My mom is the greatest cook. Well, of course, everyone's mom is always the greatest to their kids. But I learned to appreciate good taste from my mom's cooking. She wou
ld always use the freshest vegetables and choiciest cuts in meat in her cooking. Her measurements are precise (to us, measurement means 1 tsp or 1/2 cup etc - but it doen't work that way with her. She measures with her hands, or the regular cups found at home, or the most accurate of all, her tastebuds).
The picture here is "batchoy" Malabon style - similar to Pampanga's batchoy. It's cut pork meat (tenderloin), spleen, and liver boiled in ginger and onion. Once tender, miswa (chinese thin-flour noodle) is mixed and simmered for about one minute. It's one of my favorite dishes.
"Halaya" (sweet purple yam) is anoher specialty. Halaya is ground purple yam mixed with coconut milk (kakang gata), sugar, milk, butter/ margarine. It's cooking needs constant stirring to prevent the solution from sticking on the pan. The constant stirring also helps to make the yam soft, thick, and chewy. Every Christmas and New Year, we always look forward tasting this homemade goody. That's my mom in the picture, oblivious to her surrounding, too busy putting butter around the inside of the llanera (tin-can mould) to prevent the yam from sticking.
"Hamonado" is also a signature dish by mom. It's pork tenderloin marinated with sugar, salt, and pineapple juice. My mom rolls the meat and ties it to get a round-shaped meat. It is then simmered to the marin
ate-solution until tender. So the end-product produces a round-shaped pork-meat with thick sweet-salty sauce.
ld always use the freshest vegetables and choiciest cuts in meat in her cooking. Her measurements are precise (to us, measurement means 1 tsp or 1/2 cup etc - but it doen't work that way with her. She measures with her hands, or the regular cups found at home, or the most accurate of all, her tastebuds).The picture here is "batchoy" Malabon style - similar to Pampanga's batchoy. It's cut pork meat (tenderloin), spleen, and liver boiled in ginger and onion. Once tender, miswa (chinese thin-flour noodle) is mixed and simmered for about one minute. It's one of my favorite dishes.
"Halaya" (sweet purple yam) is anoher specialty. Halaya is ground purple yam mixed with coconut milk (kakang gata), sugar, milk, butter/ margarine. It's cooking needs constant stirring to prevent the solution from sticking on the pan. The constant stirring also helps to make the yam soft, thick, and chewy. Every Christmas and New Year, we always look forward tasting this homemade goody. That's my mom in the picture, oblivious to her surrounding, too busy putting butter around the inside of the llanera (tin-can mould) to prevent the yam from sticking."Hamonado" is also a signature dish by mom. It's pork tenderloin marinated with sugar, salt, and pineapple juice. My mom rolls the meat and ties it to get a round-shaped meat. It is then simmered to the marin
ate-solution until tender. So the end-product produces a round-shaped pork-meat with thick sweet-salty sauce. It's a pity that my cooking is just survival-style cooking and have not developed the passion and patience to make these dishes. Although of course I know how these are made, I can only approximate the taste, much more the appearance of these specialties. But thanks to mom, I was able to develop good taste in food.
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