After a month of settling down [and eating out!] in Manila, it was time to head back to Santiago City, my birthplace and hometown in Isabela province, some 300-odd kilometers north of Manila.

Here, eating out has not been a family custom. Growing up as a kid, I still remember that all meals would be home-cooked by my mother, father or grandmother whenever possible. Takeaways from the then-popular restaurants serving “a la home-cooked” dishes, would be an alternative on certain occasions, i.e. when there was no one else at home to cook or simply, when there was not a thing to be cooked!

This homecoming was going to be fun! And as always, Manong M [ my moniker at home --- manong, which means elder or big brother in the Ilocano dialect ], would always be consulted on all meals to be cooked and served! Perfect timing too, I would say . . . I’d have things to write about in my blog!

Since I am still in a vacation mode, I ruled out cooking anything myself until I get the feel of it. So, I toyed with the idea of coming up with a series of my favourite native dishes as cooked by none other than my mother, and call the series “Luto ni Nanay” [ Mom's Cooking ] . . .

For the first dish and entry, here’s my all-time favourite Pinakbet . . .

The Ilocos region, where several provinces share similar customs, language and food, has delicacies made up of rice and vegetables derived basically from the richness of their mountainous dry land. Most of their specialties are seasoned with fermented fish sauce.

The region is famous for its Pinakbet. Pinakbet is unmistakably an Ilocano dish. It is the signature dish of the northern Ilocos region, a dry harsh area where people have to make do with what they can grow on land. Pinakbet or pakbet is an Iloco word [ contracted from pinakebbet ] which means shrunken or shriveled.

The most basic vegetables are ampalaya or amorgozo [ bittergourd or bittermelon, round native ones preferred ], talong [ eggplant ], camatis [ tomatoes ], okra [ ladies’ fingers ], ginger and/or green chilies are optional. As the name denotes, the vegetables are stewed [ usually in a clay or earthen pot called banga or palayok ] without oil and cooked until almost dry, shrunken and shriveled. Mother says, the original Ilocano pinakbet uses only bagoong or bugguong [ anchovy paste ] which normally is of the monamon variety.

Other vegetables like squash, malunggay, patani or lima beans are also optional, dependent on what is readily available. The way this dish is prepared varies — some parts of Ilocos, which are closer to the sea, pinakbet is topped with grilled fish. Other parts would top it with bagnet [ dried pork belly ], another interesting dish – deep fried until skin turns crispy, usually with “kbl”kamatis, bagoong, lasuna when served solely.

Let us now take a closer look at my mother’s version . . . BTW, mother is an Ilocano, from Nueva Vizcaya province . . .

PINAKBET

Ingredients:

Above photo, clockwise from bottom left: native cherry tomatoes, camote [ sweet potato ], talong [ eggplant ], himbabau, patani [ lima beans ], okra [ ladies’ fingers ], ampalaya or amorgozo [ bittergourd ]. Not in the photo is the malunggay fruit and sitaw [ yard-long green beans or stringbeans ] which I forgot to include.

Those native cherry tomatoes are organically grown by my mother in her garden. She discovered this variety in my aunt’s place in nearby Quirino province. This particular tomato plant grows and crawls like a vine and produces bunches [ like grapes ] of tomatoes no bigger than 10 millimeters in diameter.

The himbabau [ top right corner of photo ], probably would be the most unusual vegetable in this dish. Now, I need to do some research on this . . . Can’t tell much at this point . . .

Method:

Arrange vegetables and the rest of the ingredients in a clay pot, in layers according to the following order from the bottom of the pot up . . .

First layer: sliced tomatoes, bagoong extract, ampalaya, eggplant, sweet potato, and patani.

Second layer: sitaw [ string beans ], okra [ ladies’ fingers ], malunggay, himbabau, and finally topped with crushed garlic.

Cover pot and cook until vegetables are done — dried up and shriveled. Do not stir vegetables during the cooking process. Instead, shake the pot slightly to toss or flip the vegetables. Apparently, this prevents the ampalaya from getting bitter.

Nanay’s [ mother's ] version of pinakbet — tossed and ready to be served, with the himbabau and malunggay fruit . . .

Happy Mother’s Day!