Spaghetti ng Pilipinas

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ALERT: CORRECTION (Alert Posted: FRI 16 SEP 2011 - 0216 hrs.)
There was an error with the recipe on this page. Originally, I listed that "Spaghetti ng Pilipinas" required "20 oz of tomato sauce" and "20 oz of banana ketchup." I actually meant to say "10-15 oz" for each of the two ingredients.

At the time I wrote this entry, I was cooking roughly two batches' worth of pasta. While I was careful in re-tuning the ingredients list so that it made the 4-6 servings I said it would make, I failed to correct the amount of sauce necessary. This has now been rectified so that the numbers are correct.

Thus said, I sincerely apologize for anyone who attempted to make this awesome dish only to find that their sauce seemed to be lacking meat and/or seemed too... runny. Then again, some of you like your sauce runny. o.O

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GOOOOD DAY, READERS! Josh here with a mountain of text and flavorful pictures, built so it'll last for years and years to come!





Music to Cook By
(Why I (don't) trust the shuffle option at times.)

Just to set the mood (sort of), I decided to list all the pieces of music I went through in order of when they were played. This list tracks everything from the very moment the knife in cooking started chopping up onions today... as well as how bad my ADD is.

Songs marked with an asterisk portray anything that didn't get fully played (i.e.: musical ADD kicked in. An asterisk by itself means I swapped playlists or songs after the song finished.

Alizée - "J'en ai marre!"
deadmau5 - "Cthulu Sleeps"
System of a Down - "Forest"
Incubus - "Take Me to Your Leader
Eiffel 65 - "Another Race"
Barenaked Ladies - "Be My Yoko Ono"
Incubus - "Idiot Box"
Evanescence - "Sweet Sacrifice"
*
Eun Ji Won - "Adios (f. Mr. Tyfoon)"
Journey - "I'm Cryin'"
Offspring - "Session"
Fatboy Slim - "Sunset (Bird of Prey)"
Acid Black Cherry - "SPELL MAGIC"
Halestorm - "Bad Romance (Lady Gaga Cover)"
*
Lady Gaga - "Bad Romance"
Killers - "For Reasons Unknown"
Gorillaz - "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach (f. Snoop Dogg)"
Futuristic Sex Robotz - "Back in the Day"
Darude - "Let the Music Take Control"
All-American Rejects - "It Ends Tonight"
Daft Punk - "Television Rules the Nation"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "If"
*
Bon Jovi - "You Give Love a Bad Name"
Van Halen - "Jump"
Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Journey - "Don't Stop Believin'"
Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
The Lonely Island - "I'm On a Boat (f. T-Pain)"
*
30 Seconds to Mars - "Closer to the Edge"
OneRepublic - "Come Home"
Lazlo Bane - "Sleep"
Hoobastank - "Lucky"
Queen - "Save Me"
Led Zeppelin - "Wearing and Tearing"
Flipsyde - "Friends"
Santana - "No One to Depend On"
Killers - "Why Do I Keep Counting?"
Atreyu - "My Fork in the Road (Your Knife in My Back) (Instrumental)"
Halestorm - "Better Sorry Than Safe (Live)"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Life Won't Wait"
Rihanna - "If It's Lovin' That You Want (Part 2)"
Lady Gaga - "Born This Way (Jost & Naff Remix)"
Atreyu - "Doomsday"
deadmau5 - "Overdraft"
Def Leppard - "Don't Shoot Shotgun"
Boston - "Stare Out Your Window"
Journey - "Wheel in the Sky"
Saliva - "Rest in Pieces"

And then I finished. But enough on my musical tastes - let's cook!



Spaghetti ng Pilipinas
("This ain't spaghetti. This is Army noodles with ketchup.")

Yesterday I made a beeline to the grocery store and nabbed me a bunch of ingredients. Today, their reasons for their purchase become quite clear: I am cooking. When most of my friends from work heard about this, they were confused. Normally, when I decide to pull off some crazy cooking project, it involves fried rice and a lot of man-hours spent cooking all of it. This time, however... I'm cooking pasta. And not just any pasta: Filipino-style spaghetti.

Today, as we stare at the kitchen I will be doing battle in, we're -

...h-hold on a second. *steps off-camera* Where the hell is my music? I have this eloquent speech about passionate cooking and you're not giving me backing music that fits the theme? The hell do I pay you fo-

*the music from Backdraft (and by extension, the theme song from the original Iron Chef) begins playing*

...better. *walks back on-camera* A-Anyway... *clears throat*

Today, as we stare at the kitchen I will be doing battle in, we're sure to encounter trial after trial of imperfections in this amazing quest to cook a large amount of spaghetti. And why are we allowing me to do this? For freedom! For justice! For shutting up all those people who keep complaining about how I don't do anything for people for no reason! And most importantly: for the knowledge of knowing if what is desired can be achieved!

I am not an Iron Chef, but I can sure as hell go above the traditional chef and their stone-rigid ways to create some good-ol' home cooking. I will triumph over this adversary that is hunger and its malicious partner named negativity. I will go over the top, point my spatula at the enemy, stare deep into their souls and yell:

Allez cuisine! *charges into the kitchen*

Josh Blanco's "Spaghetti ng Pilipinas"
("Spaghetti of the Philippines" roughly translated to Tagalog.)

Now, I'm slapping my name onto the recipe for a reason. Mind you, it's not so I can gain some credit or anything. (I technically can't - this is more of a cultural recipe.) It's because I took the most common form of Filipino-styled spaghetti and modified it - because I could. I'll slap on the traditional version onto this blog some other time. For now, however - it's MIIIINE.

EQUIPMENT:

• oven
• pot
• large sauce pan OR wok
• spatula
• that thing you use to serve cooked stringy noodles

MATS:
Traditionally, the classic Filipino-style of spaghetti requires the following (at least by majority rule - I looked up, like, 15 different variants):

• 16 oz package spaghetti-style noodles
• water
• salt
• 1/2 lb ground meat (any combination of ground beef and/or pork will do... and the leaner, the better - 85/15's the lowest you'll probably want to go)
• 4 hot dogs
• 1 can of Vienna Sausage
• 10-15 oz tomato sauce
• 10-15 oz banana ketchup (REQUIRED)
• 1 onion, chopped (white for a sweeter flavor; yellow for more kick)
• 1 head of garlic, minced
• 3-6 bay leaves (also REQUIRED; do NOT substitute!)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (I wasn't kidding when I said Filipino cuisine likes being sweet...)
• 1/2 cup green/red bell peppers, chopped (OPTIONAL)
• 1/2 cup carrots, shredded (OPTIONAL; if used, use sparingly)
• various herbs & spices (what you use and how much is up to you)
• olive oil (use enough to facilitate cooking and no more)

HOWEVER, since I'm just psychotic crazy creative enough to attempt to make my own style of pasta, I went my own route. Keep in mind that the above recipe generally serves 4-6 people. THIS is what I went for instead:

• spaghetti-style noodles
• water
• salt
• 1 lb ground meat (any combination of ground beef and/or pork will do... and the leaner, the better - 85/15's the lowest you'll probably want to go)
• 1/2 package kielbasa-style sausage
• 1/2 lb bacon (OPTIONAL; totally blaming Epic Meal Time for this one)
• 15-20 oz tomato sauce
• 15-20 oz banana ketchup (this CANNOT be substituted by any means)
• 1 chopped onion (white for a sweeter flavor; yellow for more kick)
• 1 head garlic, minced
• 6 bay leaves (also required; do NOT substitute!)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (I wasn't kidding when I said Filipino cuisine likes being sweet...)
• 2 tsp Sriracha hot sauce
• various herbs & spices (what you use and how much is up to you)
• olive oil (use enough to facilitate cooking and no more)

Since I'm kinda bringing this to work (as well as keeping plenty for myself and what not), I doubled the amount of things I threw in. What I used (keeping in mind the same 4-6 servings mindset) differs - I threw in more sauce, ketchup and meat. Muahahaha.

DIRECTIONS:
1.) Cook Noodles to Preference
Easy enough here - just follow the directions on the box. Adjust things as necessary (e.g. you're feeding people who prefer their noodles al dente).

2.) Sauté Garlic & Onions with Olive Oil
Just keep stirring... just keep stirring...! Just keep stirring, stirring, stirring!
What do we do? We stir, stir...

3.) Combine Ground Meat, (Bacon,) Bay Leaves, Remaining Veggies & 1 Cup Water;
Bring to a Boil and Allow to Simmer for 10+ Minutes, Stirring Occasionally
Do NOT be afraid to accidentally crush the bay leaves. If anything it helps infuse the flavor even more.

If you're asking why I said "ten plus," it's because some people like making spaghetti sauce all day (the longer the cook time, the more the flavors infuse). How much time you decide upon is up to you and your current circumstances.

While it's on high heat, it's important to stir. Don't you worry about the meat burning or "overcooking."

4.) Add in Tomato Sauce, Banana Ketchup and Herbs & Spices;
Bring to a Near-Boil and Allow to Simmer for 10+ Minutes
Alternate between what you're adding and stirring - maybe half of the sauce and half of the ketchup and some of the spice before you begin stirring, and when it's fully mixed in, add the rest.

As you mix the sauces in, you'll probably get a strong whiff of the spice. This is natural.

While you're stirring all of this in, don't be alarmed if you smell nothing but cooking meat infused with spice. This doesn't mean it's going to be super-spicy or anything. We'll deal with that later as it simmers.

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED~

5.) Add in Brown Sugar and All Remaining Meat;
Bring to a High Heat for 3 Minutes then Allow to Simmer for 5-10+ Minutes
Stir immediately after adding the brown sugar. Last thing you want to do is allow the sugar to clump up and have only pockets of sweetness.

See what happens when you let the sugar clump up? See how pretty it is?
DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.

As you stir the sugar and meat it, you'll know if things are going well if the sauce begins to turn a reddish-brown. Keep stirring until you believe everything is mixed, and then let it go back to simmering mode.

...REEEEEEEEEED? Nah - just awesome.

6.) Mix Pasta & Sauce As You See Fit
This will depend upon personal preferences. Are you someone who likes being light on sauce and adds a little? Or are you like me and you drown your noodles with tons of meaty and saucy awesomeness?

Of course, just to warn you: this sauce is very potent when it comes to flavor. Even a little will flavor a lot of noodles.

7.) ENJOY!

Mmm...! Itadakimasu!

I'll be frank: it's been so long since I've had this kind of spaghetti - probably around two years - I literally began foodgasming between bites one and three. If you were cooking along as well, your nose was probably going the same way.

Now, a word of caution - depending on how much spice you used (and whether or not you used a hot and spicy variant of tomato sauce and/or banana ketchup), the sauce will hover somewhere on a two-way "Spicy/Sweet" scale. Something like...

0 (Super-Sweet and Super-Delicious... and to some: Super-Pansy)
1
2
3
4
5 (The PERFECT Sauce - the right amount of sweetness and kick)
6
7
8
9
10 (White-Hot Intensity of a Thousand Suns)
11 (Some Rocker Hacked This Scale)

As I held back on the spices here (and used regular banana ketchup as opposed to the spicy kinds that exist), my finished produced ended up rating at a 1.5 on the above scale. While that made it tasty to everyone who tried it, I don't think they got the full experience. *marks on a notepad: "MOAR SRIRACHA"*

Also, as said already, the sauce will be very rich - you probably won't need that much to flavor the noodles, but if you're like me and you just love drenching you noodles, then by all means: go for it! Do what you will! (Cheese optional.)





Well, I sure hope you enjoy this. I sure know that my friends at work will. And I most definitely know that I will!

Until the 'morrow! *leaves for work*