Monday, a Firm "eating" with my partners, Japanese-til-you're-stuffed. Tuesday, Burgoo appetizers with clients, a Japanese-Filipino fusion late lunch/early dinner, loads of pizza and pansit palabok by the poolside near midnight. Wednesday, Chinese take-out for lunch, and a Chinese home-cooked dinner with the Board. Thursday, modern Filipino at Mesa. Today, Friday, yet another Firm lunch at Zong.
There really can be too much of a good thing. It's times like these when I long for my grandmother's home cooking; for the fond and familiar comforts of my childhood - the real simple stuff that only my Lola can seem to whip up. Unfortunately, my grandmother's kitchen is almost 500 kilometers away at the moment, and I have to rely on memory and trial-and-error to approximate her cooking.
After an unsuccessful call for assistance to my cousin (grandma was probably still asleep) and a little research on the net, I made a quick trip to Farmer's for some liver and kidneys (luckily available even in the late afternoon) and attempted to duplicate Lola's dinaldalem. While I was at it, I remembered I had some lean pork defrosting in the fridge, and which I'd intended to make into kinamatisan (Web research failed to turn up any information on the particular dish I wanted to recreate). And the results turned out to be pretty good, well worth the choice of turning back in Friday traffic instead of the originally intended night-out.
Abra Dinaldalem
Also known as igado to non-Ilocanos, this dish generally calls for peas, green and red peppers, and a thick gravy-like sauce. We did not grow up on this version - our dinaldalem is dry and unadorned, well-suited for long-term storage, with the meats cut in much smaller pieces than the common igado. My attempt, while not quite approximating the oily yumminess of my grandmother's version, turned out well - I wager it'll even be better after a day or so in the fridge (good luck to that, assuming it survives my brother's late night binge). Here goes:
1/4 kilo (approximately 1 cup) lean pork, cut in small, bite-size pieces
1/4 kilo pig's kidneys, cut the same
1/4 kilo pig's liver, ditto
(I missed getting pig's heart, and if I'd gotten that, it'd go the same way)
2 swirls Ilocos (dark) vinegar; red wine vinegar apparently is a good substitute
1/4 cup soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves crushed garlic
2 swirls cooking oil
Marinate the lean pork, kidneys, and heart in soy sauce and black pepper for 45 minutes to an hour; in a separate container, marinate the liver in the vinegar for half an hour.
Heat up the oil in a frying pan, toss in the garlic - when golden brown, throw in the pork and kidney mixture. Allow to cook for approximately 10 minutes, then add in the liver. Just let it sit there until the sauce is reduced and the oil starts to separate. Remove from heat when fairly dry. Best, like any Filipino dish, with rice!
Kinamatisan
This turned out to be even better than the dinaldalem. Nothing quite like the sweetness of sauteed tomatoes and onions - pretty much a sofrito - to complement tender cuts of pork. Too bad I didn't make a bigger batch.
1/4 kilo lean pork, cut in bite-sized cubes and boiled until cooked in 1 cup water, some salt and a few black peppercorns
2 medium tomatoes, sliced
1 small white onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 swirls cooking oil
fish sauce (otherwise known as patis, nuoc mam, or nam pla) to taste
sprinkle of sugar (best substitute for MSG), optional
freshly ground pepper
Saute the garlic, onions, and tomatoes in the cooking oil. Drain the pork and add into the sofrito; allow to cook for 5 minutes. Season with fish sauce and sprinkle sparingly with sugar (or a dash of msg if you dare) and freshly ground black pepper. Serve hot with lots of steamed white rice.
So that's what was for dinner tonight - my Lola would be proud!
There really can be too much of a good thing. It's times like these when I long for my grandmother's home cooking; for the fond and familiar comforts of my childhood - the real simple stuff that only my Lola can seem to whip up. Unfortunately, my grandmother's kitchen is almost 500 kilometers away at the moment, and I have to rely on memory and trial-and-error to approximate her cooking.
After an unsuccessful call for assistance to my cousin (grandma was probably still asleep) and a little research on the net, I made a quick trip to Farmer's for some liver and kidneys (luckily available even in the late afternoon) and attempted to duplicate Lola's dinaldalem. While I was at it, I remembered I had some lean pork defrosting in the fridge, and which I'd intended to make into kinamatisan (Web research failed to turn up any information on the particular dish I wanted to recreate). And the results turned out to be pretty good, well worth the choice of turning back in Friday traffic instead of the originally intended night-out.
Abra Dinaldalem
Also known as igado to non-Ilocanos, this dish generally calls for peas, green and red peppers, and a thick gravy-like sauce. We did not grow up on this version - our dinaldalem is dry and unadorned, well-suited for long-term storage, with the meats cut in much smaller pieces than the common igado. My attempt, while not quite approximating the oily yumminess of my grandmother's version, turned out well - I wager it'll even be better after a day or so in the fridge (good luck to that, assuming it survives my brother's late night binge). Here goes:
1/4 kilo (approximately 1 cup) lean pork, cut in small, bite-size pieces
1/4 kilo pig's kidneys, cut the same
1/4 kilo pig's liver, ditto
(I missed getting pig's heart, and if I'd gotten that, it'd go the same way)
2 swirls Ilocos (dark) vinegar; red wine vinegar apparently is a good substitute
1/4 cup soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves crushed garlic
2 swirls cooking oil
Marinate the lean pork, kidneys, and heart in soy sauce and black pepper for 45 minutes to an hour; in a separate container, marinate the liver in the vinegar for half an hour.
Heat up the oil in a frying pan, toss in the garlic - when golden brown, throw in the pork and kidney mixture. Allow to cook for approximately 10 minutes, then add in the liver. Just let it sit there until the sauce is reduced and the oil starts to separate. Remove from heat when fairly dry. Best, like any Filipino dish, with rice!
Kinamatisan
This turned out to be even better than the dinaldalem. Nothing quite like the sweetness of sauteed tomatoes and onions - pretty much a sofrito - to complement tender cuts of pork. Too bad I didn't make a bigger batch.
1/4 kilo lean pork, cut in bite-sized cubes and boiled until cooked in 1 cup water, some salt and a few black peppercorns
2 medium tomatoes, sliced
1 small white onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 swirls cooking oil
fish sauce (otherwise known as patis, nuoc mam, or nam pla) to taste
sprinkle of sugar (best substitute for MSG), optional
freshly ground pepper
Saute the garlic, onions, and tomatoes in the cooking oil. Drain the pork and add into the sofrito; allow to cook for 5 minutes. Season with fish sauce and sprinkle sparingly with sugar (or a dash of msg if you dare) and freshly ground black pepper. Serve hot with lots of steamed white rice.
So that's what was for dinner tonight - my Lola would be proud!
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