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‘TWEAKING my ribs” sounds painful, if you were a human
being. But we’re dealing with baby-back ribs here and
how to make them sticky-licious, appetizing in shine and
color. Don’t they look so sumptuous? But first, the
word: tweak. It simply means making a pull or a small
movement to something in order to make it look better.
Tweaking food may entail more than a pull or a pinch,
but nevertheless the purpose of tweaking is to enhance
the item further. I’m taking the “tweak” to the max and
making store-bought ribs taste and look like a
million-dollar meal!
There
are many tricks to fabulous easy-to-prepare foods and
tweaking is one major technique that can be harnessed by
smart foodies, if they want to serve luscious-looking
food without much effort.
 Lately,
I’ve been into buying precooked foods, ready-to-eat,
“kamayan-style” even. SM Supermarket has loads of
goodies coming out from their rotisseries such as asado-style
pata and liempo, lemon-flavored roast chicken, rellenong
bangus and, lately, baby-back ribs by the half or whole
rack. Rustan’s Supermarkets, likewise, has delicious
roasts starting with its roast chicken (which is one of
the best) and the roast liempo that is also one of the
best—plus its all-time, always-crispy-all-over lechon
kawali.
Having
access to these ready-to-eat treats gives me enough time
to prepare a salad and/or dessert to make a complete
meal in a jiffy. If I’m in the mood and I have a
platterful of these roasts, I get to work. The asadong
pata gets a paksiw treatment—this is because I want to
cut the sweetness, since my husband Bob does not go for
sweet meats. With some vinegar and water and rock salt
or patis, or a sinigang mix, I give the pata a second
boil and add washed black beans for a fusion (kuno!)
dish.
Here are
a few suggestions on how to “tweak” the other roasts so
you can tell them you...ehem...cooked them
For
lechong manok
§
Cut into
serving pieces, add cream of mushroom soup and water and
boil again.
§
Sautée
in butter or olive oil: chopped chicken livers, smashed
and minced garlic, freshly ground peppercorn, rock salt.
Add some adobo sauce, olives, capers and olive brine
(from the bottle). Taste, then pour all over chicken.
Bake chicken for about 15 minutes.
§
Add
white grape juice or orange juice and boil. Add slices
of the fruit as garnish.
For
roast liempo
§
Make
into sisig.
§
Cut into
chunks and deep-fry. Make a spice mix of rock salt,
pepper, sugar and chopped chilies and sprinkle all over.
§
Slice as
for binagoongang baboy, add chopped overripe tomatoes
(seeded), cover with chicken broth and bring to boil.
Add bagoong and cook till tomatoes are very, very
cooked, almost pureed.
Tweaking
baby-back ribs
WHEN you
have store-bought ribs, the food is good enough to eat
but it could be better. Try making a sauce that will
make it “different,” thanks to tweaking.
Neatly
slice off each rib from the rack, making a clean cut.
Try this sauce: caramelize ¼ cup sugar in ½ cup butter
till melted. Add 2 tbsp catsup and 2 tbsp mustard and 2
tbsp soy sauce. (If you’re not yet good in caramelizing,
keep the flame on low or medium for easier control).
Nancy’s notes
§
Men,
beware of good food served to you by ladies today...it
might be your passport to wedding bells....It’s leap
year, it’s Sadie Hawkins Day...and if you don’t know who
she is, you better run back to mama and ask her.
§
Make a
carrot-red beet salad to go with these tweaked goodies!
Dressing: fruity vinaigrette. |
