Nov 17, 2012

[Pt. II] Homemade Dinners: Filipino Food

Told you I'd be back with some more of that home-cooked good stuff! And this time, with a vengeance! Cooking filipino food at home has become a sort of therapy for me. I never expect the dishes to taste exactly like mom's, but I secretly hope while cooking that the dish'll at least come close! So far, I've been able to find all the necessary ingredients for the dishes I've made. Some things, however, are ridiculously expensive (e.g. 3,60 Euro for 200 grams of Chinese string beans — that is $4.50 CAD).



Ahhhhhhhh Sinigang. You have the pork lovers and the shrimp lovers, but when I first attempted it, I went with pork. Sadly, (probably due to boiling it for either too long or at too high a temperature) the pork turned out a tad too tough. Furthermore, I had issues recreating the lovely sour tamarind broth Sinigang is known for. Not even Mama Sita could help me out on that one. At least André had the chance to try taro for the first time! But ya, if I attempt this dish again, it'll have to be with shrimp.



I don't know why I didn't cook this dish earlier! It's called Ginataan Sitaw at Kalabasa, which means String Beans & Squash in a Coconut Sauce. I loved everything about how the dish turned out except for the sauce. For me, the sauce was a bit too watery (perhaps it was the recipe I used). As well, it could've had more flavour. Mind you, I did decide against using bagoong (shrimp paste) because I'm scared of the salty stuff! But as a whole, I just love all the different textures going on here: soft (baby food-like) squash, juicy shrimp and beans cooked to al dente all bathing in a creamy coconut sauce.

2 comments:

  1. @Anonymous: The Ginisang Sitaw dish definitely tasted nicccccce to me!

    ReplyDelete