one filipino dish a week

In this episode, The Girl shows us how to make a great snack, fried bananas.

Hello!! It’s been a while. I’ve missed you guys. In this epsiode, I made ukoy (shrimp fritters). Perfect for an appetizer or with beer while watching the game. This recipe is from the restaurant Cendrillon in Manhattan. Cendrillon is no more so I’m sad and that’s why I’m making this dish. Don’t worry they are moving to Brooklyn as a new restaurant called Purple Yam. I hope you like it.

Batter:
3/4 cup rice flour
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup water

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat the egg together with the water. Mix the dry and wet ingredients and until smooth. Let cool in the fridge for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Filling:
1 cup shrimps
1 cup leeks white part julienned
1 cup carrots julienned
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup snow peas julienned
1 cup cabbage julienned

frying oil
4-inch square banana leaf

Mix all the ingredients in a big bowl. Pour enough batter just to coat. Having too much batter will make the ukoy cake-y unless that’s what you want (not my kind of thing). Oil one side of the banana leaf. Place banana leaf on a spider and put a little bit of the mixture on top. Fry in 300-350 degree F oil. After about 1 minute of so take the banana leaf out. Continue frying for about 1 minute. Then flip over. Serve with vinegar, garlic, and salt sauce. Or eat with achara.

Eat Filipino Food!

(I realize how dark this is. stupid camera. I’ll do better next time)
Cant see the video? click here for Quicktime version

Ingredient list for this episode:
Yields 170 2-inch spring rolls
2 lbs ground pork
4 carrots roughly chopped
4 leeks white part chopped
1 bunch scallions green part
3 oz shrimp
2 oz crab meat
50 lumpia wrappers
1 tbsp flour

Links mentioned in this episode:
lumpiang ubod
vegetable lumpia
lumpia wrapper battle

Equipment used in this episode:
Hamilton Beach 8-Cup 2-Speed Food Processor
Cuisinart 4 Piece Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl Set

I love lumpiang ubod! Ever since I was a little kid I would devour these like a tornado through a trailer park. The texture and crunchiness of the ubod, the soft wrapper, and the sweetish brown sauce is what I remember. Most people will include ground pork, chicken, or shrimp in their lumpia. But to me I like the freshness of having an all vegetable lumpia and having the ubod shine. So I left out any meat and kept it all veggie.

So what is ubod anyway? Ubod is the heart of palm (the part of the trunk that’s closest to the leaves). Marketmanila has a great picture of fresh ubod here. Unfortunately, ubod goes bad easily and the only access I have are canned or frozen. For this attempt at making lumpiang ubod, I used frozen. The outcome was a mediocre success. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the most memorable I’ve even eaten. I will have to try to make this dish again and hope to find fresh ubod.

To make the Wrapper:
3 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup rice flour
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups water

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, or whisk together then strain. Heat a non-stick pan or a crepe pan. Pour a ladle full of batter and swirl it around the pan (make sure it’s thin coat). cook until bubbly and flip it over. Repeat until you have finished the remaining batter.

How to Make the Filling:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoons mince garlic
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 1/2 cups harts of palm julienned
8 ounces green beans, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, julienned
3 stems cilantro, chopped
Fish sauce to taste
green leaf lettuce
1 cup crushed dry-roasted peanuts
1/2 cup fried garlic

Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft. (This is where you would add the ground pork, chicken or shrimp in the recipe if using) Add harts of palm, green beans, celery and cilantro. Toss and cook until just tender. Add a little water if needed to simmer. Season to taste with fish sauce and pepper.

How to Make the Sauce:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablesppons cornstarch
pepper to taste

Combine ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring until thickened.

Assembly:
To serve, place a lettuce leaf on a wrapper, the leafy part extending over the edge. Place a large spoonful of filling on the leaf and wrapper, fold in the edge opposite the lettuce, then carefully roll the wrapper around the filling. Arrange on a platter, pour the sauce over, and garnish with fried garlic and peanuts.

Eat Filipino Food!

Fried bananas the snack of champions! In my opinion, this is the ultimate Filipino snack. It’s hard to get the saba bananas here in NYC area (or maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough), however, the readily available plantain is a good substitute. It’s very simple to make and a very delicious snack. I have very vivid memories of eating fried bananas for snacks. If you’re in the Philippines this is just something that you eat, no questions asked. The Girl made a good point that the best bananas to use for this are the ones that are really ripe (almost overripe). The flavors are more pronounced and it doesn’t get lost when it gets cooked.

What’s in it?
3 Plantains, sliced to make a fan
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water

Dissolve the flour and sugar in the water and mix thoroughly.  Dip the banana in the flour to coat.

The more flour you use the thicker the coating will be on the banana. Adjust to your preference.

Fry until the sugar caramelizes and turns dark brown. Transfer to a service plate and dust with sugar. Simple!

Eat Filipino Food!