Pasta ni Ima'

In 1989 I took a trip to Rio de Janeiro and stopped by SFO on the way, spending a week with my brother, Bernard. Part of our plan was to watch Dianne Schuur but on the way, we got stuck in traffic on the Sta Monica freeway. We ended up getting a bottle of Absolut and headed back to his apartment. With nothing prepared for dinner he went ahead and showed me how to make a pasta dish that we used to eat in Pasay city at the house of Mercedes Santos vda. de Paras where our grandmother Rosa Tayag Maglutac worked as the chef well . . kusinera. I am convinced that she was our personal experience with what Chef Gene Gonzales described as the legendary sulipan chefs.

Their greatness was not in the use of complex exotic ingredients but in the transformation of the ordinary into legend.

Here goes. You will need

1 Pork knuckle (front or hind doesn't matter)
1 medium white onion chopped fine
1 small white onion peeled and kept whole
4 cloves of garlic crushed and chopped
1 12" stalk celery cut in half - chop half fine
1 medium carrot split in 2 - dice half into little cubes about 1/4 inch square.
500 gms. pasta
water or light chicken broth (in typical capampangan flair, just enough to cook the pasta)
1 bay leaf
Olive or Corn oil, or any oil that won't solidify, the tendons in the knuckle will take care of that.
1 tbsp. Annato seeds steeped in 1/4 cup of hot water
3 hotdog or sausage (not the red but the brown - german franks are fine) sliced diagonally
Salt and pepper to taste.

First make your stock

In cold water, place your knuckle, incl the small white onion, half the celery stalk, half the carrot and enough water to submerge the knuckle. Start the flame and as it starts to simmer, ladle out the scum coming up to the surface. Don't let it come to a rapid boil at once. As the scum disappears you can turn your flame up and let it come to a rolling boil. When the knuckle is cooked, you can tell when you pierce the center no blood comes out, remove the knuckle and pull the meat, skin and tendons off from the bone. Chop this fine.

The liquid should start giving off a grey color. Return the meat, skin and tendons you pulled back into the broth and let it boil rapidly until the liquid is reduced to about ahalf of its original volume. You will notice it has actually turned an absurd dark murky green color. This is what you're looking for. Take out the meats and set aside. Salt your broth, you will need about one teaspoon. Pepper lightly then Keep the broth!

Saute' the onions, garlic, carrots and celery. Allow to sweat until translucent. Add your meats and saute lightly until they are well blended with the sofrito. Now slowly add in your broth then your spaghetti. Ima, would split the raw noodles in half. As it comes to a boil add the liquid from the annato steeped in water, and drop in your bay leaf.

As the liquid starts to reduce, add your sausages and mix once to blend in with the mixture. Watch closely, it will be done in about 10 minutes.

Try not to stir it too much - as the spaghetti becomes al dente, your liquid should be a nice bright more yellow than green colored sauce, just thick enough to coat the individual strands of pasta.

Turn into a large dish and serve at once. I like to drizzle a bit of olive oil after its turned onto a plate.

If this gets cold, it tends to coagulate because of the tendons in the knuckle. It's not exactly your healthiest dish but a minute in the microwave should take care of that.

And there you are, paired with ice cold Absolut on the rocks with a twist of lemon and nice crusty bread and butter, you'll swear by it.

Moroccan style rice with okra

I've lived in Cebu for about 3 months now and try as I might, it's really tough eating out alone. So i cook at home usually just for one. This particular rice is interesting because the okra is mucilaginous (Phew!) and releases a gooey slimey substance that lends itself to the rice and helps lock in the starches that rice tends to release while cooking so your grains dont stick together and you have a fluffy cooked rice where the grains dont stick but still retain that nice moist texture that makes rice the worlds most common staple. You can cook this in a frying pan, provided it has a tight fitting cover. If you dont have one, just use a small crock pot.

1 cup rice (unwashed but make sure you use clean rice, long grain preferred but any other will do except malagkit)
2 cups chicken stock
7 pcs okra (choose the smallest you can find)
1 tsp of raisins
1 tsp of uncooked, unsalted peanuts or almonds
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1 stalk of spring onion about a tablespoonful when chopped
olive oil for sauteeing
dash of turmeric (whats a dash? about half a teaspoonful)
half a dash of coriander
ground pepper to taste


start as always wtih your garlic and onions sauteed in olive oil until translucent. Lower the flame to medium and to this you add the okra and the rice. Sautee briefly to coat the rice and okra with the oil then to this add the turmeric and coriander. Most likely your coriander would be dry so you have to cook out the raw essence of coriander and allow the oils remaining to releaase themselves. It will start getting fragrant and at this point add the peanuts. As it starts to sizzle, add your stock gently but completely. You dont want the mixture to cool down too quickly. The mixture should start boiling within a minute from when you add the stock, you could also keep the stock hot if you like. As it boils, give the mixture a stir to distribute the okra evenly over the top. Lower the flame to its lowest possible and cover the pan.

Cooking rice is not an art but a science. For every measure of rice, 1.5 mesures of liquid. if you use broth use 1.75 measures. Once the rice and liquid mixture starts to boil, lower the flame to its lowest point and cover. In 15 minutes it will be done, so shut the flame and let the rice rest covered for another 5 minutes so that the starches in the rice will retreat back into the rice mixture and not stick to the sides of the cooking vessel.

After 5 minutes of rest, you must fluff or stir the rice. Now you can serve but otherwise, covered, it will stay warm for at least another 20 minutes.

Of course white!! More like a chardonnay or Albarino. Nothing too sweet.

Arugula

I have to thank Billy King for introducing me to Arugula. Theres nothing quite like its nutty and mildly spicy flavor that just marries so well with Lettuce. I was at the Metro Gaisano in Cebu and found a section filled with arugula, been here a month but its the first time i've seen any. Here's something that i'm about to do with it.

1 small head of iceberg lettuce
1 handful of fresh arugula leaves stems removed
1 tsp of raisins
1 slice of white bread toasted and cut like croutons
1 tsp of peanuts cracked and crushed (try and get unsalted ones)

for the dressing

1 tsp mustard (they say dijon but american is fine)
1 tsp honey
1 tsp vinegar (ok balsamic if you've got some but use less)
2-3 tbsp of olive oil (pomace will do)
a dash of pepper

Wash and drain the lettuce
just grasp the leaves of the arugula and pull it from the stems
crack your peanuts, use the bottom of a plate or hand chop with a knife

now build your dressing. honey first then mustard over it now drizzle the vinegar
over it. With a whisk, whip it with regular even strokes while pouring the oil slowly over it. It will produce something like a mayonnaise

just toss the lettuce into it, add the arugula, the raisins the peanuts and the croutons and voila!!