one filipino dish a week

Being Catholic this is a season of self reflection and self sacrifice also known as Lent. The tradition is to give up something as a sacrifice and in return the practitioner will be more self aware and be able to better themselves. So what did I give up for Lent? Meat. In the next 40 days T and I will eat as vegetarians. Nothing that moos, nothing that flies, nothing that swims, and *gasp* nothing that oinks! What’s a Filipino to do with our pork? Actually, I’m looking forward to these next few weeks. This will be an opportunity to open up my cooking skills to new dishes and techniques and possibly change my outlook on how to cook. It’s like when people lose one of their senses they quickly adapt by compensating with the remaining ones. I’m hoping that this journey will not only fulfill me spiritually but also culinary-ly. My goal is to document the adventures of cooking outside my comfort zone.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been back in the kitchen and have been cooking weeknight dinners but have not been able to take pictures. Tonight I made sure to take pictures. This is tonight’s dinner (which I didn’t cook haha). The Girl cooked this wonderful stuffed eggplant. Eggplants are one of our favorite vegetables in this house. Tortang Talong is a very weeknight dinner. It’s easy to make and quite stuffing. I’m so full right now as I’m writing this post.

Amounts serves 2-4 people (depending how hungry you are)

Ingredients:
2 Asian eggplants
1/2 medium white onion diced
1 medium tomato diced
1 stalk scallion
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying

1. Broil the eggplants until the skin is crispy. To make it easier to peel the skin. This takes about 5-6 minutes.
2. Let the eggplant cool down before peeling.
3. Peel. Take a fork to flatten and spread the eggplant.
4. Place the diced tomatoes, onions, and scallions on top.

5. Beat the egg in a bowl (use 1 egg per eggplant). Pour the egg over the eggplant.
6. Heat the oil medium-high and slide in the eggplant from the plate into the pan. The Girl’s tip: Sliding the eggplant from the plate prevents oil splashing.

7. Cook until the eggs are set and it looks golden brown (or a little darker if you want a little bit more crispier).

Thanks for cooking dinner tonight babe!

Eat Filipino Food!

In this episode: paoix makes dinuldog. A squash soup with bacalao best pour over white rice.

Ingredients:
1 buttercup squash diced
1 cup coconut milk
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 lb bacalao diced
2 inch gingerroot pounded

1. Combine chicken broth, coconut milk, ginger and squash in a pot and bring to a boil. Lower medium heat and simmer for 20 minutes until squash is soft.
2. Add the bacalao and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes. *EDIT* NOTE: Bacalao can be extremely salty so you can either wash it or boil it first before using.
3. Mash the squash to the side of the pot with a wooden spoon to thicken the soup.
4. Simmer for a 2-3 more minutes until the soup has combined and serve.

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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!

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!