Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Traditional Food: Meat - Kinuday


It is the Ibaloi etag. But kinuday, unlike the etag, includes much of the red meat, fats, skin and bones without salt curing but smoking only. The procedure has nailed its distinction.

Benguet etag, sundried pork, sundried meat

In history, Ibaloi folks used the fireplace with “shakelan” or tripod on it for cooking food to make kinuday. In order to show you how to make kinuday, I should rather give you an account about this kinuday thing to give you a hint. When an Ibaloi elder received his “sa-sakey” or “wat-wat” (a slab/s of meat taken home from a cañao fest), he would usually turn them into kinuday meat. He would find an elongated hard and thin stick and then pierce it through the slabs at their ends one after the other until they would look like hanged laundries, then he would hang the stick of meat above and across the “shakelan” using poles for hanging or hanging hooks so that every time a food is being cooked the smoke and food vapors would process the meat into kinuday. Households in the olden times have their foods cooked in the morning, midday (sometimes) and in the evening thus the smoking of the kinuday was as frequently done. For pig’s meat, it would be ready for consumption after four months and the cow’s meat, after seven months. The Ibaloi elders usually leave the kinuday hanged even after done with the process. And when his visitor/s or guest/s have come to his home he could un-hang and offer the kinuday to be cooked as ingredient to the main dish or just cooked plain for meal or for wine chaser.

Making kinuday with food vapor

Today, since many households have shift to electric or gas fuel, the kinuday has become rare. Sometimes, you could only eat kinuday again if you or someone you know lives near a kinuday maker.

Traditional Food: Meat - Susot

Susot is an Ibaloi delicacy used especially for food embellishment.

Ingredients and materials:

- cleaned large and small intestine of pig
- 3 table spoons of salt
- camote cider (or banana cider), enough to soak all the other ingredients
- 1 cup tapey (solid mash or winerice)
- 1/2 cup ginger (cut into small pieces)
- jar or glass container

Procedure:

1. Slice the the intestines into pieces, about 2 cms
2. Put all the ingredients into the container and mix them well.
3. Seal the container with thick cloth or 5 plies of babana leaves
4. Store in a moderately temperatured place for 5 days
5. Afetr 5 days, it would be ready to be used

Ibaloi folks use this ingredient in numerous main dishes like pinikpikan, laeng (gabi casserole), vegetable saute and others.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Food: Meat - Pulutan, Pulotan

Pulutan, in english, means wine chaser. It is a grilled small animal's breast (pitso) or pig's belly chopped into 1/2 inch cube with a lot of spices. Aside from being a wine chaser, it is also consumed as a viand.

Ingredients and Materials
# 1 kl of swine breast, should have no bone and contain part of the red meat, some fats and the skin
# 1 cup of chopped red onions
# 1/2 cup of leeks
# 3/4 tablespoon of salt
# 1/4 cup of lemon or calamansi juice
# a grille
# chopping knife and board
# a large bowl

Procedure

GRILL: Grill the pork until it is cooked.

CHOP: Chop the grilled pork into 1/2 inch cubes and put them into the bowl.

SPICE UP: Put all the spices and additives into the pulutan bowl – the onions, leeks, salt, lemon or calamansi juice and optional (pepper, vinegar, soy sauce), and mix them well.

MIX WELL: And after mixing them well, the pulutan is ready for consumption.

Consumption:

Usually, when the Highlanders butcher pig/s for an occasion or feast, it is the pulutan that is first cooked and prepared as an article for the wine or liquor the butchers and other folks in the butchering and cooking area are sociably drinking while finishing up all the cuisine works for the occasion.

The pulutan presented here in this blog is the kind that could be consumed with rice during meal time.

Grilled pork breast

Monday, October 7, 2013

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.

Friday, October 4, 2013

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.

Pig intestine being filled with Pinuneg ingredients















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.

Pinuneg being cooked













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.

Pinuneg serving

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.