Curious Cuisine

I love to cook. But having a tight budget often leaves me with odd ingredients I can’t use on the dishes I want to make.

But everyone knows necessity is the mother of all invention. So let me introduce you all to Invention’s bastard child: Bah Cham.

My friends, Amado Rarang Jr. and Philip Evangelista, have coined the term from the Filipino phrase “Bahala na, chambahan na lang natin” (rough translation:  “Ah, f*** it… let’s leave it to chance”).

These recipes are cooked out of leftover meals, spiced up with condiments that are usually not used on them with interesting results. For the sake of a long, healthy life, the principles of Bah Cham are not applicable to Chem Labs or your older sister’s kitchen.

Here’s a “starter” recipe, for those who are brave enough to follow them. More experiments follow in the next few months:

I Only Have Bell Peppers and Tomato in my Fridge Recipe

1 whole red tomato

1 leftover bar of cheese

1 bell pepper

Star Margarine (or any margarine/butter)

2 garlic bulbs

Knorr Seasoning to taste

Directions:

• Hollow out the bell pepper and slice it in quarters.

• Pound some cloves of garlic and rub them in the pepper with some margarine. Put it aside.

• Slice the tomato in think round slices and season the tomato with Knorr seasoning

• Grate cheese on top of the seasoned tomato

• Heat a frying pan with margarine or butter and fry the tomato until brown and the cheese is melted

• Take the tomato out of the pan first

• Fry the pepper, garlic-side down on the pan until garlic turns brown.

• Turn the pepper upside down and while still in the pan, put friend tomato with cheese on top of the pepper

• Wait a couple minutes then serve on a plate with rice or bread.