Start Now!

It is coming sooner than you think….Christmas! If you don’t start planning for it now, you might once again find yourself harassed (for time and money) and a nervous wreck. So go through your list of what you need in your kitchen, in case you prefer to make/cook your own holiday food and gifts.

There are some "must" ingredients which, if budget permits, you should get before December, when supply might become scarce and prices go sky high. If you are a home baker you might want to get yourself a big bag of self-rising flour (last found on the shelves of SM supermarkets). You will not need baking powder with this. If unavailable and you have to be content with ordinary baking flour, you can add half a teaspoon of baking powder for every cup of flour when recipes call for it.

Preserved and glazed fruits should now be available in many outlets. The local supply is just as good as the imported and that will save you some precious pesos. Fruit cakes need aging, so this is about the best time to make them.

Cooking healthy dictates the use of cholesterol-free oils, the best being olive oil. There are many brands in the market, manufactured in Italy, Spain and other countries. If you are making your own pesto sauce, here is a tip: Mix olive oil with canola and you’ll have a comparatively tasty sauce. Anchovies are good salad dressing enhancers; get a few tins to store. The recent Portuguese festival at Rustan’s introduced us to canned products, anchovies among them.

Tomato sauce–a lot of what you cook for the holidays will require this. It is wiser to buy cans of various sizes–small, medium and large. Having them handy will make cooking much easier. Paella is a treasured holiday dish, so visit La Tienda (Makati and Alabang) and get hold of their bottled seasonings including sweet paprika (this gives that special Spanish flavor). Paprika Bilbao (P200 a bottle of 135 gms) comes from the best growing fields in Murcia. This is a versatile food enhancer which we use even for frying fish and meat. You can choose from small to gigantic bottles, depending on the frequency of use. From La Tienda you can also buy chorizos, garbanzos and paelleras, which now come in non-stick. You will also need to have canned whole stewed peeled tomatoes and whole peppers on reserve. Paella and Putanesca sauces require these as some of the main ingredients. There are a lot of brands to choose from. Get hold of saffron should you find it. This makes the difference in paella.

You can make your own pasta sauces, but how about blending some prepared mixes with your own concoctions? That would give a richer texture and more delicious toppings for your noodles. Hunt’s (available at Rustan’s Makati) has come up with the new Seasoned Tomato Sauce for Lasagna which is delighfully non-cholesterol.

Other must-store have items are canned mushrooms (whole buttons are better), water chestnuts, green (get the pimiento-stuffed ones) and black olives. The bottled variety is better than the canned; they will keep in the refrigerator. We recently found capers as a good blend for salad dressing and as tasty garnishing for marinated fish.

If you want your life to be much easier, source your food from reliable home-based culinary outlets. They normally produce quality dishes using first class ingredients. Call the "Burp!!!excuse me" ladies at telephone 744-4154 for sumptuous Stuffed Chicken, Pot Roast Beef and the most chewy Cheese Bread. They produce innovative spreads and dips using cheese, walnuts, olives (and oil). Their flavored crackers are super crunchy.

In Quezon City, a young wife and mother (tel. 922-4224) whips up holiday sweets–revel bars and lemon squares for P120 a dozen, fudge brownies at P100 and mocha truffle cookies at P10 each. Down in Cebu, they have Mrs. Goodies & Co. Much like Mrs. Fields, the lady of the bake shop produces what would please those with sweet cravings.

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Lydia D. Castillo’s e-mail address: [email protected]