Evening Grace: Fried Pork Chop with Mango Salsa

Our mother would always buy pork chops everytime she goes to Libtangin tiangge (flea market) on Saturday mornings. Back then, cars are not yet busily running and I remember taking a kalesa (horse drawn carriage) seat instead. We enjoyed taking this mode of transport to conveniently get to the flea market in less than 10 minutes. Refreshing kalesa rides brought extreme pleasure and  the pork chops became the prime favor of our weekend.

Our mom's pork chop is simply marinated overnight in soy sauce, pepper, garlic and calamansi. Now, I still carry out the same though I added few condiments to make it even more palatable. We are so lucky to have a mom who is a Home Economics teacher, she made cooking/baking the fundamental bonding activity in our family.

Fried Pork Chop

Ingredients:

4 pieces of porkchop

1 tsp minced garlic

5 calamansi

3 tablespoon fish sauce or 3 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 cup sweet red chili sauce

1 tbsp honey - optional

cornstarch - optional

oil for frying

freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1.  In a shallow dish or in a large ziploc bag, put the chops and whisk together calamansi juice, fish or soy sauce, sweet red chili sauce, honey, pepper and garlic. Marinate for one hour or overnight.
2.  Drain.
3. Coat with cornstarch. (I didn't use cornstarch today.)
4.  Fry until golden brown on both sides.
5.  Serve with steamed rice and mango salsa. Enjoy!

Mango Salsa

Ingredients:

1 large ripe mango, peeled, seeded and diced

1 diced tomato

1 tbsp jalepeno, seeds removed and diced

1 tbsp red onion, diced

1 tbsp chopped cilantro

1 teaspoon calamansi juice or lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Simply combine all ingredients and voila!

Truly thankful for this evening grace!

There is something more than wealth that I want to pass down to my children and that is a legacy of an honorable name, integrity and good values. - E. Lee, Didache, 26th July.

Praying for Abby's little Layla. To my dear Abby, God will give you enough grace to see you through.

To my Tito Reno, I will surely miss you! Please pray for the repose of his soul.

It's Friday! Enjoy your weekend!