Cooking with Cecilia: Binagoongang Baboy - Pork with Bagoong

I'll be fixing Binagoongang Baboy for some friends.

What, you may ask, is that?

It sounds terrible, but it's really good. It brings back memories of down-home meals in the homes we grew up in. It's not healthy - it has pork and is saltier than heck because of the shrimp fry. It's not anything one should eat often, but once in a while, why not? Here are the ingredients and directions, although I have noted alterations below.

Ingredients:

Binagoongang Baboy
1 kilo pork loin, cut into 1" cubes
1/2 cup vinegar (spicy preferred but not required)
1/2 cup bagoong, or for the Ilonggos, ginamus
6 cloves of garlic, crushed and then minced
6-10 peppercorns, crushed
2 bay leaves

Marinate the pork cutes in the othe ingredients overnight in the refrigerator. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a wok or large frying pan. Saute the bay leaves to bring out the fragrance. Add the marinated pork along with the marinade. Cook over a medium heat until the pork is nice and tender (30-45 minute). Check the frying pan every so often to make sure the sauce isn't drying out. If it is, lower th eheat and add 1/3 c. of water and stir.
Serve with rice, tomatoes, and sliced cucumbers.

In fact, I've altered the above recipe. I'm using pork hocks. I found some sliced around 1 1/2 inch thick, in my Filipino market (Seafood City, on Vermont). After washing them, I placed them in a huge pot. I got a nice lemon from my little prolific lemon tree and squeezed lemon juice on the meat. I was watching the Food Channel once and saw this Caribbean woman squeezing fresh lemon on the chicken she was fixing, and she said a blessing as she did that. She talked about the lemon removing smells and cleaning the chicken well. Ever since I saw that, I squeeze lemon on any meat I fix and say a little prayer that God bless this food that my family and friends will be eating, and I actually say a thanksgiving to God for the poor animal that gave up its life for us.

I put water into the pot - I have no idea how much, around 2/3rd pot-full? It's just to simmer the pork in, to tenderize it. I added 1/2 cup vinegar. Then I sliced onions and threw that in. I threw in 3 bay leaves and some black pepper. I also crushed 3-4 cloves of garlic and threw that in. I had some loose oregano and tossed a pinch in. I have not salted this because once the pork is tender, I'll mix in the bagoong in the last minute. Using pork hock and boiling it releases a kind of gel that marries with the bagoong into a nice sauce.

What gives this taste is the bagoong, which is wickedly salty and tasty. Americans say the stuff smells and perhaps it does, but the scent makes my mouth water, from all the years of associating it with food.

I saw another recipe that uses tomatoes, and I suppose it wouldn't hurt to add tomatoes. In fact, I wish I had some tomatoes to throw in.

That, dear Readers, is Cecilia's way of cooking Binagoongang Baboy!

Tags: cooking, recipes, Filipino, food

Read also:

Grilled Tri-Tip for Father's Day

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2014/06/cooking-with-cecilia-grilled-tri-tip.html  

Fried Chicken Caribbean Style

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2008/09/food-essay-chicken.html 

 Chicken soup for my bad cold

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2013/08/cooking-with-cecilia-chicken-soup-for.html 

Cooking with Cecilia: Pasta with Crab Roe or Aligue

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2014/07/cooking-with-cecilia-pasta-with-crab.html

Cooking with Cecilia: Paella
https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2019/05/cooking-with-cecilia-paella.html

Cooking with Cecilia: Lengua Estofada

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2019/05/cooking-with-cecilia-lengua-estofada.html  

Philippine Cooking: Spam, Eggs, and Rice Breakfast

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2015/03/filipino-cooking-spam-eggs-and-rice.html 

Philippine Cooking: Ube Halaya

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2015/03/filipino-cooking-ube-halaya-or-purple.html 

Hot Chocolate Drinks: Chocolate-Eh, Chocolate-Mexicano, Chocolate Filipino

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2014/06/chocolate-eh-chocolate-mexicano.html

Cooking with Cecilia: Paella

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I have several recipes of paella. I'm sharing one of them.  Paella is a great dish to fix if you have company. All you need is salad and wine and you have a complete meal. Enjoy!

PAELLA
From Cecilia Brainard's Favorite Recipes

Ingredients

1/2 lb sausage
Olive Oil
1 chicken, cut up
1 1/2 lbs pork, cubed
1 large red pepper, in strips
1 yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tomatoes, medium diced

1/4 tsp saffron
1 1/2 cup long grain rice
1 1/2 lbs shrimps
1 10 oz frozen peas
12 mussels or clams
salt to taste
4-6 cups chicken broth

Directions

Heat olive oil. Saute Onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Add pork and chicken and cook, stirring constantly, around 15 minutes. Add sausage, salt, pepper. Add rice, stirring until coated with oil. Mix with other ingredients. Add saffron to chicken broth. Slowly pour broth into the pan until the contents are covered. Arrange mussels, clams, shrimps, pepper on top. Simmer to cook rice. Add water if needed. When rice is almost cooked, sprinkle peas on top.

Tags: #recipe #food #Pinoy #Philippines #cooking #ceciliabrainard

Read also:

Grilled Tri-Tip for Father's Day

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2014/06/cooking-with-cecilia-grilled-tri-tip.html  

Fried Chicken Caribbean Style

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2008/09/food-essay-chicken.html 

 Chicken soup for my bad cold

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2013/08/cooking-with-cecilia-chicken-soup-for.html 

Cooking with Cecilia: Pasta with Crab Roe or Aligue

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2014/07/cooking-with-cecilia-pasta-with-crab.html  

Cooking with Cecilia: Lengua Estofado

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2019/05/cooking-with-cecilia-lengua-estofada.html  

Philippine Cooking: Spam, Eggs, and Rice Breakfast

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2015/03/filipino-cooking-spam-eggs-and-rice.html 

Philippine Cooking: Ube Halaya

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2015/03/filipino-cooking-ube-halaya-or-purple.html 

Hot Chocolate Drinks: Chocolate-Eh, Chocolate-Mexicano, Chocolate Filipino

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2014/06/chocolate-eh-chocolate-mexicano.html

He Has Risen! Happy Easter!

Chef Cecilia

Happy Easter!!


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     Tags: Easter, holiday, cooking

     This is all for now,

      Cecilia

Cooking: Fifth Taste Umami Discovered!

I was with Food Experts recently, including Chef Gene Gonzalez, historian Felice Sta. Maria, another historian Bryan Koh, and two food writers: Amy Uy and Jenny Brillos.

Half in jest, I told them about the secret ingredient in my Beef Bouguignon -- and I will say it here --- soy sauce.  I expected them to laugh as people often do, but they took the information in thoughtfully then said, "Ah, umami."

Cooking: My Own Spice Box and Doreen Gamboa Food Writing Competition

 I found a nice spice box from India at the Somosa House in Culver City where we had a nice casual dinner one evening. This vegetarian restaurant has good Indian food, and the annexed market has wonderful spices and Indian goods, including this stainless steel spice box.

Cooking with Cecilia: Chicken Malunggay or Moringa Soup

While I'm on the mend, I haven't gotten rid of my cold. The worst day was Day 3, but at Day 6, I'm not done. I continue to be vigilant and am resting and taking my medicines. I've added Aleve to my arsenal of treatments.

Philippine Cooking: Ube Halaya or Purple Yam Dessert

In the Philippines, we used to eat Purple Yam or Ube, a root with dense purple flesh. Sometimes this was boiled; sometimes this was added in other dishes. It had a distinctive pleasant taste, which I can't really describe beyond saying I could taste the forest in it.

Filipino Cooking: Recipe for Carol's Cornbread Bibingka

 Recipe for Carol's Cornbread Bibingka

Carol Ojeda-Kimbrough shares with us her recipe for Bibingka Galapong, a favorite Filipino "cake."
Carol says she arrived at this recipe by trial and error, by playing with different recipes until she got the taste and texture just the way she likes.

COOKING WITH CECILIA - LECHE FLAN (Vietnamese style), Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

 COOKING WITH CECILIA - LECHE FLAN (Vietnamese Style)

I'm cooking for some friends, and my menu includes Leche Flan. Here is my favorite Leche Flan Recipe, which has coconut milk.  The coconut milk seems to make the texture smoother.  I have other Leche Flan Recipes, from the Philippines and Mexico, but this one almost always turns out perfect. It may take more than 45 minutes to cook. You have to test with a knife. Poke and pull, if the knife is clean, the flan is cooked.

(The picture shows me with Beef Bourguignon, another favorite recipe. I'll post that recipe another time.)

Leche Flan with Vietnamese Touch
4 eggs
1 cup condensed milk
1 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp vanilla
sugar to carmelize container
Mix eggs, milk, and vanilla. I carmelize sugar in a pan and spoon out brown sugar-liquid into the bottoms of pyrex containers. I put the mixture into the containers, around 2/3 or 3/4 full. I double boil for around 45 minutes at 325 degrees.

Let the pyrex containers cool. Run knife around the edges and loosen flan before flipping onto a serving plate, spoon carmelized sugar over the top. Delicious!


Read also:
Cooking with Cecilia Brainard - Quiche
Cooking with Cecilia Brainard - Linguine with Clams
Cooking Lengua Estofada
Food Essay - Fried Chicken Caribbean-style
How I Learned to Make Leche Flan (or How I Met my Husband)
Cooking with Cecilia - Leche Flan (Vietnamese Style) 
Recipe for Balbacua Cebuana from Louie Nacorda 
Easy Filipino Recipes from Maryknollers
Cooking with Cecilia - Beef Bourguignon
Cooking with Cecilia - Chicken Soup for my Bad Cold

~~~

tags: cooking, recipes, dessert, leche flan, custard, cookbook, food

POTATO SALAD AND HOMEMADE MAYONNAISE

Last night I made homemade potato salad and remembered that my mother used to make mayonnaise. Usually this was done when my parents had a big party and Mama made potato salad. in the 1950s in the Philippines, jarred mayonnaise wasn't easily available. As I write this I find this hard to believe since we are so used to just unscrewing a jar of Best Foods or Kraft mayonnaise. It's possible that jarred mayonnaise was available but that my mother just wanted to do it homemade. In any case, I remember that egg yolks were used, and Wesson Oil. My mother always used Wesson oil. She added some vinegar to the eggs yolks and Wesson Oil and lemoncito, and the mixture had to be whisked until it solidified.

I found some recipes for homemade Mayonnaise on the net and it includes adding dry mustard. We didn't have dry mustard in the Philippines so my mother used egg yolks, Wesson Oil, vinegar and lemoncito. Her potato salad was always good.

For a long while I wasn't making homemade potato salad because of the hassle of boiling the potatoes and eggs, peeling, cutting, and mixing in relish, onions, mayonnaise, horse radish, etc. I was buying potato salad that was already made from markets. I always had leftovers.

A few months ago, I had some potatoes that had to be used and I made potato salad. The homemade potato salad was so much better than the store-bought version. My family ate the whole thing. Ever since, I've decided that this dish can be a nice addition to a buffet meal.

I don't have a written recipe for potato salad, but basically I boil potatoes (I've just been using baking potatoes). I also boil eggs. I peel the potatoes and cut them up - big chunks are fine. I do the same with the eggs. I chop up onions. I add relish; I add a bit of horse radish for zing. I add dollops of mayonnaise and mix. If I have plain yogurt, I'll use it, and minimize the mayonnaise - this to minimize the calories. If I have the liquid of sweet pickles (vinegar and sugar), I'll add that. I find that if I leave this in the refrigerator overnight, it'll dry up, so I'll give it another small dollop of mayonnaise before serving.

You can see, dear Readers, that my mind is still filled with food as I prepare for Easter.

EASTER PREPARATIONS

After getting back from a quick visit to Cambria, I've had to run around to prepare for Easter. Foremost in my mind is food, dear Readers, because some 45 people will be over on Easter. I'm fixing ham and beef bourgignon; the others will be bringing appetizers, salad, dessert. But regardless, I always make sure I have cheese and crackers and relish dishes, and a cake.

Lest you think, dear Readers, that that is all I know how to fix, let me inform you that I can fix exotic dishes like lengua and paella and so on, but I find ham and beef bourgignon are popular with this Easter crowd. Further, I can cook the beef bourgignon beforehand. We will also have an egg hunt for the children, dear Readers, which means, I have to boil and color some 80 eggs.

And then there's the house, dear Readers, which needs to be spruced up some.

So, for the rest of this Holy Week, you know what I'll be doing.

We got a new toy - an Irobot Roomba. It's a robot vacuum cleaner, recommended to us by the Oleys. Costco sells the model 550, and I like to buy things from Costco because of their good return policy. We opened the box; everything looked pretty simple, and the Roomba already went to work in our room. I cannot believe the amount of lint and dirt the Roomba picked up! It's a wonderful gadget.

So, the Roomba, like me, will be working this week to prepare for Easter!