Sana Ngayong Pasko by Eric Santos

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Dinakdakan

Dinakdakan recipe is a popular Filipino dish especially in Ilocos and northern part of Luzon. It is consisting of hog head and brain cooked in boiling water with spices then grilled until crispy, chopped into small pieces then mix with mayonnaise, onions, salt and pepper to taste. Like sisig this dish is usually serve as appetizer.

Dinakdakan Ingredients:
Pork’s parts of your choice:
• ear (preferrred)
• nape or batok in Filipino (preferrred)
• togue
• liver
• small intestine
Onion; thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
Calamansi or lemon juice or vinegar
Pig's brain; boiled
Mayonnaise (optional) / or Utak ng baboy

Dinakdakan Cooking Instructions:
Parboil pig's parts. Strain and broil or grill. Slice into 1” long by 1/4” thick (or your desired sizes), then place in a large bowl. Mix the slices of onion and boiled brain. Balance seasoning with calamansi juice, salt and pepper according to taste.

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Bagnet

The bagnet recipe that comes from the north of the Philippines (VIGAN) is truly delicious and unique. The first time I tried it, I thought that it will be just like the typical lechon kawali I've always had but then I realized that I was wrong. The bagnet is somewhat the same as the lechon kawali only it seemed to vary in taste and crispiness. It is truly an absolute delight. But of course, those with high blood pressure (like me, hehehe) or those sensitive to cholesterol better beware! You might not be able to resist this crispy and tasteful crispy fried pork belly!

Ingredients:
1 kilo pork belly; cut into desired pieces
1 liter cooking oil
1/2 liter water
Salt to taste
Water
Bagnet (Ilocano Chicharon Baboy) Cooking Instructions:
In a stock pot, bring water to a boil with added salt. Drop pork and boil until tender. Drain and hang dry, then set aside.

Submerged pork in hot cooking oil until brown. Drain and dry in paper towel until completely cool.
Reheat cooking oil. Submerged pork in very hot cooking oil for while, strain, and sprinkle with cold water. Do this process several times until skin pops. Remove from fire and serve.

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Sinanglaw / Pinapaitan (Beef Innards Stew): Great Appetizer and Effective Aphrodisiac

Pinapaitan or Papaitan is an exotic recipe that originated in the Ilocandia. This Ilocano recipe’s name is derived from the word “pait” which means “bitter” in English. Pinapaitan can be translated as “Beef Innards Stew”, “Mutton Innards Stew” or “Chevon Innards Stew”.

Pinapaitan is consists mostly of beef (cow) innards. Chevon (goat) and mutton (sheep) innards can be cooked this way too. Sirloin and tenderloin can be added also if you don’t like innards.

Ingredients:
1. ½ kg beef/chevon/mutton innards (This includes tripe, heart, liver, intestine and others) cut into small pieces.
2. Sirloin or tenderloin (if you don’t like innards)
3. Bile liquid (papait) or extract from the animal’s stomach (strained)
4. Cooking oil
5. Ginger strips (optional)
6. Minced garlic
7. Chopped onions
8. Long green chili pepper (siling pangsigang)
9. Tamarind extract or powder (optional)
10. Salt to taste
11. Msg (optional)

Procedure:
1. Sautee ginger, garlic and onion in a wok or pan
2. Add the innards and cook until oil starts to show up mixing it occasionally.
3. Add salt and msg and mix
4. Pour 1 liter of water and add the bile or extract
5. (Stocked from the animal’s stomach is more preferred than bile because bile is too bitter if amount is not controlled)
6. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until the meat is tender
7. Add siling pangsigang and tamarind. Let boil for 5 minutes
8. Serve hot with rice or serve as an appetizer.
Some pictures, texts and recipes were taken from Notecook

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Dinardaraan (Dinuguan) / Pork Blood Stew

Dinuguan (dinardaraan in Ilocano) or blood stew is a popular dish in the Philippines in which the major ingredient is animal blood, and meat and / or innards and entrails. The name dinuguan come from the word dugo which is the Filipino word for blood that is also called as dara in Ilocano. This dish may seem to be appalling and distasteful specially to the squeamish or may even be repulsive and offensive to other people due to cultural or religious beliefs, but for the Filipinos, this is one tasty dish that is a must-try for foreigners.

Dinuguan (Dinar-daraan). Unlike the Tagalog soggy dinuguan, Ilocano version was dried. I love how it taste differently from the one I was accustomed.

Ingredients:

Pork meat (Kasim or belly) - 500 g
Pig's Sweet Intestines - 500 g.
Pig's Blood - 500 ml or more
Cane Vinegar - 7 tbsp
Fish Sauce - 2 tbsp
Sea Salt - 2 tbsp
Ground Black Pepper
Magi Magic Sarap - 2 tsp
Green Chili
Red Onions, diced - 2 medium
Garlic, crushed and chopped - 5 cloves
Water enough to cover the meat

Cooking Procedure:

1. Strain the blood and mash any coagulated blood. Add the vinegar to the blood and mix it well
2. Heat the oil in a pan and sauté garlic until it almost turns brown, add the onion, then the meat. Pan fry it until the liquid and oils from the meat comes out. Transfer the meat into a pressure cooker. Add the water and bring to a boil under pressure for at least 20 minutes. Release pressure from the cooker and open lid.
3. Add the blood and the seasonings and let it simmer until most of the liquids have evaporated.
4. Add the green chili and simmer for another 2 minutes.

You can serve it with rice for dinner or steamed rice cakes (puto) for snack. Pictures, texts and recipes were taken from Fresha-licious

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Pakbet – Ilocano Recipe

I'm not speaking in general terms, like it's my favorite Filipino dish, no. I really mean that Pinakbet--the illest of Ilocano dishes--is my most favorite food in the whole entire world times infinity! Even by Filipino standards, this is a curious choice (I think) on my part as I know of many Pinoys who can't stand this vegetable medley. I'm sure it has to do with the ever-present ampalaya.

Ingredients:

1 grilled fish (bangus or tilapia)
3 tomato; sliced
2 Camote (sweet potato)
2 eggplant, (round shape)
4 ampalaya (young ampalaya – round shape)
5 okras
1 hand bundle of string beans
1 cup of patani (lima beans)
6 squash flower
1 hand bundle of sigarillas
2 tablespoon of oil (extract from fried pork)
Bagoong isda
2 cups of hugas - bigas

Pakbet Cooking Instructions:

In a pot (tayab or banga) boil the hugas bigas together with grilled fish, tomato and bagoong isda. Add vegetables. Simmer until all vegetables are cooked. Add extract oil from fried pork and seasoning. Serve hot!

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Kilawen a kalding (grilled goat meat)

Very Ilocano kilawen a kalding (grilled goat meat) is only for the adventurous palate. The easy method to prepare kilawen is by grilling the whole goat with flame from a blowtorch (yes, that welding tool), after which it is cut-up to make smaller portions for it and the other dishes. Red onion slices and calamansi juice are added to the thin meat slices. I prefer giving mine a zing with sweet pickle relish. This is best for “PULUTAN” with BILOG (Ginebra – gin).

Ingredients:
1 kilo goat’s meat with skin
*preferred cuts are from the thigh, loin, neck and shoulder
2 big onions; sliced
1 root ginger; cut in strips (optional)
3 siling labuyo; chopped
Vinegar
Salt and pepper
Soy sauce



Kilawing Kambing Cooking Instructions:

Marinate goat meat in soy sauce, grill, then make small slices.
Balance seasoning with vinegar, salt, and pepper according to taste. Garnish with onion and silling labuyo. Refrigerate, then serve. Some pictures and recipes were taken from My Filipino Recipes

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Buridibud, Dinendeng a Alukon Ken Patani

Buridibud, Dinengdeng a Alukon ken Patani. I have been longing to try a version of dinendeng or buridibud using the combination of alukon, patani and some eggplant. Alukon is a small tree that is endemic to Ilokanos in Northern Luzon it is also named alucon, himbabau and alibagbag and some other names on different parts of the country. The green worm like flowers is used in many Ilokano recipes. This is the first time I cooked this dinengdeng combination, I just followed my Ilokano instinct to come up with this version of dinengdeng or it may be more appropriate to call in buridibud because I used kamote roots to give texture to the broth. Buridibud is a variation of dinengdeng where diced kamote or sweet potato is added to thicken up the broth. Here is the recipe of my Buridibud, Dinengdeng a Alukon ken Patani. Some words and pictures were taken from Overseas Pinoy Cooking

Ingredients:

1 bunch alocon flowers, trimmed
2 cups, patani, young lima beans, peeled
1 medium size eggplant, peeled, sliced into thin strips
1 small size kamote, peeled, diced
2-3 tbsp. bagoong na isda
1 medium size tomato chopped
1 small size inion chopped
grilled or fried fish
salt

Cooking Procedure:
Dilute bagoong na isda in 3 to 4 cups of water, strain in a sheave and pour solution in a casserole bring to boil and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, remove all scams that rises. Add in the diced kamote and simmer for another 3 to 5 minutes or until it start to disintegrate. Add the onion, tomato and patani, simmer for 8 to 10 minutes or until patani is cooked. Add in the eggplant and continue to cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add salt to taste, now add in the alukon flowers and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Top with grilled or fried fish and keep covered for a minute. Serve hot.

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Ilocano Authentic Dishes

Local Ilocano food is simple, unpretentious and savory. They use ingredients that are abundant in their surroundings and they keep their food simple. In fact Ilocano cuisine is most reflective of the four foundation cooking methods of Filipino cuisine. These methods are boiling, grilling, roasting, and steaming. These were the basic cooking methods of our ancestors before the foreign influences on our food.

Ilocano cuisine for me is very exotic and at the same time it is the most intriguing of all the regional cuisines in the Philippines. I say intriguing for the following reasons:
1. The dishes have very funny sounding names because of the native dialect spoken.
2. The ingredients used like intestines, bile, lots of liver, tripe, kidneys, crickets, cow’s skin, ant eggs, dog, maybe a bit too exotic for the regular palette.
3. Most dishes are soupy instead of saucy. They hardly use thickening agents like rice flour, flour, or roux. Food is difficult to plate or present nicely.

4. They use a lot of local leafy vegetables, vegetable blossoms, and if not handled properly can easily be overcooked.
5. Some of the dishes can even look disgusting but when you try them…they can taste so delicious!
6. They have cooking techniques from their ancestors that they are not telling us. When the execution of their dish is prepared by a native…. even something as dis-likable as liver can taste so heavenly! Some text are taken from Cooking Class

Ilocano Authentic Dishes

• Buridibud, Dinendeng a Alukon Ken Patani

• Bagnet

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Backpackers

A variety of different travelers exist today - from students to seniors, from single to group, from backpacking to lifestyle travelling. In this section, we provide an overview of a number of traveler types, with information about their specific travel needs, foods, and somehow on how “Juan dela Cruz” engage himself with this so-called “KULTURANG PINOY”.

Let me focus with the “BACKPACKERS,” it is a form of low-cost, independent local or international travel. It includes the use of a backpack or other luggage that is easily carried for long distances or long periods of time; the use of public transport: inexpensive lodging such as youth hostels; a longer duration to the trip when compared with conventional vacations; and an interest in meeting the locals as well as seeing the sights. It is typically associated with young adults, who generally have fewer obligations and thus more time to travel. They also have less money to spend on hostels or private vehicles. Backpacking has a sense of authenticity. It is perceived as being more than a vacation but a means of education. Backpacking (travel) Backpacking is either a single or group traveler/s. Usually a group of individuals gather together who wanted to have a short vacation or weekend after days or months of hard work.

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