dinengdeng a kudet (kuditdit) ken paria, bracket fungus with bittermelon

You know it's kuditdit season when it rains and you see them sprouting white on dried twigs and branches and trunks of fallen (dead) trees (like mango and/or tamarind). And when you see them plenty but rarely and expensive in the market or being hawked upon by enterprising ambulant vendors house-to-house.

As per Ilokano way, kuditdit is always best paired with bitter veggies and paria tops it. And so with my bountiful harvest of this wonderful fungus, I'll have the venerable bittermelon as its partner. Here, indulge with me in this yet another gustatory experience, nay, an adventure if you may.

And so, this is it, pancit, the kuditdit:

And these are here parias in the mix:

Have washed and rinsed the kuditdit throughly, and the paria cut accordingly (thinly sliced "widthwise"):

 

"When preparing kuditdit, you have to wash/rinse it thoroughly to remove dirt, but don't squeeze it too much and just rinse it once or twice only, to preserve its natural flavor and succulence."

Here is the finished product so to speak. I don't have the step-by-step photographs because it's a simple dinengdeng process any Ilokano can do. Just boil water first and add/dilute bugguong juice, put in some slice of onions for an added aroma. If available around, add in some sagpaw (add-on, any broiled or fried fish or meat will do, dried fish and shrimps are great, too). Here, I added grilled native chicken meat. Boil the sagpaw for some time, then add the kuditdit. Boil for some minutes to tenderize it and for its natural essences to ooze out and blend with the broth. And then the paria. Do not overcook, and do not undercook, the paria so as to moderate its bitterness.

The end result is just so comforting and refreshing!

Bitterness and mushroomy flavor blending with bugguong and the grilled meat, it's a gorgeous concoction you can't refuse to taste even if you may not that comfortable with bitter food: 

This one dish so tempting for you to have second and more helpings of steamed rice:

Come. let's eat, please, I'm hungrier by the minute!

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More dinengdengs:

• Dinengdeng, glorious dinengdeng!
• Dinengdeng/inabraw, more, once more
• Dinengdeng once more, because one can live in dinengdeng alone
• "The Dinengdeng Debate: Authencity and Cuisine"
• Dinengdeng a bunga ti singkamas, jicama fruit stew
• Dinengdeng bunga ti singkamas a naalseman iti palali
• Dinengdeng a sabunganay, banana blossom stew
• Dinengdeng a mais, white corn stew/soup
• Dinengdeng a marunggay with kaggo, marunggay leaves and clam soup
• Langka/jackfruit and pallang/winged bean dinengdeng
• Dinengdeng a saba! banana/plantain stew
• Karabasa & utong, squash goodies and string beans stew
• Fresh veggies for dinengdeng in casantolan
• Dinengdeng nga aba, stewed taro leaves/stems/roots
• Kalalaki nga alukon, "male" alukon
• Dinengdeng with tinapa (smoked mackerel)
• Dinengdeng with fried paltat
• Dinengdeng nga uong-mais ken uggot-marunggay, wild mushrooms and marunggay leaves
• Saluyot and rabong variation--with bulong-sili, kalunay and utong
• Buridibod a kamangeg nga addaan pallang ken kalunay sa nasagpawan tinapa
• Red/purple katuday

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dinengdeng nga uong-bunton ken balang a paria, wild mushroom soup with bitter melon leaves

Dinengdeng nga uong-bunton ken balang a paria.

Yet another mushroom here growing and picked from the wild: uong-bunton, named sobecause it usually grows near anthills (termite hills or bunton) during the rainy seasons and gathered after a night’s thunderstorm (the lightning is believed to be inducing the growth of mushrooms and other fungi, especially wild edible ones.

One early morning, an ambulant vendor passed by the house and offered this bundle for about PhP50. I readily bought it, along with some wild bitter melon tops the same vendor sells (she sure knows the fact that uong and paria are inevitable soup partners).

With a little bugguong (or patis, or salt, if you’re not used to the distinct bugguong aroma of a mushroom soup) and some slices of onion boiled in a minimal water, cook the uong, boil and simmer a bit for it to ooze its sweet and so tasty essence into the soup. Add the paria a minute before putting off fire while the soup’s still boiling. Serve immediately and consume the paria at once so that it won’t render your soup more bitter than tasty:

The tastiness and sweetness of the tender uong-bunton and the soup is more pronounced with the subtle bitterness of the paria (if cooked right briefly, paria leaves, even if it’s a wild variety, is not all extremely bitter):

More: 

• Uong ken lantong-utong, wild mushroom with young bean stalks/shoots
• Dinengdeng nga uong-mais ken uggot-marunggay, wild mushrooms and marunggay leaves

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kuditdit, kudit/kudet (bracket fungus, tree ear fungus)

Come rainy or thunder-stormy season, especially when the late afternoon rains bring a plenty of lightning and thunder, you can expect that early in the morning, an abundance of mushroom has grown in the wild, like the uong-kalaw, uong-bunton, or uong-managadu and many others. The rains and the lightning also induce edible fungi, like the kuditdit (also called "kudet" or "kudit", bracket fungus or tree ear fungus). There are some kinds of kuditdit, some are commercially grown (large ones called oyster/abalone mushroom), but the most popular and most preferred of course is the small wild and "native" kuditdit which grows on dead/rotting trees. I used to pick, as a child in Nueva Vizcaya, kuditdits on fallen mango and tamarind trees.

Wild kuditdit growing on a dead tree. Photo from Wikipedia.com

Kuditdit has also become rare nowadays, and thus it has become a kind of another exotic fare. You can usually find them sold in the market and is quite pricey but nonetheless a best seller as it is a prized companion to a savory dinengdeng/inabraw especially when partnered with wild mushrooms.

Kuditdit for sale by the glassful.

When preparing kuditdit, you have to wash/rinse it thoroughly to remove dirt, but don't squeeze it too much and just rinse it once or twice only, to preserve its natural flavor and succulence.

Kuditdit is great with paria, leaves or fruit, and with other leafy vegetables and veggie fruit like pallang and tarong.

Kuditdit with wild mushrooms, kalunay (amaranth, wild spinach) and kabatiti fruit.

The soup/broth is so good with the fusion of two wild fungi goodness, sweetened by the young kabatiti!

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dinengdeng/inabraw, more, once more

Just can't get enough with dinengdeng (inabraw, if you will), this Ilokano gourmand in me (yes I consider dinengdeng kind of a gourmet), I have it in almost daily basis, my life could be so sorry and bleak, truly incomplete without it in my table in a day. I have exclusively blogged about it here and here today, once more. And more to come next blog entries. For dinengdeng is so versatile a dish it can be done in countless of ways and means with a variety of available veggies (especially green leafy) in season or all year round, as long as there's the blessed bugguong ready to lend its distinct flavor and aroma to every dinengdeng combination you can think of.

So, here are some more of my dinengdeng creations:

Winged beans (pallang), string beans (utong) and camote tops soured with young tamarind fruit.

Kuditdit or kudet (bracket fungi, tree ear fungus) and wild ampalaya (paria a balang/paria ti bakir)shoots with kinirog nga udang (fried freshwater shrimps).

Wild ampalaya shoots and straw mushrooms (uong-garami or uong-saba) with fried fish.

Chayote with dried ipon (goby fries). This is my personal favorite, that of chayote and/or papaya (green papayas) solo dinengdeng, which I usually flavor with lots of crushed laya (ginger). The soup is so savoury and gingery hot.

Uong, young tarong, sabong ken uggot kabatiti, with shrimps. 

A very savory dinengdeng I promise you, mainly because of its prized gamet (dried red seaweed). Gamet is like the Japanese nori. It enhances the flavor and aroma of the dinengdeng, especially its broth. Gamet seaweed is primarily gathered and dried in the northernmost towns of Ilocos Norte (mainly Burgos, and Pagudpod), and even in Cagayan (like Claveria). In this dinengdeng, you have there young tarong, sili nga aruy-oy (sweet pepper), and the flowers and shoots of kabatiti (the native, angular sponge gourd, patola).

Kalunay, katuday, uggot ken sabong kabatiti, with broiled native paltat (catfish).

Boiled utong (cowpeas) and sabong ken uggot ti karabasa (squash flowers and shoots), with bits of deep fried pork. Quite a different dinengdeng, you say, but it's good.

Tugi ( lesser yam, Chinese yam, Dioscorea esculenta Lour.), pallang, katuday (katuray, West Indian pea), and kalunay (spinach, amaranth, kulitis) with udang. This one, with the presence of the tugi, can also be called a buridibod. And it's so good, the soup is sweetish.

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