Pancit Canton

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, hacked into pieces, boiled in a big casserole with one medium sized onion, 2 sticks of celery and pepper corns. Cover chicken with enough water. Remove meat from bone and don't forget to save the stock!
1 lb pork, sliced into thin strips
1 cup shrimp, cooked, deveined and unshelled
1 can straw mushrooms
1 can water chestnuts
1/2 head of bok choy (pechay) or 1/2 head cabbage, sliced into julien (sp) strips
1 piece of carrot, julienned a few pieces of snow pea pods
1/2 lb mussels or scallops (optional)
soy sauce to taste
patis to taste
salt to taste
2 cloves of garlic, chrushed
1 medium sized onion, sliced ground black pepper, fresh if you can
oil for frying
1 or 2 packages of pancit canton or a package of vermicelli or angel hair pasta. If you really can't find pancit, try egg noodles - although they may be soft, or spaghetti if you're that desperate
4 or 5 green onions
1 lemon

Directions:

Heat oil in a pan (or wok if possible). Sautee garlic and onion slices until the onion is transparent. Add chicken and pork. Cook until pork is brown. Add half of the chicken stock. Boil for about three minutes. Add salt, soy sauce or patis to taste. Also sprinkle some ground black pepper. Simmer for about another three minutes. Add shrimps, mushrooms, carrots and other ingredients except the noodles itself. Simmer for another 3 minutes or so (covered). Add the remaining stock. Adjust the taste with salt, pepper, patis and soy sauce. Add the noodles. Mix thoroughly until noodles are soft.
Garnish with sliced green onions and sliced lemon. Serve with lemon juice.

Shrimp & Shitake Mushroom Lumpia with Orange Chili Mint

Lumpia Ingredients:

2 lb Diced Peeled Fresh Shrimp
2 c Chopped Shiitake Mushrooms
1/2 c Thin grated Carrot
2 oz Bean Sprouts
2 oz Shredded Kai -Choy Chinese Mustard
2 oz Shredded Won Bok Cabbage
1/2 oz Garlic Chopped
1/2 oz Chopped Lemongrass
4 ea Kaffir Lime Leaves
4 oz Cooked Long Rice Noodles
2 tb Chopped Fresh Mint
2 oz Chopped Fresh Cilantro
1/2 oz Nam Pla Fish Sauce
1 oz Oyster Sauce
1 tb Hot Chili Paste
Sesame Oil
Soybean Oil
24 Lumpia Wrappers
Sauce Ingredients
3 Oranges
2 c Rice Wine
1/2 c Rice Vinegar
1/2 Bottle Lingham Chili Sauce
Fresh Picked Mint Leaves

Directions:

Lumpia:Stir fry at high heat in a equal parts sesame-soybean oil blend, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, carrot, cabbage, mustard, mushrooms, bean sprouts. Add the lime leaves, cilantro & mint and season with the oyster sauce, fish, soy and chili paste to taste, keeping the vegetables crisp. Set aside to cool. Fold in the cooked rice noodles with the vegetable mixture.
In a hot saute pan stir fry the chopped shrimp in sesame-soybean oil with chopped ginger & garlic, finishing with the same seasonings of fish soy, oyster sauce & chili paste. Combine the shrimp with the vegetable/noodle mixture.
Assemble:On a lumpia wrapper, place a mound of the shrimp vegetable mix, brush the edges lightly with egg, then roll the mixture up folding in the edges to close the ends. Pan fry in soy bean oil til golden brown & crispy and drain well on paper towels. Place the orange chili sauce on a plate and slice the rolls at an angle, arrange on the sauce & garnish with a spoonful of the diced fruit salsa, mint, cilantro and black seeds.
Sauce:In a sauce pan, add the wine, vinegar, oranges cut in half and squeezed (include rind & skin). Bring to a boil. Add the lingham chili sauce, simmer for about 5 minutes, and strain. Set aside warm.

Longganisa(filipino-style sausages)

Ingredients:

Mixture of 30% ground beef And 70% ground pork For every 2.2 pounds (1 kilo Mixture add:
2 1/2 tb Salt
1 1/2 tb Sugar
1 1/2 tb Soy sauce
2 tb Vinegar
2 tb Wine
1/8 ts Saltpeter; (salitre)
1 ts Ground pepper
2 ts Chopped garlic
Sausage casings--Available any butcher shop

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and cure mixture for 5-6 days in the refrigerator and stuff into casings. This kind of sausage should be stored in a cooler, ready for use. To cook: Place a small amount of water in a skillet. Place sausages and let boil in water for about 10 minutes. With a fork, pierce casings. The Longganisa will be ready when juices flow out and turn a dark caramel color. The sausages should also turn the same color and some oil should leak out. Suggestions: You can eat the Longganisa and tapa with pieces of lightly salted tomatoes. This will make a perfect compliment to the sinangag. Recipes taken directly from the cookbook called Favorite Filipino Dishes by J.F Silverio, Solar Publishing: Manila. All measurements were converted to coincide with American measurements.

Filipino Sinigang (Tamarind Soup)

Ingredients:

3 lbs pork ribs, chopped into 1 inch pieces
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
1 packet sinigang tamarind soup mix (found in international food section)
16 cups water
1 bok choy, chopped in 1 to 2 inch slices
1 daikon radishes, chopped in thin round slices (optional)
1 small tomato, chopped fine (optional)

Directions:

1. Saute ribs garlic onions and salt to taste until brown.2. In Separate large pot add water Sinigang tamarind soup packet (found in international food section) to taste I like the whole packet but less is more in this case if it is to sour for you. 3. Remember you can eat this with rice. 4. Then add the tomato and the pork, cook on medium heat for about 40 min and then add the potatoes cook for another 10 min and then add the Daikon Radish and the Bok choy cook about 10 more min. 5. It is good if the meat easily comes away from the bone. 6. You can eat this straight or over rice or both.

Adobong Pusit

Ingredients:

½ kg Small fresh squids
½ c Native vinegar
10 Cloves garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
1 md Onion, sliced
2 md Tomatoes, chopped
Extra salt and pepper for seasoning
1 ts Vet-sin (monosodium glutamate) (optional)

Directions:

Got down my single Filipino cook book and found this little gem. My grasp of Tagalog is non-existent but I'd guess that the name translates as "Squid Adobo". At any rate, it's squid stewed in vinegar. I assume that the reference to "native vinegar" refers to nipa sap vinegar (sukang paombong). The bottle I have is a milky looking vinegar that tastes pretty much like any vinegar so I imagine that you have some latitude on what type you can use. For those of you who have never tried it, Filipino food is an intriguing cuisine that has elements of Southeast Asian, Chinese and Mexican or Spanish influences. It has everything from spring rolls (lumpias) to rellenos dishes. Wash the squids very well. Remove the long thin membrane in the head and slit the eyes to bring out the ink. Place the squids in a saucepan with vinegar, 6 cloves garlic crushed, salt and pepper. Cover and cook slowly until the squids are tender. Cut cooked squids into 1/2 inch slices crosswise. Crush remaining garlic and saute in a little lard in another pan. Add the onion and tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are very soft. Add the squids and the liquid in which they were boiled. Simmer for 7 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and vet-sin.

SIOMAI

SiomaiSiomai is a dimsum of Chinese origin which is also quite common in the Philippines. One can order different kinds of siomai but the base is always pork. The ground meat should have some fat otherwise the cooked siomai will be too tough. I tried to experiment on chicken siomai some years back and made the mistake of taking out the skin and fat and it turned out to be tough. Prawns or shrimps can be substituted for part of the pork if desired. For the binder, some use flour or corn starch but I find it to leave a raw taste so I use egg instead (proportion is 1 egg to 1 kg pork). I strongly recommend adding vegetables to give the dimsum some crunch and for nutritional reasons too. If desired ¼ cup of chopped mushrooms or black ear fungus and 1/3 cup fresh or frozen green peas can be added to the recipe below:

Ingredients:

1 kg ground pork (suggested proportion of fat to lean meat is 1:3)
1/3 cup chopped water chestnuts or turnips (singkamas)
1/3 cup chopped carrots
2 medium or 1 large minced onion(s)
bunch of spring onions or leeks
1 egg
5 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt
50 pcs. large or 100 pcs. small wanton or siomai wrapper
soy sauce, calamansi (lemon or kumquats), sesame oil and chilli paste (for the sauce)

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl. Spoon 1 tablespoon of mixture into each wrapper. Fold and seal.Meanwhile, boil water and brush steamer with oil. When the water gets to a rolling boil, arrange the siomai in the steamer and let stand for 15-20 minutes, longer for larger pieces.Serve with soy sauce, calamansi and sesame oil. Chilli past is optional.Update: Someone asked me for the recipe of chilli paste and siomai wrapper that’s why I’m reproducing it here.

Galantina

Ingredients:

1 chicken (capon)
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper
1/4 kilo ground pork
1 can sausages
1-1/2 pig's brain, boiled and mashed, the membranes peeled off
1/2 cup chopped pickles
Salt and pepper
Cooked chicken meat, cut into strips
1 piece chorizo de Bilbao, cut into strips
2 eggs, hard boiled
Chicken stock

Directions:

Dress the chicken. Split it down the back and open it flat. Lay the bird skin up on a cutting board. Remove the skin and the meat carefully by cutting away from the bones so that the skin comes off in one piece. Marinate the chicken in lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
Mix the pork, sausages, brain, and pickles well until blended thoroughly. Lay and spread the deboned chicken. Spread the filling over it and arrange the chicken and chorizo strips, and the eggs in the center.
Form into a roll; then, sew it up and roll in a piece of cheesecloth. Drop the roll into boiling chicken stock. Cook for about two hours.
When done, remove the roll from the stock. Drain and lay the roll on a platter. Place a weight on top of the cooked galantina to press it a bit. Allow to cool. When cool, remove the cheesecloth. Keep the galantina refrigerated.
To serve, slice and arrange on a platter. Garnish with parsley or kinchay.