Two more Filipino dishes...

Another dish I made for the potluck was Ulang sa Gata (prawns in coconut milk)

This is one of my favorite "go-to" recipes. The recipe specifically calls for HEAD ON Shrimp. None of that wimpy headless shrimp here! Don't you just love their beady little eyes looking at you?


I'm totally cheating and using this "ingredients" photo from my April 2011 post (linked at the end). This recipe is so EASY! The only major work is cutting off the long antenna from the shrimp heads.

Ulang sa Gata (Prawns in Coconut Milk)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 10 cloves garlic, roughly chopped (I minced mine and I used 10-15 cloves)
• 1 small white onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp fish sauce, plus more to taste
• 1 tbsp palm or coconut vinegar (I used nipa-sap vinegar, found at Seafood City)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 lbs of large head-on shrimp
• 1 1/2 cups caned coconut milk (I just used the whole 14 oz. can)
• 6 whole green Thai chiles (the tray I bought at Seafood City had both red and green so I used three of each, then pricked them with a knife so the spiciness could permeate the sauce, and boy does it really spread!)

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large wok or skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Add onions and cook until soft and lightly browned, 5-6 minutes.

2. Stir in fish sauce, vinegar, and sugar and season with black pepper. Trim shrimp antennae (or if you're anal like me, do this AHEAD OF TIME) with scissors, then add shrimp to wok or skillet along with coconut milk and chiles; stir briefly to combine, cover wok tightly, and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook at a simmer until shrimp are almost cooked through, about 6 minutes.

 3. Remove cover form wok; continue to cook, basting the shrimp with the coconut milk, until shrimp are cooked through, about 2 minutes more. Remove from the heat, taste sauce and season with more fish sauce to taste (if you so desire). Transfer to a large shallow bowl and serve with rice.

The final presentation:

Here's a link for my original post last year which references the recipe from Saveur magazine and Marvin's version (from Burnt Lumpia).

Another Filipino classic is Adobong Manok (Chicken Adobo), which is considered the national dish of the Philippines. This was to be TC's first attempt at a Filipino dish.

I'm going to "cheat" again and use a moldy old photo for the ingredients. In fact, I felt kind of bad because TC did such a great job following this recipe and I (gasp) forgot to take photos of the food the day we served it (she made it the night before the potluck because adobo tastes much better the next day, in my opinion).


Adobong Manok (Chicken Adobo)
Ingredients:
1 3-lb chicken, cut into serving pieces (we used the wings & drummettes)
1/2 cup soy sauce (I used Kikkoman low sodium)
3/4 cup white vinegar (although you could also use apple cider vinegar for a sweeter taste; we actually did 1/2 cup white vinegar and my secret ingredient, frozen calamansi juice cubes to make up the other acidic portion)
1 medium onion, quartered
1 or 2 HEADS (heads, I say, NOT cloves) of crushed garlic
*optional: several sliced coins of ginger (not a traditional ingredient), skin on
3-4 bay leaves
1/2 tbsp black peppercorns

*optional: several tsp of annatto powder (also known as 'achiote' or 'atsuete') to give a reddish color. My mom does this. We did not utilize annatto powder for the version served at the potluck.



Directions:
You could either brown the chicken first, or do it the easy way. Here's the easy way:

Dump ALL of the ingredients into a non-reactive pot (the vinegar in this dish will screw up the pot, so use a non stick one). Bring to a boil and simmer for half an hour. I did mine for about 40 minutes. It depends on how soft you want your chicken.

I actually prefer the OTHER way in which you brown the chicken first which I feel is much tastier:

You saute the garlic and onions in oil first, then brown the chicken. TC found this the hardest thing to do because that required her to stand at the stove and to constantly monitor the chicken (wah wah wah). She also had to stir it around to make sure the chicken was evenly cooked. Or, as my mom would say, "cook the chicken UNTIL THERE IS NO MORE BLOOD COMING OUT!!!" (yes, she's very shouty). After the chicken is browned, then you add the rest of the ingredients.

TIP: Once you put all of your ingredients in the pot, leave it ALONE! Resist the temptation to stir it around and mess with it. Let it simmer. Also, never add water to adobo!

After simmering the chicken, remove the chicken pieces from the pot and place in a separate serving dish.

Let the sauce in the pot boil until it is reduced by half. I am not a fan of 'wet' adobo but I don't like it super dry either.

Cover the reserved chicken pieces with the newly reduced sauce.

NOTE: Nearly every Filipino I know does his or her adobo recipe differently. A friend of mine used red wine in hers. Another friend does this recipe in a crock pot! My own brother uses red onions and he fries potatoes and adds those last in his adobo. I only recently started adding onions in my adobo to give it a sweeter taste, along with the ginger. For the older post that I reference at the end, I used potatoes. TC did not use potatoes that night. The addition of potato wedges also gives adobo another twist by soaking up all the saltiness. I personally don't prefer potatoes in my adobo, but I'll eat it!

Serve hot with white rice.

*Note: Adobo tastes even better the next day. Unlike the old days in the topics when there was no refrigeration, I do keep my leftover adobo in the fridge. You can scrape off the fat that rises to the top of the sauce the next day if you want to cut down some calories.

Here is the sauce reducing below: 

So even though this was not the actual photo of TC's adobo, it did look like this, except without potatoes.

To make this extra nice, I sliced up some green onion tops and scattered it atop the adobo as a garnish.

To see my moldy old post from my defunct recipe blog in it's full color glory, click here.

TC's version of chicken adobo was a hit at the potluck! Everyone enjoyed it very much. TC was quite happy at her first attempt. She did a great job in following the directions with minimal help from me. Hey, she's gotta learn sometime right? What better recipe to learn than a classic Filipino dish. She said she would rather not brown the chicken first if she did this again, ha ha.

Anyhow, Thanksgiving is almost upon us! I'm taking it easy this year and am only baking two types of pies (really easy recipes and no I am not making the crust myself)...Hope your Thanksgiving lunch or dinner plans are shaping up, whether you are cooking the main meal, sides, dessert, or going out to a restaurant!