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.