Never Learned To Cook

This is a recipe I was taught in high school, umpteen years ago, actually. It is different from your usual run-of-the-mill atchara recipe, as it takes longer and is kind of messy, but it is yummier, since the flavor gets more ingrained in the pickles. At least from my point of view. LOL. I still make it when I have the time, as the ingredients need to be prepped a week in advance.







Mixed Sweet Vegetable Pickles


Two medium-sized unripe papaya (green or yellowish, but not ripe)
One bunch eggplants (about 5 - 6 medium-sized ones)
One bunch ampalaya or bitter gourd (about 3-5 medium sized ones)
Two medium sized onions
One head garlic
One head cauliflower
Three big red bell peppers or four medium-sized ones
Four to five jars for pickling
About 16 cups of water
One and a half cups of salt (one cup of salt to 10 cups of water)
One teaspoon of alum powder
Five cups of vinegar
Five cups of sugar

1. Cut the papayas in half lengthwise and shred into strips using a shredder; if you do not have one, a fork will do. Slice the eggplants, ampalaya and onions into bite-sized pieces. Peel the garlic cloves and cut each in half. Also break the cauliflower into bite-sized pieces and cut the bell peppers into strips. Wash.

2. In a container, mix 16 cups water, one and a half cups of salt, and one teaspoon of alum powder until thoroughly dissolved. Place shredded and sliced vegetables in pickle jars and fill with brine solution. Cap tightly and store in a cool dry place for a week.

3. After a week, take the vegetables out from the brine solution and wash thoroughly until water is clear. Don't worry if the vegetables look discolored; discard any moldy parts, however. You can also use your pickle jars for the finished pickles if you wash and sterilize them.

4. In a big wok or kawali, mix five cups of vinegar and five cups of sugar and heat slowly while stirring. When sugar is thoroughly dissolved and vinegar begins to simmer, add the vegetables and mix for about five minutes or until the briny smell of the vegetables has been removed. Remove from fire and place in jars, filling with the sugar-vinegar solution to the brim. Seal tightly.

Makes about four to five jars.

My two roomies said tonight that they didn't feel like eating rice. Instead they felt the need for some pasta. Initially they thought they wanted some instant mac and cheese, but the servings were too small. So we ended up at Puregold looking at the available pasta... and this is what we came up with.

Pasta a la Ulam King

400 grams penne
2 155-g cans of Ulam King spaghetti sauce
1 90-g foil pack Del Monte tomato sauce
half a bottle of UFC tamis-anghang banana ketchup
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 cup evaporated filled milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 100-g pack of Cheezee

1. Cook penne according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
2. In rice cooker, or any pot, saute garlic and onion in cooking oil, but do not allow to turn brown.
3. Pour in Ulam King spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, and ketchup and stir.
4. Add milk to dilute the sauce. Stir and break up big chunks of vienna sausage in order to make the sauce smoother.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the sauce is heated through and through, remove from heat and pour on pasta.
6. Using a fork, grate Cheezee over pasta and serve while hot.

Serves 3 with leftovers.

Total cost: About P120.

When I was growing up in South Cotabato, the word "cake" meant only either a sponge cake or a chiffon cake, the latter being "better" than the former. It more often than not was a plain cake; if you were lucky you'd get white sugar icing on it, and if you were luckier you'd get decorative icing and a few sugar flowerets on it too. I loved the idea of "cake," but grew to hate those kinds of cakes, and took only the thinnest slice out of politeness when cake was served at parties. When my dad brought me home a butter cake for my birthday, it tasted so different from other cakes then available that I ate more than I usually did. Everybody at my birthday jostled for a taste of that cake. Unfortunately, it seemed no one had ever tasted butter before and everyone, except me, had a case of LBM the next day.

So, mention "cake" to me in my grade school and high school years and I could never muster up any excitement for it. Come college, however, my uncle would bring us a Mix 'N Magic chocolate roll cake from General Santos City whenever he came to visit. That was a special treat, although I guess at present it would just be like those plain chocolate roll cakes at Goldilocks. At that time though, the thick chocolate icing tasted heavenly.

Then, one New Year, my sister's best friend Jazz brought us a couple of slices of a chocolate cake she said her sister-in-law, who worked in a bakery in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat, had brought for their family. It was laden with chocolate, and whipped cream, and nuts, and cherries, and I only got a couple of forkfuls. I had never tasted anything so wonderful in my life, and it was gone before you could ask "What kind of cake is that?" Jazz said she didn't know, and that her sister-in-law didn't know the recipe either because her boss was the only one who could make it, and he didn't make it all that often. It was such a special kind of chocolate cake that people came from all over just to buy it, she said.

For three years I craved for another taste of that cake, but Jazz's sister-in-law had stopped working at that bakery and it was too far away for us to go there just on the off chance that the cake was available. Even Mix 'N Magic didn't have that kind of chocolate cake in its display case, each time I looked.

Then, I came to Manila and I got used to eating at Goldilocks and Red Ribbon. I realized that the cake I had been craving for for many years was actually a Black Forest cake. I have tried almost all the kinds of cakes available at these two bakeshops, but I still keep coming back to Black Forest. It's still my favorite. It just tastes better and better every time I eat it! So on my birthday, and on Christmas, which are actually just days apart, I usually buy a Black Forest cake to celebrate them with. For me, it's still the best cake in the world.

Recently, KusinaMaria.com and DavaoFoodie.com came up with their Bake Me A Cake contest, asking what cake we'd like them to bake for us. The choice is obvious: Please, please, bake me a Black Forest cake.




Photo: “Black Forest Cake” by eliza, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved