Thinking of a new dish to prepare every day is not an easy thing to do. We have to be creative if we want to eat different dishes every day. In our house, it's Mommy D who's more experimental when it comes to cooking dishes. As for me, I only cook what I know, and because I don't have the sense of taste and smell anymore, I can't just experiment, especially if I have to check the taste during those experiments. I cooked based on the cook book, at least with that, I am sure that it won't taste weird, lol.
Anyway, it's a morning full of questions again about what dish to prepare for lunch. I want pork meat, but the oldies can't eat that, while we just had chicken the other day. As for the beef, that's too expensive, so, nahhh! Lol. It's really a good thing that the old woman downstairs, together with her friend Ka Rosie, passed by, and we saw the vegetables in their basket and I thought that's not a bad ingredients. They sell it by going house to house. With them, we can be sure that the vegetables they sell are fresh because they are also the ones who plant and harvest them. And another thing is that they sell their own vegetables at a really good price, which is cheap compared to the ones sold in the public market.
Anyway, here's our fresh vegetables: squash, sponge gourd, and sweet potato leaves. Actually, we're supposed to mix Sotanghon in here, it is some kind of noodles, and it is perfect too - I think this kind of mixed vegetable is perfect with it, but Mom changed her mind because Mommy D is not present, and it's just me and her who'll have to eat it. And so, in the end, I removed it from the ingredients. And guys, this dish consists only of mixed vegetables - no meat, no fish, just mixed vegetables.
Here's the full ingredients:
- sponge gourd
- squash
- sweet potato leaves
- pinch of salt,
- pepper,
- chicken cube,
- cooking oil,
- garlic, chopped
- onions, chopped
- cup of water
First things first, we need to clean them thoroughly, especially the green leafy vegetables, because there might be a creature somewhere on their leaf, dancing like a queen, ready to be eaten, lolol. And to do that, by putting salt in water and soaking the leaves in it, you can kill those worms or whatever creature is hiding in there. This will work 100 percent because I already tried this in Pechay, and gosh, the amount of worm I found in its water is a loooooottttttt! So make sure to do this.
So after preparing all we need, we'll proceed with cooking. In a pan, put a tablespoon of cooking oil, then sauté your onion and garlic. We can really just cook it directly without sautéing, but this process can do a lot in one dish, no? It makes the dish more aromatic, and of course, the taste will be yummier too. I used chicken cubes here, but you can just use salt and msg use what you have. Fish sauce is also good, but mommy avoids fish sauce, so fish sauce is a no-no for this dish.
So when the smell of garlic and onions started to spread in the kitchen, put the squash first, then add a cup of water. Squash is much harder than the other vegetables, so it is just right that we put it first.
Then, after four minutes, we add the sponge gourd and the sweet potato leaves. These two are easy to cook and easy to soften, which is why we put them last. Now let it boil for another five minutes, then turn off the stove once the sponge gourd has softened. As for the sweet potato leaves, it is best when they are half cooked.
And tadaaaaaan! And it's done. Serve while it's hot. Paired it with rice or ate it just like that. As for me, I eat dried fish, and it is super yummy! I love it's soup too ฅ•ﻌ•ฅ. And thanks heaven, we survived the day with this scrumptious dish.