Food: Highland Staples in the Philippines

 (Staples in Montaniosa/Igorotlandia/Cordillera)

Sweet potato is the main staple of the Igorots in the ancient Philippine Cordillera. In the absence or presence of rice in the granaries, the sweet potato remained abundant in every household as it was perennially cultivated on different kinds of land forms, unlike the rice which can only be planted and grow viably on flat or semi-flat surface with enough water supply.

The cassava also has its own place in the Cordillera highland Igorot farms, and though placed below the sweet potato and rice in terms of popularity and importance by the Highlanders, the cassava was being made into much more different kinds of food like cassava wine, cake, rolls, sun-dried chips and more.

The banana is a tropical fruit but there are some varieties like saba and radja banana, which mostly preferred cooked, are cold tolerance and very common in the Cordilleras. 

The corn or maize is a perennial plant but the old folks have a habit of planting them on Holy Saturday or Sabado Gloria of the Holy Week. The advantage for this is accounted on the Philippine weather seasons, just imagine a plenty of freshly harvested corn supply during the rainy season.

The ube or violet yam was only a forage plant that could be found at the sides of the farms, but today, it is being cultivated as a major product to meet the demand of ube jam and flavor makers.

Avocado, papaya, calamansi are the most common fruits found in every home orchard. The sayote, native potatoes, cabbage, common legumes, carrots and the taro were among the vegetables cultivated for home use and as commercial products particularly in the Province of Benguet.

Today, the traditional raw products of the Highland Cordillera are being threatened by GMO, imported seeds and cuttings, and imported cheap raw products entering the market. Struggling against the said threats, the local government officials and local farmers are doing initiatives by employing policies, regulations and alternatives to make the local raw products competitive in the market.

Food: Soup - Kaling Soup

“Kaling” is the Igorot term for the Jojo mudfish, which believed to have originated from Japan during the Japanese occuptaion in the Phillipines. This fresh water slippery fish is slender and elongated with a length of about 5 to 8 inches when matured. It looks like a ball pen with a dark brown color on its back and light to white below the lateral line. In the past, kaling fish freely spawned in the streams, marshlands and watered rice paddies where the Igorot highlanders gathered the matured fish for food. But when a certain kind of rice paddy snails swarmed the area, the kaling started to disappear because the said snails feed on kaling eggs. Nowadays, kaling is being raised in special fish ponds and are being sold at the market in Mt. Province.

Kaling Soup Ingredients:

- 1 kl of kaling
- ½ cup of chopped ginger or turmeric
- ½ cup of tapey (including the mash/rice)
- 1.5 liter of water
- 3 table spoons of salt (depends on your preference)

- leeks, tomatoes (optional)

- use either msg, sinigang or sugar for seasoning (optional)

Steps:

1. Cook the kaling and the chooped ginger with the 1.5 liter of water
2. When the water starts to boil, wait for 5 minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients.
3. After that, wait for 8 to 10 minutes pf boiling before keeping it aside for serving.

In the highland Cordillera, the dish is served as viand for rice during mealtime.

Food: Meat - Pinuneg

Pinuneg is the Igorot sausage. It is similar to the longganisa and the common sausage available in the market. Their only differences are the contents and make up. Pinuneg uses the pig’s blood, large intestine and spices. This food must be a product of the culinary ingenuity of the Cordillerans, it is something like combining in one the two filipino foods which are the longganisa and the dinuguan, thus, this may not really be a traditional food. This food just came out recently from a Cordillera restaurant then the recipe had quickly spread all throughout the highland, and later on, in the lowlands.

Ingredients and Materials

# 2 ft intact and cleaned large intestine of pig, it can be obtained from the pig butcher or slaughter house.

# 400 to 500 ml of pig blood, it can be obtained from the pig butcher or slaughter house (note that the blood will be jellified and become dark red in color after a minute of exposure to the air but that’s just alright)

# 1 tablespoon of salt

# 1 cup of minced red onion

# 1/4 cup of minced ginger

# 1 teaspoon of powdered peppermint

# 1/2 cup of minced garlic

# 1 cup of chopped leeks (optional)

# 1 1/2 liter of water

# a cooking container

# 2 5-inch clean hard fiber threads, for tying the ends of the intestine

Procedures (in case the intestine still contains the stuff, you must to take it out. Remove the waste inside the intestine by putting water through the other opening and raise it to push down the contents out from the other end. After removal, wash it thoroughly and then invert or turn it inside out using a stick or through your own technique, treat it with salt, mash and then wash it. Do the salting-mashing-washing three times and be sure not to create cut on it)

MIX THE INGREDIENTS: Put the jellied blood into the bowl, soften it by mashing with your hand, then put all the ingredients (do not include the leeks and the intestine). Mix them thoroughly.

STUFF THE INTESTINE: Tie close one end of the intestine with one thread (do not use rubber, nylon or any material that melts on boiling water), then with your hands, fill in all the mixture inside the intestine tube. The intestine should inflate to its size. Close the mouth (open end) of the intestine by tying it with the other thread.

















COOK IT: Put the thing into the cooking container in a circular or spiral way and pour into the 1 1/2 liter of water and cook it. If you want to serve the broth then you can add 1 tablespoon of salt (amount of salt still depend upon your discretion). Boil the Pinuneg for 30 to 35 minutes. You will notice that some parts of it will swell due to the trapped gas, use a fork or a knife to bore a hole on the intestine in order to let the gas out.















SERVING: After cooking, take out your pinuneg from the container and put it on a big plate. Slice it crosswise making some sausages or just in 2-cms thickness. You may fill cups with the broth and add leeks. Pinuneg is best eaten with rice during meal time.

Food: Meat - Bungsos or Bungsus

An Igorot delicacy made from pig’s intestines and some innards (optional).

Procedures:

1. If the intestines are not yet cleaned, put them into a big container bowl and go to the running water (ex. faucet) and with a scissor or a knife, tear open the intestines and wash the wastes inside with the running water. Wash them thoroughly, you may mash them with salt and then wash them again.

2. After three mash and wash cycles, you may stop it so that the intestines won’t loss so much of its parts, don’t worry, the wastes have been washed away already. Put the intestines into a container and mash it with salt, you may now add the innards and some crushed garlic, peppermint and ginger and mix them well inside the container.

3. After mixing them thoroughly, seal the container and set it aside for 3 to 5 days in a normal temperature location.

4. After 3 to 5 days, your bungsos is ready for cooking. It does have a sweet daring smell but have a real palatable taste when cooked. The simplest way to cook it is by boiling it with water for 20-30 minutes. You may turn the broth into a soup by sprinkling it with chopped leeks, etc. or throw it away. Take out the bungsos and put it on a bowl, cut it into 1 inch pieces and eat with rice. When cooked, it can also be cut into small pieces and add to some dishes like chopsuey, vegetable sauté, etc.

Traditional Food: Etag (Dried and salted pork/meat)

Etag (igorot) or Innasin (iloko) – An Igorot food that is preserved small slab of meat (esp. pork) made through salt-treating, sun-drying; and/or smoking. Its color is partly dark brown with noticeable whitish yellow fat color. It comes from different varieties depending on the methods used. There are three methods of making etag which are discussed in the procedures. Its savory and salty taste made it a good seasoning ingredient for some foods.

Ingredients and Materials

1. 1 kl of pork, sliced into 1-inch thick slabs, it should have no bones, and must have 20% to 80% fat per slab
2. 1/5 to 1/4 kl of salt
3. a large bowl
4. Gusi (earthen jar) or any container enough for the meat
5. a stick or straw, use to pierce the slabs for hanging
6. firewoods (optional)

Procedures

1. Treating it with salt. The morning is the best time to start, particularly during summer, spring or any day that do not rain, however, there is still a way to make etag during rainy season which is the smoking procedure. So, place the meat into the bowl, press or squeeze it lightly and then pour out the extracted liquid from the bottom of the bowl, if there is any. Take out one slice and rub salt on its surface, be sure to salt inside the fissures before you return it back to the container. Do the same with the other slabs. When done, close the container airtight and set it aside for 24 hours. Do not refrigerate it.

2. After 24 hours and on… As I’ve said, it is better to start working on it in the morning so that after 24 hours, it would be another good morning (in a place with 24 hour day-night cycle) for you , perfect for the sun-soaking.After 24 hours, the procedure splits into three methods: a. sun-soaking, b. smoking, and c. is the combination of a & b.

a. Sun-soaking: Find a good place where you can soak the slabs in the sun. The Cordillerans pierced the slabs at the ends with stick (it looks like hanged laundries side by side) or with straw and hang them at a high place where carnivorous land animals could not reach. The others just put them on a clean flat surface, and they just turn the slabs regularly to sun-dry all the sides.

When the sun sets, put them back inside the container. Do not get them wet, it will hinder the curing process. If there ain’t been any interruption (i.e rain) then you can do this in three days, else you have to add more time of curing under the sun to complete the 3-day sun-soaking.

b. Smoking: The outcome of this would be a brother to the smoked meat, but etag is too salty which made it a good salting agent for other food preparations. To start with it, find a safe and shaded place where you can create just a small fire using the firewoods (be sure you woun’t be violating the fire code of your country or location). You should avoid using the resinous kind of wood like the pine tree because it would stick wicked soot on the meat and embitter your food. After creating a fire (small smoky fire), place or hang the slabs above the fire. Remember that your objective is only to smoke and not to roast or burn the meat, so you may place the meat where it could be reached by the smoke but couldn’t be reached by the radiant heat. Do this for 30 minutes everyday for 1 week. Put back the slabs into the container after each session.

c. Combination: This is just doing both methods a the same time. Just choose a place where a wind couldn’t distract the smoking procedure. Smoke them for 1 hour while they’re being soaked in the sun, or you may do it your own way as long as they get smoked and sun-dried. Who knows, you can actually create the best etag in the world. Do these everyday for 3 days.

3. Keeping or storing the etag. After the days of curing, the etags are ready to be consumed. But if you want to store them for future consumption then it’s fine, you have made them to be preserved for a long long time. I’ve heard that the oldest etag that ever eaten was five years old (ahrgkk!), but the old folks said that etag after 6 months and up should not be eaten and to be discarded.

4. How to consume etag. Of course, you make etag for your immediate consumption. The simpliest way to consume it is by eating it plainly. Wash it to lessen its saltiness, then cook it in any way you like, then eat it with rice. As an ingredient, these can be added to many kind of dishes ranging from pinikpikan to chopsuey. The Highlanders chop them into small pieces and add them to their vegetable saute.

Food: Beverage - How to make Bubod (Wine Yeast)

Bubod is the main ingredient of the traditional cordilleran beverage or alcoholic drink like the rice wine. It is a white to brown oval disc-shape hardened starch powder that contain the fermenter – the yeast.

Ingredients and materials:

1 kl of kintuman (a violet red rice of the Cordillera) or any sticky rice.

7-10 pieces of 5-inch tall ‘ung-gwad’ herb, i forgot its english name (whole plant) or you may use the aniseed plant or any other edible herbal plant that have the yeast.

1/2 cup of sliced ginger

1 liter of water

Mixing container for the ingredients

Clean glass container

Grain grinder

Wide baking pan

Procedures

1. Pulverize the rice using the grain grinder, then put the powdered rice into the container.
2. Crush the plants and the ginger with the grinder to break them into small pieces, spare the juice too.
3. Put the crushed plants and the juice into the container and add water then mix all the ingredients until it became a sticky paste.
4. With your plams, take a handful of the paste and form an oval disc shape or ball and place it on the clean pan. Repeat the step until finished with the paste.
5. Dry under the sun to harden the soft wet bubod balls before keeping them in a closed container for future use.

Bubod crumbs and balls courtesy of DOST, Philippines

Organic Food: Vegetable Sauté - Sayote (Fruit)

Ingredients:

- 1 kl sayote fruits
- ¼ kl pork or etag (at least 50% fat and 0% bone)
- salt
- msg or sugar for seasoning

Procedure:

1. Peel the sayote and cut them crosswise in halves, the halves to be made chunks each with thickness of half cm and with width depend on the size of the sayote.

2. Chop the pork or etag and fry until half cooked, do not forget the stirring.
3. At this time, the oil must already been extracted and boiling, add the sayote chunks/slices and then stir once in a while.
4. This sauté is best when sayote is half cooked. Before setting it aside for serving, add the seasoning and stir well.

Most (or some) Highlanders enjoy this sauté with rice for the meal.