one filipino dish a week

Turon
We had a few leftover ingredients so I decided to make some more mirienda delights. First up is turon. Turon is basically a banana spring roll.

To make coat the plantain with brown sugar, top it off with slices of jackfruit and roll up in a spring roll wrapper. Deep fry and voila an amazing snack. At some point in the future I would like to make my own spring roll wrapper. Anyone one out there know how to make it?

Camote Chips

Camote chips are one of those treats that I used to love as a kid. The sweetness of the camote just does it for me. The funny thing about this is that camote is known to give the people who eat it gas.

This is how I made it: thinly slice the camote. Having a mandolin would really help in this process to give you uniformly thin slices. I just used my trusty knife since I have not had a chance to go get a madolin yet. Heat up oil to 350-375 degrees F. Slide the pieces of camote on the side of the wok to avoid splattering.

Take them out when they are golden brown. Let them sit in a wire rack to cool down a little.

Sprinkle some sea salt, plate it up and serve! Delicious!

Filipinos love to snack. Mirienda is the 4th and 5th meal of the day. The Girl was making binignit and I love binignit. Binignit is a great mirienda item. Growing up this was made in my house during Good Friday. It’s an amazing afternoon snack. It’s also good on a nice cold day. This is a perfect winter afternoon snack.

For this version weused gabi (white taro), camote (sweet potato), plantains, canned langka (jackfruit), tapioca pearls, and frozen coconut milk. There are versions where cassava (yuca), ube (purple yam), saba bananas and sago are used.

The version that I remember growing up is using landang and not tapioca or sago. We used small tapioca pearls because that’s all we could find at the Asian store.

This is how we made it: first dice the root crops and the plantains. Cut the jackfruit into strips. Boil water and drop the root crops and the tapioca. Simmer until they are slightly tender. It doesn’t taste good if they are mushy either. Mix in the bananas, coconut milk, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Simmer for a few minutes and then mix in the jackfruit.

Serve warm! Keeps you warm in a nice cold day. It tasted real good and hit the spot. I would like to try these again with fresh coconut milk, landang and ube.

Life caught up with me this week and I didn’t have much time to research and prepare for a full dish. I did, however, make some atsara (or achara). Atsara is a green papaya relish. It’s a side dish/condiment served to compliment a main course. Growing up I loved atsara especially when eaten with a good filipino-style bbq. Actually, this is really really good with any grilled meat. The sweet and sour flavor compliments that smoky burnt meat flavor.

I made atsara for the first time a few months ago and found out that it was fairly easy to make. When I was at the Asian grocery I saw the green papaya and I immediately grabbed one. This is how I made it:

1/2 green papaya grated
1/2 red pepper julienned
1/2 green pepper julienned
2 inch piece of ginger julienned
1 medium carrot grated
1 small onion julienned
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons coarse sea salt

After grating the papaya, I squeezed the juice out of it. I think it would make it easier if I had a cheesecloth but I just used my hand to squeeze it out. In a medium saucepan, mix the vinegar, sugar and salt. Stir to dissolve the sugar and bring the mixture to a boil. Drop in the papaya, lower the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Mix in everything else, turn the heat off, cover and allow to cool. Easy! Bottle it up in a nice sealed glass container and refrigerate. Serve cold… that’s the way I like it. I’m not sure if room temperature is more accurate. The last time I made atsara it lasted in the fridge for a couple of months.

This particular batch turned out to be really good. I tried it a little warm a little bit after I made it and it was real good. I tried it again after it was in the fridge overnight with some pork chops that the Roommate made and it was delicious!