Tinolang Manok

Ingredients:

1 kilo whole chicken, cut into pieces.
1 small young papaya or sayote, cut into small pieces.
2 tablespoons ginger, crushed and slliced into strips
1/2 cup dahon ng sili (chili leaves)
1 liter of water
5 garlic cloves, minced
5 pieces of tomatoes, sliced
1 red onion, diced
4 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons patis (fish sauce)
Cooking Procedure:

1. In a stock pot, heat oil and sauté garlic, onion, tomatoes, chicken and ginger.
2. When the tomatoes are cooked add water.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes or until chicken is almost done.
4. Season with patis or salt.
5. Add papaya and continue to simmer for an additional 5 minutes or until papaya softens but not overcooked.
6. Add sili leaves then turn off the heat.
7. Serve steaming hot with plain rice.


Chicken Sotanghon Soup

Ingredients:

200 gm sotanghon (bean thread) noodles
1 cup chopped or flaked cooked chicken meat (you can use left over chicken meat)
6-7 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 head of garlic – minced
1/2 medium onion – sliced
1 Tbsp patis (fish sauce)
4 dried Chinese black mushrooms (shiitake)
chopped green onions

Cooking Procedure:

1. Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for about 15 minutes. Remove and squeeze out excess water. Cut and discard stems, slice caps into fourths.
2. Heat oil in a pot. Saute garlic and onion in low to medium heat. Make sure the garlic is not burned.
3. Add chicken meat, mushrooms and patis. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes.
4. Add chicken stock and bring to boil.
5. Drop the sotanghon noodles in the soup and simmer for about 3 minutes or until noodles are tender and cooked. You may at an early stage cut the noodles with scissors to shorten lengths and make it more manageable to handle.
6. Garnish with chopped green onions.
7. Serve hot with combined lemon juice and patis on the side.