I love sisig. Everyone in my family does. But, for the life of me, I can’t cook sisig — it just entails too much work from cleaning the pig’s head to the boiling to the grilling to the chopping… It’s just easier to order sisig in restaurants where it is a specialty. These days, however, ... (more)
Grilled herbed liempo (pork belly) and potatoes
Posted on February 10, 2007 · 33 Comments
Pork, the much maligned meat. In the forums, Ann, who works in Riyadh, says they try to cook Filipino food despite the absence of pork. JMom, in Durham, NC, sympathized because, being “such a porker, I wouldn’t know what to do if I had to live without it!” Well, my family loves pork, bad press ... (more)
Pork and mushrooms adobo
Posted on February 7, 2007 · 36 Comments
Mention Filipino cooking and adobo comes to mind. For some reason, the dish itself is an unequivocal declaration of being Pinoy. I like the way The Wily Filipino puts it: “It’s an unambiguous declaration of ethnic presence, an olfactory attack on the mainstream: We’re here and you can smell it… adobo is uncomplicated, a symbol ... (more)
Adobong pata ng baboy (pork hock) at sitaw (string beans)
Posted on January 30, 2007 · 3 Comments
There are two versions of adobong sitaw in my archives, one using liempo (pork belly) and, the other, using ground pork and topped with hard-boiled eggs. I was wondering if pork pata meat could further improve an already excellent dish. And I also wondered how far one pata could go. See, we’re having some woodwork ... (more)
Pork and vegetables mami (noodle soup)
Posted on January 21, 2007 · 3 Comments
The girls are due home at around four o’clock this afternoon from a three-day community service field trip to the pawikan reserve in Morong, Bataan and I am whiling away the time productively — trying to, at least (what a slow and quiet day without the kids in the house) until Speedy and I have ... (more)
Ground pork and vegetables frittata
Posted on January 3, 2007 · 20 Comments
It’s the first school day of 2007 and we’re back to waking up at dawn and preparing the kids’ packed school lunches. My husband had some kind of amnesia and woke everybody up an hour earlier. He thought that the school bus would be coming at 6.00 a.m. when, in fact, it arrives at 7.00 ... (more)
Braised pork spare ribs
Posted on December 12, 2006 · 53 Comments
Cut the pork spare ribs; brown in hot cooking oil; add finely chopped garlic and onions, and ginger; season with salt, light soy sauce, hot sauce and brown sugar; pour in about three cups of water; bring to a boil; lower the heat and simmer for an hour and a half. Serve with mashed potatoes with some grated parmesan cheese stirred in. If that’s not easy, I don’t know what is. 
Adobong sitaw 2
Posted on October 20, 2006 · 27 Comments
I have an older recipe for adobong sitaw where I used small cubes of pork belly. This time, I used ground lean pork.
Is there much difference? Well, adobo is basically a fatty dish. It just doesn’t taste right unless there is some fat in the meat and the sauce. So, using ground lean pork does make a difference. I suppose it’s a matter of what is right for you…
Tokwa't baboy as a stew
Posted on September 27, 2006 · 3 Comments
The taste isn’t much different from the traditional tokwa’t baboy since the ingredients are practically the same. It is the texture that makes this dish unique. The thickened sauce, sticky from the broth in which the pork face was simmered, is just perfect for pouring over hot rice. I made three deviations from my father’s recipe though. 1) I omitted the salted yellow beans which my kids are not so fond of; 2) I browned the pork ears and nguso in the oven after simmering them to make them chewy rather than mushy; and, for that added color and zing, 3) I sprinkled chopped wansuy (cilantro) over the cooked dish just before serving.
Pinakbet without bagoong
Posted on September 18, 2006 · 36 Comments
The title of the entry sounds sacrilegious, I know. Pinakbet without bagoong. Well, tough. I am allergic to bagoong (shrimp paste) and even its fish version. In fact, there are certains brands of patis (fish sauce) that do not agree with me as well. Ironically, I love the Ilocano classic dish called pinakbet–not for the bagoong-flavored sauce but for the wonderful mixture of vegetables. And I always felt a little deprived when, growing up, everyone in the family could enjoy a hearty meal of pinakbet except me.
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