a chinese feast you can make at home

The Maya Kitchen recently featured the best of Chinese cuisine, with guest chefs from Manila Hotel’s Mabuhay Palace.

Executive Chinese chef Sun Bing and Chinese operations manager-executive Chinese sous chef Josephine Yu Tanganco-Candelaria showed guests how to prepare Vegetarian “Peking Duck,” Shrimp Glazed with Almonds, Water Chestnuts and Anchovy Fried Rice, Soy-Glazed Chicken Stir Fry, West Lake-Style Minced Lapu-Lapu Soup and Pan-Fried Chinese Pancake.

The duo also had tips to share. How do you make something fried, extra crispy? Double fry it. Why do some recipes call for both light soy sauce and dark soy sauce? The dark soy sauce gives the color, while the light variant gives taste. You can use cream dory in place of lapu-lapu. A pinch of baking soda helps tenderize chicken faster.

Toast almonds in the oven toaster or frying pan with no oil. This gives extra crunch and brings out the taste of the almonds. Lastly, if you apply for a job as a Chinese cook and you put the eggs last when you cook fried rice, then you can kiss the job goodbye. The egg comes first, so as to give the rice a hint of yellow color.

The Mabuhay Palace is one of Manila Hotel’s premier restaurants. It is open every day for lunch, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., and dinner, 6-10 p.m. Call 5270011 for reservations.

For more information on other course offerings, visit www.themayakitchen.com; e-mail contactus@themayakitchen.com; or visit The Maya Kitchen Culinary Center every Tuesday to Saturday at 8/F, Liberty Bldg., 835 A. Arnaiz Ave. (Pasay Road), Makati City, tel. 8921185, 8925011 local 108, 0947-8352290.

Vegetarian Peking Duck

Ingredients

    100 g Hoisin sauce
    30 g bean sauce
    100 g sugar
    12 pcs momo wrapper
    10 g taro, shredded
    15 g carrot, shredded
    10 g black mushroom, shredded
    10 g bamboo shoots, shredded
    0.5 g dried sea moss
    10 g golden mushrooms
    180 g water
    Sugar to taste
    Salt to taste
    Chicken powder to taste
    30 ml cooking oil
    Potato starch, soaked in water
    100 g Maya All-Purpose Flour
    12 pcs fresh cucumber, batonnet cut
    ½ pc bean curd skin

Procedure:

1. Mix the ingredients for the sauce and simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Meanwhile, steam the momo wrapper.

2. Fry the shredded taro and drain excess oil.

3. Boil the shredded carrots, black mushroom, bamboo shoots, dried sea moss, golden mushroom and then drain excess water.

4. Pour the water into the wok. Add fried shredded taro and all boiled ingredients. Season with sugar, salt and chicken powder. Add potato starch until the desired consistency has been reached.

5. Place the bean curd skin on a clean mat. Spread the flour-and-water mixture on the bean curd skin. Place one nori wrapper in the center, followed by the cooked ingredients. Place another nori wrapper on top and spread another layer of the flour-and-water mixture. Finally, fold the bean curd skin to close the “parcel” and spread a final layer of the flour-and-water mixture outside the bean curd skin.

6. Deep fry.

7. Cut fried bean curd skin into 12 pieces.

8. Place them on momo wrappers. Add sauce and fresh cucumber on each of them and fold.

West Lake-Style Minced Lapu-Lapu Soup

Ingredients

    5 g lapu-lapu, minced
    3 g straw mushrooms, minced
    200 g soup stock
    Salt, to taste
    Sugar, to taste
    Chicken powder, to taste
    2 g wansoy, chopped
    1 g rice wine
    1 g sesame oil
    Potato starch, soaked in water

Procedure:

1. Boil minced lapu-lapu and straw mushroom, then drain.

2. Heat a large wok and pour soup stock in the wok. Add cooked fish and straw mushrooms. Season with salt, sugar, chicken powder, rice wine and sesame oil. Once seasoned, add the wansoy.

3. Add potato starch until the desired consistency has been reached.

Soy-Glazed Chicken Stir-Fry

Ingredients

    3 tbsp cooking oil
    6 pcs chicken thighs, on the bone, skin removed
    2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
    1 pc (2 cm) fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced
    3 pcs spring onions (two stalks finely sliced into rounds and one stalk sliced into long diagonal pieces)
    6 tbsp water
    1 tbsp honey
    5 tbsp light soy sauce
    ½ pc fresh red chili, finely sliced

Procedure:

1. Heat two tablespoons of oil in a large wok over high heat. When hot, cook the chicken thighs. This will approximately take four to five minutes. Once browned on all sides, remove and set aside.

2. Reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining oil. Once warmed through, add the garlic, ginger and the two finely sliced spring onions. Fry for two to three minutes until the ingredients are cooked through. Put the chicken back into the wok and toss to incorporate with the rest of the ingredients.

3. Pour in the water, honey and soy sauce. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, put a lid on the wok and cook for five minutes.

4. Remove the lid and turn the chicken thighs. They should be evenly caramelized in the reduced liquid. Cook for another three minutes or until the liquid has reduced to a sticky glaze and the thighs have cooked through. Remove the chicken from the wok and allow it to rest for three minutes.

5. Place the chicken thighs on a serving plate and garnish with the remaining spring onions and red chili.

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Fight One-Man Rule, Corona Rallie s Women Judges

MANILA, Philippines — Chief Justice Renato C. Corona rallied Thursday the country’s women judges to support him in his fight against “one-man rule.”

“Recent events point out that our nation is now in grave peril of teetering toward a one-man rule where executive action aims to shield, shackle judicial independence, undermine the rule of law, and erode the system of governance, particularly the principle of the mechanism of checks and balances,” Corona, without naming names, told members of the Philippine Women Judges’ Association (PWJA) in his speech at the historic landmark Manila Hotel.

He pointed out that the judicial independence of the courts “is being undermined by transient leaders in government.”

“We are fighting for judicial independence, to shield the judiciary from improper influence and pressure from any grave abuse of discretion committed by any unit or agency of the Philippine government,” he said.

“The judiciary must be insulated from political pressures, popularity surveys, lobbyists, private partisan interests, undue influence or outright coercion from the executive or legislative departments who are advancing their own shared mutual socio-political and economic interests,” he stressed.

He also pointed out that “the Philippine Constitution did not leave to the whimsical discretion of the transitory political power holders the implementation and preservation of judicial independence.”

He paid tribute to members of the PWJA as the new breed of Justice Cecilia Muñoz Palma, the first SC lady justice who opposed martial law during the term of the late former President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

He then reiterated his previous statements that the impeachment complaint filed against him is a direct attack on the rule of law, democracy, and judicial independence.

Corona’s defense lawyers have started presenting their counter-evidence before the Senate, sitting as impeachment court.

He had earlier said that his “solid evidence” would acquit him of the charges.

But he said he would accept whatever decision the impeachment court would hand down on his case.

Among those present during Corona’s speech were Manila Mayor Alfredo S. Lim, PWJA president and SC Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro, and SC Justice Estela Perlas Bernabe, an appointee of President Benigno S. Aquino III.

In her opening speech, Justice De Castro hailed the presence of Chief Justice Corona as “fortunate.”

“His presence here shows that it is business as usual at the Supreme Court. He has been working in earnest and attending to judicial tasks given to him,” De Castro said.

Referring to members of the PWJA, De Castro said “they care for you and are always praying for you as you lead the judiciary in upholding judicial independence and observance of the Rule of Law.”

At the start of the impeachment trial last January, the PWJA issued a manifesto of support for Chief Justice Corona.

The manifesto stated:

“The Philippine Women Judges Association (PWJA), hereby manifests its all-out support to the quest for Judicial Independence and the respect for the rule of law, and toward this end, we join the Honorable Chief Justice Renato C. Corona in fighting for the Integrity and Independence of the Judiciary from whoever would attempt to trample the same and put to naught what has been enshrined in the Constitution of the Philippines.

“Knowingly or unwittingly, the Impeachment Proceedings against the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has besmirched and destroyed the image of the Judiciary as a whole, especially because of the massive use of propaganda and other techniques purposely to gain public sympathy, even when the methods used are not in accordance with the standards of law and ethics. We, the women Judges, do believe that public perception does play an important role in portraying the integrity and independence of the judiciary, and any move to taint its integrity and independence, will erode public trust and confidence, to which we must abhor and put to a stop.”

source: mb.com.ph