Pork Liempo w/ Pata Tim Sauce

I know, I know....this is unconventional. I was inspired by one of my contact friends in my Flickr Acct. bck2bsc http://flickr.com/photos/23752942@N04/2634574521/ . The recipe here is his recipe w/c was what i used with a little tweaking (substitutes). I wouldn't have thought of using porkbelly inlieu of the pata. Also, i run out of Filipino Soy sauce so i used Kikkoman hence the lighter color of the skin, other than that...it's delicious just as what i expected=:)

I have posted my pata tim recipe here few months ago, pls check it out at my archives Nov. 16, 2007.


Ingredients:

1 whole pork pata (front) Liempo/Porkbelly for this
1 whole garlic
a thumb-sized piece of ginger
1 whole onion
1 star anise
1 bay leaf
10 peppercorns
a teaspoon of dried oregano (omitted this one)
salt
1/2 c. of soy sauce (used kikkoman)
1/8 c. of honey
sesame seed oil
a bunch of pechay, ends trimmed
Carrots

Procedure:

Wash the pata/porkbelly well.
Make a deep cut on the joint that separates the leg from the feet.
Place in a large cooking pan, add salt and pepper and cover with water.
Bring to a boil, removing scum as it rises.
Pour in the soy sauce and or honey.
Add the garlic, ginger, onion, peppercorns, oregano, bay leaf and star anise.
Lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 2 hours.
Cool the sauce.
When cool, transfer to a plate and continue cooling.
Strain the sauce.
Add more salt if necessary.
Place the pata in an oven proof dish and place in the oven set at maximum heat.
Cook until the rind starts to get puffy.
Remove from the oven and transfer to a clean heat proof bowl.
Pour over the strained sauce.
Steam over simmering water for another 40 to 45 minutes.
During the last 10 minutes of cooking, add the trimmed pechay.
Turn off the heat and drizzle with a teaspoonful of sesame seed oil.

ENJOY!!! LAMI NI KAAYO - ANOTHER FILIPINO DISH THAT IS ALMOST ALWAYS SERVED DURING HOLIDAYS ESP. CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR.

LECHON LIEMPO (CRISPY PORKBELLY)

Lechon Liempo is a Filipino dish that's almost always in the menu esp. on special occasions. This is our all time favorite!!! But really this is not for the "faint of heart". I just don't understand why here in the U.S they take out the skin of the pork, they don't know what they are missing=;) Fortunately i have the access to buy "liempo" with skin at the Asian store near our place. For now, i wont be buying for a long time=:) i have a half a year supply of a lot of porkbelly sliced thin like a bacon and cuts for lechon. Thanks to my sis in TN=:).

This recipe is my version of the Andoks Lechon..hhhmmm..really brings back memories. I will try the lechon manok sometime soon.

Bring this slab of meat to a boil with lots of onions and garlic. About a 1/2 tablespoon of salt and peppercorns. Boil until meat turns white or about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven at 375 degrees F. Arrange the boiled meat on a rack on top of a tray for the oil drippings. Put the meat into the oven and at this point i check the meat from time to time. Probably check every 15 minutes until the skin turns golden brown and crispy.

Chop meat to chunks or bite size pieces. There are two different dipping sauce for this lechon liempo. If you come from the Northern part of the Philippines (Luzon) you'll be dipping this w/ "Mang Tomas" lechon sauce w/c is a liver sauce. If you are from the Visayas like me, we prefer dipping this w/ vinegar and soy sauce with minced onions and garlic.

So, are you ready to dig in? HHmmm i love to hear the crunch of the skin on the first bite. Yum!!

NOTE: YOU MUST CLEAN YOUR OVEN ASAP BELIEVE ME, IT'S NOT EASY TO CLEAN IT AFTER A COUPLE OF DAYS=:)

ENJOY!! LAMI KAAYO NI!!!