Comments on: Bunga ng Malunggay at Lechon a la Marketman

By: Connie C

Connie C — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 07:48:20 +0000

bettyQ: Happy New Year!
Must be that your black gold , your super organic fertilizer that rewarded you with clusters of eggplant. I must have a pile of it now in my other home buried under the snow blanketing the East Coast and I will miss using it for my container gardening in spring now that my abode in the metropolis can only boast of a wall garden more suited for bromeliads.

Mostly a lurker now but continue getting inspired by MM’s posts. I can see large and long malunggay pods hanging from the next door neighbor’s tree and very tempted to pick a few but don’t quite know how to prepare it. I might try to pick one and let’s see if I can peel it to get more pith than skin. With Centris Market on the other side of the highway, I don’t have to sweat for some crispy pata or lechon and try MM’s recipe featured here.

By: Rose

Rose — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 18:58:45 +0000

The sign of a good cook is being able to come up with a delectable dish from the ingredients at hand and without putting too much thought to it.

By: ling

ling — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 10:00:04 +0000

being a true blue ilocano, malunggay fruit is a favorite in any pakbet or dinengdeng dish.

By: betty q.

betty q. — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 02:59:37 +0000

no. Millet! it looks exactly like our sitao…identical twin but a bit shorter. However, it surpasses our sitao in flavour and sweetness. It is a high yielder and bears fruit way earlier than our sitao. I plant them in succession starting in late June up until late July!

But what totally impressed other gardeners here were my eggplants I planted last summer. The seeds were sent by my nephew’s former boss over there. The long eggplants were in clusters. I was told that eggplants generally are not born in clusters. These ones were and I have already quite a number of gardeners who are waiting for seedlings for next year.

By: millet

millet — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 02:18:26 +0000

bettyq, could fortex beans be our local “paayap”?

By: Gejo

Gejo — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 01:24:14 +0000

I like the bright green color of these very much, as well as the seeds. Any ideas on what to do with the tender seeds, MM?

Betty Q ! Those sound very interesting – enjoy planting! Thanks very much for the offer. I also sent an e-mail or two in the past . Maybe there was a problem with e-mail addresses? Can you e-mail again to my add, malipayonfarms@gmail.com? So I can also have your current e-mail address?

By: Betchay

Betchay — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 22:34:40 +0000

It is always sold peeled when available, in our local wet market. We have a malunggay tree in our backyard but when it bears fruit we just give them away as it really takes a special technique and patience to peel them! :)
Anyway, my mom used to cook it as a fish soup….she sauteed chopped onions, tomatoes and garlic; add rice washing; add the peeled malunggay pod strips;add fried daing(dried kabayas,etc),season with patis and let it boil a few minutes until pods are tender. Yum!

By: betty q.

betty q. — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 21:20:23 +0000

MM…side note again please for Gejo! Thank you!

hey, Gejo….I am going to order my seeds in the next few weeks. For this year, I am going to plant piment d’espelette peppers among others from Underwood Gardens. if you want to try planting them, let me know and I will include your seeds in my order. I Am also going to plant baby honeydews called Oliver’s Pearl Cluster…compact vines and baby cantaloupes called Tasty Bites. Sent you e mails before but don’t know if you received them.

By: Getter Dragon 1

Getter Dragon 1 — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 18:40:42 +0000

Echoing what Lou and Millet said. My family and I would enjoy a warm bowl of dinengdeng or monggo with malunggay (marungay) stems by scraping the pith with our teeth and discarding the fibers on the side of the plate. I would imagine that preparing them from the whole stem could be a bit of a task.

I’ve also enjoyed malunggay in a variety of South Indian dishes.

Actually if I saw through western eyes (from the Bay Area for example) “Sauteed Horseradish Tree Piths and Minced Roast Suckling Pig”…it would actually intrigue me and likely pique the interest of non-Filipino diners. Perhaps, ‘Minced Roast Suckling Pig with Sauteed Malunggay’ with a sound byte of ‘Roasted pig meat and skin wok crisped with a gentle sautee of pods from the Malungay or Horse Radish Tree’. It might work :)

By: betty q.

betty q. — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 16:52:33 +0000

MM…next time, try deep frying the cut malunggay pods first on high heat till they get a bit browned? It will take ony a few minutes. Then drain thoroughly and add to sautéed garlic, onions, tomatoes and lechon. I do the deep frying first on any vegetable added to ginisa…chunks of sayote, zucchini, trombocino, carrots or eggplants ….lalo na sitao. It takes on a slightly smoky undertone. I am a huge fan of our Fortex beans which is the shorter version of the sitao but a lot sweeter.