I don't know if it's just the cold weather today but i actually found myself in the kitchen... putting out my pots and pans to cook dinner. Now before anything else, let me just say that i'm no master chef. Heck, i'm not even a cook to begin with! hehehe
Earlier this evening, i posted photos of my cooking over the internet. And to my surprise, a lot of people asked for the recipe. So here you go guys. This blog is for you. It may not be the best recipe out there, but it sure does work for me. Simple and easy.
As a child, my grandma would often call me into the kitchen and ask me to help her slice vegetables for every amazing dish she would make for the family. There were times my 8 year old self would hesitate because it meant lesser play time. But now, you could just imagine how grateful i am of her for dragging me into those kitchen moments. I spend 6 days a week living on my own at the pad. And for every single time i crave homemade food, i am taken back to those times with her--- how she strictly wants the carrots and ginger to be uniformly sliced for her escabeche, how she precisely measures 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and not a single morsel more for her chop suey.. and so on. It's amazing how, even when i haven't even tried cooking some dishes, they turn out to taste satisfactorily well (right dad? hahaha). No recipe books. Not much help over the internet. Just memories of what my lola would do- from start to finish.
Below is my recipe for braised pork stew in brown sugar (humba).. made simple and easy! (apartment-friendly for those living away from home like me.)
* BRAISED PORK STEW IN BROWN SUGAR (HUMBA)
I don't really know how to sequence everything so that it would appear similar to that of an online site recipe. But here's what i like to do. First, i list all the ingredients i need according to the order i'd be using them. And the rest is history. Now let's start.
> 4 eggs (if you prefer to add some to your humba. i added some to mine but took a photo just before i did. hehehe)
>5 tablespoons vegetable oil (i don't really take the measurements seriously. if i find it too little, then i add some more. it's your cooking after all!)
>1 large onion, cut into half and sliced
>5 to 8 cloves of garlic, diced
>1 kilo of pork, cut into squares (i go to good 'ol Rustans for this. conveniently cut and ready to go.)
>3 cups water
>soy sauce
>vinegar
>brown sugar
>5 pcs. bay leaf
>1/4 cup azucena
>salt
>pepper
Ready? Here we go.
1. Fill pot with water, put eggs in and bring to a boil. If you live in a pad like me where time is of the essence and there's only 1 electric burner per cooking episode, here's what i do. Since i'll be cooking rice, i place the eggs in the rice cooker too. Just as it boils and cooks, so will the eggs. Now that's conserving time, space and energy. wink. hehe. When eggs are nicely hard boiled, peel off shell and set aside to cool.
2. Saute' onions and garlic in a pan. You'll know they're ready when the onions turn white/transparent in color. This is my favorite part. I looooove the smell of ginisa (saute')!
3. Add the pork. Mix the ingredients for about 5 minutes, just enough for the pork to be bathed in oil.
4. Add water, soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, bay leaves and azucena. Add salt and pepper to taste too. Cover pan and bring to a boil. This gives the meat time to cook and soften. Do take note: i did not specify any measurements for the soy sauce, vinegar and brown sugar since that would mainly depend on you-- if you want your humba a little on the sweet or salty-sour side.
Now here are some tips i picked up from my lola:
* When you add the sugar, don't sprinkle it directly into the pan. Some parts of it may not dissolve completely and you'll end up with a grainy humba. Place the sugar in a small bowl, and paddle out just an ample amount of water from the pan. Mix well until completely dissolved.
*Here's the weird but effective part: Drop 3 forks into the pan and allow to boil together with the rest of the ingredients. Yup. You read it right. hehe I've always wondered why lola would do this. As a child, i thought it was a magical ingredient of some sort. haha Actually, the forks help in heat conduction, allowing the meat to soften more quickly. Sssh. Not too many know this. It's a family secret. Wink.
5. Upon boiling and you find that the pork is not yet as soft/tender as you want it to be, add another cup of water and bring to a boil.
6. Taste. Add some more soy sauce/vinegar/sugar as desired.
7. Bring to another boil.
8. Simmer. Add in the hard boiled eggs. (This is the part where you remove the 3 forks too.hehe)
9. Place on a bowl. Serves 3-4. Enjoy.
Not all of us are blessed with a talented hand in the kitchen. We're lucky we weren't born in the days when the number one qualification for a woman to be "marriage material" was a knack for creating the best/yummiest dishes imaginable.( Insert sigh of relief here. hehe.) But i do believe there will always be that one recipe a woman will learn to master in her lifetime.
And you know what? To me, the secret to a wonderful dish does not lie in how famous the recipe is, how expensive/imported the ingredients are, nor how high end the utensils being used. When i cook, i think of happy thoughts. I think of the people i'm cooking for. I think of my lola. And you know something? The dish just happens to come out pretty well. Dad, my number one food taster is happy. And i couldn't be any happier. (I couldn't tag him as a food critic. He's too biased. hehe)
Here's hoping this recipe brings you a little closer to home.
all my love,
ZANDRA LEN
"Every woman holds a song in her heart and an apron in her kitchen...."
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