Quarantined Titos and Titas of Manila

Strictly speaking, a tito or tita is equivalent to an uncle or an aunt. But for Filipinos, who love to claim consanguinity with even the farthest relative, a tito or tita could mean a close family friend, or practically anyone, if you’re polite enough (or selling something).

But the word tita has evolved even further when followed by “of Manila” to roughly mean “ladies who lunch” or women of a certain age group who hang out to have leisurely meals.

And if you’re from Manila, and from this certain age group, you do wonder in this time of quarantine, what have all the titas of Manila been busy with? And what can you do when all you have is leisurely time?

At this point in time, many have entered the plantita stage, where women turn to the joys of gardening to fill all that time once used to hop from one restaurant to the next. Highlights of the day for these plantitas are finding the most beautiful white and gold pots and ordering  yet another ornamental plant to add to their collection.

Then, there are those that are in their platita stage. They begin collecting painted or patterned plates to make their homemade meals look even more amazing on their IG accounts. I myself am very tempted when I see these beautiful plates, space being the only thing that hinders me from heading to the nearest online store to get my shopping fix.

And finally, there is me. I am in my patchtita stage, where I hoard pain reliever patches to alleviate my sore back, legs, arms and everything else that hurts. Since the quarantine prevents me from getting my regular massages, I’ve had to resort to substitutes just to lesssen my body aches, even just for the night.

But wherever you get your sanity from these days is highly encouraged, be it in plates, plants or even patches.

Stay safe and sane, y’all!

QuarantCook Series: Sweet and Sour Pineapple Garnish

Just as there is an urge to bake when in quarantine, there is also a desire to bottle and preserve food when you’re unsure of the availability of food supplies.

So for the past couple of days (translate: more than one month now), I’ve really been endeavoring to be more economical with my food choices and trying as much as I can not to throw food out.

As a result, I have come up with these QuarantCook recipes!

Just like in my QuarantBake series, I want to define what qualifies as quarantine food:

1. The ingredients that I use must be something I don’t normally use.
2. The other ingredients must be easily available.
3. The food can last a long time in storage.

Having defined this, let us proceed to the recipe.

Bottled Sweet and Sour Pineapple Garnish

This simple, but super yummy recipe is an ode to my love of Thai food, particularly their pineapple dishes. Obviously, it’s hard to get that right now so I’m really happy that I got to discover how to “Thai-ify” my food with this simple garnish.

You Will Need

Pineapple core (this is the hard center of the pineapple, which in the past, I’d just compost because it was too fibrous and hard to bite into)

1 Bell pepper, cored (red is preferred as it adds a pop of color, but works just as well with green and yellow)

3 cloves of garlic

2 tsp. Sugar (or a sugar substitute. I used apple juice the last time I cooked and it tasted just as yummy)

1 cup of water (if you’re using apple juice, you can substitute it for the water)

1 tsp of oil

What to Do

1. Chop the pineapple core into tiny cubes or if you have a food processor, go ahead and use that to get finely chopped pineapple.
2. Cut the bell pepper and the garlic separately into tiny cubes.
3. In a pot, heat up the oil and lightly saute the chopped garlic, just enough to release its smell.
4. Add the bell pepper, the pineapple core and the water (or apple juice).
5. Once the water boils, add the sugar. Skip this part if you’re using apple juice).
6. Let it stay in low heat until the liquid evaporates.
7. Bottle while still hot.

That’s it—our garnish is done.

You can refrigerate this and based on my personal experience, a bottled garnish can last up to 1 month in the ref in cooler temperatures. But if you’re experiencing summer in the Southeast Asia region, I suggest you put in in the freezer when not in use. I say this because our summers are no joke and even stuff in the ref gets moldy quite easily.

You can use this to cook with sweet ham, or add it to fried rice, or with sweet and sour pork.

I hope you have fun using this recipe and let us know how you fared!

Quarantbake Series: Quarantine Cheesecake

WHAT IS QUARANTBAKING?

Hi guys! I realized that in times of a pandemic, my instinct is to panic bake. Yes, I didn’t coin this word, but when I saw it, I realized it is exactly what I am doing. Almost every day, I go down to our pantry, look around and spot previously ignored ingredients and bake.

So, for my dessert to qualify as a quarantbake, it has to satisfy the following conditions:

1. I have very little of it in supply.
2. I have had to substitute something from the original recipe.
3. I used creativity.

Now that I’ve defined what I’m doing, let’s get down to business!

QUARANTINE CHEESCAKE

YOU WILL NEED:

For the CRUST

Any butter-based cookie (in my case, Christmas butter cookies in a tin)

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. sugar

For the FILLING

1 bar cream cheese (the original recipe called for 4 bars)

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

For the TOPPING

Crushed cookies (again, cookies I just rummaged in the pantry)

WHAT TO DO:

1. To make the crust, you put the cookies in a food processor. You can put the butter and sugar in there as well and mix it all up.
2. Flatten the crust onto a circular pan.
3. To make the filling, put all the wet ingredients in first (cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, vanilla extract). Mix until the cream cheese bar breaks apart).
4. Then add the sugar and mix again.
5. Finally add the flour slowly until all ingredients are incorporated.
6. At this point, you will still have a pretty runny mix, but don’t worry. It will set once it’s baked.
7. Bake in the oven (175 degrees Celsius) for about 20-30 minutes. But It really depends where you’re at. In my tropical country, I could bake stuff in lower heat and still get the same results because it is just so hot. (In the first 10 minutes of baking, I took the pan out and sprinkled the crushed cookies.)

Stick the center with a fork and when it comes out clean, it’s done! Refrigerate because from experience, it tastes so much better when it’s completely cooled.

The upside of this panic baking journey is that my daughter thinks I’m a genius in the kitchen (Hahah! Kids are so easy to please.). But now, she’s thinking of making a game of it and just yanking random stuff from the ref/pantry to see what I’ll do with it.

That’s it! I hope you find joy in baking and a temporary relief from thinking about everything that’s been going on.

Stay home. Stay safe!