FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Being tired of mixing kalkag with rice or garnishing it over laswa dishes, I decided to make torta to have some variety to my kalkag diet. I just mixed the available ingredients I could find that time; kalkag, egg, flour, bell pepper, tomato, onion, granulated seasoning and sesame oil . Frying them on a non stick pan took only a few minutes and then it was a feast for me and my 5 year old nephew who with ate bare hands, with soy sauce and calamansi dip. Namit gid!

With some meke noodles, I experimented on this non conventional batchoy with kalkag as the main ingredient. Kalkag is what Ilonggos refer to tiny dried shrimps that are lightly salted and sun-dried intact with its shell. It is used in flavoring pancit and in making kalkag flavored rice. ( Edgie Polistico's Philippine Food, Cooking, and Dining Dictionary ). With broth made from instant shrimp cubes and the addition of fresh egg, it seemed to be some kind of different batchoy - a lot different yet hints of familiarity. Next time there would be fried garlics, chicharon , chives and a lot more to "mimic" the original batchoy with a big twist.

This Sunday enjoy another gastronomic trip around Iloilo as The Pinoy Foodie enters it finale episode. Though I aint sure if it's really the finale but it is still about Ilonggo food and food ways that has marked the gastronomy of Iloilo. And it is still Lapaz Batchoy that leads all the "Tatak Ilonggo" cuisine and delicacies. Watch how we navigate the interiors of the Lapaz market to look for the real and authentic Lapaz Batchoy prepared how it was decades ago.  Get a dose of native Ilonggo coffee as Madge Cafe presents the coffee drinking habit of the Ilonggos. How about some binurong-pinamalhan nga bilong-bilong (moonfish or chabita) which is considered to be the Ilonggo "signature" fish. Comes with it is the kalkag (shrimp fry) -kusahos (local beef jerky) rice. Enjoy the native cooking Buto't Balat Restaurant has to offer on top of it's oasis-like ambiance. All these - shot in the heritage backdrop of the Iloilo river and its colonial architectur...

I just love the smell of these freshly toasted dried shrimp fry we call kalkag or alamang in Tagalog . Usually we just heat over in the pan with no oil since they easily get "cooked". Most of the time we just mixed them with rice, butter (or sesame oil) and seasoning for an instant fried rice. At times they become garnish over vegetable dishes or even end up as torta - mix in batter with vegetables then fried. This dried seafood is so versatile that only imagination limits the use of it. So what's next?

I was supposed to eat out today for blogging purposes but I woke up with a sore left foot and it kept me "indoors" the whole day. But as always there is no shortage of bloggable eats at home and good thing I found some kalkag in the fridge and made my own kalkag fried rice that was a good partner for with ginisang monggo. Kalkag is the local term for alamang or shrimpo fry (baby shrimps.) Usually we just heat them over a pan with no oil since for they easily burn. It is just served in a bowl and most of the time we just sprinkle them over rice. But for this one I used butter to quickly fry them, added some seasoning before I place my left over rice. It is already a meal on it's own how can I refuse ginisang monggo with kalabasa . At times, we also sprinkle kalkag over vegetable dishes like ginisang monggo for added flavour and as sahog.

I don't know how it came to be called as such but to Ilonggos, these are tiny dried shrimps. Methinks its actually shrimp fry or baby shrimps. Mostly used as garnishing over kalo-kalo (fried rice); however it can be of many uses depending on the imagination of the cook. One of the more common ways of using kalkag is making a torta of out of it. Just mix it with some seasoning, egg and flour then fry. Or just sprinkle them over laswa or any vegetable dish, as garnishing and mild flavouring as well. Most of the time though, I just heat them over a pan (without oil) or just mixrowave, for around half a minute and mix it with rice.