Isn't it just mouth watering? Well, specially when you're in the Middle East (Qatar specifically) Lechon Paksiw is just one of the many dishes you can just dream of and wait until you get home for a vacation in the Philippines. But then, there are of course some rare occasions that you remember to pack these in you luggage coming back to the country, hehe! And that's just what the Expat Daddy remembered to do. During his last trip home to collect the kids, he asked my Tatay to buy about 3-4kg of lechon to bring to Qatar. They have been packed into about 4 packets so we can thaw them separately to enjoy on different occasions. This one above is the last pack, huhuhu!!! So we would have to wait again until one of us goes back to the Philippines to bring more.
This is about 1kg of lechon, which we had savored over the weekend. We just came from an overnight stay in Al Khor and got back to Doha at about 10:30 in the morning. We actually planned to eat on the way home but then the kids fell asleep on the road trip and so we just decided to take our lunch at home, only to find out that there's nothing much on the refrigerator to prepare. Our only option really is this packet of Lechon with about cup of sauce. Mind you, this was rock-frozen when taken out from the freezer. But, instead of thawing it on the kitchen counter, which would take hours, frozen as it is, I just decided to put it in the oven at very low heat to thaw and let it warm a bit. It also took about an hour or so, because the Lechon was not chopped, it was a whole slab of Lechon belly. But oh, it was so good when it was finally taken out from the oven, surprised how it's freshness had been retained even if we had kept it frozen for over a couple of months!
What we did was serve half of the reheated Lechon with a dipping sauce of Mang Tomas Sarsa and reserved the other half for paksiw. To cook the paksiw, I have used the sauce that came with the lechon. What I did was to saute garlic and onion in a spoon of oil then added the liver sauce. When the sauce was starting to boil, I have added about half a cup of water, little vinegar, some crushed black pepper and adjusted the taste with a little salt. Left it for about 5 minutes to thicken the sauce a bit and then added in the lechon meat without the skin. The skin had already turned so crisp when it had been reheated in the oven so it would be a waste to simmer it with the meat. Cooked it for another 2-3 minutes, tossing a couple of times to evenly coat the meat with its sauce.
So easy and yet so good! Just serve the Lechon Paksiw topped with pieces of the crispy skin and steaming hot rice on the side and viola! Lechon Paksiw at its best. This is simply heaven on earth! Enjoy!
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i want your food... lol
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