my comfort foods

There are days that I crave for home-cooked local foods. Each picture here has a story and I’d like to share them.

In Negros, there are two version of cooking Laswa or otherwise known as Otan bisaya in Cebuano. The first is (the more popular) kalabasa-based version with okra, balatong, patola, talong, etc. and malunggay or alubgati or both. The second version is the hilaw na kapayas or papaya based laswa together with the same set of backyard veggies.

Fish escabeche is cooked twice. First by frying the fish and second by cooking the sauce and let the fried fish simmered for few minutes in the sauce. This is my father’s favorite dish. I think he likes in general all sweet and sour except for the red sauce sweet and sour. I remember he was ran to the hospital at midnight because of the Pork sweet and sour that he ate at a fast food. It was all covered with flour that he could see the he was eating fat already. My father also like Ensalada (this is not on the picture). It’s main ingredient is langka or jackfruit (hilaw) and it is cooked with coconut milk, onions, tomatoes, and with vinegar and sugar.

Ginisang baguio beans is the first-ever dish I have cooked on my own and my teacher was my Lola Moret. My Lola is fond of using vetsin back then but growing up I learned not to use it anymore. I just use salt and a little dash of sugar for flavor. If I want it tastier I use oyster sauce if I’m too tired to balance the flavor. I also toss some carrot strips to add color to the dish.

I hope there is something special about my adobo but there isn’t. I don’t have any special ingredient on it or do I follow a special way of cooking it. I simply throw in all the ingredients, chicken, vinegar, salt, soy sauce, pepper corns, bay leaf, water, pepper flakes, etc  in the pot and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes. Chicken is tender it usually cooks faster compared to pork or beef but I like my adobo sauce a little thick so I reduce it and extend cooking time as needed. Lately, we’ve become more conscious of what we eat so with chicken we remove the skin before we cook it. At one time, I boiled the skin using a little water so I can dispose it into the garbage without smelling foul. I was surprised to see how much oil came out of the skin (4 thigh skin = 1-2 tbsp oil) and after few minutes of cooling, the oil thickened. Who’d like to have that?!