Pakbet

Pakbet or Pinakbet is one of my favorite dish and  a very popular  Ilocano dish among Filipinos. It is made up of  sauteed or boiled mixed vegetables seasoned with bagoong. Most of the recipe calls for pork but I like it with shrimp too.I love to cook this because it is  easy to prepare  and we can cook it however we want it but the taste is still good probably because of the fermented fish (bagoong isda) or shrimp paste. My mom usually serves it with fried fish (galunggong) and a lot of rice.

In the Middle East pork is not allowed (haram) so for this this recipe  I used shrimp.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kilo shrimps
• 2 Amapalya (bitter melons) sliced to bite size pieces
• 2 eggplants, sliced to bite size pieces
• 5 pieces of okra, cut in two
• 1 cup malunggay fruit, pared and cut into 3 inches long
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onions, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 4 tablespoons bagoong isda
• 3 tablespoons of oil
• 1 1/2 cup warm water
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a sauce pan, heat oil. Add garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes.
2. Mix bagoong isda with warm water. Add to sauteed ingredients. Mix well. Bring to a boil
3. Add in all the vegetables and cook until the vegetables are half done.
4. Add the shrimps. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 
5. Turn off fire when shrimps turned red/orange.
6. Serve hot with plain rice.