As I explained in an earlier blog with 58 recipe books, endless folders and scrapbooks of recipes accumulated over the years its sometimes hard to know what to cook next. I am also keen to keep improving my Pinoy cookery skills as I have retired here, as well as introducing my Pinoy friends to dishes from other countries.
Beef Bulalo
So this week I selected my Homestyle Filipino cooking Recipe book and asked Frythy, Noel and Joven what they would like to eat on Wednesday when they were all working for me . Noel and Fry chose Beef Bulalo (Bone Marrow Soup) whilst Joven first asked for Adobong Pusit ( squid cooked in Vinegar) and then when I explained the last two times I ate this at home and Badjao seafront I was really ill he changed to Calamares ( Calamari with Lime) .
I opted for Tinolang Manok (Ginger Chicken Soup)- a dish I had many times when I stayed at Surya and got to like. Both Tinolang and Bulalo are soups - one made with chicken leftovers and the other with Beef Bone Marrow. At Surya beach I think they made 5 portions from one chicken as there was so little chicken in it. My recipe said use one kilogram of chicken ! So Jhoanna got me a large whole Chicken and I used that.
The recipe for Tinolang Manok
I remember once making another chicken dish and throwing away the bones and Noel telling me I could have made chicken Tinola with the bones. Here in the Philippines nothing goes to waste.
It is quite a simple dish to prepare as you fry the garlic, ginger and chicken and then add 1.5 litres of water and simmer for 20 mins. When I read the recipe I remembered I needed raw Papaya and the good news is I now have a Papaya tree in my garden ( thanks to my Brit neighbour Andy for telling me what it was , when it was ripe and how to prepare it) and it was ripe. So I went out, picked it, cut it in half, removed the seeds and added it to my Tinolang. It does not get any fresher than that!
My fresh Papaya ( or some call it Pawpaw)
Another of our favourites which I cooked this week was Camaron Rebosado or Battered Prawns in a sweet and sour sauce. One of the things I love about Pinoy Cuisine are the large number of Prawn ( Hipon) dishes.
There are always plenty of fresh prawns in the market ( 570 pesos / £7 per kilo)
One of the things I learnt the hard way, and the same when you buy chicken breast on the bone, is that you always need to order more than it says in the recipe book. By the time the prawns are peeled ( I hate the mess of eating prawns with the shell on - my OCD!) 1.5kg may become 1 kg and likewise 1.5 kg of chicken breast on the bone may only yield 1kg of chicken meat. The Pinoys compensate by making chicken soup etc with the bones.
Most weeks Jhoanna gets me 1- 2 kg of Hipon and she and Jullymar clean and peel them for me ready to cook. I had not had this dish for 10 months and I had forgotten how tasty it was.
It takes a while to prepare the prawns as they have to be dipped in flour and then egg and then back in the flour. After that you fry them and let them dry on kitchen towel. The sweet and sour sauce is quick and easy and they are very easy to eat and taste delicious ( sarap)
My Camaron Rebosado ( Battered prawns with a sweet and sour sauce)
TBK and Karl eating Bulalao at Tagaytay in 2015
As I made the Bulalao I remembered the first time I ate it in 2015 with my friend Karl in Tagaytay- which is on the hill behind Manila , where we were staying before I flew out to the Islands. We had an amazing day at Corrigedor ( see my earlier blogs https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2020/09/travels-in-philippines-part-twelve.html or https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/05/small-island-big-history-corregidor.html) and then were discussing what we should do in the Evening. He suggested we get a bus up to Tagaytay and have their famous dish , Bulalao. It was around 7 pm when we left the hotel and the bus was packed so we ended up with some cute Philippine boys sat on our laps as their mum sat next to us. It was a long journey with many stops but was a great way to see the local area and life. Finally the passengers started leaving the bus to go home and I think we were the last two to get off at the end of the journey. The restaurant had been very busy from all the dirty tables and they told us they had just closed! Karl told them in Tagalog about our long journey by bus from Pasay and that I had come from Bahrain to taste their famous Bulalo so they let us eat. He also introduced me to Halo Halo , which was amazing. It is a very popular ice cream and crushed ice dessert here in the summer months, and like everything else here comes in all shapes and sizes and with varied contents!
The Halo Halo in Tagatay was served in a large bowl
By the time we finished our huge meal and paid and left the restaurant to see the view of the big city around 11 pm it was so dark we could not see anything! We bought some Pasalubong (gifts) at a nearby shop and got a taxi back as after a late night before and all day exploring Corrigedor I was exhausted!
"Now I told my Bulalao story can I quote from the web Phil?"
" Sure Mr P, Great story , by the way!"
"Bulalo is native to the Southern Luzon region of the Philippines. Many references have evolved regarding its origin. One of it says that this type of dish originated from Batangas where you find the many versions of Bulalo. Other reference says that it actually came from Tagaytay in which there are a lot of cows."
Source: https://beef2live.com/story-bulalo-0-120070#:~:text=Bulalo%20is%20native%20to%20the,are%20a%20lot%20of%20cows.( accessed 2.5.23)
This is the recipe I used from the book at the top of the Blog
" Does that mean each region of the Philippines has its own special dishes?"
Source: https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/304696731021713669/ ( accessed 2.5.23)
" Yes , Mr G, that's one of the reasons I love it here, so much different food to cook and try. In the north where Kuya Vin is from they have Empanada , Bagnet and Longanisa, Tagaytay has its Bulalo and here in Palawan we have Tamilok. Tamilok is a worm like mollusk living inside the branches of mangrove trees. They have it on the menu at Kinabuch but I have yet to try it!
In addition some dishes are made everywhere in the Philippines ( Adobo would be an obvious example) but will be cooked differently and with different amounts of Vinegar and soy sauce, changing the flavour in say Vigan ( North) and Surigao ( south)
Kuya Coco would be very impressed with my Mis-en-place!
Back to the Bulalo! The key thing to remember is that as its a cheap cut of meat it needs to slow cook for a long time. They recommend 2.5 hours. While it was cooking I made the battered prawns! You also need a large heavy pan ( so glad I bought mine from Bahrain) as it had to take 2kg of beef bone marrow, 0.75kg of stewing beef, 3 litres of water, and for the last 20 minutes 3 potatoes, 3 Saba (plantain or cooking) Banananas and a cabbage cut into quarters.
I think Bulalo is the cheapest dish that Noel and Frythy has chosen. You will have seen in our Tupa Tuesday Blog ( click on the link below if you missed it: ( https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2023/05/tbk-cooks-for-tupa-tuesday.html ) that Lamb costs over 1000 pesos ( £15) a kilo here, whereas the Bone marrow was 350 pesos a kg and the stewing beef about 250 pesos per kg.
Noel's portion of Bulalo which he declared Masarap ( Delicious)
However I have to say it was delicious when we ate it on Wednesday after their day at school and after Joven spent the day getting the car ready for the next trip. He was also busy cleaning up Chester's mess from the back yard after complaints from the neighbours and my landlady! Makulit Chester! Another great thing about living in the Philippines is that they know how to make low cost filling food using fresh ingredients. This is a habit I have yet to acquire enjoying my frozen imported lamb, smoked salmon, steak etc. For those thinking of moving here and reading about how cheap it is to eat in the Philippines, it is a factor to take into account! Decide what type of food you want to eat because if it has to be imported it will cost you more.
Chester ( the dawg) declared the Bulalo the best dish of the week after spending two hours chewing on the Bone Marrow!
I had hoped TJ would come and prepare the Calamares for Joven as I hate the feel of squid , even though Jhoanna and Jullymar cleaned it for me and removed the ink. However Joven had to swap the day he worked for me from Saturday to Wednesday and TJ was fully committed at college on Wednesday. As Susan Jeffers said in her excellent book " Feel the fear and do it anyway" the best way to overcome your fear is to do what you are frightened of. So far I have done caving and abseiling into a freezing cold river ( when running teambuilding events for Business Post in the UK) and white water rafting in equally freezing and fast running water as Mr G reminded me -so on Wednesday morning I decided it was time to overcome my squid fear!
My Calamares and Garlic Mayo
As you can see I completed the task successfully although I made Calamari strings instead of Calamari Rings! I finally managed to use the last of the mayonnaise from Christmas in the garlic mayo which tasted very good.
The other dish I cooked for Pinoy week was Afritata ( which I made for Jhoanna's 22nd Birthday party). This uses a whole chicken with onion, garlic and tomato and then you add olives, peas and fried potatoes ( yummy) and just let it cook in a big pan. The good news is that after being chained to the stove from Monday to Weds i now have all the food I need for the week and no more guests expected. I may even go away to the seaside with Chester for a few days! I have had enough of cooking and washing up and really cannot face drawing up another menu or shopping list! Plus whichever dish I write about I get people messaging to say I spelt it wrong or the author is from Wales not Ireland!
I hope you have enjoyed reading about the 5 Pinoy dishes I made this week. We will be away next week so you will get a break from TBK cooks ( I have a few old Blogs left from Bahrain that I will release).
Finally just a reminder we have 6 new recipes for you on the 15th of each month on our BlogSpot ( click the link below) and on 1st June TJ will be on our You Tube channel showing you how to make another Calamari dish- Beer Battered Calamari with Garlic dip ( chosen by Phil Gregory) . The recipe for that will be available for free download on 15.6.23
Our online recipe book can be found by clicking the link below:
https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/p/the-2023-recipe-book.html
Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
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