Cooking lunch for friends

We finished the house and got moved in… which is part of the reason I have not posted in a couple months ha ha… been busy.   We are not really having a house warming party but my wife invited a few of our friends over for lunch. She and her cousins are cooking the Filipino options and I am cooking for the expats.  We will all share the food, of course, but I am making schnitzel, bechamel sauce, and succotash.  I decided to make a video of it and did not mean for it to be so long. It is like 24 minutes, but it covers the cooking of 3 preps.  If I am going to do cooking vids I really need a taller tripod – the view is not so good.  Sorry.  So, here is the video, a copy of the recipes, and some pics from the lunch.  Everyone seemed to have a good time.  There was tons of food, but very little left overs.  So I think everyone got enough to eat. 

The front porch turned out great and had plenty of room for 4 couples to eat.  But… OMG the flies!  So many flies… we will work on that.  I went to a friends birthday party a few weeks ago, a couple towns over, and they were swarmed with flies too.  I guess it is a problem this year.  But the flies seemed to enjoy the food too!

We had tons of food.  My wife and her cousins made fried chicken, grilled fish, bbq pork, lumpia, stuffed peppers, soup with prawns, mango float, and even some rice!  I made the wiener schnitzel w/bechamel sauce, and succotash. There was Red Horse beer, Capt Morgan rum, Emperador Light (brandy blend), Coke, Mt Dew, Tang, and water.  We tried to cover most of the bases on drinks  🙂

All of the ingredients are readily available here in the Philippines, with the exception of lima beans.  They are available… sometimes… I have had to adjust a few of my recipes for what we have here.  So far everything has worked out quite well.   The Indian spices were the hardest thing to find, but I found them at a sari sari store across the street from a Sikh temple. 

Wiener Schnitzel

INGREDIENTS

Boneless pork or veal chops
eggs
bread crumbs
Italian seasoning
Worcestershire sauce
Ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese
Butter
INSTRUCTIONS

Pound the cutlets very thin with a meat mallet. I cover it with plastic wrap to avoid messy splatters. Sprinkle some black pepper and Parmesan cheese onto the cutlets. Massage lightly into the meat. Crack the eggs into a shallow bowl (a pasta bowl is perfect). Add some Worcestershire sauce to the egg and mix with a fork. In another bowl put bread crumbs and mix in some Italian seasoning (the store bought mix, like McCormick. is fine). Gently place the meat in the egg mix and push down into bowl to cover the meat – being careful not to knock off the cheese/pepper. After it is coated with egg dip both sides in the bread crumbs, the egg will hold the cheese to the meat.

Melt butter in a large bottom pan, on low heat. Fry the cutlets for a few minutes on each side until golden brown. If the pan dries up add more butter. Try to turn the meat only once because the breading is a bit delicate. You can use a light oil instead of butter but the butter is awesome – and we don’t eat this very often. Splurge a little.

I like to add a bechamel sauce over the schnitzel. I have no idea how authentic any of this is, but I have gotten good reviews from everyone who has tried it.

Bechamel Sauce Recipe

 Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• Dash white pepper
• 1 cup milk

Directions

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. When the butter starts to get frothy whisk in the flour and cook for a few minutes to get rid of the “floury” taste. Gradually whisk in the milk. Add the white pepper. Heat a few minutes, until the sauce thickens a little. Use immediately or refrigerate.

Succotash

Ingredients

• 1 can lima beans, drained
• 1 can corn, drained
• diced bell pepper
• some evap milk
• tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar (or honey)
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (optional)

Instructions

Add all ingredients to pan. Simmer. The milk and butter make a nice creamy sauce – use however much looks right.