Pork Afritada (Braised Pork in Tomato Sauce)

Ingredients:
1 lb. pork, cut into serving pieces
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced
1 tbsp. patis (fish sauce)
4 potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 cup water
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
2 tbsp. fine breadcrumbs (or flour, or cornstarch)
vegetable oil

How to cook Pork Afritada:

• Put pork in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Let stand 10 to 20 minutes.
• Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir-fry pork pieces until no longer pink in color and turn lightly brown.
• Add and sauté garlic until fragrant. Stir in onion until soft and translucent. Season with patis and then add potatoes, stir-fry for a few minutes.
• Pour in water and tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer covered for about 25 to 30 minutes or until pork is cooked and potatoes are tender.
• Add in bell peppers and stir to blend. Correct seasonings. Thicken sauce with breadcrumbs (or flour, or cornstarch, if using). Stir and blend and let simmer for another few more minutes.
• Remove from heat. Transfer to a serving dish and serve hot.

Nilagang Baboy (Boiled Pork with Vegetables)

Ingredients:
1 lb. pork (choices of belly, hocks, neck or any bony parts of pork), cut into serving pieces
5-6 cups water
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, quartered
2 green onions (scallions), sliced into 1” long
1/4 tsp. peppercorn
salt to taste
2 eddoes- also known as taro or gabi, quartered (optional)
2 potatoes, quartered
1 can pork and beans 
pechay (bok choy) or cabbage leaves

How to cook Nilagang Baboy:

• Place pork in a big pot and let it covered with water. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer until pork is tender for about an hour.
• Remove all the resulting scum that will rise to the top of the pot.
• Add crushed garlic, sliced onions, scallions, peppercorn and season with salt.
• Add quartered eddoes (if using) and potatoes. Cook until tender.
• Add the pork and beans. Simmer for 5 minutes. Correct the seasoning.
• Add pechay or cabbage leaves. Do not overcook the green vegetables.
• Remove from heat. Serve hot.

Sweet and Sour Pork

Ingredients: 

1/2 kilo pork loin, sliced into pieces

1 small can pineapple chunks

1 large onion, quartered

1 red & 1 green bell peppers, sliced into strips

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

3 tablespoons of peanut oil

4 tablespoons of cornstarch

3 tablespoons of ketchup

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

3 cloves of minced garlic

How to cook Sweet and Sour Pork:

• In a pot, boil pork in 2 cups of water with 1/2 teaspoon of salt until tender, then drain (keep the pork stock for later).
• Mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and soy sauce then coat the pork with the cornstarch mixture.
• Fry the pork in a skillet until golden brown, set aside.
• Dissolve the remaining 2 tablespoons of cornstarch on 1/2 cup of pork stock - set aside.
• Sauté garlic and onions on oil, then add the bell peppers, pineapple chunks (including the syrup), ketchup, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the dissolved cornstarch. Stir until sauce thickens.
• Pour over fried pork then serve with rice.

Crispy Pata

Ingredients: 

1 Pata (front or hind leg of a pig including the knuckles)

1 bottle of soda (7Up or sprite)

1 tablespoon of salt

2 tablespoons patis (fish sauce)

1/2 tablespoon baking soda

1 tablespoon of monosodium glutamate (MSG)

4 tablespoons of flour

Enough oil for deep frying

Enough water for boiling

How to cook Crispy Pata:

• Clean the pork pata by removing all hairs and by scraping the skin with a knife. Wash thoroughly.
• Make four to five inch cuts on the sides of the pata.
• On a deep stock pot, place the pata in water with soda and salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Then add the baking soda and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.
• Remove the pata from the pot and hang and allow to drip dry for 24 hours. An alternative to this is to thoroughly drain the pork pata and refrigerate for a few hours.
• After the above process, rub patis on the pata and sprinkle flour liberally.
• In a deep frying pot, heat cooking oil and deep fry the pork pata until golden brown.
  

Crispy Pata Dip Sauce:

Mix 3/4 cup of vinegar, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, 1 head of diced onion and 1 hot pepper. Salt and pepper to taste.

 

Pork Menudo

Ingredients: 

1/2 kilo pork (cut into small chunks)

1/4 kilo pork liver (cut into small cubes)

5 pieces chorizo Bilbao (also cut in small pieces)

4 potatoes (peeled, cut in small cubes, fried)

1 green and 1 red bell pepper (diced)

1 cup chickpeas

1/4 cup raisins

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 cup pork or chicken stock

2 teaspoons of patis (fish sauce)

3 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon atsuete oil (optional)

3 tomatoes (diced)

1 small head of garlic (minced)

1 medium size onion (diced)

How to cook Pork Menudo:

• In a pan or wok, heat cooking oil and atsuete oil.
• Saute garlic, onion. Then add the pork, liver, chorizo de Bilabo, tomatoes, bell pepper, paprika, patis and the stock.
• Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the pork is tender.
• Add the chickpeas, potatoes and raisins. Boil of another 2 minutes.
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve hot with white rice.

Pork Kilawin

Ingredients: 

1 kilo pork

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup Vinegar

2 medium onions, chopped

4 cups of water

1 teaspoon salt

How to cook Pork Kilawin:

• In a casserole, put pork in water and some salt.
• Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes or until the pork is tender and the skin is soft.
• Remove pork from water.
• Slice the pork into bite sized pieces while still hot.
• Place in a bowl and add vinegar, soy sauce and chopped, uncooked onions.
• Serve immediately!

Sinigang na Baboy

Ingredients:

3/4 kilo Pork, cut into chunks 

3 tomatoes, sliced

2 onions, diced

5 cloves of garlic, minced

100 grams Kangkong (river spinach)

100 grams String beans

2 pieces horse radishes, sliced

3 pieces gabi (taro), pealed

2 pieces sili pag sigang (green finger pepper)

200 grams sampalok (tamarind)

3 tablespoons of patis (fish sauce) 

1 liter of rice wash or water

How to cook Siningang na Baboy:

• Boil sampalok in water until the shell shows cracks. Let cool then peal off the shells and with a strainer, pour samplalok (including water) into a bowl. Gently massage the sampalok meat off the seeds, strain again.
• In a pot, sauté garlic and onion then add the tomatoes. Let simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add pork and fish sauce then add the rice wash. Bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes then add the gabi. Continue to simmer for another 15 minutes or until the pork is tender.
• Add the horse radish and simmer for 10 minutes then add the string beans, kangkong and sili (for spice-optional). Let boil for 2 minutes.
• Serve piping hot.

Cooking Tip:

• Instead of sampalok fruit (tamarind), you can substitute it with any commercial souring seasoning like Knorr sampalok seasoning or tamarind bouillon cubes for this pork sinigang recipe.