A new blend

One indefatigable restaurateur, who is a much-admired chef, has added coffee among her many endeavors. She is now blending coffee, offering it to her ever-increasing clientele in her chain of restaurants.

We met Jessie during the “Great Maya Cookfest” in the 1980s when she finished on top of the baking category. She then went to work in an international hotel chain, eventually rising to the position of being the only Filipina pastry chef. Later we found her in partnership with a pair of expat chefs, and her career blossomed into full blown chef-ing.

She went independent after a few years and today successfully manages her own chain.

Apparently there is no end to her mission and vision of making diners in her outlets fully satisfied. She was quoted as saying, “A chef’s pallette is her/his plate.” True enough, being served a  “Jessie” is like having an art work on your table – beautiful in presentation and delicious in taste.

Coffee being a must after a meal, she now serves her own coffee blend. Likewise, she chose to use local beans to help farmers. Jessie’s blend is made from premium roasted Arabica from the Cordilleras and Liberica from Mount Halcon in Mindoro. These are characterized by full-bodied nutty flavor. It is interesting to note that the latter was raised in Batangas in years past, labelled as Barako, which until recently nearly faced extinction.

Aside from capping a meal, this blend is sold in her restaurants at P250 for a pack of 250 gms and P500 for 750 gms. Call tel. nos. 890-6543/890-7630.

Nestle has a new product aimed at helping homemakers in their quest for easy and quick meals. Out in the market now are their Magic Meals, carrying the Maggi brand. The sachets contain the elements that would make a complete dish without having to go through tedious preparation. The only thing one has to do is put the required ingredients, such as chicken for paella, into the “magic bag,” rub it well, put the bag in the rice (with its water) and let cook for 45 to 50 minutes.

JeedJard is the brand of chewy tamarind candies (makahm wahn) from Thailand which have been recently introduced in supermarkets and stores in the country. It is enviable that the resourceful Thais have created a lot of  treats from various fruits. We remember a packet of sugar-like tamarind powder given to us some years past. Spread on a sour fruit, this makes it sugary.

JeedJard is a collection of candies which are low in calories, soft, bite size, and seedless. They are available in three flavors: sweet with plum powder, spicy (as the Thais would always have the hot element in their food) and the original, natural tamarind on sticks. They come in packets of 10 gms for P12.50 each and P50 for 50 gms.

Filipino enterprise in the food industry is now very much in focus. The first time we had a taste of Novellino wine, we thought it was imported. It turned out it is made by an all-Filipino corporation, which introduced its state-of-the art winery in Camelray, Canlubang. The wines are made from pure and natural 100 percent Vitis Vinifera, European grapes sourced from Piedmont, Italy and vinted here with the supervision of a wine expert. The company adopted the name Novellino for being new as well as from Novello, a wine-growing town in Piedmont.

We needed to bring a dish to a potluck lunch over the weekend. We dug into what we had in the refrigerator and came up with anchovy flavored spaghetti. We cooked 250 gms of the pasta, set it aside and prepared the rest – olive oil, crushed garlic, a can of anchovies, a few sundried tomatoes, sliced black olives and left-over ham. We sautéd all the ingredients, and then poured it over the pasta, mixing well. For unique topping we used grated kesong puti. Voila! A delicious treat!

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