dinengdeng with tinapa [repost with new photos]

I prefer my dinengdengs plain and simple, if I could. I mean, just vegetables, without the usual or even required meat or fish sagpaw (add on). I like it all natural, the all-vegetable savor, aroma and all the goodness (vitamins and nutrients and all) there is, organic and all those hypes of being home-grown and cultivated without commercial fertilizers or pesticides, whatever organic means. I'm no vegan, I'm just used to it since childhood, raised in a poor farming community where vegetables is a staple as rice. I'm not used to a meat or fish diet because meat in those days, even fish, is a luxury. We only slaughter our native chickens, pigs, or goats on rare occasions. And I was taught by my mother and grandmother not to crave or indulge on naimas a masida (ulam, viand), whenever we have a chicken for lunch or dinner, my mother will only cook the bony parts for tinola, the meaty parts she sets aside to be grilled or fried for the next days as a sagpaw for dinengdengs. The same is true with fish, fresh or dried, some pieces like fish head will always be set aside to act as sagpaw to give savor to the broth of the dinengdeng. Typically Ilokano. And I just love being called kuripot with it, I don't care.

And so with tinapa, particularly tinapa a galunggong which is my favorite, fried with kamatis and bugguong plus lasona for a dip...

..with which is just perfect as a sagpaw for dinengdeng like this--uggot ken sabong karabasa, sabong ken bunga ti kabatiti, and kalunay:

The smoky scent and flavor of the tinapa blends so well with the rawness of the veggies and the fragrance of the bugguong, fusing as if magically, to yield a uniquely tasty smoky broth, like what miraculously happened to this dinengdeng--utong, okra, kalunay, marunggay, talinum:

And my favorite pair: ginisa a kamatis with fried tinapa, what else?

And here are more:

Now, where's my rice?

:::::

For more Ilokano vegetable dishes, you can follow Ilokano Food page on Facebook and enjoy more sumptuous photos of dinengdeng and other vegetable dishes plus more veggies! 

Follow also Ilokano Food @ Instagram and subscribe to Ilokano Food YoutTube channel for more photos, videos, and stories about Ilokano food, cooking, cuisine, and culture.

:::::

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

Read More

dinengdeng ken panagdengdeng idiay awaymi/a way we do the dinengdeng in our community

It's rather unusual for some, even to the most self-professedly G.I. or "patneng nga Ilokano" (so-called true blue, "native" Ilokano), to find a dinengdeng like this, some of the Ilokanos in our rural home and place of the heart and hearth so to speak, in Casantolan. I mean this particular way that the fruit stalk or stem of the aubergine (well, that's tarong commonly called eggplant but here, these are not even egg-shaped so I call it aubergine; I refuse to call it brinjal--to be more Asian, but it may all the more confuse people) is not removed and isn't kind of awkward?

Well, with the pamurosan (fruit stalk or stem) not removed, these are small and yet tender and young tarong fruit and at this stage of the fruit, the stalk/stem is edible and tender and so you can eat it together with the fruit. It also serves as a ready handle if you prefer to eat with your hands or if you pick your food, your sida (ulam, viand) with your hands when you eat (just like me, at times).

Yes, it's there because it's edible and because this is yet again an Ilokano way (just a way, not a show of) of that branded and patented virtue of kirmet-ness a.k.a. thriftiness, the frugality (economic at that) of the Ilokano not to waste sources and resources, and all that blah blahs about Ilokano-ness and stuff.  But well, it's a personal preference. I love this and I'm used to it. And when I'm in Casantolan, I pick the more immature fruits of the tarong plant and leave the pamurosan intact when I make a dinengdeng. The stalk has a distinct sweetish flavor.

This is a simple dinengdeng of the "stalked" aubergine, and parda, and patani, with a lucky sagpaw (add-on) of grilled tilapia:

As you can see, the dinengdeng is kind of dry, you can't see lots of digo (broth, soup) in there. I cooked it pinakbet-like. But this is still a dinengdeng. An almost dry dinengdeng is very good, the bugguong all the more suffused with the veggie goodness and it has only a sauce-like thickened broth for digo which is just perfect for your innapuy (steamed rice).

And yes, we do the same with the pinakbet, here are "stalked" tarong in two of my recent pinakbets:

Now, I wonder if you do the same. Tell me.

:::::

Read More