Hail and Welcome!
T’is one of my joys nowadays to cook. To cook for my family. To cook for extended family and friend on occasions. Yet I never really had a plan when I was 16 for what to do after compulsory education. I had, to put it mildly, and as one of the subscribers to the Word Emporium can testify first hand, wasted that opportunity to learn and plan for a future.
So one dark windy evening (winter time) I attended a careers evening at my school. I still had no plan. I thought the army might be the best option. I talked to a portly man behind a desk full of leaflets entitled Southgate Technical College (now Barnet and Southgate College since 2011) Catering courses. A range of culinary, waiting and hospitality courses. I applied. Was accepted. So, basically I did that.
I am not even sure what I applied for actually! Ended up on the culinary/ cooking course. Ended up attaining some two years later the catering trade standard qualifications (City and Guilds). I could make an honest living and stand on my own feet.
Yet very early on, although I was comfortable in a kitchen, from a Hospital kitchen to one that catered for an exclusive central London Hotel a stones throw from Buckingham Palace I knew my mind was not engaged. I began to lament the wasted years of secondary education: and decided that ultimately, my path belonged out of catering. Thus began a decades journey of education at my own expense and time. A hard but ultimately valuable lesson for me to learn and accept.
Still as I say, I am comfortable in a kitchen. I can cook. There is no mystery to it. Now I even enjoy the experience! Thus since the turn of the year Jean has been helping me get to grips with the culinary delights and dishes of the Philippines. This has been for a number of converging reasons.
Firstly I have a mind and skillset, though not used in any professional capacity nowadays, nevertheless I have acquired these culinary skills. It is good to use your skills! So I cook! In fact, I like it more at the present time precisely because I am not a chef. Secondly it is far cheaper to cook for yourself than use takeaways/ restaurants. Most of the meals below cost about 4-5 Dinar locally. Better yet, it is normally enough for 2-3 meals! That is value. A takeaway meal should be minimal in a month. A restaurant a treat: preferably shared with good company and family or close friends.
Thirdly I am trying to watch what I eat. What I put into my body. If I select my own fruits, meats, vegetables and pulses: I have greater control. Less need to rely on the ‘off the shelf’ foods that are chock full of sugar or salt; laced with man made preservatives and the gods forsaken palm oil that appears everywhere where it should not be!
So what has Maestro Nanay Jean been helping me learn? What follows is a lowdown on her excellent “Pinoy cooking for English dummies course’’! She and I do this on either a Friday or a Saturday which is the weekend here in the Arabian Gulf.
Week One: Nilagang baka
Week two: Adobo (Manok)
Week three: Paksiw (Sea Bass)
Week four: Sinigang na Salmon
Week five : Bistek Tagalog
Week six : Kare Kare.
That will be this coming weekend! A delicious meal reminiscent of Thai Satay but in my opinion, better! Many more weeks are planned ahead.
Now I do confess that I have a firm favourite in the dishes I have been tutored in making. I really appreciate the flavours of a classic Sinigang. A tamarind based sour soup loaded with kankong, gabi and either shrimp, or salmon or beef: it is the taste of the Philippines. Yet there is a way to go yet in Nanay Jeans course: so who knows if something new will knock sinigang of its perch in my estimation?!
On Christmas Eve just past for example, I was sitting on the pavement on a major road in Manilla, with a hot bowl of Beef Pares that was simplicity but tasty. The restaurant is part of a butchers shop. One part butcher, the other part a carinderia specializing in Pares! I have yet to attempt to make that. Also although I have been taught to make Adobo with chicken, it is Pusit Adobo that is my preferred choice! (Squid). So sinigang does have challengers!
So much to learn. So much to try.
That is itself a good place for a conscious being to be: open.
Have a Blessed week everyone!
If you're not a Filipino: give one of the above dishes a try yourself. Variety is, as the saying goes, the spice of life.
If you are a Filipino….don’t judge my work too harshly! Both my cooking, and myself, are works in progress!