Bam-i

Tonight's meal is going to be a kind of bam-i. This is a Cebuano specialty noodle dish, often served at feasts and banquets. Its chief feature is that it contains two types of noodles: a kind of soft chow mein noodle made from eggs and wheat, and those thin, translucent, vermicelli-like noodles that are actually, somehow, made from green beans. I think that in Cantonese the latter are called sai foon. I have no idea what the name bam-i translates to, if anything: ask a Cebuano and he'll tell you it means a pancit (noodle) dish with two kinds of noodles. :)

Bam-i normally contains a mixture of pork, chicken, liver, shrimp and sometimes squid, as well as shredded cabbage, shredded or Julienned carrots, red bell peppers, and wood-ear fungus which is sold dried then rehydrated and sliced prior to cooking with it. I don't have most of these things as we still haven't done our biweekly grocery shopping yet, due to the stormy weather. All I have is what I found in the cupboard, which was a package of each of the two kinds of noodles; and what I found at the local mini-market, which was three small pieces of chicken thigh meat, half a cabbage and a carrot (I forgot to get red bell peppers.) So, my bam-i is going to be way simpler than the normal recipes that people prepare to serve to guests and such.

Sautéeing vs. braising: a discussion

The style in which we normally cook our (mostly vegetable) dishes is called ginisa (or ginisang, followed by the name of the main ingredient) which translates as sautéed or stir-fried. However, I learned from Jay Rosenberg's esteemed cookbook, The Impoverished Student's Book of Cookery, Drinkery and Housekeepery, that to sauté means "to cook in some oil until brown all over" and that doesn't accurately describe the Cebuano form of ginisa which entails parboiling the meat or chicken then cooking it, along with chopped onions and garlic, in some hot oil for just a few moments, then adding a small amount of soy sauce to give it its brown coloring.

Gourmet beef stew

OK, here we go with another non-Filipino recipe. I haven't made this one since I left the States as beef is rather mahal (expensive) and a bit hard to find here, being imported from Australia or New Zealand and sold frozen. So I'm going by memory, but I've made it several times so I think I can remember everything.

My version of beef stew is a bit different than most: upon tasting it, I've had people ask me if I'm a gourmet and also ask me for the recipe. Like many home-style cooks, though, I don't follow a recipe as such: I just make stew! But here goes:

Cabbage soup, Cebuano style

Payday was Friday but my wife has to work weekends, getting Thursday and Friday off, so we were unable to go grocery shopping. There wasn't much food left in the house on Thursday, so I took what was left of my funds and went to the local "mini-market" which is like a small farmer's market, located just up the street within easy walking distance.

We had a good-sized piece of pork belly left: enough for two of our standard recipes that use 1/2 to 2/3 cup of pork cubes. Also there were two onions and two heads of garlic, and several pork bouillon cubes. So I went to the vegetable stalls at the mini-market looking for ideas. I ended up buying a whole, small cabbage; three small, mostly-ripe tomatoes; three sili (sword) peppers; and a small ginger root. As it's now in the 'rainy season" and there's a tropical storm nearby, adding to the normal monsoons and affecting the weather (it's cool, overcast, dark, and wet with a lot of local thundershowers) I figured it was a good day for soup. Something to warm body and soul. The veggies I bought came to 28 pesos: around 65 cents (US.) All told, the entire meal (or rather, meals: there was enough for two meals, including seconds and even thirds at each meal, and there's still some left over) probably cost on the order of US$3.00. Cheap eats!

Ginisang talong (sautéed eggplant)

Tonight's extravaganza will be ginisang talong. Ginisa (the "ng" acts as a linguistic "linker") actually translates to sautéed or stir-fried, but the way it's made here in Cebu is more like braising as there's a bit of water involved, not to mention the eggplants' own juices.

Like many other vegetables grown in the Philippines, the eggplants found here are rather small compared to those grown in the USA and other places. They're about the size of English cucumbers, so two eggplants per person is about the right amount for a main course.

You can actually cook several different vegetables in this same style: cabbage, pechay (bok choy), the other pechay (Chinese or Napa cabbage), sitaw (string/snap/green/haricot beans, whatever you want to call 'em), asparagus or yard-long beans, and others. It's the way we usually cook our vegetables, and we usually eat a fresh vegetable dish for dinner every night. It's really simple and easy.

Things to do with zucchini

OK, this is a very un-Filipino post. It goes out to vegetable gardeners in western Washington State in the USA.

For some reason, western Washington is like zucchini heaven. Zucchinis thrive and grow absolutely huge there. Gardeners in the know, know to never plant zucchini as there's always someone in the neighborhood or your family who does so, and they'll have plenty of extra ones to give away. One time when I was young, someone knocked on our front door. When my mother opened it, there was nobody there but there was a large paper bag containing several zucchinis right in front of the door, like a foundling baby at an orphanage! We all laughed, saying "Oh-oh, looks like someone planted zucchini!"

It's weird: you look at your zucchini one day to see how they're doing, see that they're almost big enough, and think "They're just about ready to pick. I'll give them another day or two." Then when you go out to pick them you find that they've tripled in size! You have enough zucchini to eat it once or twice a week for a year, if it didn't spoil first (which it would unless used up or somehow preserved.)

So, say you either plant zucchini or someone gives you some. What the heck are you going to do with all that zucchini? Here are a few ideas.

How to make perfect rice

In Southeast Asia, like in China, rice is consumed at pretty much every meal. Filipinos eat a lot of it. Most of the recipes in this blog suggest serving the dish with, or over, rice, so here are a few notes on preparing perfect rice.

Odong with sardines

Odong ingredients

Odong is a kind of short flour and egg noodle, yellowish in color, somewhat resembling spaghetti noodles. The most common way of preparing odong is a rich noodle soup or stew made with sardines in tomato and chili sauce. Sounds disgusting, tastes great! I plan to cook this for dinner tonight.

The key is to use Asian-style sardines. Americans, please don't try substituting cheap Beachcliff brand sardines in those flat cans: it will taste horrible. Try to find an Asian market and look for sardines in a small (around 150 grams), upright can (see photo above.) Favorite brand names include Ligo, Toyo, Family's, 555 and Mega. Make sure you get sardines in tomato sauce with chili added, unless you absolutely can't stand any spiciness at all in your food (they're not hot, by the way: just tasty), in which case get sardines in plain tomato sauce. Well, you'll need to go to an Asian or Filipino market anyway, to get your odong noodles, so you may as well just get your sardines there too.

Odong is sold in a plastic bag which contains several (around ten) small packets of noodles. You'll need six of these packets for this recipe, which sadly only leaves four for the next batch. I wish they'd give us 12.

Adobong kangkong (water spinach cooked adobo-style)

Adobong kangkong on a serving platter

Kangkong is a tropical plant that is commonly eaten in Southeast Asian countries as a green vegetable, much like we eat spinach, collard greens  or Swiss chard. It tastes somewhat like mind-flavored spinach. Both the stems and leaves are consumed. In the Philippines, kangkong is usually braised with various seasonings including vinegar in the adobo style.

If you can't find fresh kangkong where you are, feel free to substitute fresh spinach or your favorite green. I don't think mustard greens would do well in this dish, though: their flavor's too strong.

I made this last Friday evening. My wife was planning to do the cooking but some company stopped by, so she went outside (away from the barking dogs) to entertain them while I minded our dogs. We were both pretty hungry so I decided to do the sous-chefery and prep everything for her to save time, and then I decided I may as well pre-cook the pork too, and when that was done it was simplest to just finish everything off and cook the whole bloody thing. :) I was just going to invite our guests to come inside and join us for dinner but when I did they were just leaving, so we had it all to ourselves. It was scrumptious!

Mongo Madness (stewed mung beans)

A bowl of Mongo Madness and rice

Tonight I'm making mongos. "Mongos", also spelled "monggos", "mungos" or "munggos" are dried mung beans and are very similar to lentils. Mongos are typically prepared as a soup or stew. I make mine a bit differently, shall we say, compared to the typical Philippine way. It's kind of my own secret recipe, but I'm willing to share. My wife, a Cebuana, says I make better mongos than she does. I call this dish Mongo Madness as originally I added whatever I happened to have lying around, such as leftover pechay, so it was a bit different every time until I finally standardized my recipe as is given here.

This dish is easy to make but requires quite a bit of preparation, some of which can be done beforehand, finishing up about an hour before you want to eat. It's a great comfort food when you're not feeling well or for during the cooler rainy season, as it is here (it just started.)

Please read the recipe thoroughly, including the notes at the bottom, before going shopping. (Recipe details continue after the jump.)