Where did I learn how to love cooking good food? My mother was a great influence. As far as I can remember, she and our household helpers were always busy in the kitchen cooking something for my dad, who always had guests coming to visit him at our house.
My mother and her crew would wake up at dawn to go to the wet market. Upon their return, I would see live shrimps jumping, live chickens, fresh fishes, and fresh fruits and vegetables. At times, I insisted to tag along but because they had always left at crack of dawn, I always missed.
When they arrived, the kitchen became busy and everyone helped. Mom planned and prepared the menu for the day, one slaughtered the native chicken , and another scaled the fishes.
I had always volunteered to do something. I practically took over our cook's duty by grabbing the saute spoon from her and started cooking. She never complained for I really followed instructions carefully.
My mother gave all the instructions on how to do certain things on the recipes for the day. One thing I learned from my mother is that she had always used fresh ingredients.
Some of my favorites from her recipes are Arroz Valenciana, Paella, Morcon, Cocido, Callos, Chicken Relleno, Embutido, Pochero, Tempura, Piccadillo, Chicken or Pork Barbecue, Kalderetta, Russian Salad, Bachoy, Kare-Kare, Dinuguan, Pastel de Lengua, Lengua Estofada, and many more.
She also made native delicacies like puto, kutchinta, bibingka, halo-halo, all kinds of suman, etc. Her pan de sal, siopao, ensaymada were mouth watering.
The other people who were a great influence in my cooking were my mother-law-law, Uy Siok Hui, from whom I had learned and had mastered some chinese home cooking. The other two are my sisters-in-law, Mary and Lechu.
Some weekends, they came to my house so we can try and cook a few dishes that we had learned from cooking classes.
We experimented and cooked dishes learned from chinese chefs, from Sylvia Reynoso, who was a graduate from Cordon Bleu in Paris, and from Ana Del Rosario, a home economist, who conducted cooking demonstrations at that time.
We cooked all kinds of cuisine; chinese, japanese, singaporean, malaysian, french, american, korean, pilipino, and any recipe that we wanted to test in our kitchen. Those memories will never fade away.
My mother-in-law, same as my mother, preferred to cook only with fresh ingredients. She slaughtered live chickens, ducks, pigeons, and other fowls herself, which I had learned how to do myself.
She would only buy the freshest pork and beef in the market. She taught me that in chinese cooking, your wok's temperature is the key. When stir-frying, food were cooked quickly in high heat and with very little oil.
Same with frying, the oil should be very hot so the food will not absorb and soak up the food with oil. Peanut oil was used most of the time.
The recipes of the dishes I learned from her are authentic chinese fresh lumpia, a dish which we made once a year with the help of all the members of the family, authentic lumpia shanghai, kikiam, stewed black chicken with chinese herbs, siopao, siomai, chinese adobo, peking duck, yellow misua noodle, and many more.
Both my mother and and mother-in-law's recipes are now part of my family legacy. Although I can guarantee their authenticity after several times of cooking them before, my present lifestyle prevents me from cooking them. Not that I have completely forgotten, but because they are time consuming and need a crew to help make them.
On special occasions like christmas, new year's, or birthdays, I sacrifice and labor to cook these traditional family kept recipes so my children can enjoy them. They are sometimes tedious and time consuming to make, but they are worth the efforts.
There is nothing like sharing the blessings of good food with the family in a home cooked meal.