June is for Remembering

June. Start of classes, the rainy season and the countdown to Christmas. June. Philippine Independence Day, Feast days of the Sacred Heart and Mother of Perpetual Help. June. The wedding month. The month my father married my mother.

He was 37; she was 21. He was a man about town; she was a simple lady from the province. He was tall, dark and handsome. She was brimming with youthful energy and had the most captivating smile. He was the boss; she, an apprentice. He pursued her relentlessly. Not even a strict aunt could stop him from courting her. Nor the muddy conditions to her parents’ farm. It seemed that his resolve to make her his wife could not be shaken. Their story had the elements of a Mills and Boons romance novel.

Although coming from a well-to-do family, my father did not have nor sought the financial assistance to bankroll a grand wedding. Instead, in a very simple ceremony, my father married my mother one afternoon in June with his mother, my mother’s older brother and my mother’s aunt standing as witnesses. After the ceremony, there was no grand party. Not even snacks for the witnesses. Instead, after my father and mother had some siomai in a downtown Chinese restaurant, he brought her back to the aunt’s house while he went back to his house. It would be several days before they moved in together and lived as man and wife. It would be a year before my mother’s parents would talk to her again.  It would be a life that both would not have wanted any other way.

My siblings and I never tire of my mother’s stories. And stories are all we have now to keep our hearts from forgetting what June reminds us of.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to share with you an old fashioned recipe that I know pleased my father. Below is a recipe of Arroz ala Cubana. Easy to make but very impressive on any dining table. This is a good way to remember June.

Arroz ala Cubana

(This is an adaptation of a recipe taken from “Philippine Cookery and Household Hints”  by Herminia Villacorta (“Mimi Alvarez”).  If you are an old time resident of Cebu, you would recognize the name. She owned Black Princess—a sweet shoppe.  Unfortunately, it no longer exist.)

¼ k ground lean pork

¼ k ground beef

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion,  chopped finely

½ c tomato sauce

½ c raisins (more or less depending on your preference—I love raisins)

¼ c green peas (more or less depending on your preference)

Salt and pepper

4-5 bananas ( saba or cardaba or plantain), sliced and fried until golden

4-6 sunny side up fried eggs, one egg per person

In a wok or kawali, heat about 2 tablespoons of oil. Saute the garlic and onions.  

Add the ground meat, tomato sauce then season with salt and pepper.  Stir until cooked through.  

Add the raisins and peas and stir for another 2-3 minutes. 

( Optional: Move the cook meat to one side of the wok.  Tilt to allow excess oil to collect.  Remove with a spoon as much oil as you can.)

Assemble:
Option 1

Pack the rice in a ring shaped mold. Turn over onto a large platter. Pour in the cooked meat in the center of the ring. Surround the mold with fried eggs and bananas.

Option 2

Place in the center of a large platter the cooked meat. On one side of the platter, add the fried eggs. Balance the other side of the platter with fried bananas. Serve the rice in another dish or bowl.

Interesting Option 3

On a tortilla, place a fried banana, some chopped fried eggs, rice and cooked meat in the center. Roll this up in a burrito fashion and wrap in a square of aluminum foil. Bake for a few minutes in the oven. Serve immediately once out of the oven. Some hot sauce would hit the spot.