Food Gifts from Your Kitchen
Christmas gift-giving is the most stressful aspect of the holiday season. It strains the budget, tests one’s patience, and challenges the imagination. The solution? Food and food-related gifts.
Over the years, friends and relatives themselves have suggested that instead of store-bought things, they would prefer to receive food from my kitchen; homemade ginisang bagoong, dinuguan, and
atsarang papaya (pickled green papaya) top their wish lists.
The idea of food Christmas gifts jelled after former high school classmates asked to take home our monthly potluck reunion leftovers. The following month, I brought small reusable containers filled with frozen dinuguan for them to take home to share with their families. Later, they suggested food instead of birthday and Christmas gifts.
PREPPING THE KITCHEN
Cooking and packing food gifts require planning ahead. Buy 100-gram bottles for the finished products. Stock enough garlic, vegetable oil, onions, whole peppercorns, chili peppers, ginger, white sugar, carrots, and turmeric. Get a bottle of banana ketchup ready.
Wash and dry the bottles/jars. Make small ribbon bows.
Clean your working space and make sure you have the kitchen all to yourself. This way, you can work on the gifts uninterrupted. Give the kids sandwiches and brownies for lunch.
BOTTLED BAGOONG
Salted alamang bagoong is available at most big public markets, where they are sold by the kilo. The price varies, from R30 to R50 per kilo depending on the season. Buy only the kind that is pure alamang and not the kind padded with ground fish. Start by working on a kilo of bagoong.
Place the bagoong in a wide, shallow pan. Patiently remove all impurities such as small rocks, fish, crablets, remnants of fishing nets, seaweeds, etc. Set aside.
Heat one cup of vegetable oil in a thick pan. Add chopped onions, a few whole chili peppers, and crushed garlic. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently. When the mixture has reduced, pour in one cup of banana ketchup and mix well to distribute evenly. The banana ketchup flavors, colors, and preserves the mixture, aside from adding viscosity and a balancing sweetness.
Keep cooking and stirring until the oil visibly separates from the shrimp. Once cooled, the bagoong is ready to pack and distribute. I sometimes pack a bottle of bagoong with Mama Sita’s kare-kare sauce.
ATSARANG PAPAYA
This is so easy to do and very inexpensive. One wonders why restaurants and roast chicken vendors are so stingy with the side dish. Beginners should start by making a batch using one kilo of grated green papaya.
Unripe papaya is sold in two forms: grated and whole. When I was much younger, I tried to save money by buying whole papayas to peel and grate by myself. That resulted in bloody knuckles and savings of but a few paltry pesos. Grating papaya is best left to the pros, I have since learned.
My grandmother taught me to sprinkle salt all over the papaya and squeeze the grated fruit until all juices were drawn out. That is one step I now skip after observing that it was unnecessary. Now I simply boil the vinegar, sugar, salt, sliced ginger, chili peppers, sliced turmeric, and peppercorns until fully dissolved, then mix in the papaya and sliced carrots. Bottle and keep in the ref until time for distribution.
MORE HOMEMADE GIFTS
Want some more? Try making mango jam, bananas in syrup (minatamis na saging na saba), minatamis na kamote, green mango chutney, pineapple chunks in thick syrup, burong mangga.