Inday being Genius

I don’t know how to cook adobo. This is probably enough grounds to make my Kapampangan relatives disown me. And although the idea of telling them that I’ve cooked curry and puttanesca and other dishes could save my face, it only hits me that doing so would only lay down more reason to be disowned. I can imagine my Titas saying, “You can whip a good putanesca but a simple adobo, you can’t do.”

Okay, okay. I may be overreacting here. I probably won’t get disowned, just some mockery. However, a new cookbook given to me for Christmas could preclude the possibility of being ridiculed and more importantly, help me to finally learn how to cook adobo.

The newest cookbook in town was recently launched - Inday Genius. Served hot and fresh from the printing press, it is guaranteed to satisfy more than just one’s palate but also one’s craving for learning how to cook. The cookbook is a project of the father and son tandem of Obi Mapua (former vice-president of Mapua Institute of Technology) and Waco Mapua (a graduate of the renowned Center for Culinary Arts). Providing their valuable hand in writing the book are Kristin Lim and Albert Roa. The book features a wide array of mouthwatering, all-time favorite Filipino dishes from your appetizer to the dessert. From the ensaladang manga to adobo to lengua to baked tahong to leche flan, these can all be found in the book.

The title of the book, Inday Genius, is a playful but witty derivative of the word "indigenous". The Mapua senior shares in the preface that he and his wife were watching television one morning and the TV person pronounces the word “indigenous” differently and that paved the way for the birth of title of the cookbook.

The ingenuity in Inday Genius is that it offers everything one needs from a cookbook – from selecting ingredients to cooking the food to serving the food, Inday Genius is there every step of the way.

The book is divided into more than twenty sections filled with recipes for each meal time. Aside from the almusal, tanghalian, meryenda, and hapunan, there are also sections dedicated for the baon, mga inumin, pulutan and even native Filipino kakainin.

With over 100 recipes made easy to cook, one would surely not run out of ideas on what to serve family and friends. Each recipe has a list of needed ingredients and the cooking procedures are written in a simple way, making it very easy to follow. The ingredients listed out can easily be found in the grocery or the palengke unlike in other cookbooks that make you go on a grocery hopping just to find a particular ingredient.

More than just the recipes, the authors also provide some kitchen education to the reader. One of the first chapters of the book shares the origin of a number of Filipino dishes. The authors also offer several beneficial and handy tips in the kitchen from holding the knife to choosing the right egg to the pros and cons of buying ingredients in the palengke or the grocery.

Now that one is ready to prepare the food, there is no sense in going crazy over menu preparation. In the last chapter of the book, the authors strategically place an article on menu preparation, helping out the reader in preparing the menu for a week.

What's also remarkable is that the book is written in Tagalog, giving the book more than just a sprinkle of originality and a dash of Filipino character. Moreover, the cookbook makes it trouble free for househelpers as it is easy to understand.

Adding more life and fun are the skillful illustrations and amusing caricatures of Obi Mapua laid out on the pages of the book. Several illustrations aid the reader in following the recipe instructions so that the dish should come out as it should be. The caricatures, on the other hand, make the whole cooking endeavor a light and fun one. After all, the authors write that one of the secrets to good cooking is (and this I really bore in my mind), “wag magluto kung malungkot o may problema”.

The vibrant and animated cover was done by emerging comic artist Carlo Vergara. Vergara's previous work include "One Night in Purgatory" and the recently released "Zsazsa Zaturnah". Featured on the cover is an Inday Genius.

After reading the book, one would just simply want to go straight to the kitchen and try out preparing a dish and prove that one can be an Inday Genius. I haven’t tried the adobo yet but I dared to try the Chicken Cordon Bleu. Together with a friend, we prepared the dish for a Christmas lunch for our friends and what do you know, it came out really good.

Having a hard time with cooking? Simply wanting to learn how to cook your favorite Filipino dish? Or really on the verge of getting a new helper because the current one insists she cooked sinigang and yet it tastes like paksiw? Then you should definitely get a copy of Inday Genius.

Inday Genius is the contemporary kitchen bible that each househelp, or every cooking aficionado for that matter, should use when it comes to Filipino cooking. It’s fresher than today’s catch and crisper than tomorrow’s harvest.