Pinakbet One of My Favorite Filipino Dishes

I’m so proud to show you what my mom cooked for me today. It is one of the best Filipino Veggie Dishes which is called Pinakbet.

This is a viand made from sautéed squash, eggplant, string beans and okra. Shrimp paste, fish sauce or salt then pepper is then added for flavor.

Here’s a simple recipe:
1/4 kilo of lean pork cut into small bits.
1 eggplant or 4 small ones, sliced
1/4 kilo squash, chopped into bite sized cubes
3 pieces tomatoes (the more ripe the better)
1 red onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed
6 to 8 pieces okra
1 bunch string beans, cut into bite sized pieces
3 tbsp shrimp paste
1 cup water
3 tbsp cooking oil (we use canola it’s good for you)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Heat the pan and spread the cooking oil.
When oil is hot enough, sauté the garlic, onion, and tomato.
Lower the temperature then cover the pan for about a minute. This should soften the ripe tomatoes.
Crush the tomatoes with a fork to bring out their natural flavor.
Add the pork and cook until color turns light brown.
Put-in the shrimp paste and cook for 2 minutes.
Add water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes or until pork is tender.
Put-in the squash and cook for 5 to 7 minutes or until it becomes soft.
Add the remaining vegetables and mix with the other ingredients.Simmer for 5 minutes or until all the vegetables are cooked. (Do not overcook the vegetables)
Serve hot with rice. Share!!!

If you wouldn’t want to add pork it’s okay. This saves about 30 minutes of preparation time. This is also best eaten with fried fish. Today I enjoyed it with a small bowl of Dulong which is a kind of small fish. Sometimes I see these with Nasi Lemak.

Free Range Eggs and Allergies

Recently I’ve noticed that I get allergies whenever I would eat regular eggs. What regular eggs? The white ones that can be bought from groceries.

The thing is, it doesn’t happen when I eat the brown ones or the free-range eggs. They can easily be spotted because they appear to be brown and some would have spots.

How they are different is the regular eggs come from farms where the chickens would be given shots, feeds and mostly not permitted outdoors, while their free-range counterparts would be raised without the use of antibiotics, hormones and would mostly eat grass and small insects outdoors.

So earlier my brother showed me where to buy hardboiled free-range eggs. So yes I am very happy because this is a great after gym snack since I didn’t have time to prepare them myself. ^-^

These native chickens would then lay brown eggs that are more nutritious because their moms have more exposure to sunlight which the chicken’s body convert to vitamin D. The best part is since they are hormone and antibiotic free, they tend to be better for people like me!