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Pata Kare-kare Recipe

Pata Kare-kare is my version of pork kare-kare. This recipe uses pork shank (pig’s leg) or pata along with some veggies. You will notice that the sauce in this recipe is thicker and chunkier compared to our previous recipes; I tried adding more crushed peanuts because it adds life to this dish.

Cooking pata kare-kare is fairly easy. Making the pork tender might be a challenge for you, so I tried to show one way to do it – boiling for about 1 hour. Of course, you can always use pressure cooker if you want to get things done fast. Once your pork is ready, it should be easy to complete the dish.

Kare-kare goes well with white rice. Sauteed shrimp paste or bagoong alamang compliments this dish well and makes it stand out.

Ingredients

2 lbs. Pork shank (pata), cut into 2 inch thick pieces

1½ cups crushed peanuts

½ cup peanut butter

2 medium Chinese eggplant, sliced

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 bunch bok choy, cleaned

1½ cups string beans, cut in 3 inches length

1 medium onion, diced

5 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon annatto powder

3 tablespoons cooking oil

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

2 cups water or beef broth

salt

¼ cup shrimp paste (bagoong)

Instructions

• Pour 2 quarts of water in a cooking pot. Let boil.
• Add about 3 teaspoons of salt, and the put in the pork shank. Simmer for 1 hour.
• Remove the pork from the cooking pot. Set aside.
• In a clean cooking pot, heat oil. Saute the garlic and onion.
• Add the ground black pepper. Stir. Add the pork. Cook for 2 minutes.
• Put-in the fish sauce, crushed peanut, peanut butter, and annato powder. Stir.
• Pour-in the beef broth (or water). Bring to a boil.
• Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes while stirring once in a while. Add water as necessary.
• When the texture thickens, add the eggplant. Cook for 5 minutes.
• Put-in the string beans. Cook for 3 minutes.
• Add the bok choy. Cover and then turn the heat off. Let the veggies cook using the residual heat for 5 to 7 minutes (do not remove the cover).
• Transfer to a serving bowl. Serve with shrimp paste.
• Share and enjoy!

How to Grill Liempo in the Oven

Are you craving for grilled liempo ^[2], but don’t have a grill? Worry not because I will show you how to grill liempo in the oven. We all know that this process is not really grilling, but rather baking or roasting. However, this is the closest that we can get with the real deal without using any grill — just a grill rack.

The preparation is still the same. The meat will need to be marinated in our special marinade. Let it stay overnight before starting to grill (or roast for this matter). I am using a grill rack for this recipe. Arrange it over a baking tray with aluminum foil. The rack elevates the liempo. This helps give the meat a cook evenly on both sides. It also prevents the meat from getting burnt quickly due to direct contact with the baking pan.

What I did was to set the oven to bake for a certain temperature at a defined amount of time. I then increased the temperature towards the last few minutes to give the liempo a nice dark color. Note that I was basting the pork with the remaining marinade every 10 minutes to prevent it from being dry. This is my way on how to grill liempo in the oven. Of course, it is worthy of some papaya atchara ^[3] on the side.

Ingredients

3 lbs., pork belly sliced for grilling

½ cup papaya atchara

Marinade ingredients

½ cup soy sauce

Juice from 1 lemon or 4 pieces calamansi

1 tablespoon minced garlic

½ cup banana ketchup

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

• Combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Mix well.
• Put the sliced liempo in the bowl where the. marinade is. Makes sure that the pork belly is coated with the mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, but overnight is preferred.
• Place a grill rack over a baking tray topped with aluminum foil. Arrange the marinated liempo on the rack.
• Preheat oven to 370F. Bake the liempo for 20 minutes. Turn the meat over and grill the other side for 15 to 20 minutes. Baste the meat with the remaining marinade every 10 minutes.
• Set the heat to 430F. Roast for 6 to 10 minutes. No need to turn over.
• Transfer to a serving plate. Serve with papaya atchara and grilled liempo sauce.
• Share and enjoy!

How to Make Grilled Liempo Sauce

The sauce that I am referring to is actually a dip. It is composed of vinegar, soy sauce, onion, garlic powder, chili pepper and ground black pepper. Simple combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1/2 cup vinegar, 2 tablespoons of chopped onion, a dash of garlic powder and ground black pepper, and chili peppers. Mix well. That’s it. Sometimes I add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. If there is sugar, I microwave the mixture for 30 seconds and give it a nice stir to blend all the ingredients.

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