Chris Urbano appears GMA7s Unang Hirit

Chris Urbano got together with the gang from Unang Hirit on Labour Day, and to mark the occasion prepared his take on a favourite dish among Filipino manggagawa: Ginataang Tambakol… click below to see the live airing and how Urbano prepares this dish!

I made three main twists on this recipe – first was to spice it up using additional siling labuyo to make it a more ‘bicol’ style. Second, was the addition of dahon ng sili, which increases the nutritional value of the dish, brings a hint of bell pepper flavour without the spice and once cooked down, the contrast of the withered dark green leaves against the white of this gata based dish. Last was the addition of Thai Basil to the dish, which really increases the complexity of flavour. This was truly a ‘foodies’ take on an every day favourite.

While it was too early in the morning to drink wine on national television, I did take along a bottle of my Chrismont Riesling to match the dish, adn it worked really well – anything gata based you want a highly acidic and fruity dry white wine, riesling, sav blanc and petit manseng will all work superbly and the Chrismont Riesling was no exception!

This was my first appearance on TV as a chef, super exciting and hope a lot of fun to watch!

CU

It was too early for wine (at least on the show) but I matched this to the Chrismont Riesling – now available at the Wines by Chris Urbano store. Its important to match an sweeter, acidic white wine to spicy gata based dishes. Acid to cut through the vegetable fats, and the residual sugars are a complement to the chilli heat and flavour. Try it out at home!