Monday, May 25, 2015

Adobong "Siling Duwag" with Bagnet - featuring no heat sili from Ilocos


Ilocos is a cornucopia of  traditional local vegetables -- small round eggplants for pinakbet,   
big green eggplants (perfect for grilling), native less-bitter ampalaya, curly string beans called alucon and my absolute favourite  -- the no-heat, no-spice slender green chilies  also known as "siling duwag".  On this last trip to Ilocos, I found some in the market to take home.



I included most of the "siling duwag" in my pinakbet but kept some in reserve to make another dish, where it would be the star.


 Because it has absolutely no heat but has even a faint taste of a pimiento pepper, these chilies make great adobo.  Since I had a lot of bagnet, I decided to slice up a chunk to make a one dish siling adobo meal.  
All the main ingredients for this adobo were sourced from Ilocos -- the sili from Vigan, the bagnet and suka (vinegar) from  Laoag and  the garlic and shallots from Pinili.


First, remove the stems from the chilies.


Then sauté the garlic and shallots.



Stir fry the sili and let it cook till soft -- we are not going for crisp adobo here.


Once the sili has softened, add the bagnet, the soy sauce and suka and a piece of laurel.
Let simmer until suka is cooked through. Cook just as you would your regular adobo.


And here is my siling adobo with bagnet!  It can be made completely vegetarian, just leave out the pork.   It will work well as a one dish meal or as a side dish for fried fish.
It was a delicious souvenir of our North Road Trip!

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