Pork Steak: Pinoy Style

Pork Steak or Pinoy Bistek is a family favorite.  It has a blend of salty and tangy and has nothing at all to do with your normal barbecue steak, but is a very at home kind of course in the Pinoy Home.

And the challenge? It's the second dish I will be attempting in all 32 years of my life.

Now, by dish, I mean, cooking dish. Like, cooking in the kitchen.  The first dish I attempted was Adobo. It's the easiest dish, they said.  All you have to do is throw everything in and let it cook, they said. Well, it was not easy, and when I threw everything in, my adobo sauce became soup.  I never attempted to cook the damn thing again.

Here I am, faced with the task of cooking for lunch, and I have found pork chop in the fridge. God forbid I fuck this up.

Credits for my first time cooking goes to Cookpad.com

Alright. I'm about to begin.

INGREDIENTS:

1. 4 slicepork chops
2. 5 tbspsoy sauce
3. 2 eachlime or lemon
4. 1/2 cupcooking oil
5. 2 mediumonions, sliced
6. 1 1/2 cupwater
7. 1 tbspgranulated white sugar
8. 1 dashsalt
9. 1 dashpepper

METHOD

1. Combine pork chops, soy sauce, and lime/lemon juice in a large bowl or container. Marinade for at least an hour.
2. Heat a pan then pour in cooking oil.
3. Pan fry the marinated pork chops in medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes per side.
4. Remove excess oil. Pour in the remaining marinade and water then let it boil. Simmer for 45 minutes or until pork is tender. Note: Add water as needed.
5. Add in the sugar, salt, and pepper then stir.
6. Put in the onions land cook for 3 minutes more.
7. Turn off heat and transfer to a serving plate.
8. Serve and enjoy!

2. So this is what I'm going for, this is actually the end product up there.  I have to say, I thought the flavor was really strong in that it was really sour from the kalamansi that I used.  So I added some more sugar and water. I almost forgot the pepper so I had to throw that in afterwards.  

   
   

   When I asked my kids, they said it tasted like another dish, Adobo. LOL.  Well, I know that the strong flavor is actually good because there's going to be the rice that counters the strong kalamansi tasted.  

   
   

   For a newbie cook, this recipe works for me, and I just need to adjust it. I wasn't really following the recipe to a T.  I put more than 5 tablespoons of soy sauce; actually after 5 tablespoons, I started to pour the soy sauce until it looked enough for the pork slices to be marinated in, and squeezed kalamansi until I thought I achieved my desired taste for pork steak. I only really put less than 1 1/2  cup of water, and only one cup when the recipe called for 1 1/2. Then I added water as I went along. I totally skipped the salt, after pouring water when the recipe mentioned to add salt along with the sugar and pepper.  Although I did add salt later when I thought the sauce was beginning to taste bland. 

   
   

   I wasn't confident the pork slices would be tender.  But as I let the pot boil, I realized I wasn't really keeping track of time, and at one point while I was frying the pork chops, I was busy chatting with friends that I overcooked one side of the pork chops! And later on, after trying to adjust the taste, I began to worry if I was going to overcook the pork chops. 

   
   

   What I learned about porkchops in this experience?

   
   

   1. It's okay if it's sour; it will even out when you serve it with rice. 

   2. Everything else I did seemed to be okay. Maybe I can consider marinating the pork meat a little longer. 

   
   

   Well, that's it. For the first time cook, stay tuned for many more cooking mishaps!

Read More

Are We Ready for Change?

This country and its residents are asking for change. A new way of living. A better life. A better government. A better country.

Discipline, honesty, integrity, transparency, literacy, equality, lesser traffic - just a few of the issues that we are clamoring for improvement on almost on a daily basis. But really, can an election change that?

Of course, that's a possibility. But when you think about it, we know that a single person can't change the country. We know that a single person can't take all our responsibilities into his or her hands and dictate how we go about our life. Well, actually, if we're okay with just going with what the government says, if we're not going to have activists left and right, then we should be able to get along fine. But what does it take to change a country? What makes your own baranggay a better place? What makes your own street a place fit for living? What makes your house in order?  Can we do it starting with ourselves? Do we need inspiration?

Maybe we shouldn't focus so much on the big things. Let's focus on what is within our control.

For instance, you don't get rock hard abs or a sexy tush just by scarfing down fat burners or popping slimming pills.  If you want an effective healthy way of trimming down, you sacrifice rice, you quit drinking soda, you allot time out of your day to go to the gym, or run in a park, or even walk a flight of stairs every single day.  Sounds tiring? Yes, it's calling WORKING OUT.  And scientifically speaking, in order for muscles to realize their sexy potential, THEY MUST BE USED.  Otherwise they store fat.  Not only is it a bad manifestation on your health, you will be forced to purchase bigger clothes, it becomes harder to move around, you become lazy, and eventually you develop all sorts of health risks.  Are you ready to maximize your healthy potential? Think about it.

Smoking is not only hazardous to your health, but it is also hazardous to your wallet.  If you're our average smoker who smokes a stick while drinking coffee when you wake up, one while you're in the toilet to help move things along, one before you get to work, one stick while you're hanging around the office coz you got there early, and have time to chitchat (notice that your day really hasn't started, and you've already consumed almost half a pack of tens) one during your first break, one after lunch, one during your last break coz you're just stressed for the day to end, and finally because you're off work, one at the end of the day.  You've got two left which would have already been bummed from you by your friends.  A stick of cigarette these days cost about PHP 5.00, you would have already spent PHP 40.00 which could have been money for lunch, or juice, or whatever.  You do this for about five days of work, and you've already spent PHP 200.00 for the week for cigarettes which you could have used for load! And of course, there's the occassional you left your yosi somewhere, or you're going drinking, and you'll have to spend more on cigarettes.  But in 4 weeks, you would have already spent PHP800 for your yosi.  Can you break the habit and look younger, at the same time, have an extra PHP800 for your savings account? Something to think about.

Traffic rules. Your inner voice subject to the scorching heat, or in this case, your tiresome day, and all it's telling you is to just jam your way in there, overtake that bus, run that traffic light. Are you man enough to give way? Or are you going to let the inner savage deal with things?

Those are just three instances where it makes us itch when we think about sacrifice or tiring ourselves for the better.  What if it's for a bigger goal? Are we going to rebel at the idea at once? Hey, we need to work on this.

Ask yourself if you can overcome just these three little things in yourself.  If you can, then you can start being a better person, and you can add to your list of goals.  But if you can't, then maybe you're not ready for major changes.  Or maybe you'll need a very strong inspiration.

Read More