Any Filipino can cook

In the much talked about animated film, Ratatouille, the small French hero ‘Chef’ mouse Remy is gifted with a keen sense of smell. In a garbage dump of leftover food, he could pick out the good food morsel, unlike his brother and father, the rat pack leader, who would eat anything.

Remy enjoyed watching French Chef Augusto Gusteau’s TV show, “Anyone Can Cook” – an unthinkable concept for the French people, who think that if you can’t cook the French way, YOU CAN’T COOK! For them Culinaire Francaise is the most superior in the whole world.

Difficulties of Continental Cuisine

“Continental Cuisine” is a college culinary subject. It usually refers more to the French, Italian and Spanish cooking and much less to Austro-German, British, Russian and Scandinavian dishes. Most of the culinary schools in Manila boast of European cooks managing their cooking courses. However, with the expense of hiring these teachers and using imported ingredients, the continental culinary schools demand exorbitant tuition fees.

The simplest French recipes such as thin French pancakes, crepes, or omelet has a special technique. Learning the basic French sauces, like Bechamel, Bearnaise and Tarragon is usually the first lesson, which acquaints the culinary students with herbs. Of the breads, the two-foot long French baguette and the croissant baked to a crisp can make your day from breakfast to dinner time.

Dijon mustard with olive oil and lemon give the exciting tang to salad greens, while the more complex Salade Nicoise (boiled potatoes, beans, tomatoes and egg) must have a touch of anchovies. The bowl of Onion Soup is baked with Gruyere cheese, one of 48 French cheeses. Bouillabaisse is the rich Provencal soup with a mélange of at least six seafood items. Wine is used for many dishes, including the famous Canard a l’ Orange (duck with orange sauce), Coq au Vin (chicken with red wine), and Lapin á la Gaillarde (braised rabbit).

For Cucina Italiana, olive oil, the chewy mozzarella and parmigiana (Parmesan cheese) are essential for pastas and pizzas. Pasta refers to spaghetti, fettucine, lasagna, ravioli or cannelloni. Thick or thin crust pizzas are topped with thinly sliced salami, prosciutto crudo, pepperoni or salsiccia, with pomodoro (tomato puree) and covered with melted mozzarella.

The popular main dishes of Italy, usually eaten during lunch (since dinner consists of light soup and cold cuts), include Osso Bucco (veal knuckles), Arrosto di Maiale (leg of pork), and Pollo alla Milanese (fried breaded chicken). Seafood can be made into Insalata di Mare or Stewed Seafood. Rice boiled until soft with chicken stock dried mushroom or pureed squash is called “risotto”.

The simplicity of Filipino cuisine

Young female employees are too busy in the office the whole week and barely find time to cook. Many, especially when they get engaged to be married, request for a weekend basic cooking course from my Home Arts and Food Technology teachers who have mastered the culinary arts in our four professional high school kitchens.

With them I authored a comprehensive illustrated manual in English-Tagalog entitled, “The Pagsasarili Mothercraft Literacy Course for Local and Overseas Filipino Working Women”, which include Good Grooming and Hygiene, Good Housekeeping and Childcare, etc. The Chapter on Cooking and Food Service cites the Four Basic Methods of Cooking: boiling, steaming, frying and broiling.

BOILING. For boiled food, a big pot is used to boil water with a pinch of salt. The vegetables are dropped with pieces of meat or fish to flavor. The popular ginger soups are prepared with tahong (mussels) or halaan (clams). For Ilocano dinengdeng, add leftover fried or grilled fish and bagoong fish to the broth before dropping string beans, okra, saluyut or malunggay leaves, eggplant and squash. Nilagang Manok or Karne requires lots of leafy pechay or cabbage, Baguio beans, quartered potatoes and carrots. Tinola and Pesa need chicken or fish with five slices of ginger, cubed green papaya, and malunggay or dahon ng sili. These can be converted into Sinigang. Instead of ginger, use tamarind flavor available in sachets at the supermarket. Add small quartered gabi and eggplant, okra, kangkong and radish.

STEAMING. Steamed food is cooked in a steamer or a flat casserole over a pot of two-inch boiling water. The food is cooked by the steam penetrating the food tray with holes. Examples are: siomai, siopao, rice, cakes, custard or leche flan, vegetables, fish and Hainan chicken. A Filipino favorite is steamed vegetables like eggplant, okra or camote tops eaten with Kapampangan “burong isda” (fermented rice with fish or shrimp).

FRYING. For fried foods, a wok or flat frying pan with lots of cooking oil is used. Fried fish, chicken, beef and pork slices (tapa or tocino), camote, banana, potato fritters and fried rice are the most popular dishes. Sautéing is cooking with little oil. Chopped garlic, sliced onions and tomatoes flavored with a little shrimp or ground pork make up the sauté base for vegetables, like sliced beans, eggplants, ampalaya, okra, squash or string beans. A mélange of the above vegetables with fried pork ribs (bagnet) make the Ilocano pinakbet, flavored with bagoong.

Broiled food is cooked over charcoal and grill. It is cooked over direct heat. Before grilling, the food pieces are first marinated in barbecue sauce (garlic, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar). Filipinos love to grill pork, chicken, fish, squid, or shrimps with salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking tips for everyone

Seafood, such as fresh shrimps, lobsters, clams and crabs are best cooked by steaming or grilling to preserve their nutritive value, as well as moisture and flavor. Lean fish is best half-cooked. Salmon, maya-maya and bangus, with its fat belly, is tastiest when broiled, baked or with sinigang broth. To prevent fish from sticking to the pan while frying, dredge it slightly with flour and make sure the oil is hot enough. When the oil starts to smoke, then it is hot.

Meat should not be made to stand in water when washing since the meat juice will ooze out. Fry meat in high heat to sear the tissue and lock in the juices. Then, simmer meat in low to moderate heat to keep it tender. (Green papaya is a tenderizer for meats.) The flavor of meat can be preserved by slow cooking rather than pressure cooking. Pork should always be cooked thoroughly to kill harmful organisms. The best soup broth and stocks can be achieved by boiling meat bones and mature poultry for hours. This is the base for Arroz Caldo.

Vegetables retain more food nutrients when steamed rather than boiled. The flavor of baked potatoes, chicken or beef can be enhanced with the addition of a few drops of calamansi juice, instead of butter. Green leafy vegetables like spinach and kangkong should be washed properly by soaking in salted water for a few minutes, before rinsing thoroughly.

Enjoy the Filipino cuisine

How fortunate we, Filipinos, are to have been exposed to Spanish, American, Chinese and other Asian dishes that have filled our tables from pre-Spanish times through three centuries of Spanish governance, seven decades of American colonization to the international food fare of the 21st century. Both our taste buds and sense of smell essential for enjoying good food have been so refined that we can easily learn how to cook simple dishes.

Be practical. Master our own Filipino cooking first. It is the best foundation to learn the culinary arts of Europe and Asia.

(For more information or reaction, please e-mail at exec@obmontessori. edu.ph or [email protected])