Ground pork is a staple in many kitchens, especially in the Philippines where many households need to stretch meat as a prime ingredient. Recently, my sister and I did a frugal experiment on how long we can stretch about a kilo of ground pork. The worst you can do to this meat if you want to stretch it is to cook arroz ala cubana which is 99% ground pork.
A very humble photo of a very tasty but frugal dish
The correct strategy to stretch your ground pork is to use it sparingly with inexpensive ingredients. Here is one recipe I came up with, Sautéd Eggplant with Ground Pork in Oyster and Hoisin Sauce. What a mouthful, but note how the recipe sounded fancy – well it’s fancy in taste but not in price!
Ingredients
Garlic and onion
1/4 kg of ground pork
3-4 large eggplants cut into small squares
1-2 tablespoon of oyster sauce
2-3 tablespoon of hoisin sauce
2 pcs. red chilis
Procedure: Now let’s get cooking! Saute a few garlic and onion (you don’t need a lot), add the ground pork and saute until brown. Add the sauces, and then the eggplants. Depending on your taste, add the red chilis or siling labuyo. You need to cut them up to get the chili flavor. Serve and don’t forget to freeze the leftovers 🙂
Why is this recipe frugal? I only use 1/4 kg. of ground pork, 30 pesos worth of eggplant, and sauces that are already in my fridge. The red chilis I can pick from outside our house. Also, because I cut the eggplants into small pieces, it multiplied the serving and more people could eat (around 4-6 and you still have leftovers because this dish is very tasty).
Another recipe for ground pork is the Frugal Kangkong (Gising-Gising).
Ground pork is a staple for a frugal kitchen, I will post more recipes using this. If you have any requests, please leave them via comments below. Thank you Mommies!
