Kilawin Talaba

• 1 cup shelled oysters
• ½ cup vinegar (add water if it is too sour)
• 5 medium onions (peeled and cut)
• 2 cloves garlic (pounded)
• 5 pepper-corns (pounded)
• Salt to taste

Marinate the oysters with the rest of the ingredients for about 2 hours. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Serve the dish cold.

Kilawin

• ½ cup pig’s liver, sliced
• cups pork, sliced and boiled until tender
• ½ tsps. Black Pepper
• tbsps. Lard
• 6 segments garlic, pounded
• 1 medium sized, onion, sliced
• ½ cup vinegar
• ½ cup pork stock or the water which the pork was cooked
• Salt to taste

Soak liver in vinegar, salt and pepper for 5 minutes.

Saute the garlic in lard until light brown. Add the onion, continue to sauté until onion is done. Add the slice liver, stirring the mixture for about 3 minutes and pressing the pieces of liver with the back of a wooden spoon to express the juice while frying. Add the pork and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring in the same manner while cooking. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add vinegar diluted with water. Let simmer for at least 3 minutes.

Misua

• 1 small bundle of misua
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 1 clove chopped garlic
• 1 onion
• 3 cups water

Saute garlic in oil until brown. Add onion and sauté too. Add water. Salt and pepper to taste. When the water boils, add eggs whole, one at a time. Stir a bit. Break misua into 3 inch lengths and add into the pan. Simmer a bit then serve hot.

Pork Inihaw

• 1 kilo pork
• vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic
• Black pepper (grounded)
• Soy sauce
• Salt

Cut pork into desired serving pieces and soak these in a mixture of vinegar, chopped garlic, ground black pepper, salt and toyo. Drain off liquid and roast over live embers of charcoal or on a range broiler or grill.

Nilagang Baka

Nilagang Baka or Beef Nilaga is the all-time Filipino Beef Stew and family favorite!

• 1 kilo beef (for stewing) cut into chunk cubes
• 1 medium onion (quartered slice)
• pinch of salt and pepper
• 4 medium potatoes (quartered)
• 1 head of cabbage (cut into four)
• 1 head of Petchay (cut into 3)
• Black Pepper (whole)
• Patis

Place beef chunks in large pot, add water and bring to boil, let it simmer for about an hour or two until beef is tender.

As the beef simmers, a brown froth or scum will rise to the top. Scum is either the fat, blood or impurities from the beef, remove this brown froth with a ladle. The reason for skimming the scum is to end up with a clear broth which how Nilaga usually is- a tasty, clear beef stew.

Put whole black pepper and salt into the stock. You may opt to add beef flavour cubes or bouillon (These may be bought at oriental stores or spice stores).

Add potatoes and bring up to a boil to cook potatoes.

Add green beans then cabbage to simmer. Continue to cook until vegetables are tender, yet crisp.

Season with Patis to taste. Serve hot with rice!

Cooking Tip!
Skimming scum off the stock can be a tedious task and must be done before the water boils. Or else the scum will just get churn back into the stock making your broth cloudy.

An effective way is to use a Skimmer, a flat ladle with holes to catch the scum, but lets the stock out.

Classic Sinigang na Karne

The ultimate Filipino comfort dish, Sinigang comes in timeless varieties. This recipe is the classic Pinoy way. Our house in Pampanga used to have a sampaloc tree and everyone in the neighborhood comes over to pick tamarind for their sinigangs or sinampalokang manok.

This is Ima Sayong’s authentic tamarind, Sinigang na Karne recipe.

• ½ kilo cube cuts of beef with bone
• ¼ kilo spare ribs
• 1 onion, sliced in half
• 5 green tamarinds
• 2 medium-sized gabi cut into cubes
• 2 medium-sized radish, cut into slices
• 3 tomatoes, sliced
• ¼ small bunch of sitaw
• 10 pieces bataw
• Patis
• Salt
• Kangkong

Simmer beef and pork in enough water and cover. Add sliced tomatoes, onion and salt.

Cook tamarind in another pan by boiling till soft and the shells start to crack open. Mash and strain the tamarind for the juice and soft pulp. Pour juice into the main pot with the meat.

In the main pot, when the meat is tender, add the gabi and radish. When the gabi and radish become cooked, add the sitaw and bataw. When the vegetables are finally cooked, add the Kangkong, ideally two minutes before turning off the stove .

Season to taste with Patis. Serve hot!

Cooking Tips!
If you can’t get fresh sampalok fruit (tamarind), you may substitute it with tamarind seasonings and mixes from the oriental supermarkets. Personally, I would suggest Mama Sita’s Sinigang Mix as it uses natural ingredients. Other commercial products may contain artificial flavorings such as Citric acid to emulate the sour taste of tamarind.

Classic Chicken Tinola

• 1 Chicken, cut into serving pieces
• 2 cups green papaya, cut into serving pieces
• 1 inch cube ginger, pounded
• ½ tablespoon fat
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Sili leaves
• 1 onion, sliced
• Patis

Fry the garlic, ginger, onion, then add the chicken. Mix well and when partly done, add enough water to cook the chicken until tender. Add the papaya and cook until it is soft, but not mushy. Season with patis. Add sili leaves before removing from fire.

Cooking Tips!
On a budget, moms now substitute sayote / chayote over papaya. But the papaya is the traditional element of our pinoy tinola.

Adobo

1 Kilo Pork, cut into pieces about 2 inches long and 1 1/2 inches thick
1 head of juicy garlic, pounded
4 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons Soy sauce
1 teaspoon black pepper, grounded
1 tablespoon oil
2 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar

Put the pork in the pan. Add the vinegar, garlic, pepper, salt, soy sauce and water. Cover the saucepan. Cook slowly until meat is tender and most of the broth has evaporated and only 1/4 cup remains.

Drain and separate the pieces of garlic from the pork and fry in oil till golden brown. Add the pieces of the pork and fry until brown too. Add the broth and let simmer about five minutes.

There you have your basic Adobo. Serve hot!

My Mom the PinoyCook!

This blog is a tribute to my mom, her unwavering passion for food and the Kapampangan tradition of cooking. She is meticulous in all her food preparations and particular about spices and flavour.

She has received technical training in cooking and baking from the Ajinomoto kitchen in her 20s. But more importantly, she has learned her Kapampangan culinary skills from legendary fiesta cooks like the late Apung Gusti.