Category Archives: homemade

How To Peel A Pomelo, Pummelo or Melogold

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Pomelos are the sweet and meaty relatives of grapefruit, which are often tart and slightly bitter, and whose pulp is too fragile to separate from its rind.

The joy of pomelo is underrated, being relatively unknown and intimidating because of its size. At the Food Coop where one would think members have a better familiarity with produce not commonly found in conventional grocery stores, I’ve often been asked by the cashier what it is when I put it on the belt. Either that or they comment on how big my grapefruit is. No it’s not, it’s just happy to see you. :p

Pomelos (suha in the Philippines) are tropical fruit, and of course this is the part where I tell you I grew up with them. But I did! Our dinner table would have a bowl of them waiting to be peeled and divided, and I would happily suck on the pulp and feel it explode with juicy tart sweetness between my teeth, bit by delicious bit.

Street vendors would sell them in large wooden carts. They would already be peeled, and the sellers would spend their days peeling them and trying to get as close to the pulp as possible, but taking care not to actually expose it.


Now you don’t have to eat it like a grapefruit! Here are the steps to peeling a pomelo the way I learned it in the old country, watching my father’s hands after dinner, waiting for my juicy surprise.

A ripe pomelo is fragrant when you stick your nose close to its rind.
Begin by slicing off the top and bottom of the fruit, careful not to cut the inner skin.
The rind is scored lengthwise every few inches, again taking care not to cut too deep as to reach the pulp.
Using two hands, the rind is peeled off to expose the inner skin.
Do this all across the fruit until you only have the rindless ball of pulp.
Tear the fruit in half lengthwise by pressing two thumbs into the bottom end.
 After peeling off the inner skin, the juicy pink or yellow pulp is exposed and is ready for consumption.
Aside from eating on its own, pomelos are also good for use in fruit or vegetable salads, adding a good acidic kick and flavor to the mix.
Thanks to my hand model R, as always 🙂

Adobo Fried Rice – Honoring A Dish Twice

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If you are an adobo fan then you would know that the leftover sauce is as valuable as the meat. The sauce contains the flavor of the stew as well as the beef, chicken or pork that has cooked in it for hours.

A dinner of adobo usually results in leftovers especially when cooked by a Filipino. We have a reputation of excess which is not limited to making too much food for a meal. There has to be enough for tomorrow or for guests to take home! I have many memories of road trips and waking up early in the morning to stir up a batch of adobo rice from the previous evening’s meal to bring on the road and to spoon feed my sweet driver. 🙂 It seems to keep her eyes on the road.

Anyway, this is another one of those recipes that is hard to quantify. It depends on how concentrated one’s sauce turned out and how much rice needs to be made, so I will just estimate to quantities of these ingredients.

Begin with 2-3 tablespoons of sauce, in this case coagulated from the refrigerator. Try to get any garlic or small meat pieces from the pot and saute in the sauce.

Add the rice and fry on medium to high heat, occasionally pressing down to make some sides crispy from the hot pan. 
Mix well, add additional sauce or salt to taste.

 Here it is served steaming with some Ginisang Itlog (Sauteed Eggs) and sausage.
Recipe for Crispy Pork Belly Adobo here.
Recipe for Beef Short Rib Adobo here.
All about Filipino Adobo here.

Adobo fried rice with leftover pork belly pieces.
Served with grilled eggplant.

Shakshuka AKA Delicious – Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce, Chickpeas and Feta

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They said the dish was called Delicious and that’s exactly what it was. One morning in our Vermont ski rental, the air was filled with the flavors of tomato, jalapeno and feta because of this colorful palette of reds, greens and yellows.

“It’s not really called Delicious, we just named it that,” our friends said. Upon further investigation I discovered that the dish was actually called shakshuka, a North African dish popular in Israel and in the Middle East.


Tomatoes are stewed and reduced with the addition of jalapeno and feta, and then eggs are poached in the mixture as it spends a few minutes in the oven.

We served it with rice but recipes online sometimes call for tortillas or pita. I think it’s excellent on its own, and definitely a dish to share. I love pretty food!

Shakshuka
  
Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
  • 2 jalapeños, seeded, finely chopped
  • 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
  • 2 teaspoons Hungarian sweet paprika
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand, juices reserved
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup coarsely crumbled feta
  • 8 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
  • Warm pita bread

Preparation

  • Preheat oven to 425°. Heat oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and jalapeños; cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, about 8 minutes. Add chickpeas, paprika, and cumin and cook for 2 minutes longer.

  • Add crushed tomatoes and their juices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens slightly, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle feta evenly over sauce. Crack eggs one at a time and place over sauce, spacing evenly apart. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until whites are just set but yolks are still runny, 5–8 minutes. Garnish with parsley and cilantro. Serve with pita for dipping.

Short Rib Adobo With Coconut Milk – When The Whiteys Cooked Filipino Food

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I won’t make ramen for a Japanese friend, nor will I cook pasta for an Italian chef. As a food enthusiast I know my place and know enough to not to make something for someone if they already make the exact same dish perfectly.

Except that I said yes when our friend Jessica told me about the adobo recipe she found in the New York Times. I wrinkled my forehead when I heard “coconut milk,” imagining Thai food or some kind of strange milky variation. I tried not to flinch when I saw shoyu (Japanese fermented soy sauce) as an ingredient. I didn’t butt in and say you can only use Filipino soy sauce! The meat of choice was short rib. It was hard to go wrong.

But I was wowed, no, floored with delight when the dish was done. The shoyu and chicken broth allowed for the saltiness while keeping the light color of the stew. The coconut milk added a subtle depth to the dish, the apple cider vinegar created a whole new dimension to the acid, and the searing and broiling process made the meat delectably golden and crispy. I was sufficiently and pleasantly impressed.

Served over rice with a side of steamed bokchoy. Yes, those are whole cloves of garlic.

We soaked our rice with the sauce and ate more than we should. This is how one honors a chef (myself included). In the morning we turned the leftover sauce and rice into Adobo Fried Rice. During both meals we shared great conversation and an even greater love for life.

These whiteys can make me my cuisine anytime.

More on adobo here. My Crispy Pork Belly Adobo recipe here.

Short ribs are browned on all sides.

The rest of the ingredients are added: shoyu, vinegar, coconut oil, broth, bay leaf, garlic.
The Dutch oven is covered and made to simmer in the oven for two hours.
The meat is removed from the pot and transferred to a pan to broil until brown and crispy.
It is returned to the sauce before serving.
Heavenly perfection.

(Incidentally, this recipe comes from Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, owners of the Brooklyn joint Purple Yam.)

From The New York Times

 

Beef Short-Rib Adobo
Time: 2 1/2 hours
3 pounds short ribs
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Black pepper
3 tablespoons oil
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
3 bay leaves.
1. Heat the oven to 275 degrees. Season the ribs all over with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, pour in the oil. When it is warm but not smoking, add the ribs to the pan, in batches if necessary, and brown well on all sides, 4 to 6 minutes. Remove the ribs from the pan and pour out the oil.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and 1 teaspoon black pepper, stir well, and add the ribs back in one layer. Use two pans if necessary, distributing the liquid. Bring to a boil over high heat. Turn off heat, cover the pan and put it into the oven. Cook until the meat is tender and falling off the bone, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. The liquid should only simmer very gently. Skim off excess fat when you check on it.
3. Transfer ribs to a broiling pan. Put the braising liquid over high heat; boil for 10 to 15 minutes to thicken it. Meanwhile, put the ribs under the broiler until brown. (You can dispose of the bones if they become loosened.) Put ribs on a platter; pour sauce on them.
Yield: 4 servings.
Note: You can double the recipe, and cook the ribs in two layers. Cooking time will be a bit uneven, though, so it’s best to try to turn over the ribs halfway through the cooking.

Filipino Cuisine 101: Lumpia, Munggo, Adobo, Talong, Ube

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“What should we feed them?” I asked about our next door neighbors we invited over for dinner. It was our first time having them over, and if we’ve never fed someone before, we try to gauge the kind of people we are about to feed. Do they seem picky? Are they are adventurous enough to not wrinkle their nose at the mention of fish sauce? We had an idea but were uncertain. So as a precaution, I asked about any dietary restrictions. 
“None. Chef’s choice. Thanks for asking!” was the reply. That was music to our ears, so we decided on what it was going to be: Filipino Cuisine 101. 
What happened to the dinner? Our neighbors confessed that they’ve secretly enjoyed the cooking aromas coming from our door every night. They ate heartily, and those are the kinds of eaters I love to feed. Now we can move past 101 and maybe on over to 102 or another foreign cuisine. 
For now we’ll present the basics.  The captions link to each dish’s recipe. Enjoy!
Lumpiang Toge (Fried Bean Sprout Spring Roll)
Recipe and photos here.
 Ginisang Munggo (Mung Bean Soup)
Recipe and photos here.

Crispy Pork Belly Adobo.  
Recipe and photos here.
“Inihaw” Na Talong (Grilled Eggplant). 
Recipe and photos here.
Main Course: Adobo and Eggplant
Baked Ube (Purple Yam) and Vanilla Ice Cream.
Recipe and photos here.
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