Chicken and Rice Porridge: How to Make Arroz Caldo in Pictures

Arroz caldo is actually a Chinese congee that was adapted to the tastes of the Spanish colonial settlers who patronised Chinese restaurants in the Philippines.

-Wikipedia

Funny enough, I had to check out Wikipedia how this dish comes about. In its plain basic form, Lugaw - it is just a rice porridge with no meat. There are other versions: tripe topping (Goto), Tofu and Pork Ears on the side (Tokwa't Baboy) topping or with a Hard Boiled Egg. This is all about the version with chicken in it - Arroz Caldo.

Ingredients:

2 pieces of shallots, Ginger (about 2 segments) and One Whole Garlic

5-6 pieces of Chicken Thighs

2 cups of Uncooked Long Grain White Rice
Salt and pepper to taste (not in photo.)

Procedure:

Chop ginger into strips - so you can easily take it out while eating.
Mince Garlic and Shallots

In a pan on medium high heat,
fry all your minced garlic until it is golden brown.

Drain and Set Aside

In the same pan,  render out the chicken fat.
When you get a good amount of rendered fat and the chicken starts bleeding,
turn off stove and take chicken out of the pan.

Drain out all the chicken fat and throw it away. Trust me, there will be more.

Peel off the chicken skin with tongs.

Put the skinless thighs back in the pan to render out more fat.

As the thighs cook, lay out the skins on a tray with a pan at the bottom.

Toast the chicken skin to a crisp!

You know it's done when it turns into this lovely golden brown color.

Take your chicken out again,  check how much rendered fat
is at the bottom of the pan. If there is too much, take some out.
There should be enough because you already took out a lot of it earlier.

Add shallots and ginger at the same time.

Keep Stirring until the shallots turn transparent.

Add your chicken and rice. Don't worry if it still a little bloody and raw. It will all cook off.

Add water and a bit of salt. Keep Stirring. Dont Let it Dry up.

Add Water, LOTS OF WATER. Rice absorbs water as it cooks.
Your goal is to make it absorb more water than it can take so it splits up.

This is what you are aiming for.

After the rice splits up, add all the fried garlic in the pot.
Season with a bit of Salt and Pepper to taste. 

Put in a bowl and serve with the chicken skin, some soy sauce and lemon.

This is one of my favorite winter blues cures. The dish is relatively simple and familiar. Ingredients are relatively available in American supermarkets. 

If you made this dish, send me a photo!

Fried Whole Fish: Make It, Debone It & Eat It!

Growing up in Manila (Philippines), fried fish is usually on the dinner table. I loved having fried fish for dinner because this means that I can douse my rice pink with banana ketchup. As a child, I didn’t know what fish sticks are, and I first learned about fish fillet from McDonald’s Fillet O’Fish Sandwich.



It is a bit burned, I know.

Knowing how to debone fish at the dinner table is one of the best eating skills I learned. I get looks from fellow diners whenever I suggest ordering a whole fish dish at an Asian restaurant. I googled and surprisingly enough for me, it was a topic of conversation on Chowhound.

I am so handsomely fresh!

I always buy fish from the Asian supermarket. When buying fish, make sure the eyes are not red and they look healthy. The flesh should also spring back when you poke it. This particular one squirmed after I poked it. Sold! Fish in Asian supermarkets are always fresh because WE LOVE FISH!

These guys in the green apron will clean and gut your fish.

Fish minus the styrofoam packaging? FRESH PRIDE!

Picky about freshness? Live fish and lobster is available too!

Cooking the Fish

Ingredients:

Imitating a mermaid centerfold pose.

1 Tilapia (BUY ONE THAT WILL FIT IN YOUR FRYING PAN.)

Cooking Oil for Pan Frying

2 cloves of garlic, Crushed

Rock Salt – iodized is fine as well.

• Clean and rinse your fish again. Make sure you have no part of the guts left in the cavity.
• Cut slits on the side of the fish and put a very light sprinkling of salt all over, including the inside of  the cavity. The slits allow the fish to cook inside.
• Heat the cooking oil on your frying pan on medium high heat. Don’t waste olive oil for frying fish.
• Flick a little bit of water in the oil. If it violently goes out, it is hot enough. 

My G-Section (where they removed my guts from)

Grace under pressure

• Gently but quickly put the fish down in the oil. DON’T THROW IT IN THE PAN. You don’t want to burn yourself. Put the garlic in as you fry. Leave it alone. The garlic helps in giving the crispy brown coating. Turn the heat down to medium low heat. You want the insides to cook before burning the skin.
• You will know the fish is ready to turn after the frying cackling sound goes down and the fish is easily released from the bottom of the pan.
• After flipping the fish, flip your garlic too.

Fried Golden Brown. The slits open up the fish.

Crispy on the outside, flaky on the inside. Yummy all around.

My mom's favorite part of the fish. (I am not kidding.)

Dipping Sauce

This is entirely up to you. When I was a kid, I loved banana ketchup. I doused banana ketchup on my rice to make it turn pink.

Chili Soaking in Vinegar, Kikkoman Soy Sauce
This bottle is different because 
it is imported form Japan. It smells and tastes
different from the Kikkoman Soy Sauce made in US. 
Yes it looks like a water bottle 
but Kikkoman has looked like this back in the 80s. 
When bottled water was not common.

I was feeling very traditional so I made some lemon-soy-vinegar. I keep three kinds of vinegar on hand: Balsamic, Regular White/Cane Vinegar and Spicy Vinegar. Start mixing one teaspoon of vinegar and soy sauce. Add whichever needs more, then squeeze some lemon.

Deboning

Fish generally have a thorny skeleton that runs through the middle of its body. I have scribbled them in different colors so you can tell which I am talking about:

• Blue – This is the Main skeleton. This is what is represented as fish bones in cartoons.
• Purple – On the main skeleton this runs on the vertical, if the fish is lying flat like this. This will intersect with the middle part of the blue skeleton. Expecting it to be there avoids accidentally swallowing the fish bone.
• Yellow – this runs on the side of the fish.
• Green – this is the fish’s “ribcage” these are extra long bones and protects the guts of the fish. YOU CANT MISS THEM.

The *fish rib bone*

Knowing where these bones will be will make your whole fish eating easier. If this is your first time eating whole fish, DON’T WORRY ABOUT DOING IT WITH CUTLERY- EAT WITH YOUR HANDS! It takes practice to debone fish tableside. Learning about the fish’s anatomy will make it easier for you to navigate the whole fish that is usually on a buffet table.

Fish head? Well, you can eat that too. My mom loves it. I am not a big fan.

Eating tilapia that has been cooked as a whole generally has a better taste than a tilapia fillet. I still don’t understand fish sticks, and I will not buy deboned/filled fish unless it is a slice of salmon with the skin intact.

Papri Chat Assembly

Papri Chat Buffet

While buffets are usually easy to navigate – a papri chat is one part of the Indian buffet that needs quite a bit of a lesson in assembly. This dish is suited to the taste of the one who is going to eat it and has as many permutations as a lottery number combination. While some papri chat spreads are better than others, here’s a general idea of making your own.

First make a layer of the crunchy stuff.

Add some cubed potatoes and chickpeas/garbanzos.

Add some chicken cauliflower mix.

Add Some Yougurt and Mint Sauce

And some of the red stuff with the onions

Finish it off with Tamarind Sauce! Mmm.

Yes, it looks like a deconstructed vegetarian samosa, but better! This is just part of the buffet offerings at Indian Taj - and I assure you, the rest of the dinner is good. Cheap too!

Indian Taj Storefront

Indian Taj Prices.

Indian Taj

3725 74th Street

Jackson Heights, NY

Shrimp and Chive Dumplings in Noodle Soup

I love Hong Kong style dumplings. The wrapper is there merely to hold the filling together. Between these and the more usual doughy dumplings, I will pick these any day.

It was to my delight to find out about Sifu Chio thanks to Yelp. The glowing reviews sent me my merry way.

You see, I eat these dumplings in a “slightly different” manner. Here’s how I do it. mmm.

Provided on the table is a plastic basket full of condiments: soy sauce, chili oil, chili garlic sauce, white pepper and salt.

While waiting for my order, I mix chili garlic sauce and soy sauce in a dipping bowl. Don't forget to ask for your dipping bowl.

I know they kinda look like mini brains floating in noodles and broth - but take my word for it, these Shrimp and Chive Dumplings are good!

Up close, you can tell that the skin is very thin, you could see the chives through its translucence.

Dipping it in my soy sauce and chili garlic sauce dip before each bite is the way i like to enjoy them!

 

Each bite is filled with shrimpy-chivey goodness! I would suspect that there is a person in the kitchen who personally checks that each dumpling has at least 2 pieces of shrimp. How they do this perfect chive-shrimp-and-ground-pork balance in each dumpling is mind blowing.

 

This is always a wonderful and filling meal. I cannot pass up going here whenever I am in Flushing running errands. It is even better with it's wallet-friendly price tag.

One thing to note is that their outdoor signage does not reflect their name. You must come here knowing their address and knowing that their storefront looks like this.

To me, running errands in Flushing, Queens is always wonderful with this place. Mmm. I can't wait to go back!

Sifu Chio

40-09 Prince St

Flushing, NY 11354