Every Filipino household has its own traditional dish for Christmas dinner. It’s one special food that excites and assures each member of the family that the occasion will be both festive and memorable.

For Maria Victoria “Chupsie” Medina, it’s a hearty bowl of Chicken Molo Soup for her husband, acclaimed movie and TV character actor Pen Medina, and sons and fellow actors Ping, Victor and Alex, as well as Karl and daughter Katherine.

Medina makes sure that after hearing Mass on Christmas Eve, the family partakes of a steaming bowl of freshly cooked molo soup which they all enjoy sipping beside each other.

“We always want something light and tasty like the molo soup to warm our tummy,” said Medina, Inquirer Special Projects copy editor and also a food businesswoman (she has a community bakery, Kambal Pandesal).

Comforting dinner

For housewife Angeline Dantes, must-haves on the noche buena table are the Russian Potato Salad and meat loaf. Dantes stays true to the real meaning of Christmas that it’s a time for families to come together. Hence, she gathers her three girls and two boys, including showbiz heartthrob Dingdong, and their spouses and spouses’ families for a comforting dinner at the family house.

She whips up huge batches of the potato salad and prepares no less than three kilos of pork for the meat loaf.

“I want all my children, including the married ones, together on the dinner table,” said Dantes. “Since I didn’t want them to hurry up and leave right away to drive next to their in-laws, I decided to invite their in-laws as well to join us for noche buena. It’s really one big celebration each time. We’ve been doing this for quite some time now.”

For businesswoman Rina Casiño, a staple on the dinner table is the Apple Cinnamon Crumble Loaf. Her sons, Adam and young actor Albie, crave for her sweet goodies every time they find her busy in the kitchen. They love all her desserts, including the chocolate chip cookies. Her boys prefer slices of her Apple Cinnamon Crumble topped with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with chocolate ganache syrup.

“What I bake is what my boys request,” Casiño said. “We all have a sweet tooth.”

The well-loved recipes of Medina, Dantes and Casiño were recently presented and demonstrated live at the San Miguel Purefoods Culinary Center (SMPFCC) in Pasig City. They were assisted by professional chefs from the cooking school.

They stood in front of the hot stove, clutched the ladle and faced the sizzling pots and pans. While cooking, they also shared some cooking tips.

For instance, Medina said she would prepare the broth ahead of time so that when the family got home from Christmas Mass she would just dump everything (molo) onto the hot pot. Sometimes, she would substitute the molo with sotanghon. In making the broth, she would include the chicken bones to make the soup richer and tastier.

Medina’s molo soup had a robust, earthy, peppery flavor that was already a full meal on its own.

Dantes used to prepare big batches of embutido for the holidays, but the tiresome process of rolling out huge amounts of meat made her tweak the recipe and turn it into a meat loaf instead. All her reliable recipes have been written on an index card and kept in a box, she said.

Dantes’ meat loaf offered a nice firm texture that was tastefully seasoned with herbs and spices. It had chopped hard-boiled eggs in between layers of meat loaf.

Casiño’s apple crumble had a subtle sweetness that cut through the richness of the dessert. The warm, moist and delicate loaf melded with the cold treat of vanilla ice cream.

New ideas

“With moms like Angeline, Chupsie and Rina generously sharing their recipes and kitchen secrets, we hope to give other moms, home cooks and foodies new ideas on how to make their family meal even more special this year,” said Llena Tan-Arcenas, SMPFCC services manager.

Most of the dishes prepared by the moms of the celebrities took only less than an hour to make. All of them claimed to be using San Miguel Purefoods products to make their respective dishes.

The molo soup used Magnolia chicken and brown eggs; for the potato salad, Magnolia mayonnaise and chicken; for the meat loaf, Monterey meats, Purefoods Vienna Sausage and Honeycured Bacon Classic and Cheddar Cheese; and for the apple loaf, Magnolia all-purpose cream and flour and Gold Butter.

“Their cooking also demonstrated the versatility of San Miguel Purefoods products as ingredients for anything, from appetizers to main courses and desserts,” said Arcenas.