Latik. What is it? The best way to describe it is fried coconut milk curd. Pictured here is the latik as I took it off the fire. Leaving it in the hot oil will turn it darker…the perfect topping for a variety of Philippine rice cakes. (more…)
Here’s the round-up for Lasang Pinoy’s 20th Edition for the month of August titled, “Binalot - All Wrapped Up!” Thank you to everyone who took time off from their busy lives and sent in a contribution for this LP edition. We covered appetizers to dessert like we all planned it! I hope LP followers will enjoy this round-up as much as the host did.
This is a rice stick everyone in the Philippines knows. Filipinos like eating this with ripe mangoes, specifically, Philippine mangoes and none of the “manila” mangoes sold in the US. As every Filipino who has traveled outside the country will tell you - nothing beats Philippine mangoes for flavor and texture. And this Suman sa Ibos is perfect with our mangoes. This is salty and not sweet at all, a good contrast to a sweet mango.
Muruecos is the name of a common rice stick or suman as Filipinos call it. It was supposedly my grandmother’s favorite suman. I like it too and featuring it for Lasang Pinoy 20th Edition, Binalot made the effort certainly worthwhile.
Another entry for Lasang Pinoy’s 20th Edition titled “Binalot - All Wrapped Up!”. This dish is simply called “Binalot” by Bicolanos. It’s shrimp and coconut meat wrapped in gabi leaves then stewed and braised in coconut cream and herbs and spices.
This is the first of a series for the Lasang Pinoy Edition 20: Binalot, All Wrapped Up! I’m hosting this month’s event and while I thought it might be interesting, I had no clue what I was in for! This was actually the easiest dish I made so I’m posting it first.
The dishes I had in mind were all rather complicated and required dexterity, which I unfortunately lack….big-time. Then there was the scrounging around for ingredients and recipes. Then there’s the fact that these are recipes I’ve never tried to do on my own before. I even attempted a recipe I’d only heard of, but never tasted or saw before. Despite all the hassles, I enjoyed myself but am glad I’m done with the cooking.
Here’s a photo of the Ginataang Tilapia. It’s a whole tilapia unwrapped from its white bok choy encasement after stewing in coconut cream, onion, garlic and ginger:
On behalf of Filipino food bloggers everywhere, we are proud to announce the start of Lasang Pinoy’s 20th Edition: “Binalot, All Wrapped Up!” for the month of August 2007.
There are a myriad ways of preparing Filipino foods and a favorite is wrapping in leaves. The dish is referred to as “binalot” and while it usually means picnic lunches, Philippine cuisine does have a thousand and one recipes that uses this technique of food preparation. It gives you a peek into the Filipino’s practical nature, ingenuity, creativity and propensity to have fun - wherever and whenever.
As in most Southeast Asian countries, the most commonly used leaf is the banana leaf. The banana leaf is huge and has this thin, waxy outer layer that makes it perfect for wrapping even the sauciest of dishes. Another commonly used leaf are coconut leaves, folded and woven into all kinds of shapes and sizes.
But Filipinos don’t stop at leaves. There’s fresh bamboo cylinders, then there’s crepes and wonton wrappers which are both an influence of the Chinese population in the Philippines. Whether the wraps are thrown on the grill over hot, live coals, or perhaps boiled or steamed, the wraps leaves its own distinct aromas and flavors to the dishes encased within. The experience of unwrapping while all the steamy goodness and aromas fill your nostrils is definitely half the fun.
The possibilities are just endless and instincts tell me there are more wraps out there being used for binalot recipes than we know of. It’s probably as many as the 7,100 islands of our modest archipelago in the South China Sea and the Pacific.
Perhaps you’d like to feature the technique of folding and wrapping, that will definitely be interesting to readers from all over. Or maybe you have the best recipe for lumpia wrappers or your very own Philippine-inspired wrapped concoction using your own wrapper idea, that’s certainly welcome.
Whichever you choose to write about in your blog or someone else’s blog (this one included), Lasang Pinoy only requires that you submit your entries to the current host or the Lasang Pinoy team with your name, blog name and the link to your entry. For quick identification, title your emails, LP20: Binalot, and please use the icon shown here on your blog entries. As always, our icon for this month was creatively designed by Iska Montero and Mike Mina - maraming, maraming salamat! Thanks to everyone at Lasang Pinoy for your support too!
For this August edition, entries will be accepted starting today through the 1st of August 2007. Unless the host gets all wrapped up in some unforeseen circumstances, we hope to release the round-up within the first week of August…then we’ll call it a wrap!
Let’s get rolling and wrapping!
I didn’t have time to cook anything specially for this edition of Lasang Pinoy. I’ll do the next best thing and make a list of everything I’ve already featured here.
The Philippines was under Spain for over 300 years. The Iberian influence is evident in our everyday life yet we have become oblivious to it. While the influence is Spanish, it is an influence filtered through Mexico. Modern-day Filipinos who now inhabit every corner of the earth have taken this with them everywhere we’ve gone. There are certain words in our language, our names, the Catholic faith…then there’s the food. (more…)
The Filipino food bloggers’ event, Lasang Pinoy celebrates it’s first year anniversary this month of August. Congratulations and here’s to more participants and anniversaries!
This month’s theme, Definitively Pinoy, was not so easy for me. I wanted to do the Ilokano dishes “dinengdeng” or “pinakbet” that my mother does so well. I could, but it just wouldn’t be the same without the best ingredients. So instead, I decided to feature a very Pinoy food product everyone who grew up in the Philippines will remember from their childhood: Choc-Nut. Just the mention of this chocolate and peanut confection elicits happy memories for Pinoys. (more…)
Lasang Pinoy, the Filipino food blogger’s event, has a very interesting theme this month: Distinctly Pinoy with a Twang. Pinoy Fusion. Philippine cuisine, as we know it, is even now a fusion of various influences: Malay, European, American, Chinese and Arab influences….a veritable melting pot of the various cultures that left an impact on our own culture, our language and our traditions. The Filipino’s contemporary reality has made the mix even more fascinating. I can’t wait to see what my fellow Filipino food bloggers out in cyberbia will come up with.
Here’s a dish I like to call Italian Adobo. It’s similar to Chicken Scarpariello and a recipe I saw on a PBS cooking show hosted by Lidia Bastianich. I’ve made both recipes in the past and came up with this…it has more complex flavors while using an easier method of preparation. (more…)
Lasang Pinoy 11 has a theme that’s close to every Pinoy’s heart. Summer was always a great time to just enjoy being a kid. I decided to finally feautre a family favorite from my dad’s side of the family. He remembered it was usually served warm but my mother decided it was too refreshing and made it a very cold drink and this is how I remember it. Maybe you can try and guess what it is from the photo above, before moving to the next page…
A lot of our childhood summers were spent at a private beach that belonged to a maternal relative. The only “facility” in this private strip of beach tucked below the national highway from Olongapo City to the town of Subic was an old water pump, an enclosed toilet and a bathing area next to the toilet, no plumbing whatsoever. I’m sure you can clearly see this in your head if you’re a true Pinoy. We had free access to this beach year round and the caretaker would be waiting for us even without prior notice (or so I thought). Surprisingly, I cannot recall ever sharing our time there with any other of our Zambales relations… (more…)
Iska of Edible Experiments invited me to join this Filipino food blogger’s event now going on its 8th edition. I’m honored to be invited.
Before I started this blog, I was a regular lurker at other Filipino food blogs and thought the Lasang Pinoy Events were a great way to bring together virtual strangers with common roots and interests.
This Eighth Edition is called, “Kusinang Bulilit, Lutong Paslit” or “Children’s Kitchen, Children’s Cooking.” The focus is on families and childhood memories - already made and yet to be made.
The Filipino’s life is centered around his family - a cacophony of brothers and sisters, aunts and?uncles, grandparents and grandaunts, plus a myriad of cousins. Get-togethers and events are always celebrated with lots of food - sometimes as many branches of relatives represented at the get-together.
I do have a lot of memories of the kitchen, my grandmother, my mother and my Eldest Sister. Aside from my aunts and uncles on my mother’s side, they were my biggest influences who shaped my whole attitude toward food and cooking.
I’ve written a few pieces on this blog about my memories of learning from these women. You’ll find them here, here and here.
But for this particular edition, I’m making a Morcon dish which we prepared on occasion at my mother’s house. She was the one who told me all about this dish, it’s place in the family history (yes…honestly!) and all the “kwento” related to it.
She was the one who patiently taught me how to prepare the meat and how to roll it up, how to walk away so it will stew properly. She also allowed me to make my own mistakes when I got nervous rolling it up. That was the time she probably tried hardest to stop herself breathing down my neck.
Afterwards, when I noticed what I had done wrong, she’d tell me gently how I could do it another way - next time. There’s always going to be a next time with my mother.
This is a Filipino dish that’s ideal to serve when you have non-Filipino guests for dinner. It looks great at the dinner table and does not have exotic ingredients that the uninitiated or the timid may turn away from.
This is a family recipe which I have altered mainly in size and in finishing the sauce. I started this recipe without exact measurements, please use your individual taste to guide you.
