TAPSILOG

TAPSILOG

#SIAintheKitchen

If you ask me, I’ll always say that Filipino breakfasts are the best. And what’s not to love about them? Garlic fried rice, tomato salad, spicy vinegar, pickled green papaya salad, a sunny side up egg, and your choice of meat. For meat, there is quite a variety of options: fried spam, deep-fried milkfish, marinated beef, sweet pork, and sweet pork sausages.

One of my favourites would be beef tapas. It’s beef marinated in a soy, calamansi and sugar sauce - very simple and very classic Filipino. I was craving some serious Filipino breakfast so I went ahead and made the whole shebang: tapsilog.

The longer you marinate the beef, the better it is. I marinated my beef for an entire 24 hours and the sauce that came out with it was so delicious. A little salty so I may cut down the amount of soy sauce next time but hey, it’s just another reason to eat up more of that delicious sinigag, or garlic fried rice.

Serve this up with a sunny side up egg, sliced tomatoes and you have yourself a proper Filipino silog.

TAPSILOG - serves 2 - 4

Beef tapa

• 1 lb beef ribeye, cut into 1” strips

• 1/2 cup soy sauce

• 1/3 cup coconut sugar

• 1/8 cup lemon juice

• 1/8 cup oyster sauce

• 6 cloves garlic, minced

• freshly ground black pepper, a generous amount

Siningag

• 3 tbsp vegetable oil

• 1 head garlic, minced

• 4 cups leftover white rice, day old (medium Calrose or Thai Jasmine will work)

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• freshly ground black pepper, as you desire

Garnish

• 3 hot house tomatoes, sliced

• 4 eggs, cooked sunny side up

1. Begin by marinating all of the ingredients together for beef tapa in a bowl. Mix so that all of the beef is covered and the coconut sugar has dissolved. Cover and marinate in the fridge for 24 hours.

2. Massage the kosher salt in with the rice with your hands.

3. In a wok, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat until glistening. Add in the garlic and fry until some colour begins to appear on it, less than a minute. Add in the massaged rice and toss with the garlic and oil. Add in the black pepper and cook for 5 minutes until all of the rice is nicely toasted and very garlicky. Remove from pan.

4. In the same pan, heat the vegetable oil and pour in the marinated beef tapa, still over a medium-high heat. Cook until the beef is cooked and a liquid begins to form. It shouldn’t take more than 4 - 5 minutes to cook the beef - just keep an eye on it because the sugar may burn.

5. Serve the beef tapa and sinigag with seasoned sliced tomatoes and a sunny side up egg.