Braised Vegetable Medley with Shrimp Paste
Although this dish is more “Ilo-kano” than “Ilo-nggo” Pinakbet is almost a national dish as Adobo. It is in most regions in the whole country with slight variations. We used to go to this resort in Iloilo that has this really great Pinakbet, oozing with bagoong, crisp vegetables and lovely melt in your mouth pork belly. It has always been part of our order.
I think the secret to Pinakbet is the high quality Bagoong (shrimp paste) that you choose and the freshness of the vegetables.
I have been to a lot of filipino homes, parties and restaurants, and I noticed that the veggies are usually overcooked (from pansit to chop-suey etc), partly to blame I think is our Turo-turo mentality where the food has been slowly cooking in their containers for hours. So you have vegetables that are mushy and lacks color. Turo-Turo is ok if you are in a rush, that’s how it was designed for…”Fast-food”. But definitely not at home. We have to cook with our heart that has been our Lola’s secret recipe and our Mom’s secret recipe and will continue to be, provided you put care and love in your cooking. I am a firm believer in the slow food movement.
Panakot (Ingredients):
- Garlic, Tomato and Onions for Sauteing
- Squash
- Long Beans (Sitaw)
- Okra
- Eggplant
- Bagoong (Shrimp paste, I personally like to use Barrio fiesta’s spicy adobo bagoong)
- Pork Belly (sliced into cubes)
- Patis (Fish Sauce)
* note: You can pick any robust vegetables that you want (Sigarilyas or Ampalaya are another good addition)
Paagi (procedure):
- In a pot, boil a liter of water, and blanch the vegetables beforehand. Cool it off in a an ice bath if you wish to preserve the color (This is the best technique to cook the veggies uniformly)
- In a wok put in the pork belly and let it fry in it’s own fat
- Once the pork belly is brown and crispy, add your Bagoong (about 2 tbsp) and saute it in pork fat
- Add garlic, then onions and tomato let it saute a bit for about 2 minutes
- Put heat on high
- Add all the vegetables and mix thoroughly
- Add fish sauce or salt to taste
- Turn down the heat to simmer, put a lid on it till slightly undercooked.
- Turn off the heat and keep the lid on till serving time (about 5 minutes), the residual heat would slowly cook the vegetables to just the right amount of done-ness.
Serve hot with rice, Namit!
