Recipe | Kinunot na Pagi

There's this one vendor at the nearby market that sells fish that are quite different from the usual ones. Sometimes she would sell parrot fish or surgeon fish, and my mom would sometimes buy from here, just to try out different kinds of fish. Last weekend, she bought half a stingray.

I have eaten this seafood before, but there's only one way I knew how to cook it - with coconut milk and some moringa leaves. I am not familiar of the process how to cook it, though, so I had to consult the Internet and ask people how to do it.


Kinunot na Pagi

Ingredients:

• Pagi (Stingray)
• Water
• Vegetable Oil
• Coconut Milk
• Sliced Onions
• Crushed Garlic
• Ginger
• Finger Chili or Birds Eye Chili
• Vinegar
• Salt and Pepper (to taste)
• Malunggay Leaves (Moringa Leaves)

How to Cook:

• Blanch the stingray in some hot water for a few minutes. Scrape off the skin, and boil another pot of water with a little ginger, onion and garlic, and cook the skinned stingray until it becomes soft. Drain water and allow the stingray to cook. Debone the stingray and flake the meat.
• Heat a pan with little oil and saute garlic and onion until fragrant and sweaty. Add coconut milk and allow to simmer, then add vinegar. Don't stir for a few minutes, then add the flaked stingray. Stir, and cook for a few minutes.
• Adjust the seasoning, then add the moringa leaves. Simmer until the coconut milk curdle a little. Serve hot with rice.

Sauteeing the onion and garlic in oil is optional; if you want, you can skip this one and start with pouring the coconut milk in the pot followed by the garlic and onion. Personally, I love this one with super thick sauce, which will need some coconut cream to achieve such consistency. Unfortunately, my mom like the sauce a little thin, so we didn't add coconut cream anymore.

It was the first time for this dish to be cooked at home. We didn't go for the spicy kind (even if coconut milk and chili goes very well together), so for brother, we just had some chili-garlic sauce served on the side. Now that I know how to properly cook stingray, I know for sure this wouldn't be the last time we would cook and serve this at home.

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Recipe | Binagoongang Kangkong with Adobo Bisaya

I admit I love fatty food, and I love fatty cuts of pork. I know, it is something I should learn to eat less of, and I think I am a little victorious in avoiding it (thanks to my dear brother who takes out the fat whenever he cooks), but there are times that I crave for it. Although it's a hard habit to break, I want to make sure I include vegetables in my meals, so when I saw this recipe printed on the pages of Breakfast Magazine (August - September 2012 issue), I knew I just have to try it.


Binagoongang Kangkong with Adobo Bisaya
Recipe by: Chef Myke Sarthou of Tatung's Garden
{serves 6}

Ingredients (Adobo Bisaya)

• 1.5 kilograms pork belly, cut into large chunks
• 3 tablespoons salt
• 8 cloves garlic
• 4 bay leaves
• 3 cups vinegar
• 2 cups oil

How to Cook (Adobo Bisaya)

• Marinate pork in the vinegar mixture overnight. 
• Add the oil and simmer in low fire until all liquid is reduced and pork fat is rendered.
• Fry the pork in its own fat until crispy.

Ingredients (Binagoongang Kangkong)

• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tablespoon bagoong (fermented shrimp paste)
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Leaves from 2 bunches of Kangkong

How to Cook (Binagoongang Kangkong)

• Saute garlic and bagoong. Add sugar and vinegar and saute the Kangkong leaves.

I don't know if the bagoong to be used should be those pinkish ones that can be bought at the market or the bottled ones. For this, I used the bottled ones and although it tasted good, my tastebuds were craving for something coco-creamy. :) As for the adobo, I learned that the pork has to be cut big because it shrinks upon cooking, and frying it in its own fat further reduces its size. Be prepared for some oil splatters when cooking the adobo, but as long as you keep the fire real low, cooking it will be quite easy.

The combination of both dishes were great. I didn't add a lot of salt into my marinade as I know the bagoong would be salty, so I ended up with slightly tangy adobo, which paired well to the slightly sweet-salty Kangkong.

For sure, you can use any cut of pork for this dish, but if you plan to use real lean pork, make sure it's the tender cut because even if you boiled the pork to make it tender prior to frying it, the meat could still be a little chewy tough when eaten.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad