My Personal History of Cooking: Chicken Pastel

By the time I was 8, I already knew how to cook. No, I haven't had formal lessons to this day but I learned in 2 memorable ways:

The first time was borne of survival. It happened after my mom and I fought when I refused to pick some required shoes for a school event. We were in Fair Mart in the 80's for last-minute shopping and I always remembered that they had only plainly designed rubber-soled shoes. Out of frustration, mom said "You can forget dinner!" (It was spaghetti night so that was devastating!).

That very evening, I went to the kitchen and saw that the maids had pre-chopped everything and the ingredients were abandoned on the table. Quickly, I took out the pan I saw my mom use all the time and copied exactly as I remembered her doing. I was careful not to get too close as I was only pretty much eye-level with the stove. Dinner time came and my mom was stunned to see me walking in with my plate filled with spaghetti. I asked, "You want?". She eyed me warily and spent the rest of dinner time quietly. When she tasted it out of curiousity, I remember her saying, "Hmm. You need salt."

I spent a lot of time with my spinster grand aunt who slaved over a stove all day. Her daily perfume consisted of sauteed garlic that to this day I associate the smell of golden garlic with Lola Na. She comes from the generation that children are a nuisance in the kitchen so that each time I poked my head in the kitchen, I was immediately marched out. However, I always stood as close as I could to the kitchen door and watched my lola move with her trembling hands (that's due to washing hands after 5 hours of piano playing, she said).

Chicken Pastel was one of the dishes I always asked her to make, and a dish that reminds me of Christmas or a warm Sunday lunch.
This is also a dish my mom learned from Lola Na which she taught me later on. One treasure I inherited from my lola is a small wooden box full of yellowed index cards filled with recipes written half a century ago in graceful German-nun inspired script. Today, that box has newer cards filled with recipes written in messier strokes --- mine.

 
Chicken Pastel (Casserole Style)

1. Wash the chicken with salt. Brown the pieces in butter.

2. Pour some milk and let simmer.

3. In a separate pan, sautee garlic chips til golden brown then set aside.

4. In that same pan, fry diced potatoes in olive oil then throw in the pot with the simmering chicken. I don't peel my potatoes because I think that keeping it adds flavor. Maybe it's my imagination, I dunno.

5. Then, fry diced carrots then do the same as the potatoes.

6. Add chopped red and green pimientos to the simmering dish.

7. Add sliced spanish chorizo, mushrooms and sausages.

8. Add lots of green olives and pour in the juice from the jar as well.

9. Adjust with rice water (hugas bigas) to thicken.

10. Add the garlic chips.

11. Incorporate extra virgin olive oil and white wine. Adjust with salt and pepper.

12. Leave to simmer until the mixture becomes heavier and darker.

13. I never learned how to put a crust to this one so I do as my lola did and simply serve it as is with a steaming bowl of rice.

Cooking the Pastel is my way of keeping the presence of my lola alive, and it shall always be the comfort food closest to my heart.