Bicol Express Recipe - Bicol Region is popularly known in the Philippines because of its spicy delicacies.
But why is this spicy dish called Bicol Express? Isn’t it that we usually thought of express as fast and think of cars and vehicles? Exactly.
Because Bicol Express is a dish named after the passenger train service from Manila to Bicol Region. We thought that because of its first name “Bicol”, it already originated in Bicol.
It actually originated in Malate, Manila wherein the inventor spent most of her time in Bicol and learned the spicy cuisine of the province.
There are other variants of chili that you can use when cooking Bicol Express. You can use the Philippine bird’s eye pepper or siling labuyo, Korean pepper, Jalapeño or use the Thai chili as substitute for the long chili pepper.
Whew! That’s so spicy. Just thinking about those hot, chili pepper makes me sweat already. Maybe I’m one those people who loves spicy but not so spicy dishes.
So, what do we do? How can we lessen the chilliness of this dish? Try soaking the chilies in a salted water for 30 minutes then rinse. And there you go, lesser chili taste.
But there are still some other people, who really loves the spicy taste of Bicol Express they won’t even try to lessen the chilliness of the pepper.
When we are talking about spicy foods, how do we eat them? Slowly so we can really enjoy the taste? Or eat it fast so we won’t burn our tongue?
The point why they call this dish, Bicol Express, is that we should eat it fast because of its spiciness and hotness. The people compared it to the speed of the trains from Manila to Bicol – fast.
So be careful when you are eating Bicol Express, you should eat it with rice and water beside you, remember- it’s hot, it’s spicy so, eat it fast!
Bicol Express Recipe nowadays has already been cooked in many different ways. Food lovers tried to add some more vegetables on it and other spices.
But one thing that they can’t remove or alter in Bicol Express is its main characteristic-its spiciness. They make sure that the saltiness of the dish is balance with its spiciness.
They add other ingredients to make it more delicious but still, Bicol Express should and must be SPICY.
Recipe
Bicol Express Recipe
Ingredients
- 300 g pork
- 200 ml coconut milk
- 1 medium onion
- 3 pcs red chili
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Heat a pan in medium fire.
- Add some cooking oil.
- Sauté the garlic and the onion.
- Add the pork and cook to 5-7 minutes until the meat turns light brown.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour the coconut milk and stir.
- Simmer until the meat becomes tender.
- Stir occasionally to prevent the coconut oil from over cooking.
- Add the chili's and simmer for 3 5 minutes.
- Serve.
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