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| Host with the Most. Aleth Ocampo opens her home again for a dinner party for friend Melissa Young. |
Lambanog Night was held at the lovely home of Aleth Ocampo in Magallanes Village, which soon will be open for private dining! (Message me if you want to reserve as she accepts reservations by referral only!)
As always, Aleth was the hostess with the mostest. She offered these prettified traditional Pinoy dishes:
Beef steak:
Bangus belly & afritada:
Aleth first learned to cook from Maur Aquino-Lichauco, sister of Philippine hero Ninoy Aquino. Her mom was afraid her in-laws would kick her out if she grew up not knowing how to cook so she was trained to work the kitchen since age 9! Later she learned French recipes from her "Maman" who took care of her while she was in finishing school in Montreux, Switzerland. After opening Sari-sari with friends after college, she took additional cooking lessons from Gene Gonzalez then opened the now missed Sari Sari Restaurant. I asked her to adopt me, hehe. Imagine if your everyday food was presented like this?
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| Aleth Ocampo & Namee Jorolan |
Birthday girl Dr. Melissa Young also debuted that night as bartender with this lambanog creation which she christened "Sunset Over Margarita".
Then she was showered with cakes!
Gabby Trinidad brought Ube Cake from Costa Brava and Mango Torte from Dulcelin
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As if that wasn't enough, Aleth added this deconstructed sans rival."It's sans rival with less guilt!" said Namee.
The party lasted til past midnight, with Ella sharing the funniest stories about her food experiences in the provinces - but that's for a whole other post!
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| Good times! |
cLambanog by Namee Jorolan
serves 12-15 guests
3 tablespoons whole butter (but when in doubt, add more butter!)
1/4 cup white onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 kilos of clams, scrubbed, or 3 kilos if they are too little
1 cup nice lambanog
1 cup water
1 cup tomatoes, seeded and diced
4 Tablespoons chopped parsley, flat preferred but curly is ok
1/4 cup shreded parmesan cheese
1/4 cup cream
1 T Rock Salt (for optional seasoning)
1/2 kilo linguine (but i also like Spaghetti no.5)
*cook pasta as directed in the package, add some salt to the water. I suggest cooking the pasta only for 6 minutes as it cooks further in the clam sauce... the one we ate was cooked at 8 minutes and it seemed like it went a little over, so 6 minutes should be perfect)
1 - Under medium heat, Throw in butter in a pot, allow to melt and brown almost
2 - Add the onions until they are soft
3 - Throw in the garlic, also till soft
4 - Just before the garlic browns, add the diced tomatoes
5 - Add the clams and mix well
6 - Add the lambanog to deglaze the bottom of the pot
7 - Add water and cover, turn up the heat to high and allow the clams to steam just about 10-15 minutes
8 - When the clams are all open, fish them out and throw away the empty shells
9 - Allow the cooking liquid to simmer until the alcohol is cooked out and only the sweet natural flavor of the coconut is left with the briny juice of the clams (taste to see if it will need more salt to season, usually it won't, it's naturally briny
10 - Add the cooked pasta in the pot and allow to cook for about 2 minutes or just the liquid goes to a simmer, add clams, add the cream, parsley and cheese, cover just till the sauce begins to thicken with the cheese and the cream. Serve hot.
