An Ameri-Fili-Rean Hodgepodge: Bastardized Pancit

Okay, I admit the finished product isn't that photogenic, but it tastes delicious as all get out!

I've grown up with two Filipino dishes taking a prevalent place in my life: chicken adobo and pancit. Those are my dad's favorite "home" meals, so whenever we visit my grandparents they are always on the menu. For my freshman year of college, I visited my grandparents for Thanksgiving and came back with a Filipino-sized helping of both meals. Between both foods, I was fully fed for the rest of the semester.

My mom learned how to make these meals from Grandma, but there is always a different taste to her versions versus Grandma's versions. I love both equally, but I usually refer to Mom's as the American version and Grandma's as the Filipino version. I've only ever made pancit, and my version is vastly different from Mom's or Grandma's. M and I lovingly refer to my abominations as "bastardized pancit."

Enter my most recent attempt at pancit, which morphed into the hodgepodge of cultures above. It's delicious, though, so that's all that matters! So delicious, M and I are incorporating it into our normal meals we make.

*Disclaimer: I am not an official chef and I also don't write tutorials often so excuse my inability to write coherent cooking step-by-steps. I also have a bit of a snarky personality so excuse my horrible humor.

Anyway, let's get to the actual meat of the post!

Ingredients:

-Dangmyun (당면) noodles. I would pretend to know how much you need but I don't. I just threw them in the pot until I thought I had enough. LOL

-1 1/2 cups rainbow shrimp. I use small

-1 lb chicken breasts

-14 oz mustard greens.

-8 oz water chestnuts

-15 oz young corn

-14 oz bean sprouts

-4 tbsp vegetable oil

-1 tbsp paprika

-1/2 tsp black pepper

-1 tsp cilantro

-2 tsp cayenne pepper

-1 1/2 tbsp chili powder

-soy sauce. I prefer La Choy brand. Gimme all o' dat sodium!

You could also use ~4 1/2 tbsp creole seasoning to cover pretty much all of the above seasonings. I'll be honest, I used the creole on top of everything already stated, and my measurements are less than what I actually used. M and I like our food spicy, okay?

As you can probably tell, I'm also lazy and based my veggie measurements off of the cans' weights. Using cans of food makes this recipe super easy and quick. Except the bean sprouts. We got 1 lb for ₩620/56¢, so it was totally worth us buying the fresh bag instead of cans.

Combine all of the vegetable oil and spices together in a super high-tech container while your meats thaw. Put water on the stove and start bringing it to a boil. Not in a pot or anything. Just pour the water straight on to the stove. Trust me, I'm a doctor. :P

Once the meats are thawed, put them in separate containers and split the spice-oil mixture between the two. Mix thoroughly. Take and send pictures to your mom of the process so she knows you're an independent person who can cook without her.

Dump the shrimp in a pan and cook it on medium-high. My goal here is to sear the seasonings onto the shrimp without burning it all to a crisp. If you're slightly negligent like me, add a little water to help scrape the seasonings off of the bottom of the pan and get it back onto the shrimp.

Once the shrimp is cooked, remove the shrimp and add in the chicken.

Mmmm, chicken. For the chicken, I want it slightly crispy and overcooked. Why? I like the texture, and it'll soften up once I add the veggies anyway.

On to the dangmyun noodles! These are also known as glass noodles, cellophane noodles, starch noodles, or sweet potato noodles. They're made from sweet potato starch and are different in taste and texture from other countries' glass noodle variants. The end result is a firm, slightly springy, almost gummy (in a good way) noodle that easily absorbs flavor from the food around it.

The pancit I usually make/eat is made with rice noodles, so these noodles are a nice change to an old love.

This is what they look like once cooked.

I don't think I need to give you a step-by-step tutorial on how to cook noodles. These aren't any different from other noodles. LOL

This is what my chicken looked like once it was cooked. If it looks like there's less chicken than before, it's not because I ate quite a few pieces.

Shh.

Add in all the veggies. No specific order. Just add 'em all in and let them cook.

Once the veggies are all heated up, add the shrimp back in. I cook the shrimp and chicken separately because I find it's easier to cook them evenly when they're separated. You could cook them together, but the shrimp would likely end up very very cooked by the time the chicken is done.

Start mixing in the dangmyun noodles and add in soy sauce as desired. I usually go light on the soy sauce until I have my own serving separated from the batch. M's not as much of a fan of soy sauce as I am, so I save my heavy soy sauce hand for my own food. Use a combination of tongs and a wooden spoon to get everything to mix evenly. Those noodles can be tricky and if you don't mix them fast enough, they'll absorb the flavor unevenly.

Violà! All complete. Eat and enjoy.

I hope you enjoyed this rather out of the ordinary post from me.

Have you ever had Filipino dishes? How about dangmyun noodles?