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Chicken Tinola
Background
As with many Filipino dishes, this tasty chicken soup can be made in a
variety of different ways. The recipe here is an Ilocano version that uses marungay and papaya.
Chicken
If you are
using native (or wild) chicken then the dish will need a slightly longer
cooking time to soften the meat. For a rich flavour, make sure your
chicken has some fat to it and include the chicken liver in the soup too.
Always add the bones to the soup to maximise taste and
the soup's nutritional value. If you prefer to serve the dish boneless then remove the bones
once the meat is fully cooked: the meat can be easily pulled away from the
bones and returned to the pot.
It's best to
use fresh chicken: slaughter it in the morning for lunchtime cooking. Of
course this is easier said than done in London but is no
problem in Hong Kong or Manila!
Fresh ginger
The fresher the better.
Salted fish
A staple ingredient in many Filipino dishes, not to be confused with its
Ilocano cousin Bago'ong (fermented fish).
Papaya
Green papaya is often used for this dish but ripe or
semi-ripe fruit works very well too: it is sweeter, more colourful and
should be added to the pot later than the green papaya.
Marungay
Leaves from
the marungay tree (moringa
oleifera) are readily available all over the
Philippines but it seems that the Ilocanos are the only people to use them
in their food. You can also use the leaves of the chilli plant instead of marungay.
Chilli leaves are surprisingly like young spinach when lightly cooked and
are completely mild unless there are some baby chillies lurking amongst the young
shoots - but if you like your food with a bit of a kick then leave them
in.
Ingredients
-
Half a
chicken, jointed
-
A
thumb-sized chunk of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
-
Six cups of
water
-
Half a
teaspoon (or to taste) of salted
fish for seasoning
-
Half a
medium-sized papaya, chopped into 1" cubes
-
A handful of fresh marungay leaves (stems removed)
Method
In a
thick-bottomed pan, gently fry the pieces of chicken in their own fat with
the slices of ginger. Don't let the meat go brown - just get the fat to start to melt and infuse the meat with the
flavour of the ginger. Add the water and bring to a simmer, adding a
little salted
fish to taste. Allow to cook for about twenty minutes (more if using
native chicken), stirring
occasionally.
Next add the
chunks of papaya and cook until soft. If the papaya is green this may be
more than 10 minutes; if the fruit is ripe it may need only 5 minutes.
Serve with
steamed rice. Serves 4.
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