Pinakbet with Pork Recipe

Pinakbet is a popular dish in the northern region of the Philippines, Ilocos. It has become famous in other regions as well and each has its own version be it in the choice of vegetables, seasoning or meat.


Pinakbet with Pork Recipe

This pinakbet with pork recipe is a kapampangan recipe which I inherited from my mother. I’m really glad to be able to cook this dish because it is one of my most favorite home cooked foods back home. Other versions of pinakbet recipes uses shrimps (which is the original Ilocano recipe) and fried/grilled fish. Both are delightful in their own distinct flavors. I’ve used pork in this recipe because of its unique flavor that goes really well with the veggies, especially when the pork is slightly crispy-fried.

Broccoli in Oyster Sauce Recipe

One quick and easy recipe to make is Broccoli in Oyster Sauce. It involves a simple cooking method of stir-frying garlic, broccoli and oyster sauce. In less than no time your meal is ready. Other kinds of vegetable can be cooked this way also, like zucchini, cauliflower, cabbage, snow peas, carrots, etc. Two or more kinds of vegetables can also be combined to create this delectable and nutritious recipe, just like my 3-Kind Vegetable Stir-Fry recipe.

I often prepare this dish to pair it with anything fried or pan-roasted. Aside from being simple to prepare, it is rich with nutritional and health values. Research says that broccoli is rich in vitamins C, A and K, as well as dietary fiber. Broccoli also has anti-cancer properties.


Broccoli in Oyster Sauce

Here is my Broccoli in Oyster Sauce Recipe.

Ingredients:
500 grams Broccoli, cut into small florets
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
5 tablespoons oyster sauce (add more if desired)
¼ cup water or broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking oil

Cooking Procedure:
1) Heat oil in a deep pan (or wok if you have any).
2) Sauté minced garlic. Do not brown.
3) Add oyster sauce and cook for under a minute.
4) Add in broccoli florets and stir-fry in 3-5 minutes over a high heat.
5) The water or broth should be added within the first 2 minutes of stir-frying the broccoli florets.
6) Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7) Serve with steamed rice and your favorite fried or pan-roasted meat or fish.

This recipe serves 3-4 persons.

Broccoli is quick to cook. And, to know when to remove it from heat is when it turns to bright green in color.

Try this recipe and you’ll surely enjoy it!

Shrimps and Vegetable Spaghettini Recipe

This shrimps and vegetable spaghetti recipe is a healthy option for a pasta dish, in which I used oil-based sauce. Other types of pasta sauce may be tomato-based, cream-based, herb-based or meat-based.

It is recommended for oil-based sauce pasta to use strand pasta. I used spaghettini for this dish. Spaghettini is thinner than the regular spaghetti.

What makes my shrimps and vegetable spaghetti recipe healthier than other spaghetti recipes? It is because I incorporated a mix of vegetables to it.

Shrimp and Vegetable Spaghettini
Here’s my shrimps and vegetable spaghetti recipe.

Ingredients:
400 grams Spaghettini
500 grams fresh shrimps, shelled and washed
1 large broccoli, cut into small florets
1 large red bell pepper, roasted and sliced into long strips
2 large fresh tomatoes, diced (or 200g sun-dried tomatoes)
5 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon chili flakes
½ teaspoon dried basil
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Procedure:
1. Cook spaghettini according to instructions. Cook it al dente and reserve a little amount of the pasta water.
2. Heat olive oil in a large pan.
3. Sauté minced garlic. Do not brown. Then, add the chili flakes.
4. Stir in shelled shrimps and cook for 2 minutes.
5. Add broccoli, stir well and cook for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the grilled bell pepper and diced tomatoes.
7. Season with salt, pepper and dried basil.
8. Toss in the cooked spaghettini.
9. Mix well and cook for 3-5 minutes.
10. Remove from heat. Drizzle with olive oil.

This recipe serves 4-5 persons.

I sliced the shrimps into half and the result was a twirled cooked shrimps which were delight to the eyes.

To add more herb flavor, use sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil leaves and chopped parsley.

Eggplant Salad Recipe (Ensaladang Talong)

This pinoy eggplant salad recipe or ensaladang talong is a creation of my hubby, which he learned from my mother-in-law. He did a little modification to the original ingredients by adding vinegar to it. This eggplant salad has instantly become one of my favorite salads. It is best served with grilled or fried fish.

The eggplants can be boiled or grilled. I prefer to grill the eggplants to get the smokey flavor. Since it is not possible to use charcoal grill indoor, grilling the eggplants on a stove top would be enough alternative. If you choose to boil the eggplants instead of grilling, peeling them will not be necessary. They can be eaten with the skin on.

Grilling the Eggplants on a Stove-top
I highly recommend that you try this salad recipe and you’ll surely enjoy it!

Eggplant Salad
Here’s the recipe for the Eggplant Salad (ensaladang talong).

Ingredients:
5-6 medium-size eggplants
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 medium-size onion, thinly sliced
1 piece green or red hot chili, remove seeds and slice thinly
2-3 tbsp. bagoong (add more if desired)
1 tbsp. vinegar (add more if desired)

Preparation Instructions:
1) Grill the eggplants until its skin is burnt.
2) Peel the eggplants. Remove any excess burnt skins.
3) Cut and roughly shred the peeled eggplants into 2 inches long and place in a bowl.
4) Mix in the thinly sliced onion and green chili.
5) Season with bagoong and vinegar, and then mix well all the ingredients.
6) Serve with fish or seafood and steamed rice.

Serving size: 3
Preparation time: 15-20 minutes

3-Kind Vegetable Stir-Fry in Oyster Sauce

A lot of parents find it difficult to make their children eat vegetables, but when I was a little kid I never gave my parents a hard time because I would always eat and finish my vegetables. Until today, I am still a veggie lover (but not a vegetarian). I would always like to have dishes with vegetables on it when dining out or make sure to incorporate vegetable servings in our weekly menu plan.

Two nights ago I prepared a dish that’s delicious and very simple to make, which involved vegetables and oyster sauce. I call it 3-Kind Vegetable Stir-Fry in Oyster Sauce. As the title suggests, I only used three types of vegetables namely: carrots, snow peas and white cabbage. Other types of vegetables can also be used like cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, bell peppers, etc. But, I stick to the three previously mentioned as I’d like to have a quickly prepared meal and within budget.


Stir-fry vegetable is always present in any Chinese restaurant menu but I cannot tell if it is solely a Chinese creation because I’ve seen the same dish exists in Thai cuisine. There is also a similar dish popular in Filipino cooking, which we adopted from Chinese, called chop suey.

Here’s the recipe for my 3-Kind Vegetable Stir-Fry in Oyster Sauce. You will like this because it is light and, as I mentioned, very simple to prepare.

Ingredients:
2 medium-sized carrots, sliced crosswise
100 grams snow peas (remove tips)
½ head cabbage, roughly sliced
½ cup oyster sauce
1 medium-sized onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
Spring onions (optional)
¼ cup water (optional)
Vegetable oil


Cooking Instructions:
1. Heat oil in a wok. Sauté garlic and onion.
2. Add carrots and sauté for about 2 minutes.
3. Add oyster sauce and then follow with snow peas and cabbage. Add water if you desire. Add spring onions (optional). Stir constantly until all vegetables are cooked (bright in color). Do not over cook vegetables to maintain crispness.

Preparation and cooking time: 20-25 minutes
Serving size: 2-3 persons

Useful Info:
1. Stir-fry meals are best done using a wok over a high heat.
2. Constant stirring will allow equal distribution of the heat to vegetables and prevent over cooking.

Guinisang Ampalaya with Shrimps Recipe

Guinisang ampalaya is one of my favorite vegetable dishes. As I previously mentioned, Boq and I love ampalaya, one reason is because of its health benefits.


Some people especially the kids do not like to eat ampalaya because of its strong bitter taste. There are actually a couple of ways to reduce the bitterness of ampalaya. One is to soak it (already sliced) with water and squeeze, and the other is to rub it with lots of salt and wash thoroughly. I also encountered one particular cook that she was boiling the ampalaya to reduce the bitterness. I do not like soaking or boiling the ampalaya, what I always like to do is the rubbing and rinsing method.

Guinisang ampalaya can be cooked with strips of pork or shrimps. For this recipe, being another favorite, I used shelled shrimps.


Ingredients:
4 medium size ampalaya or bitter gourd or bitter melon by others, cut in half lengthwise, cored and sliced diagonally
3 medium size tomatoes, diced
1 large onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
3 pieces egg, beaten and slightly salted
300 grams shrimp, shelled
Vegetable oil
Shrimp cubes (optional)
3-5 tbsp. fish sauce

Cooking Instructions:
1. Sauté garlic until slightly brown. Add onion and cook until translucent.
2. Add tomatoes and shrimp cubes. Cook until tomatoes are soft. Then add shrimps and cook until half done.
3. Put in sliced ampalaya. Cover and stir occasionally until cooked.
4. Lastly, add beaten eggs. Stir continuously until egg is completely cooked.


Preparation and cooking time: 30-40 minutes
Serving size: 4-5 persons

Bon appétit!

Patola Misua Soup

Soups are often served as starter for main meals when dining in a posh restaurant but for the underprivileged Filipino family, soup can already be the main meal.

One of the least expensive ways of making a soup is misua soup. It is one of the most popular soups among Pinoys. It can be prepared with vegetable or meat balls. For a healthy treat, patola misua soup is best. It’s simple and quick to prepare.

Misua (or miswa) is made of wheat flour and one of the varieties of Chinese noodles. It is very fine and brittle.

Patola comes from the family of gourd vegetables. It is commonly known in English as ridged gourd or loofah. This vegetable is rich in fiber and a good source of calcium, iron and phosphorus. It can be easily found in any major supermarkets in Abu Dhabi when in season or during summer months.

Here’s the recipe for my Patola Misua Soup.

Ingredients:
1/2 small pack Misua
3 large pieces Patola, peeled and sliced crosswise at ½ inch size
1 large onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
Fish sauce
Vegetable stock or water

Cooking Instructions:
Heat oil in a casserole. Sauté garlic and onion. Add fish sauce and stir for 5 seconds. Add water or vegetable stock and let it boil. Add sliced patola and cook until it turns bright green. Add misua noodles. Stir constantly until misua is cooked (which will take only about 2 minutes or even less).

Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes or less
Serving size: 5

Useful Info:
Misua makes the soup very thick when it is cooked so consider using a lesser quantity only to enjoy the soup more.

Inabrao (Dinengdeng) Saluyot and Green Papaya Recipe

My Ilocano root is sometimes kicking in that I feel the need to satisfy my craving for something Ilocano, and my most favorite dish for that matter involves inabrao or dinengdeng.

Saluyot is a green leafy vegetable that is rich with fibre. It is called corchorus in English. It tends to thicken the soup when cooked.

Inabrao is a very simple dish that involves no-fuss cooking even if you are using a lot of different kinds of ingredients as the process only need to boil it altogether. Saluyot is more commonly combined with labong or shredded bamboo shoots but in the absence of labong other veggies can also be combined like string beans or green papaya. For this inabrao recipe I used saluyot leaves, green papaya and fillet of fried fish.

Ingredients:
2 medium bundles of saluyot leaves, thoroughly washed
1 small green papaya, peeled and sliced
Fillet bits of fried fish
1/4 cup anchovy sauce (increase if desired)
Kalamansi (citrus) or lemon
Water

Cooking Instructions:
Fill a pot with half liter of water and bring to boil. Add anchovy paste and cover for 2 minutes. Add green papaya, when half-cooked add the saluyot leaves and fish fillet, then follow with lemon juice. Let boil until saluyot is cook.

Grilled fish superbly complements this dinengdeng recipe but since we do not have the luxury to grill, fried fish is the next best option.

Upo Guisado and Fried Fish

One of my favorite meal combinations is vegetable dish and fried fish simply because it’s healthy, fast and easy to prepare. Perfect for working couples like me and Boq. In a breeze, dinner was ready with vegetable, fried fish and rice served on the dining table. It was simple yet healthy and yummy.

Ingredients:

1 large Upo, sliced into strips (Upo is the Filipino term for bottle gourd, it is in the same family of bitter gourd)

1 medium-size tomato, chopped

1 onion, sliced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

fish sauce

beef bouillon cube (optional)

vegetable oil

Cooking Instruction:
Heat oil in a pan. Sauté garlic and onion. Add tomato and cook for 3 minutes. Add fish sauce and beef bouillon cube. Add sliced upo and let it simmer until cook while stirring occasionally. Add some water as you desire to increase the sauce.

Preparation and cooking time: 15 minutes
Serving size: good for 2 persons

Bon Appetit!

Ginataang Sitaw at Kalabasa

Ginataan is a Filipino term that refers to anything cooked with coconut milk (or gata), while Sitaw means string beans and Kalabasa means squash. Ginataang Sitaw and Kalabasa may therefore be translated to "String Beans and Squash cooked in Coconut Milk." It can't get any shorter than that I guess.

Bok requested for this dish and so I checked the recipe from the Internet. Most of the recipes I found in the Internet would suggest to cook the coconut milk or gata first before adding the vegetable ingredients. The reason was that to avoid solid forming of the coconut milk. I thought that can only be true for fresh coconut milk and since I'm using canned coconut milk (which is more dilute) I altered my version into stir frying the squash together with the other ingredients, except for string beans as I don't want to overcook it. After a quick stir fry I then add the coconut milk. I was right, the milk did not make any solid form.

Ingredients:

1 small bundle of Sitaw or String Beans, cut into 2-1/2 to 3 inches long

1 small size kalabasa, peeled and cored, cut into 2 inches cubes

200 grams pork belly, sliced into short strips

1 large canned coconut milk (fresh gata is more commonly used)

1 medium-sized onion, sliced

3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

3-4 pieces hot green pepper

Fish Sauce

Vegetable oil

Cooking Instruction:
1) Heat oil in a deep pan. Fry pork belly until lightly brown and set aside (be careful in frying as the oil tends to pop out from the pan.)
2) Saute garlic and onion in the same pan then add back in the fried pork belly.
3) Add the sliced kalabasa, stir then add fish sauce to taste and cover for 5 minutes.
4)Add the coconut milk and hot green pepper and let it simmer.
5)Add the string beans, then simmer for 5 minutes or until the string beans is cooked while stirring occassionally.

Preparation and Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serving size: good for 4 persons

Useful Info:
1) This dish is best served with steamed rice.
2) Boil pork belly first so you can slice it easily.
3) Cover your pan when frying pork belly as the oil tends to pop out from the pan.
4) Take the pan out from the heat when taking out the fried pork belly, again to avoid oil from popping out from the pan.

Healthy Option:
1) Replace pork with fresh shrimps or prepare the dish completely without it.

This recipe is just delicious, trust me!

Healthy Option - Sitaw Adobo Recipe

Adobo is a famous Filipino dish, which can be done with chicken, pork, fish or vegetables.

Adobong Sitaw is a healthy option for Adobo recipe since the primary ingredient is vegetable. Sitaw is the Tagalog term for string beans. If you prefer to add some meat to it, like bite-size chicken breasts or strips of pork, you may do so, but it's already delicious on its own.

This dish is super easy and fast to prepare. When cooked, serve this dish with steamed rice and fried fish of your choice.

Here's the recipe for Adobong Sitaw.

Ingredients:

1 bundle of Sitaw (string beans), washed and cut into 3 inches long

1 medium onion, sliced

3 cloves garlic, crushed (or minced)

4 tbsp. soy sauce

2 tbsp. vinegar

black pepper (powder or coarsely ground)

vegetable oil

Cooking Instructions:
Heat oil in a pan. Sauté garlic until light brown, follow with the onion until translucent. Sauté string beans for 2 to 3 minutes. Add soy sauce and mix well before adding vinegar. Let it simmer while stirring occasionally. Add black pepper just before the string beans get cooked.

Preparation and Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serving size: 2-3 persons

Boq and I like adding a pinch of chili flakes in every Adobo recipe to make it a little spicy. The chili flakes though complements the taste of meat Adobos more than vegetable Adobos.

Bon Appetit!