Hola! I woke up to the sound of soft rain dripping outside my room. It's calming in a way, isn't it? Well. it's been raining since last night here in Cebu and that's perfectly understandable. Summer's gone just like that! 😌 Although you might have heard that it's always summer in the Philippines, it's undeniable that at some point, staying dry and cozy at home with a hot meal on one hand and a hot chocolate or coffee on the other is the best way to spend some days.
I'm here today to bring just that for everyone: a go-to meal for days when the sun doesn't feel like coming out of its dungeon. If you're lying like dead meat in your bed at 10 am, the smell of this dish might just give you the energy you need to stand up and keep your flow for the rest of the day.
Enough blabbering, Pat! Let's just cook! Yeah, I heard you! 😅
Batchoy all the way!
Batchoy Tagalog, La Paz Batchoy, and a lot more; that's always the great side of cooking, they're a lot of versions you can choose from. There are even Batsui Kapampangan and Bisaya versions. But if there's one thing that all of these have in common, they're best served hot, and by that, I mean boiling hot! Just how we'd like our food on rainy days, right? 😋
Okay, I'm not giving you a history class about this classic dish. What I do know tho is that it originated in La Paz in the City of Iloilo (Western Visayas). There were a number of versions of this dish's recipe (even the famous noodle brand Lucky Me and other instant noodle brand offers batchoy-flavored noodle), but one that struck me was the one in La Paz Public Market. It's just a medium-sized stall inside the public market that offers by far the most exotic and authentic batchoy dish I've tasted in my life. I had the chance to try it during one of my fieldwork in Iloilo. I've traveled to Iloilo in the past, in fact, it's my favorite city because it's more livable than Cebu City.
The authentic La Paz Batchoy is one dish to die for. It has a thick noodle as a base with strips of pork, pork intestines, pork liver, fried crispy garlic, fried crispy onions, crushed chicharon, raw egg, and a dash of spring onion to seal the perfect soup bowl. But the one I'm sharing today is a bit simplified. In the end, I just wanted a hot soup bowl!
Ingredients:
- Pork bones/knuckles, roasted
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 small red onions, quartered or minced
- 5 liters water
- 4 cloves garlic, cut in half
- 1 tsp peppercorn
- 500g pork meat (lean part only)
- 200g pork liver
- 1 tsps shrimp paste
- 2/3 cup fish sauce
- 1 tbsp rock salt
- 1 pack miki noodles
- 1/8 cup oil
Toppings:
- Spring onion
- Fresh egg
- Roasted garlic
- Crushed chicharon
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Cooking instruction
Before we proceed, did you notice my new ingredient bowls? They're lovely, right? Lol. 😅 I got them on time for this new recipe. Expect to see more of them soon! Okay, let's cook now!🍜👩🍳
1.In a large pot (large enough to contain 7L volume of liquid), add oil, a little garlic (not all), all onions, and pork knuckles. Saute until pork knuckles are golden brown or roasted.
2.Add 3L water into the pot and bring to boil in slow heat. Add the remaining garlic and peppercorn. The remaining 2L will be added later. After an hour, add the pork and pork liver. Take out the pork liver after 30 minutes and the pork after 45 minutes to 1 hour. Based on the recipe I'm following, making the broth will take roughly 4 hours. I didn't have 4 hours to create the best broth tho. I shortcut it to about 2 hours.
3.After taking the pork liver and pork out of the boiling broth, set aside and slice into small strips when cool enough to hold. While doing all these, continue boiling the broth still in slow to medium heat. Do not remove the knuckles. By this time, add the remaining 2L water, fish sauce, shrimp paste and bring to boil once again.
4.Now it's time to cook the fresh miki. Ideally, the fresh miki will be cooked in the boiling hot broth once the broth will be poured inside the serving bowls, but to make sure we don't undercook the fresh miki, we'll half cook it in the broth while it's still on the pot. 30 seconds minimum and 1 minute max should cook the miki. Do not overcook!
5.Arrange the cooked miki in a bowl, preferably a small bowl (single serve). Add strips of pork, liver, crunched chicharon, spring onions and fresh egg.
6.Before pouring in boiling broth, taste and add salt as needed. Pour the broth over the bowl with miki and garnish with crispy garlic.
7.Remember, best when served as hot as it could be!
There you go! If you're feeling a little cold today, you can always try this recipe at home. If you want to level up this recipe, you may add pork intestines! Here are some shots of the finished product. Enjoy! 😋
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