Inihaw na Porkchop

With cool and windy days about us it's easy to forget that it's already March and that Summer is about to pop in with customary heat and swelter by the Holy Week.

For most Catholics the Holy Week is observed with fasting and abstinence from meat, so this post seems anti-thematic. But wait, I'm not really going to talk about what we have for Holy Week, but more of how we welcome summer.

We welcome summer with grills and barbecues, eat-outs and smokes, apart from trips to the beach and lakeside picnics. My nieces usually spend the summer with us, so I have a full house and it seems like a children's party every single day. (Yep, 4 kids can be a party. Ask any mom.)

These pictures were taken in 2005, in our old house. Mama (my grandmother) was home from NZ then and we had a blast having a kamayan, dahon ng saging lunchout at the garage. Do you notice Mike's head peering out of the margins of the picture? He was grill manager that day and rushed to make it from the grill to the frame just as I pressed the shutter button. :)

It'll be a li'l different this summer; for one Mama won't be home and would be in NZ recuperating from surgery (awww.... we miss you, Ma) and there'd be a new kid on the block, Mika. But I suppose the grilling stays. I will always be a BBQ girl at heart. :)

INIHAW NA PORKCHOP

What's In It?

1 kg. pork chops (about 8 thick cuts, bone-in)

1 cup soy sauce (Datu Puti is for me, the best)

juice of 7 calamansi*

1/2 cup brown/washed sugar*

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 bulb red onion, peeled and sliced

1 head of garlic, peeled and crushed

Kitchen Conjugations:

Thaw and wash porkchops, drain. In a medium plastic mixing bowl combine soy sauce, calamansi juice, sugar, garlic, onions and black pepper together. Add in pork chops, stir and turn so that all slices are covered by the marinade. Leave for 30 minutes to one hour.

Grill porkchops over medium high heat until done (the meat should lose pinkish tint but should still be tender and juicy). Serve with your favorite sawsawan (dipping sauce). Ours is soy sauce with onion and tomato slices and a squeeze of calamansi.

Have a great summer!

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Notes:

1. Pineapple juice may be substituted in the absence of calamansi. Some people put a little vinegar but I find that the acid 'cooks' and hardens the meat.

2. Washed sugar is colored light brown; brown sugar is darker. You can this if you are watching your sugar intake or do not like sweet ulam.

Sweet-Spicy Inihaw na Pusit

What I love about South Supermarket is its wide assortment of fresh food that makes it easy to cook up a party. To me it's a one stop shop-- from ox tongue to New Zealand Mussels, to sago (tapioca), squid rings, even pre-skewered chicken for yakitori, I find my party stuff there.

One of our treasured finds are the frozen squid heads that come for P150.00 per 1-kilo pack. They're great battered and deep fried or skewered and grilled like I did here.

I wrapped and tied up the squid tentacles with tanglad (lemon grass). Apart from imparting a unique flavor and tantalizing aroma, the tanglad kept the tentacles from falling into the grill slats.
Be sure to tie them tightly as the squid will shrink as it cooks.

And a cheat: you don't have to make marinade from scratch. Here I used bottled marinades. :)

SWEET-SPICY INIHAW NA PUSIT

What's in it?

1 pack (1 kilo) squid (heads only or whole squid, cleaned)
1 bottle Mother's Best barbecue marinade
1/4 cup chili/tabasco sauce
10-12 stalks tanglad (optional)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Combine barbecue marinade and chili sauce in a deep bowl. Stir to mix well. Add in squid and marinate for 20 minutes to half an hour.

Skewer in pre-soaked barbecue sticks and tie with tanglad, if using. Make sure grill is hot and ready before putting squids. Grill over flaming hot charcoal for 3 minutes each side.

Chicken Inasal

OK, so you got me. I'm a huge fan of barbecues.

So much so that, for a time, I've decreed Friday as our family Inihaw Nite, and on those nights we take out the grill, get things smoking, and have dinner kain sa labas style. Literally, as in out in the garage. Part of the fun having Inihaw Nites, apart from the smoky flavor I really love, is the cowboy-no-frills-dinner we share: we use newspaper as placemats (to absorb any spills, and for easy clean up), eat with our hands, and enjoy the curious glances we get from passers-by. :P

We haven't had an Inihaw Nite for a while; hectic schedules got in the way. But I do try to have barbecue when I can. The most recent was last Sunday, when I made Chicken Inasal for dinner.

Offhand I'd like to apologize to Bacolodnons, as this dish might not be true to the real recipe. Pasensya na po, my recipe's always oido, and I just approximated based on what I recall to be the taste of Bacolod Chicken Inasal we had in Festival Mall. :)

CHICKEN INASAL

What's in it?

1 kg chicken, cut-up

1 1/2 teaspoons iodized salt

1 teaspoon black pepper powder

3-4 stalks tanglad (lemon grass), cut into 2" pieces

5 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 c cooking oil

1 teaspoon atchuete (annato seeds)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Wash chicken pieces, then rub with salt, pepper and lemon grass slices. Set aside and allow to marinate for at least half an hour.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan. Add in minced garlic and atchuete. Stir fry for a minute or until the oil turns deep orange.

Start the grill. Skewer chicken pieces in barbecue sticks, then grill, brushing with the oil-garlic-atchuete mixture from time to time.

Serve with atchara and garlic rice. :)

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Tip : to prevent sticks from getting burned, soak in a basin of water (level of water should be just enough to cover the sticks) while the chicken marinates.

"Hurray It's Summer!" Kebabs

It's summer! Woo-hoo!!

Pretty soon, when school's off, it's time for road trips, hikes, beaches and....barbecues! Yey!!
(And oh yes...time for my garage sale, too!)

To officially herald the start of summer I decided to have a barbecue for lunch. For a more festive touch I made Kebabs, using the chicken breasts I marinated originally for Turbo Chicken. On a whim I threw in some Chorizo de Cebu that's been lingering in my freezer. :)

Here's to a great summer. Hope you get things smoking one weekend! :)

CHICKEN KEBABS

What's in It?

1 kg. chicken breast fillets, cut into bite-size cubes
1 pack McCormick Zesty Garlic chicken marinade*
1 med. cucumber, cubed
2 med. bell peppers, cubed
1 large onion, cubed
1 med. can pineapple tidbits
1 small can cut young corn
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon Knorr seasoning (or soy sauce if unavailable)

Kitchen Conjugations:

Marinate chicken in the zesty garlic marinade for at least 20 minutes, following package instructions. (For best results, marinate overnight in the refrigerator.)

Thread chicken cuts onto the skewer alternately with the vegetables and pineapple. (While doing this, have someone start the grill already.) Make sure to save about 1/2 cup of the pineapple juice/syrup.

Combine pineapple juice/syrup, cooking oil and Knorr seasoning.

Grill kebabs on hot grill, turning frequently to avoid scorching (grill about one minute each side), brushing lightly with the pineapple juice-oil mixture. Since chicken cooks quickly and it's best to leave it juicy, keep cooking to about 5 minutes only.

Serve with hot steaming rice. Masarap ya-an! :)

PS:

Kebab is a Turkish term which means "grilled meat," but non-Turkish cooks (like myself) have since turned kebab into a "grilled anything" dish, which means that apart from chicken, you can use firm-bodied fish (like tanigue, tuna, labahita) pork, shrimps or tender beef slices. And as I did, you can also kebab-ize whatever's in your freezer. The Chorizo de Cebu didn't need any marinating by the way. :)

If you want a marinade from scratch, combine pineapple juice (from the tidbits), 2 T sugar, a pinch of black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, 3 cloves garlic crushed and minced, and use this instead of the McCormick marinade. (As I said, I've pre-marinated the chicken, for something else.) Then, after you've skewered the meat, combine this marinade with the cooking oil and use it for brushing.