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.
Mine started off with a vegetarian squash, longbeans and coconut milk stew. Actually, I’ve featured this same Guinataang Sitaw and Kalabasa recipe in the past but the pot looked so invitingly good that day, I took another photo to show off here. There is a slight variation though – can you spot it? (more…)
This is a salad my mom came up with way back when I was in my teens. It’s a very Filipino salad using the commonly used vegetables, bataw or hyacinth bean and sigadillas, also called winged bean in English. This is just another was you can use these readily available vegetables, aside from adding it to the usual sinigang or pinakbet. So I hope you’ll give it a try.
I looked around for the English translation of this commonly used vegetable in the Philippines which we call “upo” and almost identified it as winter melon. Apparently, the winter melon is “kundol” back home. This vegetable pictured above is a bottle gourd. It’s a light and delicately flavored vegetable we often use sauted with pork and shrimps or dried fish.
A Chinese friend of mine said that a winter melon is a good vegetable to “…keep you cool when you’re heaty” and I found that description to be so accurate. Just like the winter melon, which is actually a gourd and not a melon, ”upo” makes a great soup in the summer or the tropics and perhaps does lower your body temperature, though I have no proof of that.
If you haven’t tried the Daikon Raddish, you’re missing something. It’s a root vegetable that’s also called a Japanese raddish, Chinese raddish and Satsuma raddish. Filipinos call it labanos.
This is more commonly sauteed with garlic, onions and tomatoes or cooked with sinigang. I hope this won’t freak anyone out, but we also mix in some beef spleen along with the saute. It’s delicious! (more…)
Longbeans and Squash cooked in coconut milk. This is plain “guinataan” unlike the spiced-up Squash Curry I previously made. Like the squash, I made this without any meats or shrimps. Normally, I’d put in some “alugbati” leaves but they’re unavailable where I am. I haven’t had alugbati in years…..ohhhh…what I’d give for another taste of that vegetable! (more…)
Got gout? Here’s something you can eat that won’t do you harm. It’s a Squash Curry that we normally would prepare with pork and/or shrimps. It’s just as tasty without the meat and quite healthy. Turmeric is a main ingredient in curry powder and is widely known to be good for gout. I didn’t use any fish sauce here, but you can if you want to. (more…)
Sounds almost like an expletive, doesn’t it? ”Cap Cai this, you!!!!” … excuse the weird sense of humor….
I made this dish to go with my siopao buns which, unfortunately, didn’t look worthy enough to be photographed. I thought a light vegetable dish would be a nice pairing with the sweetish buns. It was perfect. (more…)
Look at that sensuous steam rising from my pot of sauteed long beans! I took the photo while it was cooking because the colors were still so vibrant….but the steam muted the colors just a little bit. Oh well.
This is a sauteed, all-in-one dish of Asian long beans, what we Filipinos call sitaw. Sauteeing (guisado) a little meat with vegetables is a standard way of cooking everyday Filipino foods. You start with a hot wok, a little oil then throw in the mashed garlic and cook till they’re almost brown; follow with the onions till they’re translucent; the pre-boiled meat which is usually pork and/or shrimps; fish sauce; tomatoes, if the dish requires it; the broth or shrimp juice then finally, whatever vegetable you have on hand that day. It’s a quick and healthy way to prepare a meal and is also the basic way to start a variety of dishes including the popular pancit and vegetable lumpia. (more…)
Cauliflower – another vegetable I’m not exactly crazy about. Call it the lily-livered cousin of a broccoli….judging solely on its color that is. In fact, this vegetable is from the same family, Brassicaceae, as the broccoli. Despite its lack of coloration, it is a vegetable packed with vitamins and minerals that are all good for you.
Here’s a rather common and simple way of enjoying cauliflower on the dinner table. This is my own even simpler version of the recipe, minus the white sauce.
I found another interesting way of making mashed potatoes in another Filipino blog, Rice and Noodles. This is flavored with leeks and much lighter than what I’m used to, a pleasant change from the heavy butter and cream mashed potatoes I usually make
As I mentioned in a past entry on corned beef, the non-Filipino corned beef reminded me very much of our Nilagang Baka. Since we always put leeks in our Nilaga when I was a kid, I found this recipe really interesting. (more…)
Dinner tonight was a German-style meal any Greta or Liezl can be proud to call their own.
Unfortunately, veal was not available at the commissary this week so I had to subsitute my wiener schnitzel with breaded pork chops. But red cabbages are always available in any supermarket and that was enough to build on the German-style dinner I had in mind. There was a sale on Andre Spumante and Champagne that day we were at the base exchange so I grabbed a bottle of Spumante for $3.45 especially for this meal.
