Chinese Style Adobo Chicken

I have always been a fan of "Adobo". No matter what form it is, adobo shrimp, adobo pork, adobo rice, adobo beef or adobo sitaw.

 It seems to me  that anything or everything can be adobo-ed.  Be it vegetable, seafood or meats.

 So with my Chinese taste for anything Filipino, it is but natural to make this oh so Filipino dish a little bit Chinese.

No, it doesn't have any vinegar, peppercorns and laurel leaves.   It is  a simple dish only requiring four ingredients:  Soysauce, garlic, brown sugar and oil.

Ingredients for Chinese-style Adobo Chicken
1 Kg Chicken leg (quarter cut)
1/2 C soysauce
1 T garlic paste ( garlic mixed with salt and sugar and ground into a paste)
1 T brown sugar
1/2 T olive oil
 Thats it!

Procedure:
Saute brown sugar and oil, add garlic paste and chicken quarters ( skin side down).  Move chicken around to absorb all those flavor.  Add soysauce and 1 Cup water .  Boil for awhile until chicken are cook and sauce is reduced.  Season with salt and pepper.  

This is a very versatile recipe, you can try it with pork legs and it will work! You can add some spices like laurel leaves and star anise with the soysauce and it will be just fine too.

Cha Misua- Happy Occasion Noodles

 We usually celebrate birthdays in the family not with cake or ice cream but with this traditional Chinese "happy dish"- Cha Misua. It is believed that eating Cha Misua on a happy occasion like engagement, wedding or birthdays brings luck and happy life to everyone.

 My misua recipe holds a particular fondness in my heart- it was my late grandma Teresa's recipe.  Nobody does it like her. I made a few changes in the ingredients, but the basic techniques are the way my grandma taught it to be. I got requests from friends to teach cha misua, but it was not meant to be. 

How can I give something that is not mine to give in the first place?


It was Brian's birthday on May 14 and , as usual, he requested for his share of cha misua. I made two boxes of misua and we ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I roast my own peanuts just because they turn out more crisp than store bought ones.
                                      
Cha misua are cooked stir fried in hot oil and broth and must be al dente, just like Italian pasta.  Anything soft and soggy are not meant for the table.  And because I can be a tad picky, I cook mine in no less than olive oil. :)