A Healthier Version Of Crispy Pata (Turbo-cooked)

I’ve always been fond of cooking. Ever since I was little, I’d always watch my mom cook our meals. She wouldn’t allow me to go near the stove though because I was kind of clumsy (even until now…haha!). She would allow me to watch from afar though and I’d wait patiently until she finished cooking.

One kitchen equipment that I’ve always been fond of was our Turbo Cooker. I can still remember our old one being made up of I think aluminum or steel. It wasn’t even stainless. There were two meals that I could still remember that she used to cook in it. One was Cheesy Baked Macaroni and the other one was Marinated Beef Slices or some sort of Bistek. They always smelled so delicious. The aroma coming out from the Turbo, while cooking, would always leave us craving and super hungry!

After some years, our Turbo Cooker got rusty and we had no choice but to throw it away. When I was the one already cooking, I used our oven instead, whenever I tried to replicate her recipes. Of course, hers was still better than mine, in my opinion. I’m not going to talk about the recipes for those two though. I'll just write a separate entry about them next time.

Recently, I finally convinced her to buy a new Turbo Cooker. I ended up searching the net for any recipes that I could cook using a Turbo, just so I could try it out. I found some recipes on how to make Crispy Pata using a Turbo Cooker. So, I decided to mix all the recipes that I could find and concoct my own recipe. This is a bit healthier than the regular deep-fried Crispy Pata, which makes it much better!

Here is my take on it. Please note, however, that I’m not really into measuring ingredients. I just take what I can and add and subtract based on how the food tastes while cooking, so please feel free to tweak the recipe in your own liking.

CRISPY PATA COOKED IN A TURBO CONVECTION OVEN

Ingredients when boiling the meat:

1 whole pork leg

1 pc onion, chopped

1 head garlic, peeled and crushed

rock salt, measure according to your own preference

1 tsp peppercorns

4 pcs bay leaves

4 pcs star anise (optional)

water for boiling

For rubbing on meat:

2 tsp powdered pepper

Iodized salt (measure according to your own preference)

Garlic powder (measure according to your own preference)

For the sauce:

1 pc onion, chopped

½ cup vinegar

½ cup soy sauce

½ tsp sugar

1 tsp warm water

salt and pepper to taste

1. Put enough water in a large pot, enough to submerge the whole      pork leg.
2. Put the onion, garlic, salt (measure according to your own preference to be sure), peppercorns, bay leaves and star anise (optional). The star anise makes it more aromatic and flavorful. Be careful with the salt though as putting a lot might make it too salty.
3. Bring it to a boil and cook for about 50 mins to 1 ½ hours in medium heat. This would usually depend on the quality of meat.
4. Stick the meat with fork from time to time, so as to know if it’s already tender.
5. Once the meat is already tender, remove from water and put in a plate or rack to cool and dry. Do not score the meat anymore, so as to prevent the meat from drying out.
6. Chill in the fridge if you still have time. (When I did mine, I didn’t have enough time, so I just chilled it for about 10 mins. It was still a little bit warm when I transferred it to the Turbo cooker.)
7. Combine the iodized salt, pepper and garlic powder.
8. Rub the mixture on the whole cooked pork leg.
9. Put in the turbo cooker.
10. Cook for about 30-40 mins at the highest temperature setting.
11. Check it from time to time. When the skin has already turned medium to dark brown and it seems crispy already, then it’s just about done
12. For the dipping sauce, combine the onion, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, water, salt and pepper and mix.

Serve crispy pata with the sauce and enjoy! This makes about 5 servings.