My mom-in-law's Pochero

Before I got married I have this wrong notion that a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law have no chance to live peacefully and harmoniously in one roof. I proved this really wrong. I have a very pleasant relationship with my husband’s mother.  Early on in our marriage, we lived in my in-law’s house for 6 months and I really learned a lot from her. She is very generous enough to share with me all her knowledge in managing a household and even some of her personal secrets. She also shared with me some of her recipes, those food that my husband loves to eat.  I know that my mother-in-law only wants the best for her son, the man I vowed to love till the end. 

I didn’t grow up eating pochero. It wasn’t in the list of my mom’s recipes.  My mother-in-law taught me how to cook pochero.  Her pochero is a very simple everyday dish and she didn’t follow those Spanish-style pochero recipes. I would say that it is more of a Pinoy viand. The taste is very Filipino with saba and camote as some of the ingredients. The additional gingery taste makes it more flavorful. I usually choose beef sirloin for pochero with some visible fats (yum). I also tried chicken but I prefer beef for pochero.

Ingredients:

Beef sirloin (cubed)

Garlic (crushed)

Onion (diced)

Ginger  (diced)

1 pouch tomato sauce

Pechay tagalog or bokchoy

Saba bananas (about 5 pcs. , cut cross-wised)

Sweet potatoes or camote (cubed)

 Potatoes  (cubed )

Fish sauce  and  pepper to taste
cooking oil

Procedures:

1.       In a pot, boil beef, reduce heat to simmer until beef is tender.

2.       In a pan, sauté ginger, garlic, and onions. Add beef (without the stock) and stir frequently until the beef absorb the flavor of the spices.

3.       Add the beef stock  and tomato sauce and let it simmer.

4.       Add potatoes and sweet potatoes.

5.       After 8 minutes add the saba bananas.

6.       Season with fish sauce and pepper.

7.       After 5 minutes, add the pechay or bokchoy.

8.        Serve hot.