Our best pinakbet recipe combines a delicate mix of vegetables that provides a balance to bagoong isda, plus chicharon for crunch.
Pinakbet, a mixed vegetable stew seasoned with bagoong, can be made with whatever vegetables you have on hand. But to make our best-ever pinakbet, we have some tried-and-tested tips for a balanced, well-textured dish.
Brine ampalaya: Add ampalaya, 2 cups water, and 3 teaspoons of salt to a bowl. Soak ampalaya for at least 10 minutes.
Cook pork and aromatics: Add oil to a deep pan or pot over medium heat. Add pork belly. Cook, stirring frequently, until browned and some of its fat has rendered out. Remove pork from the pan and set aside. Add shallots, garlic, and ginger to the same pan and cook until slightly aromatic, about 30 seconds.
Cook vegetables: Reduce heat to medium-low. Add tomatoes and cook until it releases its juices. Add bagoong isda, ampalaya, eggplant, kamote, and water. Cover the pot and cook for 5–8 minutes. Without stirring, add the sigarilyas, okra, and string beans. Cover the pot again and cook for another 3–5 minutes.
Finish: Add squash blossoms and season with pepper. Gently mix in cooked pork belly and 1 cup chicharon. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with ½ cup crushed chicharon.
Pinakbet comes from Ilocano pinakebbet, meaning shriveled or shrunken. When cooking pinakbet, the vegetables are stewed until they shrink and dry up.
If you don't like the bitterness, give round ampalaya a chance—they taste less bitter than the big ones. This recipe begins by brining the ampalaya, which helps eliminate the bitterness further.
But if you really don't like ampalaya, you can leave them out!
Sibuyas Tagalog (or lasona) = shallots. Sibuyas Tagalog are smaller in size compared to Western and European shallots, but both have the same papery, pink-purple peel.
Due to their size, sibuyas Tagalog can troublesome to peel. But their fresh, mellow flavor makes the hard work worth it. Get in the zone while preparing them—maybe play some music to deal with the tedium!
You can use white/yellow onions for a similar mellow flavor.
You can use fresh alamang from the market.
In a pinch, use your favorite bagoong to taste. Bagoong guisado tends to have a stronger flavor than bagoong isda, so add it in small amounts while cooking.
Round baby eggplants are fatter, stubbier, and more spherical in shape than your common long eggplants.
While both eggplants taste the same, round ones lack the itchy mouthfeel long eggplants tend to have.
