If you are a lover of exotic dishes, then you are fortunate to have come across this page, for this will teach you how to cook the superb Bopis - an exotic dish cooked with love and out of the heart? Yes, you read it right. This dish is an orchestra of Pork’s internals that many people have not imagined that one can make a delicious recipe out of it. There has been a desire lately among many people to gravitate towards exotic dishes.
The fierce dish is made of heart and lungs sliced small and mixed with vinegar, pepper, and garlic. It is a flexible dish that can be served as an appetizer, a bar snack, or a main course with a bowl of hot steamed rice. The mixture of subtle flavors and spices is sensual to our taste buds.
What is Bopis
Shape-shifting evil spirits are famous in the Philippines, where a monster-like creature eats human internal organs.
Bopis or Bopiz is a Filipino dish with Spanish influence, but the word’s etymology can’t be found now. Bopiz is spicy and might be damp or dry because of the ingredients, and it has a distinct taste and softness, but you must get rid of the foul smell, too. It is done by boiling it with wine, pandan leaves, and other aromatic ingredients.
When it is being served with rice, make sure the rice is hot, so there’s less after taste because it consists of pork’s internal organs. Thus, it’s understandable if it has that weird smell.
Every dish is usually served with rice. However, usually, this recipe is consumed as a side dish while drinking beer or other alcoholic beverages. The taste and its exoticness make this dish a perfect pulutan. It may be a little unusual to make a recipe out of pork’s internal organs, but it was now one of the crowd favorites and has hooked many people.
Variations of Bopis
There are different recipes of Bopiz from region to region and families to families. It varies in the ingredients, flavoring, and spices that make every dish extra-special.
Kapampangan Recipe
The version of this recipe is also referred to as Pulutok, mainly because of the crunch and crisp sound that it creates on the pan. At a glance, you may be challenged to find the difference between the traditional and the Kapampangan version. To give you a hint, they have differences in the main ingredients and the cooking technique. The pulutok focuses on pork lungs as the main ingredient and cooks it in the pan until it is perfectly dry. As a twist, they sometimes add banana blossom and carrots to it.
Pinaniki Recipe
Coconut milk is always an ingredient that enhances the flavor of many dishes. You cannot imagine how it can blend well with almost every recipe. And yes, it can be added to this dish, too. People from Laguna refer to it as Pinaniki. This recipe varies from the traditional variant because it is cooked in coconut milk and mixed with turmeric for an added sweet and spicy taste. This version grants a bold and exciting flavor.
Chicken Gizzard Bopis Recipe
Replacing the pork on this traditional menu, chicken’s innards such as heart, gizzard, and liver is not a bad idea. It can be as tasty and as flavorful as the pork. People who are not fond of eating pork may also experience and be delighted by an exotic dish. The cooking procedure is just the same.
Beef Bopis Recipe
Of course, beef will also join the line-up. Internal organ check? Yes, some people opt to prepare this menu with beef instead. Minced and chopped like the other variations, we can put together the beef’s heart, spleen, and lungs to come up with that sizzlingly flavorful beef variant.
Vegan
Curious about the healthiest form of this dish can be? This recipe is the answer. The vegan version used shitake mushroom and tofu as the main ingredient to replace the traditional components of a bopiz. It may have made a twist, but it still has the goodness and closeness to the authentic taste. Many health-conscious people can still enjoy delightful dishes by coming up with their version. They can eat better without compromising the captivating savor of a plate.
Troubleshooting Recipes
Exotic dishes are too prone to cooking mistakes (especially in terms of their taste). Thus, here are some examples of taste issues and how to fix them.
Too Sweet
While this issue is not for every cook as it is not required to add sweetness to your recipe, some people who opt for adding sugar to their recipe tend to make their dish too sweet. If this happens, then add vinegar or a pinch of salt. Gradually add contrasting flavor to balance out what has gone too far.
Too sour
Bopiz is sour, but when it has exceeded the sour-o-meter, it does not taste well. When this problem arises, try adding sugar to your dish (this is probably why some cooks make the dish too sweet). Of course, you can always apply the add-taste technique to make a halt whenever your dish is just right with your preference.
Too Spicy
This dish is for the adventurous not just because of the Pork’s internal parts but also because of its spicy flavor. However, when serving it to your little ones, we don’t want it too spicy. If your dish turns out too hot for your kids, try to add sugar to it. Better yet, have a cup of milk ready to counteract this dish that is too spicy.
Too Salty
Balance is everything in this kind of dish, so when this dish turns out too salty, try to remedy it by adding more of everything; pork internals, water, and other ingredients. To avoid encountering this conflict, you may add salt little by little to make sure it will not be too salty in the first place.
Trivia About This Exotic Filipino Dish
- You can boil the pork’s internal organ in cooking wine to liberate its savory flavor. Its acidity also helps collapse fats, which is why it is also commonly used for deglazing.
- Bopiz is considered a “Happy Dish” because it is remarkably spicy. Eating spicy foods helps release endorphins in the body, making it one reason why most people enjoy eating spicy dishes like bopiz.
- We cannot avoid the pungent order of the pork’s internal organs, but there are various ways of getting rid of it.
- This dish is often compared to “Sisig” and “Dinakdakan.” This alone proves the heavenly taste of bopiz and gives you that urge to try this out.
- Depending on one’s preference, we can always alter the traditional ingredients and add vegetables like carrots, pineapple, pepper, etc., to our exceptional version.
Tips On How To Cook This Filipino Dish Recipe
Sure, you are excited to cook Bopiz now, but you might want to check these tips before that.
- Before deciding to cook this dish, check your local market if they offer the said Pork internals. We may contact our trusted vendor in advance to secure an arrangement for these ingredients as they are not always available.
- If there is no available pork, we can always look for alternative meat. We can always find ways to cook our favorite dish.
- Although most of the ingredients are easily resourced, there are still times where some ingredients are not available. We can always omit unavailable ingredients and replace them with what we have at present. The notable thing that we have is a lot of options and alternatives. An example is replacing annatto with turmeric. Nothing can prevent us from making our favorite Filipino dishes.
- Often, we will encounter the unwanted smell of the pork internals, specifically the lungs. When your sense of smell goes west, taste usually follows. To get rid of the pungent odor, the first thing you need to do is to thoroughly clean and boil the lungs to water with lemongrass and pandan leaves. This technique
- Cook vinegar well by covering it until it boils, and do not stir it. Remember: Vinegar is integral in Bopiz. Aside from the fact that it gives a sour note to the dish, it also helps in cooking as it has impressive acid content.
- For a fancier presentation, you can top bopiz up with grated cheese before serving. You will be surprised how it was upgraded to a classy dish from an exotic dish it was.
This Dish is Best Served With
This kind of dish goes well with partners that complement it. It was initially served as appetizers in bars, but it is now also served as a main entree and partner to other dishes as years go by. Check some of them below.
Rice
This one is a no brainer. Eyes on the rice, it will always be present. This staple food has secured its spot on every humble Filipino table and is consumed by a significant part of the world’s population. Happiness comes from rice. Rice is a simple food that has an irreplaceable spot in our lives. The moment we get a sniff of that alluring aroma that the bopis have, sure we will crave and ask for unlimited rice because one plate will never be enough.
Fried fish
The sour flavor of Bopis goes well with the saltiness of fried fish (just don’t make your fish too salty). An assurance that fried fish can give is that it goes out well as a colleague of any dish. It is like a universal partner to other entrees. The conflicting texture and taste of this dish and fried fish will surely assemble a complete package meal.
Fish Sauce
Counteract your Bopis dominantly sour taste by having fish sauce as your dip, but also do not forget that stingy sour calamansi. This combo will give balance to the intense flavor that this recipe has. These are two other things ever-present in the table. Aside from rice, Filipinos are also attached to different dipping sauces, also referred to as sawsawan. For brave hearts, this killer sauce is at its perfect with scores of green chilies.
Beer
As mentioned above, Bopiz is every drinking session’s Pulutan. It is also a favorite bar snack and is undeniably a blockbuster at beer houses. Beer makes us do things we don’t usually do, and sometimes makes us eat things we don’t want to eat, so if it’s your first time-consuming this dish, try to drink beer first bolder to taste this exotic dish. After doing so, we are sure you will be longing for it, with or without beer. Remember to consume beer moderately because it makes you feel the way you ought to be without beer.
Conclusion
People have made vast different ways of coming up with unique dishes. Like Bopiz, there are many more exotic dishes that people kept on creating recipes for. Our love for food is undying, and with that said, we are also unstoppable in experimenting with food recipes that will surely blow your mind up. Our passion for food continues to broaden, and so our choices of food. Bopis can join the line up of the remarkable exotic foods in the Philippines that everybody needs to try. This peculiar dish has already made a mark in Filipino cuisine. As Filipinos, we can also offer exotic dishes and recipes unique to our culture and are always astonishing. As the saying goes, to see is to believe, and you will never know if you will not try. This fierce Bopis is indeed a spotlight stealer and will surely bring back many drinking and party memories.
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Recipe
Superb Bopis Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon Vegetable Oil
- 1 lb Pork heart boiled for 20 minutes and diced
- 1 lb Pork lungs boiled for 20 minutes and diced
- ½ lb Radish finely chopped, press and remove the juice
- ½ lb Carrots diced
- 1 cup Liver spread
- 7 cloves Garlic minced
- 1 pc Red onion large, minced
- 4 pcs Bay leaves
- 1 pc Bell pepper large, finely diced
- 1 tablespoon Annatto seeds (Achuete) dissolved in ⅛ cup hot water
- 2 stalks Lemongrass (tanglad)
- 1 cup Vinegar
- 1 cup Water
- 1-2 teaspoon Fish Sauce (patis)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat oil in a pan, sauté garlic and onions.
- Add the diced pork lungs and heart and pour in vinegar and water. Simmer for at least 10-15 minutes.
- Add carrots. Cook for at least 1-2 minutes. Then, add radish and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
- Put in bell pepper, bay leaves, bring to a boil and simmer on high heat until sauce is already thick.
- Add liver spread. Stir. Mix well.
- Pour annatto mixture then season with fish sauce and ground black pepper.
- Simmer for 2 minutes then transfer onto a serving plate.
- Serve while hot. Share and enjoy!
