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.

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Recipe | Labong Meatballs

My sister and I are traveling to La Union later this month to attend a cousin's wedding, and as early as now, we are already thinking what stuff to bring. Whenever we're in La Union, we always stay with our Aunt Julie, who not only acts as our guardian, she's also the one who prepares our every meal.

While we were there last October-November, she prepared this dish as her potluck dish for a reunion party. I gave it a taste and liked it, so when we traveled back home, she included a kilo of bamboo shoots in our "take home" bag, which allowed me to try her recipe at home.

She didn't give me the exact measurements, so this recipe is basically based on the cook's preference, but if you wanna try it, here's how I did the meatballs when I served this dish to my family:


Labong Meatballs

Ingredients:

• about 1/4 kilo Bamboo Shoots
• 4 pieces pork longganisa (the garlicky regional kind - Vigan, Lucban, to name a few)
• OR 1/8 kilo ground pork, mixed with minced garlic, salt, and ground pepper
• egg, beaten lightly
• flour or cornstarch 
• 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
• salt and pepper to taste (optional)

How to Cook:

• Prepare the bamboo shoots. Typically, some markets sell this already prepared (my mom prefers to buy the actual shoot because it's cheaper), but the cuts may be a little too big for your meatballs, so you can chop it more depending on your preference. Next, boil the bamboo shoots for about 30 minutes, drain and allow it to cool. When already cool, squeeze out excess water. Best to do this hours before you cook your meatballs, or maybe the night before.
• Prepare the meatballs. Loosen up the shreds of bamboo shoots and add everything in - seasoned ground pork or longganisa (be sure to take out the casing if you're using longganisa), egg, oyster sauce, flour or cornstarch, salt and pepper. Mix everything until all ingredients are well incorporated.
• Heat a pan with a little oil and fry a pinch of the mixture and taste it. Adjust the seasoning of your meatballs mix if needed, then shape mixture into balls. 
• Deep fry the balls until golden brown and drain on paper towels. Serve hot with ketchup.

I remember, when Aunt Julie served this at the party, her friends thought it was chicken because the bamboo shoots did look a lot like flaked chicken. While it had more bamboo shoots than meat, it still had this meaty taste to it, making this one a good way to minimize the meat intake. One thing I noticed though, the balls can be a little too chewy, so it's best to serve this with some soup.

I am not sure if I can pick another recipe from my Aunt when we travel back there considering we will be attending a wedding and a baptism party the next day, but if she prepares something unique, I'll take note of it and share it here on the blog.

Happy Friday!

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ABC Wednesday | A - Ampalaya

Hello hello!

Round 10 of ABC Wednesday was the first round (since I joined in Round 3 or 4) I was able to complete. Having that sense of accomplishment made me stop joining Round 11, but I admit I miss the fun of thinking and photographing (and / or searching my photo files) for images that I could share for ABC Wednesday. Come to think of it, I rarely update this blog every Wednesdays after deciding of not joining Round 11, so for Round 12 I told myself I will join again. This early, I already listed what I will share for the entire round, making sure I won't repeat any of the items I have shared. I have yet to think what to share for Q and X, but the rest were already okay.

So... Letter A again. Let's see... I have shared almonds, asparagus, apples, even stretching it to apple flavored tea, and then I realized, I still haven't shared this one kind of A: Ampalaya.


According to Ampalaya.Com:

Ampalaya is a vegetable grown throughout the Philippines. It is mostly cultivated, although wild forms can be found. It grows wild in the remote areas of Mt. Banahaw. As the English name suggests (bitter melon), the melon has a bitter taste due to the presence of momordicin. There has been much research done on the effectiveness of using Momordica Charantia in the treatment of diabetes. It has been shown to increase production of beta cells by the pancreas, thereby improving the body’s ability to produce insulin. It has been recommended by the Department of Health of the Philippines, as one of the best herbal medicines for it's ability to help with liver problems, Diabetes and HIV. It is a common herb used in Chinese herbology. In the Philippines, the leaves are often used for children's coughs. It is also used in the treatment of skin diseases, sterility in women, as a parasiticide, as an antipyretic, and as a purgative.

Yes, it is bitter, but I was taught that ampalaya fruits with big or wide "wrinkles" are generally less bitter than those that has wrinkles close to each other. In cooking, I learned that in order to minimize the bitterness of the ampalaya, one must cover the pot immediately  after placing it and to never stir in the dish while cooking it. I don't know the logic (or mystery) behind that, but in the many times I have cooked this vegetable (following that lesson), I still get to serve bitter ampalaya, but there were also times that it wasn't so bitter. Some people massage in salt in the freshly cut ampalaya and squeeze out the juice in order to lessen the bitterness, but that is something I don't and will never do because squeezing out the juice simply meant squeezing out the nutrients of it.

There are generally two types of ampalaya - one that is long, and one that is quite short. The long one is the most common among the two, and can be seen in every public markets here in the Philippines. The picture on left one was taken in our garden - I planted some ampalaya seeds mid 2011, and that was the very first fruit I harvested. It was still a baby the time I took that photo, and just to clarify things, the leaves you see on the picture is not the leaves of the ampalaya, those were leaves of our Kamias (bilimbi) tree. Ampalaya is a vine type of plant and used the bilimbi tree to cling on. The picture on the right one was the native type of ampalaya, which can often be seen in markets in the provinces. That picture I took while roaming around the market in La Union (my paternal family's home province). 


There are so many ways of cooking this vegetable, but the most common would be the Pinakbet (or simply Pakbet). It is a dish that consists of mixed vegetables (ampalaya, squash, okra, string beans and eggplants) cooked in little broth seasoned with fermented fish (or shrimp) paste. Depending on one's preference, pork is also added, but some uses dried fish, while others completely omits the meat.


One "weird" way of cooking ampalaya was through Paksiw. I call it weird because Paksiw uses vinegar as broth and cooking ampalaya with vinegar intensifies its bitterness. Still, people add it to their fish paksiw dishes because it's a good way of adding vegetables into the meal.


The leaves of the ampalaya can also be used in cooking. Most common is by adding the leaves into Ginisang Munggo (Sauteed Mung Beans). I personally love ampalaya leaves into this dish compared the other favorites - malunggay, sweet potato leaves, and spinach.


Another favorite of mine would be the Ginisang Mais (White Corn Soup). The combination is somewhat weird, I know, but it's delicious!


However, my top favorite ampalaya dish would be this one, which I call Ampalaya Guisado (Sauteed Ampalaya). It has chicken and shrimps, sauteed in onion and garlic, and I added some vermicelli noodles as well. This is a spinoff of a dish similar to this, which I tasted when I was still very young and liked it, though it was the soupy type and it didn't have shrimps. Another common way of cooking ampalaya is Ampalaya con Carne, which uses beef. I personally don't like it; I still love the combination of chicken, shrimp, and ampalaya.




 

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Recipe | Singkamas at Sitaw Dinengdeng

It's quite sometime since I last shared a recipe, so for today let me share something healthy and comforting.

As a daughter of an Ilocano man, I grew up eating Dinengdeng, which is simply boiled vegetable soup seasoned with fried or grilled fish and bagoong. There are so many mix of vegetables for this dish, but personally, my favorite vegetables for this dish include - bamboo shoots, malunggay fruit, squash flowers, and jicama fruit, which is the star of this Dinengdeng dish I am about to share.

Typically, whenever I share recipes, I'd list the ingredients and how the dish is cooked, but for today, I will share a step-by-step guide.


Prepare the ingredients. For this dish, I used jicama fruit (singkamas) - split in half, string beans, saluyot leaves (jute), fried fish, and tamarind cube.

This recipe actually calls for fresh tamarind or fresh kamias (bilimbi) to give the sour flavor to the broth, but because the nearby market didn't have tamarind and our bilimbi tree doesn't have fruits yet, I just made use of the tamarind cube we have. The sour agent isn't always present in many Dinengdeng dishes, but some dishes with jicama fruit have it.

As for the fish, you can use (like I say) fried or grilled fish, and you can add as much as you want. In our household, us siblings prefer "dry" fish and mom prefers her fish "wet," so we only add one piece of fish for mom. You can also use leftover fish or cook a fresh one, like we did for this dish.


#1. Fill up a pot with water depending on the amount of vegetables you're cooking. Some cooks save up the water they used in cleaning rice before cooking it, but I wasn't able to ask brother to save the rice washing (as they call it), so I just used regular water.

Allow the water to boil and add in bagoong. There is no specific amount of bagoong to put, so you have to go with gut-feel. I added about three tablespoons of bagoong for this one. If what you have at home isn't the boneless kind and you can see pieces of anchovies in the bottle, scoop out some bagoong in a small bowl and add boiling water (from the pot) and crush the anchovies. Pour the water back to the pot, making sure you strained in the process (you didn't want to have some anchovy bones in your dish). Boil for a few more minutes.


#2. Add the jicama fruits and sitaw and stir lightly.

As the broth boils, you will see some bubbles and oil floating, just scoop it out. Cover the pot. When the vegetables are half-cooked, drop half of the tamarind cube.

If you're using fresh tamarind or kamias, boil them at the start of your cooking, but take out the sour fruit before adding the vegetables. At this point (if you use fresh sour fruits), do what you did to the bagoong - add broth and crush the fruits and pour back the broth to the pot (making sure you strained it as well).


#3. Add the saluyot leaves and stir.

If you're going to serve this right away, simmer the dish for three minutes and serve it. If you're not going to serve it right away, then turn off the heat at this point, cover the pot and allow the residual heat to cook the leaves.


I don't know what other vegetables one can use for this particular dish, but here at home, these are the usual combinations.

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Chinese Dinner at King Bee

King Bee Chinese Food
Lot 24 Blk 11 Commonwealth Avenue
Brgy. Holy Spirit, Quezon City
+63 (02)376-9402 / +63 (02)990-4688

*** picture heavy post ***

King Bee Chinese Food is a family owned corporation, which started as a restaurant inside a mall in Cavite. It gained following and recognition, that in 2001, they decided to have a stand alone restaurant in General Trias. From then, it has branched out - in Rosario (Cavite), Antipolo (Rizal), Sta. Rosa (Laguna), then to Metro Manila - E. Rodriguez, Las Pinas, and the newest branch where blogger friends and I had dinner last Friday - Commonwealth Avenue.

I wasn't at all familiar with King Bee Chinese Food, but for someone who often passes by Commonwealth Avenue, seeing a big restaurant this side of the Metro made me want to eat there the moment my siblings and I saw it was already open.

The Commonwealth branch is their biggest, which can house about 400 diners. I wasn't able to take a picture of the facade, but let me give you a short tour before I proceed with the food.


Dining Area (First Floor). It was already late when I took this picture so the tables weren't "dressed," but it was spacious and tables are definitely good for families and big groups.


Also in the first floor is where diners can see aquariums filled with live seafood, which are used to cook orders. Hmmm, fresh seafood!


Dining Area (Second Floor). This area looks more traditional with the round tables and Lazy Susan.


On this floor are two venue rooms, which can be used for meetings and family celebrations. The room includes audio-visual appliances, and diners can actually do Videoke if they want to. Of course, there is a fee to pay if you want to use any of the venue rooms, but that fee is consumable, so it was also like have the room use for free.


I arrived quite earlier than my companions, so us early birds were given this plate of Kropeck to munch on. I am just not sure if every table is given this as a complimentary munchies, but reading up on blogs, I learned that the restaurant serves complimentary hot tea.

We had a Lauriat-style dinner that time, and we had:


Wintermelon Soup. Before it became a hit milk tea flavor, Wintermelon already made its name as a popular dried fruit candy or as an ingredient for Hopia Baboy. The whole presentation of this soup was pretty stunning - serving the dish in a deep wintermelon fruit, which was actually cooked - not fresh. Around the wintermelon bowl were shrimps and finely shredded chicken meat, but inside the bowl were more shrimps, mushrooms, pork, and bits of bacon. The wintermelon fusion was interesting and I did like this soup to start off the dinner.



Dimsum Platter. Consisting of Pork Siomai, Chicken Feet, and Bird's Eye Siomai... It was such a great Chinese appetizer! I wasn't able to taste the Pork Siomai as there were only four pieces (we were 8 in the table), but a friend said it was really good. Well, just with how it looked, it was bigger than the typical Pork Siomai I have seen, so I am quite certain it would be good. The Chicken Feet was something very unique; I do eat chicken feet - as a roadside barbecue and/or as a viand at home, but at home we always cook it Adobo style. This one we were served had black beans (taosi) and a special Chinese glaze, which was super flavorful. The meat on the feet was very tender, but what I liked most was that even if it was super tender, the chicken feet looked complete and it hasn't disintegrated. The Bird's Eye Siomai got its name based on how it looks like - a bird's eye. Inside of it were small pieces of shrimps, which was good in itself, but tasted much, much better with the chili toyo-mansi dip. Now I want to taste King Bee's Hakaw just to check if there would be any difference aside from the aesthetics.


Yang Chow Fried Rice. Typically in Lauriat-style dining, rice doesn't really play a key role, but since Filipinos love rice, we were also served rice. This is my favorite kind of fried rice because it's packed with goodness yet it goes well with any viand. Just with this picture, it would seem there were two pieces of shrimps, but actually, this one's a goldmine - it had a lot more shrimps and other meat inside the bowl.


Sauteed Crystal Prawn Balls with Cashew Nuts in Taro Nest. My favorite dish of the night. The prawns were cooked perfect, the carrots, jicamas, and bell peppers were crunchy! The jicamas were also sweet (means this one's very fresh) and it had this very thin sauce coating the ingredients, which made it super delicious. The cashew nuts added more dimension and texture... and the taro nest wasn't just unique, it was great tasting, too.


Sliced Beef with Broccoli Flowers. Always a hit with the Filipino diners, I loved that the beef slices were big, the sauce was just right, and the broccoli flowers were super crunchy.


House Specialty Roast Chicken. At first I thought this was fried chicken, but it was actually roasted. The skin was crispy and the meat was flavorful enough to be eaten as is... but there was a dip served alongside.


King Fish in Thai Sauce. Seeing the cherries and unripe plus nearly ripe mangoes made me doubt how this dish will taste, but it all worked pretty good. It was a little too sweet for my taste, but it was something that I kept coming back for more. If I would say something negative, it would have to be way too much sauce in the dish that the fish was sort of drowning already.


Two Kinds of Pastries. I didn't get the actual names of these pastries, but the one on the left was savory - which looked like an empanada, but it tasted a bit like croquettes - the dough was made with potatoes with minced sausages inside. The one on the right was the sweet one - which is sorta like a buchi, with fresh ripe mangoes and cream inside. Both was okay, but the sweet one I liked more.


Mixed Fruits Platter.  What a grand presentation! Well, we all know how each of the fruits taste like, so no need to elaborate.

King Bee Chinese Food has a very extensive menu, but what I like about it was that they do have something for anyone - whether you're alone or with a companion, there's definitely something that would satisfy your Chinese food craving. It was also pleasing to know that King Bee Chinese Food have chefs from Hong Kong and China, to ensure food coming out of the kitchen are up to Chinese standards.

This branch in Commonwealth sure is big, but they always recommend for diners to phone in reservations, especially during weekends because as big and as spacious it is, this one gets full always. If you wish to know newest updates about the restaurant, please like their Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/pages/King-Bee-Chinese-Food/117869731582292?ref=ts.

Would I go back and dine there again? Definitely! Next time, I'd bring my family and maybe do a Dimsum battle with my mom - who is such a fan of it. :)

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