Ang Tunay na INASAL

Last February, before we opened our own inasal store in Megamall, my husband who is from Bacolod, asked me to go to his hometown and "train" in the land of inasal -- MANOKAN COUNTRY. After trying several chicken inasal in the most popular places in Manila, he still wanted to go after the "real" and "orig" taste that he grew up with. 

So off I went to Bacolod, landed in the new spanking airport in Silay and went straight to Manokan Country which now sits right across SM Bacolod. Immediately, we scouted the best of the best chicken inasal restaurants in the area and spotted the biggest one in the middle of the inasal strip: NENA'S BETH Chicken Inasal. I looked around and up at the sign hanging on the resto and wondered why the name with two names?? 

But first order of the day was to "order" and we did! Chicken inasal is actually street food in Bacolod and in Manokan Country, you at least get to eat at a table and not standing on a street munching away on a piece of "pechopak" or "pa-a." Here in NENA'S BETH, we were seated fairly comfortably and our table was laden with the standard condiments that add to the flavor of the chicken inasal: sinamak, toyo, chicken oil, calamansi and siling labuyo for that added kick.

 

Sinamak is the Visayan vinaigrette of sorts - a mixture of native coco vinegar with garlic, ginger, onions and chili. That's the base of the dipping sauce for the inasal. With some sinamak, you add a tablespoon or so of soy sauce or toyo, squeeze a calamansi and put a piece of siling labuyo. 

Of course, in MANOKAN COUNTRY there is nothing but inasal on the menu. You order the part you like best: pa-a (thigh), pechopak (breast and wing), and a variety of the innards like the isol, baticolon and liver. All are marinated in the secret inasal mix that makes NENA'S BETH and the rest of the restos on the strip distinct from the inasalans in Manila. 

We had our fill of chicken inasal served with steaming hot rice. That's all you need in MANOKAN COUNTRY and everyone's encouraged to eat with their hands. You get a spoon and fork only if you ask  - and let's not even ask for knives here... Some of the restaurants also serve other Ilonggo food like oysters and really large mussels (tahong) but the people go to MANOKAN mainly for the chicken. 

A talk with the owner of NENA'S BETH, Beth Baker, revealed the origins of their restaurant and why the two names. While she's Beth, her mother's name is NENA and so go the names of the restaurants of her other siblings. They are originally from Iloilo and her mother is one of the very first Ilonggas who made the street food a popular dish when they moved to Bacolod and set up their chicken inasalan there. Today, several restaurants carry their mother's name, NENA and then append their names after - as in NENA'S BETH, and so on. 

The chicken inasal recipe of Beth remains true to their mother's secret recipe and while there have been a lot of enterprising people who have asked for the recipe, they share it only with those whom they believe will promote the originality of the dish. A popular actor managed to get the recipe but as Beth says, it does not yield the authentic inasal taste, perhaps because a recipe that is simply passed on by word of mouth is not enough. You have to immerse yourself in the art of inasal-making to master it and later on, to replicate the color, flavor, aroma and the whole experience of eating Bacolod chicken inasal. 

Suffice it to say that after eating a few whole chicken inasal(s), I am now an expert. And Ms. Baker was kind enough to let us observe and capture the essence of cooking real chicken inasal - from doing the authentic inasal marinade to the right way of cutting the chicken pieces, to skewering the chickens, to grilling them over live hot coals, and then to making the famous chicken oil or achuete oil for brushing the chicken and topping your steamed rice. There's also the making of the sinamak which is a secret concoction in itself. 

It was a heady experience being there and witnessing the true Filipino way of creating a chicken barbecue that has made its way from Bacolod into the heart of all Filipinos in Manila and beyond: CHICKEN INASAL. Our thanks to the Bakers from the City of Smiles for their warmth and hospitality!

Of Chocolate Dreams & Memories

It was only last year when I was in chocolate heaven - a small patch of heaven on the kitchen floor of ISCAHM across Ateneo. It was only last year when I was literally licking off gooey chocolate on my palms after rolling truffles in my hands in the Pralines Course. 

I had lofty dreams before I joined the class -- of becoming a chocolatier myself, whipping up chocolate truffle goodies and making a living out of it, just like in the movie, "Chocolat." But alas, a year later I still find myself dreaming chocolate dreams and still buying ready-made truffles instead of creating them with my bare hands. Part of the reason I haven't become a billionaire chocolatier as yet is the cost of producing these delectable gems is really prohibitive. It also requires great passion to be able to source the best ingredients and I guess, not everyone in Manila is ready to shell out hard-earned money for a ball of chocolate that melts in your mouth in as little as 20 seconds, longer if you let the chocolate linger till it slowly dissolves in your tongue, slithers around and envelopes your mouth in a sweet, smooth sensation that is simply next to heaven. 

At this point, I can only recall the sweet memories I had last year of being in ISCAHM's kitchen with renowned pastry king, Chef Ernie Babaran. Being there last November was priceless and I guess it's not too late to look back, savor the thoughts and feel the sweet rush all over again! 

Here's last year's story behind the closed doors of PRALINES COURSE of ISCAHM.... I'm thinking I can still follow my chocolate dreams....because as we Pinoys say, it's not too late, Chocolate!

I decided to finish the year with a short course in ISCAHM (Intl School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management). After all, I began the year taking the fundamentals in culinary arts course and I finally managed to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for my family (except it wasn't turkey but coq au vin), so what better way to end 2007 than with a bang -- a sweet one.

Day One of ISCAHM's Pralines Course was all about making Truflle Chocolates. You know, like the ones sold in Leonidas for 80pesos a piece. I thought 80 bucks for a ball of chocolate with a quick shot of gooey, slurpy, liqueur inside is rather steep. But after Day One, the uninitated among us in the making of those truffle chocolate jewels discovered why the stuff costs more than a cup of coffee in Starbucks.

It takes a millionaire to invest in making really good chocolates that you would want to give your very best friends. It requires a tempering apparatus costing P31,000 (and that's the one made in China, which makes the Swiss version of the machine even more expensive), an infrared thermometer to monitor the correct temperature of the tempered chocolate (P3,500 for a really good one), specialty forks and ringed spoons, and for those who wish to make a living doing this, a good cutting machine that will set you back P80,000. AND, that's not even including the marble slab which you must have (to spread the chocolate mix on for the tempering method) that you should keep inside a CHOCOLATE ROOM where you have to spend on expensive chillers to maintain the right temperature for your chocolate. WHEW.

Those of us who enrolled thinking that we could make fancy chocolates for gifts this Christmas could only shake our heads after taking in all these bits of info. They should have included them in the pre-requisites for enrollment. BUT, since we already paid good money for the short course, we had no choice but to relax and just enjoy the experience. I could only wonder to myself how the poor family in the movie "Chocolat" was able to make those marvelous goodies without all these costly gadgets. Oh well, so much for watching too many movies and taking them for real.

So, Day One went really well. We first learned how to make the fancy fillings with the different liqueurs that you want inside the truffle shells. We had Baileys, Kirsch (cherry liqueur), Brandy, and of course, Grand Marnier, mixed with different varieties of tempered chocolate couverture. After doing the fillings and setting them for a day, they had to be piped into the truffle shells and depending on the kind of chocolate gem you're making, you can use three of these pre-made shells: milk chocolate, white and dark.

Piping the fillings into the shells is a skill in itself. You can't pipe in too much of the fillings as if you overfill the shells, they will be too moist and the truffle shells would break. Then there's the whole task of covering the shells with more chocolate couverture and letting them set first before either coating them in Bianca dusting powder or rolling them over wire (for those spiked effects on the truffles).

Looking at the chocolate baths, I was tempted to dip my fingers and licking the chocolate off. BUT YES! I got to do just that after Chef Ernie Babaran (yes, the great pastry chef of Dubai royalty), asked me and my groupmate to dip three fingers into the bath and spread the chocolate onto our palms for rolling the chocolates before coating them in dusting powder! After the rolling task, we had our fill of eating the "rejects" (haha!) and then licking the milk chocolate off of our hands. It was then that I realized why the course was that expensive! You could eat all the chocolate you want and you have a really good excuse to eat melted chocolate from your palms! The course offered sheer pleasure and the realization of every childhood fantasy, short of being locked up in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and scooping chocolate from the river!

And the final moment, of course, was in eating the delectable treats that passed through our hands. Unlike in the fundamentals culinary arts course where students had to muscle each other out for food to bring home, we all had boxes of the pralines ready to bring with us to sample and brag about to our friends and family. I brought my box of goodies and proudly told my husband, our househelp, my kids and some of our staff that I made them! And they couldn't get enough of the chocolates.

So now, we all know why those truffles are more expensive than a cup of Starbucks. They are made with the most sophisticated ingredients, requires the most expensive tools, and not to mention, a whole lot of patience and love. But the sheer pleasure of each bite is way worth it for what kind of world would this be without chocolate

PAELLA Valenciana

Since it's Christmas time and in honor of the opening of our new La Paella branch in one of the malls in Manila, am posting my personal recipe of PAELLA VALENCIANA which I've road-tested several times, to much success.

As I learned in culinary school last year, paella is cooked differently in different regions of Spain such that what goes into the paella recipe in a given area depends on what kind of meat and seafood are abundant there. Hence, the many variations of cooking Paella. 

But what's constant in all is the slow cooking of the paella rice which owes its rich taste and color to the addition of a pinch of saffron threads, pounded to a powdery texture to extract a rich orange-red color that makes your paella true to its origins. Filipinos usually substitute kasuba or achuete for saffron because of the prohibitive cost of saffron threads. But for authenticity, you should go for real saffron threads - at P200 for as little as 10 grams or so in Santis, it will go a long way in giving your paella the stamp of approval of your discerning diners.

Paella must also be cooked slowly. Rice in a 10-inch paellera will cook for 1-2 hours and you can either let it cook on the stove or in an oven. Personally, I prefer to cook it on the stove so I can see how well the rice cooks and if I need to add a bit more broth to make the cooking even. Whichever way you cook the rice, make sure that you get much of the soccarat or browned rice bits at the bottom of the paellera which are the best portions of the dish!

Here's my version, a mix of several recipes, that has never failed me when our friends and family gather around the table for a meal to mark special occasions.

PAELLA VALENCIANA

¼ cup olive oil

5-6 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup onions, chopped

1 can Purefoods chorizo bilbao, sliced

250 g pork loin or liempo, cut into pieces (seasoned)

6 pcs. boneless chicken breasts (seasoned w/ calamansi, S&P)

red bell pepper / green bell pepper, sliced

150 g tomato paste

450 g long grain rice (soaked in water for 15 mins at least)

6-8 cups hot chicken broth

salt and pepper

pinch of saffron

frozen green peas

 

Toppings:

boiled mussels or clams (w/ salt and pepper)

squid sliced

8-15 pcs of shrimps (boiled in water w/ slices of calamansi, S&P)

2 pcs small crabs

sliced hard-boiled eggs

• Heat olive oil in paellera. Saute garlic and onions.
  
• Put in chorizo, pork and chicken. Saute till brown.
  
• Mix in tomato paste. Saute and stir well.
  
• Put in soaked rice and pour in some broth.
  
• Season w/ salt, pepper and saffron. Cover for 10 mins.
  
• Stir rice well every now and then. Pour more broth if needed.
  
• Cover and let rice absorb the liquid. Put in frozen green peas. Transfer to an oven and let the rice cook for 10 more mins.
  
• Top with seafood, garnish w/ eggs, bell pepper slices and lemon.
  

 

My first food writing article

Last year, out of curiosity I joined a food photography and food writing seminar organized by the Filipinas Heritage Library. The seminar included a trip to Bulacan and Pampanga and from that trip emerged several photos and an article that thankfully, was deemed worthy of print in Yummy Magazine last May. Sadly, it got edited down to a few paragraphs which did not capture the essence of the article. Here is that piece and I do hope you like it... it's a tribute to one of the Philippines' kakanins called the "Tibok-Tibok." Enjoy!

The Tibok-Tibok: An Ode to Love from the City of Angels

Pure, unblemished and yes, unpretending. It is true love laid out in a bilao. And to me, it was love at first bite. This is how I fell in love with the tibok-tibok, a soft and silky milk pudding that tenderly melts in your mouth with each bite.

Honestly, I haven’t been much of a “kakanin” person. I fancied cakes, cupcakes, and anything with valrhona chocolate in it, influenced by Manila’s newest thing for dessert buffets. But the tibok-tibok has changed my perception of the kakanin – it is a refreshing change from the designer cupcakes with candy sprinkles, peppermint, bubblegum and strawberry frosting, and yes, even the rich valrhona chocolate that we have been stuffing ourselves with for months now. The tibok-tibok, with its sheer pureness, with its meek tenderness and with its plain white beauty, has made me a convert.

It was in Everybody’s Café in Angeles, Pampanga during a culinary trip where I met my first tibok-tibok. The Kapampangan women in our group said that it was named as such because it was ‘soft as a heartbeat’  (in Filipino, heartbeat is “tibok ng puso”). True enough, there is nothing quite as soft and as creamy as the tibok-tibok. You never even feel it in your mouth until you are swept away by its overwhelming creaminess which, they say, comes from using fresh carabao’s milk – no substitutes. This is probably what makes the tibok-tibok so light on the taste that after downing all those icing-laden cupcakes, you would swear them off the face of the earth.

As unassuming as it looks, this queen of kakanins requires simple ingredients. The key is in using the freshest carabao’s milk one can find. And in keeping with our culinary tradition, one needs good old galapong or rice flour then blended with some coconut milk and bit of dayap zest to make the tibok tibok’s flavor come alive. 

Perhaps, the appeal of the tibok-tibok is in its innocence. It is stark white in color minus the latik on top. It’s also not too sweet and with a sprinking of latik, you are treated to a nutty flavor that goes well with its light milky taste. For those wanting a little twist, it can be paired with some ube haleya. But alone, the tibok-tibok is a true delight. It believes in its own beauty and goodness. It needs no frosting to get you to love it.

I do believe that the tibok-tibok is the women of Pampanga’s ode to love. I can only imagine how it is painstakingly and lovingly made for their lovers, husbands, friends and families. I can almost imagine it being cooked, or created, by the women in total silence, like in the wee hours of the morning, so as not to disturb its freshness, its purity. I can almost see the lovely Kapampangan women softly whispering a prayer as each bilao of tibok-tibok comes out of their kitchen. And I can feel the delight of the lovers, husbands, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, to whom a tibok-tibok has been made and given as a gesture of kindness and of love.

My heart now beats for the tibok-tibok. I am happy to have had a taste of it and to have known how our women can create a love so pure and so real in a simple sweet pudding. It is a culinary masterpiece that comes from the heart.

 

Singapore: The Republic of Food

I was on a recent quick trip to Singapore and although I get the chance to visit every year or so, it seems like the city-state is forever in a state of flux. Change is the natural course of things in Singapore and it's all for the better as Singaporeans seem almost obsessive about being the best in the region.

The proliferation of museums, galleries and all kinds of venues for the arts in recent years shows how serious they are about cultivating an artistic heritage - something which they have once been accused of lacking, presumably because of the diversity of cultures that make up their population. I guess the thought of becoming a state of human androids (or worse, geeks) would strike fear in the hearts of a people. Which is why the shakers in this part of the region are moving heaven and earth to breed more right-brained people.


The change is all for good. The passion to be Asia's best has reached a high point not just in the visual arts but in culinary arts as well. It's not just malls and museums that dot Singapore's landscapes these days but great food haunts as well. Food in this part of the region was once flavorful but too diverse and there was much "to each/eat his own" going on -- Malays would stick to their spicy laksas, the Indians would have be happy only with curry, and the Chinese want to be left alone with their own dimsum and ducks. But that was the dark ages in Singapore's culinary history.

Today, Singaporeans have embraced their unique diversity and take pride in it. And they're shouting it to the top of their lungs by building what they call the FOOD REPUBLIC. THE FOOD REPUBLIC is actually a foodcourt of sorts as it gathers a variety of cuisines all in one place. It's quick, it's hot and it's good! There is a FOOD REPUBLIC in the biggest malls: Suntec City Mall, Wisma Atria and the huge Vivo City Mall at Harbourfront.

Going through the maze of eateries in the area, one is given a feel of what Singapore must have been like in its early years as a port where Malays, Indians and Chinese once hawked and traded their wares. Each stall is stylized in the traditon of the country it represents, even the uniforms of the servers and cooks were carefully chosen to highlight the individuality of their country. The food is a heady and tasty blend much like the melting pot of cultures that Singapore really is. One stall sells coconut cakes, another sells bao and dumplings that can compete with what's served in our own posh hotels in Manila. There's prawn mee cooked in front of you, fresh fruit shakes and juices, roast duck and chicken, all sorts of curries, seafood, noodles and so much more! And all these in just a foodcourt!

THE FOOD REPUBLIC is a celebration of Singapore's cultural and culinary diversity. It seems that they have found distinction and a unique identity in being a melting pot of cultures in the real and actual sense of the word.

Summer Fiesta Salad w/ Mango Vinaigrette

Vegetables are the food of the earth; fruit seems more the food of the heavens. ~Sepal Felicivant


Since the scorching summer season is right about here, save for a few rains now and then, it's certainly the best time for refreshing salads! What better way to enjoy nature's treats than with some crispy greens livened up with the colors of the fruits of the season?

This is a take from YUMMY Mag's 2007 issue which featured the Summer Fruit Salad with Mango Vinaigrette. I made this as part of my birthday party dinner for some friends and it was an instant hit! The guests couldn't get enough of the colorful visual treat as well as the great sweet flavors of the salad. It's cool, it's fun and it's healthy!

Take a few assorted greens (romaine lettuce), cleaned and pat-dried. For color and flavor, slice up slivers of apples (red), kiwi (peeled), cube up some ripe mangoes and add some sliced fresh strawberries. Top the fruit slices on the greens and chill.

For the mango vinaigrette, you would need:
1/2 cup mango puree
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
a pinch of garlic powder
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
3/4 cup canola oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix the mango puree, mustard and garlic powder first. Pour into a blender. Add in the white wine vinegar and canola oil. Blend for 2 mins. Season to taste. Chill for around 30mins or so.

Drizzle the vinaigrette on top of your greens and you have a great way to start off your slimming regimen this summer!

Tilapia w/ Coco Cream Sauce

"There is no love sincerer than the love of food."
--George Bernard Shaw


It's been a while since I uploaded the new recipes that I've tested. Work had gotten in the way. It's been a rush since the start of the year and a lot of times, I had asked our househelp to finish the cooking of our food while I dash off to work or to the gym, more to lose the extra weight and to cure my aching back.

But off to another try at anomeletaday.... today, I cooked a simple, 20-minute meal (yep, beat that, Rachael!) w/c has lots of good creamy coco flavor and spice! The good old tilapia (cherry snapper, to some) has come a long way. The fish, which we have plenty to go around here in the Philippines, has enjoyed new-found glamour and popularity even in foreign restos. It has even graced the show IRON CHEF AMERICA as the "Secret Ingredient" and which Molto Mario had transformed into heavenly dishes!

So with that, the Pinoy has borrowed from his Southeast Asian neighbors, to spice up the ever-present tilapia. This time, I tried a simple recipe: TILAPIA in COCO CREAM SAUCE. Here's how it goes:

1. Clean the fish well and then season with some salt and pepper. Rub the S&P into the fish. Two pieces of tilapia for this recipe.

2. Heat some canola oil and fry the fish in till slightly brown on both sides.

3. Slice 2 small onions lengthwise and chop a head of garlic (mince).

4. Prepare some ground turmeric (about 1/4 tsp.) and add around 1 tbsp of water to that. Mix turmeric into water. You can also use grated turmeric (dilaw na luya) and about a tbsp of that will do.

5. Ready your coconut milk -- for this recipe, I used the coco milk by Fiesta which is in a tetra-pack and just pour in. Around 1 tetra pack will do.

6. In a saucepan, heat a tablespoon of cooking oil and saute the garlic and onions for around 3 minutes or till onions are transparent.

7. Pour in the turmeric mixture and around half of the coco cream into the saute mix. Let that simmer till thick.

8. In a separate casserole, put a bunch of pechay leaves, the fried fish and pour in the sauce. Let that simmer a bit more. Add the rest of the coco cream to the casserole. Season with salt and pepper for added flavor. When sauce is thickened and the fish is cooked entirely, you're done!

It's a good meal that's protein-rich, light, with lots of creamy flavor and is ready in 20 minutes or so! And with the pechay in it, you're guaranteed of a healthy serving of veggies :-)