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Currently Browsing: Recipes

COOKIN’ RECIPE: Dinuguan

Vegan Dinuguan One of my grandmother’s specialties is dinuguan and I grew up eating so much of it that I have plenty of great memories surrounding this dish. When I lived abroad, most Filipinos call it “chocolate soup” or “chocolate stew” to trick others to give it a try. Traditionally, it is a stew of  pig innards cooked in pig’s blood with vinegar. It is beyond me how Nanay (my maternal grandmother) can make a pot of magic with pig carcass and its body liquids. Naturally, becoming vegan is not an impediment to enjoying this dish I loved eating growing up so I made my guilt-free pot last night. Replicating looks, taste and texture is front and center of every successful veganized dish and in this case, I needed a lot of  chew and substance. Taking the pig out of the picture and pulling out my vegan swaps, I used black beans for blood, reconstituted dried oyster mushrooms, fried tofu and pig-free pork belly (vegchon) for innards and dense vegetables for substance. Software: 2.5 cups dried black beans (soaked overnight and slowly cooked in 2 liters of water without salt until tender–I used a slow cooker for this as I cannot be bothered with tending a pot on a stove for hours) 2.5 nori sheets 500 g of extra firm tofu, cubed and fried 125-250g pig-free liempo (vegchon), cut into 1-1.5 inch pieces and flash fried (you can get this from The Real Happy Cow) 2 cups packed dried oyster mushroom, reconstituted and excess water removed then roughly chopped 2-3 sayote or carrots or potatoes, cut into small cubes 5 finger chilis 3 laurel leaves 1 stalk of lemongrass, bruised (white part only) 2 large red onions, roughly chopped 1 head of garlic, peeled and sliced 1 vegetable stock cube or 1 teaspoon mushroom powder 1/3 cup vegan patis 3/4 to 1 cup coconut vinegar (I used half coconut cider and half white vinegar) Cracked black pepper to taste *for those sensitive to yeast and mushrooms, replace with more dense vegetables and add more black beans *for those sensitive to soy, forgo the patis, you can use salt and/or coconut aminos *for the garlic and onion free, replace with asafoetida Procedure: 1. Blend beans with the nori sheets with the cooking liquid. Make sure the cooking liquid is double the amount of the beans, if not, add more water. 2. Saute garlic in a bit of oil until golden brown. Turn... read more

COOKIN’ RECIPE: Laing

Laing is one of the regional Filipino dishes I “dread” cooking but is extremely fond of–I’d pick it over anything except for sinigang. Traditionally, I will always eat it but not make it. In fact, I never made it before until yesterday. I love it with hot steaming unpolished rice or rice noodles–laing pasta anyone? Armed by accounts of KK watching his Bicolana grandmother cook this time and time again, Tinkerbelle’s Bicolana mom’s instructions and a YouTube video of Bugnay (see below) as my guides, I set out the make the best meat-free laing my kitchen can produce. SOFTWARE: 1/8 kilo of dried taro leaves (give or take) Coconut cream (kakang gata) from 4 coconuts 4-6 cups of water 4 medium red onion, chopped 4 inch ginger cut into short julienned sticks 1 head of native garlic, chopped 5 siling pansigang or siling labuyo to taste (I happen to have only siling pansigang so that’s what I used but for a more authentic laing, labuyo is a must) 1/2 cup KNL’s Bagoong How did I make it? Just watch this video. I did not include any meat and that green packet of everything but good. How did it turn out? The kid who grew up with Bicolano cooking said, “This is very good, you are very close. Are you sure there’s no meat in this?” WOW! made my day! Who knew it’s not as hard as it seems?... read more

COOKIN’ RECIPE: Vegan Bagoong

One of my greatest frustrations going largely plant-based is the lack of bagoong. Bagoong (particularly the alamang type, exponentially salty, sweet and spicy) is one of my favorite condiments and stir-fry must have for local dishes. I experimented a few times and used recipes of people who have been on the path longer than I have. Close to throwing in the towel, I stumbled upon a copy of Yummy magazine and saw Marie Gonzalez‘s recipe and followed it to the letter. At the time, it was the closest I’ve come to achieving the depth of umami-ness only real bagoong can deliver. Along the way, I adapted the recipe and made changes to fine tune it to my preference. Yield: 2 cups INGREDIENTS: 1 cup shiitake mushrooms (for this recipe, I find brown mushrooms are better, particularly the dried type then reconstituted) 1 head of garlic, chopped 200 g tausi or salted black beans (reserve the brine) 6 roasted nori sheets 3 pieces of kombu, reconstituted in a little water (reserve the water) 2 siling labuyo or bird’s eye chilies (I like mine spicy) 1/4 cup coconut sugar 2 tablespoons achuete oil HOW TO: Using a food processor, blitz the mushrooms, tausi and nori sheets until everything is well incorporated and resembles a fine mince. In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat the achuete oil and fry the garlic until golden. Add the chilies. Add the mushroom mixture and saute for more or less 5 minutes. Add the kombu water and tausi brine. Sprinkle in the sugar, mix and season to taste. This is the first dish I made with the bagoong. This is also great with green mangoes and grilled vegetables. KNL currently produces this bagoong for those people who do not have time to make this. For inquiries and prices, please e-mail or contact us via our FB page.... read more

COOKIN’ RECIPE: The Best Bean-Only Chili

Chili bowl with all the trimmings One of the things I am getting better at is preparing food for my husband even when I’m on a fast. To me, preparing food  (raw or cooked) is very therapeutic and it alleviates any craving I may have for eating–weird, I know, but it works! In fact, most of the best food I made are developed and made when I am not eating. Deciding to outdo the “performance” of my old recipe for meat chili, I embarked on an ambitious journey with the goal of trumping it with an all-bean, hearty, plant-based, no-animal-product pot of chili. For starters, I did my due diligence. I took out my mental notes on my meat chili, what made it stand out? Learning how to make chili from my Mexican classmates back in college, the secret was chipotle chiles in adobo sauce. I searched high and low, no chipotle, no adobo sauce either (I mean Mexican-style adobo, very different from the Filipino adobo). So what do I do? I rolled my sleeves and set to work. After all, I am Filipino–ingenious extraordinaire is in my DNA. KK enjoying his bowl of chili Beans 2 cups dried beans  (I used black and white, you can use pinto, black-eyed, pinto, etc.) – soaked overnight 8-10 cups of water (for the beans) Cook the beans until tender. It will take approximately 1 to 1.5 hours. (I like using dried than canned because it’s tastier and  more economical). Do not add salt while cooking the beans, it will make it tough. The beans will be seasoned once the chili is put together. Makeshift Adobo Sauce 4-6 red and green bell peppers – roasted, skins and seeds taken off 1 jalapeño pepper – roasted, skins and seeds taken off 2 siling pangsigang – chopped 3 T ketchup 1 T cider vinegar (either coconut or apple) 1/2 cup water 2 cloves of garlic 1 teaspoon cumin 1.5 teaspoons oregano Blend until smooth. Set aside. All-Bean Chili All the cooked beans All of the adobo sauce 28 ounces crushed tomatoes 2 medium onions, finely diced 3 stalks celery, finely diced 3 cloves garlic, grated 1 T oil 2 teaspoons oregano 1.5 teaspoons cumin 2 teaspoons cacao powder or 1 tablea 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (more or less, depends on your preference) 2 teaspoons Bovril or Vegemite or Marmite (This is optional, you can use nutritional flakes instead) 1.5 T coconut aminos or 1... read more

RAWKIN’ RECIPE: Homemade Santol Soda

finished santol soda Learning to work with the seasons, I mostly make the most of what we can find in the markets in the kitchen.  These days, heaps of santol are everywhere. Working with the seasons has wonderful benefits: produce in season tastes great and nutritionally superior, plus it’s inexpensive. Santol  (Sandoricum koetjape) has no exact translation in English although the French dubbed it as “faux mangosteen” and in some resources, it is referred to as “wild mangosteen“. Santol is anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer. Taking a quick trip down memory lane, I grew up with a couple of trees of santol in my yard whose ripe fruits were generously offered for immediate consumption dipped in rock salt; cooked in coconut cream and chili and chopped finely to make the best santol-ade ever over ice. My grandmother would also use unripe santol as a souring agent in sinigang na isda (sour soup with fish). I have been making guinataang santol  and served it with sprouted and cooked rice for the last two weeks at the insistence of the husband–who has roots in Bicol and thoroughly enjoyed his grandmother’s cooking. I rolled up my sleeves and cooked  a vegan version of a dish from his childhood. I ended up making juice from the leftover seeds but decided to bring it up a notch and made soda out of it using kefir. bright and bubbly! INGREDIENTS: Santol seeds (used approximately the seeds of 8 santol fruits) Water to cover Coconut sugar to taste (I didn’t use this because it was sweet enough Jar with a tight lid (fermentation jar works well) Kefir water (about 2 tablespoons or more) Put the seeds in a jar, put water to cover and add the water kefir. Let sit overnight on your counter to ferment. Drain and squeeze the seeds, transfer to another jar and put the lid on. Keep in the fridge. Serve... read more

RAWKIN’ RECIPE: Dark Mexican Chocolate Crunch Bark

what’s Mexican chocolate without the chili? Coming back from Bali with my raw cacao haul had me engaged full throttle in chocolate alchemy. My resident Vitamix blender cranks out to live for chocolate elixirs with different  superfoods and whenever I feel up to it, chocolate cups with almond butter, chocolate bark in all sorts of flavors. There are days I feel like having cardamom, some days mint, some days a generous sprinkling of buckwheat crunchies, and some days, I like it unadulterated pure dark chocolate. And today, I like it hot and crunchy…muy caliente! Loving to have more buckwheat crunchies (rice crispies is basically devoid of any nutrition and obviously not raw so I choose to use buckwheat groats instead. Please see link below to see the health benefits) and inspired by my favorite cup of hot chocolate (thick hot chocolate made with tablea with a sprinkling of cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne), I made this bark to share with fairies tomorrow. SOFTWARE: 250 g raw cacao butter (or 1 1/4 cup melted cacao butter or virgin coconut oil) 1 1/2 cups cacao powder 1 1/3 cups buckwheat crunchies 3/4 cup coconut sugar seeds of 1 vanilla pod 1 tablespoon lecithin 4 teaspoons cinnamon 1/4-3/4 teaspoon cayenne powder, optional 1/4 teaspoon himalayan salt HOW TO: Shave or shred cacao butter and melt it in a double boiler, making sure the temperature is comfortably warm to the touch until it melts to a pool of liquid. This is very important especially when working with raw cacao butter to preserve enzymes. In the clean super dry blender, add everything (except for the buckwheat crunchies) and blend until smooth, stopping after every three to five minutes of blending,  rest for three to five. Blend in stages. Make sure the temperature stays comfortably warm. Blending the mixture continuously will generate a lot of heat. Line 2 cookie sheets with wax paper or use 2 dehydrator sheets with teflex. Divide the buckwheat crunchies and chocolate mixture onto two sheets. Make sure all buckwheat crunchies are coated with chocolate and spread the mixture to the sides. Put in the freezer for a few minutes. Once the chocolate hardens, break into shards and keep in an airtight container to keep moisture out. Keep in the freezer if you live in a tropical country. Enjoy!... read more

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