← Nouns Cooking · Indonesian & Filipino

Ingredients

• 250 g Pork belly, cut into thin strips
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 3 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 2 cm piece Ginger, crushed (optional)
• 3 Tomato, chopped
• 2 tbsp bagoong alamang (sautéed shrimp paste)
• 250 ml Water
• 300 g kabocha squash (kalabasa), peeled and cubed
• 150 g long beans (sitaw), cut into 5 cm lengths
• 8 Okra, ends trimmed
• 1 long Asian aubergine, cut into chunks
• 1 Bitter melon (ampalaya), seeded and sliced
• Black pepper

Method

1. Fry the pork in the oil in a wide pot over medium heat for 8–10 min until browned and crisp at the edges. Pour off all but 1 tbsp of the fat.
2. Add the garlic, onion and ginger (if using) and cook for 2 min, then the tomatoes for 3 min until soft. Stir in the shrimp paste for 1 minute.
3. Add the water and squash, cover and simmer for 5–6 min until the squash is half tender.
4. Lay the beans, okra, aubergine and bitter melon on top without stirring. Cover and cook for 6–8 min, shaking the pot now and then, until all the vegetables are just tender.
5. Season with pepper (the shrimp paste is salty, so taste before adding more) and serve with rice.

Tips

• Shaking the pot instead of stirring keeps the bitter melon from spreading its bitterness through the whole dish.
• Ilocano pinakbet uses fermented fish sauce (bagoong isda) instead of shrimp paste and less liquid.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Foxy Folksy Panlasang Pinoy Kawaling Pinoy