This is the real chicken soup for the soul--the surefire comfort food for people feeling under the weather. The broth is oozing with the mouthwatering taste of chicken--a real picker upper; it is also infused with medicinal elements from the rest of its ingredients. But anyway, before we get the impression that this is purely a therapeutic dish, well, before that tinola has always been pretty much a gastronomical delight.
TINOLANG MANOK
Ingredients
1/2 kilo native or free-range chicken, cut into serving pieces1 unripe papaya, sliced into wedges
1 cup dahong sili (pepper leaves)
2 tbsp cooking oil
3 medium cloves of garlic, crushed or minced
1 medium onion, sliced
1 thumb ginger, sliced
4 cups water
3 tbsp patis. or to taste
2 pcs siling haba (long green chili)
In a pot, heat oil and saute garlic, onion and ginger.
Add chicken pieces (with skin removed, if you prefer), cook till brownish.
Add water and bring to boil till chicken is tender (45 minutes, at least).
Mind the water level. Add more as needed.
Add papaya wedges and simmer till tender. Add siling lara.
Season broth with patis (or salt) to taste.
Add the pepper leaves. Remove from heat.
If there is no unripe papaya available, sayote will do, or as last recourse, potatoes. We may subsitute dahong sili with malunggay or pechay. Some would add a bunch of lemon grass to add flavor to the broth. In lieu of chicken we may use bangus (milkfish), pork, or tahong (mussels).
This broth is best served hot, but be careful you don't burn your tongue.
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Friday, January 2, 2015
PINAKBET
Pinakbet, orginally an Ilocano dish, has had many adaptations as it got passed on to various generations and regions, and has become as popular as adobo. But the good thing is, after all the add-ons, pinakbet remains to be the delicious, nutritious dish that it has primarily been.
The Ilocano version contains only ampalaya (bitter gourd), okra, talong (eggplant), ripe tomatoes and bagoong (anchovy sauce). These are placed inside a pot in that order, and allowed to simmer for some time until the vegetables are cooked but not soggy. If you wish to cover your rice adequately with the delicious sauce, you may add 1/4 cup of rice washing.
The Tagalog pakbet sees more color in its preparation as kalabasa (squash), sitaw (long beans or string beans) and luya (ginger) are added. The Visayan pakbet has alamang (shrimp paste) to give it the salty taste.
Anyway, as we probably like having squash in our pakbet for that 'good-for-the-eyes' consciousness, let's have the Tagalog pakbet in the menu.
PINAKBET
Ingredients
1 ampalaya, sliced
1 eggplant, sliced
1 medium wedge squash, diced
6 pieces string beans, cut into 2-inch pieces
6 pieces okra, each sliced into 2 or 3 small pieces
1 cup pork, sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 medium onion, sliced
1 thumb ginger, sliced
4 pieces ripe tomatoes, sliced
2-3 tbsp cooking oil
4 tbsp bagoong, or to taste
1/4 cup water or rice washing
In 2-3 tbsp cooking oil, sauté garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes. Add pork. Cook till brownish. Add bagoong. Add water and let boil, making sure the meat is cooked well. Then lower the heat. Put in the squash, let simmer until it's cooked (dark yellow). Then add in amplaya, okra, eggplant, and string beans. Simmer. Taste test and add more bagoong if needed. If you want it more saucy, just increase your water to 1/2 cup...or 1 cup...but not more than that, because that would be another story.
Don't overcook the greens. Don't worry about okra, eggplant and string beans getting half-cooked (just not meat, okay?) because these can actually be eaten raw. Not overcooking saves the vitamins and minerals inherent in the vegetables.
Fish bagoong may be substituted with alamang (shrimp paste), or just the patis (fish sauce). If you are allergic to any of these, you can actually just settle for asin (salt), or gata (coconut milk) and salt. Goes well with grilled or fried fish, meat, or seafood, and of course, rice! Naimas iti pakbet!!!
The Ilocano version contains only ampalaya (bitter gourd), okra, talong (eggplant), ripe tomatoes and bagoong (anchovy sauce). These are placed inside a pot in that order, and allowed to simmer for some time until the vegetables are cooked but not soggy. If you wish to cover your rice adequately with the delicious sauce, you may add 1/4 cup of rice washing.
The Tagalog pakbet sees more color in its preparation as kalabasa (squash), sitaw (long beans or string beans) and luya (ginger) are added. The Visayan pakbet has alamang (shrimp paste) to give it the salty taste.
Anyway, as we probably like having squash in our pakbet for that 'good-for-the-eyes' consciousness, let's have the Tagalog pakbet in the menu.
PINAKBET
Ingredients
1 ampalaya, sliced
1 eggplant, sliced
1 medium wedge squash, diced
6 pieces string beans, cut into 2-inch pieces
6 pieces okra, each sliced into 2 or 3 small pieces
1 cup pork, sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 medium onion, sliced
1 thumb ginger, sliced
4 pieces ripe tomatoes, sliced
2-3 tbsp cooking oil
4 tbsp bagoong, or to taste
1/4 cup water or rice washing
In 2-3 tbsp cooking oil, sauté garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes. Add pork. Cook till brownish. Add bagoong. Add water and let boil, making sure the meat is cooked well. Then lower the heat. Put in the squash, let simmer until it's cooked (dark yellow). Then add in amplaya, okra, eggplant, and string beans. Simmer. Taste test and add more bagoong if needed. If you want it more saucy, just increase your water to 1/2 cup...or 1 cup...but not more than that, because that would be another story.
Don't overcook the greens. Don't worry about okra, eggplant and string beans getting half-cooked (just not meat, okay?) because these can actually be eaten raw. Not overcooking saves the vitamins and minerals inherent in the vegetables.
Fish bagoong may be substituted with alamang (shrimp paste), or just the patis (fish sauce). If you are allergic to any of these, you can actually just settle for asin (salt), or gata (coconut milk) and salt. Goes well with grilled or fried fish, meat, or seafood, and of course, rice! Naimas iti pakbet!!!
Thursday, January 1, 2015
GINISANG MUNGGO
Here's another staple on the Filipino dining table, ginisang monggo or munggo. Very easy to prepare. Very flexible, too! The first time I prepared it was palpak, because the meat was half-cooked when I served the dish, and by the way, I did use whole chicken drumsticks instead of small cuts. Can you imagine? So please learn from my mistake. :-)
GINISANG MUNGGO
Ingredients
1 cup munggo (mung) beans (soaking overnight is recommended)
4-5 cups water
2 tbsp cooking oil1 to 1 1/2 cups pork or chicken, diced
5 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 medium onion, minced
3 medium-sized ripe tomatoes, sliced
Salt to taste ( I prefer fish sauce, patis, instead of salt)
1 cup malunggay (moringa) leaves (1 1/2 cups, if you prefer more)
Wash the munggo beans in running water. Drain.
In a pot, heat 2 tbsp cooking oil.
When the oil is hot enough, saute the garlic, onion and tomatoes.
Once the tomatoes are mushy, add the meat (pork or chicken).
Season with salt or patis and cook till meat is almost (90%) tender.
Add water and the munggo beans. Let boil till the munggo beans are tender. By this time the meat will have been fully cooked and tender as well.
Add more fish sauce if needed. Let your taste buds decide.
Lower heat and add the malunggay leaves. Let simmer for a minute then remove the pot from heat.
Don't cover to prevent the malunggay leaves from being overcooked.
Serve hot with rice and a couple of fried daing or tuyo (dried fish). Dried pusit, too! Yummm!
Some prefer that they boil the munggo in a separate pot and add to the sauteed mixture when the meat is cooked and tender. That works well, too, but we'd be able to save even just a little cooking time and gas or electricity this way. Plus that's one less pot to wash. :-)
You can actually cook this with slices of kalabasa (squash), or a half cup of sitaw (string beans), or ampalaya (bitter gourd) or some slices of okra, or eggplant. Even with gata. And you can substitute malunggay with dahon ng ampalaya, kamote, alugbati or pechay. Y'know, just to give variety to this ulam.
GINISANG MUNGGO
Ingredients
1 cup munggo (mung) beans (soaking overnight is recommended)
4-5 cups water
2 tbsp cooking oil1 to 1 1/2 cups pork or chicken, diced
5 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 medium onion, minced
3 medium-sized ripe tomatoes, sliced
Salt to taste ( I prefer fish sauce, patis, instead of salt)
1 cup malunggay (moringa) leaves (1 1/2 cups, if you prefer more)
Wash the munggo beans in running water. Drain.
In a pot, heat 2 tbsp cooking oil.
When the oil is hot enough, saute the garlic, onion and tomatoes.
Once the tomatoes are mushy, add the meat (pork or chicken).
Season with salt or patis and cook till meat is almost (90%) tender.
Add water and the munggo beans. Let boil till the munggo beans are tender. By this time the meat will have been fully cooked and tender as well.
Add more fish sauce if needed. Let your taste buds decide.
Lower heat and add the malunggay leaves. Let simmer for a minute then remove the pot from heat.
Don't cover to prevent the malunggay leaves from being overcooked.
Serve hot with rice and a couple of fried daing or tuyo (dried fish). Dried pusit, too! Yummm!
Some prefer that they boil the munggo in a separate pot and add to the sauteed mixture when the meat is cooked and tender. That works well, too, but we'd be able to save even just a little cooking time and gas or electricity this way. Plus that's one less pot to wash. :-)
You can actually cook this with slices of kalabasa (squash), or a half cup of sitaw (string beans), or ampalaya (bitter gourd) or some slices of okra, or eggplant. Even with gata. And you can substitute malunggay with dahon ng ampalaya, kamote, alugbati or pechay. Y'know, just to give variety to this ulam.
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Tuesday, December 30, 2014
ADOBO: Ang Pambansang Ulam
For someone whose passion isn't cooking, well...we do need help. We need kodigo! So here it is, a line up of recipes that are easy to prepare...easy enough for us to survive in the kitchen.
Needless to say, the first easy thing to prepare is...you guessed it right: ADOBO! It's a basic ulam (viand) that has become a Filipino ID. The term adobo actually suggests a way of cooking, that is, to simmer meat (or seafood, or veggies) over low fire in a mixture of toyo (soy sauce) and suka (vinegar) and lots of crushed garlic and paminta (dried peppercorn).You can actually use any edible acid substitute like tomatoes, kamias, etc. instead of vinegar, but the taste will be different for every acid. Anyway, stick to the vinegar for the meantime.
We can always experiment with left-over adobo, especially when there's little of it left. Or when we just want to give it a facelift. Just throw in some diced carrots, or potatoes, or hard-boiled eggs, or red beans, etc., and we're good to go.
There are a hundred and one ways to cook adobo, but there's always the fundamental one. So here's the one I use:
PORK ADOBO/CHICKEN ADOBO
Ingredients
1 kilo pork liempo or loin (or chicken), cut into chunks
1/2 cup toyo (soy sauce)
1/2 cup suka (vinegar)
1/2 cup water
1 head bawang (garlic), crushed
1/2 tbsp paminta (peppercorn), crushed
In a bowl, mix paminta, bawang and toyo. Add in the meat chunks. Toss well in the bowl so they get coated with the marinade. Cover and let stand in the ref for at least 30 minutes. Overnight works well, too.Pour all of the marinade and the meat into a sauce pan. Add water, then stir well.Pour in the vinegar. Cover. Bring heat to a rolling boil then remove the cover. Lower the heat to a simmer for at least 30 minutes till sauce is reduced and meat is tender. Do a taste test and make adjustments as needed.
See how easy it is??? By the way, do not to touch the mixture until after the vinegar has boiled. We have to make sure the vinegar is cooked before we stir the whole thing. And try to keep enough sauce to dribble on the rice when it's eating time. Serve with wedges of one juicy tomato. Sarraaap! Enjoy your adobo and kanin anytime of the day.
Needless to say, the first easy thing to prepare is...you guessed it right: ADOBO! It's a basic ulam (viand) that has become a Filipino ID. The term adobo actually suggests a way of cooking, that is, to simmer meat (or seafood, or veggies) over low fire in a mixture of toyo (soy sauce) and suka (vinegar) and lots of crushed garlic and paminta (dried peppercorn).You can actually use any edible acid substitute like tomatoes, kamias, etc. instead of vinegar, but the taste will be different for every acid. Anyway, stick to the vinegar for the meantime.
We can always experiment with left-over adobo, especially when there's little of it left. Or when we just want to give it a facelift. Just throw in some diced carrots, or potatoes, or hard-boiled eggs, or red beans, etc., and we're good to go.
There are a hundred and one ways to cook adobo, but there's always the fundamental one. So here's the one I use:
PORK ADOBO/CHICKEN ADOBO
Ingredients
1 kilo pork liempo or loin (or chicken), cut into chunks
1/2 cup toyo (soy sauce)
1/2 cup suka (vinegar)
1/2 cup water
1 head bawang (garlic), crushed
1/2 tbsp paminta (peppercorn), crushed
In a bowl, mix paminta, bawang and toyo. Add in the meat chunks. Toss well in the bowl so they get coated with the marinade. Cover and let stand in the ref for at least 30 minutes. Overnight works well, too.Pour all of the marinade and the meat into a sauce pan. Add water, then stir well.Pour in the vinegar. Cover. Bring heat to a rolling boil then remove the cover. Lower the heat to a simmer for at least 30 minutes till sauce is reduced and meat is tender. Do a taste test and make adjustments as needed.
See how easy it is??? By the way, do not to touch the mixture until after the vinegar has boiled. We have to make sure the vinegar is cooked before we stir the whole thing. And try to keep enough sauce to dribble on the rice when it's eating time. Serve with wedges of one juicy tomato. Sarraaap! Enjoy your adobo and kanin anytime of the day.
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| Serious about improving your adobo? Go find this book. I grabbed this copy from a favorite bookstore some years back. A book worth having in your collection of cookbooks because it's not just a recipe book of some 200 ways and tips to cook adobo. The authors spiced in some fun to it by including trivia and essays about this national ulam that has already gained international fame. |
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