Basic Filipino Cooking Class - May 3rd

While Jeff is back enjoying a break in North America (if you saw him and did not get your hug from me, please hug him next time you see him!!), I found a Filipino cooking class to take.  It was taught at a culinary school and is one of their recreational classes.  Chef Toto Erfe taught the class of six Filipino women and one Canadian. This is his picture.  Very nice man with a great sense of humour!

Well, the traditional Filipino meal has soup, meat dish and rice.  First we started on Davao Bulalo (Davao style beef shank broth).  After two hours of cooking the beef shanks (marrow removed and returned to the pot 20 minutes before cooking) and one hour more of cooking while a variety of veggies were added, the bulalo was ready.  Oh, I declined to have a piece of the marrow in my bowl pictured here - what I had was delicious!

Next, Kare-Kare which I was happy to learn could be made with basically any meat.  We learned how to cook it with the traditional ox tail.  Now, I know many in K-W who like pig tails, so ox tails may be similar, just a lot bigger.  Chef Toto told us that ox tail has to be pre-boiled "boil for 10 minutes and smell it.  It if still smells funky, throw away the water, add more and boil for another 10 minutes.  Keep doing this until it no longer smells funky".  Why would I want to eat something that needs to boil for a LONG time before its "funkiness" has been removed and can be eaten??  Here it is cooking - it is in a delicious peanut sauce.  When served it comes with veggies and the veggies were delicious!  Actually, I fought my way through the skin and fat of the ox tail to try it...not bad (after six boiling sessions chef told us), but still rather "funky".  For all of you, I think I will make beef or chicken!

Next came the lesson on making samal rice - hmmmmm - I learned a few things with this one.  One, that you can buy squid ink in the refrigerated section of most grocery stores and when it is boiled it looks like this. A few of the women seemed relieved they did not have to collect it themselves....how would one do that?? Two, if you then add it to rice it does make tasty samal rice.  You can serve it wrapped in banana leaves that have been warmed over heat to make them pliable.  When unwrapped they are on their own plate!  Three, when you eat it, your teeth and lips turn black (no, I don't have a picture of that, only the rice wrapped in leaves). The fourth thing I learned about squid ink, or what happens when your body processes food made with this much squid ink, is that it effects the colour of what comes out the other end!  For a second I thought I was ill, then remembered the black squid ink and laughed (well, had a short chuckle at least)  The taste was worth it.

Next we made adobo, specifically kapampangan adobo.  Adobo basically means the meat was cooked in three things - vinegar, pepper and garlic.  Adobo can be made with any meat and any part....our adobo has pork, chicken, chicken heart, chicken giblets, beef liver chopped up and pork kidneys.  Here is the meat starting to cook, and it finished. Actually, staying away from the unknown meat parts, it was really delicious.  I think it will be another of those Filipino meals I will do with just chicken, or just pork.  

One ingredient that even the chef cooked separately because so many people do not like it is pictured here being deep fried.

Any guesses?  It was in one big piece that he cut into small chunks for serving.  It comes from a butcher, specifically a chicken butcher.  What do you think now?  If you guessed blood, that is collected when a chicken is slaughtered and then congealed in vinegar, you would be right!!  It looked like deep deep red jello, but somehow I don't think it would have tasted like that....did not try this one (only thing I could not bring myself to try)...beware if you see a serving dish like this:
 
 
 

We had delicious guinataange hipon (shrimp in coconut milk) - very quick and really delicious (though Jeff will not like it, I think I will make it for others!).
 

Dessert was manga at bilo-bilo sa linga (mangos with rice flour balls and sesame seeds).  You kneaded the rice flour with sesame seeds, made them into little balls, cooked in boiling water (pictured here) and could serve hot or cold with magno balls and mango puree.  Our was served cold with crushed ice and was DELICIOUS!  This I will definitely make again!!

 

 

 

 

We then sat down and ate it all....they were laughing at my limit of two plate fulls!  Leftovers came home (I declined the kare-kare though...one taste of ox tail was enough for this week), and then we were presented our own certificates! Okay, so Wolfe is spelled incorrectly, but I may frame mine!!  Overall, a wonderful day with chef Toto and six new friends.  And I learned that the course counts as one point if I am trying to immigrate to Canada.  So much here to think about, and give thanks for the country I was born into and that many want to move to!

 

Love you all, and I look forward to cooking for each and every one of you (though not all at the same time please)