DFJ and I went to New Jersey to visit my aunt a few
weekends ago. She spoiled us with lots of delicious Filipino food, which
rekindled my hunger for foods that remind me of home.
Upon our return, I made mung bean stew which turned
out really wonderful and reminded me of my mom’s recipe. Unfortunately, since
it was a test run and made from intuition, the process was not recorded.
Someday soon, I hope to make it again. Since our visit, I have made DFJ’s
favorite, ground beef with go chu jang
(Korean red pepper paste), a soba noodle dish with stir fried veggies, and lots
of rice.
Today, I will share a recipe that is reminiscent of lechon paksiw (a vinegar stew of
leftover roasted pig). Lechon Paksiw
is one of my favorite Filipino foods. Whenever Filipinos have big parties or
celebrate important events, lechon or
roasted pig is often the main star. The best part about having a lechon at a party is the leftover that
is turned into a paksiw (anything
cooked for a long time with vinegar). Although this recipe is not quite a paksiw, it certainly reminds me of it.
First of all this dish has a sort-of-sweet,
hunger-inducing aroma. The sauce, which has a good dose of tamari and fish
sauce, is perfectly salted. It is also infused with the cool spiciness of
ginger that hits you in the most pleasantly surprising way. The black pepper
makes it slightly spicy, just enough to make you feel a little tingle in the
back of your throat. The pork is well-flavored with all the elements that it
was cooking in and is amazingly soft and tender.
I recommend making some rice to go along with this
dish and then spooning a bit (or a lot) of the sauce over your rice. When you
do so, it gives your whole meal a lot of authenticity. Us, Filipinos, like to
pour soup and sauces over rice, even the sauces that are shiny with pork fat
bubbles (like this one). But that’s what makes it so damn good! When we were in
New Jersey, my cousin mentioned that he likes food that has soul in it. And to
me, this one does… it tastes like a dish you long for when you are far, far
away and homesick for your mom and her cooking. When I savored bite after bite
of this during dinner last night, I felt like I have gone back to my childhood
home where delicious smells of food always wafted from the kitchen, morning,
noon, or night.
Braised
Black Pepper Pork (Makes 4 servings)
Adapted from: The
Food and Cooking of Malaysia and Singapore, Indonesia and The Philippines
by Ghille Basan, Terry Tan, and Vilma Laus
4 cups water
2 tablespoons tamari (soy sauce)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
½ teaspoon salt
2 bay leaves
2 leeks, sliced in thin rounds (remove unedible
parts)
1.25 oz ginger, peeled and sliced thin
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
1.25 lbs pork chops, chopped into cubes, bones
included (2 pork chops)
Combine the water, tamari, fish sauce, salt, bay
leaves, and leeks in a medium size cooking pot. Turn the heat on to medium and
bring to a boil.
When this flavored mixture boils, add in the ginger,
garlic, black pepper, sugar, and pork chops. Stir well to move the ingredients
around in the pot. Turn the heat down to medium low and cover the pot. Cook for
an hour, stirring occasionally. When it starts to boil, just open the lid a bit
and continue to cook. After one hour, remove the lid and cook for another 30
minutes, uncovered. Stir occasionally.
This
is so good served with rice and some stir-fried veggies. So, while this is
cooking, make some rice, then prep, and stir-fry your veggies.
If you need recipes
for stir-fried veggies, feel free to browse around here. I have tons!
Hope you
will love this dish as much as we did!
This reminds me of a recipe that my mom used to make that she called "knockout knuckles". I just did a google search for such a recipe, but it's telling me that a recipe by that name is Patang bawang but the pictures of that don't look like what my mom used to make :( When she comes back from the Philippines, I will ask her to teach me how to make it.
ReplyDeleteBut this dish looks AMAZING! It definitely has soul in it ;)
I love that you're sharing some traditional meals with us! I love finding authentic recipes for Asian foods online...sometimes it's so hard to tell what's real and what's Americanized!
ReplyDeleteLooks so delicious -- this reminds me of ba kut teh :)
ReplyDelete