Burnt Lumpia: Filipino Food | Filipino Recipes | Culinary Hijinks

Short Rib and Foie Gras Caldereta

Caldereta (or Kaldereta if you're nasty) is an honest to goodness meat stew influenced by both Spain and the United States, but yet remains uniquely Filipino.

Caldereta's roots in Spain can be found in its Spanish name (of course), but also in its preparation wherein Spaniards braised meat (usually mutton) and vegetables in a tomato-based sauce. Filipinos began making their own version of their colonizer's stew by utilizing goat meat and then thickening the tomato sauce with mashed pork livers (take that Spain!).

And with the American occupation of the Philippines came all the trappings of post-war convenience foods and canned goods. Soon, the likes of tomato paste, canned tomato sauce, canned pork liverwurst, and even processed cheese, all made their way into Caldereta (this all tastes a lot better than it sounds).

While I do love a warm and hearty bowl of goat kaldereta thickened with liverwurst (seriously, I do), I have tried to fancify the dish once before by making a wonderful version with beef, red wine, and a homemade chicken liver pate. And although I was quite pleased with that version, I've since found that nothing beats caldereta thickened with canned liverwurst. But there is always room for experimentation.

So when my older brother recently returned from a trip to Europe and gifted me a couple cans of foie gras, the first thing that popped into my head wasn't to eat the foie with toast points and some sort of sweet/sour fruit--it was Caldereta.

Yes, I was going use fancy canned foie gras in place of the usual $2 can of pork liverwurst in my Caldereta. This was either going to be the greatest beef stew ever made, or a complete waste of foie gras.

Swill to Twenty: Food and Wine Fundraiser

On Saturday September 10, and Sunday September 11, the 20th Anniversary Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture will take place in San Pedro, CA.

Although I've participated at FPAC in some capacity (either as an attendee, or as a vendor) for the last 4 years, I'm still amazed that this will be the 20th year of the two-day festival that brings together the best of Filipino community, heritage, and cultural pride.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, FilAm Arts will be hosting "Swill to Twenty": a kickoff Food and Wine Fundraiser on Thursday September 8. According to FilAm Arts:

"SWILL TO TWENTY", which benefits and kicks-off FPAC, takes place at Swill Automatic, one of Los Angeles Arts District’s hottest new destinations, offering a continually updated array of interesting, reasonably priced self-dispensing wines from all over the world, complemented by a dynamic menu of eclectic, Modern American bar cuisine.  (Guests must be 21 or over).

For this special fund-raising event, attendees can feast on the following selection of tapas, desserts, and drinks:

• “Longatacos” - Longsilog Tacos
• Hottentots - tater tots with Gruyere cheese and spice
• BanhMi Sliders - Filipino-Vietnamese-style pork sandwiches
  
• Moroccan Meatballs - house-made meatballs infused with North African spices in a tangy tomato sauce
• Roasted Stuffed Peppadews - tangy South African peppers, wrapped w/prosciutto & stuffed with cheese
• Dessert - Gourmet cotton candy from Tasty Clouds Cotton Candy Company
• Two Drink Coupons - for wines, beer, or wine cards (pour your own drinks)

In addition, there will also be a meet and greet with FPAC headlining artist, and Latin Soul Legend, Joe Bataan.

General admission to this event is $55, or $100 for VIP tickets. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

A portion of the proceeds benefit The Association for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts and Culture, also known as FilAm ARTS, a multi-disciplinary community arts organization whose mission is to advance the understanding of the arts and diverse cultural heritage of Filipinos in the United States.

And if you can't make it out to the Swill to 20 kickoff party, do make sure to attend FPAC on September 10 or 11--more info on FPAC 20 coming soon...

Giveaway: Philippine Heirloom Rice

When we think of rice, we may think of only a few specific varieties.

Italian Arborio, Thai Jasmine, and Indian Basmati, for example.

But what if I told you there are rice varieties from the Philippines whose aromas, textures, and flavors are on equal footing with the world's other gourmet grains?

Considering all the rice we Filipinos eat for breakfast, stir into porridge, and wrap for dessert (not to mention our everyday steamed rice or fried rice), it may seem commonsense that of course the Philippines must grow fantastic rice. And they do.

But because of certain economic and agricultural hardships in the Philippines, it imports much more rice than it exports--which is why quality gourmet Philippine-grown rice is unknown here in the States. In fact, upon closer inspection of my own pantry, I've only got rice from Thailand (Jasmine and Glutinous), California (Calrose), and Italy (Arborio).

But thanks to Eighth Wonder, a U.S. company based in Montana, heirloom rice from the Philippines is now available to us all.

Abalone Kinilaw

I have this vague childhood memory of a cousin, or an uncle, or someone, bringing my grandparents a freshly caught abalone from who-knows-where. Upon presentation of the abalone, the household of grandparents, aunts, and uncles went absolutely bonkers--like if Ed McMahon had just handed them a check the size of two mahjong tables.

After everyone had settled down a bit, the strange-looking sea creature was then shucked and transformed into what I remember as two dishes that day: the first was some sort of abalone soup, and the second was the Philippine ceviche-like dish of kinilaw. Although that would be my only experience with abalone (at least for many many more years), I never forgot its unique and delicate flavor.

Then, many many more years later, I would be reaquainted with abalone at an epic dinner at Urasawa. After being served awabi (abalone sushi), as well as abalone liver (tasty!) that memorable night, the flavors immediately brought me back to that fateful day at my grandparents when they went ape-shit for abalone.

So what makes abalone so special? Well, for one, it tastes incredible. Although some find abalone's flavor similar to that of squid or clams, the texture of these moluscs are the closer comparison--all have a chewy bite to them. Flavorwise, I think abalone tastes like abalone. Sounds like a cop-out, but I really think the flavor of abalone is one-of-a-kind. It tastes briny and sweet and of the sea, but delicately so.

Aside from its unique flavor, wild abalone is also pretty hard to come by. Although small farm-raised abalone is plentiful and available commercially, wild Red Abalone is prized for its large size, thickness, and flavor.

In California, commercial harvesting of wild abalone is completely outlawed. The only way to obtain abalone is to dive for it yourself with a snorkel and by holding your breath--SCUBA gear is not permitted when abalone diving. Also, abalone can only be harvested north of the San Francisco bay between April and November (with a break in July). Although these regulations seem like a pain (there are many more I didn't list), they are meant to sustain and protect red abalone populations in California--which is a very good thing.

And because it's such a rare culinary treasure, abalone is a fairly pricey commodity, which is probably why my grandparents flipped out all those years back, and perhaps why abalone can only usually be found in high-end joints like Urasawa. Luckily, I scored some abalone for free (and legally) on my fishing trip a couple weeks back.

Gone Fishing

So a Filipino guy, a Japanese guy, and two Chinese guys walk onto a fishing boat...

The Japanese guy takes a deep breath of fresh sea air and says, "Looks like a good day for fishin'! Hopefully we can pull something up I can sashimi."

The Chinese guys nod, look out onto the horizon and say, "Or maybe we can steam our catch."

The Filipino guy snorts, looks around and asks, "This boat come with a deep fryer?" (Hey-ohhhhh! Insert rimshot, groans, and forced laughter here.)

And so it was this past weekend, when I joined my buddy Marc and some friends on a two-day fishing odyssey on Bodega Bay in Northern California (and no, I didn't really ask for a deep-fryer).

Prior to this outing, I had only gone fishing twice. The first time was back in college, when the afforementioned Marc and I hopped on a half-day vessel and fished out of Santa Barbara. Marc, a life-long fisherman, caught the majority of the fish that day. I, on the other hand, caught nothing but a case of the sea-shakes and puked my guts out overboard. Despite spending most of that trip lying on my back, or hunched over the side of the ship, I had a blast. Seriously.

Many years later in San Diego, I found myself on a fishing boat for the second time in my life. I actually reeled in quite a few fish that day, but it came after a late night of carousing and only 2 hours of sleep (it was for another buddy's bachelor party), so much of that excursion is a blur to me. Strangely though, I didn't get sea sick on that trip.

So when Marc recently invited me out on his personal boat for a couple of days fishing the Boogie-Down Bodega Bay, I knew I couldn't say no. And besides, I made sure that this time around I'd have plenty of rest, minimal cocktails, and prescription-strength dramamine to keep my wits about me and to keep my insides on the inside.

Filipino Chocolate and Wine Pairing

All photos courtesy of Pleasure Palate

This Sunday June 26 from 7-9pm, FilAm ARTS will be hosting an exclusive wine and fine chocolate tasting featuring Filipino-inspired chocolates paired with an exclusive selection of wines.

What's that now? Filipino-inspired chocolates? Well, yes. Tonet Tibay, of Marti Chocolatt,is a Filipina chocolatier who incorporates Filipino flavors into her chocolates. Tonet's chocolates for this tasting will include:

• Ube ~ purple yam in a white chocolate ganache
• Durian ~ durian in 33% milk chocolate
• Senorita ~ sweet ripe bananas with dark Jamaican rum in a milk chocolate ganache
• Jasmine Citron ~ queen of jasmine pearl tea with grapefruit zest
• Barako ~ Liberica coffee beans in a milk chocolate ganache
• Pina ~ pineapple caramel with Ilocano sea salt

While these chocolates sound fantastic on their own, they will be accompanied by wines selected by Filipino sommellier, Santos Uy, owner of Mignon Wine and Cheese Bar.

The event will be held at Kazuyo Sushi, a Filipino-owned Japanese restaurant (man, we Filipinos are everywhere, aren't we?).

General admission to this event includes the chocolate and wine pairing (six chocolates and four wines) for $35.

VIP admission includes the chocolate and wine pairing plus a box of chocolates and wine to take home for $75.

In addition to the chocolate and wine tasting, you can also choose to dine at Kazuyo Sushi before the event. Kazuyo also has a few Japanese dishes with Pinoy twists, courtesy of Filipino Chef-Owner, Joe Cubangbang. Kazuyo is offering a special 15% discount for all attendees who mention FilAm ARTS when they make their dinner reservations or when they walk into the restaurant.

All proceeds for this event will benefit FilAm ARTS.

For more information, and to purchase tickets click here: http://filamartschocolatewinepairing.eventbrite.com/

Beer-Steamed Blue Crabs

No matter the measure of success a person may have, there will inevitably be someone else that may try to negate or trivialize that success. Anything from winning a spelling bee ("Dude, you got lucky. Anyone can spell 'Borborygmus'") to cooking a decent plate of adobo ("Your adobo is OK, but my Lola's is much better"), someone will almost surely exhibit some sort of crab mentality to let you know just how mediocre they think you really are.

We all know the metaphor. The ol' Crabs in the Pot story where one crab tries to escape from the pot, only to be pulled back down into the pile by another crab. I imagine that as the one crab is about to claw his way out, all the other hater-crabs below are talking behind his back ("I worked way harder than he did to escape this wretched pot, so there's no way I'm letting him outta here without a nip at his leg!) and even telling lies and spreading rumors ("Hey, I heard that crab up there has got crabs! Gross!). The secret life of crabs. Who knew?

Anyways, the best way to counter such crab mentality is to stay above the fray and ignore the high school antics, gossip, and smack-talk of crabby people, and instead indulge in the sweet meat, rich "mustard", and delectable roe of the crabby crustaceans that dwell under water.

So when I recently spotted a bin of live Maryland Blue Crabs at my friendly neighborhood Filipino market, I knew I had to steam a pot of the tasty critters to offset the crabbiness going on in my own life these days.

Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream (& Turon)

David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop is perhaps one of the most dog-eared and ragged cookbooks on my magic shelf o' cookbooks. And just because this particular cookbook is dedicated to all things ice-cream, that doesn't necessarily mean its use is relegated to only the summer months--Perfect Scoop gets year-round play at the Burnt Lumpia Worldwide Headquarters.

In fact, our favorite recipes from the book range from David's Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream and Peach Ice Cream in the warmer months, to Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream, Cinnamon Ice Cream, and Eggnog Ice Cream during the colder months, and Coffee Ice Cream and regular ol' vanilla for whenever the hell we feel like it. Yup, my home-ice-cream-fu be pretty decent.

With all that said, my most favorite of David's ice cream recipes is actually Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream. Ironically though, a recipe for Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream doesn't even appear in Perfect Scoop, but the recipe does (thankfully) live on David's blog. Besides being my favorite ice cream recipe, Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream is perhaps one of the best frozen treats I've ever tasted (probably a close second to Abominable Snowman blood. Mmmm, Yeti plasma).

Anyhoo, what makes this ice cream so good?

Well for one, its base components of butter (Butter in ice cream!!!), salt, cream, milk, sugar, and eggs all come together to form something simultaneously rich, sweet, salty, and ever-so-slightly burnt-sugar-smokey. It's crazy that something can taste as complex as this ice cream tastes. Secondly, it's also a nice reminder of me and the wife's trip to Europe some time ago where we inhaled various vats of gelato--including copious amounts of Caramel Buerre Salé (ohh lar lar). Which is why, around this time every year, our ice cream maker cranks out some Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream--it's an oldie, but a goodie.

Caramel Buerre Salé w/ Ilocano Asin

And since I was recently on the subject of Philippine Sea Salt, I do want to mention that the delicate crystals of Ilocano Asin provide the wonderful (and necessary) salty hint that makes this ice cream really stand out.

And while homemade Caramel Buerre Salé is nearly perfect on its own, I do like to nestle a scoop of it between crisp homemade Filipino Turon (AKA saba banana egg rolls):

Giveaway: Philippine Sea Salt

Ever since bringing back a stash of Ilocano Sea Salt from a trip to the Philippines a few years ago, I've been hooked on the salty Filipino crystals. I've used Philppine sea salt in everything savory--from adobos to salads--and believe it or not, in everything sweet--like cookies and ice creams.

I'm a fiend for that Filipino flake.

And although I've since exhausted that original stash of Badoc's finest, I've been lucky enough to have a network of enablers who keep my sea salt carousel spinning. Whenever a friend or family member makes a trek to the Islands, I make damn sure they bring me back a couple bags of the white stuff to replenish my home supply. And they gladly oblige.

Mules. Suckers.

Speaking of mules and suckers, my mom brought me back about 2 keys of Badoc Asin on her last trip there earlier this year. And even though I lace many a dish with Philippine sea salt, it isn't likely that I'll blow through that much shake any time soon.

But now, when I do run out of my prized salt from the South China Sea, I won't have to rely on my network of mules to go to the P.I. and back. I've now discovered a local dealer that can satisfy my salty needs.

xroads Philippine Sea Salts are purveyors of, yup, premium Philippine sea salts. xroads is a small outfit run out of Northern California, importing and selling two unique types of sea salt from the Philippines. Lucky for me, xroads was kind enough to send me some salty samples.

Bangus Sisig

Ah, Sisig! When prepared correctly, nothing quite captures the varied flavors and textures of Filipino cuisine like a sizzling-hot platter of chopped pig's face. It's true.

Chewy and crispy, fatty and meaty, sour and spicy--they're all there. Gustatory opposites complementing each other on a single plate of porky goodness. And thanks in large part to the increasing popularity of ethnic street food in the United States, and more specifically, to the growing interest in Filipino cuisine as a whole, more and more people have come to enjoy this once-obscure Pinoy dish.

Since my first post on Sisig nearly three years ago, the humble street food has gone on to enjoy some time in the limelight (err, kalamansi-light?). Sure, sisig has always been served in a handful of mom-and-pop hole-in-the-walls, but it didn't hurt that some yahoo started slinging pig face from a food truck, or that Anthony Bourdain sang Sisig's praises on TV:

Alas, despite the joys that come with eating the wobbly and chewy bits of a pig's face and ears, some people just can't bring themselves to eat the wobbly and chewy bits of a pig's face and ears. And that's understandable. I suppose.

But if you've got no qualms with stuffing your own face with that of a pig, there's also the not-so-small issue of fat--and there's a lot of it in pig cheeks. Take a look at a cross-section of a pork jowl and it looks a lot like that of a pork belly, hence the term "face bacon".

So what's a Filipino food lover to do when a hankering for sisig is had, but just sans fatty face? Luckily, there are more savory sisig scenarios besides pork. Filipinos have long sisig'd other proteins like tofu, chicken, and various seafoods.

But sisig made from Bangus (or milkfish), is perhaps my favorite non-pork face option for the classic street food.