FILIPINO RECIPES – PINAKBET (ILOCOS)

My very first recipe post ever.  🙂

Good thing, vegetables in the market are starting to go back to its normal price. We can go ‘gulay festival’ again at home.  Woohooh!!! 🙂 The vegetables in our Pinakbet  for lunch today, was bought last night at SM Supermarket at Php 40.00. Pre-sliced and packed, but fresh though.  🙂

PINAKBET or Pakbet is a classic Filipino dish from the Ilocos region of mixed vegetables and pork stew.  It is popular all over the Philippines and variety of  ways to cook it was invented over the years.  Personally,  I love my Pakbet with tokwa (tofu) instead of pork and with no bagoong alamang (Filipino shrimp paste).  

Let me share here another way I cook Pakbet — with pork just like in the original recipe.  Bagnet, which is also popular in Vigan, Ilocos is a good alternative.  In my cheaper version, I love to fry the pork strips in its own oil and make it crunchy (like the bagnet). It matches really good with the veggies half-cooked. Not much of  cooked bagoong  and water, no MSG or commercially produced mixed seasonings, please. 🙂  But equally tasty. Yum. Yum. 🙂

 

PINAKBET or PAKBET RECIPE

Estimated cooking time is  35 minutes. Though the secret to a tasty food is in the slow cooking, I believe. 🙂

  

Ingredients:

• 1/4 kilo pork with fat, cut into small pieces or strips
• 2 Ampalaya (bitter melons) sliced to bite size pieces
• 2 eggplants, sliced to bite size pieces
• 5 pieces of okra, cut in two
• ½  medium sized Squash, cut to serving pieces
• 6 pcs. String Beans, cut into serving pieces
• 1 head garlic, minced
• 2 onions, diced
• 3 tomatoes, sliced
• 1 small ginger, crushed and sliced
• 4 tablespoons bagoong alamang
• 1 1/2 cup water
• Patis (fish sauce) and pepper to taste

Cooking Instructions:

• In a hot pan, put pork strips with little salt and mix. Little by little add water  and bring to boil until it dries up and  oil comes out.
• Fry in its own oil until brown and bit crunchy and cooked, Remove the pork from the pan and set aside.
• On the same pan, sautee ginger for awhile, then onions and garlic.
• Add bagoong and tomatoes,  mix until bagoong  gets cooked.  
• Pour in pork and vegetables and mix until vegetables are almost done.
• Add fish sauce or salt to taste.
• Pour in water and simmer for 10 minutes. Be careful not to get it overcooked.
• Serve hot with plain rice.

For life’s simple pleasures, please visit my  site — www.insearchofligaya.wordpress.com under the RECIPE category. Feel free to send in comments, queries or suggestions.  Thank you!  🙂