Traditional Food: Sabeng or Tengba

It is a soft, glutinous and salty liquid food preparation by the Igorot higlanders. Its whitish and almost sticky quality made it good for food embellishment.Well, nowadays, there are different methods as well as different ingredients that could be applied to arrive at a different kinds of sabeng. But I will be presenting the traditional sabeng that have nourished the babies and children of the Highlanders long time ago.

Ingredients and Materials:

# 1 kl ground ( or powdered ) rice
# 1/4 pound of crushed bubod (a whitish disc-shaped mass of yeasted starch that is commonly sold in the northern Philippines)
# 1/2 kl uncooked crabs (specifically the fresh water edible crabs)
# 5 tablespoons of salt
# drinking/tap water
# closed container ( enough to contain all the ingredients )ProceduresSALT THE CRABS (ALIVE OR DEAD): Put the uncooked crabs inside the container, and then salt them thoroughly. Close the container after and set aside for 24 hours.

AFTER 24 HOURS: Open the container and you must see the liquid inside it that is produced by the salted crabs, pour the ground rice, if the liquid is not enough to contain the ground rice then you can add the drinking water into it until the liquid raised to the same level with the ground rice, add the bubod and mix them thoroughly. Then close the container well and let it rest for 4 weeks.

4 WEEKS AFTER: Your sabeng is actually ready for consumption after 4 weeks, the carapace as well as the other parts of the crabs have already softened.

CONSUMPTION: It can be consumed plainly by frying it for viand. Some sip it in small amount while it is raw. But because of its almost glutinous and tasty nature, it can be added to other foods to give a sticky and tasty soup. The Highlanders used to add considerable amount of it to make an enjoyable sayote soup.