Friday, August 26, 2016

Crock-Pot Sinigang




Sophie has been asking me for days now to cook her favorite pork neck bone sinigang. She just love sinigang. It could be fish, shrimp or pork neck bone. Usually I would cook her shrimp sinigang because it is easier and faster to cook ( only takes 30 minutes or less). And because we love shrimp. But lately she has been craving for buto-buto. She hasn't eaten it in a long time.  I feel guilty since I don't eat pork it doesn't mean that she shouldn't. But since I didn't have enough time to cook sinigang when we get home in the afternoon (it takes an hour or more for the meat to be tender), I decided to cook 'sinigang na buto -buto' in my slow cooker.

Sinigang is a Filipino soup known for its sour taste. Tamarind is mainly used as the ingredient for the sour flavor.  But guava, calamansi and green mango is also used. Sinigang is similar to Malaysian singgang.

I love my Crock-Pot. It's very convenient. I would just prepare and put everything in the morning before bringing Sophie to school then head to work. And would come home to a cooked meal.  I have been using my Crock-Pot for my slow-cooked whole chicken. This time I want to experiment slow-cooked pork neck bone sinigang. Hopefully after this, I can try cooking different dishes in my Crock-Pot.

Below is the recipe for my slow-cooked sinigang.




Ingredients

2       lbs            pork neck bone
2       pcs           medium tomatoes, quartered
1       pc             onion
1       lb              radish, cut into big cubes
1       lb              long beans
1       lb              bok choy
1      pc              small ginger, chopped
1/2   cup            fish sauce
2      tbsp           peppercorn
2      pcs             onion stalk
2      tbsp           sinigang mix
2      L                 water

Procedure

1.  Place the pork neck bone, tomatoes, 1 L water, onion, ginger, fish sauce and peppercorn in Crock-Pot, set on low ( 8-10 hours slow cook).

2.  When you get home, add radish, beans, 1 L water and onion stalk. Set at high.  Simmer for 30 minutes. Then add bok choy.  Simmer for another 10 minutes.

3.  Serve with rice.

Friday, August 12, 2016

Mango Salsa



I recently joined the 3rd Annual Homemade Salsa Contest at my local public library. It was my first time to join this year and I was so excited about it.  I knew about the contest last year but was too late to register and was only able to volunteer as one of the 'tasters'. I contemplated on what salsa to enter the contest. Sophie, who eats chips and salsa everyday (she loves Mexican food) decided that I should enter my mango salsa. She thought it tasted so good and will earn me a spot as one of the three winners. Unfortunately, I didn't win. The three winners were salsa that were all spicy.  The grand winner was a salsa that tasted like puréed jalapeños ( it was so spicy I had watery eyes and had to drink 2 glasses of water). I guess next year i will just enter a blended 'siling labuyo'. That will probably earn me a spot. (Bitter much??Lol ) Sophie was so disappointed. She couldn't believe I lost. She wanted a rematch(hahaha). I guess Latinos are not ready for my mango salsa with alamang as my secret ingredient. Oh well.

But for us Filipinos, mango salsa is so popular. We don't eat it with chips but instead pair it with fried fish like tilapia. I remember eating it most of the time when I was in the province of Laguna, where tilapia is eaten often ( lots of tilapia fish ponds). I especially like using mango that is green. But since we don't have the green mango here, I would opt for a ripe but still crunchy mango.

Below is the recipe for my underrated mango salsa.

Ingredients

1        pc        large mango (ripe but still hard, chopped)
1        pc        small onion, finely chopped
1        pc        medium tomato, chopped
1        pc        lime or lemon
1/2     cup     cilantro, roughly chopped
2        tbsp     shrimp paste (bagoong alamang)
1         tsp       ground pepper



Procedure

Mix all the ingredients except lime.  Squeeze the lime on the salsa. Mix well. Pair with Tostitos chips or with your favorite fried fish and rice..