Old files, new ideas

We have this habit of keeping every piece of paper (letters, receipts), plus magazines and printed materials. Through the years we have accummulated a lot, enough to fill an average-sized room. Periodically, we go through and sort them out and yes, throw some away. Every time we look at old files, we rediscover ideas worth considering or doing, new tips on how to have an efficiently running household, recipes we ignored before.

Here, we share with you some tips worth remembering as we all go through our kitchen chores. Always prepare all the ingredients before you start cooking. This saves a lot of time. Spoon measurements are level unless specified as "heaping". If planning to freeze a dish, slightly reduce cooking time, so it does not get overcooked when reheated. The dish must be cooled completely before storing in the fridge or freezer. Newspapers are ideal to take away the smell of food in a container or lunch box. Put some crumpled pieces in and seal. Left over mashed potatoes will help reduce stock. Another time-saver is to pre-season flour, so you have it handy when you prepare chicken, meat or seafood.

When you come across the words Bain Marie in a recipe, this means Bano Maria, the system of cooking something in another container which is submerged in water and put over fire to simmer slowly. Don’t panic if the water does not boil; it is not meant to. You do custard, melt chocolate and cook paté this way. Though the holidays are over, you might want to do some chicken liver paté. The pink color is attained by putting a dash of salitre (pink salt or praque) into the mix. Beware about using too much of this though.

Kids are often quite a problem to feed. Pizza, pasta, hotdogs, hamburgers, fried chicken, chips are some of the usual food preferred by the young ones. Don’t shop for /keep junk food; it is better that they don’t see these readily available. Start them early in the appreciation of "other food". It is a good idea to have Sunday lunches or dinners with the whole family. Presumably they know sinigang and nilaga, but convince the young ones to appreciate the flavors of caldereta, cocido, even adobo (although most kids surely have had this already) and maybe the more exotic fare of curries, lamb, etc.

One way to develop kids (from age 8 up) as "foodies" is to involve them in the rituals of the kitchen: bring them to market or the grocery when you do your shopping. Allow them to think of a special dish they want to have and make them choose the ingredients. Then let them prepare it, perhaps start with simple fried chicken. They are likely to innovate. Our grandson gave us his first baked chicken at a very young age. Be sure to caution them about being burned so they will be very careful. Teach them how to set the table. In no time, you will have them eating lots more than burgers and tacos.

Doing the rounds as usual. CDO has the most tender packed pork tocino, using meat from young pigs. This is always available at Shopwise in Alabang. Tenderbites at the Makati Supermarket in Alabang has the best choices of lamb, from boneless shoulder to shanks. The meat section of PureGold in Shaw carries very good marinated pork ribs for roasting. S&R sells quality (as in tender) sirloin beef, ideal for Filipino steak (which we always garnish with lots of onion rings). South Supermarket, also in Alabang, has frozen seafood, of which we recommend Cream Dory.

Strawberries are back in the market, but still at a high price, more than P200 a kilo. Native garlic is tagged at P205 a kilo while mangoes still range from P80 to P90. Bananas don’t seem to be a good buy these days unless you can finish a piling in one sitting. The skin immediately develops black spots, a most unsavory sight. Hopefully, with the holidays over, fish and other seafood will be more reasonably priced. We actually had to get up enough courage to pay P600 for a kilo and a half of lapu-lapu, and dished out almost P600 for prawns. Squid continues to be on the high side, ranging from P200. Tomatoes are starting to look really red. In the past three weeks, what we could get were very green ones. Onions abound from P45 a kilo. After all the meat, we should all have more vegetables. Plan on the native variety, such as squash, which can be bought for less than P20. We note some really fresh string beans (sitao). Combine the two in a sautéd dish laced with coconut cream. This is tasty and healthy. Upo (less than P20 per) is good for nilaga or tinola. Of course, how can one go wrong with patola (from P10 each) with misua.

Homemakers might want to know that practically all supermarkets carry ready-to-wear maids’ uniforms in a variety of styles–tops with shorts or long pants and full dress, with or without collar–and colors and fabric designs, printed, striped or plain. They start from less than P300 each.