After shaking up the local Instagram community with its Very Veggie Burger (burger patty made of banana heart, malunggay, cashews, spices on a potato bun topped with malunggay ranch) and a delicious egg sandwich (with boiled eggs, dill, Kewpie mayo and celery), the Instagram account @ahomekewk just launched its first rice meal.
The boxed rice meal is a collaboration between A Home Kewk’s Bea Ledesma, a former magazine publisher, and Miko Calo, the Paris-trained chef of the Makati restaurant Metronome. The meal is actually adobo beets with coconut-lemongrass rice, homemade atchara and Baguio beans.
The beets are slow-cooked in adobo sauce which is pureed with roasted onions and garlic. It sits on a bed of glistening coconut-lemongrass rice along with homemade atchara and blistered Baguio beans. Like the Very Veggie Burger, this rice meal is vegan and retails for P400.
Of the dish’s origins, Miko says it was inspired by that one time she made adobo for a pop-up dinner in Paris. “I garnished it with roasted beets and it went well together,” adds the chef who for years worked in the esteemed Robuchon kitchens of London, Paris and Singapore.
“I’m a huge fan of beets,” says Bea, a former lifestyle editor who has been spending a lot of time in the kitchen of late.
“It’s a little earthy, a little sweet and, when you’re prepping them, they actually bleed so you feel like you’re not missing out on the meat, you know?”
The adobo sauce is an ode to everyone’s favorite Filipino dish and offers a nice balance to the earthy-sweet beet. The pickled papaya, carrots and onions give a nice bite of acid and sweetness, alongside the crunch of the Baguio beans.
“I appreciate the balance, sweetness and acidity in a lot of Filipino dishes,” Miko says. “I also love the versatility of well-loved local ingredients like coconut milk and lemongrass.”
Bea says she and Miko were planning to call the dish Beet Box. “But I was instantly annoyed with myself after I said it out loud.”
Bea describes herself as someone who is trained in Olympic-level eating. She’s been a home cook for most of her life and spends much of her time plotting her grocery list. The IG account @AHomeKewk is a personal project, “an homage to all the home kewking I’ve done over the past year and all the home cooks I admire.
Bea and Miko have been friends since they were 13. “So there’s a shorthand to the way we communicate,” says Bea. “We both know each other’s preferences, so figuring out our common likes when it comes to food is pretty easy.”
“Bea has been bossing me around since we were 13 years old!” says Miko, laughing.
[The adobo beets will be open for pre-order starting Monday, August 23, and orders will be accepted until Thursday, August 26. Pickup will be on Saturday in Makati, between 11am-2pm via preferred courier. Visit @ahomekewk on Instagram for more information on how to order.]