World Eating Challenge - Filipino Food

In my experience with cooking, we all have our wins and losses. I remember when I first started cooking - almost any new things I tried would end in disaster. I had friends who made fun of me for a year in high school because I messed up Rice a Roni. As I've watched more cooking shows and gained more experience, a lot of experiments turn out really well... but my experience with the Paleo Filipino food really fell back into the fail category so this is really a big post on things not to try.

Chicken Adobo

Actually, this one turned out ok so let's start with the better of the two dishes. Chicken Adobo is not actually something I'm very familiar with. I know it's a popular Filipino dish though so it seemed like a good thing to make for this challenge. For reference, here is the recipe I used. 

The first step in chicken adobo was to sear my chicken. I made sure to season it first even though that wasn't part of the recipe. I really believe meats absorb flavor better when you season it raw and I stand b that decision.

Once the chicken thighs were brown, I added in the braising liquid. This was 1/3 soy sauce (not paleo but I used a gluten free version called Tamari. Coconut aminos are also a good alternative that are actually paleo.), 1/3 balsamic vinegar, and 1/3 apple cider vinegar along with bay leaves and black pepper. I let this all simmer on low for about 20 minutes. 

The chicken ended up turning a lovely brown and had good flavor although very acidic from all that vinegar. The recipe suggested the chicken have skin and mine didn't. I think that would have helped cut the acid a lot so I would definitely recommend trying it that way. I served it with quinoa (instead of rice), a green salad, and some lumpia. Speaking of the latter....

Paleo Lumpia

Are you ready for this disaster?

I found a lot of different recipes for the lumpia so I decided to go with the simplest. I knew what I wanted to do for the wrapper so this was mostly about getting a good filling. I used ground pork, an egg, and a variety of seasonings - salt, pepper, ginger, garlic. 

The wrappers were Paleo wraps which are coconut based. I really liked they way they worked for my spring rolls so I decided to try them again. 

In terms of wrapping them, the lumpia turned out great. It was really easy to fill and roll them up to the right size. I used some egg to keep it all together and that worked really well. 

Next, I fried them in avocado oil (my favorite!). This was where things started going south. I knew I'd have to fry then for a bit to make sure the pork was cooked. I had a lot of trouble figuring out how long that was and also making sure the outsides got crispy but not burnt. 

...clearly I failed at that. My lumpia turned out pretty pathetic. Eaten fresh, they weren't too bad. They definitely weren't crispy but the flavor was decent. I served them with the same with chili paste and honey dipping sauce that I made for the Thai cooking challenge. 

As leftovers, I tried to toast them to get that crispiness I didn't get from frying. Double fail. They just looked more burny and the moisture was completely zapped from them.

All in all, this challenge didn't go so well. I have an idea for a quick dish to try soon so look out for a new and hopefully more successful post soon.