Midnight Express: Filipino chefs take center stage with their new recipes 

 

Chef Michelle's caldereta ramen 

 

Who would have thought that Filipino caldereta could taste good with Japanese ramen? Chef Michelle Adrillana did! 

 

"Caldereta ramen is actually a fusion of Japanese and Filipino food since caldereta is a Pinoy comfort food and then yung ramen naman is Japanese comfort food," she explained. 

 

Most of the original ingredients of the caldereta are present in Chef Michelle's caldereta ramen. But here, ramen noodles, miso, rice crackers, and Japanese spices like katsubuoshi and wakame are tossed in with garlic, onions, carrots, laurel leaves, tomato paste, bell pepper, potatoes, cheese, liver spread, and beef. 

 

To make this dish, Chef Michelle followed the procedures for making caldereta:

Saute garlic and onion. Add the liver spread, tomato paste, potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, laurel leaves, and beef—but add one more ingredient: Japanese miso. Add sugar to taste. Then, put the ramen noodles in the mixture and the remaining Japanese ingredients. 

 

Chef Claude's crispy aromatic duck 

 

If Chef Michelle created her own fusion of Filipino and Japanese dishes, Chef Claude Tayag made a new Pinoy recipe, inspired by Chinese cuisine and an old way of Filipino cooking—the crispy aromatic duck! 

 

He said, "Ang inspiration ko diyan is the Peking duck. Pero, as you know, ang mahal-mahal ng Peking duck. Pangalawa, it's so complicated to do. So ang ginawa ko, I adopted this the way I'm serving it, using locally produced duck, and I mixed my own spices. Kaya aromatic ang tawag ko doon."

 

In most Chinese recipes that require the use of ducks, Peking duck is the choice main ingredient. However, in Chef Claude's new dish, he used organic duck from Laguna. Very Pinoy indeed!

 

Chef Claude boiled the duck for a couple of hours before slathering it with secret spices. The flavored duck is then fried until its skin turns crispy. 

 

He also said that he was inspired by the traditional Filipino way of cooking—adding fruits to oily food to counter its saltiness. Hence, the chef serves the dish with a salsa made of mango, raisins, cucumber, green finger chili, and mango chutney.

In China, the duck meat is usually wrapped in siomai wrapper/pita bread-like pancake before eating. In Chef Claude's recipe, he made his own version using flour, eggs, and water. — Trisha Macas/VC, GMA News

 

Catch Midnight Express hosted by Mikael Daez on GMA 7's Saksi from Monday to Thursday.