Film Recommendation: Madame Mallory und der Duft von Curry (One Hundred Foot Journey)

Info Source: Leseprobe & Rezepte zum Film vom Piper

The Hundred Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais reads in German, "Madame Mallory und Der Duft von Curry." When I saw the preview of the film in July this year, I instantly noted it would be our next "Kinotag" film as soon as it is showing in our city. But August as usual is a holiday month and we were out of the nest. It would only be this early September that we were able to watch it, not on a film day when films cost half the usual price but it was worth our time and money. 

I remember the film starting with a handsome Indian boy holding a sea urchin in his hands, and instantly this scene brought me back to childhood memories when holidays were spent in the home of our grandparents who lived not so far from the shore of South China Sea. Excursions to the nearby shore gave us chance to catch sea urchins, open and taste them but I remember the little me not liking the raw taste of it. 

It is a feel-good film. I love the images, can smell the spices and imagine how delicious the served food would be. The setting is also a wonderful village somewhere in France and not to forget the leading lady is no other than Queen Helen Mirren. 

After watching the film, we were cravings for our samoosas and alou tikka but it was late in the evening to go to our favorite Indian resto in the city. So reaching home, I opened the freezer to defroze the samoosas I purchased a week before in an Indian shop. I thought they taste more delicious after watching the beautiful film on food culture, on family relationship, on clash of cultures and specially on spices. Go see it and feel good.

Samoosas eaten with tamarind sauce

 
The Film: Madame Mallory und Der Duft von Curry.
Starring: Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon
Regie: Lasse Hallström

Letters from Home with Recipes: Pandisal in Diaspora

 

 This recipe is more than two decades kept in my folder of cuttings or recipes and other rough drafts. It was sent to me by my sister upon my request together with other recipes because I wanted to learn how to cook. I thought I might need the talent to impress my in-laws and other German friends. Todate, my sister is still sending me recipes and some tips and I am still dreaming of being able to come out with real delicious stuffs. Over the years, I have been able to befriend nice Pin@ys who could really bake and cook and since then I have forgotten my ambition. I just have to be a nice, thoughtful friend to these talented Pin@ys. I was reminded of it when I ate pandisal (Filipino buns or rolls) in one of the salo-salo (eating together) of  the Filipino Community in Bonn after the novena to the Sacred Heart and the celebration of the Holy Mass. I was also reminded that I still have some frozen pieces brought to me by my brother as pasalubong from his recent visit to Manila. I took home some of the pandisals from the salo-salo to compare them with the taste of the ones brought by my brother from one of the famous pandisal shops in Manila.

To the left are the pandisals from this famous bakery carried as  hand baggage from Manila. To the right are the pandisals I brought home after the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Notice the irregularity in their shapes as they are made out of love and devotion (according to Lourdes, the Pinay who bake them) but I know of the extra squeezing done to them as they were smuggled inside my handbag. I love eating them hot with crunchy peanut butter or with coco jam. Other Pinays said they taste great with canned sardines. I said better with Spanish or Portuguese sardines produced in Germany but never again with condensed milk. I had enough of that sweet memory of food eaten during childhood. Whatever.

 

 

My tip for the recipe is to have a Plan B, i.e. always have German Brötchen in your freezer as substitutes or install a Skype to get direct supervision from your sisters or brothers who could bake, and or maintain friendly relationship with other Pin@ys cooks living  in what they love to term now as Diaspora.

Cooking Asparagus on My Own

 Feeling that my kilo asparagus is lighter than I bought, I wanted to see how much is lost after the paring done by the fruit shop.

 The peelings weigh about 200 gms. Next time I buy Asparagus, will add about 300gms just for the peelings to save on frustration or will peel them myself and include them to make asparagus soup.

I placed the asparagus in a big pot with water, a bit of sugar, slices of lemon and let it cook for more than 35minutes. The man vendor told me I only need 10 minutes to cook them. Hah! Potatoes were cooked with skin on to save on work and not to forget, the nutritious part is found in the skin. Asked hubby to check whether potatoes are done. I have rice cooker but no potato cooker so I need an authentic potato eater for the OK sign. That took about 25 minutes of boiling and hubby said another minute then it would just be fine, a technique he learned from his mother. The technique is that he always tell me one more minute no matter how long I cook the potatoes.

Then I prepared the scrambled eggs adding milk in it while beating. For sauce, I melted a whole bar of good (they always say here good) butter. Nothing is so frustrating for me than having so little sauce while eating asparagus with potatoes. I love them swimming either in Hollandaise sauce or plain melted butter with smoked ham. A glass of chilled white wine should not be forgotten when indulging in asparagus. 

"I stick to asparagus which still seems to inspire gentle thought." 

Charles Lamb

How Not to Cook Won-ton, Wun tun, Wan-Tun or Wan-Tan Soup

Frozen  wan-tan or won -ton

 A BFF (best friend forever), one of the chosen ones I have inspired me to make wanton soup. Hermie comes from Ilo-ilo which is home to the national  pride of Bachoy La Paz, a soup which I always thought of as a local version of wanton soup, and Hermie has always this soup ready when we visit her in NL. I thought of preparing my own wanton soup while shopping in an Asian supermarket in a local Chinatown in Rotterdam. I wanted only to inquire  if they have frozen wakame (seaweeds salad) but ended up buying wanton and pechay leaves instead. For the soup, one needs also chicken meat, pepper, salt, garlic and chives.

Left, boiled won-ton  and right, fried won-ton

 Heat oil, add garlic and stir-fry the chicken pieces. Then add water and cook chicken until tender. Normally, I add the frozen wontons in the boiling broth followed by pechay leaves and the spices. One can garnish it with fried garlic, chives, young garlic or chopped coriander leaves.
My other BFF, Jeh (and she is The Cooking friend I have) has tasted once my soup which I have been boasting to friends around. She commented that my wontons are over-cooked and suggested that I cooked them separately and just mix them in the soup when ready to serve. Did she say cook in oil or fry in oil? Anyway, I tried first frying the wonton pieces and to my frustration, they turned soon crispy. Did I get her instruction rightly? Jeh, help! Then I boiled the remaining pieces from the mother broth and set them aside for serving. They were all sticking to each other after awhile.

Fried won-ton parcels with chilli-garlic sauce

 So what to do? I was thinking either I have a merienda of fried wonton parcels with the potato salad or plunge them into the chicken broth. How will they taste crisply fried in hot soup? I returned the won-ton pieces back to the frying pan and fried them until they were all real crispy and ready to eat as starters and not as ingredient of the main course which is Chicken-Won-ton Soup. Found a bottle of banana sauce with an expiry date of November 1911 together with this bottle of chilli and garlic sauce. The chilli sauce has not yet expired luckily and it went fantastic with the crispy won-ton pieces. I sprinkled a bit of peanut oil to the other bowl of boiled wontons thinking it might keep them separated but it didn't help. They were all still clinging to each other in pairs or in groups. Tja. What to do?  I chose some isolated won-ton parcels, placed them in a bowl, add two pechay leaves but left out the chicken pieces as I have enough of the fried stuffs as starters. I garnished the soup with black peppers and squeezed a lemon in it. Added a bit of fish sauce (also not expired but the bottle is almost empty) and enjoyed it even without chopped coriander and chives, and hot, hot it was. I was searching for

frozen fruitsalad or ice cream in my host's freezer as first aid to my burnt tongue. This time, I won't even look for the expiry date.

A small joke about this soup. I can't help but remember this joke which I heard on the radio so many light years away. "How do you call it when someone vandalizes a Chinese restaurant?
Answer? Wanton destruction

Un Brioche e un cappuccino, per favore! Brunch in Bar

Un Brioche e un cappuccino, per favore! I should say my first
Italian sentence or one of the many first expressions I learned
after those vivid and dramatic Italian swear words. My day won't
be completewithout this set of typical Italian breakfast taken
either directlyat the counter or on a table which calls for extra
table charge.
A set like the one above cost normally 2.60Euro(served on the
table)and 2.30Euro hurriedly consumed at the counter. I prefer to
have my B and C set on a table and enjoy it while watching the
traffic of people coming in and going out of the bar, ordering
coffee and brioche.
What would I do when I return to the local nest and won't have
any more brioche for brunch? Maybe I will try to use my
Plan B (Brioche) Baking as souvenir from this summer sojourn.
Here's a version I found today. Who will bake it for me?
Will provide the cappuccino. The found recipe is completed
with ice cream...not too bad an idea for brunch. O Dio!

Reprinted with permission from Gelato!: Italian Ice Creams,
Sorbetti and Granite by Pamela Sheldon Johns. Copyright 2000.
Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA.

Here is a delicious eggy breakfast bread, perfect for accompanying
sorbetto on a hot summer morning. A nice variation is to knead
in 1/2 cup raisins soaked in 1/4 cup rum, just before the last rise.
Makes 1 dozen rolls

Brioche

Ingredients
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm milk (105 degrees to 115 degrees F)
• 1/2 cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 egg yolks
• 4 1/2 to 5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg white
Directions
In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk. Stir in
1 tablespoon of the 1/2 cup sugar and the olive oil. Set aside
until foamy, about 10 minutes.
Whisk the egg yolks into the yeast mixture until well blended.
Whisk in 1 cup of the flour, the rest of the 1/2 cup sugar, and
the salt. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place
for 1 hour.
Whisk in the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, switching to
a wooden spoon when necessary, until too stiff to stir. Turn the
dough onto a floured work suface and knead until smooth, about
5 minutes, adding more flour 1 tablespoon at a time as necessary
if the dough is sticky.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and turn the dough to
coat it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in
a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
Divide the dough into 12 portions, shaping each into a ball. Place
each ball in a muffin cup and let rise in a warm place until doubled,
about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, whisk the egg
white and sugar just until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.
Bake the rolls for 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Remove from
the oven and brush with the egg white mixture while still warm.
Let cool in the pan.
To serve, slice in half and fill with a scoop of sorbetto.

Printed from FoodNetwork.com on Fri Aug 20 2010

Source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/brioche-recipe/index.html

Trick or Treat Guinatan

The other day, I was reading an entry in Facebook. It says
Halloween is fast approaching and if anyone could share something
about Aswangs in the Philippines. Aswangs? I prompted a short
response writing that these Aswangs
have nothing to do with this Americanized version of a tradition
we have in the Philippines...not that we have a tradition of
remembering the Aswangs
but what I meant was the celebration when we remember all
the saints and souls on the 1st and 2nd of November and we call
this tradition Undras.

Aswangs, Halloween, Undras and Guinatan.

This is also the time of the year when sticky delicacies like rice
cakes Kakanins, sumans and coconut
milk-based dessert, Guinatan are prepared as food for the
wandering souls but enjoyed of course by hungry mortals.
The sticky finger goodies are given to kids who come in the evening
singing "kaluluwa'y dumaratang, sa tapat
ng durungawan etc... we are lost souls in front of your windows,
bells are ringing to wake you up, and if you want to give us alms,
please make it fast before the door of heaven closes on us."
I think a more dramatic interpretation than the globalized Trick or
Treat Halloween fun for kids.

But back to my original blog entry which is the recipe for this
typical Filipino merienda. Preparing guinatan has become one of
my keeping up with the tradition stuffs either to appease the
hungry spirits or my own cravings.

Recipe:

Sweet Potatoes
Bananas
Ube (violet yams)
Shreds of Bottled Sweet Langka (Jackfruit)
Sticky rice Bilo-bilo
Coconut Milk ( I used three cans of 400 ml each)
Sugar
Drizzle of salt
Pandan leaves for aromatic effect

(Violet yams while cooking in coconut milk with pandan leaves)

Place the yams, taro in a saucepan, pour in coconut
milk with the pandan leaves. Bring to boil and later add the
sliced bananas, langka, bilo-bilo and cook further for
ten minutes, adding sugar to your taste.
Note: You have to watch it while cooking. Mine
turned like a cream yellowish pumpkin soup but the taste
was sweet enough to cure my nostalgia.



I texted my sister to ask on the exact date the kids do this
pangangaluluwa.
She texted back that it is on the night of Nov. 1 to Nov. 2 but
it is no longer practised in our village...the cost of malagkit rice
has gone so expensive, around 80 Pesos per kilo. People could no
longer afford to give away Sumans
and sticky rice delicacies to keep up with the tradition.
Poor hungry, wandering souls.

Poor me, eating my guinatan alone. Hubby said when he saw
the bowl of guinatan for our brunch...
"hmmmmmmmmmm, you can have my share."

What's Cooking? Recipe Sharing during Lent*

Golpe de Gulat na Ulam Pangpasta
After Fasting Days!

Ingredients (Serves 4)
For the
tomato sauce:
125 ml olive oil
4 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
4 garlic, peeled and finely chopped
400 g can chopped Italian tomatoes
3 tbsp basil leaves
2 tbsp. freshly chopped parsley
salt and freshly ground black pepper

700 g. bass, haddock or mullet fillets
450 g live mussels
4 pcs. squids
8 large raw prawns
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. freshly chopped basil leaves
3 tbsp. dry white wine
lemon wedges to garnish

1. Preheat oven to 180C ten minutes before cooking.
Heat the olive oil and gently fry the garlic and shallots for
two minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes,
breaking the tomatoes down with the wooden spoon. Add the
parsley and basil, season to taste with salt and pepper and cook
for a further 2 minutes. Reserve and keep warm.

2. Lightly rinse the fish fillets and cut into four portions.
Scrub the mussels thoroughly, removing the beard and any
barnacles from the shells. Discard any mussels that are
open. Clean the squid and cut into rings. Peel the prawns and
remove the thin black intestinal vein that runs down the back.

3. Cut four large pieces of tinfoil, then place them on a large
baking sheet and brush with olive oil. Place one piece portion in the
centre of each piece of tinfoil. Close the tinfoil to form parcels, and
bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then remove.

4. Carefully open up the parcels and add the mussels, squid and
prawns. Pour in the wine and spoon over a little of the tomato
sauce. Sprinkle with the basil leaves and return to the oven and
bake for 5 minutes, or until cooked thoroughly. Discard any
unopened mussels, then garnish with lemon wedges and serve
with the extra tomato sauce.

*The 40 days before Easter when some Christians eat less
food or stop doing something that they enjoy.