(When I get the time, I will post the different recipes concocted by Villasis people, most of them women, with eggplant as the main ingredient. I tasted some of them during the cookfest and they were really delicious. The winning piece is a little difficult, or maybe time consuming, to prepare. But my friend Vir Maganes who is from Villasis, found it really worth the P5,000 cash prize. I asked the winners what they will do with the money and they said they will give it to the barangay council. I asked, “But why? It’s your money, you should do what you want with it. Maybe start a livelihood project… They just smiled and said they will think about it. Its not much but… Hurray to the women of Villasis!)
VILLASIS, Pangasinan — This agricultural town in eastern Pangasinan is set to prove that eggplant — its main agricultural product — can be cooked in a hundred ways.
During the cookfest during the Third Talong Festival on Friday, 22 recipes with eggplant as the main ingredient were prepared and cooked by representatives of the barangays. This brought to 65 the number of original recipes featuring the versatile vegetable prepared by the townsfolk, said Libradita Abrenica, the town's first lady and chair of the town fiesta's executive committee.
Abrenica said during the first and second runs of the annual festivals, there were 21 and 22 recipes entered in the cookfest. When the number of recipes reach 100, the local government will publish a recipe book, she said.
"The entries get better yearly.Before, the entries were simple ones. But they are getting much versatile and there are unusual entries, the presentation are much better, too," Abrenica said.
The first prize was bagged by Puelay village with its recipe Hidden Talong Mix. Estela Bautista, the group's leader, explained that she got inspiration from butsi, those small rice cakes with fillings like mongo and ube.
She said quail eggs are hard-boiled, halved, and the yolks are removed. The eggs are then filled with mashed eggplant (broiled), then coated with a mixture of mashed eggplant, shredded carrots, chopped hotdogs and pork, spices and seasonings. Then these are rolled in uncooked glutinous rice and coconut milk then steamed for 45 minutes. The Hidden Talong is paired with nutririous malungay juice, a concoction of boiled malungay leaves, honey and calamanci juice.
The second price was the Eggplant Con Yugghort (Camarutan), while the third was a tie betwen Eggplant Pizza (Zone I) and Nazi Guring con Talong (San Nicolas).
The winners got P5,000, P3,000 and P2,000 prices, respectively.
The other entries are also gastronomical delights — talong bopis, eggplant nugget, pinausukang talong, eggplant salad, eggplant sarciado, talong rings, fritters, fried eggplant with rolling bread crumbs, siomai na talong, ratata, salad.
"These recipes prove that eggplant is really a versatile vegetable and I am proud that the residents are able to come up with different recipes adopted to local taste," Abrenica said.
And if there's one thing that parents with picky kids should be happy about, these are recipes with vegetables but which children will surely love to eat.
Four of the five judges were Villasis residents already living abroad, including Fe Prado Nardini who, together with her husband Giulinao, operates a restaurant called Ristorante Pizzeria "I Nardini" in Toscani, Italy.
Nardini said she was bringing some recipes to Italy and teach her husband how to prepare them.
"Our restaurant faces a camping area where different nationalities like Dutch, English and German, come. They are experimental when it comes to food, and I hope to introduce the eggplant recipes to them," she said.