It has been a couple of months or so since I last visited my blog sites because my plate has been so full with a lot of activities both my online and food business. No matter how I tried to manage my time and keep up with my writing, I never had the chance to blog the most recent event I had. Now that I am a bit relax, I became so excited again to rekindle my once true love, writing. It has been an honor and a great privilege to become part of the annual celebration of the coconut week for the Philippine Coconut Authority. For one, I have been invited to research and develop recipes using locally produced coconut products. Second, I was given the chance to do a live cooking demo at SM Mega Trade hall. And most importantly, I was asked to blog about the event as well. It is more than a great opportunity to do all these for the Philippine Coconut Authority because doors to a greater heights has been opened for me.
During the research and planning stage, I was given sample of products like Virgin
Coconut Oil (CHEMREZ), Coconut Sugar (SUCHERO), Amino Sauce (COCO WONDER), Coconut Noodles (COCO BLESS), Lambanog (ORGY LAMBANOG), Organic Wine (VINO DE COC), Coconut Milk(COCO MANILA) and Coconut Butter (COCO WONDER) to name a few. It was an enormous challenge for me and it took me sometime to research and come up with the recipes which I needed to prepare during the cooking demo. After a series of testing, I was able to present the recipes I have formulated and prepared. I began the list of my recipes with the appetizer called Summer Salad with Cous Cous. Instead of using the usual extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, I used extra virgin coconut oil and drizzled it over with coco vinegar and organic coconut wine. The result was amazingly brilliant because the taste and the looks may have been the same but economically speaking, this recipe is more practical because the ingredients are far more in-expensive compared to the original recipe. My second recipe is an Asian Fusion called Malay-Phil Beef Kalderendang. Aside from the usual ingredients which the local kalderata is prepared, I added some flavors and spices which gave the recipe a taste, more like of how the Malaysian cooked it but remained local and marks the true flavors of our native land. To conclude the recipe, I have poured in the creamy coconut milk that gave the nutty and sweet flavor which complimented the spices and flavors in it. The result of course is perfect. Give me the privilege of boasting that one though but you can ask the people who attended the expo and experience the free taste (haha this is my blog of course). My next recipe is another fusion dish called Hainanesse Chicken Rice, which originally came from Singapore. I added the twist of combining the recipes I was assigned to and the result was just as perfect as the other recipes I prepared. Concluding the list of recipes I have prepared is another Malaysian inspired noodle recipe called Malay-Phil Laksa. Just like the other recipes I prepared, I combined the original ingredients along with the coconut recipes I have and the result gave me enough level of confidence that soon, we will be able to have the local version of this Asian Fusion, Malaysian inspired noodles.
It was a long day activity of live cooking demo, coffee and wine concoction demo and seminars but I never felt tired and exhausted because everyone has been very supportive of me. This event will not be made possible without the help of people from the Philippine Coconut Authority headed by Ms Josephine Nieva and her smart assistants Ms Fria, Sir Ganni and Ms Joan, Vino de Coco’s point person Sir Chris Esperas and all who participated during the event.
Some of the photos taken during the event is attached to this blog.
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