TRADITIONAL RECIPES COINED

When I was young and living in the province, I remembered my grandmother telling me about this recipe that has been handed from one generation to another. The recipe was about the goat caldereta. The recipe has not been change ever since they started cooking the dish. The recipe has not yet been written in any recipe books because our family wanted to keep the family tradition alive and stayed original.

In cooking caldereta, the secret lies in the goat's meat. Instead of buying the meat in supermarkets, they preferred to do it themselves and butcher the goat into desired meat size. According to my grandmother, they let the goat drink vinegar before putting it to rest. The vinegar serves as a counter against the smelly odor of the goat's meat. Usually the cooking proper last around an hour before moving to the next stage of the dish. This is how meticulously they prepared the dish. No wonder it was so expensive to buy a serving of the dish.

In culinary school, we were told that goat's meat requires extra care in preparation. A single wrong move would lead to the failure of the dish that was being cooked, especially using goat's meat. I know my grandmother would disagree with me when she knew that I have already written it in my recipe book that I am preparing right now. I want the secret of meat preparation when it comes to goat meat be known to others. I believe this will be my main contribution to the culinary world and many chefs would agree to my idea.

CHIKEN CURRY - PINOY STYLE OF COOKING

I was moving things in the stockroom and found this recipe that my mother taught me how to cook. I really love this recipe and this was the first dish I cooked when I started cooking in the kitchen. This is an all time favorite dish. The taste of curry and the tenderness of the chicken really blends well in this dish. For this recipe, here are the ingredients:

· 2-3 tbsp. oil
· 3 potatoes, peeled, quartered and fried
· 1 lb. chicken, cut into serving pieces
· 3 cloves garlic, minced
· 1 large onion, quartered
· 1 tbsp. patis (fish sauce)
· 3 tbsp. curry powder
· salt and pepper
· 1 cup water
· 1 red bell pepper, cut into big squares
· 1 green bell pepper, cut into big squares
· 3 celery stalks, cut into 1-1/2” long
· 1 cup coconut milk
or evaporated milk

So lets start the cooking process of this dish. Just follow the procedure and you will never go wrong when cooking chicken curry, Pinoy style.

1. Pan fry potatoes. Set aside.

2. In the same pan, fry chicken pieces and brown a little.

3. Add garlic and onion. Sauté for a few minutes until soft.

4. Pour in patis and season with curry powder, salt and pepper. Stir for 2 minutes.

5. Add water. Cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat; add celery, bell peppers and fried potatoes. Simmer for 3 minutes or until half done.

6. Add milk and stir occasionally. Cook for another 7 minutes (or lesser when using evaporated milk because the liquids will curled).

7. Remove from heat. Serve hot.

BUSY AT THE RESTAURANT

I was not able to check some of the things that I do regularly because I was so busy at the restaurant. Yesterday, there was a function held in the restaurant. I was catering about 200 persons inside my restaurant and I prepared about 20 dishes for them. They are just not regular customers but diplomats from different countries. They were having their annual diplomats meeting and my restaurant was their chosen venue for their meeting.

I prepared for them 20 different dishes that I cooked myself. It really pays off when you have so many different recipe books with you. Like me, I have almost 50 recipe books, dishes all over the world. Before their meeting, I was learning their cooking ways and I was so happy that I made it right. I also would like to give credit to my kitchen staffs and my assistant chef in the restaurant for their undying support to make the function a success.

I was told that the next meeting will be held in other area and they still want me to do the cooking for the occasion. As a chef, having this kind of praise is really heart warming and it really feels good as a chef to receive such acknowledgment. If the will push through next year, I will be preparing not just 20 dishes but around 40 dishes to cater to 500 people. I think I really need to start to collect more recipe books this time.

COOKING INVITATION

I got a letter from my friend who is now working in Dubai. The letter was all about a cooking invitation for me to go to Dubai and cook there for 3 months. I never said no to any offer before. But this time is an exceptional. The cooking invitation is good and will open new opportunity for me abroad. But the time has changed. I have my business to look after here and besides, I have already experienced working in Dubai as chef.

To elaborate more about the invitation, there is a good compensation awaiting for me if I accept the offer to work there as a chef. But I am really having doubts about the cooking invitation. if I accept the offer, I have to fly to Dubai by Saturday next week and start cooking there immediately. My classmates in the culinary school are majority working in Dubai as chefs.

My classmates who are now working in Dubai as chefs always send me new recipe books and cooking materials because they really now my favorite and my passion and that is cooking. Most of my things in the kitchen were given to me by my classmates in the culinary school. I think I will decline the offer and would recommend others to have that great opportunity to work in Dubai as chef.

GOING FURTHER IN COOKING

Sitting at the benches of my restaurant, I suddenly realized that I need to make a major adjustment in my culinary profession. I am not saying that I gonna close down my restaurant, no, I think I need to further my knowledge in cooking. In order to do this, I need to have a masters degree in cooking. I told the culinary school about the plan and they think that it would be great to see me again once more in the halls of the culinary school.

The administrator head of the culinary school is very much willing to accept me to one of their chef instructor for the school. By accepting this task of being a mentor to students is a very honorable profession. In culinary study, there is a procedure that is being followed like a module or a lesson plan. According to the dean of the culinary school, there vacant position in teaching is the international cuisine cooking. I would say, I am good at that style of cooking.

I have already told my batch mates that I will be teaching in the culinary school and all of my chef-friends agreed to my plan to teach in the culinary school. Considering that I have been studying international cuisine abroad and with my international cooking experience abroad, I think I am the right person for the job in the culinary school. I think I really need to file my recipe books starting now, for references to my future cooking students.

MEATY OR VEGETARIAN DISHES

Many of my customers are meat eaters. They prefer eating meat dishes because for them nothing beats the meat and the nutrients from it. But there are also others that prefer the vegetarian diets or foods. Sometimes they are called the A vegetarian leaks. For they think that vegetarian food rule supreme the culinary adventure.

In my 12 years of being a chef, I have encountered so many dishes and learned each one of them on how to cook this dishes. It can be vegetarian diets or tasty meaty dishes, just name it and I will cook it. But sometimes vegetarian food are more meticulously prepared compared to the meat dishes. For the reason of vegetarian customers can sense the presence of meat taste in their food. But so far in my restaurant, I have not received any comments or complains for that.

I had collected so many recipes books and studied cooking the right vegetarian foods. Way back in the culinary school, I won first price in the vegetarian contest cooking and the school would recognize me as the best chef to cook vegetarian dishes. For those who are eating meat dishes, I call them meaty lovers. I just name them in my own culinary way.

NEW STYLE OF COOKING

I was attended a cooking jamboree and I was amazed of what I saw. The usual pots and woks are extinct in the place where I went to. Instead of this modern cooking pots and woks, they are using bamboo. Yes, that's right bamboo. What they do is the stuff the bamboo with the ingredients and they heat it on fire. When the bamboo side is burned, that means that the meat inside is perfectly cooked.

I never saw this kind of cooking before only in the place where we went to. I was thinking that there were other cooking styles that are hidden to the urban world. I think incorporating these style would create more customers customers to visit my restaurant and taste the new dishes that I will be incorporating. The are also new recipes that I had discovered during the cooking jamboree and I will disclose these things later on.

In the update of the chefs gathering, everything is okay and ready to go. More and more chef classmates are now arriving from abroad just to attend the chefs reunion. As the organizer, I am very happy about this idea and I already had received several congratulations from other chefs because of the upcoming successful party this coming Saturday. I will be cooking for the event is the double roasted turkeys with honey dip. I researched this recipe using my recipe book that I bought during my culinary adventure in Italy.

COOKING ENGAGEMENT

Next week will be a busy week for me. Aside from the regular cooking in the restaurant, I have a cooking engagement in one of the major hotels here in the city. This engagement was contracted last year after my birthday celebration. The hotel chief executive office visited me on the day of my birthday and offered me a job to be the head chef of the hotel just for the month of December.

The role of the head chef is very crucial in the kitchen operation. It is because the head chef will supervise all the cooking activity in the kitchen. All dishes cooked must meet the culinary standards of the hotel and the hotel itself must approve all the dishes cooked. The head chef must also see to it that the dining area is presentable and the guests are well provided with the food that they ordered.

This cooking engagement is also very important to me because I will earn the necessary experience once I go for abroad to work. But working for a sum of money is really not important to me. It is just will have the chance to earn more experience and to travel as a chef and experience many culinary style in every country I will be visiting. I would say that studying in a culinary is a must for those who really want to take cooking seriously. The recipe books that I have are very important in my kitchen. I cannot reach where I am right now without the help of the recipe books and other cooking materials that I am using right now.