Veggies with Crispy Pork

Here's a not so healthy vegetable dish that uses simple ingredients.

What I used

• pork fat  with skin, cut into small cubes
• rock salt
• water
• vegetable oil
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut into sticks
• 1 chayote, peeled and cut into sticks
• string beans, trimmed and cut into serving pieces
• 2 pcs knorr pork cubes
• 1 pack of yellow cab's crushed chili pepper

What I did

• boiled the pork fat in water with rock salt.  this took me a good 30 minutes or so
• fried in vegetable oil once all the water evaporated.  i kept a lid on this as it was popping like crazy (ang lakas ng talsik!).  stirred several times.
• drained on paper towels once golden brown (first time I tried this, I burned most of them.  I was too scared to lift the lid because of all that popping.)
• removed some of the oil from the pan, left enough to stir fry the chayotes and carrots with the crushed chili pepper and pork cubes.
• once the vegetables were fork tender, added the beans
• poured in a few spoonfuls of water and let it simmer
• transferred the veggies to a serving dish and topped it with the crispy pork fat (the last time I cooked this, I mixed in the crispy pork and it became soggy right away)

I don't usually eat pork fat and skin but this was just so irresistably crunchy and salty. Think chicharon or crispy sisig.  Deadly!  But don't worry, I only prepare it this way when I trim fat from pork cubes for sinigang, nilaga, adobo etc.  We don't buy as much fatty pork anymore.  I picked up this crunchy pork trick from my mother in law.  The carrots and chayotes absorbed the seasoning well.  The crushed chili peppers added a little kick.  This was paired with spicy galunggong which were fried to a crisp.  Imagine how much rice I consumed because of all that salt and spice!