Pinakbet

I bought some long string beans at the Market Night last night so I thought I'd make pinakbet (filipino dish) out of it. I made it about a couple weeks ago for my Aunt and Uncle from Canada when they came over for dinner. It turned out yummy. Unfortunately, this batch didn't turn out as great ... used pork instead of shrimp, left out bitter melon 'cause I don't like the taste, and didn't put enough bagoong. Leaving out an ingredient or two sure makes a difference in the taste! Well, now I know! Part of cooking is experimenting. Anyway, the following recipe will be for the good batch I made so just imagine the picture with shrimp, bitter melon, and more bagoong.

Pinakbet

Ingredients: Prep time: 10mins Cooking time: 40mins
*3 Tbs of oil
*3-4 cloves of minced garlic
*1/2 diced onion
*2 thumb thick sliced ginger root
*1 chopped tomato
*water
*handful of fresh small shrimps peeled and deveined
*1-2 Tbs of bagoong alamang (salted shrimp fry)
*1 small calabasas (squash family; looks like a small dark green pumpkin)
*1-2 bitter melons (cut in half lengthwise, remove seeds then chop to about 1 1/2 in)
*1 rubberbanded long string beans
*2 medium sized japanese eggplants (same cut as bitter melons but no seeds to remove)

Directions:
In wok continuously saute-ing: heat oil and brown garlic. Add onion, ginger root, and tomato. Let them sweat a little then add water (start with 1/4C) and uncooked shrimps. When shrimps are nicely pink, stir in bagoong and calabasas and simmer until half cooked (maybe 10mins). Then stir in bitter melons and string beans and continue to simmer again until those are half done (add water if necessary to keep vegetables moist). Finally stir in the eggplants and simmer until soft --be careful, they will get awefully soggy if cooked too long (still edible but not very pleasing to the eye). Serve with rice and enjoy! Shown below in rice bowl style.

Tip: During cooking, taste and add more water if it's too salty or add more bagoong if it's bland.