How to Cook Tinuktok; Easy Shrimp Recipe from Bicol, Philippines

Tinuktok (Tinuktuk) as prepared in Iriga, a Bicol province.

This dish is called Tinuktuk in Bicol.

In the Bicol Region in the Philippines, one can expect food to have leaves of the gabi (taro) plant, be spiced with chili, and infused with coconut milk. Tinuktok or tinuktuk, a native food of the region, uses these basic ingredients, which makes it characteristically Bicolano.

Tinuktok is what is known as pinangat in the Tagalog part of Luzon island. Tinuktok may use specific seafood ingredients like shrimp, fish, crab, or even non-seafood meat like beef, pork, and chicken. Shrimp recipes for tinuktok are very popular. Any of these may be used, but they must first be mixed with minced young coconut meat before being wrapped in gabi leaves and cooked in boiling water with coconut milk, called gata in Tagalog. The ideal recipe shrimp tinuktok is usually served spicy, but some people may prefer the non-spicy version.

Watch and listen to how tinuktok is cooked in the Philippines

Ingredients

• Your choice of shrimp, fish, crab, or a favorite meat (raw; minced)
• Coconut Milk
• Gabi (taro) leaves big enough to use as wrapper
• Minced young coconut meat
• Salt
• Pepper corns
• Fish sauce
• Red chilli
• Grass strings for tying

Procedure
Harvest your taro leaves. Ideally, they should be fresh, but if you do not have access to a taro plant, you can buy dried leaves from a Filipino store, which should have them dried. Clean the leaves before you use them. Prepare the easy shrimp recipe to be wrapped inside the taro leaves. Place three spoonfuls in the middle of a leaf. Add fish sauce or salt and pepper to taste. Wrap the taro leaf around the meat patty tightly. Use grass string to tie the preparation before cooking. To help identify the spicy wraps from the non-spicy wraps, tinuktok cooks usually tie the leaves of the spicy ones using two knots. Each shrimp recipe tinuktok should look like a little pillow.

Recipe Cream Dory Fish Sinigang with Lemon (Bicol Iriga Style)

Make as many  of these little pillows as you like. When you have enough, prepare water that's been mixed with coconut milk. The thicker it is (with more coconut milk), the more coconut flavor will be absorbed by the tinuktok. Pour this mixture into a deep pan placed over a low flame or heat source. Put your tinuktok in the water. Make sure they are submerged, but it should only be shallow. Wait until it comes to a boil. Reduce the liquid a bit until the tinuktok dish is done. You can add some color to the tinuktok by adding some chili when you plate. To really enjoy this wonderful recipe shrimp tinuktok (or any of it's seafood, beef, pork, or chicken variants), you must eat it with hot white rice.

Memories of Philippine Kitchens

Singarore-Style Nasi Lemak Catches On in The Philippines

Nasi Lemak is a popular dish in Singapore. It's has rice cooked in coconut cream and served with crunchy peanuts, fine dilis (small and thin dried fish), thin slices of cucumber, a layer of scrambled egg, and slightly salty chili sauce akin to local bagoong.

In the Philippines, a local customer who has never seen or eaten Nasi Lemak before would eat it the way rice meals are typically eaten in the country - and that is to take a spoonful of rice and add a bit of side dish, or ulam, to it before taking a bite. That's okay... if you're not eating Nasi Lemak! There is a proper way to eat Nasi Lemak and if you don't know how to eat it, you miss the whole point of the dish. So, how do you eat Nasi Lemak?

Nasi Lemak is really a feast for the taste buds. The ingredients are designed for different flavors and textures to be savored and experienced in the mouth. That is why it's customary to mix everything together first before taking the first spoonful (small pic; left)! If you eat Nasi Lemak any other way, you will not get to experience how all the ingredients that go with it come together for that delightful and satisfying experience that's not only a treat for weight-watcher's but is also a filling meal in spite of the seemingly meager treatment of the dish.

You can get to experience the Nasi Lemak of Singapore at the Singapore Chicken Rice restaurant at the Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City. The proprietress and cook are very accommodating and personal in their approach to management and almost every customer is given an experience to remember when they are guided by the owners and management on how to get the most of eating Singaporean dishes like Nasi Lemak. A little chat on how to eat Nasi Lemak goes a long way and being entertained by the restaurant management is something that you don't get very often in the Philippines.

UPDATE: Singapore Chicken Rice restaurant at The Araneta Center in Cubao has closed down.

Singapore Coconut Rice (Nasi Lemak) - [Pack of 6 Units]