BINAGOONGANG BABOY WITH GREEN MANGO

My officemates have been cooking dishes everyday and they are complaining how tiring it is when they got home and still, they need to cook for themselves. It’s really hard for working ladies to do that. I’m just so lucky that I’m still with my parents and all I need to do when I got home is change my clothes, sit and relax for a while in front of the TV and eat my dinner. Then I’ll wake up in the morning with breakfast ready on the table. But last night, my parents were out of town. So I have to cook for myself and my younger sister. Well, I know how to cook. Because when I was in the Philippines, I’ve been cooking for myself, my two cousins and my older brother. But its four years back and this is the time to practice again.

I thought Binagoongang Baboy (Pork with Shrimp Paste) would be easy. So I cooked it and made some changes. I add water to it so I could put some on my rice. I don’t like other versions of this dish because they cook it too salty and too dry. I’m just happy because my lil sis ate a lot and the first thing she said when she took her first bite is “Wow!! Delicious!”. Okay, enough of that, here’s the photo of my dish. I should have taken the photo with better camera pixel and I wish to have better photography skills. And I really didn't realize that I will be making this topic here in my blog so I did not put extra effort on the appearance of the dish. Sad about that… Please bear with me. At least I know now what to do next time.

Here’s how I do it:

Ingredients:

½ kilo       Pork with fat (cut into chunk cubes)

               Cooking oil

1 head      Garlic (minced)

1 big         Onion (minced)

2 medium   Tomatoes (diced)

                Bagoong Alamang (Shrimp paste)  

                Brown Sugar

1 ½ cup     Water

1 piece      Lemon

1 piece      Chili pepper (minced)

                Ground pepper to taste

                Green Mango (cut into strips)

Procedure:
In a casserole, boil pork and lower fire until water evaporates and pork oil starts to come out. When pork is lightly crispy, put in on the side, add a bit of oil and sauté garlic, onion and tomatoes in the fat and mix pork once more. Add in the bagoong (shrimp paste) and cook while stirring for 5 minutes. Pour in the water and stir well. Add more water if needed. Add in some sugar, pepper to taste, lemon, chili peppers and let simmer for 10 minutes or just until cooked. Garnish green mango strips on top. Serve hot.

COOK'S TIPS

• I add the juice of one lemon and a little sugar, to help to mellow out the strong flavor and cut down the salty taste.
• Adjust the amount of shrimp paste to your taste. If you like it more salty, add just a little bit. Remember, you can always add more, but once it gets too salty, your dish is ruined...so be careful.