Taste-testing a pecan pie

Throughout the course of the week, I do a few things. When it requires me to drive out of the house, I love it. It is my release from prison. Most of the time, I just drive around.

We just finished doing the first part of Season 4 of our "Casa Daza" cooking show. This show of mine is both fun and challenging in the planning stage. I make sure I feature dishes that have ingredients that are easy to find here in the country and abroad, not necessarily expensive, the recipe has to be easy to make and has to be delicious. I personally do my kitchen testing. Most of the time it takes a few times to make before I finally give any episode a go. I do the shopping of ingredients personally to make sure I get the correct items. After the kitchen testing and am happy with the final product, it goes to my recipe list until I have enough recipes to tape the show. That’s the hard part. The fun part comes when I tape. Since I know my recipes have been tested, I’m excited to share them to my viewers. My reward comes when they tell me they have tried any of my recipes and their family loved it. That makes the hard part all worth it.

One of the dishes I made was one I tried at a restaurant in Subic called Rali’s, tuna Nicoise. I made my own version and called it Tuna Tataki Nicoise. I got a chunk of beautiful tuna, coated it in egg white, then rolled it in crushed black pepper. I set that aside. I then did the dressing made with chopped garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, good extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. I whisked all these and then set aside. I gathered boiled mini potatoes, sliced red tomatoes, sliced hard cooked eggs, blanched string beans, seedless black olives, and set that aside. In a heated pan, I seared the tuna on each side for about 10 seconds just to char all the sides. I sliced the tuna and laid it on a serving dish. Then I spread all the other ingredients all over and poured the dressing all over. Served chilled, it is a recipe that made me proud with the end result. Key is finding the best and freshest tuna. They call the cut I want and use tuna saku bar. I was able to get the most beautiful red colored and freshest tuna. This I got from a company called Pacific Bay (www.pacificbay.com.ph). They have superb quality seafood. Check them out! Their salmon is also superior quality both for baking or sashimi. My family will be having many Japanese sushi dinners together because of these people. I love it when I find a good and reliable source of ingredients.

Another discovery this week is one made by someone who hardly bakes. I see her posts on FB and they are mostly very well made. Taste? I was not sure. One day, she asks if I could critique her pie. I love pecan pie. This tops my list. A well-made pecan pie is hard to beat on my list. My son Franco’s girlfriend Ban sometimes brings us one made in Cebu. Left in the fridge, after a few days, it’s gone. If an investigator looks closely, the knife cutter will have my fingerprints all over it. Winner! Anyway, Geraldine Santiago sends me this pecan pie. It has to be one of the best tasting pecan pies I have had on my taste buds. Not too sweet, the pecans seem nicely toasted. It’s simply outstanding. I get asked many times how to tell that something tastes good. To me, there is no sophisticated way to taste. If what you’re tasting is good, you’ll know. It’ll jump out to you. Of course, there are different levels of masarap. There’s “hmmm, masarap ha” and there’s sobrang sarap you’ll think of your loved ones because you want them to experience the ecstasy. With this pie, it briefly crossed my mind to hide it from my kids. It was that good. The crust was compact, the filling not too sweet, and the pecans crispy like toasted. Over all, a winner! Check her out. Now, I call her Chef Ge! (0917 530 5296). The only thing I didn’t like was it was delivered. I need a new reason to make my “lakwatcha” drive.

Check out these new finds. Casa Daza will be airing first week of May on Metro Channel 52 or 174!

Happy eating!