Filindo (Philippines x India)

2 months ago, I met some friends from college. We had a mini reunion… 10 years after we graduated, we find ourselves settled in our careers (well, not for me really...) and adjusting our activities to hyperactive kids and breastfeeding schedules. We only spent 1 year together: sharing a flat, a kitchen, pints of beer, parties, states of mind, idealist thinking… and even toilet paper. But I loved that year. My best college year by far! And it’s nice to see that we still keep in touch somehow and manage to see each other once in a while, although we are so spread throughout the world!

Have you ever seen the movie “L’Auberge Espagnole”? A story about a French guy deciding to go for a student exchange program in Barcelona and having a cultural shock living with flatmates from other European countries.   Well, it was more or less the same situation but beyond the European borders and less centered on our love/sex life. That might sound a bit cliché, but buddy-ship came first. But maybe the difference was that we shared a common idealism: we were there for a 'humanitarian' cause. We were studying to be able to contribute to Change. That is why we all chose SOAS.

I loved that school... for the really exciting modules to choose from - at that time it was really rare to find courses related to development and human rights - and for its diversity. You could go in the hall and meet such a variety of people: at the entrance a dreadlocked professor teaching Caribbean literature being in big discussion with a right-wing  activist, a Buddhist monk rushing to his class, a student with full naqib making a course debriefing with a fellow British chap, 2 neo-ciber-punk girls with fluorescent plastic in their hair and 15 cm high platform shoes... i just loved it. The first time i arrived there, i directly thought: "This is my kind of place". In every school and college i attended, i always felt out of place, especially in French universities, where there was something homogeneous about people. A slight difference, might be of culture or dress style or accent, was felt as already being 'original'. In SOAS, i felt common in diversity. And I enjoyed that tremendously.

Booze and food were our other ‘things’ we shared. At that time, I didn’t cook much but I really enjoyed eating my mates’ cooking: from Italian to Indian, Jordanian to Japanese, American to Ghanian…

Sometimes it gave some really interesting ‘fusion’ cooking!

On one rare occasion, I tried to make a Filipino recipe… something I ate in the mountains, when I was staying with an Ayta family for my anthropology field research, and asked my mama to teach me how to cook it. As I was trying to reproduce the recipe, one of my Indian college buddy put her oar in… my casserole! and it was actually really tasty! We decided to call that new version of the dish 'Filindo'.

The main ingredients are malunggay leaves (or Moringa leaves in English) and mung beans. Malunggay is hard to find unless you live in the Philippines or India (where they call it Sajina).

A very healthy veg apparently: According to the Filipino Bureau of Plant Industry “weight per weight, Moringa leaves have the calcium equivalent of 4 glasses of milk, the vitamin C content of 7 oranges, potassium of 3 bananas, 3 times the iron of spinach, 4 times the amount of vitamin A in carrot, and 2 times the protein in milk. Moringa also helps to purify water, a cheaper alternative to mechanical filtration”... and can even be used as a biofuel... just that!!!Super veg in action!

Anyway, so if there is no malunggay around, you can still use spinach or any other leafy veg. In Mozambique, when I don’t have spinach, I use the local ‘espinafre’ – sounds the same but is actually another type of spinach, a fattier kind of type. 

From left to right: Malunggay, Spinach, Mozambican Espinafre

I found mung beans in the 5 continents… one of those universal crops! But, if there is really no way at all you can find some, lentils are a good alternative.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of pre-soaked mung beans
• Leaves from 2 or 3 stems of malunggay (or 2 bunches of spinach)
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 onion
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• Spices (that’s the Indian touch!): ginger roots, chillies, cloves

1. Cook the mung beans
2. Heat a bit of oil in a deep pan
3. Add the spices: grated ginger, chillies and the cloves. Leave it to infuse for 1~2 minutes
4. Add the onion and the garlic and cook until onion are a bit transparent
5. Add the mung beans once cooked and the coconut milk
6. Add the leafy veg. And cook the whole lot for around 5 minutes.
7. For those living in Asia or lucky enough to have an Asian store nearby, you can always add a dash of patis or fish sauce for an extra flavour.

 Serve warm with rice! 

Honey & Thyme Milk (Morocco)

To M.

As i was saying in my last post, the weather is dull… and here we are with my 2 kids stuck at home because of a cold… And here came the idea of writing this post.

Every time i get the flue, I go into this weird routine that gets me back on my feet after 2-3 days: hourly hot lemon + honey, rubbing my chest and back (and feet… it works!) with vapo rub, and my temples and nose wings with tiger balm (far from being sexy, I know)… and just before sleeping, a hot honey and thyme milk. It is the only time I drink hot milk (I’m lactose intolerant). And this comes from my university years.

I used to share a small and narrow blue house with a friend… almost anyone could get in. sometimes we would even let people party in it while we were having drink in the pub across the street! One of our regular visitors was a Moroccon girl that I will name M. So kind and sweet compared to most of our guests/invaders. I didn’t know her much. I mostly remember her struggling to get a working visa after finishing her studies in France… and for her honey and thyme milk she used to make us – a nice break from all the alcohol – and other taboo substances – we used ingurgitate at that time!

I unfortunately learned a couple of years ago that she passed away. Breast cancer.

Since then, every time I drink a cup of that thyme milk, I can’t help to give a small thought to all the victims and fighters of that terrible disease. Respect.

Mind you, thyme has medicinal properties and is a good antiseptic… excellent for cold and flu symptoms. Check wikipedia if you don’t believe me.

So I am grateful to M for his valuable and efficient recipe as simple as 1 2 3. 

Ingredients:

-         Milk to fill up your mug

-         3 branched of thyme

-         2-3 teaspoon of honey

1. Pour your milk in the pan with the thyme
2. Just warm (do not boil) your milk for 15-20 minutes letting the thyme infuse. 
3. Before switching off the stove, add the honey.

Stir, enjoy and get well.

Apple Pie "Brioche Style" (France)

The weather is pretty dull today… it’s raining, neither cold nor hot, and the sky is an uniform shade of grey. It is in fact a great day for a real comfort food: apple pie Brioche style! One of my daughter’s favorite !
When my daughter was born, i told myself i should know how to bake cake – to my mind, it was one of the pre-requisite to be a good mum. Since, I’ve been trying different kind of recipes. At first, it was a disaster: no management of time, burnt crust, lumpy ‘crème pâtissière’, too sweet, too bitter, too compact or not cooked enough… how much flour, sugar and eggs did I wasted !! But as stubborn as I am, I kept practicing baking cakes – to my guy’s despair !  And I have to say that my baking skills really improved… well, now I can see that when I put a desert on the table, there is no left overs (which wasn’t the case before!). So I guess it is a good indicator!
So, at the end of the day, i don’t if this makes me a good mother but at least, maybe, somehow, it might compensate some flaws… maybe ?
I will come back in another post about being a mum, but more particularly about being an  « expat (or nomad, stateless) mum », who is a regular mum – after all – but with few extra challenges !

Ingredients:
For the pie crust:

-         300g of flour

-         100ml of milk

-         50ml vegetable or butter

-         1 pinch of salt

-         1 egg

-         2 table spoom of baking yeast

-         2 teaspoon of sugar

-         1 teaspoon of vanilla (essence or powder)

For the apple preparation:

-         Juice of a ½ lemon

-         50g of sugar

-         3 apples (alternatively: 2 apples and 1 pear – it is quite good as well)

-         Powdered cinnamon + vanilla

-         3 tablespoon of milk + sugar (for sprinkling on the pie)

Apple compote (stewed apples):

-         a dash of lemon juice

-         sugar

-         3 apples

-         a knob of butter

-         vanilla

-         3 apples 

1.      The crust: 

Put the yeast in the warmed milk and sugar. Let it rest for about 10 minutes.

Once the yeast mixture has risen a bit, add eggs, butter/oil, vanilla and salt.

Then add the flour. Knead until you have a homogeneous, smooth and soft dough. Let the dough rest for an hour.

While waiting for the dough to rise, prepare the apples and compote. 

2. Apple compote: 

In a saucepan, cook the make apples cut in small pieces, with a dash of lemon, sugar and cinnamon.  Once cooked, crush the apples with a fork in order to make a purée out of it.  

3. Apples preparation: 

Boil the water with lemon, sugar and vanilla in order to make a sort of syrup.

Plunge the sliced apples in the syrup and cook for 5 minutes. 

I personally keep the syrup aside in order to make a glaze of it, but it is completely optional! If you have agar agar in hand: boil again the syrup, and add the agar agar.

4. The final touch – assembling the different components!

Once the dough has arisen, remove the air from the dough by punching it once (baking is a good anti-stress!) and knead. Then flatten with a rolling pin (or a bottle or a long glass) and place it in the mould.

Cover the dough with apple compote and place the apple slices on top.

Brush with milk the contour of the pie. Sprinkle the apples with sugar and cinnamon (split almonds are also a yummy option!).

Bake in the over for about 30 minutes. Once out of the over you can brush the apples with the syrup/agar agar mixture (but again it is totally optional as it just to make your pie shine and look prettier!). And let it cool (patience…).

PS: Reading back my post, I noticed I got confused between the terms ‘tart’ and ‘pie’ and wondered about the difference between the 2. So I went searching on the web… it happens that the only difference between the 2 is the dish used to bake: straight-walled pan with a removable bottom or pan with sloping sides… Pfff~ 

A very simple pie (or tart)… well, supposedly, apples can be found anywhere in the world. If not, it can be replaced by any consistent fruit available locally. I think pineapple could be a tasty alternative. I’ve made one with a mix of apple and pear, and it was not bad at all too! 

Pan de Sal (Philippines)

"Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao island"

I am half Filipina… and very proud of having part of my roots in this Asian archipelago. One of the things i love when going back to the Philippines is sharing a meal with family and relatives, and in particular at breakfast. The conversation is laid-back - of course, everyone still trying to have their spirit clear, lots of small  dishes, sweet and savory, on the table. One of the things that can be found on the table are pan de sal (= salt bread)… so easy to make and so good once out of the oven, warm and soft. Just love those little breads. Once in Mozambique, 2 weeks after a short trip to the Philippines, i woke up with a craving for those little buns… so i pitched it and dough-n it !Here is the result :

Well, I still have some effort to make to find that original softness… I shall let the dough rest longer next time !

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of flour
•   ½ cup of sugar
• 5 tablespoon of melter butter
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1¼ cups of warm milk
• 10g of baker’s yeast
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of bread crumbs (crushed cornflakes or mixed stale bread – squashing it in a plastic bag will do too)
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon of oil

1. Mix the  yeast with the sugar and the warm milk. Let it rest for a dozen of minutes.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
3. Add to the flour mixture the egg, the melted butter, the oil and the yeast mixture.
4. Knead the dough and let it rest, covered in a moistened cloth, for at least 1 hour.
5. Divide the dough in 4 equal parts, roll each part into the shape of big sausages. Cut diagonally each part into small buns.
6. Roll each bun in the bread crumbs.
7. Let it rest for 10-20 minutes. In the mean time, pre-heat the oven.
8. Cook the pan de sal for about 10 minutes.

PS : For metric conversion, check the following website : The Metric Kitchen 

And another one!

…And another blog on cooking!! But this time, it’s dedicated to all foodanistas who live in an ‘expat’, ‘without border’ or ‘nomadic’ mode and who have their roots scattered a bit everywhere! With this blog, I just want to suggest a simple – but enjoyable – way of cooking that can be adapted wherever you live, with no fuss,  no fancy ingredients or state-of-the-art utensils, with what is available locally… A Kabuli rice in Paris ? Possible! A dahl in the Philippines ? Again possible ! A meringue lemon tart in Liberia ! Sure will do ! And what about home-made raviolis in the African bush ? Well, why not ? I tested ! Yes, with simple tools and ingredients (the more I travel the more I realise that some products are just global!) and a little bit of creativity, almost everything is possible! So let’s get cooking!