Recipe | Battered Fries

One of the reasons why I didn't get to read as much books in 2015 compared to 2014 is because I always distract myself watching YouTube videos - especially those food related ones, be it about street food around the world or baking tutorial...until I chanced upon HellthyJunkFood's channel. From their dish recreation of KFC's Chizza, I binged watched their videos, until I get to see this -


...a video tutorial on how to recreate Arby's Curly Fries. Now, there is no Arby's in the Philippines, but this reminded me of McDonald's Curly Fries as well as KFC's French Fries, which had a thin batter unlike the other Fries that is pure potatoes and salt (or flavoring powder). Anyway, even if we don't have the spiral cutter and that the nearby supermarket only sells frozen French Fries, I still wanted to try this one out.

If you didn't watch the video I shared above, and if you didn't pause to 1:48 of the video to see the full ingredients, here's what you need for the batter:

• 1/2 cup Flour
• 2 teaspoons Salt
• 1 teaspoon Onion Powder
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1 teaspoon Cayenne Powder
• 2 tablespoons Paprika
• 1 cup Water 
• Oil for deep frying

The procedure is very simple - heat oil for frying, and mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Toss the potatoes and fry them once your oil is hot enough.

Unfortunately, simple as it may be, I must admit I went through a trial and error phase for this dish.


First time I tried it, I was very hesitant in adding that much salt and paprika, so I ended up just putting one and a half teaspoons of salt and one tablespoon of paprika. I placed all the dry ingredients in the bowl and poured all the water needed. It resulted to a very thin batter that won't stick to the fries. I added a little more flour to make it look like the batter used in the video, and this very small batch was the one that my sister and I shared. We both agreed that it lacked salt, but it had a good mix of flavors.


The second time I tried it, I mixed all the dry ingredients needed, and added the water slowly, and ended up not using all of the 1 cup needed for the batter. This batch was difficult to cook. The batter won't crisp up (compared to the last batch) - it looked soggy, and it turns very brown almost immediately, making the potatoes mushy and very very soft. I ended up frying the potatoes twice - not minding if it would look very toasted.


Doing all the adjustments needed, I found the balance when making the third batch. For this, I only added one tablespoon of paprika and added all the water needed, still adding it gradually to check the consistency of the batter. I was able to fry the potatoes for a longer time as I do prefer my fries crispy. Confident now to serve this to my mom and sister, I sprinkled a little parmesan cheese for added flavor and I made the dip by mixing mayonnaise, tomato ketchup, finely minced garlic (just one small clove), a few drops of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and sugar (plus chopped spring onions).

I loved how this turned out, and my sister said discovering this recipe from HellthyJunkFood might make us into Battered Fries converts.


If you want to elevate your usual home-cooked French Fries, you might want to check this out. This post is in no way connected to HellthyJunkFood, but I would take this chance to invite you to check their page, they do offer lots of interesting recreations of fast food dishes. I am now thinking of recreating the KFC Chizza and the Mountain Dew Wings.

Weekend Eating | Bookstagrammers Day Off

Aside from food, the other thing I am "passionate" about is books. Sometime in 2014, I decided to shift to an Instagram page dedicated to books - what I read, what I bought... things like that. I am blessed to have met fellow bookstagrammers who became online friends, then later, real life friends.

Last Saturday, we decided to meet up just to enjoy life outside Instagram.


I first met up with Eunice and Rexy at Glorietta. These two girls have been my friends on Instagram the longest; and we decided to eat lunch at Pizza Warehouse, a food place somewhat similar to the S&R Pizza place. I went for a slice of Pepperoni Pizza and a cup of softdrinks, and I did like the taste of their pizza, though it was a little oily (typical to pepperoni pizza, I guess).

I wasn't able to take food pictures, but this picture I took and shared on my Instagram page, to showcase the gifts Rexy gave me. We don't chat on Viber as much as I chat with the other girls, but I am touched that she took note of the things I love - cats, food, and watercolors. I especially loved the spoon and fork paperclip book marks, I already know what to do with it.


After lunch and a quick stroll around the mall, we went to Bonifacio High Street (Bonifacio Global City) to meet with other bookstagrammers-turned-friends - Lei, Arra, Avy, Jovel, and Janna. We did shop a little at Fullybooked, then later, we stayed at Serendra to share hearty laughs and this ginormous set of churros from La Lola. I ate a piece of the chocolate covered churros, and it was different from the rest of the churros I ate before.

It has been a great day. I look forward to our next get together.

Weekend Eating | Healthy Shabu-Shabu (Shangri-La Plaza)

Years ago, I used to talk about Weekend Eating here on my blog - be it a family's food trip or trying a new recipe. I want to get back to that, starting today.

09 January is dad's birth anniversary. If he would be alive, he would be 69 years old today. On that day this year, the girls and I decided to spend a weekend together - going to ACE Water Spa and checking in at a hotel for some staycation.  We chose to stay at Red Planet Hotels in Ortigas, and since Shangri-La Plaza Mall is just a walking distance away, we thought about eating Shabu-Shabu (or Hot Pot) because it was one of daddy's favorite food, and was something we learned about through him.


Healthy Shabu-Shabu is a popular hot pot place, my sister speaks highly of because of their food's quality and value for money. For this food trip, we decided to go for two individual sets because we seriously couldn't eat one set each. Our choice were beef  striploin and prawns.


This is how one set looks like - a plate of thinly sliced beef, a plate with pechay, napa cabbage, shiitake mushroom, a carrot, a wedge of tomato, corn, tofu, crab sticks, mushroom balls, squid balls and two kinds of noodles - glass noodles and egg noodles. Also included in the set were - minced garlic, chopped chilies, chopped spring onions, sate sauce, an egg and a small bowl of brothy sauce.




As usual, we let sister lead the way in preparing the dish - letting the broth boil and placing ingredients one after another, starting with the ingredient that would cook longer. The restaurant gives free broth refill, but because we could only eat one serving, we decided to just jam all the ingredients inside the pot.

As for the sauce, what you need to do is - add half of the garlic and spring onions (plus the amount of chilis you prefer) in the small bowl of sauce, crack the egg and dip the yolk on the hot pot to cook it a little. Once it reached the soft boiled stage, add it to the sauce and mix it together. The other half of what's left, including the egg white, you place in the pot before adding the rest of ingredients.

My sister is allergic to seafood, so she ate more of the beef, mom ate more of the prawns, and I ate more of... balls. Yes, balls. Personally, I prefer the balls in hot pot, so I ordered extra squid balls and mushroom balls and ate them with gusto.

We paid 900+ for both sets. Still a good amount to pay for two hot pot of comfort and joy.