Beef Adobo in Gata

Beef Adobo in Gata

1 kilo beef, cleaned and cut into 2" cubes (use stewing beef for best flavor)
½ cup coco vinegar
½ cup soy sauce
1 bay leaf, crumbled
10 whole peppercorns, slightly crushed with the flat side of a large knife
10 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 thumb-sized ginger, peeled and cut into strips
1 cup coconut milk, (1st extraction)
2 pieces hot pepper (or to taste)

Combine all ingredients (except the coconut milk) in a medium pot. Bring the mixture to the boil partially-covered over medium heat for 10 minutes. Decrease the heat and let it simmer tightly covered for an hour or until the meat is very tender. On very low heat, add the coconut milk, stir frequently. Let the mixture simmer for another 5 minutes. Taste and season as desired with salt. The left-overs make a delicious filling for pandesal mixed with a small amount of mayonnaise.

How to Make Coco Vinegar

The question is, why make your own? First, you would know that what you are consuming is the real thing and not a watered-down version (like those being sold on the side of the road in Tagaytay). Secondly, you are sure that it's clean and not contaminated.

If these reasons sound good to you, then here is a recipe for making coconut vinegar that I filched from my mother's file.

Coco Vinegar

Utensils Needed:
Stainless steel measuring cup
Stainless steel measuring spoon
2 large funnels
Strainer
Cheese cloth
Rubber band
Dark-colored bottles

Ingredients:
8 cups coconut water
1 cup refined white sugar
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast (the yeast used for making bread)

Place cheese cloth over the mouth of a bowl or large measuring cup. Pour the coconut water over the strainer and strain. Remove the cheese cloth and set aside. To the strained juice add the sugar. Mix well until all the sugar has dissolved. Pour through a funnel into dark-colored bottles. Add the yeast (Use a small teaspoon) to the juice. Cover the bottle with small pieces of cheese cloth and tie with rubber band. Set aside. Let the juice ferment in a cool and dark place for three weeks or up to one month. Place the bottles in a pot of boiling water, neck deep for at least thirty minutes to kill any harmful bacteria. Dilute the finished product with distilled water if desired to taste. Undiluted coconut vinegar is delicious used to make chicken and pork adobo and other native dishes.

To hasten the process and if you have access to mother liquor*, add before covering with cheese cloth and securing with rubber band. Using mother liquor will cut the waiting time to half or less before your coconut juice becomes vinegar.

*As defined by my mother, mother liquor refers to the liquid set aside from a previous batch of coconut vinegar. It is deliberately saved to use for future vinegar-making.

Mom's Oatmeal Drop Cookies

Mom's Oatmeal Drop Cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup molasses
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 cup raisins

Mix shortening, sugar, eggs and molasses. Sift all dry ingredients together. Blend in shortening mixture. Stir in oats, nuts and raisins. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2" apart on lightly greased sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in preheated 400*F oven.

Back to School

It's another long week-end for the kids and the parents. A welcome respite for the traffic that tomorrow's school opening will surely bring. People lucky enough to be finished with this stage in their lives can now fondly recall the mad rush to National Bookstore during the last week-end before school started to purchase their brand-spanking new notebooks and pencils and rolls and rolls of plastic to wrap their new school books with. I, for one am very happy that those days are over.

There is one aspect to going to school though that I miss, and that is the cookies and cakes that my mom made for us to take to school. Our mom worked full time as a chemist but she always found the time to cook us fresh and healthy meals and even managed to bake us treats. One of the treats that I remember was her delicious oatmeal cookies. It is only now that I am older and can bake my own treats on demand that I realized just how simple the recipe for her cookies really is. My mom's patient hands and the loving way she prepared it was what made it extra special.