Valenciana Ilonggo

Valenciana has always been part of our Noche Buena feast back home. This year, because I am away from my family, I decided to prepare it as part of our Christmas Day lunch with some Myanmar  co-teachers. It is one way of introducing Philippine cuisine to them, aside from what we have ordered from SweetD's Mandalay. 

This time, it's Valenciana Ilonggo that I have prepared. No need to use Tomato Sauce and Tomato paste because the recipe only calls for Coconut Milk. This recipe is more tasking than the one I am used to. To prepare, we need to separately prepare the toppings, the sticky rice and some of the ingredients needs to be fried beforehand.

To start, cook Sticky Rice in a pot. You will need to wash thoroughly 1 kg white Sticky rice, add 1 big can coconut milk and 3 cups chicken stock, salt and turmeric powder. Cook similar to cooking rice.

Prepare the toppings:

1. Boil 10 eggs and shell them, slice in half.

2. Slice Green and Red Capsicum in long strips

3. Fry the different parts of chicken that was marinated overnight in fish sauce, pepper and lemon juice.

These will be arranged nicely on top of the mixture.

For the mix, sauté onions, garlic, leeks in butter. Add pork strips, half cooked pork and chicken liver strips, diagonally sliced Chinese sausages, Tiger prawns without the head, diced Crab sticks, Green Peas, diced Carrots, Raisins and shredded Chicken from the chicken stock. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover until cooked.

When cooked, mix with cooked sticky rice. 

Use two wooden spoon to mix properly.

Then arrange nicely in serving dish. Place the toppings to make the Valenciana look more festive and vibrant.

There you have it, Valenciana Ilonggo. Iloilo's take on Paella with Western Visayas twist.

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Special Christmas Macaroni

This is the Christmas Macaroni we served during our Christmas get-together with our respective home room teachers. I made this yesterday for the Noche Buena feast. 

To make this is very easy. All you need for basic ingredients are:

1 kg pasta (Elbow Macaroni preferred)

1000 ml Kewpie Mayo

1 can condensed milk

1 tablespoon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

For other ingredients, I used the following, but you can actually put what you want to add:

2 medium carrots diced

3 Korean Pears diced

2 large Ambrosia Apples diced

2 Granny Smith Apples diced

2 large white Onions diced

2 large yellow Capsicum diced

1 cup diced dried plums

200 grams Macadamia Nuts

250 grams Peanuts

1 cup Walnuts

500 grams cracked Cashew Nuts

35 grams salted Almonds

2 cups diced Cheddar Cheese

1 cup Raisins

1 cup dried Cranberries

My mixing bowl is small for everything so I did two batches until everything is mixed and some placed in smaller containers ready for giveaway.

If you have received 1 from me, it means you are special and I am grateful for your kindness.

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you have a safe and peaceful celebration.

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