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.

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

Filipino Style Spaghetti Sauce

Tonight, our niece and nephew came over to learn to cook my version of Filipino style spaghetti sauce. They cut the mushrooms. They cut the onions, even experienced crying cause of the onions, LOL. They even help make homemade pasta.

Spaghetti sauce is one of those items that I have no measurements for. I learned to make it by taste and with practice. Over time you just get a feel on how much to put and of what items.

Ingredients 

• garlic
• ketchup
• jar of store spaghetti sauce (we use Ragu)
• onions
• mushrooms
• mild Italian sausage
• ground beef
• ground pork
• oyster sauce 
• salt and pepper

Ingredients: garlic, ketchup, Ragu spaghetti sauce, onions, mushrooms, mild Italian sausage, ground beef, ground pork	Brown the meats
Our nephew helping to cook dinner	Our niece's turn to stir
Mixing all three meats together	After meat has brown, add onions and garlic
add Ragu sauce and ketchup and salt and pepper	add oyster sauce
add the mushrooms	add a sweetener, such as sugar, we used Stevia. Simmer on low heat for one to two hours, until the sauce has turned from bright red to a darker red
the finished product...

Meatloaf with Latin-Asian twist

I wanted to have meatloaf but I wanted something different and this is what I came up with.

Ingredients 

• ¾ lbs lean ground beef
• ¼ lbs Chorizo
• carrots
• onions
• garlic

I started with a pound of meat, ¾ lbs lean ground beef and ¼ lbs chorizo (the Latin twist)	Chop up carrots, onions, and garlic
Mix the meat and chopped vegetables. Add salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce , and Hoisin sauce (the Asian twist). I put the mixture in circular ceramic terrines then bake in the oven in a water bath	after they baked...
Plated with some creamy garlic mashed potatoes that I made, and more ketchup