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!

Though bukayo refers generally to sweetened coconut strips, I can't help but refer this sweetened squash as such. Unlike the one I had before ( dulce de kalabasa ), this squash delight is easier to prepare. The squash was cut into thin strips then boiled in water with sugar and maybe with some vanilla. There's no mashing involved since the finished product still shows the kalabasa strips but just softer and a lot sweeter. Depending on several factors - squash variety, heat exposure, size, etc; the finished product would show variation too. For this particular recipe, the strips had a sort of "gelatiney" texture that one can still have a bite. The best way of serving the sweet is "fresh from the fridge" and could give haleyang ube a run for its money as halo halo topping or just another sweetened "vegetable".

Ubad sold at the Santa Barbara Public market. This is different from ubod but practically the same. Confusing? Well ubod is the pith or the center of a coconut tree while ubad is the pith of a banana tree. To have an ubad means a whole banana tree has been cut down and stripped to bare its center. So goodbye to banana fruit, leaves and heart. To prepare an ubad for cooking, first thinly slice, around half a centimeter, the cleaned pith (must be very white and sized like a fluorescent lamp to be sure of the quality.) . Then using a barbecue stick, remove web like fibers "interconnecting" these slices (these are actually hardened banana sap). When finished you can crush is into smaller pieces and add to your cooking. Ubad is mostly used as extender to the usual meat and vegetable dishes, the most famous of which is the ubad-kadyos-chicken combination. Another dish that goes well with ubad is the usual ginisang monggo . With pieces of pork and malunggay as ...

Kinilaw nga isda is a staple dish for the Ilonggos whether it's at home, in carinderia's or in most restaurants across Iloilo. The bounty from the sea prepared ceviche-style comes in many variations but the most popular is one having coconut milk to make the taste more subtle.  Kinilaw nga Isda (Ilonggo Version) Recipe Ingredients 1 kg. - Fresh Fish Dorado or Tanigue 240 ml. - vinegar 45 gm. - ginger, grated 30 gm. - garlic, chopped 100 gm. - onion, brunoise 100 gm. - tomatoes, brunoise 350 gm. - coconut crème 1 pc. - green mango, grated 3 pcs. - chilli , jalapeno 1 pc. - hot chilli - salt and white pepper Procedure 1. Simmer the vinegar for 20 minutes to remove the excess acidity. Cool 2. Marinate the cubed fish in vinegar for 15 minutes. Drain 3. Combine ginger, garlic, onion and tomatoes. 4. Combine this to the fish. Just before serving add the coconut crème. 5....

Ubad is the pith or the inner core of a banana stalk and usually it's chicken that makes a good partner. This dish is really simple to cook but the actual preparations may not be as easy. Monggo has to be soaked overnight to soften the beans. Ofcourse malunggay leaves have to meticulously removed from the stem. And ubad preparation involves, well just go this post . When everythings' ready just boil chicken and monggo then add seasoning (mostly chicken broth cubes and little salt). Then add ubad and finally manlunggay leaves when almost done. The resulting dish is a fiber rich and nutritious soup dish.

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...

One of my childhood comfort foods, its just what we Ilonggos call to what is known as pork/beef steak or bistek in tagalog. But for me, what we cook now tastes different. I can still vividly remember, big slices of beef tenderloin swimming in soy sauce-vinegar concoction.

A very simple soup often made to accompany fried or dried "sud-an". Just add balingon (dilis), tomato, and balunggay (malunggay) leaves to boiling water. Season with salt and after around 5 minutes, remove from heat and add beaten egg.

Rooting from the local dialect word mala meaning dry , pinamalhan is one of the many ways Ilonggos cook their fish and as the name suggests, it is cooked dry .... well almost. T here are no fancy ingredients, utensils nor methods in making this simple and versatile dish. (Very) Simple for the fact that you just put all the ingredients and cook until dry, and versatile that you can use almost any kind of fish, from those little lopoy to sapsap to bangus. Basic ingredients include vinegar, soy sauce, salt and other seasoning (depends on the cook) so as the additional ingredients like ginger, onion, tomato, peppers, garlic, chives, etc. It all depends how fancy you may want it to look and taste like but in the end it will always just be a simple dish. Pinamalhan Recipe courtesy of FOOD MAGAZINE Sept. 2008 Issue Lupoy as the recipe suggests is the collective name of those silvery fish that looks likes "fresh" dilis or balingon. There's no better of enjoying them other t...

It was too ripe to be used in cooking but too raw to be eaten as dessert. And since we do not usually make our own atchara (we have a suki atchara maker), I really thought the papaya halves I saw inside the fridge would end up in the trash bin. Surprisingly it became something I already tried but almost forgotten; papaya pickles! Though I wasn't involved in the preparation, it looks easy to prepare one. Just finding the right papaya would be challenging. It would have to be not too hard or soft, right color and texture. After slicing the papaya thinly, it was soaked for a few minutes in hot water. Then it's ready to be stored in a vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic, onion, ginger and pepper concoction, though variations can be made to suit your taste. Now you have an appetizer or a side dish during meal time.