Riffing on Sotanghon with Marielle Narcisa
Food connects us to our culture and our family. It’s a way to show care for each other. But what do you do when you live in Arkansas and you can’t find the ox tail and fermented shrimp to make Filipino kare-kare the way your family taught you? You improvise some sotanghon instead.
Check out Marielle Narcisa’s spin on her family recipe for sotanghon, and her perspective on how food connects us to loved ones, past and present.
Marielle thought she’d bring kare-kare to the first episode of the Potluck. She had just crossed the one-year marker since her mom “passed into her next life,” as Marielle said, and kare-kare was the dish that her mom had always made in remembrance of her own mother. But Marielle’s plan to continue this tradition was stopped short by the limitations of the place she now calls home: “I wanted to make the same dish, but I couldn’t find the ingredients in Arkansas.”
Without missing a beat, Marielle knew she would try kare-kare again soon. (Maybe there was an Asian grocer she just hadn’t found yet, or maybe she could order what she needed online.) And in the meantime, there’d be plenty she could bring to the Potluck. Because there are lots of meals that keep her grounded in her culture and family, regardless of time or place — food is “just the way we feel connected to each other.”
And so Marielle landed on sotanghon — “essentially it’s like Filipino chicken noodle soup” — instead.
“It’s a super soothing meal,” she said. “Something that you eat when you’re sick, or when you want to feel at home. That’s how I always see the dish.”
Watch our whole conversation from the first episode of the Potluck, or read Marielle’s recipe for sotanghon below.
[YouTube embed]
Recipe Marielle Narcisa’s Arkansas Sotanghon
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I am not a “by the book” cook, meaning my recipes are born from 1) what I have in my pantry, 2) how much time I have to cook, and 3) what will leave me satisfied. These three considerations very rarely consider measurements and always consider taste. The recipe below is a reflection of the ingredients I had at the time of the Potluck conversation and its “measurements” I will leave with unscientific estimates.
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- 1 package of rice noodles, soaked in hot water
- 2 cooked chicken breasts, cubed, seasoned w/ salt & pepper
- Leftover cooked leeks, chopped thin
- 1 bunch of bok choy, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 2 spoonfuls of grated ginger
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2-3 tbs of fish sauce
- 1-2 tbs of soy sauce
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- Sautee your leeks until they are tender, if they aren’t already cooked.
- Add your bok choy until also tender.
- Then add the cooked chicken.
- Add the garlic and ginger until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add the rice noodles and turn off the heat.
- Season with fish sauce and soy sauce to taste!
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- The heart of this recipe is chicken + leafy greens + rice noodles. Experiment with whatever leafy greens you have available!
- Use soy sauce sparingly.
- The original sotanghon is actually soup — so feel free to add broth to yours if you’d like.
