Cook Book Recipe

Once, while on a stopover in Cebu with my high school paper staff (we were on our way to Davao City for the annual National Secondary Schools Press Conference), we toured the countryside as the ship unloaded and loaded cargo. We chanced upon a group of men cutting down a coconut tree. We suddenly developed a craving for freshly cut ubod and offered to buy it from the men. Typical of rural folk, the men would not accept payment and gave us the ubod.

Unfortunately, by the time the ship arrived in Davao, the ubod had started to deteriorate. Moreover, we found that it was plentiful in the Davao wet market. We cooked our Cebu ubod just the same, feeling guilty at depriving a rural family of their ubod.
What city folks know and value is the ubod of the coconut tree. To many of us, is the only edible ubod we know. But rural homemakers use other kinds of ubod- from the buri, tubo (sugarcane spindle), betel nut and saging.

Ubad as it known to aklanons, must be harvested from young Saba plants (others use butuan)

Young Saba plants are about 4 feet tall and have not yet blossomed.

Harvest the ubad about a foot from the base to just below the point where the leaves begin.

Peel off the tough outer layers to get to the tender core.

Chop the ubad finely and mash with salt to remove the acrid taste.

Spin a piece of stick (toothpick, bamboo, or wooden chopsticks) through the ubad to remove the web like fiber. It is now ready for cooking.

Inubaran

1 whole chicken, cut into serving pieces
5 cloves garlic, crushed
5 thin slices of ginger
Gata of 1 coconut
Ubad of 1 plant
Bunch of sili leaves
Salt to taste

Procedure:
Saute the chicken in garlic and ginger. Add the thin gata and prepared ubad and simmer until chicken and ubad are tender.

Add the thick gata and sili leaves. Remove from heat when mixture boils. Season with salt to taste.

Adobong Ubod ng Butuan

2 tablespoon cooking oil
1-teaspoon garlic, crushed
1 onion, sliced
½-cubed pork
4 cups of water
½ cup shelled shrimp
¼ cup vinegar
Dash of pepper, patis to taste
Saute garlic, onion and pork. Add water and simmer until pork is tender
Mix in shrimp and ubod ng butuan. Add vinegar and pepper. Cover and simmer until ubod is tender. Season with patis to taste.

Gisadong Manok with Ubod ng Saging

2 tablespoon cooking oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 onion, sliced
Salt to taste
2-tablespoon soy sauce
1 chicken breast
3 cups of water

Procedure:
Ubod ng saging (butuan), prepared and soaked in 4 cups of water
Saute garlic, onion and tomatoes. Season with salt and soy sauce. Add the chicken and water.

Simmer until chicken is cooked and almost tender. Drain ubod and add to the mixture. Cook until ubod is tender. Serve hot.

Nilagang Manok with Ubod ng Saging

½ chicken breast, sliced
4 piece tanglad leaves
6 cups water or rice washing
1 ubod ng saging (butuan), prepared for cooking
salt to taste

Procedure:
Boil chicken and tanglad leaves in water or rice washing. Simmer until chicken is almost tender. Add the ubod ng saging. Season to taste with salt and simmer until ubod is tender. Serve hot.
Except for the INUBARAN, all the recipes are from the Food and Science Nutrition Department of the University of the Philippines, Diliman.

Eufemia C. Estrada, September 26, 2002, Philippine Daily Inquirer

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