional.

Procedure: In a pan heat oil, saute garlic and onion then chicken till brown. add shrimp till pink then stir fry all the mixed vegetables. add your sauce...combination of soy sauce,cornstarch and a little bit of sugar. Let it simmer till the sauce thickens and vegetables are half cooked.



So chopsuey was prepared on our "meza" for simple and healthy dinner.