The Peach Kitchen

My birthday falls on the most sinful month of the year — December!

December is the month when most people gather for reunions  and parties. There’s family reunions, Christmas reunions, christmas parties and birthday parties.

December is the month of feasting on the fattiest, most sugar-laden and most calorie-packed food.

And that is what I usually want on my birthday…well, I also want one of those hampton bay ceiling fans but that’s another story.

I think that’s what most people want —- everything deep fried and all the decadent desserts that you can think of.

Thanks to Pearl of  My Sassy Chef { who I just met in person recently} and Thea of Words and Nosh. They are January’s Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge hosts and they came up with a cooking challenge: Prepare a healthy version of your favorite birthday dish.

This is a very timely challenge because I’m trying to shed a few pounds…

And one of my most favorite birthday dish happens to be Crispy Pata {Deep Fried Pork Knuckles}.

Good thing I’ve figured out a healthier way to serve it.

No, not with beer as a “pulutan”, hee……as a salad, silly.

I don’t like being deprived, so serving this in a salad satisfies my craving for crispy pata and yet it gives me a serving of greens as well.

For lunch, I had it today as Crispy Pata Salad……while everybody’s having it with “extra” rice…

I knew I had it coming….

Crispy Pata Salad {Deep Fried Pork Knuckles Salad}

Ingredients:

1 whole pork leg, cleaned
5 pcs Bay leaf
5 garlic cloves, minced
a pitcher of water
3 tbsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp peppercorns
10 pcs romaine lettuce leaves, teared
2 pcs red globe radishes, sliced thinly
4 cups cooking oil

♥ for the Red Onion Balsamic Vinaigrette

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp chopped red onion
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
6 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

• Place pork leg in a large pot and pour in water, add salt, sugar, peppercorn and bay leaf. Make sure all the meat is covered with water.
• Bring to a boil and let simmer for 2 hours or until the meat is tender.
• Remove pork leg from pot and let cool to room temperature.
• Rub with salt and pepper and let stand for a few minutes to absorb the rub.
• Deep-fry in very hot oil until golden brown. Be very careful in frying the pork leg.

• For the balsamic vinaigrette: Whisk vinegar, sugar, salt, red onion and pepper until sugar and salt are dissolved. Whisk in olive oil until the mixture come together in a thick consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning depending on your preference. Put more sugar if you want it sweeter and add salt for a saltier vinaigrette.
• Cut some pork knuckle meat and crispy skin into strips and toss with teared romaine lettuce, red globe radish slices and red onion balsamic vinaigrette.

NOTE: The usual dipping sauce of Crispy Pata is a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar and chopped onions. So I made Red Onion Balsamic Vinaigrette as a dressing for this salad.

You can also include other veggies like jicama, tomato, cucumber and a sprinkling of nuts.

OR you can also serve this as lettuce wraps with the vinaigrette as dipping sauce…Just wrap a piece of meat, a slice of radish and other veggies inside a lettuce leaf and seal with a toothpick.

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture and its colourful cuisine. Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes, we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino Food as we do.

Drop by the blogs of the other KCC members.There’s a tab up there and everybody’s listed. Give me a holler if you’re a member and you can’t find yourself on the list. Thanks!

Also sharing this post with  Yummy Sunday.

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