Coconut is the cheap and cheerful ingredient that we use a lot in Filipino cooking, both sweet and savoury. Coconut milk is more used than dairy milk and is so versatile. It can be reduced, curdled to render the oil, baked into cakes and mixed into sauces.
Coconut jam is the very common spread used to fill breads. It is made with coconut milk and sugar and reduced to a very thick paste. It is sweet, really sweet. It is in fact a sweet remedy for mouth ulcers.
Menudo is a simple and very well known Filipino dish served by and to the common people. It is served at the roadside carinderia (eatery), in school and office canteens and as an everyday dish in people's homes.
Prawns are for suckers. Although the creamy flesh is very tasty, most of the rich flavour has to be sucked out of the head and shell. This recipe makes the most out of the best part of the prawns. Prawns have a lot of God given taste. You don't have to do much to make it delicious. The worst thing that can be done is to do too much to it. Although I like them simply boiled or steamed, I am quite partial to fried prawns.
I still have to find out how almond extract smells unlike the almond nut. Nevertheless, I love almonds in both in forms. Almond jelly is one of the few desserts on the Chinese restaurant menu and the one that I like best. Slivers of soft set almond flavoured jelly is served with fruits and more almond flavouring. It is a very simple concoction, yet the taste is so perfect.
