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.
20 June 2009 at 8:50 pm
Excellent info on Filipino dishes. Very informative and detailed. I would throw in an unheeded advise though, coz i feel like “sayang” you are making a really good site. The shots would look great (and natural) if you can practice taking pictures without flash. It might be difficult without ample lighting and you would need a very steady hand – but the results will be vivid mouth-watering photos. The steam from freshly served food would also create a fog on your lens, so avoid takng shots from above. Finally, if there appears to be a hazy part on your pics, clean the lens. Best wishes for your endeavors.