The Magic of Adobo

Philippines maybe known for one food trademark in terms of cuisine. And that's Adodo. Foreigners can recall our country with this food. Ask them if what's their favorite Filipino food and they will say Adobo.

As it was expected, Adobo was first introduced by the Spaniards in the 16th century during the colonization era. For the Spanish, Adobo is a process of preserving food. A marination of meat which involves seasoning ingredients and other spices.

Although it has a name taken from the Spanish, the cooking method is indigenous to the Philippines. When the Spanish conquered the Philippines in the late 16th century and early 17th century, they encountered an indigenous cooking process which involved stewing with vinegar, which they then referred to as adobo, the Spanish word for seasoning or marinade. Dishes prepared in this manner eventually came to be known by this name, with the original term for the dish now lost to history.

While the adobo dish and cooking process in Filipino cuisine and the general description of adobo in Spanish cuisine share similar characteristics, they refer to different things with different cultural roots. While the Philippine adobo dish can be considered adobo in the Spanish sense—a marinated dish—the Philippine usage is much more specific. Typically, pork or chicken, or a combination of both, is slowly cooked in vinegar, crushed garlic, bay leaf, black peppercorns, and soy sauce then often browned in the oven or pan-fried afterward to get the desirable crisped edges.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobo_(Filipino_cuisine))

There are two meats that can be use in cooking adobo. You can use pork and chicken, others combine them. Cooking Adobo is not really hard to prepare. Its a matter of combining all the ingredients, boil to let it tender, and to adjust the sauce.

Let us try the Chicken-Pork Adobo:


Ingredients:

• ½ pound pork, cut into cubes
• ¼ cup vinegar
• ½ cup soy sauce
• 1 whole bulb garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 cup minced onions
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups water
• ½ pound chicken, cut into cubes

Combine the pork, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, onions, pepper, bay leaves and water and bring to a boil. Simmer until the pork is moderately cooked. Add the chicken and simmer for 20 minutes.



Photos from Wikipedia

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The Two Variations of Ilocandia Empanada

Here on earth, everything have its own contrast. They might be the same in physical aspect but totally different its innate ability or maybe they have the same name but the outside look speaks for itself.

Why I have said that statement? Well, it's because our feature food for today is all about this. Although this food has came from the northern part of Ilocos. It has its own unique quality which differs from each other. I am talking to the mouth watering street food empanada.

Empanada has become popular in the Philippines through the introduction of the colonizers, the Spaniards. It was believed that this food came from Galicia, an autonomous community in northwest Spain.

According to Wikipedia, Empanada is a stuffed bread or pastry baked or fried.

The name comes from the verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread. Empanada is made by folding a dough or bread patty around the stuffing. The stuffing can consist of a variety of meats, cheese, huitlacoche, vegetables or fruits among others.

With this definition, there is no definite ingredients as to what are these specifically. It might be an absence or a presence of one of those composition but the one that wrap the food may define the food as empanada.

Looking back at the origin of empanada, the Ilocanos have been one that were influenced by this food. So they created their own unique style of preparing this food with the characteristic that may define their palatable taste.

Ilocos is divided into two, the Norte and the Sur. They have the same dialect but different in preparing the empanada. The Norte which specifically from Batac, empanada's are cook using a thicker crust of dough. Livelier color attracts also the eater because they are using "achuete" to make it into orange. While the Sur version from Vigan is the opposite of the one I mention. Thinner with crisper crust even when its cold and has a pale color.

Basically, this two kinds of empanada have the same compositions, rice flour for the crust dough, fresh egg and mongo sprout filling, grated green papaya and Ilocos longanisa (take note there are also different version of longanisa from both places). The cooking procedure is the same, it is deeply fried on a boiling cooking oil.

In Vigan they dip the empanada in Ilocos black vinegar (Sukang Iloko) while in Batac they use catsup as a sauce. This variations make them totally different when it comes to taste.

Although I have tasted them both, I found it very arousing and I am dreaming them again rolling inside my mouth.

Here are two videos of two different types of cooking empanada from Ilocandia:








Photos from www.flickr.com

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Sizzling Sisig, the Unexpected Delicacy

There are good things that happen unexpectedly when we experiment. Experimentation is a process to discover something new that could lead to create another thing. This had happened to Lucia Cunanan of Angeles City, Pampanga when she discovered sisig in 1974, one of the most favorite dishes in karinderia or even in a fine dining restaurant. This resulted to the prominent Aling Lucing's and was even crowned as the "The Original Sisig Queen".

Sisig is cook using a sizzling plate. The main ingredients of this dish is the pigs's head and liver that's boiled, chopped, to be seasoned with calamansi, onions and red chili peppers. It is also known as a "pulutan" but others make it as a viand and being paired with steam rice. The crispy and cruchy meat makes it more enticing plus the aromatic odor will definitely capture your smell.

Although there are other restaurants who tried to serve this dish, for me the best among them are from Sisig Hooray, Gerry's Grill and Giligans.

Today, there are other variants of sisig. For health conscious eaters be not worry they are now come in chicken, bangus and tuna.





Photo from Our Awesome Planet VGZ6M34KA2QK

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It's More Fun With Sinigang

If there's one dish that Filipinos may call their own, probably it's the Sinigang.

Sinigang is a kind of stew dish known for its sour taste. It's often attach to the fruit of tamarind or sampalok. Every region has its own ingredient to use depending on the abundance of the fruit. Some use guava, kalamansi (a kind of citrus fruit), santol(Sandoricum koetjape), green mango, camias ginger lily, and others that has the sour characteristic. Due to seasonal availability of these fruits, Filipino has created the powdered soup base or bouillon cubes in tamarind base.

Sinigang can be apply in most kind of meats. The most prominent ingredient maybe the pork. I have also tried the chicken and it's fine, it more often called it as Sinampalukang Manok. Beef is rarely use. Fish like tilapia and milk fish are also common in seafoods. Likewise with shrimp which is the best among the sinigang main ingredient.

Sinigang cannot be called authentic in the absence of vegetables. In preparing sinigang, you should have tomatoes, onions, gingers (used to relinquish the fishy smell), okra, taro corms (gabi), daikon (labanos), water spinach (kangkong), string beans(sitaw) and eggplant(talong). Most Filipinos like sinigang with a kick, so they drop a green finger pepper to add some spice to the dish.

So here's the recipe of a Sinigang na Baboy:



Ingredients:

• 1/2 Kilo of Pork meat 
• 2 pcs of pelled garlic 
• 1 pc of chopped onion 
• 3 pcs of sliced tomatoes 
• 2 tablespoon of patis (fish sauce) 
• Tamarind (you can use the real fruit or the powder base) 
• 2 pcs of sliced taro corms, 
• 6-8 strand of string beans (cut into 2 inches long)
• 1 pc of fine slice of daikon
• a bundle of water spinach
• 1 - 2 pcs of  green finger pepper

How to Prepare and Cook:

• Boil the pork meat on a 4 bowls of water in a casserole. Cook until it  becomes tender. Separate the meat but don't throw the soup.
• When the meat is tender, saute the garlic, onion and tomatoes in a pan.
• Put the fish sauce to taste.
• Simmer the tender meat and taro.
• Cover and let it boil for about 10 minutes.
• Transfer the soup from the casserole.
• Boil it again for 5 minutes together with the tamarind.
• Add the daikon and green finger pepper.
• After 5 minutes, you can put the water spinach and cover it again.
• Now, you serve the Sinigang na Baboy and enjoy the sour taste.

Here's an another way of preparing your Sinigang. A step-by-step guide.





Photo from Hubpages.com

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Sausages? How to Differentiate Vigan and Lucban Longganisa

Longaniza or longganisa in Filipino, is a kind of sausage that was first introduced by the Spaniards during the colonization era. It is closely similar to chorizo where in a ground pork is the main ingredient. Region by region has its own trademark in preparing it. But in the Philippines, the most famous maybe of its variants are the Lucban and Vigan.

From the province of Quezon, aside from being the Pahiyas Festival Capital, Lucban is also known because of its longganisa. Its sausage is identified for its aromatic and garlicky smell. From the ground pork, they mixed herbs such as the oregano, a squeeze juice of lemon grass and basil leaves. Carefully stuffed on a pork casing using the funnel and tie both ends with a buntal fiber. Typically, Lucban longganisa has a reddish color because of achuete.

Similar to Lucban longganisa, the Vigan version has also the garlic flavor. But aside from being garlicky it is also sourly and salty with the distinct pungent aroma. Thanks to the Ilocos native garlic, a small but powerful spices. These garlic bits are finely combine and blended to the ground pork. The annato powder, paprika, ground pepper, kinchay, and sukang iloko will complete the sausage. The color of this sausage is more into yellowish.

The next time you buy from the supermarket you can now differentiate Lucban from Vigan longganisa.


Photos from clarissa623.wordpress.com and facebook.com

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The Best Cebu Roasted Pig

When it comes to lechon, Cebu could be one of the prominent source of roasted pig in the country. They have this unique way of cooking this famous dish of the Philippines. Cebu Lechons has a distinct taste compare to others. The soft and tender meat to its crispy skin is patiently cook in a charcoal for many hours to ensure that the inner part will create an aromatic odor. Plus these lechons are not only dipped on a plain gravy but served with plum or other sauces, vinegar, or with other seasonings or accompaniments. The secret of these Cebu's Lechon might be because they are marinated for 12 hrs in a special formulation, then stuffed with lemon grass, garlic, Anise and Onions.

Some lechon shop in Cebu accept orders outside the province. You can place orders and pay it via bank-to-bank transaction or even thru money remittance like Western Union orML Kwarta Padala. But they are charging an amount if they will ship it via airfreight.


Photo: http://www.lechonpig.com/

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