Sunday, March 22, 2009

Filipino Cooking, The Garandee Way

Ok, looks like she's gotten more serious now.

Garandee decided to put more focus on Filipino dishes in her blog. So what's great about that?

1) She hopes to increase awareness of Filipino dishes for the Japanese community both local and abroad.
2) That tells me I'll have more variety of Filipino dishes to eat at home to satisfy my cravings.

And it looks like she's off to a good start because the first couple of dishes she whipped up and featured were her favorite ones.

Pinakbet
Pinakbet

This dish contains an assortment of healthy vegetables: pumpkin, onions, string beans, tomatoes, eggplant and okra, all chopped, boiled then sautéed in traditional fermented shrimp paste.

The usual chopped pork belly that goes with it was a definite "NYO! Japanese are healthy!" But after much begging she agreed to top it with some crushed pork rinds. It turned out to be even better.

Shriveled veggies were also a definite "NYO! Japanese loves texture!" so she took extra care not to overcook 'em. The vegetables maintained a firm texture, giving it that nice feeling of freshness.


Kalabasa Sitaw Gata
Kalabasa at Sitaw sa Gata

A rather "simpler" cousin to the Pinakbet, this dish only contains pumpkin (kalabasa) and string beans (sitaw). Both chopped then boiled before reaching the wok for some sauté action. Instead of shrimp paste, coconut milk (gata) was addded.

This time around she added meat when I wasn't expecting it! She secretly sautéed some minced chicken, onion, ginger and garlic before adding the vegetables in. The coconut milk concealed the meat perfectly. Sneaky!

I can say that both are still "Japanized" renditions of these traditional Filipino recipes, but the new ingredients worked like a charm to enhance the flavors and bring the dishes to new heights.

Now I can forgive her for putting condensed milk on our Adobo.


Garandee mode:
It's Garandeelicious!

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh my! i'm impressed! garandee knows how to cook using gata! yum!

that's a great scenario you know, a Japanese trying to learn Filipino dishes! my hat's off to her!

Anonymous said...

Yum, yum! It's 1030pm here and matutulog na sana ako. But after seeing those photos, I WANT that pinakbet and anything with gata! Buti na lang may left over laing pa dito. =)

Anonymous said...

How w0nderful!galeng naman ni garandee...ako nga simpleng sushi pumapalpak pa! >sigh<

escape said...

wow! buti na lang malapit na ang tanghali ng bumisita ako dito. pampagutom talaga.

picture pa lang masarap na. ganda din ng pagkakuha.

cpsanti said...

i agree, i am saddened by how most japanese people aren't aware of pinoy food. wow! galing naman ni garandee! ;-)

Lantaw said...

wow! that pinakbet looks so delicious! Wala kayong plano mag tayo ng karenderya? :D

Anonymous said...

Ohmygulay! Ang sarap ng gulay sa gata, ayoko ng sitaw pero kakainin ko yan kalabasa, and yes, Filipinos love gata talaga, better than anything evaporated milk can offer. Ginutom mo na naman ako.

physiquemama said...

I've been looking foward to her new pinoy food post! And expecting she will change my idea that most of pinoy dishes are overcooked, not good to look... (aside from its taste. It is actually good!)

I've just tried the second pumpkin dish at home. It became my favorite!

Who made it? Well, not me, but my husband... Bad wife...

Anonymous said...

I'm a fan of kalabasa and anything that has bagoong. These two dishes are great meals, esp that chicaron on top! YUM!

Garando said...

KG:
She was flattered when she read your comment and asked me to thank you for it. All the comments here serve as her inspiration. :)

Witsandnuts:
I'm a big fan of gata too! Wow, I'm glad to know that you can get laing around there. Did you cook that yourself of do you frequent the Filipino restaurants over there?

redDelicious:
Don't worry, sushi is actually quite challenging to make. Keep practicing and I'm sure you'll get it right! Or gayahin mo na lang ako, kain na lang ng kain. :D

The DonG:
Thank you! Yan ang hobby ni Garandee eh, magluluto tapos ipo-post nya sa kanyang food photo-blog. Ako yung taste-tester! :D

Cpsanti:
Yeah, this is a great thing she's doing. She was inspired by a Filipino cookbook that was recently published. Forgot the name of the book though.
Hey, I find your blog very interesting btw. In my free time I'll read the entire novel!

Lantaw:
LOL wala pa eh. A lot of our friends have been asking the same thing, pero she wants to keep it as a hobby lang. Para wala daw stress. :D

Sheng:
Ay oo, low fat pa! LOL. I'd be interested to see some gata-based dishes that's unique to Gensan! :D

Rica:
Yes, the sad thing about traditional Filipino food is that the focus is mostly on the taste and not much on the presentation and texture. Sometimes it may look horrible but it tastes quite good. So it's great that recently a lot of chefs & restaurants are trying to improve on that aspect.
Wow, your husband must be a great cook! Unlike me, the last time I tried to cook we ended up eating out instead. :D

Rico:
Yeah, the chicharon was a WINNER! It's great to finally have comfort food at home again. :)

Shey said...

This looks yummy! And topping it off with chicharon- ultra yum!

HalfCrazy said...

That pinakbet looks yummy pero mas maraming vegetables yan kaya di ko sya feel, haha! Yeah I know, I need vegetables but they are totally devoid of palatability! Okay minsan meron pero parang kadiri talaga gulay eh LOL.

I don't see any meat either sa Kalabasa At Sitaw Sa Gata! Sneaky indeed!

You're lucky to have Garandee around - she knows how to cook!

Anonymous said...

Wow! It's going to be a wonderful vision - cooking Filipino food in a healthy way?!? Big challenge it will be!
However, of course, I am happy for you...since you 2 hit a compromise on eating Pinoy and healthy to boot. Hehehehe... Di ako nagtaka na pinakbet ang inumpisahan nya - veggie but Pinoy :P Pano kaya ang Crispy Pata? Hmmmmm......Iroroast?

Anonymous said...

wow galing talga ni garandee. Mapa jap or pinoy dishes panalo. :)

Thumbs up garandee...
Garando your so lucky!

Fave ko pala ang gata lalo na and laing then may sili..perfect!!!!

Alice said...

Looks lip-smackingly delicious!

Missy said...

Wow looks really yummy! And I like the idea of having chicharon as topping I might try it too hahaha. I didn't see gata here? Meron ba syang nilagay??? Is garandee's blog in Japanese? My daughter likes Japanese food and she can read and speak Japanese too :-) is it ok to share with me Garandee's blog, if not ok lang hehehe

Garando said...

Shey:
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment! :)

HalfCrazy:
Aha! A full pledged Meat Lover! Di bale, my next food post will have a lot of meat in it. :D

Jonie:
LOL oo nga eh. She's passionate about healthy food so we'll see what happens next. Pero I'm almost 100% sure malabo yung crispy pata. Crispy kangkong baka pwede pa, kung meron mang ganun. :D

Michelle:
Thanks for dropping by. It's interesting that your blog is all about grills, we just bought a grill and some charcoal the other day so your posts will definitely come in handy!

Jeanny:
Thank you daw! Ay oo, we love laing too! Pero di nga lang kakayanin ng powers namin yung super spicy. :D Duwag kami sa sili eh.

Alice:
Thank you! :)

Missy:
Yup, winner yung chicharon! She used gata dun sa 2nd dish, yung kalabasa and sitaw lang. You will need to click the "Read More" link to see the rest of the post. If you don't see "Read More" let me know.
Garandee's blog is in Japanese, it has a LOT of food in it so your daughter might find it interesting. Saka of course everybody is welcome sa blog ni Garandee. ;) Here's the link Http://garandee.exblog.jp It's also in my blogroll under "Friends"
Pwede mo rin yata convert sa english yung blog nya kase may converter sya dun.

Anonymous said...

Oh my: chicharon on pinakbet? What a winning combination!

Garando said...

Midge:
Yep! But make sure it's R.Lapid's Chicharon. Para laging bagong prito. LOL

Leamsi said...

hmm..yum yummy...kakagutom ah.

i so so want the pinakbet!

2 thumbs up to garandee!

ms firefly said...

count me in for garandee's culinary expertise fan club. and the pictures in her website are soooo....zen and clean and a feast for the eyes. great job!

Garando said...

Yummybite & Ms Firefly:
Thank you! I'm sure Garandee was delighted when she read both your comments! Sorry for the late reply, I just realized that I missed these...