Ginisang Sitaw

My life could be a sitcom.

Last night, around midnight, I went down to get a drink of water when I saw the bagnet my sister prepared earlier (see previous post).  I got tempted and ate "dinner".  While I was eating, my niece arrived from work.  Awkward.

That been said, I was still not in the mood to prepare something complicated today. I want to cook something easy and fast.  So I set myself to cook ginisang sitaw (stir fried string beans), mainly because I have to cook all the vegetables in the ref before they spoil and I could use the leftover bagnet and third, American Idol is on at six, so I have to be quick.

But guess what I had for "lunch" when I "woke up" in the afternoon?  The leftover bagnet!  Well I tried to save some for the ginisang sitaw.

Before local Philippine tourism bloomed, the small town I came from use to call this deep fried pork dish as pakpak -- an onomatopoeia for the crunching sound the dish makes when you prepare it.  But since Vigan is a more popular destination, the Vigan term bagnet stuck.

Bagnet or pakpak as we used to call it.  Picture taken using iPod Touch.

So let's go back to our dish of the day: ginisang sitaw.  Ingredients of course are sitaw (string beans), shallots (yikes!) and what was left of the bagnet.

In a pan, I just placed all the ingredients together then added a ladle of cooking oil and another ladle of used cooking oil (waste not, want not, or we are just plain stingy Ilocanos).  I also added the half cup soy sauce mix prepared by my niece as dip for the bagnet early today. It was only later in the middle of cooking that I recognized the smell of kalamansi (Philippine lime or calamondin) in the soy sauce. Too bad, but who cares?

Stirred the dish a few times in medium heat then added some garlic powder.  I know it's done when about half of the string beans changed their color.  Again, I try not to cook the vegetables well and just let the residual heat take care of it so that when my sister comes home, they will still be a bit crunchy.

Ginisang sitaw.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

As an endnote, I'm beginning to think this blog is becoming more and more a how-to-cook-with-leftover-food kind of blog.