one filipino dish a week

When I saw “Chinese, Malay and Spanish Fusion: The Food of the Philippines” on the list of classes in the recreational division of The Institute of Culinary Education I was ecstatic. I said to myself this is what I need! I signed up myself and The Girl for the class.

When we got there it was kind of funny because we were the only Filipinos in the class. The class was taught by Chef Reeni Aragon Espino. She teaches mostly pastry at the school but represents Filipino cooking once a semester when she teaches this class. There were quite a few dishes that were presented to the class: Lumpiang Ubod, Ukoy, Pancit Bihon Guisado, Adobong Manok at Baboy, Sinigang na Sugpo, Kare-Kare, Kaldereta (Lamb), Bibingkang Kamotegkahoy, and Mango-Macapuno Ice Cream. She spoke about each one and what it’s made out of and what’s the significance of each.

I didn’t get to make everything since this was only a 4 hour class. Chef Reeni divided the class and assigned dishes to each group. Don’t worry I’ll be making each one again in the future. My group got to do Sinigang na Sugpo, Kare-Kare and Ukoy.

Sinigang na Sugpo (Prawns)
You can check my previous post on sinigang na baboy (pork). I was quite excited because I was about to make this with a real souring agent and not the chemical fake mix. Here’s how we made it:

A few kamias (depending how sour you want)
1 T vegetable oil
1 large red onion, sliced thinly
1 T garlic minced
2 cups diced tomatoes
6 cups water or rice washing
1 Asian eggplant, sliced
1 medium taro, 1 to 1.5 inch cubes
1 medium white radish, sliced
12 to 15 large head on prawns
1 bunch water spinach (kangkong)
2 long hot peppers

First, simmer the kamias in water until tender.

Mash into cooking liquid (You gotta put your back into it). Here’s where disaster struck. As we were mashing the kamias, we tasted to see how sour it was. It was not at all sour. The freezing probably took away all the sourness out of it. On to plan B, let’s take the guava out. That was also not sour. In fact, it was quite sweet. On to plan C, green tomatillos. They were barely sour so we put a lot of it. Once you’ve mashed the juices out you strain the liquid and add it later to the mix. Okay, so in the end we succumbed to using the packet mix because it just wasn’t sour. One of these days I’ll make a real sinigang.

Saute the onion and garlic then add the tomatoes until they start to break down. Add the sour liquid. Add the water and salt to taste. Bring to a boil. Add spinach, eggplant, taro and radish. Cover and return to a boil. Add prawns and peppers.

Simmer just until the prawns turn color and vegetables are cooked. One thing that caught me off guard about this was the taro made the dish a little cloudy. I kind of like sinigang to be a clear broth soup.

Ukoy (Shrimp Fritters)
The fondest memory I have of ukoy is that there used to be this carenderia (aka lunch spot, cafeteria, etc) near where I grew up called Ben-Jo’s that had ukoy and we always bought it there. Their ukoy was good. I can’t wait to have a taste of it again in the near future ;). Ukoy is best as an appetizer or pulutan (beer drinking food).

The Girl grating some sweet potatoes for the ukoy.

Mmm deep fried shrimp!

I’m going to have to make this again because I didn’t get to do any of the making of this.

Kare-Kare (Oxtail Stew)
Growing up I never really liked kare-kare. I don’t know what it is but it must be the yellowish-brownish tint to the sauce that deterred me. Kare-Kare which sounds like curry is pretty much like a curry and was most likely borrowed from one of the neighboring countries. This is how we made it:

3 to 4 lbs oxtail, cut in serving pieces
1/2 lb pork belly, cut in serving pieces
8 cups water
2 bay leaves
3 T annatto seeds
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups broth
1/2 cup raw rice
2 cups dry-roasted peanuts
2 T finely chopped garlic
1 cup chopped onion
12 ounces long beans cut in 2in lengths
2 Asian eggplants cut in diagonal 1/2 inch pieces
Salt, fish sauce and black pepper to taste
1 bock choy, cut in 2in pieces

Boil the oxtail and pork in water, bay leaves and salt to taste until tender. This is The Girl checking if the oxtail is tender with a knife. Watch out now.

Heat the annatto seeds and 1T oil until heavily colored. They pop and splatter everywhere so make sure you have a cover. Add the broth. In the meantime in between time as the great snoop dogg would say, toast the rice in a dry pan until lightly browned. Transfer to a spice grinder/food processor and grind until fine. Also grind the peanuts to a paste.

Saute the garlic in remaining oil until soft. Add oxtails, pork and annatto water and bring to a boil. Mix the rice powder, peanut and 1 cup broth and add to pot. Add 3 cups broth, beans and eggplant. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender and sauce has thickened.

Serve with rice and bagoong (fermented shrimp paste). I’m quite sure that this was not THE perfect kare-kare. So I will make a second attempt at this.

Other Dishes
The fruits of the labor of the other groups.

Clockwise: Pancit Bihon, Bibikang Kamoteng-kahoy, Lumpiang Ubod

I’m definitely going to make the Lumpiang ubod.  It came out excellent. And I finally saw how you make the wrapper!! I didn’t get to take a picture of the ice cream but I think I can definitely make a much better ice cream than what was made. It’s all in the ingredients too. The mango used was the red Mexican mango (I don’t really know what type of mango it is… the red kind.). It would be so much better if the yellow champagne mangoes were used. In the summer time when those mangoes come out I’ll make mango ice cream.

What better way to accompany all this food but with some San Miguel! Great Great class! If you are in NYC and would like to learn more about Filipino food first hand check out this class. I will definitely have to make each one of these dishes again though. So look for futures posts with these dishes again.

Eat Filipino Food!