An Ilonggo favorite: Pancit Molo

Named after one of Iloilo City’s districts, Pancit Molo is one of the more identifiable pancit dishes in the country.

It stands out uniquely among the noodle dishes mainly because of its non-traditional pancit look. It is a derivative of the Chinese wonton (filled dumplings) made into a soup.

One of the first questions always asked is "Where's the Pancit?". With pancit as a sort of "prefix" to the name of the dish, first timers always for the noodle-like component of the dish.

It's then explained that the pancit is actually the molo ball wrappers which is basically of the same mix as any pancit/noodles.

Pancit Molo is more of a household specialty and the recipe varies from household to household. From the meat filling mix to the soup, there could be a hundred and one ways of making pancit molo.

Pancit Molo Filling

I suggest to make this days before the actual cooking of pancit molo so that the flavours will be full.

Ingredients

1 kilo Ground pork
1/2 cup cup minced Garlic
1/4 cup chopped kusay, sibuyas na mura (Take note: kinchay is different)
2 pcs Tahure, salted soy bean cubes (It's like salt/soy sauce cured tofu)
Salt
Pepper
Soy Sauce

Procedure

In a bowl, combine ground pork, garlic, kusay and tahure. Mix well. Check out this blogpost for tips.
Season with a bit of salt, pepper nd soy sauce.
In a pan with heated oil, take a take portion of filling mix and fry. This will be your taste test - if the fried patty gets your thumbs up, then you can store the whole mix.
Divide the mix into 1/4 or 1/3 portions and wrapped in plastic for convenience
Store in the freezer for future use.

Aside from making a soup, you can also fry these meat mixture like a patty and become an instant ulam.

Pancit Molo Balls
Procedure

Make pancit molo balls using the meat mix and a Pancit Molo (wonton) wrapper. You can get this from wet markets or groceries. Outside the Philippines, it will be most likely found in Asian stores .
To wrap, place a small portion of the meat mix in one corner (quadrant) of the molo wrapper.
Take the corner and fold the wrapper towards the center tucking it under the meat forming a triangle with a wide base
Take the two sides of the wrap and fold it towards the center.Check out this photo. But be sure that your ball looks like a bishop's mitre or head gear like this.
Use water or egg white to "fasten" and secure the wrapped molo balls.

You can also deep fry these balls for a crunch Pancit Molo balls!

Pancit Molo Soup

Ingredients

Pancit Molo Balls
Chicken breast, shredded
Chicken broth and/or chicken broth cubes
Shrimps, shelled
Garlic, minced
Onions, sliced
Kusay,chopped
Salt
Pepper
Oil

Procedure

In a heated pan, place oil the fry garlic until crunchy. Set aside half for toppings.
Add onions, chicken breast and shrimps. I usually make pancit molo soup with lots chicken.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add chicken broth and or shrimp broth (Place shrimps shells in a strainer and then mash it in a bowl of hot water to bring out the flavour). Adjust flavour using broth cubes and more salt/pepper. But remember the balls will also give more flavour to the broth once added.
Add pancit molo balls and let it boil for 3-5 minutes. Or until the balls start to float.
Remove from heat and transfer in a bowl.
Garnish with fried garlic and chopped kusay.

Ready-to-cook Pancit Molo balls

It was only today that I remembered buying a pack of ready-to-cook pancit Molo. Locals are fortunate to buy them at groceries here saving them time, money and effort in the tedious preparation of pancit Molo. Anyway every pack of the RTC pancit Molo has the balls and the lang-lang . Its the balls that entice the buyers and the lang lang that "dictates" the price and weight. For this blog entry, I opted for the AR brand (150 grams for PhP 21) since they had the more photogenic combination at that time though I'm more partial to the Cares brand. Separating the contents makes you realize that what you actually bought but for that price, it's already a bargain, can be cooked in many ways and can serve 2-3 people. It is then up to you what you can make out from a pack or more. For this preparation, I used 2 chicken broth cubes and just estimated the amount of water. Upon taste test I added a pinch of salt, a dash of pepper and few drops of soy sauce. I boiled the lang

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