Day 33: Pinakbet Recipe

This is not really an academic post! But so happy with how my pinakbet turned out, so sharing the recipe here. One good thing about the COVID19 lockdown is that I'm cooking a lot more! I definitely have tried a few new dishes.

I'm not very good at measuring stuff, so just eye the amount to your taste and needed yield. This recipe is based on the dish last night:

Ingredients:
3 cloves Garlic
1/2 Onion
1 Tomato
1 thumb Ginger
1 cup Pumpkin
1/2 cup Carrots
1 cup Eggplant
1/4 cup Green beans
1 handful Spinach
1-1/2 tbsp Fish sauce
1 tbsp Soy sauce
Salt
Pepper

Instructions:

• Mince onions and garlic, quarter tomatoes, thinly slice ginger, chop all other vegetables to relatively equal chunky size (1inch for me).
• Use mid-high heat, sautee minced onions and garlic until tender
• Add quartered tomatoes to the pan, season with a bit of salt and pepper. Stir fry until tomatoes are a bit soft.
• Set heat setting to low. Layer the vegetables on top of the sauteed mix: ginger, pumpkin, carrots, eggplant, and green beans. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the pan, let vegetables cook in its own steam for 10-12 mins. 
• If needed, add a bit of water to prevent the veggies burning. Don't add too much water, you don't want the dish to be too saucy.
• Shake the pan and add soy sauce and fish sauce. Cover the pan and let simmer/steam for another 10-12mins.
• Add a handful of spinach, gently stir into the vegetable mix until leaves wilt
• Add salt and pepper to taste.

All done! 

I think the dish is pretty versatile, you can include other vegetables into it. Traditionally, the vegetables included squash, bitter melon, and okra (but I didn't use any of them in mine). You can add meat into it too. I didn't use shrimp paste, as I'm allergic, but I'm sure it will add depth to the flavour!