One of the things to do during this Covid19 Quarantine period (which I was supposed to write about last week) is to learn a hobby or skill. Sure this will take a lot of time but this current situation has allowed us to do so. That we must value our time not to get wasted.
One that I decided to improve on is my cooking skill, in particular with the local Filipino dishes. I am taking it at one dish at a time. Good thing there are a lot of how-to videos and articles on the methods of cooking and on what ingredients to buy. I then had to improvise a bit because of limited access to given the effects of this pandemic.
I started last week with a Pork Sinigang or Pork Stew dish. This is pretty much basic as I was able to cook this back in college and at home. I only added tomatoes and radish as my vegetables.
Next up is Pork Adobo which most calls as the unofficial dish of the Philippines. I am not sure if it was my first attempt but I followed one of the two cooking methods which are marinating the sliced pork on soy sauce and garlic first before stirfrying it.
Lastly, I cooked another basic Pinoy dish in which the ingredients were supposedly a part of the Pinakbet dish. Unfortunately, I was not able to buy the eggplants and the shrimp paste which gives an extra kick in the taste. The dish is called Ginisang Ampalaya with Pork and it was my first time doing this one with a little help from Youtube videos.
I might be cooking more dishes in the coming days if again I am allowed to drop by the nearest supermarket to buy the ingredients. I am also hoping this quarantine will end soon and that the number of cases will eventually stop. For now, I guess maximizing the time is the best approach.
Until the next cooking blog post.
*Banner pic via Google images.