Pakbet Tagalog

Notice that I used the title pakbet and not pinakbet to what I cooked today. Although some people would take the two terms interchangeably, being an Ilocano, I would like to delineate the two.

Yes, there is a difference between pakbet and pinakbet.

To me, pakbet is the southern vegetable stew while pinakbet would be the northern vegetable stew.  So as you go north (Ilocos) it's pinakbet and as you go towards south (Tagalog) it becomes pakbet.  There is also a difference in cooking.  Pinakbet is stewed while pakbet is more stir-fried.  Pinakbet uses bagoong (fish paste) while pakbet uses bagoong alamang (shrimp paste).  Aside from the staple vegetables: eggplant, string beans, okra, ampalaya and tomatoes, pakbet may also have squash.  And pakbet doesn't use ginger while pinakbet does.

Cooking pakbet is easy enough.  I fried pork in used oil (note that I recycle ingredients) and garlic.  Then I added my vegetables: onion, eggplant, string beans, ampalaya and tomatoes -- these were the only available vegetables in the ref and are almost inedible.  To complicate matters, I added ginger.  I then added the bagoong alamang from the other day's kare-kare.  I used patis (fish sauce) and instant ginisa granules to taste.  I cooked the vegetables until done or have an identity crisis, whichever comes first.

My grade: yummy!  Ate a lot.

Pakbet Tagalog.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

Inabraw or Dinengdeng

You'll know I'm tired of cooking when I don't even try to cook well anymore.  It's almost two months since the maid left us, and that's the same amount of time I've been cooking for me and my sister and my niece (if an off-chance she eats upon arriving very late at night from work).

To make my cooking chore easy, I made dinengdeng/inabraw. I honestly don't know the difference since they look the same to me.  I always thought that dinengdeng is the Tagalog form of inabraw. And I presume they taste the same. I presume because I seldom eat it without an accompanying meat dish, specifically pork adobo.

Since I "wake up" after lunchtime, there was leftover danggit from breakfast, so I had that as my dinner and prepared the inabraw for my sister.

Danggit.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

I don't think she tasted last night's lauya. She preferred to eat the pinakbet instead. So that afternoon, all leftover lauya went to the dogs.  I don't think she'll mind if I only cook inabraw, since the vegetables in the ref are beginning to wilt. Besides, the only difference between inabraw and pinakbet is the amount of bagoong (fish paste) water you cook it on.

Inabraw is pretty simple.  My ingredients were slender aubergines (I like this word too like shallots), okra, and this four-corned vegetable whose name escapes me now and I couldn't find it on the usual dinengdeng recipes on Google:

Four-cornered veggie.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

So I just placed all the vegetables in the pot, added one and a quarter of water, one and a half ladle of bagoong and two ladles of patis (fish sauce).  From experience, I only use bagoong to color the soup then use patis to taste since bagoong can make a dish too salty.

I leave the vegetables to boil until they are half done then added dried alamang (small shrimp).  I didn't even have to stir, I just covered the lot and waited for the vegetable to be done.  Since this is an Ilocano dish, overcooking is okay, after all, what is pinakbet but an overcooked inabraw?

The blatant (pungent?) smell of dried alamang is a clue that the dish is done.

Inabraw or dinengdeng.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

The verdict?  My sister cooked some bagnet (deep fried pork).