Royce’s most awaited day of the week is Sunday. This is the day when I let him indulge the not so healthy food in the world, like CRISPY FRIED PORK CHOPS. Huhu. This makes me guilty but I am just letting him have a taste of delicious fatty meal even once in a while. I feed my family with healthy and nutritious vegetable and seafood dishes most of the week, but I spoil them every Sunday lunch. And I want them to enjoy Sunday meals after our Church meetings. Royce favorite is anything that is pork, SINIGANG NA BABOY, INIHAW NA LIEMPO, PORK AFRITADA, ADOBONG BABOY, it’s endless, as long it is pork, he will surely love it!

This CRISPY FRIED PORK CHOPS recipe is a quick, simple and most of all, an inexpensive way to make pork chops.

CRISPY FRIED PORK CHOPS

1 kilo pork chops, sliced thinly
salt
ground pepper
1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups oil for deep frying
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ground paprika (optional)
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk

Wash pork chops with running water. Drain with paper towels. Place pork chops in a bowl. With a fork, prick the pork chops thoroughly to tenderize the meat. Season with salt. Marinate for 10-15 minutes.

In a shallow bowl, mix 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, garlic powder, ground paprika and all purpose flour.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and milk until blended well.

Now, dip the pork chops on egg mixture. Then gently press the pork chops into the flour mixture to coat and shake off excess flour.

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Fry the pork chops until the crust is crisp and golden brown, about 5-6 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and drain the excess oil on paper towels.

Serve your CRISPY FRIED PORK CHOPS with steaming white rice.

TACO is a traditional Mexican dish made up of corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. Taco has a variety of fillings like beef, chicken, seafood, vegetables and cheese. Taco is also a perfect snack garnished with salsa, avocado or guacamole, tomatoes, onions and lettuce.

I had never loved Mexican dishes, maybe because I am not used to the chili flavors, until my husband Royce would bring me always at Taco Bell everytime we go to the Metro. And now that I am sued to the flavor, I am more loving it. We actually have this local Fil-Mex restaurant in our city, CILANTRO. At first I was hesitant that it might not click but I guessed wrong. Eating-out-loving people are now ready to experiment and dig in Mexican dishes like Buritos, Quesadillas and Enchiladas. And with the new generation, I think they are more into more pizza, pasta and burger feasts.

As I have mentioned, we never miss getting a bite of beef taco at Taco Bell each time we are in Manila. So when I bought a box of hard-shell tacos, I thought of making some tacos at home since we have no schedule yet for this month to go to Manila. And just for a change, I used chicken for a CHICKEN TACO. It is good as beef. Buf of course, nothing beat a beef taco. I also get the same Taco Bell spirit by using the Taco Bell Seasoning Mix which I bought at Rustan’s. And it is a gem, making a great tasting taco by just using a pack of seasoning mix.

CHICKEN TACOS

1/2 kilo chicken fillet, cut into bite sizes pieces
1 tbsp. cooking oil
1/3 cup water
1 pack Taco Bell Seasoning Mix
salt

for garnish:
chopped onions
sliced lettuce or Chinese pechay
chopped tomatoes
grated cheese

Brown chicken pieces in a skillet over medium-high heat, about 5-6. Add the Taco Bell Seasoning Mix and water. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until chicken in cooked and tender about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Spoon chicken into warmed corn tortillas. Garnish with lettuce or Chinese pechay, tomatoes, onions and cheese. Sprinkle with hot sauce, if desired.

Now, you can create your own Taco Bell CHICKEN TACOS in your own home!

INIHAW NA LIEMPO is a Pinoy term for grilled pork belly. It is a great picnic and party dish paired with vinegar or atsara. INIHAW NA LIEMPO is very easy to grill and so flavorful. Just allow the fat to melt away, meat to be cooked enough to be tender and delicious smoke flavor to penetrate into the delicious meat. Make sure not to overcook the pork bellies, not only it will burn your meat but also will make the meat tough or rubbery. I suggest to turn the sides every 5 minutes so as not to overcook them.

LIEMPO is the best part to grill a pork. It is very ideal for fast grilling and also tender and juicy. INIHAW NA LIEMPO is also best served with Inihaw na Bangus and Pinakbet. A truly Pinoy dish to be eaten in KAMAYAN way! A traditional Filipino way of eating with bare hands and no utensils used. INIHAW NA LIEMPO is similar with Pork Barbecue. Pork Barbecue is grilled pork in a bamboo stick and a lot sweeter. Inihaw na Liempo is a chunk or a big slice of pork belly, marinated in salt and calamansi juice.

INIHAW NA LIEMPO (GRILLED PORK BELLIES)

1 kilo pork bellies
8-10 cloves garlic, pelled and crushed
5 tbsp. calamansi juice
salt
ground pepper

Wash pork bellies with running water. Drain.

Mix salt, ground pepper and garlic. Set aside.

In a bowl, place pork bellies and rub with calamansi juice. Marinate for about 5 minutes.

Then rub the salt mixture on pork bellies. Marinate for 1 hour.

Grill pork bellies until cooked, about 10-15 minutes on the first side and another 10-15 minutes on the other side.

You can chop the INIHAW NA LIEMPO according to your desired sizes. But you can serve the whole INIHAW NA LIEMPO for a more festive dish!

Serve with steaming white rice and vinegar as a dip.

PORK AFRITADA WITH PINEAPPLES – Cubed pork, potatoes, tomato sauce and pineapple chunks come together in this wonderful dish to make an easy weekend family meal. Everything is cooked slowly to perfection, pork is tender, the sauce is thick, the vegetables are right and crisp, creating a sweet, fresh and vibrant flavor in the dish. You may replace the pork with chicken, or you can do pork and chicken together.

I was sick for almost a week. It was so hard doing things around the house specially taking care of my sons, Colby and Caleb. I am just always thankful, I get to recover fast. Today, Royce got fever, and a lot more difficult now that he is sick because I am to do things for the business. But I am a superwoman. Every mom has to. And despite of the busy day, I wanted to make something nice on a blue and sickly day. I cooked this PORK AFRITADA WITH PINEAPPLES. Royce loves meat and kids love potatoes and something sweet. It is a best combination of meat and vegetables in just a bowl.

By the way, I will be baking 24 loaves of banana bread later. My sister from Baguio City ordered for her to sell to her officemates. My Banana Breads had always been a click. And I am glad I get to create some money from it.

PORK AFRITADA WITH PINEAPPLES (BRAISED PORK IN TOMATO SAUCE)

1 kilo pork, cubed
3 tbsp. cooking oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 medium onions, peeled and sliced
1 1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 cup pineapple chunks
1 cup pineapple juice
5 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 medium red bell pepper, seeds removed and sliced
1 medium green bell pepper, seeds removed and sliced
1 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
4-6 laurel leaves
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp. patis
salt
ground pepper

Wash pork cubes with running water and drain. Place in a bowl. Add half cup of pineapple juice. Marinade for about 20-30 minutes. Then, drain.

Heat oil in a pan overmedium heat. Saute garlic, about a minute. Then add the sliced onions. Saute, until soft and transluscent.

Add pork cubes, saute until light brown, about 5-6 minutes. Then add patis, allowing the meat absorb the patis. Add laurel leaves and ground pepper.

Now add one cup tomato sauce and half cup of water. Add Bring to a simmer. Lower the heat and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes or until pork is tender. Make sure to stir once in a while so as not to prevent the bottom from burning.

Then, add potatoes, carrots, red and green bell pepper. Add the remaining tomato juice and pineapple juice. Cook until potatoes and carrots are tender, about 5 minutes.

Season with salt. You may adjust flavor by adding few tablespoons of water. Bring to boil until sauce thickens.

A minute before removing from heat, add the pineapple chunks.

Serve your PORK AFRITADA WITH PINEAPPLES while hot with steaming white rice!

Happy New Year everyone!

It had been a wonderful and memorable holidays. We get to spend the festive season with our friends and families that finally I get the chance to show them off some of my cooking skills. I am not an expert yet. I had been through a lot of kitchen disasters before I get to perfect a dish. Often times, I get frustrated but with the love I have for food and family, I indulge more time to learn and master.

Today, I am going to share a very easy dish, JUICY AND TENDER FRIED PORK. Very easy to cook right? But sometimes, with posing no difficulty, we overlook the technique on how to make a FRIED PORK, a juicy and tender one.

My Aunt Sassy who used to be cooking for a small restaurant shared to me this very delicious and I may say, a perfect FRIED PORK. Oh I am so excited for this. It is a fool-proof, kitchen tested FRIED PORK that is juicy and tender and soooo delicious and yummy recipe.

You can also try BREADED PORKLOIN with MUSHROOM GRAVY and BREADED PORKCHOP

JUICY AND TENDER FRIED PORK

1 kilo pork chop or pork belly, sliced according to desired size

6-8 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

8 tbsp. calamansi or lemon juice

1 – 2 tbsp. salt

2 large eggs, beaten

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

cooking oil

Wash sliced pork chops or bellies with running water and drain with paper towels.

Place the pork in a container. Rub salt, garlic and calamansi juice on pork with hands. Cover the container and marinade for 3-4 hours in your fridge.

Let your marinated pork be in a room temperature to get them ready to be cooked, about half an hour.

Add beaten egg on marinated pork, making sure all are covered with egg.

Then, add the flour, again equally covered. You can use your hands to make them perfectly covered.

Heat cooking oil, enough oil to deep fry.

Place chops one by one on heated oil, allowing about half an inch apart from each other. Fry them for about 6-8 minutes or until golden brown. Turn and fry additional minutes until other is brown.

Place on wire rack to drain and serve your JUICY AND TENDER FRIED PORK with steaming hot rice with soy sauce and calamansi dip.

Today is Sunday. Everybody is at home and it is a lazy day, a day to relax at home and enjoy a leisurely Sunday lunch. Everybody here at home craved for a traditional Pinoy dish: BEEF KARE-KARE WITH GINISANG ALAMANG. Good thing Aunt is at home to help me with this tough and challenging recipe. I am kind of bragging about this KARE-KARE recipe because it really tastes so great and creamy. Along with it is a GINISANG ALAMANG as its perfect pair. I am not really a good photographer for the KARE-KARE photo does not reflect the actual yummy-ness of the dish. I was not able to get to capture it with a perfect lighting. I was in a hurry so we can indulge immediately. Our Sunday lunch meal had beed fun and so satisfying that almost nothing was left for dinner. It is a successful attempt to cook this dish. You can vary your Kare-kare dish with your own style and season like you can omit some vegetables or add some of your favorite vegetables. Next challenge dish to attempt is Seafoods Kare-kare.

Also try these Beef recipes like BEEF BRISKET, NILAGANG BAKA and BEEF SALPICAO.

Just click the link for the recipe of GINISANG ALAMANG.

EASY KAREKARE with GINISANG ALAMANG

1 kilo beef (oxtail, tripe and round/sirloin sliced according to your desired serving size)
3 cups pure peanut butter
3 medium onion, peeled and sliced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
cooking oil
handful of sitaw or string beans, cut into 2 inches long
handful of puso ng saging or banana blossom,
2 medium talong or eggplant, sliced
2 liters water
patis or fish sauce
salt
pepper
atsuete powder

In a stock pot, put water, beef, oxtrails and salt. Bring to simmer. Cook until tender, about 1-2 hours. You can also use your pressure cooker to minimize your cooking time in a half. Strain and set aside the beef stock.

Heat a large pan or wok. Add oil and garlic. Saute about 2 minutes then add your sliced onion. Saute until transluscent.

Now, add the beef, tripe and oxtail. Saute about 5-7 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add peanut butter. Cook for about 2 minutes. Then add the beef stock. You don’t have to put all the beef stock. Just put enough water to make the sauce creamy.

Add eggplant, banana blossom and string beans. Do not overcook the vegetables. The remaining heat will cook them.

Adjust flavor by adding beef stock, salt and fish sauce. But do not flavor it with too much salt. You must not forget that you will have a Ginisang Alamang on the side as its partner.

Serve with steaming white rice and GINISANG ALAMANG.

BEEF PICADILLO is one of Filipino’s comfort food. Again, this Picadillo not the Picadillo recipe of South American countries, but a Pinoy’s version of Picadillo like the one I previously featured. Truly, this recipe has captured the hearts of the Filipinos, for I believe most of us cook and serve this dish yet, we do not know how it is called. But anyway, this dish has a sentimental appeal for it is so flavorful, very nutritious, easy to cook, light on the budget and really has that soft soup consistency. As a mom, I always consider serving more on comfort foods for it somehow affects the emotions to a positive track and relieves some negative vibes or in a way, increase positive feelings.

BEEF PICADILLO is a light and healthy recipe of ground lean beef and bunch of vegetables like cabbage, carrots and potatoes. You can double the ground beef if you prefer a meatier soup taste. You can also used beef tenderloins sliced into tidbits. This is a traditional blend of flavors of beef and vegetables are balance in its little soup, a special dish that will bring you instantly back to your childhood days. Picadillo is one of the soup dishes my mother cooked each time our finances was running low. And I am so convinced that almost all families all over the Philippines had this too. So if you have tight budget, I suggest you try this recipe.

You can also try PINOY PORK PICADILLO and PORK CUBES PICADILLO.

BEEF PICADILLO

cooking oil
1/2 kilo ground lean beef
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 large onion, peeled and minced
5 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 medium bokchoy or Chinese cabbage, washed and thinly sliced
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tbsp. tomato sauce
salt
pepper
sugar
water

Heat oil in a large work or pan. Saute garlic and onion until aromatic. Add the ground beef. Saute about 5-8 minutes or until color changed to light brown. Add carrot and potatoes. Stirring constantly. Then add about 1 cup water, just enough to cover the meat and vegetables. Then add the bokchoy and red bell pepper. Season with soy sauce, tomato sauce, salt, pepper and a bit of sugar. You may add water, depending on your preference. Do not overcook the vegetables. The remaining heat will cook them.

Now, serve your BEEF PICADILLO while hot with steaming white rice.

Cooking MONGGO SPROUTS or TOGUE always brings me back to my grade school days. I remember my Science teacher asked the class to bring some monggo beans for an experiment. Fascinated and excited as I was, I brought lots of monggo sprouts next day. We placed the seeds on a pot of soil and poured with little water, placed under the sun and the next day, my monggo beans became monggo sprouts. Some of my classmates’ experiment was a fail but it didn’t matter. All of us graduated elementary. And I now cook monggo sprouts.

I sometimes could hardly find monggo sprouts or togue in our wet market but good thing, Robinson’s market seem to always have them in their vegetables section.

GINISANG TOGUE (Sauteed Monggo Sprout)

cooking oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 onion, peeled and sliced
1/4 kilo pork, sliced
1/2 kilo togue, washed and drained
soy sauce
sugar
salt
pepper

Heat pan over medium heat. Add oil and pork. Cook until pork turns light brown. Add garlic and onion. Saute until aromatic.

Add togue. Cook for 5-7 minutes. Then add water, about a cup. Bring to boil.

Season with soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper.

Serve your GINISANG TOGUE with steaming white rice.

We have a cold weather due typhoon Juaning. PAGASA declared that Pangasinan is signal # 2 so automatically no classes for pre-school and elementary schools therefore I got extra time to cruise with kids and cook a tough hearty soup, NILAGANG BAKA (BEEF STEW), to give us a warm this rainy day. Easy to cook but tough to tender. Hihi.

NILAGA is best known soup dish of Pinoys. Nilaga is a boiled dish of meats like pork, chicken, beef and even fish. It is trouble-free dish since you just have to put in water in your pot, boil it and plunge the meat, wait until tender, dunk your favorite vegetables and season to make a very tasty soup. Some prefer cooking this dish with beef bone marrows but I had second thoughts of buying them since I am lately cutting Royce’s cholesterol intake. I also added some Saging na Saba to give a little sweet flavor to make the dish more kid-friendly and even more nutritious. My mom once suggested me to add some slices of chorizo de bilbao in my Nilagang Baka. At first, I was hesitant to add Spanish Sausage in my all-Pinoy dish, but truly Mom knows best. It laced my Nilaga dish with garlic, pimenton, cumin and oregano mixture of taste.

Yes, any Nilaga dish is very easy but what makes this NILAGANG BAKA tough is the grueling 2-3 hours of boiling the beef chunks. I want my beef chunks to be effortlessly pieced with spoon and fork and stress-free when chewing the meat. Unfortunately, this Nilagang Baka dish will be just so easy if I can only find where my pressure cooker regulator is.

If you want to make you Nilagang Baka more creamy, you can mash the potatoes to give a starchy and creamy soup. You can also add cream or milk. Well, whatever your pick for a Nilaga dish, it will surely taste good.

NILAGANG BAKA (BEEF STEW)

1 kilo beef chunks
2 large onions, peeled and halved
6-8 onion cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
10-12 black peppercorns
4 pieces saging na saba
1 chorizo de bilbao (optional)
cabbage
potatoes
fish sauce
salt
1 liter water

Put water, beef, onions, garlic, pepper and salt in a big cooking pot. With medium heat, bring to slow boil. This will let the flavor blend with the water rather than sealing the beefy flavor if you cook it in full boil. Cook until beef is tender, about one and a half hour to two hours or even longer. You may add little water to adjust its amount.

If meat is already tender, add saging na saba, chorizo de bilbao, and potatoes. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add cabbage. Season your Nilagang Baka with salt and fish sauce. You may also add water for more soup. Boil for another minute.

Serve your Nilagang Baka while hot with white rice.

FRIED ADOBONG BABOY is just a fried version of Royce’s Adobong Baboy. I just only lessen the water and seasonings like soy sauce and vinegar. It is also called Crispy Adobong Baboy. The technique in cooking this recipe is to stir them constantly and cooking it on a very high heat to let the sauce evaporate quickly and to let the meat absorb the sauce easily.

FRIED ADOBONG BABOY

1 tbsp. cooking oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 medium onion, peeled and sliced thinly
1 kilo pork belly, sliced into cubes
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 cup water
3 bay leaves (laurel leaves)
black peppercorns (about 8-10 pieces)
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
salt

Heat oil in a medium frying pan. Add garlic and onion. Saute for about 1 minute. Add pork and cook until meat turns light brown, about 5 minutes. Add soy sauce, water, laurel leaves and black peppercorns. Bring to simmer, cook until meat is tender, about 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then, add vinegar and brown sugar. Bring to full simmer until sauce is being absorbed by meat. You may add little oil so meat may be fried in it. Don’t forget to leave a small amount of the thick sauce for your rice.