Foot and Fire

      I mentioned in my past blog that I wanted to cook Tinola for the Jose Rizal tribute but cooked binakol instead.Much to my dismay, I learned that I have no entry on tinola nga manok in my blog when I searched for it. The irony is that my family loves tinola and it's a staple to our survival and happiness and it's an anomaly why I got no blog post about it. So, it's about time to post one. We love native chicken as it is tasty compared to 45 days chicken. I also do not saute as I avoid oils being subjected to heat but put the garlic and onions directly to the soup. You may saute if you like. Here's how we do it:   Ingredients ; 1 whole native chicken (or free range chicken), cut to serving sizes water garlic onions ginger, thumsized bellpepper green papaya lemongrass, knotted salt and pepper chili leaves  Boil the chicken in a deep casserole until tender. Once the meat is tender, add the garlic, onions, ginger, abd bellpepper. Add more water if neces...

I wanted to cook Tinola as my last entry for the National Heroes Day Cookfest but we had it last week and I was not abe to snap a photo of it as I planned to do another recipe. Anyway, I wanted Tinola for my last entry because it was mentioned in Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and the neck and wing parts were given to Fr. Damaso who was insulted but the soup was especially prepared for Ibarra who just came back from abroad and not for him. (By the way, I can't help but mention that I love the neck and wing part mainly because of the foodie wisdom that says, "the nearest to the bone, the sweetest is the meat." This, Fr. Damaso has no clue).   And so, I had my favorite dish, Binakol. I checked on the web the entries on binakol and I was surprised that most entries would introduce binakol as Tinola but uses coconut water and coco meat. Okay, I was not pleasantly surprised (I'm a bit horrified, I admit) because the binakol I grew to love while I was in Ilo...

Half kilo native chicken Onions Bellpepper Ginger Coco water of 2 coconuts (about 2 L) 3 Potatoes, cubed Coco meat Salt and pepper to taste. Boil the chicken until tender with minimal water. Add ginger, onion, bellpepper and coco water. Simmer, then add poataoes and coco meat. Adjust taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot with rice on the side.