Our Christmas feast

MILLIE: As early as October, I started to bring out my Christmas decorations at home as I could not feel the spirit of Christmas.  I did not even hear Christmas carols being aired on the radio. I was also not in the mood to go shopping and was determined that, in lieu of gifts to family and friends, I would rather donate to the earthquake and typhoon Yolanda victims. That, to me, is the true meaning of Christmas.  Now just two weeks away, I am pressured to come up with a good-enough Christmas Eve menu that is in keeping with the times. This is the voice of Christmas present.

While we traditionally would have roast Butterball turkey with all the trimmings or a whole roast prime rib of beef for our Noche Buena dinner, this year, I thought we should try to tone it down in deference to many of our countrymen, who continue to suffer from the devastation of recent calamities.

Karla and I came up with a very simple menu inspired by the culinary masterpieces of my grandma and my own parents. We thought of butterfly-cut Bonoan bangus served with garlic butter and golden-brown garlic flakes, whole roast chicken relleno stuffed with chorizo and chestnuts, beef mechado using my Lola Asiang’s recipe cooked with beef tendons and lots of potatoes, the way my daddy Joe used to love it. Definitely the star of our Noche Buena feast will be The Plaza Premium Baked Ham! The Plaza ham was developed by my mom Meldy Reyes and our former Swedish executive chef Olaf Gosta Pettersson. It is lightly wood-smoked, boiled, baked and glazed to perfection and we serve it with four sauces.

Since I have three vegetarian family members, I will also serve some fresh salad greens with julienned strips of carrots, tomato and cucumber slices, chopped celery, sliced mushrooms, chopped boiled eggs and use the ham sauces as salad dressing selections.

I also imagine my Christmas dining table laden with fresh kesong puti from Jun Magsaysay’s Real Fresh Dairy Farm instead of the imported cheeses like raclette, brie and tete de moine, which are family favorites. In keeping with our annual Christmas tradition, I will also have some fresh fruits like ponkan, seedless grapes and roasted Mandarin chestnuts. For our midnight snack, I intend to serve freshly baked cheese rolls from The Aristocrat bakeshop, which my sisters Marijo and Dorcie love to eat with thin slices of The Plaza Premium Baked Ham. All of a sudden, I remembered how my Dad loved the giant, fluffy ensaymadas topped with grated cheddar and slices of salted egg from Imang Salud of Pampanga, and will buy a few pieces to share with the family.

Karla decided to add some perks to make our dinner more festive.

KARLA: We have started a family tradition of exchanging gifts. Every year, instead of giving everyone gifts, we just give a gift to one person, Kris Kringle style. Everyone gets one gift each, but it is definitely better than getting 10 generic gifts like perfume or a bottle of wine or stationery. I’m normally in charge of gathering the wish list of each family member but thankfully, my cousin Bea Guingona volunteered to do it this year. Normally, we would have a whole spread of imported cheeses, which we usually munch on in between dinnertime and the 12-midnight celebration and exchange of gifts. Instead, I decided to make thee kinds of dips and spreads to change things a bit. It will cost less as well.

Sometime in the middle of this year, I purchased a food processor using the Rustan’s gift certificates that have been given to me by ninongs or ninangs for the past Christmases and birthdays. I love its versatility and multi-functionality, from grating to chopping, mixing dough to whipping. So when I have time or when I’m in a foul mood, I just go down to the kitchen and make something. From all the items I have tried so far, my top three are hummus, spinach dip, and queso de bola spread with ham bits.

The hummus recipe I got from my friend Fatima Potenciano when she was at my house for a Halloween party. She brought a batch of hummus and when someone asked her how she made it, she blurted out the ingredients she used. If there is one thing Timmy and I have in common, it’s definitely being a foodie. I even remember how when we were in high school, we were partners and seatmates on the bus for our field trip. She made an awesome batch of chip dip. It was so good that I think we ate most of it on the bus before we even got to where we were headed. I remember Timmy’s dip but I can’t remember where we went and what we did for the field trip. Ha ha!

The spinach dip is almost like Cibo’s Spinaci Zola, which I discovered by just playing around in the kitchen. I was supposed to cook dinner for the family but I had some spare time so I ended up making the spinach dip. And last but not least, my latest creation is the queso de bola spread with The Plaza Premium Baked Ham bits. Other ingredients used are pickles, onions and mayonnaise. I like using The Plaza Ham because usually queso de bola is already salty so the salty-sweet balance makes the spread perfect. The pickles help in sweetening the spread, too. So if you find the spread too salty, you may add in more pickles to your liking. This is a perfect way to recreate leftovers after Christmas. If you have leftover queso de bola and ham, all you have to do is mix it together to make something new for the family. The spread is also good on crackers and toasted pan de sal.

MILLIE: The theme of my Christmas table this year is “Peace on Earth” and I asked my decorator Richard Antonio to gather all my Christmas angel decors to be used on the dining and buffet tables. I chose angels because I believe in them and I know they will carry joy and blessings from heaven to share with my family, friends and household. We found an angel collection playing musical instruments from my mom’s treasured Christmas decors, which Richard painstakingly repaired, cleaned and sprayed gold on to look like new.

I chose a green brocade linen instead of red, in keeping with the going green campaign for global warming awareness. To top the table linen, we set silver chargers and fine white linen napkins from Swatow in China, again from my mom’s treasure chests.

Karla came home one day from the recently opened S & R on Shaw Blvd. with two bags of assorted mini Hershey’s chocolates in Christmas colors, and I sorted out all the red ones to set as napkin rings. We like to have bonbonnieres or candy dishes filled with chocolates on the dining table and in the living room as our family members are chocolate monsters.

My table centerpiece is Christmas-inspired in silver and gold purchased more than 10 years ago, which Richard carefully wraps and packs up for storage after each season, and that’s how I was able to preserve them. Richard adds some fresh red astromela flowers for a more festive touch since I was unable to find tiny poinsettias for my dining table. I did get some big poinsettias at Market! Market! and these I used to spread cheer all around the house and on the buffet table.

Our Christmas Eve feast is ready to be shared with loved ones. Let the celebration begin!

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For Imang Salud ensaymadas, call 0920-947-8819 or 404-6582. For kesong puti from Real Fresh Dairy Farms, call 0928-465-1648 or 813-1385. To order The Plaza Premium Baked Ham, call 729-0003 or 890-8446.

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Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook and read articles you might have missed: Food for Thought by Millie & Karla Reyes.

QUESO DE BOLA SPREAD with HAM BITS

Ingredients:

500 grams queso de bola, grated

4 tbsps pickle relish

20 grams white onion, chopped

1 cup mayonnaise  

150 grams The Plaza Premium Baked ham bits, chopped

Procedure:

1. Grate the cheese so you can mix it easily. If you do not have a cheese grater you can manually use 2 forks to mash the cheese. If your food processor has a grater function, you can get this done in seconds.

2. Mix in pickles, onions and mayonnaise. The consistency should be spread-like. So if you are using dry queso de bola, you will need more mayonnaise for the recipe; if it’s a more creamy kind of cheese, use less mayonnaise. The trick is to add the mayonnaise slowly so you can check the consistency first.

3. Next, add in The Plaza Premium Baked Ham bits. You may manually dice or mince the ham according to your desired size. Or if you’re using a food processor, you may add in huge chunks and it will mince it for you.