The latest of episode of Curiosity got the Chef takes us to Baguio, the summer capital of the Philippines, where Chef Sharwin looks for ingredients to try out for a healthy twist on his recipes. From organic farms to the public market, let’s see what places provided Chef Sharwin with ingredients that tickled his fancy this week.

If you’ve heard of foie gras, a food product made from goose liver, then prepare yourself for “Faux Gras”. Instead of the liver, shaped slices of tofu are used as a substitute. It’s marinated in a mixture of mirin (Japanese cooking wine), soy sauce, sesame oil, and five spice powder, then fried. Shiitake mushrooms and bok choy are sautéed and added, and the marinade itself used as the sauce for the dish.

The next recipe is Grilled Sumac-Scented Salmon with Quinoa Salad where the salmon is seasoned with sumac powder, made from dried Mediterranean berries, before being grilled. For the salad, Quinoa grains are cooked, then slices of red pepper, tamarillo, asparagus and onions are added. The dish is then seasoned with calamansi juice, salt, pepper, basil and olive oil, and a piece of nasturtium flower is added for a unique flavor.

The last dish is Carrot Flan with Ginger Chicken. The flan is basically carrot juice with 2 eggs, salt, chili powder, and grated ginger. The chicken breast is seasoned with salt, chili powder, and grated ginger then and fried. Sautéed sayote tops complete this recipe.

“Curiosity Got the Chef” season 2 premiered on Wednesday, 25 July. It airs every Wednesday at 9:30 PM on the Lifestyle Network, with replays on Saturdays at 6 pm and Sundays at 1030 am.

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