Pancit palabok
This was one of the first recipes my lola taught me. We pounded shrimp heads, chopped garlic and onions, ground the chicharon, cooked all the seafood, flaked the tinapa...with the instant mixes I guess the only thing different is the elimination of the messy shrimp head pounding,soaking in hot water and straining. The thickener(cornstarch) and coloring(annatto,atsuete) are all in the packet as well. I hope this doesn't mean cooks in the Philippines don't do the traditional method anymore but it sure helps to have our favorite Mama on hand, especially when sometimes the only shrimp you can get are peeled, deveined and headless.
For the sauce, stir fry garlic and onions, squeeze some shrimp roe from the heads, and 1/4 cup of flaked tinapang bangus(smoked milkfish); 2 tbsps each of crab paste in soya oil (bottled, from Thailand) and "taba ng talangka" (bottled, from "back home"). Add the dissolved Mama Sita mix in 2 1/2 cups water and simmer a few minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
For the noodles we used a thick dried rice vermicelli. We were going to use fresh, but the ones we got were too chewy. Had to toss it, quite inedible.
For tonight's dinner I had as the "palabok" (embellishments?): frozen New Zealand mussels(thawed & blanched), smoked oysters (Geisha brand, rinsed), blanched shrimp, flaked tinapa, peeled chopped limes (no kamias here *sigh* ), cilantro, spring onions, finely ground chicharon and hard boiled quail eggs.
If you like squid, add thinly sliced adobong pusit. Gilding the lily,ha.
