Ginisang Ampalaya with Liver, Chicken Arroz Caldo

I found out what's wrong with my cooking:  I put too much oil, I put too much spice, and I put too many different spices.

The reason why my garlic pork was a hit the previous day, was that I just zeroed in on one spice: garlic.  There was nothing to compete with the taste (though I mistakenly put some bay leaf on it while cooking but took it out just in time before its taste diffused on the dish... I forgot to tell you this last time).

Anyway, today I cooked ginisang ampalaya with liver, and since we're having a rainy weather, I thought of making arroz caldo.  I've been wanting to make arroz caldo con pollo (rice chicken soup) since last week but the weather was not conducive and there were no chicken in the ref.

The choice of ginisang ampalaya with liver was a different story.  The pig liver was a leftover from last week's grocery, and the ampalaya (bitter melon) seems out of place in the ref as I don't have any idea what to cook it with.

I fried the pig liver in old oil and some soy sauce, drained it, then set it aside.  In a new pan, I sauteed the sliced ampalaya and some onion and garlic in oil and water. I added some ginisa flavor mix to taste.  I know the dish is cooked when the onion and ampalaya became transparent.  That's it.

Ginisang ampalaya with pig liver.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

The problem with cooking ampalaya is its bitter taste.  Some soak the vegetable in water and salt to remove some of its bitterness.  Of course I didn't do it, so the dish is a bit bitter.  The pig liver is cooked nice though -- that's saying a lot because I normally don't like liver.

Arroz caldo is also simple but too long to cook.  I cooked some chicken in copious amount of ginger.  The secret to a good arroz caldo is lots of ginger.  After the chicken is cooked, I added some chopped shallots and then the washed rice and enough water.  I cooked the dish initially on high heat to boil then medium heat and stirring a lot in between.  I added ground pepper, garlic powder, chicken powder, salt and ginisa flavor mix to taste. Cook the rice into soupy consistency and your done.

Simple chicken arroz caldo.  Picture taken using iPod touch. 

Yup.  The secret to a good arroz caldo is ginger.  The problem here is that I put too much ginger and ground pepper again.  It was spicy hot, best for people with colds or burnt tongue. There was also this smell of burnt artificial chicken flavor. And then I was only able to taste chicken when I bite on the meat.

Another problem in cooking arroz caldo is the choice of rice.  Sticky rice is much preferred, but since I used a low grade rice, even though it's cooked, it will never be as soft as if I used glutinous rice.  Oh well.

Garlic Pork with Stir-Fried Baguio Beans on the Side

I haven't written for a while because I was just plain lazy.  :)  Besides, my nephew came to enroll so I let him do the cooking, but now he's gone back to the province so cooking rests back to me.

Today I made garlic pork with stir-fried Baguio beans because of one reason: Baguio beans are the only vegetable in the ref.

In a pan fry lots of garlic in oil, here I used palm oil (I went to grocery early in the week and bought this.  Did you know that palm oil is cheaper than coconut oil?). After a while, I added the chopped pork.  Remember how we cooked pork in my old post.

I just stirred the lot in plenty of oil and garlic until the meat is cooked.  I removed the meat and added the Baguio beans into the oil and stir-fried it until done.  See how easy it is?

Someone on the net once said, just add garlic to everything and the dish becomes Italian.  I ate a similar dish in an Italian restaurant once and thought, so simple a dish for such an expensive price.  Together with the dish was some bread, so as a second thought why not add toasted bread in my dish too?

Originally I planned on making garlic bread, but why bother? No one's gonna appreciate it anyway.  So I just toasted some old bread cut into finger size.  Here's a good tip:  since the bread I used is so old that it crumbles when it's sliced, I wet the knife before cutting.  Happy eating!

Garlic pork with stir-fried Baguio beans and toasted bread.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

As a side note:  I was happy to find out that someone from Singapore or Australia Google searched "adobong giniling" and it got directed to this blog. :)

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.

Adobo and Ginisang Munggo

I ate a lot.  I still feel post-prandial slow writing this blog...

Today I cooked adobo and ginisang munggo (sauteed mung beans).  I ate half of the adobo and a third of the ginisang munggo, and about 4 cups of rice.  Of course this does not reflect that what I have cooked was delicious -- I might have just been really hungry... there was no lunch.

Adobo is easy enough to cook.  Just add everything in: the pork, chopped shallots, crushed garlic, dried bay laurel leaves, ground pepper, two ladles of used cooking oil (hah!), about two spoons of vinegar, two ladles of soy sauce, and half cup of water. Cook in medium heat and leave it behind.  Don't be afraid that it'll be overcooked. The best adobos are overcooked and two days old.  I'm going to write why this blog is called "Two-Day Old Adobo" soon.

I knew my adobo is cooked when I opened the lid and the half cup of water I put in has evaporated and what's left is this thick oil and soy sauce sauce.

Pork Adobo.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

Ginisang munggo is a little bit trickier to cook.  In a pan, I sauteed some shallots and garlic in used cooking oil (hah!).  I then added the ground mung beans (should I have washed them first?).  I then added a cup of water, two ladles of bagoong (fish paste) and a laddle of patis (fish sauce).  Let it boil then simmer for a couple of minutes.

What's difficult in cooking munggo is to know when the beans are cooked.  So I have to check for its consistency, stir, add water and bagoong to taste now and then.  I then placed my vegetables: ampalaya (bitter melon) and slender aubergines.  Again, don't worry about overcooking.  Overcooking is the hallmark of Ilocano food.  Besides, it's best to overcook the ampalaya to remove its bitter taste.

I added some garlic powder and salt to taste.  Simmer for a few minutes (like twenty!) until the beans are soft and cooked.

Ginisang munggo.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

Salty adobo and ginisang munggo complements each other like the other salty food -- tuyo (dried fish).  No wonder I ate a lot.

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.

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).

Lauya

It is not cooking, washing dishes (well maybe) or piles of laundry (err...) that I hate when we don't have a maid.  It is "looking after" the stupid dogs.  I could practically write a whole new blog regarding their insanity. It goes that whatever I'll be cooking, I have to have the critters in mind.

So early on, I decided to make sinigang using pork ribs for dinner while making a mental note of my ingredients, specifically the week-old kangkong (water spinach) in the ref.

But it was only later that I found, when the meat has already been thawed, that the kangkong was unusable and worse, there is no instant sinigang powder mix anywhere in the kitchen.  So there goes sinigang.  There is however an unripe papaya in the ref.  Might as well use it.

So what will I be making?  Tinolang baboy?  Well, it's a form of nilagang baboy.  I definitely remember with fond memory the pork dish lauya.  But in that dish, my aunt (may she rest in peace) use kamote (sweet potato) or cabbage instead of unripe papaya.  There's another lauya version where bamboo shoots are used, and no tomatoes.  But googling it, lauya just means boiled pork, so my recipe with green papaya could still work.

I placed the pork ribs in the pan together with a clove of garlic, ground pepper and dried bay laurel leaf and a cup and a half of water.  I also added chopped shallots. Shallots.  Shallots.  What I hate about preparing this vegetable is that I couldn't get its oniony smell out of my hands, even after I've washed hundreds of times.   *sigh*

I let the meat and spices to boil for a few minutes then added the chopped tomatoes. The secret of lauya is overcooked tomatoes.  So when the tomatoes are overcooked, the dish is done.  I added some more water, after all this is a soup, and then salt to taste then added the cut unripe papaya (I used only half of the fruit since I might find another use for it, for example, for a REAL tinola, and besides an unripe papaya has a tendency to dilute the taste of a dish).  At first I thought against adding garlic powder to taste, but for some reason the dish beckoned for it. I then covered the pan and clicked the stove off, and the dish was done.  Easy.

As you can see I didn't cook the papaya, as I've said in the previous entry, I usually let the residual heat cook the vegetables.

Lauya with unripe papaya.  Picture taken using iPod touch.

Again, I used my staple ingredients: pepper, dried bay laurel leaves, garlic and shallots.  Adobo soup without soy sauce.

Although the smell was inviting, I didn't eat dinner.  This was because I already ate lunch and I try to only eat once a day (I'll tell you more about it some other time). And I believe the laundrywoman came this morning while I was still "asleep" and my niece cooked pinakbet, so I ate that when I "woke up" in the afternoon.

The verdict?  The leftover pinakbet won.