Friday, March 7, 2008

Crispy Pata




Filipinos have a long-standing love affair with crisp, crackling pork skin. That's understandable, right? Who can resist biting into a piece of lechon or chicharon or bagnet or lechon kawali? But I think my favorite of all crunchy-skinned pork dishes is crispy pata. Because not only do you have the crackling skin, you also have the tender, gelatinous sinews of the pork hock.

Traditional crispy pata is a pork hock, boiled in seasoned water, dried for a while, then deep fried until the skin turns blistered and golden. I don't have the time, patience or equipment to do all that, so I tried crispy pata in my turbo broiler and it came out great! Yay!!! No longer do I have to go out to partake of this gastronomic delight...I can't have it right here, in the comfort of my own home, where I can gnaw on the bones to my heart's content.

1. Take a pork hock and rub generously with salt and pepper.
2. Cook in the turbo at 300 until skin turns brown and crisp. Mine took about an hour.
3. Flip the hock and turbo for about 20 minutes more to get everything cooked just right.
4. Serve with a sauce made with 1 part soy sauce, 1 part vinegar, sugar and chopped onions. Chili peppers are optional.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This is great! I grew up with my mom using the turbo broiler. She uses it even to bake some bread or cake. But she never did this. Ma-kwento ko nga... Hehe!