I don’t do all the cooking at home. Sometimes it could be my husband, or on rare occasion, my daughters or my trusted helper, Diding. When I took a recent vacation in the USA, Diding took care of the cooking while I was away. She also paid my bills and basically run the house while my husband was at work. Paksiw na Pata is a simple dish which she cooked the other night. Of course, she can cook more complicated ones which I have taught her. I take pride when my helpers cook better than me or start a restaurant business once they leave my employment. One of the yayas of the kids has now her own small restaurant using the dishes she learned from me. Diding isn’t really fond of cooking but I prodded her to learn. Once she cooked the paksiw na pata, I told her to set it up on a white plate so I could take a photo.

I was pleased to note that she carefully placed the bay leaves and saba banana on the front. Maybe she had seen me take so many photos of our dishes that she already knew how to position the meat. Anyway, this entry is for Diding.

Here is the Paksiw na Pata recipe:

Ingredients

1 large pata or pig’s feet (around 1 kilo)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 head garlic, crushed
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar (reduce if white sugar)
1/2 cup dried banana blossoms soaked in water
1 bay leaf
4 saba bananas, fried

Directions

1. Clean pata throughly. Boil in vinegar, water and garlic. (or you can use the pressure cooker)

2. Lower heat and simmer until pata is tender.

3. Add more water if needed.

4. Put in soy sauce, sugar, dried banana blossons, bay leaf and bananas.

5. Summer 5 minutes more. Serve hot.

It is a simple dish but it deserves to be shown only because I take pride in my helpers.

(Diding is shown beside my husband when I brought her to the 2008 Philippine Blog Awards held last September 21, 2008.)