STEAMED RICE WITH CHICKEN AND CHINESE SAUSAGE

Steamed Rice with Chicken and Chinese Sausage is what I call a meal in one. This is a dim sum dish in most Asian countries, usually served on an individual bowl w/ a lid, when you open it you get the whiff of all the ingredients, oh, I can’t even begin to describe it, all I can say is.... it’s heaven!!! I’m just baffled as to why this is not served in dim sum restaurants here in America. I’ve been to NY, San Francisco and Chicago Chinatown but haven’t seen this dish in the dim sum menu. Pls. let me know if ever you’ve eaten this at a dim sum restaurant and I’d love to go to that place and eat there!!!!

I have almost forgotten that this is one of my favorite until I saw Ming Tsai made this on his show East Meets West few years ago. Since then I have made some tweaking to his recipe and I’ve been making this to fix my craving. What I’m blogging is not the traditional rice that’s used for this dish. I’m using sticky purple/black rice called “Tapol” in the Philippines. This variety of rice could be used both in savory and sweet dishes. The end product was still delicious and the color of the rice definitely made the dish more appetizing, in my opinion.

I highly recommend that you give this a try. But it’s imperative; should you decide to give this a whirl, pls. don’t use instant rice. I don’t have anything against them but it will just not work w/ this dish. Also don’t be intimidated w/ the ingredients you can always substitute them.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
3 chicken thighs, boned, ½ inch dice, with skin on
1 T soy sauce
½ T sugar
½ T sesame oil
½ C sliced scallions
½ T cornstarch
1 T minced ginger
4 lapchang (Chinese sausage) cut ¼ inch on a bias *I want a lot of these.
3 C white rice, washed until water is clear, drain ( I used “Tapol” )
1 t salt
1 T oil
6 C chicken stock or water

Combine the chicken, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, cornstarch, scallions, ginger and sausage and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.

In a pot, combine the rice, salt and oil. On high heat, sauté briefly then add the stock to at least 1 ½ inches above the rice. (My Moms’ secret to a good ratio of water and rice to achieve perfect steamed rice is to deep the middle finger until it touches the top part of the rice and water should cover half of the finger, does it make sense?)

Bring to a boil then reduce to medium heat and simmer until the stock has evaporated to the level of the rice.

Add the chicken mixture, cover and cook for another 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

Stir well, cover, and reduce heat to very low. Add more stock if necessary.

Cook for an additional 10 minutes, then turn heat off.

Let stand for 5 more minutes to allow carry over cooking.

Serve on individual bowl and chopsticks.

TAPOL- A PHILIPPINE BLACK/PURPLE STICKY RICE. THEY CAN BE COOKED BOTH IN SAVORY OR SWEET DISHES. THIS VARIETY IS INDIGENOUS TO ASIA.

The rice turns red/purple when cooked.

Lapchang- Chinese Sausage (I love this fried too)

TANDOORI CHICKEN

Ingredients:

8 chicken drumsticks
2 T lemon juice
1 salt
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic
1 t coriander
1 t cumin
1 t chili powder
2 T paprika
Red Coloring (depends on how red you want your chicken)
1 t garam masala
½ t ground black pepper
1 lemon, sliced
1 sm onion, sliced

Instructions :

Cut/Slice chicken on both sides.
Rub chicken with lemon juice and sprinkle with salt.
Blend all spice ingredients until incorporated.
Marinate chicken in ref over night or 4 hours.
Bake or grill chicken until cooked.
Garnish with lemon slices and onion slices or cucumber and tomatoes.

Tandoori Marinade

Tandoori Chicken with Aloo Saag

ALOO SAAG (POTATO AND SPINACH CURRY)

Ingredients:

1 bunch of fresh baby spinach
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 fresh green chilli, chopped fine
2 thin slices of fresh ginger
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks (I used yukon gold)
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 T garam masala
1 tablespoon canola oil (for saute)
Salt to taste

Saute garlic, onions, ginger and pepper. Add the chopped potatoes, cook until brown. Add little water if needed.

In the meantime, wash and rinse the fresh spinach repeat process until very clean. Chop spinach into small pieces.

Add the spinach into the potatoes. Stir in all the rest of the ingredients. And simmer for few more minutes.

Add salt and pepper to your taste.

Aloo Saag served with Dosas, Basmati Rice.

DARING COOKS CHALLENGE PART 2 - INDIAN DOSAS

As i have mentioned in my DARING COOKS CHALLENGE PART 1-INDIAN DOSAS I made dosas for the second time and challenged myself further to make a different kind of batter. I used the same filling and chutney so pls. check my Part 1 for the recipes. Yes, i made it again because we liked it.

I used AP flour with my first challenge and i was satisfied, this time i challenged myself to make my own batter from scratch, using the lentil/brown rice combination. It's definitely a make ahead thing. It took me 2 days to make the batter, from soaking both the lentil and brown rice to grinding them,to the fermentation.

The lentil/brown rice is way better. It had a nutty flavor and was crispy inspite of the coarse grind. I will grind my lentil and rice finer next time, maybe i can make the paper dosa! Nothing wrong w/ challenging myself again ha!ha!. It was worth doing this dish the second time around. Also i made aloo saag as a side dish.

I know there are a lot of versions to this kind of dosa batter, some calls for more than 2 kinds of grains and other ingredients. I decided to work on what i already have, brown rice and lentil.

Wash and rinse the grains. Fill each bowls w/ enough water to cover the grains. Cover the bowls and soak overnight.

Use a food process or use a blender to grind the grain mixture. Add little water. (I will be grinding this batter a little bit further to make the grains fine the next time i'll make this).

Cover and keep the batter in a warm place for fermentation about 5 hours. I kept mine beside the refrigerator. It should at least be foamy on the top. The batter should be ready for cooking or keep the rest in the ref for further use. Speaking of which, i still have extra batter in the ref waiting..i wonder how else could i use the batter aside from dosas. Suggestions will be appreciated.

Heat a nonstick pan or griddle with little canola oil until hot but not smoking. Pour a ladleful of batter and spread immediately into a circular motion just like you would a pancake or a crepe.
Flip the dosa over when the edges starts to curl up and turn golden.
Cook the other side for few more minutes.
The dosa should be crisp and golden in color.

These Dosas were crispy and has the nutty flavor. I prefer this than the AP flour batter.

I served my Part 2 Indian Dosa with Aloo Saag and Tandoori Chicken.

MUTTON ROGAN JOSH (MUTTON CURRY)

This is the side dish to my Daring Cooks Challenge-Indian Dosas Part 1. We finished the Indian dinner w/ Kheer.

Ingredients:

3 lbs mutton
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 inch piece of fresh root ginger, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp each paprika, turmeric and chili powder
4 cardamom pods, crushed
salt To taste
1 cup plain yogurt ( I used Greek)
2 cups canned chopped tomatoes
fresh cilantro to garnish. (I forgot to garnish when i took the pics=:)

*Heat the oil in a large heavy based frying pan and add the onion, ginger, garlic, spices and a good pinch of salt. Fry over a low heat for 5 minutes, or until the onions have softened.

*Add the meat and 2 tablespoons of the yogurt. Increase the heat to medium and cook for 4 minutes or until the yogurt is absorbed. Repeat with the rest of the yogurt.

* Increase the heat to high, stir in the tomatoes and 1 cup of water and bring to a boil Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until the meat is tender, stirring occasionally and adding more water if the sauce becomes too dry.

*Uncover the pan, increase the heat to high and cook stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Garnish with cilantro. And a dollop of sour cream.

VERMICELLI KHEER -AN INDIAN DESSERT

This is one of the most common desserts in India. It is very quick and easy to prepare. This pudding, called "Kheer", is made with either toasted vermicelli or rice and is my favorite Indian dessert. There are a lot of versions to this dessert. Aside from rice or vermicelli, some add rose water, vanilla, almond or other kind of nuts. Sometimes saffron is added not only for taste but for color of course. Jaggery can also be a substitute for sugar. Others calls for condensed milk, I’ve used both but it does not make any difference, it still taste sweet and creamy.

Ingredients:

1 cup roasted vermicelli
6 cups milk
1 cup sugar
raisins
pinch of cardamom powder or 2 cardamom pods
cashew nuts or other nuts like pistachios

Boil the milk. Add roasted vermicelli and cook for 10-12 minutes.

Add sugar and, raisins cashew nuts and cardamom.

Mix well, boil for 2 -3 minutes and serve.

Could be served hot or cold. I like mine hot.


YOU CAN ROAST YOUR OWN BUT IF YOU CAN BUY THIS W/ THE PRICE...PLS..BUY THEM. THIS PACKAGE GOES A LONG WAY.

DARING COOKS CHALLENGE (SEPTEMBER 2009) PART I- INDIAN DOSAS

This months challenge was hosted by DEBYI
This challenge is nothing new to me in the sense that Indian Cuisine is one of our favorite. We have probably dined at almost all the Indian restaurant/buffet near our area. Dosa is a staple, a must order food, but i have never made them at home. I always thought that they are too complicated to make and just thought of leaving the dosas to the experts.

That being said, if not because of this challenge i wouldn't have known that homemade dosas are well worth the process. I was too enthused with this challenge, i made them twice w/ different batter. So, thanks Debyi! Although i must admit, i was kind of iffy when you mentioned about the "restrictions"no meat products, strictly vegan. I had to compromise since i know my family will look for meat. I followed your vegan recipe and made a meat dish as a side dish. Take note...the meat was my side dish.

I will blog my two versions separately, just because it'll be too long to blog them all at ones. Plus i want to "showcase" each process. I used Debyis' filling and Chutney for both versions. The thing i did differently was the batter and my side dishes.


On my Dosa Challenge Part I, i made Mutton Rogan Josh as my side dish and finished it with Vermicelli Kheer. Pls. check the blogs for both.


Dosa Pancakes
1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)-I USED AP FLOUR
½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water
cooking spray, if needed

Dosa Filling
1 batch Curried Garbanzo Filling (see below), heated

Dosa Toppings
1 batch Coconut Curry Sauce (see below), heated
¼ cup (125gm) grated coconut (I GRATED MY OWN, I WANTED TO USE FRESH COCONUT)
¼ cucumber, sliced

Dosa Pancakes
1.Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

Curried Garbanzo Filling
This filling works great as a rice bowl topping or as a wrap too, so don't be afraid to make a full batch. (I ADDED A LITTLE BROTH COZ IT WAS DRY)
5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground
1 TBSP (8gm) oregano
1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)
1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric
4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans) (ONE CAN WOULD SUFFICE)
½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste

1.Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

Coconut Curry Sauce
This makes a great sauce to just pour over rice as well. This does freeze well, but the texture will be a little different. The flavor is still the same though. My picture of this sauce is one that I had made, had to freeze, then thaw to use. It tastes great, but the texture is a little runnier, not quite as thick as it was before freezing.
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder (I USED 2 T SINCE I I HAD HOT CURRY POWDER- BUT IT WASN'T THAT HOT SO I WILL HAVE TO ADJUST NEXT TIME)
3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced

1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4.Let it simmer for half an hour.
Happy eating!

Some of the ingredients. I love, love the Tomato tube paste...brilliant idea!

Cooking Basmati Rice is different than cooking a normal rice e.g. Jasmine rice.

Dosa Crepe/Pancake

I did a good job..didn't waste anything. First crepe was perfect.

Coconut Curry Sauce

This was not that hot/spicy, it's obvious based on the color. I had Hot Curry Powder, thought it will be too hot so tappered the measurement..boy was i wrong..it wasn't hot/spicy at all.

Curried Garbanzo Filling

This filling would be great for samosas as well.



Dosas with Basmati Rice

ENJOY!!!

BROWN TOMATO, GREEN MANGO AND CUKE SALAD

Ingredients:

Tomatoes (i used the Kumato brown tomatoes)
Green Mango*
English Cukes
Thai Basil (julienned)
White Vinegar
Sugar
S&P

Cut tomatoes, mangoes and cukes into cubes.
Mix white vinegar, sugar, s&P (test to suit your taste)
Incorporate everything, toss and chill.

*Unripe mango would work well for this salad because of the crunch and the sourness.


GREEN MANGOES *THE SHRIMP PASTE IS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS SALAD*

KUMATO (BROWN TOMATOES) TASTE LIKE ROMA TOMATOES

ENJOY!!!!!

PAM'S OATMEAL CHOCO CHIP COOKIES

Based on the title it's a given that this recipe is not mine, but Pam gave me the blessings to blog it!

The recipe is perfect to begin with, chewy and moist.. out of curiousity, she played w/ it and in the process, she has made "scones" because she added extra flour. One time, it became "lace cookies" because she added extra milk. Then she decided to stop w/ the experimentation and leave the wonderful cookie alone . She's definitely the baker!


Y: 20 cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 C butter (room temperature)
1 egg (large- room temperature)
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C white sugar
2 t milk
1 t vanilla
1/2 C 2T flour
1/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 C oatmeal (quick cooking)
1/2 C semi sweet chocolate chips



1.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

2.In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in egg then stir in milk and vanilla.

3.Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats and chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.

4.Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

HOW TO SLICE CHERRY OR GRAPE TOMATOES

Wish i could take credit to this brilliant idea but i can't . I saw Rachel Ray demo this but it wasn't here idea either...it was from a friend of hers.

What you need:

2 Lid tops
Very sharp knife

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

LUMPIA SARIWA (FILIPINO FRESH SPRING ROLLS)

Every Asian country has their version of Egg Rolls. If you have a Filipino friend or has been to a Filipino gathering chances are you have already tried one of these Lumpia(Lumpia Sariwa, Lumpia Shanghai, Lumpia Prito) or all. I will be blogging them one at a time.

The authentic Lumpia Sariwa (Fresh Lumpia) recipe calls for hearts of palms which is not easy to find and is not available in some States, if ever it is available it's probably in a can. And if you can get a fresh heart of palms, by all means go ahead add it to the ingredients.

Since i can't find fresh heart of palms, i use the same fillings for both the Fresh Lumpia and Fried Lumpia.

Lumpia Sariwa consists of julienned vegetables, bean sprout, ground pork or chicken, crushed peanuts and lettuce leaf wrapped in a yellowish egg crepe. This is served w/ a garlic sauce. You can omit meat if you want this vegan.

Ingredients: Y: 16

3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 piece chicken breast -- chopped
2 cloves garlic -- minced
1/2 cup onion -- chopped
2 cups green beans -- sliced very thin
2 cups carrot -- thinly julienne
2 cups bean sprouts -- cleaned
2 cups Jicama -- thinly julienne (optional)
3 cups cabbage -- sliced thin
1 can garbanzo beans -- drained and chopped
1 bunch lettuce leaves -- washed and dried
Salt and Pepper to taste

FRESH LUMPIA WRAPPER (Crepe)
4 medium eggs -- beaten
2 cups cornstarch
2 1/2 cups water
3 tablspoons oil

SAUCE
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch -- dilute 1/4C H20
6 cloves garlic -- minced
pounded peanuts (optional)

PROCEDURE:

FILLING:
1. Sauté garlic, onions until brown.
2. Add the chopped chicken stir season with salt and pepper. Cook until chicken turns white.
3. Add in the vegetables, start with the veggies that requires longer time to cook. Cook until tender but still crunchy.
4. Adjust salt and pepper. Add a little of soy sauce if necessary. Adjust flavor.
5. Drain, get a spoonful of mixture put on the wrapper with lettuce leaves.

WRAPPER:
1. Beat eggs until frothy.
2. Add the cornstarch, oil and water.
3. Mix well until cornstarch dissolves.
4. Preheat a nonstick frying pan. Ladle about 2 tablespoon of the mixture into the hot pan while swirling until it spreads out thinly like a crepe'.
5. Pick up crepe gently and cover until ready to use.

SAUCE:
1. Mix all ingredients except cornstarch and garlic.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Add cornstarch mix, stir constantly until thicken.
4. Take pot away from heat then add minced garlic.

HOW TO PREPARE:
1. Lay the lettuce on lower left side of the wrapper. Half of the leaf should be sticking out of the wrapper.
2. Put a tablespoon of filling on top of the lettuce then roll like a crepe or burrito. Fold the opposite side of the lettuce to secure filling.
3. Arrange on a small plate. Pour garlic sauce on top. Serve room temperature.

**** Wrap individual lumpia w/ cut wax paper to avoid from sticking and easy to pick up.

KINILAW NA TALONG (EGGPLANT SALAD)

As i mentioned in my Pinoy BBQ blog, vegetable salad is the perfect side dish for bbq. I personally love eggplant salad w/ my bbq and even w/ my fried fish.

This kind of salad could be prepared two ways, grilled or boiled. But i prefer my eggplants grilled especially when it's "grill season"- summer until fall, yeah i do push it for as long as it's not too cold for me. Altough, I still grill them on my stove top or broil them. Boiling is okay but you don't get the smokey flavor.

I suggest to use the Asian eggplants or the Sicilian eggplants for this salad. There will be no exact measurement to this recipe. It'll all be up to your taste and liking.

1. Poke some holes to the eggplant using a fork.
2. Grill them until skins will burn, keep turning around to make sure every skin are cooked or charred. Eggplants are cooked when they are soft.
3. Let them cool then start peeling off the charred skin making sure to take out those black particles from the charred skin.

4. Chop eggplants into cubes or shred them.
5. Add chopped tomatoes, sweet onions, scallions, garlic, ginger and Thai bird chili if you want it spicy and hot.

6. Add salt and vinegar, i like to use Datu Puti (Filipino Vinegar) or apple cider vinegar.
Serve with the bbq or fried fish.

PINOY BBQ (Filipino BBQ)

Pinoys (Filipinos) love their bbq anytime of the day. This could be served for breakfast or brunch served with sinangag (garlic fried rice) and a side of sunny side up eggs. For lunch this will be served with steamed white rice with a side of atchara (pickled vegetables). Dinner, it'll be most likely served w/ a vegetable salad such as kinilaw na talong at kamatis (Grilled eggplant with tomato salad) and ofcourse steamed white rice. This is also eaten as snacks and great w/ beer.

BBQ stands are ubiqitous in every street corner in the Philippines, one would wonder how are they able to sell their bbq. I remember back then...i went on a mission to taste all the bbqs one stand at a time and see which ones had the best bbq. And the conclusion?..Oh well, let's just say, i've yet to try a Pinoy BBQ that i don't like. You probably will ask what makes this BBQ, Pinoy/Filipino? what's the difference? It's the sweetness and the use of a "not so secret" ingredients. You'll see as you read the ingredients.

I make my marinade from scratch but lately i've been using Mama Sita's BBQ sauce mix, it saves me time and it's delicious as well. So, the next time you visit your Asian market, buy the mix and give it a try.



Ingedients:2-3 lbs. pork butt
Bamboo skewers or any kind of skewers


Ingredients for For Marinade:

1 C soy sauce
1 C 7-up or sprite (the not so secret ingredient)
6 calamansi * or 2 lemons (fresh lemon juice is best)*
1 whole garlic (minced)
3 T brown sugar (estimate only)
1 t freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of salt

*If you can't buy fresh calamansi you can buy frozen calamansi at any Asian store. Lemons can be used as a substitute but flavor profile will not be as authentic.


Ingredients For Basting:

Canola oil
Banana Ketchup (available at Asian stores, one of the not so secret ingredient)
soy sauce



1. If you will be using bamboo skewers, they need to be soaked for an hour to avoid burning while on the grill.

2. Cut pork in bite size cubes.

3. Combine and mix all the marinade ingredients. Taste and adjustments if needed .

4. Marinate the pork overnight or at least 2 hours.

5. Mix the basting ingredients and set it aside.

6. Skewer the meat, then start grilling.

7. Basting the meat every few minutes until cooked.

I served the bbq with steamed rice, eggplant tomato salad and soy sauce vinegar dipping sauce.

CAMARON REBOSADO (BATTERED FRIED SHRIMP)

This is the side dish for the Squash and Bacalao in Coconut Milk. Camaron Rebosado is the Filipino version of the Japanese Tempura.

Peel the shrimp and devein. I don't put the shells to waist. I add water and bring them to a boil to make shrimp stock and save them for future use for any seafood dish that needs seafood stock. As for the head it's a preference..i like shrimp heads !

I don't have the exact measurements coz it'll depend on how much shrimp you want cooked.
The batter ingredients: equal parts flour and cornstarch, S&P, eggwhite, water. It should have a pancake consistency.
I cooked the head as well.

TIP: I USE A "SCREEN CONTAINER" TO DRAIN THE OIL FROM MY FRIED FOODS AND MAINTAIN THE CRISPNESS. I BOUGHT THEM AT AN ASIAN STORE BUT YOU CAN ALSO USE A BIG STRAINER/SIEVE, THIS IS WAY BETTER THAN USING PAPER TOWELS. WITH THE PAPER TOWEL THE OIL HAS NO WHERE TO GO BUT BACK TO YOUR FRIED FOOD AND SOMETIMES TURNS YOUR FRIED FOOD SOGGY.

CAMARON REBOSADO IS SERVED W/ SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE.

SQUASH AND BACALAO IN COCONUT MILK (GINATAANG KALABASA UG BULAD)

This is an authentic Filipino dish specifically in the Visayas Region (Cebu Province). Cebu being an island province, fresh or dried fish and lots of seafoods are staple to every meal although pork, chicken and vegetables are equally available as well.

Since i said it's authentic there is nothing to fret, all the ingredients are readily available at Asian stores and even at any ordinary grocery stores. And yes you can substitute or omit some of the ingredients. I will mention some substitution as i go along. This can be a vegetarian dish too, omit the fish.

THE INGREDIENTS: SQUASH OF ANY KIND, GINGER, LEMONGRASS, MALANGA, HORSERADISH LEAVES, SHALLOTS OR ONIONS, COCONUT MILK, BACALAO (SALTED DRY COD)

MALANGA(BISUL)

SQUASH (CALLED KALABASA IN THE PHILIPPINES)

HORSERADISH TREE LEAVES ( MALUNGGAY/KAMUNGGAY) THIS COULD BE PURCHASED FROZEN OF FRESH. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moringa_oleifera
SPINACH IS A GOOD SUBSTITUTE

BACALAO (BULAD/BUWAD) DRIED SALTED COD. YOU CAN SUB SHRIMP OR ANY FRIED FISH.

I WAS LUCKY TO PURCHASE THE BELLY PART OF THE COD. FOR ME THIS IS THE BEST PART OF THE FISH YOU GET LOTS OF MEAT W/O BONES



I SOAKED THE BACALAO FOR HALF A DAY TO REHYDRATE AND TAKE OUT SOME OF THE SALT. IT'LL ACTUALLY DEPEND ON WHAT BRAND OR WHERE YOU BOUGHT THEM. BUT GENERALLY THEY ARE REALLY SALTY HENCE THE SOAKING AND CHANGING OF WATER 2X

PAT THEM DRY, CUT THEM INTO SQUARES THEN FRY.




WHILE THE DRIED CODS ARE FRYING. CUT AND PEEL THE SQUASH (ABOUT 2 CUPS OR HALF OF A SMALL SQUASH, CUT AND PEEL BISUL (ABOUT 2 SMALL PCS ), GINGER (ABOUT 1 INCH), ONIONS/SHALLOTS(ONE SMALL) AND LEMONGRASS (ONE STICK CUT INTO 2 INCHESLONG), MINCE 1 CLOVE OF GARLIC.



SAUTE' GARLIC, ONIONS, AND GINGER UNTIL ONIONS TURNS TRANSLUCENT. ADD IN THE SQUASH, BISUL AND LEMONGRASS, STIR FOR FEW MINUTES THEN ADD 1/2 CUP OF WATER. LET IT SIMMER UNTIL SQUASH AND BISUL GETS TENDER.

ADD ONE CAN OF COCONUT MILK THEN BRING TO A BOIL.
ADD THE HORSERADISH LEAVES OR SPINACH TOGETHER W/ THE FRIED BACALAO. LET IT BOIL FOR 5 MINUTES THEN TURN OFF THE HEAT. COVER THE POT FOR CARRY OVER COOKING.

IF YOU NOTICED I DIDN'T CALL FOR SALT. THE BACALAO ITSELF IS ALREADY SALTY SO THERE IS NO NEED TO ADD SALT. TASTE IT BEFORE SERVING IF YOU THINK IT NEEDS SALT BY ALL MEANS ADD SALT OR FISH SAUCE IF YOU HAVE.

MY MOM ALWAYS SERVES THIS W/ CAMARON REBOSADO (FRIED SHRIMP) AND STEAMED WHITE RICE.

TIP: MY MOM SMASHES SOME OF THE VEGGIES, IN THIS CASE THE SQUASH AND BISUL TO MAKE KIDS EAT THEIR VEGGIES W/O THEM KNOWING.
I REMEMBER BACK THEN...WE (MY SIBLINGS) ATE THIS WITH GUSTO BUT NOT THE CHUNKS OF SQUASH AND BISUL UNBEKNOWNST TO US, WE ALREADY ATE OUR SHARE OF THE VEGGIES. CLEVER!!! MOM!!!


SQUASH AND BACALAO IN COCONUT MILK (GINATAANG KALABASA UG BULAD)
I FORGOT TO MENTION..I ADDED HOT BANANA PEPPER AT THE LAST MINUTE BUT YOU DON'T REALLY HAVE TO..I JUST WANTED SOME KICK TO THE DISH.