Puchero Filipino

One of our favorite soup/stew dishes is Puchero or Pochero which is the Filipino version of another favorite, Spanish Cocido. The difference is the added vegetables: Filipino cooking bananas called saba, sweet potatoes, and bokchoy. The Filipino puchero is served with tomato sauce and/or sauce made with mashed boiled or roasted Asian eggplant seasoned with vinegar, garlic, and salt.

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Turon Pie

I call this the lazy woman's turon. I was craving for saba turon but didn't want to fry in this heat. I just brushed light olive oil on both sides of 2 pieces of spring roll wrapper, placed them on a small pie plate, filled it with thinly sliced saba banana, brown sugar, and chopped langka (jackfruit). Then I baked it in my toaster oven for about 10 to 12 minutes. I was more than satisfied with my baked turon and I didn't have to heat up a liter of oil. I'll try this with apple too as it's healthier without all the butter in a regular apple pie crust and because I love the sweet crispy wrapper. 

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Banana-cue

Banana-cue is a favorite Filipino street food made with cooking bananas called saba. Despite its name, banana-cue is not grilled; they are deep-fried with brown sugar and skewered in bamboo sticks for portability. I prefer banana-cue cooked until the sugar caramelizes and becomes hard and brittle.

Banana-cue
6 ripe firm saba bananas, or ripe plantains
2 cups light olive or grapeseed oil
¼ cup dark brown sugar
small skewers

• Heat oil in a medium pan or wok and fry bananas for 2 minutes. Add brown sugar and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 to 3 more minutes or until sugar has caramelized and bananas are evenly coated. Skewer each banana and serve immediately while still warm and crunchy.

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Saba Con Hielo

saba in syrup + shaved ice = chillin' snack

During my two pregnancies in the perpetually hot and humid Philippines, I had saba bananas in syrup with shaved ice and milk almost every other day to cool me off. Not halo-halo which is too rich, just sweet saba, ice, and milk. I could have eaten just milk and sugar on shaved ice and I would probably have been happy anyway. Ripe saba banana, in my opinion, is the only kind of banana that pairs very well with shaved ice and milk.

I added tiny tapioca pearls and used half-and-half for a creamier richer cold treat

yummy saba con hielo

Lasang Pinoy Sundays is a weekly food photography meme, Pinoy style, hosted by SpiCes. Let's CHILL!

Saba Bananas

saba-like bananas

I don't know many people who don't like bananas. Here in the US bananas are more popular than any other fruits that when a big storm is coming people of all races and ages make sure they have an ample stock of Cavendish bananas, I wonder why. I am not one of them, BTW, not because I am not a banana lover but because the Cavendish is not the best variety for snacking or cooking in my opinion.

I miss the numerous Philippine bananas specially saba which is a firm cooking banana that can be prepared either sweet or savory. I always keep a packet or 2 of frozen saba purchased from the Filipino grocery. Two weeks ago I found intensely green bananas very close in appearance to the Filipino saba. I bought a dozen pieces, kept them in brown lunch bags and the next day they turned pale yellow and completely ripened and edible in 3 days. I cooked a few in syrup that I diced for halo-halo, made banana-cue which is fried in oil and brown sugar *yum*, and the rest I added to pochero (potage), a soupy meat and chicken dish similar to the Spanish Cocido. These saba-like bananas are a little bit starchier and softer when cooked than ours but acceptable in flavor and a good substitute for the frozen saba in case they become unavailable at the Filipino grocery..

banana-cue, my favorite snack in the Philippines

pochero, a soupy boiled meat and vegetable dish served with tomato sauce

Sauteed Ground Beef and Fried Egg

This is a Filipino dish called arroz a la Cubana, I guess because it is eaten with fried ripe saba banana which is a little bit similar to plantains. I can't find any similar dish in my Cuban cookbook but there is a note that says fried ripe plantains are usually eaten as a side dish to beef or chicken dishes.

Philippine Arroz a la Cubana
1 pound lean ground beef
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce
salt & ground black pepper to taste
hot steamed rice
fried ripe plantain or saba if available
fried eggs

• In a wok or pan, heat olive oil and add garlic and onion, cook for 3 minutes. Add beef and saute for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, then add soy sauce and pepper. Cook for another 3 minutes, adding a little water if it appears dry. Taste and add salt if needed. Serve with steamed rice, fried eggs, fried plantains and tomato or banana ketchup.

• I prefer my sunny side up fried eggs with runny yolks like this one. Cook on a medium-low heat, covered, for exactly 3 minutes. For fully cooked but not hard yolks, cook for a further 1½ minutes.