Pinakbet and Pastillas

Ingredients

Pinakbet

Pork,  Shrimp, Bagoong (Shrimp Paste), Patis (Fish Sauce), Eggplant, String Beans, Okra, Squash

Pastillas

Powdered Milk, Condensed Milk, Butter, Sugar 

The dish for Wednesday night was Pinakbet and the dessert was Pastillas.  I realized cooking and blogging everyday was very tiring and my mom likes going out to dinner sometimes, so I will be cooking on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and will blog sometime before my next cooking session.  

The pinakbet actually turned out really well – a lot better than the picadillo went.  For those that don’t know, pinakbet is vegetable based dish with pork and shrimp cooked in bagoong – shrimp paste.  Apparently, there’s more than one time of bagoong so it’s a good thing my mom got home before the dish was finished.  I was using the cooked bagoong when I was supposed to be using just bagoong alamang (salted shrimp) instead of the ginisang bagoong (sauteed shrimp).  Anywho, it was salvaged – and my mom said it was actually pretty good!  Woohoo!

The dessert I made was a really simple dessert, but it’s always been my favorite growing up.  Basically, it’s milk and sugar.  Traditionally, you’d use fresh milk and spend a lot of time boiling it down into a paste while adding sugar…but not having access to fresh milk and not having too much time I used the short cut and just used powdered milk and condensed milk.   For some reason, one of my earliest memories was making pastillas in the Philippines.  I think I was like three years old or something and we had made pastillas at my day care center.  I just remember being really excited when my parents picked me up and I gave them some of the pastillas I had made…I know – I guess I’ve just always been adorable, right?  Anyways, I’ve loved them ever since.  Even when my mom and I moved to the US, I’d always love getting pastillas from the Philippines.  The ones you can buy here just aren’t the same for whatever reason. 

Hmmm so some updates that will help me through the rest of the summer!  My mom found a small notebook with some of my grandmother’s recipes so I’m gonna start taking a look at that.  My grandma , whom we all called ‘nanay’ – the Tagalog for mom - was always known for her amazing cooking so maybe through her recipes I can channel some of her natural talent.  My mom also said she has some note cards with more of nanay’s recipes so she’s going to look for them.  Also, my cousin bought me a graduation gift that will help me this summer!  It’s this cookbook called Memories of Philippine Kitchens written by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, two people who actually have a Filipino restaurant in Manhattan – so guess where I’ll be eating once I move to New York in August.   If people are interested, their restaurant is called Cendrillon, so check it out for me and let me know how it is if you’re in the area.   Anyway, it’s not just a cookbook – it’s sort of a historical and cultural analysis of the food, it’s origins, and the influences that the Chinese, the Spanish and the Americans have had on Filipino cuisine – sort of the topic of my last post.  It’ll definitely be a great resource and give me good context while I’m cooking the foods that I’m cooking.  I’m really excited about using this book and nanay’s recipes for the rest of the summer.  

Tonight’s dish will be Nilaga and I’m still deciding on the dessert.  As for my other summer projects…I need to get working on them more.  Haven’t missed a day of jogging yet…but also haven’t opened any books to read!  That’s it for now.  Till next time! 

Other Summer Projects

Books Read: 0

Current Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Memories of Philippine Kitchens

Progress with Mandarin: Rosetta Stone Ordered

Weekdays Missed Jogging: 0