kilawen a bilis, raw sardine kinilaw

bilis is the local sardine fish (family clupeidae) which is usually consumed raw or cooked in vinegar. i like it raw or kinilaw. fresh bilis is prized for its sweetish flesh and oily texture (which is common in sardine fishes).

i came upon fresh bilis catch from aparri (cagayan) town and immediately prepared some for kinilaw.

here’s a video of the process:

i removed head and guts and washed the sardine well. and then tossed it in vinegar, minced onions and garlic and ginger, some salt (add cracked pepper if you like), and chilis fermented in vinegar. it’s that simple. the vinegar will simply “cook” the bilis. put in a freezer for some minutes if you want, for all the ingredients/spices to blend well with the flesh.

a close up of this heavenly delicacy. see the oily skin? great texture. the flesh is so sweetishly sour and so delicious and sumptous with its distinct sardiny smell that blesses the palate with the taste and aroma of the raw sea.

perfect for pulutan and as an appetizer. mangantayon!

 

fresh pokpoklo/pukpuklo salad

pokpoklo. pukpuklo. seaweed. a traditional ilokano delicacy. best as an appetizer.

just wash, rinse, to rid of any bit of dirt of sand clinging in the morsel-like weed. then toss it with fresh tomato slices. no need to put salt as this is already salty courtesy of saltwater (seawater).

perfect with steaming rice and fried/grilled fish or meat. bon appettit!

 

sautéed buos/abuos (red tree ants)’ eggs

’twas abuos (or buos, red tree ants) egg-harvesting season when i happen to see this bounty in the public market:

for all i know, harvesting this egg in abundance is seasonal as you can’t expect any of it in the market all year round.  a rarity that’s one reason of its being a delicacy and being branded as an exotic.

see those magnificent eggs–errrr, pupae–and and “infant” ants in there? looks yucky for some but yummy for a lot more ilokanos, who don’t consider this as an exotica of sorts but just plain and simple food to go with a hard-earned, perfectly steamed–nalinlinay and nakasaysayamusom–rice.

preparing the buos dish is again simplest of the simple. mostly, it is sautéed: you slice some onions, crush some cloves of garlic, slice some tomatoes; put some cooking oil in a pan, and over high heat, sauté the onions, garlic and tomatoes, and afterwhich put in the eggs and stir fry. add some salt, and some ground pepper if you like. cooking the eggs is brief, you know it’s done when they become more translucent and shrunk a little than its raw size.

a somehow comfort food that yet again shows the versatility and industry of the ilokanos and his cuisine.

 

 

marunggay salad express

the leaves of marunggay (moringa oleifera) or marunggi, as ilokanos fondly call it, can be prepared in a variety of ways. foremost, it is a basic, even vital, ingredient in the inabraw or dinengdeng potpourri of veggie leafy greens, shoots and tops and pods and fruits.

or as a solo marunggi broth perfect for a nutritious igup or labay.

i love it also as a leafy topping in my instant pancit mami.

it is also inevitable as a leafy mix in sauteed pinablad/boiled mongo or balatong and other dried beans/legumes or any other pusi like kardis, patani or parda. it’s even sometimes a preferred garnishing in tinola a manok if sili or paria leaves is scarce.

and of course, as a salad or kinilnat as simple as itself, slightly boiled or blanched and dipped in bugguong juice with some tomato slices or a perres of calamansi. or dressed, drenched with bugguong.

i love marunggi salad and i want it fast, quick express that my fancy way of blanching it is i just dip it whole, stalks with leaves intact, in a boiling water for a minute or two, season it, garnish it, and then enjoy it, as it is, again, with the stalks serving as a convenient stick to to hold it to your eager mouth and consume the sumptous leaves right away.

ahh, the versatility and the ilocano frugality of it all… what a gastronomic bliss!

 

katuday blossoms salad

katuday (sesbania grandiflora) tree, along with the marunggi tree, is often planted along roadsides in most ilocos provinces and in front/backyards of ilokano houses. you know you are in ilocos or in an ilokano neighborhood if you see one, or a combination, or all, of these staple ilokano “fixtures”: marunggay tree, katuday tree, alokon tree (“miniaturized” and sometimes planted in a sack or cut steel drum). although, of course, katuday or katuray is not exclusively ilokano because other filipino peoples also like it. but ilokanos just love it as a salad drenched with bugguong and garnished with tomato. and you can also find it as floral part in a dinengdeng/inabraw a bulbulong (boiled leafy greens) along with karabasa blossoms. katuday is also wonderful with your inabraw nga aba or ginettaan nga aba (taro stems/leaves/roots stew or with coconut milk), the bittersweet character of the flower leaves a unique sweetish aftertaste.

but i prefer the simple kinilnat a katuday or ensalada a katuday. put in a minimal amount of water in a pan, let it boil to bubling point and then put in your prepared and rinsed katuday blossoms. let it boil for some three minutes or less then transfer it immediately into a bowl and garnish it with bugguong and tomato slices.

a note on preparing the flowers: to be assured of a naturally sweet katuday dish, do not rinse or soak throughly in water to secure the nectar inside the flower (those which already blossomed). also, when already cooked, do not squeeze the boiled blossoms. you can also just blanch the flowers to capture more of the sweetnes of the nectar: rinse the flowers and with some waters clinging to the petals and all, put it in a pan without water and cover it, set it on high heat. after a couple minutes, check if the flowers are already somehow wilted, put off fire and transfer the flowers to a bowl.

 

papait salad

the papait (mollugo oppositifolia) is popular among bitter-loving ilokanos who has the distinct and rather unique taste preference for something bitter, the more bitter, the better. which translates to the ilokano’s fondness for the “native” paria (the “ilocos” variety: round [or oblongish] and smallish) or for the more exotic wild bittermelons or balang a paria or paria ti bakir/bantay (forest ampalaya?). and yes, to our love of the authentic ilokano goat/cow/carabao pinapaitan, or kappukan and imbaliktad, flavored with the animal intestinal bile called “pespes” or “papait” in some places. bitterness defines authentic ilokano meat dishes as well as vegetable preparation notably pinakbet with the ilocos paria. or dinengdeng with paria tops. or simply roasted paria with bugguong and kamatis slices. or even the kilawen a paria, raw and succulently bitter.

and comes the even bitter papait that stands to its name of its bittery appeal and simpleness. papait is great with boiled balatong or other peas. and papait is even greater as it is, as a salad, simply blanched or boiled and garnished with bugguong and kamatis or perres (calamansi or dalayap).

i prepared my papait almost expressly (quickie). i blanched it in a boiling water for some 3 minutes or less. you should never overcook it. one other great way of blanching leafy greens is to wash and soak and partially rinse the leaves in tap water then put it in a empty kaserola or pan over high fire. let just the water that clinged to the leaves blanch the whole thing. then after a couple of minutes, put off fire/flame and immediately transfer the blanched leaves in a bowl and toss it with your garnishes. this is perfect for camote tops to avoid the darkening of the leaves/stems.

and here’s my simple papait salad with bugguong juice and tomato slices:

this is heavenly sweetishly bitter, so delicious with steaming rice:

 

agurong in coconut milk con marunggay leaves

agurong is a common black freshwater mollusk with elongated spiral shell usually found in abundance in creeks and rivers. we also call it leddangan in nueva vizcaya. it is similar in shape to the smaller suso and the more smaller duriken. but agurong’s meat is different from suso’s or duriken’s. suso’s is somewhat pumal-it or bittery. while duriken, well, you cannot even eat duriken’s tiny meat as duriken is usually cracked and boiled or blanched just for its tasty, bittery soup. nowadays, you can found agurong sold in small markets, but suso shell is very rare. and i have yet to see a duriken for sale (when i’m young, in our place, we used to pick suso and duriken in a river nearby).

agurong is cooked in a variety of ways. it can be simpley boiled in lots of tomatoes and gingers and onions and with baraniw (lemon grass) just like tukmem (bennek, dukkiang, or bukkaig; small freshwater clams).

and it’s perfect in coconut milk as well, just like leddeg or bisukol (freshwater black shells). and usually, with marunggay leaves, just like marunggay in crabs with coconut milk.

so here’s how i came with my agurong in coconut milk with marunggay leaves. first of all, prepare agurong by washing and rinsing it throughly (arasaw, just like rinsing any shellfish) and repeatedly until the wash water is somewhat clear. see to it also that you discard any dead agurong (dead ones usualy smell and float).

next, the cutting . you have to cut off its “tail end”, the apex of its spiral shell. this is so it is possible for you to suck the meat out later (through your mouth or lips; mind you, eating agurong is a “lips-to-lips” activity, although you can pick the meat out by using a toothpick or the thorn of the sua or pomelo tree). severing off the tail will let air pass to easily extract the meat out. use a large enough knife or preferably a bolo because the agurong’s shell is thick and rather hard.

when you are through with the cutting, wash the shells again to discard shell bits and remnants.

now, the cooking. at this juncture, we assume you already have made the coconut milk earlier and the getta or gata is ready (or if you prefered instant gata mix, you already diluted the coconut milk powder in water). boil the getta for some time. do not boil all the mixture, separate some amount of milk (preferably the first squeezeful or the kakang gata, if you made it from fresh coconut), about a cupful will do. while boiling you can blend in sliced onions, crushed garlic, and crushed ginger. afterwhich you can now add in the agurong shells. cook until tender (but do not overcook the shell, else the meat will “kumuttong” or become “thin” or shrunken). season with salt. just before you serve, add in the marunggay leaves and pour in the reserved coconut milk.

here’s the end result:

ahh, what a plenty of sweety oily and fragrant lips to kiss!

 

buridibod, buribod, baradibod: camote with alukon and marunggay stew

buridibod is a typical ilokano dish. and it’s truly a unique ilokano specialty to concoct what’s sweet and sweetish and pulpy with a variety of leafy green veggies. or some vegetable blossoms and fruits. ilokanos love their vegetable soup somewhat sweet or sweety, the magnificent blending of sweetness and saltiness of the blessed bugguong. a sweety, pulpy soup so bugguongy fragrant and that distinct leafy raw scent that’s so perfect for igup (soup to consume exclusively through spoonfuls or usually taken through the rim of the bowl), and labay (soup to go with rice) as well, to please a not so finicky but just characteristic ilokano palate.

any edible roots will do with this delicacy. camote or sweet potato is popular. and so with marunggay leaves, petchay, paria (bitter melon) leaves and tops, kalunay or kuantong (spinach and amaranth), and camote tops itself, and other leafy greens. but it also is known, buridibod still, with other root crops like aba (yam), tugi, buga, kamangeg, ube, balinghoy or kamoteng kahoy (cassava, yuca, or manioc) and others.

alukon or alokon (allaeanthus glaber) is also a popular ingredient. either blossoms or young leaves. but the flowers is preferred. the young fruit of the singkamas plant (jicama) is also a perfect ingredient, as well as the young fruit of the marunggay tree. i even sagpaw (add in) tarong (eggplant) especially the smaller and younger fruit (busel). or even young parda pods and kardis (kadios) young beans. it’s up to your ilokano instinct to add a variety of available vegetables.

my buridibod here is typically camote, marunggay and alukon. it’s alukon season when i made this dish. instead of the usual alukon and sauteed pinablad a balatong (boiled mongo beans) combination, or alukon in a pinakbet, i decided a buridibod when i spotted these lovely white and purple sweet potatoes and these freshly picked marunggay stalks.

i just love alukon blossoms. these are the kababai blossoms (female). there are two alukons that i know. the kababai and the kalalaki (male), just like papayas. and mind you, i like the kalalaki alukon more. its flowers (or is its fruit?) are roundish and aptly, resembles the human male testicles, complete with pubic hair-like, well, hairs that grew out of the flower/fruit’s pores. for me, it’s more edible than the kabaian alukon flower. but you can’t find male alukon flowers sold in markets, only the kabaian ones. i wonder why. we used to have a kabaian and kalakian alukon trees in my place in nueva vizcaya. but the kalakian tree is already cut down for pagtungo (firewood).

anyway, here’s how i came with my buridibod: i boiled some water in a pot for the bugguong. i peeled the camotes and cut them in to cubes. washed the alukon, and rinsed and segregated the marunggay leaves. after the bugguong is boiled for some time, i put in the camote cubes first and let it cook. here, you can prefer your buridibod somewhat drier or soft and pulpy. if you want a pulpy buridibod, boil the camotes some more or you can mash it by using a ladle. but mash it not too mushy so enough broth remain. you have to retain enough broth for your souping purposes. when the camotes are cooked, i put in the alukon blossoms, i let it cook for some time and then, just before serving, i put in the marunggay leaves. do not overcook the marunggay.

here’s the result:

a closeup:

what a heavenly viand to go with your rice!

 

uong ken lantong-utong, wild mushroom with bean stalks/shoots

this is edible wild mushroom variably called uong-kalaw, uong-bunton, uong-kimat, or uong-managadu. uong-kalaw because some folks say this mushroom misght be produced or induced by the bird called kalaw (in what way i really don’t know). uong-bunton because it usually grow around some anthills or “termite queendoms” or on moist reddish and clayish earth. and uong-kimat and uong-managadu because it really is induced by lightning and they grow and sprout abundantly in the night after a rainy, thunderstormy aftrenoon or dusk, to be picked in the early morning.

this one kind of wild mushroom is perfect for soups with greens like saluyot, bittermelon tops, marunggay tops, camote tops, kalunay tops or any other tops and shoots and young leaves an ilokano can imagine.

the sweet wild uong broth is so savory and so tasty it’s as if it is what vetsin or msg or umami is made from. i also like the slippery saluyot-like texture of this mushroom. which just suits well with green leafy veggies with somewhat coarse or rough texture like saluyot itself and that of the leaves, stalks and shoots of string beans (also called cowpea). it also blends well with nasabeng a bulbulong or greens with a peculiar smell of tartness or sharpness (napas-eng) like that of marunggay and alokon leaves and again, string bean leaves.

so i decided a mushroom and string bean leaves combination this time:

clean and wash the mushrooms thoroughly but do not squeeze them thoroughly else all that sweetness and tastiness of its succulence will be sucked out. remove all traces of dirt or earth and wash and rinse it in running tap water. also, as this kind of mushroom is prone to attack by some unsightly and very tiny pinkish and whitish worm, inspect the leaves for they might be starting to grow in there, between the filmy strands (called “gills”) under the mushroom cap. the older mushroom (those fully grown) and which is starting to wilt or wither is a suspect of being invaded by these worms, they even dig themselves in the stem.

a mushroom soup should not be too salty so put in just a mild amount of bugguong in the boiling water. some do not like bugguong in the mushroom soup at all because they claim the bugguong will overwhelm the broth it will become “naangdod” or smelly/bugguongy; you can use just table salt, if you prefer. or just put in a few drops of bugguong juice just for the heck of it to be called inabraw or dinengdeng the ilokano way (nabugguongan).

anyway, because of the utong tops, i need to neutralize the “sabeng” or “pas-eng’ with a right quantity of bugguong sauce.

put in some onion slices, some garlic “teeth” and put in the mushrooms first, let boil and simmer. when the mushrooms are cooked, put in the utong tops and simmer for some time. do not overcook the tops, make it just succulently crisp. put in some tomato slices just before you serve it.

enjoy the savory soup and the slick mushroom goodness!

once more…

 

fresh pako salad

one of my “favoritest” edible plant. and “favorited” greens as salad. as is. yes, as it is, freshly picked or plucked edible fern (also called fiddlehead fern because of the barikawwets or coils of its shoots) tossed in fresh calamansi or kalamunding juice and bugguong sauce. as simple as that. some prefer to slightly blanch it or even parboil it. but i prefer to kilaw it fresh to enjoy its crunchy and slippery raw state. this slippery texture of the edible fern is diminished when cooked.

so, here’s it, my simple recipe, pako shoots and leaves and stalks cut then tossed in calamansi juice, bugguong sauce, some vetsin if you like. garnish it with some onion slices if you like. you can even put in sliced tomato, if that’s what you prefer.

enjoy the ngarusngos act: