Size does not matter. When I was a kid, we used to eat a lot of shrimps, although my parents could often only afford the small ones. But not as small as alamang. The medium size shrimps are the best one to be used in preparing this easy and delicious recipe.

Hilabos na Hipon (Quick dish Shrimp)

Ingredients:

about a kilo of medium sized shrimps

some salt

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

10 g of butter (about 2 table spoons when melted)

a little bit of water about a quarter of a glass

Procedure:

In your pan put your shrimp, soy sauce, a little bit of salt and your water. Do not put a lot cover and let it simmer for about 7 to 10 minutes. Turn off the fire and add your butter. You can serve this with some sliced green mangoes or kamias.

Related posts:

1. Nilasing na Hipon
2. Stir-fry Bitsuelas with chicharon toppings
3. Okoy or Ukoy Pinoy Shrimp Fried Patties

“Ang dami mo namang palabok” in other words you have so much blah, blah. Try this favorite dish of my dad that he wouldn’t mind eating them every single morning for his breakfast

Pancit Palabok or Pancit Malabon
450 gms fat bihon (rice noodles)
some water
1 T achiote seeds (or red food coloring)
¼ C cooking oil
½ C ground chicharron
¼ C fish sauce (patis)
½ tsp ground black pepper
2½ T calamansi juice
2 T cornstarch mixed with 1 T water
2 C shredded  pechay baguio or any cabbage will do, blanched
1 pound medium shrimps, peeled and fried (reserve heads and peels for broth)
1 C crumbled chicharron
2 C chopped boiled pork
1 pound cooked squid , sliced
3 hard cooked eggs, sliced
2 T crumbled fried garlic slices
2 T sliced green onions
calamansi juice and fish extract

Cook the noodles in water. When softened, cook in a pot of boiling water until tender but still firm. Drain and set aside. In a small skillet heat the cooking oil and achiote seeds in low heat for 1 minute. Strain and discard seeds. Set oil aside. In a large pan, boil 4 cups water and reserved shrimp heads and shells and a dash of salt. Lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove shells and discard. Add cornstarch mixture and simmer for a few minutes until sauce has thickened. Add the ground chicharron, the achiote oil, black pepper, fish sauce (patis) , and calamansi juice. Mix well.

Add the cooked noodles and toss until noodles are well coated. Transfer into a large serving platter. Top with shredded cabbage, shrimps, pork adobo, chopped chicharron, squid, garlic, spring onions, and sliced eggs. Serve it with a slice of calamansi.

Related posts:

1. Pancit Canton
2. Bam-i
3. Prawn & Bean Sprouts Salad

This is a great complete meal dish! Easy to prepare and will surely please everybody!

Ingredients:

1/4 kilo of bean sprouts (toge)

1/4 kilo of prawns (shelled, tails and head removed)

half a block of big tofu (or three pieces of small tofu) cut in cubes

1 onion sliced

half a cup of flour

1 egg

half a glass of water

half a teaspoon of salt

cooking oil for deep frying

Procedure:

This recipe is my auntie’s version of this delicious recipe. In a bowl mix the flour, egg, salt and water. Add the bean sprouts mix well. Get your deep frying casserole and pour the cooking oil. Let it heat up well. Get a small saucer and place about two to three spoonful of your bean sprout-flour mixture. Flatten them with a back of a spoon to have a nice round shape of about 2cms thickness. Decorate the top with a prawn (if you are using small shrimps you need to put at least three pieces) and some cut tofu. Sliced this gently on your hot oil and cook both sides until golden brown. You will need to prepare a vinegar with some chopped chilis and garlic as a sauce for this recipe.

Related posts:

1. Adobong Sitaw with fried tokwa
2. Lumpia
3. Tokwa’t Baboy

Nilasing na hipon ( literally drunk shrimp) is one of my favorite shrimp dish probably just after hilabos or sinigang na hipon) a dish that is so simple and yet impressively delicious.  Nilasing na hipon simply conveys  filipino inventiveness and sense of humor.

Ingredients:

1 kilo of Prawns or Gambas ( count three to four pieces per person depending on the size)

4 tablespoon of olive oil

*I highly recommend using olive oil than normal cooking oil, health and taste wise is better

1 red onion chopped

1 red bell pepper chopped

2-3 siling labuyo (hot chili pepper) this is optional

1 tablespoon of butter (about 15 g)

half a glass of alcohol

* you can use any of the following: Lambanog, Sake, Tequila, Gin, Vodka or even Beer

1 tablespoon of any alcohol (optional if you are doing flambé)

Procedure:

Start by cleaning and preparing the prawns or shrimp.  If you are using big prawns it is advisable to take off their shells but leave their head and tail for presentation.  Otherwise for small shrimps you can just leave it as it is.  It is better to use fresh shrimps for this recipe.  In a deep salad bowl prepare the marinade.  Mix together olive oil, the alcohol, salt and pepper.  Mix well and pour over the shrimps or prawns.  Let it marinate for about an hour.  Afterwards, get all the shrimps and pat it dry with a paper towel. In a wok or pan melt the butter  with  one tablespoon of olive oil and put the marinated shrimps (without the marinating juice) .  Add together the red onion and red bell pepper and chopped siling labuyo.  Stir fry for about three to five minutes ( it depends on the size of your shrimp, smaller shorter cooking time). You can pour this over a bowl of rice as a topping or put in a sizzling plate with a tablespoon of alcohol to do a flambé afterwards.

*flambe is to put the entire dish on fire with the help of the alcohol you added.  You can do this with vodka, tequila, gin, or sake. Right after you pour the alcohol let it burn with the help of a match stick.  But be careful in doing this.

Related posts:

1. Hilabos na Hipon (Quick dish Shrimp)
2. Ginataang Kalabasa
3. Prawn Pineapple Curry

No birthdays or filipino family gathering is complete without a pancit on the table. A sign of longevity and strong family ties. Definitely we owe this to strong chinese influence but our version is truly filipino in its sense. Pancit could be long or short, with sauce or not but always a sure hit among the guests. I love it in between my pandesal in the morning or eaten with rice during lunchtime.

Ingredients:

1 kilo of pancit canton

*1 kilo could serve about ten to twelve guests. But it depends on their capacity to eat and if there are other dishes on the table.

half a kilo of pork belly (slice thinly)

2 cooked chicken breasts (meat shreaded)

1/4 kilo of shrimps (shells removed )

1/4 kilo of squid balls (cut into two)

2 onions sliced

3 cloves of garlic

one cup of sliced cabbage

2 carrots (cut in julienne strips)

half a cup of caulliflower (cut in small pieces) you can also use some broccolli

half a cup of celery stalks sliced

one bunch of fresh kintsay (chinese parley)

1/4 cup of soy sauce

pepper

1 pork cube (dissolve in half a liter of water)

half a cup of water

Procedure:

There are many versions of cooking canton. This one is the version of my friend’s mom she taught us, and I swear its really good. In a big wok or sautéing pan, put the pork and half a cup of water. Cover it and let it boil. After few minutes of simmering you can take now the liquid from the wok. You will save it for future use later. Add oil on the wok and start frying the pork, once they change color, take them off and put the shrimps. Cook them lightly until they change color. Next put the squid balls and do the same. After all these fry all the vegetables lighlty. You can add more oil if necessary. The vegetables need to rest crunchy and sweet. Reserve in one big plate all the fried vegetables, pork, shrimp, squid balls and cooked chicken breast. On the same wok, sauté the garlic and onion and pour the pork broth cube dissolved in water. Let it boil. Add the pancit canton. Pour the soy sauce. Do not put everything immediately, try to taste it, to determine whether you will need to put more or less. Let the canton noodles soften and absorbed the juice. If you like your pancit canton with a little bit of liquid you can already turn off the fire as soon as the noodles tenderized. But if you prefer a pancit canton drier you need to wait that the juice have already evaporated. But do not overcook because noodles have tendency to become soggy. At this point mix half of all the fried ingredients you have on the pancit. Mix them well to be sure they are proportionally distributed everywhere. The other remaining half of your fried veggies and meat goes on top of the noodles so that it will look more appetizing. Serve with kalamansi (lemon or lime) mixed with soy sauce and siling labuyo (chili hot pepper).

Related posts:

1. Pancit Palabok (Pancit ng Malabon)
2. Beef Meatballs Lomi Soup
3. Pinoy Spaghetti Meatballs

Let’s talk about shrimp.  In Philippines you will see them in all sizes, in all prices and with different levels of goodness.  There’s the king size prawns, the gambas, the suwahe and there’s also the baby ones, alamang.  You’ll find them fresh, dried or even prisonned in a bottle.  Anyway you want it.  So if you love shrimp this recipe is for you.

Ingredients:
8 pcs of tiger prawns (about 4 pcs per serving)
1 eggplant cut in cubes
half a cup of fresh pineapple
3 tbsp of pineapple juice
1 tbsp of green curry paste
4 tbsp of olive oil
2-3 chilis
1 tbsp of curcuma
one cup of coconut milk

Procedure:

In a wok fry rapidly the eggplant with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Reserve the eggplant. In the same wok, put the remaining olive oil and add the green curry paste and curcuma. Pour the coconut milk and simmer over low fire. At the first boil add the pineapple, the pineapple juice, the chilis and prawns. Cook for about 3 more minutes. Season it with some fish sauce. Add the fried eggplant and turn off the fire.

*published with permission from Dhanggitskitchen

Related posts:

1. Ginataaang Sugpo sa Pinya
2. Chicken Curry
3. Ginataang Kalabasa

When my mom cooks Ginataang Kalabasa I swear I eat with my hands. This is a healthy and truly delicious vegetable dish, we’ll never get tired of eating.

Ingredients:

1 cup of squash cut in cube

1 bunch of string beans cut about 4 inches long

3 cloves of garlic

1 onion sliced

3 tbsp of shrimp paste (bagoong) if its not available you can use patis to add the fish flavor about 1 tbsp)

1 pack of coconut milk (about one cup)

about 12 pcs of prawns

about 4 to 5 pieces of crab (alimasag) (you can cut them into two to help the flavor propagate in the dish

siling labuyo (optional) it depends if you want it spicy or not

salt and pepper

Procedure:

Heat the pan, put the cooking oil. Add the garlic and onion. Once their fragrant perfume comes out add the shrimp paste. Sauté for about few minutes then add the squash and string beans. Pour the coconut milk and cover, let it simmer gently over low fire. Once it boiled add the rest of ingredients; prawns, crab and sili. Cover and continue simmering for about ten minutes. Stir from time to time to avoid that the bottom to stick. Once the sauce has reduced in volume you can turn off the fire. Best served with hot rice . Kain na!

Related posts:

1. Pinakbet
2. Ginataang Tulingan
3. Laing

I have learned this laing version to our Bicolano neighbor. I assure you this is the real thing.

Ingredients:

half a kilo of Gabi leaves (if they are too fresh you need to dry them up after tearing them)

half a kilo of gabi stems (take off the skin with the aid of knife)

* Saying goes to avoid scratching any part of your body while preparing this dish if you don’t want your laing to be itchy in your mouth.

milk from 2 coconut (if you cannot find fresh coconut you can replace it with one pack of coconut milk and one pack of coconut cream)

2 dried fish (you can use bisugo or labahita) you can also use dilis if you want

1/4 kilo pork belly cut in cube

3 cloves of garlic crushed

1 onion sliced

1 tbsp of grated ginger

salt & pepper

2 siling haba (jalapeno)

3-4 siling labuyo (chili)

*this Laing version is more for a day to day meal. You can add seafood like crab or prawns if its for a special gathering.

Procedure:

I assure cooking this dish is very easy and simple. You will spend more time preparing the ingredients. Start by removing the skin of your gabi stems then cut them about 2 to three inches in length. Next get the gabi leaves. NEVER wash them. Use a clean sponge instead to clean the leaves of any dirt or insect that might be attached to it. Next tear them as you would tear a paper. Not too big nor too small. Put all the leaves together with the cut stem and dry them outside. Be sure you don’t cook laing during rainy season

As soon as your gabi leaves have dried up and wilted we can start cooking them now. Get a big casserole, it needs to be thick enough because this is a slow cooking dish. Out of fire assemble the ingredients on the casserole; starting with the pork belly, then put the garlic, onion and ginger. Then cover this with the gabi stem, then the gabi leaves. Pour the coconut milk and cream (if you are using freshly squeezed coconut milk put everything). Lastly put the dried fish on the top and cover the casserole. Put the casserole on fire and cook slowly for about an hour over low fire. Once you smelled that coconut milk has dried up and the scent of coconut oil is strong. Turn off the fire. Get the dried fish which is now soft and cooked, and start mincing them with your hand. Put back the fish meat (just the meat you can throw the head and fish bones) and add the siling haba and cut siling labuyo. Stir your laing from bottom to top delicately. Stir them well until all the ingredients are well distributed. Cover it again. Laing gets better as day passed by. So better to eat them the next day. That is if you have a fridge you can keep it. Or else invite your neighbor to eat it with you.

Related posts:

1. Pinangat
2. Ginataang Kalabasa
3. Ginataang Tulingan

I think this is the all time vegetable dish among Filipinos.  Each region have their own version of this delicious mixture of different fresh vegetables.  Since I grew up and raised in Tagalog region I’m sharing the version my palates have grown up with.

Pinakbet

1/4 kilo of pork belly cut in cube

1/4 kilo of shrimps shells removed and deveined

3 cloves of crushed garlic

1 onion

2 big tomatoes cut in cubes

1 big bunch of kangkong (you can replace this with spinach)

1 cup of squash (cut in cubes)

5 to 6 okra

3 egg plant cut in cubes (depend on size)

1 cup of string beans (sitao)

half a cup of bagoong alamang (shrimp paste)

3 tbsp of cooking oil

half a cup of water

Procedure:

Start by putting the pork in a casserole with half a cup of water.  Cover it and let it boil until the pork becomes tender.  Pour the pork broth in a bowl and reserve for later.  Put back the pork and add the cooking oil.  Fry the pork until it becomes golden brown and crispy.  Once they are golden brown take them off but leave the oil on the pan.  This pork oil will give flavor to your dish.  Next, put the garlic , followed by onion and tomato.  Add the shrimps and the bagoong pour the pork broth and let it boil.  Then add all the vegetables starting from the longest one to cook (string beans, egg plant and okra).  Put on the last the squash and kangkong.  Simmer over low fire for about fifteen to twenty minutes.  Serve it with fried pork on the top.

Related posts:

1. Ginataang Kalabasa
2. Pork Sinigang
3. Ginisang Munggo