I worked in Jakarta for the better part of 5 years, on and off. And at around 3 or 4 pm in the afternoon, the administrative staff on our floor would often head down to the street to pick up a snack or merienda. During the summer months, when fruit was in season, they often came back up to their desks and unraveled a waxed paper bundle with this pungent fruit salad called “rujak”. Think sliced fruit with salty, pungent “terasi” (a form of shrimp paste of dry bagoong), salt, sugar or palm sugar, salt and chilies. Depending on the ingredients, pineapple, apples, guavas, makopa, green mangoes, singkamas, tamarind paste, chilies, etc. you ended up with a crunchy, smooth, sour, salty, sweet and pungent afternoon delight. I haven’t had rujak in many, many years.

But today I realized we had lots of fruit in the house and the neighborhood, freshly made tamarind puree in the fridge, some bagoong, chilies, etc. so off to the kitchen I went. This is my version of an Indonesian (and Malay) classic. I was salivating all throughout the prep process, and managed to eat roughly a third of this hefty bowl of rujak! Into a bowl, add some homemade tamarind puree (made with ripe but sour tamarind, brown sugar and water). Next, some bagoong, sambal and chopped chilies and generous amounts of salt.

Assemble an interesting mix of fruit. Pineapples are classic (but I am very allergic to them), green and semi-green mangoes, tambis, makopa, papaya, apples, pears, pomelos, singkamas, guavas, etc. Think of sweet, sour, crisp, soft, etc.

Slice either in flat shapes or sticks, depending on your preference.

Toss to mix up fruit. Add the tamarind and bagoong mixture. Add more bagoong or salt or chilies as you desire. Mix well.

Serve immediately (or if you leave a few minutes, it weeps and makes a sauce of sorts) with bamboo sticks (polite) or just attack with your fingers, licking the pungent dressing every now and then. Are you salivating yet? Salivating yet? :) Do not start typing your blog post until after you have washed your hands twice. :)

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Rarely have I tried to replicate something I have never ever cooked before and end up with results this good, the first time around. So the inspiration was the legendary lines and forced rationing of salted egg fish skins by a purveyor in the lobby of SM Megamall. The things people did to get their cravings satisfied. So when one of our managers from Cebu had someone line up before the stall even opened (the advantages of having earlier access for employees) I knew I had to check this product out. I must state categorically that I am not really a huge fan of salted egg dishes, and missed most of the current trend to have it on everything under the sun like potato chips, so I was not the fawning fan of anything salted egg… but when we finally opened a PHP600 large bag of the legendary Singaporean fish skins, I must admit I was intrigued enough to give it a very objective taste, meaning, without wanting not to like it. It was pretty good, and I can see how some folks would really like it, but it wasn’t going to take over my personal preference for say, Doritos or Salt and Vinegar potato chips, but that’s just me. The story could have ended there. But everyone else seemed to think I was a strange bird for not jumping on the salted egg bandwagon.

But as usual on this blog, there is a back story to all this. A few months ago, shortly after we opened Zubuchon in Manila, an old friend and avid blog reader from a decade back, Marla, handed me a bag with a weighty present inside, she was kind of sheepishly amused how I would react to a commercial, foil-wrapped bag of Knorr salted egg powder… I noticed it was MSG-free (yay!) and I promised to put it to good use at some point. One thing led to another and it ended up in an office cabinet for a few months, untouched.

I had tried cooking salted egg based dishes before (see here, inspired by another long-time reader, Millet of Davao), using real salted eggs, but now I know exactly why this trend was expanding at a rapid pace, because the key ingredient was now so conveniently and readily available. Unilever and Knorr are brilliant in many ways, my only wish is that they make sinigang mix and other local mixes with an option that is MSG-free, like they do with chicken cubes elsewhere in Asia… So thanks Marla, this experiment is thanks in part to your key “secret” ingredient… :)

But the other part of the story is that local, artisanal dried fish skins are something we have in stock at Zubuchon. We serve a dish that pairs fried fish skins with kinilaw, and it has since been copied by many other restaurants in Cebu and elsewhere. So besides the salted egg powder, we had the fish skins. And as luck would have it, I have a small curry leaf tree growing out in the yard, so all I needed was some margarine and chilies. I couldn’t get myself to use margarine, just couldn’t, and opted for canned Queensland butter instead. Though perhaps I should have stuck to the margarine called for in most recipes on the internet.

Into a pot I put some butter, chilies, fresh curry leaves and brought this to a simmer and added several tablespoons of the salted egg powder.

I eyeballed it at this point, and if anything, I could have added even more salted egg powder as my sauce was kinda thin. I added two teaspoons of sugar for a touch of sweetness as well.

Meanwhile, fry up the fish skins and take care NOT to over-fry them, which is a just a split second longer than you think. It is critical they are slightly under- rather than over-done as they get another round in the oven to dry the sauce out. Notice the skins in the back, they were overcooked and bordering on evil. :( Salt the freshly fried fish skins as soon as they emerge from the fat. If you use lard, you will be on my short-list of FWAFOL’s (Friends Who Are Fond of Lard). Hahaha.

Take your previously made sauce and sprinkle liberally over the fried fish skins and sprinkle some salted egg powder over everything. I did this on both sides of the fish crackers, which was a bit exagge, but more is better in this case, I think.

Stick this all into a low heat oven say 230-250F for 15 or so minutes until the sauce dries out a bit. Dry on paper towels to mop up excess oil and enjoy. They were delicious! But delicious! And relatively oh so easy to make, albeit with a few hard to find ingredients. I am thinking of offering a variant which would include fried fish skins with the butter and salted egg sauce on the side to dip into… Experiment was a total success! :)

The post Fish Skins with Salted Egg, Butter and Curry Leaves a la Marketman appeared first on Market Manila.

Jet lag is a bummer. But it can have a silver lining — you can add meals at the oddest time of the day or night and have a perfectly good excuse to indulge… Here’s one of my nearly instant midnight snacks in our little rented Parisian flat (finding this kind of food at midnight in a snazzy hotel is a little harder to do). Take out three bags of different types of pre-washed salad greens from the fridge and pile some onto a plate. Add some sliced golden apples for flavor and texture. Dress with some bottled Maille Vinaigrette. Yup, bottled grocery purchased salad dressing. I don’t often buy salad dressing, but this is one of the best I have ever purchased. I liked it so much (good red wine vinegar, obviously some maille mustard and just the right balance of salt and other seasonings), I wanted to bring a few dozen bottles of salad dressing home!

A few slices of bread, some slices of jambon or ham and a shmear of brie (or was it camembert?) and I was one happy camper. It’s hard to go back to sleep right after this midnight snack, but at least there’s no risk of getting hungry before a proper breakfast.

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It seems the breadfruit or kolo season starts in April or May and continues for several months over the summer and into the early parts of the rainy season. I have had a love/hate relationship with this fruit — as a child, and the youngest of the brood, my mother used to “drag” me with her to visit relatives in a small town in Bohol which is where her parents had a large home in the 1940’s. As part of those two-week or so long visits, I was forced to accompany her on daily visits to friends and relatives and what seemed like every single home in the small town where we were inevitably served merienda (morning or afternoon) and it was breadfruit then breadfruit then more breadfruit all with a sticky latik or coconut/sugar sauce. It was fine the first house or two, but when you see the 39th platter of breadfruit with latik you just want to lose it. But as a 10 year old, that wasn’t really an option. Needless to say, those visits were ALWAYS in the months of April or May and it must have been the height of the breadfruit season in Bohol. I never ate breadfruit again for at least 25 years since, despite my parents growing a beautiful tree in front of our residence in Manila. :)

Fast forward to a decade or so ago, and I wrote this post, about some breadfruit from my grandmother’s backyard in Cebu, and a new appreciation for this starchy staple was born. Now I look for it when the hot summer months hit, and last week, I was given 3-4 fruit from the tree in my grandmother’s home, even if we sold the place several years ago. The new owners were kind enough to send me some of the prized fruit, which from this particular tree, and in it’s setting, bears the most amazing breadfruit. Bland for most people, this particular breadfruit is a little more flavorful with just a hint of sweetness. It is PERFECT deep fried in lard and either plain with latik or cooked with good muscovado sugar melted and caramelized onto the sliced of breadfruit, in a banana-qua style treatment. I’m told it’s not that easy to grow this tree, even though it seems common enough in the provinces, but I guess with no seeds, perhaps one has to marcot the tree. It’s too bad this isn’t more readily available in markets, it would make a terrific, delicious, economical dish to serve at home or in restaurants.

The post Kolo (Rimas) or Breadfruit is in Season! appeared first on Market Manila.

I am ALWAYS on the lookout for baby squid at wet markets. I like them about an inch in length, and finding this size is getting extremely difficult, with a success rate of roughly once a year (though I only hit the wet markets 2 times a month, so I suppose that’s technically a 1/24 chance on average… I find that squid this size are incredibly tender and tasty, but I suppose there is a bit of guilt eating them so small, so young, in the same manner lechon de leche have to be taken from their mommies when they are at their yummiest… :(

Take a half kilo of squid and clean them, then marinate briefly in some olive oil, lemon, salt generously, add some freshly ground pepper and some chili flakes. Heat up a cast iron or other pan over high heat and cook the squid briefly until just done. They will be moist (not crispy) and very tasty.

I then toasted a slice of french bread, drizzled some olive oil on it, placed two slices of salted local heirloom tomato and piled on the squid a la plancha for a nice hearty bite. I had several. :)

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I don’t know about you guys, but as a kid, these were one of my FAVORITE SNACKS. Salty, “pain in the ass to crack open and keep the squash seed whole” and slightly funky smelling dried watermelon seeds were a cheap snack that kept you busy for hours on end. If you mastered the art of cracking the seeds just right (easier with sharp young teeth), you could do this blind or while watching your favorite television program. My mom used to disapprove of them, saying things like the funky smell was because folks rubbed them in their armpits or something (same for kiamoy, how outrageous is that?) but I always bought them after school anyway if I had a peso or two in my pocket. They would sell them in little paper bags…

Turns out the “funky smell” is a bit of star anise that is thrown in with the nuts along with the salt and they are stored and take on that slightly anise like aroma and flavor. This bunch was made in Pampanga and I spotted them at the FTI market last Saturday and bought a few bags for old times sake. They are as good as I remember them, but honestly, cracking them open IS A PAIN IN THE NECK. Particularly since I bought a whole load of peeled pumpkin seeds or pepitas in South Africa recently and if you toast them with some fine sea salt they taste fresh and wonderful…

But just to make sure I hadn’t lost the knack, I set out to peel several watermelon seeds and getting the inside whole. So my question is, if you liked this stuff as a kid, you were probably one of two distinct personalities… the first, one who cracks each seed and eats the contents immediately (or if impatient, stick the whole thing in your mouth for all the salt, then crack it open) OR did you crack lots of seeds open and save the meats until you had a goal, like 30 or 50 seeds before you ate them? I did the latter, and I am trying to correlate that with one’s ability to save money. If you could hold off gratification, would it make you more able to put away for a rainy day?! What do you think? :)

The post Butong Pakwan / Dried Watermelon Seeds appeared first on Market Manila.

We do have disasters in the Marketman kitchen. More often than you think. On the same day that we had a brilliant hit with the soy sauce and tanduay braised then grilled ribs, I also made a more classic rack of ribs basted with a vinegar mopping sauce then grilled and doused with a homemade barbecue sauce. They were a supreme fail. :( And they were a lot of work, so we were a bit bummed.

First the ribs were baked in a low oven basted frequently with a vinegar, butter, sugar and spice mixture. Then we transferred them to a charcoal grill to caramelize the ribs…

…then slathered them with a homemade barbecue sauce… things were looking pretty fantastic at this point, wouldn’t you agree?

Everything looked great and we took them off the heat, let them rest for a few minutes, and sliced them into individual ribs. One bite and nearly everyone who tasted them grimaced. They were way too sour! And with a delicious alternative soy/rhum ribs also on platters, no one took another one of these vinegar basted ribs. And there was a LOT leftover. The next day, I bought some frozen cuapao and steamed them briefly. Meanwhile, I shredded up all of the leftover vinegar basted ribs, added them to a small sauté pan, added some sweetish hoisin sauce, a bit of the leftover soy/rhum/maltose marinade from the successful ribs and heated all of this through. Stuff each steamed bun with some of the filling, add some sriracha if you want it spicy, and add some fresh cilantro leaves. These were FABULOUS! So amazing that you can alter a failed dish and make it into something so delicious! Mrs. MM and I along with the crew wiped out every single morsel of these shredded spare ribs paos!

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While North America might have it’s Cheerios of Corn Flakes cereal as their “Breakfast of Champions”… Filipinos would proudly present their version of a carbohydrate packed, sugar laden, milk added and chocolate flavored porridge, topped with protein rich dried fish — champorado to us. I last wrote about champorado in 2007, and it isn’t a frequent dish in our home, but it is very popular for some folks who consider it the ultimate breakfast comfort food.

The chi-chi version has a mixture of glutinous and regular rice, cooked up to a soupy consistency, then lots of chopped up tableya or pure cacao chocolate discs are added, along with sugar and eventually milk to taste. We serve a version at the Zubuchon stall in the Mactan airport for travelers on early morning flights. The addition of salty, crunchy and pungent dried dills, or squid or tuyo provides that added savory sensation of salt and umami, along with bits of crunch and texture. This version photographed here was made by the crew from last night’s leftover rice, re-boiled with water and tableya, then sugar and milk added. It’ll sit like a rock in one’s gut for a couple of hours. :)

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It’s been a good 30+ years since my last proper corn dog… :) I haven’t really looked for them since, but in a moment of weakness the other night, we were watching some television program that featured some freshly made corn dogs and at 9pm in the evening we all had a craving for these typically state fair or at least street food (or pinoy grocery stand) goodies…

It turns out they are WICKEDLY EASY to make at home. And we happened to have all of the ingredients, so we made them the following afternoon, with great results on the first try. First, the hotdogs. I bought local “german franks” that seemed to have less color and were much fatter than say the typical red pinoy hotdogs. On subsequent trials, we also tried the red hotdogs (don’t, they are evil and thin) and cheese dogs of the fatter variety (if you like cheese). S&R sells all beef hotdogs without much food coloring that would work well too, and they aren’t too thick so you don’t get full with one corn dog, you will need a second one. :)

For the batter simply mix together 1.5 cups of yellow corn meal, 1.5 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper, 1/2 cup sugar (reduce this a bit if you want it blander), 2 Tablespoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon of paprika. In a separate bowl, whisk together 2 eggs and 1.5 cups of whole milk. Mix wet and dry ingredients until just combined, a few lumps are okay. Place the batter in a tall glass, I used a beer glass, and skewer your hotdogs with a barbecue stick (soaked in water previously) and dip them into the batter and jiggle up and down and carefully put into a deep-fryer or wok with hot vegetable oil on medium high heat.

And after a couple of minutes this is what you get! Serve with yellow mustard and or ketchup. You will feel like a kid again. :)

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Slam dunk. :) I love an arroz caldo or pospas or lugaw made with chicken broth and chicken parts, it was our go-to “cure-all” sick food of our childhood. I did a post on that version, here. But I knew that Chinese versions of the dish sometimes relied on pork broth, so I naturally thought a version with lechon broth, crisped up lechon, chopped up chicharon and fried garlic would probably be pretty good. It was. This is something we are experimenting with for introduction at some Zubuchon outlets, particularly one at the airport if they ever confirm that we officially have a small space in the soon-to-be-renovated departure area. This is precisely the kind of hot, comforting food I would like while waiting for a flight back to wherever…

To make, and I won’t give exact measurements, just saute some large slices of ginger and finely chopped onion in some lard briefly until fragrant and onions translucent. Add several cups of concentrated all natural lechon broth (we make ours from the patas, bones, etc. of cooked lechons, no MSG added) and an equal amount more or less of water. Bring this to a boil, add the rice of your choice (some folks just use regular short grain rice, others like a mixture of sticky and regular rice) and keep stirring until the rice is fully cooked, if not overcooked and soft. You might want to add a pinch of kasubha if you want some color to your pospas. Also a touch of patis or fish sauce. Unless you are eating this right away, leave some liquid in the pot as the rice will absorb much of this if allowed to sit for a while. You can always thin the porridge with additional broth/water at a later point. The rice porridge was flavorful on its own, but it was the toppings that really made this a slam dunk dish… shredded and fried lechon flakes, chopped chicharon, chopped green onions, fried garlic, etc. Add some patis and kalamansi juice if desired. Yum.

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