Cook Kalding Kilawin, How-To

Definitions:
Kalding - Ilocano term for Goat livestock

Kambing - Tagalog term for Goat livestock

I'm joining my High-School classmates celebrate our 25th AnniversaryHigh School Reunion at Las Vegas Nevada on July 7, 8, and 9.

I come from a Northern city of the Philippines called Baguio and Kalding dishes are considered delicacy in this region of our country, reserved for those special occasions.

Julius and Charles helping out the buthcher

Naturally, my classmates had a craving for Kalding dishes such as Kilawin, Kaldereta, Sinampalukang Kambing as an appetizer accompaniment to Beer, Whisky, Tequila, etc. My batchmates requested it be present during our reunion. Unfortunately, since we butchered the goat 3 days in advance, Pinapaitan couldn't wait that long, so it was ommited from the list.

Charles Balmaceda , myself, and Alfred Bajet obliged accordingly and promised our batchmates a range of Kambing dishes to be present during the reunion.

Well, to cook good Kalding dishes, you have to get a goat fresh from the farm. Charles, I, the three kids, and my brother-in-law drove to Fallbrook ( a town north of San Diego County) at an Ilocano Farm to buy Kalding. Its also a good field trip for the kids to experience the farm and learn that not everything comes from the supermarket.

Based on my years growing up in Baguio, I've never heard about the practice of butchers in Slaughter House let the Kalding drink Vinegar to remove the bad odor inherent in Goat meat but that's what we did. From what I hear from batchmates, this could be an Ilocano or Pangasinan practice, and not necessarily done at the highland regions of Northern Luzon.

I guess the vinegar neutralizes the odor in the intestines. I'm not an authorityon this practice but I followed along. For extra US $10 , the farm hand was kind enough to torch and clean the goat's rind, take out the internal organs, and cut up the meat. All we had to do was load the cutup meat in our cooler and away we went.

Next we had to cook up the dishes. Here's a samle Kilawin Kalding (Goat Appetizer) dish.

Ingredients :
4 lbs. of Goat Rind
Ginger Root
5 cups of Soy Sauce
10 tbsp of brown sugar
Labuyo or Habanero Pepper
Salt to tastePepper
5 pieces of lemon
15 pieces of Kalamansi
5 tbsp of cane vinegar
4 peices of Onion bulbs
3 cloves of garlic

Cooking procedure :

1. In a Pyrex bowl, mix the Soy sauce, Brown sugar, and vinegar. Blend the mixture until the brown sugar is dissolved.

2. Chop the ginger in small cubes in 1/32 inch size.

3. Chop the Labuyo pepper in small cubes.

4. Chop up the cloves of garlic. Cut the Onion bulbs in circular strips.

5. Heat up a barbecue grille on low fire setting. Lay the peices of Kalding rind on the grille to cook the rind in 'Rear' consisitency. Flip over the rind When one side is done

6. Lay the cooked rind in a tray and scrape off any burned areas of the griled kalding rind if needed.

7. Cut the kalding rind into small strip pieces about 1/4 inch length.

8. In a separate bowl, squeeze lemon and kalamansi to extract its juice.

9. In a large ractangular pyrex tray, mix the kalding rind strips, chopped Onion and garlic, chopped pepper, chopped ginger, and toss with thongs to mix the ingredients.

10. Drizzle the mixed ingredients with the citrus juice.

11. Dash with Salt and Pepper.

12. Taste the blended kalding kilawin mixture and adjust the taste by adding more juice, salt, and pepper as needed. The objective is to attain a kilawin mixture that is slightly spicy.

Charles cutting up the Goat Meat

Charles and Julius, and the kids chopping up the ingredients.