ARROZ CALDO

ARROZ CALDO

#SIAintheKitchen

It’s been ages since I’ve made something Filipino. It’s so odd to me that as a Filipino-Chinese, I hardly cook any Filipino recipes. I cook a lot more Asian food - heavy on Japanese, Chinese and Korean cuisines but never anything Filipino. Why is that? I’m not exactly sure but I’m finally going to make a stop to that. I’ve gotta thank this quarantine in motivating me to actually push my boundaries and try something from my own heritage. Today I’ve decided to make a dish that I grew up with quite frequently: arroz caldo.

There are a lot of rice porridges in Filipino cuisine - Arroz caldo, lugaw, goto… And yes, I’ve had them all. They are very similar - thickened rice porridge soups with various toppings or meats. Arroz caldo always had chicken in it, lugaw was a thinner version (less thick) than arroz caldo, and goto was with tripe and intestines. So, same same but different.

My mom always made arroz caldo with a lot of ginger and garlic. She always cut the ginger into matchstick pieces but I actually really hated with how large they were and tended to always pick them out. She also used to use half short-grain rice and half long-grain rice for a bit of a textural change. I took a bit of her tradition and some recipes that I saw online and of course, had to put my own spin on things.

For my version, I used Thai sweet glutinous rice. It’s very short and stick and emits a lot of starch which impart a nice creaminess to the dish. I also minced my ginger up nicely so I wouldn’t have to pick out any large chunks. Lastly, I used leftover poaching liquid from the Hainanese chicken that I made recently which was perfect with all the ginger that was in that dish . Of course you can use homemade chicken stock or store-bought here as well - up to you but homemade is always best! I also used the leftover chicken carcass and wing tips for mine which had very little chicken. You can easily cook some bone-in chicken thighs into this dish, remove, shred and place back into the porridge if you want more protein.

As for the toppings, fried garlic is a must, sliced scallions, hard-boiled eggs, lemon wedges and additional fish sauce. If you have calamansi (Filipino citrus), that would be more ideal. If you want to play fusion, some ginger scallion sauce of black garlic oil would be awesome drizzled on top just before serving.

It’s so nice to come back full-circle and make my own version of arroz caldo finally.

ARROZ CALDO - serves 4 - 6

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

• 2 heads garlic, minced

• 1 white onion, diced

• 3” piece ginger, peeled and minced

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 3 cups glutinous rice

• 1 1/2 quarts chicken broth

• 1 leftover chicken carcass (optional)

• freshly ground black pepper, a generous amount

• 1 bunch scallions, sliced

• 4 hard-boiled eggs, halve

• ginger scallion sauce

• fish sauce

1. Heat a Dutch oven or large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the vegetable oil and heat until glistening. Add in half of the garlic and fry until darkened and crispy, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Set aside.

2. Add the onions to the garlic oil and sauté for 3 minutes until translucent. Add in the remaining garlic and ginger and saute until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add in the rice and toast until opaque, about 3 minutes. Add in the fish sauce, chicken carcass, black pepper and broth. Bring the mixture to a boil, constantly stirring to ensure none of the rice sticks to the bottom of the pot and lower the heat to a simmer and cover. simmer for about 15 minutes until the soup has thickened to your liking. I like mine super thick - can always dilute with more liquid after storage.

3. Ladle the arroz caldo into bowls and top up with fried garlic, scallions, hard-boiled egg, freshly-ground black pepper, fish sauce, and ginger scallion sauce.