one filipino dish a week

Pancit (or Pansit) is Filipino for any kind of noodle dish. It comes in different forms pansit luglug, pansit mami, pansit lomi, pansit molo, pansit Malabon, etc. Each named after the place that it was made, type of noodle used, cooking technique, and just about any variety of reasons. In whatever form it is without a doubt this dish was influenced by the Chinese. According to Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan’s book,  Memories of Philippine Kitchens, pansit comes from the Hokkien words pian-e-sit, meaning something that is conveniently cooked. So it doesn’t necessarily mean noodles. As time passed and meanings lost in translation the Filipinos adapted the word and have claimed it as their own. After searching through wikipedia, Hokkien is spoken in the southern region of the Fujian province of China and in Taiwan and when you look at the map, these two places are very close to the Philippines.

After explaining to you that this dish is of Chinese origin you might be wondering why the name of this dish is pancit bihon guisado. Guisado, which comes from the Spanish word guisar meaning to sautee. Of course, the Spanish would not have allowed something to be prevalent without their influence now would they. And lastly, I didn’t want to leave “bihon” behind because he might get sad. Bihon means rice noodles. Other types of noodles are canton (egg), sotanghon (mung bean), misua (wheat), and miki (whole wheat). And just like the number of islands in the Philppines there are that many variations of how to make pansit.

The way I made it was from a recipe that I got from a cooking class that I took.

This serves a party of 6-8
1lb chicken breast, cut into small strips
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp garlic minced
1 large onion, julienned
1/2 lb snow peas
1 large carrot, julienned
1 small Chinese cabbage, shredded
1/4 lb straw or golden mushrooms, washed
2/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
5 cups chicken stock
1/2 lb small squid or cuttlefish, cut into rings (optional) - I opted out
1 lb rice stick (bihon)
pepper and fish sauce to taste
lemon wedges to serve

1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat vegetable oil in a wok and stir fry chicken over high hea until barely done.
2. Add garlic and onion; and continue to stir fr untio onion is soft
3. Add snow peas, carrots, cabbage and mushrooms, continue stirring
4. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce and chicken sotck; bring to a boil
5. Cook until the carrots and oyster sauce are tender
6. If using the squid toss it in the wok until it turns white
7. Remove chicken, squid and vegetables from the pan
8. Add rice sticks, pressing into liquid to soften. Cook over medium heat tossing gently until noodles are just tender.
9. Season to taste with fish sauce and pepper.
10. Transfer noodles onto a serrvice platter, top with the reserved vegetables, chicken and squid and pour sauce over.

Eat Filipino Food!