Roast Rack of Veal
I love veal. I particularly love milk fed veal that has pale nearly 
beige meat when raw and a nice pink when perfectly cooked. U.S. veal tends to be milk fed. Australian veal, which I also like, is quite red in comparison (easily mistaken for beef, as in this photo here) but also tastes delicious. I lived in the U.S. for several years and enjoyed my share of veal while there. When I moved back to Asia, I would dream of veal chops with increasing frequency until I was lucky enough to eat one or took a trip back to the U.S. So when someone comes for a visit from the States, and they are willing to carry just about anything, veal is it for me. In the past month we have had two racks of veal in our home…more than we cook in an entire year. Not only did I get the roast, I also got to eat lots of leftovers!
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Perfect for a snack, baon for the kids and even table décor. Kiat kiat (anyone know the origin of this name in Chinese? in Cebuano, it means to be “frisky”…) or small mandarin oranges are abundant in local markets and groceries at the moment. At about PHP80 a bag or so, they come out to just a couple of pesos each. They are incredibly easy to peel, the sections are juicy and sweet and they transport easily. Like bananas, they are perfect snack food and my daughter’s lunchbox gets a few of them whenever we have them in the house…
It has been non-stop cooking and eating ranging from our Top 10 Pinoy favorites to Asian dishes, Western roasts and at least a dozen different desserts from near and far. An attack of gout is almost certainly around the bend… so the past few days we have tried to eat just a little bit more healthily and we had three salads worth mentioning… First up, was a simple plate of cold white asparagus with extra virgin olive oil and shaved parmesan cheese. I woke up the other day to a text from Edwin of Fresh Fields at Market!Market! asking if I wanted any white asparagus that he had flown in from Bukidnon… and I said “YES, PLEASE!” and jumped into a pair of jeans and drove over in 18 minutes flat.
Two of my favorite ways to use up leftovers are grilled ham and cheese (or tomato and cheese) sandwiches and fruit salads. For my grilled ham and cheese, I take good whole wheat sliced loaves and add sliced ham and some cheese (supermarket square cheese to any other nice cheeses you may have remnants of in the fridge)… heat up a cast iron or nice heavy stainless steel or non-stick pan and when hot add a generous blob of butter and when melted put the sandwich on the pan and grill for a few minutes until golden brown. Add another nice spread of butter on the top of the sandwich and turn over carefully. Press down with a cooking utensil to compress the sandwich. Remove and slice the sandwich in half and serve with a green salad or even dill pickles. Other variations on the theme are grilled ham and tomato sandwiches and something that harks back to my days as a student in Boston, grilled tuna and cheese sandwiches…yum!
that is the first and probably last time I will bother…they just taste so good when purchased and they are a royal pain in the rear to make yourself… At any rate, I include a recipe here (modified from a recipe published in the Philippine Star newspaper in November 2004 and morphed with a recipe I read in the cookbook Recipes of the Philippines) if you want to torture yourselves… and I really didn’t get them quite right this one and only attempt at it but they tasted great nonetheless… To make cook some good fragrant and intensely colored ube as described in the previous post on ube jaleya. Place ½ kilo of cooked and “milled” ube into a non-stick pan or heavy bottomed stainless steel pan. Add 1 cup fresh milk and 1 cup of condensed milk. Add about 1 cup white sugar or more if you like it sweeter…