Bagoongless Pinakbet

I experimented cooking Bagoongless Pinakbet today.
The title in itself might cause me to be
excommunicated of my Ilocano birthright, ahaha.

I just wanted to find a way for me to introduce
this classic Ilocano dish to my US born kids.
Who knows they could be allergic to Bagoong.


I followed PinoyCook.net's Bagoongless Pinakbet
recipe using dried herring (Tuyo) in oil as a ingredient to create
the fish base and to create that distinct pinakbet taste but without the use
of Bagoong Monamon. I also boiled Salmon heads that are easily available here in California to create the fish broth.

Otherwise, I used the usual suspect ingredients: sauteeed pork,
Pork rinds, Eggplants, okra, tomatoes, string beans, minced garlic and
chopped scallions.

Experiment result: its a good introduction to the classic Pinakbet
dish but nothing still beats the real mcoy :-).

-Julius