LP VIII: Suam Mais (Cooking with Children)
When talking to our town’s renowned cooks, I ask about how long they have been cooking and who taught them to perform magic in the kitchen. Some took cooking seriously very early, some as young adults but to a person, each one had kitchen duties as children. Everyone remembers receiving methodical instructions from their mothers, fathers, grandparents or relatives who were also accomplished cooks. It seems as if they spent years of apprenticeship in the informal setting of home kitchens.
Iska’s theme for Lasang Pinoy 8: Kusinang Bulilit, Lutong Paslit! has made me realise that I would love to explore the topic of informal apprenticeships in the future. For the meantime, I’ll have to remember how I started cooking as a child since the only juvenile I have around is a gigantic kitten who perches on the kitchen bench as soon as I start with prep work.
Pampanga has a long tradition of trade, arts and crafts long before the arrival of the Spaniards. Pre-colonial society had a system of apprenticeships where the youth got to learn their craft from the masters. To a certain extent, I still feel vestiges of this practice when I see and remember how children are sent off to “help out” relatives during fiestas and other special occasions. In many traditional families, it does not matter if one is poor or with a house attended by servants. Each child, whether male or female, is expected to help out with household chores.
It was this philosophy that ruled me from my early years. When I asked my mother how come we had to learn the small details of let’s say polishing brass or scrubbing the floor when we could ask a helper to do it, with patience she replied that we cannot command anyone effectively if we do not know how to do the task ourself. How can you instruct someone to do what you want when you can’t do it yourself? That silenced the smart alecky brat that I was.
In the kitchen, my grandmother – Lola Felisa, was my mentor. She was patient enough to start me with the simplest of tasks but would raise hell with repeated mistakes. I don’t remember her holding my hand in any of my assignments. Instead, I felt that she was confident that I would accomplish whatever she set me out to do. Hmmm… good mentor indeed! I suppose that’s the only way to go. No spoon-feeding, no coddling.
In my opinion, the best way to start a child cooking is to let him or her watch and then graduate into simple tasks. One of the dishes I remember “graduating” into is suam mais, a thick creamy soup made from white glutinous maize (corn). I was trying to find the etymology of suam but and I’m not close to finding it. In Filipino cooking, it refers to several clear but chunky soups, e.g. suam ema (crabs), suam ebun (eggs), etc. In Bahasa, the word ‘suam’ is temperature related, approximating tepid or lukewarm. I am not sure if this is at all related to how it evolved in the Philippines or if it is another one of a myriad names for ‘soup’.
The first task I did to help cook suam mais was to grate the maize on my grandmother’s old-fashioned grater. The maize has to be the white, sticky variety, not “yellow sweet corn” which will not yield a creamy consistency.
As I grew up, I was allowed to handle more of the tasks until finally, needed no supervision. Each step didn’t require much from me since they were taught gradually. When I think of teaching children how to cook, I don’t think of specific methods or beginner’s recipes. If and when I do have children, I’ll probably do as I was taught. Approach cooking as an everyday function, like eating, brushing the teeth and taking a bath. Pretty soon, it will be second nature to the child, just like the best cooks in town.
Suam Mais
10-12 cobs of white, sticky maize
1/2 kg. chicken, shredded or cut into small chunks
2 heads garlic
1 cup chilli leaves
1 tsp. cooking oil
salt and pepper
4 cups water, approx.
Unhusk and clean the maize. Make sure all kernels are full and fresh. Grate gently so as not to include the cob which is very tough.
After grating, soak the cobs in tepid water for at least five minutes. With a knife, scrape each ear, letting the germ fall into the water. Set this aside. In the meantime, sauté the garlic then the shredded chicken. Season with salt.
When the chicken is lightly browned, pour approximately 1/3 of the water with the scraped maize and simmer for around 10 minutes. Add the grated corn and simmer again, stirring constantly to prevent it from burning (don’t forget, starch scorches easily). Pour in the remainder of the water and let it boil for around five minutes. Every now and then, pour approximately half a cup of water, simmer then stir. It is done when the maize is almost transparent. Add the chilli leaves then turn off fire. Cover and let stand for around 5 minutes.
A nice bowl of suam mais is a meal in itself but Filipinos eat it with rice, naturally. 
ooh ooh, is this what i think it is?
my mom makes this with a small amount of
alamang and we eat it with rice.
is that weird?
Oh my goodness.
Maybug kung managkas! Sobrang sarap. At wala dito sa U.S. I love it with fried galunggong. hu hu hu
waiting karen hehehe….
curious akong makita kung sinong bata ang nahila mo for this entry.
my mom makes this soup too (i think we talked about this before, sa forum?) — but i didn’t like it as a child. tawag ni mommy sinuam.
hey karen
oh i like this…other than eating nilagang maiz na puti as is, my mom uses the maiz to make this… though it’s only now that i learned how it’s called…i was actually having hot-flashes knina hahaha..flashes of binatog, nilagang maiz na puti and this is what i see in your entry! wait for me..tirhan mo ko ha!
karen — it’s me again, ang kulit ano!? i forgot to tell you — i found kiamche (not sure about spelling) in a malaysian cookbook!
Can’t wait for the write up! I think my lola used to make a soup similar to this too. :hungry:
my mom/dad never cooked corn soup at home. natikman ko lng when invited by friends, luto ng moms nila. so i will be waiting for the write up and of course the recipe. :yes:
Same as Iska, never had mais in soup at home as a child. But I’ve eaten a mais-kalabasa-malunggay soup in Lipa and it’s fantastic, especially with inihaw, that I try to replicate it at home.
Hmmmm, i miss the corn soup. lalu na yung nilagayan ng tinapa. sarap!!!
Hay! I miss corn soup, too. I remember when I was a child, lagi kaming pumupunta sa San Miguel, Bulacan. Ito ang hinahanda nila sa amin, at siempre mais na puti ang gamit tapos may fried dalag pa. You know what? Kami pa ang nag-haharvest noong mga mais doon, sarap talaga ang tamis at lagkitan pa.
:hungry: Wahahaw! Suam! Ang tagaaaal ko nang hindi nakakakain n’yan! The kind we make at home mixes squash flowers with the corn soup. I can’t think of anything that can go better with pritong tilapia (or dalagang bukid) than this!
i love suam mais!!! it’s one of the kapampangan food i miss! :blooms:
Karen, kumusta? Sarap naman ng Suam Mais! :hungry: Pls. email me again if you can get it from me, ok? God bless!
karen, what happened to you? you’re nowhere to be found!
Hi Karen!
Kalambat mo…nukarin ka minta?
isang buwan na
:yes:!! … waiting for the recipe . . .:hungry:
it’s nice to have u back!
by the way, i tagged u…
hay salamat. i’ve missed your posts here.
:donut::donut::donut:h! we have this almost weekly because my mom found a “suki” in the market that gives her good white corn
hi karen! i am so glad that one click in yahoo search of “bule baluga” led me to your site. your posts bring back my childhood memories and made me treasure my lola’s cooking. i love suam mais sooooo much!!! i love it with lotsa corn. the lutong kamatis w/ bule baluga is also another fave. i have added another blogger on my favorites and i guess i will need lot of time to catch with your archive. btw, i posted your link in marketmanila.com’s comment regarding lima beans.
So glad to have found this blog.Quite a circuitous route from Sexy Mom to MsPartyGirl to here, but worth it. And a post I can identify with, too.
I think what we make is the Visayan version. No chicken, and lots of malunggay leaves instead of sili tops. Welove it somuch that even if the native sticky corn is not available we make do with sweet Japanese corn. It makes a very different kind of soup, but we love it, too.
I’ll be visiting again. Sarap pala dito
suam! i love suam. I usually cook it similar to your style but when budget permits, i add white shrimps and i pound the shells and heads to get the juice and add to make the soup extra rich!
hi karen! it is just this one night that i suddenly craved for my mom’s homecooked meals. I was doubtful at first if i will ever find a recipe of bule baluga in the net.. Good thing u have this.. (i bookmarked it already.hehe) thanks for featuring kapampangan food.. You make me proud to be kapampangan!