Saturday, October 06, 2007 Menu a la Martin By Arrah Camillia R. Quistadio
WITH their wide array of food ingredients, there is surely more than one way to cook one’s San Miguel product — and eat it, too.
This was pretty much obvious as San Miguel Pure Foods Culinary Center Chef Martin del Prado showed the media how to prepare five dishes in “Business and Cooking Options,” held last Sept. 21 at the SMC 1521 Center.
Opening the menu was Star power rice, or jasmine rice tossed in olive oil, onion, garlic, bell pepper, celery, carrots, and sliced chicken hotdog.
Meanwhile, the beer marinated Monterey pork steaks piqued the curiosity of some guests, who were concerned about being inebriated once they eat it.
Indeed, bites into the cutlets came with a slight alcoholic fuzz, along with a tangy sweetness brought about by the pineapple jam in the marinade. Be that as it may, nobody got tipsy, thankfully.
Next was chicken cacciatore, a stew done literally done in the style of the hunter, and which can be served as it is or with pasta. I put mine on a bed of spaghetti, and while I enjoyed nibbling on the al dente strands, my taste buds grappled unfamiliar territory with this Italian dish. Perhaps, I concluded, they were more accustomed to the Filipino-style savory meat sauce. The last two courses though, I enjoyed heartily.
Remembering a failed attempt to order churros at a local café, I watched chef Martin beat a pancake-like batter, pipe the gooey substance in a pastry bag, and draw varied shapes with this on bake paper. Cutting out one patch of the paper, he slipped it for deep-frying in palm oil. The paper soon parted from the mixture, and voila! This turned into well-browned churros, prefect for dipping in cocoa-rich coffee chocolate.
But what I really raved about that afternoon was the apple turon with coffee sauce. Think of the Pinoy turon reinvented: in place of bananas, cubed apples are seasoned in brown sugar, cinnamon and flour. Once cool, the apple filling is rolled into lumpia wrappers and fried until golden. Making the rolls more scrumptious is the sauce made of cream cheese, condensed milk and instant coffee.
Aside from recipes, as chef Martin was generous enough to share a few cooking tips too: sprinkle salt in swirls high above the pan to distribute flavor evenly, and break eggs in a separate container from the batter in case there’s a rotten one in the group.
With imagination and ingenuity like chef Martin’s, seemingly random products can be transformed into culinary masterpieces.
