Easy Garlic Shrimp

A buttery, garlicky shrimp dish with subtle sweetness from the addition of drinking soda.  Very easy to prepare, just be careful not to overcook your shrimps or they will be rubbery.  You can tell the shrimps are done when they turn orange in color from being grey.  This recipe goes well with vinegar with lots of garlic, onion and chopped chili.

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo raw shrimps
3 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 cup Sprite or lemon soda
1/4 cup butter

Procedure:
Saute garlic in butter until slightly browned.  Add in the shrimps and mix well.  Add the drinking soda, mix well, and cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until the shrimps are fully cooked.  Transfer on a serving plate and enjoy with you favorite dipping sauce or vinegar.

Kwek-Kwek

Kwek-kwek is a deep fried hard boiled quail eggs covered in a colored batter, usually orange in color.  The orange color usually comes from the use of atsuete or anatto, but I colored mine pink just because.  I just half all purpose flour and half rice flour because I find that by using rice flour the batter is extra crispy and remains so for a longer time than using all plain flour.  This is a very popular street food in the Philippines and it has a cousin "tokneneng" which is a a similar version except it uses hard boiled chicken eggs instead of quail eggs.  Tokneneng is best paired with fish ball sauce or vinegar.

Ingredients"
Hard boiled quail eggs, around 20 pieces, peeled
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup rice flour
4 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp anatto powder or 1/2 tsp food color
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup water

Procedure:
Dredge hard boiled quail eggs in cornstarch.  Set aside.  In a bowl, combine the flour, water, salt and pepper, and anatto powder or food color.  Mix well.  Dip each egg in the batter, and using a spoon, scoop one by one and deep fry in hot oil for a few minutes until crispy.  Make sure the oil is hot enough or your batter will just soak the oil and they will not be as crispy.  Drain in paper towel.  Serve while crispy.

Sweet and Spicy tofu

Ingredients:
1 block raw firm tofu
1 medium sized red bell pepper, diced
1 medium sized green bell pepper, diced
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp minced onion
1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 4 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 red eye chili, diced
salt and pepper to taste
cooking oil for frying

Procedure:
Cut tofu into bite-sized squares and deep fry until lightly brown.  Set aside.  In the same pan, remove some of the oil and saute onion and garlic.  Add in the red and green bell peppers.  When the bell peppers are cooked, add in the vinegar, ketchup and sugar.  Continue stirring and add in the cornstarch mixture and red eye chili.  Season with salt and pepper and continue to cook until thick.  Serve and enjoy!