Healthier Noodles With Vegetable Twist

miki

            Have you ever heard of “mikilungay” and “mikikalabasa” and “mikiampalaya”?

            In Cabugao, Ilocos Sur, Nemia  Sinabal is making not just a twist of noodles but it is making healthier and nutritional. Well, it’s simply adding the nutrition of vegetables like malunggay (moringga) and the kalabasa (squash) and ampalaya (bitter gourd) in her noodles through her Nimia’s Miki.

            No preservatives. Healthier packed with the nutrition value coming from these vegetables. This is not a noodles, its super-noodles.

Special Crispy Opia

So crispy and so crunchy, have you ever thought that a kind of our favorite hopia would be like this. This why many people—in local and even abroad – are so crazy to have this Special Krispy Hopia.

Actually, this krispy snack food made from the Ilocano “bellaay” or powdered rice have been here and cooked by the old folks long time ago particularly in Pandayan, San Juan, Ilocos Sur. Not until Engr. Arlene Singson ventured and made this available for the people longing for the taste of the rice crispy snack.

Jenny Priala, one of the cook of Lemar’s Food Product said the main ingredient is made from the bellaay combining the regular rice and the glutinous rice. Added with the sesame seed and a little bit of sugar, the crispy Krispy become a favorite.

How To Make Tableya

ilocano tableya

Tableya is the simplest form of chocolate. The original color as never alters with artificial food coloring. The original taste was there as it was not added with milk or any kind of nuts. Except for a little bit of sugar to sweetened, tableya is the original form of chocolate made directly from cacao fruits traditionally.

Cacao fruits now are not just kind of fruit that children sipped the nectar because of the sweetness then throw away the seeds. People now know the fruit is the best and only source of chocolate. So throwing them elsewhere is not a good thing to do. Make it into tableya.

How to make tableya the traditional method?

Bunog, The Ilocano Fish Favorite

Bunog fish and the dishes include paksiw and fried.

Bunog is a kind of freshwater fish commonly found in the shallow parts of river, lakes and ponds.

The fish usually grow up to around 4 inches when maturity but can be harvested when it reaches 1 inch or more. The fish also have tiny fish scales but it’s fleshy specially the upper body. The stomach part becomes bulky and that’s because of eggs in it. That would be the best part to it.

There are many recipes for bunog but Ilocanos usually cooked this as pinaksiw or cook in vinegar with onions, pepper, salt, ginger. This is common recipe because it’s a fast cook dish. Folks love this goby fish because of the roe that makes the tummy bulker. When cooked as pinaksiw, the roe make it so tasteful that they choose the tummy part to eat.

How To Make Ata-Ata Dish

ATA-ATA dish

Ata-ata is an Ilocano food made from very lean meat of either cow or carabao. For common Ilocano meat eaters this is first class meat dish especially when added with the so called "papait".

The meat is thoroughly cleaned and is cut into desired sizes, sometimes is smaller cube sizes. Yes sir the meat will not be cook but just let the vinegar or calamansi to sterilize and mint the meat.

Add some ingredients like chopped white onions, pepper, ginger and other seasoning that you want to add.

Papait is signature to Ilocano ata-ata dish because of the bitter-sweet taste of the meat.

Of course, though considered to a good food in every meal but the best serving of ata-ata is with favorite wine or beer.

Twist For Miki Noodles That Is So Good For Merienda

That one bowl—one big bowl, enough for anyone to be full. The good thing is that its nutritious to make you health and active. This is the miki being sold in one of the snack house in Candon City. It’s a flat noodles with a twist.

The noodle is made from flour and added with the healthy vegetable like the squash fruit. It will be served with the thick orange-colored soup in the large bowl. The soup alone will make you full and the taste is yummy.

Stir-fried Water Spinach With Pork Meat

Water spinach or kangkong as we popularly known this green leafy vegetable is such a hit in Filipino meal. It's one of the easiest way to provide meal in table without even spending big amount of money. Sometimes, you just have to go to rice field or in the shallow river and gather the good quality leaves of this vine vegetable.

There have been many dishes which can be cook in as short as 5 minutes: bland, adobo, pinaksiw or as special ingredient to sinigang. But of course, one of the most popular dish is the ginisa or the stir-fried kangkong.

Native Chicken With Native Ampalaya Leaves

Perhaps one of the best dish for chicken is tinola. But people in northern Philippines cannot appreciate the taste of tinola if its not native chicken.

Compared to the so called 45 days chicken, native is meaner and tastier. The reason is so simple, because native chickens are raised in the backyard and eat with grass and other natural food and not grown with feeds and other growth enhancing product.

And speaking of tinola, its not just any ingredients to be included in the dish but you have to choose the young leaves of native ampalaya leaves. That bitterness is the best bitter taste in vegetable. Just don't overcook the leaves and you find it the best in soup of the chicken.

Well of course anyone can opt with papaya,  malunggay and sayote for chicken tinola but this leaves makes it so different.

Try it in your tinola dish.

Leddeg, The Freshwater Snail

Ilocano call it as "leddeg"-- the freshwater edible snail commonly found in freshwater area like ponds, lakes and ricefields. Darker in color and have longer tails compared to other escargot like the golden variety.

Season to gather them starts when the raining season comes. Usually thriving in shallow water with muddy soil people gather them by their hands.

The gathered snails are not directly cook as it need to be cleaned and detoxified by letting them live in a pan with clean water.

Cooking the snails can be fried, in fresh coconut milk and the Ilocano way which is "dinengdeng".

Dinengdeng usually have lots of water added with ginger, onions and local vegetables like string beans, squash blooms, white turnip fruits among others.

Taste can be sweet to the tongue of Ilocano. Well, the taste could be differ from other people. This is good for lunch and dinner.

Marabukakaw, Spotted Hard Shell Crab

marabukakaw in sinigang

In Ilocos we call this crab “marabukakaw”—a kind of hard shelled brown crab with three spots in its back. Commonly found in the rocky part of coastal in Ilocos it is called “camilo” in Batangas (as what I search online). But aside from these names, I could not get the English name except it’s a hard shelled 3 spotted crab.

Hard as may it seem with its brown shell but it’s a delicious food among Ilocanos particularly in coastal areas. It’s a rare you can find this crab in the market in our place. This is usually being sell by the fish vendor who roam around the villages.

Just like any crabs the most common for this food is sinigang. Of course it can also be cook over the heat we call “tinuno”. There are other recipes but this is the common for this crab.

Sinigang, the tamarind based soup is usually for homecook. You just need the usual ingredients which is tamarind fruit (for sour tasting), onions, young leaves of non-hot chili or kamote and of course the salt and other seasoning.

Cook as sinigang. Just like that… just add the marabukakaw or hard shells crab and serve in the table. As I have said, the shell is hard so you need some knives to crack the shell from the bottom.

The rock may be hard as rock but the taste is yummy as… well, seafood. You going to love it.###

How To Cook Sapsapuriket

sapsapuriket

Sapsapuriket is an Ilocano cuisine of native chicken in its blood. Using the coconut milk and other ingredients, this very Ilocano dish is famous during special occasions in homes like birthday celebrations or anniversaries.

During the Tobacco Festival 2017 of Candon City fiesta, a cooking contest was held and one of the dishes to be prepared was sapsapuriket. The Farmers Association of zone 3 composing Alex Almazan, Ismael Lozano and Elmer Perez presented this recipe of sapsapuriket.

What you need?

1 native chicken with its blood

¼ butter

1 piece onion

1 ginger

3 cloves garlic

Ground pepper

Coconut milk

Seasoning

How To Cook.

1.       Prepare all the ingredients

2.       Dissolve the butter in small heat.

3.       Sauté the chicken meat with garlic, onion and ginger until the color become reddish.

4.       Add small amount of water and let it boil making the meat tender.

5.       Add the coconut milk.

6.       Let it boil until the water decreases.

7.       Add the chili pepper.

8.       Add the chicken blood and stir thoroughly.

9.       Sautee to taste with salt and seasoning.

10.   Ready for plating

ramanam

Sinigang Na Malaga In Camias

 

sinigang na malaga in camias

Sinigang is an all-time favorite. And Ilocano have our own way of making this ginger based sour soup to be special. Doing it with camias fruits instead of tamarind or vinegar.

Camias should be no problem in Ilocandia because household have their own camias tree in the backyard—almost every home. Malaga a brackish water fish which usually catch in a part where the saltwater and freshwater meets.

The malaga fish is one of the favorite fish among the locals because of its soft and tasty flesh. It has tiger-like printed skin colored gray and back. It’s quite expensive because it’s hard to catch and harder to grow. But once in the table, it’s a hit.

Bahay Na Bato of La Union

many faces in Bahay na Bato

Luna, La Union. In this remote town of this province you can find one of the tourist destinations being visited by thousands of tourists because of its unique man-made attractions and the millions of pebbles in the beach. Located in western part of north La Union is the tourists hub called Bahay Na Bato or Stone House

The fusion of natural beauty of the nature comprising of the coasts of Luna town that boost the beach of millions of pebbles that decorated the more than 5 kilometer shoreline of  villages here. Then the one of kind collections of arts from the imaginative thinking of the Korean artists who carved many animals and creatures in the unique wood formations, big stones and hardened lime stones.

wood carving

The arts of stone sculpture that carve many things like artistic formed of faces, animals like head of gorilla, crustaceans among others.

head of gorilla

Also the wood carvings from dried roots and trunks of a tree that sculpted to an artistic heads of dragons, grottos and other religious images and other animals.

head of the dragon

The latest attractions are the antique collections of things used by farmers, fishermen, carpenters, World War 2 memorabilia and many more.

 You think you can spend your 1 hour of roaming and enjoying the moment in Bahay Na Bato? Think again. Your two hours might not enough for you and roam around the not so wide area of this venue. Besides, many of things here are really appreciable and a mere seeing and touching them is not enough. You have to know the stories of each art in the park.

So, if you love nature and arts, gas your car for one hour ride from national highway of Bangar and enjoy the arts and beach pebbles.###

Cassava Bibingka

Bibingka is one of the famous delicacies in the Philippines. Be it made with cassava or glutinous rice. It’s part of the tradition of the Filipino that during special occasion and party, there should be bibingka in the table.

Cassava or as we call it "kamoteng-kahoy" is one rootcrop easily found in the country in any region. The abundance of the said rootcrop resulted to many local delicacies.

What we need to bake now is cassava bibingka.

What you need:

7 cups of grated cassava

3 pieces of coconut

2 cups of sugar

1 cup of evaporated milk

Butter

Banana leaves

For Toppings

1         cup of coconut milk

2 spoonful of flour

1 cup of condensed milk

2         eggs

3         grated cheese

PREPARATIONS

Thorough beat and mix  the eggs and sugar

Add other ingredients and then put  in the pan with the banana leaves

Add together the coconut milk and flour

Add the condensed milk

Cook in low heat until become sticky

Add the egg yolk and mixed together

Cook thoroughly up to 5 minutes

Add to the baked bibingka

Put some cheese

Cooked until it turn to color golden brown.

Ramanam.

Tinungbo, Cooking Rice In Bamboo

Tinungbo is an early Ilocano way of cooking rice. There could never be any race or tribe to cook rice like this but this traditional way of cooking have been here particularly to the race living in the northern part of the Philippines. Well, of course, when it comes to survival, you may have experienced cooking rice the way we cook it.

Tinungbo is simply cooking the rice using the bamboo. That's it, no more than that. No secret ingredients and no special way of cooking the rice. Just like you are not just using the rice cooker or the pan to cook the rice. There is bamboo variety called 'bolo' that best suit to cook the rice grains. The bolo bambo have thinner skin which help the rice to cook faster.

Secret Of Ilocano Pinakbet

Think of vegetable and the best vegetable dish to come to the mind of Filipino is pinakbet. This culinary tradition has been part of everyday living of early Filipino table.  Pinakbet is a Filipino food so famous in the Philippines.

Ilocano own and distinct taste comes in two things: first, using the bagguong (fish sauce) instead of salt; second is using the bagnet (deep-fried pork meat) instead of just meat. Bagguong is not a surprise ingredient for Ilocano pinakbet because almost all their dishes required this as tastier.

Ingredients: common locally grown vegetable is a must and that include eggplant, okra, string beans, squash, bagguong, bagnet, ginger, onions, garlic, tomato and 1 cup of water.

Preparations:  Fry the garlic, onions and garlic.  Add the vegetables mixing together.  Add water and then the bagnet.  Put some salt and seasoning and tomato then bring into boil.  Serve while it is hot.

Though bagnet is highly recommended for the distinctive taste of the meat but because its availability in every day is only in Ilocandia, you may opt to use chicharon-bulaklak (pork cracklings) as substitute. But if it’s still not possible you can use the stereotype pork meat. Or better yet, use lechon as meat part of your pinakbet—just don’t include the sauce.

Enjoy.

Ramanam.

How To Make The Best Kilawen

Ilocano food, Kilawen

Kilawen is an Ilocano favourite recipe served from a raw/half cooked meat of goat, cow, pork and fish. Usually it has lots of onions, onion leaves, pepper, ginger and other spices. The meat is cooked not by fire but through the acidity of organic vinegar or juice extract of citrus fruits like calamansi.

But speaking of kilawen, it’s most kin is goat’s milk.

How Okra Can Help Against Diabetes?

What we eat is how healthy we are.

It's better to better to eat vegetable.

But do you like okra?

Okra is one of the not so popular vegetable in the Philippines. Not popular because kids and some adults just don’t like it because of its slippery juice or extract and the taste just so ordinary.  Okay, maybe this is one of many reasons why okra or lady finger vegetable or English term—is  seldom served in the table. 

However there are some dishes that okra is must, for instance, pinakbet (vegetable mixes). Pinakbet will not be complete without this elongated green veggie.   

Another popular dish is the grilled okra which is easy to do because, well, it’s grilling. One famous dish is the Okra Salad.

Now let’s talk how okra can help you with your diabetes.

Hmm, can it really help to cure the diabetes?  Well, not everybody know this fact but based from an article I read in one magazine, okra or the lady finger can be a good medicine against this one of the most feared disease in the world.

If so, what should we do with okra?  Should we eat the vegetable not cook?  Or could be it the boiled roots or leaves that can heal the disease.  The answer is not.  But yes, it’s the vegetable fruit that can become the medicine.

How? To lower the blood sugar in our body, you need to harvest the fresh okra fruit.  Sliced the fruit and soak it overnight in a glass of water.  In the next morning, drink the water where the lady finger was soaked.  Do this every morning and with the prayer, this maybe the answer of your diabetes.

photo is mine

Sweet Coated Peanut

What comes to your mind when you speak of peanut—of course, the famous peanut butter. Perhaps, the star among the products made from this root crop.

What about other products like the sweet coated peanut? Have you ever had this? Did you like the sweetness and the yumminess of the food?

The town of Santa Lucia in Ilocos Sur’s number agricultural product is peanut. So aside from the usual boiled peanut we like to munch, peanut butter is one of the homemade delicacies they include in their One Town One Product. But of course, one product that they are selling is the sweet coated peanut.

Here is one of peanut delicacy that you would love to have in your relaxing time or when you are writing in your laptop or just playing app game in your mobile.  We called it ‘sweet coated peanut’. 

Ingredients:

3 cups of peanut peas

2 cups of sugar

2 cups of water

A little bit of margarine

Vanilla and salt.

Preparation:

Mixed thoroughly all together the peanuts, sugar and water. 

Cook and until syrup becomes sticky. 

Mixed the vanilla. 

When the sugar is coating in the peanut, minimized the heat. 

Add the margarine and don’t let stop mixing until the hotness cools down.

Serve.

Peanut will always be one of our best finger foods.  I mean finger food when we pick the food with our fingers and directly put it into our mouth and then chump it.  The peanut is one of the classic food of our finger food.

Okra Salad

Okra is rich in fiber, vitamin B6 and folic acid.  And according to a mazagine I read in magazine, these substances can help to destroy the diabetes strain in our body.  Yes, this green veggie which is slippery and elongated can help with our wellness.

Wanna try it? What? You don’t like the taste.  Okay, maybe we can do it like in the famous dish named Okra salad. You don’t like how it slip into your tongue, oh you can deal with it. Just think of okra that is full-packed of minerals and vitamins that can make you healthy. Isn’t that big reason for you to  love okra or lady finger.

Here’s what you need. You will need vinegar, brown sugar, iodized salt, pepper, sliced tomato, and sliced onion and do not forget the young okra vegetable.

Preparations:  Put water in the pan and bring into boil.  Cook okra but try not to overcook to not spoil the taste.  Then soak the cook okra in the vinegar mixed with brown sugar, pepper, and the salt.  Do not forget to add the sliced tomato and onions.

No sweat cooking, that is easy.  Does it taste good? It really tastes good, believe me.

Ube Overload

ube rootcrop

Ube or purple yam might just be a low profile root crop from the hill side of the remote areas. But you may also want to know that this thing is one of the coolest product now of Ilocandia.

The transformation… the hairy and weird crop in purple color come products that is so yummy, appealing, bubbly and so important ingredient to other amazing foods.

Thanks to the town of Sugpon, Ilocos Sur who made this as their One Town One Product or OTOP. The potential was revealed and the break for this unknown thing was given and now it just became a superstar food.

Purple Yam Overloaded

ube halaya

This is ube halaya, the best delicacy made from this rootcrop. The color is natural, the taste is natural and the nutrients ar natural. Halaya is the fusion of the mashed purple yam added with powdered milk, sweetness from sugar. No doubt about this, halaya is the star in the party when serve in the table. This could be gone in 60 seconds. Hey, it’s appealing.

ube wine

Speaking of wine—try ube wine. I know you haven’t heard this wine before, so with many of reader of this blog. But this not so popular wine through the fermentation might hit in market if only given the right processing and marketing. Why? Because it’s unique, one of a kind tastes of purple yam as wine. A violet drink in the clear glass is an amazing moment.

ube powder

Ube powder. Oh yeah, this is not a good, this is an ingredient. But I have a question; have you ever taste an ube ice cream? If you are a Filipino, sure you do because this has been a favorite from the ice cream makers in the country. This is because of this powder is the magic of that delicious ice cream.

You see, ube powder could go a long way: ice cream, cake, donuts, juicers… and many more. Thanks to this powder of violet.

Bagguong

Bagguong, that is synonymn to Ilocano taste. You may call it fish sauce or fish paste but we prefer it that name... bagguong. No

bagguong

dinengdeng (local vegetable in fish sauce based that has squash blossoms, bamboo shoots, saluyot or jute leaves, string beans added with dried fish or shrimps) will be served withiot baguong.

But Ilocano do not just use fish sauce to soup base vegetables recipes but also to some recipes that may or may not necessary to bagguong. Sometimes this is included in some coconut milk base dishes, some meat recipes called binagguongan and also some dip for some fried dish mixed with vinegar, calamansi or lemon extract.

Shanghai Vegetable

Shanghai is meat,lumpia is vegetable. Both in wrapper. Combine them together and you got the Lumpiang Shanghai vegetable. Perfect for merienda and even for meals. Perfect also to parties in the house.

shanghai vegetable

Packed with the nutrients of vegetables and the meat, this is a healthy for us. Of course, sometimes we just need the right kind of oil and the limited seasoning to be even more healthy food.

Ingredients:

½ kilo of ground pork meat

1 kilo of squash

½ kilo of upo

¼ kilo of eggplant

¼ kilo ampalaya

3 spoonfuls of patis

Iodized salt

Garlic and onions

6 wrapper

For Sauce: catsup, Mang Tomas or vinegar

Exotic Sea Shell Food Called Marumpi

Cone shells could be one of your not choice of sea shells because of threat to poisoning which some people think so. But not to some Ilocano living in coastal areas because this is one of the best shells they want for lunch. Especially the one we call “marumpi”.

marumpi or cone shell sinigang

Marumpi is what we call to a kind of large sea snail commonly found in the sea shore of Ilocandia.  Marumpi is the local term for the shell called cone shell.  The flesh is edible as I have already tasted. As far as I know, this is not considered endangered species. 

Sea shells and snails are just common among the fishing village in our place. During low tide, common scene among the people, children and adults alike, are in the shore picking local shells like lasuit, baka-baka, and even bura and marumpi. Someone can easily pick these shells in the grassy and sandy part of the shore.

Marumpi is commonly found in the deep shore of

Fried Garlic, Pickled Garlic

How About Some Garlic?

It has been taught to us by our grandmothers that garlic is not just good spice for the recipe in our home cook but a medicine to cure different illnesses. Now this is not just traditional belief or superstition by our forefathers told to their children. Modern science halve already proven the medicinal health effect through their studies.

fried garlic

Of course not, garlic is not just the perfect weapon against manananggal and aswang threatening to consume our heart and other internal organs.

It has been told over and over again, including my mother that garlic is one of the best medicines for cardio-vascular diseases like heart attacks because of hypertension and high blood pressure. The supplementation of garlic clove is one of the best known to the name.

But we don’t want that knockout taste that is so sour and yucky to our tongue and mouth. We eat one or more to cloves and it just like causing injury to our mouth.  So while we are praying for the

The Filipino Lemonade

When I was still a child and sick, I remember my mother getting 3 to 5 calamansi fruit and extract the juice, mixed a tablespoon of sugar or honey and let me drink it up to the last drop. She said it is good for me to get well soon. Of course I didn’t know it’s the Vitamin C that is helping me to get well. All I know is the sweet taste from the calamansi or citrus fruit.

calamansi juice

But aside from this reason, calamansi juice have been favorite in the rural village because calamansi is common in Ilocos region; second,  the easy preparation of juice drink. Just like that. Because eating one fruit is not acceptable because of the sour taste. Aside from juice drink, only few recipe that need the juice extract.

Jumping Salad

Have you ever tasted jumping salad? Or do you know what is jumping salad?

Of course, literally it means the salad is jumping. In food, this is a live shrimps jumping from the bowl while being served in the table.

freshwater

This food is distinction for Filipino particularly of Ilocano in northern Philippines.  This is one of the favourite food of many but not actually a salad recipe but a raw food of marine species particularly of shrimp family—saltwater shrimps, seawater shrimps or maybe even vanamei.

Jumping salad is a recipe for the average size of live shrimps that reacted when poured with vinegar, salt or any citrus fruit like calamansi or lemon. .

Cassava Pie

Cassava Pie

Cassava or as we call it kamoteng-kahoy is one of the best root crops for Ilocano and Filipino. In fact many delicacies have been cook by our forefathers and passed unto this generations. The tradition lives on for delicacy because of this root crop and other root crop cook into a delicious snack or merienda.

Ilocanoso delicacy never fails to make us crave for more. Aside from bibingka, the fusion of this ingredient to other ingredient mold into a delicious food. Just like the delicacy made from cassava or the cassava pie.   

The Legendary Rice Coffee

Ilocano's favorite coffee was not the expensive brewed coffee or the quick 3-1 coffee.

Think of coffee in Ilocandia and you will come to the traditional rice blend coffee. The coffee that was produced from rice milled grains that was charcoaled and pulverized and then mixed in the boiling several minutes. The sweets could be the muscovado or you may choose the sugarcane candy called "balikutsa".

rice blend coffee

Remembering the old coffee was the grandmother who wakes up very early in the morning, gather firewood and cooked the rice until it turn as very black or charcoal consequently pulverizing it.

But comes the new age was also the forgetting of this tradition of morning. Because of the instant coffee and the famous coffee shop and chain.

Pasingaw

pasingaw

Pasingaw

Pasingaw is another rice delicacy made from glutinous rice flour. It is made to sticky just like the kapet-kapet and calamay. Though not so popular just like other rice delicacy but it really good to include during special occasions.

Ingredients:

1 kilo of glutinous rice (pulverized)

White sugar

Ladek  (coconut granules from cooked oil)

Young coconut meat (grated)

Banana leaves

Best Merienda Ever

merienda

Think of best snacks for Ilocano and three things would come to mind, first is the empanada, second is okoy and third is the dip onions in sugarcane vinegar.

Empanada, empanadita for smaller version, is the crunchy wrap of crispy fillings of meat, egg, mongo beans and other vegetable. Deep fry to make it crunchy and served with that vinegar in onions slices with salt.