What’s a birthday without noodles? When my sister celebrated her birthday last month, we cooked a traditional noodle dish from Northern MIndanao. It is called bam-i, consisting of two types of noodles, the pancit canton and the sotanghon. Aside from that, the ingredients and manner of cooking is generally the same as canton or sotanghon.

Bam-i

200 grams sotanghon
200 grams pancit canton
200 grams chicken liver and gizzard
150 grams liempo/pork belly
1/4 cup sliced green beans
1 cup cabbage, sliced 1/2 inch thick
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 medium onion, coarsly chopped
soysauce, salt and pepper to taste

Soak sotanghon in water for 15 minutes. Drain then cut into half. Boil chicken liver, gizzard and liempo together in about 3 cups water. When chicken liver and gizzard are tender, remove and set aside. When pork belly is tender, remove from fire and reserve the broth. Fry pork belly in oil till it is crispy and golden brown. Chop pork belly, liver and gizzard into bite size pieces. Saute onion and garlic in oil. Add the meat and soy sauce. Add a pinch of pepper and stir for a few minutes. Add the green beans and cabbage then about half a cup of hot broth. Let simmer for a few minutes then add some more broth. Add the dried pancit canton and stir all together so the broth wets the noodles. Add more broth as need taking care not to dry noodles. Add the sotanghon and more broth. Here I usually estimate how much broth I need that is enough to cook noodles. This is sauteed noodles and not soup noodles.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. When noodles are done, remove from fire and serve.

Can’t believe it has been a while since I’ve last joined Presto Pasta Nights , as Ruth reminded me a few weeks ago. So here’s my entry this week that Daphne of More Than Words is hosting this week. Have a great weekend cooking!