pork pata paksiw

with the remaining few slices of pata in the freezer and a lazy me, i decided to prepare this sinful dish. i just dumped all the ingredients in a large sauce pan and slow-cooked to perfection for 2 hours. i had the timer ready so that i would know if the 2 hours was finished already. then after, checked for the taste if needed to be adjusted. everything, just in time for father-and-son to arive for lunch.

according to ms. connie, paksiw is a method of cooking which means cooking with a sour base which is usually vinegar or kamias. "when cooking meat, paksiw means braising the meat in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar and vinegar". since i only have vinegar, that's what i used. in cebu, we see to it that we always used tuba vinegar. it is much better that the white vinegar but the white vinegar is still okay.


some added banana blossom (bulaklak ng saging or dried lily buds). but since i don't have that, i opted to add spring onions instead. some added fried banana but it is better without it already. this is very similar to humba. humba just have tausi (black beans sauce).

this recipe is good for 3 persons.

ingredients:
7 pcs. pork pata
1 thumb-sized ginger, sliced
1/2 cup tuba vinegar ¹
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar ²
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, quartered
2 bay leaf
5-7 peppercorns
2 spring onions, halved

procedure:
place pork pata in a casserole. pour in just enough water to cover the meat. add the rest of the ingredients.

slow cook for 1 - 2 hours or until very tender. the meat should literally fall off from the bones. check the liquid once in a while and add water if the mixture gets too dry during cooking.

taste and season according to your preference.

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¹ i just used white vinegar since they don't sell tuba vinegar here in uae

² i prefered to use muscovado sugar