Manong Ken’s Carinderia

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and onion. Cover, and chill for at least one hour.

2. Chill the spinach, French beans and avocado wedges.

3. In a large bowl, combine the spinach, beands and avocado. Pour about half the dressing over the salad, and toss.

This ubiquituous dish is also a method of cooking - cooking meat, seafood, even vegetables in vinegar with garlic and pepper. Pre-refrigerators, adobo was a great way to preserve food. Flavor and goodness depends on braising (cooking in fat - and that’s why Philippine pork adobo is better tasting when there is a little bit of fat in the pork) then simmering until liquid is reduced.

Picture above is chicken adobo.

Sopa de Gallo

This is really good during the cold weather. It also is a comfort food for me - they used to serve this in the makeshift carinderia at the jeepney stop at Philcoa in Quezon City in the wee hours of the morning.

I made this last night and it was a hit in our household of two. We were still serving it for dinner today.

I got this recipe (with lots of modifications) from an article by Maripi Leynes (of Toronto) that I featured in my old Tribung Pinoy site.

Needs

Original recipe Modified recipe

• 1/2 cup macaroni noodles, cooked until tender and then drained
• 6-8 cups chicken stock* or 2 cubes chicken boullion in 6-8 cups of water
  * I made my own chicken stock by boiling a whole chicken in water with one whole onion and two sticks of celery plus peppercorns and salt to taste

• 1-2 carrots, julliened … didn’t have this so I used taro (gabi) to substitute as I had some left from the ginataan that I did a week ago
• 2 stalks celery, chopped - I ran out so I used cilantro instead (!)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 head cabbage, shredded - I didn’t have this, so I used any greens that I found in the refrigerator - French beans and Spinach leaves
• 1 small can Vienna sausage or 1 piece smoked sausage (chorizo) (I used the latter as I had one left from the paella last week)
• 1 cup ham, cut into strips
• 1 large chicken breast, boiled and sliced in strips (I used the meat from the chicken that I used for stock - both white and dark meat)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup homogenized or evaporated milk
• green onions, chopped
• 2 hard boiled eggs cut into wedges

Bring stock to a boil. Add onions, carrots, celery and cabbage. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the carrots are cooked and tender. Add ham, chicken, vienna sausage or chorizo and cooked macaroni noodles. Let boil for another 15 minutes or more. (If you are using spinach leaves, add it at this step, not at the earlier step when cabbage was added.) Add 1/2 to 1 cup of milk and turn off heat. (Do not boil soup in high heat after adding milk otherwise the milk will curdle.)

Spoon soup into bowls and garnish with green onions and eggs.

Sarap!