It’s been THAT kind of week. And for me, comfort food is the easy, temporary palliative for the blahs. And there are few dishes more comforting for many Filipinos than fried dried fish. In the tropics, and among large archipelagos, dried fish is one of the most basic and reliable sources of protein. It is simple to make, relies on readily available ingredients such as freshly caught fish and salt from the sea, and only requires a day or two of hot sun and a gentle breeze to manufacture. Then it can keeps for months on end. You have to admit, it can sound and smell a bit bizarre. You cut open a nice fish and remove its guts, then cover it with lots of salt, leave it outdoors to slightly decay and dry out, and occasionally rely on an errant maggot or two to help the decaying process and flavor enhancement. The end product possesses one of the most pungent food smells known to man, which is magnified to “code 9 level” when the fish is fried. :) But if you grew up with it, you probably love dried fish like I do. And besides, ever wonder how you would describe the manufacture of blue cheese? Heehee. So onto the dish…

I took several medium sized dried daing na lapu-lapu or dried grouper and soaked it in water for roughly 30 minutes to remove the excess salt. If you don’t soak this, you risk your dish being too salty, if you oversoak it, the dish will be a bit bland. So gauge your personal salt quotient and soak accordingly. Remove from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Heat up a pan with vegetable oil and fry the fish until cooked but still a bit moist, not the seriously crisp some folks are wont to do with dried fish. I do this outdoors if possible, so that the smell dissipates quickly. We have Australian neighbors and I can only imagine what they are thinking when they get a whiff of this…

Once the fish has cooled enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and shred it into small pieces. Set this aside. Chop up some garlic. I chopped up some scallions because we had it. I added in 3 finely sliced siling mahaba or mild finger chilies, also because we had it, though it barely added spice to the dish. Lightly beat a few eggs in a bowl. And make sure your rice is cooled for several hours after cooking to ensure that it is on the drier side…

Heat up a large wok or saute pan, add some vegetable oil, then finely minced garlic and a few seconds later the shredded dried fish. Add the white parts of the scallions and the sliced chilies and saute for a few seconds more.

Add in the rice and mix well until the dried fish and rice are well blended. This will take a few minutes to heat up all of the rice.

Then add the eggs and stir some more. Some freshly ground pepper might be nice and taste for saltiness so you can adjust with some added salt if necessary.

Serve with smashed tomatoes and chili vinegar on the side and eat happily. :) Here’s a previous post on a very similar take on this dish. Nasi goreng may be more flavorful. Crab fried rice more extravagant. Chorizo fried rice more cholesterol laden. Fried Rice with Bettyq’s XO sauce is also fabulous. But Daing Fried Rice is still one of my favorite comfort foods.

Photos by AT.

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In some parts of the country, steamed rice with coconut and sugar isn’t referred to as suman, but rather puto or malagkit. I have featured two such concoctions before, one from an office merienda in Cebu, another made by one of crew, Leny, the expert in simple provincial kakanins and the resident floral manager. Click on the links to previous posts for more background if you are curious. I also recalled a purple biko made with kalamansi rind and I was toying with potential variations that might make sense. So out came some wonderful purple pirurtong sticky rice that I found a the weekend markets, some freshly squeezed coconut milk, some fresh ginger, crystalized ginger and granulated sugar. The resulting puto pirurutong was EXCELLENT.

First we started with 1 kilo of pirurutong or purple sticky rice. We soaked this for 2-3 hours until the grains had absorbed some of the water. Purple rice can be incredibly hard, and takes much longer to cook than white sticky rice, so the soaking process is essential, in my opinion.

I had a beautiful whole piece of crystalized ginger from a recent trip to Vietnam, so I took about 3 inches worth of it and blitzed it with some sugar until it was a fine ginger/sugar. Add some finely chopped pieces for some texture and bite. This addition to the puto pirurutong was inspired, and ultimately, delicious.

Okay, to make. Take the soaked rice and drain, then put in a steamer with lots of water in the lower pot and add several large slices of fresh ginger to the water so that the rice receives a fragrant ginger steam bath and the flavor of ginger infuses the rice for some 25-30 minutes until partially cooked. The pirurutong will still be a little firm at this point.

Meanwhile squeeze out some 3 and 1/2 cups of coconut cream and reduce this over medium heat for say 10 minutes until slightly thickened, then add 3/4 cup white sugar and stir until dissolved and add 1 teaspoon of kosher or other rock salt (not iodized table salt). Then in a large bowl, mix the rice that has been steamed for 30 minutes with the coconut milk mixture. The hot rice will absorb the coconut milk and it should look a bit like a purple risotto.

Mix in the crystalized giner and sugar and return to the steamer and cook for another 50-65 minutes. The variation in time is dependent on the size of your steamer, the holes in the steamer, and the strength of the flame. Take it off when it is firm but clearly cooked through; taste it before removing from the heat. You need to move the rice around a bit, or poke holes in the mass of rice to ensure that the steam is making it through… In simple provincial style, this is apportioned to squares of banana leaves and wrapped up in a conical shape. Serve warm or after it has cooled.

A little goes a long way. The rice is fragrant and substantial on its own, but paired with rich coconut cream and the sweetness combined with flavor and slight heat of ginger, this was a definite winner. I can only have a few spoons full of this heavenly concoction at a time, but whether on its own, or with a beautiful slice of ripe mango, this was incredibly satisfying comfort food. To jazz it up a bit, serve with some crystalized ginger sugar sprinkled on top.

It looks good, has a nice fragrance and tastes great. Couldn’t have hoped for much more. :)

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Pinipig is actually immature glutinous rice that is harvested and pounded into what looks more like light green flakes. The flakes are moist and redolent with a fragrance that is simply unique. They are almost the “essence” of rice. These flakes can be eaten raw but I think they are even better when toasted and used as a topping to an extravagant halo-halo (iced fruit dessert) or other traditional filipino dessert. Some restaurants used to replace pinipig with the more readily available corn flakes – yikes!

At the market recently, I picked up several hands full of fresh pinipig for just P30. Toasted up they retained their bright green (almost chartreuse) color yet were extremely crisp. They can also be fried but turn a light brown. As always, I often find that the original is hard to beat. Give me fresh pinipig any day over puffed rice or corn flakes, thanks.

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