How Do You Carry Kare-Kare?

Just I have thought that curry dishes (Indian food) is similar to the well-known Kapampangan dish "Kare-Kare". The looks maybe similar but the preparation is very different. So what is kare-kare anyway?

Kare-Kare is considered a stew dish which need the meat to boil for long hours in order to become tender. The typical meat that is use are the oxtail, offal/tripe and ox leg. This food is compose of peanut sauce with a variety of vegetables that are included after the meat have undergone the tenderization. It is common to serve with bagoong (shrimp paste) when eating

According to some food historians this dish has originated from the province of Pampanga, the culinary center of Philippines. But others said that it was that Moro's who has this because in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi this dish is popular to them, they even speculated that this food is being serve long before the arrival of Spaniards in Manila to the elite member just like the datus and rajahs.

Because of complication in preparing it, a typical Filipino can't afford to have this in their everyday's menu. In Pampanga where it originates, during fiesta this are common in every table. You can find this dish also among fine dining Filipino restaurant with a mild twist depending on the chef. Also Kare-kare can be bought in karinderia (side street pre-cook restaurant), but don't demand the authentic one because there might be an absence of one or two ingredients.

Kare kare a la  Bistro Burgos 

INGREDIENTS:

Meat(beef):

• Ox tail
• Ox leg(optional but better if you have it)
• Ox tripe/offal

Vegetables:

• 2 pcs of eggplant - sliced it in slant
• 1 banana bud/heart/flower - sliced in diagonal
• 5 pieces of pechay
• 1 bundle of string beans

Other Ingredients :

• 2 cups of peanut butter
• 5 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
• 1 big onion - sliced thinly
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil

How to cook:

1. Wash the ox tail, legs and beef. Cut into serving pieces. Place in a heavy saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, remove the scums as it rises, cover, add more water if you need to. Kare kare is better if the meat is tender. Let simmer until the meat is tender this will take about 1-2 hours.
2. Transfer the meat into a plate or a bowl and let it cool, set aside the stock. (While others cooked the meat one day ahead, put it into the fridge to solidify the fat and remove it when cooking.)
3. In a large caserrole put the cooking oil to saute the garlic and onion in about 30 seconds.
4. Put the meat in the skillet and continue mixing.
5. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil for another 10 minutes.
6. Add the vegetables.
7. In a small bowl, stir the peanut butter with about 1/2 cup of stock and pour it in the caserrole. Stir to blend well. Cook for another 5-10 minutes until the sauce is thick.
8. Serve hot with bagoong alamang and boil rice.

Photos from pehpot.com and faithraagas.blogspot.com

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Halo-halo, The Seasonal Flavor of Summer

Because Philippines is known as a tropical country, the weather during the summer months are extremely hot. Every Filipino have its own way to beat the heat. Some are spending their vacation in the beach to refresh their body from the humid of summer, others may find the cheapest way to cool down the temperature and that's to eat the seasonal flavor of summer, halo-halo.

Halo-halo (from Tagalog word halò, "mix") is a popular Filipino dessert that is a mixture of shaved ice and evaporated milk to which are added various boiled sweet beans and fruits, and served in a tall glass or bowl.

Ingredients include boiled kidney beans, garbanzos, sugar palm fruit (kaong), coconut sport (macapuno), and plantains caramelized in sugar, jackfruit (langkâ), gulaman, tapioca or Tae, nata de coco, sweet potato (kamote), pounded crushed young rice (pinipig). In terms of arrangement, most of the ingredients (fruits, beans, and other sweets) are first placed inside the tall glass, followed by the shaved ice. This is then sprinkled with sugar, and topped with either (or a combination of) leche flan, purple yam (ubeng pula), or ice cream. Evaporated milk is poured into the mixture upon serving. (from wikipedia)

During summer, every corner of the street in the Philippines is fill with halo-halo vendors. They grab the opportunity to get extra income for their family. You can buy as low as seven (7) pesos to a higher price of thirty (30) pesos for a special one. Prices may also differ when you buy inside the malls and restaurants.

The preparation of Halo-halo ingredients maybe the hardest among Filipino delicacy. Every ingredients should be cook separately. Halo-halo is a representation of how the Philippines is bountiful with regards to tropical fruits.

Today, every ingredients of halo-halo can be find in the supermarkets. It shorten the long way of preparing it. When you have those, just mix all the components and you may have now the world's elusive dessert.






Photo from Flickr.com

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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 Intriguing Lokot-Lokot

Fascinated by its name, lokot-lokot was not really prominent in the entire Philippines. When I first heard the word "lokot", the first thing that it crossed in my mind is like a thing that you rolled. Then my guessed had not missed.

THE ORIGIN OF THE “LOKOT-LOKOT”

The Muslim communities in the Zamboanga Peninsula are known for the variety of delicacies they produce during special occasions, especially the “Hariraya” or the feast of the Eid-il-Fitr, which celebrates the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Foremost among the goodies is the golden brown curious-looking “locot-locot” or “jaa” as the villagers call them. A lot of people actually consider it as the “queen” of the delicacies because it is the most popular and frequently asked for by guests.

It is fascinating to watch someone who is seeing the locot-locot for the first time. After asking what it is, he instantly wants to taste it, and as it crunches in his mouth his eyes light up with pleasure and he nods approvingly. Some give the okay sign or put up their thumbs enthusiastically.

If you ask how the locot-locot came about, its origin is sadly lost in the mist of time. Fortunately the ancestors of the present Muslims passed on its technology to the next generations down through the millennia. Some people believe it came from Malaysia or Indonesia as the region, including the southern Philippines, was once a part of the great Madjapahit Empire during the 13th and 14th centuries. The seafaring Malays probably brought it to our shores as they wandered freely throughout the area.

Legend has it that it was the locot-locot that inspired the appearance of the Chinese noodles, such as the sotanghon, bihon and miswa. It is said that several attempts of the people of China to imitate the locot-locot led to their creation, which over time became famous delicacies themselves.

Making locot-locot requires a lot of time and hard work. First the grains of rice have to be pounded into flour. Then the correct proportions of water and sugar are added to create a gooey mixture which is poured into a container made of coconut shell with regular small holes at the bottom, all the while it is poised above a frying pan filled with hot oil. As it turns golden brown it is deftly and expertly folded and shaped in the pan with a couple of wooden spoons to create the desired look. Watching a cook do the locot-locot is like watching an artist in motion.

You can tell a house is making locot-locot by the rhythmic sound coming from the kitchen made by the beating of the coconut container to pour out the dough into the frying pan. Some purists say if the rhythm is out of sync the locot-locot will not look attractive and enticing.

(Other infos came from the Facebook page of Taluksangay Muslim Delicacies)

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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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