Boracay Test Kitchen

Last night’s experiment slash dinner:

Double bone chop in pineapple sriracha glaze.

Pork ribs with Henry* glaze, cooked in the Ooni Koda.

*giving credit to Andy’s uncle’s super yum bbq recipe.

Andy hitting two birds with one stone: practicing her knife skills and prepping to cook her favourite, lumpiang gulay.

French boule by Andy, ciabattas by Francis

Chef Francis started getting into breadmaking a few years back. He was influenced and taught by Alta Briza’s former Exec Chef and long time friend, Chef Miko Santos, or Komiks as we fondly call him. (His sourdough breads were the best in the island, btw!!) But Francis only ever had time to practice during his days off coming home to his test kitchen, as he was staying at the staff house then... until I came to Boracay.

When I moved to the island, he of course had to live at home to keep me company. That’s when the bread addiction started. He taught me everything he knows about making bread, and we’d watch YouTube videos together to better understand its intricacies. He used to come home from work at 11pm at the earliest, and even then, we’d still make bread from scratch. No mixer, just plain old kneading and lots of elbow grease.

It went on from 2019 leading up to the first half of 2020. We made loaves and buns that were so dense but still ate them anyway. We taught ourselves to make baguettes, hogie buns, cubanos, panuozzos, ciabattas, boules, foccacia, etc. We kept practicing almost every day until we got better and consequently fatter lol.

Side note: Francis really REALLY got into it, he even taught himself how to program an app on Android just to make a dough calculator for our convenience! Baliw.

French Boule a la Chamba (haha)

Never have I imagined I’d learn how to make a proper bread before coming to the island. It’s a whole different game from stovetop cooking. It’s precise, a lot more scientific, and it really tests one’s patience!

I started out learning the basics: how yeast works, proper kneading, the importance of letting the dough rest and rise, baker’s percentage, shaping the dough, etc. It was a steep learning curve. It was really frustrating at the beginning cos a lot of factors come into play, and it’s hard to be consistent. I learned throughout the process that even ambient temperature and humidity significantly affects your dough (hello, Philippine climate)! But I kept at it almost daily until I’ve gotten the hang of it, until I’ve come to know my dough.

I made this French boule not knowing it would come out this way, hence “a la chamba” hehe! I was so proud of myself cos it was my first time to get an oven spring like this (trick is in the shaping/folding/tucking and scoring).

It was such a beauty that we hurriedly took out our photog equipment to take pictures. We couldn’t pass the chance to have something to remember it by before gobbling it up (finished it all by the following night). hahaha

Swipe to see how much I’ve improved!

- Andy

ECQ meals: crispy chicken noodles

Instant noodles are almost always present in food packs whether it’s for pandemic relief or disaster aid in the Philippines. Last year during ECQ S01, we received some along with a small sack of rice, packets of chocolate milk drink, coffee, and canned sardines which we made into what a friend calls “tinfish chutney” (see previous post. It really is a thing, apparently! Akala ko imbento lang ni Chef Francis haha).

With the instant ramen we received, we tried to elevate it into a whole other meal by turning it into crispy noodles with saucy Chinese chicken stir-fry. We’d be happy to share the recipe to anyone who asks!

Proof of concept: Crispy Adobo Flakes Aglio Olio

Definitely not an original idea, but we experimented with a different method of making adobo flakes. We wanted to make longer strands of meat fibers but we came up with something almost close to a floss. Need to tweak some steps before we call it successful. It was good nonetheless!

ECQ meals: canned sardines masala with homemade lakcha paratha

We made this merienda using a couple of canned sardines from the food pack we received as ayuda during the first pandemic lockdown. Chef Francis turned it into an “Indian” dish by adding ginger garlic paste and garam masala, and made lakcha paratha from scratch to dip in the sauce. It was so good it was gone in five minutes!

Our humble, bestselling cheese burgers. No fuss, no drama—just simplicity cooked right.

150g of 100% pure USDA Angus beef with cheese, lettuce, onion, tomato between an oat bun. That’s bigger than a quarter pounder!

Best thing your ₱200 can buy.

Tonight’s dinner: leftover adobo cheese steak in potato brioche buns.

Thank you, Chef for the bread!