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| Table set for Course Dinner.
(My Table -- what else...)
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First of all, I believe I have been seeing lately many restaurants who are trying to create or modify Filipino dishes. If one read my review of Kanin Club (November 14, 2013), this restaurant tried to do just that and it is with this that modification of traditional dishes such a Dinuguan (Pork Blood Stew) became "Krispy Dinuguan" with the addition of fried chunks of meat in the blood sauce (transformed from its stew origins). Also, there is the addition of tinapa (Smoked Fish) as main flavoring of fried rice. You get what I mean. For some time, I have been very intrigued about modifying Filipino dishes and elevating it to the level of "haute cuisine". Haute cuisine usually refers to French cuisines with the term is French (duh!) and it was first thought of by French cooks but what it is is first, the presentation of courses rather than "all at once", referred to as "ala Francaise" to "ala Russe" and secondly is the use of lighter, more modern cooking techniques to make the dishes. These cooking techniques were further described and written by Auguste Escoffier, the famed 19th-century chef to kings and the world-renowned.
In the Philippines, we are usually accustomed to eating "all at once" -- with the rice in the center served with accompanying viand (Webster's defines this word as, "a tasty dish") or "ulam" much like the old traditional "ala Francaise" and is therefore, most probably adapted, "ala Espangnole". Furthermore, everything is usually stewed, sauteed or fried but served simply as is, with bones and all. In haute cuisine, this is a no-no. As Medicine has the Latin dictum, "primum non nocere" - first, do no harm - in cuisine, there is "first do not inconvenience your diners". So, please, no bones, no heads to gnaw, no shells to peel, no dirt, no grime except food - just plain food. Secondly, impurities create distaste and therefore any chance that the cook can remove impurities during the process of food preparation should be observed. Traditionally, in Filipino-Spanish traditional cuisine, the old cooks would skim off the foam as the meat or fish is placed in boiling water since the foam is an impurity usually from blood and it is this that may provide an agent for bacteria to cling on to and thus lead to easy spoilage. With spoilage, usually becoming vinegar from aerobic fermentation the food turns sour with a funky smell. Thirdly, the dishes in a meal are presented in a course fashion as explained above. (Above are my friends - Victor and Doron. BTW - Victor is a renowned chef! He's my judge, you know.)
About three weeks ago, I had my share of French haute cuisine. I went to Le Bernadin in midtown Manhattan because they were given 29/30 in Zagat's food lists for best French in NYC. I also went to Bouley which was given a 28/30. Many months ago, I also experienced dining at Jean-Goerges which is likewise a 28/30. If one orders the tasting menu, which I did in Jean-Georges, the course starts with an "amuse bouche" which is a "mouth amuser" which are hors d'œuvres in single bites and everyone in the dining room gets one of these. Now this is different from the appetizer which is ordered individually by the diner. Depending on the dinner plans, there could be a salad, a soup then the different courses (which could be three to five depending on the menu) then dessert. In Jean-Georges, there was a pre-dessert (or should I say, dessert"?) that is complimentary to all diners aside from the "main dessert" on the menu. Now, readers might think that this is rather extravagant, but if one reads the traditional cookbooks of the early twentieth century, there are descriptions of how a dinner should be staged and presented in courses and it is rather elaborate amounting to about ten to twelve items ranging from appetizers, soup, nuts, cheeses (in current schemes this is part of dessert), salad, meat, fish, game or poultry and dessert. The courses may be further expanded to have mini-courses between courses known as "entremet" which is a course to denote the end of a course (silly, huh?). But whether five to twenty-one, it is said that all the dishes in presentation should complement each other gastronomically. (And above - is my good friend Geri and her Mom.)
I said in my previous post (see How to Peel a Pineapple the Filipino way - January 17, 2014), that Mikey bought new dishes to replace the old Corelle ones. (Yeah right, as in we would be using the new plates always and donate the Corelle to the local charity...) New dishes meant inspiration. And thus, here comes Filipino haute cuisine. (At the right are the amuse bouches on their individual plates served on an appetizer plate.)
In this first post dedicated to Filipino haute cuisine, I will present pictures and recipes of the dishes I thought of and served to my guests during that night, January 19, 2014. I begin with the amuse bouches of" Ensaladang Pina sa Alamang" (Pineapple Salad with Brined Small Shrimp) and the homage to street food, "Spicy Pusit" (Spicy Squid).
Recipe 1: Ensaladang Pina sa Alamang Ingredients
1/4 Fresh Pineapple, peeled and middle stem removed
1 small tomato, seeded and chopped
1/4 head garlic, peeled and chopped
1 stalk celery, leaves removed and diced finely
1/4-1/2 medium onion, peeled and diced finely
1 teaspoon chives, sliced finely
1 teaspoon sauteed bagoong alamang (recipe to follow)
Procedure
- Essentially mix together and toss. Let stand for about an hour while chilling and serve.
Tips and Comments
- I would suggest to peel the Pineapple the Filipino way for it conserves the fruit to include the sweetest and the softest outside portions. The middle stem is discarded for the reason that it is the toughest portion of the pineapple.
Sauteed Bagoong Alamang
Ingredients
1 cup fresh Bagoong Alamang (brined small shrimp)
1 head garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Procedure
- In a hot saute pan with about 1/8 cup of oil, saute the garlic and onions to brown. When caramelized, saute the shrimp. Add sugar, vinegar and pepper next and lower the heat to reduce until the mixture becomes thick. This is good as a condiment to anything that is sour, sweet or bland just to add a touch of flavor burst to food. It can also be used to flavor newly steamed hot rice.
Tips and Comments.
- This is a good opening for what Filipino cuisine is about. Bagoong alamang is very Filipino and somewhat, by this concoction, "owns" the generic Pineapple to become Filipino as well. It is somewhat like a salsa but with the use of bagoong as a salting agent, the flavor of fermented and brined shrimp makes if an original. It is refreshing.
- Fresh bagoong alamang may not be available readily even in Asian supermarkets. Koreans have an equivalent of this known as "Jeotgal" which is Salted Fermented Shrimp but it seems that they come in several sizes of small shrimp. Pick the one that is the smallest size and in fact, alamang (or small shrimp in FIlipino) is even smaller. But the Korean salted shrimp is okay to use.
Recipe 2: Homage to Street Food: Spicy Pusit.
Spicy Pusit. Remember the tough dried squid that is oily and pierced with a bamboo toothpick like a mini-skewer and the surface is covered with a caramelized coat of sugar, salt and spices and sold in sari-sari (mom and pop) stores of the streets of Manila for about five centavos each? I still remember those like it was yesterday and now I'm 48, I was quite amazed how could many of us not fell ill as countless fingers would just dip into the jar to get one of these morsels after paying the person who mans the store? Now, thinking again retrospectively, I believe the reason lies in the fact that it was essentially dehydrated in a supersaturated caramel of sugar and salt that any bacteria that dares to touch its surface simply dehydrates and crenates away!
This recipe recreates the taste and texture of that spicy treat.
Ingredients
6 pieces rehydrated dried squid (tail to tentacles length approximately 4 inches - not the large ones), sliced to small strips
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 head garlic, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 piece red chilli (labuyo or the Vietnamese red chilli), chopped - may substitute using Siracha sauce
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 pieces rehydrated wood fungus (tenga ng daga), sliced thinly to strips
Procedure
- In a hot wok, heat about 1/8 cup oil and saute the garlic to brown, then saute the squid and tengang daga next until the water is about dried up. Add the soy sauce, sugar, black pepper and chilli next and saute further until well caramelized and coating the squid and tengang daga strips. May be served warm or room temperature.
Comments and Tips
- I did this because its an homage to street food. But, on a strictly haute cuisine level, I think I should not make this part of the menu next time. It was tough to begin with as it was when I first had it as a kid and it is certainly tough now. I think the French and the snobs in Iron Chef will not appreciate it but then, they do not know what Filipino food is all about. So, should this be eliminated simply because it has a tough consistency? I think I would let my readers decide.
- What this is best for, I think is essentially - "pampapak". In Filipino, there is this line of foods that are cheap and essentially made for pairing with beer and unlike the German tradition of sausages and brats; Filipinos would munch on anything that is spicy, usually finger picking food which includes the usual peanuts and crunchy pork rinds. But it can get bizarre such as roasted coagulated pork or chicken blood, roasted boiled chicken intestines (aka IUD because it looks like one when skewered on mini kebab sticks), boiled then roasted chicken feet (aka adidas) and the like. (Now, I would not post pictures of these here as some of my readers would think that these do not belong in the concept of "haute cuisine". Hahahaha!)
Now - these two made the first course of the dinner. So, more recipes from the dinner would follow, till then...
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