Grilling for friends, she riffs on Filipino fare
WINTHROP -- With a Scottish-Irish father, a Filipino mother, and various international family friends, Newton native and Winthrop resident Rachel Kelso, 34, grew up with ''no boundaries, big food, and big flavors." As a child, Kelso visited her grandmother on a self-sustaining farm in the remote Philippines village of Cabanlutan. From this experience the young girl gained an appreciation for Asian flavors. She also saw herbs, spices, peanuts, and pineapples growing. Until then, she says, she didn't know that the fruits grow ''upside down." To this day she'd rather visit a farmers' market than a movie theater.
The COO of a Boston-based nonprofit organization, Kelso spends a lot of time cooking. ''It's the number one way I show people I love them," she says. Friends request her spicy ginger beef at summer get-togethers. Kelso considers the evening a success if guests fall asleep after dinner on her lawn overlooking the harbor.
The recipe is based on the Filipino dish humba, in which thinly sliced pork is marinated in soy sauce, white vinegar, and brown sugar. She adds other ingredients from Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean cuisines -- ginger, chilies, fish sauce, star anise, and lime -- modifying the number of chilies, she says, ''depending on who's coming to dinner." The beef is more warming than hot and spicy.
She begins with shaved rib eye that she buys at one of the Super 88 stores or Ming's on lower Washington Street. Sandwich steak from other markets works well, too. The meat cooks quickly over hot coals. Flare-ups add charred and textured bits, but overcooking can be a problem. ''When you think it needs another minute, take it off," says Kelso. The caramelized beef is piled beside rice or wrapped in tortillas or, for her carbohydrate-counting friends, in lettuce leaves. The dish is always the star of the night, which pleases the cook, who likes to ''blow their socks off." Then, satisfied, they doze off.
EMILY SCHWAB
One Cook's Best Dish will run in this space once a month. If you know a good home cook who makes something wonderful, or you want to comment on anything in the Food section, e-mail us at food@globe.com.
