Pansit Palabok

It's outrageous how much those palabok-Malabon stores charge for a bilao of this party standard, when it actually costs so very little to make for yourself (which thereby qualifies this dish as one to feed to the multitudes). The only thing is, the prep is very mabusisi (i.e., meticulous), but otherwise, it's well worth the effort. One thing I pride myself on: my palabok is prepared completely from scratch, which should always be the case if you're after quality. Once upon a time, I tried to shortcut things by buying pre-prepared tinapa flakes (way too salty), pre-prepared market breadcrumbs (too moldy), and pre-prepared crushed pork rinds a.k.a. chicharon (too old). Never again!!! I'm going to make my palabok from scratch from now on, thank you very much...




Ingredients:
1 kg palabok noodles
6-8 pcs. tinapang galunggong, flaked
1/4 c. cooking oil
3 heads garlic, chopped
2 packs annatto (atsuete) powder
1 medium onion, chopped
250 g lean pork, sliced into 1/2 menudo-sized pieces
250 g shrimp, cooked and peeled, or 100 g dried hibe
patis
sugar to taste (I don't use vetsin)
ground black pepper
5-6 pcs. soybean cake (tokwa), cubed
2 pcs. Knorr shrimp bouillon cubes
5 cups water
1/2 cup fine breadcrumbs
2 tbsp. cornstarch dispresed in 1/8 c. water
1 bunch green onion, chopped
4 eggs, hardboiled, peeled, and sliced for garnish


Here's how the gig runs:

Soak palabok noodles in water overnight. Go figure, the noodles are tougher than the usual spaghetti, so be well prepared. Cook in boiling water until just past al dente. Drain and set aside.

Flake the tinapa with a fork, or your fingers. Toast in a frying pan until dry and crispy. Set aside.

Heat the oil in the frying pan. Add the chopped garlic, toast until golden brown. Drain the garlic in a sieve and blot with paper towels. Set aside.

Add annatto powder to the hot oil, fry tokwa cubes until golden brown. Drain and set aside.

In the same oil, saute onions and add pork pieces, stirring until pork is no longer pink. Add patis, sugar, and black pepper to taste; remove pork when tender.

Still in the same pan, add another pack of annatto powder until dissolved in the oil. Add the shrimp cubes and water. When the mixture starts to boil, add the breadcrumbs: break down any lumps by using a wire whisk or whisking with a fork. Season to taste; add more patis if necessary. When mixture is smooth, add cornstarch solution until the sauce thickens. Remove from flame.

Mix sauce with cooked noodles and assemble tinapa, chicharon, tokwa, pork, shrimp, garlic, green onions, and egg on top. Serve with patis and calamansi.

Christmas In The He Cares Kitchen

Tonight I found myself elbow deep in chicken parts. Literally.

It's the He Cares' Christmas party tomorrow and, as always, our huge army of cooks and kitchen helpers was kept busy until late this evening chopping and dicing and cooking and cleaning...

Huge army, in my dreams. But Kuya Joe Dean, Juwip, Mang Sauro, and I managed to get the job done, thanks as well to Manang Lilia and the Montalban mothers who did a lot of the prep work throughout the day. Earlier this morning I was reminded of what Mother Teresa said about her vocation: to do ordinary things with extraordinary love - a mantra that kept repeating in my head when my fingers started to painfully cramp up after slicing and squeezing 3 million calamansi, which would go into 426 pieces of chicken, tediously counted out first by myself, and then by Kuya, with salt, pepper, and horrors - but I was too tired to object - monosodium glutamate a.k.a. vetsin, which I hand-tossed over and over again until I thought my fingers would bleed from the jagged chicken bones that kept assaulting my delicate digits (although my blood would probably add to the unique flavor of the dish, mwehehe...) Charing, delicate - good thing they were previously numbed to some extent by the ice chips I had to fish the chicken pieces out of. Thank God for asbestos hands.

Anyway, at the end of the night, it was kind of funny cleaning salt and pepper out of my armpits. Kiiiiiddddingggg!!! Good grief, I should never put our health and sanitation practices in doubt. But I did find a lot of spices higher up than my elbows after all that halukay in chicken batter - Kuya was so amused that he wanted a photo taken of my efforts, I was spared the indignity, thank God for small miracles.

One blessing is that a major department/supermarket chain has designated He Cares as a daily beneficiary of near-expiry-but-still-immediately-useable perishable goods, which go a long way in supporting our mission. Now I have to figure out how to "recycle" food that will go bad very soon, how to jam and preserve and pickle, and how to make everything still taste fresh and new. Hmm, interesting challenge; this is something I can definitely take on. :-) Stay tuned...

The Reason Behind The Season, And The Food Blog

Grace builds on nature; so goes an ancient Catholic axiom. One of my greatest passions is cooking - it's something that's come naturally for as long as I remember, and one of my most favorite things to do. Once upon a time, I even dreamed of having my own restaurant, or better yet, my own catering service (better, and more flexible hours!). Well, looks as if that "dream" came true in an unexpected but highly satisfying manner - I cook and chop and spend perhaps a third of my "working" hours doing chores pertaining to the kitchen, to feed a large number of banquet guests, who, for the most part, are very appreciative of what they're served. The only difference is, I cater to a different kind of banquet: the kind mentioned in Luke 14:13-14, one of the most important verses of scripture that served as an important signpost on my journey Home. "Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

I think that among the most valuable lessons God has taught me in my work in the He Cares kitchen is that every time we gather with His poor for a meal that sates their physical, and, eventually, spiritual hunger, we are actually having lunch with the Lord. For indeed, He said so Himself: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of Mine, you did for Me." (Matthew 25:40)

I've been meaning to write a book particularly about the blessings of this kitchen ministry, and how to feed the multitudes (without ever running out of loaves or fishes! God truly provides) on a tight mission budget, and how to get creative with whatever you find in the pantry and the fridge. But for the meantime, yet another blog about all these things - recipes, reflections, rumblings of the tummy - will have to suffice.

Grace truly builds on nature...the Lord gives us gifts and talents which should ultimately be directed back to Him, in loving service and for His greater glory. I cook and chop and try to be creative about it; there are days I have to get up at the break of dawn or stay up until the wee hours "slaving" away at the stove, and don't get paid a single centavo. But I'm not complaining: it turns out that my Boss is the best Employer on the planet - and Beyond. I couldn't ask for anything more than to be in His service, now and forevermore.