Lessons My Papa Taught Me

I had a great conversation with my father over the phone today and I realized that I haven’t had that kind of talk with him in a long time. Due to the time difference (16 hours to be exact) I rarely could get him on the phone. He’s always at work, yes even at 77 he refuses to slow down, and you would always find him in his law office always working on a case… and if you're lucky you would catch him whistling along to the tunes of Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, or his favorite song, “What a Wonderful World”. That’s lesson number 1 my Papa taught me: Do something that you really love, and you won’t quit doing it.

He was excited to tell me that he was orchestrating a surprise party for my oldest brother, Fr. Gerry, who is celebrating his 21st year in the priesthood. "Paul(my younger brother) is arriving too and that’s one of the surprises… but wait" he tells me, "guess what the other celebration is all about". “What?” I asked him and he said: “well let’s see if you still know your father”, Oh no, please Papa don't do this to me! I silently mumbled. Hmmm!!! Think Malou I said to myself... Think hard or else: "Oh is it your investiture as a Knight when you received the Papal Award 15 years ago???" I inquired. … At this point, I heard a burst of laughter and he said, “You still know your father, Hija!” Judging from his laughter, I made my Papa happy and I heaped a sigh of relief...and deep inside I wished that I could have been there with them to celebrate.… Lesson number 2 my Papa taught me: Celebrate life’s happy occasions!

With Christmas around the corner, I cannot help but think about the “traditions” we had with my father. And of course, in retrospect, I would think about food… FOOD TRADITIONS! So for him Christmas is not complete without apples and grapes (we don’t grow them in the Philiippines so it was expensive back in the days) or ham and chorizos... And oh, his stuffed chicken. My Papa, would make his “special” stuffed chicken. “Make sure it’s the Jumbo chicken” he would specify when my mom goes out to buy the bird. It’s special because he makes it himself (in the Philippines, you have an army of helpers, so it’s rare to see the men of the family in the kitchen). He used to make just 2, one for our family and one for the Archbishop. Then, when I got married, he made 3, to be given to my in-laws… then 4 when my sister got married... I think now he makes 6. But in the process of making it, everybody is involved… deboning the chicken, buying the ingredients, etc. And he would ask me(when I was still there) or my mom to “style” the food that would proudly say: I MADE THIS ESPECIALLY FOR YOU!!! And yes to be hand delivered. Lesson number 3 my Papa taught me: Special gifts are from the heart and created by your hands!

As I was typing this entry, I got a call from my sister, Marvie. I was flabbergasted when I heard: “I decided to continue Papa’s tradition this year!” she happily announced. "Hey I'm writing about that in my blog today", I said. Apparently she's been thinking of what to give her partner in her clinic. "Well obviously I'm not going to make it, it's Benedict" she goes further. (Yes her husband is the one who cooks in the family, one lucky wife she is huh!) Benedict is a terrific cook and he is meticulous enough in following directions, so I think he will do justice to my father's specialty. My butchering skills are not good enough yet for me to completely debone a chicken but in my attempt to continue Papa’s tradition, I am going to do an Impromptu Diva spin on traditional meatloaf. You might think there is a weak connection between my Papa’s traditional stuffed chicken to my meatloaf but let me tell you, the chicken is stuffed with the same ingredients as meatloaf... well almost. So let me call the dish, Meatloaf with an Asian Twist… and hopefully you'll give this recipe the OH-SO-Delish trademark of Impromptu Diva.



Meatloaf with an Asian Twist

Ingredients:
4 lbs. ground beef
Strips of bacon
3 dinner rolls (you could use bread slices)
1/3 cup milk
¾ c ketchup
1 large onion (chopped)
4 cloves garlic (minced)
Salt (word of caution, go slow on the salt, it will make or break the recipe)
Pepper
5 large eggs (3 boiled eggs, 2 to go to the mixture)
5 tbsp hoisin sauce
5 tbsp oyster sauce



(The Asian twist comes from the hoisin sauce and the oyster sauce, plus of course the boiled eggs. Embotido and morcon are Filipino versions of meatloaf, which are rolled, shaped like a salami. Traditionally it is steamed and not baked like the meatloaf… and the center has surprising ingredients like boiled eggs, hotdogs or sausages!)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, break the bread into small pieces and stir in the milk. Set aside..

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix all the wet ingredients: hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, ketchup, 2 eggs. Add the onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Add bread-milk mixture. At this point you may want to mix them well so that when you put in the ground beef, all you have to do is mix it gently as you don’t want to over mix the beef.

Apply a cooking spray on a baking sheet or line it with foil.. Place the meat mixture on the prepared baking sheet and form into a loaf. I used a baking pan to shape it. Make sure to press it hard to make it compact. (When baked it will give you a solid piece of meatloaf ) Dig a canal like so…

Add the peeled boiled eggs and cover it with the remaining meat mixture. Baste it with ketchup. Arrange the strips of bacon like so.





Bake until the meat is properly cooked, about 45 to 55 minutes at 400F. Let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.



While baking it, the aroma from the kitchen flows out into the living room and you will hear your family ask, “Mom, what are you cooking? It smells so good.” You know it's the aroma from the bacon blending with the flavors of the meatloaf. Slowly, they will all come to the kitchen table and pretty soon you will be hearing “is it dinner yet mom?” and maybe just maybe, they begin to realize the valuable lessons you teach them through your deeds, just as how I appreciate the lessons I learned from my Papa.


P.S.
Thank you for the emails and the FB messages you've sent me... I got a suggestion from one of the readers, Cathrina (check out her amusing blog about design, shopping, food, and being a career-mommy at http://cathrinadionisio.blogspot.com/) that I should start a series where I'll be answering questions from the readers, and I think I'm convinced based on the emails that I receive. So I'd love to hear from you! If it’s a recipe, an ingredient or maybe a suggestion I would prefer that you ask it on the comment section of the post. That way everyone can benefit from the information. I will turn your questions and suggestions into a blog post.

Thank you and looking forward to hear from you!

xoxo,
Malou
a.k.a Impromptu Diva