Beef is a great source of iron, protein and B vitamins like Vitamin B6, which helps strengthen our immune system, and Vitamin B12 which helps the normal functions of brain and nervous system and blood formation. It is also recommended that we have to eat beef twice a week with a serving size of a 3 to 4 ounces per serving or just a size of a deck of cards.

Well, I got to know all of these information during my son’s Nutrition Month celebration a while ago. It was very entertaining watching my son dancing with the tune of “Makulay ang Buhay sa Sinabawang Gulay” and very informative listening to Nutrition Tips given by the gradeschoolers.

Anyway, here is my recipe for BISTEK or FILIPINO BEEF STEAK or BEEF STEAK TAGALOG.

1/2 kilo beef strips

for marinade/sauce:

1 cup soy sauce
1/4 calamansi juice
3 tbsp. Kikkoman soy
1 tsp. pepper
cooking oil
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
3 medium white onion, peeled and cut into rings
1 cup water

Wash the beef with running water. Drain.

Pound the beef strips with mallet to easily tenderize the meat.

In a bowl, combine soy sauce, calamansi juice, kikkoman soy and pepper. Adjust flavor by adding any of the seasonings.

Divide the mixture into two. Half is for the marinade and the other is for the sauce. Place the half in a sealed container and store in the ref. Place the other half of the soy mixture as the marinade on a large container.

Slip on the beef strips. Mix until it is well blended.

Store in the ref (not in the freezer) for overnight.

To cook BISTEK:

Get the marinated beef and the half of the soy mixture out of the fridge. Separate the beef strips with the marinade sauce.

Heat pressure cooker on medium heat. Swirl oil and saute garlic and add the beef. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add the soy mixture and 1 cup water. Then seal in the pressure cooker. Cook for 20-25 minutes.

When the 20 minutes are up, release the pressure from the pot according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Then add the onion rings. Cook for another 5 minutes.

You may add water, salt, pepper, soy sauce or calamansi juice to adjust the flavor. Serve with rice.

*** If you are not using a pressure cooker, you may traditionally cook the beef until it is tender.

I have posted a DINAKDAKAN recipe few months ago wherein, I used mayonnaise and some seasonings. When my mom read that post, she suggested me that she will make a DINAKDAKAN with dressed with real pig’s brain as long as I give the credits to her. So this time, it’s my mom’s recipe of the authentic Ilocano cuisine of DINAKDAKAN without the substitute for
pig’s brain.

DINAKDAKAN (with pig’s brain)

pig’s brain (you may ask this from your local meat vendor)

1/2 kilo pig’s ear, pig’s skin (or just simple ask the vendor any pork meat for Dinakdakan)
1 kilo slab of pork
3 cups medium white onion, peeled and chopped
1/4-1/2 cup calamansi juice
1/4 cup mayonnaise
salt
pepper
red chili peppers, chopped

Place pig’s brain in a small plastic (plastic for ice making will do). Tie the plastic soas water will not enter the plastic.

Put in a small saucepan and pour water, about 1/2 liter water.

Bring to simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove the plastic from the water and place pig’s brain on a plate.

Put pig’s ear, skin and meat on a large saucepan or pot. Add 1 liter of water. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring to boil and cook until tender, about 30-40 minutes. Remove from broth.

Grill with charcoal or with automatic griller the meats.

Chop skin, ear, meat into small pieces.

Place chopped meats in a large bowl.

Add about 2-3 tablespoon of cooked pig’s brain, mayonnaise, white onion, calamansi juice,red chili peppers, salt and pepper. Mix until well blended. Adjust flavor by adding salt or calamansi juice.

Serve.

ADOBONG BABOY (PORK ADOBO)

1 kilo pork belly/pork chop/pork liempo, sliced according to desired size (thin, thick, cube)
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 cups water
6 bay leaves (laurel leaves)
12-15 pieces black peppercorns
1/4 cup cane vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp. fish sauce (patis)
6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
3 medium onions, peeled and quartered

Wash pork with thoroughly with running water and drain.

Place pork meat in a saucepan or skillet. Pour on water and soy sauce. Add in bay leaves, black peppercorns, garlic and onions.

Cook in a medium heat, covered until meat is tender.

Add in cane vinegar, fish sauce and sugar. Adjust the flavor according to desired taste by adding more soy sauce, vinegar water o sugar.

Simmer until sauce is thick and meat is tender.

Serve your best ADOBONG BABOY with steaming white rice.

DINUGUAN

1/2 kilo pork belly
1/4 kilo pork intestines, cleaned thoroughly
1/4 kilo pork liver
3-4 cups fresh pig’s blood
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 cup green kamias, thinly sliced (optional)
5 green chili peppers
3 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 medium ginger, peeled and minced
2 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup vinegar
1 bay leaf (laurel)
salt
pepper (optional)

Simmer and cook pork belly, pork intestines and pork liver with 1 liter of water for about 30-40 minutes.

Remove meats from saucepan and cut the belly, intestines and liver into small slices. Set aside broth.

In a separate skillet or saucepan, heat cooking oil and saute garlic, ginger and onion.

Add sliced pork belly, liver and intestines.

Season with salt and pepper. Add vinegar then cook for about 3-5 minutes.

Add 2 cups of pork broth. Bring to simmer. Cook for 5-10 minutes more.

Slowly pour in pork blood, stir continuously so as the blood mixture won’t clot.

Add kamias, green chili peppers. Season with salt.

Simmer in a low heat until sauce is thick.

Serve while hot with steaming white rice or white puto.

GINISANG KALABASA is a hearty, hefty, and simple Filipino vegetable dish sautéed in fresh shrimp paste. If you have allergies with shrimp paste or you simply not acquainted with it, you can season the dish with salt as a replacement. Still, you will get almost the same taste of Ginisang Kalabasa. Pinoy vegetable dishes are best paired with a fried fish and steaming white rice and a dip like bagoong with kalamansi or soy sauce with vinegar.

GINISANG KALABASA

1/4 cup cooking oil
1 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2 onion heads, peeled and quartered
1/4 kilo porkloin, diced
1/2 to 3/4 kilo squash, peeled, seeded, cubed
5-8 pieces okra, head removed
1 cup string beans, cut into 3 inches long
2 tbsp. shrimp paste (alamang)
1 tsp. fish sauce (patis)
salt

Cook sliced porkloin with water until tender. Set aside.

Heat a large wok over medium-high heat. Swirl in the cooking oil, then
add the garlic and onion. Saute for 30 seconds.

Add in the cooked porkloin. Cook until pork turned light golden brown.

Add shrimp paste. Saute for about 2 minutes.

Add squash, okra and string beans, stirring constantly for 2 minutes.

Pour in the pork broth and bring the to a simmer, and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly until vegetables are cooked.

Serve.

SINIGANG NA BABOY (Pork in Tamarind Soup)

½ kilo pork ribs or porkloin, chopped
4 cups water
1 medium onion, quartered
4 ripe tomatoes, quartered
1 medium taro rootstock or gabi, cubed
A handful of tamarind (sampaloc)
A handful or more sitaw or stringbeans, cut into 2” long
Salt
Fish sauce or patis

Bring the water to simmer in a large stock pot. Place the tamarind in a strainer, cook and mash them in the boiling until they are softened, allowing the tamarind juice blend in the water, then set the strainer aside.
Add pork, taro (gabi), onion and tomatoes. Cook until meat is tender.
Mash some of the taro to make the soup thick.
Season with salt and fish sauce.
Few minutes before you remove the pot from heat, add the vegetables. Do not overcook.
Serve hot with white rice.

Vegetable variation:

stringbeans or sitaw
eggplant or talong
okra
river spinach or kangkong
radish or labanos

I got inspired by Tokyo Tokyo’s advertisement, Pork Tonkatsu, which seemingly mouthwatering and satisfying deep-fried pork fillet seasoned with Japanese flavorings. But instead of trying to do a Japanese style Tonkatsu, I cooked the all-time favorite BREADED PORK CHOPS. I love the crispiness of the bread crumbs coating the pork chops with the lemon, salt and pepper seasoning. Nobody will ever go wrong with this Breaded Pork Chop. It is so simple and so easy. Breaded Pork Chop will surely not eat much of your time but will certainly be eaten much by your loved ones.

BREADED PORK CHOPS

1/2 kilo pork chop  (3-4 pieces)
1 egg
1 tbsp. calamansi juice
cooking oil
bread crumbs
salt
pepper

Wash pork chops with running water. Thoroughly wipe dry the fillets with paper towel.

Rub calamansi juice, salt and pepper to the pork chops. Marinate for10-20 minutes.

Beat egg with salt and pepper on a bowl. Set aside.

Pour bread crumbs on a plate.

Heat large frying pan over medium high heat. Pour enough oil as to deep fry the Breaded Pork Chops.

Dip one pork chop in the beaten egg thinly. Hold the dipped pork chop above the bowl so the excess beaten eggs drips off .

Coat the pork chop with bread crumbs evenly. Shake off excess bread crumbs.

Drop breaded pork chop  in the pan. Fry until golden brown. Fry the other side.

Remove excess oil by putting the breaded pork chops t on a paper towel.

Do the same procedure with the remaining pork chops. Dip, coat and fry.

Then, serve.

PORK ASADO is a succulent braised pork without the skin and fat or less fat, full of sweet and salty blend of sugar and soy sauce. Preparing this dish requires time and attention so as to slowly cook, not to burn the bottom of the meat and allowing the flavor of the seasonings to be absorbed. Pricking the meat with a fork will help you do this trick. You can serve Pork Asado with steaming white rice or a simple salad or mashed potato.

PORK ASADO

1 – 1.5 kg. slab of porkloin, skin and excess fat removed
1 1/2  cup water
1/2 cup soy sauce
10-12 peppercorns
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 garlic heads, peeled and crushed
2  large onions, peeled and quarted
2 medium redbell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 tbsp. hoisin sauce (optional)
2 tbsp. cornstarch, dissolved in 1/4 cup water

Prick the meat with a fork in several places.

Place all ingredients in a large heavy pan except cornstarch.

Bring the sauce to simmer. Adjust fire to low. Cook for an hour to one hour and a half until meat is tender, regularly turning each sides.

If meat is completely tender, take the pork out of the sauce, place on a plate and let it cool to room temperature while making the sauce.

Let the sauce simmer on a medium pan and add the dissolved cornstarch.

Constantly stirring until desired thickness of the sauce is carried out. You may add salt, soy sauce and sugar depending on you desired taste. Remove from heat.

Slice cooked pork into 1/4  inch pieces. Place on a serving platter and pour the sauce over them.

And serve.

PINOY PORK PICADILLO often uses ground pork sauteed in garlic, onion and tomatoes. But since I just ran out of ground pork, I thought pork cubes is a good alternative for a more experience of meat. In this Pinoy Pork Cubes Picadillo recipe, potatoes and tomatoes give a sweet and sour intense taste to the meal.

PINOY PORK CUBES PICADILLO

cooking oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 medium onion, minced
1 cup tomatoes, quartered
1/2 kilo pork cubes
1 1/2 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 tbsp. fish sauce (patis)
1 1/2 cup water

Wash pork cubes with running water and drain. Put pork cubes on a skillet with about 1 cup water. Boil pork on a medium heat for about 10minutes. Remove pan from heat. Separate pork cubes from pork broth.

On a separate skillet or pan, heat cooking oil over medium heat. Sautee garlic until medium brown then add onion. Cook for about 1 minute.

Add tomatoes. Continue to cook until tomatoes are softened, squishing regularly with back of spoon.

Add pork cubes and fish sauce. Sautee pork cubes until they are well blended with the tomatoes.

Add pork broth and potatoes then let it simmer for about 5-7 minutes or over low heat until half of pork broth left in the pan.

Take off 4-6 potato cubes from the pan and place them on a plate. Mash the potato cubes and pour the mashed potatoes back to the pan. This will help the pork broth to thicken.

Cook for 5 minutes more.

Serve with rice.

Instead of using pig’s head, face or ears, my friend Gina, suggested that I can use pork liempo and have almost the same texture, flavor and experience. And since I have never tried buying, cleaning and cooking and even eating pig’s head, face or ears, I am assured and comfortable with the whole pork liempo. It is a quite challenge for me
though. And I will one day, try cooking some exotic foods.

PORK DINAKDAKAN

1 kilo whole slab of pork liempo

1 tsp. ginger, minced
1 cup onion, finely chpped
3-4 pieces, red chili peppers, minced (or more)
1/4 cup calamansi juice (or more)
2 tbsp. mayonnaise
powdered black pepper
iodized salt

Wash pork liempo with running water and drain.

Rub pork liempo with salt and black pepper.

Leave for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix ginger, onion, red chili peppers, mayonnaise and calamansi in a bowl. Set aside.

Grill pork liempo until well-cooked. Then, chop finely.

Pour on the mixture into chopped pork liempo.

Season with salt and pepper.

Serve!