My tatay is Ilonggo but he his now based in Manila. We grew up eating some of his native Ilonggo dishes especially on Sunday. One of his favorite dish to cook is batchoy. This is different from La Paz Batchoy which is a noodle dish. This batchoy dish is more of a viand. It has this thin, hair like noodle which we called misua. This recipe is entirely different from La Paz Batchoy.
This batchoy is a soup viand dish which we usually paired with rice. It has pork meat and pork liver. The soup has gingerly flavor and so hearty, and best serve when warm. Before, my tatay adds pork blood into this dish but since my sister does not want pork blood we usually left it out. The gingerly flavor makes this dish really good. The ginger compliments the flavor of the liver and it gave this dish a warm and nice spicy flavor.
The ginger is usually sliced into thin strips but I prefer it grated. By grating the ginger, it releases more flavor and I don’t have to remove it when I’m eating it with rice. Instead of garnishing this dish with Chinese parsley, I sauteed it together with the garlic and onion to make it more flavorful.
How do you clean the liver? How do you remove its inherent bloody smell? What my mom taught me was to rub it with salt to remove the blood. Then, when you sliced it into strips, wash it with salt and vinegar. The vinegar removes the bloody smell of the liver which sometimes makes the soup taste less appealing. Then, you wash it thoroughly until the water runs clean. Drain it and set it aside. You can also use this cleaning technique to clean your fish, beef, chicken and pork.
Ingredients |
|
| 4 Tablespoons | Olive Oil |
| 4 Tablespoons | Grated Ginger |
| 1 head | Garlic, minced |
| 1 bulb | Onion, chopped |
| 1/4 cup | Chopped Chinese Parsley |
| 1/2 kilo | Pork Liver, sliced to 1/2 x 3 inches |
| 1 kilo | Pork Loin, sliced to 1/2 x 3 inches |
| 1 piece | Beef Bouillon Cube |
| 10 cups | Water |
| 150 grams | Misua |
| Black Pepper to Taste | |
| Fish Sauce to Taste | |
| Chopped Scallions to garnish |
Procedure
Add olive oil in a deep pan together with the ginger. By doing so, the ginger slowly releases its flavor while the olive oil is heating.
Add garlic, onion and Chinese parsley. Saute until the onion turns translucent. I know that almost all cooks and chefs usually saute the onion first to avoid the garlic from burning but I grew up sauteing the garlic first before the onion. Besides, I never burnt my garlic using this method.
Add pork liver and pork loin. Season with black pepper and fish sauce. Saute until golden brown.
Add bouillon cube and water. Boil and simmer until the pork loin is tender. Season again with black pepper and fish sauce according to your preference.
Add the misua noodle and simmer for another three minutes.
Garnish with chopped scallion and serve with rice.
Download the recipe below.
