Day 19: Steamed Cream Dory and Baguio Spinach in Oyster Sauce

I had a 500 gram pack of Cream Dory fillets that's been in deep freeze for about two months now. I was certain to make a chinese-inspired dish out of it but as to what exactly, I haven't really thought it out. It was a toss-up between sweet and sour-style or just plain steaming. Eventually, I decided on the latter option. For after all, if you have a good ingredient such as Cream Dory, it's best to let the flavors of the fish shine. My family was very pleased with my choice.

Steaming fish is very simple to do. Just place the fish on a heat-proof plate, sprinkle a 2-inch long ginger that's been thinly sliced and the white part of 3 stalks of green onions on top of the fish. Then pour a mixture of 2 tablespoons each of chinese cooking wine & soy sauce, one (1) tablepoon of sesame oil, half a teaspoon of sugar. Steam the fish for about 15 minutes; when the fish is cooked, sprinkle the remaining chopped green onions over the fish.

I paired this dish with Baguio Spinach with oyster sauce. Wash the leaves of two (2) bags of spinach and set it aside. Chope four cloves of garlic and fry it in a tablespoon of oil. Then add the washed spinach and add about four (4) tablespoons of oyster sauce, 1/4 cup of water, one (1) tablespoon each of sesame oil and chinese cooking wine, hald a teaspoon of sugar. Once the spinach wilts, remove it from the pan and thicken the sauce with a teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in a little water.

Day 18: Pinoy Fried Chicken and Ginisang Upo

Before we were introduced to the KFC-style fried chicken, Filipinos had their own idea of what fried chicken should be. I for one enjoyed the tart & salty flavor from my family's style of cooking fried chicken. It certainly has no resemblance in taste and appearance to the breaded fried chicken of today. In fact, no breading is required for this version of fried chicken. And cooking it every once in a while just gives me a mega dose of nostalgia of life way back then.

Here's how:


Cut a whole chicken into several pieces and marinate it for an hour in a mixture of 1/2 cup of soy sauce, 1/2 cup of Calamansi and some pepper to taste. Make sure that the chicken stays in the refrigerator while it marinates so it won't develop any harmful bacteria. Turn the chicken half an hour into the marinating process. After an hour, drain the liquid off and deep fry the chicken in hot oil till it is fully cooked and till the skin turns crispy. It's a bit dark in color because of the soy sauce marinade but I assure you, it's very tasty. It goes well with tomato catsup.


For the vegetable accompaniment, I made ginisang upo. Upo is very similar to a zucchini but it's much bigger in size. In making this dish, peel a whole piece of upo, chop it into bite-size pieces and set it aside. Saute some garlic, onions and tomatoes in a large pan till they release their flavor and aroma. Add 1/4 cup of dried shrimp or Hibe, half a cup of water and the chopped upo. Add some patis and pepper to taste and simmer the upo till it's done.

Day 11: Calamares and Sauteed Green Beans

The nice thing about living in the Philippines is that you could never run out of fresh seafood to choose from at the market. The funny thing though is that cooking seafood is more challenging to me compared to cooking meat or poultry. Probably because fish is more delicate to deal with, preparation-wise and cooking-wise. So how to hurdle the preparation? Ask the fish monger to do it for you, of course!



I asked the fish-monger to clean, skin and slice 1/2 a kilo of squid into centimeter-inch thick rings. I squeezed calamansi over the squid and seasoned it with pepper. Then I got about half a cup of flour and seasoned it with salt & pepper. I heated a pan with oil, dredged the squid rings in flour and fried the calamari till they turned golden and crisp. I laid the fried squid on a plate lined with paper towels to remove the excess oils. While the squid was still hot, I seasoned the squid again with some sea salt. This calamares goes well with a vinegar, garlic and chili pepper dip.

As for the green beans, I sliced 1/4 kilo of green beans very thiny on a diagonal, as thinly as possible. (I remember that during my childhood, my grandma would instruct the cook to use a Gillete razor blade in making this dish. It took quite a while to prepare this dish as the cook had to go over each green bean, one at a time, to make paper thin slices.) Nowadays, I just slice them with a knife and I'm no longer particular about making it the way my grandmother did. I sliced three (3) slices of bacon into small pieces and cooked them in a pan till they turned crispy and its fat, fully rendered. I removed the crispy bacon and set it aside for garnishing. I added chopped tomato, shallot and three (3) cloves of garlic to the bacon fat and sauteed them till they turned tanslucent. I then added the green beans, 1/4 cup of water, some patis and pepper to taste. Simmer the green beans till done and transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle the bacon on top of the green beans.

Day 10: Sinarabsab & Inihaw na Talong

Making Sinarabsab - the Ilokano version of Inihaw na Baboy - requires a marinating mixture of vinegar and other condiments to make flavorful grilled meat. But I read an interesting Sinarabsab recipe on the internet sometime ago that utilized tamarind/sinigang powder in order to simplify the marinating process. I took note of the idea and decided to apply it to my own recipe. Here's how:

I made a dry rub by mixing one (1) 25g packet of Sinigang sa Miso mix to a tablespoon of brown sugar and half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. I rubbed the mixture all over half a kilo of pork liempo. I set the meat aside in the refrigerator for thirty minutes to develop the flavors. I grilled the pork till done and chopped it to bite-size pieces. It is good served with a relish of tomatoes, garlic and spring onions.

I also grilled a few eggplants and served them with bagoong alamang and chopped green mangoes.

Day 9: Fried Galunggong Patties and Suam na Mais

We had leftover Galunggong from the other night so I decided to make Galunggong Patties. Galunggong Patties are very much like Potato Latkes but with a good protein source from the fish. What I did was flake the leftover fish that made about two (2) cups, shred potatoes to make two (2) cups, chop one (1) red bell pepper and about three (3) tablespoons each of green onions and wansuy (but you can use kinchay too, whichever is available). I mix everything together with a tablespoon of cornstarch, salt and pepper to taste and a beaten egg to make the mixture stick together. I take spoonfuls of the mixture, form them into little patties and fry them in oil till they turn golden brown.

I paired the Fried Galunggong Fritters with a traditional Filipino soup called Suam na Mais. I took the recipe from Page 24 of the Maya Kitchen's "The New Filipino Cookbook". Here's the recipe:

1 tablesppon oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 medium-size oion, chopped
1 small ginger, sliced
3 cups shrimp stock, strained
2 pieces fresh corn, removed from the cob
Patis and pepper to taste
2 cups sili or malunggay leaves

Heat the oil in a saucepan then saute' the garlic, onions ang ginger. Add the stock and corn. Simmer until the corn is tender. Season to taste. Add the leaves just before serving.

Day 7: Gisadong Pechay at Tokwa and Piniritong Galungong

Say what you want about Galunggong, that it's the poor man's fish, etc., but it's my favorite fish! It has no pretenses and for which, it's popularity crosses class lines. I especially love eating the small-sized galunggong that's perfect for fying. I just season the fish with rock salt and a little bit of pepper and fry it crisp. Galungong is actually good with gisadong monggo but we didn't have any mung beans in the pantry so I made gisadong pechay at tokwa.

The gisadong pechay at tokwa is also easy to make. Fry about 200 grams of firm tofu or tokwa till they brown; remove the tokwa pieces from the pan. Slice the tokwa into strips. Saute' three (3) cloves of chopped native garlic and an onion till they turn translucent. Add a diced medium potato, a cup of water, patis and pepper to taste. When the potatoes are done, return the tokwa and add 1/3 kilo of chopped pechay. Adjust the seasonings and simmer till done.

Day 6: Paksiw na Bangus with Ampalaya and Talong

Okay, so we're having bangus again. But this is a totally different flavor experience from the grilled bangus that I served the last time. This is one-pot dish that has a flavorful sauce coming from the ginger and vinegar. There's something about using the traditional claypot for this dish. And, it just gets better when served the day after. My mother just used sea salt as condiment for this tart dish.


Slice medium-sized bangus on the bias into several pieces. Place tha bangus pieces into the claypot then add about four (4) crused garlic cloves, a quartered medium-sized onion, half of an ampalaya (seeded) and a large eggplant that have been sliced diagonally, two (2) thumb-sized pieces of crushed ginger, green finger chilis siling haba (apportion one siling haba per slice of bangus) a cup of water and 1/4 cup of vinegar, patis and a teaspoon of whole peppercorns. Simmer till done. Serve straight from the claypot.