Don't you wish that sometimes, when cooking, you live in a cosmopolitan city like New York or London where sourcing for good quality ingredients is a simple affair? I do. Ever since home economics in high school (who can ever forget Ms. Paragas) where I learned the difference between mixing and folding, blanching and boiling, I have been drawn to foreign cooking. My mother describes my style in cooking as "exotic". I guess for her anything non-Filipino/Spanish (i.e. sinigang, afritada and dinuguan) is unusual. Ten years ago, I was raving about anything Italian. I bought cookbooks on Italian-style cooking. My favorite dish was a baked zitti. Sbarro was my happy place. In medical school my taste for Japanese cuisine was cultivated thanks to my godmother who’s married to one. Have you ever tasted tomago with Kikoman? It’s simple yet, surprisingly tasty.
At the moment, I am stuck in what I call my British invasion phase. My favorites are Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. Unfortunately, most of their recipes call for ingredients not exactly indigenous to a tropical country such as mine. I can just imagine myself asking a vegetable guy from the wet market: "Manong, tag-isang tali nga po ng rosemary at thyme" (Dude, give me a sprig of rosemary and thyme). Although, if you live in Ayala-Alabang or Forbes Park, your experience might be a little different. Your manong, when asked, might actually have a sprig of rosemary and thyme. On my side of Manila, asking for such things will only earn you weird looks.
So, what can a budding gourmand, such as myself, do given the limited resources? Improvise! I find every recipe a challenge to both my ingenuity and creativity — at least until my local grocer improves his inventory or I immigrate.
The Challenge: Make a trifle dessert using locally available products
Location: Ever-Gotesco Supermarket, Commonwealth Branch
Blueberry Trifle
~ 3 Goldilocks butter slices
~ Smuckers Blueberry preserve (I know, not really local, but it's the only one on the list)
~ 20 gm Chips Delight chocolate chip cookie, crumbled
~ 2 pcs Graham crackers, crumbled
~ 50 ml Tondeña dark rum mixed with juice of 5 lemon, reserve 2 tsp of juice
~ 2 eggs, separated
~ 100 g white sugar
~ 225 gm Magnolia cream cheese
~ Crumbled Toby pistachio nuts, toasted
Split the butter slices and generously spread blueberry jam to make sandwiches. In a deep dish (I used a 1000ml microwave container) layer the sandwiches on the bottom. Scatter chocolate chip cookie-graham cracker crumble mix over the butter slices. Pour 50 ml of the rum-lemon mixture over them. (Note: if you're not a fan of liqueur, I suggest using fruit juice instead.)
In a saucepan, combine the remaining lemon juice with 100 gms of blueberry jam, heating it for a minute or two until the juice runs. Spread it over the liqueur soaked biscuit covered blueberry butter slice sandwiches. Sprinkle a light layer of toasted crumbled pistachio on top. Cover and set a side for a bit.
Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. Whisk until it turns into a thick yellow paste. Pour in 25 ml of the rum-lemon mix and continue whisking until it's a mousse. Whisk in the cream cheese until smooth. Add in the remaining 25 ml of rum-lemon mix.
In another bowl, whisk egg whites until firm and fold these into the lemony eggy cream cheese mixture. Spread this gently over the pistachio-covered blueberry layer.
Cover the assembled trifle and leave in the fridge for at least 24 hours.
Serve with a light dusting of cookie-pistachio crumbs.
