Ang Sarap (A Tagalog word for "It's Delicious")

Batchoy

Batchoy or La Paz Batchoy is a noodle dish that originated in La Paz, Iloilo in the Philippines hence the name.  The term batchoy means a combination of offal such as pork meat, spleen, kidneys and liver that’s why it is the main ingredient of the dish.  But for this recipe will not be using spleen and kidneys as I don’t like the texture of kidneys and spleen is not commercially available in New Zealand so I will opt for pork heart instead.  A very flavourful noodle dish due to the different types of offal used so using just pork loin will not yield the same result.

I guess this is one of the truly authentic Filipino noodle soup dish which will not have a Chinese origin (inspiration perhaps) as I haven’t seen something similar as this one.  So again for those who are into exotic dishes you better try this one out.

Ingredients

500g Miki or Egg noodles
300g pork belly, sliced in small pieces
150g pork liver, sliced in small pieces
2 pcs pork heart, sliced in small pieces
1 medium sized white onion, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
12 cups pork stock
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sautéed shrimp paste
fish sauce
chicharon, crushed
fried garlic
3 stalks spring onion, chopped
fresh eggs
oil

Method

1. In a pot add oil then sauté garlic and onion, stir fry until onions turn translucent.
2. Now add the broth, pork belly, pork heart, black pepper, sugar, soy sauce and shrimp paste.  Bring to a boil then simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Now add the liver and flavour it with fish sauce (use according to your liking), simmer for additional 10 minutes.
4. Cook the noodles according to instructions.  Then once cooked place in a bowl.
5. Pour hot boiling broth in the noodle bowl together with meat then top it with crushed chicharon, fried garlic, spring onion and raw egg.  Serve immediately and stir in raw eggs while broth is still hot.