Filipino(aka Asian Soulfood) recipes

I am interested in learning and sharing some recipes for Filipino foods. Being married to a Manilla girl I often dabble in Filipino foods, and taste a lot at parties we go to. Im lucky to have a knowledgeable person in my house that knows as much about authentic Filipino cooking as anyone I know.

I call Filipino food "asian soulfood" because the recipes, methods and food in my experience seem to be rustic, old school, and even slow and low cooking. Right up my alley.

Today I am working on Pancit Malabon. Most itmes were easily purchased or already on hand(pork belly, chucharones, noodles, bok choy, shrimp, crab paste, fish sauce, onion, green onion, etc.

I needed to make "shrimp juice" according to the Pancit recipe I have. Here is the recipe i used for this flavoring.

- shrimp shells, heads, and guts
1/2 cup water

processed the shells, etc in the food prcessor turning it into a paste. I then added the water and blended. Once mixed I strained the mixture, and ended up with a pungent, shrimpy condiment.

shrimp:



shells, heads, and stuff:



finished product - should add alot of flavor and funk to the pancit:



Pancit Malabon with cripsy pork belly next.

Pancit Malabon:

1 package rice noodles
1/2 cup shrimp juice
2 tbsp crab paste
2 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
4 cloves garlic minced
1/2 onion sliced
2 carrots shredded
1 bok choy thin sliced
3/4 cup chucharones- crushed
2 lbs pork belly some thin sliced others in chunks
12 green onions chopped
4 hardboiled eggs halved
1 lb shrimp shelled
white fish roe
1 lemon sliced

Sliced about 1/4 of the fresh pork belly thinly and boiled in water with a clove of garlic for about 20 minutes, & set aside. The remainder of the pork belly was cut into larger chunks, same cooking method. Wok was heated with 1 tbsp veg oil, and the porkbelly was then browned til done, removed it and set it aside. I then cooked the shelled shrimp quickly and removed I removed all but 1 tbsp of the rendered fat from the wok, and got it screaming hot again, adding the bok choy, cooked for maybe a minute, and removed the bok choy. Next came the onion, garlic, and carrots, sauteed them, and then added the rice noodles that had been soaked in warm water. Added shrimp juice, crab paste, soy sauce and fish sauce, and stir fried the mix. I then added 1/2 of the thin sliced pork belly, 1/2 of the shrimp, and 1/2 of the bok choy as well as all the green onions, mixed and removed it from the wok. I topped the pancit with the crushed chucharones, the remainder of the thin sliced pork, shrimp, the bok choy, and the larger chunks of pork belly. Garnished with the egg halves, lemon slices, and topped with some whitefish roe.

Pork belly was crisp and porky, overall the dish was a hit, lots of textures and flavor from the chucharones, fish sauce, crab paste, and homemade shrimp juice. Whitefish roe added some pop to the crispy belly.

pork belly chunk:


ingredients:


some of the sauces:


boiled then stir fried belly:


finished dish:


roe topped belly chunk:


thanks for looking.

That is as grand a platter of Pancit as I have ever seen (and I've eat my fare share of home-cooked Pancit). Bravo, Jim.

When I finally get some time to cook a meal, this may be in my future.

thank you,

next time i need to source a thicker rice noodle I think..

Jim, that looks great! What brand noodles did you use? On a cold snowy day today, Chicken Lugaw would fit the bill for comfort food!

Pancit Malabon with crispy pork belly, brilliant, stunning, crispy, crackly, I'd like to eat the screen.

Blown Z wrote:Jim, that looks great! What brand noodles did you use? On a cold snowy day today, Chicken Lugaw would fit the bill for comfort food!

Bun Gao Rice vermicelli. Worked good, I would prefer a little thicker noodle.

one more pork belly pic.

I have "shrimp juice" in the freezer and have been contemplating what to do with it--thanks for making my decision for me

Can't WAIT to try this recipe!!

thanks Jim!!

boudreaulicious wrote:I have "shrimp juice" in the freezer and have been contemplating what to do with it--thanks for making my decision for me

Can't WAIT to try this recipe!!

thanks Jim!!

anytime, it was alot of fun.

looking forward to reading how yours turns out.

Saturday I knocked out a Filipino feast as a surprise for Vangie:
- Atsara
- Lechon Kawali(pics to follow at a later date)
- Lumpia(pics to follow at a later date)

First up the Atsara, a pickled green papaya dish. Alot of fun to make, quite a few steps to pull it off, but the end result was worth it. Sweet, crunchy, tart, hot, etc....

I yielded 3 pints from the 1 papaya I used, Preserving 2 pints in the water bath(30 minute bath), and using one pint after a few hours in the fridge. The batches I put up should be really good as the one that had only a few hours in the syrup were nice.

Ingredients:



papaya prep:







salad mix:



bottled, pre bath:



finished product:



enjoy.

one teaser pic of the lechon kawali(this batch was insane):

just some lumpia(ground pork, shrimp, carrot, onion, etc.):











frying:



done:



these were better than any I have had at any of the filipino party's I have been to.

still being bored with bbq, yet enamoured with pig I needed to fix a craving for some crispy skinned pork.. Answer = lechon kawali.

A masterpiece, time consuming but well worth it. Chunks of pork belly simmered for a while, then put in the oven for a while at low temps to dry them out. Then 2 trips in the hot oil. Once as chunks, second time as bite sized morsels. End result some of the best pig I have ever made, eaten, whatever. Crunchy, pork candy crisp blistered skin. Juicy porky interior.

I just didnt want to eat this pork over rice, I had designs on a taco....Served mine up in some flour tortillas with some pineapple chunks I sauteed in butter than simmered in the adobo from some chipotles & topped with some jalapenos this taco was magnificent. Blowing away anything one can buy @ Tierra Caliente, Big Star..etc..etc...

Pork belly chunk from Hmart.. beautiful and didnt cost $8 a lb. like some places are charging.. :



in the hot oil:



after the first fry:


after the second fry:


my filipino feast(lechon, lumpia, atsara, pineapple, wartermelon pickles):




my taco:

its good to be the king.:


Verdict from Vangie, I hit all the recipes right on.

thanks for checking out my posts.

Hi,

Your wife has to be thrilled with this gift made just for her.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

Your wife has to be thrilled with this gift made just for her.

Regards,

thanks cathy,

you know it, that was the motivation. some comfort food for her(and me).

Since this is the sixth or seventh time I've looked at this, in particular the lechon, I should really comment. Looks damn tasty, damn tasty indeed. A lot of work, but damn tasty, or did I already say that?

A few years ago, researching Filipino chow for a Reader article, I came across lechon and found it to be one food item that I actually had to pull myself away from. It's so simple and so delicious, I felt I could have just kept eating until I passed out. Jim, your version looks spectacularly scrumptious.

thanks dave & gary,

on top of the great hospitality I have been shown @ Filipino parties the food is always a highlight. Always a whole pig, lumpia, and pancit.

The lechon kawali is a way to eat crispy skin pork when digging and cooking a whole pig in a pit isnt in the cards.


Next on my list of dishes to tackle: Crispy Pata...

To eat like a Filipino:

Cathy2 wrote:To eat like a Filipino:

Chicken adobo is my quintessential comfort food and I eat it with a spoon and fork the the same way. From what I have seen, Thais also use the spoon and fork in the same manner

Interesting, vangie, and shay eat adobo(alot), and any dish served with rice with their hands, a pinch of protein & rice... All good..

chicken adobo is their least favorite, they prefer pork, specifically pork necks.

I gotta get me one of these:

If you're interested in Filipino food, you have to listen to what Filipeanut has to say about it.

For the non-Filipinos in the audience, that shirt is doubly funny because in the Philippines they sell chicken feet as a street food called adobong adidas. Why adidas? Because we're the same weirdos that cut rectangles out of blood pudding, skewer then grill it, and call it adobong betamax.

Jim, I know it's a bit late, but that's some fantastic looking lechon kawali. We typically bake our pork belly because it's less messy than deep frying and it's "healthier". Which is like saying an Old Fashioned apple fritter is healthier than the Old Fashioned apple fritter with pecans. It's not quite as crispy, but close enough for guv'mint work.

I'm not sure how advanced your Filipino food eating skills are, but THE perfect accompaniment for lechon kawali is pinakbet. Most non-Filipinos won't touch it because it combines both bittermelon AND bagoong, but the vegetables and sauce balance out the richness of pork belly perfectly.

Bonus! My recipe for Chicken Adobo

4 chicken quarters, leg and thigh
1/4 c vinegar (bonus points if it's palm vinegar with chilies floating in it)
1/2 c soy sauce
3/4 c water
1 onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 bay leaves
pepper

To prepare the chicken, use a cleaver to separate each leg from the thigh, and then cut the thighs in half through the bone.

In a 10-in saute pan set on med-high, sear the chicken skin-side down until well browned. Flip the chicken and brown on the other side. Then add the remaining ingredients to the pan, season with pepper, and cover the pan. Lower the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked, ~20 min. (that's a guess -- just cook until tender)

Serve with jasmine rice and a fork and spoon.

Hey Jim show this to Vangie, Mike you'll love it too!
Check out his other videos too on is youtube page, they're hilarious

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_UxyQ7cb3I

Jim, I saw this article on grilled tocino, and of course I thought of this thread and you.

Cathy2 wrote:To eat like a Filipino

Thais also use a spoon and fork that way.