Announcing: the Food Bloggers Network!

This is something we’ve been working on that I’m very excited about: the brand spankin’ new Food Bloggers Network!

It’s a community driven site where members submit their favorite posts from food blogs, and vote on them! (Think “Digg” for food bloggers).

I hope you’ll join in and share your delicious food blog posts with us!

Lasang Pinoy 23 Roundup: Crockpot Cooking

Yay, it’s the roundup of Lasang Pinoy 23: Crockpot Cooking! Finally.

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Devil’s Beef Stew

First up is Dhanggit’s Kitchen’s Devil’s Beef Stew Blazing in my Cracked Pot, “devilish” because of its outrageous spiciness. Is it also devilish because of the amount of rice you’ll eat with this mouthwatering looking dish?

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Pata Tim

Here we have I can do that’s Pata Tim. Whoever it was who invented Pata Tim, a tasty Chinese dish of the softest pork imaginable, is a genius. Oggi definitely had a stroke of genius when she decided to make it in a crockpot. Mmm….

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Pork Estofado

Next up is Snug’s Pork Estofado, slow-cooked with saba bananas and served with crusty french bread to sop up all of that lovely looking sauce. Okay, we’re getting too hungry now…

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Braised Pork Spareribs

Now, feast your eyes on ISKAndals’ Braised Pork Spareribs, one of the simplest recipes I’ve seen- made up of just pork, garlic, soy sauce and sugar- and oh so gorgeous. You just know that meat is falling off its bones…

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Rib Ends

Homemade green tomato relish is the “secret ingredient” in Cooked From the Heart’s Rib Ends Braised in Green Tomato Chutney, creating an explosion of sweet, spicy and tangy flavors. We’re talking star anise, cloves, cinnamon, and szechuan peppercorns, people.

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Pinatisang Manok

And finally, here’s my very own entry, Pinatisang Manok, which I wrote about here- and my husband is already asking for again.

Thank you so much to everyone who joined in and supported this Lasang Pinoy. These are all recipes I can’t wait to try out myself!

Crockpot Pinatisang Manok

Pinatisang Manok, or Chicken cooked in Fish Sauce, is a dish I’ve been itching to try, ever since I saw its recipe in the Let’s Cook with Nora cookbook. It calls for cooking the chicken, with nothing more than patis and ginger, on very low heat for a long time… until all the chicken’s juices meld with the fish sauce and ginger, and you end up with a very fragrant dish.

My crockpot was perfect for the job. In true lazy-cook fashion, at 10 a.m. I put the chicken in its frozen state with about 1/4 cup of good thai fish sauce (patis), a teaspoon of chopped fresh ginger, set the crockpot on low, and went back to bed.

Four hours later (around 2 p.m.), I added another 1/4 cup of patis and another teaspoon of chopped ginger.

At 7 p.m. (we were expecting guests at 7:30), I added some chunks of green papaya (from our tree!), a tablespoon of rock salt, and a few more dashes of patis to the already awesome smelling pot, and started the rice.

At 7:30 p.m., we sat down to a lovely dinner of this:

Pinatisang Manok

Okay, so crockpot cooking doesn’t give you the prettiest dishes, but oh- the flavor! The chicken, tender and juicy, was falling off the bone… the “sauce”, made up mostly of the chicken’s own juices, was tasty and not fishy at all… the green papaya was still a little crunchy, but that’s how I like it.

Taken with lots of sticky white rice, it was a very comforting, very filling meal.