Chefie’s World

The April Issue of Appetite Magazine had a California Raisin Advertisement inviting readers to answer a question and with it comes a free demo class at the USDA Culinary Theater with no less than yours truly as guest demonstrator. We had the class yesterday and I decided to feature all healthy dishes with Natural and Golden California Raisin as a flavoring and replacer for some of the sugar. On the menu, Marinated Vegetable Salad with Natural California Raisins, Moroccan Chicken with California Golden Raisins, California Raisins and Apple Bake and Healthy Raisin Cookies. I thought of cooking and baking new recipes that’s not so common but has some familiarity to some Filipinos, I didn’t want it to be too foreign since most of my participants will be homemakers and mostly readers of Appetite Magazine. The Marinate Vegetable Salad is your gourmet atchara since it has broccoli and cauliflower and a myriad of bell pepper that gives color to this salad, the dressing is very simple just add everything into a blender and in less than five minutes, its done, toss in the vegetables and keep overnight for good flavor due to proper ageing. The chicken dish is braised in Moroccan spices and tomatoes until cooked and a different taste profile is achieved. Best with rice and the marinated salad. My desserts is a simple apple pie without the crust, meaning it has a simple crumble on top made with flour, butter and brown sugar and a lot of walnuts, baked just right for texture should still have some firmness. It has a slight taste of orange to make it tangy but still sweet. I had no sauce yesterday but will have some in the recipes I am sharing with you today. Lastly, I am so proud with my healthy raisin cookie recipe since it has the chewiness everyone looks for in a cookie but it good for you since I made it with pure whole wheat flour so it doesn’t get as tough as the other cookies as it cools.
I would like to thank everyone who comes to my demonstrations, who never tires and even with the high cost of gasoline still has all the effort to see and be with me for three hours. Also, I apologize for the minimal amount of tasting portions since the number of participants is not really controllable and I could only make so much due to the budget given for the demonstrations. I know all of you understand….here are the recipes…..

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After two weeks of teaching, today was a no work day, but a day still full of activities. I got to sleep till late but had a meeting with the PR firm for my demo this Saturday, had it in Sentro….the food was good, as Dessa would say it is still my comfort dishes, sinigang na corned beef, fried bangus sisig, rated gg and the Sentro chicken. Had such a good time with Mrs Virtusio and Zsa-Zsa, chatting and conversing about the food world even got to relish our past projects together. Right after lunch, had my much needed trip to the barber shop, everyone knows how important my hair is to me since it’s not that much anymore so stayed and slept there for two hours. Every time I start hearing myself snore, I wake up, embarrassing and you just can imagine how loud it could be. Forgot to tell you that during the Japan trip, no one wanted to sleep in the same room with me due to this….hahaahaa. Then to the bookstore to get my Yummy, Food, Foodie and F&B magazines to be up to date with what is happening in the culinary world. Of course, had a peek of the cute writer chef of the Healthy Way, that’s me….I am getting too selfish of myself….I also took a trip to the grocery to get all my necessities and to partly shop for the demo on Saturday…on the way there, I saw a used book store …wo!…they had Feast by Nigella, two Saveur cookbooks and Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme, all cheaper than a thousand pesos…that’s a steal…but instead got another cookbook I will not discuss now since it’s a classic and I’m greedy…found new stuffs in the grocery….I always do a bi-weekly visit to different groceries just to find out what’s new in ingredients. I love going to Landmark since its so complete, it even has a Korean and Japanese counter but its not complete when it comes spices…….no fennel, coriander essentials in Mediterranean cooking….will let them know….there’s this new fruit in the market, Golden Kiwi Fruit, ah, taste like the regular green kiwi but a bit sweeter, it has a funny shape, since it has two nipples to one side right beside each other. It’s loaded with healthful benefits just eat it and be merry. Went to gym for a much needed exercise, I realized I was getting fat since my third chin suddenly appeared the other day and all my pants are tight, so did a 45 minute walk and some abdominal crunches. Need to get back to exercising, my trainer has beautiful and encouraging words to say…ang taba mo, Chef….even I was guilty about it. But before that had my energy booster, Venti, non fat, two Splenda iced latte. I ended the day by visiting my sister who was not home but my princess was there, ready to joke and make fun of me but that’s the way she makes “lambing”. She so tired from school, commuting from Manila to Pasig. Thought that this day was so exciting and special, felt that it was something to share with you, my friends…readers and whoever…..

Filipino Inspired Dishes for you to cook and enjoy……………..

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me and the gateau st honore

close up shot of quiche de fruits de mer

One of the perks of being a teaching chef is I get to enjoy making and eating classic French desserts which are no longer sold commercially and done with the best of ingredients. Four times during the year do I get to demonstrate and make for my students, the royalties of pastry, Gateau St Honore and Paris Brest. It is made with rich pate brisee, luscious and melts in the mouth, crème patissiere lightened with velvety crème chantilly. Oh, how should I say, a spoonful of these desserts and 10 lbs of fat to regret, and there’s more, praline paste is further added to the lightened crème patissiere for flavor as a filling for the Paris Brest. Additional crème chantilly is further used to decorate both desserts and caramel, hard thread stage sugar is spun and sprinkle to create a halo or confectionery dome to complete the Gateau….oh, a dessert made for the patron saint of pastry chefs and another to commemorate a bicycle race between the cities of Paris and Brest, even people think they are easy to make, they’re not. I always get to burn my fingers when attaching the crème puffs into the walls of the Gateau and this is sugar that burns the skin, the pain lingers, heeheee…..we also did some quiches which generally is becoming very popular with Pinoys but are becoming more minute due to the staggering prices of its ingredients. I enjoy these days but everyone is getting so mixed up with what goes first the pate brisee or the pate a choux….in time, they get it and in time, we all enjoy the grand dames of the French dessert world.

As much as I want to share my recipe for the classics, I can’t – I never owned the recipe, better yet enroll in our one year professional program and get to learn more.

Vegetarian Quiche is what I had in mind for you in this post, something that’s rich but with some healthiness infused into it.

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With one of my pastry idols, Chef Eric Perez

The other day while I was in my lazy posting phase, I was thinking of the ultimate filling for a pie. You know, I realized that not many bakeshops make good pies and if there are some that do make, they are always the common ones, egg, apple, mango cream and the forever, till death ( translated: walang kamatayan ) banoffee pie which every bake shop in town is trying to duplicate ( one has to make, eat and finish this in one day, it will become a sour banana pie after a day ). Take for example, the Philippines favorite, the eternal barkada potluck offering Sugarhouse’s apple pie with grated cheddar cheese on top. Time in memorial did we have this, I remember when they opened in Greenbelt and buy this expensive apple pie that had cheese on top. We all thought it was the right apple pie and the crust so crumbly not flaky and very sweet. We grew up with this type of pie and up till now, it’s a comfort food to some. If you look at any French classical baking book, cheese was never placed inside an apple pie or apple tart, usually it is eaten in combination. It should have been their interpretation of the classic recipe…I hope…
Back again to daydreaming, thinking of what filling I can put inside the pie with a difference, I also wanted something that was familiar to your taste buds and ingredients are readily available. Out of nowhere, I got it, ready to share with you, gourmet enough to be called but simple and easy to make then suddenly. the creativity started to fade and disappear, all because of a person I associated with one of the ingredients…that person really had so much force and spirit that it broke me apart…but I am not going to let “it” affect me…The most insincere people are those who you use other people to gain other people’s confidence and support, how shameful, dreadful, ewwwwww! In my line of work, I get to face a lot of them everyday, some don’t even know they are doing it since they were never taught what was right and wrong…Breeding just like the horses…..hahaha.

I share with you the recipe, the filling not the feeling……….

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Several dozen of full moons ago, I did a photo shoot for a company with lucy torres

I have a reason for not posting during the last few weeks. It has been a non exciting week for me, the usual stuff and the schedules that have been happening, is nothing big or extraordinary to talk about. It also has been very hard for me to accept that I am 43 years old and suddenly I just felt so many body parts aching. Aside from my denial not to wear eye glasses, there are other physiological “abnormalities” one has to face as one gets old. There are still some news, any change in my redundant life is really worth writing about.
My cousins from Mclean, Virginia are home. Sad to say it’s not due for a holiday but after two or three long years of being bedridden, Lola Muring decided to move on to the next life, which I believe is so much better. I remember her for praising all the food that I cook and for her to let me know that she can only cook “dinuguan” which I truly enjoyed devouring…with rice and puto….Her kids, my Ate Ampy, Ate Lilia, Tina and Christine have excelled in their chosen fields and are now retired except for Tina, enjoying life, traveling around the world. Christine who stays in Provence gave me a whole big sack of lavender which she picked from her garden. Oh my room smells like a field of lavender, one of my favorite scents! I even suggested to her that she can flavor her panna cotta with it, just a few teaspoons infused in with the cream. Not too much because it might taste like an air freshener or a candle. Hehehehe. Remember my Ate Ampy, you should remember since I wrote about her big influence on my culinary knowledge, she always supports and encourages me in my work even if it becomes a bit tiring at times. These ladies love to shop and pearls are one of the stuffs they buy here for themselves and to give us gifts to bring back to the States and Europe.
The other night, they treated us to dinner at Heat, Edsa Shangrila. It wasn’t as full as it was before. The food was alright and not as boring the last time I ate there. There was soft shell crab tempura which some people did not know about so I ate that to my heart’s content. There was even apple martini to start with. Wanted to eat more but I was a bit careful with the food I was eating, remember I am 43 and getting fat again. I have not exercised since I turned a year older since there is no time. All my co-teachers are in Cebu doing a festival and I teach everyday including Sunday. But no complains, my students have been learning quite a bit and see some sense in pastry and why it blends with cuisine.
I heard that Yummy Magazine June is out but didn’t get the copy yet, wished I had the time to. My free time is spent with the cousins I truly miss. I do miss posting really……..promise to that more often this time.

I got an email today from a friend who was touched by my post on tiramisu. It brought memories. Every time I write in this blog, it brings me memories. I even had to remind my friend that before she became my friend she was a student in a baking class and before that we met some twenty years ago, in a retreat in Sacred Heart, Novaliches. I was a wanderer then trying to find myself and I am still on a hide and seek, locating I don’t really know what I am looking for.
Today, I had a big treat. My students, Tita Lourdes and Abby bought me my comfort food - Makati Supermarket Spahetti bought in Unimart. Hehehe! Its my childhood all over again- overcooked pasta with tons of spiced ham and sweet sour tomato liquid sauce with tiny bits of green bell pepper sprinkled with cheese food accompanied by two slices of Bakerite soft bread and margarine. Sarap! A lot of you would think “Yuck” but let me know your comfort food and I might say the same thing. What’s your comfort food? Here are some of my favorites….

1. Aristocrat Special — it’s a sandwich where all the bread is French toast, with ham, chicken filling and egg omelette, loads of mayo. They still have it in their Roxas Boulevard Branch but with a different name.

2. Hot Pandesal with Condensed Milk — no description needed

3. Aristocrat Pork Barbecue with Java Rice, Peanut Sauce and Atchara…..definitely one of the best….its one of the treats mom and dad would bring home after a long day and night in the Navotas Fish Port.

4. Beef Tapa – there was time everyone left for Europe I was left home alone and that’s all I ate, breakfast, lunch and dinner…..you did the same with bacon, didn’t you?

5. Champorado with Evaporada and Tuyo —- are you salivating now?

6. Almond Gelatine from Salazar Bakery - it has the right texture - ang kunat and I could eat a lot since it was fat free….we make a version in the Gavino Haus that’s sugar free…

7. Brownies and Chocolate Crinkles from Becky’s Kitchen — now I am hungry?

8. last but not the least, we always had this during mom and dad’s birthday and was I amazed when I found out that Chef Gene’s family makes it, my ultimate happy happy European hopia….Tarta de Madrid….La Cibeles used to be the bakeshop that carried it.

Taste and enjoy the food as the memories linger….