Calamari (Squid Rings) recipe. Step by step video on how to make homemad...

Learn the trick how to make crispy calamari at home. Full proof homemade recipe. Calamari is squid rings coated with batter and deep fried. The secret is layer each coating with flavor profile to your liking. To make this recipe spicy, add cayenne pepper . This is great seafood appetizer recipe. Ingredients:340 g. Squid rings1/2 Cup Corn Starch1/4 Cup All purpose flour2 Tablespoons paprika1/2 Tablespoon Garlic salt1Tablespoon Garlic powder1Tablespoon ground pepper2 eggs2 cups Panko Bread Crumbsoptional: 1 tsp. Cayenne Pepper if you like it hot and spicyoil for frying

Procedure:Wash squid rings and drain, set asidePrepare 3 bowls:bowl 1 - Egg mixture. Beat eggs, season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. bowl 2 - Flour mixture. Mix flour, paprika, salt, pepper and garlic powder.Bow 3 - Panko Mixture. Mix bread crumbs with garlic powder, salt and pepper

Pat dry the squid rings to remove excess water/moisture, dip into the flour mixture to coat each squid ring, dip into eggs, mix well to coat the squid rings in egg. Do this one by one so that the flour coating absorbs the egg mixture. Lastly coat with bread crumbs mixture. Arrange on a plate. Finish this procedure before starting to fry.

Once all the squid rings are well coated with bread crumbs, deep fry in a preheated oil until golden brown. Remove from oil and place it on a plate lined with paper towel. The paper towel will absorb excess oil from frying and keeps the calamari dry and crisp. If you like hot and spicy, add cayenne pepper squid rings before frying. #CalamariRecipe#TheKitchenJournal#HomemadeCalamari

Mini bruschetta

The base is a ready made toasted savory snacks.

Topping Ingredients:

5 large tomatoes

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 clove of garlic (grated)

salt and pepper

To make the topping, finely chop tomatoes; drain to get rid of the excess tomato juice and set aside. Chop fresh basil finely and set aside. In a mixing bowl, mix olive oil, grated garlic, salt and pepper.  Add basil and drained tomatoes.  Mix well.  Place a teaspoon in each of the savory biscotti.  

Enjoy these bite size treats with your favorite cocktail.

Canapes

Base :  Ready made whole grain toasted savory biscotti ( I used Melba Snacks)

For the toppings, I mixed yogurt, cucumber and cream cheese and added some herbs.  One mixture I added dill and another mixture I added basil.

variants:  

smoked salmon (flaked)

finely diced peppers (green, yellow, orange and red)

In some servings i skipped the cream mixture as for some who doesn't like cream based topping. For a healthier option, I just added directly on the savory biscotti a mixture of tomato,basil,grated garlic and olive oil to make mini bruschetta. Some I just added only the peppers.

These bite portions are perfect for gatherings.  There's always something to much while Hubby is busy grilling.  Kids loved the mini bruschetta.  

Ranch dip with dill (Hacking the treats)

Hacking the treats! Jazz up that store-bought dip by adding fresh herbs.. It really brings out great flavor.  I bought that ranch dip and added fresh dill into it, serve the chips with style :)

Crispy Chicken Strips

Crispy Chicken strips

Crispy Chicken Strips

This is so simple and easy to make.  I like the versatility you can do with this.  Can be served with any of your favorite sauce or dip, or salad, potatoes, or rice. The cornmeal is the essential ingredient for its crispiness that you don't have to worry if it sits for awhile, without getting soggy.  I guess i don't have to elaborate more on the quantity as it is self-explanatory.  The more chicken, the more flavoring and coating you need.  Rough estimates won't do harm.

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast (sliced into thin strips)

dried oregano

pepper (freshly ground)  ( i used pepper grinder all the time)

salt

oil for frying

Season the meat with salt and pepper, add a generous amount of oregano,  Give it a little rub so it will stick to the meat.

In a bowl, place the corn meal,  Add the meat and set aside. Shake each strip to get rid of extra cornmeal before frying.

Heat the pan and add oil for frying.

shake to get rid of extra cornmeal before frying.  Shallow fry for about a minute each side until golden brown.

watch the video:

Eggplant Rollatini

Eggplant rollatini

Eggplant Rollatini - grilled eggplant stuffed with fetta cheese, topped with diced tomatoes dressed with olive oil and fresh basil.

This is my favorite appetizer in T.G.I. FRIDAYS restaurant and this is a home-made version the way my taste buds interpreted it. It looks small but its really more than enough for a dinner portion, served with bread. Gotta post it here so i won't forget how it is done. I'm gonna do this every now and then. In this dish, basil is really important. The aroma and taste goes well with the mild tastes of eggplant and cheese.  Hubby added a dash of balsamic vinegar to add sharpness.  This is way better than the Friday's rollatini.

Ingredients:

2 long eggplants (1 foot long)
100 g fetta cheese
1 large tomato
fresh basil leaves
Olive oil for tomato dressing
Salt and pepper


Slice the eggplant into thin strips along with its length. Brush with olive oil and season with pepper. (didn't put salt on the eggplant as the fetta will take care of the saltiness). Grill until eggplant turns slightly brown. Allow to cool enough to handle. Spread fetta cheese on the grilled eggplant and roll up. secure with a tooth pick.

While the eggplant is grilling, prepare the tomato salad. In a bowl, put the olive oil and finely diced fresh basil, season with salt and pepper. Add the diced tomatoes and set aside.

After rolling up the eggplant with the fetta cheese, arrange the rollatinis in a serving dish and top it with the prepared tomato salad.

This served 8 rollatinis.

Chicken Pop Corn

Chicken Popcorn

The nostalgia…

This post brings me back to the years when my brother cez and I used to have KFC Chicken Popcorn in Abu Dhabi when ever we pass by KFC, we always get 1 large box of chicken popcorn and share over a chit-chat break; digging our fingers alternatively in that box that our hands barely fit in. We both just love it every now and then.  We were just one sweet couple in that place and everybody is buzzing that brother Cez got a girlfriend! We just exchange smiles to let them believe so and we laugh it out loud after..  Yeah, those were the moments.. Chicken Popcorn moments.

Chicken Cubes coated in
bread crumbs

Cooking this at home, makes me miss u much brother. Hope we get to catch up each other soon.

Chicken Popcorn was one of my favorite take-away finger foods of KFC-Abu Dhabi.  Other KFCs from other countries are not making chicken pop corn, so it has been a while for me that i didn't get to taste this crispy on the outside and soft inside, popcorn shaped chicken.

The Recipe

Chicken breast, cut into cubes

Bread crumbs

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil for deep frying

Cooked chicken popcorn
drained in kitchen paper towel

There’s nothing to be precise about measurement, you just have to estimate the proportion of bread crumbs according to the amount of chicken.

Season chicken breast with salt and pepper, toss it into a bowl of bread crumbs to coat the chicken and deep-fry by batches.  Fry in low fire until golden brown. Drain in Kitchen Paper Towel so that oil will will be absorbed and keeps the chicken popcorn from getting soggy.

If I am in Phil, I'll be tempted to add into the breadcrumbs some seasoning like, crispy fry or magic sarap just because there is.  Here, I don't stock them in the pantry so I wont be tempted to use ready-made seasonings with MSG.

Grilled mussels with garlic butter

Grilled Mussels with Garlic Butter

Craving for seafoods? That’s how I felt when I saw an array of frozen mussels in different packages.  One pack of large half-shelled mussels sparked an imagination of barbequing it. I didn’t hesitate to grab one and another pack just the meat if incase I want to compare the intensity of flavors preserved.  Just like I thought, the pack with shells on still got the fresh aroma from the sea. An instant thought was garlic butter on it and grill. But that’s just good as an appetizer since they weren’t enough.  To compliment with it, I made spaghetti with mussels and basil pesto. Hubby had a good harvest of fresh basil from our tiny garden. 

Grilled mussels with garlic butter

1 pack of frozen mussels

garlic butter

Ingredients: Garlic butter and a pack of half-shelled mussels

Add a pinch of garlic and butter paste into each mussel, place it on a baking tray and grill for about 20 minutes until the sides of the mussels turn brown.

Note: I used a ready made garlic butter because I just had it in the fridge for a while.  Otherwise, you may make your own garlic butter simply by crushing 2 cloves of garlic until paste consistency with a mortar and pestle. Add to 50g of butter, season with salt to taste.

 Did you know:

 Did you know that mussels is high in iron and protein but low in fat? and it contains Omega 3?

That's what the packet says...  Hmmm, should I call my sister who is a nutritionist to verify or should I wait for her to comment? :-)

Beef Spring roll (Beef Lumpia)

Beef Spring Roll

Ingredients:

¼ Kg. ground beef

1 red pepper (chopped finely)

1 large onion (chopped finely)

3 cloves garlic (chopped finely)

2 Tablespoons flour

1 egg

4 teaspoons soy sauce

Salt and pepper

Spring roll wrappers

Oil for deep frying

Procedure:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. This allows the flavors to blend.

Place 1 teaspoon each in every spring roll wrapper and roll up. Seal the edges with water.

Fry for 10 minutes in medium heat. The oil should not be very hot so that the wrappers don’t burn straight away, leaving the meat uncooked in the middle. To test the right temperature of the oil, while heating the oil for frying, dip a wooden spoon into the oil. If it starts to bubble, it is hot enough. Fry until golden brown.

Lasagna Chips

lasagna chips

Lasagna pasta sheets

Oil for frying
Cheese Powder
Water
Salt

Procedure:

Boil salted water in a deep pan and add lasagna, boil for 2 minutes, or until al dente. Do not overcook. Set lasagna one by one by letting them drape over a rim of a deep pan or strainer to get rid of excess water. When cold enough to hold; cut them into strips or triangles. Deep fry and drain in kitchen paper to get rid of excess oil. Put the chips in a container with cover and sprinkle cheese powder. Shake the container to spread the flavor evenly. I had cooked lasagna 2 days back but got excess pasta sheets so I kept in the fridge. Today, I am looking to cook something like cheese puffs and use the lasagna sheets to wrap it but I found out the break easily when folded, so I sliced them and deep fry, instead of throwing them, I remember I have stocked cheese powder! It tastes just like Piatos chips!!! (if u know what I mean, its one of my favorite chips in Phil. I don’t have to worry if I don’t have chips to serve to unexpected guests… I know how to make quickie chips!

Meat Cuts 'n Gravy

Appetizing Meat Cuts 'n Gravy

Ingredients:
Lean Beef cut into cubes
Chicken Breasts Cut into Cubes
Salt & Pepper
Bread Crumbs
Parsley (finely chopped)
Lemon Zest
Slightly beaten egg
Oil for deep frying

Gravy:
1 Cup Water
Chicken Cube/stock
2 Tbsp. Cornstarch
Salt
½ tsp. Ground Black Pepper
1 tsp. soy sauce

How to : Season the meat with salt and pepper. Mix the bread crumbs with finely chopped parsley and lemon zest. Coat the meat with the bread crumb mixture by dipping into the egg then to the bread crumbs. Do the coating procedure twice each cube of meat to achieve a thick and firm coating. Deep-fry and drain in kitchen towel. Serve with gravy.

How to make gravy:

Bring water to boil, add chicken stock, add ground pepper and salt, Add Cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken the sauce, stir vigorously until thick. Add 1 tsp. of soy sauce to have a richer color. Adjust the amount of pepper if u like it more spicy!

Eggplant based pizza

Eggplant Bites

This is very easy and quick to make appetizer.

How to:

Preheat oven to 180 0 C. Choose large eggplants and slice them into ½ inch thick. Pan fry with a bit of oil, don’t put too much oil as eggplant absorbs a lot of oil. You may use oil spray just to oil the pan without excess oil. Pan fry the eggplant until golden brown. Spread a heaping spoon of tomato sauce into each slice of eggplant and add Edam cheese on top and lots of parmesan cheese. Bake for 5 minutes and serve 1 slice each per person.

Gidunggo (Flavored oil)

Gidunggo (Flavored oil)

This is exotic flavored oil smells devine with just the right amount of hotness of various chilli.Just soft enough for everybody's taste.

Ingredients :

2 Cup Olive oil

3 grated Carrots

1 Piece red bell pepper

2 whole pieces star anise

6 cloves garlic

2 pcs. bay leaves

6 pcs. small red chilli

1 tablespoon whole black pepper

1 teaspoon whole white pepper

Procedure:

Heat olive oil in a pan and add carrots. Fry carrots until crisp and drain. Discard the crispy carrots and keep the oil. Put all of the other ingredients in a bottle and add the hot carrot oil. You may add various kinds of chilli according to your liking. Store in room temperature. This oil is smells so great! You can use it to flavor the oil you are using for sautee or you may serve it directly to the table as an optional flavor. This really adds an appetizing taste to your dish, may it be sallad or meat. Anybody can just add the right amount of oil on their food while eating! which my husband loves to do... Actually I've learned this from my husband and modified a bit from his original gidunggo.. This is famous in Angolan cuisine. Enjoy!

Crispy Kangkong

Crispy Kangkong

I’ve been wondering what could I have for the kangkong we have in our small garden. The helper usually takes it home coz I don’t know what to do with it. I remember once we went to a restaurant in Dumaguete and one of the appetizers they have is “crispy kangkong” I Used the same batter with my previous post for onion rings. The secret is.. serve immediately while still crispy!

Onion Rings

Onion Rings

I have tried making onion rings before but ended with soft and very oily. Once I had tried very thick coating. But here is the perfect batter for that! I got this from my sister Dels before.

Ingredients:

Thinly sliced onions

Oil for frying

Batter:

½ Cup flour

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 beaten egg

¼ Cup water

extra cornstarch

Mix all the batter ingredients until smooth. Place extra cornstarch for coating in a separate plat. Dip each sliced onion into the batter and coat with extra cornstarch. Deep fry few at a time. Garnish with sauce and serve immediately while still crispy.

Chips

CHIPSChips anyone?
Chips are the easiest appetizer to prepare huh.. just open up the pack and serve! tsk.. tsk... Yes! it is ready-made chips. I just love the way it was arranged and the vibrant colors. The sauce in the middle is mixture of mayonaise and ketchup. Posting this for the sake of "presentation" Whatelse could make the eyes eat before the mouths? It is absolutely the presentation!

Bread Stripes

Ingredients:
5 pieces sandwich bread
Fish paté

Procedure:
Flatten sandwich bread using a rolling pin. Spread fish paté over the flattened bread and roll the sandwich slowly, not breaking the sandwich. Cut into 1 inch thick. Serve with toothpicks.

Fresh Oysters

Oysters with redwine vinegar

This was the freshest oyster I had in Paris, still alive on ice! A'm not really used to eating fresh Oyster, we used to cook or bake them in Philippines but I didnt know that some other places eat them alive! It was great. Its just that it seems am quite hurt seeing the flesh shrink a little bit, the moment the redwine vinegar or lemon touches the flesh, means oyster is alive. Sswooooooop! it was great! Can I have some more please? What can I say? people are sometimes unkind to other creatures heh?

Sausage cocktail

sausage and cheese

I have a couple of friends coming unexpectedly in about 20 minutes. The kitchen is cold and haven’t prepared anything to serve. Here’s a quick rescue for finger foods to accompany some drinks. Flamengo cheese and sausage.

Crispy Calamari (Squid Rings)

Calamari (Squid rings)

Crispy calamari is one of my favorite side dish or finger food. This is so crunchy!

Ingredients:

3 squid
batter
Oil for frying
Corn starch
Bread crumbs

For batter:
½ cup flour
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup water
Salt and pepper

Procedure:
Clean the squid inside and out leaving the squid white in flesh. Cut into rings and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, add water, flour, corn starch, salt and pepper. Beat vigorously with a wire whisk until smooth and runny. Add the sliced squid into the mixture and mix.

In a plate, place cornstarch and bread crumbs in equal proportion and mix.

Take calamari one by one from the flour mixture and coat with bread crumb mixture. Deep fry until golden brown.