Pinoys love their barbecue. If you walk the streets of the Philippines you are guaranteed to see vendors fanning coals (some use electric fans now), grilling skewered pieces of pork, basting them with that all too familiar pinoy style barbeque sauce, although now the choice of barbecue is no longer limited to pork.
I love pinoy pork barbeque. In my ** years on earth, I must have consumed more than a thousand sticks of pork barbecue by now and still counting (haha). Seriously.
Pinoy pork barbecue is similar to the philippine adobo in the sense that there is no exact recipe. It is always evolving. Some prefer their barbecue spicy. Some a bit sour. Some a bit salty. I, on the other hand, like my pork barbecue slightly sweet so one afternoon, I ventured into the kitchen and decided to create my own recipe.
I started with a kilo of pork with a good fat to meat ratio so that it won't dry out when grilled, then marinated it in a mixture of sugar, banana ketchup (i use Papa Banana Ketchup but you can use whatever banana ketchup you have on hand), garlic, soy sauce, pepper, sprite (tenderizes the meat, or so they say), calamansi (our native lime) and garlic. Normally, I marinate the pork for a day or two but on days when I just have to eat pork barbecue, I marinate the pork for three hours or so and then boil the remaining marinade and brush it on the sticks of barbecue while grilling.
I'm sharing my version of Pinoy Style Pork Barbecue. Please note that I don't really measure my ingredients when I am cooking (bad, I know) but you can always adjust the recipe to suit your taste. I sold these during our town fiesta last year and sold every single stick :)
If you're really, really hungry, this barbecue is best served with hot rice. But you can enjoy this with a bottle of cold beer.
Happy eating!!!!
MY PINOY STYLE PORK BARBECUE
1 kilo pork, cut in 1" pieces
1 to 2 cups sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 head garlic chopped
1/2 bottle of banana ketchup, about 1/2 cup
2 tbsp calamansi juice
3/4 cup Sprite or 7-up
pepper
In a large bowl, combine sugar, soy sauce, garlic, banana ketchup, calamansi juice, pepper and sprite. Adjust seasoning to taste before adding the raw meat.
Marinate the pork at least 3 hours or overnight (or until you are ready to cook it). Thread the pork onto wooden skewers (make sure that you soak the wooden skewers in water before using to avoid burning them) and cook over grill. Use the remaining marinade to baste the barbecue for added flavor and to keep the meat from drying out Make sure though that you boil the remaining marinade before using it to baste the meat.
Chef Ming Tsai will be at Rockwell on the 28th and 29th of April.
