by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jan 23, 2021 | Bon Appetit
Someone once asked me if we (the family) have considered going vegan and I told them that my family will eat anything I prepare (so they say) so it often depends on what I end up cooking.
Lately, I’ve been trying out different ways to cook tofu, as those of you who follow my blog can tell. 😀 My latest attempt is a dish I like to call Tofu ala Bistek. Bistek is the Filipino word for Beef Steak. The process is not quite the same but the end result is.
Tofu ala Bistek is best served with warm rice. Enjoy!
Notes:
- Cutting up the tofu into strips was my choice because I wanted to make sure the marinade would really seep in and I wanted it to look like meat slices.
- Using pancake syrup adds that little bit of sweetness the dish needs but you could try using sugar or honey, I suppose. Feel free to experiment!
- You can marinate the tofu for less than an hour, of course, but note that it will be more flavorful the longer you keep it in the marinade.
- I wouldn’t suggest marinating it overnight as the tofu might crumble or become too salty. I cannot be sure of this, of course, as I have never done that myself. 😀
Tofu ala Bistek
A new take on a Filipino standard.
Prep Time1 hour hr
Cook Time15 minutes mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese, Filipino
Keyword: filipino, tofu, vegan
Servings: 4
Calories: 142kcal
Author: Penny Angeles-Tan
- 500 grams firm tofu
- 1/3 cup light soy
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar
- 4 tsp pancake syrup
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp ginger, minced or grated
- 1 onion, sliced into rings
- oil for frying You want to use a neutral oil like vegetable oil
Prepping
Place some paper towels on a cutting board and put the tofu on top of it and cover with another paper towel. If you have a cast-iron pan or any heavy pan, place the pan on top of the paper-covered tofu and just let it sit. The weight of the pan will press out the excess water while you work on the marinade.
In a bowl combine light soy, rice vinegar, syrup, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger. Mix and set aside.
Remove the heavy pan from on top of the tofu and remove the paper towels. You will notice that the towels are now wet from the water that was pressed out of the tofu.
Slice the tofu into thin slices (not too thin or it will just crumble!) and arrange them flat on a shallow dish or tray and pour the marinade on top. Cover and set aside for up to an hour. If you are like me and you tend to forget if the waiting time is long then cover the dish/tray and put it in the ref while it is marinating.
Time to cook
Place your skillet or shallow pan (a wok would also do nicely!) on the stove and heat it.
Place oil in the pan and once hot enough place the marinated tofu (only) flat and leave it alone to brown for a few minutes. Don't get tempted to move it around or the tofu might crumble. Allow it to brown and set. Do not throw away the marinade as you will need it later.
After a few minutes and the bottom is browned, gently flip each piece and brown that side, too. You can tell that the tofu is ready to flip when it starts to shrink a little and look puffy like a pillow.
When both sides are browned, take your sliced onion and scatter the rings on top. Pour the marinade over everything and cover for about a minute.
Your dish is now ready to be served and eaten. 🙂
If you try this recipe, please make sure to tag me on social media @slvrdlphn with the hashtag #slvrdlphnrecipes. Let me know, too, if you come up with a tweak that would make this dish different but still delicious!
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jan 8, 2021 | Bon Appetit
As I get older I find that I tend to lean more towards healthier dishes … in part for better health, but mostly because the price of meat has skyrocketed! While I am wont to enjoy vegetable dishes sadly the rest of my family are not so inclined. I don’t want to trick them with veggie meat (mom already tried it and didn’t like it) so the next best thing for my carnivorous family … tofu!
In the past, I’ve made tofu steak, stir-fried tofu with eggplant and mushroom, etc. But often I find that if not for the tonkatsu sauce or oyster sauce to top off the dishes, the tofu would be bland. This led me on a search for tasty tofu dishes.
How this dish evolved
Whenever I try new dishes at home I usually like to work with ingredients that I have on hand rather than wait until I could run to the grocery to get the additional ingredients I need. This usually means that I go through a lot of recipes in recipe books I have here at home and online to find the one that suits my needs the best.
One such dish is this garlic pepper tofu. One frustrating thing about tofu is how in most recipes, no matter how flavorful the sauce is, the tofu itself is always bland. So I searched and searched and searched until I found this recipe for salt and pepper tofu on thewoksoflife.com which I then modified based on what ingredients I had on hand and made it more garlicky than salty.
What’s in my pantry
Obviously, I had most of the ingredients from the original recipe. I just cut out the chilies which add spice and color to the dish because, well, it was New Year’s Eve and I didn’t want to go to the grocery again. Plus, I was already elbow-deep in cooking other dishes at the same time.
I just wanted to highlight a few ingredients …
Sesame oil is readily available in most groceries. The one I used here is a Korean brand (I think) because that was the last one I bought at Robinson’s Easymart down the street. Popular brands of sesame oil are Lee Kum Kee and Good Life.
Cooking wine might be a little more difficult to find but is readily available at Hi-Top Supermart. In case you weren’t aware of it yet, the price of most grocery items is less expensive in Hi-Top than in any other grocery. Cooking wine comes in red and white. For tofu, I personally think white cooking wine is a better choice but if what you have is red, go ahead and try it.
Now, if you don’t have cooking wine but you do have regular wine, I say have at it! 😀 It just means that your food will have a stronger wine flavor. As for rice wine vinegar, no, you cannot use that as a substitute for cooking wine. It will make your food more acidic.
Weber Roasted Garlic & Herb Seasoning was something we purchased at a whim at S&R which we use for seasoning meat when we are in the mood to grill. But who says that’s the only time we could use it, right? Fair warning, though, this seasoning is a bit pricey at P350 per bottle.
Most of my spices are from McCormick as that is the most readily available brand here. My dream is to one day have a spice rack filled with every spice imaginable. 😀 Other than McCormick, I also get some special seasonings from Badia and Weber which I get from Landers and S&R respectively.
What really caught my attention is how Bill (the author of the post on thewoksoflife) managed to infuse the tofu with flavor so that is what I did my best to imitate as well. This dish turned out so well that I was not able to take a picture of it before the horde could attack it, lol! I hope you enjoy this recipe! Do let me know how it turns out when you try making it yourself.
Garlic Pepper Tofu
This dish is proof that vegetarian dishes can be exciting! And zesty!
Prep Time2 hours hrs 5 minutes mins
Cook Time10 minutes mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese, Vegan
Keyword: tofu, vegan, vegetarian
Servings: 4
Calories: 239kcal
Author: Penny Angeles-Tan
Brining
- 1 block firm tofu
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 1/4 cup warm water
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp white cooking wine
Seasoning and dredging
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
- 1/4 tsp cracked pepper
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 to 3 tbsp corn starch
Cooking
- oil
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground white pepper
- 1/4 tsp cracked pepper
- 1 tsp Weber roasted garlic and herb seasoning or Badia garlic pepper seasoning this is, of course, optional, but personally, I like the extra zest and crunch. In lieu of that, you may replace it with more garlic and cracked pepper. 🙂
To get some flavor in the tofu, the first step is to brine
Make sure to slice your firm tofu into bite-sized cubes, which is approximately half an inch.
Combine the garlic powder, onion powder, salt, sugar, and warm water in a shallow bowl and mix.
Place the sliced tofu in the same bowl and mix it gently so that each piece of tofu is coated in the brine, not just the bottom. Cover the bowl and let it sit for 1 to 2 hours.
After 1 to 2 hours place a strainer over a bowl and pour the tofu gently to drain and let it stand for 5 minutes
In another bowl, combine the sesame oil and cooking wine and mix. Pour the drained tofu in the mix and gently mix to coat.
We dredge to get that crispy outer coating
Combine the salt, white pepper, cracked pepper, flour, and cornstarch. Sprinkle over the tofu soaked in sesame oil and wine and use a spoon to turn the tofu so that all of them are coated. You can also give the bowl a gentle shake or two (or three) making sure not to crumble the tofu. The combination of ingredients will create a white paste that is meant to coat every single piece of tofu.If you think the batter is too wet or if you want your tofu to be crispier, go ahead and add a little more cornstarch.
It's time to get cookin'!
Mix the salt, white pepper, cracked pepper, and optional seasoning and set aside.
Place oil in your wok and heat up for around 30 seconds on low heat only. DON'T GET TEMPTED TO RAISE THE FLAME/TEMPERATURE! That comes later.
Put in the chopped garlic and move it around the pan to cook evenly. If the heat is low, it should not burn. Cook it until it is light golden brown. Voila! Crispy garlic!
Use either a slotted spoon or a fine mesh strainer to fish out the garlic and set it aside for now. Make sure to leave the oil in the pan! You're going to need them for the next steps.
Heat the oil to medium-high heat, you may add oil if you feel the need to. Place the tofu in the pan in a single layer, making sure each one is touching the oil. Once the bottom part is browned flip each piece to brown the other side.
When all the tofu is browned on all sides put the crispy garlic and remaining spices in the pan and toss everything for about 15 seconds. Scared to toss like the chefs? Not to worry, stirring with a spoon or spatula will do as well. 😀
And you're done! Serve your dish and watch the fam eat it with gusto!
It may seem at first as if preparing this dish takes too long, but trust me when I say that brining is an important step. Brining is also very simple to do – combine the ingredients then forget it for 2 hours. 🙂
by Penny Angeles-Tan | May 13, 2020 | Bon Appetit
Beef gyudon is one of my favorite Japanese dishes and for a long time, I have wanted to make this but never really got around to it until now. I searched online for a beef gyudon recipe that I thought I would like to try and found this recipe by justonecookbook.com.
All recipes I have seen have all indicated the need for mirin and sake. Let’s face it, in ordinary times these ingredients are already difficult to find … more so now, with the quarantine going on. Therefore, I have found the need to substitute with what I already have at home.
- Instead of mirin, I used 1 part sugar with 2 parts rice wine vinegar.
- Instead of sake, I used white cooking wine.
In addition, it is now possible to buy beef that is sliced thin enough. Just ask the butcher for “sukiyaki” or bacon cut.
Below is the modified recipe. I doubled the quantity of the recipe I used as a reference as there are more people to feed at my house.
My family enjoyed it, I hope you do, too.
Beef Gyudon
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: donburi, Japanese, rice bowl
Servings: 6
Author: Penny Angeles-Tan
- 2 tbsps cooking oil
- 2 onions sliced into strip
- 700 grams beef sukiyaki/bacon cut
- 4 tsps sugar
For the sauce
- 2 tbsps light soy sauce
- 4 tbsps white cooking wine
- 8 tsps rice wine vinegar
- 4 tsps sugar
Mix the sauce ingredients in a bowl until the sugar is melted. Set aside.
Use a medium-sized pan or wok and heat it up to medium-high heat.
Place the oil on the pan and saute the onion until it is soft and translucent.
Add the beef and sugar. Mix and cook until the beef is no longer pink. Be careful not to overcook!
Add the sauce, mix, and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.
Putting the rice bowl together
Your beef gyudon rice bowl is now ready to serve.
Some people like it with an egg, if that is the case there are two things you can do:
- right before preparing the rice bowls, pour the 6 beaten eggs into the beef and mix it.
- serve a raw egg with the rice bowl and have each person crack the egg over their own bowl and mix it themselves.
For the second option, this only works well if the rice and beef are freshly cooked/still hot. Enjoy! We did. 🙂
If you like this recipe and will replicate it, take a pic and share it on Facebook or Instagram and don’t forget to tag me and use the hashtag #slvrdlphnrecipes
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Apr 20, 2020 | Bon Appetit
Bibingkang malagkit or kumot as my dad used to call it is a rice cake snack that my dad used to love. We would buy a small tray of 8 squares every week. My dad called it kumot because of the layer if coco-caramel on top.
Is it also called biko?
Bibingkang malagkit is also called Biko. The only difference that I can see is that Biko is brown and is often topped with latik instead of coco-caramel sauce. To achieve that brown color, replace the white sugar with brown sugar.
The search is over
one serving size served here as a dessert with a cup of coffee on the side
Our favorite kakanin seller has not been around since the quarantine and when I ordered from someone on Facebook who makes bibingkang malagkit Facebook I was very disappointed at what I received … it was 10×10, as promised but the rice part was barely a centimeter high and the coco-caramel topping was about as thick. It was so thin that the only way to enjoy it was to roll a slice into a log and THEN eating it. It was a waste of money. Therefore, I decided to try making it myself.
I looked at several recipes online and chose the one I thought I could work with and yet I still made changes because I wanted it to look just like the one dad liked.
It took quite some time to make and requires a lot of patience but if you keep at it, you will be quite happy with the end result.
Time to cook!
Below is my version of the bibingkang malagkit. I was surprised that it turned out pretty well … exactly the same as the one dad and I used to buy. Yey! Today I had it for dessert with my breakfast.
FYI, I love using a wok for most of my cooking so for this recipe I still used two woks … a big one for the kakanin and a small one for the sauce topping.
Biko or Bibingkang Malagkit
rice cake made of glutinous rice, sugar, salt, and coconut milk
Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: Filipino
Keyword: bibingka, biko, filipino, rice cake
Servings: 24
Author: Penny Angeles-Tan
big wok
small wok
baking dish
oven
- 1 tbsp. butter for coating the baking dish
Kakanin
- 4 cups malagkit rice also known as glutinous rice
- 1,000 ml. gata coconut milk
- 1.5 cups water
- 1.5 cups sugar white or brown
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Topping
- 200 ml. gata coconut milk
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
Preparing the kakanin
Place the rice in a bowl then wash and drain it. Place enough water to cover and soak for a few hours ... one hour at the very least, overnight at most. Note, that the longer you soak it, the better the rice will cook later.
When you are ready to cook, drain the rice and set aside.
Place the coconut milk and water in a saucepot, set the heat to medium and simmer.
Add the drained rice and stir often to be sure the rice does not burn along the sides of the pot. Continue to cook over medium heat and mixing until the rice has soaked up most of the liquid. Using a large wok makes it easier to mix.
Reduce the heat and add the white sugar and salt to the rice mixture and mix. Make sure the sugar and salt are completely mixed into the rice. You will notice that the rice where the sugar gets mixed in becomes shinier so keep mixing gently. This will take around 10 to 15 minutes, more or less.
Taste the rice every now and then to make sure it is cooked all the way through. You know you are done when the rice mixture is sticky and clumps but separates from the pot easily.
Preparing the coco-caramel sauce topping
Place the remaining 200 ml. coconut milk and the dark brown sugar in a saucepan.
Turn on the stove and mix until completely mixed and the sugar is dissolved.
Turn off the stove and allow to cool for 2 to 5 minutes.
Putting the dish together
Time to bake
Heat your oven to 350F. Some say to preheat before you start cooking but, personally, I usually wait until I am actually going to bake because I cannot predict how long the preparation would take and it would be a waste of gas (or electricity).
Once it has reached 350F place the prepared tray in the oven and bake for 1 hour. The sauce topping will bubble and thicken.
Set aside and allow to cool before serving.
Once your dish has cooled it will look like this:
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Apr 22, 2017 | Health and Wellness
It’s officially summertime! And we can’t think of a better way to get into the groove of things than with the country’s number 1 tuna, Century Tuna, as it presents three “My Recipe to Sexy” dishes from three of the fittest and sexiest actors today, each one with his own distinct handsome looks, unique talents, and personalities!
We all know Century Tuna as the choice of health and fitness buffs, but it is also the favorite of many foodies out there as it’s a great, delicious addition to any dish. So why not have three of the most popular male actors share their favorite, easy-to-prepare and oh-so delicious Century Tuna recipes?
“Like Gerald, Mateo and Paulo, Century Tuna is very versatile,” relates Greg Banzon, Century Pacific Food, Inc. VP & General Manager. “You can use it in different dishes, allowing you to be creative in creating your own recipe to sexy!”
First, there’s Gerald Anderson. After becoming the Third Big Placer in the first season of Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition in 2006, and after a string of television appearances, movie roles, and as part of a popular love team, Gerald proved his acting worth in the gritty, acclaimed film “On The Job”.
Next, there’s Matteo Guidicelli. Following a decorated stint in the fast lane as a karting racer garnering numerous trophies, Matteo entered showbiz in earnest, attending drama and performing arts school in the United States to further hone his craft. On top of that, he also released his first self-titled album in 2016!
And then of course there’s Paulo Avelino. Considered in the industry as “The Prince of Teleseryes”, Paulo has starred in a number of outstanding indie movie releases, among them Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa which earned for him the Best Actor nod from the prestigious Gawad Urian.
My Recipe to Sexy Campaign
So what brings these 3 fit and sexy gentlemen together this scorching summer, you ask? They’re the latest faces – and hot bods – in the Century Tuna’s newest summer TVC, one that spells fun and fitness by way of its “My Recipe to Sexy” campaign!
Gerald, Paolo, and Matteo – the yummy bodies ng century with host, Gelli Victor
For those who’ve not seen the ad which is now airing on primetime TV, it features the trio as “hot cooks” as they respectively present their favorite recipes to a sexy, healthy bod: Tuna Egg Salad Sandwich ala Matteo; Tuna Pancit Canton ala Paulo; and Tuna Silog ala Gerald. All nutritious, delicious, and most of all easy to prepare!
“Breakfast for me is very important,” Gerald shares. “And I wanted a dish that’s a healthier take on the typical Pinoy breakfast so I came up with this super delicious Tuna Silog.” (see sampler image below)
Tuna silog a la Gerald
“I’m always on the go,” Matteo reveals. “I love having a lean sandwich because it’s easy to prepare. Just like my Tuna Egg Salad Sandwich on wheat bread which is healthy yet very satisfying!” (see sampler image below)
“Tuna Pancit Canton is the ultimate, yummy comfort food – something you can make in a jiffy!” Paulo declares. (see sampler image below)
In other words, as summer equals frolic and fun under the sun, it doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself just to stay fit and sexy. Thanks to Century Tuna, which is lean and adaptable, you can easily prepare and enjoy a myriad of irresistible meals. And if you can have these hot cooks as fitsperation, even better!
So … this summer … what’s your recipe to sexy?
I searched online for a beef gyudon recipe that I thought I would like to try and found this recipe by 
So … this summer … what’s your recipe to sexy?
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