Rainy Wednesday

I woke up around 4am. I thought I could start trimming the carabao grass but it was wet. It rained last night and it is raining again now. There are pockets of rain water across the yard. This is the kind of rain that won’t stop at the spur of the moment.

Perfect time to read and drink salabat. Yes, I like that ginger brew which I’ve been drinking when I had Covid. Coffee tastes different now.

Since it is in season, I cooked guinataang santol yesterday. It is cooked in coconut cream and instead of using ground, I used tuna flakes. Yummy🌶🧅🥣

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Do you know that santol is called cotton fruit in English. The seeds inside look like cotton. It is commonly found in Southeast Asia. Bangkok santol is the best and guinataang santol is best paired with fried fish or pork chop.

Gosh, it’s cold and it is still raining outside.

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Still At It

The past days, I didn’t have the energy to blog. I am still busy with gardening,what with the onset of the rainy season and the carabao grass seems to grow by leaps and bounds.  I actually hired somebody to clean our side yard outside because I am planning to have it planted with some green veggies.  As is the case with people who are not really into gardening,  they can never visualize what you want to do with it. I have to tell him how to remove the stubborn weeds by turning over the soil and removing the roots embedded there. It is even more time-consuming to give instructions and see if he did it the way you wanted. Gardening is hard I know and  when you don’t have any love for the earth, it would be just one tedious task that you will have to do again and again.

My son and I did our marketing this morning back at Pasig market. It is always something I look forward to because I am so curious about what fruits we could buy that are in season which would save us a few pesos. Santol is selling by the crates and a kilo of the Bangkok variety  with that sweet and juicy pulp is selling at P20.00 and the ordinary ones are at P10.00 a kilo. I was thinking of cooking ginataang santol so I bought two kilos. The last time I cooked something like this was about a year ago. I have forgotten how yummy it is, with the sour taste blending perfectly with the coconut cream, Thai red chilis and a bit of ground pork  to make it more tasty.  Filipino recipes cooked in coconut cream won’t be that authentic without the hot taste of red or green pepper. I am also planning to plant the local siling labuyo in our backyard. Josef was delighted when he saw  bright red cherry tomatoes. We could use them for fresh vegetable salad.  Locally produced zucchini are a lot cheaper than the imported ones. I also got the orange variety of sweet potatoes, what a joy! It is always a thrill to discover  something  new  to buy and something nice to experiment on in the kitchen.

Yes,I was able to catch up on reading. I laughed out loud while reading Sophie Kinsella’s I Got Your Number. I know, you’ll probably say, most of her books are funny and humorous but then, don’t we sometimes want to read books that are simply relaxing?  Just imagine, four books in one week and I am on my 5th one,  another book by Jojo Moyes. That’s a feat if you ask me 🙂 I could not wait though to do some looming again but it has to take a back seat in lieu of gardening.

How was your day? I am looking forward to what July has in store. I’ll be on my 5th year in remission by July 14th. Thank God for the gift of health. I bow my head for all these graces and blessings.

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Ginataang Santol, Another Yummy Filipino Dish

Perhaps you’re wondering how a sour fruit could  be a gourmet food on your table.  As I have said in my previous blogs, you don’t have to be a seasoned cook or a chef in a famous restaurant to learn and improvise  a recipe based on  what is available in the kitchen. I guess, from my experience, it’s more on getting the taste to one’s liking than following certain rules on how to cook  it.

I was searching the net earlier and never found the exact English term for santol. Some say it is wild mangosteen, others call it sandor.  Definitely though, it is considered a fruit. The skin of the fruit  comprises a thin outer peel and a thicker inner rind. The pulp is soft and contains a milky juice. It may be sweet or sour depending on the ripeness.  Our native variety that grows here are somewhat sour but the other variety which they call Bangkok  santol are sweeter and the pulp is thicker too. Here’s what we had for lunch today. Paired with fried tilapia, it’s heaven 🙂

And you need the following  ingredients for this:

8 pcs. ripe santol, peeled, seeded and finely chopped

3 cloves garlic

2 heads onion

1 pack Ginisa  Flavor mix

3 cups pure coconut cream (gata)

2 cups of water

4 pcs. green pepper

1/4 kilo ground pork(giniling)

salt and pepper to taste

Ideally, you could use fish sauce or “alamang” but my  son is allergic to shrimps so I have to make do with just salt.

Those eight santol pieces would yield about 6 cups of chopped meat. You don’t need to fry the pork  in oil, just let the coconut cream simmer for a few minutes then add in all the ingredients except the santol. Let it boil until the pork is cooked then add in the santol last. Let it simmer until it’s cooked and dried.  When you cook with gata, always add chili since it enhances the flavor.

It’s another dish that is easy to make and it taste “oh so yummy”. Try it!

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