One of the recent experiences that J and I enjoyed was participating in the first Holiday Classics Kitchen Session of Innobake Philippines in Pasig! It was a free demo cooking class hosted by Innobake's resident Chef John. He showcased the different product lines sold by this company, now being made available to home cooks and bakers (before mostly only for commissaries, restaurants and big bulk clients). I am sharing below the recipe for Spanish Sardines that they gave us. If you want the other recipes for the other holiday bestsellers below, please feel free to send me a message via Facebook and I can send it to you.
For this session, they used their Mera Cream Cheese, Beaoliva Olive Oil (available in EVOO, Olive Oil and Pomace Oil), Dolce e Italia Crushed Tomatoes, Topping Royale, Patissier Aalst Artisan Couverture Chocolates, Cacao Ivory Dark Chocolate Chips, Dawn Creme Cake Mix and T&C Truffle Oil.
We attended the "patikim" session where we basically just took notes and ate everything for four hours haha. They also had the free hands-on session on another day, which was immediately fully booked! I felt like we had a personal chef and I was just spewing out questions and clarifications to Chef John to which he responded as best as he could so that I can make these at home on my own! ;)
The first cookie recipe was simple enough with the help of the versatile Dawn Creme Cake Mix. Just the right ratios and 4 ingredients (didn't add sugar anymore). He tested out the Dark Choco Chips vs the Couverture callets and I ended up liking the Couverture because the texture was firmer and it came out great even when baked. One thing to note about this premix is that the cookie dough will not melt before baking so you need to flatten the dough to your desired thickness.
The ending cookie had a chewy center and had just the right amount of sweetness for me. I wondered if I can finally bake a cake successfully using this premix.. Haha.
My top one has got to be the Spanish sardines so I put the recipe below. They used their Beaoliva EVOO imported from Spain. He used galunggong here and I think mackerel will be nice also ;)
It looks so easy and had healthy ingredients. The only cringe part I see is you have to cook it for 2-3 hours and waiting is not my strong suit. Haha. But to get that texture and flavor in plus make it by yourself with quality ingredients could be worth a try. A one-time big batch would probably be more economical. This is a great homemade Christmas gift by the way!
So, EVOO is good for slow cooking like above, Pure Olive Oil is good for searing and dressing while Pomace is for pan-frying.
He used the one above for the hearty Truffle Cream Chicken.
Their Mera cream cheese comes in 1.3kg smallest and is lighter and more sour than Philadelphia.
Chef made a Cream Cheese Flan. I think this could still be leveled up to a Blueberry Cream Cheesecake if blueberry filling and grahams are added. Yum!
The cream cheese was also used as a white sauce/bechamel substitute for this Lasagna, together with the Topping Royale, the Dolce e Italia crushed tomato and olive oil. I liked the Topping Royale best for the flavor and because it can be used for savory and sweet dishes! It was also used for the Buko Pandan they served us!
Overall, we had a fun time and hope we can join their other sessions to get more tips and tricks in the kitchen. For now, I will play around with the recipes they gave us and ingredients. I will surely stay tuned to their Instagram page for more of these free Kitchen sessions. It's great to know that their office is just in Pasig and I can just order baking and pantry supplies from their website ;)
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