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Binagoongan Baboy
Binagoongan Baboy
Binagoongan Baboy is cubed pork belly cooked in shrimp paste, then stewed in vinegar, water, tomatoes, and chilies. It is rich in flavor with a certain funk of pungency in the bestest way possible. Just a warning: making this dish is going to stink your place up. If you live in a 4 plex like I do, the hallways will smell like a pig queefed mists of shrimpy vinegar. While some might be turned off by the smell, I’d stand right behind that pig. This dish is always served with heaping piles of steamed rice and sautéed egg plant.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 lbs skin on pork belly cubed
- 1 medium onion diced
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp shrimp paste
- 2 medium tomatoes seeded and chopped
- 1/4 cup vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 5 Thai chilies chopped
- 1 tbsp sugar
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat up cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Brown the pork belly on all sides; about 8 minutes.
- Add in the onions and garlic. Sauté for 4 minutes.
- Add in the shrimp paste, making sure to coat all of the pork belly. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add in the tomatoes. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the vinegar. Simmer uncovered without stirring for 4 minutes.
- Add in the water, chilies, and sugar.
- Bring to a boil. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Uncover. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer 0ver medium high heat for 5 more minutes, allowing the sauce to thicken.
Senegalese Fried Fish Balls
Senegalese Fried Fish Balls
Senegalese cuisine has it‘s roots from it’s bordering West African countries as well as North Africa, Lebanon, France, and Portugal. Being on the western coastline, Senegalese eat a lot of fish as part of a dietary staple. Traditionally, emperor sea bream is used for the fish. Most likely you are going to have a hard time finding this fish, so tilapia, swai, cod, catfish, or any other firm white fleshed fish will work. The fish will need to be finely chopped in order to get the right consistency of the balls. You can do this with a sharp chefs knife or pulsed a couple of times in a food processor. Mix all of the ingredients together and let rest for 30 minutes before balling up. I like to use a cookie dropper to make uniform fish balls. Rolls the first ball in flour and fry for 4-5 minutes a side.For making the sauce, sauté onions, green bell peppers, and tomatoes down for 8-10 minutes. Add a cup of water and cayenne pepper(depending on how spicy you want the sauce) and simmer for 5 minutes. Add in the fish balls and simmer covered on low for 15 minutes. Serve the fish balls with steamed rice. Garnish with more chopped parsley.
Ingredients
Fried Fish Balls
- 1 lb white fish fillets (tilapia, swai, cod, catfish) finely chopped
- 4 slices bread ground into breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg
- 2 green onions finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 jalapeño finely chopped
- 1/4 cup parsley chopped
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup flour
- vegetable oil for frying
Sauce
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 medium onion finely chopped
- 1 green bell pepper chopped
- 3 roma tomatoes seeded and diced
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix together the minced fish, breadcrumbs, egg, jalapeño, garlic, parsle, green onion, salt, and pepper. Let the mix rest for a half an hour before using.
- Using a cookie dropper, scoop up a heap of the fish mix and roll into a ball.
- Roll each of the fish balls in flour.
- You should yield about 16 fish balls.
- Heat up 1” deep of cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add in the fish balls.
- Fry for 4-5 minutes a side until they are brown and crispy.
- Drain on paper towel.
- Heat up 2 tbsp of cooking oil in a large sauce pan over medium high heat. Add in the onions, green pepper, and tomatoes. Season with salt. Sauté for 8-10 minutes.
- Add in the water and cayenne pepper. Cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add in the fish balls. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes.
- The sauce will thicken slightly. Add a little more water if you want a thinner sauce.
Pancit Luglug
Pancit Luglug
I’ll tell you…this dish is absolutely delicious. It has a beautiful presentation. But…it might be one of the biggest pains in the ass to make. There are a lot of ingredients. Multiple, multiple, multiple steps. But I promise that it pays off in the end.There are dozens of variations of pancit recipes. Pancit are a type of Filipino noodle made out of cornstarch instead of rice or wheat flour. The noodles are a little firmer then rice noodles. They come in different thicknesses. Luglug refers to a thick noodle; similar to a spaghetti noodle. The noodles are tossed in a pork and shrimp gravy, topped with shrimp, hard boiled eggs, crushed pork rinds, fried garlic, and green onions. Many different layers and textures to this dish.If you want to cut out some steps, you can use powdered shrimp stock. You don’t need to add the chicken chicharon. I happened to have chicken skin from a chicken tocino recipe I was making at the same time and wanted to add another layer of texture and flavor. But if you have a lot of time on your hands, this recipe is for you.
Ingredients
Shrimp Stock
- 4 cups water
- 3 cups shrimp shells
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 3 small shallots diced
- 1 small carrot diced
- 1 stalk celery diced
- 2 bay leaves
Chicken Chicharon
- 8 oz chicken skin
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp vinegar
Pancit Luglug
- 1/2 lb 26/30 ct. shrimp
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp ground annatto powder
- 2 tsp pork bouillon
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup flour
- 16 oz Luglug noodles
- 1 cup pork rinds crushed
- 4 hard boiled eggs sliced
- 1/4 cup fried garlic bits
- 4 green onions chopped
Instructions
Chicken Chicharon
- Season the chicken skins with salt, pepper, garlic, and onion. Mix with 2 tsp of vinegar.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lay the skins on a rack on a baking sheet lined in foil.
- Bake for 20 minutes until the skins become crispy.
- Chop and set aside.
Shrimp Stock
- Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add in the shrimp shells and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add in carrots, celery, shallots, garlic, and bay leaves. Continue simmering for 25 minutes.
- Strain the stock, making sure to push down on the shrimp shells to extract all of the juices.
- Put the stock back into the pot over medium high heat. Poach the shrimp in the stock for 2 minutes.
- Strain the stock again. Set both the shrimp and stock aside.
Pancit Luglug
- Prepare the Luglug noodles acco to the package directions.
- Strain and rinse under cold water. Set aside.
- Heat up cooking oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Sauté the onions and garlic for 2 minutes.
- Add in the ground pork, breaking up the clumps. Cook for 8 minutes, until the pork is browned.
- Add in the fish sauce and ground annatto. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the shrimp stock. Add 2 tsp of pork bouillon. Bring to a boil. Cover reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Whisk together the flour and water.
- Pour the slurry into the sauce. Whisk until it thickens. Add the noodles.
- Smash the pork rinds until they a finely ground.
- Add all of the chicken chicharon and half of the crushed pork rinds.
- Place all of the noodles and sauce in a large baking dish or on a platter. Layer with the shrimp and sliced hard boiled eggs. Garnish with the other half of the crushed pork rinds, fried garlic bits, and green onions.
