Considering the amount of content I am able to publish in my food blogs, some people think I spent quite a lot of time in the kitchen. “A lot” is relative, I grant you that. As a rule, I don’t spend more time in the kitchen than I have to. I do like preparing good meals but that doesn’t mean I am okay with three hours of preparation. In fact, one reason I so love cooking stews is because I just need to put everything in the pot and let everything cook slowly. But since we can’t have stews everyday, I have developed some neat tricks to cut my cooking time and save myself the trouble of constant peeking, stirring and checking if the liquid has dried up.
One of those tricks is to cook meat in bulk, divide and store in individual containers. That way, when I want to make a sauteed or stir fried meat and vegetable dish, all I need to do is to throw the already cooked meat in hot oil. No more waiting for it to cook until tender because it is already tender. I just add the veggies, season everything and presto! The meal is cooked in less than 30 minutes.
Note though that I only do this trick with large uncut pieces of pork and beef, never with chicken. The more important thing — I cook the boiled meat within a few days. I don’t let them sit in the fridge for more than a couple of days. Why? Uncovered, they become dry. Covered, they get moldy after some time. Put them in the freezer to avoid molds and the texture of the meat just turns terrible.
Yesterday morning, I simmered a 1.5 kilogram slab of pork belly until tender. I transferred the meat to a plate to cool, then I divided it into three portions. I reserved one portion for lunch and the remaining two went into separate covered containers in the fridge. The broth was stored separately.
The photo on the right shows the pork and baguio beans with oyster sauce that we had for lunch yesterday. The photo on the left shows the pancit canton that we had for lunch today. I haven’t decided yet what I’ll do with the last portion of pork belly in the fridge. But I will have to cook it tomorrow at the latest.
The recipes for the two dishes above will be posted in a bit. 
when the already boiled meat is used in stir-fry, does it yield as much flavor as fresh meat for gisa?
oh! and when you want to get your meat sort of brownish when you stir fry, do you use high heat? mine always come out sorta burned e…
can one make beef strips brownish and crispy in a stir-fry?
ms connie,
that’s a really neat trick! i do almost the same; when i come home from the grocery, i chopped up all the meat and chicken according to the dish im making for the days coming up coz i try to have a menu for a week. like pork belly for instance, i know one dish would be to put them in the oven (your recipe with dried herbs), the remainders would be to cut them up for menudo and if there are any leftovers, i just cut them in really small pieces and i know i can use them for ginasa, i can add them in munggo or i can use them in pansit. i find that taking that extra time to cut up all the meat after i come home, saves me the trouble of trying to thaw the meat either in the microwave (i know it’s bad). like for tomorrow i’ll be making fried chicken, i took them out of the freezer and put them in the fridge this morning, by the time i come home tonight, it should be just thaw enough that i can add my seasonings and marinate it in buttermilk overnight and fry them up tom. same goes for tomatoes, green/red pepper, i’ll cut them up and freeze them separately! enjoy!
Thanks for that idea! I always “recycle” our left over, like cutting meat for fried rice or fish lumpia from left over steamed fish. One question though, how long can you keep the broth inside the refrigerator? Or is it better to freeze them? Another thing (sorry dami pala questions!
) what are the spices you put to simmer the meat?
Thanks & more power!
jamie, yes high heat. Re crispy meat in stir fry. You will need to deep fry the meat separately before stir frying. Re will precooked meat be as flavorful. You will have to try it to find out.
o di ba dhay? Tipid sa oras?
Janete, in the fridge, no more than a couple of days. When I freeze broth, I still use it within two weeks. Re spices, there is an old entry about making broth. You can use the search box for that.
ms. connie, in one of your recent trips to baguio, u mentioned about a delicious longganisa ‘located at the back of a seminary . .in an old Laurel house’. can u please give me the exact address of the place? how to get there? any landmarks? thank you. LOLIT
lolit, i posted directions in the comment thread of the baguio entry.
Hello! its my first time to visit your site… When we go to grocery, we always buy ground pork 1 kilo or more then boiled it with little water in the fan then after that the water disappear… the oil will come out in the meat. Stir fry until golden brown…. put away excess oil…. then put minced garlic and onion then sautéed… leave it cool and put in small containers… and put it in the freezer.
it will be easy for me to cook food easily with less time…. like cooking pansit…. making soup…… spaghetti ( i cook spag a lot).
When my mom cook menudo…. i wish there’s a leftover so that in the morning we could have menudo omelets…… yummy! how to make it? put away the excess sauce…. cut into small parts all the ingredients of the menudo leftover….. mixed it with eggs then cook it in the fan…. or you may cook the egg first put the menudo on top (right-side) then fold it…. serve while it is hot….. you can also use the menudo sauce and pour it on top.