TBK cooks for his new recipe book- part two

 When I last wrote about my recipe book in November I had completed 21 recipes and now as I write this on 16 December that is up to 58 . The target is 72 (6 a month for 12 months) . I wrote to Phil Gregory to ask for a couple of French Recipes ( as he works in France) and he sent me a list of 17 starters and desserts from around the world. Luckily some of them had been in my 2014 recipe book ( Garlic Mushrooms and Gazpacho) or earlier blogs ( Shrimp and avocado salad) but that still left 14 recipes to find, make, type up and photograph.

          Gazpacho was a recipe my Brother, Andrew, gave me many years ago.

Of course these days the task is made much simpler by the growth of the internet with a plethora of recipe sites( for example https://www.kawalingpinoy.com/) and also on YouTube where you can watch each dish made by the likes of https://panlasangpinoy.com/. You can even click a button to print the recipe and it is then easy to copy and paste into the recipe template that Chester created for TBK. However I will stress that I have personally cooked every single recipe to check it out and take the photos. 

                                   My soft burnt meringue

There have been a few disasters along the way like my Eton Mess. First the new baking tray was too big for the oven and then I could not get the egg white stiff ( a sign of old age) and finally I burnt the meringue.

After I defrosted the strawberries from Puerto Deli I found fresh American ones at the Cupboard Project for my Berry Trifle.

The shopping has been a nightmare, seeing me spend most of my time going from Deli Mart to Puerto Deli to the Cupboard Project and back in search of figs, pomegranate, cream cheese, avocados, chick pea flour, fresh strawberries and so on. I ended getting inventive and used cupcakes instead of pound loaf, tinned blueberries, frozen strawberries, and so on. Some dishes I just gave up on like Mackerel pate as it was impossible to find Smoked Mackerel anywhere in Palawan! Being an Island most of the fish is caught locally and sold door to door or on street corner stalls. They have lots of Hipon ( Prawns), Mud Crabs, Squid ( which I discovered I am allergic too), Bangus and so on. But no Smoked Mackerel and the Salmon and Smoked Salmon comes in frozen from Norway.

                  Jeboy at The Cheesecake Factory in Kuwait

One of the things I was grateful for was this time last year when I was spending Christmas and New Year in Dubai I invited Jeboy to come and cook for me. He insisted we went shopping and bought a set of measuring cups, a mixer and a plastic spatula with "Kiss the Baker " on it. At the time I could not see why we needed them to make one cheesecake! However they have been invaluable in preparing my recipes many of which use a cup as a measure. Others require folding the eggs into the cream or mixing or transferring food from one bowl to another, for which the spatula is invaluable. I guess the moral of this story is to listen to the baker and if you are going to cook do it properly with the right utensils. 

                   Jeboy makes his Cheesey cake with my new mixer, measuring cups and "Kiss the Baker" Spatula at Adagio in Dubai January 2022

So, to cut a long story short I have learnt a lot selecting and cooking and typing all the recipes from you. I hope you learn as much cooking them all.

Thanks to everyone who contributed and to our suppliers and to Chester for putting it all together and on line. Thanks to all our food tasters too, Benny, Jhoanna, Frythy, Noel, Joven, Kevin and many others. The fact that they are still alive means the recipes are safe to try!

As the year draws to a close may I wish you all the best for 2023, Happy New Year as they say in English, Manigong Bagong Taon in Tagalog, or in Afrikaans :

Geseënde Kersfees en Voorspoedige Nuwe Jaar

Thanks Gerda!