The Pilgrim's Pots and Pans

Summer is long gone from this part of the hemisphere but frying is here to stay, especially in the Philippines, or Asia for that matter where a good fraction of what we eat goes through a form of frying. When At Our Table hostess Linda announced the theme for this month’s IMBB, I was both eager and yet petrified. What would I cook?

As the date drew near I had to be decisive because I told myself last time that I should stop cramming. And so this entry is just almost-crammed, hehehe! I took my inspiration from my university days, from the finger food we had in student organisations. Each time we had to serve something edible to both members and guests, decent but inexpensive food had to be purchased. Resourceful students would usually buy the ingredients and cook the food into something a bit fancy-looking. Cheese sticks were one of my favourites because first I’m a cheese lover and second because they were really inexpensive. I had other plans for the money we’d be saving such as for killer workshops (read: members required without fail) I was notorious for organising.

It amused me no end later, when as a junior government bureaucrat, I found these same cheese sticks served during expensive cocktails, the only variation was to include a few bits of ham. How far it has gone, the tasty morsel of my student years! 

Therefore, for this month’s IMBB, I present the student snack with my own variation: cheese and garlic! And how well they do go together! I also made a simple salsa to go with the sticks for a complete finger food-eating experience.

Cheese-Garlic Sticks

25 pcs. medium spring roll wrappers w/o egg or dimsum wrappers
1 package cheddar cheese (any to suit your heart’s desire)
1 head garlic, crushed very fine
4 tablespoons water
250 ml. cooking oil for deep frying

Salsa
8-10 medium tomatoes, peeled and de-seeded
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 bunch spring onion
5 tablespoons celery, finely chopped
2 birds eye chilli, crushed
a pinch of salt to taste.

Make sure the salsa is made ahead of time and placed in the refrigerator to cool and for the flavours to ripen. Chop all the ingredients except the chilli and mix together. Add the chillies in gradual amounts last. Keep covered inside the refrigerator.

Cut the spring roll wrappers into half, making sure to keep them semi-moist to prevent becoming brittle and unusable. Next, slice the cheese into wedges of desired thickness.

Enfold each cheese slice with the wrapper, add half a teaspoon or more of the garlic. Brush the edges of the wrapper with water then fold and press the edges to seal. Repeat the procedure until all slices are wrapped.

Heat the oil in the frying pan and fry the cheese sticks in batches to make sure there is enough room to stir gently. Remove when golden brown and drain on paper towels.

Serve with cold salsa. Check out Market Manila for an alternative Tropical Fruit Salsa.

Thank you Linda, for hosting this month’s event!