Dinengdeng

Featured photo by Mommy Shelette.

Dinengdeng is a famous Ilocano vegetable dish, and Filipina heroine Gabriel Silang, who is Ilocana, is thought to have cooked it as well.

According to one story, Gabriela was on her way to bringing her friends some dinengdeng she had cooked when she came across a shivering old man. In her kindness, Gabriela gave the man her shawl, and even the hot newly cooked dinengdeng she was carrying.

Her dinengdeng is said to have had the following ingredients: kamote (sweet potatoes), bagoong alamang, talong (eggplant), saluyot leaves, katuray flowers, malunggay leaves, ampalaya leaves, and halaan (clams).

Boil the sweet potatoes and add in the bagoong when the kamote are nearly cooked.

Add the eggplant and saluyot leaves first, then after the sauce has thickened, add the katuray flowers, malunggay leaves and ampalaya leaves.

For flavor, add the shellfish. Once the soup boils, serve immediately.

Instead of clams, many Filipino cooks use whatever leftover fried fish there is, such as tilapia, bangus (milkfish), or galunggong (roundscad). The vegetables can include eggplant, okra, string beans, squash, and tomatoes.

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