Ginataang Santol

Every now and then -- no, make that most of the time -- I have difficulty producing good shots for this blog. You see, I usually cook for dinner and dinner happens, well, at night. The lighting isn't really the best, and I'm not (yet) very familiar with the flash settings of my cam. Add to that the fatigue from really long days... the picture above is an example of one of my wanting shots.


Ginataang Santol. Would you call it exotic? When I was 14 we had some visiting seminarians over for lunch and my lola served this dish. One of our guests asked what it was (he had trouble placing the taste) and I jokingly answered, "Ginataang Cactus." He looked so bewildered -- his tongue was saying it was good and okay, but his mind was telling him otherwise, so I told him right away it was santol before he could barf and ruin lunch for the rest of us. :)

Santol isn't exactly the stuff your usual ulam is made of. If you like some excitement and tang in your ulam I bet you'd like this, paired with crispy fried fish (tilapia, galunggong...) And I'm proud to say I'm the first ever (half) Bicolana to post it! Yay! Now would you be the first non-Bicolanos to cook it? :)

The recipe is how I recall it from weekends watching my lola's cooking.

GINATAANG SANTOL

What's In It?

3-4 pcs. Santol
4 cups coconut milk
1 scallion/onion, peeled and sliced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
3 teaspoons salt or 3 teaspoons raw bagoong alamang
3-5 pcs. siling labuyo

Kitchen Conjugations:

Peel santol. Cut in halves, remove the seeds and set aside. Dice pulp. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon salt over the diced santol, mix then pick up handfuls of the diced pulp and squeeze to remove some of the juice. (This is so the dish does not go sour beyond edibility. Hahaha.)

In a deep pan heat coconut milk, onions and garlic, stirring every now and then to avoid curdling. When the mixture boils, add in santol and salt (or alamang). Continue stirring slowly until the mixture boils. Add in siling labuyo and let the mix simmer until the coco milk is thick and reduced, about 15 minutes.

Serve with steamed rice and fried fish.