Nostalgia for Vinzons Hall's beef stew

Every time we have some kind of meat stew, Rolly waxes nostalgic over the one he used to eat as a student at the University of the Philippines Diliman. For the beef stew, he went to Vinzons Hall. When he had saved more from his allowance, he went to the Tea Room of the College of Home Economics where a viand would cost five pesos, a fortune then in the late 60s.

I am five years younger than him, and I always brought baon for lunch at the university so I don't have his kind of memories. It has been hit or miss whenever I cook stew. Like today, I studied again a video of Simpol's Chef Mike Tatung Sarthou cooking a simplified menudo, then read a bit of Nora V. Daza's biography and collection of recipes A Culinary Life by Mickey Fenix.

Mrs. Daza and Sarthou both encouraged the use of available ingredients. Instead of potatoes, I used chayote freshly plucked by my grandchild Kai from the village vine. I had carrots, canned green peas and garbanzos plus half a packet of raisins at hand to add to the pot. Problem was the meat--tough beef shanks that I tried to soften by rubbing them in garlic salt and letting them stand for an hour.

Sarthou also used hot dogs. I sliced the remaining Hungarian sausage I found in the fridge. All the slices of sausage went to Kai's plate because she didn't want to deal with the beef shanks even if I cut them into two-inch squares.

Rolly still wished aloud for the tender cuts of meat that he tasted in his youth. It was a cue for our daughter Kimi to look for a different cut next time she goes to Monterey Meats.

A pot of mechado, a bottle of beer and thee

Indulge this Aling Kusinera for awhile. Mechado is special to me and my siblings. We associate it with our mother, the great cook Gliceria D. Lolarga, who lived (almost) to feed and care for us to a healthy adulthood. Her mechado wasn't special Sunday fare--it was served on a regular day with us fighting over the sauce and the meat.

That is, until I tasted the mechado of sculptor Jerry Araos that used the fat-marbled batok of the cow. The dish is served at Gourmet Gypsy Cafe, 28 Maginhawa St., Up Village, Qc, immortalized in the menu by his daughter Waya.

For today's lunch, I brought down a couple of beef shanks from the freezer last night to thaw out overnight in the chiller. After breakfast, I rubbed garlic salt on the meat, a tip I picked up from Chef Mike Tatung of the FB program Simpol. The salt helped speed up the tenderizing of the meat.

With Kai as my kitchen helper, we prepared the carrots, potatoes, garlic and onions while I nagged Rolly to look for a slender bottle of black olives to add further flavor to the dish. We had run out of bell peppers.

Pot of mechado simmering on the stove

Using my daughter Kimi's cast-iron pot, I sauteed what Chef Tatung called the aromatics together with overripe cherry tomatoes. The meat was fall-off-the-bones tender after almost 45 minutes of simmering in its marinade, water and tomato paste.

When it was time to serve my take on Mommy's mechado, Rolly said that all it lacked was a dash of red wine to enrich the sauce.
He rated our ulam for lunch and for tonight's dinner a "7.0." I didn't ask for Kai's opinion anymore. It was enough that she was part of the preparatory stage.

Another day in the life in the kitchen.

Sunday lunch

It has become a Sunday habit to just order our food and have it delivered. But not on this foggy and rainy day when the motorcycle rider might have a hard time looking for our house and navigating the zigzag road to our village.

After our champorado at dilis breakfast, prepared by Rolly, I checked the freezer to see what was going on there. There were pork ribs and chicken breast. Adobo! I thought. Merely thinking about this comfort dish already makes me salivate. But oftentimes, I get the cooking wrong due to too much soy.

So I researched in Chef Tatung's Simpol FB page for a simple procedure. I followed him to the letter and was careful about the amount of soy sauce I poured onto the sizzling meat. Also I wasn't used to cooking the mixture with water, but since the chef specified this liquid, I followed him.

I let the rest of the ingredients boil for half an hour. Meanwhile, Rolly and Kai were agitating for food since it was way past noon. He asked that yesterday's Dipasupil de recado longganisa be re-fried while she helped herself to another bowl of champorado.

The adobo was ready by 1:15 p.m., and I was the only one to partake of my cooking. Rolly and Kai said they'd have it for dinner.

And isn't that the beauty of an adobo? It keeps well and tastes better hours and days after it's cooked.

With a lot of assist

Today's meal, Sweet and Sour Meatballs, I owe to Chef Mike Tatung of the FB page Simpol and the YouTube video of Panlasang Pinoy with a lot of gut feel and assist. My little kitchen assistant is Kai who can chop and quarter carrots with aplomb and can now slice bell peppers and remove the seeds with ease. She also peels and pounds the cloves of garlic.

Taking the cue from Tats Ernesto V Enrique who advised that I shouldn't cook when I'm tired as the tendency was to end up with a salty dish, I just placed a pinch of salt in the ground beef round but lots of black pepper and liquid seasoning. In went the whole carrot I grated, minced onions and leeks. I formed balls out of the meat, then my daughter Kimi Fernandez placed them in her air fryer but not without first drizzling them in olive oil so they didn't dry out.

The sauce came with sauteed garlic and onions. I threw in the carrots, which Kai chopped into tiny quarters (I still have to teach her to make florettes out of them), and the bell peppers. In went a little soy, a little vinegar, water with flour dissolved in it, two teaspoons of brown sugar and finally, the pineapple chunks with a little of the juice in the can they came in.

Kai gave the dish a rating of 4.5 over 10 which is still not passing. But the adults ate con gusto, and we planned on repeating the making of the sauce, this time to pour over fried lapu-lapu.

Rolly's role in all this? He efficiently washed the dishes.

Photo by Kimi