Awesome Red Tinola

San Rafael, Bulacan for me equals authentic provincial cooking. Arriving at Tiyong Amante and Tiyang Ine's house, I went straight to the kitchen to check out what they are preparing and sorted out the sauce bottles and spices. Most of the ingredients came from other Bulacan towns that all the more excited my waiting palate and appetite. I saw an Ate Conching brand Sukang Paombong and cooking oil on the table with fresh produce picked straight from their garden. For breakfast, it’s the overflowing carabao’s milk partnered with salt and rice that brought the house down but it’s the Tinola preparation for lunch that really fascinated me.

The Tinola was prepared meticulously with the chicken rubbed with rock salt before diving into the big metal wok with ginger, onion, and garlic already sizzling and flavoring the provincial fresh air. After the chicken dive, they put in atsuete, a red food coloring used for, well, food, I guess. Then it was not sautéed but “isinangkutsa”, a term that still haunts me in my dreams. I think it is when one put everything in the wok all at the same time to mix all the possible flavors. Then a calculated amount of water, an almost ripe papaya, some dahon ng sili, and chili pepper were added and slowly simmered until reaching that Red Tinola peak worthy of an encore.

Pochero. Comfort Food

picture taken from

http://365stories.pinoybizonline.com/2010/03/03/moms-pochero-my-style/

Pochero. Comfort Food.
Comfort food is Pochero.

Was the name Pochero derived from a Spanish word? Does it sound like Cocido? I just do not know how to pronounce Cocido, but Pochero? Pochero by any other name, or pronounciation, taste just the same. Grand.

Pochero is very versatile with the possible different combination and ingredients one can think of and can still be called Pochero. It somehow remind me of Irish stew with or without tomato sauce. Its all in the boiling, so they say. The longer it boils, the more tasty and whole it becomes. I've tried cooking it a couple of times before arriving at perfection. Perfection, yes. Ive achieved perfection in cooking Pochero. Not like a perfection of reaching buddhahood but more of a satori experience perfection. A short glimpse of enlightenment whenever people say that the Pochero do taste good. it is so simple to prepare and meat can be pork or beef. What matters is the boiling time and the meticulous mixture of liquid and seasoning to arrive at what I call Pochero perfection. It is slow food cooking.

Some do and some dont saute. I do. I put a perfectly measured cooking oil then start with the onions, then garlic, Bananas, and tomatoes. I put some magic powder (ala Wok with Yan) then the meat. Then when I feel that it is enough (yes, to feel what one is cooking is important. It is called oneness), I put in water then boil it until the meat softens up with the potatoes and carrots. After that delicate process, I enter the most important part of balancing the taste. I add some fish sauce, more magic powder (if and when required), sugar, and tomato sauce. It is a balancing act as I mix the sweet and salty in portions to reach what philosophers call deliciousness. Then I put in the green leafy chinese cabbage. Then it is done. Pochero perfection.

Pochero Perfection

Ingredients

1 kilo Beef or Pork
2 heads Onion
1 whole Garlic
2 Tomatoes
2 plantaine Bananas (Saging na Saba)
5 cups water
Potatoes (Kahit gaano kadami)
2 medium Carrots
2 ropes Chinese Cabbage (2 Tali ng Pechay)
Fish sauce
Sugar
Magic Powder
Tomato Sauce


Corn Cob (optional)
Garbanzos (optional)
string beans (optional)

and the list of optional ingredients can go on and on and on and on......

U-belt Food Trek

Yesterday I walked my way to the University Belt area thinking of food and cuisines and what life really has to offer me. My food walk started in the morning after Andres requested Fried Chicken for breakfast so I prepared a simple mix of fish sauce, soy sauce, a pinch of salt, and calamansi for marinade. Then I dipped the chicken parts in egg and seasoned flour for that crunchy southern style fried chicken. Andres enjoyed it and I enjoyed it too.

Then in the office, I ate early lunch in preparation for my planned long walk to everywhere. I ordered Menudo and lechon kawali with rice combo and the taste was very homely. It was quite expensive however for seventy pesos. But in a bourgeois school setting, the price is peanuts.

Then I rode the LRT from Katipunan and upon existing the train, entered a new world. I walked inside a mall full of clearance sale and checked out the second hand bookstores along the streets while people watching, thinking what goes on in their minds as they walk. Then I got hungry again and ate at Mang Inasal Recto branch digging their 49 pesos one piece chicken inasal and rice. It was meditative eating of sort as I enjoyed thinking of life giving me the chance to experience most of what it can offer a person. From the fume ravaged Recto kiosks to the Bourgeois Hotel restaurants, I can walk and eat and breathe in these places. There must really be luck.

Then I walked and again rummaged through the books for sale and arrived in Sampaloc area and saw a school with a big wanted poster of people they find as trouble makers and they actually look like former stockholders of the school. Then I checked another school and was impressed with the marked improvement and upgrading of facilities. Feeling hungry again, I chanced upon a Kambingan store but goat meat was expensive so I settled for a Pork ribs adobo for 35 pesos. It was succulently soft to the palate in an adobo sort of way. Then I walked again towards Dapitan area and picked up Thelma in her work. Feeling tired and sapped with energy, she suggested that we go to Banawe and eat comfort food. I happily agreed and went to Mandarin Sky for a sumptuous serving of Shabu-shabu.

It was a whole day of feasting for the mind, body, and soul.

Comfort Tinola

I saw a recipe two weeks ago called “Pinatisang Manok” or translated in English would sound like “Chicken cooked in Fish Sauce”, I think. The author mentioned its close resemblance with “Tinolang Manok” or Chicken boiled in ginger and fish sauce a.k.a Patis, I think, again.

Tinolang Manok is my comfort food since I learned to sip my soup from a spoon. I could sip its soup using a straw for all I care as long as I can slurp that gingerly hot broth reminding me of everything that comfort me. Since I got married though, that chicken in the Tinola was replaced by pork spare ribs as it was my wife’s preferred meat. It still taste splendidly and comforting but it is not chicken. She calls it “Tinolang Buto-buto” and it sure sounds very local. Like a typical Filipino name when one repeats a name to make it sound cute like “Jing-jing”, “Bing-bing”, or “Ket-ket.”

I have to admit that I also like this version but it is not chicken. There are no Kentucky Fried Buto-buto (KFB), or Max’s Fried Buto-buto. It is hard to struggle eating hard to reach meat stuck in the middle of the bone joints. Yes, the bone marrow is an extra treat but rather my heart misses it or its sure hard core cholesterol blocking my veins. I have to admit that I eat my favorite chicken’s skin and was informed of its consequences so I just indulge in denying whatever consequence it will bring.

I cooked Tinolang Manok last week and while it was not that typical healthy boiled chicken due to salt and sugar and some magic powder, it was just perfect for my taste.

Tinolang Manok

Ingredients

½ kilo Chicken (preferably Thigh and wing part, or as long as it has skin on it)
1 clove Garlic
1 bulb Onion
1 Ginger
1 cube Chicken Bouillon
3-4 tbs. Fish Sauce
A pinch of Sugar
Papaya
Chili Leaves
Cooking Oil

How to do it

1. In a pan, sauté ginger, garlic then onion.
2. Put chicken pieces and cook until a bit brown
3. Add chicken Bouillon
4. Put the fish sauce and water.
5. Put Papaya.
6. Let it boil for 15 minutes under medium heat.
7. Taste and add Sugar, and fish sauce depending on your required taste.
8. Lower the flame to low heat and add Chili Leaves.
9. Turn off the stove and serve with steamed rice.