espiriFOOD

I've been away too long...

2008-06-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

...because I'm busy finishing up my master's degree.

Here's a little something for you to watch. It's a Three Sheets episode dedicated to Lambanog, the 90 proof coconut jet fuel of the Philippines. (I can feel my esophagus on fire just thinking about it.)

[Thrilla in] Manila Clams

2008-03-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

Aaah...a steamy bowl of Manila Bay Clams on a brisk March day. Dip a piece of bread into the broth and get yourself a little piece of h-e-a-v-e-n. (I like La Farine's seeded or whole wheat baguettes.)

Here's my take on a classic appetizer:

Thrilla in Manila Clams

5 lbs of uncooked, cleaned Manila Bay Clams in the shell
1 bottle of Pinot Grigio
1/3 cup finely chopped garlic cloves
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
1/2 cup coarsely chopped Italian or flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup butter
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

On medium high heat, saute garlic and shallots just enough to sweat them. Quickly add clams, mixing until some of the clams begin to open. Add the entire bottle of Pinot Grigio, reduce to mediaum heat, add butter. Simmer until the alcohol begins to evaporate from the broth (about 15 minutes). For a thicker broth, simmer 15 minutes longer. Add the parsley right before serving and mix it thoroughly through out the pot.

Serve steaming hot!

And here's your musical & visual selection for this little dish:

Here's a thriller from Kibawe, Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippines:

Music to Cook By

2008-03-16T08:29:00.001-07:00

I didn't feel so energetic the other day while I was making my Ghetto Fabulous Gutu and forgot to include a musical selection for you. Cooking adventures always need a soundtrack!

Take a little taste of this ear candy:

Hip Hip Violin And DJ - For more of the funniest videos, click here

Ghetto Fabulous Gutu

2008-03-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

I was home with achy bones and watery eyes today. I felt too yucky to run out to the grocery store for provisions but I wanted something hot, soupy but substantive in my tummy. I wanted gutu, which is a typical Filipino rice porridge. (In some regions of the Philippines, the recipe you're about his read is referred to as Arroz Caldo.) Whatever it's called, it's comfort food to me.

Unfortunately, I didn't have chicken broth in the pantry today. Boo. But what I did have sufficed. I worked some poor Pinay magic with leftover white rice from back-to-back dinner outings to Happy Garden Restaurant and Phnom Penh Restaurant, and the remainder of a peppered roast chicken from Farmer Joe's Market from which my friend Dre yanked off the drumsticks and I took some of the breast meat. Could have fed a family of four two days ago.

Waste the take out rice, go straight to purgatory

My dad was told as a child by his dad that "every grain of rice you waste is a day in hell". Scary thing for a little Catholic boy to hear but he grew up in the Philippines during World War II and the Japanese occupation so everyone in his microcosm had to utilize every little bit available to them. Well, I'll probably be somewhere in the queue to Hades right behind and right in front of some of you, dear readers, but not for wasting food. At least, I'll be in Filipino comfort food heaven today.

Ghetto Fabulous Gutu

Remaining carcass of a store-bought roast chicken (great if you're only missing the drumsticks)
Leftover take-out white rice (about 4 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup chopped shallots
1/2 cup chopped garlic
1/4 cup minced ginger (or more if you love ginger)
1 bay leaf
3 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 Tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp dark sesame seed oil
water

Garlic, ginger, bay leaf from Tatay's tree, & shallots

Place your chicken carcass in the post and cover with enough water to nearly cover the chicken. Bring to a boil for about 5 minutes then reduce heat to medium low. Add the garlic, shallots, ginger, salt, pepper, bay leaf and sesame oil. Simmer for about 45 minutes or until meat and skin fall off the bones. Remove from heat.

Allow the broth to cool for about 30 minutes. Remove bones, cartilage, and skin from broth. If you like, you can chop up the skin then reintroduce it to the broth. (I'm going to give the skin to Tubby, the cat whose meows sound like a complaining billy goat.) You can use a small strainer to remove some of the remaining fat as well.

Tubby, the Cat Goat

Turn the heat back on to medium high and bring the broth to a gentle boil. Add the rice and allow it to boil for about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for another 30 minutes on low, stirring often so the gutu won't burn at the bottom of the pot.

Serve piping hot. If you like, add a drop of sesame seed oil, more cracked pepper, and for color and a different layer of flavor, add some coarsely chopped cilantro. I like!

Makes about 8 servings or just one for me when I feel crappy.

Who's the FATHER?

2008-03-03T18:17:00.000-08:00

Last week at work, I was hurriedly walking past a group of folks sitting in our lounge area and had an embarrassing little exchange. It went a little something like this:

B: Hey, young lady! Are you pregnant?

Me: No, just fat.

Gotta love that B. His face seemed to beam like a proud future uncle as he asked me and waned the moment I uttered "no".

Damn, that Creme Brulee ice cream decadence in a pint-sized cup.

Not sure who's the daddy, Ben or Jerry.

(Sorry. I couldn't resist!)

Big Mo's Baby (Got) Back Rib Rub

2008-03-02T01:30:00.000-08:00

Meet my good luck kitchen pig, Puerco Almodovar. We've been together for nearly 10 years.

We had a little work party/barbeque sampler at my boss’s house a few weeks ago. (Puerco had a previous engagement so couldn't make it.) Peggy and Debbie used their variation on an award-winning Memphis-style rub and it was scruuuuumptious. Previously, I had only eaten ribs swimming in ketchup-based sauce. Man, oh, man. I much prefer a dry rubbed rib on which I can dump sauce at my own discretion. Those ribs were flavorful and juicy sans sauce. One of the tricks the girls taught me was to pull the membrane off the bone side of the ribs then rub, rub, rub the rub onto them.

So here’s my take on a dry rub for ribs:

Big Mo's Baby (Got) Back Rib Rub

2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
1 Tbsp Paprika
1 Tbsp garlic granules or powder
1 1/2 Tbsp onion granules or powder
1 Tbsp crushed black peppercorns
1 1/2 Tbsp dark Muscovado brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp celery seeds

[Musical selections: "You Gots to Chill", EPMD; "Traffic Jam", Stephen Marley (excellent pepper grinding factor); "Maximum Sunshine", Lynnfield Pioneers; not a real Sir Mix-A-Lot fan so no "Baby Got Back"]

Dump it all in a bowl. Mix the concoction well using your clean and dry hands to smash any little balled up spices. Store in airtight container until ready to use. I recommend rubbing it on your ribs at least an hour before you’re ready for the smoker. Makes enough for about 5 lbs or 2 baby back rib racks.

Why dark Muscovado sugar?

It’s got more of a molasses-like flavor than typical dark brown sugar.

I like to grind black peppercorns with a mortar and pestle
because a regular grinder makes the pieces too small and
canned ground black pepper seems to have less bite.
Sure, it’s a little messy but I think it’s worth the mess.

Greg's Birthday BBQ

2008-03-01T23:34:00.000-08:00

This is my little brother Greg. March 2nd is his birthday so we’re throwing a super casual barbeque for him. He’s a no-frills kind of guy. In fact, he likes to keep things so simple that he plans to name his son something like Gus, Jack or some other monosyllabic name just like, well, Greg. He’s such a beef purist that his ideal rub for tri-tip is salt and freshly cracked pepper. But damn, Greg, we gotta eat, too!

That’s why I’ve come up with a couple of my own rubs. My “Kalpi & Cutie” one is for a chicken that I had one of the butcher’s at Farmer Joe’s split right down its spine. The butcher gave me the most quizzical look; felt it necessary to confirm my request twice with hand gestures; then talked about it to his coworker in Cantonese, apparently in disbelief. I got the idea of flattening out the bird like road kill from Juancho’s Blue Smoke BBQ. Is that cool or what?

I came up with another rub I like to call “Big Mo's Baby (Got) Back Rib Rub” because the baby back ribs I picked up from Costco are pretty and thick, LA-face-with-a-Oakland-booty-style. As much as I dread walking into Costco on a Saturday afternoon, it was well worth the trip and long checkout line. I also picked up five pounds of Manila clams for only $3.49/lb!

I’ll post the recipes for the rubs after everything’s grilled so I can include pics. Don’t be surprised if my recipe entries include selections from the iTunes playlist running at the time I made the rubs. You’ve gotta have a soundtrack to your cooking experiences, right?

Little Bad Asses

2008-03-01T23:19:00.001-08:00

Gregorio, my dad, aka O.G., Big Guy, Pops or more formally Tatay, which means "father" in most Filipino dialects, is on a sojourn to the town we came from in the Bicol region of the Philippines. Bicol is notorious for its heat, not so much climate-wise (it's equally freakin' hot all over the Philippines all the time) but food-wise. We love our sili or tiny peppers akin to the eensy red or green Thai chilies. We also love hearty dishes of fish, shrimp and pork with taro leaves bathed in rich coconut milk. (My favorite is pinangat: ground shrimp and coconut wrapped in dried taro leaves and simmered in coconut milk. I can make it here in California but alas, it just isn't quite the same. Our town's version differs from other town's as well. More about that at another time.)

Back to the photo of the peppers. Tatay has an incredible green thumb. He can grow just about anything from seed, which he did with these little crimson guys. All the foliage had fallen off these plants but the peppers just kept coming through the SF Bay Area quasi-winter. I was planning to use some of them for some dishes I wanted to prepare at my own home but he warned me to stay clear of them. Apparently, they pack so much fire that even the well-seasoned palette of a 77 year-old Bicolano can't handle them. I imagine using one in a dish might incur the wrath of five Scotch Bonnets. So, all we can do is look at them.

Gotta call Pops to ask him to smuggle some pinangat in his check-in luggage somehow...