KCC Challenge: Pinakbet

This month's KCC challenge is brought to us by Erika @ The Ivory Hut, and to embrace the beginning of Spring, this month's theme is: Vegetables.

This was a bit of a tough one for me. Growing, up I was quite the picky eater. On our trips to the Philippines, one of the first things my mom would have to do would be to buy cereal and milk for me and my brother for breakfast. When going to a Chinese restaurant, I would ONLY eat egg drop soup. I didn't like veggies. I didn't like to try new things.

All of the Filipino dishes that I've grown up loving were either meat, sweet, or starch-based... so I had to consult my mom for this challenge. She threw a couple of ideas in the air... but the one that stuck out most was Pinakbet. Pinakbet is a dish that originates from my mom's hometown in Ilocos Norte. It's a melange of vegetables; tomatoes, onions, bitter melon, okra, green beans, all cooked with garlic, ginger, and bagoong (shrimp paste) until shriveled. It's one of my mom's staple recipes... a dish that she either cooks, or brings home from the Filipino store.

I never wanted to try it because of one ingredient; bitter melon. It is a vegetable that even makes my dad, one of the most adventurous eaters I know, cringe. So if he didn't like it, how could I, a picky 10-or-so year old, have had even the slightest urge to try it?

Now that I'm much older, I'm quite the opposite. I would much rather spend the time to make really delicious scrambled eggs for breakfast than pour myself a bowl of Lucky Charms. When going to a Chinese restaurant, I won't even waste my time on egg drop soup... I go directly for the Peking Duck (or something just as yummy). And I love veggies. I love to try new things.

So this is kind of my ode to how I've changed. It's a dish I've grown up with, but never ate. It's always been around, and now I am finally old enough to appreciate it... and it just so happens (as my mom just told me) that it was my Lolo's favorite dish.

Pinakbet

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
250g pork belly, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 yellow onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tablespoon of ginger, minced
3 coeur de boeuf tomatoes (beefsteak tomatoes), diced
2 tablespoons shrimp paste
3/4 cup boiling water
1 ampalayá, or bitter melon, seeds removed and cut into bite-sized pieces
8 okra, tops and bottoms cut off, and cut into bite-sized pieces
150g haricots verts (green beans), tips removed
1 eggplant, diced
salt and pepper, to taste


In a large heavy-bottom pot, heat oil over medium-high heat and fry the pork until browned. Once browned, remove the pork and set aside.

In the same pot, saute garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes until softened, about 10 minutes.

In a small saucepan, boil water and add shrimp paste. Stir until dissolved.

Add the pork back into the pot of tomatoes, onions and garlic, and add the shrimp paste/water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add in the rest of the vegetables and cook until the vegetables are done, about 15 minutes.

Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with plain rice. Serves 4-6.

Kulinarya Cooking Club Members:

Kath – http://www.acupcakeortwo.com/
Trisha – http://sugarlace.com/
Trissa – http://trissalicious.com/
Olive – http://www.latestrecipes.net/
Caroline – http://whenadobometfeijoada.blogspot.com/
Ninette – http://bigboldbeautifulfood.blogspot.com/
Peach- http://www.thepeachkitchen.com/
Althea- http://www.busogsarap.com/
Asha – http://forkspoonnknife.blogspot.com/
Malou – http://www.skiptomalou.net/
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Sheryl – http://crispywaffle.com/
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Anna – http://www.anniesfoodjournal.blogspot.com/
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Tressa
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Erika – http://ivoryhut.com/
Kat – http://twitter.com/alanokat
Lala – http://thislittlepiggywenttothemarket.blogspot.com/
Selfie – http://eats.sefiebee.com/
Connie Veneracion - http://homecookingrocks.com/
Oggi - http://oggi-icandothat.blogspot.com/
Katrina - http://lardonmyfrench.blogspot.com/
Rochelle Ryan - http://www.whydiss.blogspot.com/
Marica – http://cuppycreme.blogspot.com
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Marvin – http://www.eatmarvin.com

Tartine Tuesday: Pan Seared Mackerel & Romesco Tartines

I'm doing pretty well so far with my 2011 resolutions. I woke up this morning and knocked out my yoga routine, and am weening myself off of soda and pasta with sweet, crunchy, fresh-from-the-market carrots.

I'm more than 3/4 of the way through David Lebovitz's The Sweet Life in Paris, which literally makes me laugh out loud, because I swear I'm walking in his footsteps. Book 1 of (at least) 5 almost done!

Continuing on my resolution train, I thought long and hard about today's tartines. My dad has been tossing the idea of doing a "red pepper" related tartine almost every time I talk with him, so these tartines kill a few birds (and resolutions) with one stone.

For my resolution to eat more sustainably, I'm using Spanish mackerel in today's tartine. It is a fish which matures quickly and produces high numbers of offspring, which makes it one of the best choices when it comes to ocean-friendly eating. As an added bonus, it's also fairly inexpensive (about 9 Euros/kilo... about 5 Dollars/pound).

This tartine also test my skills at cooking outside of my comfort zone. Since I'm now a lot closer (literally) to different cuisines, I figured I would start cooking a few things I've never cooked before. Giving a nod to my Dad's request to make a red pepper tartine, I paired the mackerel with romesco, a sauce originating from Catalonia, Spain, which consists of sweet roasted red peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and a few other goodies.

Pan Seared Mackerel & Romesco Tartines

12 slices of rustic bread or sourdough, toasted

8 mackerel fillets, skin-on and deboned

1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Cut each mackerel fillet into two pieces, removing the reddish/brown blood line down the center of the fillet (where the backbone lies) as this part of the fish can be very strong flavored. Cut the fillets into small 1 inch pieces. Season with salt and pepper. 

Heat oil in a medium sized non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Carefully add the pieces of mackerel, skin-side down and press gently on the fish with the backside of a spatula, which ensures a crispy skin. After about 2 minutes, flip the pieces of fish and cook for another 2 minutes, or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate once cooked.

Romesco Sauce:

6 roma or plum tomatoes, core removed and quartered

1 red bell pepper, quartered

12 cloves of garlic

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1-2 slices of bread (depending on the size of your bread)

1/2 cup toasted whole almonds

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon Spanish paprika

1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

salt, to taste

Preheat an oven to 425° Fahrenheit (220° Celsius). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Place the tomatoes, bell pepper, and garlic cloves onto the prepared baking sheet. Brush the vegetables with some of the olive oil, then sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake in the preheated oven until the garlic has turned golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for 10 minutes. 

While the vegetables are cooling, bake the bread slice on one of the oven racks until golden brown. Remove and allow to cool.

Add the vegetables and any juices from the pan into a food processor or blender. Break the bread into pieces, and add to the food processor along with the toasted almonds, vinegar, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Puree until finely ground, then drizzle in the remaining olive oil with the machine running. Salt to taste. 

 

Spread romesco sauce over each slice of toasted bread and top with a few pieces of mackerel. Serves 4-6.

Squid Ink Pasta with Crawfish and Garlic Ginger Velouté

About three weeks ago I went to this place with Quentin and his Dad called Metro. It's similar to Sam's or Costco in America; a gigantic warehouse-type building with everything you might need... in bulk. I of course, felt right at home, since everything was "American-sized". Big jars of mayonnaise, ketchup... an enormous food section(almost 5 times the size of the one's at Sam's) and of course, laptops for half the price you would pay in the normal electronics store. Quentin was there to find a laptop, so he could use it to look for jobs and apartments since I needed my laptop for work... his dad wanted to take a look at the projectors, and I, of course, wanted to look at the food/kitchen stuff.

It's too bad that this place is only allowed to business owners, because they would make a lot of money off of me. Their kitchen section had a lot of professional kitchen equipment that made me wish I had my own restaurant... sous-vide machines, crêpieres, induction cook-tops... sigh. I spent about 15 minutes daydreaming on my perfect kitchen and then moseyed on over to the food section. 

The food section in this place makes my eyes glaze over. Now, yes, when it comes to "quality vs. quantity" you would think this place would lean more toward the latter, but the only things that stood out to me as being less than worthy were a few batches of barely ripe tomatoes and some packaged frozen foods. They have a great produce section, with just about anything you might need, a meat section that is so cold you may just come out of there with frostbite if you're not wearing the right clothes, and a dry goods area that has some pretty interesting finds.

One of those interesting finds happened to be the squid ink pasta I stumbled upon while looking at the price of quinoa. I had never tried squid ink pasta before, but was always curious about it. Luckily, it wasn't one of those items you had to buy in 50 pound bags, so I picked up a single package and took it home to give it a test run. 

Quentin's dad also picked up a small bucket of crawfish tails, écrevisse, from Metro and I thought they would make a good accompaniment to the pasta.

I've tested this dish two similar ways already... The first dish didn't photograph as well as I thought it would, so I wanted to test another way to see if I could make the dish better tastefully and aesthetically. My inspiration for the second dish came from a cooking lesson I watched on Rouxbe, the world's first-ever online cooking school. I came across this site from a fellow food blogger, and after browsing through a few videos using their 7-day trial, I went ahead and purchased the lifetime membership!

Note: I am a Rouxbe Cooking School affiliate partner. As part of their affiliate program, I have the power to give you a free, full-access, no-videos-barred, 14-day pass to their site. All you have to do is go to the Rouxbe Online Cooking School and redeem the 14-day Gift Membership. After the trial, you can join for as little as $15 per month; however, there is no obligation. This site is unlike any other cooking site I've seen. It gives you clear, step-by-step demonstrations as you would receive in a cooking class. I've already learned so much, and hope to improve my cooking skills via Rouxbe. It's awesome! Check it out!

So as I was browsing through videos I watched their lesson on velouté, one of the 5 mother sauces made from combining stock with a roux. 

Rouxbe Online Cooking School & Video Recipes

After watching it, I adapted it to my recipe.

Squid Ink Pasta with Crawfish and Garlic Ginger Velouté

500g squid ink spaghetti pasta

1 cup of crawfish tails (you can substitute with small shrimp)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup of vegetable stock

1 cup of fish stock

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2-3 shallots, minced

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced

white pepper, to taste

salt, to taste

1 bunch of fresh chives

In a large pot of boiling salted water, add the pasta and cook according to the package directions.

To start the velouté, first melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the shallots, garlic and ginger to the butter and sauté until the shallots have softened and become translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Then add the flour and whisk until fully incorporated. Cook the flour/butter mixture (roux) until it just starts to change color.

Slowly add the vegetable/fish stock, a little bit at a time. Whisk and let it come back to a gentle boil each time before adding more stock. Add the stock until you reach a silky-smooth consistency. Strain through a sieve or mesh strainer to remove the garlic, shallots, and ginger pieces and any remaining lumps. Season with salt and white pepper to taste.

Note: The sauce may thicken slightly as it cools, so if you’re not planning to use it right away, you may need to loosen it up with a bit more hot stock before using.

If your crawfish tails are cold, you can place them in a strainer and dunk into the hot pasta water for about 15-30 seconds. Just be sure that if they are pre-cooked crawfish tails, that you do not overcook them when re-heating them.

Drain pasta in a colander. In a large bowl, add the pasta, crawfish tails, and sauce, and toss to combine. Top with freshly chopped chives. Alternatively, you can plate these individually as shown in the picture above. Serves 4.