Ham, Pork, Chicken, Garlic, and Onions!

At my brithday party a couple of weeks ago I served a couple of dishes from recipes of my Lola, her Baked Empanadas and her Bam-I. By popular demand, here are the recipes, both of which feature the magic flavor combination of ham, pork, chicken, garlic, and onions:

Note: If making both Empanadas and Bam-I, save time by cooking the chicken for both recipes together!

Baked Empanadas
(Lola and many others have told me that traditionally, empanadas are fried, but Lola developed these baked empanadas in Cebu in the 1950s for her daughters who asked for a lighter, less greasy version that didn't have to be fried again to reheat. Basically the same filling, but using pie crust and baking 20 mins at 400F rather than deep frying in a thinner, more pliable wrapper.)

Yield: About 40 empanadas

1/2 lb (225g) pork, cubed or ground
chicken to yield 1/2 lb (225g) cooked chicken meat, cubed (~1 lb whole chicken pieces)
chicken stock spices
1/2 lb (225g) ham, cubed
potatoes to yield 1 c (240ml) cubed (~2 medium potatoes)
1/2 c (120ml) raisins
3/4 c (180ml) cooked peas
1/2 c (120ml) carrots, cubed
1 onion, diced + 1 whole onion
2-3 bay leaves
~ 8 whole cloves
a few peppercorns
3 cloves garlic, finely diced or pressed
1 large egg, raw + ~5 large eggs, hard-boiled and cut into cute little pyramid pieces with yolk tips
~ 11 c (2600ml) flour, sifted
~ 4 c (950ml) Crisco shortening (I use butter-flavored)
~ 4 tsp (20ml) salt
~ 2 c (475ml) ice water

. Pie crust: Make in batches and use a pastry blender. Keep everything as cool as possible - avoid mixing dough with your hands. I have had success putting some ice cubes in a big plastic bowl and then making the dough in a metal bowl sitting on the cubes, this may be overkill, but it's easy. Mix together 2 2/3 c (630 ml) sifted flour and 1 tsp (5 ml) salt. Use pastry blender to blend in 1/2 c (120ml) Crisco until mixture is of small pea-sized butter pieces coated with flour. Add 3 tbsp (45 ml) ice water (maybe a teensy bit more but start with just 3 tbsp especially if the climate you're in is not cool and dry) and use a fork to press the dough together into a single mass. Press the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and put in fridge. It'll take about 4 of these dough disks to provide enough dough to make all the empanadas. One dough disk is enough to make a two-crust pie.

. Hard-boiled eggs: puncture the end of each eggshell with a pin. Prepare an icewater bath. Put the 5 eggs in a pot and fill with water so eggs are covered by one inch of water. Cover and bring to a boil. As soon as water boils, take pot off heat and allow eggs to sit in hot water 10 minutes. Transfer eggs to icewater to cool. Shell the eggs and cut them into the pyramid pieces: cut in half lengthwise, cut halves into three lengthwise sections each, cut sections into little pyramids. Try to get a yolk tip on each piece. If anyone is around, they will undoubtedly steal egg pieces. 5 boiled eggs gives you lots of extras.

. Cooking the chicken and potatoes/making chicken stock: PUt the chicken pieces, potatoes, the onion cut in half and studded with the cloves, bay leaves, peppercorns and other chicken stock ingredients you like in a stockpot and cover the chicken with water by one inch. Bring to a boil and cook until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken and the potatoes, cube them to yield the 1/2 lb (225g) cooked chicken meat and 1c (225ml) cooked potatoes. Reserve 1 cup chicken stock. Find something else fun and tasty to do with the rest of the chicken stock. (May I suggest Bam-I?)

. Prepping the other ingredients (might want to do this while chicken and potatoes are cooling enough to cut without burning your fingers): steam the peas (let the size of the peas be your size guide for cubing), cube the raw pork meat (if not using ground pork), cube the ham, cube the carrots, peel and press/finely dice the garlic.

. Cooking/combining the filling: Saute the pork over medium-high heat until cooked. Remove pork from pan, leaving enough lard to saute the onions, garlic, and carrots. Saute the onions and garlic until they start to soften, add the carrots and saute for a few more minutes. Add chicken and pork, add ham cubes, add potatoes, when mixture is cooked and heated through, add raisins and remove from heat. Filling can be refrigerated or frozen and empanada assembly/cooking completed later.

. Empanada assembly and cooking: Heat oven to 400F (204C). Crack the remaining egg into a small bowl and beat it for brushing over the top of the empanadas for a shiny cooked appearance. On a floured work surface with a floured rolling pin, roll an approximately ping-pong ball-sized lump of dough out into a slightly elongated circle. Put about 1/4 c (60 ml) of filling in the middle. Top with an egg piece. Fold the long side of the dough over and press the empanada shut. Cut away dough in excess of ~1/2 inch (1 cm) and use the tines of a fork to press a pattern into the edge of the empanada. Do not combine the cut-away scraps of dough with the unused dough, combine the scraps until you have enough to make a whole empanada with a crust made completely with scraps. The less you touch pie crust dough while assembling your creation, the less the butter suspended in the dough will melt before going into the oven and the flakier the crust will be. With empanadas, super-flakiness can be a detriment because it can make them crumbly and difficult to eat as finger food, so you don't have to be super-paranoid about touching the dough. However, using a pastry spreader (a thin flat spatula about 1.25x6" (3x15cm) will make peeling the dough off the surface and moving the empanadas to the cookie sheet much easier. Place the empanadas on an ungreased cookie sheet (all that shortening in the crust is grease enough!), brush tops with egg, and bake for 20 minutes at 400F (204C).


Bam-I

Yield: Will fill a platter about 9.5x12x2 inches (24x30x5 cm).

Ingredients:

Chicken Stock:
1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
1 onion
~ 8 whole cloves
2-3 bay leaves
a few peppercorns
1 cube chicken boullion (I used Knorr)

cellophane noodles: 200g Safoco rice vermicelli
Cantonese noodles: 250g Crane Pancit Canton

Saute:
200g pork sausage, sliced into ~ 1/5"/1/2 cm slices - original recipe calls for Chinese sausage (fatty red sausages about 3/4"/2 cm in diameter), I used Pampangas Best Skinless Tocino, which really didn't hold in slices but became little lumps but was still yummy!
chicken from stock (cooked meat of 1 whole chicken), cubed
150g ham, cubed
1 onion
6 scallions (or 1 more onion if scallions are not available)
8 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste


. Cooking the chicken/making chicken stock: Put the chicken pieces, potatoes, the onion cut in half and studded with the cloves, bay leaves, peppercorns and other chicken stock ingredients you like in a stockpot and cover the chicken with water by one inch. Bring to a boil and cook until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken and cube the meat.

. Cooking the noodles:
Cellophane noodles: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Pour boiling water over the cellophane noodles and leave them in the water for 5 minutes. Pour out the water and replace with cold water to stop the noodles cooking.
Cantonese noodles: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Put the cantonese noodles in a bowl of cold water for 2 minutes. Transfer the noodles to the boiling water and boil for 3 minutes. Transfer the noodles to cold water to stop them cooking.

. Saute and final assembly: Over medium-high heat, saute the sausage until cooked through. Remove the sausage, leaving the lard for cooking of the other ingredients. Add the onions, scallions, and garlic to the lard and saute until the onions soften and become translucent. Add the chicken and ham and saute until warmed, then add back the sausage. Add chicken stock as desired. Add the noodles. Warm through and remove from heat. Add salt and pepper to taste (may not need any due to salt and pepper from stock, ham, and sausage). Serve.

Kinky, Part I

I have a new kitten, or "kuting" (pronounced koo-ting') in Tagalog. She popped into my life early on Wednesday, November 11 at 5:55am when I was headed out of my condo on the way to teach the 6:30am class. Walking up the little hill on Scout Bayoran Street, I heard a sound like a car alarm emanating from the spot by the road where people leave trash and leftovers that area cats come around to eat. I soon realized that the big sound was coming from the tiniest of kittens, staggering out into the street towards me screaming at the top of its lungs. Its eyes must have just barely opened.

"Here's my cat," I thought, and picked it up. It immediately stopped meowing, and a quick peek at its underside suggested that it was probably a she - a guess soon to be verified by the vet. We
jumped in a tricycle and sped over to yoga, where the students were surprised to see this adorable, teensy kitten with me. She literally fit in the palm of my hand - which was fortunate, because not wanting to leave her alone in the dark studio during the early morning class, I held her in a washcloth in my hand throughout the whole thing. Good thing that Bikram Yoga is supposed to be taught without hands-on corrections!

I'd been waiting for the right cat to come along for a while. It is said that fortune favors the
prepared mind, which is what my mind was with respect to this 2-week-old kitten. My family are total cat people. We always had one, briefly two, while I was growing up, my parents now have two and my sister one. I've seen so many cats on the streets of Manila, generally they do a lot better than the stray cats I've seen in New York and Boston, probably because of the warm year-round climate here. But it's clearly not an easy life, and I've seen many dead cats and many dead kittens on the street. I've also seen many tiny kittens alone in the street, kittens who are undoubtedly not long for this world. I've always thought it would be fascinating to raise a kitten from a newborn, though I didn't want to take a kitten away from its mother before being weaned. A newborn kitten tragically separated from its mother before being weaned, however, I knew would provide me the chance to rear a tiny kitten. After I moved into my new apartment on the weekend of November 6th-7th, I guess the universe knew I was ready to take on the challenge of rearing a baby kitten.

By the time the 6:30am class was over, studio staff had arrived and the kitten had someone to hang out with in the cool lobby rather than having to sweat it out with me in the yoga room. I ran down to the deli downstairs to get some milk for her, but didn't have much luck trying to feed her using the straw as a dropper.

After teaching the 8:30am class, what else was there to do but Google "raising baby kittens"? Sometimes it seems that most of what I learn these days is from the internet. I quickly learned that she would need to be bottle-fed formula every 2-3 hours for the first several weeks of her life. Also that for the first few weeks, she wouldn't be able to go to the bathroom for herself - at the age when kittens are in their mother's nest, the mother licks them to stimulate going to the bathroom and swallows the waste, thus preventing the nest from being soiled. So tiny kittens need to be massaged with a damp tissue to allow them to go to the bathroom! When I did this for my little girl, she peed amamazing amount for such a tiny creature - indeed she did not produce so much pee again for several weeks when she was much bigger and eating and drinking much more. It must have been a while since she'd last been helped to go to the bathroom.

What a day to pick up a new kitten - unusually, I had two more classes to cover in Makati in the evening for another teacher. I didn't bother to find out if pets are allowed on the MRT (turns out
they aren't, but it was a long time before I found that out) - I tucked the curled-up little girl in
the shawl around my neck and she quietly sat there as we went through the bag search and into the MRT. (About until the time I went home for Christmas, she proved an expert shawl-hider and we sneaked into malls and the MRT frequently.) I stopped at MegaMall in Ortigas to stop in at the pet store I'd seen there, Animal House, which turned out to be a great place - they have vet services, and they carry kitten formula and bottles. They weighed her (135g), confirmed her gender as female, estimated her age at 10 days to 2 weeks, and instructed me to bring her back in a week for her first deworming treatment.

Before teaching I met my friend Andria for coffee. I'd been challenged to get the little baby to
drink her milk, but Andria (who has a young son and thus experience feeding babies) got her to take her first long drink, and she was an expert bottle-drinker from that time forward. Andria and I also came up with a name for the kitten. She has an unusual tail - it's very common for cats in Manila to be tailless or to have strangely formed tails. This little kitten had a tail that was normal for about six or so vertebrae, then turned about 90 degrees to the left for about six more vertebrae. With such an adorable kink in her tail, (and a family traditon of having cats with suggestive names - it's a long story, but the cat we got whe I was in 5th grade was named Beaver - that's right, a pussy named Beaver), how could I resist calling her Kinky?

Kinky came with me to the Makati studio, slept like a champ while I was teaching, and got fed after each 90-minute class. Then we took a cab home and thus began two weeks of waking up every two hours to feed the baby. All I can say is I'm glad kittens grow up so much faster than human babies! I can't imagine waking up for middle-of-the-night feedings for months on end. Thank goodness the little princess was sleeping through the night after about two weeks - two weeks during which she more than doubled her weight!

Cycling Music

Hello again after a long hiatus. In the past several months I have moved (again, to a different unit in the same Quezon City building I moved to in August 2009), adopted a kitten, gone home to visit the US twice, taught lots of yoga, and have been enjoying Manila immensely.

Pictures of my new apartment, the story of my kitten Kinky, and other updates will follow, I promise! For now, I'm posting a list that's interesting to me, perhaps you will find it interesting as well. It's simply the list of songs I've collected in the mp3 player on my BlackBerry since I discovered that its speaker is loud enough for me to hear while I'm riding my bicycle. I love riding to music but would never ride with headphones - you have to be able to hear what's going on in the road. But a little stereo system? That's alright! The BlackBerry fits in the little "Bento Box" bag I have on my top tube, and at top volume is just loud enough to hear as I pedal along. So here, in alphabetical order by title, are the songs that inspire me to keep spinning:

A Fifth of Beethoven (Based On Beethoven's Fifth Simphony)	Walter Murphy
A Head With Wings	Morphine
Across The Universe	The Beatles
Ahead of the Curve	Jim's Big Ego
Alone (from "Live in the Fall")	Blues Traveler
Animal	Def Leppard
Anything Goes	Guns N' Roses
Armageddon it	Def Leppard
Baby Got Going	Liz Phair
Baby You're A Rich Man	The Beatles
Be Prepared	Tom Lehrer
Beautiful Day	U2
Beauty Of Gray	Live
Believe (from "Run Lola Run")	Franka Potente
Better Way	Ben Harper
Bite Me (Hard)	Jim's Big Ego
Bombtrack	Rage Against The Machine
Bubblehouse	Medeski, Martin & Wood
Burden In My Hand	Soundgarden
Burning Down The House	Talking Heads
Calling Elvis	Dire Straits
Cannonball	The Breeders
Come Out And Play	Authority
Comfort Eagle	Cake
Comfortably Numb	Scissor Sisters
Cornman	Kinky
Crazy	Gnarls Barkley
Crazy Love, Vol. II	Paul Simon
Cream	Prince
Dardanella	Louis Armstrong
Dark Road	Annie Lennox
Dear Yoko	John Lennon & Yoko Ono
Deeper And Deeper	Madonna
Disappear	INXS
Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough	Michael Jackson
Drive My Car	The Beatles
Effigy	Gov't Mule
Everybody Knows	Leonard Cohen
Fame ('90 Remix)	David Bowie
Free Time	Penn, Michael
Gallows Pole	Led Zeppelin
Ghosts In My Machine	Annie Lennox
Girl	Beck
Golgi Apparatus	Phish
Good People	Jack Johnson
Graceland	Paul Simon
Groove Is In The Heart	Deee-Lite
Had A Dad	Jane's Addiction
Help Me Mary	Liz Phair
Helter Skelter	The Beatles
Hey Ya!	Outkast
Holiday	Madonna
Hot for Teacher	Van Halen
Human Nature (Radio Version)	Madonna
I Don't Know	The Blues Brothers
I Gotta Feeling	Black Eyed Peas
I Know What I Know	Paul Simon
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For	U2
I Will Follow	U2
Idiots Rule	Jane's Addiction
Introduction (from "Run Lola Run")	Tykwer, Klimek & Heil
Ivory Tusk	Blues Traveler
Jealousy	Liz Phair
Johnny Feelgood	Liz Phair
Jump	Van Halen
Just Can't Get Enough	Depeche Mode
Just Dance	Lady Gaga
Kelly Watch the Stars	AIR
Killing In The Name	Rage Against The Machine
Kiss From A Rose	Seal
Kiss Of Life	Peter Gabriel
Knock On Wood	Ami Stewart
Limelight	Rush
Loaded	Primal Scream
Love Tractor	Widespread Panic
Love You Madly	Cake
Lovegame	Lady Gaga
Magical Mystery Tour	The Beatles
Mathar (Discovery Of India Mix)	Indian Vibes
Meanies	Jim's Big Ego
Mesmerizing	Liz Phair
Minarets	Dave Matthews Band
Missionary Man	Eurythmics
Money Honey	Lady Gaga
Movin' On Up	Primal Scream
Need You Tonight	INXS
Never Let Me Down Again	Depeche Mode
New Sensation	INXS
No Rain	Blind Melon
Oh Yeah	Yello
Only Happy When It Rains	Garbage
Paradise City	Guns N' Roses
People in Love	Loudon Wainwright III
Poker Face	Lady Gaga
Pour Some Sugar On Me	Def Leppard
Power Of Love	Deee-Lite
Praise You	Fatboy Slim
Prince Charming	Jim's Big Ego
Ray Of Light (Radio Edit)	Madonna
Recently	Dave Matthews Band
Rocket	Def Leppard
Rocket Queen	Guns N' Roses
Rubber Biscuit	The Blues Brothers
Run On	Moby
Schroeder	Vince Guaraldi Trio
Sco-Mule	Gov't Mule
Sexy Boy	AIR
Silent E	Tom Lehrer
Smooth	Santana Feat. Rob Thomas
Smut	Tom Lehrer
So Far Away	Dire Straits
Soun Tha Mi Primer Amor	Kinky
Spybreak!	Propellerheads
Standing In The Shower... Thinking	Jane's Addiction
Star Wars (Main Theme)	John Williams, Skywalker Orchestra
Stash	Phish
Stay Up Late	Talking Heads
Stickshifts And Safetybelts	Cake
Strangelove	Depeche Mode
Stupid Girl	Garbage
Sunset Road	Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
Super Sex	Morphine
Superfreak	Rick James
Supernova	Liz Phair
Take Your Mama	Scissor Sisters
That Train Don't Stop Here	Los Lobos
The Bug	Dire Straits
The Elements	Tom Lehrer
The Masked Marvel	George Winston
The Masochism Tango	Tom Lehrer
The Rockafeller Skank	Fatboy Slim
The Spirit Of Radio	Rush
There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)	Eurythmics
Tilt-A-Whirl	Masters of Reality
Treat Street	George Winston
Tubthumping	Chumbawamba
Upside Down	Diana Ross
Velvet Pants	Propellerheads
Walkin' (For Your Love)	Widespread Panic
Watching The Wheels	John Lennon & Yoko Ono
Welcome to the Jungle	Guns N' Roses
Werewolves Of London	Warren Zevon
What It Is	Mark Knopfler
What You Need	INXS
Whipping Post (from "Live at Fillmore East")	The Allman Brothers Band
Who Was That?	Deee-Lite
World Clique	Deee-Lite
Yellow Submarine	The Beatles
Yes	Morphine
You Sexy Thing	Hot Chocolate
You Speak My Language	Morphine