Igado and Inabraw nga Sitaw

Yesterday, I blogged about complementary dishes: munggo and adobo, and munggo and tuyo.  Guess what I had for breakfast/lunch?  Tuyo!

Anyhoo, tonight I made two dishes that complement each other again: igado (Ilocano pork stew) and inabraw featuring sitaw (string beans).

Igado is the Ilocano version of the Tagalog menudo.  But instead of tomato sauce/atsuete (annatto), we use soy sauce in igado.

However today, I cooked a tame version of igado -- that is without pork liver.  Who like them livers anyway?

In a pan I sauteed shallots and garlic in used oil (hah!), then I added the sliced pork. My father (may he rest in peace, I love you, you know that) not really taught me how to cook but just let me watch him cook when I was just a little boy. And from him I learned to cook the fat and skin portion of the pork first, let it produce its own oil before adding the meat part.  Don't you just hate it when you eat pork and the fat/skin portion is not well cooked?

I then added the seasonings: soy sauce, ground pepper and dried bay laurel leaves, and left them to cook.  After a while of some stirring, I added the gisantes (green peas) and carrots.  I added some garlic powder to taste.

You'll know the dish is ready when the green peas are cooked.

Doesn't this dish remind you of adobo and the giniling I made a few days back? There are two key ingredients of the classic igado that are not in this dish: red bell peppers and potatoes.  Well pork liver is another staple in the dish, but who eats liver?

Tamed igado.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

The next dish, like the inabraw I did before, is cooked just the same.  In a pot I placed the main ingredients: sitaw, slender aubergines and malunggay (moringa) leaves.  Then added Ilocano bagoong (fish paste), water and patis (fish sauce) to taste.  Let it boil then simmer until vegetables are cooked to liking.  I didn't add alamang this time because it does not go well with the igado.  In cooking paired food, make sure not to use an overpowering ingredient, like the alamang and pork liver (hah!).

Inabraw nga sitaw.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

When I went down to the kitchen later this evening, there was still a lot of the igado.  I guess like the adobo, it's gonna be a good two-day-old dish.