the "other" seaweeds: kulot & aragan

Talking about edible and palatable seaweed, especially among Ilokanos, and Pinoys in general, the more popular fare are the pokpoklo (or pukpuklo, Codium) and the ar-arosip (lato, Caulerpa lentillifera). But there are more, like the famous gamet (Porphyra crispata, nori) which is highly prized and priced in its dried state. Also the equally popular guraman (Gracillaria verrucosa, also called "ur-urmot" because of its supposed resemblance to you-know-what, ugh!).

And there's the kulot (Gelidiella acerosa):

And the aragan (also panpan-aw, kelp, Laminaria):

These two make perfect seaweed salad with sliced tomatoes and onions, a dash of salt or a dressing of bugguong.

Preparing these seaweeds for salad is a little tricky, unlike that of pokpoklo or ar-arosip which you can consume fresh as is. Kulot and aragan are tough and it needed a quick blanch of boiling water to soften them. You put the seaweed into a bowl and pour hot water on it for a quick hot bath. Do not "overcook" it, drain immediately when you see the weeds are kind of wilted and soft. The "secret" of subtly softening the rough and tough texture of the weed is to add in some vinegar just before scalding it.

The end result is a thing of beauty and delight:

This is one great appetizer!

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sinanglaw? paksiw? which? sinanglaw-vigan & paksiw-laoag

Sinanglaw? Pinapaitan? Paksiw? Singkutsar? Confusing, really. What's what and which is which? I have the same ordeal identifying or proving what's a real beef sinanglaw and that of beef paksiw (and why it's called paksiw, in the first place). It's kind of complicated, you see. Especially for a non-Ilocos (Norte/Sur) resident like me. I only know by heart pinapaitan because this is what I was introduced, and used, to as an Ilokano in Cagayan Valley (born and raised in Nueva Vizcaya with Ilokano forbears coming from Pangasinan and La Union [migrants], and now residing in the Province of Cagayan). So I begged some Ilocos writer-friends to educate me of/on their exotic delicacies...

Sinanglaw is almost exclusively Ilocos Sur, actually the pride of Vigan City itself. You can find a lot of sinanglawan in almost every Vigan nook and cranny.

While sinanglaw is also available in some eateries in some towns in Ilocos Norte, paksiw is the more, if not the most, popular, especially in Laoag City and in San Nicolas town. Sometimes sinanglaw and paksiw are misnomered in these parts in that if a stranger orders a "sinanglaw" he will be served with a paksiw instead, if not pinapaitan, or singkutsar. (Although when you mention pinapaitan in these parts, it is almost exclusively known only as in pinapaitan a kalding [goat], because goat is the real thing when it comes to pinapaitan, well, for some.)

But these Ilokano beef soup goodies are not really at odds with each other, because they share a lot in common, or have similar ingredients, they only differ in the preparation and of the way they are flavored, and favored, of course. Basically, they've got beef innards/entrails or offal in them, plus the most prized meat cut which is the lomo (tender loin), and the papait or pespes (the bitter "juice" of the partially digested grass in the intestines, also called chyme). Sinanglaw, by the way, is authenticated by the presence of boiled/softened beef skin/hide, or of parts from beef hocks and knuckles.

And so here is Ilocos Norte paksiw:

This is actually what the folks called "nadiguan a paksiw" (or perhaps "naidigo a paksiw"?) because it's paksiw soup poured over a bowl of raw or rare beef tender loin slices. It has none of the innards. The real "paksiw" here is the soup only as it came from the paksiw consisting of boiled intestines, liver, heart, pancreas and tripe, and soured with Ilocos vinegar (cane vinegar, "sukang iloko"), and mildly flavored with pespes. 

From what I gathered, paksiw in Ilocos Norte (not the "nadiguan" above)--correct me if I'm wrong ,or wronged--is also singkutsar or sinangkutsar (more on and about singkutsar in future blog posts; I have yet to interview some singkutsar afficionados, heh-heh!). And paksiw is called paksiw because of the souring agent diluted in it, as compared to the purely bitter pinapaitan. Yes, it's primarily because of its sourness, of the suka, of course, as paksiw means "cooked with/in vinegar."

And here's the blessed sinanglaw of Ilocos Sur:

This is uncut lump of beef loin (unfortunately this looks like a tough meat, maybe not boiled enough, this is from a sinanglawan besides or across the cathedral), you are given a knife to cut it into your desired bite pieces, or have the vendor cut it out for you. Along with the meat are skin/hide, coagulated blood, some bits of liver and heart, and lungs/pancreas, some tripes. A hint of sourness is there, courtesy of pias (kamias). You can opt to make it more sour and spicy by adding in vinegar with fermented chili.

Here, the sinanglaw, with partner "condiments": the pespes (conveniently bottled), naartem a sili (chili fermented in vinegar), and chopped white onions.

Sinanglaw, now with the meat sliced and with the pespes.

Spiced and "embittered" the sinanglaw is ready.

And here's another sinanglaw from another sinanglawan:

This one is more hearty and bountiful than the other,  at a sinanglawan located right at the second floor of the Vigan public market, as my source have ventured into. "Hearty" because the meat is literally all beef heart, served one piece (a sizable part of the cow's heart boiled just tender enough to be chewy but so subtly soft to chew) and then cut into bite-size by the "server" for you. Plus some liver pieces, some tripe, some skin, and chunks of coagulated beef blood. And those pias slices that sour it all to a truly unique sinanglaw perfection.

And of course, that obligatory pespes to give the soup its true Ilokano flavor and distinct sinanglaw aroma.

You can opt to spice it with fermented chili, or put in more sourness with that sukang iloko to perk up your gastronomic sense and level up some other senses. :-)

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various authentic, exotic, ilokano pinakbets

More on and about pinakbet, this time, I'll show/present/feature various concoction or variations, most of it I cooked myself, trying-hard to be an authentic ilokano-pinakbet creator, utilizing the Ilokano-ness in me, my ever finicky Ilokano taste (literally, that is) to produce what's I think is real and kind of exotic Ilokano dish, of this ever ubiquitous vegetable stew.

This is basic pinakbet with the basic ingredient there is: paria, tarong, kamatis, sili, okra, and no more. I even have two different tarongs here, both "native" ones: small rounded ones and "slim" elongated ones, which are the perfect, or even required, eggplants for pakbet. My paria is also the round ones, natively grown (not hybrid), so-called Ilocos ampalaya. 

Pinakbet with young garlic roots and leaves. This is a truly Ilocos pinakbet because of the presence of the young garlic (naganus a bawang). But I cooked this one (me, here in Cagayan), of course, having had the opportunity to be blessed with young garlic bundles being peddled on the talipapas along the highway in Nassiping, Gattaran town (in Cagayan; the vendors said it came right from Ilocos Norte). Naganus a bawang itself is made into a unique pinakbet a naganus a bawang, young root/bulb and leaves. In this particular pinakbet, I didn't cut the eggplant's pamurosan (stalk) because these are fruit so young and tender, almost busel (buds), and the tender stalk is edible as well. I just removed the hard sinewy part inside. Mind you, you can only find a tarong prepared that way in an Ilokano pinakbet or dinengdeng.

Very basic pinakbet cooked by my mother. Not sautéed, ever. And it has no sagpaw or parabaw (add-on/topping, fish or meat). With lots of tomatoes and ginger that almost fermented the veggies. You can see it has some pallang (winged bean). 

One the most palatable, most delicious pinakbet I've ever encountered, prepared and cooked by the folks of Currimao town in Ilocos Norte. It has generous amounts of kardis and patani beans in it that greatly enhanced its aroma and flavor. Plus native parda and tiny sweet peppers. And utong (string beans). Its thick broth is a delightful fusion of sweetness, sourness, bitterness and moderated bugguong saltiness only a genuine Ilokano cook can manufacture :-)

Pinakbet I made spicier with a dash of cracked peppercorns, and with lots of crushed ginger.

This one is a bit oily because I added a sizeable chunk of lechon kawali (imagining its the adorable bagnet/chicharon, hehe!)

I added bagas ti kamote (sweet potato/camote roots, also called kaong in some parts of Ilocos Norte) here in lieu of the karabasa (squash fruit preferred and popularized by Tagalog in their variant of pakbet). I used the native round tarong here, similar to balballosa (wild round eggplant). I topped it with fried tilapia fish. 

And this is my pinakbet with young marunggay pods/fruit (also called drumsticks), pallang and bagas ti kamote.

This is a pinakbet by Roger D. Ancheta of Camiling, Tarlac. Besides marunggay pods, it has the young singkamas (jicama) pods! Bunga ti singkamas is a favorite veggie of mine, I'm always craving for it nowadays that it has become a rarity. It's perfect for dinengdeng, solo or with pallang pods or with sabunganay (susop, banana blossoms), and soured with salamagi (tamarind) fruit, topped with broiled attasi (dalag, mudfish) or paltat (catfish). 

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buridibod yet again: camote, petchay and alukon

This is yet another buridibod variation.We have previously featured our buribod with alukon floweretters and marunggay leaves and buridibod with marunggay pods. Here's one with alukon still and with "baby" petchays (young and small petchay). The basic ingredient here is the camote root. Buridibod is buridibod as long as it has the main ingredient, which is root crop, be it camote, or other root crops like taro, yam, and other starchy edible root.

As with the others, my buridibod this time is cooked with the camotes at the base of the lot, it is put in first after the bugguong is diluted in the boiling water, simmered sometime to cook it (the camote), and then the alukon and the petchay.

Do not overcook the alukon and the petchay. Put off fire and serve immediately while crisp and green, with the sweet starchy broth steaming.

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atap/balang a paria (wild bitter-melons)

Ilokanos are known and are famously distinct to be bitter-loving peoples in these northern parts of the Philippine archipelago, in terms of food geography (as Tagalogs south down under favor sourness in their sinigang or paksiw, or the Bicolanos in their coconut milk-sweetened and chili-spiced Bicol Express). And true-blue Ilokano pait connoisseurs love the most bitter in their food, the bitter, the better, so to say. As to veggies, they want their own Ilocos paria or native amargoso, smallish and round, especially in their beloved pinakbet.

And for the more pait extremist, he is familiar and most enamored to the balang a paria of paria ti bakir, a wild  variety of the common paria which grows in forested areas or mountain sides specially during rainy months.

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dalag/attasi/burikaw/buntiek (mudfish, snakefish)

Mud fish is so common a freshwater fish in the Philippines you can find it everywhere in creeks, rivers, lagoons, lakes or in small and big irrigation canals and in the muddy fields and ponds. And it has quite a share of names, aside form the generic dalag, in Cagayan it's generally called attasi. While in some places, it has a name according to its size or growth. It's called burikaw when it's quite that big, and buntiek when it's small.

And there's a variety of ways and means you can prepare a sumptuous dalag dish. It's commonly cooked sinigang or paksiw a dalag, (or pesang dalag, as the Tagalog prefer) soured with any agent preferred (young tamarind fruit/flowers/shoots, pias, green mango, tomatoes, or vinegar) with soup or stewed dry. It's also great when grilled/broiled (tinuno/inasar/pinulpogan) to consume as is or made into a tinenneb, broiled mud fish poured in with hot water and then soured with crushed young tamarind fruit or with sliced tomatoes, garnished with sliced onions, and swpiced with hot chilis.  Or even baked. Or fried. Or made into a buro, pickled with rice.

Paksiw a dalag.

Tinuno a dalag.

Baked dalag.

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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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saluyot adventures in molokhialand

(This was written and blogged during my brief stay in the Sultanate of Oman.)

There's this corresponding relativity to uniquely ilokanistic craving for the luxuriant bugguong, when you are away from your native land, Ilocos land. The same whim, or necessity if you will, the same desire akin to addiction, to please a selfish Ilokano palate's demand for the equally elusive saluyot to grace your dinengdengs. But being in a strange land, I initially thought this is an appettite for the impossible.

Do Omanis, do Arabs ever eat saluyot like we Ilokanos gobble this "slippery when wet" delicacy?

I thought only Ilokanos are crazy about the saluyot.

I was wrong.

Of course, they do have saluyot in the hypermarts. After some desperate scouring and foraging in one of those labyrinthine supermarkets, I finally bumped into a treasure trove of bagged saluyot languidly lying frozen and harder than diamond in one cozy corner of those huge freezers, among slabs of hardened spinach, green peas, beans, sweet corn and other frozen veggies. It's called molokhia. or mulukheyya. Or molokheyya. Whatever. It's the Egyptian Arabic name, according to Wikipedia, of the corchorus plant.

And yes, this one is imported from Egypt. And surprise, surprise, saluyot is a staple food in Egypt since the time of the pharaohs! Some Egyptians are even considering molokhia as their national dish. So that fact somehow demystifies our own popular thought that saluyot is exclusively Ilokano staple food and that it's supposedly endemic in Ilocos land. The Egyptians are devouring saluyot since time immemorial, period.

But the way we Ilokanos and Egyptians ingest saluyot/molokhia differ. While we love it fresh and whole, leaves and all, and boil it, stew it, pakbet it in bugguong, the Egyptians and others prefer molokhia in soups or as a soup base. That's what Ive discovered when I finally opened the plastic pouch of the frozen molokhia. I never thought of saluyot being cooked into a soup, a real soup.I only know saluyot soup as dinengdeng soup, boiled saluyot leaves with mixture of other leafy veggies or with bamboo shoots, its traditional Ilokano partner.

When I spotted the frozen molokhia, I was enthralled with the perfect picture of fresh saluyot leaves in the packaging and then and there readily dreampt of pinakbet a saluyot, saluyot leaves stewed dry in bugguong, vinegar, garlic, ginger, onion and peppercorns.

And I was horrified when I found out that my precious saluyot was a thick mush of a paste meant to be "soupified," indeed! My desire crumbled. What am I going to do with this mucus-like slimy mess? I wanted to say yuck! yuppie-like, but then this is saluyot all the same and I do not want to blaspheme on the sanctity, the sacredness of the blessed saluyot.

I googled for a possible recipe. and I found out an original egyptian molokhia soup recipe called "Egyptian greens soup" or simply "molokhia" (the dish and the plant are one, amongst Egyptians and Sudanese and other peoples in the Mideast). It requires some spices like coriander, chilli, cayenne and bay leaf. And chicken stock for soup base. And butter, to "fry" the soup.

I followed the recipe to the letter and here it goes, the saluyot soup boiling with a distinctly unfamiliar aroma wafting tantalizingly:

And after some time, here it is. It's still saluyot, flavor and fragrance and all. Although because of the added spices as contrasted to the simple Ilokano way, it become more of the aromatic herb that it was popularly intended and consumed in its Egyptian origin. But it's a very tasty, delicious, thick soup best for entrée. Or as is the Ilokano practice, it can go with your rice as labay and of course, it's perfect for that "bumanerber nga igup" that we usually enjoy with dinengdeng broth, especially with saluyot with that distinct "gumalisgalis" texture.

But still I'm not satisfied with my first Oman saluyot meal. I still crave for a whole and fresh saluyot with its leaves intact and not chopped or minced or pulped into a paste.

And imagine my joy when I finally came upon fresh saluyot bundles in the vegetable section of the hypermart. This is a local produce and I learned later it's plentiful in the local veggie souks (markets) though its availablity is not regular. And again, a sizeable chunk, or the whole of it, of the saluyot-ilokano-exclusivity myth in me is shattered. Of course, Omanis, the locals, the Arabs love saluyot, too. And it's a part of their own cuisine as well. Who else are buying these and for whom are the local farmers are planting these saluyots? Certainly, not only for the handful of expat Ilokanos or Filipinos here. But for themselves. They are also molokhia lovers and this is molokhialand. Get that.

And so, without much ado, I cooked my precious saluyot pakbet. You do the usual Ilokano way of stewing. the panagdengdeng act. The panamguong act. Use only a minimal amount of water. Throw in crushed garlic, crushed ginger, sliced onion, cracked or uncracked peppercorns. Simmer a bit, then place the washed saluyot tops and leaves. Simmer for a while. Optionally, put in some sagpaw like dried shrimps, dried fish or meat. Simmer some more. If the the saluyot is already kind of "slippery" or tender, put in some tablespoonfuls of vinegar (suka ti basi or suka nga iloko is preferred, but other blends like paombong is just as well). I do not add the vinegar at the beginning, I wait for some time for the saluyot to cook and only then will I add vinegar. This is for the saluyot to retain some texture and smoothness. Sometimes when you add suka by default (at the start), the saluyot "hardens" or "coarsens." But this is optional or preferential. After putting in the vinegar, simmer some more until it dries up with only a hint of broth underneath. Be careful to moderate the "broth drying" as it may burn at its base if you don't attend to it. You can retain some more broth if you want, to mix as labay with your rice.

And this is it, my favorite saluyot dish, pakbet basking in all its glory:

Once more, a close up of the heavenly dish in its rightful splendor:

But wait, here's more. I soon found out that there's a dried saluyot in the same hypermarket.

Look at those gorgeous Egyptian saluyot leaves in its petrified state. It's as if it promises a glorious psychedelic trip to gastronomic heaven. No, not to be smoked like a pot, you sucker, but to be ingested pakbet-wise after it is boiled up in bugguong in a pot. That, I have yet to try. But then again, we dry aba or taro leaves, paria leaves, mushroom, kudet or kuditdit, even marunggay leaves in the Philippines. And why not saluyot? This dried ambrosia, this saluyot, can be a concocted into an excellent soup or turned into a magnificent pakbet, all the same, fresh or dried or pulverized, it's still saluyot, molokhia or molokheyya. Does it matter?

(Originally blogged somewhere on 26 May 2008)

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