Coconut Creamed Tocino Pork Roast

Coconut Creamed Tocino Pork Roast

I have been busy preparing for a craft fair in Skowhegan. This might be my first big (kinda) craft fair to attend. I have been making and applying labels on my products. As such, I had to think of a dish that I can sort of start and forget...for a long while.

I had this pork roast completely thawed in the fridge, about 3-4 pounds. Fits well in my small crockpot. I was also craving for tocino...and was imagining a fork-tender pork tocino, but I saw this leftover coconut milk sitting in the fridge for a few days now (I used about 1/4 cup in a prior dish, and I was afraid it would get sour soon).

Crossing my fingers, I whipped up a recipe in my head using tocino mix and the coconut milk. When I finally tasted the final sauce, it was heavenly! Both hubby and son approved it!

Easy-peasy and OH SO YUMMY!

INGREDIENTS:
Pork roast 3-4 lbs
1 packet tocino mix
salt to taste
turmeric to taste (optional; I like adding turmeric to anything that would look nice yellowish or orange-ish in color, plus I love its health benefits.)
Coconut milk (1 can is good, although I used less than 1 can's leftover)
Potato Starch or Arrowroot flour for thickening (about 1 Tbsp or 2)
(Suggested spice if making this is the star anise.)

PROCEDURE:
With the pork roast in a slow cooker ceramic insert, sprinkle all around with the tocino mix, making sure it is coated well. Cover and turn slow cooker on to low setting and leave alone for 8 hours, or to high setting and leave alone for 4 hours. The pork roast will render its juice, about 2 cups or less. Meanwhile, do your chores.

At the end of cooking time, keep slowcooker on warm setting, transfer to roast to a plate, then transfer the rendered juice into a small saucepan. Place the roast back in the slow cooker and keep warm and covered.

Separate about 1/4 cup of the juice and place that in a small cup and set aside to cool down a bit. Boil the remaining juice in the saucepan. Shake the can of coconut milk well, then pour the contents into the saucepan and mix well. Let boil about 5 mins or until coconut milk has become creamy instead of tasting like fresh coconut. Add turmeric powder if using. Adjust taste with salt.

Transfer the pork roast onto a platter and pour the sauce over. Enjoy with mashed potatoes or rice, with boiled and creamed green peas or green beans.

Fork tender!

Canning Pork (Leaf) Lard and Making Pork Cracklings

Leaf/pork lard on the left,
chicken oil on the right

I do not know if anyone would be interested in this post. I am guessing that most likely, the pastry chefs and/or Americans who are conscious about food source and who are meat-lovers will be the ones finding this blog post most likely useful.  With the current anti-cholesterol doctrine campaign of the US CDC and the US healthcare in general, I would not be surprised if most Filipinos and the mainstream America would be turning up their noses if they see this post.  Let us just respect each other's opinions and preferences. I do not wish to defend my preference, nor to preach to you what your preferences should be and why. You are grown ups and can research on your own, and you can weigh the information you gather, then decide for yourself. Or you may  choose to follow mainstream America. Just please know that if you leave a comment here trying to preach to me or admonish me as if I was an uneducated 3-year-old child, your comment will be deleted.

However, for those who might be interested to read on articles by authorities in biochemistry (who obviously KNOW what they are talking about) that are not in any way biased/influenced by the (oil manufacturing) companies that provide funding for researches pertaining to such subjects, I highly suggest this link: http://www.health-report.co.uk/saturated_fats_health_benefits.htm.

I would like to demonstrate here how I canned my pork lard. Note that there is no such canning guidelines per USDA's official website on homecanning, and what I did here is based on some other blogger's how-to's and some ideas I got from reading ancient ways of traditional canning done by US farmers as early as 1912 (I downloaded a whole book free from google's library).

As my avid readers know, our family has stores of homegrown pork, grass-fed beef, and chickens (I am lucky that my MIL/FIL takes care of the chickens for us, and the grass-fed beef came from my SIL/BIL's herd of cattles). The freshly-slaughtered pork is hung in the slaughterhouse for a day or two (to drain blood fully), then we are called to give them specific instructions as to the cuts we like. On the day the pig is cut, they (or I, if not pressed for time) vacuum-pack the cuts. My MIL wants her fat back salted. I want it saved for making lard. I also save the leaf lard to render the best lard to use for baking pastries. This process is quite intensive, but I like doing it, because there is less processing compared to getting lard from grocery stores, I don't want to waste them, they taste better for me (I use pork lard for deep frying donuts and meats), I know exactly the source, and leaf lard just makes the best pie crust. And it is expensive to get them anywhere else.








I prepare the jars and sterilize them first by putting them on a baking pan (lasagna pan) sterilized in the oven at 180 deg F for 30 minutes (this totally dries them up so that my lard would not get mixed with water).  I do the same to the lids.

Please note that I like using the wide mouth pint jars, because when I am ready to use the lard, I can easily use a spatula to get what I need. I have minimal lard remaining in the jar once I have used up all its content.

The cut then ground pork lard (or leaf lard; I do them separately) is placed in a wok cooked on low 
heat,  with occasional stirring to avoid sticking at the bottom and for even cooking.  Then when the cracklings are no longer sticky, and the oil has bubbled, then cracklings start to sink, that's the time I scoop the oil out, pass through several layers of cheesecloth on top of a fine strainer, poured directly into the sterile jar.  I then wipe the rim and immediately seal with a lid, leaving only 1/8 inch headspace.  This hot oil will solidify when completely cooled, and in the process, contracts a lot, creating a vacuum that sucks in the lid. I minimize the air because it tens to oxidize the fat, which causes rancidity (maanta).  Then once completely cooled, I check the seals by lifting by the lids without the bands. I then label them accordingly (either as leaf or pork, with the date) and keep in a cool, dark place.


For the pork cracklings themselves, at the end of oil rendering, these are still anemic and soft. I drain them further, then let them cool down. I then measure by 1/2 cups and place each cupful in a sandwich bag, squeeze out excess air, then tie, then all these bags of cracklings are placed in a big freezer ziploc bag that is vaccum sealed (I use the Ziploc vacuum sealer).

Now when I am ready to use the pork cracklings, I thaw a small bag, then stir fry this on medium until it gets aromatic and turns golden brown, flavoring it with garlic salt. Then I place on paper towel to get rid of excess oil. When cooled, I use this as topping for such things as palabok, lugaw, and ramen noodles.  I don't cook more than what I will be able to use, because if I keep the unused pork cracklings in a closed jar, they get soft and rancid after several days (I tried that before...I  ended up throwing them away).

As for the lard rendered that I use for deep frying or for pastry, if I am not able to use up a whole jar, I cover the top of the lard with cling wrap to minimize contact with air, thus preventing oxidation and rancidity. I then keep this in the fridge to further ensure freshness.

There!

Manang's Oven-Fried Pork Chops

Oven-Fried Pork Chops

Simple and one of our family favorites (because this is one of the rare dishes that even my husband loves)...oven-fried instead of deep-fried -- less grease, less mess. [My husband does not particularly like soy sauce-marinated pork chops...too bad because I love that as well. To him, the flavor is too overpowering and masks the natural goodness of pork flavor.]

Ingredients:
8 pork chops
1 box Oven Fry (You might not be able to use all of two packets)
3 eggs
1/4 to 1/2 cup Dijon Mustard

Knorr Pork Gravy mix prepared according to package directions.

Instructions:
Pretty much self-explanatory in the following video:
Pre-heat oven to 400° F. Coat wire rack with oil.
Wipe each chop with paper towel.
Mix eggs and Dijon Mustard well.
Dip chops in egg-mustard mixture. Shake off excess.
Coat generously each chop with the oven fry coating. Pat to coat well. Shake off excess coating.
Place on wire rack on baking pan.
Bake for 30-45 minutes (depends on thickness of chops).
Serve with pork gravy, rice or mashed potatoes, and salad greens.

BBB (Boiled, Broiled & Braised) Pork Liempo

Broiled Pork Liempo

Braised Pork Liempo

Actually, this particular Pork Liempo recipe was done in four "B" steps, which I did in a space of time:

1. BOIL - Place the liempo (about 3-5 pounds each cut)  in a pot of water (enough to cover) with 3 bay leaves, 5 cloves of garlic, 1 whole (peeled) onion, some salt to taste (do not overdo, as it is easier to sprinkle more salt when eating), 10 peppercorns, and optional celery.  Boil for about an hour.  Place on a cooling rack  and let drip-dry (or place in fridge overnight).  When I did this step, I boiled 3 such pieces, then after drying, I placed in a vacuum-sealed bag then froze, for future use.  I then used the same broth to par-boil chicken pieces for 20 minutes prior to deep-frying. Reserve the liquid. You can freeze about 3 cups of this liquid for each piece of liempo and place in a plastic cup to freeze, then thaw and use for the next step when you are ready.

2. BAKE - Place the rack in the second lowest level, and pre-heat oven to 350°F. Rub the liempo on all sides with your favorite spices (I like using garlic salt and ground pepper. The garlic salt I used here that shows in the photo also had some parsley flakes). Use 2-3 cups of the boiling liquid placed in a deep pan (I used 9x13 deep pan) to keep meat moist. Place liempo on a roasting rack and sprinkle extra spices on the skin. (Tip: If not sticking, spray some grilling oil on top then sprinkle the spices). Bake on the lower rack for 1-1/2 to 2 hours to further cook and make sure meat is tender. I baked/broiled two pieces of this so that we ate the plain broiled "lechon kawali"-looking liempo dipped in vinegar, then used the other piece for braising the next day.

3. BROIL - Set the oven to Broil on High, and time for about 30 minutes. Keep checking through the glass door if skin starts to bubble up and become crispy. You might have to rotate the meat around if heat is uneven. If skin tends to become crisp on some spots and other spots are not yet crispy, you can turn to Low Broil. Keep that meat in the lower rack, because it can easily burn if placed on higher rack while broiling.

Of course at this point, this looks like the Lechon Kawali, minus a lot of the fat/oil. You can then enjoy this plain dipped in vinegar-salt-pepper-garlic-onion mixture.  My sons and I had this as heavy merienda one afternoon.

4. BRAISE - I used the leftover sauce that I had when I tried hamonado a la ChefBitoy, so that the sauce already had that hamonado flavor before I used it to braise the liempo.

Ingredients:
1.36L pineapple juice
½ cup brandy
1/3 c soy sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1 head of garlic minced
2 med onions, minced
5 cinnamon bark or 1 tsp ground cinnamon
5 pcs star anise
1 tsp all spice powder
1 tsp ground black pepper

(As you will see in the slide show, the photo showing ingredients for hamonado included a ham in the bowl. We had that for supper, then I reserved the sauce for braising this liempo. Matipid talaga ako eh. Haha!). So, I placed the braising liquid in a wok, placed the crispy liempo on top and simmered for 30 minutes, occasionally scooping some liquid to pour on top of the liempo.

Instructions:

What I did not expect was the hubby would actually try and actually LIKED this! He looked at the sliced liempo with the sauce and removed the fat and savored the meat. I told him it was the pork belly that is often used for bacon, which I asked the slaughterers to not turn into bacon, but to just cut in slabs with the skin intanct. I also had one of my American friends taste this and she loved it.  You can serve this either with plain rice or mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.

7-Up Citrus Pork Chop

Today I used our grill for the first time this year. Because I had been meaning to try this 7-Up Citrus Marinade on pork chops. I got the marinade from Hannaford sometime last winter (the 7-up caught my attention, since Pinoy style barbecues and even fried chicken are usually marinated or cooked with 7-up. Unfortunately, the fried chicken pre-cooked with 7-up was not well-accepted by hubby. He said it was too sweet.) [Photo courtesy of Vita-Food Products].

I had 8 pieces of pork chops. I marinated 6 pieces in this 7-Up Citrus Marinade for 1.5 hours (Meanwhile, I was transplanting seedlings that I bought from a greenhouse into hanging baskets). I left two pieces unmarinated just in case hubby would not like the marinated ones, just like he did not like the 7-up cooked fried chicken. These I just flavored with salt and pepper, basted with bacon drippings.

I fired up the grill (it's now officially summer in my book!), and cooked the chops, basting with bacon drippings from time to time until I was satisfied with the doneness (I just gauge by the looks...no thermometer, no timing).

Served them while hot...oriented hubby which ones were plain and the marinated. To my surprise, he tried both, and tried the marinated ones first, and loved it! Maybe because the flavor was more of citrus, and that the flavor did not overpower the chops (since they were marinated less than two hours). Then he had a plain one and liked it too...Maybe it was the bacon drippings used for basting...

What a satisfying meal on this hot summery spring day!

Fiddleheads with Coconut Milk

I was craving for some vegetable-based dish one day, then one of my co-workers left a gallon bag full of fiddleheads inside the fridge for anyone interested to take home. The unit sec and I decided to divide that. That's what I cooked in a laing-inspired fashion, although I decided to add some vinegar toward the end of cooking.

My craving was satisfied, and my sons enjoyed it as well.

Ingredients:
1/4 lb pork liempo, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, sliced
2-3 tbsp patis (fish sauce)
1 (13.5 oz) can premium coconut milk (first press)
1/2 cup to 1 cup water
qt fiddle heads
salt and pepper to taste
dash of ground basil leaves
2-3 tbsp cider vinegar

Instructions:
Add about 1/4 cup water to pork and sautee until pork renders fat. Add salt and pepper. Add garlic and sautee until light brown. Add onions and sautee until caramelized. Add patis and let sizzle. Add coconut milk and fiddle heads. Add about 1/4 cup water and stir. Let simmer uncovered until coconut turns creamy (add water if it turns too dry). Season with salt, pepper and ground basil leaves. Add vinegar and let simmer another 5 minutes. Serve with plain rice.

Lukban Hardinera

Please welcome Jun Avila as my guest blogger for this post...Everything below is his own words...I got his permission to share this recipe. While I am too busy at the moment, I figure I'd post recipes shared by my online friends (with their permission, of course!) and probably blog about some gadgets of mine.  Bookmark it for your next handaan with your Pinoy friends because this one sure sounds like a winner!

Description:
WHILE most meat loaves have ground meat as base, there’s a kind of meat loaf in Lucban that instead uses diced pork. Called hardinera, it’s unique in other ways as well. For one thing, it’s cooked in a llanera, an oval pan commonly used for leche flan. For another, it is not baked in an oven, like most meat loaves, but is instead steamed.

What also makes it different is the garnishing of hard-boiled eggs, bell pepper strips and pineapple slices that go into the bottom of the pan. When inverted onto a serving platter, these garnishings form a colorful topping. The beaten raw eggs poured into the llanera form a coating that gives the hardinera the look of an aspic.

Ingredients:

¼ c cooking oil, divided
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 kilo pork kasim, diced into cubes
(See tips.)
1 tbsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1-2 c pork broth (See tips.)
1 c tomato sauce
1 c finely diced sweet mixed pickles or pickle relish
½ c diced frankfurters
1/3 c raisins
1 c canned pineapple tidbits, well drained
1 small can red pimiento, drained and diced
1 85-g can liver spread (1/3 c)
½ c grated Cheddar cheese
1 c bread crumbs
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
3-4 canned pineapple slices, each cut into 3-4 pieces
1 small green bell pepper, cut into fine strips
1 small red bell pepper, cut into fine strips
3 uncooked eggs

Directions:
Grease 3-4 small llaneras and line with banana leaves or with nonstick baking paper. Set aside.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large pan and sauté onions and garlic about one minute (do not let garlic burn).

Heat remaining 2 tbsp oil and add pork. Season with salt and pepper and stir-cook pork until brown.

Pour in pork broth and tomato sauce and simmer until pork is tender, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Meanwhile, mix together pickles, frankfurters, raisins, pineapple tidbits, red pimiento, liver spread, cheddar cheese and bread crumbs. Add the cooked pork. Do not include the sauce in which it was cooked. (See tips.) Mix until well combined.

Arrange slices of hard-boiled eggs, pineapple, and green and red pepper strips on the bottom of the prepared llaneras. Beat the 3 eggs and pour into llaneras, dividing equally. Spoon the pork mixture equally among the llaneras, pressing top to smoothen.

Cover tops of llaneras with foil and steam in a large steamer for about 45 minutes or until firm. If the four llaneras do not fit into the steamer, cook them in batches (two at a time).

To serve: Run a spatula or the dull edge of a knife along the sides of llaneras to loosen the jardinera. Invert onto a serving platter and tap llaneras lightly to release the jardinera. Remove llaneras and peel off banana leaves or baking paper before serving.

TIPS

Llaneras are small, oval-shaped aluminum pans often used for making leche flan. This recipe makes enough to fill four small llaneras.

If llaneras are not available, you can use loaf pans. The recipe can probably fill two loaf pans.

The pork should be diced into pieces slightly smaller than that used for menudo.

To make pork broth: boil one pork broth cube (or one pork bouillon cube) in 2 c water until cube dissolves. Use as per direction above.

Instead of pork broth, you can use plain water.

If desired, use the broth and the tomato sauce in which the pork was tenderized as sauce: Simmer in a small saucepan. Dissolve 1 tbsp cornstarch in ¼ c water and pour into sauce. Season to taste with salt, pepper and liquid seasoning. Simmer until slightly thick. Add one to 2 tbsp butter and heat until butter dissolves. Serve with the hardinera.

Drain the canned pineapple tidbits and the canned pineapple slices very well so mixture doesn’t become soggy.

Thanks for sharing this recipe, Jun!

Pork Hamonado

I was asked recently by two fb friends about a hamonado recipe. I presumed it was the pork, since that was what we always used to have when I was still in the Philippines. I did not really have a recipe, but I do remember my Nanay simmering a big cut of pork, usually pigue in lots of pineapple juice, flavored with soy sauce and brown sugar.

Ingredients:
1 pork ham (roast cut, about 5-6 pounds - whether cured or not, it won't matter)
1 liter pineapple juice (about 40 oz)
1 small can of pineapple, round slices, for garnishing (up to you if you want more)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 bay leaves
10 peppercorns

Instructions:
I slow cooked the whole ham in the pineapple, soy sauce, spices and brown sugar on high for about 4 hours (although my son disturbed the whole process by opening the lid after 3 hours, so instead of being completely done by the end of the 4 hours, it was still quite tough although done). I served this as is during the Filipino Christmas Party for the sake of our American hubbies (two attended, so that makes it three including my husband). Knowing my hubby would have liked it drier and more tender, I did not expect him to eat much of it since it was swimming in its own juice plus the pineapple juice and was very wet. But I did not have the time then to fix it some more to his liking. I did so the next day for supper using the big left over.

For those who will attempt to make it the way I did, the gist of the steps is: (1) boil ham in the mixture until just done, but will remain whole when lifted out of the pot instead of fall-off-the-bone tender; (2) remove fat and make the sauce; (3) roast ham with pineapple on top, basting from time to time with the sauce. They way I presented this recipe here is more like narration of how I made mine, adjusting under the circumstances. I encourage you to proceed as it suits yours.

To continue with the details of the next steps after boiling/simmering...

That night, I placed the big leftover ham in a roasting pan and left it out in the garage which serves now as my big refrigerator. The next day, I removed all the fat that solidified on top, then simmered the ham covered inside that roasting pan for about an hour, basting from time to time with the sauce. More fat shed oil, so that at the end of 1 hour (which assured me the ham was heated all the way to the middle), I used the fat separator in making the sauce. [Please take note that if you directly roast after slowcooking, you will not need to simmer again. I did this only to reheat before I roasted.]  Leaving about a cup of sauce in the pan, I transferred the rest to a small saucepan. I drained the juice off pineapple slices and placed the slices on top of the ham while I heated up the oven to 400 deg F. I placed the pan uncovered in the lower rack and started making the sauce in the saucepan. I just let it boil for about 10 minutes then started adding water-cornstarch mixture (about 1/4 cup of water with 2 tbsp cornstarch), and added in thin stream into the boiling sauce until it was thick as desired. Then I basted the roast/pineapple slices with this sauce about 3 times in intervals of 5 minutes, until the meat achieved a good browning and the pineapple slices were glazed good.

I took out the whole ham and placed it on a platter, then poured some more sauce on top, and had the rest of the sauce in a gravy boat for each person to pour as desired on their slices of ham. The ham remained intact as we sliced, yet very tender and done just to my husband's liking. And we shared with my in-laws, who found the taste delightfully good! This time, we had just a little left over, about 3/4 cup chopped meat, enough for me to make a small batch of pork hamonado siopao.

Crispy Pata, the Healthier Way

How do you cook crispy pata with less guilt? Use the oven!

No wasted gallons of cooking oil...no need for oversized pots....no splatters!

And you end up with crispy pata that has the crackled look on the skin, which has dripped some of its melted fat onto the pan it sits on (and you can even use the drippings to make pork gravy later)...

How to make crispy pata the healthier way?

This was a eureka moment for us... We were celebrating my friend Fe's birthday party last Saturday. As I said in my previous post, I brought pandan chiffon cake (which Fe and her son love!) Cecilia brought a big chunk of pork pata that she had been cooking since 3:30 am and still had not achieved the crunchy skin stage (we know about the skin being smooth and crunchy on traditional lechon...that's what we wanted to achieve). When we arrived at Fe's house, she was still out WORKING! But she was coming home soon, so we started to fiddle with her oven. We really did not know how to set the digital controls...We placed the pan on the lower third of the oven.

When she came back, we cooked rice...then she noticed the lechon...and that the oven was warm but not baking at that time she checked (off, in other words!). Cecilia went on to say, "Hindi pa malutong yung balat eh. Pano ba gamitin yang oven mo?" Fe checked, and said, "I-broil na lang natin." So she set her oven to broil.

After 5 minutes we took a look and saw what you see in the pictures on the slideshow above.

I then realized...the traditional way to cook chicharon or lechon kawali or crispy pata was to boil the pork/rind first in some mixture of water, vinegar and spices, then dry, then deep-fry. This accidental discovery was the short cut method in that you cook the pork first by roasting for about 3 hours to fully cook it (provided you brined the pork or flavored it somehow with spices prior, or placed spices like lemongrass, bay leaf, peppercorn, etc. underneath the roast while roasting, along with a sprinkle of garlic salt on the skin), then broil to create the crackled effect on the skin. (Did I not post about chicken skin chicharon, where I said I turn it to chicharon by using my nuwave to broil/bake the pre-cooked chicken skin? I also posted about smaller pork roast using the rotisserie after cooking/boiling and letting dry the chunk of pork pata.)

We wolfed down this roast in less than 30 minutes...nagpipigil pa so everyone (including our kids) can have his/her share! The thing was, we did not have Sarsa ni Mang Tomas! So we just made our own alternative dip of vinegar with chili, soy sauce, salt and pepper.

The cut that Cecilia brought had no skin underneath, but if you will try this method using pork pata with skin all around, I suggest that once the "cooking" phase is done and you are ready to broil the pata, use a wire rack to elevate the pata so the underside is open to hot air and is not soaked in juices, then after crisping the top, rotate so you crisp the bottom also (have not tried this, but it is an idea.)

Try it yourself! You won't regret it!

Pork Sesame Siopao (Pork Sesame Steamed Buns)

Pork Sesame Siopao

I have long posted about how I turn leftover beef pares into siopao or the baked version beef asado roll. Now I made use of leftover pork roast (the one with Mang Tomas Sarsa, but if you plan to do the same, you can also use the simple pork roast with just salt and pepper, or leftover meat from a whole lechon, as long as you remove the fat first).

I got the sauce ingredients from Gary Lee's WOK Appetizers and Light Snack cookbook. It has wonderful flavor! I brought these to my friend's birthday (along with Pandan Chiffon Cake) and our kids just gobbled them up in no time!)

Ingredients and Procedures:

2 cups leftover roasted pork (fat trimmed off, then meat chopped roughly)

-Sauce-

1 medium onion, chopped (optional)
1 tbsp oil (optional)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 cup water
2 tbsp oyster sauce

Trim fat and chop the meat, then set aside.
(optional) On medium heat, sautee onion in oil. [Since I had onions in my leftover pork, I skipped this part)
Mix all other ingredients and whisk well. Add to pan and whisk to cook until thick.
Add sauce to meat and mix well. Chill overnight or until cool enough to feel solid.

Dough (I used my favorite siopao dough for Parker House Rolls, as I posted in previous siopao entry)

4-3/4 to 5-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 envelopes RapidRise Yeast (1 env has 2&1/4 tsp)
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 large egg

Directions
In large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt. Heat milk, water, and 1/4 cup butter until very warm (120o to 130oF). Stir into flour mixture. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add egg and 1/2 cup flour; beat 2 minutes at high speed. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. Cover;* let rest 10 minutes.

Instructions to assemble:

Cut or pinch off dough into just a tad bigger than a pingpong ball and lay on greased baking sheet. Let rest for further 10 minutes to develop the gluten some more and give you more volume to play with as you fill each piece with the meat mixture.

Flatten each piece using your palm, making the edge thinner than the center. Scoop out roughly a tbsp of the filling and place at the center of the dough. Pull the edges to envelope the filling and pinch to seal. Place seam side up (if you want it smooth like I do), of you may want to do it the same way the Chinese make them (turn them into graceful pleats that are positioned at the top). Place on coffee filters cut into squares (cut in half, then fold and cut again, then trim off the rounded sides to come up with squares).

Boil about a cup of water with 1 tbsp of vinegar (I used distilled). Position the buns about 1-2 inches apart on the bamboo steamer lined with either flour sack or parchment paper. Spray with some oil to lessen possible sticking to the side of the steamer or to one another. Cover and steam on briskly boiling water for 12 minutes.

Transfer to wire rack to cool before storing in ziploc and refrigerating if not consuming right away. You can also freeze at this point (lay on pan first before stuffing them all into plastic bag. To reheat, microwave each piece for 30 seconds for chilled and 1 minute for frozen while still in its ziploc bag or use a covered plate (the idea is to let it steam again with its own juice, without drying it up). It will be piping hot, so let it sit at room temp for about 1 minute before you eat. If reheating a big batch, steam again, or you can try microwaving them in a covered container for about a minute then check for hotness/coldness and heat some more in increments of 30 seconds until you are satisfied that they are hot enough.

Pork Roasted in Mang Tomas Sarsa

Our supper menu on that day:
Pandelimon with butter (This is our favorite dinner roll)
Fresly picked cukes from my garden (sliced)
mashed potatoes
Pork Roasted in Mang Tomas Sarsa ng Lechon

Hubby loved it! And when hubby likes a food, it almost certainly is liked by everyone in our family. He is that picky. Ingredients are few and preparation is super simple! I just need to have time, so it is perfect on a day off when I have got so many chores to do.


Ingredients:
pork roast (butt cut maybe? spinal column at one side)
1 bottle of Mang Tomas All Purpose Sauce (Sarsa ng Lechon) (11.64 oz)
2 medium onions, sliced

Instructions:
I started this with the pork fresh from the freezer so total cooking time was 4 hours. If you are using non-frozen, you can cut the time to 3 hours for really well-done.
Place sliced onions at the bottom of roasting pan. Add the sauce and distribute evenly.
Place the roast on top. Cover. Place this on the lower rack of the oven and bake at 350 deg F for 3 hours (less if not frozen). (If you are planning to make pandelimon as well, start preparing the pandelimon after baking the pork for an hour, and that leaves you total of 3 hours to prepare the dough and bake them).
Uncover, and glaze the top of the roast with the sauce (which now contains a lot of juice from the pork itself). Continue baking for an hour uncovered, checking from time to time that sauce does not totally evaporate (may add little water as needed to keep a good volume). Also baste the roast repeatedly as needed for a nice glaze. (With pandelimon rolls, transfer the roast at the very bottom of the oven and bake the rolls on the upper rack, upper 1/3 of the oven, for about 12-15 minutes).

What to do with leftovers (you can only eat so much, you know!), gather all the sauce with onions, add some more water and stir to get all the flavor from the pan. Sieve through and catch all liquid into fat separator. Place this in a small saucepan and boil until reduced to a good amount and consistency. Meanwhile, shred the leftover pork meat, discarding the fat, then grind or roughly chop. Mix with the sauce. You can adjust the taste to your preference. Then you can use this for a differently flavored pork siopao (either steamed or baked).

How to Cook/Prepare The Perfect (Pork) Tocino

Tender, juicy, and glazed tocino without the burn (go ahead and click on the photo to see a closer and bigger look at it). My husband loves this so much that he can eat as much as 3 chops even if he is not really a big eater.

I am not talking about a recipe. Rather, I am talking about the method that I have been using to cook pork tocino to perfection (according to my standards, that is). This is my method on how to cook tocino without burning them and without turning my pan into a burnt mess. (If you want to know the recipe from DOST teknotulong website, I pasted it down below, so scroll down some more. But please be aware that I have not tried it.)

Method:
Whether or not you use your own recipe, maybe you will like this method as well. I still am using my Mama Sita tocino mix (I got tons of them since my husband expressed loving this pork "casino" -- he could not remember the right term).

I marinate 8 pork chops using 2 packets at least overnight to 1 day, keeping them in the chiller bin of my fridge, with frequent turning. Then I place them all, including the marinade, in a big saucepan, cover and boil. As soon as it boils, I turn down the heat to #2 or #3 and simmer for about 25 minutes. About 5 minutes before simmering ends, I heat up the oven on broil (hi), place the griddle on the rack at the upper third of the oven. I spray with just a little bit of oil to prevent the chops from sticking, then I dish out the chops and place them on the griddle. While waiting for the surface to dry up a bit, I reduce the sauce on the saucepan by boiling further on high until it is almost like runny sauce (If it is too thick and sticky already, it will be harder to brush on the chops and it might not be enough). I watch this carefully because it can easily burn. The resulting sauce has enough fat drippings so I still create the same effect as when I fry them in some oil, especially when the excess water finally evaporates while I broil.

Then I brush this sauce on top of the chops,

broil for about 1-2 minutes or until Isee the tops bubbly and the sugar is caramelizing, which makes the chops appear glazed, and the fatty parts kinda turn like charred.

Then I flip over and do the same on the other side.

This way, you get a nice browning, nice glaze, without scorching and without making it taste burnt! I guarantee you can proudly serve this to any fussy American meat-eater like my husband. (If you serve some burnt tocino, be prepared to have most of it thrown away. I have done so in the past, and it does not feel good to see my husband eat a few tiny pieces, with the scorched parts left on his plate, even if the meat underneath is still good. It even feels worse when I myself have to admit that it is unpalatable. I used to cook tocino on stovetop with conduction burner instead of flame, and it is hard to control the heat, especially if I want indirect low heat like when cooking tocino or rice. It is impossible not to burn because I cannot place my pan away from the heat; it is always in direct contact. If you have flame burners, it is more possible not to burn tocino even when cooked on saucepan alone, but browning every piece equally is better achieved through broiling.)

Now if you use chicken breast, butterfly the breast so it is thinner, cook for only about 15 minutes before broiling since chicken cooks faster than pork.

Sarap talaga ng tocino!

Now for the PORK TOCINO RECIPE from DOST Teknotulong website:
TOSINO (SALTED PORK)

Materials (see Procedure below for amounts):
Pork
Salt
Sugar
Salitre

Utensils:
Kitchen knife
Bowl with cover
Measuring spoon

Procedure:

1. Slice pork into 1 cm. thickness.

2. For every kg. of meat, mix the following ingredients and rub on both sides of the pork;11/2 tbsp. salt, 4-5 tbsp. sugar, 1/3 tsp. Salitre.

3. Place salted pork in a clean covered container and keep in a cool place or in a refrigerator for 3-5 days.

4. Wash a little and cook. Tocino will last for 1/2 month when kept in a refrigerator.

A Simple Roast Pork

It seems like chicken...haha! But this is a roast cut of pork, with spine and some ribs at one side (I don't exactly know what you call that kind of cut). I was looking at my freezer and was wondering what to prep for supper. I saw this roast cut...though there were several ligaments and fascia, the cut was very lean.

Very simple to prepare, all I added was kosher salt and freshly milled gourmet pepper. Straight from the freezer, I baked it at 350 deg F in that same roasting pan showed in the pic, which is the same material as my boiling water canner. The first 2 hours I exposed it, then I added the veggies (broccoli spears and zucchini) and baked covered for another hour.

Hubby at first frowned upon seeing it was mostly "red" pork meat (I am not sure what part of pork would be "white," although I have been seeing ads about pork being the "other white meat"), but he tried it anyway, and was surprisingly delighted at the very good flavor of the tender meat that he ate a full meal after all. My kids loved it (no surprise there! They are my #1 fans.)

Chicken and Pork BBQ (Pinoy style)

Every working Pinoy or even high school/college student probably has been exposed to the wonderful flavor of Pinoy-style BBQ. Merienda or lunch, it never fails to satisfy our tummy. The vendor who has the yummiest marinade can be guaranteed of income that will rival that of a blue- or even white-collared job in the Philippines, as long as he/she has the perfect spot - usually near schools or wet markets.

I was working with a nurse before, whose husband was laid off, and turned to selling lunch at work for extra income. We loved their BBQ. I, being a working mother then, did not have much experience in cooking save for the usual sautee, boil, fry, with my specialties being the leche flan and lumpia. I asked for their recipe for their BBQ, because back then I would only marinade mine in adobo mixture then grill...not achieving the results I wanted. Since I was already about to leave the Philippines, she told me what she did with the adobo marinade: add ketchup, sugar and 7-up. No recipes, really, but I had that in mind.

The closes recipe I saw online was that of ut-man's chicken BBQ, and with addition of some ingredients, here is now my recipe...

Ingredients and Instructions:
Meat (chicken or pork for me; about 2 kilos), marinated overnight or up to 3 days.

Marinade (amount of spices depends on your taste preference):
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup 7-UP
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 head garlic, crushed
1 tbsp. salt
1 tsp freshly milled black pepper
5 bay leaves
1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional; I wanted a slight kick in my BBQ)

For grilling:
Mix 1 tbsp cornstarch with 1/2 cup cold water.
Drain the meats and reserve the marinade. Boil the marinade and add the cornstarch/water mixture gradually to thicken the sauce. This makes it easier to stick to the meat when basting while grilling.
Grill the meats on one side until the surface is dry on that side. Turn over and baste with the boiled marinade. Do the same on the other side. Repeatedly do this until the meat is done.

Simple and yummily Pinoy!

Sisig (using Pork Face, of course!)

Sisig is hard to come by nowadays for the likes of me, transplanted from my beloved Philippines to this rural country.

Good thing, being a rural place that this states is, one time I had a pig's head which my in-laws did not like (they had their pig slaughtered and knew I wanted what they did not, so I got some pork goodies).

What else is there to do with a pig's head than to turn it to a Filipino classic ppulutan dish called sisig?

Of course, I turned to the internet to look for recipes (those of Market Manila and burntlumpia, in particular), and tweaked the method to suit what I have at home -- boiling then oven-roasting instead of deep-frying, before chopping. This takes about 2 days for me at least (boiling and drying separately from roasting and cooking the sisig per se).

Too bad that recently, somehow it seems that there is now a law prohibiting the slaughterhouses to reserve the head and the innards to give to the owners per request. During my first year here I was able to get the pork and beef intestines, and the pork head, but now I can't. I don't know if I can request from a grocery store, but then I do not trust meat from unknown sources (and I mean meat from pork/beef/chicken that we did not raise ourselves. If you are aware of the practices in animal farming here in the US, you would understand why). So this is a fond memory for me, having cooked sisig at least once in my lifetime, served during a Christmas gathering with my Pinay friends. It was literally heart-wrenching (after eating just a bit, we knew we had loads of fat from this dish), but was transported back to the Philippines for a while.

Ingredients:
pork head, boiled, deboned, chopped

BOILING
water enough to cover
10 or so peppercorns
2 bay leaves
salt (approximate depending on amount of water)
1 head garlic

ROASTING
spray of olive oil
sprinkles of garlic salt

SISIG PROPER (for about 3 cups of chopped pork face/ears)
1 big onion, chopped
3 chopped green chilies (amount depends on how hot you want it)
freshly milled black pepper
salt

crushed chicharon
sliced green chilies
vinegar
lemon juice

Instructions:
Boil the head in a big pot for about 30 minutes. Let drain. Dry out further by placing in the fridge atop a wire rack on a baking pan uncovered at least overnight (but do not overdo by drying more than 1 day).

When ready to roast, heat up the oven with the rack placed at the very bottom. Set to 450 deg F.

Take out the pig's head. You are going to use the whole ensemble. Brush or spray the pig's head with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic salt. Roast for 15 minutes then lower the heat to 350 deg F. Bake for 1 hour.

Separate meat/fat/skin from the bones. Chop, chop, chop.

At this point, you may want to freeze some for later use. You will not be able to consume the whole thing unless you have a whole barangay of Pinoys who would gladly have their share of this artery-constricting concoction.

Prepare the other ingredients. Heat up your cast-iron griddle (the wider the better) on high for about 5 minutes. Lower the heat to 6 or even 4 so as not to burn and place the chopped pork face. Stir, stir, stir until it renders it own fat. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add black pepper and salt to taste. Stir some more until it becomes fried in its own fat so it get a little crispy.

Drain the excess fat. Drizzle with vinegar and lemon juice. Adjust taste accordingly by adding salt and pepper. Top with chicharon and some more sliced chilies.

Pan-Fried Pork Chops

 

No embellishments except for salt and pepper to taste, and the olive oil used to grease the pan for frying. Although hubby likes pork tocino, he also loves the pure pork taste, ONLY when it is home-raised pork. He never likes the ones coming from the grocery store except when it is the smoked pork chops.

Easy to prepare, I sprinkled the salt and pepper to both sides of the pork chops, let them sit on a plate while I heated the pan up.

I heated the griddle on medium (#6) for about 5 minutes then sprayed with olive oil and placed the chops. I cooked one side for 2 minutes, flipped, turned heat to medium low (#4), covered the chops and cooked for 3-4 minutes more (or until juices run clear).

I served them to hubby with boiled potatoes and broccoli. He savored every bite with his eyes closed.

I ate mine with fried rice, and dipped in vinegar with garlic and jalapeno pepper. (drool!)

Smoked Pork Chops

 

Smoked Pork Chops is the only pork I buy from the grocery store (if you have been reading my blog for quite some time now, you know that we raise our own pig). This is because my husband loves this stuff. We all do, actually. We get the Smithfield brand, which has 5 thin pieces. During those days when I am on duty and not having anything cooking in the slow cooker, smoked pork chops served with green peas and potatoes or rice is one easy meal I can prepare within 10-15 minutes, as long as I remember to tell the kids to cook rice before I come home (or I tell them to do so while on my way). I wash a potato or two (for hubby and/or stepd), sprinkle with salt, cover with wet paper towel then cling wrap and microwave (each takes about 4 minutes). I start the peas and start heating up the pan. I butter the pan and cook each side of chop for about 4 minutes or until nicely browned.

Black-Eyed Peas and Zucchini Sautee

From black eyed peas

One of my favorite veggie-based dishes that is similar to the way I prepare guisadong munggo, I just interchange the black-eyed peas with green mung beans. Although distinctly different in taste, they both taste awesome to me, and my kids love it.




Ingredients:
1/2 cup black-eyed peas, cooked
1 tbsp oil
1/4 lb pork, sliced thinly (or use ground)
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
3 medium tomatoes (or 1-2 big), sliced
1 cup chicken broth (or water), or as you deem necessary
1/4 lb shrimps, shelled
salt and pepper to taste
dash of ground basil
1 zucchini, sliced thinly

Instructions:
Soak black-eyed peas for 30 minutes. Drain and rinse well. Add water enough to cover up to about 1 inch above the BEP and boil, then lower heat to simmer 30-45 minutes or until done, stirring occasionally, making sure you don't run out of water.

When BEP are done, heat oil and sautee pork for about 5 minutes or until brown and tender, followed by garlic then onions until translucent. Add tomatoes and keep stirring. When tomatoes turn saucy, add the BEP, broth/water, salt and pepper, and ground basil. When boiling, add zucchini slices and shrimps and cook uncovered, stirring frequently until zucchini is tender and shrimps turn pink.

Eat alone or with plain rice.

Honey Garlic Pork Roast

From Honey Garlic Pork Roast

I made this using the shoulder butt roast ("butt" cut as explained by hubby is any cut that they could make out of a poor area to cut due to many ligaments/fats. In Tagalog, "bara-bara"). Since this roast cut is the equivalent of a chuck roast in beef, I decided to slow cook it. Hubby loved the flavor of this sauce, and it reminded my sons and I of adobo. I got the recipe from allrecips.com but it was using pork ribs.

Ingredients:
shoulder butt roast
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp + 2 tsp soy sauce (that's 40 mL)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground mustard.

Instructions:

Brown all sides of roast.
Prepare sauce. Pour some on the slow cooker.
Place roast underside up in the slow cooker and pour some sauce.
Flip roast over and pour the rest of the sauce, distributing well all over surface.
Cover and slow cook for 4 hrs on high (or 8 hrs on low)
Let rest on a platter for 10 mins before slicing.
Serve with your favorite sides (photo here shows rice, chop suey, and basic egg bread)

Pork Sinigang (Sinigang na Baboy)

Although hubby is not too welcoming of any dish with thin soups (except New England Boiled Dinner, but he leaves the soup out), I and my boys still crave them, and this sinigang is one of the favorites. Of course, sinigang can make use of pork, shrimps, or fish. I have not tried sinigang na manok, although I love sinampalukang manok (I just don't have access to the tamarind leaves).

So, for my boys who love this dish, it is very simple and easy to make as long as you have sinigang mix, whether Mama Sita's or Knorr.

Ingredients:
1 lb pork cuts (some fat is desirable)
2 bay leaves
3 cloves garlic
10 peppercorns
3 big tomatoes, cut in half
1 big onion, cut in half
salt
water to cover meat and veggies
1 eggplant, cut in wedges
handful of okra (optional)
1 icicle radish, sliced across thinly (about 1/4 cm)
2-3 pcs taro or gabi (optional)
handful of green beans (sitao if you have)
sinigang mix
1/2 of cabbage

Procedure:
Boil pork with bay leaves, garlic, peppercorns, onions and tomatoes, with 1 tbsp salt for about 30 minutes. Add the veggies except cabbage and cook another 5 minutes. Add sinigang mix and some more salt to taste. Add cabbage and cook another 2 minutes or so. Eat with plain rice.