alukon leaves stew with smoked fish

Well, yeas, of course, the leaves of the alukon (allaeanthus glaber), also alokon, bungon, baeg, himbabao, is also edible, and is a great leafy green for an Ilokano dinengdeng. It's not just the flowers, you see. 

Here's one tasty dinengdeng using alukon leaves only, made more delicious and flavorful with smoked fish (tinapa):

Cooking this Ilokano dish is simple. Just boil bugguong first, with some onion slices and then put in the washed leaves and the flaked tinapa into the boiling broth:

Simmer for a few minutes....

And it's done:

Serve the dinengdeng immediately while hot and steaming, the smoky aroma is so overwhelming it makes you salivate:

Here. it's perfect for your steamed rice, old or newly cooked. The broth is so tasty, perfect for a hearty labay:

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See another delicious dinengdeng/inabraw a bulong ti alukon!

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dinengdeng a bunga ti singkamas, jicama fruit stew

Buridibod a bunga ti singkamas, pallang, ken tugi.

Been years, decades even, since the last time that I’ve got the opportunity to enjoy dinengdeng a singkamas, yes, singkamas, jicama, but I’m not talking about its delicious root, but of the fruit. Specifically the fruit or the young pod of singkamas vine growing wild and abundant, climbing up shrubs and trees in Casantolan, my place of birth, in Nueva Vizcaya.

Unfortunately, I didn’t see any jicama fruit in the local markets I’ve been to on my market forays here in Cagayan. I was wondering why, perhaps Cagayanos didn’t like, or maybe even didn’t know that singkamas fruit is edible and perfect for dinengdeng and pinakbet?

In Casantolan, we usually cook singkamas fruit as a dinengdeng soured with young salamagi (tamarind) fruit. The sourness maintains the crispness and texture of the singkamas pod and neutralizes its mild bittery taste. It’s good as a solo dinengdeng. Or with saluyot. Or with pallang and sabunganay and patani or with alukon. It’s also a perfect companion for that sweet buridibod. It also goes so well with pinakbet.

My quest for singkamas fruit here in Cagayan was finally over when I saw this singkamas vine on a wall of a certain house right in the center of the town no less, in Allacapan:

How so lovely, the pods are:

And I was so lucky that day, indeed, for when we stopped over at the talipapas along the highway in Nassiping, Gattaran, I saw this, behold, the elusive vegetable fruit of my childhood is right there before my still unbelieving eyes:

I dreamt of a sinalamagian (tamarind-soured) dinengdeng a bunga ti singkamas, but then I can’t find salamagi amongst the goods being sold. I instead saw this bunch of tugi (lesser yam):

The tugi will make a good buridibud with singkamas. I also bought some pallang. And here’s my bounty for the day:

Gorgeous pods, aren’t they?

Singkamas fruit has tiny brownish hairs on its skin, this is itchy to the skin and may cause an allergy of sort, so be careful handling the pods:

Small “native” pallangs, which is just the right partner of the singkamas fruit:

Here, wash and rinse the singkamas pods thoroughly and repeatedly to discard the itch-causing hair:

When it’s immaculately cleaned, cut the “starts” and “end” and then break open the pods in twos:

Do the same with the pallang:

“Skin” the tugi and cut it:

The trio is ready:

Cook the tugi first with the boiling water diluted with bugguong and with some slices of onion. When the yam is cooked, put in the singkamas and pallang. Get to a quick boil. Do not overcook the veggies, it should be crisp, green, but tender:

Heres’s the buridibod, it’s so insanely delicious though it’s just a simple basic dinengdeng/buridibod  (I didn’t add any sagpaw;  though, if it’s available, it will be great with grilled fish like tilapia, bangus, dalag or paltat, or with dried fish and shrimp, or with smoked fish, or even with grilled chicken). I mashed some tugi cubes into the little soup for a thicker and sweeter broth:

I really relished this dinengdeng, eating with so much gusto while reminiscing my childhood days in Casantolan…

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nateng- karne-ikan, balancing vegetable-meat-fish diet

Bulalo @ RGT Bulaluhan, Tuguegarao City.

Sure, that's bulalo (beef shank and marrow stew) wallowing in its delicious soup of fat, promising utmost delight with that prized bone marrow and with its truly red meaty succulence, cooked so tender and so tasty it literally melts in the mouth without much effort of chewing its savory essence... Well, once in a while I also indulge myself into red meats, a sort of guilty pleasure succumbing to sweet temptations of cholesterol, because, well, i'm still a human, after all, and I can't offer so much resistance to the seduction of food.

Yet, when I consume fatty or cholesterol-laden food, I also make sure to somehow "balance" or kind of "neutralize" it by eating more vegetables, and fruits. And so, that particular bulalo cholesterol feasting I countered with this wild mushroom and marunggay leaves dinengdeng:

Dinengdeng nga uong ken bulong-marunggay.

Of course, though I prefer more on a vegetarian diet as as I could, I also eat the usual other meat and fatty dishes as the need or chance arises. Sometimes I cook pinapaitan, dinakdakan, dinardaraan, igado, lauya at home, or order them when I happen to have lunch in a resto. But I see to it that there's always a vegetable salad side dish or a main course of dinengdeng or pinakbet. 

Dinakdakan or warek-warek.

Pnapaitan at an eatery in Capatan, Tuguegarao City.

Dinardaraan.

Dinengdeng nga uggot-kamote ken bulong-marunggay with bits of chicken.

Dinengdeng a sabong ken uggot ti kabatiti ken rangaw ti paria with chucked clam meat (nagasagas a tukmem).

Or, alternately, I have fish and other seafood dishes like this, in lieu of meat, either as sinigang, paksiw, grilled or fried:

Inalseman iti kamatis a yellow fin tuna with marunggay leaves.

Fried tilapia.

And this, I wish this is my viand, soured bukto soup with its roe:

Bukto nga inalseman iti pias. Photo by James Felipe.

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marunggay solo dinengdeng

Dinengdeng a solsolo a marunggay.

Marunggay, its leaves (and all its edibleness, fruit, and flowers), is simply my favorite leafy veggie, not just because of its richness in nutritive or mineral value, but because of its simplicity and versatility as a truly Ilokano vegetable, just like saluyot. I can make in it a quick salad express when I'm in a hurry for a meal, especially when I'm hungry for a kilabban.

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dinengdeng a mais, white corn stew/soup

Mais, corn, young corn kernel, is one of the best for soups, well, Ilokano-wise, Pinoy-wise. Well, besides being boiled and/or grilled on the cob. And the best, for me, is the small "native" diket (malagkit, "sticky") white corn. The dish is popular all over, it's called "sinuwam na mais" by the Tagalogs, the Ilokanos simply call it as "dinengdeng a mais."

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saluyot & tarong

What to do with these? Saluyot and tarong. And this tarong, the "white" variety (actually green but called "puraw a tarong") which is somewhat rare and not usually available every market time, and which is good for some simple tarong dishes.

Saluyot ken tarong.
(click on photo for a larger view)

First with the tarong, I want it fried (prito a tarong) as this variety of eggplant is perfect for frying as it is rather huge and its flesh is soft, tender. I sliced it length-wise into thin strips, sprinkled some Pasuquin salt on the slices and deep fried it quickly in boiling cooking oil, when done I drained its oil and served it with bugguong squeezed with calamansi. Delicious for breakfast, or even for lunch or dinner. (Click on photos for a larger view.)

The next meal time, I made a dinengdeng a saluyot ken tarong with fried tilapia:

And lastly, when only some few saluyot stalks are left, I decided on a pinakbet or paksiw a saluyot (also caled "tinimtiman a saluyot") with dried fish as sagpaw (add-on):

Dried fish from Santa Ana, Cagayan.

I boiled a minimal amount of water with the bugguong. I put in the dried fish fist and let it boil. Simmered, then I put in some onions and Ilocos garlic (from Pinili, Ilocos Norte at that!), the the saluyot. When it's almost done, I added a few drops of vinegar (luckily I still have apple cider left), cooked it some more, and then it's ready. Cooked it almost dry, with just a little thick broth for a tasty labay. 

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