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| Marites Palma |
Little wonder that on Sundays when she gets off work, she manages to squeeze in a lot of activities. Apart from covering community events for The SUN where she has been a regular contributor for years, she also attends meetings and other activities organized by various organizations where she is an officer or an active member.
These include Isabela Federation where she is the vice president for external affairs, Roxas Group of Migrants where she is an adviser, Federation of Luzon Active Groups where she is general secretary, Lakbay Dangal where she is PRO, and Card OFW where she is a trainor.
When her busy Sunday schedule allows it, she also goes with friends to unusual destinations, like the majestic waterfalls hidden deep inside Lantau island.
A graduate of B.S. Agriculture, Marites first worked as a child care worker at the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Philippines before deciding to move abroad. Her first stop was Singapore where she worked at a kindergarten school, then to Macau, this time as a domestic worker. She moved to Hong Kong after two years.
Her positive outlook has allowed Marites to get along very well with most of her employers. She is one of the rare lucky ones who get to travel with their employers, and is allowed to take time off to go around on her own. Sometimes, they would even let her bring her only daughter to Hong Kong, or pay for the two of them to go on a trip together.
Marites brings her happy disposition to the kitchen, where she does a lot of cooking and baking.
As an OFW, she first learned to cook Chinese food, but when she moved to a Western family she was sent to the Towngas Cooking Centre to expand her repertoire. Later, she added Thai dishes to this list when her employer enrolled her in a cooking school while on a visit to their vacation house in Phuket.
Here she shares two of her favorite concoctions: rendang, a tricky dish to cook, which was taught to her by her kindly popo; and banana cake with fondant icing, which is what she made to mark the recent birthday of her young ward. - DCLM
Chicken (or beef) Rendang
Ingredients:1/3 cup cooking oil
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
3 pcs star anise
1 lemon grass - white part, pounded and cut into strips
3 cardamon pods
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup water
5 kaffir lime leaves
5 tbsp. grated coconut, toasted
1 tbsp. sugar
salt or fish sauce to taste
Spice paste:
6 shallots
1-inch piece galangal
3 stalks lemon grass-white part only
4 cloves of garlic
10 dried chilies-seeded
Method:
1. Put all the ingredients of the spice paste in a food processor, blend well.
2. Heat the oil in a skillet, add spice paste, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, and cardamon pods and stir fry until aromatic
3. Add the chicken, then the lemon grass. Stir to combine well with the spices.
4. Add the coconut milk, water and simmer on medium heat, stirring frequently until the chicken or beef is almost cooked.
5. Put the kaffir lime leaves and the toasted coconut, then stir to blend well with the chicken/beef.
6. Lower the heat to low, cover then slowly simmer for 3 minutes or until the meat is tender, liquid has dried up, add more sugar and salt to taste.
Banana Cake with Fondant Icing
Ingredients for the Banana Cake:8 oz.-self-raising flour
6 oz. sugar
2 big, well ripened bananas
2 large eggs
4 oz. butter or margarine
1 tsp of vanilla extract
Cooking Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180 degree centigrade.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar.
3. In another bowl, mash the bananas. Add eggs, butter (or margarine) and vanilla. Mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until the mixture becomes moist.
4. Fill each greased loaf tin about 3/4 full.
5. Bake for about 40-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
6. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from pan to wire rack to cool completely.
Ingredients for the fondant icing:
150 gms liquid glucose
50 gms of glycerine
2 tbsp. gelatin
25 gram shortening
60 ml warm water
1 kg icing sugar, sifter
Cooking method:
1. In a microwavable bowl, mix water and gelatin, then set aside till the gelatin softens.
2. Put into the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and check if the gelatin is completely dissolved, then pour in the icing sugar.
3. Use electric mixer to mix well.
4. Take the mixture out of bowl and knead until it turns into a small ball.
5. Then using a rolling pin, roll the fondant until it is quite thin (make sure your bench top is greased with flour).
6. Roll the fondant very loosely around your rolling pin, then flip onto the cooled cake. Flatten out any lumps and bumps.
7. Go wild with your crazy cake decorations. (You can add food coloring for the desired color of the decorations)
