"Favourite Recipes of Hawaii Filipinos" Part 1 of many, I hope

[nanila]

My mom brought this book for me on her recent visit. It's just a little spiral-bound thing - "Souvenir Edition: Filipino 75th Anniversary Commemoration", compiled and edited by the Filipino Women's League.

I have a new project: Attempt to make every recipe in it by the end of a year's time. Here is the Table of Contents:

1. Chicken adobo (Mom's remark: "good". Oh yeah, I know - she used to make it all the time!)
   
2. Apritada (chicken with vegetables)
   
3. Arroz caldo (chicken with rice)
   
4. Atchara (pickled green papaya)
   
5. Binangkal (sesame seed doughnuts)
   
6. Bindonggo (tripe and beef)
   
7. Bitsu-bitsu (sweet potato patties)
   
8. Crispy pata (deep-fried pork)
   
9. Dinuguan (pork sauteed in blood)
   
10. Egg around the baboy (pork fritters)
    
11. Escabeche (fish and vegetables)
    
12. Peche-peche (purple rice dessert)
    
13. Arroz ala cubana (rice with meat sauce)
    
14. Pork guisantes (pork with peas - I ate a lot of this as a child)
    
15. Fried bangus (fried milkfish with sauce)
    
16. Guinataan (dessert pudding)
    
17. Biko (mochi rice dessert)
    
18. Lumpia (meaty rolls, like eggroll except saltier and probably less good for you but SO TASTY)
    
19. Guayabano chiller (soursop beverage)
    
20. Iced buko (coconut beverage)
    
21. Kamote and kamatis gulay (sweet potato and tomato salad)
    
22. Morcon (like a scotch egg, except with a steak wrapped around the egg. Yes. It is a very good idea.)
    
23. Kari-kari (oxtail stew)
    
24. Kascaron (mochi coconut dessert balls)
    
25. Puso ng saging (banana blossom dish)
    
26. Turkey relleno (stuffed boneless turkey)
    
27. Katuday and sayote salad (this could be a challenge as it requires fresh tropical flowers)
    
28. Kutsinta (steamed coconut dessert)
    
29. Mongo guisado (bean sprout and shrimp thing yum)
    
30. Lechon de leche (AMAZING full recipe follows)
    
31. Maruya (banana fritters)
    
32. Paksiw na pata (pig feet stew)
    
33. Pansit luglug (pork and shrimp thing yum)
    
34. Sinigang carne (beef and vegetable soup)
    
35. Pinacbet (Ilocano vegetable dish)
    
36. Sabao ng tulya (clam soup - Mom's comment "good". Yep.)
    
37. Halo-halo (words cannot describe how nice this sweet-beany coconuty fruity dessert is especially on a hot day)
    
38. Pork tabungao (pork and squash)
    
39. Pork torta (pork and egg patties - Mom's comment "very good".)
    
40. Rellenong talong (stuffed aubergine)
    
41. Isda sarsiado (fish with sauce)
    
42. Shrimp sinagang (shrimp soup)
    
43. Sitsaron (pork cracklings)
    
44. Tinono talong (broiled aubergine)
    
45. Tinola (chicken and papaya soup)
    
46. Turron (banana lumpia)

Now, making a lot of these is going to be a logistical challenge, given the ingredients required. Especially the one that requires fresh tropical flowers. I may have to come up with some manner of substitute. I have plenty of nasturtiums in the garden. :P

But by far my favourite in terms of the advance planning that's going to be necessary is "Lechon de Leche", which is a contender the most delicious food in the world unless you're vegetarian or vegan, in which case I apologise for the amount of salivating over meaty meatness that I'm doing as I type, and you may possibly want to skip the contents under the cut below.

Here is the first sentence of the recipe, which serves 75 people. Ask your butcher to dress a suckling pig, 25-50 lbs. Rub the whole skin with salt. Rinse off with water. Wash inside by passing boiling salted water (1/4 cup salt to a gallon) through mouth and letting it drip through hind hole, three times. Then wash with plain lukewarm water. Rub inside with mixture of:

• 1 tablespoon pepper
  
• 7 bay leaves
  
• 2 heads garlic, crushed
  
• 4 large onions, chopped

Pass a spit through pig. Tie snout and chin to spit tightly with thin wire, making sure that spit is securely wedged. Stretch front legs, and tie together, then anchor it to head of pig (chin) by using a longer wire to tie around snout. Stretch hind legs and tie both feet securely to spit. Rub skin with salt. Cook rotisserie-fashion over charcoal. Have on hand 6-8 20 lb. bags of charcoal or a pile of dry wood. Brush alternately every quarter hour with water.

Roasting time is 6-8 hours
Distance from charcoal: 2 feet
Serves 75 people (50 lb. pig)

LECHON SAUCE

• 5 lbs. pig's liver, broiled
  
• 1 cup vinegar
  
• Water as needed
  
• 2 tablespoons oil
  
• 1 head garlic, minced
  
• 2 round onions, minced
  
• 2 teaspoons salt
  
• 1 teaspoon pepper
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1 cup bread crumbs

Cut liver in 1-inch cubes and grind in blender, together with vinegar. Add a little amount of water if needed. Saute the garlic and onions in oil. Add liver, salt, pepper and sugar, cook over moderate heat until bubbly, lower heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add bread crumbs and cook another 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Makes 4-5 cups.

Who wants to come over and help eat roast pig, then, eh?

Comments

[surpassingly]

OMG. I TOTALLY WOULD. AHHHHH.

(That list of food! So so so so good! *_*!)

There is this restaurant in the Philippines that does lechon degustacion. I really want to do that next time I'm there!

[nanila]

THE COVER PHOTO ON THAT FB PAGE IS MAKING ME DROOL OMG YES

[qian]

meeeee I want piggies

[nanila]

Yessss come and eat piggies next summer

[lovepeaceohana]

whyyyyyyyyy do you live so far awayyyyyyyy ;-; I would totally help eat that!

[nanila]

Those damned oceans keep getting in the way of Project Make and Share ALL THE FOODS.

[cxcvi]

Especially the one that requires fresh tropical flowers. I may have to come up with some manner of substitute. I have plenty of nasturtiums in the garden.

Given that you're British now, that is tropical...

Project: Pig sounds fun. How shit are the trains in your area?

[nanila]

Ha! The nasturtiums are loving the current weather.

The trains are...well, frankly pretty shit. Once an hour at the weekends from Birmingham New Street. But at least the service is a fast train(only stops once between there and here).

[cxcvi]

Once per hour isn't great, yeah. Not too worried about the rest of the train details, but that it stops at BHM and not BMO is damn useful.

[lark_ascends]

WOW. Not sure about the liver with the pig recipe (never had liver), but otherwise sounds really nice! Can you get a smaller pig that does 25 people? :-P

[nanila]

Liver is very rich! As it's a sauce, you can choose whether or not you want to dip your roast pig into it.

[foxfinial]

Me! Me! I would eat (part of) a pig!

[nanila]

Marvelous. I'm targeting next summer (as an end-of-project celebration). Exact date will be determined by when emelbe visits. :D

[foxfinial]

Yessss excellent.

/marks off summer 2015 as "pig season"

[major_clanger]

Most emphatically yes!

(And in the mean time, amid all the social and work hecticness, when can we tempt to up to Birmingham? If nothing else, Mira needs a constant stream of new admirers...)

[nanila]

Hurrah for sharing in roast pig!

Can be tempted to Birmingham in mid-August. We plan to take two weeks off in the middle (surrounding Worldcon). We would be delighted to provide Mira with the adulation she deserves.

[emelbe]

Me! Me! What say, 12-15 months?

[nanila]

I was targeting next summer for whole roast pig, as a sort of finale to round the project off. So that's perfect. :D

[emelbe]

Excellent! In my head, I've bookmarked it around revolting colonials day but I'll consult with you for your travel schedule and tolerance for People Who Are Not You In Your Home when I'm more in a position to buy tickets.

Also, do let me know if there's anything I can bring or ship to you that customs won't confiscate. I even have a trip to Hawaii planned (but also not yet booked) for the end of this year so if there are specialty spices or something that's Just Not The Same, I'll do my best to find it.

[nou]

This is THE BEST PROJECT. Can I request the dinuguan soon, since I currently have some pig's blood in the freezer? I have made it before but wasn't enormously keen on the recipe, so would love to try a different one. Oh! And I just saw the paksiw na pata, and I have pig trotters in the freezer too, so a vote for that one as well :) Really though, it all sounds amazing.

And I would happily come over and eat pig, assuming I can find somewhere to stay afterwards.

[nanila]

Yes, I will move those up the list. I'm going to start with some of the easier ones (e.g. fried bananas) so I don't get discouraged.

Pig will probably happen in summer of next year. This summer is too crazed for it. There's a Premier Inn not far from us, if nothing else, but I'm sure there will be some Brummie folk who will join us who may have crash space!

[nou]

Thank you! Next summer is perfect for me.

[alwayswondered]

!!! I can has pig?! :D

[nanila]

Yes! You can has pig!