IMBB#22: Lomi

I don't really cook by the book - I mean I don't use cookbooks often, excuse the pun. I actually own, as of now, three cookbooks, all of them gifts - a Chinese one, Cooking with Yan, from Australia, given by an aunt; Practical Fast Pasta, a birthday gift from a friend; and a Filipino cookbook, The Maya Cookbook, a Christmas gift from an office colleague.

I can count with my two hands the dishes I've actually cooked from out of these three. Food I've eaten as a child I recreate from memory, or I try recipes dictated by friends, or I use my taste buds to approximate what I've eaten in a party or restaurant. And of course I have reams and reams of recipes I printed from my daily trawlings of food blogs, local and otherwise.

I've found that I don't really follow recipes, because those I've tried I didn't care about the taste. Recipes I use just to guide me on which ingredient goes first, then I improvise from there on.

This lomi is a fruit of my improvisation, or appropriately, experimentation. It is not the Batangas lomi, but from lomi I've eaten at our office Executive Lounge, and a bit influenced by Chow King's, which, needless to say, I like. Most of their noodle dishes I shamelessly admit I like, actually. More Filipino in taste than Chinese.

This lomi has often been on our dining table lately, with the cool weather and all, and especially since it's been raining here constantly for a week now. It's great to wake up to a hot bowl of the thick noodles in an equally thick, viscous soup full of comforting things. A great afternoon filler, too, and left-overs can be heated up next morning. And it's very versatile, I have made one with just flaked chicken meat and sliced squidballs, to tasty results.

My Lomi

100 gms lean pork, preferably menudo cut, sliced thinly (about 1 1/2 inches in length)

100 gms pork liver, sliced like the pork meat

300 gms chicken soup pack, or chicken stock

100 gms small shrimps (can be tagunton, or river shrimps), shelled,

reserve the heads

100 gms fresh squid, cleaned and sliced

a few squidballs, orlian, chicken balls, fish balls (optional), quartered

a pack of thick miki noodles (about 1/4 kg)

2 carrots, julienned

100 gms snow peas, ends trimmed

a stalk of celery, sliced thinly

garlic and onion, minced

1 egg, beaten

1. Wash the chicken soup pack and saute in garlic and onion. Sprinkle salt or a dash of patis and white pepper. Turn sides. When the chicken has turned brown on all sides, add about eight cups of water, cover and bring to a boil. Alternatively, just put the chicken in a pan of water and bring to a boil, this way less cooking oil is used. After about 15 minutes, turn off fire and scoop out chicken to let cool. Flake chicken meat and discard skin and bones.
2. If using stock just bring to a boil in a pan of water.
3. Put the shrimp heads in a mortar, pour 2 tablespoons of the soup stock, and pound. Pour back the soup, sieving the shrimp heads. Repeat for about two to three more times.
4. Heat a little cooking oil in a pan, and saute garlic and onions. Stir fry the pork, liver, squid, shrimps and balls for about three minutes. Transfer to the pan of soup stock and bring to a boil.
5. Wash the noodles then put into the boiling pan. Put in the flaked chicken.
6. Boil on medium to high heat for about three minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
7. Put in carrots, snow peas and celery. After about a minute, pour the egg, and stir in the soup until it sets. Serve immediately.

Serve with sliced kalamansi, fried garlic, sliced spring onion, and patis (fish sauce).

This first IMBB of the year is hosted by Amy at Cooking with Amy.

Tagged with: IMBB # 22 + Noodle