Birthday Eve Black Forest Cake

My apartment was abuzz the night before my birthday. Tofu needed to be fried. The vegetarian adobo had to be cooked. The raspberry coulis recipe had to be tested. Pots and pans had to be washed. Gaaaahhh…

Despite the fact that we were scrambling to do prep work for the next day’s lunch, I managed to find a little bit of extra time to bake a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte or Black Forest cake.

I have several baking books on my shelf, but this is the simplest Black Forest recipe I could find. The source is a book called Kleine Kuchen (little cakes) by Anne Katrin Weber that came with my 20 cm springform. Tiny you might say? The size was perfect because there were only three of us who were going to share one entire cake. Believe it or not, about half of the cake was still left over for Janet and David’s breakfast the next day.

I prepared a non-alcoholic variety by exchanging the Kirschwasser with just plain cherry juice from the bottled sour cherries I bought.

MATERIALS and METHODS

For the Dough

• 3 egg whites
• 3 egg yolks
• a pinch of salt
• 100 g sugar
• 75 g flour
• 20 g cornstarch
• 25 g cocoa powder

A.1 Preheat oven at 175 degrees Celcius. Line the bottom of the springform with baking paper.

A.2 Using a hand mixer, beat eggwhites with salt until it forms stiff peaks.

A.3 In a separate container, beat egg yolks with 2 Tbsp of warm water and sugar until mixture becomes thick and light colored.

A.4 Add the egg yolk cream into the beaten eggwhites.

A.5 Sift together flour, cornstarch, and cocoa powder and use a whisk to fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture.

A.6 Transfer the dough into the springform. Place the form in the middle of the preheated oven and bake for 25 – 30 minutes.

A.7 Remove from oven and cool upside down on a wire rack. Remove from form and peel off the baking paper.

A.8 Slice the cake twice to make 3 layers.

For the Filling and Frosting

• 250 g of bottled sour cherries, drained (collect the juice)
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 75 ml cherry juice
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 400 g whipping cream
• 1 package whipping cream stabilizer (~8 g) (Sahnefestiger)
• 6 Tbsp Kirschwasser (or cherry juice)
• 20 g grated bittersweet chocolate (Schokoraspel)

B.1 Mix together cornstarch and 2 Tbsp cherry juice. Simmer the rest of the cherry juice with sugar.

B.2 Add cherries into the simmering cherry juice. Add the cornstarch mixture. Let it cook until the sauce has thickened.

B.3 Let it cool before assembling the cake.

B.4 Whip the cream, 1 Tbsp sugar, and cream stiffener until stiff peaks form.

Assembly

C.1 From the thickened cherries, select 8 of the nicer looking ones for the toppings.

C.2 Spread a thin layer of the whipped cream on the bottom cake layer.

C.3 Put the rest of the cream in a piping bag.

C.4 Make three cream circles on the bottom layer. Fill the rest of the space with half of the thickened cherries.

C.5 Place the second cake layer on top and soak with half of the Kirschwasser / cherry juice.

C.6 Repeat step C.4.

C.7 Place the top cake layer and soak with the rest of the Kirschwasser / cherry juice.

C.8 Cover the entire cake with the rest of the whipped cream. Save some to make little peaks on top of the cake.

C.9 Distribute the 8 cherries evenly.

C.10 Sprinkle the grated chocolate, first in the middle then in the spaces between the whipped cream peaks.

C.11 Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours before serving.

Did I say it was the simplest recipe I could find? The more authentic version from the Dr. Oetker recipe book lists twice as many ingredients.

I don’t know what I do while preparing sponge cakes but I never seem to have the right amount of height. Instead of slicing the cake twice, I only managed to cut it once to make two layers. Here’s what it looked like with my toothpick guides before slicing.

The original recipe called only for 3 Tbsp of Kirschwasser but I doubled the amount here because 3 Tbsp was not enough to soak through the sponge cake.

While we were waiting for midnight to strike, David got all gourmet on us and decided to temper some white chocolate. Come cake eating time, each slice had a nice white chocolate rainbow on it.

Don’t know how to temper chocolate? Bryan Voltaggio posted a step-by-step guide about it on their website.

So yeah first recipe down, 4 more to go. Up next, Tofu Sisig.

 

Kookie’s Birthday Lunch – The Preview

Last Sunday, after weeks of denial, I celebrated my 30th (some say twenty-tenth) birthday.  I normally don’t have anything big during my birthdays, except for that time when I turned 7 and the entire street had to be blocked off because we had too many guests.

Anyway, because it was THE 30th birthday, I decided to celebrate and invited 9 of my friends/colleagues for a birthday lunch.  David and Janet were not considered as guests as they helped me prepare everything David was the chef and Janet and I played sous chefs.

The night before the lunch, I wanted to greet the new decade with the blowing of the candles.  And for this occasion I made a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, known to the rest of the world as Black Forest.

Nice huh?  See those sparkling things at the back of the cake?  Those are not glasses of champagne or prosecco.  Those are glasses of Apfelschorle

As for the lunch itself, here’s the menu :

Appetizers

Tofu Sisig

First Dish

Asian BBQ Pasta

Second Dish

Twice Cooked Adobo Chicken Breast on a bed of Green Beans

and Mini Salad with Sesame Raspberry Vinaigrette

Dessert

Chocolate revel bar with mango cream and raspberry coulis

I will be posting about the recipes (because David’s too lazy to do so) one by one during the coming week in chronological order starting with the Black Forest.

The lunch was a huge success, with most plates cleaned out (except for one Weichei who couldn’t handle the chili – Hi Nabil!)

We were exhausted afterwards; David and I fell sick the day after.  But nevertheless, it was a fun weekend of chopping, mixing, braising, baking, and aging.

David and Janet, from the bottom of my cold heart, thank you very much for making my twenty-10th birthday special.  *icicle tear*

 

Kathrin’s Käsespätzle

On the last Thursday of November 2009, my friend Kathrin invited me and 4 other of our officemates to her apartment for what she called Käsespätzle dinner.  You might ask, what’s Käsespätzle?

Käsespätzle is like the German version of mac and cheese.  The basic components are Eierspätzle, Emmental cheese, and  caramelized or roasted onions.

Yes, ok Kookie good definition, but what the heck is Eierspätzle?

Good catch.

Eierspätzle is a type of German pasta that’s made with eggs, flour, salt, and water that sorta has an odd, irregular stringy shape.

Just like Italian pasta, Eierspätzle is available in its dried form in supermarkets in Germany.  Cooking the dried variety takes about 12 – 15 minutes, a little longer than the typical Barilla penne rigate or spaghetti.

Some, like Kathrin, prefer to make fresh Eierspätzle by hand.

MATERIALS and METHODS
Käsespätzle (serves 4 – 6)

• 500 g flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 Tbsp salt (divided)
• 250 ml lukewarm water
• 200 g Emmental cheese, grated
• freshly ground pepper
• Röstzwiebeln (fried onions)
• 200 g Limburger or Rodamur cheese, cut into cubes (optional)

1 Boil 3 L of water with 1 Tbsp salt.  Preheat oven at 200 deg C.

2 Mix together the eggs, flour, 1 Tbsp salt and lukewarm water in a bowl.

3 Press the dough onto the boiling water (see below for methods).  Cooked Spätzle act similar to gnocchi in that they pop to the surface when they are ready.

4 Layer Spätzle on a heat resistant glass form.  Add a layer of cheese (Emmental and whatever cheese you like) and pepper.  Continue layering until the form is nearly full.

5 Pop in the oven and let it bake until the cheese have sufficiently melted.

6 Top with Röstzwiebeln and serve with a green salad.

*if you are using dried Spätzle, cook according to package instructions and then follow steps 4 – 6.

DISCUSSION
Pressing the spätzle. There are several methods of “pressing” the dough:
Spätzlehoble
Those darn Germans and their tools!  They have a kitchen equipment that’s specifically for dropping the Eierspätzle dough into the boiling hot water.  The Eierspätzle comes out the way it should look like with each piece just having less than 5 cm of length.

Potato press
The potato press, normally used for mashing potatoes, doubles up as a Spätzle maker.  As you can probably imagine, you only have to put the dough inside, and let the squeezed out dough fall into the boiling water.  It’s not really traditional (not my opinion, Kathrin told me this and she’s German so I’ll take her word for it) but it works.

Dough slicing
Now this is the most inefficient way of preparing Käsespätzle but it still quite traditional.  The dough is placed near the edge of a chopping board.  Each noodle is then sliced off and dropped into the boiling water.  It’s cramp-inducing but you’ll feel like you’re really involved in the process.

Slotted spoon and ladle
Talk about guerilla cooking.  If you don’t have a Spätzlehoble nor a potato press but would like to prepare fresh Eierspätzle more efficiently than using the slicing method, a slotted spoon and ladle could help you.  You just have to put the dough on the slotted spoon and let gravity do its thing.  In a rush?  You can force the dough through the slotted spoon using your ladle.  Problem will arise when the steam coming out of the pot cooks the dough within the slots of your spoon.  So be ready with a toothpick or a skewer to unclog your makeshift Spätzlehoble.

Fried onions.  Kathrin prefers to use the crunchy Röstzwiebeln that can be bought from the supermarket.

You can prepare the onion topping yourself by frying onion rings (2 onions worth) in 3 Tbsp butter until they’re caramelized.  Don’t brown them because they are going on top of the Käsespätzle before baking and they might burn instead of just brown in the oven, as seen here.

Good thing I had some Röstzwiebeln to cover it up.

RECOMMENDATIONS

You can have some fun trying out other cheese combinations for a Käsespätzle.  Just make sure you still have Emmental cheese as the base cheese.  It’s mild anyway so you’ll barely notice it’s there.

Spätzle is not limited to Käsespätzle.  I’ve seen it so many times in the Mensa partnered with Gulasch as some sort of pasta.  Any stew that is heavy on tomato sauce will partner well with Spätzle.

If you do not own a baking oven and still would like to try some form of Käsespätzle, use the store bought Eierspätzle and cook as directed.  Drain in a sieve.  Put a tiny amount of butter in the pot you used to cook the Spätzle.  Return the Spätzle in the pot and add the Emmental cheese.  Stir until the cheese has melted.  Transfer into a bowl and top with Röstzwiebeln. Now wasn’t that quick?

I am categorizing Käsespätzle in SFTW, if you plan to make spätzle by hand, and Phast PhooD, if you plan to use the dried spätzle from the supermarket.

 

Paraiso: Guinataang Malagkit at Pandan Sago

Anything tropical, exotic and sweet is sure to win any non-Asian (read: Caucasian) heart. Anything that reminds them of the sun, swaying palm trees and warm breezes guarantees a contented smile and possibly a burp or two.

When a Polish friend from church raved over my last-minute guinataang munggo na pula (glutinous rice and red mung beans in coconut milk), made from scratch using coconut cream, a cup of glutinous rice, red mung beans and sugar provided by another girl friend for Sunday dessert many weeks past, she never stopped requesting me that I make her another one; she specifically requested for her “Paradise” dessert for our final “international Sunday girls’ lunch”.

Fine. But I did not want to do the one with red mung beans…it felt like repeating myself, thus boring.

Enter pandan sago. Which I found in a Thai grocery shop (managed by…a Filipina!) while hunting for cheap coconut cream. Much to my consternation, sago pearls are sold uncooked in 1-kg bags (but of course!) which made me scratch my head a bit since I had no idea how to cook sago.

But then again, I’d go on a cooking adventure if only to make a friend happy to have her spoonful of paraiso before the holidays.

Materials

• 2 cups uncooked glutinous rice
• 1 cup uncooked pandan sago pearls
• 4 Tbsp sugar (or to taste)
• 500 mL tetra-pack coconut cream

Methodology

• Heat water in a Dutch oven or pot. As soon as the water comes to a rolling boil, add the uncooked sago pearls and stir constantly. After 10 minutes (or until the pearls become completely translucent), immediately remove pot from the stove, drain the pearls through a fine sieve, rinse with ice-cold water before soaking them in a bowl of cold water.
• Pour coconut cream in a non-stick pot, then add the uncooked glutinous rice. Heat the contents, with constant stirring, until the rice is cooked. If the cream thickens too soon, add half-a-cupful of cold water into the mixture and stir evenly.
• Add the cooked pandan sago and stir. Add sugar and stir until crystals are fully dissolved.
• Ladle the contents into bowls, ramekins or any deep dish (or what-have-you). Leave to cool to room temperature before serving (or before chilling in the refrigerator).

Results and Discussion
Too much! This dessert is too easy to make, it’s too easy to make too much! The 2:1 ratio of glutinous rice and sago were enough for 14 persons (the girls, plus a few from the Residentie Steenberg, and an odd fellow or two from ACL). Take note that the proper serving portion for guinataang malagkit is NOT (and should not be) a brimming bowlful—coconut milk/cream is rich, made heavier by starchy, glutinous rice. I myself love this dessert, but I cannot take more than a parfait-cup serving of it.

Coconut milk or cream? You can use either. Coconut cream (in Filipino: kakang gata) is really thick coconut milk from the first pressing of shredded coconut meat—therefore having a higher fat content than coconut milk, which comes from the subsequent pressings (and mixed with a proportion of water). Coconut cream thickens faster, so you need to be extra watchful, with a cupful of water ready to thin out the mixture when the rice is still uncooked. Glutinous rice absorbs a LOT of water!

Cooking sago. Ah, this is the adventurous part of my experience. Before tackling the pack of uncooked sago, I had to take a peek in the Internet for tips and tricks in cooking sago pearls. A lot of Asian foodbloggers agree that sago should be cooked in boiling water for 10 minutes flat (unless you want a bland, icky mush fit for Victorian, British desserts), then rinsed with cold water to remove the excess starch. With my experience, it does take 10 minutes before seeing the white uncooked cores dissolve into translucency. With pandan sago, the end-result looks like tiny, gleaming jade balls.

Wrapping up
All I can say is that I am still amazed and happy to see the smiling, blissful faces of those who ate this dessert, as if they truly had a taste of paradise at that instance. It felt like they loved a part of my home, of where I came from…and this made me proud.

Although, there’s a caveat emptor for this Filipino dessert: Guinataang malagkit is delicious, but nakaka-umay after a while.

Happy Sunday!

 

The fastest way to warm up : Bicol Express

For over a month now, the weather has shifted back and forth between cold and really cold. The time of grilling and cold cuts is over. Now is the season for stews and casseroles. Heavy, warm, caloric…yum!

Since we’re warming up here (heh), I’m going to post one of my favorite Filipino spicy stews: Bicol Express.

It’s quite similar to the Thai curries because it’s made with coconut milk and chili peppers. But that’s where the similarity ends. The Filipino version is simpler, with visibly less ingredients but with the same amount of flavor.

Normally Bicol Express is made with 12 green chili peppers, but to buy so much can be a little pricey. So instead, I used a package of mixed chili peppers made of 3 green and 2 red pieces.

The red chili peppers are a lot spicier than the green variety, which I personally liked. Your tolerance may vary of course. But if you use less chili peppers, I’ll probably call you a wuss.

MATERIALS and METHODS
Bicol Express (serves 2-3)

• 250 g pork belly
• 10 – 12 pcs green chili peppers or 3 green + 2 red chili peppers
• 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 onion diced
• 3 tomatoes diced
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger julienned
• 1 1/2 cup thick coconut cream
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 Tbsp cooking oil
• 1 Tbsp chopped cilantro or coriander
• 1 Tbsp chopped onion leaves or chives
• Fish sauce to taste

1 Dice the pork.

2 Cut off ends of the peppers and remove the seeds. Soak in salted water for 10 mins. Drain and cut into small pieces.

3 Heat cooking oil on skillet and cook pork until golden brown.

4 Add garlic, ginger, onion, tomato, and drained pepper.

5 Add cilantro and onion leaves.

6 Pour half cup of water and simmer for 15 mins.

7 At medium heat, pour coconut cream, cook uncovered, stirring occasionally. Adjust taste with fish sauce.

8 Simmer until there is only enough liquid to coat the solids in the mixture.

9 Serve.

DISCUSSION

Chop instead of mincing. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, Julia Child would probably lecture you on the importance of having one. I don’t have one. Neither do I have a garlic press. So instead of finely mincing the garlic, I just chopped them like a crazy woman. I chopped them up so fine the tiny pieces got stuck between my fingers, endearing me to my colleagues the next day.

Salt the pork before frying. It might be a good idea to rub salt on the pork before dicing and frying them. This makes sure that the meat won’t be bland after cooking.

Reduce water when using coconut milk. If you are using coconut milk instead of cream, add less water before simmering. I don’t necessarily measure the exact amount but if I were to guesstimate, I would use a little less than 1/4 cup. This is so that reducing the liquid wouldn’t take so long.

OUTLOOK
If you are not so keen about eating pork, you can use chicken or turkey breast instead. I have never prepared a vegetarian version of this, so if there’s anyone willing to try using tofu instead of meat, let me know how it turns out.

It wouldn’t be as tasty, but if you are too lazy to julienne the ginger, you can replace it with 1 tsp of powdered ginger. You can adjust the amount depending to your taste.

As with any South East Asian curry, or pretty much any South East Asian main dish, you MUST eat this with warm rice.

 

Oui’s Happy Autumn Stew: Chicken Afritada

November’s almost over and I’ve finally got fed up cooking and eating adobo and sinigang (courtesy of Mama Sita’s sinigang na sampalok powder mix) for a the past few weeks. Not to mention that one time, I subsisted on party leftovers for 8 days (they were tasty, but you get tired of eating the same thing day in, day out). So, when it was my turn to cook the main dish for the girls’ Sunday lunch, I decided to pull out all the stops and challenge myself in cooking a fiesta-rated dish that I haven’t had any experience preparing on my own.

Afritada. Chicken afritada.

I had all the excuses to make this dish—one, this Sunday’s the feast of Christ the King, and two, I’ve invited Adriana (my Ecuadorian friend and labmate in the drug-discovery group) over to taste the Filipino version of a Spanish dish.

(Correction: my family’s version of the Filipino version of a Spanish dish. )

My chicken afritada with rice

Materials (serves eight)
- approx. 1 kg of chicken parts (drumsticks / thighs)
- 1 tetra pack (500 g) of tomato sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
- ½ shallot, sliced
- 3 medium new potatoes (Charlotte Ros), scraped and quartered
- 1 bottle of peeled baby carrots, rinsed and drained
- 2 bell peppers/capsicums: red and green (or you may use any color), cut into strips
- some green beans / haricot verts, trimmed
- canned/bottled white beans in tomato sauce
- salt and pepper
- flour
- ½ cube chicken bouillon

Methodology
- Rinse the chicken parts in running water, pat dry, then coat them with flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Brown the pieces in hot cooking oil, then set aside.
- In a large Dutch oven / cooking pot, heat approx. 2-3 tablespoons of oil, then saute the garlic and onions with the crushed chicken bouillon. Add the browned chicken pieces and lightly toss until coated with the oil and spices.
- Add the tomato sauce. Cover pot and wait until the mixture simmers (in medium heat). Stir the chicken and the sauce, cover and time for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the potatoes, cover pot and let everything simmer for ~10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Add the carrots, cover pot and simmer for 5 minutes. Again, stir once in a while to prevent the food sticking in the pot.
- Add the bell peppers and green beans, let everything cook uncovered for 3-5 minutes (or until the beans turn bright green). Add half a bottle of canned white beans in tomato sauce, stir. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Turn off heat and serve with hot, fluffy rice!

Results and Discussion
Time allotment. This is not a quick dish (i.e., this takes around at least an hour to cook everything, not to mention that it takes me around 20 minutes to prepare the meat and vegetables for cooking), so this is best done during weekends. For today’s lunch, my original plan was to divide the cooking method into two stages—cook the chicken, potatoes and carrots the night before, then reheat and add the vegetables and beans when the girls and I come back from Sunday Mass. I still followed the two-stage cooking plan, however I did not do the first part last night since I was a bit feverish—instead, I got up at around 5AM to do it!

Cooking chicken afritada, stage 1, at 5AM

Absurdly early, I know…but I had Sunday choir-practice at 9AM, and it takes me 25-30 minutes to walk from Brusselstraat to the seminary. And with my sleep-addled (and paracetamol-stuffed) brain had to figure out what sort of cover to use for my hand-me-down Dutch oven…

Bottled baby carrots? Fresh carrots here are sold by the bushel, not by piece. Again, the solo-living dilemma—what am I going to do with a pile of unused vegetable since I can only eat as much? Another advantage in using bottled baby carrots is that I get to skip the trimming and scraping part—all I needed to do was to rinse the pieces thoroughly with cold water to remove the brine (wait, are bottled veggies brined anyway? I am not sure, but it pays to play it safe…and I don’t want any extra, “bottle-only” flavor to compete with my dish) and toss them into the stew. Reduces cooking time, too.

Canned/bottled white beans in tomato sauce?? Ah, I have revealed a family variation to the afritada—the canned/bottled white beans in tomato sauce (back in the Philippines, it would’ve been “canned pork & beans”) rounds up the rich flavor of this tomato-based stew.

Breading the chicken pieces. Another family variation—coating the meat pieces with seasoned flour does two things: prevents the meat from sticking to the pot, and the meat becomes pre-seasoned already. Notice that the “adjust the amount of seasoning to taste” is at the last part of the Methodology—in this attempt, I just had to add more pepper and a tiny bit of salt to complete the taste profile of the sauce, not of the meat.

Wrapping it up
For a PhD student, this is a time-intensive dish, perfect for weekends and for entertaining friends since it’s a stew rich in flavor AND ingredients—with one pot, everyone gets “stuffed to the gills” with protein and veggies. If there are leftovers, they would be greatly appreciated as afritada also ages well in the fridge. But this is definitely not a dish you’d like to whip up from scratch after a long day in the lab.

Although, I call this a “happy stew” because of the colors. Perfect for the grey autumn weather.

 

Flammkuchen and blueberry pie

hi all!  はじめまして！　i’m janet, and this is my first post on this journal (though i’ve been lurking around here for quite some time =P).  i’m a friend of kookie’s, whom i met back in september ’08 when i was doing my practicum in saarbrücken =)  i’m living in vancouver at the moment, and i’m not a Ph.D student (i’m not even a Master’s student…yet), but i DO love food and writing about it, so here’s my first (of hopefully many) contribution to this journal!

i dunno why i was suddenly inspired to make German food (maybe it has something to do with the fact that Silke finally replied to my email from a a month ago!), but i decided that i should try to make flammkuchen, since i really missed it.  i also made blueberry pie – the local white spot makes a delicious one that mines is based off of – because it’s been blistering hot here, and blueberries were on sale (and if there are two foods that i think define vancouver, they’re fresh fruits and lots of seafood) =)

Flammkuchen (makes 4)

1 pkg dry yeast (8g)
2 tsp sugar
200ml lukewarm water
10g salt
500g wheat flour
200g quark (40%)
4 Tbsp creme fraiche
150g smoked bacon
1 large onion
1 egg yolk
nutmeg
salt, ground pepper

1. Dissolve yeast in sugar and water.  Mix dry ingredients for dough together and pour the yeast into a well in the middle.  Knead until smooth and let rest in a warm place for 30 min.

2. Mix the creme fraiche, quark, and egg yolk together, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

3. Cook bacon and onions (don’t fry).

4. Roll out dough very thinly and prick furiously with fork =)

5. Top with quark, then bacon and onions.

6. Bake in a very hot oven (425F) for 10-15 minutes until the edges start to burn.

7. Remove and serve hot!

it’s probably me, but every time i try to make yeast dough, it never works out for me.  it probably also had something to do with the fact that i rolled it out far too thick, but the flammkuchen was rather bready, and didn’t have that nice thin-ness to it =(  i’ll probably use flaky pastry next time (i don’t ever seem to have trouble making that, and i never even follow a recipe).  i also forgot to season it with salt and pepper, and added WAY too much bacon, lol!

blueberry pie

2 lb fresh blueberries
lots of sugar
water
pie crust

1. boil sugar, water, and a few blueberries (for colour) until the mixture becomes relatively thick (make sure you don’t boil it for too long, though, otherwise it’ll become hard candy – see below!)

blueberries encased in hardened sugar – pretty, but doesn’t really work for the pie…=(

2. Bake pie shell according to directions.

3. Coat blueberries in syrup and fill pie crust.

it can be served with fresh whipped cream, like at white spot, or ice cream, but it’s also pretty good on its own =)  once you have blueberry pie with whole blueberries in it, you’ll never go back to the jam-y kind =S

 

Mein Adobo

If each town in Germany has its own specialty Bier or Wurst, in the Philippines, it’s the variety of adobo that makes it de facto national dish.  Following Kookie’s example, it is only proper to have adobo as one’s first post in this journal.

In Spanish, “adobo” means marinade.  Thus, the term “adobo” could be used for any pre-seasoned or cured food item.    In the Philippines, though, to cook something “adobo-style” usually means to cook it with vinegar, garlic, and other spices or sauces, often pepper and soy sauce.  Meat-adobos are the most popular, but vegetable and seafood adobos are also common eg. kangkong/water spinach adobo, squid adobo, and adobong bangus

Adobo is popular in the Philippines probably because the intense flavor lends itself well to the blank flavor of rice, the country’s staple food.  Furthermore it makes for a good packed lunch or an instant meal because of its long shelf-life.  The acid, the salt, the pepper, and the garlic simply provide an unsuitable medium for bacterial and fungal growth.

Each Filipino family has its own set of adobo recipes.  A good family friend, Tita Nancy Reyes-Lumen, even came up with an Adobo Book, featuring more than a hundred variations of the beloved dish.

The following recipe is not from my family; rather, it is my own version of adobo, using ingredients available in Germany.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
•    250 g pork (cubed or Gulasch-cut)
•    400 g chicken (thighs and legs cut into smaller pieces for fast cooking)
•    90 mL vinegar (apple cider will do)
•    90 mL soy sauce (dark soy sauce, Not Kikoman)
•    80 mL water
•    4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
•    4 cloves of garlic (smashed, no skin)
•    2 bay leaves
•    ground black pepper
•    3-4 Tablespoons sugar
•    Cooking oil

1.    Make the vinegar-soy sauce-sugar-water mixture.
2.    Add the chopped garlic, 1 Tbsp pepper, and about 4-5 Tbsp. of the sauce mixture to the pork and chicken. Rub the sauce and spices into the meat

3.    Add about 1 tsp. of cooking oil in a non-stick pan
4.    On high heat, sear the chicken, followed by the pork.

5.    Once the meat is well-seared, add in the rest of the sauce, bay leaves, and smashed garlic.

6.    Lower the heat and simmer until the vinegar smell is not too strong. Do not stir.

7.    Increase the heat and let the sauce reduce to the desired thickness. Give the pot one stir to mix the meat with the thickened sauce.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Unlike Kookie’s adobo, I like using a 1:1 ratio for the vinegar and soy sauce.  I prefer the salty soy taste to the acidity of the vinegar.  To balance off the saltiness, though, I add sugar so my adobo is also on the sweet side.  The mixture can be adjusted to one’s taste so try to find your own golden ratio.

It is not advisable to use chicken breast since the long cooking process can lead to dry or tough pieces.   The higher fat content in brown meat is thus better.  Some versions of adobo do not call for the meat to be seared.  I find, though, that my adobo is more flavorful when seared and there is less of the “boiled meat” feel when you bite into it.

Care must be taken when reducing the sauce since the flavors will be more concentrated and the dish may turn out too salty or may lack liquid when stored and re-heated. Again, simply adjust the amount of sauce and its thickness to your satisfaction!

OUTLOOK and RECOMMENDATIONS

•    Serve the adobo over steaming rice

•    Serve it with a hard-boiled or poached egg

•    For the BBQ-loving Germans, an alternative is to grill adobo-marinated chicken. For this, water must not be added to the sauce mixture and all the garlic must be finely-chopped.  Marinade the meat for at least an hour in the ref. Grill all the meat. Cook the leftover marinade and adjust the flavors.  Reduce this sauce and drizzle over the chicken.  Serve the grilled meat with a side of sour cream.

•    Nix the water and just add coconut milk as a final step before simmering

•    Nix the water and use pineapple juice, or add pineapples and use the syrup in the can

•    Add some red chili for an adobo with a kick

•    Add marble potatoes or mushrooms

•    Deep-fry something in batter and use the adobo reduction as a drizzling sauce.

•    Take your old adobo, turn it into pulled pork or chicken (ie. himayin), add a small amount of freshly-prepared sauce and deep fry until crisp for “adobo flakes” (great rice and pasta topping) [possible future post]

•    Wear your adobo with pride:

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Adobo

As a Filipino, it seemed right for me to begin the PhooD Journal with the national dish, Adobo.

Adobo is the ultimate Filipino comfort food.   Because it is easy to prepare and has a long shelf  life, it’s one of those dishes that’s perfect for the Pinoy Ph.D. lifestyle.

Adobo is a versatile dish; one can prepare it with with meat, poultry, fish, and even vegetables. There are so many versions of it that it’s actually difficult to say which one is the true adobo recipe. As for me, there’s nothing like the good ol’ reliable Chicken and Pork Adobo recipe.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

• 500 g pork (bought already cubed)
• 250 g chicken (wings, thighs, or legs)
• 60 ml vinegar (coconut preferred, apple cider possible)
• 60  ml  soy sauce
• 120 – 150 ml water
• 1/2 head garlic (smashed but used with skin on)
• 3 bay leaves
• freshly ground pepper (to taste)

Put all ingredients in a pot.  Mix well.

Boil.

Lower the heat and simmer until vinegar is cooked (Smell Test)

Important Note : NEVER stir before the vinegar is cooked.

Reduce sauce to desired thickness.

Serve on hot rice.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Adobo gets better with time. I cook adobo the Sunday before a hectic week.  The advantage of long storage is the adobo tastes better over time. The sauce seeps in and the soy sauce slightly tenderizes the meat.

To make sure that the adobo will not dry out in subsequent reheating, I reduce the sauce to only 75% of the original volume in the initial preparation.

Smell before touching. I was told several times before that adobo should not be mixed until the vinegar is cooked.  Newbie cook that I was, I disobeyed this rule once.  Oh how I regretted it.  The adobo had this tangy taste to it that did not mix well with the rest of the ingredients.

The Smell Test is the only way to gauge whether vinegar is cooked (use wafting method).  Steam should not smell acidic.  To save time and effort, I check the pot only every 15 minutes.  A low heat setting allows me to wait this long.

Reduced Garlic. Most recipes require a head of garlic.  Here in Europe, a lot of people are quite sensitive to the smell of garlic. *cough*labmates*cough* I don’t want the people I hang out with to call me Buffy (get it? Buffy the Vampire Slayer?…heh) that’s why I reduced the amount to half.

OUTLOOK
There are a lot of available adobo recipes, some tweaked to suit people’s tastes.  I have tried at least once to make adobo with

• sugar
• honey
• chili
• coconut milk (Adobo sa Gata)
• onion
• pineapple

The preparation might seem laborious to some people, although I don’t know how wafting is such an effort.  But the advantage of having something home-cooked, stored, and ready to be reheated when craved makes up for the seemingly long cooking time.   That’s why this recipe is categorized as SFTW (Something For The Weekend).

What’s your version of adobo?