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EVERYDAY RECIPES

The practical cook feels greatly concerned with day-to-day cooking since this routine is part and parcel of daily living. Her goals would be the following: 

a. to keep food expenses well within the limits of the food budget:

b. to carefully plan meals in order to meet the nutrition requirements for the working adults, the active teens, the growing children, even senile grandparents;

c. to provide variety in the weekly menu in order to insure good eating, thus providing satisfaction for the entire family.

With these guidelines in mind, the cook keeps abreast with the prices of food items which are forever soaring and finds way to meet the problem of budgeting food money properly. First of all, which food sources (market, tiangge, super mart, grocery, corner tali papa) offer the lowest prices? What time would be the best marketing time: very early, at about 10 a.m., or late in the afternoon? The budget wise homemaker feels the market pulse with accurate efficiency.

I have tried many methods in meal planning but wise buying seems to stand out as the following pointers will illustrate: 

a. buy cereals wholesale (corn, rice)
b. buy cooking oil by the gallon if possible
c. take advantage of the abundance of the following
during summer:

1. shallots (native onions) which keep long
2. garlic heads
3. alamang, dilis for bagoong*
4. green mango for dill*
5. green papaya for pickle*
6. other vegetables for pickle*
7. mustard and radish for buro*
8. ripe mango for mango*
9. calamansi for syrup*
10. pineapples for jam*
11. ginger for kitchen pot*

When the rains come, how convenient it would be to have the pantry stocked with burong mustasa, mango, papaya, and vegetable atchara, radish, bagoong alamang, dilis, pineapple, mango jam and shallots and garlic dried to perfection when there are scarce.

d. In rainy or dry season, buy only foods in season; it is not only impractical to buy- off season foods but present problems of properly condimenting them. Besides, off-season goods are not as palatable as when in season. When ripe guavas abound they are cheap and may take the place of more expensive table fruits. When calamansi is off- season, tomatoes are in or vice versa. Other fruits like melons, pakwan, sinkamas, guayabano are fine sources of Vitamin C.

e. Foods cannot be preserved or processed easily find their substitutes. Vegetables help us meet the mineral-vitamins requirement, if fruits are expensive. But in our country, there is a round-the-year season for fruits. We always have fruits in season and this should present little problems, if at all, in purchasing them. Expensive cuts of meat may be substituted by the less expensive ones like the sweet meats (internal organs)

f. The low protein foods can find many supplements. Fish, squid, alamang should be combined with dried beans or legumes (pod vegetables). The protein in beans and seeds like mongo, cadios, patani, utong will supplement the incomplete proteins from seafood or shells. There is an abundance of sitaw, Baguio beans, lowland sitsaro and other pod vegetables coming from local gardens as well as the gourds: patola, upo, ampalaya.

g. In some regions dried seeds (sitaw, bataw, patani) are cheap and can be bought in bulk by the ganta. These come in handy when the budget is stretched quite far. The cook feels relieved to be able to dip her hands into a jarful of dry bean seeds which would make a delectable dish when combined with the slice of fat pork and seasoned with the strained juice of bagoong.

The preparation of food, however, calls for much ingenuity and art. Food presented at the table should first or look attractive, then, as palatable as it is nutritious. It is good to remember that appetizing, nutritious food need not necessarily be expensive as the everyday recipes in this chapter will prove to you. Not only are they cheap, but they are easy to prepare and therefore take less cooking time and eventually minimal fuel expense. Remember always to (a.) cook beans or other dried seeds only after they have been soaked overnight, (b.) tough cuts of meat better be simmered slowly over low fire or an charcoal stone, (c.) deep fry food when the oil is really hot. (Test this by dropping a grain of cooked rice. The oil is hot if the rice puffs readily and rises on the surface.), (d.) cook vegetables in very little water with the lid on. Leaves are better steamed.

The practical cook should be on the lookout for substitute which can replace ingredients called for in the recipes which are off-season or too expensive. Here are a few suggestions:

for garbansos................................................patani seed (lumpia) for

garbansos................................................canned

peas( menudo)

cubed potatoes..............................................white camote sampaloc,fruits in sinigang green mangoes alibangbangleaves, calamansi juice, camias fruit, batuan

(Visayan) commercial

bacon.........................................homemade soft pork
glutinous

rice...................................................long-grained California variety commercial lumpia wrapper or wanton

wrapper...........................................homemade wrappers
imported fruit

cocktail......................................locally canned fruits
The wise cook experiments, discovers, and passes on the top other amateurs a new discovery thereby is sincere gesture. Be wary of too secretive cooks!

SOUPS

SOUPS TO WHET THE APPETITE 

I would like to classify soups into two general types: the thin, aromatic appetizers and the thick, hearty, sumptuous ones that can be meals in themselves. Julienne, served warm in demi-tasse cups, makes a fine starter for a heavy dinner. The brothy garlic soup falls under this category being a aromatic and delicately flavored. In general, delicately flavored first-course soups are made from the broth of beef, chicken, ham bones, even fish heads boiled over and over. Billion cubes (instant!) of chicken, beef, veal are now popular with the working wife, so are the dehydrated, packaged soup mixes that can be prepared in a jiffy. The addition of some barley, glutinous rice, vermicelli, flour threads (misua), egg noodles (miki), long rice (bijon) or sotanghon to a good substantial stock (beef, chicken, fish) plus flavouring and spice makes the appetizer soup so easy to prepare. The family of thick soups like bisque, the puree, the cream of vegetables, cream of chicken, meat-noodle-vegetables combinations, egg-vegetable-noodle combinations, the shellfish or fish chowders, the thick gruels (linugaw) are popular among children as a morning recess recess snack or among the adults as afternoon snacks (merienda). We shall then draw the line between the appetizer soups and the the creamy, rich, hearty soups.

THE HEARTY SOUPS

On cold days, the children adore the thick, rich gruels (linugaw) which are popular among children as a morning recess snack or afternoon snacks eaten with the puto and grated coconut. However, the truly creamy soups made from vegetables like peas, beans, ripe tomatoes are better served with crackers or dry melba toast. Sumptuously thick meat and vegetable soups, chicken and noodles, bean and bacon combinations are really delectable lunch dishes served with buttered toast or crusty pan de sal. A few rich, hearty soups in this collection are familiar to you, since these have been picked out form my grandmother's kitchen files and some from my aunt's and my mother's.

FIRST COURSE* SOUPS

JULIENNE

2 cups mixed cabbage, potato, carrots, celery, cut julienne style (shoestring)
8 cups chicken or beef stock
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon vetsin
salt to taste

Measure the stock into a saucepan. Add the vegetables, pepper, salt, and vetsin. Bring to a boil, then lower the flame to simmering point. Cover, cook slowly till the vegetables are done.

MISUA-PATOLA SOUP

6 cups chicken stock (or shrimp liquor or fish head broth)
2 packages (rolls) fine misua
1 large sliced patola
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 minced onion
2 tablespoons cooking oil
3 tablespoon patis
pepper to taste

Sauté the garlic first and then the onions in hot cooking oil till golden brown. Add the stock, patis, pepper, and vetsin. Cover and boil for 15 minutes. Drop in patola. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Uncover. Break misua into short lengths and drop into the boiling broth. Cover. Remove from fire immediately.

GARLIC SOUP

6 cups beef stock
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped onion
6 slice day-old bread or 4 pieces pan de sal
2 tablespoon melted butter
salt and pepper to taste
In one tablespoon oil fry the garlic and onions till brown. Pour in the 6 cups of rich beef stock. Season well with salt and pepper.
Just before serving, let float a few hot croutons atop the soup. To make croutons: Cut the slices of bread into cubes (1"). In a fairy hot skillet melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Brown the bread cubes till crisp.

LIVER-MUSTARD SURPRISE

½ cup finely sliced chicken liver
1 cup sliced fresh mustard (1")
2 cloves garlic minced
5 cups chicken stock
vetsin, pepper, salt to taste
Brown the garlic in 2 tablespoon oil in a deep skillet. Sauté the liver quickly: then add chicken stock. Cover, cook for 10 minutes. Drop in the mustard. Season with pepper, salt and vetsin. Cover again, cook for 5 minutes. Remove from fire. Uncover. Too long cooking will toughen the liver.

CLAIM BROTH

½ cup shucked clams
1 cup sayote or upo, cut in strips
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon macerated young ginger
6 cups rice washing
Patis and pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a saucepan. Brown the ginger quickly adding the shucked clams. Cover to cook. Add the seasonings and water. Shimmer with the lid on for 20 minutes. Remove from fire.

QUAIL EGGS IN MISUA

12 peeled hard-boiled quail eggs
8 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons fat or oil
2 tablespoons minced onion
2 bundles flour threads (misua)
2 tablespoons chopped kinchay
Patis-pepper-vetsin to taste
Brown onions in hot oil in a deep skillet. Add kinchay, patis, pepper and vetsin along with chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer about 10 minutes. Drop eggs, vetsin and misua broken in short lengths into the simmering mixture. Stir and cover. Remove from fire at once.

VEGETABLES SURPRISE

1 cup shredded Baguio pechy
1 cup diced squash
1 large potato, cubed
½ cup peas
10 cups beef chock
¼ cup shell macaroni
Patis or salt, pepper, vetsin to taste
In a medium sized saucepan put all the ingredients together and simmer gently till flavors have blended.

LEMON-RICE DELIGHT

2 cans condensed chicken broth
2 cups water
¼ cup uncooked rice
3 eggs
¼ cup lemon juice
chopped parsley

Heat broth and water in a saucepan to boiling. Add rice; reduce heat, cover and simmer until rice is tender about 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat. In a bowl, beat eggs with a rotary beater until light and frothy. Slowly beat lemon juice into eggs, then gradually beat in 1 cup of the broth mixture. Stirring constantly, slowly add egg mixture to remaining broth in pan. If making ahead, chill at this point. Just before serving, heat soup until hot, but do not boil. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley.

SHRIMP-CORN MEXICALI

¼ cup chopped shrimp
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups shrimp liquor
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 cup diluted milk
dash of Tabasco and paprika
¼ cup sweet cream corn 
½ teaspoon ground pepper
salt and vetsin to taste
Brown the onion in 2 tablespoon butter adding the shrimps, shrimp liquor, salt. Stir slowly with spoon. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add vetsin and remove from fire.

Click here to read some kinds of spices and their synonyms in Tagalog translations.

Click here to read some foods, fruits and vegetables in Tagalog and Cebuano dialect.

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