Homemade Lox

My brother and I drove up to Washington last weekend. One of our friends' dad served us some lox. Then we found out that he made it himself. He taught us how he did it. Thanks, tito Del!

Ingredients 

• salmon fillet
• dill
• 2 cups sea salt
• ½ cup sugar
• fresh cracked black pepper 

Ingredients: salmon fillet, dill, 2 cups sea salt, ½ cup sugar	Remove dill from stems then finely chop. Mix salt, sugar and dill in a bowl.
Place plastic wrap on flat surface such as cutting board. Put a layer of the salt/sugar mixture on the plastic in the approx size and shape of the salmon fillet.	Make sure to remove all bones from the salmon. Run your fingers along the fillet to detect small bones. Use long nose pliers or tweezers to take them out. Please the salmon on top of the layer of salt/sugar mixture.
Crack some black pepper on top...	Cover the salmon with the remaining salt/sugar mixture. Put a thicker layer on the thicker part of the fillet.
Wrap the plastic over the fillet...	Leave the tail end of the plastic unsealed, this will let the liquid that is pulled from the salmon drain out.
Place the place plastic wrapper on a pan with a lip. The lip will catch liquid that is pulled from the salmon.	Place another pan on top...
Place some weight on top of the pan. The weight will assist in drawing liquid out. I used foil wrapped bricks.	Place the pan in the fridge. Place the pan at an angle so the liquid will drain downwards. I place a towel beneath the pan since the lip of the pan is not very high. Let the salmon cure for 24-48 hours. I cured this one for 32 hours.
This is after 32 hours of curing...	Brush away the salt and wash it off with water. Do not let it soak, just quickly wash the salt off. Use a towel to dry the salmon.
Cut pieces of at an angle.	I cut mine in thin slices. In my research, it said that you can tell if you've cured it enough if you're able to cut thin slices. It said that if it's not cured enough, the salmon will smear instead of cutting.
Lox, all ready to eat. Try it on a bagel with cream cheese.

Oxtail Soup

This is a Filipino recipe that I grew up with. It's really good for good evening.

Ingredients 

• 2 lbs - 3 lbs oxtail
• can of diced tomatoes
• tamarind soup base mix 
• salt and pepper to taste

Wash and rinse 2 lbs - 3 lbs of oxtail. Place the oxtail in a pressure cooker pot.	Fill the pot with water until the oxtail is all covered.
Bring the water to a boil. A meat foam will form on top. This foam will need to be skimmed off.	After the foam has been skimmed off...
Place the cover of the pressure cooker and lock into place. ****USING A PRESSURE COOKER IS DANGEROUS, DO NOT USE IF YOU HAVE NEVER USED OR DO NOT KNOW HOW TO USE A PRESSURE COOKER****	I set the pressure cooker to 15 lbs of pressure and cooked under pressure for 45 minutes. ****USING A PRESSURE COOKER IS DANGEROUS, AS AN ALTERNATIVE, YOU CAN USE A REGULAR POT AND COOK FOR 3 TO 4 HOURS OR UNTIL THE OXTAIL IS FORK TENDER***
After 45 minutes, turn off the heat to the pressure cooker. Wait until the pot is no longer pressurized before opening it. The oxtail should be fork tender. ****OPENING THE PRESSURE COOKER BEFORE THE POT IS DE-PRESURIZED IS DANGEROUS AND WILL CAUSE SERIOUS HARM OR WORSE****	Add water to the pot to cover the meat.
Add a can of diced tomatoes...	Bring the soup to a boil...
This is tamarind soup base. It gives a sour/tart flavor. A more popular brand of this is Knorr brand.	Add salt and pepper to your desired taste. Add the tamarind soup base mix, 1 tsp at a time. Mix the soup and taste the soup. If desired add another tsp of soup base. Taste the soup again. Continue to add soup base until reached desired taste, tasting the soup each time.
Add one head of chopped cabbage.	Bring the soup back to a boil. Boil until cabbage is just soft. For a lack of a better word, until the cabbage is al dente.
The soup is great for a cold night. Very tasty, meaty and sour soup. And the meat is tasty and soft.

Triple Cheese Bacon Ranch Pull-apart Bread

We made this for a Super Bowl get together at my cousin's house. It's very yummy, cheesy and buttery bread!

Ingredients 

• Sour dough bread loaf
• bacon
• sharp cheddar cheese
• monterey jack cheese
• parmesan cheese
• sweet onions
• butter
• ranch dip mix

Ingredients: Sour dough bread loaf, bacon, butter, sweet onions, ranch dip mix, sharp cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, parmesan cheese (not pictured)	Place bacon on a rack on a baking sheet. Place in a 400° pre-heated oven until bacon is crispy, about 20 minutes.
The crispy bacon comes out of the oven.	Chop up the bacon into small bits.
Mince the onion, place in a frying pan with some oil over medium heat until lightly caramelized.	The caramelized onions
Cut a grid into the sour dough loaf. Cut deep into the loaf without cutting thru the bread. Leave about 1/2 inch at the bottom of the bread uncut so that bread remains whole	Melt the butter and mix with the ranch dressing mix and put in a squeeze bottle
Assemble the bread. First use the squeeze bottle to pour the ranch/butter mix along the cuts in the bread. Then stuff bread, along the cuts with the three cheese, onions and bacon. Stuff one layer at a time. We put the onions first, then cheddar cheese, monterey jack, then the parmesan cheese. We then topped with bacon and then poured more of the ranch/butter mix. Note that we stuffed the bread along all the cut lines of the bread, both up and down cuts. Wrap the bread in foil and bake for 25 minutes in a 350° oven then open foil and bake another 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.	You get a very cheesy, gooey, buttery and bacon bread. Just grab and pull a piece off and enjoy!

This was inspired by a recipe from http://www.plainchicken.com/2011/07/cheddar-bacon-ranch-pulls.html

Tripe Chaser

I learned to make this dish from my dad. He would make this as a chaser when he was drinking with his buddies. Probably when I learn to really like tripe.

Ingredients 

• beef tripe
• onions
• black pepper corns
• bay leaves
• green onions
• vinegar
• salt and black pepper

Ingredients: beef tripe, onions, black pepper corn, bay leaves, salt The tripe needs to be boiled to soften it. Boiling it with some aromatics will add the tripe's flavor and will also help neutralize the smell that the tripe gives off when boiling, which some people, like my wife, doesn't like hahahaha	When the water begins to boil,a foam will form on top of the water. Skim off this foam and discard
Continue to boil the tripe for 1 ½ to 2 hour until soft	Cut the tripe into strips...
then cut into small pieces...	Place the cut tripe in a bowl, add diced onion, diced green onions, salt, black pepper
add vinegar, mix and then serve