Tag Archives: filipino food

Dec 22 2012
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Cooking, Thoughts

Revisiting an Old Favorite: Soy Curl-dereta

For me, one of the joys of turning veganese is that I’ve become better in the kitchen. Cooking isn’t a chore or a crazy thing to do every once in awhile. It’s something that I wish I had time to do everyday. One of the most important lessons that has been learned out of cooking a lot more often is this: it’s okay to change things up, to experiment, to try new ingredients, and to get creative in the kitchen. Make cooking and eating work for you! Sure, it sounds simple, but I used to be one of those people who followed recipes faithfully and wondered if I was eating something the “right” way. For example, is it “right” to stick a whole piece of sushi in my mouth or is it OK to bite it? Sushi purists will tell you that there is definitely a right way to eat sushi, but I don’t quite feel good (or attractive) when trying to eat a whole piece of sushi. Drool and choking become potential side effects. But, I digress.

I recently made some soy curl-dereta (click for my original recipe):

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It’s only the 2nd time I’m making this, which is kind of crazy. I used to worry a lot about missing Filipino food! I can’t be missing it that much if it’s only the 2nd time I’ve made this. The main reason I wanted to talk about this is because I did things a little differently this time around.

  1. I didn’t follow a recipe.
  2. I didn’t have potatoes or bell pepper, so I was missing ingredients (and I forgot some ingredients). Therefore, one can make the argument that this dish is NOT caldereta, but they’re wrong.
  3. I didn’t use the store-bought Caldereta spice packet.
  4. The first time I made this, it was a HUGE production. It was also the first time I ever had soy curls. This time, it was second nature and I wasn’t terrified of the soy curls.

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You guys, I just have to say it: I’m so proud of myself! Look at me, being all casual chef let-me-get-this-stuff-cooked-so-I-can-eat-already! The one major difference is that I browned the soy curls with the garlic and onions and some Butler Chick Style Seasoning before adding the tomato sauce and veggies this time. Since I didn’t have a caldereta spice packet, I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and cumin. I debated whether or not to add nutritional yeast, but opted out. Thinking back, I totally should have done that: some people do add cheese to traditional caldereta.

You might notice that I was working with smaller soy curl bits from the bottom of the bag. It worked out really nicely. The carrots and peas ended up being the star with the soy curls being a nice accompaniment.

Cooking this got me really excited because I couldn’t help but wonder how my 3rd iteration of soy curl-dereta will turn out. I’ll be sure to let you guys know. –Melissa

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Oct 01 2012
8 Comments
Cooking

Vegan Bistek Part II

It seems like a really long time ago when I posted about Tofustek! and I actually find it hard to believe that it took me this long to make the recipe using soy curls instead of tofu.

 

Here is the recipe using soy curls:

1 cup soy curls
1/4 c soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice or calamansi juice if you’ve got it
2-3 tbsp veggie broth (I used ‘Not Beef’ boullion)
ground black pepper
1 medium onion, sweet vidalia recommended but any onion will do
olive oil

Rehydrate the soy curls as directed on the package, drain, and then add the soy sauce, lemon juice, broth, and black pepper. Mix and set aside to marinate. In the meantime, slice the onion into rings.

Fire up a pan and brown the soy curls in olive oil — do not add the marinade and set it aside, you’ll need it later! When done, put the soy curls in a bowl. Then, put the onions in the pan and cooking to your liking: I like them to be more on the raw side. Add the marinade to the pan and then remove from heat.

Place the onions on top of the soy curls and pour the liquid over everything. Ta da! You’re done!

This goes great with fresh veggies. Try it out! –Melissa

 

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Aug 11 2012
3 Comments
Thoughts

Simply Vegan

I reached another milestone yesterday: I had another birthday! It was my first birthday as a vegan. I don’t know about you, but for birthdays and other holidays, I like to enjoy a decadent meal, guilt-free. This year, I knew exactly what I wanted: a Tofurky cheese pizza and a Chicago Diner cake (which you can find at Chicago-area Whole Foods in addition to the diner itself). Props to my family for getting me exactly what I wanted! My nieces even loved the cake:

She’s a goofy one! That was dinner. Lunch was pretty darn good, too. My sister treated me to falafel from Pita Inn which is the falafel that I measure all other falafel against. In other words, it’s the best.

It was such a breeze to know exactly what I wanted to eat for my birthday. Previous years have been almost annoying… do I want Chinese food? Pizza? If pizza, deep dish or thin crust? Steak? Fried chicken? Gyros? Basically, what awful and unhealthy food should I get? I love that that wasn’t an issue this year.

In other news, I think I have finally settled on the perfect vegan Filipino breakfast:

Super garlicky rice with tempeh strips and tomato salad. I have finally embraced the wondrous tempeh strip. I credit Brent and Christie for that. This breakfast is so easy, super yummy, and hearty! And it MUST be eaten Filipino-style, with a spoon containing a little bit of everything on the plate:

Now please excuse me while I have another slice of that delicious birthday cake! –Melissa

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Jul 27 2012
1 Comment
Cooking, Main Dishes

Soy Curl Adobo with Eggplant Salad

Adobo is a quintessential Filipino dish and cooking method. Pork or chicken are usually used, however, seafood and even vegetables can be cooked adobo-style. Clearly, soy curls are a great substitute. I’m still amazed by what a great meat substitute they are. I’m also amazed that it took me so long to try making soy curl adobo because it’s so quick and easy. Special shout-out to my cousin Dulce for motivating me!

Here’s what you’ll need for soy curl adobo:

soy curls
soy sauce
white vinegar
garlic cloves, very coarsely minced
black peppercorns
bay leaf
Butler Chik-Style Seasoning (optional)
turbinado (optional)

I’m not listing measurements because all you need to know is this: use equal parts soy sauce and vinegar and use more if you want the adobo to be soupy and less if you don’t. The amount of garlic is your call, too, but adobo is meant to be garlicky. With about 1 cup of soy curls, I used 2 tbsp each of soy sauce and vinegar and two garlic cloves.

I put the soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and peppercorns in a small bowl (I didn’t have a bay leaf). Then, I fired up a small frying pan (you can also use a saucepan or pot), heated some olive oil in it, threw in my rehydrated soy curls and some Chik-Style seasoning, and mixed it all together.

Immediately after that, I added in the soy sauce-vinegar mixture. I mixed it again and let it cook. Optional: once the liquid starts cooling off a bit, you can add some turbinado (I did not).

I didn’t use a lot of liquid, so I ended up with some dry adobo, which suits me just fine.

To accompany the adobo, I made an eggplant salad using one roasted eggplant, diced tomato, and minced shallot. My dad pickles his pepper surplus, so I took one of these little chili peppers, minced it, and threw it in the salad along with some salt.

So yummy! The best part is, this dish can last for several days. It’s a road trip favorite for Filipinos for this very reason. I hope you’ll try it. Oh! I made another great discovery today. My sister usually has an allergic reaction to soy milk and tofu. She tried this and so far, no reaction. Yay! –Melissa

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Jul 04 2012
5 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Kare Kare

Kare Kare is a Filipino dish that is usually made up of oxtail and vegetables in a peanut butter sauce. It’s also one of my favorite things to eat, like, ever. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present: Easy Vegan Kare Kare.

1 cup soy curls
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 a big eggplant, cut into about 2 inch chunks (approx. 2 cups)
1 cup sitaw (Chinese long beans), cut into about 2 inch pieces — regular green beans are fine, too
2 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 tsp achiote powder (optional)
olive oil
salt

First, take your one cup of soy curls and rehydrate them. While that’s happening, prepare your veggies. Any type of eggplant will do. You can put in as much veggies as you would like and even drop the soy curls altogether if you’d like. Eggplant and sitaw are the usual veggies we use; we also use bok choy most of the time. The sitaw came from the freezer… I can’t wait to show you guys the fresh ones once they start to pop up in my Dad’s garden.

When the soy curls are ready, drain the water. In a medium pot, heat up the olive oil and brown the garlic and onions. When it stats to get fragrant (and before the garlic starts to burn), toss in the soy curls and saute them with the onions and garlic. Once they’ve dried out a little, it will be time to add your veggies.

Toss the eggplant in first as they will take a bit longer than the beans to cook. Then, add about a cup of water to the pot. Cover and let the eggplants cook for about 5 minutes.

Add in the beans and then cover it again for a few minutes.

Once the veggies are cooked, stir things up a bit. Then, make a well in the center of the pot and put in the peanut butter. The PB should melt completely and acts as both a flavor and thickening agent.

Taste the sauce and add some salt to taste. Add the achiote powder as the final step. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but this gives the kare kare its reddish color.

You can eat the kare kare on its own, but I prefer to have it with white rice. The soy curls are a good protein to use, particularly because it is reminiscent of tripe (I know… gross) which is also used a lot in kare kare. What’s the green stuff, you ask? Kare kare is nothing without some bagoong or salted shrimp paste. I was so super jazzed when I found this recipe for raw vegan bagoong on ASTIG Vegan. I couldn’t follow it exactly because I don’t have any dulse, so I improvised and crushed up about 4 sheets of salted seaweed snack instead. It’s wacky, but it actually worked really nicely as a bagoong substitute.

OMG, you guys. You have no idea how excited I am that this recipe worked. BTW – Happy Independence Day. Be safe! –Melissa

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Jun 14 2012
4 Comments
Lazy Vegan

The Lazy (Filipino) Vegan: Soy Curl Sinigang

Since I started eating soy curls, which have to be one of the best things about being vegan, I’ve gotten lots of bright ideas: soy curl kalbi, smoked soy curls, soy curl caldareta. I’ve been pretty excited about the idea of making soy curl sinigang and soy curl kare kare.

I had soy curl sinigang today, but I’m not going to elaborate because I didn’t do any actual cooking. I just baked some soy curls and then added the sinigang broth and veggies that were already prepared by my parents.

This looks pretty tasty (and it was) but I gotta say that our sinigang is usually a lot more exciting. We usually put lots of eggplants, long beans, and taro root in it. The veggies today consisted of only some “wild spinach” from the backyard. The broth has a sourness to it that is oh so good.

I’ll get into detail when I finally make some of this myself. I love veganizing Filipino food! –Melissa

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May 30 2012
4 Comments
Main Dishes, Thoughts

Kadios and Langka!

Full disclosure: My dinner wasn’t totally vegan because it was cooked with pork, which I did not eat. I could not resist being a vegetarian for one meal because this is one of my favorite dishes that I don’t often get to have (maraming salamat to my Aunt who brought it over). I’m extra excited because it’s a dish that can easily be veganized simply by not cooking it with meat.

The beans are kadios or pigeon peas. The meaty-lookimg stuff is langka or jackfruit. For real! I’ve seen jackfruit used in many interesting ways in the vegan blogosphere. This jackfruit is unripe. You should be able to find it in an Asian grocery store labeled as “young green jackfruit.” It’s hearty, picks up flavors nicely, and has a good texture to it. (In case you’re wondering, the green stuff is bok choy. My mom added it so there was more non-meaty stuff.)

What’s great about this dish is that the meat is almost an accessory. This is in comparison to other Filipino dishes where meat takes center stage and the veggies are for decoration. The flavor and color comes in large part from the kadios, which is the real star of the dish.

For dessert, I had ripe jackfruit, which was bought frozen:

This is a definite notch above the canned ripe jackfruit that I’m used to. Hmm… if only I could travel to a place where I can get fresh jackfruit… I will say that jackfruit is not for everyone. When I was little, the smell was a turnoff. It still is a bit of a turnoff, but the taste of the fruit more than makes up for it. Take this with a grain of salt; no one else I know has an issue with how jackfruit smells.

In other news, I just took some vegan spinach artichoke dip out of the oven. I followed Christie’s recipe. Yay! Time to nosh! –Melissa

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May 19 2012
7 Comments
Desserts, Snacks

Suman and Mango

One of the wonderful things about Filipino food and veganism is that a lot of Filipino sweets are vegan as-is. One vegan sweet is suman, sticky sweet rice and coconut milk that is steamed, usually in a banana leaf. Suman is a nice treat with fresh sweet mango:

We like to leave the making of suman to those who do it better than we do. We have several of this particular suman in our freezer and steam them when we want to eat them.

This particular suman was perfectly sweet. Sometimes, we dip suman in sugar or a thick cocoa. Another way to sweeten suman as you’re eating it is to dip it in latik, which is reduced coconut milk. Now that I think of it, there are probably a lot of great ways to use latik as a sweetener. I will have to experiment with that! (Sorry, I didn’t have latik this time so no photos!)

Suman and mango make a great combination: it’s a great vegan alternative to mango ice cream or dairy shakes. I actually prefer it to mango ice cream.

I love it when I get to enjoy my favorite foods without having to veganize them! –Melissa

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Apr 21 2012
6 Comments
Cooking

Tofucino: Kid-Approved!

Tocino is a really quick and easy Filipino recipe. The vegan version is even easier… and healthier and less gross. Pork is used in traditional Filipino-style tocino. It’s a perfect sweet and savory blend that has a red/pink glow from the annatto. Thankfully, the key to tocino lies more in the spices than in the meat fat/flavor, so I knew it would work well with tofu.

Only two ingredients were needed for this recipe: extra firm tofu and Mama Sita’s Tocino marinating mix. Guys, Mama Sita is Filipino food gospel. You do need a bit of oil for frying, so I guess three ingredients are needed.

After slicing and drying out my tofu, I covered it with the tocino mix and let it sit for about 10 minutes while I cut up some tomatoes.

I fried the tofu in some safflower oil until cooked.

My niece was over and was adventurous enough to try it. She liked it! “It’s kind of like eggs,” she said. She even asked for more. Thankfully, the three slices along with some rice and tomatoes were enough to fill both our tummies.

Have a great weekend! –Melissa

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Apr 17 2012
6 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Soy Curl-dereta

I decided to add a new item to my Veganized Filipino Dishes collection: Caldereta. I think of caldereta as a Filipino pot roast or beef stew of sorts. The traditional dish is made with goat meat, however, beef is usually used. In general, the meat is cooked in a tomato sauce with potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, peas, and green olives. A lot of people add liver or liver paste, or raisins; my family doesn’t. (Side note: raisins in my food? *gag*)

I was originally going to make the caldereta the usual way but with no meat, but then I remembered that I had a bag of soy curls. This is my first time making anything with (or eating) soy curls, so there was a bit of an unknown here. I’ll admit that I worried that the soy curls would ruin the whole thing, but I decided to take the risk.

Soy Curl Caldereta

1 cup soy curls
2 gloves garlic, minced
1 cup carrots, cut into chunks (or 1 cup whole baby carrots)
1 cup potatoes cut into chunks
1/2 to 1 bell pepper, sliced
1/2 cup peas
handful green olives (add as little or as many as you’d like)
1 small can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1/2 packet Mama Sita’s Caldereta Spice Mix (yeah, yeah… I’m lazy)

First, I prepped all my veggies. Then I threw some olive oil into a medium pot, browned the garlic, and then added the water over medium heat. When the water started to boil, I added the potatoes, carrots, and the seasoning and covered until it started to simmer.

I uncovered the pot and added the tomato sauce. I mixed it around a bit and then lowered the heat and covered the pot. While that was simmering, I took my cup of soy curls and rehydrated them in a bowl of water.

By the time the dish was simmering nicely, the soy curls were ready. I don’t know what I was expecting when it came to the soy curls. I knew they would be soft, but I wasn’t prepared for the smell. It was as if I had been instantly transported to a grocery store in Argyle.

After the soy curls were heated, I topped off the pot with the rest of the ingredients, covered the pot, and let it sit over low heat for about 5 minutes. You can leave over the heat for longer; I like wanted my peppers to retain some of their crunch.

Serve the dish over rice. Some things to note:

  • The Mama Sita mix contains garlic powder, onion powder, and other spices; it’s vegan.
  • This turned out very sweet. I”m not sure if it’s because of the tomato sauce, the amount of carrots I used, or what. It’s sweet.
  • Red peppers are usually used. I happened to have green in the fridge.
  • Because the traditional version uses meat, this tends to simmer for much longer with the meat, which I’m sure has a lot to do with the flavoring and the final texture of the dish. I might add some beef broth next time I make this.

This was a fun experiment! –Melissa

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