and frequency you will become comfortable with what was once foreign to you inspiring you toward further culinary adventures.
THE BASICS
How do you prepare yourself and your kitchen for a Filipino meal? Naturally, you start with the building blocks: the sauces, stocks, and flavor bases that form the backbone of a cuisine. A good-quality stock is the foundation for soups and stews and can easily be the difference between creating either mediocre or memorable food. Seafood stocks are not only the quickest and easiest to prepare but, in my opinion, the most worthwhile since flavorful fish or shrimp stock is hard to find at your run-of-the-mill-grocery store. Chicken stock will require a couple of dedicated hours simmering on the stove and beef stock four to six hours, which is why the time invested into a homemade stock is certainly a persuasive factor in resorting to canned broth or bouillon. However, their inferior quality will become apparent when you try reducing your stock into a rich, bodacious sauce and the resulting liquid is flimsy and unremarkable. Good-quality stock is relatively simple to prepare and a powerful tool to add body, complexity, color, and flavor to any dish in any cuisine.
There are definitive flavors that either individually or in combination characterize Filipino cuisine. Adobo, a Spanish import from Mexico, is one of the culinary cornerstones that give Filipino food its flavor identity. Despite sharing a similar name, New World adobo is completely different in its anatomy than the island version, where adobo is as much a cooking technique as it is a specific dish. Literally translated, it means “preserved” or “marinated” in Spanish. In the Filipino kitchen, it refers to food cooked with five specific ingredients: vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves, garlic, and peppercorns. This flavor formula is quintessentially Filipino and can be applied to any type of meat, seafood, or vegetable. Of course, there are variations on adobo that include the addition of coconut milk, ginger, tomato, or pineapple. But underneath the seasonings are the same five ingredients that support adobo’s recognizable flavors. Because adobo is considered a national dish of the Philippines eaten in some variation all across the islands, I wanted to address its importance here even though the adobo recipes are in later chapters.
Sofrito is another flavor base imported by the Spaniards that Filipinos integrated into everyday meals. Garlic, onion, and tomato sautéed together in oil is the triumvirate that underlies guisados (sautés), stews, and stir-fries. Sofrito may include bell peppers for sweetness or atsuete (annatto) seeds for color, which like adobo, can vary depending on which cook you ask.
Toasted garlic is on equal footing with soy sauce and pepper when it comes to seasoning Filipino food. Garlic is an essential ingredient cooked with tomatoes or onions in a sofrito base. But the flavor difference of garlic when fried to a crispy golden brown and sprinkled on top sinangag, fried rice with garlic, or arroz caldo, chicken and rice soup, is a subtle addition that lingers on the tongue and elevates the ordinary to a sophisticated plane. Once you’ve toasted your garlic, don’t feel as if you have to store it away until you plan your next Filipino meal. Add a dash to your container of sea salt or lightly crush it as a substitute for garlic powder in spice rubs or marinades.
A Filipino meal is hardly complete without an array of potent and vibrant dipping sauces (sawsawan), which add zest and balance to each bite. From bottled banana ketchup to sinus-clearing shrimp paste, there is always at least one sawsawan on the table to spoon over rice, to dip grilled meats or fish, or to mix into soups. A saucer filled with toyomansi is a common complement; it is a light mixture of soy sauce and calamansi (native lime) juice that is so popular it’s been bottled and made commercially available. Fish sauce and native vinegar is another classic combination that is easily transformed by substituting soy sauce or by adding garlic and fresh herbs. Although commercial sweet chili sauces are aplenty at the Asian store, the recipe included in this chapter rivals any store-bought brand and is a cinch to put together with ingredients you’re likely to already have in your pantry. A recipe for plain steamed rice, a basic component in nearly every Filipino meal, is also included in this chapter.
Fish Stock
Seafood stocks are relatively simple to prepare and a wonderful asset to add extra punch to any seafood dish from chowder to paella to stews. It is best to use fish bones or heads from nonoily fish such as flounder, sole, or snapper to produce a clean-tasting stock. Bones from oily fish such as salmon or mackerel produce an oily overpowering stock.
Makes 6 cups (1½ liters)
1 to 1½ lbs (450 to 675 g) fish bones
1 carrot, sliced into 1-in (2½-cm) pieces
2 stalks celery, sliced into 1-in (2½-cm) pieces
1 bay leaf
5 to 6 green onions (scallions)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
One ½-in (1 ⅓-cm) cube fresh ginger, peeled
5 to 7 cups (1 to 1½ liters) water
Spread all of the ingredients evenly on a sheet pan. Place the pan under the broiler 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) from the flame for 12 to 15 minutes. Periodically turn the bones and vegetables to brown all the sides. Place the roasted vegetables and fish bones in a medium stockpot (3 to 4 quarts/liters). Pour in water to cover the ingredients by 1 inch (2½ cm). Bring the stock to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Strain the stock through a fine sieve. Discard vegetables and bones. Cool stock. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in the freezer for 3 months.
Variation: Shrimp Stock. Substitute the fish bones with shrimp shells from 2 pounds (900 g) raw shrimp for the fish bones.
Beef Stock
Choose meaty beef bones from the neck, knuckles, ribs, or shank to produce a rich, flavorful beef stock. I particularly like supplementing my beef bones with a few cuts of oxtail, which are packed with collagen and produce an incomparably thick gelatinous broth. Oxtail used to be a throwaway cut, the scraps that were left to the dog. However, its revival on upscale restaurant menus has elevated the demand and the price so that it is no longer a true bargain. Using oxtail for stock reaps double rewards—a bosomy broth and the simmered oxtail meat, tender and supercharged with flavor that begs to be added to soups, stews, or pastas.
Makes 4 to 5 quarts (3¾ to 4¾ liters)
4 lbs (1¾ kg) beef bones plus 1 lb (450 g) cut oxtail
2 large onions, quartered
5 green onions (scallions), whole
3 large carrots, cut into 1-in (2½-cm) pieces
4 celery stalks, cut into 1-in (2½-cm) pieces
4 to 5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 cup (250 ml) rice wine
2 bay leaves
5 to 6 quarts (4¾ to 5 liters) water
Brown the bones: Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Place the bones, onions, green onions (scallions), carrots, celery, and garlic in a large roasting pan. Roast the bones and vegetables in the oven 1 to 1½ hours, occasionally turning the bones and vegetables so that they are browned on all sides but not burnt. Remove the roasting pan from the oven and quickly transfer the bones and vegetables to a large pot. While the roasting pan is still hot, deglaze the roasting pan with the rice wine, scraping any toasted bits of meat or vegetables from the pan. Pour the wine and scrapings into the pot with the bones and vegetables.
