Market Manila

I read somewhere (perhaps in the Inquirer a few months back) that some folks attribute kare-kare to an Indian curry either by early migrants from India or elsewhere in Southeast Asia where Indians had moved. It is believed that the curry was adapted to locally available ingredients. There is also a view that this dish is somewhat similar to the Indonesian gado-gado and influence may have come from there as well. Whatever its provenance, we now know it’s a pinoy favorite. So I wanted to attempt to cook it. I referred to several recipes before I decided to attempt to make kare-kare. I cut and paste ingredients, methods, proportions from several of the recipes and added a dose of my views on what it should taste like to result in this recipe that can feed up to 12 hungry folks. First, make a nice flavorful broth from scratch. Put 2.5 kilos of good oxtails and about ¾ kilo beef shank on the bone in a wide bottomed pot and cover with cold water (about 2-2.5 liters). Add one chopped onion, one small rib of celery and about 15 peppercorns. Bring to a boil and let this simmer for about 2-2.5 hours or until the oxtails are quite tender. Remove the oxtails, strain out the other ingredients and reduce this broth further to say 8-9 cups of fragrant and tasty (albeit no salt) liquid. Set this aside.

Read more…

I was rather surprised that kare-kare (oxtail and peanut stew) would make the Top3 favorite Pinoy dishes of Market Manila’s readers. I have never been a huge fan of the dish but I decided I should try and make it myself and give it another chance. After reading up on the dish and reviewing at least 6 different recipes, I decided to try and make what I would consider to be the ultimate kare-kare. The first task was to assemble the ingredients that I would schlep to the beach where I was planning to test the recipe last Saturday. The four key ingredients I found just happened to be rather photogenic in a red and burgundy theme so I thought I would put them together in this post before I actually described the recipe and outcome… First up, I was going to use a generous cup or more of achuete or annatto seed. I have rarely cooked with this coloring agent before and I was fascinated by how intense its dye turned out to be…it’s the reason for the near nuclear orange color of a kare-kare.

Read more…

My post last week on the “Top 10 Pinoy/Filipino Dishes” main courses (savory dishes/putahes) got an overwhelming response from readers. The article got over 10,000 page hits and encouraged over 130 readers to leave a comment with their list of 10 or more Pinoy favorites. Thank you for that fantastic response. I have always felt that 98+% of Marketmanila’s readers have never left a comment and this exercise certainly confirmed that… but that post also lured about 30+ lurkers into making their first comments ever on the site. Comments add a lot to the discussion and I strongly encourage everyone to participate now and then… I was so overwhelmed with the 1200+ “votes” received that I had to ask an assistant to collate them all and put them on a simple spreadsheet for me. It was rather time consuming task as folks used up to a dozen different words or phrases for say, adobo or sinigang and we had to make a judgment call on several suggestions listed. We also had to eliminate double votes, side dishes, condiments, sweets, etc. to “clean up” the data a bit. It wasn’t very scientific and there is a little bit of fudge factor involved. But at any rate, I was just aiming for a rough feel and we definitely got that. After reviewing all the responses, the results are both expected and unexpected…read on and enjoy!

Read more…

The day after I arrived from our month-long trip to Europe, I vowed to cut back on the intake of calories and increase the amount of energy burned through exercise. My target was to lose roughly 10 pounds in 3 months so that I could finally visit my heart doctor around my birthday after avoiding him for a year and at least fall below his threshold of “acceptable weight.” Hahaha. It’s a month later and I have gained another 3 pounds and I am taking more than a second look at those humongous ads for liposuckers on EDSA. Now I have two months left and 13 pounds to lose. Considering that I voluntarily ate half a dozen tortas one day, then a few days later baked these cinnamon rolls, I shouldn’t be at all surprised. Prior to the age of 35, I was always thin as a reed, ate anything I wanted, and always thought I could use 10-15 pounds more. Now, I consciously consider what clothing I purchase as I am convinced a good eye and fit can cut 10 pounds off your perceived weight. But calories be damned for a while and here is the cinnamon roll recipe…

Read more…

No, this is not a post on day old chicks that I sauteed in butter for lunch on Father’s Day. It’s about taking the opportunity to smell the roses, or in this case, view with awe and amazement, some day old chicks, and think about life thus far. Becoming a dad was the most mortifying, satisfying, rewarding, stressful, hair-raising and losing, fulfilling and wonderful experience in my entire life. I never thought I would be a “breeder.” I was one of those focused fast-track businessmen who careened around the region on the proverbial bullet train to “success.” I always thought there were two types of people - breeders and non-breeders…and worse, I always thought, and still do, that people should first take a tough qualification exam and pass it with flying colors before they are allowed to add to (or is it water down) the global gene pool. I mean we give exams to folks who want to drive, or design and build houses, or fix teeth, and yet ANYONE is basically allowed to breed… Just because they can physically MAKE babies doesn’t mean they SHOULD… I was also of the nutty opinion that there should be sound-proof padded lockers on jet planes where you could safely belt in little travelers so they wouldn’t disturb other passengers when altitude affected tiny eardrums (with oxygen, a window to see mom and maybe a little tv). If you asked me 20 years ago if I would have any kids, I would probably have said EXACTLY what is printed on my 10 year old daughter’s favorite t-shirt at the moment – “Duhhh?”

Read more…

We make a mean sinigang from fresh unripe sampalok broth (tamarind) in our home. Forget those powdered mixes unless real sampalok is totally out of season. We also made an absolutely delicious bayabas or guava based sinigang several months ago. Now, a prawn sinigang made with kamias or iba as the souring agent…also fantastic! I guess we have to first say that sinigang must be one of our top Filipino dishes ever and the concept of a tart broth with vegetables and shrimp or fish never fails to whet our appetites. Our cook purchased some kamias or iba at the market yesterday and decided to make a sinigang using the kamias. She first sautéed some onions and tomatoes then added 10 kamias. She then added rice water and boiled until the broth was cloudy and flavorful. Add the shrimp and vegetables and cook. Add salt and white pepper to taste. Our cook strained the broth and served the shrimp and vegetables separately.

Read more…

Kamias or Iba (Averrhoa bilimbi) in Visayan is yet another throwback to childhood backyard snacking. I used to get these firm sour fruit (closely related to balimbing or star fruit, you can see why, right?) from our mature tree out back and eat them with lots of rock salt. On a good day (where there was nothing else to snack on…) I could eat 8-10 large fruit…you can tell I really liked sour and salty things. Seems the Indonesians use the fruit in a medicinal manner to induce profuse sweating…yup, I can see that working well. At any rate, Karen has a great post on this fruit and you can hop from there to another good post on kamias on The Scent of Green Bananas… so since there is so much written on it, I won’t dwell… However, I will extol the virtues of eating this fruit raw with some salt, it’s probably wicked enough to clear your mouth of 70% of the bacteria that normally resides there… kamias also makes a brilliant sinigang (up next) and oddly, some pretty good candy or preserves, I am told. When in season, it is available in droves and some folks like to dry them so that they can use them to flavor dishes later in the year when they are no longer available fresh. Oh, and I forgot, they make a terrific relish or sawsawan chopped up and mixed with bagoong and served with fried fish…delicious!

Read more…

I don’t normally order a fruit drink or shake at restaurants. I am addicted to Diet Coke or on occasion, a San Miguel Light. But as soon as we sat down at Myron’s, Mon Eugenio suggested we try their black plum or white or red grape shakes, so we did. Our table of 5 ordered two black/red plum, 2 red grape and 1 white grape shakes. The plum shakes were excellent, with terrific color, bursting with flavor and just right sweetness. The grape shakes were less intense, but delicious nonetheless. And if you don’t like much added sugar, ask them to serve it on the side (though it’s harder to mix into the slush). I can see myself consuming several of these shakes at the beach or for merienda with some torta…

Read more…