What do we do then? Be more cost-efficient. Often, we buy more than the family can take. Examine your consumption and perhaps you can reduce the quantity of the stuff you purchase. The meat sauce for your spaghetti will taste as delicious with only half a kilo of ground beef instead of the generous one kilo. Re-cycle left over food; make chicken nilaga into chicken salad for your children’s baon. Grind remaining beef steak or roast and turn them into hamburgers or almondigas (ground beef with broth and radish). Do not buy vegetables and fruits by the kilo if your family is small, get enough to prevent spoilage. Examine the contents of your refrigerator and freezer regularly; you might find enough left-overs to tide you over for one or two meals. This way you can also save on cooking fuel (and effort).
Consider buying ready-to-cook/serve food. After a long absence from the BF Parañaque wet market, we found a few tasty surprises from our suki, Aling Juling. This very enterprising lady has come up with very reasonably priced lutong bahay ulam: Pancit Guisado at P35 per pack (good for two), Stuffed Shrimps at P100 for a pack of 10 reasonably-sized prawns, Dinuguan from her sister and lots of dried fish, including biya (P10 a pack), asojos (P60) and tiny sapsap (P40). If you are staying away from meat, these daings are perfect. She has a line of Biñan kakanin plus leche flan and ube jalaya. But we miss her achara of ampalaya, sitao, okra and talong.
There is this group of ladies in Greenhills and Green Meadows who enjoy good food tremendously and who take pleasure in attending cooking lessons. They even organize for a chef to teach them a few recipes in one of the group’s high-tech, well laid out kitchen with a marble-top island, state-of-the-art oven (big enough to put a lechon de leche in) and spotless heavy duty pots and pans. We concocted a rather ‘continental’ recipe for Bangus Relleno for them and it went very well. For the benefit of our readers, we are sharing the recipe.
You need a medium-size bangus (about 600 gms), which can cost from P100 to P110 pesos a kilo. Have the fish de-boned, but instruct the fish monger to keep the taba intack inside the body of the fish. Marinate the skin (with the head) in soy sauce, calamansi juice and ground pepper; set aside. Boil the body of the bangus in water with celery and leeks, plus a dash of salt and pepper. When done, flake. Cut two medium size tomatoes (squeeze out the seeds first) and dice into small squares. Peel an onion and slice as the tomatoes. Crush five cloves of garlic. Slice mushrooms (half a can) into four pieces each. Cut 10 pieces of pimento-stuffed olives into four as well. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and sauté the garlic, tomatoes and onions for about 3 minutes. Add fish, then mushrooms, olives and a diced hard-boiled egg. Mix well and let simmer for a while. When nearly done, add 1 small box of raisins and continue cooking for about 5 minutes. Season to taste. Let mixture cool then stuff into the marinated bangus skin, sewing up the cut between the head and the body. Put in a greased oven steamer or tray and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Any left over stuffing can be made into fried lumpia. For a dip, put a little margarine in a sauce pan, add the marinade and a little water plus ground pepper and boil for about 2 minutes. Serve on the side.