Chefie’s World

Today was again a no work day but decided to go to school since my good good friend, Betina Kahn Legarda was going to teach Spanish cuisine in one of our classes. I would make it a point not to miss her class since her food is delicious and authetic, really Spanish from the olive oil to the tons of butter that is added to the dish. I have grown to love Betina since we became so close some 7 years ago. I first saw her in a baking class I use to attend in another school, all to herself in one corner of the room, never realizing that she was who she was. She was part of the group I had when I started taking classes again after I got back from the States, which maybe was one of the reasons that I returned to the culinary field. I remember that she would reserve seats for us since we were jumping from one school to another and it would bother her for the other students were looking at her badly for doing such. I was very fond of her and when I got back into teaching, she even invited me to teach in her school in Alabang. Sometimes, I call her mom since she has the same birthday as mom and she made me feel very special whenever I am with her. Today, she took care of her students the way a Spanish mother would treat her kids and I chatted with her about what has been happening everywhere with everyone, it has been quite some time since we last saw each other. I also brought her the Legarda’s favorite Tinapang Boneless Bangus ( Smoked Milkfish ) which I surprised her with.

Also today, students started consulting me on their buffet desserts so tried my very best to make them think and be creative about their choices, it was fun that they get to think and conceptualize a menu from the best desserts they ever tasted.

Inquirer Newspaper also came out with their 20 best home baked dessert specialties, and I am glad to let you know that my mentor and good friend, Jill had two desserts there – Pistachios Sansrival and Concorde. Other friends that are part of the list are Buddy Trinidad’s Mango Madness and Chocolate something, Pixie Sevilla’s Dulce de Leche Cheesecake ( she was one of my first dessert suppliers in Caffe Ago-go ), Dimpy Camara’s Frozen Brazo and I attest that they are all quite good, however, I beg to disagree with some. The classics – Yulo’s Strawberry Cake, Estrel’s Caramel Cake, Juda Yu’s Pandan and Mocha Cake, and Doren Tayag’s cake are a must. They should have added Tita Polly’s Chocolate Cake, Bambi Gobio’s Brazo de Mercedes but it has to be home based so I guess not….anyway, will have to try the others….

I am off to Davao again to teach but will still be writing the blog from there….

June 28, 2008 – Got a call yesterday from a friend and student, Trish asking me if I wanted to go to the Salcedo Weekend Market and I readily said yes….I have been tinkering with these idea for weeks but didn’t have the time due to my weekend classes. Dreaming of having my suman, Budbud Kabog (Visayan Suman, made from millet seeds) which is the best one I ever tasted. I was there before 10 and was surprised that it was also the weekend that Yummy was sponsoring some type of event.

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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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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….

I have been going through a busy week, again – teaching my pro class every day morning until night but enjoying it. Another set of students are also going through their final repertoire where they conceptualize, cook and bake the whole menu for a dinner for a number of guests. But today, May 18 is a special day for me, it’s my Nanay Curing’s birthday – my mother who is the biggest influence to what I am today. My mother who I had very little time to be with but who I enjoyed every dish she ever prepared. As a child, I remember that we didn’t have enough money that I was drinking hot water with sugar but after that all she cooked me where always good. She would send us food all the time….from Navotas to Dasma….her tochong bangus, batuta, Adobong Navotas, Mechandong Navotas I know that you are all enjoying. Her gulay dishes were always special since she would render beef and pork fat and use this to saute her onions, garlic and tomatoes. Today is also my nephew’s birthday, Joey. His calmness and simpleness is so affecting. I cooked for him tonight, his favorite pastas - penne al telefono, pesto e gamberoni, gambas and grilled ribeye steak and lamb chops….tons of food. I will always enjoy cooking for them just like my nanay did with all of us.

I am sharing with you tons of recipes here, simple and delicious…..please write me feedback. Enjoy!

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Only a few of you came to this once in a lifetime chance to watch me live in action at the USDA Culinary Theater to cook and bake healthy dishes with California raisins. But there will be other demos and I will invite you again. That is also the main reason why I have not posted during the last week because events like this requires full attention and concentration and I was also teaching professional and skills class at the same time. It took me awhile to finally decide on the array of dishes that I will be demonstrating and had to test and retest all of them to fit the taste and flavor I wanted. Finally, last week or 6 days before the event I finalized the recipes. I purchased all the ingredients Wednesday and started cooking and prepping everything Thursday with my assistants, Julie, Star and Mr. K. We finished early since the dishes didn’t have too much ingredients and there wasn’t too many pre cooking to be done. I had to do five recipes of the chicken dish ahead to age for better flavor and an additional recipe of dressing with the same reason since if you rest and keep it chilled in the refrigerator for sometime the taste changes so much since the raisins get to infuse their flavors too. Friday came, everything was ready by 11 am and my demo was scheduled at 2 pm so we took a nap right after lunch. As I was cleaning the platters for the final product presentation, I noticed something smelling and I saw the culprit, it was the chicken and it had bubbles and had a funny smell. In other words, it got spoiled since I didn’t have the time to boil it after removing it from the chiller. My fault! spoiled, wasted and thrown immediately - a lesson to learn in preparations for a demonstration. My other concern was I got several text messages from participants that they cannot make it so I might be doing the demo for only a dozen people…heheheh…..My sponsor, Raisin Administrative Committee’s representative would be coming in from Singapore and I really had to make a good impression. Don’t worry, everything went well, all participants who are part of my group of clients and friends in the food industry came and almost filled the theater. I was overjoyed, they all loved the recipes since it was healthy and not too difficult for an ordinary caterer to cook or make which I believe should be taken into consideration now by most chefs when they do demonstrations. Here are the recipes, I hope as usual you enjoy them.

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I’ve been teaching the past week, every other day from 9 am to 10 pm, exhausting but enjoying it so much since it’s always fun to meet a new set of people. One program I haven’t taught here in Manila for six months and it is such a joy that I am again discussing a course that I myself made and labored on. I am also thrilled and happy that one of my students is an old friend who I haven’s seen for a long time. You know the feeling of being so happy that you are again reconnected with someone you shared so much and you have remained friends but don’t see each other? Just like making my tiramisu a week or two ago! It was the memory of making it first for money since I didn’t have any and then later on, for people because they enjoyed eating it with good memories of friends and family. Clients have told me that my food have been part of the most memorable events in their lives and I am elated with that, even clients who remember how it has been all these years with the cakes, or the brownie I made for them. I was even part of several “pamanhikans”. Also the other day I had lunch with a student who has become my friend who went through so much a few years ago but now has bounced back and is ready to start a new life, old and new, she still wanted me to be a part of it. I am also overjoyed with the wonderful comments you have left in my posts. They not only make my heart fat, my eyes water or my hair go but it has made my brain soften to what it really is I have to do in this lifetime.
Sharing recipes with you is like sharing part of me, part of my life….sometimes it takes over three dozen testings before I can actually post the recipe here, that’s how you as readers are important to me.

Crème Caramel has been part of my life. Around 1987, my Ate Ampy shared a recipe with me and it too has been our recipe for such a long time. It is a modified recipe of Martha Stewart’s coming from her first cookbook when she was just a caterer….imagine she’s now a multi billionaire….Creme Caramel is like our leche flan but the Pinoy version uses condensed and evaporated milk and a lot of egg yolks, our version has a difference in it. Anyway, I can’t give you Ate Ampy’s recipe because I honor her for that so I made my own….for you. Hope you enjoy.

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