The Happy Home Cook: Tahong Especial

The Happy Home Cook features cherished recipes of Filipino dishes from well-known foodies and contributors. If you have a recipe that you are proud of and would like to share, please send it along with a photo of the dish, your two-sentence bio and your picture to submissions@positivelyfilipino.com.

Buttered mussels (Source: Tasty Kitchen)

Here's a simple pulutan recipe using mussels from formerly incarcerated officers and soldiers.

Prep and Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 kilo tahong (mussels)

1/4 cup butter

2 tablespoons chopped onions

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 tablespoon grated ginger

1 bottle (500 ml) clear softdrink (soda)

4 pieces siling haba (finger chili)

1/4 cup chopped spring onions

1/2 cup cold water

1/4 cornstarch

1/4 cup patis (fish sauce)

Procedure

1. Heat butter then sauté garlic, onion and ginger.

2. Add tahong. Cover pan and simmer for 3 minutes.

3. Pour softdrink and bring to a boil.

4. Add siling haba and spring onions.

5. Mix cornstarch with water then add to the pan. Cook until sauce thickens.

6. Season with patis.

Serves 6-8 persons

From Pulutan: From the Soldiers' Kitchen by Elmer D. Cruz and Emerson R. Rosales (Anvil Publishing, 2007)