When life gives you long beans

And you have eggplant and kabocha pumpkin, what do you make?

The custodians - specifically Rich - make a wonderful pinakbet. This is lots of healthy vegetables with a bit of  pork or shrimp which is more condiment than focus of the dish. The key ingredient is bagoong, a thick fish sauce. Instead, I used patis, a liquid fish sauce.

I had leftover Chinese roast pork from a foray into Chinatown, so I started with a little over one cup of those chopped pieces of pork. After they took on some color, I took them out of the pan and set them aside. I added a bit of oil to the pan and sauteed 2 long eggplants sliced on the diagonal until they had some color and were softened a bit. Removed those from the pan, added a little more oil and sauteed 1/2 an onion until they started softening, added 2 cloves of garlic, sliced.

I had about 1-1/2 cups kabocha from the freezer that I put in the microwave on the defrost-then-micro-one-minute each cycle, then added to the pan with 1/2 cup water. Place pork and eggplant back into the pan, cover and simmer for 5 minutes, then add about a cup of long beans cut to 2-3 inch lengths along with a tablespoon of patis and black pepper to taste. Turn vegetables gently, add 1/2 cup tomatoes cut in 1-in. pieces, then serve with hot rice.

Notes: because roast pork was used, this was richer and saltier than if you had used uncooked pork to begin with. The traditional recipe calls for okra, which I didn't have, and bitter melon, which I don't care for. There are enough leftovers for one very hungry person, or two with a side dish.

Naimas, masarap!