Sempalukan a Manuk

Baryu cooking is always the best, if you were to ask me. Even when I was a child, my parents would leave me as they left for a day’s toil of farming, and would expect that a meal had already been prepared when they returned home for lunch. Sometimes, they took me with them to the wet market, early in the morning, at the Floridablanca palengki to buy ingredients. I would then go home to prepare the dish. I can say that among the dishes I learned to cook perfectly, Sempalukang Manuk was the all-time favorite.

Dr. Antonio M. MORALES

LUBAO

Sempalukan a Manuk

POT 5 - 7

dumalagang manuk (fresh chicken) ebun ginawuk (raw eggs taken from the womb of the chicken) sampaluk (tamarind) Labanus (raddish) Kamanyang (stringbeans) gandus ( taro root) larang pamaksi (green chili) okra Kangkong (water spinach)

Sempalukang Manuk starts with boiling the chicken in a pot large enough to contain a whole medium sized chicken. I usually use half a kilo of sampaluk for a chicken this size. Cut the sempaluk into about ten parts. It is advisable to use a whole chicken on this particular dish as it contains parts that secrete essential flavor that

DIFFICULT 3 HR 30 MIN

adds to the overall taste of the dish. Boil this under two liters of water and let the chicken turn soft for several minutes.

In a pan, sauté the ginger and onions and when they turn golden brown, add the fish sauce until you smell its aroma. Add water and drop in the taro root (that should be peeled already). Let this boil for a few minutes, then pour the mixture into the boiling chicken and sampalok soup. Stir these ingredients thoroughly and add the ebun ginawuk afterwards. Close the lid and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the labanus, kamanyang, okra and larang pamaksi all at the same time. Cover the pot again and let it boil for a few minutes. While boiling, put the kangkong on top of the mixture and cover it again.. Adjust the range to a high flame for 1 to 2 minutes.

Serve it hot.

Born to parents that made their livelihood as farmers, my mother called me Dag-Dag (some more) when I was a kid. This naming was actually life-affirming as I retained this sensibility as I grew up. I challenged myself that in everything I did, I had to do with “some-more,” and strived to become more excellent. So I did, and I became a doctor. Everytime you call my name, think about this: A doctor and more or less, a cook, or a farmer equals “morals.”