Recipe #12: Ginataang Alimasag - Remembering 4th grade

My favorite among my grade school years is grade 4. During this time, lolo Iking ang lola Chicha from Zamboanga spent long months at our home in Lucena. They were attending to their immigration papers then. Since it would be costly to fly to and from Mindanao each time the US embassy needs them, it was a wise choice to stay in Lucena instead. During their stay, our dinner table was a smorgasbord ...always. I mean it. There was never a dull moment for my palate. My mama frequently cooked seafood for my grandparents then. So, there'd be inihaw or ginataang seafood, vegetables on the side, my uber favorite appetizer mangga at bagoong, and then an equally appetizing sawsawan, patis-mansi with sili, and dulce, havenly ripe mangoes for dessert. Yum!!! I loved the fact that food was always plentiful when my grandparents were around. I hated though, the fact that a lot of food is directly proportional to the number of dishes that need to be washed. And little dishwasher me was always left in the kitchen, past my bedtime, to discard the evidence of another sumptuous meal.

I developed my fondness of gata and bagoong during this period. I love how coconut milk and shrimp paste are a perfect pair. They are like the yin and yang of Filipino food. Gata in viands is imperfect without bagoong, and vice versa. These two ingredients are exactly what we will use in today's recipe

You'll need:

alimasag
gata
bagoong
garlic and onions
salt and pepper
squash
string beans
patis

How to:
Saute the garlic and Onions in a hot pan
Add about 3 spoonfuls of bagoong for 1/2 kilo of alimasag - I prefer Barrio Fiesta Regular Bagoong
add about 2 globs of patis
add in about 1 cup of coconut milk - unang piga
simmer for about 2 minutes.
Add the crabs

cook on low heat for about 10 minutes
Add about a quarter of a whole squash, peeled and chopped
cook for another 5 minutes
add the chopped string beans and cook for 2 minutes
adjust taste with salt and pepper

Serve.

Kain na!

My grandparents are now US citizens and are living a happy life. When I miss them, all i'd have to do is cook a pot of this colorful seafood dish, and it's as if they're at the dinner table, eating with their hands and telling stories of WWII.

Who says you have to spend for a great meal? This dish costs P280.00 all in and can feed 4 hungry people. So get your cooking gear out and start the fire.

Your hot cook,
Hahan