22 August 2006

Pinakbet!















Pinakbet is a vegetable dish that's popular in the northern part of the Philippines, particularly in the places where Ilocano is spoken. Making it is really simple. Just mix up the ingredients as you put in the things that cook the longest first, and you're good to go!

We had pinakbet for lunch last weekend at rainy Baguio City. A most wonderful meal with my family! Here's the basic recipe that serves 5 to 6 to try out for yourself:


Ingredients:
Pork, diced
5 medium tomatoes: seeds removed and chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bunch sitaw (what's the english equivalent?)
1 bunch okra
1 medium ampalaya (bitter gourd)
1 medium kalabasa (squash)
4 medium eggplant
water
cooking oil
shrimp paste (alamang) OR fish sauce (bagoong). I love pinakbet cooked in fish sauce but for that lunch, we opted for shrimp paste instead. Wala lang.

Directions:
Wash all the veggies and chop.
Put the pork into the frying pan and pour water unit submerged. Cover and cook until all water has evaporated. The pork will start releasing its own oil. Let it cook until brown. Help by adding cooking oil.

Protect yourself from hot oil splatters using the frying pan cover while tossing the pork around until brown.





Set aside the pork. Pour in a bit of cooking oil and stir-fry the onions and tomatoes. When the onions appear a bit translucent, put in the tomates and continue mixing. Listen to your stomach rumbles because of the aroma!


Put in the shrimp paste. Mind that this is a bit salty. If you don't want your dish to be on the salty side, elders advise washing the shrimp paste a bit first to weaken the flavor.

If using fish sauce, drain it with a strainer over the frying pan so only the sauce goes to the dish and not the fish.


After less than a minute of mixing, put in the hardy veggies first such as the okra and sitaw. Pour water until ingredients are just about submerged. After a couple more minutes, mix in the rest of the ingredients and let simmer until you can pierce the squash with a fork and it stays on the fork. When it crumbles away, it's overcooked and there's nothing we can do about it. :-)

Serve with hot, steamy rice! Great with fried fish too!
















Drop by the Baguio-Quezon blog for the cooking oil prank!

18 comments:

  1. Yum Yum Yum!

    One of my faves kapag umuulan! Lalo na pag super fresh ang veggies. Grabe parang naaamoy ko sya sa screen ko! Nagugutom ako!

    :)

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  2. sitaw is 'string bean' yata in english. ^_^v

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  3. gusto ko rin yan! kaso d ako marunong magluto, kaya hanggang tingin nalang ako dito sa blog mo.

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  4. Sarap..I can smell from here...
    Although I'm not much of a pinakbet fan, the way that pakbet looks in your blog makes me want to "tikim".

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  5. Ay miss ko na yang pinakbet na yan! Matagal-tagal na din akong di nakakatikim ng bagoong. Haaay!

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  6. wow, sarap naman! miss ko na yan ... kahit yan lang ipaulam mo 'pag dumalaw ako ... saan ba ang Mansion House ninyo? EB tayo ;)

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  7. Sarap talaga pinakbet, kumpleto rin kami rito sa gulay nyan.Kaya lang yung ampalaya dito ang hirap kainin sa sobrang pait. Yun bang tinatawag na ampalayang ligaw sa atin, maliliit na maraming kulubot.

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  8. Anonymous9:31 pm

    wow sarap! pero bakit hindi po kayu ang nagluto? :) paborito dito yan ng mga kasama ko sa bahay

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  9. Alternati, peborit ko yan kasama na ng dinengdeng!

    Oo nga. Thanks meowok!

    Mama Jenn, may mga ang galing talagang magluto kahit simple lang ang dish. Gifted sila.

    Mommy Lei, order ka na lang sa Max's:-)

    Leah, try it. Sarap! Simple lang pero wow!

    Jet! Long time no hear! Kain na!

    Neneng, kelan ba dating mo at nang makapagluto ng pinakbet?

    Ann, oo nga masarap rin gamitin yung maliliit na ampalaya. Di masyadong mapait. Talaga, super pait ng ampalaya? May tip dito sa opis. Pagkahiwa ng ampalaya, lagyan ng asin After a few minutes, mix mo tapos pigain para maalis yung katas. Tapos babanlawan at pigain. Medyo malalamog sya sa kapipiga so dapat hwag sobrang magpiga (hehehe) at malalaki ang hiwa.

    Melai, ako tagahiwa! Naiyak nga ako sa sibuyas eh!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous11:55 pm

    ok ah, cooking blog na rin pala to, ayos, jack of all trades, hehehe. di ko naman paborito ang pinakbet, pero isa yan sa mga lutong gulay na kinakain ko...

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  11. Anonymous4:00 am

    Nagimas ta sida mon, agluto ak met iti pinakbet intono maiyadi toy baggoong ko.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous4:12 am

    hmmmmm...bango!
    one order of pinakbet pleez via Fedex *hehe*
    watson, masarap din kung lalagyan ng chicharon bits =)
    pandagdag kaalaman: okra = lady's finger

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lino, there was a time when I blogged about nothing but food at akala ng iba tuloy food blog ito hehehe

    Ay wen Manong Rey. Naimas met nu bagoong ti useren!

    En, pinakbet via Fedex coming up! hehe. Uy thanks for the additional tips

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  14. Anonymous1:39 am

    Very colourful and looks good.

    Here in Winnipeg, they call sitaw = long beans, and ampalaya = bitter melon.

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  15. String beans = sitaw I think.
    My Inang never put sqaush in her pakbet, some say putting sqauash in pakbet makes the dish more tagalog or kapampangan. True?

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  16. yumee.... parang nagbabattle royale sa stove ah...

    yum yum.... nakakagutom!!!!!

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  17. I luv a pinakbet variant that uses bagnit, liempo or chicharon instead of diced pork as the main ingredient. Plus, tomato sauce is added. Sarap. :D

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  18. Hello Niceheart! Thanks for the info!

    Jules! Nag-iba ka yata ng name!

    Tomato sauce, Igor? Kakaiba ito!

    ReplyDelete

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