Sinigang na ulo ng isda sa miso (fish head sour soup with miso)
Miso is a paste made by fermenting rice, barley or soybeans with salt and a mold. In Philippine cuisine, it is used for the dipping sauce that accompanies pesa. It is also used for sinigang.
Kanduli, a relative of the hito (catfish) is traditionally associated with sinigang sa miso. But large kanduli is not always easy to find in the wet markets…
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Binukakang dalag (split mudfish)
In the menu of Bulawan Floating Restaurant in Pililla, it is called crispy dalag. Split-open, the whole mudfish is deep-fried until a crispy crust forms on the surface. In a place in Tanay called Kainan sa Tabi ng Lawa (eatery by the lake), the same dish is called binukakang dalag…
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Adobo eggs
Ever since I saw all those tea eggs in Taiwan, I have been obsessed with doing my version… Thinking I should perfect the hue of the marbling first before attempting to perfect the part about infusing flavors, I practiced using food color. I came up with two red-veined eggs and two green-veined eggs… But they tasted like ordinary hard-boiled eggs. So, one time, I was cooking adobo and I was worried that I didn’t have enough pork to satisfy everyone. It isn’t uncommon to add hard-boiled eggs to extend the adobo and that was when the inspiration hit me…
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Lechon con kangkong (roast pork with water spinach)
It was a rather large slab of pork belly that I roasted in the oven a few days ago and I had two bunches of kangkong so a second dish seemed like a great idea. I wasn’t planning on posting this recipe because I always thought I had a lechon con kangkong entry deep in the archive. Seems not. What I have in the archive is pork and kangkong in black bean sauce which does not make use of lechon kawali. Lucky me, I managed to cook two dishes that day that are both worth posting.
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The heart and soul of Filipino food
My editor asked, ?What characterizes great Filipino food? The long hours of simmering? The recipes that have been handed down through generations? The bold flavor of Ilocos garlic and sibuyas Tagalog? Or is it simply the time a family spends in sitting down for a meal and then continues to share stories long after the food is gone??
I was transported to a night when my father labored over home-made siopao per my request when it would have been the easiest thing to drive to Binondo to buy a dozen…
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Nilagang baboy (boiled pork ribs with vegetables)
If there ever was a panic-time dish that 1) is nutritious and 2) requires minimal supervision during cooking, nilaga has to be it. Nilaga means boiled and it can mean boiled beef, pork or chicken. The combination of vegetables that can go with the meat are endless but my kids’ favorites are repolyo (cabbage) and kalabasa (squash).
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Puto (rice cakes) with itlog na maalat (salted duck egg)
Two days ago, my younger daughter, Alex, asked when I would make some puto again. I paused for a few seconds and realized that it’s been more than ten months since I last made puto…
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Ginataang puso ng saging (banana bud/blossom in coconut cream)
I was in high school when I first learned to cook guinataang puso ng saging. I remember my father advising that I choose the puso ng saging that was long, cream-colored and no more than three inches in diameter at the thickest part. Why that was preferable over the more common fat reddish and fat puso ng saging, I never asked, although I suspected it had something to do with the numerous varieties of banana available in the Philippines. One time years later, when I was obliged to use the non-preferred variety, I realized that the long cream-colored puso ng saging was more tender and required a shorter cooking time.
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