Pinakbet Recipe

Pinakbet or pakbet is a popular Ilocano dish, from the northern regions of the Philippines, although it has become popular throughout the archipelago. The word is the contracted form of the Ilocano word "pinakebbet", meaning shrunk or shriveled. The original Ilocano pinakbet uses bagoong of fermented monamon or other fish, while further south, bagoong alamang is used.

Ingredients:

• 1 bangus or milk fish (grilled)

• 1 cup pumpkin (cut into cubes)

• 1 medium ampalaya or bitter gourd (sliced)

• 2 cups kangkong (cut into 2 inches length)

• 3 tbs fermented shrimp paste or bagoong

• 3 cups water

• 2 eggplants (chopped)

• 10 string beans (cut into 2 inches length)

• 3 tomatoes (cut into big pcs)

• 1 large onion (chopped)

• 6 okra (cut)

Cooking procedures:

Boil the water in a big pot, drop in the tomatoes and onions and season with shrimp paste. When boiling, Pour in Pumpkin and string beans. Let it cook for a minute and next, pour in ampalaya, eggplant, kangkong and top it with the grilled fish. Cover and simmer until vegetables are well cooked. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Some will cook it "saute style" with the addition of garlic. I once cooked Pinakbet with Bagnet (deep fried pork meat) from Ilocos Norte and it was delicious too.