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.