I don’t know why kangkong (water spinach) is so good with adobo; it just is. I’ve tried it with eel, pork and now with balon-balonan ng manok (chicken gizzards).
What exactly is balon-balonan or gizzard? Hyperdictionary, citing Webster, defines it as “the second, or true, muscular stomach of birds, in which the food is crushed and ground, after being softened in the glandular stomach (crop), or lower part of the esophagus; the gigerium.” The most popular traditional way of cooking balon-balonan in the Philippines is as adobong balon-balonan at atay (gizzard and liver adobo). A current popular street food is the balon-balonan barbeque.
I have tried cooking balon-balonan with kangkong before with a rather sweetish sauce. But for lunch yesterday, we opted to use the same combination for an adobo dish instead. And using soy paste too instead of the usual soy sauce.
Ingredients :
400 g. of balon-balonan ng manok (chicken gizzards)
2 bunches of kangkong (water spinach)
1 head of garlic, crushed and peeled (it’s easier to peel them after crushing)
2 onions, diced
1/4 c. of soy paste
1/4 c. of vinegar
1 tsp. of freshly-cracked black pepper
1 bay leaf
water
Cooking procedure :
Trim all visible fat from the gizzards. Cut each gizzard into three or four pieces. Place in a medium-sized non-aluminum saucepan or skillet. Pour the vinegar over them. Add the garlic, bay leaf and cracked black pepper. Set over high heat and bring to a boil without stirring. Let boil for a minute or two before stirring and adding the onions. Add about 2 cups of water, lower the heat, cover and simmer for an hour or longer until the gizzards are tender. Add more water, if necessary, but the remaining liquid should only be a few tablespoonfuls by the end of the cooking time.
Meanwhile, wash the kangkong and trim, discarding the tough lower portion of the stalks. Cut into two-inch lengths.
When the gizzards are done, turn up the heat and add the soy paste. Let boil for about 30 seconds before adding the kangkong. Don’t worry if the adobo looks quite dry at this point; the kangkong will expel water after a few minutes. Toss the gizzards with the kangkong. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Serve hot.
no matter what i do, i could not tenderize the gizzard. still comes out rubbery. i can chew on them all day. do i have to remove the tan lining? chickens swallow pieces of rock that end up in their gizzards to aid in crushing their food. do you have a recipe for chicken liver adobo? thanks.
it takes about 2 hours to make them really tender. and it’s the sides that have to be trimmed. and the sort of “wrapping” — dunno what it’s called.
No liver only adobo recipe here, sorry. my kids don’t eat liver-only. has to be liver and something else.:razz:
tried it last night and it was good. I didn’t have access to soy paste so I used reg. soy sause, about the same portion but parang kulang lang ng onti sa lasa though accdg to hubby, masarap daw talaga! =) ang tagal palang lutuin! hehehe.
Ahhh! Revelation! Kaya pala spinach ang substitute ng kangkong sa Sinigang! Well, not just because of the obvious reason that they’re booth green and leafy … eh, “water spinach” pala ang ingles ng kangkong! Sus… thanks Madame Connie for writing about these lil details.
interesting. I never thought of mixing Kankong with adobong gizzard before.
We have gizzard in the fridge and I think I will try this one out.
Cool concoctions!
i will try to cook this recipe today, yehey, bagong ulam ulit
i don’t have much time left to cook it, so, what i did was, i cut the kangkong stalks a little shorter than 1 cm, cut the gizzard almost the same size. It took me less than an hour of cooking and still taste good.
Next week, when I’m gonna cook it, to impress my ever-loving mom-in-law, i shall follow the step by step method, i know it will taste even better, looks even better too, hahaha kasi nagmukhang bopis naggawa ko ngayon
LOL Because the pieces were too small? Larger pieces take longer to cook but they’re juicier that way.
i tried every filipino dish you could think of but what i’m really looking is just like this one.kinda unique and easy to prepare.the trick to make the gizzard tender is that when trimming the meat , try to make some slices in it just like doing the trick in cooking squids.try to make some criss-crossed slices to break down the meat fiber…well anyway , nice recipe madam….i’ve tried it and made it a topping on a bowl of steamy rice and voila! great hit with the kids…hope you have more of this…godspeed!!!!!
Ma’am Connie, just wanna check: is soy paste the same as miso?
Madie, no they’re not the same.
ayayay, it’s good i checked with you first before buying it. thanks!