My Love for Cooking + Pork Stir-Fry Recipe

I am an above-average cook. So fab moms who can't, forgive me for bragging a bit. Your kids will still love you if you choose delivery or take-outs. But this is my take.

Cooking kalderetang kambing at my husband's camp

A way to a hungry man's heart is definitely through his rumbling stomach. I'm one of the gifted wives who has kitchen skills. Modesty aside, I can definitely cook & it tastes good, actually. But I do have days when what I prepared didn't even look like food. Cuisine-wise, I'm still in the beginner's level. Conceptualizing on what to prepare for the family is one big task, considering that my husband comes home only on special occasions and that my daughter is a little picky-eater. So reading a magazine's food section helps me a lot. It has tips on how to prepare food for kids; should be healthy and visually-enticing at the same time; like what I have written in my previous post about the Sotanghon Bunny. It also has sample dining table setting or proper food plating, that I try all my best to copy. You know, the feeling of being an "expert". The reason why I love watching Top Chef and other cooking-related TV shows.

What makes me feel good in cooking is that my husband has the tendency to be so proud about it. Well, who would not be so eager to prepare a semi-feast when he already tells you that he's on the way home with some friends?! Of course, the default viand for those unexpected moments would either be a Kalderetang Baka or Nilagang Baka (in which, in special occasions, I put sibot). It's something that I can cook with one eye closed (of course, not true). So because these friends of his might come and visit us at home again, I don't want to serve them the same dish, I study what I can cook the fastest time without compromising its taste's value.

Over the years of my cooking experience, I have learned many dishes that have been a mainstay character in our table. Laing, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Embutido, Pork Siomai and Pata Tim are some of my favorites. These dishes take a lot of time and love to prepare, these can not be rushed and its ingredients can not be taken for granted. Laing for one should be simmered in slow-fire and best to use a real coconut milk & cream. Coconut cream is from the first extract and should be poured in when the taro leaves are soft and the sauce has been almost dried up. Embutido or meat loaf, on the other hand, should have complete ingredients. One time I cooked it without pickles, it tasted bland and you'd know that there's something missing once you take a bite. Actually, cooking per se should come from the heart. I'm not a standardized kind of cook. I'm not good in following instructions, thus my poor recipe-writing in my previous post. I believe that a great cook should be a big a food-lover, too. Not all food-lovers can cook, but to cook (at least in a proper way), one should love food. Loving food doesn't mean you get to be a plus-size who eats anything that is on the table. Loving food means to know the foods' nutrients and giving justice to it by cooking it in its most desirable form. 

Okay, I'll try my best to write a recipe. But spare me for not including a list of ingredients. I'm a Communications Major graduate, anything with numbers like weight, mass or volume, irritates me the most! So, drum-roll please.

Pork Stir-Fry with Snow Peas & Carrots

1. Saute onion in cooking oil until translucent. 

2. Add in minced cloves of garlic until a bit golden brown. (Avoid burning the garlic. It gets bitter ocampo.)

3.Put in the pork, cut in long strips. Plus salt and pepper. 

4. Once pork is tender, add in the carrots in julienne strips and snow peas (don't forget to snap the ends!). 

5. Make a slurry from its own sauce. Get 3 tablespoons of the dish's sauce, put in a separate bowl and sprinkle one teaspoon of cornstarch. Add a teaspoon of oyster sauce. Stir well and pour in the pan.  

6. Add in the red bell pepper. 

7. Turn off the stove to avoid over-cooked veggies. There's a certain process called "carry-over cooking", so let it be. To know more about that, click here. 

8. Best served along a cup of steamed white rice. 

9. Clean your station. A clean kitchen gives you clean and sumptuous food. 

For more of my recipes, click here. Happy cooking!