Kekiam Balls

I learned this recipe from my pops, remember that I hailed from Malabon City, thus making stuff out of fish is kinda an in-bred quality among us citizens, hahaha.



Ingredients:

• ground fish meat
• ground pork
• carrots, minced
• green onions, minced
• onions, minced
• garlic, minced
• salt and pepper
• egg
• flour
• cooking oil, for deep frying
  

Procedures:

Note: My mom told me that you can buy ground fish meat in the market, you just have to ask, and be willing to pay a minimal fee. But if you opt to do it yourself, be sure to pound on the fish first to loosen its meat before you scrape it off.

• Ratio of ground fish and pork is 1:1
• In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients listed above except for the cooking oil, be wary of the seasoning and the flour, you don't want your kekiam balls to be flour-full and meat-less, nor do you want it too salty or too hot, right?
  
• Shape it into balls, deep fry and you're done.
• One tip though, just to make sure that you got your desired taste, try deep frying one ball first and taste test, then do the necessary tweaking. After that, try frying another one and taste it again, just keep on trying until you perfected it. If I can live with estimates, so can you, hahaha, good luck with that :)
• This is good as a pica-pica food or as a viand, it can stand alone or you can serve it with ketchup or any dips/sauces that you want.

Happy cooking!

Pork Barbecue

Ingredients:

• pork chops, cut into strips

*** marinade:

• soy sauce
• ketchup
• sugar
• calamansi extract
• chili peppers (or cayenne pepper powder)
• garlic
• onion

Procedures:

• In a big bowl or baking dish, put all the marinade ingredients and mix thoroughly. I suggest you give the mixture a try to know if it is to your liking, do the necessary adjustments, if necessary.
• Marinate the pork strips for 8 hours or more. I did mine for 24 hours inside the fridge.
• Thaw the refrigerated meat (and marinade) for at least an hour and then use barbecue sticks to skewer the pork strips.
• Grill as you prefer and serve!

Note: I wasn't able to post for two long weeks, sorry about that... life happened *grins*!


An entry to:

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Lechon Kawali (Pan-Fry Roasted Pork)

One of my favorite dish in the whole wide world *lol*, I've been eating and requesting for this dish to be in our Noche Buena table since I was a kid, but this year it was my turn to try it. I remember bugging my lola almost every week to cook some Lechon Kawali for me, I saw her do it more than a hundred times but I never got interested in cooking it on my own, hello ayoko kaya matilamsikan ng mantika noh but now that I did, I think I'll get used to making some, and I know that my granny is super proud of me up there in heaven.


Ingredients:

• liempo/pork belly
• water
• salt and peppercorn
• oil
• garlic and laurel leaf (optional)
  

Procedures:

• Boil the pork belly in a mixture of water, salt and peppercorn until the meat (and skin) is tender. You can also add some garlic and laurel leaf if you like.
• Drain, cool and air dry. If you can do it under the sun, that's better.
• Deep fry the slabs of pork belly until crisp or until blisters pop in the skin meat, be sure to submerge the whole thing. And be very careful, blasts of oil missiles are sure to come your way, be prepare grab a shield, a pot cover will do *lol*.
• Drain in a paper towel and cut to serving pieces.
• Serve with a lechon sauce, atchara or any other dip you may prefer.
  

Happy eating!


An entry to:

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Pork Adobo

Ingredients:

• pork, cut into cubes
• garlic, minced or diced
  
• peppercorn
• vinegar
• soy sauce

Procedures:

• In a pan, combine the vinegar, soy sauce, minced garlic and peppercorn.
• Put the pork in the mixture and let it sit for half an hour.
• Cover the pot and boil the pork together with the marinade on medium to high heat for about an hour or more if needed, to tenderize the meat and ensure that it is fully marinated.
  
• Instead of using cooking oil to brown the meat, I (as instructed by my mom) let the marinade boil until it dries up and wait for the natural juices and oil of the pork to come out and that's what I use.
• Brown the meat on all sides, stir and scrape the sides of the pan from time to time to prevent that burnt aftertaste. Do this for a couple of minutes and you're done. Easy breezy.
  
• Adobo is best serve with steaming white rice.
  

Hmm... what should I try next?

Tokwa't Baboy sa Taosi (Pork and Tofu in Black Beans)

Ingredients:

• pork, cut into cubes
  
• tofu, cut into cubes
• taosi (black beans)
• kinchay, chopped
  
• garlic, diced
  
• onion, diced
  
• oil
• water
• soy sauce (if you find the need to put some)

Procedures:

• Fry the cubed tofu until golden brown or until it is cooked to your liking.
• Saute the garlic and onion on the same oil where you cooked the tofu.
• Add the pork, saute it until the meat is (a little) seared.
  
• Add the taosi (black beans) as well as its juice, saute for a minute or two.
• Add some water (according to your preference), cover the wok and let it boil for at least 5 minutes or until the pork is tender.
• Taste it, if you think it is not salty enough, add some soy sauce. Simmer for a minute.
• Put the chopped kinchay and the previously fried tofu, incorporate all the ingredients, cover and, again, simmer for a minute.
• Plate and garnish with some fresh kinchay. Best eaten with a steaming cup of rice.

Easy does it. Happy eating!