Soul Food from my Childhood

As some of you know, we are opening a small food shop in a city on the southern part of the Philippines.

One of  our special offerings is a snack that me and my cousins grew up with. It is a specialty of  our grandmothers in Ilocos, where both of my parents are from.

It is orange and crispy and full of vegetable goodness.

It is the kind of food that  crackles  and comforts. Something delicious to pick up the mood after a bad day.

My lola loved to eat this with the traditional dark cane vinegar sourced from Ilocos.

We, the younger ones, prefer catsup and a tall glass of coke to round up our meal.

A few months ago, I went home to Ilocos to learn the basic recipe from my cousin, who owns a famous empanada shop in Batac., with the goal to introduce this snack to the south.  After so many recipe tweaks, we have finally made our very own Nanna’s version of  the  beloved and most cherished Ilocos Empanadas! We will be rolling out the products in a few weeks’ time!

We have added our own distinct taste to  the vegetable fillings, adjusted the crispiness of the yummy crust (we love it crisp as chips!)  but still stayed true to the essence, the goodness of our grandmother’s basic recipe, upholding the authenticity of the Philippines’ only rice-papaya-and mongo based empanada.

Though I cannot share the exact recipe for our empanadas, here are some images for you to appreciate the deliciousness of the snack our family have feasted on for generations.

The filling: a mixture of vegetables, an egg and longganisa ( The  Philippines’ garlicky version of frankfurters)

The crust: orangey crispy and super light crust made of ground rice.

Fried to deliciousness.

Crisp and Ready to eat! You may try eating it with Ilocos vinegar or ketchup.  Guaranteed yumm-o!

Bean to Cup

I’m back in Davao, land of endless shores,  safe evenings, Durians, and, as I recently discovered, purveyor of first class chocolates.

Yes, the Davao cacao is gaining a following internationally. The US-based chocolatier, Askinosie, has produced a line of Chocolates simply called Davao, using the beans from my beloved hometown.

As luck and serenditipity would have it.  An uncle who lives in a suburb in Davao brokered a sale of a working farm to my father.  And what do you know? The farm is planted with Durian, Banana and Cacao!  So now my mind is running wild on ways to utilize these cacaos. Of course, most of the time, the cacaos from Davao are gathered by cooperatives and are fermented and processed into tableas which are then sold to Askinosie, and to a new client, a Europe-based confectionery group.  But my dream is for us to have a local artisanal bean to bar confectionery shop that will produce  single origin chocolates  using the cacao not only from Davao  but from Bohol, Binondo and other areas in the Philippines producing cacao.

Anyway, I received  a big bag of Davao Chocolate Tableas from the uncle.  My plan is to experiment and use the tableas for brownies and cakes, to see if  we can substitute it for the commercial unsweetened chocolates, but because I’m lazy, tonight I decided to use a pack to make the simplest of all preparations — hot chocolate.

The truth: I am not really a fan of chocolate-ah made from Philippine tablea.  The tableas I’ve used (from Leyte, from Binondo and Antonio Pueo) are rather icky, with  bitter flat flavors and gritty textures.  So there was hesitation on my part. I was prepared to be dissapointed.

This is how I made my  Chocolate-ah:  I added 10 tableas to 5 cups water. Turned up the heat and smooshed the tableas with the wooden spoon and whisked the mixture with my heavy duty metal wire whisk.   (Note: to some die-hard pinoys, it is sacrilege not to use a batirol for chocolate-ah. But, though I have a batirol in Davao, to be honest, I find it easier to use a wooden spoon for the smooshing part, and a metal wire whisk for the mixing and aerating steps).  It takes only 3-5 minutes for the chocolate to be aerated well. At this point things were looking good: 1. the cacao mixture was amazingly smooth and without grits. 2. I tasted the mix. Though it was still bitter, there’s a hint of nuttiness, and a somewhat fruity flavor to the cacao.  Which naturally made me all the more excited so I went ahead and  added my secret cacao ingredients– cinnamon and two other secret spices that I shall not reveal in this post . Then I turned the heat to low and mixed in the brown sugar and milk  (to taste).  A minute more of whisking and tada!

Hot Chocolate a la Davao

The chocolate drink was rich, the flavor distinct and amazingly complex! A hint of bitterness, a nutty undertone, and that fruity and aniseed like flavor which I’ve never had before. I paired my mug of hot choco with the Cheesy Chicken Empanadas I baked earlier today for a perfect midnight snack.

And oh I know what I’ll have for breakfast tomorrow: A cup of  Hot Chocolate ala Davao with a couple of  the Banana Crumb Mini-muffins we made yesterday.

Sigh. How magical it is to start and  end the day beautifully and oh-s0 chocolatey

Hush-hush due to Holiday Rush

I know I’ve been neglecting this blog.  And it might seem as if I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen during the holidays. Which is exactly the opposite. I’ve been busy in the kitchen the past month– testing out recipes for the shop,  baking for friends, baking food orders and  cooking for our Noche Buena. That plus the Online shop’s  Christmas Sale and the things I had to settle and put into place before I fly off again, well, I had not much time to feel all Christmassy really. I was just glad I was with the family during the holidays.

Anyhow, I took on the challenge to prepare all the goodies for our Noche Buena in Davao.

It was just four of us in Davao–  Dad, the two younger cousins and me since mother and brother decided to spend Christmas in Paranaque since  the brother had to rush some of his thesis stuffs during the holiday.  To be a bit more festive, we decided to have the dinner outdoor in the garden so we can have cool air and the added buzz of the christmas lights from our home and from the neighbors .  Anyway, since I seldom spend Christmas in the Philippines, I wanted to do some heavy duty cooking.  In a way, I wanted to recall how it was when I was still based in Pinas and we’d spend the Christmas as a family. Starting when I was in college, I had taken the task to make our Christmas and New Year’s menu so this was something I was raring to do again.

This was the menu I made for this year’s Noche Buena:

Baby Back Ribs with homemade Barbeque Sauce

Baked Chicken Tetrazinni (my specialty, and the pasta my father loves best!)

Taco Salad

Fried Prawn Wontons

Orange Chiffon Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Festive Orange Chiffon Cupcakes

Graham Cracker Cake (made by my younger cousin)

Non-alcoholic punch

White Wine

store-bought breadsticks

fruits

It was a pretty fun Noche Buena. We slept at past two, we were all laughing recalling stories about our family, with me grilling the two younger cousins who are both still studying about  their plans  for the future.

All of the goodies for this Menu are stuffs I’ve made before so I pretty much prepped the stuffs that had to be prepped.

I made the barbeque sauce two days before and marinated the ribs for a day so the flavor could seep in.

The pasta is the sort I can make with my eyes closed so it was a breeze doing it.

The hard part was the timing. Because I only have 1 oven, I had to pace the cooking so that the food were ready by midnight but were still hot.  The ribs had to be baked for 2 hours, the pasta had to be baked for 45 minutes and the wontons had to be fried perfectly so that they will still be hot and crispy when they are served.  It almost felt like I was running a diner haha! With my two assistants following my bark of commands.

But it felt great and I think we were happy with the results.  Food were great, according to my father. And that’s  all the thanks I need.