The AFC celebrity chef gets chatty about her favorite Filipino flavors, Canadian cooking and quiet Christmases.

 

Having been in the Philippines for just two days, so far, have you liked what you’ve eaten?
Yes, lechon!

Have you found your favorite Filipino fresh ingredient?
Lechon doesn’t count as an ingredient, right? No, I don’t think I’ve found a single ingredient yet. I have lots of research to do yet.

What’s on your food itinerary?
We’re driving out of the city—to Pampanga. I'm excited. I’ve heard the food is great there.

What have you liked so far about Filipino food?
The flavors!

Did you have expectations on Filipino food?
There are such beautiful flavors! [My husband] Michael and I were talking about the many Vietnamese and Thai restaurants in Toronto, and if someone were to open a Filipino restaurant there—oh my gosh!—it would be all the rage! Canadians would connect with all those flavors so easily. The green mango, pork, fish, and their preparations are just so lovely.

Aside from lechon, is there any other food you particularly enjoyed?
I had a bibingka cake, which I enjoyed with the salted egg. Maybe it’s that pastry side in me. The texture and the mixture of tastes, I love salty and sweet, or sour and sweet, or crunchy-soft like all the different jellies like aloe, nata [de coco], sago—all these different textures I just love.

Have you tried the halo-halo?
No, but I’ve already hinted on it twice. I heard the halo-halo is good with all the different layers, and the yam [ube]. I enjoyed kare-kare the other night. I love oxtail.

Do you have a favorite Filipino dessert already?
Right now I’ve only had bibingka cake. But I’ve heard so much about Banapple. I’m excited because I make banoffee pie.

Have you tried our mangoes?
Yes! They’re so fragrant here. By the time we get mangoes at home, it’s just a shadow of what they are here. I love the young coconut—the texture of it because we don’t get that at all, so I’m just eating fresh fruits wherever and whenever I can.

What’s your favorite season to cook for?
Fall. I love the hot weather but I love fall just a little more because it requires more ingredients. We have our sweet potatoes, carrots, celery roots—all the root vegetables that you can’t eat in summer. I love them because you treat them with more technique. You have to integrate them, say, with fresh thyme, rosemary, sage. Then there are ingredients you won’t dabble them with, like mint, but then you have to lighten them up a bit, so other elements come in like vinegars and citrus [fruits] come in, like lemon. Again, I like the contrasts I like roasting and braising them, as opposed to quick grilling.

Do you have any Christmas menu must-haves?
We have a two-day Christmas, December 25 and 26. For the last six years, I’ve owned a retail bakery, so Christmas is our busiest season. That’s why I haven’t been here [in the Philippines] sooner. I’ve been invited by AFC and it’s always fallen around Christmas season. I can’t be at two places in one time, so I sold it last year. That’s why I’m here now, relaxed and not making thousands of cookies. I would normally work right up until Christmas Eve until the last dessert’s sold. And Christmas day was always our quiet day. Michael and I will eat seafood like crabs or lobsters for dinner. We also have Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas, and that’s when all the family comes and we’re all rested and ready to cook. We make prime rib and serve it with lots of mushroom sauce. We don’t eat turkey. We’re not turkey people.

How about fruit cake?
I’ve got a few fruit cake recipes because I’m working on a new baking book. I baked a few before going on this trip, so when I come home I’ll slice and eat it because they get better when they’re cured. I don’t know how it is here, but back home, it’s either you love it or hate it. You can’t really feel so-so about it. Some people joke that there are just 5,000 fruit cakes in the world, and they just keep getting re-gifted. And then there are some people I know who just love it. There are darker versions that gooey and heavy. I like the lighter style that uses dried fruits. I’ve used [Philippine] dried mango in my fruit cake. It’s delicious! I steer clear of the red and green glazed fruits and candied ones, too. I use dried pineapples, apricots, mangoes, cranberries—but definitely no candied fruits.

Doing Sugar and Fresh with Anna Olson, do you have any bias towards sweet or savory?
Let’s just say I can’t have cookies for dinner. What I love about it is the overlap between the two. I was trained in savory cooking but out of interest and passion, I was driven towards pastries. What I found out is that once I got proficient in baking, my cooking improved. Baking is knowing your ingredients, and how they behave, like the proteins, fat, starches, sugar. So, once I got a good grip on that, wow, my savory cooking expanded. I then realized the power of simple ingredients, the whys, not just whats.

What was the first thing you ever baked?
Cookies. But as a little kid, my mom just gave me ingredients so I could play. Instead of toys, she’d give me ingredients then I always ask her to bake it until it became disgusting. My grandmother taught me how to make tortes and cakes and strudel. It’s rich and you make the thin dough with your hands on a table.

What’s your favorite baking ingredient?
On the sweet side, I can’t do without butter. On the savory side, which actually works well for both, is citrus—the whole fruit, whether it’s a lemon or a lime. You can use everything from the juice all the way to the rind.

What’s your favorite part of baking?
The sharing. It’s a little selfish that you like taking the compliments and you like seeing your family and friends happy, but you never see a baking recipe that serves just one. And baking isn’t for function like feeding your family. It’s that extra. It’s not meant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I also find it therapeutic, especially the end result. It’s not just about eating that piece of chocolate cake but the process, really.

Do you have a favorite dessert, aside from your own?
Again, it depends on the time of the year. I really love making Michael happy. He’s from Iceland and they have a Christmas cake, Vinarteta, kind of an Icelandic fruit cake. It has a filling made of prunes and cardamom, which you ground and purée, that you put between seven thin layers of cardamom shortbread-like cake. Even if it’s seven layers, it’s not that tall because it’s compact, which you get after freezing. And as soon as I start making that filling, Michael knows it’s Christmas.

I also get excited about the strawberries in June. And after June, all the strawberries are gone. I make everything strawberry in June until I get so sick of it that I won’t need to see another strawberry for another year.


Tell us about authentic Canadian cuisine.
There are recognizable ones like maple syrup and fresh fish like salmon. We also have lobster in the East Coast in Canada. We have wild rice and venison in the prairies. In the country there are lots of single ingredients. We have a beautiful, multi-cultural society that we’re trying to embrace. We’re not trying to amalgamate it. We’re not getting rid of it, we’re protecting it.

If you’re asking about classic Canadian food, there would be two: French Canadian and English Canadian. But if you’ll ask anyone in Canada what the signature Canadian dessert is, they’ll all give you one answer: butter tart—which is what I’ll do at the cooking demo. It has a gooey caramel filling, essentially made like custard but with maple syrup. Just stir butter, eggs, and maple syrup together. Then at the bottom of the tiny tart shells, put the raisins, walnuts, and the maple filling all over; then you bake it. It’s soft and squishy, thanks to the caramel and maple syrup.


Do you have a memorable failed baking experience?
Oh, yes! My most recent one is when I made a beautiful three-layer chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting for two of my friends, Mike and Tina, who loved chocolate desserts. And the cake? Beautiful! It had good structure, good chocolate flavor, moist. The caramel frosting was giving me trouble.  I got the spoon literally stuck in the pot. It's either I added too much cream or butter. I may have also let it sit out long enough. Finally, when everything was turning out fine, I was actually happy with it. Then when they were about to eat it, it turned out I left the paper on all three layers of the cake. The best thing is they ended up loving it. The paper? We just peeled it off as we ate it.


Any tips for home bakers?
Enjoy the process of baking. I’d love the home bakers to enjoy the time they spend in the kitchen, not just the end result. Relax. The more time they spend on baking means getting more practice. Just like everything else, baking takes practice. So, make a cup of your favorite tea, put on a cd, and just roll with it because being relaxed makes you a better baker. Not being relaxed actually shows on your baking. And don’t beat yourself up while baking and put so much pressure on yourself just because it’s Christmas and you want to impress people. Don’t try a new recipe on Christmas day. You have to have tried it at least once before. And always forgive yourself for all the mistakes that could happen.  Unlike running a restaurant where you’re cooking for somebody, baking for your family is different because they love you and they’ll forgive you.

Close

Report Abuse

Username

Email Address

Reason