My favorite Filipino dish PINAKBET!!

My favorite Filipino dish PINAKBET!!

Ingredients:

4 Japanese long eggplant, cut in 3-inch pieces

2 cups water

1 teaspoon Hawaiian salt

25 dried shrimp

2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half 

1/2 small onion, sliced

2 inch finger piece ginger sliced in half crushed

1-2 tablespoon minced garlic  More the better!

Salt and pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons bagoong (Filipino fish sauce) or harm ha (Chinese fine shrimp paste)

1/2 cup water 

2 cups long beans, in 2- to 3-inch pieces

1/4 lb sweet peppers

2 long bittermelons cut in 3-inch pieces

1 pound whole okra pods

2.5-ounce bag chicaron (fried pork rinds) or fresh sitsaron or lechon kawali.

Instructions:

Soak eggplant in water and Hawaiian salt for 30 minutes then drain.

Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. Add dried shrimp to hot, dry pot. Add dash of water to lock in flavor. Layer tomatoes, onion, ginger, garlic, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon bagoong over shrimp. Add water. Reduce heat and simmer until tomatoes are soft, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add long beans and stir gently. Cover and cook until beans are half-done, about 3 minutes.

Layer bittermelon, eggplant and okra in pot. Break pork rinds into bite-sized pieces; sprinkle over top. Add remaining 1 tablespoon of bagoong and a little more water, if needed.

DO NOT STIR!   True Ilocanos never stir the pinakbet in the pot.  Because it would smash the already tender veggies.

Cover and simmer until vegetables settle, about 10 minutes. "Intalta" -- turn the ingredients by lifting, tossing, and shaking the pot. Cover and simmer 5 minutes. Serves 8.

Watch the videos below!

Pinakbet or pakbet is a popular Ilokano dish, from the northern regions of the Philippines, although it has become popular throughout the archipelago. The word is the contracted form of the Ilokano word pinakebbet, meaning "shrunk" or "shriveled".[1] The original Ilokano pinakbet uses bagoong, of fermented monamon or other fish, while further south, bagoong alamang is used. The basic vegetables used in this dish include native bitter melon, eggplant, tomato, okra, string beans, chili peppers, parda, winged beans, and others. Root crops and some beans like camote, patani, kadios are also optionally added. The young pod of marunggay is also added. It is usually spiced with ginger, onions, or garlic. A Tagalog version usually includes calabaza. Most of these vegetables are easily accessible, and are grown in backyards and gardens of most Ilokano households. As its name suggests, it is usually cooked until almost dry and shriveled; the flavors of the vegetables are accentuated with shrimp paste. In some cases, lechon, chicharon, or other meats (most commonly pork) are added. It is considered a very healthy dish, and convenient in relation to the harsh and rugged, yet fruitful Ilocos region of the Philippines.

The vegetable dish pinakbet is more than a regional cuisine. It is an enduring symbol of the Ilokano palate and a lucid display of the Ilokanos' history of contestations and struggles with the physical and social environment. The recipe weaves intimations of the cultural productions of the Ilokanos' transaction to their arid and less productive land. (Caday, 2009)
Pinakbet is similar to the Provençal (French) vegetable stew ratatouille except for its sauce.

Enjoy and let's kaukau!!  :D

Pork Balatong (Pork with Monggo Beans, Munggo Guisado or Ginisang Munggo)

I posted one of my recipes on HawaiiThreads.com on July 27th, so I thought I should post it to my blog too.

A post from one of the members asked this question:

"Anyone have a good recipe or secret on how to get the mongo beans just right? I've read recipes but they only list the ingredients. They don't really tell you how to cook the bean and other ingredients just right." Originally Posted by jkpescador

Here was my reply.

Good thick balatong (monggo beans) can be made with 2 pots. This is my technique. You may soak the monggo beans overnight and rinse them out the next day before cooking. Monggo beans come in a few varieties. The whole monggo bean with the green skin, the split monggo bean with the green shells, and or the whole yellow and or split yellow kine. It depends on your preference. For me I like both the split yellow and da split yellow with the green skins(for da extra vitamins and fiber).

Ingredients:

2 small bags of split yellow and green mungo beans
2 inch knob of fresh ginger root, crushed and sliced in half lengthwise
4-6 cloves of fresh garlic, crushed and minced fine. Separate in 2 batches.
1 round onion, peeled/chopped and minced fine
1 bunch ampalaya/paria or marunggay leaves. Ong choy can be used too or fresh spinach
1 whole tomato, cut and chopped fine or depends if u want big pieces.
3-4 Tbsp of patis/fish sauce/nuoc mam
Dash cracked fresh black pepper to taste
Dash MSG to taste (optional)
2-4 Tbsp Canola oil
2 bay laurel leaves
3-4 lb whole fryer chicken chopped up into 3x3 inch pieces or 2-3 lb of boneless pork butt shoulder cut into 2x2 inch strips cross grain
2 cooking pots.

Instructions:

Add mongo beans to 1st pot and cover with water, bring to a boil.
Simmer and skim off foam. Rinse if necessary and bring back to boil then simmer again.
Add ginger and 1st batch of garlic.
Add 1 bay leaf ripped in half. Continue to cook. Water will reduce as mongo gets thicker. Do not burn or your mongo will be ruined.
Add patis and simmer to the thickness you want. Mongo will be thick and mushy.
Remove from heat.
Simultaneously...In the 2nd pot, heat and add oil.
Add 2nd batch of garlic and brown. Do not burn the garlic or it will become bitter.
Add 1 bay leaf ripped in half.
Add chopped onions.
Add chicken or pork and brown until juices run clear and browned.
Add pepper and MSG. You may fry the pork and or chicken till crispy and dry.When meat is fork tender and by taste, pour the 1st pots contents (mongo) into the 2nd pot(meat).
Mix slowly until the mongo is incorporated all over the meat.
Add pepper and more patis for saltiness. Your preference.
Saute chopped tomatoes in frying pan with a little oil til translucent.
Add to 2nd pot and stir in. Some filipino dialect styles like their mongo thick or even watery to drink like a soup (sabaw). Some has tomato (kamatis) others don't.
Cut bunch of paria leaves or ong choy into desired size and add to 2nd pot (mongo/meat).
Continue to simmer Pork Balatong on low till leaves wilt.
Remove from heat. Serve hot with cold or hot steaming white rice!

Serves about 6-8 or a weeks supply!
No foget take out bay leaves befo somebody choke!
You can even play with the taste and substitute patis with harm ha shrimp sauce and or use chili pepper leaves or saluyot leaves (jute).
My grandpa used to put dried ebi (shrimp) into the mongo while its simmering. Was big time ono. You can also jus buy chinese crispy skin roast pork or lechon kawali (chicharon with meat) to add to da mongo if you lazy and no like deal with cooking chicken or pork. I do dis sometimes. Well dea u go!

Enjoy! I hungry now!!  kaukautime!!