Recipes Gone Wild: Yana Gilbuena’s Sinuglaw

Spring meditation exercise: Close your eyes. Picture yourself clothed in billowing white linen, ocean waves spanning before you, skin kissed by rays of golden sunlight. One hand holds a frosty piña colada, the other a frivolous periodical. You gently rake your outstretched toes through the warm, white sand. Ahhhhhhh, Key West. Wish you were here, my friends… SMACK! Yeah, I slapped you. Snap out of it! A) You’re still in freezing-cold New York and B) since you’re still in the city, I’m guessing you don’t have time to meditate. But one lucky Greenpointer, Yana Gilbuena, of the Salo Project, has escaped frigid NYC and is in that crazy city of Key West, kicking off her 50 states/50 dinners series tonight! In celebration, she shares with us her recipe for sinuglaw–a spicy ceviche of pork belly, cucumber, fresh tuna, and spices– a dish native to Davao, Philippines.

Yana’s mission with the Salo Project is to raise awareness about and appreciation of Filipino cuisine, like what Julia Child did for french cooking in homes across the U.S. Also noteworthy, Yana is donating a portion of the proceeds from the Salo Project to the contingency relief plan for the victims of the Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines via Nafconusa.org. Read more about here dinner series here.

Without further ado, I’m excited to give you Yana’s recipe.

Yana Gilbuena’s Sinuglaw

Ingredients:

1 lb. pork belly sliced lengthwise
1 lb. fresh tuna meat, cut into cubes
2 cups cucumber, seeded and thinly sliced
1 cup cane vinegar
1 medium sized red onion, diced
2 tbsp. ginger, julienned
12 pcs. Thai chilis, sliced
3 pcs. calamansi, or 1 lemon  juiced
salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Boil pork until tender with garlic, and then broil at 425°F until brown ( approx. 10-15 minutes). Chop and set aside.

2. In large bowl, place the tuna meat and add 1/2 cup of vinegar; then marinate for 10 minutes.

Drain the vinegar, and then add cucumber, onion, ginger, chilis, and salt. Mix thoroughly.

3. Add calamansi or lemon, and then add the remaining 1/2 cup vinegar and the broiled pork belly. Mix well and serve.

Optional: Place the mixture inside the refrigerator for 30mins to one hour before serving to allow the flavors to marry.

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Thanks so much for sharing your recipe, Yana! Greenpointers hopes you’re having a wonderful kick-off to your journey.

Illustration by Libby VanderPloeg