Layered Vegetable Stew (Pinakbet)
A popular Filipino stew of layered vegetables—such as tomatoes, pumpkin, bitter melon, and okra—slow-cooked together and seasoned with fish sauce.
Ingredients
very ripe large tomatoes (roughly chopped or ripped apart with your hands)
1½ pounds (about 5)
kabocha squash (peeled, seeded, and cut into ¾-inch cubes)
1 pound (about ½ small)
bitter melon (seeded and cut into ½-inch-thick crescents (1 cup))
1 small
Japanese eggplant (halved lengthwise and cut into ½-inch-thick half moons (1 cup))
1 small
fresh young okra pods (stems trimmed and caps left intact)
8 ounces (about 16)
long beans (trimmed and cut into 3-inch lengths (2 cups))
8 ounces
sweet onion (cut into thin crescents (¾ cup))
1 small
water
¼ cup
fish sauce (plus more as needed)
2 tablespoons
deep-fried pork belly (chicharron) (chopped into bite-sized pieces (1 cup) (optional))
4 ounces
Instructions
1
Step 1
Place half of the tomatoes in the bottom of a 4 to 5-quart soup pot or Dutch oven. Layer the squash, bitter melon, eggplant, okra, long beans, and onion on top, then add the remaining tomatoes. Pour in the water and fish sauce.
2
Step 2
Bring the stew to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes without stirring. Add the pork belly and simmer for another 10 minutes. The vegetables should be tender but not mushy, and the remaining liquid should just form a rich sauce. If the vegetables are not as tender as you'd like, simmer for another 5 minutes. Taste the sauce and add more fish sauce if needed.
