Traditional Filipino Dishes
Discovering Filipino Cuisine
Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia with neighbouring countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan and Borneo. Their culture is largely a mix of other cultures and this is reflected in the people, language and their food.
Rice is the primary staple food and is always accompanied by another dish such as a stew or something dry. The Filipino way of eating is by the use a fork and spoon or the use their hands (kamayan). This makes the Filipino different from their other Asian counterparts as they do not use chopsticks.
This hub will look at the most popular Filipino dishes and how to recreate them.
For those with a sweet tooth, please check out my lens: Native dessert recipes from the Philippines
More traditional Filipino recipes to follow - lens is still work in progress!
Filipino Cuisine - More recipes from the Filipino kitchen
Kare kare
This is a meaty mix of softened oxtails, tripe and vegetables in a sauce thickened with peanut butter.
Eaten with steamed rice, a sauteed shrimp paste(bagoong alamang) is the perfect accompaniment
Ingredients
- 500 g Oxtail (cleaned and cut into serving pieces)
- 500 g of tripe (can use sirloin beef instead)
- 300 g Peanut Butter
- 200 g of Aubergines sliced diagonally then into 1" lengths
- 100 g Long green beans (sitaw) cut into 2" pieces
- 100 g Bok Choy/Chinese Leaves (pechay)
- 50 g Sauteed shrimp paste (bagoong alamang)
- 2 Litres of water
- 1 Onion (sliced)
- 1 tsp Garlic (crushed)
- 1 tbsp of cooking oil
Instructions
- Boil oxtail and tripe in 2 litres of water and simmer until meat is tender leaving about 400ml of stock to set aside
- Sautee onion and garlic
- Add oxtail and peanut butter
- Add remaining stock
- Stir and simmer for 2 mins
- Add aubergine and beans.
- Simmer for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally
- Add the bok choy and simmer until all vegetables are cooked
- Serve with bagoong alamang
Adobo - Pork or chicken in a savoury sauce
This lovely dish is a favourite for Filipinos and non Filipinos alike. It is a constitute of meat cooked in a sauce of vinegar, garlic and soy sauce. This dish can be prepared in many ways - it is all dependent on the chef. I found the following the easiest and quickest way to create adobo.
Ingredients
- 500 g Chicken or Pork belly
- 2 -3 tbsp of Oil
- 3 Cloves Garlic (sliced)
- 1/2 Cup Soy sauce
- 1/2 Cup Vinegar
- 1 -2 tbsp of Black peppercorns
- 1 Cup Water
- 1 -2 Bay leaves (optional)
- 1/2 Onion (optional)
- 1 -2 tbsp of sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Add oil to a hot pan
- Sautee garlic (and onion if you're adding it)
- Combine all other ingredients and mix
- Cover and leave to cook over medium heat
- When the sauce starts to boil, lower heat and simmer, stirring occasionally
- Continue cooking until the meat is tender and the sauce is slightly thick
- If cooked to your taste, remove from heat and serve with boiled riceWe usually prepare adobo with cubes of potato which you can add at step 6
Bulalo - Beef shank stew
This soupy dish is a combination of beef shanks, bone and marrow which have been slow cooked in beef stock and mixed with vegetables.
Ingredients
- 1 kg cut beef marrow bones
- 500 g beef shank with meat
- 3 bok choy (Chinese leaves)
- 2 cobs of corn cut into 2 inched pieces
- 1 sayote (chouchou) peeled and cubed
- 1 onion sliced into four
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 tbsp patis (fish sauce)
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil
- Add the beef shanks and bone marrow
- Keep the pot boiling until there is no blood seen in the meat and bone
- Take out meat and bones and rinse through cold water
- Clean out pot to remove leftover scum
- Place the meat and bones back into the pot and add the onion, garlic, fish sauce and peppercorns
- Fill the pot with water until contents are covered and bring to the boil
- Remove any scum that is formed
- Reduce the heat and keep the pot simmering until the meat is tender (roughly 4 hours)
- Remove any excess fat from the top but leave some for taste
- Add the corn and chouchou and leave to simmer until the chouchou is tender
- Add salt to taste and lastly add the Chinese leaves
Crispy Pata - Fried pork trotters/knuckles
This is deep fried trotter or knuckles served with a soy and vinegar sauce. 'Pata' means "pork feet" in Spanish.
Ingredients
- 1 whole pork leg roughly 2 kilos
- 6 tbsp of salt
- 3 tbsp of crushed garlic
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp black peppercorns
- 2 litres of water
- 60 ml of vinegar
- 1 litre of oil for frying
Instructions
- In a large pan, combine water, salt, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves and peppercorns. Stir
- Add the pork knuckles
- Cover and bring to a boil
- Simmer for 1.5 hours until the pork is tender
- Drain
- Cool and keep in the fridge overnight to dry (at least 12 hours)
- Heat the oil
- Deep fry pork until golden brown and crispy
- Drain excess oil
- Serve with sauce
- Dipping sauce
- Combine around 60ml of water with a 1/4 of diced onion. Add 2 pieces of sliced finger chillies and mix with around 60ml of vinegar.
Laing - Taro in coconut milk
Laing is also known as Ginataang Gabi and is a creamy dish prepared with sun dried taro stalks and leaves slowly simmered in coconut milk. It is seasoned with ginger, shrimp paste and chilli.
Ingredients
- 25 pieces of taro (gabi) leaves - shredded
- 500 g of diced pork
- 1 tin of coconut milk
- 60 g of salted shrimp paste (bagoong)
- 5 sliced red chilies
- 5 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 chopped onions
- 2 tbps minced ginger
- 2 tbsp of oil
- 1 tsp of salt
Instructions
- Sautee garlic, ginger and onions in a pot
- Add the pork, taro leaves and coconut milk
- Bring to the boil then simmer until pork is tender
- Add red chilies, shrimp paste and salt
- Simmer for another 5 minutes
Lumpiang Sariwa - Fresh vegetable spring roll
Lumpiang sariwa is a fresh spring roll made of sauteed strips of vegetable filling wrapped in a soft egg crepe. Can be served warm or cold with an accompaniment of sweet peanut garlic sauce.
Ingredients
- FILLING:
- 60 ml oil
- 100 g diced sweet potato
- 1 tbsp Garlic - crushed
- 1/2 Onion - sliced
- 150 g Green beans - blanced and sliced
- 200 g Beansprouts
- 1 tbsp Oyster sauce
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Lettuce leaves for presentation
- WRAPPER:
- 150 g Flour
- 60 g of Cornstarch
- 375 ml of Water
- 2 Eggs
- 45 ml Oil
- SAUCE:
- 45 g Cornstarch
- 80 g Sugar
- 500 ml of Water
- 60 ml Soy sauce
- 20 g Peanuts - toasted and chopped
- 1 tbsp Garlic - crushed
Instructions
- FILLING:
- Fry sweet potatoes under tender, remove
- Using the same pan, sautee the garlic and onion
- Return the sweet potatoes and add green beans, bean sprouts and oyster sauce
- Stri fry until cooked
- Set asideWRAPPER
- Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well in the centre
- Gradually mix in egg, water and oil
- Stir until a smooth batter is formed
- Pour about 60ml of batter at a time into a heated 6" panSAUCE:
- Over a medium heat pan, combine sugar, cornstarch, soy sauce and water and stir until the mixture is thickPRESENTATION:
- Line the wrapper with a lettuce leaf
- Add a few tbps of filling
- Roll and seal with a dab of water
- Serve with sauce and toasted peanuts
How to make Lumpiang Sariwa - Instructions in Filipino
This video shows how to make lumpiang sariwa with varying ingredients to the recipe I have written. Instructions are in Tagalog.
This lens is still a work in progress so more recipes will be added soon so please check back! In the meantime, please let me know if there are anymore recipes you think I could add. Thanks!
