Pork Belly Sisig

I have made pork belly sisig a few times already and it has become one of my favorite Filipino dishes. Its yummyness factor is way at the top, even Anthony Bordain loved it. Crispy pork is maybe the reason I won't consider being a vegan. I love vegetables as a side dish and tofu in all its forms but it's not fun to eat without meat and poultry dishes. The original pork sisig has a whole pork head but where in the world would I find that? Maybe at the farmer's market? Anyway, I made pork belly confit (bagnet or lechon kawali) and boiled some pork ears together with a few pieces of chicken livers. With lots of fresh calamansi juice I was in spicy hog goodness heaven. 

Pork Belly Sisig 

2 pork ears water 

2 pieces chicken liver 

2 teaspoons sea salt 

1 cup pineapple juice 

1 cup water 

¼ teaspoon whole black peppercorns 

1 tablespoon calamansi or lemon juice 

freshly cooked lechon kawali, homemade or store bought 

1 tablespoon white coconut vinegar 

1 sweet onion, chopped 

sea salt and ground pepper, to taste 

bird's eye chili, chopped, to taste

• Wash the ears well and place in a medium saucepan. Add water to cover and let boil. Drain and discard water. Add the chicken liver, salt, juice, water, and peppercorns. Let come to a boil, cover, and simmer over low-medium heat for 45 minutes.
• Remove pork and liver and discard the boiling liquid. Grill the pork ears until brown and crisp.
• Heat a cast iron skillet to sizzling hot.
• Chop the lechon kawali, pork ears, and liver into small cubes and place in a glass bowl. Add the calamansi or lemon juice, chopped onion, vinegar, salt, pepper, and chilis. Mix well. Place the meat mixture into the sizzling skillet. Serve immediately with calamansi and chilies on the side.

Bicol Express

I wrote the draft for this dish/post the second week of January and forgot about it. I have several drafts that I fail to go back to for posting. I recently cleared all my posts in draft but kept this one so I'm posting it rather late.

Bicol Express is one of the simplest but yummy Filipino dishes you could make. The dish, named after the train that goes to the province of Bicol where they like their dishes super spicy, was invented by the owner of The Grove restaurant in the Philippines. I had visited their Makati branch countless of times and loved their buffet lunch (see photo below), and Bicol Express is one of my favorites along with guinataang kuhol (snails in coconut cream ). The chiles usually used in this recipe are the long thin light green medium hot ones. I used a combination of green, orange, and yellow and included 1 red for color. I made it with lots of sauce, almost soupy which is so good poured, not drizzled, over steamed rice. I also prefer Bicol Express with very little pork, you can add more if you want it meaty.

Bicol Express
¼ pound pork shoulder, sliced thin and julienned
1 tablespoon grapeseed or light olive oil
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
1 tablespoon finely minced shallot
2 tablespoons shrimp bagoong
3 cups sliced or julienned green long chiles
3 cups coconut milk
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil, add and stir fry pork for 5 minutes. Add garlic and onion and saute for 2 minutes. Add the shrimp paste and coconut milk, cook for 1 minute before adding the chiles. Taste and add salt if needed. Turn heat down to medium low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. If you want the dish drier, simmer until sauce is very thick and the oil separates from the cream. Serve immediately with steamed rice.

The photo below from one of my Filipino cookbooks is a small portion of The Grove restaurant's buffet table array. This was taken most probably in 1976, I'm not sure if the retaurant still exists and if it is I can't be sure if it still offers this lunch buffet.