pinapaitan a kalding, goat intestines stew

This is goat intestine stewed, literally, with its own juice--the extract of the masticated grass inside the intestines. It's a savory, bitter soup favored by Ilokanos. And goat's is prized for this kind of exotic dish, called "pinapaitan", aside from that of beef or carabao (water buffalo). It's not really an exotic one as this is so common in the Philippines especially in the Ilocos region, or where the Ilokano people have settled for good.

Cooking this kind of exotic dish (well, a delicacy of some sort) is simple as doing the usual pinapaitan. Just boil it. Until tender enough. Spice it with lots of onions, garlic, ginger, black pepper. Add some meat and liver pieces. Optionally, you can add a little sourness like that of pias or salamagi.

Now here's the boiled and tenderized whole intestine being cut into bite pieces:

Gorgeous!

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More pinapaitan and kalding tales:

• Imbaliktad soup
• Pinapaitan, the really bitter original innards stew 
• Kilawen a kalding, goat skin, meat, and liver "salad"

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dinengdeng nga uong ken kabatiti ken balang a paria, straw mushrooms soup with patola and wild bittermelon

Mushrooms, mushrooms! And what’s more delicious than those growing and picked from the wild, like these gorgeous straw mushrooms (locally called uong garami or uong saba):

And paired with these equally wild or “native” vegetables for a truly exotic veggie delicacy—wild bittermelon (balang a paria) shoots and fruit, and patola (sponge gourd, kabatiti):

Small but insanely bitter vegetable fruit to challenge or tantalize your palate:

Cooked in the traditional Ilokano dinengdeng way, here’s the eventual result—all that mushroom flavor with the double dose of exotic wild paria bittery goodness and sweetened by the native kabatiti, all in fusion with the essence of bugguong (fish paste/sauce). And no, if you cooked it right and rightful, the kabatiti will not make it the more bitter but its sweetness as fruit veggie will magically moderate the pait of the paria. The end result is just so amazing and a beauty to behold:

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See more mushroom treats and recipes:

Uong ken lantong-utong, wild mushroom with young bean stalks/shoots

Dinengdeng nga uong-mais ken uggot-marunggay, wild mushrooms and marunggay leaves

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

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mongo beans soup with rattan bud/shoot

Boiled balatong (mongo, mung beans), sautéed with lots of onions and garlic, is one stable Filipino viand especially preferred during rainy and cold days. Paired with a variety of other vegetables (specially green leafy veggies) and meat and fish sagpaws (add-on), it’s one appetizing dish to go with steamed rice. A favorite companion vegetable is usually the leaves or fruit of paria (amargoso, ampalaya, bitter melon) as the bitterness of it is just a perfect flavor of the exotic kind to blend with the starchy balatong.

And speaking of exotic bitterness, here’s a bunch of ubog ti way (rattan bud/shoot) to offer just that bitterness:

Peeling of the stalks of the shoots:

And there’s the boiled balatong ready:

The ubog now cut and ready:

The sautéed balatong now being boiled with the ubog ti way:

And it’s done, here’s one bean soup with a touch of exoticness, bitter but so delicious and comforting:

See more ubog recipes:

• Ubog ti way, rattan bud (heart)
• Kalalaki nga alukon, "male" alukon

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kilawen a kalding, goat skin, meat, and liver "salad"

This is "kilawen a kalding" ("kilawing kambing" in Tagalog) or goat's singed/burnt skin and grilled meat and liver chopped and spiced and made into a kind of "salad." An Ilokano dish, it is kind of "exotic" to others but is a popular goat dish throughout the Philippines. What's distinctly Ilokano about it is that Ilokano folks, used to bitterness, err, bitter food, usually season it with the goat's bile or the pespes (extract of the undigested grass) itself.

Let's take a look at the mystery of this authentic Ilokano delicacy... Here's the goat's skin/hide, its hair singed, cleaned, this is slightly boiled to tenderize the hide:

And this is the meat and the liver, slightly grilled and so it's succulent and sweet:

Chopping time!

Chopped goat goodies:

And spiced with onions, ginger, salt, some vinegar (calamansi juice is more preferred), chili if you prefer it really spicy, and pour in some bile or pespes and thoroughly mix the whole lot and it's ready. This is the best for pulutan or finger food for drinks!

Related dish:

• Pinapaitan, the really bitter original innards stew

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dinengdeng a bunga ken uggot ti karabasa, squash fruit and shoots stew

As a kid and a farm boy, one of the vegetables I love that much is karabasa (squash) mainly because my mother used to tell us her children that squash fruit is actually an "itlog ti nuang" or a carabao's egg, so nutritious and full of vitamins and minerals and whatever healthy stuff growing barrio kids need, aside from the "fact" that it really is good for the eye, for it to see more clearly, so my mother said so. We always have a squash plant with its vine freely creeping on and/or climbing up at our backyard vegetable garden, or in corners of the farm where rotting rice straws are kept (rice straw compost is an excellent organic fertilizer so you can imagine how lush and thriving the squash planted in it).

Karabasa is so versatile a vegetable in that its main parts are all edible and great for dinengdeng. Besides the fruit, its blossoms are prized as well as its shoots. And what I love most of it is that the three parts can become a very delicious dinengdeng combination, all in one or with other leafy greens.

Going home in Casantolan, my place of birth and boyhood, I foraged the vegetable patches in our yard and came upon karabasa crawlers amongst sweet potato vines and in between saluyot shrubs. No full grown blossoms yet at the time so I just picked one young fruit and succulent shoots, and gathered some saluyot, too, and some alukon shoots growing from an alukon stump amidst the shrubberies. I salivated at the idea how gorgeous my dinengdeng would be!

See how lovely are these squash shoots? How so inviting is the young fruit? It's young as in young, still developing, immature, not yet ripe, which is just what's actually best and perfect for dinengdeng, you know!

Now, the veggies are ready, naimurianen! No, sir, I didn't peel the skin off the young karabasa. At this stage of development, the skin is yet that soft and so very much edible, and palatable, I promise you! It will all goes well with the greens.

See how stunning the prepared veggies are?

This karabasa is one of the variety which is nakilnet (thick or somewhat glutinous) and not nagares (mushy or soggy) so even at this level of maturity, it manifests its being nakilnet, and so even at its raw stage, at a glance, surely, you'll find it kind of irresistible,!

And now the panagdengdeng, the panagbugguong process... Let's skip the details here, yet again, because this is just plain and simple dinengdeng as was usual. But one thing, put the karabasa fruit in first and boil for some time before the saluyot, alukon, and the karabasa shoots. The fruit cooks longer than the leaves, we dont' want an overcooked dinengdeng here especially of overdone greens. See to it that the karabasa shoots are done kind of crispy but succulent. I added onion and few slices of tomato for some aroma and flavor.

And here it is! See how arresting, how captivating this dinengdeng is?

A closer look, you can see the karabasa skin intact and it's delicious:

One more look and you're hungrier, I guess:

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

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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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