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Fiesta Food Part Three

 

This article on food is fast turning out to be more than just food and I hope you appreciate the little history and cultural lessons about the Philippines. Food is really very easy to talk about but they essentially become meaningless if you do not know where and why such food has been created. You need to know also why such is liked by Filipinos and why they are presented during fiestas. There is something distinctly special and Filipino about the food and the background of the dishes and this is more important than the recipes themselves.

 

Filipinos are all about family. Even if you go to the houses of Filipinos abroad, it would not be uncommon for you to see that in their house there will be more than one family. Here’ll be uncles and aunts with their own families in the compound. The grandparents of course will also be there and while they aren’t the ones in charge anymore, their presence is still felt. Especially in the cooking.

 

When Fiestas come, it’s like their army reserve men who have been called into action. It’s their show. For almost the entire year grandma will just be doing some knitting or at most watering the plants but as soon as Fiesta season comes up, its like the found the fountain of youth and are as energetic as ever. The recipes that they have would come out and they mostly have them memorized down to the brand names and amounts. Even more importantly, the rest of the family is at the grandma’s (lola’s) beck and call. Everything would now go through grandma. If someone is asked to help, he or she has to do it grandma’s way or they’ll be scolded.

 

Moreover, as we have said before, this is like a special class for daughters and granddaughters. They all try to follow grandma’s tips and pieces of advice. They all want to get grandma’s approval when it comes to cooking. Even the ones who have families already become little children again seeking their mother’s approval. I guess this is how it is with Filipino Families. They never all grow up but they never grow old.

 

Here are now some recipes that are the favorite of my own grandmother. We never really learned how to do this even though we tried.

 

7) Embutido

 

If you’re new to Filipino food, embutido is definitely one of the weirdest dishes you’ll ever come across. At first look, you wouldn’t know what to make of it. The color itself is indistinct. It’s yellowish, and slightly brown with streaks of red, green and brown, depending on what’s in it. There are also two distinct forms of shapes with which it comes.

 

One is the “lanera” shape. A “lanera” is basically a small metallic container that is generally used for a lot of different Filipino delicacies such as ube and leche flan. It is also now used for dishes such as embutido. This is the perfect container for embutido because this container is perfect for steaming which is one of the best ways to cook this dish.

 

Personally, I like having embutido fried. I like my embutido fried. I like the crispy and crunchy exterior combined with the softer middle part. If this is the way it’s cooked and it’s right off the pan, I could eat a lot of it. However, the lanera-style embutido is not the style for frying it. Frying is suited for the second style.

 

The second way of packaging embutido is by making it into a meatloaf. Embutido is also essentially a meatloaf as it is basically meat that has undergone several processes. This other ay is done by forming it into a tube with about an and a half in diameter and about eight inches in length. Yu use the aluminum foil to cover it. Mostly it is frozen after preparation and then steamed or fried right after.

 

The spirit of the Fiesta is embodied well in the embutido. The embutido has a lot of ingredients that wouldn’t seem to go together but in the end they fit in perfectly. It’s basically like a family. There may be different characters and sometimes they may not seem like they belong to the same family but in the end, they are all perfect together.

 

Here’s one embutido recipe that you will surely enjoy with or without a fiesta.

 

Embutido Recipe:

 

Ingredients :

· 1 lb. ground pork
· 1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
· 1 cup (6 slices) finely chopped (sweet or cooked) ham
· 3 tbsp. minced green bell pepper
· 3 tbsp. minced red bell pepper
· 1/3 cup sweet pickle relish
· 1/4 cup raisins
· 3 whole eggs
· 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
· dash of liquid seasoning
· salt & pepper, to taste
· 1 tbsp. cornstarch

· slices (wedges) of hard-cooked eggs
· slices (wedges) of Vienna sausage
· aluminum foil, 10" x 12" sizes

Cooking Procedures :

1. Prepare a steamer and set aside. Alternatively, prepare a baking pan and a wire rack and preheat oven to 350°F.

2. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix until well blended.

3. Divide the mixture into 2 to 4 portions (depending on how many you want to make).

4. Spread and flatten the mixture onto the center of each foil, divide the slices of hard cook eggs and Vienna sausages. Place each slices at the center of each mixture. Hold the foil onto your hand and roll until the ends of the mixture covers the eggs and sausages. Alternatively, by holding each ends of the foil, roll the mixture back and forth until it covers the slices of eggs and sausages in the center.

5. Finally, roll the aluminum foil into a tightly packed log about 1" to 2" in diameter, sealing on both ends. Repeat with the remaining pork mixture.

6. Place the embutido in a steamer and steam for an hour. Alternatively, place embutido in a wire rack on a baking pan, half filled with hot water. Cover with aluminum foil (Be sure the steam will not escape). Steam-bake in the center of the oven for an hour.

7. Remove from the oven. Let it cool and slice into rings. Serve with your favorite catsup or sauces.

8. Refrigerate unused embutido.

 

You can also microwave embutido but never put the lanera or the aluminum foil in it. This is dangerous and you don’t want to know what could happen.

 

 

Sopas

 

We’re trying to give you a good impression as to what types of food you will see in a fiesta. We don’t just want to throw in different types of food. We want you to be able to host an actual fiesta celebration. So we’re giving you different dishes.

 

Filipinos love soup. They eat it alone or sometimes, pour it on the rice. This is a staple for Filipinos and one of the most common soups that Filipinos have is what they call, sopas. Sopas is a milky soup that is usually made with elbow macaroni. This is best served with hot rice although when the rice gets cold already, the best way to eat sopas, pouring it over the cold rice, becomes more of a necessity.

 

Just like with puto and barbecue, sopas is one of the best types of food to have if you want to go around and talk with your friends and relatives. The host would usually give you a cup of sopas with a fork so you can go around and eat at the same time. Sopas is a very light soup and in itself can already be the viand. It is also one of the most complete types of dishes because it already contains some ground pork or chicken, eggs, milk as well as carrots.

 

The importance of sopas is recognized more when the celebration goes into the night. Fiestas can go on all day and sometimes can also go overnight especially for the men who would be drinking with their visitors. In the cold of the night, when one is too full to eat anything else, sopas is the best kind of food to have. There are some visitors who arrive late for one reason or another or arrive under difficult circumstances and when this happens, sopas is the most welcome of all foods. You don’t really have an appetite yet to eat the lechon or the dinuguan. You just want something warm in you and the soup would give you the relaxation that you seek.

 

Just like with other dishes, families have different recipes of this dish. They do not vary as much as the other dishes however and it could all taste similar as well. One more thing: Before you eat it check the temperature by sipping small amounts only. You don’t want to burn your tongue with the first dish that you taste in a fiesta. That would definitely ruin the entire fiesta for you.

 

Chicken Sopas

200-250 grams chicken (chicken breast is best, but any part should be okay)
3-4 cups water
1 chicken stock cube (optional)
1 small onion, sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed/minced
1 tsp cooking oil (vegetable or canola)
1 cup elbow pasta
1 carrot, cubed (as in, small cubes)
1 stalk celery, sliced (leaves and bottom part removed)
1/2 cup shredded cabbage

12-15 quail eggs
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp fish sauce, aka patis (optional)

1) Boil the chicken in the water. You can already add the salt and pepper, if you like.
2) Once the chicken is cooked, take it out of the water to shred or to slice. Save the water as stock for later. Set aside the shredded chicken.
3) In a large saucepan, heat the oil. Add the garlic and saute until slightly brown, then add the onions.
4) Add the shredded chicken.
5) When the chicken is slightly brown, add the water (chicken stock). Add the chicken stock cube, if preferred.
6) When the water boils, add the pasta. Make sure that there’s enough water left for the pasta to cook. Just keep adding 1/2 cup of plain water (preferably hot), if/when needed. Make sure that you have enough liquid for a soup.
7) As soon as the pasta is ‘al dente’ (not quite cooked, but already softened), add the carrots and celery. Stir.
After 2-3 minutes, add the shredded cabbage. Keep stirring.
9) Add the egg. Make sure that you stir and break the egg – so you don’t get one lump of egg in your soup.
10) Once the egg is “stirred in” the soup, slowly add the milk and keep stirring. Remember not to add the milk all at once and you must stir, stir, stir. Otherwise, the milk might “curdle”. And, that’s not a pretty sight!
11) When you’ve successfully added all the ingredients, check if you need to add salt and/or pepper. Some people also opt to use fish sauce.

 

If you’re the host remember to reheat the soup every now and then, Preferably, you can heat it when it’s around lunch time, merienda time (Afternoon snack time) and dinner time. If the fiesta goes on well into the night, reheat it again while adding some extra water or milk so as not to dry it out. Be careful when you reheat it because sometimes you can ruin the dish by doing so.

My lola cooks great sopas and he adds some quail eggs in it which I really love. It’s much more fun to eat plus I am totally crazy over quail eggs. It’s great to have as a merienda and it’s something that is also fun to cook. Sure it looks complicated at first but in truth it is very easy and you can put a number of adjustments that would not ruin the dish unlike the other dishes above mentioned. Filipinos love sopas and if you have it, it would definitely be a big, big, plus.

 

Fiesta Food Part Two

 

In part one we have discussed Lechon, Menudo and Dinuguan. The marquee of that group is of course Lechon, by far the most festive of al the types of food that one can see and eat during a fiesta. The Philippines have a lot of fiestas and while the country itself isn’t rich with a big bulk of its population living way below the poverty line, they never scrimp on food.

 

Fiestas are all about gathering. People and families that have been separated for months and years come together not only with their families but with the community that they are or used to be a part of. The main attraction is the food because usually the food that is served in Fiestas are created from recipes passed on from one generation to the next. Thus the previous generation who are now returning to the old house would like to se what has happened to the dishes that they taught the next generation. They want to see if the next generation has been true to the recipe or still does not know how to cook.

 

This is especially true with women. Filipino mothers always treat their daughters as if they are their cooking protégés. They do this because this is how they were treated by their mothers as well. It’s like a skill they have to learn before they can be declared fit to be married. This is why one of the often heard things after a daughter learns how to cook well or at least learns the recipe taught to her by their mother is the phrase, “Pwede ka nang mag-asawa!” This translates to, “Now you can get married!” It’s like a right of passage for young daughters.

 

Like I stated in the first article, Fiestas are also a showcase of food. Families are proud to showcase family recipes and they want to show to the community that they have the best menudo, the best dinuguan, the best whatever dish they have prepared. But they also want to show their elders that they have been true to the recipe that has been handed to them. Sometimes they improve on it and are proud to sow it to their moms or grandmothers. Let’s just say that the “improvement” isn’t really well taken. Any step forward is a step back.

 

The showcasing of the dish isn’t only one way however. It’s not only downward but upward as well. During fiestas, the people who usually return to the community are the younger generation who has left the old town to seek their own fortune elsewhere. They return to their old town expecting and anticipating their favorite dishes when they were still children. They want to be pampered and for Filipinos, being pampered means comfort food. I myself love going back to the old towns of my forefathers and taste the delicious dishes there. One of my favorites is the Dinuguan in Bulacan (a province north of Manila) and the Laing of Bicol (a province group South of Manila).

These dishes taste so good whenever they are made where you first tasted them. It’s like you can copy the recipe to the letter but if you cook dinuguan in Manila, it’s still not as good as when you cook it in Bulacan or wherever hometown you come from.

 

People expect to taste their favorites when they go to Fiestas. I remember practically going crazy when I go to Fiestas because I simply do not know where to start. They would have loads of food there and the thing about Fiestas is you just don’t stop in one place. You go from one house to another, eating the same dishes that have different variations. In one day you could easily eat ten types of menudo, lechon, dinuguan, fried chicken, lumpiang shanghai, pancit and kaldereta. You would find yourself begging the people in different houses to stop you from eating more of their dishes! The thing is you will keep on going if only your stomach could take it. I will go on about this but I’m pretty sure you want to hear more about food.

 

4) Lechon Manok – As we have discussed earlier, Lechon Manok isn’t really up to par with the original, the pork Lechon or Lechon Baboy. However, Lechon manok is also a favorite in fiestas because like I said above, people in the Philippines aren’t really rich. Lechon isn’t really cheap. In fact, Lechon is a very expensive dish. While it would be great to have lechon, sometimes, it’s just not in the cards.

 

Lechon manok is the best alternative beause people in the Philippines really love chicken as well. They have so many chicken dishes but Lechon manok is one of those special treats that people want to have. Most probably after the original lechon, lechon manok is the most popular. It is also probably one of the most common dish of them all.

 

There are many variations of Lechon manok. In Bacolod, they have what is called “inasal” a kind of lechon manok that is way different from the regular way of cooking lechon manok. Usually, what one needs to do is to just marinate the chicken and then grill it. “Inasal” has a very different and a lot more complicated way of marination process. It involves squeezing, dipping and a whole bunch of everything else that makes it special. For comparison, here are both recipes. Be reminded that there are variations of variations so it could all be different.

 

Ingredients

Marinade:

Liver Sauce:

Procedure

 Here is the Inasal recipe that you might also enjoy. I do.

 

 

·    2 Chickens (free range if available)

·    3/4 cup Filipino vinegar

·    1/4 cup Garlic finely minced

·    2 stalks Lemon grass optional

·    Salt

·    Annatto oil (see notes below)

·    Wooden skewers

·    Spiced vinegar

 

5) Pork Barbecue

 

Barbecue? Really? Yes really. I know barbecues don’t really scream Filipino. For those of you who know the history of the Philippines however, this wouldn’t be such a surprise. Here’s a brief history lesson for everyone out there who do not seem to understand what I am talking about.

 

In the early part of the 1500s, the island group was colonized by the Spaniards and ruled for more than 300 years. Then the Americans came and blind sided us with the single most outrageous deal in the entire history of the world called “The Treaty of Paris”. They ruled for a few decades, got beat up by Japan and then McArthur came back and opened a can of whoop ass on Hirohito’s legion.

 

The United States therefore have some influence on Filipinos in terms of culture and as we have talked about before, when we say culture, in the Philippines, you could very well just have said “food”. The weather in the Philippines is always like summer and therefore barbecues are particularly popular.

 

True to form though, Filipinos added a twist to this dish. They are not the conventional types of barbecue and they have a distinct flavor and design as well. I don’t think that Filipinos even know how unique our barbecue is. Filipino barbecue is usually marinated in a slightly sweet sauce. That of course isn’t groundbreaking in any way. The way a barbecue usually looks is that a strip of fat is skewered into a short and thin barbecue stick and then the rest of the barbecue stick is filled with mostly lean meat. People have taken this for granted. They think that all barbecues look the same but in fact, this design is uniquely Filipino. Remember also that when we say barbecue here, we do not mean a general way of cooking. It is not the low fire grilling.

 

Barbecue for the Filipinos is pork barbecue. In relation to Fiestas and other party occasions, barbecues are great because it allows for people to walk around, socialize, carry on a conversation while eating. It’s normal for people in the Fiestas to sample the barbecues first and foremost from the hosts because it allows them to enjoy the food of the host without fully committing to eating their cuisine by getting a plate. You can just have a barbecue stick and say that you already ate there. As we all know, in Fiestas, people will force you to eat in their house. If you decline, it would be an insult to the host. If you’re really full, grabbing a barbecue would be like substantial compliance. 

 

Traditionally, barbecues don’t have dips or sauces. You just grab them and go eat it. However, sometimes you are offered some sauce to which would complement the barbecue like a special vinegar or soy sauce/ vinegar combination. It really depends on you. Some people like the dips and others want the purity of the barbecue.

 

It sounds like a simple recipe really but I myself who have probably tasted over a thousand different barbecues can attest that no two barbecues taste alike. Of course if it came from the same cook or the same batch they would taste the same but if you take that out of the equation, you will definitely have an impossible time matching two barbecues. It has never happened and I don’t think it ever will. Everyone seems to cook it differently. Some are dry barbecue while others are practically drenched. Some have a particular meat while another may have a different part of the pork. The marinade and the sauces all play a part as to how each barbecue would taste as well as the part of the pig that is used. Unlike menudo or dinuguan or even lechon, barbecues all taste different and while sometimes it’s a bad thing, it can also be a good thing in terms of variety.

 

Here below however, is the basic barbecue recipe for those of you might want to try it on your own. Remember that it may not taste the same as others.

 

 

Estimated preparation: 20 minutes

Marinating: 30 minutes to 3 hours

Barbecue: 10 to 15 minutes each

 

·    1 kg. pork

·    20 bamboo skewers

·    1 cup soy sauce

·    1 head garlic, minced

·    1 onion, finely chopped

·    1/4 cup of calamansi juice or lemon juice

·    1/2 cup of 7up, sprite or beer (optional)

·    1 teaspoon ground black pepper

·    3 tablespoons of brown or white sugar

·    1/2 cup of banana or tomato catsup

·    Cut pork meat into thin and long slices – 1/4 inches thick and less than 2 inches wide.

·    In a mixing bowl, marinate the cut pork with the soy sauce, minced garlic, chopped onions, calamansi juice, ground pepper, sugar, banana catsup and the soda or beer (this tenderizes and adds flavour to the pork barbecue)

·    Mix well and keep in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (turning occasionally).

·    Prepare the bamboo skewers by removing splinters and soaking in water to reduce burning during barbecue.

·    String the pork on the skewers.

·    Over live charcoals, barbecue the pork on skewers until each barbecue is cooked – turning every few minutes on each side and basting the leftover marinate on the barbecue.

 

6) Puto

 

What is Puto? Puto is basically a variation of rice cake. Filipinos love rice and they also like to cook it in various ways and puto is just one of them. There are many kinds of puto but the most basic and popular form of it is that it is round like a cupcake and has a white color. In the province however, puto is cooked in bulk and sold in bulk. It is placed in a bilao, a leave woven round and shallow container and that in itself is the place where it will be cooked as well as served.

 

Puto can have toppings and the most popular topping that they have is cheese. Even here there is some variation as sometimes it is grated cheese and other times it’s melted cheese or a strip of one or two pieces.

 

Another popular topping that is placed on a puto is what is known as red egg or salted egg. A piece of this on top of the puto makes the puto “special” and much more tasty. The red egg is basically a matured egg buried for days in salty soil and makes the egg have a distinct salty and appetizing tast. The puto itself would normally taste milky to a bit bland so the combination is perfect.

 

The most popular food however that goes with this white treat is none other than the black-colored dinuguan. Surprised aren’t you? But yes, For Filipinos, this is the basic and most popular combination of the two kinds of food. Dinuguan and Puto go together like peanut butter and jelly and bert and ernie even. SO much so that when one serves the other as a single, it wouldn’t take long before one guest would ask if the other one is coming. (Yes this can be a bit annoying since both are really good on its own). Perhaps there is omething about the color of the two. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that dinuguan is extremely tasty and matches well with the milky puto. Whatever it is, it’s the combination of choice.

 

In fiestas, puto is just like barbecue. It is something that you can eat while walking around and talking to relatives as well as other guests. It’s great because it’s not messy at all and you could eat it without really having to make sure that you don’t ruin how you look. Or having the need to wipe every so often.

 

Puto is usually an afternoon snack but it is also sought after in a Fiesta. Just like with any dish that we have presented, most families would have a special recipe of puto and one that they are eternally proud off. The draw back of puto is that it can be very heavy on the stomach. Just a couple of servings of this and you could totally lose your appetite altogether because you would really feel full already. Three large pieces and you would have thought that you have eaten at a buffet.

 

Here’s a very short recipe for you top enjoy with or without dinuguan.

 

2 c. rice soaked in 1 1/2 c. water overnight
2 tsp. baking powder
1-1 1/2 c. white sugar
4 egg whites
2 tbsp. sugar for egg whites

You may use long grain.

In a heavy duty blender, puree soaked rice in water until very fine. Pour in a bowl; add sugar and 2 teaspoons baking powder. Mix well and set aside.

Beat egg whites until stiff. Add 2 tablespoons sugar to keep the air in the beaten egg whites. Fold the egg whites into the beaten rice batter and pour into muffin pans. Steam for about 20 minutes or until done. Optional: Sprinkle a few anise seeds on top of the puto. Serve with grated coconut.