Memory of Taste: Sarciado

I’ve been a vegetarian for fifteen years, and I don’t miss meat at all. One thing I do miss, however, is eating dishes from my childhood. Having Mateo has made me think about being a kid a lot more (though, like everyone, I always have my memories from childhood at the back of my mind), and sometimes it makes me nostalgic for food my mother made when I was growing up, especially Filipino food.

Filipino food is notoriously meat-centric (also garlic- and vinegar-heavy). There is a Filipino restaurant in San Bruno that has some dishes they can make vegetarian, and I went there recently only to discover they were closed for a private party. Disappointed and still in the mood for Filipino food, I decided to call other Filipino restaurants in the area to see if they had vegetarian dishes. They had no idea what I was talking about. One offered me milkfish. The other offered me something that had “only a little bit of chicken and shrimp” in it. I’ve always felt like a Filipino outsider because I’m mestiza, but at that moment I felt like I wasn’t part of my culture at all.

To counter this feeling, I have decided to start making the Filipino food I remember from my childhood, adapting the recipes so that they are vegetarian. First up: sarciado. Sarciado, as my family makes it (there are regional variations — I just discovered that this dish is also called afritada), is a stew with a tomato-based sauce, potatoes, garbanzo beans, and peas. Usually it’s made with chicken or pork, but I realized that it’s just as good without it. Here’s how I make it:

Vegetarian Sarciado
(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 medium-sized potatoes, cut into one-inch cubes
1/2 onion, sliced thinly
1/2 red bell peper, cut into strips about one inch long
4 cloves of garlic, minced (or pressed with garlic press)
1 bay leaf
8 ounces of fake chicken strips (like Trader Joe’s Chickenless Strips) or fried cubed tofu (optional)
2 small tomatoes or 3 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 can of garbanzo beans, with liquid
3/4 cup of frozen peas
1/4 cup of tomato paste
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add cubed potatoes. When they just begin to brown, add the onions, red bell peppers, and bay leaf. When the onions begin to turn translucent, add the garlic and the fake chicken strips (if you’re using them). Be careful not to let the garlic burn. Let the fake chicken strips brown a little, then add the diced tomatoes. Lower the heat and let the mixture simmer to draw the moisture from the tomatoes (about eight to ten minutes). Then add the can of garbanzo beans with the liquid and the frozen peas. As the peas thaw, add the tomato paste and stir to incorporate it, creating a sauce. (If needed, you can add water or vegetable broth.) Add the fried tofu at this point if you’re using it. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over steamed rice. (I know, I know, potatoes, garbanzos and rice? It’s a carb-fest. Just go with it, ‘kay? And make sure you don’t eat the bay leaf!)

And that is vegetarian sarciado. Sorry I don’t have a picture. I’ll add one once I make it again.

Next up: vegetarian lumpia!