Foot and Fire

I bought the stringbeans from the junior high school trade fair. When I said how much is the "balatong" a girl corrected me that it is "sitaw." I laughed and said the song Bahay Kubo has mentioned Sitaw, it is tge Filipino word but for us Ilonggos, it is balatong in hiligaynon. She smiled! I made and adobong sitaw. Sone versions add alamang, meat or tofu but I made mine just the beans.  Adobong sitaw Stringbeans, cut 1 inch long Garlic, minced Onions, chopped Oil for sautè Water, if needed Soy sauce Fish sauce Vinegar (used banana vinegar I made, see previous posts) Bay leaf Sall & pepper Sautè garlic and onions in oil until transluscent. Add stringbeans. Close with lid for 3 minutes.  Add a little water if needed. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Stir. Close with lid for 3 minutes. Taste the stringbeans, it should be crunchy if you want it half-cooked or an eaay bite if you want it well done. Remove from fire. Serve hot over rice. 

    Canola Oil Garlic Onion Chicken Liver water Soy Sauce vinegar Brown sugar Szechuan Peppercorn Bay Leaves    Saute Garlic and Onion in oil until translucent. Add Chicken Liver and water just enough to cook it. Cover for 5 minutes. Add soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. Add crushed Szechuan Peppercorn and bay leaves. Mix gently and cover again for another 5 minutes.

We love Chicken Feet or what we Pinoys call "adidas." While we don't like commercial dressed chicken, we are fans of this chicken part. Collagen is what we were seeping in the joints. And true, the nearest to the bones, the sweetest the meat indeed.  Canola oil Garlic Onions Chicken feet Water Monkey's ear Sesame seeds Bulgogi sauce Fish sauce Apple cider vinegar or coco vinegar Soy sauce Sesame oil Saute garlic and onions until translucent, add chicken feet. Stir and add water. Cover until boiling.  Add monkey's ear and all ingredients except sesame oil. Cover and let cook until tender. Reduce fire to low and continue to cook until juice is a bit jelly.  Add sesame oil and put off fire. 

ADOBO NGA TAKWAY For Ilonggos, this is a vegetable delicacy. Slimy with smooth texture, it's almost melt in the mouth vegetarian experience of adobo. But personally, there is no other vegetable that could effectively evoke childhood memories of five siblings simultaneously as strong as Takway.  With Tatay as our team captain then, we used to gather around a kalalaw to keenly peel off the brown layers of each strand of takway, a long growing extra root of gabi, because the peeled ones in the wetmarket are too little for our appetite that we have to peel our own so we can eat in gusto. It was like a fiesta at the house when we had this .  Too bad for me today; adobo nga takway goes well with lots of rice and I just had some with a mere half rice.