A Scientist in the Kitchen

Beans are not really part of Filipino cuisine. A pity since they are really nutritious and delicious legumes. Growing up, the most familiar legume for me is the mungbean. White and red beans can be bought from the market but these are usually prepared as desserts. My Nanay, who used to be a cook in a hospital taught us this dish. Or rather, I grew up observing her cook this dish until I became the cook at home. I have blogged about this pork and bean stew before and the recipe is here. Growing up, whenever I hear of pork and beans, it is usually canned pork and beans with an overcooked beans and teeny-weeny amount of pork slices in tomato sauce. This pork and bean stew is soy sauce-based. The coming together of beans, soy sauce and pork broth is rather heavenly, if I may say so.

–> Is cooking an art or a science?<–

Let me tell you about the ingredients. The dish calls for sliced pork legs (pork hock) which is pre-boil till tender. We need lots of tomatoes for sauteeing. The beans are also pre-cooked till tender. I like to mash half of the beans to thicken the stew. The rest of the beans add some texture. Be liberal with freshly crushed black pepper, too. For the greens, we use pechay which is similar to bok choy.

Pechay is a common vegetable sold in Philippine markets. It is commonly used in stews or boiled meats. The stems are white rather than green as in bok choy, but these are of the same family.

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