How To Bake Pandesal and Other Breads

  If there is food and wine pairings, there has to be bread and whatever is out there pairings...I know.. You do this too remember, like when you have nothing appetizing laid out for you because you do not eat pork and everyone else eats them. Poor me. So you make sure that when you bake breads, since you cannot be doing this everyday (unless you managed to sneak some from your class) you have to freeze at least a loaf or 4 pieces of sandwich rolls. This is your insurance. This will ensure you get to eat like the rest of the population. Or starve. Imagine you, teaching breads and you finish work, tired and all, and the helper saying to you" ma'am sher, kain na (let's eat)", When you ask her what's for lunch, she tells you it's pork adobo or pork sinigang, veggies with pork etc., If it isn't pork, then it is something almost similar, that is , a dish  swimming in lard. Now you know why i had to learn how to bake breads. Breads offer you an endless arra...

When I left the restaurant scene out of a broken eardrum (no, not from swimmer's ear) I decided to take up on baking seriously since i know i will not dwell well in the hot kitchen or as we call it "the back of the house".. It was hot, you bump on to guys who are sweating round the clock and being new and a "girl" you kinda like the unofficial muse in the kitchen and nobody takes you seriously. Seriously. It is true, these guys all 8 of them trained together for a month before they opened the restaurant so they know each other. Here you are, apprenticing and so small you look pretty much like you entered the restaurant looking for your father. Meaning one of the cooks. For a while you do not seem to care, but later on as the gruelling task of unending potato peeling and onion chopping, you feel like you needed to say something, or else, you will be buried with more potatoes and onions to peel and chop. Not that it looked so bad, after all there were 3 of us. Ver...

THE TEXTURE AND THE INNER CRUMB IS SOFT AND LOOSE HOMEMADE SOFT BUNS WITH TOMATO AND BEAN THICK SOUP RECIPE FOR THE SOUP garlic 2 tbsps minced onions and celery 4 tbsps minced carrots 1/2 cup diced saute' over low fire until they soften black olives, 2 tbsps diced 2 cups of dice or crushed tomatoes in can, add this to the pot, simmer and then add; garbanzo beans kidney beans black beans lentils a cup of each of these or use any beans you have in your pantry; slowly simmer until sligthly thickened, about 30 minutes over low fire,add; leeks, 2 tbsps chopped parsley, 1 tbsp or more basil, 2 tbsps or more button mushrooms, 1 cup sliced salt and pepper or chilli garlic to taste, slowly simmer for another 5 minutes more and serve... with your favorite bread... I like to eat this with my homemade baguette or crusty foccaccia, i would add fresh herbs after reheating to get that off the garden snap in my mouth.. The Soft Buns all purpose flour 500 grams yeast ...