Whenever I go home to my hometown in Cebu, I make it a point to buy Lumpiang Ngohiong. I recently went to Cebu for my 35th High School reunion and the first thing I looked for was the Ngohiong. Well, what is Ngohiong? It looks like kikiam but the taste of ngohiong is excellent. It’s similar to our Lumpia Shanghai except the stuffings are composed of ubod ( heart of the coconut), singkamas , garlic, spring onions, spices and ground pork or shrimps, then seasoned with ngohiong powder. Before frying the individual ngohiong pieces, one dips it in corn starch batter for crispy texture. Ngohiong Powder can be bought at the grocery stores. A common brand is McCormick Chinese Five Spice (Ngo Yong)

Anyway, I was craving for Ngohiong so much that my classmate taught me the basic recipe. I am sure you will just love it as much. You can adjust the proportions to suit your taste.

I have divided the recipe into three parts: the filling, the corn starch batter and lastly the ngohiong sauce. If you can’t find 5-spice powder at the grocery, I have also included the recipe below. The 5-spice powder will prove to be useful for other chinese dishes like siomai so it’s good to make a batch. It’s worth it.

Filling:

Ready made lumpia wrapper (get large size) or you can also use tofu wraps (called tau-pe)

1 kilo ubod, cut in strips
1/4 cup singkamas, cut in strips
3 tbsp ngohiong powder
1 teaspoon garlic
1 onion, minced
1 tbsp 5-spice powder (see recipe below if you can’t find 5 spice powder in the grocery or disregard this and just add 1 more tablespoon ngohiong powder to the filling ingredients)
5 stalks green onions, chopped
1/2 kilo ground pork or you may want to subsitute with shrimps if you are vegetarian
salt, pepper, and soy sauce to your discretion
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Posted: July 29th, 2009 under Pork, Recipes, Vegetables.
Comments: 8

I never got to appreciate laing until I came here to Manila and got exposed to all sorts of food from the various regions of the Philippines. Dishes cooked with coconut milk is my all time favorite dish. No wonder, laing then became one of my favorite dishes. I loved the hotness and the coconut milk mixture. I am sure you will too.

Ingredients

15-20 pieces wilted taro leaves (some markets already provide dried taro leaves)
2 coconuts, grated (Prepare Coconut milk)
1/4 kilo dried fish meat (bones removed)
1 large onion, diced
1 ginger, thumb sized
8 cloves garlic, minced
6 to 8 pieces cayenne peppers
1 Tablespoons Fermented shrimps ( Bagoong Alamang)
Salt to taste
tanglad or Lemon Grass

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Posted: June 18th, 2009 under Coconut Milk, Recipes, Vegetables.
Comments: 2

I am sure most of you are familiar with Chili Con Carne. It’s a spicy and hot dish which my children just love to devour with hot steaming rice . There is another bean dish that is quite the opposite of the Chili Con Carne. It has a sweet taste to it. With ingredients like chorizo bilbao, bacon and pata, you can just imagine the combination of these yummy flavors. Baked Beans was one of the first dishes that my sister, Myrna and I first cooked when we lived independently after college.

Ingredients
1/2 kilo red kidney beans
1 pork pata or leg, front (1 kilo)
3 medium sized onions
1/2 cup oil
20 grams garlic, minced
1 small can tomato paste
1/4 lb bacon
2 small chorizo bilbao, sliced
5 pieces hotdog, sliced
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
dash of pepper
salt to taste
2-3 tablespoon brown sugar

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Posted: May 21st, 2009 under Pork, Vegetables.
Comments: 1

Crispy Spinach or Crispy kangkong is basically an appetizer during parties. Don’t expect to get Vitamin A because they all died after the extreme heat. The most you can get are fibers and that urge to munch on something crunchy other than potato chips. So try this out.

Ingredients

2 bundles of Kangkong ( or spinach) or roughly 1/4 kilo
2 beaten eggs
2 cups cold water
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon refined salt
3 cups cornstarch
1 cup all-purpose flour
cooking oil

For Garlic-Mayonnaise Dip
Mix all of these below:

1 cup low fat mayonnaise
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
dash of pepper

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Posted: May 13th, 2009 under Recipes, Vegetables.
Comments: none

I am not too fond of deep fried foods so whenever I cook this, I use Olive oil which is the healthier oil. I love dipping it though with vinegar and garlic sauce. I will show you two ways to prepare Lumpia Ubod, the fried and fresh lumpia version.

Ubod Mixture
2 kilos ubod (coconut heart) cut in shoestring manner, boiled and drained
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 onion, chopped
1/2 kilo shrimps, shelled and sliced in small portions
2 Tablespoons patis (thin sauce)
1/2 kilo boiled pork cut into think strips
salt and pepper to taste
3 pieces Green beans, sliced (optional for accent)
1 piece carrots, sliced(optional for accent)
Lettuce for the fresh lumpia version

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Posted: April 16th, 2009 under Recipes, Vegetables.
Comments: 3

I tried out this simple eggplant omelet recipe from Kristine Keefer, public relations coordinator for the French Laundry in Yountville, California.

Kristine Keefer, public relations coordinator for the French Laundry in Yountville, left her native Philippines after college to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. This omelet can be enjoyed with the accompanying recipes for mango salad and garlic fried rice for a complete meal for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I am pretty sure overseas Filipinos will love these recipes.

Ingredients
2 Japanese eggplant (the narrower the better, as they will cook faster)
Vegetable oil or extra virgin olive oil, as needed
1 medium onion, cut in small dice
10 ounces ground pork
1 large plum tomato, cut in small dice
1 tablespoon fish sauce (Keefer prefers the Thai brand Tiparos)
4 medium eggs
Salt and pepper, to taste

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Posted: April 8th, 2009 under Pork, Recipes, Vegetables.
Comments: 1

This is a memorable recipe that my sister, Lorna picked up at one of these local TV cooking shows. I tried it out and I love its simplicity. I think this dish may even be called “Chop Suey”. Of course, I have now eliminated the monosodium glutamate (MSG) or ajinomoto.

Remember, it’s the sesame oil that gives this dish a piquant flavor. Let’s make sure our children eat their veggies!

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Posted: September 30th, 2008 under Recipes, Vegetables.
Comments: 1