the PORK HEAD... which is literally the head of the pork. You can make the spicy SISIG (Pork Mask cooked with onions, garlic and chilies) from this area.

the TENDERLOIN... which is the most tender part of the pork (no stress and very lean), hence the name TENDERloin... this is also the most expensive pork primal of all...

the PORK CHOP... which is a staple in most restaurants and the most recognizable part to kids... the pork chop can also be transformed into the ROAST PORK and BABY BACK RIBS...

the PORK BELLY... which is mainly for grilling... and is the favorite of KOREANS, because when sliced thinly, it automatically becomes BACON, or SAMGIAPSAL to most koreans... this also generates the AMERICAN RIBS, which is very nice as well...

the PORK SHOULDER... which is also a very tender part of the pork, as there is very little stress in this area... it's very good for adobo by the way...

the PORK STEAK... which is similar to the pork chop but is leaner and a bit tender... this comes from the pork shoulder but can be included in the same primal as well...

the PORK HAM LEG... which is the area used for making hams, yes, the Christmas kind... this area is made up of around 90% lean pork, hence wholesalers buy this part whole and marinate it to become ham...

the FRONT and HIND LEGS... the fore and hind legs of the pork... used for the delicious CRISPY PATA and PATA TIM...

the PIGTAIL... which had very little meat and is used for stocks and soup bases...

(photo courtesy of www.ISTOCKPHOTO.com)

It has always been tradition in my family to cook every weekend, since that's almost always the ONLY time when all of us are gathered in one place.

One of our favorite dishes to serve during these days is ADOBO (be it chicken or pork), but the family favorite is PORK.

So how do we cook the best adobo, ok ill share my secret, but this would only include the ways that i cook my "infamous" pork adobo.

Here it goes...

We use the freshest pork bought at your local supermarket, grocer, or butchers. The best ones are those that are newly slaughtered (hence we call them fresh).

Seasonings and condiments include garlic, fried garlic(optional), onions, bay leaf, ginger, spring onions (garnish), soy sauce, cane vinegar, small bunch of chili peppers (the biting kind; optional), and the tenderizer (water if you like) but we prefer sprite.

So what do we do...

We season the pork, we prefer the RIB SHOULDER cut into cubes, because this gives us better flavor as compared to the lean part of the pork (all meat). Salt and pepper, basically.

Heat the skillet, preferably, a deep non stick pan, add a little bit of oil. We then sauté (in order) the onions until translucent, then garlic and ginger, we sweat these ingredients until the aroma fills the air.

We add the pork to the sautéed mixture (along with the bay leaf) and constantly mix them to cook evenly (then adding the chili peppers if you want), we do this to cook the pork in its own juices and bind it with the seasonings, again, do not limit yourself to salt and pepper, you can use other seasonings if you like. Cover the pan for 10 minutes or so to lock in the heat and cook the pork evenly.

After a few minutes of cooking in its own liquid, this is sort of braising the meat on the pan. We add sprite and let it simmer for 10 minutes under medium heat. this will seal in the juices of the meat (or so i think; but it works).

After 10 minutes or so, we add the soy sauce and let it simmer again. When the liquid is cut into half, we add the vinegar, as this kind of toughens the meat, we add this until the very last minute.

Now we continue to cook this in until we reach the desired amount of liquid left (adding the spring onions and fried garlic on top). And voila the perfect adobo.

If you want to do it like we do, we continue to cook it until there is no liquid left, under medium heat.
We add a small amount of oil and sauté its again until we reach the desired crispness of the meat.

And now we have another perfect dish (notcie that all our dishes are perfect? hehe), semi-fried adobo.

Tune in for more recipes...

and i promise to take pictures of them right after i cook!

(photo courtesy of www.DEVICHNIK.ru)