Pork Binagoongan, Simplified

We are just a small family, our household is composed of 4 adults, a toddler and an infant. 2 amongst the adults are nannies, who (so unfortunate of us), only knows how to cook rice, fry and fry rice every morning. In order to justify their stay, I just write down, step-by-step, the cooking procedure of the dish for dinner and pray to have at least an edible one. But when it comes to favorites, we make sure that either Mr. M or I, do the cooking (you cannot trust your favorites to a maid who puts tomatoes on Tinola one time and then Oyster sauce the next. Poor Tinola, always the victim). Last night, we are decided that Mr. M would cook Ginisang Ampalaya, so we asked the maid to thaw the liempo as we are heading home, only to find out that we were not able to put the Ampalaya in our cart during last Sunday's grocery. Since the liempo was already thawed, I just whipped Pork Binagoongan for dinner. This recipe is one of the shortcut dishes I mustered.

½ kilo Pork Liempo (or any part of your choice)
Garlic, minced
1 small onion, sliced
Vinegar and water
Siling haba (green chili), chopped
Barrio Fiesta* Spicy Shrimp Paste

1) In a pan, sauté garlic and onion. Add the pork and mix until it changed color.
2) Add vinegar, let simmer. Add water and let it boil until tender. Don’t forget to remove the scum.
3) When already fork tender, let the water evaporate and bring the oil out of the pork.
4) Add bagoong and mix well.
5) Garnished with siling haba. Serve.

packed for lunch

My take: You’ll never go wrong with a ready made bagoong. It will make your binagoongan easier to prepare, it only took me 20 minutes to cook this. Plus you have the assurance that the bagoong (since branded) had passed the BFAD standards. 

Tips: You can fry eggplant as a side dish. Kick your inefficient maids, but in the meantime, teach them to rely on the internet for recipes (and pray they stumbled your blog for additional traffic.lol)

The verdict: My visiting nephew who at first refused to try the dish turned out to overeat last night. Miss L., who’s a picky eater, also ate a lot (although you have to trick her by pretending to offer each spoonful for Chuchu the dog, Swipper the Fox, Dora the Explorer, Boots the Monkey, Max and Ruby, Team Umizoomi, Spongebob and Patrick). Mr. M. even requested for a rerun next week, suggesting steamed okra as a side dish next time. J  

* The brand name that was mentioned is just the family's preference, not a paid post. 

Spare Ribs Kaldereta (Caldereta)

I think it is right and just that this dish be my pilot post. I was cooking this last Saturday when I heard whispers in my head, “i-blog mo ‘to, ikayayaman mo ‘to”, aba! For the sake of money, I am really easily fooled. lol Kaldereta is something very new to me, actually it was my 1^st time to cook it. I was just challenged by Mr. M and his craving, that I was forced to cook it. We were having mechado for dinner when he burst “Sarap! Na-miss ko tuloy kaldereta, mag kaldereta ka naman. Marunong ka?” “Oo, naman. Sige sa Sabado” was my reply. For me, every meat with red sauce is mechado, I thought there would be no difference, except for the presence of liver spread. The following day, I scan the net for its ingredients and proved myself right. So with pride, I marketed for ingredients and whipped it with head high. For this recipe I used the following:

3/4 kilo pork spare ribs, cut into serving size
3 pieces potato, diced
1 piece red bell pepper, diced
1 piece green bell pepper, diced
2 gloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
3 pieces chili, minced
1 can liver spread
250 grams tomato sauce (MMK for added nutrients)
Water, salt and pepper / fish sauce, cooking oil

1) Fry the potato. Set aside.
2) On the same pan, sauté garlic and onion. Add spare ribs stir until it turned to brown. Add water and simmer until tender. * It is important to take out the scum from the 1^st boil for a purer broth* (It is a must for my family to reach the lambot para sa walang ipin level, I guess it is also helps in bringing-out the flavor in the dish).
3) When the meat is tender add the potato. Add the liver spread, stir to blend.
4) Add tomato sauce. * Let it simmer without stirring and do not cover, to achieve a thicker consistency.
5) Add the chillies and bell peppers. Season with salt, pepper and fish sauce. Let it simmer a little more. Serve hot.

My take? Kaldereta is totally different from mechado. The presence of chillies makes it spicy and the liver spread makes it flavorful. If you will notice, I didn’t use carrots simply because nobody eats carrots in the family. Some also use olives or green peas, just the same we don’t like it that’s why I omitted those.

Tip: Never let your daughter as clingy as my Ms. L disturb you when frying potatoes, mine was half cooked.

The verdict: This was not the kaldereta Mr. M was expecting, he was expecting really brown one like his mother's version. That I have to verify. Nevertheless, he said it was delish! Not bad for a 1st timer.