Pork Sinigang

Yesterday, Michelle taught me how to cook pork sinigang. And not just cook but buying the ingredients themselves. As usual, lazy me was questioning whether the effort was worth it. But of course it was: Simply the best pork sinigang . I cooked it, I had a great recipe, and I had a great teacher ;)

Below is the recipe as I recall.

4 cups water
¼ kilo pork
1 sinigang mix :P
3 sliced taro (gabi)
1 sliced eggplant (talong)
4 sliced string beans (sitaw)
4 sliced winged beans (sigarilyas)
½ sliced horse radish (labanos)
4 minced tomatoes (kamatis)
4 sliced okra (okra din)
1 sliced onion (sibuyas)

Wash everything very well ;)

Boil pork in water until tender
Add sinigang mix
Gradually add the rest of ingredients in the order they are listed
Let boil to your preferred level of mushiness

Mango Cream Pie

My first Mango Cream PieLast sunday, Val taught a bunch of us to bake a mango cream pie. It was my first and as I went about the process I started questioning whether the effort was worth it. The answer came when I cut the first slice and took a bite: An unequivocal YES! I’m so happy with my pie (there are many like it but this one was mine hehe). The crust, the filling, the topping… they were all perfect. Okay so I did forget the vanilla. And there’s a wee bit more sugar than I’d like. But all in all it’s great for a first pie. Heck, it’s even better than some off-the-shelf pies I’ve encountered. Thanks Val!

Below is the recipe.

Crust
1 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs
1/8 cup sugar
¼ cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 300ºF
Combine crumbs, sugar and butter.
Press into pan.
Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 10 minutes.

Filling
½ cup sugar
¼ cup cornstartch
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 to 2 tbsp gelatin powder
1 pack all purpose cream

Mix gelatin in 1 cup of milk. Set aside for 5 minutes.
Mix all ingredients except vanilla and all purpose cream together.
Use a double broiler to heat the mixture.
Whisk while heating to avoid burning the milk.
The resulting filling will be lumpy.
Add more gelatin for firmer consistency.
Transfer into another bowl and immerse the bowl in ice bath.
When mixture is cool, use strainer to remove all lumps and whatnot.
After that whip up the all-purpose cream and mix with filling–hahaha!
Add vanilla and mix thoroughly.
Pour the filling into prepared crust

Topping
1 to 2 Mangoes

Slice into strips and put on top.
Refrigerate or Freeze for 3-4 hours before serving.